Fearlessly Courageous
Desk of Dennis Piller
10/19/2021
Do I Fight or do I Walk Away?
Do you feel like you’re beaten down today? Do you feel like you are overwhelmed and just can’t win no matter what you do? We all remember the story of David and Goliath. Goliath bellowed out, Send your champion out against me and whoever wins takes it all. He did this for 40 days continuing to hurl his sarcastic, demeaning, degrading blasphemes at the Israelites. They quivered in fear as they listened.
Some of you have been listening to a giant challenging an area in your life for 40 days…for some of it’s been 40 months and others, 40 years.
So what do you do when the giant is calling you out?
What they needed was a holy awakening. The truth is, if you’re under attack it’s not because you’re weak it’s because you have the potential to win.
Satan knows that and he wants you to believe his lies. He wants to hold you back and hold you down. His win is to neutralize you. We all have giants in our lives: addiction, porn, bitterness, anger, doubt, anxiety, pride. Do you know what that giant is for you or do you have it buried in a box in your closet under lock and key?
Being attacked is unavoidable but being beaten is unacceptable.
It boils down to who will you believe? “Ask for me in my house I will serve the Lord”. That means I will believe the Lord. I will listen to his words… above the words of the enemy. Because if we’re called, and we are, we are empowered. God said, “If I am for you who can be against you”. What voices are you listening to?
The facts are: we are defeated by the life we live or, put another way,
by the lifestyles we have chosen.
Sometimes the best way to win a battle is not to begin it.
Have you ever heard the saying it takes two to tango? It takes two to have a fight. Unfortunately, many of us have lost battles that we should’ve never begun. Battles we should’ve never engaged in. We should’ve walked away!!! From opening our mouths with those angry words. Taken up a spirit of offense when a loved one hurts our feelings or insulted us. Or, stop hanging with the wrong friends… because we know from history how it will end up.
What are the signs? There are people that we shouldn’t be hanging around with. God never called you to fight that fight. So walk away. Don’t go into that bar or click that mouse. Don’t walk where they are walking. Stop It!
When you are considering what battles to take on,
have you really considered what you might win?
Have you calculated the reward of winning versus the regret of losing?
In 1 Samuel 17:25, The king offered a reward to kill Goliath.
What do I win with this hang-up or addiction? What might be the result?
When we fight battles that we should be walking away from what is the regret after losing that flight? Remorse, pain, screwed up again, depression, giving up, destruction of a family?. If you had thought of having to confess afterward to your wife or your children,.. If we could get ahold of that reality ahead of time and not fight that battle but instead have walked away… how different our life would have been.
My encouragement for you today is don’t give up the fight halfway in the middle of it. When you’ve realized you’ve entered a fight you shouldn’t have.
Change direction. Humble yourself. Turn-Around. Ask for help.
There is always a reward at the end of every good fight. Sometimes it’s the breakthrough you’ve been looking for. The love you have been hoping for. The joy like no other.
Do you know the old adage if you don’t first succeed try and try again?. Looking at 1st Samuel 17–40 when David saw what was happening he was outraged. And this young lad fortified by his faith in Almighty God decided to face the giant before Israel.
That giant facing off against his family, his faith, and his way of life.
So David chose five stones. Why Five?
I think he remembered that he downed a bear with one stone but maybe it took three stones to kill the lion. I believe that he looked at this giant and thought, this may take five stones. I not sure David was sure that he could hit the enemy with his first stone. I’m not sure about the second or third stone. I think the point here is that David came prepared for a fight. It was a fight he SHOULD be fighting. He was in this for the duration.
But hear me: David not only had faith in God,
but He was also faithful to God!
The truth is you can’t win a fight when you don’t show up. When you don’t show up on a Monday night Courageous group to develop some new friendships or find some encouraging words of God to get you through the week. Or when we don’t show up to the Bible study because we’re just too busy.
Goliath had a mouth on him he kept talking up his greatness. One of the things we have to do is stop letting the enemy do all of the talking. But David came and started some talking of his own. Who do you think you are? You uncircumcised Philistine. How dare you blaspheme my God. David was talking it up. Verse 26 first Samuel 17:45 but I come in the name of the Lord. This day the Lord will deliver me and give us the victory.
We too need to begin to talk back using God’s word and remind the enemy of our calling and who we are. We are more than conquerors. we are born again and bought with a price. God will complete the good work in me. God continually reminds me of my future, because we have the victory in Christ Jesus. How could a shepherd boy have that kind of confidence?
It wasn’t David it was God inside David.
Falling down is an accident but getting up is a choice. |
Pick up another stone… Surround yourself with God’s people. God is with you, he said I will build my house on a rock and that rock is Jesus Christ.
Pick up a Rock!
United Ocean (Where feet may fail)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-XPKrM1Fstg
Excerpts are taken from Pastor Aarons talk during The Man Event
