In Touch Ministries

Dr. Charles Stanley: God has a will for your life. God has a plan for your life. God has a purpose for your life. When Satan challenges you, what is he challenging? He is challenging Almighty God in you to fulfill His purpose.

When you are challenged by temptation, Satan is challenging God within you, challenging God's purpose within you, challenging God's plan in your life.

Guest (Male): Most of us know the biblical account of David and Goliath. It has been a Bible story and sermon favorite for years. But we can be so familiar with the basic events of that story that we overlook some very important truths.

Today on In Touch, the teaching ministry of Dr. Charles Stanley, our study of First Samuel continues as we reveal principles that can help us with facing life's foes.

Let's join Dr. Stanley for his message.

Dr. Charles Stanley: When I think about Goliath in this particular passage, and I want us to look at it from David's point of view and the things that went through David's mind as he faced the biggest test in his life up until this point, though he had wrestled with a bear and a lion.

Here he was facing a man who was something to behold, 9 feet 9 inches tall, dressed in armor 125 pounds, a tremendous javelin, a brass javelin. And more than likely David knew how accurate he must have been because he was challenging anybody and everybody that would come and fight him in the whole army of Israel.

And you see what had been happening was, the nation of Israel and the nation of Philistines had been fighting back and forth, back and forth, over and over and over again. So, it is in that context that David comes upon the scene.

But when I think about Goliath and think about Israel, here is Israel. The God who brought them out of the land of Egypt. Listen, if their God could part the Red Sea, if their God could feed them from heaven for 40 years, if their God could dry up the Jordan while they walked through, if their God could break down and destroy the walls of Jericho, surely He can trip up a fellow like Goliath.

But you see, when the Spirit of God is not in control of your life, you become afraid of things that you have no business being afraid of.

What about that habit that you just can't break out of? What about that relationship you can't break off? What about that attitude in your life that you can't seem to get loose from?

What is it in your life that is to you tonight like a Goliath? You are frightened by it, you are defeated by it, you are hung up over it. You can't seem to be making any progress because every time you move out, there is that thing in your life that you can't seem to deal with.

So, I want us to look to see in this 17th chapter some things that David did, the very things that he did that will help us face anything and everything that comes into our life.

The first thing I want you to notice here is this. And this is a key to the whole battle here and all that's going to happen.

And that is in order to face any big barrier in our life, any Goliath, whatever it might be, the first thing we have to do is to recognize the nature of the thing we are facing.

And you see what Saul and the rest of the Israelites were not facing is they didn't get the point. Now here is what they saw. They saw this giant out here challenging them. That wasn't the issue at all. And as long as they saw Goliath challenging them, they were in trouble.

But listen, in verse 26, when David came upon the scene and David spoke to the men that stood by saying, "What shall be done to the man that kills this Philistine? And takes away the reproach from Israel." But who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God?

David is the first one on the scene who had any idea what was going on. He didn't see Goliath simply challenging the armies of Israel. What he saw, he saw a man who was defying God. He saw a man who was challenging the God of Israel.

And you see what you and I must see in our life is this, we said all of us are indwelt by the Holy Spirit. Christ is living His life in us. When we are confronted by anything that seems to be like a Goliath in our life, we need to recognize the real issue is that that thing is challenging Christ within us.

If it is our strength, we are going down to defeat. If it is His strength, we are going to be victorious.

God has a will for your life. God has a plan for your life. God has a purpose for your life. When Satan challenges you, what is he challenging? He is challenging Almighty God in you to fulfill His purpose.

When you are challenged by temptation, Satan is challenging God within you, challenging God's purpose within you, challenging God's plan in your life.

So the battle isn't your flesh against that flesh, our spirit against that spirit only. It is that Satan is challenging Almighty God who has chosen to indwell your life. He is the first one there had any idea what was going on.

The second thing, he had a respect for his foe. He saw him, 9 feet, 9 inches, that tremendous long javelin, 17 pounds of head on it.

Here he was dressed in all this armor, 125 pounds of armor covering his body. Now, when David saw that, he just had been a shepherd boy. And I'm sure he had never seen anything like that in all of his life, though.

The third thing I want you to notice here is this, and that is that seeing his enemy, he resisted all the discouraging remarks that he heard.

Verse 33 says, "And Saul said to David," watch this, this sounds just like the world. "You are not able to stand against this Philistine to fight with him. You are just a youth."

What is Paul saying in First Corinthians chapter 1? What does he say? God uses the what? The weak things to confound the mighty. He uses what? The simple things to confound the wise.

So, here is David, and if he had listened to his brother, he would have gone home. If he had listened to Saul, he had said, "Well, Saul, you are probably right. I'll just do what my brother said and go back and tend the sheep."

Now listen. Whenever you and I are challenged by God to do anything worthwhile, we are going to get the negatives.

We are going to hear people tell us all about the reasons we should not, reasons we cannot, reasons that it is just not for us, and you weren't made for that, and you are not equipped for that, and you don't want to embarrass yourself, and on and on and on they go of all the reasons we can't face whatever is coming before us.

And I believe that God's people today, in order to be obedient in a world that is so disobedient, you and I must learn to immediately and quickly resist the discouragement we hear.

The next thing I want you to notice is this. Listen, he said, "Even though I am a youth, thy servant kept his father's sheep, there came a lion and a bear, and took a lamb out of the flock."

Now, what is he doing? He is remembering past victories. You see, it is one thing for David, the shepherd boy, to come out of the sheep fields, and the only thing he had ever done is, you know, gone out to the sheep fields, watched the sheep and go back. That is one thing, but listen, had he faced Goliath having not faced the lion and the bear, he might have had a hard time.

But he had already been in some battles. And you see what you and I must realize is this, whatever we are facing, one of God's greatest gifts to us is an imagination to look back and recall past victories. I've been through something like that before. I've faced a Goliath like that before. I've faced that kind of temptation before. I've had a need larger than that before. And if God supplied it then, He will supply it now.

So remembering past victories and sort of reliving them and visualizing what is going to happen.

Now, one of the interesting things here that motivated David was in the 29th verse because I want you to notice here that he realized there was a cause, and the cause was the cause of Jehovah God.

David said to his brother Eliab, who was criticizing him, he said, "What have I now done? Is there not a cause?"

And you see his brother didn't even realize what the cause was. You know what the cause was? The cause was this. The cause was the nation of Israel was going into captivity and servitude to the Philistines or the Philistines were going into servitude to the nation of Israel. And the cause wasn't just a matter of one man against another, it wasn't just another battle. It was a matter of enslavement to the Philistines who were godless, heathen, pagans, who were defying the God of Jehovah.

And so there is a cause. You see, if the body of Christ today would wake up and realize, listen, if I should say to you, "Is the name of Jesus Christ sacred to you?" Oh yes, it is sacred. "Is the name Jehovah God sacred to you?" Yeah, it is sacred.

Then let me ask you this, what is it that you and I, what is the body of Christ doing today in an effective, impressive, fruitful, progressive, victorious way to say to an unbelieving world that does not believe in our God? What are we doing about that?

Ignoring that? Does not the name of Jehovah God, is it not sacred today as it was then? Is not the name of Jesus Christ as sacred today as it was in those days?

It is the name under which we walk. It is the name under which we sing. It is the name under which we worship. It is the name given among all men, the highest, the greatest, the name that has the highest implications of any name that has ever been given to mankind.

Jesus Christ, Lord, Savior, King, God! And he says, "No man will ever be saved apart from that name."

And you see, we have a cause, friend, and our cause is that we are to get the gospel to every man on the face of this earth, whatever the price may be.

All right, the next thing I want you to notice here is he resolved to face him.

He decided, "I will do it," regardless of what Saul had said, regardless of what his brothers had said, regardless of all the shouts and all the stomping around and the arrogance and the egotism, and all the displaying of his big, of his armor and his strength and his javelins, and all the armies of the Philistines. That didn't bother him.

Because he said in verse 33, Saul said to David, "You are not able to do it. You are just a youth." And David said to Saul, "Thy servant kept his father's sheep, and there came a lion and a bear, and took a lamb out of the flock. I went out after him and smote him, delivered it out of his mouth. And when he arose against me, I caught him by his beard and smote him and slew him."

"Thy servant slew both the lion and the bear, and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be as one of them seeing he has defied the armies of the living God." David said, moreover, "The Lord that delivered me out of the paw of the lion and out of the paw of the bear, He will deliver me out of the hand of this Philistine."

"And Saul said to David, 'Go, and the Lord be with you.'"

Now listen. He said, "I'll do it."

Now here is the problem sometimes. When you and I are facing challenges in life and some big Goliath faces us, something that we have a hard time with, sometimes, you know, we never decide what we are going to do with it.

We skirt the issue. We say, "Well, one of these days I'm going to face that, but not right now." We will never be able to conquer the Goliath until we say, "That is what it is. It is sin. I've got to face it and I will repent of it. I will take care of that. I will settle that once and for all."

As long as we don't resolve to do it and do it, Goliath will still be out there. Whatever it may be, it may be a habit, it may be a relationship, it may be some, some idea, some attitude. I don't know what that Goliath may be in your life, but he will still remain there until you deal with him.

He said on the basis of what is happened in the past, "I will kill Goliath."

You know, God is in the process of teaching all of us how to deal with different circumstances of life. There are some things that you and I know how to deal with.

And there are just some basic things that we know what to do about. When you are facing something in your life, you don't know what to do, what is the real weapon you need? There is just one. It is called the Word of God.

Now you see, sometimes folks say, "Why don't you read this book, this book, this book, this book, or this book?" Now, all the book reading is fine, and I'm not against that because I read something every day.

But when it all boils down, you've got to find out what does God say?

And you see, getting in the Word and getting on your knees and seeking the mind of God is a proven way to deal with any Goliath that comes into your life.

The proven way is to start out, get on your face before God and tell Him that you are willing for Him to do whatever is necessary to get you in a state of neutrality, so that whatever He says you are able to hear, and whatever He says, you are going to be obedient to Him.

Now, David was absolutely and totally out of place dressed in armor. He wanted to be free. He knew how to use that sling.

Five stones. Somebody said, "Why did he pick up five?" I don't know why he picked up five. I know this, David was a very smart young man.

There is nothing that says he was unsure that one shot would have killed him. So he had five stones, which says, you know, while we are trusting in God, we want to be very wise in what we do. So he had five stones.

He knew how to handle a sling. So he goes out to meet him.

Now, listen to what Goliath said to him in verse 44. Well, let's begin up in verse 42. "When the Philistine looked about and saw David, he disdained him, for he was but a youth, ruddy, and of a fair countenance."

"The Philistine said unto David, 'Am I a dog that you come to me with staves with a stick?' And the Philistine cursed David by his gods, that is the gods of the Philistines. 'Come to me and I will give thy flesh to the fowls of the air and to the beasts of the field.'"

"Then said David to the Philistine," listen to this, "You come to me with a sword and with a spear, with a shield, but I come to you in the name of the Lord Jehovah of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom thou has defied."

Now listen. One of the very important things here. I believe David knew exactly what he was going to tell Goliath. He didn't just walk out there and think about what he was going to say. He knew exactly what he was going to tell him because what, what David did, he sort of threw him off guard.

First of all, he was a little bit thrown off guard because here comes this young stripling fellow, he doesn't even have a sword.

In fact, from Goliath's point of view, he almost looks unarmed because the only thing he seems to have is a stick. A shepherd staff.

But listen to what David says. He says, "You come to me with a sword and with a spear, with a shield. But I come to you in the name of the Lord of Hosts, the God of the armies of Israel whom thou has defied."

Now let me tell you something. That word right there not only challenged Goliath, but it did something for David. I'm sure as he said it, his own courage just took one big step forward.

"This day will the Lord deliver thee into my hand. I will smite thee and take thy head from thee. I will give thy carcass to the host of the Philistines this day and to the fowls of the air, to the wild beasts of the earth, that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel."

Listen. He says, "You come to defy the God of Israel," and he says, "What's going to happen today is that the whole world may know that what? There is a God in Israel."

David's primary motivation and the motivation of his mind and heart, his whole emotional being was moved with one thing. He was representing Jehovah God. He was facing the representative of the Philistines and their gods in the name of Jehovah, the Lord of Hosts, he says. And he says to him,

"And all this assembly," the nation of Israel on the one side of the valley, the Philistines on the other, "shall know that the Lord saves not with sword and spear, for the battle is the Lord's, and He will give you into our hands."

Now listen. Sometimes when you and I are facing situations and we are facing some Goliath in our life, you know what the, what the mistake is we make? We make the mistake of listening to the devil defeat us verbally.

What does Satan say to you? How many times have you failed? You'll never make it. Look at your past. The devil can defeat you verbally just like Goliath could have defeated the man who didn't know God.

And that is why I keep saying to you, you've got to stay in the book.

When you get out of the book, you know what happens? When you close this, what have you got to listen to? The world and the devil.

When you open the book, what do you have to listen to? You have Almighty God to listen to.

And it was the speech that David gave that was his declaration. You see, it was his declaration of courage.

Here is what, David didn't say, "Here is what I'm going to do to you." He says, "But I come to you in the name of the Lord God." He says, "God will give you into our hands." And he says, "The Philistines are going to know and the nation of Israel is going to know that the God of Israel is God. There is a God, Jehovah God is the God of the nation of Israel."

And you see, the more David talked, the more angry he must have become. But what he wasn't noticing is that while David was talking, the scripture says, "And it came to pass, when the Philistine rose and came and drew nigh to meet David,"

"that David hastened," you see, he couldn't take it anymore. He was coming after David. And so when he started walking toward David,

David was already ready. While he'd been making his speech and Goliath was getting ready, he just put one of those round stones in that sling and he started running toward Goliath.

Which also must have mentally got him off guard, what, "What's he doing running toward me? I'm going to pick him up and just squeeze him apart."

And before he could hardly get that out of his mouth, hit him right in the forehead, killed him dead on the spot.

Now here is the most important thing. When you and I are facing something in our life, the one thing I want you to notice here in the 47th verse, the last phrase, says, "And He, Jehovah." Listen. Jehovah, the everlasting, eternal, Almighty God, Elohim, infinite in power, absolute in faithfulness, Adonai, Master and Lord. He says, "Our God, Jehovah, will give you into our hands."

David wasn't trusting in his strength or his experience. He was trusting in Almighty God. But he knew that God had taught him some very precious lessons. He knew how to fight to win.

When you and I are facing Goliaths in our life, if you and I will be willing to look at it as David saw it, here is what will happen. We'll win.

But if we look at it from human eyes, we are going to be overwhelmed, overpowered, and go down in defeat. And we will be defeated before we ever start the battle.

Guest (Male): You are listening to In Touch. The teaching ministry of Dr. Charles Stanley.

Have you been motivated today to handle the giant in your life with confident faith in God? Regardless of the size of your Goliath, you can face it when you trust God to see you through.

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When we lose our perspective, we can often find fear.

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You are listening to In Touch.

Sin and fear cannot coexist with the power of God.

With insight for believers, here is a moment with Charles Stanley.

Dr. Charles Stanley: I believe the primary reason the nation of Israel was scared was because Saul was scared.

And why was Saul afraid of Goliath? Somebody tell me. Because the spirit of God had left him.

And listen, they were just picking up on his reaction. Here is Saul, who has been chosen as the king of Israel, and Samuel, who had given him his blessing and told the whole nation of Israel, "Here is the king whom God has chosen. You insisted on a king, here he is and here is God's choice."

Now, they don't know at this time that the Spirit of God has left Saul. And the reason Saul is frightened is because Saul has lost his perspective. He doesn't see things as they are anymore. He only sees them from a human point of view.

When you and I disobey God and defy God and choose to rebel against God, the Spirit of God is not, listen, the Spirit of God now will not depart from you and myself, we who are believers. He will not depart from us, but He is not going to strengthen you when you are living in what you know to be absolute disobedience toward God.

And you see, every person will place a responsibility always faces that possibility. There is no person who has ever been born into this world who has ever been called by God to do anything who is above falling.

That is why when people say, "What can I do for you?" One thing. "Pray for me. Pray for your preacher." Because if he disobeys God, he is of little or no value to the people of God.

And that is exactly why the nation of Israel were all frightened because the man who had stood head and shoulders above all the rest, God's choice of a leader, was scared of that Philistine.

Guest (Male): You can learn about faithfully living in the awareness of God's presence through the resources at intouch.org.

And if you have a story about what you've heard or learned in this program, we'd love to hear it.

Next week on In Touch, everyone enjoys being well-liked, but sometimes there is a price for popularity.

Our study of First and Second Samuel continues next time on In Touch, the teaching ministry of Dr. Charles Stanley.

This program is a presentation of In Touch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia, and remains on this station through the grace of God and your faithful prayers and gifts.