Facing the Giant

Date of Sermon Delivery: 23. July . 2023

Place of sermon Delivery:  Delhi, India

Sunday Worship Service 

Speaker: Brother Jatin

Title: Facing the Giant

Bible: 1 Samuel 17

Key verse: Psalm 27:1-2

 

Good morning

I greet you all in the name of Jesus Christ.

God bless you all for today’s service.

It is our second Sunday after our beautiful summer retreat, I hope you all have kept your new hearts safe and are walking with that new heart.

I saw the fulfilment of all those things that we all together asked of the Lord in our prayers.

Jesus says in Matthew 18:19

Again, I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my father in heaven.

That’s why it is so essential that we pray together, and when we agree and ask him anything, he listens to us.

After the summer retreat, I saw many people in our church doing some things that encouraged me that yes, through this summer retreat, the Lord renewed their hearts.

A new heart is encouraging them to do something new, and if something like this is not happening with you, then you need to accept that heart from God.

The new heart is making you excited to read the Bible, to tell people about it, to correct you, to pray, to fast, and to help. It is true that God has filled you with a new heart, but if nothing is happening, then it is necessary that we come to him and ask him for a new heart.

 

Whatever the Lord said to my heart, I am working in it, I wrote it in front of your laptop, and whenever I open that laptop, I think about the work of that new heart.

 

I hope you will also write those words of God in your heart so that no one can erase them and you can keep growing in them.

 

Thank you for your support on this summer retreat, May the mighty God bless you and raise you more.

Let us pray. 

Thank you, loving God, for this new day. It is so wonderful that we all praise you and stay here to listen to you. Fill our hearts with your living word and keep us also near to you.

Lord, we give this time to your hands, as you want, it should be in this assembly right now.

We all pray to you in the wonderful name of Jesus Christ. 
Amen.

 

Today morning, I want to draw your attention to a very interesting story.

This story has made a big impact on my faith: the story of David and Goliath from 1 Samuel 17.

 

Even though it is a long passage, I will like to summarise the story.

We have a school in Metro Vihar, where many children like this story, and if the children are asked if they will become Goliath, they respond NO, but when they are asked if they will become like David, they all say yes.

 

But the story of David and Goliath is not just for children; more than that, this story impacts a lot in the lives of today’s people/believers.

 

When we open this chapter, we see Israel and the Philistines facing each other in battle.

Here is one boy named David. And his elder brothers were with the army of Israel.

David’s job was to stay at home and tend the sheep, and while he was tending the sheep.

David’s father, Jesse, sent him to the war zone to deliver some food to his brothers and bring out news about the war.

David was ready for it and arrived at the battlefield to find his brothers, and he saw the rest of the Israelite army cowering in fear from Goliath.

Goliath was the champion of the Philistine army.

 

He was about 9 feet tall, had strength, and was full of weapons. He was claiming to Israel that your God would not be able to help you in this battle.

Goliath had disrespected David’s God, and David aimed to stand up for what was right.

Ignoring the words of Goliath, David trusted in God to help him fight against Goliath.

 

David Said that he would fight against this giant.

 

He went to King Saul, and said, I will fight with this giant, Though he was a young man, he had experienced enough danger in his life to know that God was in control and would protect him through the battle.

David told Saul as much, and Saul gave his royal weapon to David, so he could fight against the giant. But David refused to accept Saul's armour because David trusted more than that in God.

 

After leaving King Saul, David ran towards Goliath, prepared to fight.

He gathered five stones from the river and pocketed four of them.

The fifth one went into the sling prepared for Goliath.

They came in front of each other.

Goliath mocked David and said, I am not afraid of a little boy, and i am not a dog that you come at me with sticks, and then Goliath and all the Philistines cursed David by his gods.

 

But David replied to them, You come against me with sword, spear, and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the Lord almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied.

David bodily replied that he had no fear of Goliath and that the Lord would deliver you into my hands, and I would strike you down and cut off your head, and birds would be picking the flesh of your body, and the whole world would know that there is a God in Israel.

 

David swung his sling, and the stone flew from his sling and hit Goliath between his eyes, sinking into his forehead.

Goliath fell forward while both armies watched.

David ran and stood over him. He took his sword and killed him.

This is the summary of 1 Samuel 17.

 

Dear brothers and sisters:

We can learn three very important life lessons from the story of David and Goliath.

We are all facing various giants in our lives; there is nobody here, who has not faced some kind of giant. But the truth is that we do not want the giants to defeat us.

So let us see how David defeated the giants in his life.

If you want to defeat a giant in your life, you have to remember these three important principles that David used to defeat the 9 ft Goliath.

 1. Remember whom you belong. याद रखें कि आप किसके हैं।

Whenever we face the giant in our life, or when we stand in front of the giant, remember to whom you belong.

1 Samuel 17:26b

Who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God?"

But sad thing is that the Israelites forgot who God is. They forgot the power of God, they forgot how God protected them in Egypt, they forgot the God who parted the Red Sea, they forgot all those times that the Lord made them victories.

 

Even in present time, the most terrible tragedy for mankind is not remembering the creator.

David remembered that they are God’s army, and God is with them.

However, the Israelites forgot who they were.

In our lives, we will face great giants in many ways, in many forms, but there are two things we need to remember.

Who you are in Christ, and remember who God is.

Who are you?

1 Peter 2:9

But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.

You are God’s beloved child, you are redeemed (God has purchased you from the slavery of sin).

You are a new creation in Christ, you belong to God, and he is with you always.

Always remember that you are the son and daughter of the most high God.

(David knows who he is).

 

Who is God?

He is the God who protects his children from all harm and diseases.

He is the God who makes a way where there seems to be none.

 

He is the God who supplies all our needs according to his will.

He is the God who fed 5000 with 2 fish and 5 loaves.

He is the God who raised Lazarus from the dead.

He is the God who does things, that are impossible in the sight of men.

He is the God who saves us from eternal condemnation and gives us eternal life.

He is the only true and living God, the almighty God, the alpha and the omega, he is the beginning and the end.

We are his children, and we belong to Him.

 

As we know, the condition of the world, including all of us, is going through difficult times, because of losing jobs, the economic crisis, disease, horrible news around us, and natural disasters (flood, earthquake, and hurricane).

This is the time to pray more than before, this is the time to turn to our living God, this is the time to remember to whom we belong.

 

Dear brothers and sisters David remembered to whom he belonged, and God gave him a great victory.

 

Do you know that the people of Israel were slaves for many years because they forgot who they belonged to, They forgot who their Lord is.

If you will remember to whom you belong, you will know the power of God in your life, and moreover, He will take care of you, he will be your shield, he will be your protector, he will be your provider, he will be your joy, and he will bless all the days of your life.

Therefore, always remember that we belong to Jesus.

Can we say to each other, I belong to Jesus ?

 

2. Depend on the God’s deliverance (1 Samuel 17:32-37)

 

 

David remembered how God had delivered him from the hands of the lion and bear. Even though he shared his life testimony with King Saul, he did not trust David, he said, You cannot beat him, because you are just a boy and he is a well-trained warrior.

There will be times when your own boss, your friend, and your close family will not believe in you.

When you are about to do something for the Lord, something that might seem impossible to man, don’t let anyone stop you.

They will laugh at you, but don’t let them stop you. They will talk about you, but don’t let them stop you. David might have thought, Yes, you are my big brother, yes, he is king, but there is a giant to face. He might have thought that there is a battle to be won, and he will not allow anything to stand in the way. When the Lord is on your side, you don’t have to be afraid, and you will be able to face the giant, and destroy the giant.

Let us be like David, He didn’t depend on men's wrong counsel, He didn’t depend on the sword and shield of the army,

His only confidence and dependence are in the living God.

Israelites saw how big Goliath was, but David saw how Big God is.

 

Many times we depend on ourselves, our abilities, our experience, and our knowledge, but God wants us to depend on Him,

He knows how fragile we are in this broken world,

He knows we need him in every aspect of our lives.

He knows we will mess up our lives if we don’t depend on Him.

He loves us, He cares for us, and he wants to protect us.

Proverbs 3:5–6 says.

5. Trust in the Lord with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding;

6. In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths.

When you depend on yourself, you are preparing yourself for destruction and defeat.

I think many of us experience this truth in our own lives. We tried hard but couldn't keep the relationship going, and we got tired because we were so dependent on ourselves.

When you build up your life, your career, your business, your family, and your future without depending on God,

The Bible says you are like a foolish man who builds his house on the sand; the house will not stand in the storm because it is built on the wrong foundation.

Let our total dependence be on God alone, and let’s build up our life on the solid rock, which is Christ Jesus our Lord. Our part is surrendering our life totally to the hand of Almighty God and totally depending on His deliverance.

And God’s part is to protect us, fight the battle for us, and give us victory for His glory.

Always remember

"The safest place for your life is in the hands of the living God, He knows you, he understands you, he will guard you, and he will keep you."

 Isaiah 41:10 "Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness."

After the retreat week, I faced many storms, but more than those storms, I saw the one who is greater than those storms, whose name is Jesus Christ.

I hope that you also do the same and will do the same in the future, and that in every situation, you will depend on it.

 

 

 

3. Facing the Giant in the Name of God (1 Samuel 17:45-51)

The Giants we are facing today can be just as intimidating to us, as Goliath was to the Israelites.

You see, we face all kinds of giants.

Some of you may be facing emotional giants like worry, doubt, fear, or anxiety,

Some of you are facing mental giants like, stress, insecurity, fear of tomorrow, or even depression.

Some of you may be facing physical giants like disease, pain, or even disability.

For some of you, Goliath may be a bad habit, or an addiction to something.

For some of you, it’s a problem at work, or a financial problem.

It may be true that there are different types of Goliath in our lives, but it is not true that we cannot outcome from him, it is not true that we cannot defeat him, it is not true that we cannot get rid of him.

But the truth is that we can defeat him in the name of Jesus Christ.

We may come in front of Goliath with Jesus Name.

Goliath relies on himself, his skill, his experience, his shield, and his sword.

But David came against Goliath in the name of the living God.

He could defeat Goliath because God was with him. God was fighting the battle for David.

 

Church, let us not worry about the goliath we are facing today, but when we face any life problems and challenges in the name of the Lord, we can easily defeat the goliath because the Lord is on our side.

It is true that we are in the battle of life, but even more true is that he is fighting it for you.

Because that battle belongs to our God.

You know God was with David, God fought the battle for David so He could defeat the giant Goliath.

God will fight the battle for us,

Romans 8:31 says. If God be for us, who can be against us.

Matthew 19:26. And looking at them, Jesus said to them, "With people, this is impossible, but with God, all things are possible."

David, who writes in Psalm 27:1-12

1. The Lord is my light and my salvation whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life of whom shall I be afraid? 

2. When the wicked advance against me to devour me, it is my enemies and my foes who will stumble and fall.

Do you have the faith that it takes to stand up against a giant or Goliath?

Are you willing to Trust God instead of your own abilities?

Are you willing to walk by faith and not by sight?

Are you willing to fight every giant in the name of the Lord?

Always remember to face the giants in the name of the Lord.

Dear brothers and sisters:

Never ever forget whom you belong to, you are God’s special people, you are the son and daughter of the most high living God, and he makes a way where there seems to be no way in your life.

Always depend on God’s deliverance, remember that he is our refuge and strength, he is our shield, protector; and he is the good shepherd, When we depend on him, he will come with the victory.

Last, always face the goliath in the name of the Lord, he is the God who does the impossible.

Dear brothers and sisters, let us not worry, but let us take courage like David and defeat every goliath in our life in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

May the Lord bless you and give you comfort in your heart, amen.