church

INI
Cantate, the Fourth Sunday after Easter
May 2, 2010
Ascension Lutheran Church, Tacoma WA
Paul Naumann, Pastor

THE NAME OF GOD IS A GIGANTIC WEAPON
I Samuel 17:42-51

To those who are called, sanctified by God the Father, and preserved in Jesus
Christ: mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you, Amen. This morning’s text
comes from the 17th chapter of I Samuel, beginning with the 42nd verse, as
follows:

And when the Philistine looked about and saw David, he disdained him; for he
was only a youth, ruddy and good-looking. 43 So the Philistine said to David,
“Am I a dog, that you come to me with sticks?” And the Philistine cursed
David by his gods. 44 And the Philistine said to David, “Come to me, and I will
give your flesh to the birds of the air and the beasts of the field!”
45 Then David said to the Philistine, “You come to me with a sword, 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. 46 This day the LORD
will deliver you into my hand, and I will strike you and take your head from
you. And this day I will give the carcasses of the camp of the Philistines to the
birds of the air and the wild beasts of the earth, that all the earth may know that
there is a God in Israel. 47 Then all this assembly shall know that the LORD
does not save with sword and spear; for the battle is the LORD’s, and He will
give you into our hands.” 48 So it was, when the Philistine arose and came and
drew near to meet David, that David hurried and ran toward the army to meet
the Philistine. 49 Then David put his hand in his bag and took out a stone; and
he slung it and struck the Philistine in his forehead, so that the stone sank into
his forehead, and he fell on his face to the earth. 50 So David prevailed over the
Philistine with a sling and a stone, and struck the Philistine and killed him. But
there was no sword in the hand of David. 51 Therefore David ran and stood
over the Philistine, took his sword and drew it out of its sheath and killed him,
and cut off his head with it. And when the Philistines saw that their champion
was dead, they fled. Here ends our text.

In the Name of Jesus Christ, the Name to which every knee must bow, Dear
Fellow Redeemed,

"Sticks and stones may break my bones, but names will never hurt me." -This
is the way every little kid learns to reply to verbal attacks from others. It can be
an effective defense against playground name-calling. And when you think
about it, it's true enough even for adults. Someone calls you a name, you can
shrug it off. But the person who comes at you with a weapon in his hand –
that’s the guy we generally think of as posing a serious danger.

Well, today we meet a youth named David. David was a very dangerous young
man - but for just the opposite reason. It’s true, David had weapons when he
approached Goliath: the shepherd's staff he carried in his hand, and the smooth
pebble that lay nestled in the pocket of his sling. But in David's case, these
were actually the least effective weapons in his arsenal. The one really lethal
weapon that David carried was a name! It was the Name of the Lord of Hosts
that enabled David to crush a seemingly unbeatable foe. In your life as a
believer, you too are going to run into your share of "giant" obstacles. How can
you meet them and overcome them? We'll find the answer this morning as we
consider the theme:

THE NAME OF GOD IS A GIGANTIC WEAPON
I. Against the Name of God,
the most gigantic enemy is powerless.
II. With the Name of God,
the weakest Christian has gigantic power!

A man named Justin Wroe Nixon once said, "The basic difference between
physical and spiritual power is that men use physical power but spiritual power
uses men." The giant warrior Goliath was confident he could use his physical
power to crush the lowly David. But the Lord had other plans. The Lord would
use David. He would use him to prove a point: that against the Name of God,
the most gigantic enemy is powerless!

And certainly, Goliath was a gigantic enemy! According to the Bible, he was a
huge warrior, something over nine feet tall. He wore a suit of chain mail armor
weighing 150 lbs. He carried an enormous sword. The shaft of his spear was as
big around as a fence post, and the bronze spearhead alone weighed 20 lbs. No
doubt these weapons had tasted blood many times. Goliath was a veteran
soldier, well-practiced in the deadly arts of war.

Against him came the young shepherd David. The two of them together must
have presented a sight that bordered on the ridiculous. The armies of Israel and
Philistia looked on as the two unlikely opponents advanced toward each other
to engage in single combat. Things certainly didn't look good for Israel. That
this tender youth might beat the giant Philistine warrior must have seemed
unlikely, to say the least. In fact, Goliath was angry that he had to fight such an
obviously inferior opponent. He protested “Am I a dog, that you come to me
with sticks?” And the Philistine cursed David by his gods. David replied, , “You
come to me with a sword, 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. 46 This day the LORD will deliver you into my hand, and I will
strike you and take your head from you. …47 Then all this assembly shall know
that the LORD does not save with sword and spear; for the battle is the
LORD’s, and He will give you into our hands.” Goliath was about to learn
something the hard way: that against the Name of God, even the most gigantic
enemy is powerless!

You know, the same applies in our lives of Christians. What's your "Goliath"?
What gigantic obstacle are you facing in your life right now? Has your family
been battling with financial worries lately? Have you and your spouse been
struggling with marital problems, or with a problem child? Maybe you've been
fighting a personal battle with serious illness. Maybe loneliness is your Goliath;
you're all alone, and you think nobody knows how you feel.

Now, I'm not going to shrug those problems off and tell you they aren’t serious.
They are serious. Sometimes they can seem absolutely gigantic -- impossible to
overcome. But what I am going to tell you is just what our text says - that THE
NAME OF GOD IS A GIGANTIC WEAPON. That no enemy in the world
can stand against the Name of God. No matter what your battle may be, no
matter how fierce the enemy you face, one thing remains true: the battle is the
Lord's. No one and nothing can defeat you when you put your confidence in
His name. David must have learned that lesson well, because He later wrote, in
his 27th Psalm, "Though an army should encamp against me, My heart shall not
fear; Though war should rise against me, In this I will be confident." -- Psa 27:3.
King Solomon, his son, agreed: "The name of the LORD is a strong tower; the
righteous run to it and are safe." -- Prov 18:10.

We know how huge an enemy faced David, and we know what the outcome
was. All his strength and weapons didn't help Goliath one bit. But what about
David? What did he have to fight with? A bunch of pebbles? No, he had much
more than that. He had the Name of God, and THE NAME OF GOD IS A
GIGANTIC WEAPON. Through David, the Lord proved that with the Name
of God, the weakest Christian has gigantic power!

David was probably between 18-20 years old at this time. Our text says he was
only a youth, ruddy and good-looking. It must be nice to be handsome. On the
other hand, good looks weren’t exactly what David needed most at the
moment. As for training - well, there’s another big zero. David was a shepherd,
not a soldier. Experience he had none. What David did have was a secret
weapon of incredible power. He faced his enemy in the name of God, and THE
NAME OF GOD IS A GIGANTIC WEAPON.

You can see an interesting pattern when David is talking to the giant, Goliath.
Did you notice? -Goliath threatens David by saying, "Come to ME, and I will
do this to you, and I will do that to you..." But see how David replies. He
knows better than to put his confidence in himself. He says, "I come to you in
the name of the LORD, the battle is the LORD'S...the LORD will give you into
our hands." David's best weapon wasn't his staff, and it wasn't even his sling,
with which he finally felled the giant. It was the Name of God! 48 So it was,
when the Philistine arose and came and drew near to meet David, that David
hurried and ran toward the army to meet the Philistine. 49 Then David put his
hand in his bag and took out a stone; and he slung it and struck the Philistine in
his forehead, so that the stone sank into his forehead, and he fell on his face to
the earth. 50 So David prevailed over the Philistine with a sling and a stone,
and struck the Philistine and killed him. Fighting with the Name of God, even
this lowly shepherd boy had gigantic power.

David's victory over Goliath that day was a glorious one. God gave him the
power to overcome the mightiest warrior in the Philistine army! But really, that
battle? That was small potatoes. You have a lot bigger problems than that. In
particular, there’s one problem facing you that makes Goliath look like a
midget. That’s the problem of sin. Now, like David, God has given you power
over even this foe: power over sin and eternal death. Also like David, however,
you need to know where that power comes from. For it most certainly doesn't
come from you.

I had a friend once who was a scuba diving instructor. He shocked his students
by telling them never to go near another diver who was out of air. Why not?
“Because,” he said, “you can’t help him as long as he’s thrashing around in a
panic. There's just no way you can save him until he stops trying to save
himself."

Evangelist Manley Beasley once said, “God-dependency only can only begin
when self-dependency ends." The problem is that we sinful human beings tend
to self-dependency. When our conscience accuses us of sin, our first thought is
to try and save ourselves. So we thrash around in a panic. Our first impulse is
usually to try and hide our sin. If that doesn’t work, we try to pass if off as really
not all that important. We may make secret promises to ourself never to do it
again. Sometimes we imagine all kinds of good things we're going to do to make
up for that sin we've committed. But none of that really helps. It certainly
doesn't help us before God. As far as God’s concerned, even the smallest
transgression of His Law is enough to damn us to hell for eternity. Finally, when
we've exhausted every effort, we cry out with Paul, "O wretched man that I am,
who shall deliver me from this body of death?" And that's when our Rescuer,
Jesus, steps in!

THE NAME OF GOD IS A GIGANTIC WEAPON. The name of Jesus
Christ our Lord is the name that gives us victory - even over the gigantic enemy
of sin! Paul says, "The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law.
But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ."
-- 1 Cor 15:55-57. You and I have struggled to keep God's Law, and lost. That's
why Jesus had to take our place. He became our Champion, in the most literal
sense. On our behalf, He struggled and won - He obeyed His heavenly Father
by keeping all the commandments perfectly His whole life long. You and I have
struggled to make up for our sin, and lost. So Jesus became our Champion. He
stepped in to fight for us, and won. He gained the victory over sin, death and
the devil when He died on the cross of Calvary. And because of that, Paul says,
"Our Savior Jesus Christ has abolished death and brought life and immortality
to light through the gospel." -- 2 Tim 1:10. John puts it more simply still: "The
blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin." -- 1 John 1:7.

THE NAME OF GOD IS A GIGANTIC WEAPON. David faced the giant
with that weapon, and he won. Sin is the most gigantic enemy we have to face,
and with the name of the Lord Jesus on our side, we too can win. You know,
the Easter victory we celebrated four weeks ago wasn’t just Christ’s victory. It
is ours as well. Jesus didn't do it for Himself. He did it for you. He lived a
perfect life and died a sacrificial death, and He did it all for just one reason: so
that He could offer eternal salvation to you as a free gift. Today, through His
Word, He is presenting that free pardon to you once again. But make no
mistake – the name of Jesus Christ is the only Name that can bring you
everlasting life. For as the Bible says, "There is no other name under heaven
given among men by which we must be saved." So let's put our whole trust in
that Name. By all means let's take Jesus up on His offer, while the offer's still
good! If you're struggling under the guilt of your sin, do what that young man
David did - call upon the name of the Lord for forgiveness. The Bible says,
"Whoever calls upon the name of the LORD shall be saved." -- Rom 10:12-13.
And that includes YOU!

I guess it's all a matter of perspective, isn't it? The faithless army of Israel
looked at Goliath and said, "He's so big, we can't possibly kill him." But
faithful David looked at Goliath and said, "He's so big, I can't possibly miss
him!" When it came down to it, all he had was a Name. but THE NAME OF
GOD IS A GIGANTIC WEAPON, and that David knew right well. God grant
that we may each of us likewise face the Goliaths in our lives courageously, in
the name of the Lord. AMEN.