1 Samuel 17:40-51

40 He picked up five smooth stones from a stream and put them into his shepherd’s bag. Then, armed only with his shepherd’s staff and sling, he started across the valley to fight the Philistine. 41 Goliath walked out toward David with his shield bearer ahead of him, 42 sneering in contempt at this ruddy-faced boy. 43 “Am I a dog,” he roared at David, “that you come at me with a stick?” And he cursed David by the names of his gods. 44 “Come over here, and I’ll give your flesh to the birds and wild animals!” Goliath yelled. 45 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. 46 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! 47 And everyone assembled here will know that the Lord rescues his people, but not with sword and spear. This is the Lord’s battle, and he will give you to us!” 48 As Goliath moved closer to attack, David quickly ran out to meet him. 49 Reaching into his shepherd’s bag and taking out a stone, he hurled it with his sling and hit the Philistine in the forehead. The stone sank in, and Goliath stumbled and fell face down on the ground. 50 So David triumphed over the Philistine with only a sling and a stone, for he had no sword. 51 Then David ran over and pulled Goliath’s sword from its sheath. David used it to kill him and cut off his head.

When you stand on a hillside and see a 9-foot tall giant warrior taunting you, how do you react?  What is your view of him? Is he an insurmountable obstacle or an opportunity for the glory of God to be revealed?  Sooner or later you must face the truth that you can’t avoid Goliath, you need to recognize there will come a time when  you will have to deal with your giant, it may be an addiction, a habit, an attitude or a job layoff. How will you respond?  Are you ready to respond as David did?  “David quickly ran out to meet him”.  We need to confront our giant, not run away from it. David’s plan was not just to fight against Goliath, but to kill him. It wasn’t enough just to drop him with the stone, David went a step further; he cut off Goliath’s head with Goliath’s own sword. This may seem a little gruesome but so is sin and we need to get serious, it has to be severed. Many of us are content to try to live with the giant and even those of us who are willing to confront the giant forget why we are doing it. We become motivated by self, we make the focus us and how great life will be for us if we defeat the giant.  David set his sights on a far greater goal than just the defeat of Goliath; it was the glory of God that was his ultimate goal. For David, the battle started long before he ever stepped foot on the battlefield, before he raised his sling he was raising his voice to proclaim the glory of God. Glorifying God isn’t just something we do in the victory; it’s something we need to be doing even in the uncertainty when our giant is looming over us. When we fail to realize that motivation to confront the giant is the Glory of God, we become people that are fighting the right battles for the wrong reasons. Why are you doing what you’re doing? What is your motivation?

David had just come from tending the sheep, a job that helped him see the need for the sheep to rely on the shepherd. I believe it was this perspective that he brought to the battle field, a perspective that helped him realize two truths; first who God was – the shepherd and second who he was, a sheep in need of the shepherd. It’s this perspective that gives us the courage to face the giant but also the wisdom to face him in God’s strength, not in our own. David knew his shepherd, because he spent time alone with Him. What about you, do you know your shepherd or have you become content to just know about your shepherd?  Do you trust your shepherd to lead you? It’s your time with God before the battle that determines who you follow in the battle and that determines the outcome of the battle. It’s your time alone with God that helps adjust your focus and get you out of the picture and God into it. How do you measure your giant? David measured him against God, not himself.  As you come to the battlefield what do you see? Because what you SEE determines what you DO. The limited view of the faithless brings about fear, which results in dominance by the enemy. Fear comes when we live by sight, not by faith. The unlimited view of the faithful brings about courage, which results in total domination of the enemy.  Do you have a limited or unlimited view? Courage comes when we live by faith and not by sight. Courage comes because we have confidence in God’s unlimited power, not in our own physical limitations. The view of faith sees obstacles as potential victories because of our God.  Are your eyes on the problem or the problem solver? Any obstacle that comes our way is not just a threat to us, but a defiance and insult of our Living God and His abilities. You see, the eyes of faith see a completely different issue: it is not a threat to my security, but it is a defiance of the power, presence, and very character of the LORD of Hosts! David sees it not as the armies of Israel being run down, he sees the bigger picture–the armies of the living God! It is not my reputation at stake, but His–and for me to allow Goliath to have victory is tantamount to telling the Almighty that this is one problem He is not big enough to handle. What is your view of God? Is He BIG enough? Is it time to get alone with Him and find out?

Revelation 1:9-11

9 I, John, am your brother and your partner in suffering and in God’s Kingdom and in the patient endurance to which Jesus calls us. I was exiled to the island of Patmos for preaching the word of God and for my testimony about Jesus. 10 It was the Lord’s Day, and I was worshiping in the Spirit.[a] Suddenly, I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet blast. 11 It said, “Write in a book[b] everything you see, and send it to the seven churches in the cities of Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea.”

Patmos, a barren, rocky island in the Aegean Sea, had been chosen by the Roman government as a place of banishment for criminals to punish them through isolation. Exile meant experiencing separation from family and country, from community, worship and family faith. John is in exile for preaching the word and for his testimony about Jesus. Would that be the reason for your exile? How is your preaching and testimony for Jesus? What are others seeing and hearing? Many times our exile does not come because of our testimony for Jesus but rather because of sin and selfishness issues. Exile is not a fun place to be and often the devil tries to use circumstances to discourage us, isolate us, and put us in a place where we feel unable to continue with whatever God is trying to do through us.  The truth is that nothing happens in God’s economy that He is not in control of. John understood this and his perspective on his circumstances reveal a man who knew God because he had spent time alone with Him.  In the midst of his exile here are a few of John’s perspectives that I believe we need to have.

• “Your Brother”

John understands that Christianity is about relationships and even in exile and isolation he starts by connecting himself to his readers through the bond of brotherhood. Brotherhood is not based on location or circumstances it is based upon a relationship with Jesus Christ. John’s focus relationally is outward, rather than focused on himself, he chooses to focus on others, “brothers”. Is your time alone with God refocusing you, shifting your eyes off of you and onto others? Is your focus your brothers?

• “your partner in suffering”

John’s description of himself is not one of self-pity, panic, anger, regrets, or hesitation, but rather an accurate view of suffering, something we know little of in the western church. Again he doesn’t see himself as alone but as a partner, connected to others. So often in suffering we think we are the only one.  Elijah thought this and it caused him to want to give up, but the truth is he was not alone, there were 7000 others (1 Kings 19). You need to keep perspective, here we see God in the hardships of life, you have a God who understands suffering, who carries the physical scars of his suffering for you, you also have other brothers and sisters in the partnership of suffering with you. When we think of partnerships we tend to think of them as being profitable, yet we tend not to see suffering as profitable, but suffering for Jesus is profitable, and His suffering for us has profited us greatly.

• “in God’s Kingdom”

Having a real perspective means understanding what kingdom really matters, it is God’s kingdom not his own kingdom or roman’s kingdom. This perspective helped John to realize he was not alone, God was with him. As believers in Christ we cannot be exiled from God, there is no place we can be sent that separates us from God. But for those who do not know God, who do not have a relationship with Him through Jesus Christ, there is a Patmos, a place of separation, Hell. Whose kingdom do you belong to, is it God’s kingdom?

• “patient endurance”

The Christian life is a race that requires endurance and that only comes from a connected relationship with the father. Many start out the race in sprinting style, excited to forge ahead for Christ, they even do well with the hurdles they find in their way.  Then comes the uphill climb, the discouragement of their situation and somewhere in that uphill battle they lose steam and stop running. John understood that endurances comes when we endure our situation and that takes patience. Patience is not nothingness or apathy or sitting around doing nothing, it is a waiting on the Lord. This is not passively waiting, that is laziness. But to keep going when the going is hard and slow – that is patience and John does this through worship. He doesn’t change his worship because his circumstances change and he is on the Isle of Patmos, his focus is on whose day it is not where he is. “It was the Lord’s Day, and I was worshiping” Many of us just quit, we get angry over our circumstances, our “island of Patmos”. Yet John continued to know whose day it was, who was in control and who he was worshiping. Are you a fair weather worshipper or are you willing to worship in the storm? In the midst of his worship is when he hears God; some of us don’t hear God because we are more focused on our circumstances than the one in control of them. Is there a “patient endurance” in your life? Are you waiting on God?

• “to which Jesus calls us

It is our time alone with God that reminds us not only of our call but the one who has called us. As we remember who calls us it reminds us of who is the Lord and who is the servant, it goes back to whose kingdom it really is. John understands his call and his circumstances were intended to put him in a desolate place where he wouldn’t be able to continue to live out his call of preaching the Gospel. Yet even in our exile we can be productive for the Lord, John wrote revelation and the barriers of the sea surrounding his tiny island could not keep him from continuing his mission of preaching the word and sharing his testimony for Jesus. Even the barriers of time have been unable to hold back his message. What barriers are you letting hold you back? Aloneness, discouragement, isolation, anger, bitterness? What is your island of Patmos? Do you know your call? Are you living it out?