"Fighting Giants" - Pastor Raymond Woodward

First Samuel Chapter 17 verse three and the Philistines stood on a mountain on one side and Israel stood on a mountain on the other side and there was a valley between them and there went out a champion out of the camp of the Philistines named Goliath of Gath whose height was six cubits and a span pastor doesn't have anything I don't think too profound but if it connects with your spirit and helps you that'll be profound and I believe God wants to talk to us a little bit about fighting Giants and that might not matter to you very much if your life is comfortable and everything's at ease but for somebody that feels like they're in the battle of their life this might be the service that to help send ministers to them and turns them around so before you're seated would you um if you got your Bible that's great whether it's on your phone or your iPad or in leather or paperback or whatever that's great but would you lift up your hands and if you've got that word in your hands that's good you can lift that up and let's ask God to speak a word to us in the next few moments pastor's not going to be long but I do believe God has a word for somebody here tonight or Jesus I thank you for your presence that's in this room thank you for the worship of your people that is so liberating and it helps us just to be together with people of like precious faith it helps us to assemble together so much the more as we see the day of your coming approaching it helps us to be with people that are going the same direction and serving the same God in a world that's lost its way now Jesus I asked for your help as we turn our attention to the Word of God and we turn our attention to the needs that are represented in this room and beyond this room for all of our family connections would you please speak a word to this great people tonight we'll be forever grateful we'll give you all the praise the glory and we thank you God for being our God we thank you for walking with us even when we don't notice that you're there thank you for being with us in the times and the trials and the tests of life be with us in the next few moments I pray in a special way in Jesus name everybody said amen you may be seated the Philistines were the most fierce and the most enduring foe that Israel ever faced in ancient times the pages of the Old Testament are filled with accounts of the bloody clashes between Israel and the Philistine armies and because of the Philistines the Jews were pretty much denied access to much of the Mediterranean Sea coast because the Philistines had a pentapolis they had five strategic cities there Ashdod and ashkelon eccrine Gath and Gaza and so they kind of control that whole part of the Promised Land and the Philistines also had a huge tactical advantage over Israel because the Bible tells us in 1st Samuel 13 that they alone possess the ancient technology of iron making there were only blacksmiths in the land of the Philistines Israel didn't have any and the Philistines they controlled it they would not allow them to have that primitive technology it seems pretty primitive to us but it was advanced in that day and so that made the chariots and the weapons the swords and the spears of the Philistines far superior to anything Israel could come up with and now in this chapter very familiar portion of Scripture they're facing off once again in the Valley of Elah except nobody's actually fighting they're just looking at each other it's a face-off every day Goliath the giant from Gath he comes out and he issues the exact same challenge he will fight whatever champion Israel selects and whoever wins this one-on-one combat wins the victory for their nation if your champion wins Israel then we'll all serve you but if I win you all have to serve us and so they're paralyzed Israel is afraid Goliath has been taunting Israel with the same threatening words for 40 days now he didn't lift one little finger to achieve that intimidation all he did was talk but his talk intimidated the people of God your enemy doesn't have to fight you if you let him talk to you he doesn't have to lift a finger to oppose you if you listen to his words in your ears all the time sometimes those words come from the culture around you sometimes they come from people who are against you sometimes they come from people who are actually well-meaning people but they're just misdirected and they try to get you to trust in something else instead of God and the enemy doesn't have to work very hard if he can just get us to listen to his words any time the enemy is trying to intimidate you with his words what he's really trying to do is drown out your faith so that you suffocate in the spirit because he knows if you ever exercise your faith he will be defeated period end of story Israel should have seen this as a huge opportunity this guy stands up and says all you have to do is knock down one giant and the battle is over it's a quick and decisive victory for Israel the Philistines will surrender unconditionally and it should be looked at as this incredible opportunity one battle and it's all over one battle and we win but instead of that they're paralyzed with fear because on the way to their victory is this one giant obstacle and he is a giant Goliath the history books tell us was nearly ten feet tall about nine and a half feet tall he had a full suit of bronze armor and just the head of the spear he carried weighed 15 pounds so if you put him on a scale his armor and the weaponry alone that he carried probably totaled a hundred and fifty pounds plus his weight so this this man was a walking tank he was a powerful opponent and so it's no wonder that all the soldiers in Israel are kind of afraid of him and that's why when we open first Samuel 17 that's why everybody in Israel is sitting around waiting for God to move now that sounds familiar we're just waiting on God we're just waiting for God to move meanwhile up in heaven God is saying I'm just waiting on somebody to move I'm just waiting on Israel to move I'm just waiting on anybody to grab a clue that this can be a decisive moment in Israel's future I'm just waiting on somebody to move it meanwhile down in the valley on that one Hill Israel's all saying well I wish God would move thankfully there's a brave young man named David that walks into this camp just at the very same moment that Goliath makes his threat one more time this is day 41 and David walks into the camp and he's just a kid he's a teenager nobody's expecting much of him right now but he totally changes the parameters of the battle and that's really what I came to talk to you tonight about because if you're going to defeat a giant in your life and of course I'm not talking about a nine and a half foot tall neighbor if you got one of those report them to the city they're scary I'm talking about a spiritual giant and and you have to change the parameters of the battle if you're going to defeat a spiritual giant in your life and I don't have a whole lot here tonight I just have a word for somebody of two or three things here first of all you have to defeat Giants in secret and in advance David didn't really defeat Goliath on the battlefield in the Valley of Elah David really defeated Goliath far in advance and in secret before David ever walked on the public battlefield he already had some private victories in a far different battlefield in fact when he's talking to King Saul just before he engages the Giant David says this in 1737 he said the Lord that delivered me out of the paw of the lion and out of the paw of the bear he's the one that's going to deliver me out of the hand of this Philistine and that's when Saul said well just go knock yourself out do whatever you want and the Lord be with you see every wild animal that ever attacked David's flock that was a test sent from God we misunderstand the tests of God we sometimes think that the tests God allows us to walk through our to put us down and push us back and and to limit us in some way that the test God sends into our lives that somehow their punishment from God or their a negative thing when actually what God is doing is he's training us for the bigger battle that lies just ahead and he knows that if we passed the private test if we passed the test a few months ago a few weeks back that we're going to be prepared for the battle David could have sacrificed his sheep anytime for his own safety he could have run for cover but David successfully passed every test and he literally risked his life to save his flock but in the process of doing that over and over David cultivated some skills and some abilities that would change not only his destiny but would change Israel's future it seems like when David steps onto the battlefield that day he is totally unprepared for a battle with a giant but actually David's the only one on the battlefield that day who is perfectly prepared it seems like he had wasted his time herding sheep but it's critical to note in Scripture that the battle with Goliath really wasn't won in the Valley of Elah that's just where it was fought it was actually won years before in the Shepherd's fields outside of Bethlehem that's where David would sit down with his harp in between tending to the needs of the flock in between serving his father and his brothers and his family and the farm David would sit down and he would write things like this the Lord is my shepherd I shall not want he makes me to lie down in green pastures and he leads me beside still waters God is the one who restores my soul it's years before Goliath David doesn't even know there is a Goliath right now but he's cultivating a relationship with God he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of if he had been there that wasn't a giant it was a bear it was a lion but David had been in the valley of the shadow of death but he said even when I walked there I will fear no evil because God walked with me into that Valley and if God walked with me into the valley God's going to walk with me through the valley and out the other side thy rod and thy staff they comfort me now prepare us the table before me in the presence of mine enemies David when he wrote those words he probably didn't have a whole lot of enemies we don't know exactly when those words were written he may have had King Saul as his enemy at that time we don't know but we know this that David learned in the middle of all kinds of negative situations he learned to trust in God he learned to cultivate a relationship with God he said you anoint my head with oil my cup runs over surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever David didn't write those words when he was sitting on the throne as king of Israel David wrote those words years earlier it's amazing nobody else saw David defeat the lion no one else saw David defeat the bear he didn't have Facebook so he couldn't put a selfie with the bear head that's a whole different subject but even though nobody saw those victories in fact you know what now that's Medlin but part of our problem today is every little tiny thing we do we want some credit for it and we want some affirmation for it David didn't get any of that he spent years in obscurity but even though nobody else saw those victories those victories still counted one of our challenges when we're trying to fight giants and fight hell and fight spiritual battles is we think the little daily victories don't count let me tell you something folks the little daily victories they count most of all you know people want to know well how do I do this and how can I be used by God uh I was at a camp meeting in Pennsylvania and this this young guy walked up to me this week you know kind of like I want you to tell me the secret of the Christian life like well prayer and the word okay and what's the secret of the Christian life I said prayer and the word he said so I want to be used by God I think I might be called a ministry so what would be the secret for that I said prayer and the word he backed up took a deep breath he came at it time number four and so if you're saying if I want to be used by God now what would be the secret to that I said prayer and the word and honest honest honest he said can you write that down so I wrote down prayer and we're honest I am NOT making that up pastor Jack that's at least as good as a duct-tape story I'm going to tell you your private victories they count as much as your public victories we all want to give God glory and we all want to celebrate with you when you come to church and the miracles done and it's all over and we can all celebrate that but you know what there are some private victories when you go to defeat a giant in your life don't think you're going to defeat a giant by showing up at church you know every couple of weeks and hoping that God sees you through God will see you through but he's waiting for you to conquer the bear and the lion out in the field where nobody's watching you that's what he's looking for you you defeat Giants in secret and always in advance now here's another thing about fighting Giants and you can't fight a giant on the Giants terms Israelite soldiers were trained the very same way that Philistine soldiers were trained they were trained in hand-to-hand combat you running each other swords and spears flailing and you fight but nobody was going to defeat Goliath that way because by the time you ran up to him with your sword flailing he was towering over top of you with his mighty broad sword and his spear with a spearhead that weighed 15 pounds and you were done nobody was going to fight Goliath on that term nobody especially a kid named David could match Goliath strength nobody especially a teenager could match the lieth size or even his skill as a warrior and that's where David looked like he was going on a fool's errand but David wasn't going on a fool's errand because God had trained David to be particularly equipped to fight a giant you can't fight a giant on the Giants terms you can't fight sin on sins terms you can't fight addiction on addictions terms you can't fight the devil on the devil's terms you have to change the rules of engagement the worst way to fight a giant is to get up close to him and try to swing your sword but the best way to fight a giant is to wait back 20 paces or so and fire a slingshot because then he can't hit you with that sword or that spear because you're too far away and dead that's what David did he swung that slingshot and that stone hit Goliath and knocked him down David never allowed Goliath to get close enough to him to use the weapons he carried and David took the initiative and he attacked him first and here's what he said then said David to the Philistines you're coming to me with a sword and a spear and a shield but I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts the god of the armies of Israel whom thou hast defied you read it over and over in this chapter David's angry at Goliath and the Philistines not because they've bruised his ego but because they've defied his God that's why he's angry now there's a whole lot of speculation in Scripture you've read it you've thought about it why did David choose five smooth Stones out of the brook some people think it's because he was afraid he was going to miss I don't think that's true many Bible scholars speculate it's because Goliath had four brothers who were giants and was just foolhardy and bold enough and had enough confidence in God that he thought if those four other giants come for me I've got four other rocks in this bag and I'm going to kill them too I think that's probably pretty accurate David thought if they attack I'm going to be ready for battle and when Goliath the Giant sees a mere youth approaching him when Goliath sees this little shrimp of a kid approaching across the field he laughs disdainfully because Goliath you think well David has no idea who he's dealing with no no no Goliath has no idea who he's dealing with this is not a battle between a massive giant and a little kid this is actually a battle between a little teeny-tiny Giant and a massive eternal God that's really what the battles about only David in all the camp of Israel actually had the proper perspective on Israel's enemy everybody else was looking at the size of Goliath David was willing to look at the size of his god and walk out into an uncertain battlefield and win the day several times in this chapter we're told that Goliath has defied the God of Israel the name of God he's defied the name of the God of Israel and David is passionate about the name of the Lord and Goliath to him he's committed blasphemy he's defied and blaspheme the name of God and in Israel if you blaspheme the name of God the penalty was death by stoning and so stoning is exactly what David sets out to do - Goliath you blaspheme the name of my god I'm going to come after you and knock you down I wish we could get a little bit of the spirit of David in our generation I know we sing about the spirit of David and we're talking about how David worship but David had a fighting spirit - David decided that if the enemy is going to be brave enough and bold enough and arrogant enough to attack my nation to attack the people of God to blaspheme the name of God then I'm going to be brave enough and bow enough and I'm going to have enough courage to go out and talk to the enemy on behalf of God and before I ever lift a weapon I'm going to tell him I'm not coming to you with man-made weapons I'm coming to you in the name of the Lord of Hosts who you have defied but this is really what I want to tell somebody tonight music come on back if you would First Samuel chapter 17 and verse 54 we're now after the battle David has now fought the giant David has now knocked Goliath down now that battlefield there's a hill on either side and there's a valley in the middle and that battlefield is still small enough that anybody on either side could have seen when Goliath fell he's a nine and a half foot tall soldier and when Goliath fell the Bible says that David went up to him and he took his own sword Goliath sword and he cut Goliath's head off he beheaded that giant and David took the head of the Philistine and he brought it to Jerusalem and he put Goliath armor in his tent now Goliath armor weighed about a hundred and fifty pounds that was certainly as much as David the teenage kid and just removing that armor from the dead weight of a dead giant that was probably more work than killing the Giant but David took that hundred and fifty pound armor and David put that armor inside his tent David was soon conscripted into the army of King Saul and everywhere David's 10-20 move from battlefield to battlefield serving Israel David took the armor of Goliath 150 pounds nobody else had 150 pounds of extra baggage in their tent as they went from battle field to battlefield and place to place but David did every time he picked up that tent and packed up camp and moved a little further and set it up somewhere else Goliath armor always went with him you know why because Goliath armor was a defining moment in David's life Goliath armor was a daily reminder of the time when David learned that my god is bigger than any giant I will ever have to face and so he carried it around but it wasn't just a memorial to his past it was an investment in his future David carried the armor around not so he could make a shrine out of it he carried the armor around so that whenever the enemy some new enemy some fresh enemy some bigger enemy started pushing in he can remember wait a minute I walked out on a battlefield with nothing but a bag of rocks and a slingshot and God helped me knock down a giant so I can do this again it was an investment in his future mark Patterson wrote a a brilliant little skinny book a few years ago called soul prett and he said this is amazing I love this do you ever wonder if David also kept the blood-stained stone that had been buried in Goliath's forehead I would have and if I had been Abraham or Jacob I might have taken my annual vacation on top of Mount Moriah where God provided a sacrifice just in time or I might have taken my vacation near that stone pillar at Bethel where God met with me if I was Peter I would have rowed out once in a while to the middle of the spot on the Sea of Galilee where Jesus empowered me to walk on the waves of the sea I would have rode out there once in a while if I was Daniel I would have walked by that lion's den in Babylon every so often with a smug smile of holy confidence on my face Batterson said I bet Zacchaeus let his grandkids climb up in the sycamore tree where he got his first glimpse of Jesus and I can almost guarantee that every time the Apostle Paul ever traveled on the road to Damascus he stopped at that very spot at the mile marker where God literally knocked him off his high horse and if you were Lazarus wouldn't you have made an annual Trek to put some fresh-cut flowers on Your Grave where you had been buried for four days see those aren't just memorials to the past there's something about knocking down a giant there's something about fighting a battle there's something about winning a victory it's not just a memorial to your past it's an investment in your future and here I'd never noticed this before David didn't just take Goliath armor he also took the Giants head and he did something amazing with that severed head of a defeated foe it's easy to miss that's powerful David took Goliath's head and the Bible says he brought it to Jerusalem certainly didn't carry that around in his tent but he brought it to Jerusalem it's amazing so easy to miss wait just a minute at the time David did this Jerusalem was not under the control of Israel King Saul did not rule from Jerusalem in fact Jerusalem at this point in history is still controlled by the Jeb you sites and it will stay under their control for many more years until David himself as king finally defeats the Jebusites more than 20 years later in a thousand and three BC the jpo sites they were the pre Israelite inhabitants of Jerusalem they were listed among all the nations in Genesis 10 as a Canaanite tribe they occupied the cities that would become the territory eventually that belonged to the tribes of Judah and Benjamin but because that city had the best fortifications of any city in ancient times any city in Canaan Israel had been unable to defeat the occupants of Jebus that was the city not Jerusalem Jebus and even though the armies of Israel were able to conquer every other city Darmouth Eglin lakish had bran all kinds of other cities they were not able to dislodge the inhabitants of Jebus that's right at the time the David took the head of Goliath to the city it wasn't yet called Jerusalem it wasn't yet under Israel's control David didn't take the head back to his family home in Bethlehem he didn't take that head to the existing Israelite capital of Gibeah where King Saul was on the throne and where David served as a minstrel he didn't take it there David took the Giants head to the Canaanite control city of Jebus which had not been fully conquered even after the invasion of Joshua some 200 years earlier it was still a sore spot in Israel of existence it was a thorn in their side it was this fortress that kind of glared at them and challenged them and David made his way to that fortress city and he took this severed head of Goliath the trophy of his victory and he took it to that unconquered territory and he buried it there and you know why he did that because it's important to bury the trophies of your battles in your future and not in your past there are so many people that they just keep looking backwards and every victory is just a celebration well I got through one more day and I got through one more week and I made it one more month that is not what God is trying to do with his people he's not just trying to get us to exist until he comes back and rescues us he's wanting us to advance and learn and grow and conquer and move that's what he's wanted so it's really important when you do have a victory in your life it's really important when you do knock a giant down stop referring to that as a little thing it's a big thing when you conquer something in your personal life it's a big thing when you go for a whole week and something that used to stare you up you've had victory over it now for as long as you can remember as many days as you can remember don't downplay that don't say well I guess I just lucked out you didn't lock out the Holy Ghost is leading you and the Holy Ghost is helping you and if you've got a victory in your life you need to celebrate it even though it's a private victory you need to celebrate it even though to you it seems like a minor victory don't just make every victory you ever win about well I'm going to maintain what I know you're going to put it in your future you're going to bury that trophy in your future and you're planning on taking more territory in the future that's why David took that severed head to that unconquered territory he was burying Goliath's head not in the land of his past but in the destiny of his future even at a young age even as a teenager David was already dreaming of the day when he would conquer the most fortified city in the region and he would make it God's capital city David didn't have the prophet Samuel on the battlefield that day but David had a prophetic insight into his future and so my question for somebody here tonight that might help you fight the Giants in your life is where are you burying your dreams and where are you burying your victories and where are you burying what God is doing in your life are you making it a tribute to your past are you making it a monument to what's already come are you just trying to survive are you just trying to maintain or are you letting God lead you into the future where every victory builds on the past victory and you actually do what Paul said we go from glory to glory the reason it's so difficult sometimes as a lot of people they just kind of start over again every Sunday they start over again every time they come to God's house they start over again every week that wasn't David spirit David was still a teenager and he wouldn't conquer that city for another twenty years it wasn't even called Jerusalem yet but in his mind he had already changed the name of that city it wasn't Jerusalem yet to anybody else but it was already Jerusalem to David it wasn't Jerusalem to the Canaanites it wasn't Jerusalem to the rest of Israel but already in David's mind it was already Jerusalem and so he took the severed head of a conquered giant and he buried it in his future not in his past and when he called the city of Jebus he called it Jerusalem he was declaring his intention as a teenager some day I'm going to conquer this city I don't know if he was doing that because he thought he would be king I don't know if he was doing that because he thought some day he'd sit on a throne there I just know that for the honor of the name of God and for the success of God's people Israel David said someday Canaanites that City is going to to us and someday that city is going to have God's name enshrined in it and so he named it Jerusalem what things do you need to rename in your life what things do you need to look into your future and say I'm going to call that something different would you stop saying to yourself well that's just the way I am well that's just the way my life has turned out well that's just my lot in life David refused any of that kind of talk he looked into his future and he said God has brought me this far and God has helped me win these battles and if God could help me win a battle over a man that was more than two times my size God can also help me win a battle over a city that doesn't belong to us last scripture 2nd samuel 5 and the king and his men now it's David they went to Jerusalem under the Jebusites the inhabitants of the land and those people were so arrogant and so overconfident they yelled down over the city walls they speak to Dave and say except you take away the blind and the lame you're not coming into this city they thought David cannot come hither what they were saying they were taunting him we could send all the soldiers on vacation we could all go to lunch we can all go to the mess hall and we don't have to even pay attention we can put the blind and the lame up here on the wall and this city is so fortified it's like Fort Knox you can't get in and except we took away the blind in the lane you're not coming in here even the blind and the lame could defend this city but the next verse says nevertheless David took the stronghold of Zion and the same is the City of David 3000 years later we still call Jerusalem not Jebus we still call Jerusalem the City of David you know why because a young man made up his mind I am going to use this victory to achieve a greater victory I'm going to use this success in living for God for my next success in living for God and that's how you fight a giant if you don't fight a giant by tackling 20 of them at once you do it one giant at a time and when you knock down that giant you invest that victory in your future when you knock over that battle you invest that victory in your future you don't just use it to maintain you don't just use it to celebrate last week we had a good know you use it for your future you bury that trophy in your future that's it that's all I got would you stand right now would you lift your hands because while you might not need this little sermon from Pastor somebody in this room you need this sermon from Pastor so if everybody would help me right now would you lift up your hands and then get your voice in the air and would you begin to pray because somebody maybe not you somebody's fighting a giant today somebody maybe not you they're in the battle of their life today somebody maybe not you the enemy has pushed in against their family this week somebody maybe not you you're struggling somebody maybe not you but you can help them if you'll get God's presence activated in this room right [Applause] aníbal Kurama yabba for all of my great people that are filled with the baptism of the holy ghost I wish you'd use that ability that gift that power that tapped ISM that God's put in you and you pray in the spirit promo raivo local Amanda navasana I worship You Jesus I worship You Jesus so Deborah Davao for Ave asunto de volcán de la Mancha in a biloba la vaca Ramaiah I speak to somebody and you think that your victory it was so little but it wasn't little that's God preparing you I speak to somebody and you think I'm not doing much for God but what you don't understand is the prayers your prayer are pushing this church forward and you think it's a little deal it's a big deal to go [Music] altars open why don't you join us here we're going to pray for a minute alone de la barquera boyo Saba I worship You Jesus I worship you Jesus I thank God for all the young people in our church they're fighting some battles but they're women some battles they're invested in a great future for our church I thank God we got up on the front row we got a worshipping and praying and living for God I thank God for them that's an investment in the future that's a battle that carries us into the future that's up that's a trophy that we're burying in our future not just in our back [Music] [Applause] [Music] now because we would never embarrass anybody and we don't pry into the gory details you don't need to know who's fighting what but I'm going to ask you if you'd reach over all at the front back through the fuse if you'd reach over to somebody and let's pray together right now because their strength when we fight a battle together their strength when we have somebody that's willing to charge out in front but David didn't discharge in front and take all the credit for himself he did that for the army of Israel he did that for the God of Israel [Applause] [Music] I don't care what battle it is I don't care what the enemy is threatened to do to you I don't care how much beer you may have already experienced the battle is not yours the battle is the Lord's the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but they are mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds [Applause] thank you Jesus yes yes many of you you've got somebody by the hand would you lift that hand with your hand right now and would you keep right on praying so today by that Beliveau stop then they can double yes I love you so by a small dream on it

Channel: Capital Community Church

Views: 15,677

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Keywords: pastor, raymond, preaching, preach, sermon, ccc, capital, community, church, fredericton, nb, new, brunswick, canada, upc, upci, united, pentecostal, international, fighting, giants, christian, pentecost, apostolic

Id: nK57cVckQGQ

Length: 39min 10sec (2350 seconds)

Published: Sun Jul 23 2017