Broadway Christian Church · Columbia, Missouri

Morning Worship · October 2, 2005

Prayer of the Day

O Lord, our God.  Thank you for this hour of worship.  Grant us, we pray, the gifts we need for your service.  Amen.

Scripture

I Samuel 17

[Editor’s note:  Rick Frost gave a summary of this chapter leading to the focus verse.  Here is his summary.]

Our text today comes from the Hebrew Scriptures found in I Samuel 17.  It is too long for me to read the entire chapter to you, so let me summarize.

This is the chapter that is the classical biblical story of the battle between David, a young shepherd boy of , and, of course, Goliath.  According to the text, he was a nine-feet tall seasoned warrior of the Philistines.  Evidently the armies of both these countries are poised for battle.  At issue is the future of both peoples.  If the Philistines prevail, would once again become slaves to a foreign power.  But, according to the text, God – the Creator of all that is – had made some covenant promises to , this small group of people.  God had made these promises a long time before this event.  The Israelites were to be God’s people, and evidently, it was God’s intention that through them, the kingdom of God would come to this world.  (My goodness; what a charge!) 

To settle the issue, Goliath, the giant, challenged Israel to choose one person, any person they would choose, to fight him right there on the front line in front of God and everybody.  Winner takes all.

The rest of the story is about the one man who chose to go out and take on that giant.  The turning point came in I Samuel 17:32, when David, the shepherd boy of , said these immortal words: “Let no one’s heart fail God because of this giant.  I will go and fight this Philistine.â??

This is the Word of the Lord for us this day.

Message

As If It Were So

Rick Frost

In 1958, John Yates was huge.  I, on the other hand, was a 15-year-old sophomore in high school, six-feet tall, 138-pounds soaking wet.  John Yates was a senior.  It seemed to me, he had to be at least 35-years of age.  He was six-feet tall and, at least, 280 pounds.  We were competing for one of the 32 places on the Manatee High School football team.  John did not seem to be too worried.

John was the consummate football player.  He was big and rugged looking, and he had the added quality of seemingly enjoying the art of inflicting pain and suffering on others.  The girls loved him. 

I, on the other hand, had no business trying out for football in high school.  I looked like a string bean in pads.  My head rattled around in this rather oversized helmet that had been issued to me.  I would turn my head to try to see who was coming from the side, but the helmet wouldn’t move.  Looking straight ahead, it did me fine, but every time I turned one way or the other, it produced total darkness.  Besides, my glasses were in the locker room back in the field house.

John Yates helped me see that football was one of the least brilliant moves of my young life.  We had this thing called “tackling drills.â??  They took place on bright, sunny, southern Florida afternoons in late August.  The coach would divide us into two groups.  There was the “ball carrierâ?? group over here, and there was the “tacklingâ?? group over there. 

John Yates was a ball carrier, and each ball carrier had a special, simple task:  1) Hold on to the ball; 2) Run at the tackler as hard as you can; 3) Actually try to run through the tackler if possible, bury your head in his chest, plow forward, and somehow stay on your feet.

The tackler had, from I could tell, a very simple task:  1) Don’t die; 2) Pray earnestly; tell God that you’re sorry for everything you’ve ever done.

I remember the coach blowing the whistle, and then everything became surreal.  There was John Yates running toward me like a freight train with a smile on his face.  Drool was dripping from the corners of his mouth.  I remember hearing the hideous sounds that was something like a stampede – the grunting animal sounds he made – and of course, the sounds of the cataclysmic collision – sort of like a car crash on I-70.  I don’t really remember much after that.

I don’t know how my helmet got completely turned around on my head or how long I was out.  I don’t remember, but I do remember later thinking what I would have given for a sling and five small stones.

Have you ever faced a giant?  Sure you have.  Everybody in this room has faced a giant.  Life is full of them.  Sometimes all we see are the giants that are in our midst.  It might be a terrifying diagnosis that comes our way for which we were completely unprepared.  Sometimes it’s the debilitating regrets of things that happened yesterday.  You know… We can’t do anything about them, but they still keep us stuck in the past.  Sometimes it’s the mountain of problems some of us are facing this very day that are keeping us stuck right now, today, in the present.

For some of us we are facing giants called fears: fears about tomorrow, fears about what our future is going to be, how things are going to turn out.  We have our weaknesses, and we have our shortcomings.  Accidents happen.  Disasters occur.  Sometimes all we can see are the giants, and when we do, we talk about this story about David and Goliath.  We say, “That’s a great little story I learned in Sunday School, and every child should hear it, but let’s get real!  I am, quite frankly, not a David.â??

Well… perhaps.  But before you go there, I’m going to ask you to spend just a few minutes with me taking a closer look at this David, the David of Scripture, the David found in I Samuel.

First of all, remember something.  David, who we see in the Scriptures, is not a king.  David, when we hear of him in chapter 17, is just a boy.  This is the shepherd boy.  When we see David, in chapter 17, he is not a warrior.  He’s just a rugged, young guy.  He has no special training, on convincing resume, no reputation, no previous experience, and no special qualifications.

What in the world did David bring to this situation?  Do you remember what it was?  What did he bring to this seemingly impossible situation?  It’s been said, “To have faith is to believe in spite of the evidence, and then watch the evidence change.â??  In David’s case, the evidence was overwhelming.  He faced a big, hairy giant with an undefeated record, challenging an entire nation to hit him with their best shot, and the winner takes all.

Not a single soul stood up to the challenge.  Armies scattered in fear, but David, the shepherd boy, spoke the one word of faith – the one word of faith that would later bring that giant down.  I read it to you moments ago.  Memorize this one, because it’s good.  David said, “Let no one’s heart fail God…  Let no one’s heart fail God because of this giant.  I will go fight the Philistine.â??

Many people laughed, and many people doubted, but some heard, and some believed.  The reason they believed was because David wasn’t pointing to himself.  What they believed, and why they believed is that David had an incredible, insatiable, phenomenal, almost naïve faith in God.  What David was saying, of course, was: “You know, if God is God, we are going to find out.  If God is God, we’ll know.  Is God God, or is God not God?  God either has a purpose for God’s people, or he doesn’t.  God is either a mighty deliverer of those who are righteous, worthy of our trust and worthy of our faith, or God isn’t.

Besides being the most unlikely candidate for a giant slaying, David was willing to act like it was so, as if God would, in fact, deliver God’s people.  He acted believing God.  He acted because what he believed about God really, earnestly deeply mattered. 

Folks, the thing that brought that giant down was not just that smooth stone.  What brought Goliath down was faith.  That’s why this story is in the Bible.  It was a faith that was determined, at all costs, not to fail God’s heart.  It was a faith that was not willing to buy into hopelessness, despair, or any other negative thing.  It was a faith that was willing to put it on the line as an act of God, to act as if God was really God, to act as if God really mattered, to act as if God was able, to act as if everything we’ve been taught about God would actually, somehow, come true.  It’s an incredible, incredible definition!

There comes a time in every life when we get to choose whether we are going to act, or whether we are not going to act.  Are we going to act as if God’s promises to us are really true?  Regardless of the circumstances, we are going to go ahead and do what needs to be done?  Folks, that is the definition of faith.  That’s the definition of biblical faith.  It’s not about propositions one accepts intellectually, or doesn’t accept intellectually.  The Bible talks about faith being the kind of thing going on between David and Goliath.  It’s what makes believers out of leaders.  It’s what makes heroes out of very common, ordinary people.  We talked about that just a few weeks ago.

For David, disappointing God was simply not an option.  Failure, even to the point of defeat, was not the thing he was concerned about.  It was disappointing God that concerned David.  The things that disappoint God are excuses:  why we can’t act, why we can’t try, why we can’t consider doing something that is seemingly impossible by everyone else’s standards.  Those are the things that disappoint God.

Paul Tillich, the great theologian of the past century, used to say, “When you take the time to examine a life of faith, one of the things you are going to find out is that it looks a whole lot like a life of courage.â??  Tillich said, “Real faith, biblical faith, is courage.  Courage that doesn’t remove doubts.  Courage that doesn’t remove fears.  It just transcends them.  It goes beyond them.  The knees still shake.  The lump is still in the throat.  Failure is still a very real possibility, but you’re willing to go for it, trusting in the promises of God.  Those promises are either true and right here and now, or they are not true at all.  That is biblical faith.â??

The question today is:  Do you consider yourself a person of faith?  Are you a person of biblical faith?  Do you have any giants hanging around or challenges that are seemingly impossible?  If not for you, for someone you love?

Well, in case you haven’t heard, our church is taking on a huge challenge.  Many of us believe there is a deep, powerful stirring going on in the world that we call “religious,â?? something “spiritual.â??  We believe we are on the edge, really, of a major reformation, probably the greatest spiritual awakening in Christian history.  We believe that what’s going on in the world is a God thing.  We believe God wants this church to be a part of that action.  We believe that God wants this church and all of God’s communities of faith to reach out, to make disciples, to make room for everyone who wants to be there, to baptize those who are committed, to teach the way of Jesus to everyone who is willing to learn.

We believe the future of our people and the future of God’s people rest fundamentally – bottom line – on its churches.  We believe it rests on its communities of faith, communities of faith like ours, people who are getting serious and being very intentional about reaching out and making room for all – everyone who wants to become a follower of Christ.

Now, you and I know that to make room, we are going to have to take the next step and do some building.  To fund that next step, we’ve been challenged to raise $2.2-million for that project.  It’s huge.  It’s gigantic!  For a church like ours – for a church our size – it’s a stretch.  If it is what God wants this church to do, the leadership of this church believes it will be done.  It will be done!

How is it going to happen?  Three things:

1.      Prayer.  This project is a God thing.  It’s not our thing.  It will be developed and created in a spirit of prayer.

2.      Faith.  What we’ve been talking about today.  It’s going to take some courage on our part.

3.      Sacrifice.

Three things: prayer, faith, sacrifice.

Several weeks ago, Jan and I were asked to put the church’s plan and this campaign on our prayer list, and we did that.  We prayed about it, and what we found as we started praying about it, we started thinking about it, and when we started thinking about it, we started talking about it with each other.  It was obvious we were going to do something.  We just didn’t know what it was going to be.

The second thing we did is we took a look at the financial commitments that were already on our plate.  My goodness; we just got our youngest out of college.  We were helping her relocate to a “low-rent districtâ?? in west California .  It’s called San Francisco !  We just remodeled our master bathroom.  We just replaced the deck on our house.  We are joyfully committed to participating in our son’s wedding coming up in January.  Of course, it has to be held in Hawaii !

We’ve been stewards for 35 years.  We’ve tried to grow along the way.  We just made a pledge of a significant portion of our family income to the annual operating ministry budget of this church and the work of Christ.

A third thing we did was we blessedly received an affirmation from what we believe to be the Spirit of the Living Christ that said, “Yes, you know what?  You guys are blessed.â??  God has blessed the Frost family.  We have received grace upon grace.  God has been gracious to us.  We don’t understand how or why, but he has been gracious to us.  We have been able to do all the things I just mentioned and a whole lot more, because, quite frankly, we have led lives simply in terms of housing, clothing, recreation, furnishings, entertainment, investments, and all of those things.  We live pretty simply.  We cook a lot more at home than we used to.  We have pretty much everything we need.  There’s not a whole lot that we don’t have that we do need.  We call that “the gift of simplicity.â??  We quite honestly believe it’s a gift from God.

Because of that gift, and because of our growing conviction of what we’ve talked about here, what we believe this church is calling us to do, because we believe in the heart of our hearts that God is the Lord of our lives, Jan and I are going to find ways to allow us to joyfully and eagerly commit a 40% increase over and above our current pledge to the capital effort of this church for the next three years.  So, I’m asking you humbly, and yet boldly and unapologetically, being the wonderful people you are, to begin to do three things, if you haven’t already:

1.      Put this campaign on your prayer list.  That’s where it starts.  That’s where the decisions are made.  That’s what really matters.  If it can’t go there, you really need to do something else.  Put it on your prayer list.  Think about it.  Talk about it.

2.      Reflect on your faith.  What does this church and its mission mean to you?  What does it mean to your family?  If it doesn’t mean anything, OK.  But I think it does.

3.      Seek the joy, the delight, in discovering the level of commitment that the sacrificial gift (and it will be a sacrifice) that the Spirit of the Living God is calling you to do to help make this important thing happen.

Together, with God’s help, let’s meet the most demanding challenge in the history of Broadway Christian Church, and let’s do it in the name of Jesus for his glory.  Because, you see, the first act of faith is an act of courage.  The first act of courage in the face of any giant, no matter what it is, is not a matter of doing something.  It is first of all a matter of remembering.  I’m going to ask you to remember. 

The next thing you do after you remember is to proceed as if it were so.  And the rest of it, folks, quite frankly, is none of your business, none of my business.  God will do what God will do.  That’s our faith.

And we all say together… “Amen.â??

Benediction

God, I need your strength to tackle the problems I face.  Alone, you are the one who gives courage and power.  Never let me cower; remind me that you make things possible.  The glory and honor is yours as I battle my giants.  Amen.