What a great day to be in God's house! We're beginning a new series of messages today called "Slaying Your Giants. To get things started, right out the outset, I want to ask you a question. What are the giants lurking around in your life right now? What are the issues and challenges that preoccupy your mind and drain you of energy? List them. It may be one, or they may be several.

You've been letting these giants dominate your life for too long. Deep within I know you long for a victory. During these next six weeks I will teach you some biblical principles that will help you slay these giants. So before I jump in to today's message, bow your heads with me and let's talk to God. [Lead in prayer that the giants can be slain.]

Ask a group of a hundred Christians what their favorite Bible story is, I have a feeling more than half would say David slaying Goliath. That's the story we're going to look at today. Whether you've heard it a thousand times or have never heard it, God wants to speak to you today about the giants that are robbing you of spiritual strength and peace.

Let's set the stage. Goliath stands nine feet, nine inches tall. The armor he wears weighs 125 pounds. He's one mean dude. He probably has a grim reaper tattooed on his left bicep and "I slept with yo momma" on the right. The champions of the WWF would look like acolytes standing next to Goliath. His voice and his message are just as intimidating. "This day I defy the ranks of Israel! Give me a man and let us fight each other" (v. 10).

Needless to say, there were no volunteers…that is, until David showed up. He didn't even know about the behemoth. He was just following his dad's instructions to take some bologna sandwiches to his brothers who were at the battlefront (except no battle was going on. They were all scared to death.)

When David heard Goliath defy God, it stirred up within him a holy discontent that he couldn't let slide. He was not going to stand idly by and listen to this pagan mock his God.

Now get the picture. David was strong for his size. But he wasn't a warrior. He was a shepherd boy. Average height. Good looking. What would be his chances in a head to head battle with Goliath? How many of you own a lap dog-Chihuahua, poodle, etc.? What would be your dog's chances in a fight against one of Michael Vick's dogs?

David's size didn't bother him. What bothered him was this oaf terrorizing the people of God. Verse 40 says, "Then he took his staff in his hand, chose five smooth stones from the stream, put them in the pouch of his shepherd's bag and, with his sling in his hand, approached the Philistine." Goliath mocks him, "Am I a dog, that you come at me with sticks?" (v. 43).

Chances are your giant doesn't stand nine feet, nine inches tall. But in your mind, your giant seems that tall. Your giants have names like depression, fear, poor self-esteem, and discouragement. Go back to verse 16. "For forty days the Philistine came forward every morning and evening and took his stand." Morning and evening the giant reared his ugly head. Your giant does the same. You wake up with it on your mind. When you go to bed, it is still on your mind.

How long has your giant been stalking you? Goliath's family and the people of God had been enemies for a long time. Let me give you a brief Old Testament history lesson. Three hundred years earlier Joshua drove Goliath's family out of the Promised Land. He destroyed everyone except the residents in three cities: Gaza, Gath, and Ashdod. Gath was known for reproducing giants. Guess where Goliath's family was from? You're right. Gath.

You can imagine what was on King Saul's mind and his troops. "Oh, no. My dad fought his dad. My great, great, great granddad, fought his great, great, great granddad." You may feel the same way about the giant you're facing. Maybe he's been a foe for a long time. The same problem may have been manifested in your family generations ago. And it still lingers.

What happens when you focus so long on your giant? The same thing that happened to the Hebrew people. "When Saul and his troops heard the Philistine's challenge, they were terrified and lost all hope" (v. 11, MSG). Does that description fit you right now? Does your giant leave you fearful? Have you lost hope? Where is your focus?

The first recorded words of David, not just in this story but in all of the Bible, are found in verse 26: "What will be done for the man who kills this Philistine and removes this disgrace from Israel? Who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God?" David enters the picture, and he's talking about God. All others are talking about Goliath.

When he approaches King Saul, who does he talk about? God. "The LORD who delivered me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine" (v. 37). When he approaches Goliath, who does he talk about? God. "You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the LORD Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. This day the LORD will hand you over to me, and I'll strike you down and cut off your head. Today I will give the carcasses of the Philistine army to the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth, and the whole world will know that there is a God in Israel. All those gathered here will know that it is not by sword or spear that the LORD saves; for the battle is the LORD's, and he will give all of you into our hands" (vv. 45-47).

I love David's courage. "Goliath, let me tell you up front what I'm going to do. Or rather, let me tell you what God is going to do through me. See this sling shot. I'm going to hurl a stone at your head and it's going to kill you. Then I'm going to come and cut your head off." Remember, this is poodle versus pit bull.

This is an important factor in the story. Everyone else focused on the giant. David focused on God. David's compass is set on God. The others on Goliath. Don't get me wrong. He saw Goliath. He just saw God more. Notice verse 45-"the God of the armies of Israel." Not army, but armies. When you're fighting God's people, you aren't just fighting flesh and blood. You're also dealing with platoons of angels and the God who can send wind or hail or cause walls to tumble down.

Here's another factor I don't want you to miss. "As the Philistine moved closer to attack him, David ran quickly toward the battle line to meet him" (v. 48). He ran toward his giant. All the others were scared out of their britches. He had one of the five stones in his sling, and he hurled it toward the beast. Goliath must have been leaning just right because instead of the stone ricocheting off his armor, it landed right into his skull. His knees buckled and he's down. Dead. From the time he ran toward the giant to the time the giant fell dead must have been thirty seconds.

To slay the giant, David had to run toward him. When is the last time you ran toward your giant? The reason you're still controlled by your giant is that you keep letting him intimidate you. You coil in fear. You run and try to hide from him. If you're going to slay your giants, you must change strategies. You must run to him and in the name of the living God say, "Giant, you're not going to ruin my marriage." "Giant, you're not going to defeat me with depression." "Giant, you're going down. I will not let drugs and alcohol control my life." How long has it been since you loaded up your sling and took a shot?

One of the things that gives me hope in facing my giants is that David was much like you and me. Sometimes I wonder what God saw in David. He called him a man after His own heart, a name He gave to no one else. But when you study his life, you see that he stumbled just as much as he conquered. He killed Goliath one day and then let lust get the best of him the next day. He defied the God-mockers in the valley but later joined the God-mockers in the wilderness. If you made straight A's, never had pimples, and all of life is always peachy, David's life can't offer you too much. But for the rest of us-David's life gives us hope.

What are your giants? Rebellious teenagers, parents who don't understand, bills you can't pay, decisions you don't know how to make, drugs, medical issues, failure, court battle, rocky marriage, porn addiction? You've got to face these giants if you want to slay them. And you don't have to face them alone. Focus on God first.

It's interesting to study David's life of ups and downs. When he focused on God, the giants fell. When he didn't focus on God, he fell. Very simple. Read through 1 Samuel 17 and take note of the observations David made about Goliath. There are only two-one to King Saul and the other to Goliath's face. He asked nothing about his military skill or his IQ or how much his spear weighed. He didn't say, "Whoa, this dude is huge. I wonder what he can bench press. I wonder what his 40 time is because I may need to outrun him." No, just two tacky comments about the giant.

On the other hand, he gives a lot of thought to God. Go through the chapter again and count the number of references about God. The armies of the living God, the Lord will deliver you into my hand, all the world will know there is a God in Israel. Count them. Nine of them. So, his God-thoughts outnumber his Goliath-thoughts nine to two. How does that ratio compare with yours? When you consider the giant you need to slay, do you focus on God more than four times than you focus on the giant?

Do you ponder God's presence four times as much as you ponder your pressure? Is your blessings list four times greater than your complaint list? Is the measure of your faith four times greater than the measure of your fear? Does the strength of God get four times more attention than the demands of your day?

Here is the bottom line. When you focus on your giants, you will stumble every time. When you focus on God, your giants will tumble every time. Stop living under the pile of stress that depletes your energy each day. Stop worrying about stuff you can't control anyway. And that major problem, you know, the one that keeps you awake at night, don't hide and cower. Run to it. God is with you. God did something miraculous through David. He wants to do the same through you.