Facing Your Giants | Nicky Gumbel

I want to talk to you all today about facing your Giants a giant is like a big seemingly insurmountable problem or challenge in your life and you can't go through life without facing a giant I've faced Giants and Boo faced Giles you have Giants to face or at least you will have Giants to face at some point in your life and they're different for some of you it might be seemingly insurmountable debt others it might be a health issue or possibly a work issue perhaps when you heard the words big seemingly insurmountable problem you thought my boss or you thought of some relationship or you thought of some issue at school or at university that you're facing so you might be addiction sometimes the Goliath is within us and needs to be slain or it could be personal giant or it could be a national giant that we are all facing I have a daily routine I like through the Bible in one year first thing in the morning but I pray by walking around in Hyde Park and when I come back and I go to the local newsagent and I buy the newspaper and there's this woman who walks her dog and whenever she goes past me she sees me looking at the newspapers don't know why you're looking at that it's all bad news and it is what a difficult few weeks this nation has faced with terrorist attacks in London Manchester and most recently this horrific tragic shocking far in rental town tipper and I biked up there on the day on Wednesday this after just after it happened and it is so shocking but amazing to see the way the community has arisen we were offered water by a homeless man and then we saw the churches it's just rallying around we went to the Anglican Church and clemont's nothing Dale and it's extraordinary to see the way that that had become a hub for just grieving families volunteers people bringing food and clothing and it was just like like a warehouse in there and the vicar had been up since 3 o'clock giving tea and coffee and then by 7 o'clock he'd arranged full breakfast for people there and the atmosphere was extraordinary the generosity the outpouring of generosity and love and help from the church and our own Bishop was there Graham Tomlin together actually saw the Archbishop of Canterbury up there but Graham Tomlin who was part of this community heaven on staff here for 10 years a Theological College he's now the bishop of kenta's and he was there all day that day all day the next day all this the following day I saw a picture of him on the front page of the Metro with Jeremy Corbyn and the following day he was at Downing Street with Theresa May leading a delegation of 16 residents and volunteers for two and a half hours and we're working with him as a church I want you to know that the last week of course those of you here will know that the the offering went to entire offering of all 10 services went to Grenville Tarr and we have seconded two of our leadership team there for the next six months to help one with mental health the other with the organisation of the church's response working alongside Graham Tomlin and I know that many many of you from this church have been volunteering up there serving up they're making a huge difference this is the response and how do we respond when we are facing giants what difference does Jesus make see we read a story like this in the Old Testament David and Goliath how do we how do we interpret the Old Testament as Christians well we do it through the lens of Jesus Jesus said about all the scriptures these are the scriptures that testify about me so where is Jesus in this story we didn't just literally apply thing today read the story of David and Goliath II right got to go and chop off some Giants heads but Paul says we don't fight against flesh and blood our battle he says is against the spiritual forces of evil so this is like an illustration we can learn from it how do we fight the spiritual forces of evil in our lives what difference does Jesus make three thousand years ago the people of God faced a hostile army of Philistines the schaeffler is where it took places a series of ridges and valleys and the people of God were on the northern Ridge the Philistines were on the Southern Ridge and in between was the Valley of Elah and the thing was this neither army could attack the other because in order to do say that had to get down into the valley and they'd be exposed to attack so they were immobilized on these two ridges and then there was a tradition in ancient warfare a method of settling these kind of disputes it was called single combat avoiding bloodshed in a major battle whoever lost in the single combat would serve the army of the winning combatant and so the Philistines put forward as their combatant Goliath Goliath was nine foot tall a professional fighter undefeated highly trained champion with a thick bronze armor sword and javelin and he's taunting the people of God and they are says dismayed and terrified perhaps you're facing a situation in your life and you're dismayed you're full of fear you're terrified and the people of God were immobilized they were demoralized because no one wanted to go not surprisingly and take on this guy and King Saul kept coming up with bigger and bigger promises incentives won't anybody go out and fight this guy forty days they were going to day after day no one was willing to go look I'll give you great wealth hmm no thank you ah you can marry one of my daughters a princess no thank you finally I thought someone had gone for this you can be exempt from taxes for the rest of your life surely someone will go for that but now nobody went for it except dated what can we learn from his example how can you and I faced the Giants what was the key to David's life here's the first thing you have the Holy Spirit living within you if you look back to the previous chapter what was the keeper David Shannon came round to his house and he anointed David with oil and he laid hands on him and he prayed and the Holy Spirit came upon him in power and that experience changed his life if you're here today and you're on the Alpha course I really want to encourage you next weekend is the Alpha weekend where it's an opportunity for you to be praiseful to be to receive the power of the Holy Spirit be anointed by the Holy Spirit don't miss the weekends if you've got a work commitment just tell your boss you can't do it if if you're playing in it in a match just pull out of that match you're going to your sister's wedding explain to your sister you can't be at our wedding if you're getting married postpone your marriage this is the most important thing you can do in your life if you experience the Holy Spirit this will check like David did it changed his life he this is what enables him to go out and face the Giants and the spirit anoints us nights every one of you if you are a Christian if you put your faith in Jesus you have the Holy Spirit living within you and he anoints you for every aspect of life not just for the spectacular so what did David do after he was filled with the Holy Spirit he looked after the Sheep and then he while his three of the brothers went off to the battlefield with Saul he was the one who carried the cheese's and the bread to his brothers at the battlefield and took back messages he was just going the ordinary things of life little did he realize that early one morning he would set off carrying bread and will return that night carrying the head of Goliath and you never know when you're doing the ordinary things in your workplace or in your family what God will do with the ordinary through the Holy Spirit to achieve the extraordinary last Sunday at on so Square a woman came up to me and she said she was a regular member of our congregation but she lived in Florida I said what you live in Florida she said yeah I should I work for Delta Airlines she said i'm i'm i work as a for the airline and i arranged that as a flight attendant that my flights come in on saturday to london so i can be at the evening service and I've been that doing that for years so I'm a regular member of the congregation and then she said she said she had me tell a story years ago which changed the way she did her job and the story that I told was about an American pastor called Howard Hendricks who worked for American Airlines and he told this story about a flight attendant he was on he was on the flight from I can't know whether there was a man sitting directly in front of him who was rude obnoxious loud and then he got drunk and he was in more rude obnoxious and love and he described how this flight attendant was so gracious so polite so dignified however rude he was she was gracious in response however noxious she was patient with him and he was so impressed that when they'd finished the meal 20 minutes later he went back to the back of the plane because he wanted to commend her for he said she said that you absolutely amazed by how you treated that man you were so dignified in your response he said I really want to commend you and he said I want to write to American Airlines your if you'll give me your name I want to write to American Airlines your employer and I want to commend you and she said thank you very much sir I don't work for American Airlines I work for Jesus Christ he said when he picked himself up off the floor she started saying to him you know do you realize that God loves you and he has a plan for life so I was he was a pastor and she was telling him that God loved him and had a good plan for his life and the and this story I I wonder whether that woman had any concept that that story would be told to thousands of people and here decades later was a woman coming up to me last week and saying what that flight attendant on American Airlines had done had affected her whole life and how she acted as in for Delta Airlines over all these years you never know what you're doing in the ordinary in your workplace can have an extraordinary impact and for David that was the case he arrived at the battle and he overheard Goliath defying the armies of the Living God and Elliott his older brother overhears his conversation and there's a certain amount of sibling rivalry jealousy David the younger brother is the one who seems to be anointed by God and we read in verse 28 that he says to him look at you're so conceited you're so wicked he says to David the only reason you come here is because you want a ringside seat at a bloody battle I don't know whether you've ever been falsely accused but is so painful it must have been so hard for David being misjudged misinterpreted out of jealousy what I'd say to you is don't allow the hurtful things people say to you to get to your heart never let praise go to your head and never let criticism get to your heart do what David did David turned away from a liar that's a good thing to do in any form of temptation just turn away reject rejection the devil will always say to you you never were any good you never will be any good you are no good you're useless don't listen to that voice who are you listening to because if you listen to negative people eventually you become negative reject rejection yes I was embarrassed and then I went and trained at Theological College after we finished at Theological College we were looking for a church where we could service lightly look at accordingly angling to its accuracy and a bit when I visited nine different churches and we received rejection after rejection but you know I'm so thankful now that I did get all those rejections because if I hadn't had all those rejections I wouldn't be doing what I'm doing now you may wish I hadn't had all those rejected but firstly I'm very glad to be here and sometimes your greatest rejection can be your greatest direction the Holy Spirit can lead you and you are anointed by the Holy Spirit let the Holy Spirit direct you so Dobby David was overheard and Saul sent for him so David offers to go and fight Goliath and Sosa's hang on a second you can't do that you're too young you're not able he questioned his ability you're too young you're too unqualified but God is not looking for ability he's looking for availability and all of us can say to the Lord Lord I'll go I'll do whatever you want me to do you're never too young you feel maybe if you're still at school I'm too young to serve the Lord no you're not I'm at university no you're not too young you're never too young you're never too old what matters is not age it's a 19 David was anointed by the Holy Spirit God had been preparing David for that day as he is preparing you he's been preparing you all your life for what he calls you to do and the battles that you fight when no one is watching are preparing you for the battles you'll fight in public David had been prepared through fighting a lion and a bear in private and that was preparing him to fight Goliath in public every battle you fight is designed to prepare you for an even greater challenge David when he was tending those sheep and taking on a lion and a bear I wonder whether he had any concept that that was preparing him for this great victory that was going to set the people of God free not only that he was going to become the ancestor of Jesus the savior of the world and God was preparing him in the little things as he is preparing you in all the daily battles that you're fighting right now David had learnt to trust God in the little things don't despise the day of small beginnings David says the Lord who delivered me from the paw of the bear and the paw of the lion will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine so Saul says from a get-go and the Lord be with you and then he tries to dress in Saul's armor Saul says you know take take my helmet take my my armor take my sword and he takes it all and he starts walking around in it and he just feels so uncomfortable in it and she has to take it off I remember way way back when we first filmed alpha we filmed it here and we didn't really know people on the course hardly knew it's been fun we just had a camera off there to the left and I never thought anybody will watch the video so I didn't worry about it at all I was just like just doing it for the people on the course but ask that course it went off to a thousands of churches and so they said you've got to film it again but you've got to do it better this time and in particular they said we want to improve how you look so that wasn't surprising can't just have one blue jumper oh we've got so they said okay we're going to dress you up for this this is the kind of clothes you ought to wear to present alpha and so they went off and got samples of clothes they thought I ought to wear and I remember they they got me in the amani suit and I put on this Amani suit and I just felt so uncomfortable I said I can't wear all these lovely clothes you've got me and I I just said I'm just gonna get us gonna be myself that's all I can be is be myself David said look I can't work this out I don't want any oh my the one who saw it I don't want any I've got no training but what I have got is I've got a sling and five stones see every person has a sling and five stones you have a sling and five stones you have the gifts that God has given to you and they are all you need don't look around you know on social media oh I wish I had what they had because God given you what you need you need your sling and your five stones and that's all you need David didn't mind about how he looked or what had happened in the past he was just free to be himself that's what authenticity is about be yourself as God has created you you can't be better than that you can be a better version of yourself but trying to be someone else is never going to be the answer be confident in the gifts that God has given you he's equipped you with everything you need for what he's calling you to do and each one of us has the gifts that we need for what God is calling us to do and then you like David are not on your own soul sister David go and the Lord be with you that is such a significant expression all that matters it gave David a different perspective see everybody was talking about the problem Goliath he's so big we don't have a chance you're too young you're too small you're only a boy but David wasn't focused on the size of the problem he was focused on the size of his god I'd come against you in the name of the Lord that's why I had complete confidence he says the Lord is with me I come against you in the name of the Lord the Lord will give all of you into my hands you are not alone whatever you are facing right now and some of you I know you facing really big challenges in your life but you're not alone so Paul wrote this in the New Testament he said if God is for us who can be against us nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus Jesus is with you how but you say it's Jesus really with me right now in the situation I'm in it doesn't feel like Jesus is with me I can't see Jesus you can't see Jesus but you can see his body the body of Christ that's the church people don't get this Jesus is here this is Jesus the church is Jesus the body of Christ is sometimes people come up to me at the end of the service for pet which incidentally I really encourage you to do it it's it's amazing to see what happens when people are prayed for and it takes some courage it takes a risk to come forward so but sometimes when I pray to some I'll say to them are you in a connect group and they said no now I'm going on the connect room I think how sad you're facing this big challenge this big giant in your life but you're trying to do it on your own that's why we speak so passionately I speak so passionately to you about focus because focus supremely is where we connect we connect with God the amazing worship teaching that we connect with the body of Christ that's where we discover we're not on our own so I've been to focus every 26 years now but even before focus existed I always went away for a week with the body of Christ every year when I was practicing as a barrister because I needed that week to really connect with God but also click a net with the body of Christ to know that I'm not on my own I can remember going to focus sometimes facing really big giants in my life and the moment I right laughing Wow it's okay we're in this together where I'm not alone this is the body of Christ we connect with one another and we experience the fact that Jesus is with us that's how we see Jesus it's his body the church and then you see it's not just that you have the Spirit of God you're anointed by the Spirit you're not alone Jesus is with you you have a great purpose for your life it's not about us that's the great thing about David David was not obsessed about himself it was all about the glory of God his entire motivation was he could not bear to see God's name Dishonored he says I come against you in the name of the Lord Almighty don't waste your life trying to build a name for yourself don't waste your life to stand up acquire things for yourself it's utterly meaningless but if you spend your life seeking like David did the glory of God doesn't seem to see the name of Jesus honored that is a great purpose for your life and you will see great things happen as you do that David wasn't trying to be a hero he was passionate about God's name and God's people he said the battle is the Lord I'm doing this for the sake of God's name and that's basically what he says to Goliath so Goliath continues to threaten him and he basically says to me look mate or probably start I don't know at least those words he said look you have defied that the army of the Living God you have attack God's name you're going down mate and then he runs quickly to him and it happened so quickly it's like this a first round lookup within ten seconds of the bell going Goliath finished and the Philistine arm is on the run and the people of God had been liberated just like that so where is Jesus in all this Goliath looked so strong but he had his weaknesses David looks so weak but he had his strength and David of course is the ancestor the 4runner he prefigures Jesus this prefigures the ultimate victory in human history Jesus took on all the forces of evil that looked so strong how did he do it not even with a sling and five stones with nothing naked crucified on a cross look like weakness the most powerful act in human history he defeated the powers of evil on the cross totally for you they are utterly defeated on the cross Jesus took the whole took on the whole forces of Hell and defeated them completely through his crook through the cross and that was that victory was seen through the resurrection and now right now because Goliath is dead Jesus defeated Goliath on the cross Goliath no longer exists droid so the church now it looks it looks liek the world outside that issues that you're facing look so strong the issues facing our nation look so strong but the church looks so weak but actually the Spirit of God is on you Jesus is with you and you have a great purpose so can a nation be changed yes it can and it can happen very quickly look at what's happened in the last few weeks look how the mood in this nation has shifted so quickly can happen for good it could happen for the church the mood could shift just like that the church can make it it we've seen the difference the church has made with a gruntal time but although on a national scale look what could happen in the church I want to encourage all of you do you realize you're anointed you have the Spirit of God on you like David you've been anointed by the Holy Spirit like David you're not alone you have Jesus with you the body of Christ you can't do it on your own we can only do this together and you have a great purpose and to see the name of Jesus honored again in this nation and what I want to encourage all of us to do is to take up our sling and our five stones take up whatever gift you have and go out there and slay Oh Goliath and then we will see the evangelization of this nation the revitalization of the church and the transformation our society in Jesus name Amen I'm Bear Grylls my favorite way to start the day the Bible in one year that's how wild I am find out more at Bible in one year org or download the Bible in one year app you

Channel: HTB Church

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Length: 31min 50sec (1910 seconds)

Published: Mon Jun 26 2017