TRAPPED IN TRIAL: How to Slay your Giant - Goliath and the Sons of Anak

We're all aware of the promise that God has given us of salvation in Christ. But God has also come to give us promises upon the earth. Promises like that he will be a father to us who fights for us, and that he will never leave us nor forsake us. And that he will make us ride on the heights of. Of the nations. That he will supply your every need and that he has plans. Plans for your welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and hope, but on the way to believing in God's promises and power. Giants arise. Giants that stand right between us and. And God's promises. And some of you are now fighting in a war, whether you know it or not. Some of you are fighting for your marriage. Some of you are fighting poverty. Some of you are fighting the love of money. Some are fighting lustful desires. And maybe you're fighting disease, depression, or demonic oppression. Some are fighting unforgiveness, betrayal, loss. And some are fighting for their friends and their family. Whatever you're fighting for, the question is, what will you do next? You see, there's one or two things you'll do. Number one, maybe you'll fear. And fear is easy. It means cowering in a corner, giving up and doing nothing, hoping that the trial resolves itself or that your giants will go away on their own. Or number two, you'll try faith. And faith is difficult. It means entering a spiritual war against what the Bible calls dark principalities that want your life, your marriage, your body, your career, everything destroyed. And people ask questions like, well, how do I just get rid of this giant? How do I get out of this trial? I just want to live at peace. I don't want to fight, I don't want to face. But you should really ask instead of God, how do you take me out of this trial? Ask God, what are you teaching me about myself? What are you teaching me about you in the midst of this trial? Because when you know the answer to that, you realize that it's not about running away from the trial, but boldly walking through it. See, you need to understand something about God. He promised us in Exodus 14:14 that I will fight for, for you. And you have only to be silent. And the silence that is spoken about here is not the silence of we don't do anything. It's the silence of be still and know that he is God. It is you stepping out in boldness because you know who your God is in comparison to this trial. And you will be silent and witness his power overtake your. Your trial. See, I want to give you an example of this. In Israel's case, they too were made a promise that they would be freed from their slavery in Egypt. And let's be honest, they went through a lot. They're running from Pharaoh, and then they're in a wilderness where there's no food or water, and they're walking these long distances. Time is ticking. They're wondering, when are we going to arrive in this promised land. But then there's these miracles that come upon every challenge. First we see as they run from Pharaoh, God splits the sea and then drowns Pharaoh. We see when they don't have food or water, that God provides manna from heaven and water from a rock. When they're walking these far distances, it's written that God made their shoes not wear out. And then right before they get to this promised promised land, they send out these spies to see what is in the land, what is before us, what do we need to know moving ahead in this final track. And so we see that they come back with this report, as many of you know, of these literal giants that are in the land. I mean, let's just put ourselves in Israel's shoes for a moment. Even though their shoes haven't been wearing out. They've been going through a lot, and it's been trial after trial, and now it seems like it's just become too much for them. I want to read to you numbers 13 2, where we pick up this story where it says, send men to spy out the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the people of Israel. From each tribe of their fathers, you shall send a man, everyone, a chief among them. So God comes to Israel and says, I'm giving you this land. It's a promise. It's a given. It's what I want. And that's what God does for all of us. He says, like in Jeremiah 29:11, I desire for you to have welfare, a good future, and hope. See, God will allow us to get a glimpse of the promise, just like he allowed Israel to send out these spies to spy out the land, to get a glimpse of the coming promise. But he didn't just let them see the promise. He also let them see that which stood in front of the promise. Giants. And this tested the hearts of Israel. I mean, you know, God allows us to be tested, and he does it with purpose. He knows what he's doing. He wants to see if, even if we see what he's blessing us with, if our hearts will fail us when we see Something standing before it, because we don't believe that he's able to make a path right through it because of his power. See, and this is really where the rubber meets the road and where many people's hearts fail them. And even though they call themselves Christian and believer, the moment that they see a giant in front of their promise, their hearts fail them. I want you to see in Numbers 13:23 how God reveals the promise to Israel. And it says, and they came to the valley of Eskol and cut down from there a branch of a single cluster of grapes. And they carried it on a pole between two of them. They also brought some pomegranates and figs. Okay, hold up. I mean, let's just think about this. They're in the middle of a wilderness where they were struggling to get water. They had to get water out of a rock by a miracle of God. They had to get manna from heaven because they're in a desert. And next thing they know, they see these spies come back with clusters of grapes, pomegranates, figs, so much so big that it's carried between two men on a pole. And now these men, these same men who's bringing this glimpse of the promise brings them a word. And we read in numbers 1333, they say, there we saw the Nephilim, the sons of Anak who come from the Nephilim. And we seem to ourselves like grasshoppers. And so we seemed to them. Now, I want us to really understand what Israel was seeing there. You know, we don't exactly know how tall the giants were that they were facing in that moment, but we do know how tall some of the other giants were. Like we read in Deuteronomy 3:11 about King Og of Bashan. And it's written that, behold, his bed was a bed of iron. Nine cubits was its length and four cubits its breadth, according to the common cubit. Now, if you take this to feet, like for my American friends, that is 13.5ft long. Okay? I am a tall guy. I am 6.1ft. This giant, King Og of Bashan, is more than double my length. It's also described that the people that they were going up against were greater and taller than they and the cities so great that they were fortified up to heaven. Israel is faced with this army of giants with their castles stretching into heaven, with tall buildings. Can you imagine how big the doors alone were? And now you have these Israelites who were slaves before. They're not even trained warriors, and they're thinking to themselves, this is physically impossible. Like, for us to even consider physical facing these giants would be foolish. And now I want to ask you the same question. What is there in your life that you could say right now is physically impossible to overcome? What is the castle that is stretched into heaven with giants guarding it that is in your life right now, standing right before that thing that God has promised you. And now you're confused. You're thinking, God, have you let me down? Did I mishear you? Is your promises not for me? Should I maybe turn around and go back to where I came from? Should I maybe try and reset on my life? Should I retreat? Maybe you've even decided to just hunker down in your wilderness and set up a permanent home where you were only ever supposed to temporarily camp because you're scared of facing the giant ahead. But I want you to see what happens next for Israel. Numbers 13, 30. But Caleb quieted the people before Moses and said, let us go up at once and occupy it, for we are well able to overcome it. And I just imagine when Caleb said that, it was like crickets in the camp, everyone thinking, what, are you kidding me? Have you not heard about those giants? And it says, then the men who had gone up with him said, we are not able to go up against the people for they are stronger than we are. And you know, when I read this, it's kind of like a duh moment. Yes, Caleb obviously saw the same giants you did, but Caleb had a different perspective. See, it's all about perspective. If you see these giants and you think to yourself, it's me, a six foot skinny man compared to a warrior giant of 13.5ft, with a castle stretching into heaven. I don't even barely have a weapon. What am I supposed to do? You know, that's the perspective Israel had. But Caleb and Joshua had a different perspective. They said, there are these giants 13.5ft, fortified into heaven. But how tall is my God? How strong is his arm? How powerful is his armor? How sharp is his sword? The moment that we think it's us versus the world is the moment that we are filled with fear, cowered away into a corner, become passive, and hunkered down in a place we were never meant to live, a place of bondage. The moment that Israel gave up in their hearts, they entered the same slavery they had in Egypt. In Egypt, it was Pharaoh who kept them enslaved and ruled over them. But in this wilderness, they kept themselves enslaved. They made themselves the pharaoh of their own life. Instead of submitting to the one true God who overcomes all things. And fear held them captive, but not Joshua and Caleb. Joshua and Caleb were living in freedom all the way through. That's why they could, with confidence, say, we are able to go. Let us go immediately. And see, this is what you need to understand that in your own life there's going to be a lot of people who are just like these ten Spies of the Bad Report, who are going to speak of their own flesh and try and demotivate you because of their own unbelief and because they've set theirselves up as a God in their own life and they're not serving the one true God, even if they say they do. And that's why they live in this constant fear and do not believe that their God has the power. And that's why they do not trust him. They will tell you, the coward, to freeze, to give up. And you need to be careful who you listen to. Because listening to the wrong voice was the downfall of Adam and Eve in the garden. And it is the downfall of Israel this day. And you know what is most tragic about this is that the people who were sent out as spies were leaders of the tribes. We read that they were everyone, a chief among Israel in Numbers 13, Verse 2. Because the people of Israel listened to these faithless, compromising leaders, they would end up dying in that wilderness. We read in numbers 14 4, they said to one another, let us choose a leader and go back to Egypt. They wanted to replace faithful leaders like Moses, like Joshua, like Caleb, with cowardly leaders like those 10 of the bad Report who could tickle their own ears with things like, we don't have to go and fight. We don't have to enter this battle. See, the lie is that we, even if God backs us, do not do anything. We have to, as Joshua and Caleb said, enter the battle. We must recognize that we living today are in a battle, a spiritual war, where there are Nephilim. Nephilim are all around us. Giants are all around us. Demons are in this world. They try and oppress us. They try and attack us. We have situations that come on our path of different varieties. And the question is, when we say things like, God is with us, yes, he is, but what does that mean? People think sometimes that means, okay, he's gonna fight my fight. I'm just gonna wait here in the corner until it's done. No, in this case, God expected Israel to go into the land of the Nephilim and that when they go into battle, that he will fight the battle for them. But they still needed to step out. And in the same way, we, as people, we still need to do the work that is in front of us, recognizing we are not the ones who bring the victory, realizing it's not dependent on our power and our strength and our height. It's dependent on him completely and utterly. But because we trust that he is empowering us so much so we actually step out in faith as well. And that's what spiritual gifts are all about. And that's why people miss it and struggle with it, because they expect. They say things like, well, God's just gonna. If God wants me to walk in a spiritual gift, like speak in tongues or heal the sick or cause out demons or any of those things, then it's just gonna happen. Like, it's just gonna randomly happen to me, man. Spiritual warfare means that you do something. Yeshua and Peter and the rest, when they exercise spiritual gifts, they walked up to a man who is paralyzed. And Peter says, I don't have silver and gold, but this I do rise up and walk. He ultimately walked an action out against the principality. And there was freedom because God empowered. God brought the victory. God brought the miracle. But Peter had the faith. See, people like Israel want an easy way out, and they don't want to go through the trial. But that path, that cowardly path of running, that's not relying or trusting on the Holy Spirit. And so leaders, like the bad leaders who are leading Israel away from facing these giants, they did not believe in the Spirit. And they are the same leaders that we see today who even take their fellowship in the complete opposite direction than what God was directing them towards, just like Israel now who are saying, let us get ourselves leaders who's going to take us back to Egypt, the opposite direction of the Promised Land. And I am talking about leaders who run from spiritual war instead of boldly towards it, recognizing who their God is. See, when things get hard, and they will get hard on an individual basis, on a congregational basis, on a country level, things will get hard. And when they do, spiritually, the question is, what will you do? What will you do? Because this is the test of every fellowship. This is the test of every family. This is the test of every country and every individual like yourself. But let me just tell you the secret in all of this. The only way to enter the Promised land of God is to be empowered by the promise from heaven. The Promised Land that God is promising all of us is only for the people who are filled with the promise of The Holy Spirit. This is a people who are different. These are the spiritual warriors of boldness and of fief. Not these spiritual cowards who are religious, but who deny the power. John 14:23. Jesus answered, if anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. Jesus describes those who love him and who obey his word as those who God will make his home within. We know that God's home is the very promised land, promised to us all to be with God in His home face to face, even one day. But he says that he is giving us a glimpse of that now, just like when Israel sent out the spies in a similar way, we are receiving a glimpse of the home of God in the Holy Spirit poured out upon us inside of you to empower and comfort you for the battles that are before you upon this earth, just as the battle before Israel was on their way to their promised land. We will face many spiritual battles in this life on our way to the heavenly promised land. And these battles are here to test us, just as they were there to test Israel. Therefore, it is imperative that you understand where your help comes from so that you can pass the test and slay the giants and there is still a war upon the earth. Yeshua, the Messiah. Jesus understands this completely. That's why in Luke 10 he even sends out disciples to face the spiritual giants that were in Israel. And I want you to listen to how he sends them out and ask yourself, is Jesus being irresponsible? We read in Luke 10:3, go your way. Behold, I am sending you out as lambs in the midst of wolves. Carry no money, bag no knapsack, no sandals, and greet no one on the road. Okay, so if there was a shepherd, and the shepherd came to you and said, I'm going to do something today, I'm going to take all my lambs, the most vulnerable of my flock, and I'm going to send them out amongst a camp of wolves. Do you think that's a good idea? And I'm going to send you out, perhaps even today, and I'm going to say, go out here, go out there, travel far and wide, but don't take any sandals, don't take any money bag, don't take any knapsack. Would you say that's irresponsible? Or what about when Israel are to face the giants who sees them as grasshoppers? Is that irresponsible? Or what about when little David is tossed by the one true God to Face Goliath. Is that irresponsible? All of these things are irresponsible in the absence of God. But if there is a God, this is just another day at work for him. This is just how he works. He calls the weak. He calls those who the world says could never. And he gives them a task. And he says, go out. I'm gonna do it. Let me prove to everyone who I am. Because when they see me work in you, when they see you slay the giant and it's me who's behind you with my angels and my chariots, slaying the giants, then the world will know that I am with you. And that's why we retell these stories from the Bible, knowing that these were demonstrations of the Spirit of God and that God was with them. This is how he works. The question is, will you be a part of his plan? Because I can tell you that I have been in situations where I have been a little David versus a big Goliath, spiritually speaking. And I have seen, seen when I step out that he has never left me. And it leaves people in awe because they know I'm weak and they recognize his glory. His name is exalted. And people come to him because of that. When the 72 come back to Yeshua, they rejoice, saying, even the demons are subject to us in your name. And Yeshua replies, saying, I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. And Yeshua speaks to his disciples about Satan falling from heaven to earth to explain that Satan still has activity upon the earth. But he says, I have given you authority to tread on the serpent and scorpions and over all of the power of the enemy and nothing shall hurt you. We, when we are faced with the activities of Satan upon the earth, we are not to run from it, but we ought to understand our authority that's been given over the activities of Satan that we can have faith in Yeshua's power of the Spirit in us. This means that when we engage in prayer, in petition, in spiritual warfare, in causing our demons, we have an offensive posture, not a defensive posture. We go and we cast out, we pray against. We command in the name of Yeshua and we take pleasure in his power. We go in boldness, not cowardice. And we face Goliath. And we don't deliver bad reports, not to our own hearts, nor to others. And here's the thing, you may feel intimidated by all of this, but true spiritual maturity is not based off of how many years of experience you have, how strong you are from physically how old you are physically or anything to do with your physical strength, ability or intelligence. It has everything to do though with your faith. Caleb as an example, one of those leaders who were of faith and who said to Israel, let us go, we can do it, was a man who was very unexpected. Caleb was the son of Jephunneh, the Kenizzite. This means that Caleb in past was a Gentile, a pagan of the world who was then grafted into Israel. By the time we get to the story and Caleb, the name in Hebrew actually means dog. And if you know anything about the first century, you'll know that the Jewish people actually broadly considered Gentiles as being unclean and even calling them dogs. I don't think there's any coincidence that Caleb's name means dog, because God was trying to make a point that Caleb doesn't come from a background of faith. He comes from a pagan background. And he's not the one who's supposed to have the faith based off where he comes from, but he has more faith than even the native born Israelites who were coming from families of faith from generations since Abraham. We see the same thing happen in our New Testament with men like Cornelius, who was a Gentile who had more faith than the religious of the day. Or what about the Syrophoenician woman who was also a Gentile and who begged Jesus for her daughter to be healed from demons. She herself demonstrated to have more faith than many of the religious of her own day. Or what about even David, a weak youth in his day, where he faced Goliath having more faith than King Saul himself and all of Israel. And around David, we see that everyone starts trying to tell him that he can't do it. He's too small, he's too weak. His brother tells him, what are you doing here? Saul tells him, you are not able to go against the Philistine to fight with him, for you're just a youth. And the Philistine has been a man of war from his youth. And we see little David approaching this Philistine giant and says to him in 1 Samuel 17:45, you come to me with a sweet sword and with a spear and with 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 defied. And this day the Lord will deliver you into my hand, and I will strike you down and cut off your head, and I will give the dead bodies of the host of the Philistines this day to the birds of the air and to the wild beasts of the earth. And all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel. Let me say that again. That all of the earth may know that there is a God in Israel. And that all of his assembly may know that the Lord saves not with sword and not with spear, for the battle is the Lord's, and he will give you into our hand. We know how the story goes. Little David has a bunch of pebbles, some rocks, and he slings one and it kills Goliath. See, when you are faced with giants and men tell you what you cannot become, tell them who your God is. And God will delight in showing his power in your weakness. But now, getting back to Israel, Israel didn't go into the land, but fear took them captive. And they said, why is the Lord bringing us into this land to fall by the sword? And because of that unbelief, there was great consequence upon Israel. In fact, unexpectedly, perhaps. God labels their sins as two things. Number one, rebellion. He says in Numbers 49 only do not rebel against the Lord. Do not fear the people of the land, for they are bread for us, their protections removed from them. But why is not trusting God considered rebellion? Because when we listen to someone else, as Israel listened to their 10 leaders who told them to doubt in God's promise, pride creeps. And when we think that we know better than God, yes, God made us a promise, but I know better than to try and go in facing these giants. And so we make our situation our God. See, the question I have for you today is, are your giants becoming your God, controlling you with fear? Or are your giants under your God? And the second unexpected sin of Israel is that they were told to be despising the Lord by their actions. Numbers 14, 11. The Lord said to Moses, how long will this people despise me? And how long will they not believe in me in spite of all the signs that I've done among them? We have to look back like Israel and see. Look at all of the things that he has done for me in my past. Look at the family I have come out of. Look at the journey that I have taken through the seas that were split for me. Look at how he has provided. Look how he has blessed my life. And when I look at the track record of my Lord, I can know that he is not going to fail me. Because he remains the same yesterday, today and forever. When we say we believe in Jesus, we believe he can save us. He is king over all. The universe is under his feet. But then when we have an itsy bitsy trial on the earth, on this little earth, in our little life, we say he doesn't have power over that. What we are saying is I despise him. I don't believe that he's going to come into my life and come and overcome this thing that's in front of me. And so you can say, pd, I don't rebel against the Lord, I love him. Pd, I don't despise the Lord, I love him. But by your lack of trust and by not believing in him, despite the things he's done, despite his magnitude, you do despise and you do rebel. And ultimately I want to warn you with the consequence that came upon Israel. It says in numbers 14, 20, 29, your dead body shall fall in this wilderness. And of all your number listed in the census, from 20 years old and upward who have grumbled against me. And he says, not one shall come into the land where I swore that I would make you dwell. Except Caleb the son of Jephunneh and Joshua, the son of Nun. So saying I'm a Christian, I follow God. I'm even going to have enough faith to leave Egypt. You can leave, leave Egypt, you can see all of the wonders, but you can get to a moment in your life where there's a giant in front of you. Your heart fails you, you despise the Lord, you rebel against the Lord, you do not go and obey Him. Going into the land, taking the land, taking on the giants, understanding your authority and then saying, I'm a Christian, just no longer is enough anymore. Are you a son of God? Understanding your led by the Spirit of God? Or, or are you a son of this world? Led by the fear of this world, the Spirit of this world? Many Christians brothers and sisters will die in the wilderness because they do not truly trust in God's power when the rubber meets the road. And instead they will grab for other ways to survive, even abandoning the one who saved them. And so I conclude with a message of hope for you. You may have heard bad reports in your life recently, perhaps even from someone you respected. A leader like those 10 leaders gave a bad report to Israel. But I come to you as Caleb did. I too am weak and have little to offer of my own strength. But God has given us the victory. Enter your battle with boldness. Enter your battle not with the fear of the world, but with the fear of God. Enter your battle knowing the authority given to you, the Spirit within you. Enter the battle with the understanding that the battle is the Lord's and that your trials have become as bread for you. God says, fear not, for I am with you. Be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand, for I will restore health to you and your wounds. I will heal, declares the Lord, because they have called you an outcast. John 11:25. Jesus said to her, I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet he shall live. And everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this? 2 Corinthians 7:1 since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God. Father, I thank you, Lord, for the promises that you've given us, that you will never leave us or forsake us, that you're a father who cares for us, that you've given us the spirit and authority. Lord, I thank you that you've chosen us as your people. And as for the giants in front of us, thank you for putting them under our feet. In the name of Yeshua, for everyone listening with trial and tribulation, Lord, I thank you that you give us the land. I thank you, Lord, that your hand is not too short, that you have not forgotten us. And I thank you, Lord, that even though these giants have castles fortified to heaven, even though they are so tall, even though they are beds of iron intimidate us, I thank you, Lord, that you have given us the battle and that we do not fight with sword and spear, but by the spirit of the Lord. Father, I thank you that we can live at peace in the midst of trial, that we can have peace even when our eyes look upon challenge. Father, I thank you that you give us a spirit of patience to persevere in the wilderness. And if we persevere, you promise to be with us face to face one day, to wipe away every tear and to give us a home where there is no giant ever again, a place where there is only rain, where there is life, where there is prosperity, and where the wolf lies with the lamb. Father, I thank youk in the name of Yeshua, Amen. Thank you for joining me this week. May the Father bless you, keep you, shine his face upon you, lift up his countenance upon you, and give you his shalom in the midst of your trial. Shalom, satisfaction.