From His Heart

Guest (Male): Today on From His Heart with Pastor Jeff Schreve, you'll discover if you're actually walking by faith or simply walking by sight.

Dr. Jeff Schreve: 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.

Guest (Male): 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 Schreve. 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." It's the lesson that'll help you discover, 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 Schreve.

Dr. Jeff Schreve: 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 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. 1 Peter chapter five tells us that. Then we fight the world. The devil uses the world and the world's system to try and push us along in a particular way.

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. 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.

As they get ready to fight, there's something that takes place that shows them, "Uh-oh, I'm not capable for this battle. I don't have what it takes for this battle. It's far beyond my natural capabilities." What is that? Verse four: "Then a champion came out from the armies of the Philistines named Goliath from Gath, whose height was six cubits and a span."

How much is six cubits and a span? It's nine feet, nine inches tall. This guy is a whopper. He is a big dude. He stands there and he starts to call out the Israelites. He tells 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."

Those guys look at him, they knew that they didn't have what it took to face Goliath in the human perspective. So the natural response to this giant is fear. Verse 11: "When Saul and all Israel heard these words of the Philistine, they were dismayed and greatly afraid." He's a picture of the devil. He's a picture of all the major things that you face, that I face, that we face. Whatever Goliath you have, he's 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.

Second insight: Recognize the schemes of your enemy. How does the devil work? 2 Corinthians chapter two, verse 11, Paul says this: "That no advantage would be taken of us by Satan, for we are not ignorant of his schemes." Now the devil works to deceive you and me through subtle lies. David, eighth son of his father Jesse. His three brothers, his three oldest brothers, are there in the battle. You had to be 20 years old to fight in the army.

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." Verse 20: "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 and entered in order 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, and 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? For who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should taunt the armies of the living God?"

David recognized the subtle lies. We're not the armies of Israel; we're the armies of the living God. Now 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. We start believing the lies of the devil. We forget who we are in Jesus, and the devil works hard to get us to believe the lies. He works to get you discouraged and distracted.

Eliab, his oldest brother, heard when he spoke to the men and Eliab's anger burned against David. 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 his older brother, and he's starting to mock you in front of the other guys. He doesn't engage in the distraction. He knew 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."

The message goes to King Saul: "Hey, we've found somebody that wants to fight Goliath." Now here is Saul. Saul, who doesn't have the faith to go fight Goliath. Here is Saul saying, "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, throwing cold water on the fire. 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.

Third insight: Recognize the weapons of your 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." Then 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, and 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. 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, "Let me tell you about some victories I've had." Now smaller victories prepare us for greater victories. You've got to crawl before you can walk, and you've got to walk before you can run. He says, "I'm ready to go." Saul said, "Okay, go. Go, but now we need to get some armor on you." Saul takes his armor off and puts his armor on David. Remember this about Saul: King Saul, he's head and shoulders above everybody in Israel. He's taller.

He puts on his heavy armor and David's like this, it pinches his shoulders together. He puts on his helmet, David can't see, it goes over his eyes. He gives him his sword, it's too tall, it's too long, it's dragging the ground. He's like, "What am I going to do with this? I can't go like this. This isn't me." Saul says, "Well, you're going out to face Goliath. What are you going to use?" He said, "I've got my shepherd's staff. I've got my dog whopper. I'm going to take my dog whopper, and I've got my sling. I'm pretty good with a sling. I can hit a knot on a tree from 50 paces. I'm good with a sling."

He said, "You're going to face Goliath with a sling and a dog whopper?" He said, "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 God. 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 with your 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've got 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, he'd be spending time with God. He'd be praying. He'd be looking out at the sky in the morning and then in the evening. Psalm 8: "When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars which thou hast ordained, what is man that thou take thought of him, or the son of man that thou care for him?" David would converse with God and David would grow in his relationship with God, and that took time. He built his faith.

He talks in Psalm 15 about the righteous man, and 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.

Fourthly: 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. So here's Goliath. He's been coming down off this mountain, this mountain of a guy coming down off the mountain, stepping through the valley of Elah's tall grass. He's tromping through the tall grass. He's killed that grass because he's done it morning and evening for 40 days.

So he comes and he's coming up. 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.

David shows up on the battlefield. Goliath, he's waiting for somebody to come that's going to be a soldier. He's waiting for somebody to come that's dressed in armor, that has a sword and a shield. But he goes out on the battlefield and he's 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, no armor. He's got a stick and he's got a sling and he's got a pouch that he picked up five smooth stones from the brook that's right there in the valley of Elah.

He sees him and no doubt he's thinking, "What's that shepherd kid doing here? Doesn't he know there's a battle going on?" It kind of ticks him off, like, "Get that guy out of here." All of a sudden 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: It says that David took his stick in his hand and chose for himself five smooth stones from the brook and put them in the shepherd's bag which he had, even in his pouch, and his sling was in his hand, and he approached the Philistine.

Then 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?" And the Philistine cursed David by his gods. The Philistine also said to David, "Come to me and I will give your flesh to the birds of the sky and to the beasts of the field."

So here he is and he's barking at David: "You're the challenger? Well come here, little boy. I'm going to break you up in little pieces and I'm going to feed you to the pigeons." And 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, nine feet nine inches tall, curses 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, here's the lesson for you and for me: Fear's 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 put my trust. I shall not be afraid. What can man do to me?" Everybody gets afraid. Fear's okay as long as your faith is greater than your fear. 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.

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 Philistine 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?

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. David, why did you say what you said? He's going to kill you, but now it's going to be a very painful death because you've called him out." Then the Philistines on this side, they don't like to hear what David had to say. They're like, "Hey, listen to that little pipsqueak that said that to you, Goliath. You're Goliath. You're the champion. You need to squash that kid like a bug." Goliath's like, "I'm going to get him. I'm going to get him." He's upset.

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. 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. So then the talking was over and David ran to the battle line. He pulls 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. It is building up steam and building up momentum and then he takes it and he throws it.

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. It can break through his helmet and it can sink into his forehead, and that's exactly what happened. 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.

Here you have the Philistines and they're yelling, "Goliath, go kill him, squash him like a bug." "I'm going to do that." Then you have the Israelites over here saying, "Oh, David, stay away from him, David. Bob and weave, David. Bob and weave. Move around." They just know he's going to get killed. So when he whips that thing and lets it go and it hits Goliath and boom, he falls on his face. All the Philistines gasp. "Get up, Goliath. Get up, Goliath." And all the Israelites shout, "Get him, David. Get him, David."

David runs and Goliath is in that tall grass and you can't see. David pulls from Goliath's sheath his sword and he begins to chop in the tall grass. Then he reaches down and he wraps his fingers in the greasy hair of that Philistine and he pulls up the head of Goliath. 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. 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 going to 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.

Guest (Male): 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...