David and Goliath

Hello again. 
Well this morning I led my first ever SA Meeting, which I really enjoyed doing, although I was a bit nervous at first! Anyway as promised here was my sermon.

Sermon Fighting your giants

Today's bible reading came from the book of first Samuel, and it contains what I see as one of the most exciting action stories of the Old Testament.

In it we see two armies lined up and ready for battle, on one side the Philistines and on the other side the Israelites, Gods chosen people, led by King Saul. 

In old testament times very few countries had established armies like we have today, armies were often made of all the men of a fighting age; very few were professional soldiers and most had normal every day jobs. Yet when their country was threatened their king would call upon all men of fighting age to assemble for battle. 
However this was not that practical, even if a country was to win a battle or a war they could lose a large amount of their workforce which would be economically bad for a country. 
Therefore it was common for armies to line up and the whole battle could be decided by a single fight between each armies champion. 

This is the position we find the Israelites in; each day the philistine champion Goliath would come out and basically shout "come and have a go if you think your hard enough!" 

Now Goliath was a massive man, 3 meters tall, armed to the teeth and wearing thick armour. Goliath literally was the tank of the Old Testament battlefield. And the problem was none of the Israelites actually thought they were hard enough to fight him! Well none of King Saul's army anyway! 
But a young Sheppard boy visiting his brothers in the army heard Goliaths challenge and was not afraid. This young boy David accepted Goliaths challenge. And not only did he go out and face this giant. He won! 

It's a great story, but how does it relate to us today? What can we learn from this story? And how can we use what it tells us to help us in our everyday life?
I mean we don't see giants walking around the streets every day do we? Yes we might see the odd really tall person, but we certainly don't end up trying to fight them! 
But I think in reality we do see giants, not human giants, but giant obstacles in our lives. We all have giants we need to fight in our lives, battles we can either hide away from like the Israelite army, or stand up and fight like David.

What kind of giants do I mean? There are many things which can be giants in our lives; personality traits such as anger, spitefulness, hatred can all be giants that effect how we act. There can be things we are addicted to such as alcohol or cigarettes which can be giants in our lives. Habits in the way we act can also be classed as giants in our lives, are we short tempered, are we unforgiving or do we talk about people behind their backs? We can think we have these things under control when really they control us. And when we do try to stop doing or feeling these things they can basically turn around and shout "come and have a go if you think your hard enough" And to be honest, often when we try to defeat them on our own, like the Israelite army we will fail. 
But we do not want to be like the Israelite army and cower and hide away from these giants, letting them rule and ruin our lives, we want to be brave and meet them in battle head on. 

But how do we do that? how did a young Sheppard boy not just take on this giant, but win? And what can we learn from this to help us defeat our own giants? 

Firstly David took strength from the battles he had won against different enemies in the past. In verses 34 to 37 he explains how protecting his father's sheep he fought both lions and bears. He states that if he defeated these wild animals, despite his age and his size, why should he be afraid of any man! 
We can adapt this in our own lives and our own battles. It's hard to change massive things overnight, change often takes time, and I know that is certainly true in my own life. Yet over time, taking strength through each small victory, we can see and change massive things in our lives. 

Secondly David did not let himself be weighed down by others. Earlier in our Bible reading we heard how King Saul tried to dress David up in his own royal armour. Yet although many would think this would aid David, he knew this armour and weight would be a hindrance rather than a help to him. He did not feel pressured to put trust in the things of man rather than in God. 

Likewise we should not put our trust in the things of the world to aid us in battle against our giants. No earthly armour can aid us in these battles, however Pauls letter to the Ephesians tells us about the armour which God can provide us with, it is the same armour which David protected himself with. Not earthly physical armour, but the Spiritual Armour of God. We need to arm ourselves with the Belt Of truth, Brest plate of righteousness, Feet fitted with peace, Shield of faith, Helmet of salvation and the Sword of the spirit. 

Thirdly David did not listen to the taunts of the enemy, Goliath said all kinds of things to both intimidate David and make him look small and stupid. The world often treats us that way, believe me, as the only Christian on a ship I know all about the things people say to taunt and intimidate you. But like David it is important not to let this effect the way we feel and the way we fight our giants. How we react to these taunts and comments can have massive consequences, if we react badly, rather than fighting our giants we can actually be feeding giants such as anger and hatred. 
We must also remember that people who taunt us are also often just looking to see how we react. If we react badly it just gives them more ammunition to use against us. However we never know how God plans to use us in the lives of these people. Remember God turned one of the most vicious persecutors of the early church Saul into one of the most passionate and successful spreaders of the Gospel. 

Lastly and most importantly David put his entire trust in God. David states many times that God will protect him from his enemies, whether they be lions, bears or massive Philistine warriors. In the same way we must have the same amount and depth of trust in God as David had. We need to be confident that God can help us fight our giants, more than that we need to know that God can, will and does help us win. 
In the New Testament In Matthew chapter 17 verse 20 Jesus tells us "I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there' and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you." 

This is a promise of God that we need to trust and be certain of, even before Jesus had come to the earth, David had this much faith in God, he was certain that God would be with him and would help him defeat this mountain of a man. 

Likewise if we have such faith and put our trust in him, with God's help we will defeat our own giants. 
These giants in our lives can take so many forms, I know, I have had to fight many of them over the past few years, and if I am honest there are many I am still fighting today. 
There is nothing to be ashamed about having these giants in our lives, there is nothing wrong with admitting there are things we find hard and things we struggle with. 
The fact is I would say almost everyone in here today has at least one of these giants in their lives, but it does not matter if we have 1 or 100 of them, the most important thing is that we put our trust in God and decide today right here and now that we will be more like David and less like the Israelite Army. 

We need to identify these giants in our lives, admit them, firstly to ourselves and then perhaps to someone we trust for support and then decide to go and face them, head on like David, un-afraid, un-intimidated by them and safe in the knowledge that God does and will help us defeat them. 
See the thing our lives are much like the battle in this story, the devil can send out his giants to tempt and hurt us. 
Although at times it may seem we are on our own and it can seem we have to fight these giants by ourselves the truth could not be further away. We do not have to fight these giants on our own.

Much like David went and fought the giant for King Saul, Jesus will fight our giants, in fact he already has! He died on the cross, for our sins, for the way our giants cause us to act when we give into them, he has already fought them and he has already won! 
His victory does not mean that accepting these giants, or choosing to stand up and fight them will be easy, but it does mean we can face them safe in the knowledge that no matter how tough the fight may get at times, ultimately, just like David facing Goliath, helped by God we will win. 

Response 

We are going to now enter into a time of reflection, mark is going to come up and we are going to sing the song "Our God" prayerfully. 

It may seem like a strange song to sing as a reflection song, however the chorus states the truth that "if our God is for us, then what can stand against" and that’s the whole point and message of this meeting and sermon, no matter what the giants that stand against us, if we ask him to stand with us, God will, and then victory is assured, we cannot be beaten. 

As we sing this song there should be a paper pebble, which was on your seat before the meeting, just like the pebble David used to slay his giant. As we sing this song I would like you to write on this pebble the areas in your life where you have giants to fight, and then if you would like to, you can come to the mercy seat and place your paper pebble, asking God to help you in these areas, and asking him to stand with you and help you fight them. 

Then you can take one of the real pebbles from one of the bowls. 
Keep it with you all week, perhaps in a pocket, or in your handbag, then at the times when you feel giants trying to tempt or fight you, you can feel it and be reminded that you are not alone in this fight, and that just like David, God will help you defeat your giants.