Preaching

‘5 Giants Pt 2’ 

An extract from Romans 8 in the Message version of the bible

If God didn’t hesitate to put everything on the line for us, embracing our condition and exposing himself to the worst by sending his own Son, is there anything else he wouldn’t gladly and freely do for us? And who would dare tangle with God by messing with one of God’s chosen?

Who would dare even to point a finger? The One who died for us—who was raised to life for us!—is in the presence of God at this very moment sticking up for us. Do you think anyone is going to be able to drive a wedge between us and Jesus’ love for us? There is no way! Not trouble, not hard times, not hatred, not hunger, not homelessness, not bullying threats, not backstabbing. None of this fazes us because Jesus loves us.

I’m absolutely convinced that nothing—nothing living or dead, angels or powers, today or tomorrow, high or low, thinkable or unthinkable—absolutely nothing can get between us and God’s love because of the way that Jesus our Lord has embraced us.

Last week we looked at 5 destructive attitudes concealed in the story of David and Goliath
that can be the giants that attack our spiritual growth. This week we look at the 5 things that shatter those destructive giants in our lives and set us free from them, symbolised by the 5 stones David carried for his catapult.

Number 1 Giant Goliath. His name means splendour and symbolically speaking Goliath represents the splendour of the world, and indeed Goliath looked splendid on that day stood in his shiny armour towering above everyone. The world admires the intellect more than God and that’s why the first stone struck Goliath’s forehead the seat of the mind, the source of good ideas not God ideas. Our intellect can be an enemy of our spirits when our man made good ideas oppose God’s leading in our lives.

The answer to the giant of the worlds wisdom, ideals and values is Jesus, Jesus said, “I have overcome the world” Joh 16:33, And it is to Jesus we must always look; as Paul wrote of those who trust the Lord, “it is in Him we live and move and have our being” (Ac 12:28).
When we have a desire for Jesus it reduces our craving to control our lives using our own understanding. It leads us gradually trust more in His path for us through this life.

The second giant Ishbi-benob is found in 2Sa 21:16; his name means, “my dwelling is on the heights.” He symbolises the pride that looks down on others. Ishbi-benob attacked David when he was at his weakest and David’s servant Abishai came to David’s aid and killed the giant of pride. Abishai means gift and Eph 2:8 tells us that faith is a gift from God. Pride affects us all in different ways and in different measures. However pride can be defeated by the gift of faith. Faith is the gift from God that tells us that we are all equal before God and that everything we have and have achieved comes from Him. Jesus said in Joh 15:5 “apart from me you can do nothing.” When we acknowledge that all we have comes from Jesus we have nothing to boast about and pride is defeated.

The third giant is found again in 2Sa 21:18; his name is Saph meaning door. The thing about a door is that it has two sides to it and so points to hypocrisy.As a door has two sides, we all also can have two sides to us, and sometimes we can be two faced in various ways. The prophet in Is 53:2. said of Jesus, “He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.” If Jesus had nothing in His appearance to desire Him; why do we place such importance on how we appear to others? The only way not to be hypocritical, two sided, two faced is to look to Jesus and rely on how he sees us, He always looks with eyes of love and that is what counts, God knows all sides of us and loves us, unconditionally exactly as we are.

Sib-bechai another servant of David defeated the two faced giant. Sib-bechai means ‘interwoven’, pointing to the way our lives are woven together with Jesus’ life. According to Gal 2:4 it is only in Christ Jesus, that we have our freedom, and we want to be free from trying to be something we’re not. In Jesus we please God right now, exactly as we are because Jesus makes us worthy before God, we don’t have to turn ourselves inside out to conform to how people think we should be, we don’t have to pretend to be someone we are not.

The fourth giants name is Lahmi, (2Sa 21:19 1Ch 20:5) which means full of food, and the wrong kind of food can kill us. It’s the same for our spiritual health, our spiritual lives can be scarred by the appetites and desires of our humanity. In our humanity we can gorge ourselves on all the wrong spiritual foods that fill us up but don’t nourish us, however our spirituality is best nourished on a diet of spiritual bread and water, the bread of life is Jesus, and the living water is the Holy Spirit.

Our humanity is put off by what seems to be a very simple spiritual diet, our humanity always wants more, desires more and it’s the more that harms us. We have to remove the spiritual crap from our diet, CRAP stands for Christian Religious Activities And Practices. Things we do, that we think add to our standing with God which rely on our abilities. This is unhealthy spiritual junk food, we don’t need it, Jesus did a complete work for us to make us totally right with God, nothing we do can add to that. The bread of life and the living water is all we need for spiritual health and vitality, as Paul writes in Php 1:7,11 we are fully nourished by being “partakers of God’s grace” and so “filled with the fruits of righteousness” 1:11. Lahmi was conquered by El-hanan, which means “God is gracious” and it is only the grace and graciousness of God that will really satisfy us.

And so to the last and fifth giant. A giant with no name, but a giant with six fingers found in 2Sa 21:20 and this points to the fact that we firmly hold on to things. We have a tendency to hold on to power, the power we have over our lives; we may say, and sometimes even sing “All for Jesus” or, sing “all my ambitions hopes and plans I surrender these into your hands” Do we say it, sing it, and then often we are holding tight to things in different parts of our lives, often without knowing it.

The person who destroyed the six fingered giant was Jonathan, his name means, “God-given.” The key for each of us in overcoming this giant is thankfulness to God for the things He has given us. Whatever we possess, our material things, our talents, our abilities, the people in our lives, all have come from God. Ephesians 5:20 says, “Give thanks to God for everything…”

When we truly realise that everything we have comes from Him, that makes it easier to let things go when life takes them from us, the advise is, keep a loose hold on the things of this world. Whatever we possess, from the richest to the poorest of us, it is all because of the grace of God. Always remember God’s words, “My grace is sufficient for you.” His grace is all sufficient, “Give thanks to God for everything…”

The number of grace is five, the number of stones David needed to defeat the giants in his life. When we wear our our spiritual glasses from Grace and Faith the opticians, we are better able to see all that God has done for us, and all that He has given us. On our spiritual journey, when giant obstacles get in the way of our progress, we can overcome them in Jesus. Remember Jesus has promised to walk with us, so whatever we face, Jesus is our constant companion, helper and deliverer.

In the David and Goliath story the giant fell on his face to the ground, but Jesus will never let us fall on our faces. Jesus five, giants nil… Remember Jesus wears the victors crown.
Relying on Him is our way to over come them all