From His Heart

Speaker 1

Today on From His Heart with Pastor Jeff Shreve. You'll discover if you're actually walking by faith or simply walking by sight.

Speaker 2

Will you put your eyes on Jesus and will you walk by faith and not by sight? By the grace of God, I'll be that man. I'll be that woman. I'll be that person. I'm going to walk by faith and not by sight.

I'm not going to back down from Goliath. I'm going to stand up. I'm going to speak the word of God. I'm going to speak the truth.

Have I not commanded you? The Lord says be strong and courageous. Do not tremble or be dismayed. For the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.

Speaker 3

From his heart.

Speaker 1

Do you personally walk by faith or do you walk by sight? Do you see a giant-sized problem with your eyes of faith, or do you see it merely from a human perspective and run in fear?

This is From His Heart with Pastor Jeff Shreve. Thank you for joining us today for the message "Going Up Against Goliath Part 2." It's from Pastor Jeff's series "Strong and Courageous." This lesson will help you discover that, like David, you can be victorious over the Goliaths in your life by standing on the truth and believing that nothing is too difficult for God right now.

We'll begin with a little review of part one and then move into more truth found in Samuel chapter 17. Here again is Pastor Jeff Shreve.

Speaker 2

How can you be victorious over your Goliath? We want to look at four insights from this great passage of Scripture. Recognize that you are in a battle going up against Goliath. Recognize that you are in a battle. Now, we don't fight the Philistines. We don't fight the Jebusites or the Ammonites or any of the ites that the Israelites fought in the Old Testament. We don't fight the Muslims, and we don't fight the atheists. We are in a battle, a spiritual battle. Ephesians 6:12 says, "For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places."

Now we really fight a battle on three fronts because we fight our adversary. The devil prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour, as 1 Peter, chapter 5 tells us. Then we fight the world. The devil uses the world and the world system to try and push us along in a particular way. And then we fight the flesh. The flesh is that internal foe, the old residual Adamic nature that you have, that I have from our old way of life that still battles and rages against us. And so we have a battle on three fronts. The battle is intense and requires focus. When you get ready to go out to battle and you might die, that takes a lot of your focus and intensity because the stakes are very, very high.

Now, as the battle gets ready to fight, something takes place that shows them, "Oh, I'm not capable for this battle. I don't have what it takes for this battle; it is far beyond my natural capabilities." You say, what is that? Verse 4 tells us, "Then a champion came out from the armies of the Philistines, named Goliath, from Gath, whose height was six cubits and a span." You say, how much is six cubits and a span? It's nine feet, nine inches tall. This guy is a whopper. I mean, he is a big dude. He stands there and starts to call out the Israelites, telling them, "I defy. I make fun of you guys. I taunt you. I make fun of your God. I defy the ranks of Israel this day. Give me a man that we may fight together."

Well, those guys look at him and know that they don't have what it takes to face Goliath from a human perspective. The natural response to this giant is fear. Verse 11 states, "When Saul and all Israel heard these words of the Philistine, they were dismayed and greatly afraid." Goliath is a picture of the devil and all the major things that you face, that I face, that we face. Whatever Goliath you have, he is an impediment to you growing spiritually. He is what stands in your way and calls you out. You are in a battle. I'm in a battle.

The second insight is to recognize the schemes of your enemy. How does the devil work? Second Corinthians, chapter 2, verse 11, Paul says, "That no advantage would be taken of us by Satan, for we are not ignorant of his schemes." The devil works to deceive you and me through subtle lies. David, the eighth son of his father Jesse, has three brothers who are there in the battle. You had to be 20 years old to fight in the army, and his father said to him, "David, I need you to go to the valley of Elah. I need you to go to the battle. I haven't heard what's going on, so please find out for me."

So verse 20 says, "So David arose early in the morning and left the flock with a keeper and took the supplies and went as Jesse had commanded him." He came to the circle of the camp while the army was going out in battle array, shouting the war cry. Then David left his baggage in the care of the baggage keeper and ran to the battle line to greet his brothers. As he was talking with them, behold, the champion, the Philistine from Gath named Goliath, was coming up from the army of the Philistines. He spoke these same words: "I defy the ranks of Israel this day. Give me a man that we may fight together." And David heard them.

Then David spoke to the men who were standing by him, saying, "What will be done for the man who kills this Philistine and takes away the reproach from Israel?" He says, "For who is this uncircumcised Philistine?" Now watch this: "That he should taunt the armies of the living God." See, David recognized the subtle lies. We're not the armies of Israel; we're the armies of the living God. The devil works to get you to forget who you are in Jesus Christ. In and of ourselves, we're no match for Goliath. You're not going to be able to do it, but you can do it in the Lord Jesus Christ. We forget who we are and start believing the lies of the devil. The devil works hard to get us discouraged and distracted.

Now, Eliab, his oldest brother, heard when he spoke to the men. Eliab's anger burned against David, and he said to him, "Why have you come down? And with whom have you left those few sheep in the wilderness? I know your insolence and the wickedness of your heart, for you have come down in order to see the battle." This is the older brother, and he's starting to mock David in front of the other guys. David doesn't engage in the distraction; he knows that Eliab's not the enemy. The enemy's out there. The enemy's not in our camp. David said, "I'm ready. Sign me up."

So the message goes to King Saul: "Hey, we found somebody that wants to fight Goliath." Now here is Saul, who doesn't have the faith to go fight Goliath, saying, "Well, David, you can't do it. You're not able to do it. You're just a kid. He's been a warrior since he was a kid." Discouragement is throwing cold water on the fire. Listen, when you're getting ready to go up and fight the schemes of the devil, just know one of his big bullets in his gun is discouragement. You're in a battle, and you need to recognize the schemes of your enemy.

The third insight is to recognize the weapons of our warfare. The Bible says, "The weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses." Now, Saul told David, "You can't go. He's been a warrior from his youth. You're just a kid. It's not going to work." David said to him, "Wait a minute. Let me tell you something." Verse 34: "Your servant was tending his father's sheep when a lion or a bear came and took a lamb from the flock. I went out after him and attacked him and rescued it from his mouth. When he rose up against me, I seized him by the beard and attacked him and killed him." That's pretty good. "Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear, and this uncircumcised Philistine will be just like one of them since he has taunted the armies of the living God."

David's response to Saul's discouragement was to share some victories he's had. Smaller victories prepare us for greater victories. You gotta crawl before you can walk, and you gotta walk before you can run. He says, "I'm ready to go." Saul said, "Okay, go." But now we need to get some armor on you. Saul takes his armor off and puts it on David. Remember this about Saul: he is head and shoulders above everybody in Israel. He puts on his heavy armor, and David feels it pinch his shoulders together. He puts on his helmet, but David can't see; it goes over his eyes. He gives him his sword, but it's too tall, too long, and it's dragging the ground. David thinks, "What am I gonna do with this? I can't go like this."

He says, "This isn't me." Saul says, "Well, you're going out to face Goliath. What are you going to use?" David replies, "Well, I got my shepherd staff. I got my dog Whopper. I'm going to take my dog Whopper, and I got my sling. I'm pretty good with a sling, man. I can hit a knot on a tree from 50 paces. I'm good with a sling." Saul is incredulous: "You're going to face Goliath with a sling and a dog Whopper?" David says, "Yeah, that's what I know. That's who I am."

The weapons of our warfare—God wants you to be you as you walk with Him. He doesn't want you to be somebody else. And definitely don't wear the armor of someone else who's too afraid to face the giant. He didn't call you to be anybody but you. He made you with your strengths and weaknesses, and He wants to use you as you are. David was going with what he knew.

Now, David had something that's not recorded here in Scripture expressly. You have to read between the lines. This is something David had; it's something you can't borrow from the king, something you can't buy at the store, something you can't get in an emergency 911 prayer to God. David had a deep walk with God. There's a reason that David is called a man after God's own heart. One of the things that David did, no doubt, when he would be watching his sheep on the hillsides of Bethlehem, was spending time with God. He'd be praying, looking out at the sky in the morning and then in the evening.

Psalm 8 says, "When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars which you have ordained, what is man that you take thought of him, or the son of man that you care for him?" David would converse with God, and he would grow in his relationship with God. That took time, and he built his faith. He talks in Psalm 15 about the righteous man. What does the righteous man do? He speaks truth in his heart. David would encourage himself in the Lord, as it says in 1 Samuel, chapter 30. He knew how to do that, and he knew how to speak truth in his heart. David was ready to face Goliath because he was trusting God. Recognize the weapons of our warfare.

Finally, the fourth insight is to recognize that Goliath will fall when you act in faith. Goliath will fall when you step out in faith, when you trust God and take that step of faith. Now he goes out on the battlefield. Goliath has been coming down off this mountain, stepping through the valley of Elah, which is just tall grass. He's tromping through the tall grass, killing that grass because he's done it morning and evening for 40 days. He comes up, and if you don't stand up against Goliath, he'll start coming up toward you. He takes more and more ground waiting for you. He doesn't go away. You can't throw a sheet over Goliath and say, "Well, now he's going to go away, out of sight, out of mind." No, he's still there. You're going to have to face Goliath.

So David shows up on the battlefield. Goliath is waiting for somebody to come that's going to be a soldier, dressed in armor, with a sword and a shield. But David goes out on the battlefield, ready to bark out, "I defy the ranks of Israel this day. Give me a man that we may fight together." All of a sudden, he sees this shepherd boy with no armor, just a stick and a sling, and a pouch with five smooth stones from the brook in the valley of Elah. Goliath thinks, "What's that shepherd kid doing here? Doesn't he know there's a battle going on?" That kind of ticks him off: "Get that guy out of here."

Then it dawns on him, "Wait a minute, this is the challenger. This is the guy they send to fight me." It's an insult to Goliath. Verse 40 states that David took his stick in his hand and chose for himself five smooth stones from the brook, putting them in the shepherd's bag, which he had in his pouch. His sling was in his hand, and he approached the Philistine. The Philistine came on and approached David with the shield bearer in front of him. When the Philistine looked and saw David, he disdained him, for he was but a youth and ruddy, with a handsome appearance.

The Philistine said to David, "Am I a dog that you come to me with sticks?" He cursed David by his gods, saying, "Come to me, and I will give your flesh to the birds of the sky and to the beasts of the field." Here he is, barking at David, "You're the challenger. Well, come here, little boy. I'm going to break you up in little pieces and feed you to the pigeons." He cursed David by his gods.

Now, I want you to put yourself in this story. You're David, and this mountain of a guy, 9 feet 9 inches tall, cusses you out by his gods and tells you he's going to break you up in little pieces and feed you to the pigeons. Would you be afraid? I think all of us would be afraid. Here's the thing: fear is okay as long as your faith is greater than your fear. Everybody gets afraid. David said in Psalm 56, "When I'm afraid, I will put my trust in you; in God whose word I praise. In God, I have put my trust. I shall not be afraid. What can man do to me?"

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And I.

Speaker 2

Everybody gets afraid. Fear's okay as long as your faith is greater than your fear. And Goliath, who's a picture of the devil, the devil uses that. He ratchets up the intimidation to get you to quit, to get you to run away, to get you to say, oh, that's right, I can't do it. What was I thinking? But David doesn't do that. David stands up to him. He feels the fear and he does it anyway.

And I love what David says to him. He says, "You come to me with a sword and a spear and a javelin, but I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have taunted this day. The Lord will deliver you into my hands and I will strike you down and remove your head from you. And I will give the dead bodies of the army of the Philistines this day to the birds of the sky and the wild beasts of the earth, that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel, and that all this assembly may know that the Lord does not deliver by sword or by spear, for the battle is the Lord's and he will give you into our hands."

Wow. He said that to this guy. Now the Israelites, they're all over here saying, all I see is a mismatch. It's this kid versus Goliath. And David is going to get killed. And now he's going to get killed extra. I mean, it's going to be David. Why did you say what you said? You know he's going to kill you. But now it's going to be a very painful death because you've called him out.

And then the Philistines on this side, they don't like to hear what David had to say. They're like, "Hey, who is that little pip squeak that said that to you? Goliath, you're Goliath. You're the champion." He said, "You need to squash that kid like a bug." Goliath's like, "I'm gonna get him. I'm going to get him." He's upset.

Well, here's the thing. Everybody on the battlefield that day saw a mismatch. Goliath versus a kid. But one guy saw the mismatch: Goliath going up against God. The battle is the Lord's. You've called out God. You're not fighting me per se; you're fighting God. The battle is the Lord's, and he will deliver you into my hand.

And so then the talking was over and David ran to the battle line. He pulls into, out of his pouch, a stone, and he puts it in his sling and he begins to whip that thing through the air. You can hear it as it goes whoosh, whoosh, whoosh. I mean, it is building up steam and building up momentum. And then he takes it and he throws it. And from that point, he did what he did, and then God took it from there.

Some have said, well, could a stone out of a sling really take out Goliath? It can. When God takes it and turbocharges it, that's what it can do. And it can break through his helmet and it can sink into his forehead. And that's exactly what happened.

And so there's all this commotion going on, because if you've ever been around a fight, you know that fights aren't quiet things. You go to a boxing match or something like that, people are shouting and people are yelling. And here you have the Philistines, and they're yelling, "Goliath, go kill him. Squash him like a bug. I'm gonna do that." And then you have the Israelites over here saying, "Oh, David, stay away from him, David. Bob and weave, David, bob and weave. Move around." You know, they just know he's going to get killed.

And so when he whips that thing and lets it go and it hits Goliath and boom, he falls on his face. And all the Philistines gasp, "Get up, Goliath. Get up, Goliath." And all the Israelites shout, "Get him, David. Get him, David." And David runs, and Goliath is in that tall grass and you can't see.

And David pulls from Goliath's sheath his sword, and he begins to chop in the tall grass. And then he reaches down and he wraps his fingers in the greasy hair of that Philistine and he pulls up the head of Goliath. And when he did that, all of the fear that was on the camp of Israel just blew across that valley and leaped into the hearts of the Philistines.

And they ran, and God's people came off the mountain with a shout and they chased those people for 12 miles to the gates of Ekron and slaughtered them and slaughtered them and slaughtered them. That's one guy who said, "I'm gonna walk by faith and not by sight." One guy that made a difference for the whole camp of Israel.

Here's the question. Would you be that one person? The eyes of the Lord move to and fro throughout the whole earth that he may strongly support those whose heart is completely his?

Speaker 1

I hope these have been heartening and stirring insights for you today.

If you'd like a copy of the message that you just heard, part one from yesterday and two from today, you can go download that at fromisheart.org; click the listen link. You can also download a free MP3 of any broadcast, but you could also get the entire unedited six-lesson series of a new series called Strong and Courageous. You can get it on CDs, DVDs, USB flash drive, or an immediate MP3 download.

But why is this important to get? Well, here's Pastor Jeff to tell you.

Speaker 3

Christians today are under increasing pressure to stop standing for the truth. This is the time to rise up with bold faith, and you can help us spread that word each day on this broadcast when you stand boldly with us from His Heart to proclaim the real truth of God's word without compromise in a world that wants to silence us.

God's command to you and me today is the same as He gave to Joshua: Be strong and courageous. Your gift will make this possible as together we call men, women, and young people all over the world to walk in courage and share God's truth.

As a token of our appreciation for your gift, we'll send you my brand new six-message series called Strong and Courageous, where we'll take a close look at the command God gave to Joshua. Joshua needed to know that his strength and courage came from God alone. We still need this same reminder today, and that's why I'm so grateful for your partnership to help proclaim Jesus to a lost and hurting world.

God bless you for your courage to share the truth with the world through From His Heart Ministries.

Speaker 1

Well, Pastor Jeff's six-lesson series, *Strong and Courageous*, is our thank you gift for your support from his heart this month of any amount. It's available in the format of your choice. You pick. We hope you'll consider a helpful and timely gift for us this month.

Call 866-40-BIBLE (866-40-24253) or go to fromhishheart.org to request the series *Strong and Courageous* when you make your gift.

Thanks for listening today, and we're trusting that you'll be right back here on Thursday for the next lesson in Pastor Jeff's series *Strong and Courageous*. It's a lesson called "Fear, Faith, and the Fight of Your Life." That's next time when we open up God's word and share real truth, real love, and real hope from His heart.

Speaker 2

There is bless. There is hope that you always dream love. He can heal every scar.

Speaker 1

From his heart, is the listener-supported Broadcast Ministry of Dr. Jeff Shreve speaking the truth, truth in love to a lost and a hurting world.

Remember, no matter what, God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life.

Find out more. Go to promisheart.org.