2008.07.20 What is Transformation: From Fear to Faith

Scripture: 1 Samuel 17:1-50 (selected verses)

Last Sunday, we looked at 1 Samuel 16, with particular focus on verse 7—that God does not look at the things that we look at but instead looks at our hearts. It is important, therefore, that despite how much attention we give to outward appearances, that we give more attention to the development of our hearts.

Yet how do we do that? How do we grow hearts that love God deeply?

I was born into a Christian family, and I accepted Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior at the age of 15. My calling is to full-time ministry. My life is steeped in the ways of Christianity, and on the outside, I’d guess that most people would say that I am a committed Christian, one whose heart is totally sold out for God.

However, appearances can be deceiving. Last fall, Willow Creek Community Church, the 2nd largest church in America, released the results of a study that rocked the evangelical Christian world. For 3 years Willow Creek studied the effectiveness of their programs and other churches’ programs because they wanted to know what worked.

Speaking at a Leadership Summit, Bill Hybels, the senior pastor of Willow Creek, summarized the findings this way—I took this from Christianity Today’s blog titled Out of Ur:

“Some of the stuff that we have put millions of dollars into thinking it would really help our people grow and develop spiritually, when the data actually came back, it wasn’t helping people that much. Other things that we didn’t put that much money into and didn’t put much staff against is stuff our people are crying out for.”

Having spent thirty years creating and promoting a multi-million dollar organization driven by programs and measuring participation, and convincing other church leaders to do the same, you can see why Hybels called this research “the wake-up call” of his adult life.

Hybels confesses:
“We made a mistake. What we should have done when people crossed the line of faith and become Christians, we should have started telling people and teaching people that they have to take responsibility to become ‘self feeders.’ We should have gotten people, taught people, how to read their Bible between service, how to do the spiritual practices much more aggressively on their own.”

In other words, [what Willow Creek found was that]spiritual growth doesn’t happen best by becoming dependent on elaborate church programs but through the age old spiritual practices of prayer, bible reading, and relationships. And, ironically, these basic disciplines do not require multi-million dollar facilities and hundreds of staff to manage.

Willow Creek has been identified as the most influential church in our country for several years running. Yet this church, with its estimated 20,000 attendees, found that it was producing consumers rather than disciples.

So I come back to the question of the heart. By all appearances, I am one who loves God deeply, and in reality, I do. But at the same time, there are other things that compete with God in my heart. There are my kids. There is my ego. God does not always receive the firstfruits of my time, care and attention.

What I long for is transformation—yet what does a transformed life look like? We are all intelligent enough to recognize that basic spiritual disciples—prayer, study, simplicity, service, confession and more—the spiritual disciplines are training tools to help us. But help us to do what? Where is that we want to go? Who is it that we want to be?

To help us begin to grasp what a transformed life looks like, we’re going to spend the next several weeks looking at changes that happen when a life is transformed by God. I’m taking these changes from a Bible study called Transformation by Rebecca Manley Pippert. The content of the sermons, however, will be from the Bible, and our focus is on David.

Today we will look at how a transformed life is based on faith rather than fear. Our scripture contains a story that is familiar to Christians and non-Christians alike: the story of David and Goliath.

At the beginning of Chapter 17 in 1 Samuel, the Philistines and the Israelites are at stalemate. The challenge that is before them was called “single combat” or “representative warfare.” The idea was that a champion from each side would meet in the middle to fight. The people believed that the gods would determine the outcome of such a battle, although in reality these combats usually ended up being followed by an all-out response. Winning the single combat match, however, would give great psychological advantage to victorious side.

The Philistines seem to have the battle won already. Their champion, Goliath, is a huge guy, well-armed and fully armored. His description is intended to be dramatic so as to communicate how intimidating this man was.

4 A champion named Goliath, who was from Gath, came out of the Philistine camp. He was over nine feet tall. 5 He had a bronze helmet on his head and wore a coat of scale armor of bronze weighing five thousand shekels; 6 on his legs he wore bronze greaves, and a bronze javelin was slung on his back. 7 His spear shaft was like a weaver's rod, and its iron point weighed six hundred shekels. His shield bearer went ahead of him.

Every day for forty days, Goliath would go out to the front of the Philistine’s line and issue his challenge. And every day, the Israelites’ response was the same:

11 On hearing the Philistine's words, [King] Saul and all the Israelites were dismayed and terrified.

What dismays and terrifies you?

For me, the number one thing that scares me is death. There are other things, though—the possibility that our society’s anti-God agenda will take root in one of my children, the thought that God has entrusted me to pastor this ministry and that I’m doing a lousy job, the recognition that I am much more materialistic and superficial than I should be.

What do you fear?

Some of you, like me, may fear death. Other things the people fear: Silence. Failure. Doubt about God’s existence. Doubt about your spouse. Pain. Suffering. Losing financial security.

In the Bible study material for this series, the author wrote: “One need only experience real fear once to know that it matters desperately whether there is a divine power outside of ourselves that can neutralize and overcome any present danger.”

The summer after my first year of college, my dad accompanied me to Harvard, where I was going to attend summer school. I had never been in Boston before, and although I had some friends over at MIT, I didn’t know anyone in my program, on my campus. About 10 minutes after my dad said good bye and left for the airport, I was alone in my room. And out of nowhere, the reality that I was alone—totally alone—came crashing down on me. Fear gripped my heart, and I became panicked. A zillion thoughts rushed through my mind at once, the clearest one being a plan for how I could call a taxi and meet my dad at the airport in time to fly home with him.

It was a scary place to be—not Harvard, but that place of fear, that place of utter aloneness.

In the normal course of life, I do not think that we spend a lot of time on our fears. We are too busy going, getting, doing, moving. But the fears are there, and they will make themselves known one way or another.

What do you fear? What looks Goliath to you—big, imposing, intimidating. What causes you to be dismayed and terrified?

Enter into the scene: David. Just as Goliath’s description is dramatic, David’s is correspondingly unremarkable. Verses 12-20 tell us that he is the youngest of the eight sons of Jesse. His 3 oldest brothers are on the battle lines, but David is, essentially, an errand boy

14 David was the youngest. The three oldest followed Saul, 15 but David went back and forth from Saul to tend his father's sheep at Bethlehem.

As David comes to the battle front to deliver bread and cheese to his brothers and their commandeer, he witnesses Goliath’s daily challenge.

20 Early in the morning David.. loaded up and set out, as Jesse had directed. He reached the camp as the army was going out to its battle positions… 22 David left his things with the keeper of supplies, ran to the battle lines and greeted his brothers. 23 As he was talking with them, Goliath, the Philistine champion from Gath, stepped out from his lines and shouted his usual defiance, and David heard it. 24 When the Israelites saw the man, they all ran from him in great fear.

David starts asking around—what’s the deal? What’s going on? And he learns about the Philistine’s daily challenge. The Israelite solders also tell David that anyone who is willing fight Goliath has been offered a reward by King Saul—money, marriage and care for your extended family. It is a great package, but the soldiers can only talk about it wistfully, the way that one might talk about buying a winning lottery ticket—possible but not probable.

The Israelite soldiers and King Saul are thinking the same way that the Philistines are thinking—that the way to respond to this challenge is tangibly—with force, with strength, with size. In short, with their own efforts. And by all appearances, the Israelites’ efforts fall far sort of those displayed by the Philistines. Because their eyes see with human sight; their eyes see the outward appearance. As a result, the Israelites and King Saul are left in fear. Verse 24: They run when Goliath comes out.

David, however, sees things differently. The unanswered challenge is an insult to the nation of Israel and to King Saul, but to David, there is a greater insult—that which is being lodged against God.

26 David asked the men standing near him, "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?"

So David volunteers to go, and this results in an interview with King Saul. Saul, remember, is functioning under the assumption that the power necessary for Israel’s deliverance is military might. So upon looking at David, Saul says:

33 Saul replied, "You are not able to go out against this Philistine and fight him; you are only a boy, and he has been a fighting man from his youth."

David’s response is—You know something? I’m a shepherd. And in taking care of my sheep, I’ve faced and killed lions and bears because God was on my side. This Philistine is no different from one of those animals.

36 Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear; this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, because he has defied the armies of the living God. 37 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."
Saul said to David, "Go, and the LORD be with you."

David demonstrates that he has experience in fighting, but even more so, his confidence about Goliath comes from the fact that God has been disgraced by Goliath—“this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, because he has defied the armies of the living God.”

So then, Saul acquiesces, but he insists that David must wear the king’s armor. Again, we see that Saul has placed his confidence in physical power, in what David can physically do. Yet none of the accoutrements fit and instead, David grabs his shepherd’s tools—his staff, 5 smooth stones and his sling. It’s like Luke Skywalker taking chopsticks and some marbles with him to face Darth Vader.

David goes out, and Goliath is totally insulted that a boy, not even a man, would be his challenger.

43 He said to David, "Am I a dog, that you come at me with sticks?" And the Philistine cursed David by his gods.

Was David afraid? Probably. Wouldn’t you have been? But there was something deeper that moved David away from fear so that he could act and to speak. It was, in a word, faith.

45 David said to the Philistine, "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. 46 This day the LORD will hand you over to me, and I'll strike you down and cut off your head… and the whole world will know that there is a God in Israel. 47 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."

It was David’s faith in the living God that gave him the courage to face the giant. Fear may have been present somewhere, but it was overshadowed by a heart that chose faith, a heart that had learned faith while battling bears and lions—lesser enemies, so to speak. Goliath, the Israelites, King Saul—the source of their power, the source of their courage was military experience, human effort. David, on the other hand, derived courage from God—a source higher and mightier. Verse 47: “ALL those gathered here will know that it is not by sword or spear that the LORD saves.”

During the 2007 National Football League season, there was a team that was like Goliath—unstoppable. They were the New England Patriots. They were undefeated during the regular season, and by the time they reached the Super Bowl, they had broken multiple records. Their opponent in the championship game were the New York Giants. Although the Giants showed some promise, there was general expectation that the Patriots, with their #1 ranked quarterback and #1 ranked coach would dominate the game. In the end, however, the underdog won, and the Giants took the title.

This is the story that most folks hear about Super Bowl 42. It is similar to the story that everyone knows about David and Goliath—the little guy beat the big guy. The story of the New York Giants’ victory, however, starts earlier. While there are many details I could mention, I will share only one. Two weeks before the end of the regular football season, the Giants and the Patriots had a game. The Patriots, of course, won, but if you saw the game, you would know that Giants played an incredible game—and as a result, they saw the kinks in the Patriots’ seemingly undefeatable armor. What the Giants’ quarterback and the rest of the team saw was that it was possible—it was possible to defeat this team. The Giants played differently after that game; they had much more confidence.

By the time they go to the Super Bowl, it wasn’t a question of who had the best players or who had the best coach. There was confidence in the Giants’ team, and you saw it the entire week leading up to the big game. Players were at ease, making jokes and having fun. They went into the game with the larger vision—to win the Super Bowl, and their confidence did not come from what everyone else saw b/c they were no longer looking here (laterally). They were looking here (up) at the vision, the goal.

In a similar manner, when we, as Jesus Christ’s brothers and sisters, face things that cause us to be dismayed and terrified, we can put our confidence in our own efforts, the way that the Israelites counted on military strength. Or we can place our confidence in the power of Christ. To do so, of course, means that WE can’t control the outcome—it is his strength, not ours, so perhaps our fear will not be addressed exactly the way that we think it should be. But it will be addressed. It will be taken care of.

David and the Israelites were looking at the same person, the same set of circumstances. But b/c David chose faith, his perspective was vastly different. The battle was not about winning and losing. It was not about military prowess or human ability. The battle was about the honor of God and the power of faith in God. It was a vision that was larger than what everyone else was looking at. It is that vision—that faith in the Almighty God that distinguishes a transformed life from a regular one. It is faith instead of fear. Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection on the cross demonstrated for us that faith is more powerful than anything we can accomplish by our own means. So as we continue to learn what a transformed life looks like, let us remember that it faith over fear.