Beforehand: Be sure to check out Pastor Ben’s message online if you were not able to catch it on Sunday morning.

Below is the outline of Pastor Ben's message.

The Deep Six Study follows.

Flinch - “What Are You Looking At?”

1 – Counting on Armor – 1 Samuel 17:38-39

2 – Staring at Giants – 1 Samuel 17:32-33

3 – Seeing God on the Battlefield – 1 Samuel 17:45-46; Hebrews 11:27

Deep Six Study

Introduction

Psalm 118:5-9, 14 – “From my distress I called upon the LORD; the LORD answered me and set me in a large place. The LORD is for me; I will not fear; what can man do to me? The LORD is for me among those who help me; therefore I will look with satisfaction on those who hate me. It is better to take refuge in the LORD than to trust in man. It is better to take refuge in the LORD than to trust in princes …. The LORD is my strength and song, and He has become my salvation.”

The greatest battle ever fought was the battle for our souls that our Savior waged against sin and death through His death, burial, and resurrection whereby He won eternal salvation for all who put their trust in Him. The battle against sin and death is our battle but it is not a battle that we are able to wage. Jesus Christ had to fight this battle alone because only He could wage it and win. There is absolutely no room for our participation in this battle. Eternal salvation is essentially a forever relationship between us and God whereby we exist for Him and He accomplishes His purposes in us and through us. While we could not participate in the battle to secure this relationship, we go forward in relationship with God facing together the enemies and battles that lie ahead. God’s plan for dealing with the giant Goliath included both David’s and God’s participation. Certainly, God could have directly eliminated Goliath without any human participation. There are a number of instances where God intervened for Israel in a direct way in conquering an enemy that included no participation on Israel’s part. But in the battle against Goliath it is both David and God. How we look to God so that our participation with Him is just what it should be is the focus of this week’s Deep Six Study.

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Part 1 - Corresponds to the first point of the message

1 Samuel 17:38-39 – “Then Saul gave David his own armor—a bronze helmet and a coat of mail. David put it on, strapped the sword over it, and took a step or two to see what it was like, for he had never worn such things before. ‘I can’t go in these,’ he protested to Saul. ‘I’m not used to them.’ So David took them off again.”

Philippians 3:3, 7-10 – “For we are the true circumcision, who worship in the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh …. But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ, and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith, that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death.”

Ephesians 1:18-23 – “I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe. These are in accordance with the working of the strength of His might which He brought about in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. And He put all things in subjection under His feet, and gave Him as head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.”

Comment – Understanding what it really means to rely on God is vital. David kept in step with God and knew how to rely on Him. David was prepared for his moment with Goliath because he had learned to rely on God while caring for and protecting his sheep against powerful predators which included acquiring and using a set of skills that made him a formidable opponent. David chose not to use Saul’s armor and sword. They would only get in the way of him being able to employ fully the skill set God had given Him. David would not rely on armor and although he would be using the skills at his disposal, David reliance was on God and not those skills. It seems evident that David’s going forward to do battle with Goliath was no mere response to the need of the moment but a true call by God to be used for His purposes through His strength and power. David relied on God thoroughly and completely and we must do the same. When we participate with God it does not mean part God and part us. It means all of God (with the same power by which Christ was raised from the dead) working in us and through us as we rely on Him thoroughly and completely.

Question # 1 – Can you think of some current way an attempt to wear the “armor of another” might get in the way of contending with a modern day giant?

Question # 2 – Can you think of a time when you experienced “resurrection power” in battling a giant you faced?

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Part 2 - Corresponds to the second point of the message

1 Samuel 17:32-33 – “‘Don’t worry about this Philistine,’ David told Saul. ‘I’ll go fight him!’ ‘Don’t be ridiculous!’ Saul replied. ‘There’s no way you can fight this Philistine and possibly win! You’re only a boy, and he’s been a man of war since his youth.’”

Numbers 13:30-33 - “Then Caleb quieted the people before Moses and said, ‘We should by all means go up and take possession of it, for we will surely overcome it.’ But the men who had gone up with him said, ‘We are not able to go up against the people, for they are too strong for us.’ So they gave out to the sons of Israel a bad report of the land which they had spied out, saying, ‘The land through which we have gone, in spying it out, is a land that devours its inhabitants; and all the people whom we saw in it are men of great size. There also we saw the Nephilim (the sons of Anak are part of the Nephilim); and we became like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight.’”

Deuteronomy 9:1-3 – “Hear, O Israel! You are crossing over the Jordan today to go in to dispossess nations greater and mightier than you, great cities fortified to heaven, a people great and tall, the sons of the Anakim, whom you know and of whom you have heard it said, ‘Who can stand before the sons of Anak?’ Know therefore today that it is the LORD your God who is crossing over before you as a consuming fire. He will destroy them and He will subdue them before you, so that you may drive them out and destroy them quickly, just as the LORD has spoken to you.”

Comment – For 40 days Israel was confounded by the giant Goliath. This isn’t the first time Israel had a problem like this. Back before Israel took possession of the land God had promised to them, Goliath’s ancestors were seen by the spies who spied out the land in preparation for Israel entering and possessing the land. But instead of it being merely preparation so they knew what they would be relying on God to accomplish, they used Giants as an excuse to be disobedient about going in and taking possession. It doesn’t matter that God is God and it doesn’t matter that God has promised and commanded, giants are too big to deal with. Saul and his army are so like their ancestors and we are so like them. We get so focused on the giant before us that we forget that with every giant we encounter, God has promised His presence and power, the same power with which Christ was raised from the dead. Perhaps giants would not overwhelm us if we were more like David who practiced reliance on God’s presence and power day after day as he fulfilled his duties as a mere shepherd boy and then could go forward in the same way to face Goliath.

Question # 3 – Is there a giant in your life right now that overwhelms you and over which you find it hard to find victory from God ?

Question # 4 – What insights have you gained for why practically speaking giants often seem bigger to us than God?

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Part 3 – Corresponds to the third point of the message

1 Samuel 17:45-46 – “David replied to the Philistine, ‘You come to me with sword, spear, and javelin, but I come to you in the name of the LORD of Heaven’s Armies—the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. Today the LORD will conquer you, and I will kill you and cut off your head. And then I will give the dead bodies of your men to the birds and wild animals, and the whole world will know that there is a God in Israel!’”

Hebrews 11:27 – “Motivated by faith he left Egypt behind him, being unawed and undismayed by the wrath of the king; for he never flinched but held staunchly to his purpose and endured steadfastly as one who gazed on Him Who is invisible.”

Hebrews 2:9, 14-15 – “But we do see Him who was made for a little while lower than the angels, namely, Jesus, because of the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, so that by the grace of God He might taste death for everyone …. Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same, that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and might free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives.”

Hebrews 12:1-3 – “Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.”

Comment – All through the Old Testament the Holy Spirit would come upon select individuals for the accomplishing of God’s special purposes. This was true of Saul initially, but after being severely disobedient, God removed this anointing from Saul and gave it to David. The transition from Saul being king to David being king took awhile. This encounter with the Philistines and Goliath is a part of that transition. It is interesting that David’s anointing took place while he was still shepherding his father’s flocks and surely had a lot to do with His being in step with the Lord and knowing how to rely on Him completely. David certainly stood before Goliath with a perspective that towered above the giant. Surely, God and the armies of Heaven were in David’s view as he went forward boldly and powerfully to do battle with the Giant, Goliath. The beauty of our forever relationship with God is that He dwells within us because we, like David, have been anointed with the Holy Spirit. We too can learn to be in step with God and know how to rely on Him fully and completely day by day, so that when we encounter Giants we will clearly see Him who though unseen with human eyes is seen with the eyes of the heart.

Question # 5 – What are some ways that you have learned to turn your eyes on the Lord so that you see Him more clearly in the midst of your circumstances?

Question # 6 – In a response to God and a renewal of faith will you ask Him to make alive in you and through you all that He is for all that you face?

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Conclusion

Psalm 20:6-8 – “Now I know that the LORD saves His anointed; He will answer him from His holy heaven with the saving strength of His right hand. Some boast in chariots and some in horses, but we will boast in the name of the LORD, our God. They have bowed down and fallen, but we have risen and stood upright.”

We must not rest until we come to understand as fully as possible God’s part and our part in the living out of our lives while we are here on earth. The story of David and Goliath is extremely instructive in regard to how the two are meant to blend properly. As we have said, it is not part God and part us. It is all of God living in and through all of us. We must ask God to show us more completely what this means and of course it must be practiced day by day in the smaller arenas of life if we are ever going to conquer the giants we encounter along the way. This is in reality is what it means to live fully for God and He awaits to help mightily in this pursuit.

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Under “comments” in the Deep Six section of the church website post your thoughts, applications, and questions on anything from this week’s Deep Six Study.