1 Samuel 17:1-11, 26, 31-40
A Different Kind of Battle: Where is Your Battle Line?
I. Scripture
-Note a few things in the Scripture we read...
1. v. 2 "drew up in line of battle"
2. v. 8 "servants of Saul"
3. v. 11 "dismayed & greatly afraid."
4. v. 26 "armies of the living God."
II. Church is Losing
- We're losing "the battle."
- Ill. Teen Soap Opera "Gossip Girls" ads use borderline pornographic pictures.
1. Even secular critics are appalled by the tv series.
2. The ads use negative critique comments.
- Ill. New studies everyday show how many young adults are abandoning the church.
1. Age 18-22 leave the church, most, never to return.
2. This is not just a ‘phase,' it is Satan coming onto the Church's turf and dragging our children away!
- Ill. The church now looks the other way when it comes to most sin.
1. Everybody does, including the pastor, the leaders, the teachers, etc.
2. Scandal among clergy are common place!
- Ill. Abortion is all but a lost cause for the church.
1. Politicians will no longer stand for Christian values (Dem or Rep)
2. The church is in full retreat in the cultural battle.
- Query: Is the real battle a cultural battle?
III. The Real Battle
- Long before Chapter 17 a major battle was lost by the Israelites.
1. It was the battle for a righteous King.
2. In Ch. 15 "the Lord Rejects Saul" as king.
- If the Lord rejected Saul for his actions, I believe He has rejected our culture for the heinous and blatant sinfulness that we have come to tolerate!
- By Ch. 17 the Israelites were fighting the wrong kind of battle!
1. Against the Philistines
2. But they were not fighting the spiritual battle they should be fighting!
- We are fighting the wrong battle(s) too!
- Ill. "One" campaign to end poverty.
1. Jesus said you will always have the poor!
2. Wrong battle!
- We fight...
1. ...physical, emotional, political, and financial battles.
2. ...for our children, marriage, job, reputation/fame, to make a name for ourselves, etc.
- All wrong battles!
- There is a Goliath in our lives today and we are "dismayed and greatly afraid" of Him!
IV. Battle Lines
- Just as the Israelites drew up battle lines so we have drawn up lines with the world.
- Problem is we cannot win the battle b/c we're fighting it on the world's terms.
- The Gospel is polluted when sinful methods are used to gain holy ends.
1. The holiness of God has been subtracted to make way for our sinfulness when, just the opposite, is what God expects!
2. Disguised Evangelism and the Gospel message.
- Ill. Church bill board ad w/ half naked woman advertising sermon on modesty!?
- Christians too often are fighting the Devil on his terms!
1. We think we are helping God.
2. We are actually subtracting from His Holiness and the significance of the cross.
V. God's Victory
- God gets glory when by earthly standards He does the impossible.
- The reality is that everything is within the realm of the possible with God!
- Example: Healings in Scripture
1. Blind, lame, leprous
2. Lazarus raising from the dead.
- Example: virgin birth
1. Resurrection of Christ
2. Saul => Paul (conversion)
- Is God in control? Or are we?
- Ill. Flipping coins.
1. At best we can theorize and work out equation to calculate the probablity that the coins will turn up a certain way. (Two flips = heads & tails)
2. (If #1 gets heads then...)
3. Probability tells us that #2 will flip and we will get tails.
4. This is an educated, philosophical, guess, but actually a shot in the dark!
- But before the coin was ever created, before you were ever born, before the sun was ever formed in the hands of God, He knew all that would come to pass and that we would be standing here on July 27th [date preached] waiting to see what the coin flip turned out to be.
- It is no surprise to Him, because nothing is impossible to Him!
VI. What Can HE Do?
- Isaiah 54:17 "No weapon that is fashioned against you shall succeed, and you shall confute every tongue that rises against you in judgment. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord and their vindication from me, declares the Lord."
- 1 Samuel 17:34-36 "But David said to Saul, ‘Your servant used to keep sheep for his father. And when there came a lion, or a bear, and took a sheep from the flock, I went after him and struck him and delivered it out of his mouth. And if he arose against me, I caught him by his beard and struck him and killed him... and the uncircumcised Philistine will be like him.'"
1. He had done it with animals and this was no different for God.
2. David is fighting a whole different battle than everyone else!
- Point: Part of our problem is we have failed to identify the real enemy.
- We think the church is ineffective is because...
1. ...it is unpopular to the world (thus our battle is to make it popular).
2. ...we don't have the resources/talents/etc. the world has (battle then is to adopt them).
3. ...we don't have the programs the world has (battle to compete with them).
4. ...we don't have the advertising and publicity the world has (battle to sell ourselves to the world).
5. ...it's not as exciting as the world is (we're boring).
- And we draw up the wrong battle line!
- Ephesians 6:12 "For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places."
1. Two enemies identified: the rulers over the sinfulness/ darkness of this world
2. And spiritual forces of evil
VII. Effective Weaponry
- Point: May I propose that the reason the church is ineffective in our world today is because we have failed to pick up the proper weapons available to us!
- As soon as Saul thought he found somebody naive enough to risk his life he saddled him with armor.
1. David wasn't fighting that kind of battle.
2. David said in v. 39 "I cannot go with these, for I have not tested them."
3. He knew God would provide, but nothing else would for sure!
- As soon as we think we've found a movie star or a sports star or celebrity of some kind, we parade them around in front of the world like a "sow at the county fair" and say: "See we're getting more famous people on our side."
- What we don't realize is that our own "Christian" singers are running out the back door to the harlot that is called fame and fortune.
1. "I kissed a girl and I like it" Pop hit sung by Katy Perry, previously "Christian artist"
2. Jaci Velasquez acted in a movie in which she posed in only lingerie.
3. Southern Gospel singers = same thing
4. Ill. Paris Hilton's claim of salvation and then attendance at a playboy party!?
5. But we don't care as long as the world has formed a fan club for them.
6. God cares!
- Isaiah 54:14, 16a "In righteousness you shall be established; you shall be far from oppression, for you shall not fear; and from terror, for it shall not come near you.[16a] Behold, I have created the smith who blows the fire of coals and produces a weapon for its purpose."
- I don't care if you're a millionaire, movie star, famous musician, or just an average person.
- My question is can you get down on your knees and reach heaven with your prayers that will make a difference in eternity to your family and to your neighborhood and to your church?
- Prayer is our weapon!
- I want to know if ... Psalm 40:8 "I desire to do your will, O my God; your law is within my heart."
1. And if...
2. Psalm 119:11 "Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee."
- God's Word/ Sword is our weapon!
- Salvation is our armor!
1. Faith, Hope, & Love these are our resources!
- Have you tapped into the Holy Spirit.
- The reasons our churches/ Christians today are ineffective is b/c they do not have the Spirit! (We have everything but the Spirit.)
- Acts 6:5 And what they said pleased the whole gathering, and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit, and Philip, and Prochorus, ...
1. Acts 6:8 "And Stephen, full of grace and power, was doing great wonders and signs among the people."
- Holiness!
1. God doesn't take out ads in the local paper or on the radio... you are it!
2. God doesn't have a public relations department... you are it.
3. God doesn't have a seat on the UN... you are his ambassador!
4. But only when he has re-created you in His likeness... in holiness!
VIII. Conclusion
- Query: Who/what is our battle against if not all these other things?
- It is NOT...
1. ...a political party, human,
2. ...another church, the world,
3. ...hardship, or even the Devil.
- None of these things can separate us from the love of God. (Rom 8)
- Your Goliath is... (mirror)...you.
- The only solution: kill that person [crucify the self].
1. They have to die out.
2. Then the Spirit can live in the shell.
- All those weapons are to get rid of you to make room for the Spirit.
- The only way God is going to get the glory in your life, is if you fight the right battle.
1. A battle to the death.
2. A battle w/ the self!
- Then the Spirit has all of you!
1. Then the Spirit can completely fill you!
2. Then the Spirit can make you holy through and through!
