Tony Evans – Defeating The Giants In Your Life – Stand Alone

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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