On To Victory #6 (Based on David vs. Goliath)
Text: 1 Samuel 17:51-54
It is a great joy to see all of you here today worshipping God and
encouraging your fellow citizens in the kingdom of heaven!
As we have been looking at the message of God to His children that we
are to press on to victory and not give up the fight, we want to
encourage one another that I may not understand what you are going
through but I certainly am on your side and you can win this fight!
We finished up last week with the fifth and final key to David's
victory over Goliath- properly sizing him up!
The end result in the conflict between the two was simple-
Goliath fell down!
Really friends, if we have the heart David had, the heart of faith, we
can see the same results in our own battles.
Remember, that in chapter 16 God had anointed David king, but no
one but a few knew about it. In Chapter 17 now, in front of all of
Israel, God's choice for king became Israel's greatest hero!
With the defeat of the mighty giant great tales would be told for the
next 3,000 years of his heroic stand of faith!
In closing this series over the next two weeks however, we want to
focus in now on the consequences that followed his victory over the
deadly enemy!
Before getting into this let's read some passages:
Hebrews 11:39-12:2, Numbers 13:25-14:4, 1 Samuel 17:51-54
Now, the first consequence of David's victory is this:
his victory inspired others to join the battle!
This is one of the most forgotten parts of the story, but it is a
very important one! Once David took a stand of faith, that nobody else
was willing to take, and defeated the foe, all of God's people wanted
to join in!
Lynn Anderson called this contagious courage in his book. "Not only
was David's act courageous, it was also contagious."1
Let's just look at this for a moment:
- David cuts off Goliath's head! (vs.51)
Now, last week we saw how David promised to do this. He didn't have a
sword, but he promised that Goliath's head would be cut off. How does
he do it? With Goliath's own sword!
- The Philistine army loses confidence and gains fear! (vs.51)
What a change in the enemy's perception of things. 40 days of
laughing, feeling at ease, taunting the Israelites and now, BANG!
Goliath is gone, we are doomed. What changed them? A man of God with
a heart of faith, who took his faith seriously!
- The Israelite army loses fear and gains confidence! (vs.52)
What a change in the children of God's perception of things. 40 days
of whimpering, crying, running, hiding and now, BANG! Goliath is gone,
we are not doomed. What changed them? A man of God with a heart of
faith, who took his faith seriously!
This is what a victory by one man of faith can do for others. "As the
Philistine bravado melted, momentum shifted. Israel rallied in hot
pursuit. Can you hear them all screaming, "I want to kill me a giant,
too"? Actually they could have been doing this all along--they had the
tools--but they lacked the needed courage. Now it spread through the
ranks. Courage is always contagious. One lone model of courage can
remove the excuses of a whole timid nation and dispel its fear.
Ghandi. Churchill. Martin Luther King. Jesus."2
Just think for a moment what David had done this day. He saw a man
defying God and David couldn't stand it. So, he challenges one man to
a duel and by doing so, inspires the entire army of his nation to rise
and become conquerors!
David had now brought a new spirit to Israel. The old spirit that had
been there for 40 days was a spirit of discouragement, fear, disbelief,
defeat and hopeless and then a young shepherd boy comes and the spirit
changes to one of encouragement, courage, faith, victory and SAVING
HOPE!
Can that happen with our struggles today?
YES IT CAN!
In fact my friends, for us to fight at times we need to be inspired by
others. The Bible tells us this over and over again.
James 5:10,11- we are to use the men of old.
Phil.4:9- we are to use the apostle Paul.
1 Thess.4:6,7- the Thessalonian Christians became that for us
Hebrews 13:7- those who taught us.
Listen, there are some fights that we may never dare wage unless
we get inspired from others. I am not saying it is right to not do so,
but my friends fighting our battles becomes easier when we see others
win theirs! We need to be with each other for this.
"Churches are not meant to be perfect; a church is meant to be a place
where we messed up and doubting people gather in various kinds of
circles and look into one another's' faces to help one another keep on
believing."3
What does this mean?
We're going to have to be open to being honest with each other, our
brothers and sisters in Christ and start sharing our battle stories. I
am telling you that if you have won victories in your past and you can
share those war stories with people who are going through some today,
you are going to be an inspiration.
If you can share your struggles today with some of your church family
who deeply care for you and they can relate an old victory, you are
going to be inspired to keep fighting. Because if God could win a
victory for them, He can certainly win a victory for you!
Many people have inspired me to not give up the fight. Many
people have inspired me to pick up a weapon and shout at the forces of
the enemy.
Now, my friends, this is important:
just as we look to other people's examples for inspiration, people are
going to look to us for inspiration. We have two choices:
we can be like the 10 spies who spied the land and decided it couldn't
be won and thus discourage others, or we can be like David and
encourage everyone on to victory!
None of us may realize this, but when other people see the
struggles that we face and they see us step out in faith and win, we
have just taught them that they too can be more than conquerors. One
man wrote, "Great generals win campaigns, but it is the unknown soldier
who wins the war."4
David may not have been thinking anywhere close to inspiring his
fellow Israelites, but as they watched, and as they learned, and as
they witnessed, their hearts could do nothing but be inspired!
My friends, people will watch you in your fight, they will witness your
faith and they will be inspired to fight!
The question is, will we be the type that stands sure of defeat,
or the type that stand firm in the faith?
In 1971 a very talented musician wrote a song that became very
popular. The problem with It however was that it encouraged everybody
to give up the real fight. Maybe you'll recognize it;
"Imagine there's no heaven
It's easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky" -John Lennon
We could send that message!
There is no final victory. We could tell people that it is easy to
imagine there is not a heaven. It's easy to believe there will be no
victory for the people of God. But it isn't satisfying.
We could tell
the young mother of two whose husband was tragically killed that there
is no reason to continue the fight.
We could tell the man who
recently got cancer that there is no heaven.
We could tell the father who lost his job that there is no better life
than this.
We could tell the victim of sexual abuse that there isn't a time when
true healing is found.
Yes, I suppose it would be easy as Lennon says to imagine these things.
But it isn't inspiring.
No, isn't it better to be like David, know that God has a victory
for His children and allow people to inspire us and be inspired by
us?
Next week we'll look at the second consequence and that is, entering
the King's house.
My friends, we read earlier that the faithful of old are a cloud
of witnesses and they urge us to find the victory of faith. Not only
that, we get inspired most of all by our Saviour Jesus the Christ!
As we continue to look at Jesus, we understand that as Goliath fell
down, so will all our opponents and he tells us, don't give up, you're
almost there and you are more than a conqueror.
How do you know Jesus?
Because I made you one.
Let's stand and sing…
1. Lynn Anderson, Finding the Heart to Go On (San Bernardino, CA:
Here's Life Publishers, Inc., 1991) p.44
2. Ibid., p.44
3. Lynn Anderson, If I Really Believe, Why do I have these Doubts?
(Minneapolis, MN: Bethany House Publishers, 1992) p.124
4. L. Louis Pauls, It Can Be Done (Fonthill, ON: Published by author,
1991) p.336
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