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’
The story was told about a bunch of hooligans of a small town in Scotland who decided to play a practical joke on their local drunkard. These hooligans seized the drunk one night, after he had been drinking heavily, and threw him into a shallow grave overnight. The drunk was unaware of where he was or what was happening only to be wakened by the town’s only siren at noon.
The loud noise woke him up from his slumber. The local drunkard crawled out of the grave. Looking around and seeing nobody, he dusted off some dirt from his clothes and exclaimed, Holy Mary, mother of God, I can’t believe this; I am the only one resurrected.
Often we do our best to discern God's calls. We pray feverishly, take personality inventories, and seek professional as well as personal advice. Still, no calls arrive directly from God. Scripture teaches that God calls, but we imperfect creatures still struggle to know how, when, and where to serve God. As followers of Jesus Christ, we live by faith. So we go on in faith.
A Chicago cab driver, loved to tell the story of a passenger he picked up early one morning. As his taxi rolled to a stop in front of an apartment building, a woman ran up to the vehicle, opened a rear door, and hopped into the seat. "Where to?" the driver asked. "Get going! I'll tell you when we get there!" she exclaimed.
Often our approach to God’s calling is like this passenger's overly eager desire to get going. We impatiently want to forge ahead to an unclear destination instead of taking the time to learn how to be faithful.
The mystery of our vocation is more like an unfolding relationship than a carefully planned trip. As we come to know God and understand his character better and know ourselves in relationship to God, we also discern where and how to serve him. Faith is patient, not lazy. The great Christian writer John Milton wrote after he had gone blind, “Following Christ is an ongoing journey, not a one-time blast of revelation or a straight trajectory.”
God calls each of us to this overall task of caring for his world. In a broad sense, this care-taking is our vocation as Jesus Christ's ambassadors on earth. Even after hearing the overarching call, however, we still have to discern how to care faithfully in specific contexts, such as sharing the gospel with a friend, comforting a co-worker, running a business profitably, and serving patients or clients.
This morning I am going to attempt to share with you some biblical insight in to how a shepherd boy over came the Giant in his life. Many, many years ago about 1020 B.C. in the valley of Elah. There was a fierce battle between the people of God, and Philistine.
In those days battles were centered about the captains or warriors of opposing armies. In this case the Philistines had no problem electing their champion, captain and warrior. Goliath was definitely the man to fight the Israelites. Among all the biblical stories Goliath is a well known character in the Bible.
Around 1200 B.C. the Philistines with their knowledge of melting, they gained a quick monopoly on metal weapons. While they were using weapons made out steel, their neighbouring countries were using stones and wood.
On the other hand we have David, a shepherd boy about 15 or 17 years old. Skinny little boy with no experience in warfare. But there is something about this shepherd boy which worth nothing. David was an optimist, a man of courage, and a man of faith. A boy who trusted in the character of God, and his promises. Here are the words of David: “ The Lord who delivered me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will deliver me from the hand of the Philistine.”
David was optimistic, that God will give him victory over his giant. On the other hand, we see Saul, the king of Israel hiding in a cave, captured by fear. David couldn’t take the insults by the Philistines so he approached King Saul, in vs. 32 David said: “ Let no one lose heart (discourage, fearful, or depress) on the account of this Philistine; your servant will go and fight him.”
King Saul, replied: oh no, my son you are not able to fight him, you are only a boy and he, Goliath has been a fighting man from his youth. This sounds like what we hear in the Church today. How many times our young people or the pastor come out with an idea for betterment of the congregation only to be told no “we can not” because things are perfectly ok the way they are or the pastor is told no “we can not” because we have no money.
But David insisted in fight this Philistine …. I hear you my son King Saul interjected …. then here are my battle clothes wear them. But they are too big for me, David responded, I can’t even walk in them. To make the story short, David took his shepherd staff in his hand, choose “five smooth stones” from a near by stream put them in pouch of his shepherd bag and, with his sling in his hand he approached Goliath.
Why did David pick five stones? And not one, three or six or ten, but five!!! The answer: Goliath had other four brothers equally big and mean. Ref. 2 Samuel 21:18-22 David won his battle against his giant, because he believed in the character of God. “The Lord who delivered me from the paw of the lion and of the bear will deliver me from this giant’…
This is a usable principle for us, as we face our own personal giants, again we are reminded that the giants we face daily belong to the Lord. In Ps. 91:2 “ I will say to the Lord, my refuge and my fortress; my God, in whom I trust.” This Psalm speaks simple language of trust, it takes a lot of love, patience and understanding to trust somebody. And it is clear from this story that King Saul had opinions about God but failed in trusting his character. When confronted with the giant he hid himself in a cave trembling with fear.
Now, how do we handle our personal giants? When the bills are piling up
These and many others constitute the giants we face daily. And please don’t look at your neighbour’s giants, you have yours and I have mine, they are taking over our territory day by day. By trusting in the character of God only can we fend off the giants and experience the victory in this life and the life to come.
Let us go back to king Saul one more time: Saul demonstrated a notion that is very prevalent in our contemporary society.. and that is instant solution to a complex issue, or instant spirituality instead of discipleship. In a desperate move King Saul offered David an instant solution by offering him his military garment, which didn’t fit it by the way.
Saul trusted his military equipments than the power and the character of God. As Christians: we are reminded that there is no substitute to the power of God when overwhelmed with giant. You see, some things you just can’t buy:
Mother Teresa illuminated this very truth in one of her writings, she writes: “ The fruit of Silence is Prayer, the fruit of Prayer is Faith, the fruit of Faith is Love, The fruit of Love is Service, and the fruit of Service is Peace.
The Shalom of God (Peace of God) is not just the absence of war of strife, rather peace with God, peace within and peace with people. David discovered this secret, that he can do all things through God who empowered him. King Saul hid in a cave, because in his mind Goliath was bigger than the God of Israel, and thus lost out experiencing the mighty deeds, as Goliath fell like a timber.
Faith like most things in life, needs to be exercised I think:
You have demonstrated faith by your answers. Faith is a gift from God, and the ability to believe is a gift of grace. If we could trust our vehicle which is a scrap metal, which is here today and gone tomorrow; why can’t trust God who made heavens and earth. If we could trust these wooden pews to hold our weight for moment; why can’t trust God who by his power al things exist. The gift of faith is to be exercise in trust toward God and fervent love toward one another, or else our faith becomes just an opinion, and powerless.
Goliath, the giant I have referred to in this sermon is nothing but dwarf compare to the One who empowers us. ‘for greater is He that is in us than the one in the world’. The apostle Paul’s letter to the first century Christians in Ephesus, his word is an encouragement to us today. This is what he writes: “For we struggle or wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against the ruler, against authorities, against the spiritual force of evil in the heavenly places.” There is a spiritual battle for control of our minds.
Satan would do almost any thing to undermine the gift of faith in us by creating doubts, fear, and discredit God’s Word and his character. Therefore, when faith is replaced by fear … it becomes the dark room where we develop all our negatives. But when faith replaces fear …. faith creates confidence, security, stability, peace of mind with God, it brings joy, and excitement into the life of the Christian, and yes, even in the midst of battle personal giants. Faith says love God for who God is, and not he does. Remember, there is no Goliath or a giant greater than our God.
I leave you with these final thoughts:
‘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 (giant)’
May the peace of the Lord which passes all understanding keep your heart and mind through Jesus Christ our Lord
-- Amen--
Rev. Samuel King-Kabu
June 25, 2006