Defeating the Giants in Your Life

A man went to the doctor and uh the doctor said, Well, what's wrong?

What's how can I help you?

He said, Well, Doc, I'm hurting all over.

From the top of my head to the bottom of my feet.

I am in tremendous pain.

The doctor said, Well, all over?

He said, I mean, absolutely.

Every part of my body is in pain.

Doc said, Well, that's a little odd.

Uh, let me see you touch your forehead.

And so the man touched his forehead and went, ah.

He said, That's that's odd.

Well, touch your neck.

He touched his neck and went, ooh.

Well, wait a minute, touch your elbow.

He touched his elbow and went, ah, touch your knee.

He touched his knee and went, whoa! The doctor said, You idiot, you got a dislocated finger.

You see, sometimes one thing can be wrong, but it can hurt the rest of you.

Sometimes there can be this one thing that seems to ruin everything else in your life.

That was the situation and one of the most famous stories in the Old Testament that you are aware of in 1 Samuel.

Because in 1 Samuel we find the story in chapter 17 of David and Goliath.

I want to talk to you today about defeating the Goliaths in your life.

First of all, you need to know the anatomy of a Goliath.

A Goliath is some situation, circumstance, pain, or problem that looms large.

It's that one thing that is overwhelming.

We're told in chapter 17, verse 4, that Goliath is nine foot six inches tall and NBA coaches dream.

We're told in verses five through seven that he wore over 100 pounds of armor.

You see, a giant of a problem is something that is so big that it is overwhelming in your existence.

Not only that, but we're told that you know you're facing a giant because it intimidates you.

When you think of it, look at it, and have to deal with it, it produces emotional insecurity because we're told in verse 8 and we're told in verse 24 of 1 Samuel 17 that when they saw Goliath, they trembled in fear.

Because a giant of a problem creates emotional instability so that you're not able to control your emotions because the Goliath that you are facing is controlling you.

Goliaths come in all shapes and sizes.

There can be medical Goliaths, there can be relational Goliaths, there can be circumstantial Goliaths, there can be career Goliaths, there can be uh economic Goliaths, but whatever it is, it's it's it's big.

And the problem with this one thing that affects everything else, perhaps in your personal life, in your relationships, is that it just doesn't go away because we find out in this chapter that Goliath just kept coming back and kept coming back day after day after day.

It says, for 40 days.

For 40 days, day after day, he would not leave them alone.

And that's what a Goliath does, it just won't leave you alone.

There's no one here who has not faced a Goliath in your life, this overwhelming problem that just won't go away.

You have either have faced a Goliath, are facing a Goliath, or you're going to face a Goliath because life just happens to go that way.

But whatever you happen to be facing today or may face, I actually want you to call it Goliath, because if you call it Goliath, then at least you know where it's gonna wind up.

And so they're facing this um inexhaustible situation as Goliath has come and he has challenged all of Israel.

He has challenged their well-being, their peace, and he stood between their past and their future.

You see, God had made some promises to Israel in the past regarding where he wanted them in the future.

But between the past and uh on the precipice of the future, here this huge problem shows up that makes the past promises seem something that could never come true, that could kill their future hope.

And that's what a Goliath does.

He stands between what you read in your Bible and the reality of your expectations.

And so they're facing this Goliath in their life.

Enter a teenager named David.

This David comes on the scene, and we know the story of David and Goliath.

So I have a question that I want to ask you today.

How did David kill Goliath?

That's the question on the floor.

We know the end of the story that he kills Goliath, but the question that we have to ask bibliocentrically, and that we have to ask you in terms of your contemporary application of scripture, since the goal of scripture is not only to know it, read it, hear it, but also utilize it.

How did David kill Goliath?

Now, I'm certainly you would say he killed Goliath with a slingshot and a stone.

And you would certainly be partially correct, but I would like to go somewhat theologically deeper with you in analyzing what David had that actually killed Goliath and what you have in your arsenal that God has given every believer to deal and to defeat the overwhelming, the looming lodge, the absolutely devastating Goliaths that you inevitably have faced or will face in your life.

Now, one of the hermeneutical rules, hermeneutics is the science and art of biblical interpretation.

And one of the rules of hermeneutics is not only to read and observe, but to look for repetition, because repetition, repetition in scripture is always a clue to emphasis.

So when you see something repeated in the same context about the same event in the same story, that gives you a hermeneutical clue that something is to be paid extra attention to.

In the New Testament, you see this, Jesus would say something twice, truly, truly, or Martha, Martha, or he would, he would, he was saying, I want you to now to go a little bit deeper than just your casual reading over the point that is being made.

Well, there is something repeated twice in this story that would be easy to pass over, but if you do not pass over it and look at it a lot a little bit more intentionally, it will help you and me and us to deal with the looming large realities in life that we face.

This repetition is found in verses 26 and verse 36 of 1 Samuel 17.

In verse 26, we read, Then David spoke to the men who were standing by him, saying, What will be done for the man who kills the Philistine and takes away the reproach from Israel?

For who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should taunt the armies of the living God?

Verse 36, it reads, Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear, and this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, since he has taunted the army of the living God.

Now, the one thing that you will read in verse 26 and verse 36 is that they were fighting against an uncircumcised Philistine.

So while all the rest of Israel was looking up here, David was looking down there and say, He ain't been to the doctor.

He is an uncircumcised Philistine.

That brother has not been cut.

And because he hasn't been cut, it changes the nature of the battle.

You see, what I would like to say to you about defeating the Goliaths in your life, it always starts with a spiritual perspective of the problem.

You see, if all you see is what you see, you do not see all there is to be seen.

If all you are looking at is the visible physical and not the invisible spiritual, then you will not see the invisible spiritual cause of the visible physical reality of the Goliath that you now face.

He began to look beyond what was causing all the rest of Israel to flee, and that was the nine foot-six giant, and he began to look down and say, That man has not been cut.

He is an uncircumcised Philistine.

In other words, before the slingshot, before the stone, was a shift in his perspective.

How he was looking at it.

It's like the mother who had a son who was playing outside and he lost his contact lens.

The contact lens fell in the dirt and he looked and looked and looked for about 30 minutes.

He finally came to his mother and said, Mom, I lost my contact lens.

I can't find my contact lens.

And she went out and in two and a half minutes found the contact lens.

He said, How could you in this dirt find something in two and a half minutes that I was not able to find in 30 minutes?

The mother said, Well, son, it's like this.

We actually weren't looking for the same thing.

You were looking for contact lens.

I was looking for$250.

That we were we were not looking at the same thing.

So what you're looking at is going to affect what you see.

And the whole point of the church and the word of God is to help you look behind the scene because, as Paul says in 2 Corinthians 4, we do not look on the things that are seen, we look on the things that are not seen.

So you always start with the spiritual first and work your way back to the relational, circumstantial, economic, and whatever else, whatever other visible nature of the Goliath is that you happen to be facing and that needs to be defeated in your life.

Well, let's go a little bit deeper theologically.

What was it about being an uncircumcised Philistine that caught David's attention?

Well, circumcision in Israel was a sign of the covenant.

When a boy was born in Israel, they would be circumcised on earth on the eighth day to be brought underneath the covenant.

Now, this theological word is one of the deepest words in all of scripture.

A covenant is defined as a divinely ordained relational bond.

Let me say that again.

A covenant is a divinely ordained relational bond.

When God wanted to officially establish something that he wanted to oversee, he would covenantalize it.

And so all through the Bible, you will see the word covenant, the covenant with Abraham, the covenant with David, the covenant with Israel, the covenant with uh with Palestine.

You'll see in the New Testament, the new covenant at communion, the new covenant of my blood.

Covenant, covenant, covenant, covenant, covenant.

Now, the reason why the word covenant is so critical is that it is the official mechanism through which God works to render his judgments in history.

It is an administrative mechanism of God's kingdom by which he flows to accomplish his work.

Everyone who's here today who has trusted Jesus Christ as your personal substitute and sin bearer are in the covenant.

You're part of the new covenant.

But here's the trick: you can be in the covenant and not necessarily be under the covenant.

You can be in it, but not under it.

And it is your proximity to the covenant that you are in if you're a believer that determines the official flow from heaven to history as you live out your Christian experience, and in this case, as you face the Goliaths in your life.

You can't only be in it, you must be under it.

All of Israel was in it, but only David was under it.

Let's look at the covenant as an umbrella, because a covenant in the Bible provides a covering.

The goal of a covenant is to cover.

When it's raining outside and you have an umbrella, you have a covering.

But if the umbrella is closed and not open, and you're not under it, the covenant, the covering does not cover you, even though you possess the covering.

Until you open it, place yourself under it, you're not covered by the covenant.

So many Christians are living uncovered, not because they don't have an umbrella, because if you've trusted Christ, you have an umbrella because you're in the covenant, but you may not be covered, that is operating underneath the umbrella, because only as you operate underneath it do you get the benefit of it.

If it's pouring down raining, the covering of the umbrella does not stop it from raining, it does stop it from raining on you, because you are now operating underneath the covenant.

My son, uh Jonathan, my youngest son, who's uh who's uh the chaplain for the Cowboys, he took my place there.

And and uh, so if they have a bad season, he's not a good spiritual leader.

If he has a good season, he's close to God.

That's how that works.

But um uh uh he went on a trip with me.

And when he went on a trip with me, uh he's uh we went up because I'm a platinum flyer with American and I could get upgraded, and you get a companion upgrade.

So I said, Would you upgrade me since you have two seats and upgrade my son with me?

She said, Okay.

But then she came back and she said, I am so sorry.

I can upgrade you, but I can't upgrade him.

But didn't you tell me you had two seats?

Yeah, we have two seats, but I can upgrade you, but I can't upgrade him.

How can you upgrade him and not upgrade me?

Uh upgrade me, but not upgrade him since you have two seats.

She said, It's it's it's pretty simple.

Even though he's your son, he was ticketed separately.

He was not ticketed with you.

And because he was not ticketed with you, he does not get the companion benefit of you.

In order to get the companion benefit of you, he has to be ticketed with you.

So even though you have a legal relationship from father to son, you do not have a covenantal ticket in terms of the benefit of the legal relationship.

Every believer here has a legal relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ, but you may not have been ticketed with him in terms of your covenantal relationship, which means that you don't get the full benefit of the legal relationship that you have.

In St.

John chapter 2, verses 23 to 25, it says, Many believed on Christ.

John 2:23–25

Many believed in him, but then it says, But he would not commit himself to them, for uh he knew what was in them.

So they got saved, but they weren't ticketed yet.

In other words, they were not operating under his covenantal regime, and so he would not give all of himself to them.

So all Christians aren't equal in terms of the benefits of the cross.

We're all equal in terms of the legal benefits of the cross, eternal life, forgiveness of sins.

But we're not all equal in terms of the empowerment benefits of the cross.

That comes because you're undercover, that is, you're operating underneath divine alignment.

When I was um when I was uh uh trying to get out of my garage one day, trying to get out of my garage, and um uh I pushed the button and the door would not open.

The door would not open.

I push and I push and I push and I push, but the door would not open.

I went over to try to lift it up, but the door was too heavy, it would not open.

I called the garage guy and I said, Things aren't opening up for me.

He said to me, I said, Can you come over and deliver me?

He said, Well, before I come over, do me a favor.

So with the cell phone, he instructed me to walk over to the door.

He said, Do you see the canister on the right hand side?

Yes.

Do you see the canister at the bottom on the left hand side?

Yes.

Which way are they pointing?

I said, Well, one is pointing toward the other and the other is pointing straight.

He says, That is your problem.

You do not have a power problem because the power is on.

You do not have a connection problem because the power is plugged in.

What you have is an alignment problem because the canister over here is not facing the canister over there, so they're not talking to each other.

And because they're not talking to the other to each other, the power is not set up to work.

If you will simply make an adjustment and turn the one on the left to face the one on the right, you'll see the power that you already possess being coming to work on your behalf.

By a simple turn at the bottom to face the one over here, I found power that I did not know I had when the problem was not power, it was a problem of alignment.

Whenever Goliath is allowed to rule in your life, God does not promise there will be no Goliaths in your life.

But what God says is Goliath should not be ruling your life.

They should not be running your life.

And that becomes a spiritual alignment issue.

It is because men refuse to be aligned under God that we have so many male problems, or women refuse to be aligned under God, that we have uh uh female problems leading to marriage conflicts.

Adam and Eve were in conflict because they left their alignment.

This can be applied to parents and children.

This can be applied to your own personal life.

David established an alignment.

And when David established an alignment, it changed the nature of the battle because he was not looking at what everybody else was seeing.

He was seeing things through a covenant, the uncircumcised Philistine, which meant Goliath does not have a covering.

I have a covering, so I have divine authority and my problem does not.

When you change how you see what you see, it changes what you do with what you see.

That leads to one of the spectacular events in the Bible, and that is the slaying of Goliath.

Now, when David talks about slaying Goliath, he has a very interesting set of scenarios.

He said, I was attacked, my flock was attacked by a lion, my flock was attacked by a bear, and when I saw my my um uh uh my flock attacked, he says, I ran to the bear and I ran to the lion.

When Goliath shows up, it says he runs to Goliath.

So now when you operate covenantally, you're no longer operating in defense, you're now become an offensive saint, not a defensive Christian.

You see, the goal of being a believer, Jesus says, Whatever you bind on earth, I will have bound in heaven.

Matthew 16 19.

Whatever you loose on earth.

I will loose in heaven.

In other words, when you move, heaven will back you up.

So let me explain something.

Whenever God moves supernaturally in the Bible, the most normal thing you will see is God did not move until the people moved first.

The people had to take an offensive posture before the supernatural showed up.

God told Moses, hold out your rod and tell the people to start moving before he ever opened up the Red Sea.

God told Joshua, tell the priest to put their foot in the Jordan before he ever held back the water.

God told uh uh uh uh Peter to cast on the other side of the boat before he ever filled the nets.

God told Martha to move the stone in John chapter 11 before he ever brought Lazarus from the dead.

John 11 · chapter mention

You see, God wants to see you walk by faith, not talk by faith.

He wants you to see you move by faith, not mouth by faith.

He wants to see you, your life by faith, not your lip by faith.

He wants to see motion.

In some of our rooms at our church, we have motion detector lighting because people were wasting electricity.

And people are wasting electricity, and uh uh uh and so we we wanted to put up uh uh uh motion detector lighting.

So the power's in the room, the lights are in the room, but they're not designed to come on until movement is detected.

So when you walk in the room, lights come on, when you walk out of the room, lights go out, because they have been programmed to only respond to motion.

God's supernatural engagement in your life, my life, our lives, during this time of Goliath attack requires motion.

Because when God sees motion, the power that's already there becomes activated because you're moving by faith.

Now, God also gives him a strategy.

He gives him the strategy, an odd strategy to face this guy, and that is uh uh uh five stones and uh and a slingshot, and that's because Goliath had four brothers, so he's gonna take on the whole family if necessary.

This is how God supernaturally works.

Um uh Psalm 25, verses 12 and 14, very interesting, because it says, The ones who are in my covenant shall know my ways, and I will tell them my secrets.

Psalms 25:12

So don't tell nobody.

God has secrets, He has stuff that's not shared with everybody.

The word of God is shared with everybody, but his personal guidance of you is not shared with everybody, that's shared with somebody because it varies from situation to situation.

So the secrets God has when you're under the covenant is he gives you divine thoughts.

That's the work of the Holy Spirit, to give you divine thoughts for what you should do in this particular situation.

It's the difference between a rule book and a playbook in football.

In football, all the teams have the same rule book because the rules of the of the game are the same for every team on the field.

But every team has its own playbook.

The teams don't share their playbook because their plays are only for their team.

But all the teams share the rule book.

What God has for us in his word is his divine playbook.

But what the Holy Spirit gives you is a divine rule book.

But what God gives you individually is your personal playbook.

But if you're not under the covering of the covenant, you don't get the plays, even though you may be following the rules.

And that's why people who believe in the Bible often don't get guidance because they may believe the rule book, but they're not operating under the covenant, so they don't get the playbook.

And to operate under the covenant means you're operating in alignment with the rule book, so the Holy Spirit is free to give you the playbook of what he wants you to do.

This leads to another great theological uh uh perspective because when Goliath comes in chapter 17 and uh threatens David, David says to him in verse 45, You come to me with a sword, a spear, and a javelin, but I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, whom you have taunted.

Um he says, I'm gonna do a handoff here.

One of my books is called The Power of God's Names.

God has about 85 names in the Old Testament alone.

And uh one of the names is mentioned here, calls him the Lord of hosts.

Uh that's the Lord of armies.

And uh he says, You come to me with a javelin and a spear, but I come to you in the name.

Now, the name in the Bible is a powerful statement.

You find God changing people's names because it has to do with your identity.

And God has 85 names or so in the Old Testament, so you pull on, and all of these 85 names are tied to something God wants to show you about Himself.

So when He wants to show you something unique, He gives you a unique aspect of His person through the identification of His name.

So He says, I come to you in the warrior name of God, the God of armies, because I'm in a warlike situation.

So he draws down from heaven the name of God applicable to his practical scenario.

So that's why he can be Jehovah Rapha or Jehovah Shalom, or you know, he can be, he can be whatever name is applicable.

That's why he could tell Moses, you tell him, I am that I am, because I am whatever the situation calls for.

So God has fluidity in his name, and those names are tied to his covenantal connection with God's people.

So if you're facing a Goliath in your life, something that is looming large over you, I challenge you to identify the Goliath, call it what it is, find out what the covenantal rule book says about what God wants you to do to address it, address any sin by you or somebody else that has caused it, and then place yourself under divine authority by acting on what the rule book says and open up to the Holy Spirit to give you the playbook for your specific scenario.

And let's see if we can get some heads chopped off in the midst of the Goliath attacks in your life.

In closing, my granddaughter, when she was small, came to me one day.

She didn't come to me, she was outside playing, and I heard her scream.

Ah, she's crying.

I run to the door.

Her name is Karis.

I run to the door, I say, Karis, what's wrong?

What's wrong?

I look out, and lo and behold, there's a dog chasing her.

And there's this dog chasing her.

It wasn't a big dog, but she was a little girl.

She runs up to me and she jumps in my arms.

I hold her in my arms and she's heaving with tears.

The dog runs up to my leg and he begins to nip and bark.

The dog is nipping and she's crying.

She's terrified.

I hold her in my arms and she's holding on to me.

After a few moments with the dog at my foot, he looks up.

She looks up and then she looks down at the dog, still nipping, still making a loud noise.

Then she looked up at me.

Then she looked down at the dog.

Then she looked up at me.

And this time she looked down at the dog and went, what happened to the girl?

Where could she get all this confidence from?

It's the same dog making the same noise, but she's now being held by somebody bigger than the problem that she faced.

You got somebody bigger than the Goliath that you face.

And if you'll come under his covenantal covering, you'll find out that under God, your Goliath must fall.

Thank you, Lord, for the power that's in the cross, in the Christ, and in the living God.

In Jesus' name, amen.