DEFEATING THE GIANTS IN YOUR LIFE - Pastor Sip Serrano

DEFEATING THE GIANTS IN YOUR LIFE

Restoration Sunday AM Service

12/31/2017

ILLUS:  Boxer having a bad day.

There was once a boxer who was being pummeled in the ring by his opponent.  Blow after blow by his adversary left him with a bloody nose, swollen eyes, and an enormous amount of pain.

The battered boxer’s trainer, trying to encourage his man between rounds, kept telling him, “You’re doing great, Fred.  That bum is barely touching you.”

To which the boxer responded, “Then you better keep your eye on that referee, because somebody is killing me!”

No amount of smooth talk could camouflage the reality of the bloody battle in which this fighter was engage.  Psychologically correct talk and personal encouragement could not mask the pain he was suffering.

       ILLUS:  Lots of Giants In My Life

1 Samuel 17

·      You heard it all of your life about David and Goliath.  I want to give you a different take on it today because I want to tell you how to beat the giants in your life.

(4) Then a champion came out from the armies of the Philistines named Goliath, from Gath, whose height was six cubits and a span.

·      First of all, we have a problem, the problems name is Goliath and he’s a giant. 

·      We are told that his height was six cubics and a span.  That’s approximately 9’6” tall.

·      A giant is something that looms largely in your life.  It’s huge.  It’s intimidating.  It’s big! 

·      A giant is any noun: person, place, thing, or thought that looms too big to conquer in your world. 

You know you have a giant in your life because it not only intimidates you; it controls your emotions.

(11) “And when Saul and all of Israel heard the words of the Philistine, they were dismayed and greatly afraid.” 

(24) “When all the men of Israel saw the man, they fled from him and were greatly afraid.” 

·      You know you have a giant in your life when it’s telling you how you got to feel, when it’s controlling your emotions, when it’s causing your peace to become disruptive.

·      “Don’t worry about anything; instead pray about everything.  Tell God what you need, and thank Him for all He has done.  Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand.  His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.”  Philippians 4:6-7

·      Isaiah 26:3
You will keep in perfect peace all who trust in You, all whose thoughts are fixed on You.

(16) “The Philistine came forward morning and evening for forty days and took his stand.” 

·      You know when something is a giant because it shows up in the morning and won’t let you go at night.  It’s attacking you all the time, day after day after day. 

·      Giants come in all shapes and sizes.  There are financial giants.  There are medical giants, circumstantial giants, and emotional giants.  They all have one thing in common; they want to own your world. 

·      They want to shape your emotions.  They want to dictate your well being. 

So here we are with a giant, enter a young man named David, a teenager who comes upon the scene where this giant has intimidated a whole nation, Saul and his army.  Bringing food from his father, Jesse to his brothers who are on the battle line and David comes facing the same problem with a different perspective.  Now if I were to ask you what did David use to kill Goliath, the giant in his life?  I’m sure many of you would say, a stone and a slingshot and certainly that was used as part of the program.  I would like to give you a more potent reason why David was able to slay the giant.  If you grab this reason, it will enable you to kill giants in your life. 

You see David had a different perspective and he recites it twice in verse 26 and verse 36.

(26) Then David spoke to the men who were standing by him, saying, “What will be done for the man who kills this Philistine and takes away the reproach from Israel?  For who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should taunt the armies of the living God?”

(36) 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 armies of the living God.”

Now if you read those verses too fast you’ll miss it.  David saw something that Saul and none of the other soldiers of Israel saw.  All of them saw a 9 foot 6 inch giant.  What David saw when he looked at him is, “That man has not been to the doctor.”  “Who is this uncircumcised Philistine?”

ILLUS:  Baby Sip – First Born

It was the presence or the absence of the circumcision that shifted David’s perspective.  A perspective is not what you see; a perspective is how you look at what you see.  Let me give you the spiritual principle for victory in spiritual warfare:  If all you see is what you see, you do not see all there is to be seen.  It is the enemy’s goal to keep you seeing only what you are seeing.  Because if he can keep you seeing only what you see, you will only react to what you see.  But if what you see is all you see, you will not see all there is to be seen. 

ILLUS:  Basketball Player Loses Contact

“Who he is this uncircumcised Philistine?”  What is it about circumcision that caught David’s attention?  In Israel, the sign of the covenant for the male was circumcision.  Circumcision brought you under the covenant of God.  Circumcision was a covenantal act. 

The question now is, what is a covenant?  A covenant in the Bible is a spiritually binding bond.  It was super glue.  A covenant in the Bible was something God established to inaugurate an official relationship with His people.  He established a covenant with Abraham.  He established a covenant with David.  He established a covenant with Israel.  The Bible says that marriage is a covenant.  The Bible says when you get saved you become part of the new covenant.  When you take communion you are participating in the new covenant. 

The Covenantal Relationship

A covenant involves far more than a contract.  In biblical covenant, you not only sign on the dotted line but you enter into an intimate relationship with the other person or persons in the covenant.  In other words, covenants are predicated on a relationship. 

ILLUS:  Jacob, Blair, & Amore

When God wanted to establish something officially and make it legal in the spiritual realm, He would covenant it.  This is an official term that unfortunately, many of God’s people don’t know about.  It is the authoritative term on how God relates to His people. 

David said, “That man hasn’t been to the doctor so that man is not in the covenant.”  Why was it important to know that that man wasn’t in the covenant?  Because covenant provides a covering.  When you’re under covenant, you’re under cover.  When it’s raining outside, you have an umbrella.  The umbrella is meant to cover you.  When you open up the umbrella it does not stop the rain, it just stops the rain from raining on you.  If you’re not saved today, you’re not with the covenant.  If you are saved today you have the covenant but you may not be under it, so you’re still going to get wet.  Everybody who is saved has the covenant but the question is, are you operating underneath it? 

It football everything is dependent upon the location of the football.  1^st down is determine by where the football is placed.  Touchdown is determined by whether the football crossed the plane of the goal line.  Field goals are determined by whether the football goes through the post.  Complete passes are determined whether the football was caught or dropped.  You take away the football and a billion dollar industry collapses.  That one little thing controls everything else. 

The victory or defeat in the spiritual battles in your life will be determined by your proximity to the covenant.  So if you don’t understand the covenant, if you’re not in the covenant, if you’re not underneath the covering of the covenant, then that means you are on your own. 

So many Christians although saved, are on their own and are running from the giants in their lives because they are not under cover.  It is your alignment to this covenant that makes a difference.  Many Christians want to date God when He wants a wedding ring.  They want to be in the vicinity of God without making a covenantal commitment to God and wonder why they don’t have victory or authority when the giants show up in their lives.  What they do is they transfer covenant for activities and wonder why, “I read my Bible but it’s not working.  I go to church but it’s not working.  I pray my prayers and nothing is working.”

The power is missing because the alignment is missing.  If you’re not covenantly aligned, despite that fact you’re saved, despite the fact you go to church, despite the fact you read your Bible, despite the fact you pray, without covenantal alignment you cannot draw down divine authority.  Everything you see visible and physical is preceded by something invisible and spiritual.  So if you want to correct something that is visible and physical, you must first identify the thing in the invisible and spiritual.  What Satan wants is to keep you dealing with what your five senses partake of; what you see, hear, taste, smell, & feel.  He wants to keep you in the physical so that you miss the spiritual, so that you’re not covenantal, so that there is no authority that you can draw down from heaven.  But once you see what you cannot see, you can deal with something beyond you do see.  If all you see is what you see, you do not see all there is to be seen. 

So David sees that this giant has not been to the doctor, so he has no divine authority associated with him.

(41) Then the Philistine came on and approached David, with the shield-bearer in front of him.  (42) When the Philistine looked and saw David, he disdained him; for he was but a youth, and ruddy, with a handsome appearance.  (43) The Philistine said to David, “Am I a dog, that you come to me with sticks?” 

And then Goliath makes the spiritual mistake.

(43) And the Philistine cursed David by his gods.

Now the Philistine went spiritual because he cursed David by his gods. 

ILLUS:  Romance of a Football Quarterback

Whoever had the ball inherited the problem.  The enemy is coming after the quarterback as long as the quarterback had the ball.  But once the quarterback hands off the ball, the enemy has to go to where the ball is.  Guess what?  Goliath says, “I’m coming to you in the name of my gods.”

(45) Then David said to the Philistine, “You come to me with a sword, a spear, and a javelin, but I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have taunted.

It became a spiritual battle.  David handed the football off.  I’m going to let my God fight your god.  If I can get my God to fight against your god, then I can handle you against me because I handed the problem off to someone who is bigger than you and your gods.  David did this because he understood the covenant and because he is operating covenantally.  David knows he has authority from on high. 

David is operating covenantally when he does an amazing thing.  He says, “I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel.”  He uses God’s name.  God has 85 different names in the Old Testament.  Why does God have 85 different names?  Because He attaches a name to a situation.  The name He attaches is relevant to the need of the scenario.  So guess what?  God has a name for your giant. 

When He creates in Genesis 1:1, He uses the name Elohim.  “In the beginning God created the heaven and earth.”  That’s His creation name.  When He creates man, He uses the name Jehovah.  When you see LORD capitalized, that’s Jehovah because that’s God’s relational name.  Now He wants to relate to man.  When He wants to show you He is in charge, He has a Hebrew name, Adonai (He’s your boss.  He’s your manager.  He’s the One to tell you what to do.).  When there’s a need to be met, He is Jehovah Jireh (Genesis 22).  He’s got all these names because He has all these situations we’re in. 

So going back to the battle He uses the name Jehovah Saba that means the Lord who oversees an army.  Why does He use that name?  Because Goliath and the Philistines is an army, so God has a name for whatever giant you are facing in your life.  He has the appropriate name.  Names are very important in the Bible and they are important to us too.  If I said “Bill Gates”, you think money.  If I say “Serena Williams”, you think tennis because those names have a reality attached to it.  You’re not going name your child Hitler or Benedict Arnold because what is attached to that name you don’t want attached to that child.  If you call somebody Chubby it means they’re fat.  If you call somebody Slim it means they are skinny because that name is reflecting a characteristic. 

God has all these names to reflect His character for the circumstance you find yourself in.  What He wants you to do is make your physical battle a spiritual battle so He can deal with the spiritual reality in which empowers you to deal with the physical reality that you are facing.  Satan wants you to deal with only the physical, skip the spiritual, because he knows if you skip the spiritual, he can control your life in the physical.  But if you ever see the covenant and are operating under cover, being able to draw down authority then you can use the name of God to overcome the false gods that are bringing about the physical challenge you are facing in your life. 

Goliath is real.  You cannot deny him.  He is 9’6”, don’t make him smaller than he really is but understand that behind him there is a spiritual reality that he has not been to the doctor so he doesn’t have final say so in your life.   

So church family, I want to challenge you today to go on the offense against your Goliaths, the things that loom big in your life and look undefeatable.  Start dictating to it in the name of God. 

(If time allows.  ILLUS:  SSSHH!  Giant might hear you.)  Faith moves mountains.  Doubt builds them.

“Crud, those people from Restoration are awake!”

Read “The Whisper Test”

1 Corinthians 3:16 NLT
"Don't you realize that all of you together are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God lives in you?"

Isaiah 41:10
“Don’t be afraid, for I am with you. Don’t be discouraged, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you. I will hold you up with my victorious right hand.”

Philippians 4:13
“For I can do everything through Christ, who gives me strength.”

Lamentation 3:22-23
“The faithful love of the Lord never ends! His mercies never cease.”
“Great is his faithfulness; his mercies begin afresh each morning.”

Numbers 23:19
“God is not a man, so he does not lie. He is not human, so he does not change his mind. Has he ever spoken and failed to act? Has he ever promised and not carried it through?”

Romans 8:32
“Since he did not spare even his own Son but gave him up for us all, won’t he also give us everything else?”