Or search for: Tony Evans – 10/06/18 Series: Stand Alone Sermon Title:Defeating The Giants In Your Life If you would like to contact us for prayer go to pray.gatewaypeople.com
a man went to the doctor and the doctor
said well what’s wrong what’s how can I
help you
he said well doc I’m hurting all over
from the top of my head to the bottom of
my feet I am in tremendous pain the
doctor said well all over he said I mean
absolutely every part of my body is in
pain doc said well that’s a little odd
let me see you touch your forehead and
so the man touched his forehead and when
I said that’s that’s all right well
touch your neck touched his neck and
wait oh wait a minute uh ch your elbow
he touched his elbow where touch your
knee touch this near with whoa the
doctor said you idiot you got a
dislocated finger you see sometimes one
thing can be wrong but it can hurt the
rest of you sometimes that can be this
one thing that seems to ruin everything
else in your life that was the situation
in one of the most famous stories in the
Old Testament that you are aware of in
First Samuel because in 1st Samuel we
find the story in chapter 17 of David
and Goliath I want to talk to you today
about defeating the Goliath in your life
first of all you need to know the
anatomy of a Goliath a Goliath is some
situation circumstance pain or problem
that looms large it’s that one thing
that is overwhelming we’re told in
chapter 17 verse 4 that Goliath is nine
foot six inches tall and MBA coach’s
dream
we’re told in verses five through seven
that he wore over 100 pounds of armor
you see a giant of a problem is
something that is so big that it is
overwhelming in your existence not only
that but we’re told that you know you’re
facing a giant because it intimidates
you when you think of it look at it and
have to deal with it it produces
emotional insecurity because we’re told
in verse eight and we’re told in verse
24 of first Samuel 17 that when they saw
Goliath they trembled in fear because a
giant of a problem creates emotional
instability so that you’re not able to
to control your emotions because the
Goliath that you are facing is
controlling you
Goliath’s come in all shapes and sizes
there can be medical Goliath’s that can
be relational Goliath’s there can be
circumstantial go lives there can be
career Goliath’s that can be economic
Goliath but whatever it is it’s it’s
it’s big and the problem with this one
thing that affects everything else
perhaps in your personal life in your
relationships is that it just doesn’t go
away because we find out in this chapter
that goal I have just kept coming back
and kept coming back day after day after
day it says for 40 days for 40 days day
after day he would not leave them alone
and that’s what a Goliath does it just
won’t leave you alone there’s no one
here who has not faced a Goliath in your
life this overwhelming problem that just
won’t go away you have either have faced
the Goliath are facing a Goliath or
you’re going to face Goliath because
life just happens to go that way but
whatever you happen to be faced
today or may face I actually want you to
call it Goliath because if you call it
Goliath then at least you know where
it’s gonna wind up and so they’re facing
this inexhaustible situation as Goliath
has come and he has challenged all of
Israel he has challenged their
well-being their peace and he stood
between their past and their future you
see God had made some promises to Israel
in the past regarding where he wanted
them in the future but between the past
and on the precipice of the future here
this huge problem shows up that makes
the past promises seem something that
could never come true that could kill
their future hope and that’s what a
Goliath does he stands between what you
read in your Bible and the reality of
your expectations and so they’re facing
this Goliath in their life enter a
teenager named David this David comes on
the scene and we know the story of David
and Goliath so I have a question that I
want to ask you today how did David kill
Goliath that’s the question on the floor
we know the end of the story that he
kills Goliath but the question that we
have to ask Biblio centrically and that
we have to ask you in terms of your
contemporary application of Scripture
since the goal of Scripture is not only
to know it read it hear it but also
utilize it how did David kill Goliath
now I’m certainly you would say he
killed Goliath with a slingshot and a
stone and you would certainly be
partially correct but I would like to go
somewhat theologically deeper with you
in analyzing what David had that
actually killed Goliath and what you
have
in your arsenal that God has given every
believer to deal and to defeat the
overwhelming the looming large the the
absolutely devastating Goliath’s
that you inevitably have faced or will
face in your life now one of the
hermeneutical rules hermeneutics is the
science and art of biblical
interpretation and one of the rules of
hermeneutics is not only to read and
observe but to look for repetition
because repetition repetition in
Scripture is always a clue to emphasis
so when you see something repeated in
the same context about the same event in
the same story that gives you a
hermeneutical clue that something is to
be paid extra attention to in the New
Testament you see this Jesus would say
something twice truly truly or Martha
Martha or he would he would he would he
was saying I want you to now to go a
little bit deeper than just your casual
reading over the point that is being
made well there is something repeated
twice in this story that would be easy
to pass over but if you do not pass over
it and look at it around a little bit
more intentionally it will help you and
me and us to deal with the looming large
realities in life that we face this
repetition is found in verses 26 and
verse 36 of 1st Samuel 17 in verse 26 we
read then David spoke to the men who
were standing by him saying what will be
done for the man who kills the
Philistine and takes away the reproach
from Israel for who is this
uncircumcised Philistine that he should
talk the armies of the Living God verse
36 it reads your servant has killed both
the lion and the bear and this
uncircumcised Philistine will be like
one of them since he has taunted the
army of the Living God now the one thing
that you will read in verse 26 and verse
thirty-six is that they were fighting
against an uncircumcised philistine so
while all the rest of Israel was looking
up here David was looking down there say
he ain’t been to the doctor he is an
uncircumcised philistine that brother
has not been cut and because he hasn’t
been cut it changes the nature of the
battle you see what I would like to say
to you about defeating the Goliath in
your life it always starts with a
spiritual perspective of the problem you
see if all you see is what you see you
do not see all there is to be seen if
all you are looking at is the visible
physical and not the invisible spiritual
then you will not see the invisible
spiritual cause of the visible physical
reality of the Goliath that you now face
he began to look beyond what was causing
all the rest of Israel to flee and that
was the nine-foot sixth giant and he
began to look down and say that man has
not been cut he is an uncircumcised
philistine in other words before the
slingshot before the stone was a shift
in his perspective how he was looking at
it it’s like the mother who had a son
who was playing outside and he lost his
contact lens the contact lens fell in
the dirt and he looked and looked and
looked for about 30 minutes he finally
came to his mother and said mom I lost
my contact lens I can’t find my contact
lens and she went out and in two and a
half minutes found the contact lens he
said how could you in this dirt find
something in two and a half minutes that
I was not able to find in 30 minutes the
mother said well son it’s like this we
actually weren’t looking for the same
thing
you were looking for contact lens I was
looking for two hundred and fifty
dollars that we were we were not looking
at the same thing so what you’re looking
at is going to effect
what you see and the whole point of the
church and the Word of God is to help
you look behind the scene because as
Paul says in 2nd Corinthians 4 we do not
look on the things that are seen we look
on the things that are not seen so you
always start with the spiritual first
and work your way back to the relational
circumstantial economic and whatever
else whatever other visible nature of
the Goliath is that you happen to be
facing and that needs to be defeated in
your life well let’s go a little bit
deeper theologically what was it about
being an uncircumcised philistine that
caught David’s attention while
circumcision in Israel was a sign of the
Covenant when a boy was born in Israel
they would be circumcised he or
earth-death on the eighth day to be
brought underneath the Covenant now this
theological word is one of the deepest
words in all of Scripture a covenant is
defined as a divinely ordained a
relational bond let me say that again a
covenant is a divinely ordained
relational bond when God wanted to
officially establish something that he
wanted to oversee he would cover
mentalize it and so all through the
Bible you will see the word covenant the
covenant with Abraham the covenant with
David the covenant with Israel the
covenant with with Palestine you’ll see
in the new tent the new covenant at
communion the new covenant of my blood
covenant covenant covenant covenant
covenant now the reason why the word
covenant is so critical is that it is
the official mechanism through which God
works to render his judgments in history
it is an administrative mechanism of
God’s kingdom by which he
flows to accomplish his work everyone
who’s here today who has trusted Jesus
Christ as your personal substitute and
sin bearer are in the Covenant you’re
part of the New Covenant but here’s the
trick you can be in the Covenant and not
necessarily be under the Covenant you
can be in it but not under it and it is
your proximity to the Covenant that you
are in if you’re a believer that
determines the official flow from heaven
to history as you live out your
Christian experience and in this case as
you face vigo lives in your life you
can’t only be in it you must be under it
all of Israel was in it but only David
was under it let’s look at the Covenant
as an umbrella because a covenant in the
Bible provides a covering the goal of a
covenant is few cover when it’s raining
outside and you have an umbrella you
have a covering but if the umbrella is
closed and not open and you’re not under
it the cover nigg the covering does not
cover you even though you possess the
covering until you open it place
yourself under it you’re not covered by
the Covenant so many Christians are
living uncovered not because they don’t
have an umbrella because if you’ve
trusted Christ you have an umbrella
because you’re in the Covenant but you
may not be covered that is operating
underneath the umbrella because only as
you operate underneath it do you get the
benefit of it if it’s pouring down
raining the covering of the umbrella
does not stop it from raining it does
stop it from raining on you because you
are now operating underneath the
Covenant
my son Jonathan my youngest son who is
up it was the chaplain for the Cowboys
he took my place there and so if they
have a bad season he’s not a good
spiritual leader if he has the good
season he’s close to God that’s how that
works but uh uh he went on a trip with
me and when he went on a trip with me he
we went up because I’m a platinum flyer
with American and I could get upgraded
and you get a companion upgrade so I
said would you upgrade me since you have
two seats and upgrade my son with me she
said okay but then she came back and she
said I am so sorry I can upgrade you but
I can’t upgrade him but did you tell me
you had two seats yeah we have two seats
but I can upgrade you but I can’t
upgrade him
how can you upgrade him and not upgrade
me upgrade me but not upgrade him since
you have to see she said it’s it’s
pretty simple even though he’s your son
he was ticketed separately he was not
ticketed with you and because he was not
ticketed with you he does not get the
companion benefit of you in order to get
the companion benefit of you he has to
be ticketed with you so even though you
have a legal relationship from father to
son you do not have a cover mental
ticket in terms of the benefit of the
legal relationship every believer here
has a legal relationship with the Lord
Jesus Christ but you may not have been
ticketed with him in terms of your
covenant to relationship which means
that you don’t get the full benefit of
the legal relationship that you have in
st. John chapter 2 verses 23 to 25 it
says many believed on Christ many
believed in him but then it says but he
would not commit himself to them for he
knew what was in them so they got saved
but they weren’t ticketed yet in other
words they were not operating under his
cover mental regime
and so he would not give all of himself
to them so all Christians aren’t equal
in terms of the benefits of the cross
we’re all equal in terms of the legal
benefits of the cross eternal life
forgiveness of sins but we’re not all
equal in terms of the empowerment
benefits of the Cross that comes because
you are undercover that is you’re
operating
underneath divine alignment when I was
when I was trying to get out of my
garage one day trying to get out of my
garage and I pushed the button and the
door would not open the door would not
open I push and I push and I push and I
push but the door would not open I went
over to try to lift it up but the door
was too heavy it would not open I called
the garage guy and I said things aren’t
opening up for me he said to me I said
can you come over and deliver me he said
well before I come over do me a favor so
with the cell phone he instructed me to
walk over to the door he said do you see
the canister on the right hand side yes
do you see the canister at the bottom on
the left-hand side
yes which way are they pointing I said
well one is pointing toward the other
and the other was pointing straight he
says that is your problem
you do not have a power problem because
the power is on you do not have a
connection problem because the power is
plugged in what you have is an alignment
problem because the canister over here
is not facing the candidates they’re
over there so they’re not talking to
each other and because they’re not
talking to the two each other
the power is not set up to work if you
will simply make an adjustment and turn
the one on the left to face the one on
the right you’ll see the power that you
already possess being coming to work on
your behalf by a simple turn at the
bottom to face the one over here I found
power that I did not know I had when the
problem was not power it was a problem
of alignment
whenever Goliath is allowed to rule in
your life God does not promise there
will be no Goliath in your life but what
God says is Goliath should not be ruling
your life they should not be running
your life and that becomes a spiritual
alignment issue it is because men refuse
to be aligned under God that we have so
many male problems or women refuse to be
aligned under God that we have female
problems leading to marriage
conflicts Adam and Eve were in conflict
because they left their alignment this
can be applied to parents and children
this can be applied to your own personal
life
David established an alignment and when
David established and alignment it
changed the nature of the battle because
he was not looking at what everybody
else was seeing he was seeing things
through a covenant the uncircumcised
philistine which meant Goliath does not
have a coverings I have a covering so I
have divine authority and my problem
does not when you change how you see
what you see it changes what you do with
what you see that leads to one of the
spectacular events in the Bible and that
is the slaying of Goliath now when David
talks about slaying Goliath he has a
very interesting set of scenarios he
said I was attacked not my flock was
attacked by a lion my flock was attacked
by a bear and when I saw my my my my
flock attack he says I ran to the bear
and I ran to the lion when Goliath shows
up it says he runs to Goliath so now
when you operate governmentally you’re
no longer operating in defense you are
now becoming offensive Saint not a
defensive Christian you see the goal of
being a believer jesus says whatever you
bind on earth I
bound in heaven Matthew 16:19 whatever
you loose on earth
I won’t loose in heaven in other words
when you move heaven will back you up so
let me explain something whenever God
moves supernaturally in the Bible the
most normal thing you will see is God
did not move until the people moved
first the people had to take an
offensive posture before the
supernatural showed up God told Moses
hold out your rod and tell the people to
start moving before he ever opened up
the Red Sea God told Joshua tell the
priest to put their foot in the Jordan
before he ever held back the water God
told Peter to cast on the other side of
the boat before he ever filled the nets
God told Martha to move the stone in
John chapter 11 before he ever brought
Lazarus from the dead you see God wants
to see you walk by faith not talk about
faith he wants you to see you moved by
faith not mouth by faith he wants to see
you your life by faith not your lip by
faith he wants to see motion in some of
our rooms at our church we have motion
detector lighting because people were
wasting electricity and people are
wasting electricity and and so we wanted
to put up a motion detect the lighting
so the powers in the room the lights are
in the room but they not designed to
come on until movement is detected so
when you walk in the room the lights
come on when you walk out a room lights
go out because they have been programmed
to only respond to motion God’s
supernatural engagement in your life my
life our lives during this time of
Goliath attack requires motion because
when God sees motion the power that’s
already there becomes activated because
you’re moving by faith now
God also gives him a strategy he gives
him the strategy and hard strategy to
face this guy and that is five stones
and and a slingshot and that’s cuz
Goliath had four brothers so he’s gonna
take on the whole family if necessary
this is how God supernaturally works
Psalm twenty five verse twelve or
fourteen very interesting because it
says the ones who are in my covenant
shall know my ways and I will tell them
my secrets
so yes stuff that’s not shared with
everybody the Word of God is shared with
everybody but his personal guidance of
you is not shared with everybody that’s
shared with somebody because it varies
from situation to situation so the
secrets God has when you’re under the
Covenant is he gives you divine thoughts
that’s the work of the Holy Spirit to
give you divine thoughts for what you
should do in this particular situation
it’s the difference between a rule book
and a play book in football in football
all the teams have the same rule book
because the rules of the game are the
same for every team on the field but
every team has its own playbook the
teams don’t share their playbook because
their plays are only for their team but
all the teams share the rule book what
God has for us in his word is his divine
play book but what the Holy spirt gives
you in divine rule book but what God
gives you individually is your personal
playbook but if you’re not under the
covering of the Covenant you don’t get
the plays even though you may be
following the rules and that’s why
people who believe in the Bible often
don’t get guidance because they may
believe the rule book but they’re not
operating under the Covenant so they
don’t get the playbook and operate under
the covenant means you’re operating in
alignment with the rule book so the holy
spirit is free to give you the playbook
of what he wants you to do this leads to
another great theological
perspective because when Goliath comes
in chapter 17 and threatens David David
says to him in verse 45 you come to me
with a sword or spear in the javelin but
I come to you in the name of the Lord of
hosts the God of Israel whom you have
taunted he says I’m gonna do a handoff
here one of my books is called the power
of God’s names God has about 85 names in
the Old Testament alone and one of the
names is mentioned here calls him the
Lord of hosts
that’s the Lord of armies and he says
you come to me with the javelin spear
but I come to you in the name now the
name in the Bible is a powerful
statement you find God changing people’s
names because it has to do with your
identity and God has 85 names or so in
the Old Testament so you pull an oar and
all of these 85 names are tied to
something God wants to show you about
himself so when he wants to show you
something they’re unique he gives you a
unique aspect of his person through the
identification of his name so he says I
come to you in the warrior name of God
the god of armies because I’m in a war
like situation so he draws down from
heaven the name of God applicable to his
practical scenario so that’s why he can
be Jehovah Rapha or jehova sholom or you
know he can be he can be whatever name
is applicable that’s why he could tell
Moses you tell them I am that I am
because I am whatever the situation
calls for so God has fluidity in his
name and those names are tied to his
covenant or connection with God’s people
so if you’re facing a Goliath in your
life something that is looming large
over you I challenge you to identify the
Goliath call it what it is
find out what the Covenant or rulebook
says about what God wants you to do to
address it address any sin by you or
somebody else that has caused it and
then place yourself under divine
authority by acting on what the
book says and open up to the Holy Spirit
to give you the playbook for your
specific scenario and let’s see if we
can get some heads chopped off in the
midst of the Goliath attacks in your
life in closing my granddaughter when
she was small came to me one day I
shouldn’t come to me she was outside
playing and I heard her scream she’s
crying I run to the door name is Karras
I run to the door I said Karras what’s
wrong what’s wrong look out and know and
behold there’s a dog chasing her chasing
he wasn’t a big dog when she was a
little girl she runs up to me and she
jumps in my arms I hold her in my arms
and she’s heaving with tears up to my
leg and he begins to nip and Bock living
and she’s crying she’s terrified I hold
it in my arms and she’s holding on to me
after a few moments with the dog at my
foot he looks up then she looks up and
he looks down at the dog still nipping
still making a loud noise this she
looked up at me this she look down at
the dog then she looked up at me and
this time she look down at the dog it
went then what happened to the girl
where could she get all this confidence
from it’s the same dog making the same
noise but she’s now being held by
somebody bigger than the problem that
she faints you got somebody bigger then
the Goliath that you face and if you’ll
come under his covenantal covering
you’ll find out that under God your
Goliath must fall thank you Lord for the
power that’s in the cross in the Christ
and in the Living God in Jesus name Amen