Facing Giants: Overcoming Temptation Through Christ

e e e e sisters I guess today I'm the substitute for Vlad and um I'll read from Josh uh chapter 1:8 this is one of my favorite scripture verses and it says this book of the law shall not depart from your mouth but you shall meditate on it day and night so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it for then you will make your way prosperous and then you will have good success and I would say particularly this verse is really relevant and to young people because when we're young we're just when I was young and you guys are young you're just beginning to think about your life and how to make wise choices how to become successful how to build your life and things like this and there's a lot of um there's a lot of different things that may fight for our attention but the scripture says if you actually will pay attention to the scriptures if you will read it if you will listen to today to the preaching that is going to uh be done on this place and you're going to open up your heart and you're going to say Lord what do you want to teach me then the Bible says you will become wise you will become prosperous and then you will have good success isn't that amazing so uh let us uh listen this day to God's word with an open heart and mind and we're going to believe uh for ourselves we're going to take this blessing that we will be prosperous in our ways and will be successful when we apply God's word in our life and I'm not talking about riches I'm talking about success in God's eyes when when you're going to stand before him he's going to say good and faithful servant and so with these words let us stand up and pray to the Lord Lord we thank you for your word that is full of wisdom and that teaches us Lord how we should be successful in our life and of course you judge success totally different than what the world judges and for us it's most important that we are successful in your eyes Lord and we just ask open up our hearts and Minds uh to hear the word that's going to be preached here today and to apply it in our life and to love your word in your name we pray amen amen the song that we'll be opening up with will be Open the Eyes of My Heart Lord [Music] Open the Eyes of My Heart Lord Open the Eyes of My Heart I want to see you I want to see you Open the Eyes of My Heart Lord Open the Eyes of My Heart I want to see you I want to see you to see you are lift it up shining in the light of your glory pour out your power and love as we sing Holy Holy Holy Holy Holy Holy I want to see you Open the Eyes of My Heart Lord Open the Eyes of My Heart I want to see you I want to see you Open the Eyes of My Heart Lord Open the Eyes eyes of my heart I want to see you I want to see you to see you I lift up shining in the light of your glory pour out your power love As we sing Holy Holy Holy Holy Holy Holy I want to see you and the next song we'll be singing is hide me now I need under your wings C me within your might [Music] when the oceans rise in [Music] thund I will soar with you above the stor father you are King over the flood I will be still knowing you are God I will be still knowing you are God bless my soul Christ the [Music] lord his [Music] in quiet gra and Trust when the oce rise and Ro I will SAR with you above the stor father you are clean over the FL I will be still for you you are God I will be still for you are God when the oce rise and thers Roar I will SAR with you above the stor father you are king of Lord of I will be still know you are God I will be still KN you are God good evening brothers and sisters today my sermon is going to be about Facing the Giant we all know the story of David and Goliath uh David was young he was a young Shepherd boy he wasn't really big or tall but his faith in God was huge with the faith he had he killed a lion and a bear now there was a time uh where the Israelites had a war with the Philistines David was sent to bring them 10 Loaves and FHA of dried grain and 10 Jesus to his brothers at Camp if we read in 1st Samuel 1777 20-25 it tells us more here so David Rose early in the morning left the sheep with a keeper and took the things and went as Jesse had commanded him and he came to the camp as the Army was going out to the fight and shouted for the battle for Israel and the Philistines had drawn up in battle array Army against Army and David left his supplies in the hand of the supply keeper ran to the Army and came and greeted his brothers then as he talked with them there was uh the champion the Philistine of gath Goliath by name coming up from the armies of the Philistines and he spoke according to the same words so David heard them and all uh the men of Israel when they saw the man fled from him and were dreadfully afraid so the men of Israel said have you seen this man who has come up surely he has come up to defy Israel and it shall be that the man who kills him the king will enrich with great riches will give him his daughter and give his father's house exemption from taxes in Israel now as we see here the Israelite Army was scared of this Philistine because he was a giant he was six cub tall which is 9 ft now we humans can be facing this giant in our daily lives for example this giant that we Face could be fighting sin work problems School problems health problems and Etc we as humans tend to try to fight off the giant ourselves and how are we supposed to fight him off if he's much bigger than us we we can't fight them off ourselves if we continue reading in 1st Samuel 7 34-37 it says here but David said to Saul your servant used to keep his father's sheep and when a lion or a bear came uh and took a lamb out of the flock I went out after it and struck it and deliver and delivered the lamb from its mouth and when it Rose against me I caught it by its beard and struck it and killed it your servant has killed both lion and a bear and this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them seeing he has defied the armies of the Living God whever David said the Lord who delivered me from the Paw of the lion and from the Paw of the bear he will deliver me from the hand of the Philistine and Saul said said to David go and the Lord be with you there's no way David could have defeated Goliath by himself but with the faith he had in God he knew it was possible David wasn't really afraid of Goliath his size and strength didn't bother him David grabbed a rock out of his pocket and slung it and landed right on the forehead of Goliath uh and Goliath fell flat on his face and David came up to him and cut his head off he trusted the Lord to fight for him even before when David killed Elon and ab bear he knew better better than to go into any battle just relying upon his own ability he recognized that the fight was the Lords the Lord has never lost a battle and he never will he triumphed over uh the devil at Calvary when Jesus was at his weakest point so when your battle with a giant is a fight that the Lord wants you to have trust the Lord and He will fight for you and you will win the world in which we live live is full of enemies within us who seem as Giants to us these enemies in our lives have have names such as fear Disobedience and discouragement these enemies seem too large and strong is there any way we can conquer such GI let's look at when God wanted the children of Israel to March right in and take the land of Canaan away from the wicked people living there but the people were afraid at cadesh bernia 12 Spies went uh were sent ahead to look over the land and bring back a report when they came back 10 of them said it is a wonderful land filled with fruit and good things but there are giants there we can never conquer them we just seem like grasshoppers before them so little and so weak we can't take the land but Joshua and Caleb said we can't take it the Lord is with us and he will give us the land we are uh we are little and weak but God will go before us they chose to look up to God and God helped the children of Israel to stand against the Giants in the land we will also see how God can enable us to fight against the Giants we may encounter in our lives day by day God expects his children to be confident in him that in this that in any crisis we rely on him and do not panic if you are in God's family God wants you dep to depend on Jesus to do for you what you cannot do for yourself he understands our every need we all face different kinds of giants in our lives the question isn't whether they'll show up it's whether we'll have the courage to low stones into our sling when the time comes the question is will we trust in the Lord forget trying to trying to defeat your giant with manmade philosophies and carnal weapons you are no match for a spiritual battle without the Spiritual armor of God the devil wants uh to take you captive and destroy you with the same tools Goliath used against the Israelites San wants to ruin your Effectiveness with deceptive suggestions and lying allegations but if we learn how to conquer all the lying emotions slanderous accusations and deceptive suggestions the devil uses to get to you you will be able to defeat him once you push away Satan's intimidating threats and lies he will no longer be able to hold your mind captive if you'll uh if you'll take charge of your mind learning how to speak God's truth rather than listen to the enemy's lies the devil will lose his ability to use lying emotions and Illusions to manipulate Dominate and control your life many times in life you will face Giants that seem impossible to conquer but God promises in his word that we already have the victory in Christ Faith doesn't always seem to be the best option but truth be told it is the only option that will really bring us true Victory we all know what it's like to face a challenge that seems impossible to conquer many times in the Bible we see that happened David against Goliath Gideon against the mid midianites Moses against pharaoh and in each of these situations God conquered for those who put their faith in him God brings Giants and storms and uh and challenges to us not because he wants us to suffer for our sins but so that we will grow in our character and in our faith in him brothers and sisters the giant that we might be facing is never too big for God God it's only with God we will be able to defeat him and how do we gain this type of faith we need to read the Bible but not only read it we also need to ma meditate on it and uh live by it and always pray when you put your confidence in the Lord and seek his glory in the outcome of the battle with your giant you put the fight in his hands and get it out of yours Let's uh let's be faithful till the end amen amen standing and Rising on our feet we'll be singing a song called Jesus Paid It All [Music] I hear the Savior say thy strength indeed is small child of weakness watch him pray find in me thine in all Jesus made it all all to him I all sin has left a Crimson Stain he was for nothing good I have whereby thy Grace to I'll wash my garments by in the blood of calary L Jesus made it all all to him my own s that left a he was the wi sow for downed I find thy power and D alone change the leopard SPS and the Heart of stor [Music] Jesus be it all all to him my own s her left to Crimson s he might Jesus Beed all oh to him I sin had left a Crimson Stain he was [Music] me okay my dear friends praise God right now it's going to be the announcements and um I I actually put the slides on the wrong uh presentation so so I guess we're not going to have any slides but um so next week as we've known for many weeks that uh we're doing that uh event uh clothing giveaway it's going to be for mothers for single mothers and those in need and so it's going to be actually Sunday from 2:30 to 5: uh while we chose 2:30 25 we felt it would be right that that day is Mother's Day it's a special day and um you know we just thought it would be a right day to to do this event um then after that our youth uh decided nicely that um that after church they want to invite all of us and all the mothers to the gym um and there's going to be some coffee tea some sweets and like Rosa said there's going to be something special um well can I ruin it it's going to be little sandwiches so so those that are hungry will get a feast um of little sandwiches but uh praise God for that so that's going to be next week happening so the the Mother's Day uh clothing event the youth is doing from 2:30 to 5 uh those people that still want to donate something um like Rosa said on the church chat you guys can just uh bring stuff in here um until Thursday the reason why Thursday is cut off day is because they have to sort the stuff the youth sorts it and then like anything that they think that needs to be washed they wash it they take it home they wash it and um and anything that they think that um yeah I guess I'll just leave it at that um but I just want to say thank you guys so much stuff over there the first couple days you know um like I was talking to our youth and they're like well Tim we need this this this this this you know and then I texted around the church and um like yesterday I hear like Tim we have so much stuff oh my we have so much stuff we're going to have to be sorting it all week and I'm like praise God we are blessed America is blessed and thank God you know and so um like also if you guys want to help somehow uh come up to Rosa and the Emma and uh they'll tell you what days to show up what time and you guys can also help sort the stuff um but other than that um do we have a song today no yeah okay so we have a doet thank you for [Music] one gift of Grace is Jesus My Redeemer there is no more for heav now give is my joy my righteousness and freom my steast love my deep and boundless to this I hope my hope is only Jesus for my life is Holy B to oh how strange and divine I and see all is M and not but through CHR in [Music] me the night is dark but I am not forsen for by my side the s he will stay I labor on in weakness and rejoicing for in my need his power is displayed do this I all my shepherd will defend me through the deepest Val will oh the night has been one and I shall overcome yet not I but through Christ in [Music] me no fate I dread I know I am forgi the future sure the price he has been paid for Jesus bled and suffered for my paron and he was raised to overthrow the grave to this I hold my sin has been defeated Jesus now and ever is my oh the chains are released I can sing I am free yet not I but through Christ in me with every breath to follow Jesus for he has said that he will bring me home and day by day I know he will re me until I stand with joy Before the Throne do this I hope my hope is only Jesus all the glory ever more to him when the race is complete find my lips shallat yet not I but through Christ in me thank you ladies that was a good choice of of a song very beautiful uh um so my dear friends it's good to see everybody here and um I'm going to be just reading a little bit about what the Bible tells us and one thing it does tell us is that you will be tested it doesn't matter how old you are how holy you are or how Unholy you are but you will be tested you know what we don't realize is that like every day when we wake up there's Temptations around us Temptations and I would say our biggest temptation is our phone but um you know everybody goes through through different Temptations and we're going to be reading from James 1 verse 12 and over here it says uh blessed is the man who endures Temptation for when he has been approved he will receive the uh Crown of Life which the Lord has uh promised to those who love him in other uh translations is says uh blessed is the man who endures uh trials trials Temptations they kind of go together but I think a trial it's I'll would say I'll would say temptation is a trial I guess in a way but I think Temptation has more of like of like an evil like an evil attack the word temptation is defined as um the desire to do something wrong or unwise so the word temptation means you either do something wrong or you do something unwise and over here um Apostle James tells us that um the man who endures those Temptations will receive a reward from God you know we just heard our uh brother talk about Giants and how David faced Giants Well in our life Temptations are sometimes those Giants and sometimes with our own strength we cannot win we cannot win those giants because they're much larger than us and I tell you one thing if David did not have the Holy Spirit on him he would lose because that giant was so much stronger than him he was so much scarier than him and the only reason why David wasn't afraid is because of God it's because he knew that there's somebody that's much stronger than that Giant Goliath and sometimes in our life Temptations are those giants we try we try to stop we're good and then we fall back in because the desire to do wrong is stronger than the desire to overcome and the only way we can overcome is to have somebody stronger than that I would say giant that's in our life life but it's interesting because temptation is defined in two different ways wrong and or unwise so so we know wrong it's evil like anything like evil in God's eyes that is wrong for us so so anything that's going to tempt you is evil it's wrong you know and and so over here it says that but the man who endures well the question is how can we endure and what's a Temptation that we can endure well we know evil how it says in the scripture is like we know those um the the fruits of the flesh like the sexual immorality the um uh Disobedience the like like all those things that in God's eyes are evil that is wrong but also it says over here unwise so not everything that that we not always evil is unwise hold on a sec not everything unwise is evil but everything unwise is wrong so what am I trying to say here okay if for example if you go go on your uh news for you know 20 minutes you know you you're just uh catching up that's not wrong but if you're spending hours even though news is not evil but the fact that you're spending so much time of it is wrong and that's a Temptation that we need to overcome and it's funny because because I was just like sharing with some of my friends that um so there's this guy that I know I'm not going to say his name but but he's always on the marketplace you know and he's searching for good deals you know and he's sending me and um he never you know he's he's always like sending me these deals and I'm like bro just save your money stop buying all this stuff just because it's a good deal well then I downloaded the app the Facebook Marketplace and guess what now I know why he was on there for so long cuz everything is such a good deal and you know me I love to save money even though the trick is you have to spend to save so you're always broke but you're always getting good deals you know and so and so literally I um so so I downloaded this app uh because I was selling things on there and then I realized that well if I'm selling it my stuff for half the price then I can probably get other stuff for half the price and then I started just sitting on there and buying things that I don't even need because it's just a good deal you know and then I realized that I'm going to have to confess I was spending a lot of time on Facebook Marketplace like a lot and I'm like what am I doing what am I doing this is so wrong and so I deleted the the app because because I knew I couldn't control myself the only only way you overcome is when you cut off that arm you know when you cut off that Temptation and so I deleted that app and I'm like you know Lord I'm sorry I didn't even realize it that's the thing I didn't even realize it because because it's not evil there's there's nothing evil about it but but it was taking all my free time and so I had to cut it off and you know and like I deleted the app and I didn't even know what to do with my time I'm like man I have so much time you know and I'm trying to get into the word and stuff and I'm trying to uh pray more and stuff and it last passed for a little bit and then I started watching more news and then I started spending a lot of time on the news and again news is not evil it's information and and so I'm just again the same cycle but with a different problem I'm spending so much time on there and I'm like again what am I doing so I had to delete that app because it was taking my time away from me from God from spending times with my my children from going out and having fun with my wife uh playing her favorite sport pickle ball and surprisingly she actually beats me now and I'm like man I either got fat or I'm just or she got good yeah um but but that's the thing that is Temptation it's not always something evil it's not always uh like how we heard our pastor um say an example where a bad guy shows you a candy when you're 6 years old it's not always so sweet it's not always that sin but a Temptation can be anything that takes your time away from God be it sin that separates you from the Lord because evil it separates you Darkness separates from light so evil separates you from the Lord or the time separates you from having this time with him so now that we defined Temptation it could be wrong which is evil or it could be unwise we read over here that but the man who endures you know and how do we overcome our Giants how we heard today you know and I'm I'm surprised that that your sermon kind of correlates with mine because it's like I even got some some pointers from you like the word giant but I'm like Temptation are giants because if we're not careful if we're not strong if we are weak we're going to be controlled by them that's why for us to overcome we have to have somebody stronger and we read in in Hagi 2:4 that that our strength comes from the Lord and also we read in the Bible that I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength we know that one we know that Bible verse I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength you know like if we can say I can do all things through I don't know knowledge or the strength of this world we're going to lose because the Goliath that we're facing is bigger than our out would say flesh it's bigger the devil he knows everybody's weakness I mean he's been here for for 8,000 plus years if he if he knows a human better than than anybody other than God is going to be him and he knows every Temptation that a person is weak on and he's not going to go to a person that's spiritually of age and tempt him with women you know because or or something else or like uh games video games because he knows that that person I mean for him that's a candy he's not going to go on the candy when he sees a bad guy you know so Satan knows everybody's weakness even the guy who's who's reading the word and getting into the word and getting Holier how we heard this morning but the thing is that we can only only win our strength is only through Christ if we do not grow in him we will be falling we will be controlled by our Temptations and my dear friends are you being controlled right now do you feel like you're constantly spending time hours and hours on something that is not making you Holier you know like we heard this past two weeks about Holiness and I think that the Lord is uh trying to tell us something he's trying to wake us up like guys there's a hard time coming you're going to fall to that giant if you do not get holy if you're not seeking me because the strength is only through Jesus Christ he's the one who conquer the Giant and if we do not seek the one who gives us strength we will fall and so today the Lord is speaking to each one of us if you are being controlled by a giant cut him off cut him off if you see that you are weak the strength is through Christ Alone seek Christ he will give you the strength if you're going to go seek those those um people that that are very wise or um if you're going to go online and listen to uh preachers you know and and how good they preach but if you your yourself do not seek God you will be controlled by the Giants and you will fall to any Temptation because it is much bigger than your flesh and at the end let's see what this what uh James says but those that overcome those that endure Temptation what will they reap they will reap a reward a crown of life you know the Bible speaks about different types of rewards but and I'm not sure what kind of reward this is I don't know if this is the the re the reward of eternal life or a crown meaning that when we get to heaven God is going to be like my son you overcame here's a crown a reward reward because we know our rewards are going to be in heaven and how how sad is it going to be when you make it to heaven and you get no rewards because you kept on stumbling and being in heaven you're like wow what what did I do why did I waste my time on these Temptations when I could have got these Rewards W and then they're going to see other people with these rewards but they themselves are left without it they're going to regret those moments when they knew that all they had to do is get their strength from the Lord so my dear friends the Lord has been speaking to us last week this week strive for Holiness because when we strive for Holiness we get stronger God gives us Supernatural strength where we can overcome any Temptation in our life in Jesus name let's pray amen I'll be reading from Leviticus 2730 a tithe of everything from the land whether grain from the soil or the fruit from the trees Belongs to the Lord it is Holy to the Lord if God puts it on your heart to give today um may God bless you and that we'll be all singing a song called bless the Lord oh my soul [Music] bless the Lord oh my soul oh my soul worship His Name seem like never before oh my soul I worship your Holy Name the sun comes up it's a new day dar it's time to sing your song again whatever may pass and whatever lies before me let me be singing when the he go bless the Lord oh my soul oh my soul worship His holy name sing like never before Oh my S I worship your all you're rich in love and you're slow to aen your name is great and your heart is God for all your goodness I will keep on singing 10,000 dayses for my heart to bless the Lord oh my soul oh my soul worship His holy name sing like never before Oh my S I worship your only and on that day when my strength is Da the end draws near and my time has come still my soul will sing your praise unending 10,000 years forever [Music] bless the Lord oh my soul oh my soul worship His holy name sing might never be for oh my soul I worship your home bless the Lord all my Soul oh my soul worship is Holy sing like never before oh my soul I worship your [Music] holy so worship your holy praise God my dear friends we're going to be ending our service uh does anybody have any needs so um we were thinking of having a park today but it's kind of cold outside and um so we uh cancelled it but next week like I mentioned after service we're just going to go to the gym and the youth they are going to uh prepare something for us for the mothers and I guess the fathers are also invited right yeah okay oh to help them cook they said okay okay well um yeah so so we'll do that and okay and I guess the week after that we'll already resume with the park but uh does anybody have any needs oh yeah and we're going to pray for some people like uh brother Zach is really sick um and we know a lot of people are sick so let's pray for healing Lord God we thank you for this day God for all your blessing Lord and for coming into this place Lord God and teaching us your word Lord God help us overcome our Giants in our life Lord God how it was spoken today Lord God and help us God to be holy like you Lord God lord we also uh pray for those that are sick Lord God for Zach Lord God we pray for him that you bring healing upon him Lord Jesus God and also like everybody that is sick and the blood of Jesus Christ may may everybody be healed thank you for everything in Jesus name we pray amen Our Father in heaven Hallowed Be Your Name Your Kingdom Come your will be done on Earth as it is in heaven give us today our daily bread forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us lead us not into temptation but Deliver Us from the evil one for your kingdom your power and Glory forever are yours amen be blessed