3rd Sermon 2-16-2016 Large Font

PrayerScriptureToday’s scripture comes from 1Samuel 17: 1- 11, 1 Now the Philistines gathered their armies together to battle, and were gathered at Sochoh, which belongs to Judah; theyencamped between Sochoh and Azekah, in Ephes Dammim. 2 And Saul and the men of Israel were gatheredtogether, and they encamped inthe Valley of Elah, and drew up

in battle array against the Philistines. 3 The Philistines stood on a mountain on one side, and Israel stood on amountain on the other side, with a valley between them. 4 And a champion went out from the camp of the Philistines, named Goliath, from Gath, whose height was six cubits and aspan. 5 He had a bronze helmet on his head, and he was armed with a coat of mail, and the weight of the coat was five

thousand shekels of bronze. 6 And he had bronzearmor on his legs and a bronze javelin between his shoulders. 7 Now the staff of his spear was like a weaver’s beam, and his ironspearhead weighed six hundred shekels; and a shield-bearer went before him. 8 Then he stood and cried out to the armies of Israel, and said tothem, “Why have you come outto line up for battle? Am I not aPhilistine, and you the servants

of Saul? Choose a man for yourselves, and let him come down to me. 9 If he is able tofight with me and kill me, thenwe will be your servants. But if I prevail against him and kill him, then you shall be our servants and serve us.”10 And the Philistine said, “I defy the armies of Israel this day; give me a man, that we may fighttogether.” 11 When Saul and allIsrael heard these words of thePhilistine, they were dismayed and greatly afraid.

TitleMy title for today’s sermon is“Are you prepared for the stormupon you?”.Body Exegesis Verse 1 – Says the Philistines gathered their forces pitched their camp at Ephes Dammim “which translates to “the end of bloodshed”. Verse 2 – King Saul has assembled the Israelites in the Valley of Elah

Verse 3 – paints the picture that these two armies preparing to battle, the Philistines on one hillside with the Israelites assembled on the other hillside with a valley between them. This valley separates these two armies prepared to battle. We have seen this play out on many occations, two opposing force staring one another down, but then verse 4 says!

Verse 4 – A champion steps forward, which translates to “a man of two middles”. This champion named Goliath from Gath. The text says his height was “six cubits and a span”. Many scholars have various conversions of this height, the general agreement is “a cubit to be approximately eighteen inches and a span to equal six, this figures to a height of approximately nine feet, six inches”. 9’6” of a man stands

before them. Just to give a comparison, Shaquille O’Neal stands on 7’1” and weighs 325 pounds, the tallest man recorded is Robert Pershing Wadlow standing an incredible 8’11”. And even these two giant of men are still not as tall at GOLIATH! The Champion of the Philistines standing before the Israelites.Verse 5 – 7, describe Goliath’s impressive amour. He wore a helmet made of

bronze, and armed with acoat of mail, weighing fivethousand Shekels of bronze.A coat of mail during thesetimes, meant “clothed in ashirt of scales”, this layeredmetal forming scales,weighing five thousandshekels. Various scholarshave approximated this to bebetween one hundred andtwenty-five (125) pounds andtwo hundred and fifty (250)pounds. Goliath had bronzeleg armor with a bronze

javelin between his shoulders. A staff like a weavers beam weighing six hundred shekels; approximately seventy pounds (70).Now let’s a moment to placethis into perspective, with theinformation before us. We havethis giant of a man, who hasstepped forth as the championof the philistines (standing infront of their army), standing 9feet 6 inches which would haveplaced him around six to seven

hundred pounds, wearingarmor that many of us could noteven lift never mind wearingand preparing to do battle in,with an impressive staff! Verse 8 – says Goliath shouted, cried out, yelled at the ranks of the Israelites. “Why do you come out and line up for battle?”, in other words you know the rules! I am standing as a challenge before you. “Choose a man and have him come down to me”. Goliath is throwing

down the challenge, insulting the Israelites for not accepting his challenge. Making it plan, we can solve this problem with little bloodshed.Verse 9 – says simply your champion verses me, winner take all.Verse 10 - Philistine said, “I defy the armies of Israel this day; give me a man, that we may fight together.” I defy the armies of Israel ... give me a man, that we may fight

together. In cases of single combat, a warrior used to go out in front of his party, and, advancing toward the opposite ranks, challenge someone to fight with himFinally Verse 11 – “When Saul and all Israel heard these words of the Philistine, they were dismayed and greatly afraid”.Now one would have expectedKing Saul who was in his ownright a giant of a man, both in

his physical stature and thenumber of victories he had overopposing armies including thePhilistines not long ago. Whywould the recently defeatedPhilistines find the courage toattempt another battle? Whywould they chance anotherdefeat, with this time thepossibility of total inhalation?Could the Philistines haveheard that there was a fallingout of Saul with Samuel, or thatas the text says in 1 Samuel16:14 “But the Spirit of

the Lord departed from Saul,and a distressing spirit fromthe Lord troubled him”. Has thegreat king Saul lost his power,his grace and mercy with thelord?As the text says in verse 10,Saul was dismayed andgreatly afraid. As I researchedthose two words dismayed andafraid. I found in varioustranslation such words as: New King James says “they were dismayed and greatly afraid”

Holman Christian Standard say ‘they lost their courage and were terrified” The Geneva Bible says “they were discouraged and greatly afraid”Brenton Translaton of the Septuagint (LXX) says “they were dismayed, and greatly (USES) terrified”Bible in Basic English says “were troubled and full of fear”

New Century Version says “they were very scared”The Complete Jewish Bible says “they were (USES) shaken and terrified.”New Living Translation says “they were terrified and deeply shaken”The Emphasised Bible says “they were dismayed, and (USES) feared exceedingly”The Message says “they were terrified and lost all hope”

It’s funny how when we findourselves at the lowest point inour lives, the devil will sendmore to pile on. The devil willincrease your load in theattempt to break your spirit.Was this that moment for KingSaul, had he reached hisbreaking point? Had the devilraised this giant of a mannamed Goliath from Gath, andgiven him to the recentlydefeated Philistines to finallycrush King Saul?

Body, ExamplesWe have all be in this place,when we are one straw fromloosen our minds, on the doorstep of giving up, ready to walkaway for that relationship,ready to stay down for thecount, I know I have been there.We've all been there at one timein a life, staring across themountain at a giant of aproblem, a giant of an obstacle,

our own version of Goliathstanding before us; wearingarmor that appearsimpenetrable. Throwing insultsand taunting at us to comedown and do battle. And youcan feel in your spirit this giantwas only sent by the devil,sensing you are already down,and ready to give up. This evilwas sent to break your spiritand take your joy. How do wedefeat this problem before us?Do we stand like King Saul andthe army of the Israelites?

Frozen, Frighten, Paralyzed orsimply too terrorized to move.As the foregoing chapters haveshown the spirit of GOD hadleft Saul: and God had alreadyput in motion the futuresuccessor to King Saul, KingDavid. Who many have agreedwas the most successful leaderof Israel. But on this day,within these eleven verses KingSaul and the Israelites areDismayed and Greatly Afraid.I remember as a child growingup in Boston and the

neighborhood bully issued achallenge. He schedule a fight!You know how, it’s when afight has been placed on thedocket, and all the kids in theneighborhood know. Nowgrowing up in the 80’s wasgood but don’t let Al B Sure orDeBarge fool you, light skinnedwith good curly hair had itsdrawbacks.Now BLACK MIKE, yes I saidit BLACK MIKE as he wasknown in the neighborhood hadissued a challenge, and this

Light skinned kid had a fightscheduled. Now BLACKMIKE, had fought a number ofkids in the hood and wonprofoundly, his belt was full ofvictories. I too had a number ofvictories myself, but minewhere never provoked theywere the result of defendingmyself or my family.But BM issued the challenge.My mother heard of it and toldme, you can either fight him orfight me! What?! I either had tofight BLACK MIKE or my

mother? She took no prisoners,and I knew a fight with her wascertainly a loosing battle, so Iwent outside to deal withMIKE.My the time I arrived the entireneighborhood had shown up forthis prize fight, I didn’t knowthis many tickets were evensold. In the hood we had ourown version of social media,and it worked just as fast.I will never forget, as I stood inthe circle of kids with MIKE infront of me and my mom

looking from the 3rd floorwindow of our apartmentbuilding. I turned to MIKE withthe look that I was prepared tofight until one of us was leftstanding, win or lose I wasgoing to give him a fight to theend. ***********Start Song 2:11How do we stand an deal withthe enemy before us? MavinSapp answered the question inhis song “Never Would HaveMade it” when he said, “I madeit through my storm and my test