TITLE: IS THERE NOT A CAUSE? GOD CAN STILL SLAY GIANTS
TEXT: 1 SAMUEL 17:17-29
INTRODUCTION:
These are the events which led up to David’s battle with the giant, Goliath. It was a battle to remove the reproach to the Lord that was upon His people. It was a battle to restore the Lord’s glory within the land. It was a battle to save a nation for the Lord.
That is how David looked at the present situation. That is the Cause David felt so strong about. That is the Cause facing the people of God today in America. The Church has allowed the enemy and the cause to grow into a gigantic force and actually most of the Church, like David’s brothers and their nation, feel defeated and hopeless. They feel as if there is no choice left, but to surrender our nation to the enemies of the Lord and just get by the best we can till we die or until Jesus returns for His Church.
David didn’t share their fears and hopelessness. David rejected such hopelessness. David refused to live in such a nation. David believed there was a cause and if God be for us, who can be against us. Let’s take a David and his battle with the giant, Goliath and let it restore hope in our discouraged hearts and the Lord back to His rightful place in our nation.
I. THE CRISIS OF THE DAY
David’s nation was facing a crisis moment. Their future was hanging in the balance at this time in their history. They were on the verge of losing their nation to the enemies of the Lord, or on the other hand, as only the little lad David saw, this could be a great moment of victory, a moment which the nation could return to its former glory.
A. The Location of the Enemy (17:1, 16)
We are told in 17:1 that the Philistines and their army had advanced to E’ phes-dammin, which was only about 16 miles southwest of Jerusalem, the nation’s capital.
The Philistines had flowed across the nation’s border without opposition and had now advanced to the very heartland of the nation.
In the mid to late 80’s I was pastoring a Church in my home State of Missouri, the very heartland of America. I took my family on a vacation to California and Disney Land. I will never forget driving into Hollywood and seeing a banner hung across a street promoting the upcoming Gay and Lesbian Pride Parade. As a young man who had grown up in the heartland of America, I could not believe what I was seeing, but I remember sharing the incident with my Church when I returned and warning them that what starts in Hollywood has a way of eventually finding its way into mid-America. I now realize how true that statement would turn out being.
The perversion of San Francisco has now spread into the very heartland of America and has done so almost without any opposition from the Lord’s Church, His very army upon the earth.
Our nation has now been overrun with evil and perversion. Evil and perversion is now ingrained into our laws. It certainly seems as if the Church is down for the count. It seems as if the powers now against us are so gigantic that the situation is now hopeless, except for one fact and that is how the Lord has a history of giving His people victory over their foes when the situation had grown so large that it seemed insurmountable, just as with the case of Goliath.
Faith in a big God makes every crisis and every foe shrink to a size that is easily overcome.
B. The Listlessness of the People (17: 11, 24)
The Lord’s people now stood face to face with the enemies of the Lord, right in the very heartland of their nation. Their advance had been so swift and complete that they were now facing a giant. The people were now paralyzed by fear, unbelief and a sense of hopelessness. Their fear and unbelief had made them listless. It had defeated and disabled them. There was no longer any will, energy, or fight left in them.
The Lord’s Church has been intimidated by the taunting and terror tactics of the foes of the Lord, the same tactics used by Goliath. The Lord’s Church has been fearful of offending the Lord’s foes, when she should have been more concerned about stopping them from conquering our nation and generations of our young. Now homosexual marriage is legal in every State in our nation.
Now we find ourselves in a nation in which the Lord’s foes have now conquered the land and are now arrayed against the Church – their last unconquered foe – with the intention of defeating and destroying her. The enemy is bold and marching on the people of God.
II. THE CONCERN OF DAVID (17:22 , 26, 29, 30)
When David arrived at the camp of the Lord’s army he saw that the armies were already faced off against one another. He heard the taunting of Goliath and saw the fear and hopelessness that was paralyzing the people of God.
David was a young lad, not even a member of the army, nothing was expected of him, but he refused to remain safely in the rear, or a silent observer. He was not hindered by the same infirmities of his brothers. His zeal for the Lord’s glory compelled him to action. He did all he could do to embolden his people and to rally the troops, but when those efforts failed, David decided that it was now just up to him and the Lord if the nation was to be saved.
David was like so many young men and women in America who dropped everything in their lives and ran to sign up for the military after 9/11. These young American’s were not fearful, but offended that a foe would attack us on our own homeland and they were determined to destroy them for doing so. Like David, they strongly believed there was a Cause.
A. His Family Was at Stake (17:17, 18)
David was fighting to save his loved ones. May the Church see that their families makes this battle a cause worth fighting.
B. His Freedoms Were at Stake (17:9)
To yield the war to the enemy would mean that Israel would become the slaves and servant of the Lord’s bitter foes. Freedom was a right that was not up for negotiation. Never would he surrender and forfeit his freedoms. He had grown up a free man in a free state and for him it was, “Give me liberty or give me death”.
The Church has many freedoms to lose if we now surrender to the foes of Christ. We will lose our Freedoms of religion and speech. We will even eventually lose our freedom to assemble. We will be an outlawed faith, driven underground.
C. His Flocks Were at Stake (17:20a)
To lose the battle was surrender his flocks and all other possessions to the enemy. David was not willing to do that without a fight. We are already seeing Christians being drug into court and having to surrender their hard earned money to pay the unjust fines that are being imposed upon them. We see Christians being forced to go out of business, or violate their faith and conscience. David saw this would be his same lot in life if he surrendered to the foes of the Lord. He was not willing to give to the devil what the Lord had given to him and his family and what had been passed down to him from his Godly ancestors.
D. His Faith Was at Stake (17:32-37; 45,46)
David explained to King Saul that his courage was not built upon immature foolishness, but upon his history with the Lord. His courage was a demonstration of his faith in God that had been built upon prior crisis moments in his life.
To David his faith was as important as his freedoms. To walk away would mean he would surrender to unbelief. Nothing is more tormenting to a soul than to be overcome with unbelief and nothing is more precious in this turbulent world to the Child of God than their faith in Jesus. Compromise and surrendering to fear would destroy the faith in the Lord that it had taken years of struggles to build. David refused to do so. That was a cause woth fighting for.
E. His Father’s Glory Was at Stake (17:26b, 45-47)
For David, the greatest cause was the Glory of the Lord. This fear and defeat of God’s people at the hand of the Lord’s foes was most of all, a reproach upon the Lord. The Philistines were really fighting the Lord and as the battle went, so went the people’s view of the Lord. To be defeated would mean David’s God would be mocked and ridiculed by His enemies. To be defeated would be dethroning God in His own land. David had a zeal for the Lord’s glory and that would not be allowed to happen upon his watch.
We are seeing our courts ordering the removal of Crosses, the Ten Commandments, Nativities, Prayer, and the Bible throughout the land, but what we are actually seeing is the impression being made to the people in our land that Jesus is not the Almighty, worthy of praise and honor. He is so weak and insignificant that He is certainly not worthy of our Faith in Him, or a commitment of our lives to Him. The Lord’s glory was a cause David felt was worth fighting for.
III. THE CONTRAST of DAVID (17:31)
When word got back to King Saul of the words of David, that they were in such contrast to the defeatist voices of the day, that he demanded David be brought to him immediately, he had to see this brave young man who was the only ray of sunshine and hope in this dark and hopeless hour of crisis.
A. David Was Concerned (17:20a)
Saul was leading an army where little to no concern for victory was being demonstrated or declared. David must have been a breath of fresh air to Saul.
As I have watched the crisis in America grow I have watched the concern of the Lord’s people for the cause wain to nearly now being nonexistent. We are a Care-less Church. Every radical group in America can muster an army of opposition to righteousness at the drop of a hat, but attempt to rally the Lord’s Church to defend the Lord’s glory and you couldn’t get enough to show up to fill the choir loft. We have lost the battle mainly through default. We have not been concerned enough to even show up for the battle. On any average Sunday Morning on any average Sunday, half of the Church will be absent and in the world giving aid and comfort to the Lord’s enemies. During a time of war giving aid and comfort to the enemy is the very definition of treason. Sunday Morning you will find half of the Church committing HIGH TREASON against heaven.
B. David Was Committed (17:32)
David was committed to the Lord when he showed up and the giant had not diminished his commitment in the least.
Daniel had already purposed in his heart not to defile himself before the temptation came to do otherwise. Daniel and David were close to the same age when they made their unwavering stand for the Lord.
We need more Daniels and David’s who have come to some conclusions in their lives and refused to be moved. No of these things moved David.
C. David Was Confident (17:26, 37)
David had an unshakable confidence in the Lord. His faith in the Lord for victory was unwavering.
1. Confidence built upon his past experiences with the Lord
(17:34-37)
2. Confidence built upon his past victories with the Lord (17:37)
3. Confidence built upon his knowledge of the past victories that the Lord had given his nation throughout her history.
From the very conception of the nation God’s people had always had her foes and the Lord had never failed to give them the victory. They were His people. If God be for them, who could be against them?
The Bible records these victories from history to give encouragement and hope to this generation of Christians. (Romans 15:4)
America’s History is replete with hours of crisis where the Lord made the difference and gave us the victory. Jesus is the same yesterday, and today, and forever. Let the Church arise and go forward against the giants we face with the same confidence in the Lord.
To refuse to fight the good fight in this crisis hour, is not only an action unconcern, it is an act of unbelief in the Lord Jesus. It is a denial of the Lord’s history of being for His people.
IV. THE CONQUERING OF DAVID (17:48-54)
In the end, it was David who handed Goliath his own head on a platter. For David, the outcome was never in doubt and nor should it be for this generation of Christians either. The Lord of Host will go before us if we will just go after our foes armed with Faith in God.
CONCLUSION:
The Church in America today have set idle and allowed the enemies of the Lord to cross our borders and sweep through our nation like leaven. The heartland used to be called the Bible Belt, but even the heartland is now in danger of being conquered by the enemies of the Lord.
Their victory seems almost complete. They no longer look like a small, insignificant bunch of radicals, they now look like a giant, compared to a small band of true believers, but the hour is not too late, nor the enemy too big for the Lord. The real challenge is, can the Lord find a man, a man willing to fight the Lord’s battles. A man who refuses to believe the Lord has done all of this for our nation and His people, just to see us surrender it the His Foes.
THERE IS a CAUSE and the LORD CAN STILL SLAY the GIANTS.
Be the David Jesus uses to save His nation.
As we fight the good fight, let’s not forget that the Gospel is the real Power of God. When the Gospel is preached with boldness, it can show a sinner that not only is he Hell bound, but that he is also loved of Jesus. He would rather win them than destroy them. Calvary proves His love and provides for his salvation, if they will repent and believe upon the Lord Jesus Christ!
~Jack Woodard
Jack Woodard's Blog 
IS THERE NOT A CAUSE? GOD CAN STILL SLAY GIANTS
TITLE: IS THERE NOT A CAUSE? GOD CAN STILL SLAY GIANTS
TEXT: 1 SAMUEL 17:17-29
INTRODUCTION:
These are the events which led up to David’s battle with the giant, Goliath. It was a battle to remove the reproach to the Lord that was upon His people. It was a battle to restore the Lord’s glory within the land. It was a battle to save a nation for the Lord.
That is how David looked at the present situation. That is the Cause David felt so strong about. That is the Cause facing the people of God today in America. The Church has allowed the enemy and the cause to grow into a gigantic force and actually most of the Church, like David’s brothers and their nation, feel defeated and hopeless. They feel as if there is no choice left, but to surrender our nation to the enemies of the Lord and just get by the best we can till we die or until Jesus returns for His Church.
David didn’t share their fears and hopelessness. David rejected such hopelessness. David refused to live in such a nation. David believed there was a cause and if God be for us, who can be against us. Let’s take a David and his battle with the giant, Goliath and let it restore hope in our discouraged hearts and the Lord back to His rightful place in our nation.
I. THE CRISIS OF THE DAY
David’s nation was facing a crisis moment. Their future was hanging in the balance at this time in their history. They were on the verge of losing their nation to the enemies of the Lord, or on the other hand, as only the little lad David saw, this could be a great moment of victory, a moment which the nation could return to its former glory.
A. The Location of the Enemy (17:1, 16)
We are told in 17:1 that the Philistines and their army had advanced to E’ phes-dammin, which was only about 16 miles southwest of Jerusalem, the nation’s capital.
The Philistines had flowed across the nation’s border without opposition and had now advanced to the very heartland of the nation.
In the mid to late 80’s I was pastoring a Church in my home State of Missouri, the very heartland of America. I took my family on a vacation to California and Disney Land. I will never forget driving into Hollywood and seeing a banner hung across a street promoting the upcoming Gay and Lesbian Pride Parade. As a young man who had grown up in the heartland of America, I could not believe what I was seeing, but I remember sharing the incident with my Church when I returned and warning them that what starts in Hollywood has a way of eventually finding its way into mid-America. I now realize how true that statement would turn out being.
The perversion of San Francisco has now spread into the very heartland of America and has done so almost without any opposition from the Lord’s Church, His very army upon the earth.
Our nation has now been overrun with evil and perversion. Evil and perversion is now ingrained into our laws. It certainly seems as if the Church is down for the count. It seems as if the powers now against us are so gigantic that the situation is now hopeless, except for one fact and that is how the Lord has a history of giving His people victory over their foes when the situation had grown so large that it seemed insurmountable, just as with the case of Goliath.
Faith in a big God makes every crisis and every foe shrink to a size that is easily overcome.
B. The Listlessness of the People (17: 11, 24)
The Lord’s people now stood face to face with the enemies of the Lord, right in the very heartland of their nation. Their advance had been so swift and complete that they were now facing a giant. The people were now paralyzed by fear, unbelief and a sense of hopelessness. Their fear and unbelief had made them listless. It had defeated and disabled them. There was no longer any will, energy, or fight left in them.
The Lord’s Church has been intimidated by the taunting and terror tactics of the foes of the Lord, the same tactics used by Goliath. The Lord’s Church has been fearful of offending the Lord’s foes, when she should have been more concerned about stopping them from conquering our nation and generations of our young. Now homosexual marriage is legal in every State in our nation.
Now we find ourselves in a nation in which the Lord’s foes have now conquered the land and are now arrayed against the Church – their last unconquered foe – with the intention of defeating and destroying her. The enemy is bold and marching on the people of God.
II. THE CONCERN OF DAVID (17:22 , 26, 29, 30)
When David arrived at the camp of the Lord’s army he saw that the armies were already faced off against one another. He heard the taunting of Goliath and saw the fear and hopelessness that was paralyzing the people of God.
David was a young lad, not even a member of the army, nothing was expected of him, but he refused to remain safely in the rear, or a silent observer. He was not hindered by the same infirmities of his brothers. His zeal for the Lord’s glory compelled him to action. He did all he could do to embolden his people and to rally the troops, but when those efforts failed, David decided that it was now just up to him and the Lord if the nation was to be saved.
David was like so many young men and women in America who dropped everything in their lives and ran to sign up for the military after 9/11. These young American’s were not fearful, but offended that a foe would attack us on our own homeland and they were determined to destroy them for doing so. Like David, they strongly believed there was a Cause.
A. His Family Was at Stake (17:17, 18)
David was fighting to save his loved ones. May the Church see that their families makes this battle a cause worth fighting.
B. His Freedoms Were at Stake (17:9)
To yield the war to the enemy would mean that Israel would become the slaves and servant of the Lord’s bitter foes. Freedom was a right that was not up for negotiation. Never would he surrender and forfeit his freedoms. He had grown up a free man in a free state and for him it was, “Give me liberty or give me death”.
The Church has many freedoms to lose if we now surrender to the foes of Christ. We will lose our Freedoms of religion and speech. We will even eventually lose our freedom to assemble. We will be an outlawed faith, driven underground.
C. His Flocks Were at Stake (17:20a)
To lose the battle was surrender his flocks and all other possessions to the enemy. David was not willing to do that without a fight. We are already seeing Christians being drug into court and having to surrender their hard earned money to pay the unjust fines that are being imposed upon them. We see Christians being forced to go out of business, or violate their faith and conscience. David saw this would be his same lot in life if he surrendered to the foes of the Lord. He was not willing to give to the devil what the Lord had given to him and his family and what had been passed down to him from his Godly ancestors.
D. His Faith Was at Stake (17:32-37; 45,46)
David explained to King Saul that his courage was not built upon immature foolishness, but upon his history with the Lord. His courage was a demonstration of his faith in God that had been built upon prior crisis moments in his life.
To David his faith was as important as his freedoms. To walk away would mean he would surrender to unbelief. Nothing is more tormenting to a soul than to be overcome with unbelief and nothing is more precious in this turbulent world to the Child of God than their faith in Jesus. Compromise and surrendering to fear would destroy the faith in the Lord that it had taken years of struggles to build. David refused to do so. That was a cause woth fighting for.
E. His Father’s Glory Was at Stake (17:26b, 45-47)
For David, the greatest cause was the Glory of the Lord. This fear and defeat of God’s people at the hand of the Lord’s foes was most of all, a reproach upon the Lord. The Philistines were really fighting the Lord and as the battle went, so went the people’s view of the Lord. To be defeated would mean David’s God would be mocked and ridiculed by His enemies. To be defeated would be dethroning God in His own land. David had a zeal for the Lord’s glory and that would not be allowed to happen upon his watch.
We are seeing our courts ordering the removal of Crosses, the Ten Commandments, Nativities, Prayer, and the Bible throughout the land, but what we are actually seeing is the impression being made to the people in our land that Jesus is not the Almighty, worthy of praise and honor. He is so weak and insignificant that He is certainly not worthy of our Faith in Him, or a commitment of our lives to Him. The Lord’s glory was a cause David felt was worth fighting for.
III. THE CONTRAST of DAVID (17:31)
When word got back to King Saul of the words of David, that they were in such contrast to the defeatist voices of the day, that he demanded David be brought to him immediately, he had to see this brave young man who was the only ray of sunshine and hope in this dark and hopeless hour of crisis.
A. David Was Concerned (17:20a)
Saul was leading an army where little to no concern for victory was being demonstrated or declared. David must have been a breath of fresh air to Saul.
As I have watched the crisis in America grow I have watched the concern of the Lord’s people for the cause wain to nearly now being nonexistent. We are a Care-less Church. Every radical group in America can muster an army of opposition to righteousness at the drop of a hat, but attempt to rally the Lord’s Church to defend the Lord’s glory and you couldn’t get enough to show up to fill the choir loft. We have lost the battle mainly through default. We have not been concerned enough to even show up for the battle. On any average Sunday Morning on any average Sunday, half of the Church will be absent and in the world giving aid and comfort to the Lord’s enemies. During a time of war giving aid and comfort to the enemy is the very definition of treason. Sunday Morning you will find half of the Church committing HIGH TREASON against heaven.
B. David Was Committed (17:32)
David was committed to the Lord when he showed up and the giant had not diminished his commitment in the least.
Daniel had already purposed in his heart not to defile himself before the temptation came to do otherwise. Daniel and David were close to the same age when they made their unwavering stand for the Lord.
We need more Daniels and David’s who have come to some conclusions in their lives and refused to be moved. No of these things moved David.
C. David Was Confident (17:26, 37)
David had an unshakable confidence in the Lord. His faith in the Lord for victory was unwavering.
1. Confidence built upon his past experiences with the Lord
(17:34-37)
2. Confidence built upon his past victories with the Lord (17:37)
3. Confidence built upon his knowledge of the past victories that the Lord had given his nation throughout her history.
From the very conception of the nation God’s people had always had her foes and the Lord had never failed to give them the victory. They were His people. If God be for them, who could be against them?
The Bible records these victories from history to give encouragement and hope to this generation of Christians. (Romans 15:4)
America’s History is replete with hours of crisis where the Lord made the difference and gave us the victory. Jesus is the same yesterday, and today, and forever. Let the Church arise and go forward against the giants we face with the same confidence in the Lord.
To refuse to fight the good fight in this crisis hour, is not only an action unconcern, it is an act of unbelief in the Lord Jesus. It is a denial of the Lord’s history of being for His people.
IV. THE CONQUERING OF DAVID (17:48-54)
In the end, it was David who handed Goliath his own head on a platter. For David, the outcome was never in doubt and nor should it be for this generation of Christians either. The Lord of Host will go before us if we will just go after our foes armed with Faith in God.
CONCLUSION:
The Church in America today have set idle and allowed the enemies of the Lord to cross our borders and sweep through our nation like leaven. The heartland used to be called the Bible Belt, but even the heartland is now in danger of being conquered by the enemies of the Lord.
Their victory seems almost complete. They no longer look like a small, insignificant bunch of radicals, they now look like a giant, compared to a small band of true believers, but the hour is not too late, nor the enemy too big for the Lord. The real challenge is, can the Lord find a man, a man willing to fight the Lord’s battles. A man who refuses to believe the Lord has done all of this for our nation and His people, just to see us surrender it the His Foes.
THERE IS a CAUSE and the LORD CAN STILL SLAY the GIANTS.
Be the David Jesus uses to save His nation.
As we fight the good fight, let’s not forget that the Gospel is the real Power of God. When the Gospel is preached with boldness, it can show a sinner that not only is he Hell bound, but that he is also loved of Jesus. He would rather win them than destroy them. Calvary proves His love and provides for his salvation, if they will repent and believe upon the Lord Jesus Christ!
~Jack Woodard
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About Jack Woodard
I am a Baptist Pastor. [Calling the Church to Revival and Sinners to Salvation for 42 Years]