Telling the Truth for Women

Jill Briscoe: We're talking about God's relationship with us and our relationship with Him that makes the issues of life, the big things that happen to us in life, not perhaps make sense, but gives us somewhere to put our feet—a rock, a place to rest. David has been a marvelous example of that, of understanding that in this life after the fall, in this fallen environment where tough things do happen to good people, there is a God who can hold us, who can tell us that He loves us, and that can help us to believe that because it's always hard to believe God loves us when bad things happen to us.

I'd like you to turn in your Bible today because we're going to be in a very familiar story. We're going to be in the story of David and Goliath. Many people perhaps think, "Oh, David and Goliath, that's kid stuff." No, no, that's big stuff. This is for you and for me. David was a giant killer before he was 20 years of age. Have you ever thought about that? This was not the act of a mature man who'd had years and years and years to prove God. What David did to Goliath, he did as a teenager.

This is one of the passages of scripture, this is one of the talks that I use in different ways, or some of this talk that I'll share with you whenever I get a chance to speak at college campuses or whenever I get a chance to speak to youth leaders who are leading youth. I think it's an incredible thing that the potential of a young person, the potential of a child, is wrapped up in this story. I think we forget this because again, our society looks at evaluating people's usefulness with a very different criteria than the value that the scriptures put on it. Let no man despise your youth; I'm always telling young people that. Let no man despise your youth when others saw a shepherd boy, God could see a king.

So David was a giant killer before he was 20 years of age. He'd killed lions, he'd killed bears with an 's', multiple, so the scripture tells us, and he killed a giant, which is pretty good going before you're even at the age of accountability, at the age of 21. Now, what made him so strong and powerful? That again is a message all in itself. You have to think about that. You have to look at his life, you have to dig around, you have to meditate on it.

There is no question in my mind that David had learned all that stuff on his own. He had not learned it in Sunday school, he had not learned it in church, he hadn't had those options. He'd been stuck out in the fields looking after a group of sheep. He had not had the input of adults into his life. David learned it in solitude. I want to say before we even begin that what you learn in solitude is going to be the most important thing that you ever learn. The greatest transactions take place alone. The greatest things you learn usually take place alone on your face before God.

David had learned what to do with solitude. It worries me a little bit that we as Christians don't know what to do with solitude. First of all, we don't have any, and we don't make sure we do have any. We fill our lives and we fill our schedules and we fill our time with good things, with other people, with meetings, with Bible studies, with fellowship. But it's more important to be a friend of Jesus than a friend of Jesus's friends. It's the solitude that I think we've lost in our Christian spiritual disciplines. David had no option. We have an option, and that makes it harder.

I wonder how much on your schedule, if you just think of your schedule for the next week, have you put down solitude? Is it on your calendar? Even if it's on your calendar, it's going to be tough enough to do and to find and to make happen. But it certainly needs to be at the beginning of the week as you make out your calendar, that little word: solitude. You say it's a big word. Right, it's a big word. But it's a big thing to find that time for God. If you don't become what God wants you to do in solitude, you'll never do it in a crowd.

God does not develop you in a crowd. Maybe He instructs you in a crowd. Maybe He encourages you, maybe He gives you a lift, maybe He gives you fun and relaxation, all sorts of things He can give you in a crowd. There is only one place He can make you a giant killer, and that's alone. What made David a giant killer before he was 20? Certainly, he knew what to do with solitude. Do we?

He understood in those times with God that God loved him. Now remember, David was his throne name. We think he had another name. David was the name that Israel knew him by, and many people believe he was given that as a throne name. You and I have a throne name. A throne name. It's David. Every one of us is called David because David means beloved of God. Maybe you thought you were Anne or Jane or Margaret. Let me tell you something, your name, your throne name is David. You are beloved of God.

Now, the word 'hesed' that we're studying denotes all sorts of things. We've been looking at the facets of that diamond, turning the diamond and saying, here's another facet of the love of God. He made me, He chose me, He anointed me, He promised me. All these things tell me, show me, convince me that I am David, that I am beloved of God. Today, we're going to look at a facet of that diamond that denotes rescue and deliverance. For hesed denotes free acts of rescue or deliverance. That's all wrapped up in that name, hesed. God loves us, and that involves Him rescuing us.

What better story to go to than the story of David and Goliath? Than the story of David before he was 20, when he needed to be rescued from bears and he needed to be rescued from lions? Have you got a lion in your life at the moment? Is there something ripping you to shreds, literally? Have you got a bear in your life that's squeezing the death out of you? Might not be a big bear, might just be a bear of a situation in your neighborhood. Somebody doesn't like you, one of the neighbors. That can squeeze you. That can cause a lot of drama and problems to be unhappy where you live, perhaps. Or where you work. Do you have a bear of a relationship at work?

Or are you facing a giant that confronts and intimidates you and says, "Come on, come on, come and fight me"? And are you like Saul, shivering in your tent, saying, "I don't want to even go outside to face this"? Are you retreating into yourself because you can't face the giant that confronts you? Well, God is our champion, and He will fight for us when we're overwhelmed, when we stand against the odds.

Let's think a little bit about what that really means. David had a lot against him. When he was a young kid, he had no one to go to bat for him. This might have been your case when you were young; it might be your case now. You've no one to go to bat for you. Many times, single parents feel like that. There's just no one to go to bat for them. Maybe you feel like that because somebody's on your case.

David was eighth in the birth order. Maybe even in your family, you feel like that. Have you ever been the youngest? I'm the youngest. I'm only the youngest of two. David was the youngest of eight. But I know what it's like to be the youngest, and sometimes you feel that the older children get all the attention. Well, we know because we looked at that story that that's what David felt like. He must have felt like that. He got left out with the sheep when Samuel came to town to anoint a king, to have a big feast, to have a big festival. Everybody was commanded by Samuel to come, and he was told to stay out and look after the sheep. He wasn't important enough to invite. That's because he was youngest. That's because he was number eight. Still the youngest, but he's tending the sheep.

I remember that my sister always got things before I did. I got them when I got as old as she was, but it wasn't the same because she got it first. Somehow that makes you feel pretty rotten when you're a kid. I remember my dad telling my sister she could have a tennis tournament. We had a tennis court in the backyard, and she wanted to put on a tennis tournament for all her friends. So I said, "Could I join in? Could I be in the tennis tournament?" And my father said, "No, this is Shirley's tennis tournament and this is for her age group, and you can help your mom help to do the things and be there, but you cannot join in." And I cried and I cried and I cried.

I remember my dad coming in to talk to me and saying, "When you're Shirley's age, you will have a tennis tournament. I promise you." And I knew he always kept his promises, so I knew I would. But it didn't make any difference. It didn't make any difference. I'm sure that David went through all this stuff just because of his birth order.

It's interesting to me that four or five times in this passage of scripture, this remark is made: "He's only a boy." Jesse made it. He's the youngest. He's only a boy. He's only a boy. And then, of course, we look in 1 Samuel chapter 17, 26 to 29, to a little window into David's life. Eliab was the oldest brother. Let me sketch in the background of this story. David was looking after the sheep. The Philistines were irritating Israel again, pushing them. Israel had gone out under Saul, the king of Israel, to fight the Philistines. They had a champion. They had many giants among them, but Goliath was the biggest of them all.

So they sent their champion to challenge a champion from Israel, one on one, and both armies were looking at this situation. Now, David's three eldest brothers had followed Saul to the battle. Jesse, back home, was worried and so he called David in from the fields and he gave him food and gifts for Saul and for the brothers and said, "Go and find out how they're doing, if they're alright, how the battle's going, and bring me news again." So David left his sheep and did what his father told him to do and he arrives at the camp. In verse 22, he leaves his things with the keeper of the supplies, runs to the battle lines, and greets his brothers.

As he was talking to them, Goliath, the Philistine champion from Gath, stepped out from the lines and shouted his usual defiance, and David heard it. When the Israelites saw the man, they all ran from him in great fear. And David, verse 26, asked the man standing near him, "What will be done for the man who kills this Philistine and removes this disgrace from Israel? Who's this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God?"

And they told him what the king had said, that he would give his daughter in marriage and give great gifts to the man that killed him. When Eliab, David's oldest brother, heard him speaking with the men, he burned with anger. He was furious. One of the translations says he blazed with anger against his younger brother and said, "Why have you come down here? And with whom did you leave those few sheep in the desert? I know how conceited you are and how wicked your heart is. You came down only to watch the battle."

"Now what have I done?" said David. It's just such a perfect picture of an older brother and a younger brother facing off. But this is serious stuff, of course. The Moffatt's Bible says, "How conceited your heart is. I know, and living Bible, I love. I know what a cocky brat you are. You just wanted to see the battle." I love that. That's the import of the words. He was furious. His anger blazed. I know what a cocky brat you are, and who did you leave the few sheep with in the desert? Actually, the translation is, "I bet you left them without anyone." That's what you're like. You're irresponsible. You just left them because you wanted to come and see the war.

David says, "What have I done now? I was only asking a question," says the Living Bible. "I merely asked," says Moffatt, and you can see this interaction with the brothers. You're only a brat. You're only a boy. But David knew God didn't think him a brat, and God didn't think him a boy. Then, when you feel like that, what do you do? When others put you down, do you know how to let God put you up? When others put you down, do you know how to let God put you up? If you haven't been practicing solitude, you won't do very well when Eliab, somebody in your family, really gets on your case and you've got a problem there.

David, it says here, turned away. Shows his maturity. He did not take his brother on. He gave a soft answer. "What have I done?" But he hadn't come to fight Eliab; he'd come to fight Goliath. Perhaps if you're embroiled in a family fight, remember that. Remember that you haven't come to fight your family; you're supposed to be fighting the devil. I think of that in the wider context of the church when we have a church fight. There's nothing worse than a church fight. We're all fighting each other, and yet we're not here to fight each other; we're here to fight Goliath. What are we doing fighting each other in the church of Jesus Christ in this wider context?

So David, because he was secure in the knowledge that God loved him, that he was alright even if he was number eight—now we've got to know we're number one as far as God is concerned and that other people do not come in front of us. Eliab, you know, had seen Samuel anoint his brother. He knew his bratty brother, as he was calling him, was going to be king. And yet his anger burns against him. There is this competition, there is this feeling, "I can't look at my brother with respect. I cannot respect my brother."

I think of Paul in 1 Corinthians chapter 4. There's a wonderful little passage when I'm sure I've shared it with you before, when Paul is being roundly criticized by brothers, if you like, not a brother in his family, although I'm sure he was criticized by his family, but a brother in the church family, brothers. And he says, verse 3 of 1 Corinthians 4, "I care very little if I am judged by you or by any human court. Indeed, I don't even judge myself. My conscience is clear, but that doesn't make me innocent. It's the Lord who judges me. Therefore, I will judge nothing before the appointed time. I'll wait until the Lord comes. He will bring to light what's hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of men's hearts."

Now, that's your passage if you're being criticized, if you have an Eliab. That can be a bear of a situation. It can be squeezing the death out of you. So poor David, first of all, he was treated by Samuel and by Jesse, his father, who said, "Oh, he's only a boy." Then he gets doing what his father told him to do and brings all this food and goes to see how his brothers are, and Eliab says, "You're only a brat. You're only a boy."

Then look at Saul, verse 31 to 37. David has decided that if nobody's going to fight Goliath, he may as well. And so somebody hears him, all this brave talk, and brings him to the king in the tent. Verse 33, Saul says, "You are not able to go out against this Philistine and fight him." What does he say? "You're only a boy." Now, you would think that David was getting the message by now. Everybody's telling him he's only a boy. "Yeah, yeah, I know I'm only a boy, but I got a king living inside of me."

It doesn't matter how small and how weak and how young or how old, how gifted, how educated we are. We got a king living inside of me. We've got God living inside of me. That's what makes the difference. "You're only a boy, and he's been a fighting man from his youth." But David said to Saul, "Your servant has been keeping his father's sheep. When a lion or bear came and carried off a sheep, I went after it, I struck it with my club, I rescued the sheep from its mouth. When it turned on me, I seized it by its hair, I struck it and killed it. Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear." And those words are plural.

"Your servant has killed both lions and bears, and this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them. I've just been practicing," he said. "I've just been practicing all my life for Goliath, on lions and bears. The Lord who delivered me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine." That's been my memory verse this week. "The Lord who delivered me." You know what a wonderful thing it is when trouble comes into your life to look back and to say, "God delivered me. He delivered me from that, He brought me through this when something terrible happened in my life, He was there. I made it. God brought me through that, right? He delivered me from the lion, He delivered me from the paw of the bear, He will deliver me from this giant that stands in front of me at this point."

So Saul says, "You're only a boy, you're only a boy, and he's been in the army since he was a boy," Living Bible says. Moffatt: "Don't be ridiculous, how can a kid like you fight with a man like that?" I love it. "Don't be ridiculous." You know, sometimes we face things in our lives and the devil comes to us and says, "Don't be ridiculous. This is absolutely ridiculous. How do you think you're ever going to overcome this? How do you think you're ever going to survive? How do you think you're ever going to behave as you should in this situation? Not going to do it. You're only a boy." David knew, however, that he was going to do it. For when others saw a shepherd boy, God could see a king. "The Lord who saved me from the claws and teeth of the lion and bear will save me from this Philistine."

Goliath. What did he say? Look at 34 to 53. Well, the Philistine was absolutely so humiliated to see a cocky shepherd boy coming out to fight him without any armor on, with a staff and probably a club in his hand and a staff and his sling and stones. Saul had dressed David in his own tunic, but he couldn't wear it. He said, "I'm not used to this. I can't fight in heavy armor anyway, it's not my size." Saul was head and shoulders above everybody else in Israel. He was a giant himself. Now, that's interesting, isn't it? The spirit of the Lord had departed from Saul, remember. He was probably nearly as tall as Goliath. He was the one that should have been out there taking him on. But when you don't have God within you, you're going to get chewed up, and Saul knew it.

And here's David, who isn't nearly as tall. He can't use the armor, so he says, "Oh, I'm not used to this," he puts them off. Verse 39, "I'm not used to them." He took them off, he took his staff in his hand, five smooth stones from the stream, put them in the pouch, sling in his hand approached the Philistine. Meanwhile, the Philistine with his shield bearer in front of him kept coming closer to David. He looked David over and saw that he was only a boy. Isn't it amazing how many times this phrase comes up? He was only a boy.

And he said to David, "Am I a dog that you come to me with sticks?" And the Philistine cursed David by his gods. "Come here, and I'll give your flesh to the birds of the air and the beasts of the field." David said, "You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against me in the name of the Lord Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel whom you have defied. This day the Lord will hand you over to me, and I'll strike you down, cut off your head." I love it. This is kids! Kids have got that faith.

We used to work with a marvelous man in youth ministry for 14 years in Europe and all over the world. That man had a heart specifically for boys. He had this burning vision for the heart of a boy, for Davids, and he went out all his life, he's looked for them and found them and trained them, brought them to Christ, and they're all over the world in Christian leadership today. Major Thomas always had this phrase: "Boys will all be boys, but wait a while and boys will be men. And you win them when they're a boy, and you train them when they're a boy, and you raise up Davids." That's what we're doing if we're Christian parents, Christian grandparents, working in the youth ministries of your church.

When others see a shepherd boy, do you see a king? Great. And of course, you know what happened. What did Goliath say? He despised him for his youth, sneering in contempt at this nice little red-cheeked boy, the Living Bible says. NIV: "He looked David over and saw he was only a boy, ruddy and handsome, and he despised him because Goliath was a Philistine." And Goliath represents so much more than just this giant Philistine. He represents all that is against the purposes of God. Goliath was defying, as David rightly said, the very purposes of God, which was what? The promises of God to Abraham: "You will be a great people, I will call you out, you will stay holy and I myself will come and visit this planet and put right what's gone wrong one day. And so you will be my people and I will be your God."

And Goliath and his army was representing the forces against the very purposes of God, Satan's plan. Behind Goliath stood Satan's plan, and Goliath himself is a picture of that. He stood there with a sword and a spear and a javelin and his armor bearer and all his great armor, the best that humankind can do without God. Without God. And he defied in the name of humanism the God that David represented. And David said, "But I come to you in the name of the Lord," and there are three names David uses for Goliath here, and he understood the meaning of every one of them. The Lord, L-O-R-D, capital letters, Jehovah. Elohim was the name that is used of God in the scriptures to talk about the creative God, the mighty, transcendent God. Jehovah is the name that is used to explain to us that the transcendent God became immanent, immediate, here and now.

You know, when Jacob put his head on the stone when he was running away, do you remember? And he had this dream of a ladder up to heaven and angels going up and down on it. That's the first time in the scriptures you hear this name, Jehovah, because God revealed to Jacob, "I am not only Elohim who lives at the top of this ladder and everywhere else in the universe that I created. I'm going to come down the ladder as Jehovah." Jehovah is the name of God that tells us God came down the ladder and was involved with our dilemma, which is sin and the consequences of it.

And so David said, "I'm coming to you in the name of the God who has involved Himself in our little world and our big trouble, which is called sin, S-I-N. And He is our God, He's my God, He's Israel's God. And God is going to redeem the world and buy it back, make a new heavens and a new earth, and you come and defy the armies of that living God, the Lord," he says. "The Lord Almighty," he says, El Shaddai. That wonderful name, 41 times in the book of Job, El Shaddai. It's Job's name for God. What does it mean? The God who is enough. I will be all that you need me to be when you need me to be all that you need. The "I Amness" of God. He is going to nourish me, He's going to be all I need to cut off your head, says David.

I come as His representative, I come in His power. He has anointed me, He's given me His Holy Spirit, and you will be like the bear and the lion before this day is out. And not only that, you have defied the Lord of Hosts, the God of the armies of Israel. Now, what's this about? The Lord of Hosts. In the scriptures, host is used as the host of an army, host of angels. Here it is used as both. Israel was the host or the army of God in a human sense. But there are other hosts that David appeals to: the hosts of angels.

Now, you're getting the root of the courage of this young boy. He has all this power with him, not only the power of God, not only the power of God Almighty who will give God's power to him to cope with the giants and the bears and the lions of life, but there are hosts of angels. David believed it. He talks a lot about that in the Psalms. Hosts of angels, ministering spirits sent forth to minister to heirs of salvation, the scriptures tell us. And they are here. There's a lovely chorus, something about you sense their presence and their, you hear the brush of angels' wings. It's true.

In another incident, a little further on from this incident when God's prophet was in trouble, Gehazi, Elisha's prophet, Gehazi was frightened because an army came to get the prophet. The prophet was doing things the king didn't like, and so he sent his whole army to get him. And the army surrounded the house and when Gehazi got up in the morning, he said, "Ah!" All around, he couldn't turn left, right, front, back; there was the army come to get little him and his master prophet. And so he ran in and he said to the prophet, "The army's here!"

And the prophet said, "You're right. You are absolutely right." And Gehazi said, "But what a host!" And Elijah said, "What a host, you're absolutely right." And then he said, "God, open his eyes." And Gehazi's eyes were opened and he saw the host of heaven around the prophet. Chariots, angels, far more and far more powerful than the host of men. God give us eyes to see that when we fight evil and our battle is not against flesh and blood—maybe it's represented by flesh and blood, but our battle is against principalities and powers, unseen wickedness in heavenly places, as Paul says—that we have the Lord, the Lord Almighty, and the Lord of Hosts on our side. And going in that strength, it'll be alright.

And so David comes to fight Goliath in the name of his God and to fight the evil forces he represents. Goliath, of course, was the real-life giant. We have to fight real-life things. But the battle was won on a spiritual plane. Where? In solitude. Believe me, this battle had been won in solitude when David was with the sheep. That's why it's so incredibly important you never know when you come around a corner of the road and find Goliath, and you had better have had your time in solitude when that happens.

So God used David with a clean heart and a burning faith in the Lord of Hosts. David was not a generic sort of person. He was real, he was fantastic. And God rescued him. Now then, what does God rescue us from? When you think of Jesus, what did God rescue Jesus from? He did not rescue Him from the lion. Read Psalm 22. He did not rescue Him from poverty, hunger, homelessness, and ridicule—the lions of life. He did not rescue Him from the bears of rejection, betrayal, and loneliness. He did not rescue Him from the giants of the floggings and the scourging and the crucifixion, His death and His burial.

But He rescued what was most important. Thou shalt not leave my soul in hell. He rescued Him from the worst that Satan was allowed to do, and He put Him on that throne up there in heaven. And He will rescue us from sin and its consequences, from Satan's schemes, and from ourselves. We think of rescue in terms of material things, physical health and safety and relationships, don't we? Now when you think about it, God did not rescue David from the lion, the bear, and the giant. He rescued him in it and out of some of those things. What I'm trying to say is, you've got to fight the battle, but God has won the war. You will not be rescued from fighting the giants or the lions and the bear and from experiencing what that feels like to have a scratch or two or be hugged to death or to come out not altogether unscathed. But the most important things are those that He saves us from.

Specifically from fear, I think. I remember, and I was sharing this at the Victorian Tea, having a giant in my life of fear of flying. That airplane was like Goliath. Every time I approached Goliath, I'd have to take a pill to calm me down. I came against him in the name of a pill. That wasn't very good, and it didn't work. And what I had to do was to come against that fear of flying in the name of the Lord and to realize that even if the plane did go down, God would rescue me from what He promised to rescue me from and take me home to heaven. God overcame that fear. You know what fear is? In a sense, it's interference with the divine plan. Worry is interference with the divine plan. It has no right in our lives.

And so we look at David. Let me just turn this at the end of this study around the other way. Don't be a Jesse, don't be an Eliab, and don't be a Saul. Let's think of ourselves as we care and develop people for a minute. Don't be a Jesse. See the king in the boy. I remember coming to the States and going for my first counseling appointment with David, our eldest child. David is not our basic 'A' academic. He is a basic 'B' student. I don't think he's ever got less than a 'B'; I don't think he's ever got more. Consistent. And David getting a 'B' is getting an 'A'. He could never see it; that's why I hate this system. But Judy would get the 'A's, David would get the 'B's. And I would say, "David, what does it say? You cannot do better. That's what your teachers are saying. You are working to your total capacity. Your 'B' is an 'A'." "How can it be an 'A', mom? It's a 'B'." "It's an 'A'."

So I remember going to his counselor, and he said, "He's not doing very well in such and such, so he's got to drop carpentry," which was the only thing he had a chance of getting an 'A' in. He was very good with his hands. "And do more math." And I said, "No, I don't want that to happen because that's the only thing that he really excels in, and that's his gift, and that's how God's made him and I want him to do those practical things." And he turned to Dave and he said, "Do you want to be a carpenter when you grow up?" And I said, "What's wrong with being a carpenter? Jesus Christ was a carpenter." We didn't get on very well in that sort of thing. I said, "Look, we want our child to develop the gifts that God has given him, whatever they are. And if he hasn't been gifted with a marvelous math brain and he has been gifted in these other ways, then our responsibility as teachers and parents is to develop those specific qualities and to affirm them, just as important as being a math whiz as his carpentry skills."

Well, David went on and I remember as a senior, he took an exam—you know, how to find out what you should be doing with your life. He wasn't sure what he wanted to do. And it came back and we had such a laugh because he'd put down the sort of—his religious bent came through on all those questions, that self-analysis thing that they do for career choice. And so when the results came out, it said, "We suggest that you be a funeral parlor director." Because that was the only thing they could think of! But here was a kid who was religious and he liked carpentry! So I suppose that's what you come up with if you're trying to direct people in the right direction.

Well, there was another problem. We had to be careful as parents not to be a Saul, not to hang our armor all over our child. Our expectations all over our children. And my husband specifically was backing off like crazy and never suggesting that perhaps he should look at the ministry because we didn't want to hang our armor, our expectations, what we perhaps would want for our child all over our kids. It was a bit like a battleship going out to fight and they're given a packet of sealed orders and they're told not to open them until they're out there and on the way. When you receive a child, you're given a packet from God of sealed orders. And it isn't a question of saying, "Now I'm going to chart your course and this is the way you're going to go." We don't hang our armor, our expectations all over our children. We say, "You've given me as parents these sealed orders. Now as I see my child develop, as You've knit him together, as You've gifted and given him, how as parents can we chart him in the right direction?"

I remember Stuart sitting down with David and saying, "I hope you don't feel anything, any pressure from us to consider the ministry." And he said, "Dad, I've been waiting for you to give me some direction. I've been saying, why are you backing off so much?" And so we were then able to give our input, that we thought that perhaps this might be a direction he should look at because of his skills. But we mustn't be a Jesse, and we mustn't be a Saul, and we certainly mustn't be an Eliab, a brother who feels this competitive, jealous something. Let me apply that to the wider church family. Don't be an Eliab in the wider church family.

I remember when the time came for me to step down from heading up the women's ministries here, and God gifted us with a beautiful young lady under 30 years of age who was my intern as I was responsible to the church for running women's ministries. Not on the staff, but as a layperson, but responsible. And you know, I could have very easily said, "Well, what's she know? She's only a girl. She's only a kid. And what do I know? And well, maybe after ten years." But it was—I want to testify—it was such a delight, just a delight to recognize in that beautiful young lady, and now of course in Lori too, that God had gifted and brought them and anointed them for a specific place. And it was very, very easy not to be an Eliab for me. Sometimes it's not as easy for us, and we get jealous or competitive, and we mustn't do that because the Lord's work and the Lord's name is at stake.

So I don't know what you're facing, I don't know what bears, what lions, what giants. But what I want to tell you is this: we come against them in the name of the Lord, whatever it is, and God will chop their heads off with our little hand. I will remember fighting my lonely battle of wanting my husband home in those missionary days, and I remember Major Thomas, this our mission head, preaching a sermon on David and Goliath to the kids and I was sitting on the back row as a leader. And he said, "Listen, Saul looked at the giant and he said, 'He's too big to hit.' And little David came along in the name of the Lord and said, 'He's too big to miss!'" Right? And I'd been looking at that giant of loneliness and saying, "It's just too big," shivering in my tent. And God gave me some five smooth stones and he said, "Get out there and let's have this giant's head." And we overcame him in the power of the Lord. And He did not save me from the giant of loneliness for ten years, but He saved me from being overcome with that particular Goliath, and I was saved in that situation to do the work of the Lord.

Let's pray together. Heavenly Father, I am so well aware that women sit and listen to me today who are being ripped to pieces by lions, squeezed to death by bears, and facing Goliaths. And yet, Lord, You have reminded us that Your love includes the element of rescue and deliverance from sin and its consequences, from our selfish fears and worries, intimidation. And You have given us all that we need and all that it takes to go against the forces ranged against us in the name of the Lord. And I pray that as we go to our small groups and as we go to our electives and as we share together and absorb what You have said to us today, that there may be many battles won. Lord, You do not promise to save us from the battle, but You do promise us that You will win the war. May we have that confidence in You because You love us, and Your love includes Your power to deliver and rescue us in trouble. We thank You for Christ's sake, Amen.