Five Smooth Stones
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Week 1: The Challenger
Big Idea: The story of David and Goliath is one of the most well known in the Bible.
It’s a story of God’s ability to deliver His people, even through an unlikely hero.
In the first part of the story, we learn about the challenger to the Israelite army, Goliath.
Through the narrative, we learn about the enemy before us and ultimately, that our God is bigger.
Prayer: “Lord please help us to recognize when things like fear, doubt are creeping into our minds. Give us the courage to continue standing in faith and trusting you no matter what the circumstances are around us.”
Scripture: 1 Samuel 17:1-11; 1 Peter 5:8; Genesis 3:1; Joshua 1:9 Matthew 14:24-28
Introduction
Introduction
Good morning, church! I am excited to be with you this morning. You have chosen an awesome Sunday to be with us. We are kicking off a brand new sermon series, all about a very well-known story in scripture.
It’s a story about an unlikely hero named David, defeating a mighty giant and enemy named Goliath. But there is so much more to be learned from this story than a simple statement, “God is bigger than my giants.” While this is no doubt true, let’s unpack the whole story to see what we can learn.
Lets learn about the larger than life challenger, Goliath.
Main Teaching
Main Teaching
Over the next four weeks, we are going to essentially cover this entire chapter.
Read 1 Samuel 17:1-11
3 The Philistines stood on the mountain on one side while Israel stood on the mountain on the other side, with the valley between them.
4 Then a champion came out from the armies of the Philistines named Goliath, from Gath, whose height was six cubits and a span.
5 He had a bronze helmet on his head, and he was clothed with scale-armor which weighed five thousand shekels of bronze.
6 He also had bronze greaves on his legs and a bronze javelin slung between his shoulders.
7 The shaft of his spear was like a weaver’s beam, and the head of his spear weighed six hundred shekels of iron; his shield-carrier also walked before him.
8 He stood and shouted to the ranks of Israel and said to them, “Why do you come out to draw up in battle array? Am I not the Philistine and you servants of Saul? Choose a man for yourselves and let him come down to me.
9 “If he is able to fight with me and kill me, then we will become your servants; but if I prevail against him and kill him, then you shall become our servants and serve us.”
10 Again the Philistine said, “I defy the ranks of Israel this day; give me a man that we may fight together.”
11 When Saul and all Israel heard these words of the Philistine, they were dismayed and greatly afraid.
VERSE 4 Now, just spend a moment picturing this man Goliath. The Bible says he was nine feet tall. (The Bible said he had 4 other brother who had one extra toe on each foot and one extra finger on each hand. I guess if you were that tall you need a extra toe.) I’m not sure about you, but I’ve never even met someone who is seven feet tall. Add another two feet to your favorite NBA player,(or Andra the Gaint who was 7.4 tall) and you’ve got Goliath.
Robert Wadlow was over 9 foot tall.
It’s pretty easy to see why the Israelite army would have been intimidated, because they were confronted with a clear and dominant-looking enemy.
Bronze speaks of flesh. This guy was full of himself. Full of pride and his own accomplishments.
Today, I want to see what we can learn from Goliath about our present enemy. The Bible says the evil one is “prowling around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour” (1 Peter 5:8). We must be aware of what our challenger looks and sounds like if we are going to be successful in opposition and persecution. And interestingly enough, our present day enemy sounds a lot like the Israelites ancient enemy.
8 Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.
The first thing we see from Goliath is…
1) The Enemy Will Question
Did you notice what Goliath asked the Israelites in verse 8? “Why are you all coming out to fight?” First thing he got them to do is doubt why they are even in the fight. And doubt is an age-old tactic.
Have you ever struggled with doubt?
I’d be lying if there hasn’t been thoughts in my life were I haven’t doubted a couple of times if I should have planted Acts 2.
Doubt presupposes some kind of faith. You have faith with questions. That is what doubt is, and it is one of the most common struggles in the Christian life. Doubt is questioning what you believe.
New International Encyclopedia of Bible Words (Unbelief)
The Greek word for “unbelief” is apistia. Unbelief is a failure to respond to God with trust (pistis) and at heart shows, not doubt, but rejection.
Unbelief is a determined refusal to believe.
When is doubt in danger of becoming unbelief? Doubt is different from unbelief in a similar way that temptation is to sin. Doubts come and go, but unbelief is a conclusion someone reaches—a deliberate decision to reject God in general or to reject parts of what He said.
The reality is, we all have this natural tendency to doubt from time to time. And the devil, the evil one, is the king of doubts. He is constantly planting doubt in our heads that leads us to question God. Even all the way back in Genesis.
1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?”
Here, the evil one asks a simple question that causes doubt to slip into the minds of Adam and Eve. He is in the business of distracting folks like you and me from the truth. Therefore, we need to be aware of the questions we may be confronted with.
Back to the Story
In the case of Goliath, can’t you just see the Israelite heads dropping after this question? “He’s right, we are wasting our time. We can’t defeat him. We can’t fight against him.” But, do you want to hear something wild? I think the Israelites would be completely accurate in their assumptions. They are right! They can’t defeat Goliath on their own.
However, there will soon be a warrior who rolls up to the scene and doesn’t try to fight his enemy with his own strength. This is something we can’t miss. Some of us have allowed discouragement and doubt to slip in because we have the wrong perspective on our battle. The Bible makes it clear we were never meant to fight the enemy on our own. In fact, if we try to do it all on our own, we will fail.
OWN STRENGTH:
Billy Graham said: "As an evangelist, I have often felt too far spent to minister from the pulpit to men and women who have filled stadiums to hear a message from the Lord. Yet again and again my weakness has vanished, and my strength has been renewed. I have been filled with God’s power not only in my soul but physically. On many occasions, God has become especially real, and has sent His unseen angelic visitors to touch my body to let me be His messenger for heaven, speaking as a dying man to dying men."
9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
10 For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
To do this, Paul had to believe that God’s grace is sufficient. We really don’t believe God’s grace is sufficient until we believe we are insufficient. For many of us, especially in American culture, this is a huge obstacle. We are the people who idolize the “self-made man” and want to rely on ourselves. But we can’t receive God’s strength until we know our weakness. We can’t receive the sufficiency of God’s grace until we know our own insufficiency.
N.T. Wright said:
“We live in a world full of people struggling to be, or at least to appear, strong in order not to be weak; and we follow a gospel which says that when I am weak, then I am strong.”
Hudson Taylor: the famous missionary to China was complimented once by a friend on the impact of the mission, Hudson answered,
“It seemed to me that God looked over the whole world to find a man who was weak enough to do His work, and when He at last found me, He said, ‘He is weak enough—he’ll do.’ All God’s giants have been weak men who did great things for God because they reckoned on His being with them.”
When we receive questions from the evil one, we need to know how to respond. Not with fear, but rather in faith, knowing, as Joshua 1:9 says, “Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go.”
2) The Enemy will Strike Fear
11 When Saul and all Israel heard these words of the Philistine, they were dismayed and greatly afraid.
Fear will often try to keep us from stepping out in faith.
And will rob us of the victorious life that we have in Christ.
One of his most prominent tactics, by using things like questions, doubts, is to strike fear.
Fear is contaminated faith. It is faith misdirected in the wrong words. The words of the enemy.
So when we have faith in the words of the enemy its call fear. When we have faith in the words of God its called faith.
For nine seasons, Fear Factor was a reality TV show that challenged its contestants to tackle their fears head-on. With the help of a partner, contestants could either choose to face their greatest fear or walk away from the competition. One challenge seen multiple times on the show was for the contestant to eat spiders, with one particular contestant completing the cringe-worthy challenge of eating an African cave-dwelling spider which has claws!!
Read Matthew 14:24-28
24 but the boat by this time was a long way from the land, beaten by the waves, for the wind was against them.
25 And in the fourth watch of the night he came to them, walking on the sea.
26 But when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were terrified, and said, “It is a ghost!” and they cried out in fear.
27 But immediately Jesus spoke to them, saying, “Take heart; it is I. Do not be afraid.”
28 And Peter answered him, “Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.”
This story is one of Peter taking an action step of faith. There are four crucial words spoken by Jesus, however, prior to Peter taking his step: “Do not be afraid.” Peter seemed to have the confidence he needed because of the voice he chose to listen to and trust. That’s the question we must be confronted with today: which voice are we listening to in order to trust?
Conclusion
Conclusion
The word of God shows us consistently what God’s voice actually sounds like. That’s why it is so important to spend time reading and studying it. In fact, I’ve heard it said we must “soak and bathe in the word of God.”
This beautiful piece of imagery shows us how to deal with the enemy. We can’t rely on human strength or the power we think we have on our own. Instead, the enemy will be consistently defeated by our reliance on God’s strength! On His power and not our own.
Consider this week how you are relying on your own strength and resolve. Think through some areas where you know you need to ask for help, but you haven’t yet.
Try to recognize the voice of doubt and fear this week. Remember, this is not the voice of God in your life.
And finally, spend time reading the Bible this week. Consider reading Ephesians chapter 1 and highlight or write down all the ways God blesses you in and through Christ. He is our great high priest, friend, and savior.
You were never meant to fight this battle alone.
Let’s pray together.
Thoughts: We don’t run from our enemies we run to them.
