Facing our Goliath.

MELINDA RAE NELSONMONDAY, AUGUST 1, 20162 Reads

Yesterday I tried very hard to talk myself out of going to church. I was tired a
nd most of all I was feeling completely overwhelmed and saddened and kinda hopel
ess at a very important situation that we will be facing. I was hearing things s
uch as, "Why bother, You have no chance of achieving, You are wasting your time"
and the like.
After hearing such negativity from EVERY FRONT, then finding out just how BIG t
his problem is, when I say BIG I mean BEHEMOTH big, and how much opposition we w
ill be facing, I began to falter and I was just sad. So when I got up that morni
ng I tried not to go.
But then I got up and just went, bad attitude and all. On our way I called my hu
sband and in the very short conversation I shared with him the sheer magnitude o
f how big the issue was that we were up against and how disappointed I was in ju
st everyone and everything. I imagine he was like, Gee, thanks for those cheery 4
minutes. after I hung up quickly as we had arrived at church.
I was late, plopped my bad attitude into the chair and thought.
"I shoulda stayed home."
Turns out my Pastor wasn't even there as he was away on some important business,
and we were having someone else in the ministry preach.
So there I sat thinking about the situation at hand, how the situation was so im
portant to have victory in but the opposition in the way was so great, so much b
igger and just insurmountable.
I was thinking about how I would rather be home,
How I hate when the collection plate comes around and have nothing to put into i
t because I give Via Paypal.
How people might be looking at me going, "Man she NEVER puts in to the plate."
How I hate when I don't bring my Bible and I have to look up the scriptures on m
y phone, How maybe people will think I am on my phone Facebooking and not for re
ading the scripture.
How I should feel ashamed at having such thoughts about the people there judging
me because they have never ever given me cause to even have those thoughts.
How I hate that there were people sitting behind me because I was late I was una
ble to sit in the back row where I normally sit.
How I hoped that whoever was behind me was watching the doors and being vigilant
. (I know I am crazy)
How I hoped I wasn't affecting others with my bad attitude because I could feel
it oozing off of me and surely they could too.
How it was gonna be hotter and hotter outside every minute longer I stayed,
How I really wanted to go but if I got up with my purse to leave it might hurt t
he person giving the sermon, and finally,
How I was now stuck and couldn't go and how really sad I was at how big this tas
k was and I should just accept the failure and move on. (Just being honest)
Then Dymon began her sermon. She said that she would be speaking today about Dav
id and Goliath.
Then she said something along the lines of "Have you ever had a Goliath in your
life."
Ok folks, I just have to tell you that, if you don't think God is aware of what
we are going through on a very personal basis, I gotta tell you, you are DEAD WR
ONG.
So we started diving into the scripture and I will relate the story back to you
as it was impressed on me, she did a fine job, mine will be paraphrased and go i
nto areas that I was pressed to dwell on after the fact.
So we started going through the scriptures about how the Philistines gathered th
eir army and set up their camps to do battle.
Likewise Saul and the army of Israel came with their armies and set up to do bat
tle.
It says how the Philistines stood on a mountain on one side and how Israel stood

on the mountain on the other side and there was a valley between them.
Then from the Philistine's side came out a champion who was just of massive size
and and even more massive presence.
He yelled and challenged the army of Israel and said something along the lines o
f, "Do you really need your whole army to do battle? Pick one person to represen
t you and send him out here to represent you. He and I will do battle.
If he is able to kill me, then we will serve you, but if I kill him then you mus
t serve us!
He taunted them and defied their God and made fun of them. Like, You can't win oh
Big Bad Israel, Come on, bring it! You are nothing, your God is nothing. etc.
SidenoteA. Goliath might have been the biggest man they had ever seen, the closest to hi
s size would be Saul their King, who also had as much experience in battle as Go
liath, but Goliath was still FEET taller and wider than Saul and Saul was terrif
ied of Goliath.
B. If they lost, that meant their lives would be condemned to serving the Philis
tines who were the worst of the worst people around. Not only were they Pagans
and spit on Israels's God, they were more vile than the rest of the Pagans and e
ven were proud and rejoiced at killing their own children to sacrifice to their
gods for whatever reason.
So if Goliath won, the people of Israel would be over run by this people's moral
less, murdering, and Godless lifestyle. )))
Saul and the army of Israel were terrified and ran from the challenge. It should
be noted that the last time Israel battled the Philistines they annihilated the
m and had no doubt they woudl do it again. The fact that were in fear and ran ju
st goes to show just HOW BIG Goliath was.
Now for 40 days this went on. Saul tried bribing his soldiers with money, and ri
ches, and no taxes, and getting to marry his daughter. but day after day no one
would meet Goliath to fight.
Enter David.
David's brothers were in the army under Saul and followed Saul into battle, but
David the youngest was a shepherd as he was young, not yet old enough to join th
e Army and tended to his Father's sheep. It came a day that his Father instructe
d him to take some food to his brother's and their commanders and find out how t
hings were going.
So David, the next morning, secured his sheep with someone else and gathered the
supplies and went to the battle.
When David got there the army of Israel were on their way to the battle line to
fight, or so David thought. But when David ran to where the army was gathered t
o find his brothers he was shocked and dismayed to see that the whole army was s
tanding down in fear.
He seen Goliath in the middle of the valley, challenging them to send someone ou
t to fight him, defying his God and his people and he saw the entire company, hi
s brothers included, paralyzed with fear allowing him to do so.
He was incredulous! He couldn't understand why they were were not whooping that
pagan's butt! How DARE they let that filth defy their God and their army.
He questioned many men why this was happening and they all said, "Do you not see
that HUGE man? He is taunting us and making fun of us! The king has said whoeve
r defeats him will get the spoils!"
David was like WHAT?? Who is this "pagan"? he says with distaste that the King is g
oing to pay someone to kill to bring back our honor??" And questions them like,
"The King is going to do WHAT to beat this pagan??"
He TOTALLY is flabbergasted that Goliath is being allowed to defy Israel and tha
t the King is actually trying to bribe ANYONE to go kill him because they are al
l terrified. Including his own brothers and Saul.
I imagine he is like, "Go kill this fool, like, what is your problem?" to every
man he speaks to.
David's brother hears his tone and immediately approaches David and immediately
attacks him, saying things along the lines of "Why are you even here you shephe

rd?? "Quit acting like you could do something better and quit trying to get them
to fight by shaming them"!
David can t believe his own brother is treating him like that and isn t also trying
to get the men to take care of Goliath, or fighting Goliath his self, so David
turns away and proceeds to try to question them in hopes they will wake up and c
ome to their senses.
Eventually someone is like, "Yo Saul, this guy is down there kinda ticked we are
n't doing something and doesn't at ALL seem afraid of Goliath!" So Saul asked f
or them to bring him this man.
At this point Saul had offered ALOT to whomever would step forward so he is prob
ably very excited that someone has possibly stepped forward.
So David approaches Saul and said something along the lines of,
"Look you all don't have to be afraid anymore, I will go and battle this Philist
ine, not a problem."
At this point Saul probably wants to cry when he realizes it is David, who is hi
s harp player at times, who is walking up. I imagine he was hoping for a big str
ong man and he says to David, "You are just a boy! (unlearned and without any ex
perience) Goliath is a killer and has been a warrior since he was very young. (
Has YEARS of experience).
David responds to Saul with his experiences of having to chase down a lion and a
bear who has stolen one of his flock. He had to chase down the predators, he hi
t them until they let go of his sheep, then they turned on him to kill him and h
e hit them and fought them until they were dead.
He said something like, "Look I have prevailed and won in my own battles with se
rious opponents, I killed those opponents and I will do the same to this pagan,
especially considering he has defied us and our God."
Saul seen his faith and relented, said for him to go and prayed for God to be wi
th him.
Saul then gave him all of his own armor to protect him, gave him his helmet, Pu
t everything on David that he could to protect him.
David who is all mummified in this heavy metal and layers of protection, grabs S
aul's sword and tries to go out to battle.
Remember, David is a boy and small and Saul is a very big man so of course David
couldn't even move in all this "protection".
David strips all the "protection" off of him and grabbed his shepherd's stick, h
e gathered some stones into his bag, and his sling and went out to battle.
Goliath comes forth with his armor, his sword, his spear, his shield barer and o
f course is furious when he sees that the person they sent out to battle with hi
m is clearly not a warrior, has no experience in battle and not even a worthy op
ponent.
He sees it is just a boy with no armor, no sword, and no backup.
He is completely insulted and curses David and tells David, What am I a dog? You
gonna hit me with your stick? If you come to fight me the birds and beasts will
be soon feasting upon you.
David seeing this huge man with all his weapons, armor, protection and experienc
e replies to Goliath,
"You come to battle with me with your sword, your spear, all your armor, your he
lper who carries your shield, your size and all your years of experience.
But I come to you in the name of the Lord, The God of Israel who you hast defile
d, and on this day He WILL deliver you to me, and I am gonna kill you, and then
I am going to cut off your big ugly head, feed your body and the bodies of your
army to the animals of the wild and I WILL defeat you and ALL the world is going
to see and know that there is a God of Israel.
They will see God did not need me to have swords or spears, because the battle i
s HIS and HE will give you into our hands!
Then David RAN at Goliath and well..the rest is history. The battle was already
won before David even took the battle field. I like the way that he RAN at him,
he had no hesitation and was eager to end this battle and to give God the glory
.
The way he killed him wasn't about the small stone he shot at him, or how he the

n stabbed Goliath and removed his head with Goliath's own sword, but about his f
aith and certainty that God indeed WOULD deliver Goliath to him.
The army of Israel and Saul couldn't accomplish what David had because all they
could see was this HUGE, seemingly impossible, unbeatable thing.
They were afraid because they were trying to rely on themselves, their strengths
, their weapons and they knew there was no way to beat that big of an opponent.
David was able to overcome this humongous hurdle because he didn't see Goliath a
s this HUGE threat and unbeatable force to be feared. All he seen was this paga
n that was defying his GOD and he knew that HIS God could overcome anything.
David didn t listen to the army telling him it couldn t be done, he didn t listen to h
is brother telling him he was prideful and foolish and it couldn t be done.
He didn t listen to his own King who told him he didn t have enough experience and t
hat he was outmatched.
He only knew that God had shown him before he would help him in his battles, and
he KNEW that no matter what everyone else said. God would win this battle.
So I might have taken some liberties with the dialogue and how Dymon presented t
his sermon, but you can see that God clearly knew where I was in my heart and kn
ew this is where my heart and mind would be on that particular day and prepared
that message for Dymon to deliver days before Sunday.
I am sure that the sermon spoke to alot of us as we all face problems that seem
huge.
But I KNOW this particular day that the little details of the story and the stor
y itself was EXACTLY what I needed.
In fact after re reading it later on, I was able to see how closely similar the
Goliath and what is at stake in this story was to our issue.
Even down to how the armies were on the same mountain, one on one side, on on th
e other with a valley between them, and how they sent out one person to represen
t them against one person to represent us.
How everyone on Israel s side was in fear and said, We can t beat them, they are too
big!
But it took just one unexperienced, outspoken boy to take a stand.
To have faith that GOD could do this. To step out in faith, and to SLAY that Gol
iath!! WOOHOOO!!
So I am very happy that I went, I heard the message that God was sending me, I r
eceived it loud and clear!! Thank you Father, sometimes it seems that we are all
alone down here, and people say you have left us and have lifted your hand off
of us, but that simply is not true.
You are still here and still checked in and I thank you for taking the time to s
how me that you hear my heart, you hear my pleas, and for answering.
Dymon did a great job and I appreciate that when she felt prompted to deliver th
at message she obeyed!