This past Sunday I felt led to address the horrible situations we are currently facing as a nation, in the world and even in our own lives. After I’ve spent time watching the news or reading the newspaper, I find myself becoming very concerned and even discouraged at all I see and read about which is taking place in our world. As I said last Sunday, it seems that a severe sense of lawlessness and evil has gripped the hearts of many in our world.; terrorism has put great fear in the hearts of many. The hatred and violence which I saw take place back in the 60’s has risen its ugly head once again. I am beginning to see a great divide take place in our nation and in our world. I have my own personal feelings about what I currently see taking place but my personal feelings, nor yours are important right now, for they will not fix what we see taking place today

I remember a time when employers were looking to hire someone, they would either place a sign in the window of their business or get the world out that they were looking to hire, but they were very specific in what type of person they needed to hire. They would list the qualifications this person needed to have to be considered for the job at hand. Often employers would ask their current employees if they knew of anyone who they would recommend they hire, which at times sadly always didn’t have the best of results

In 1 Samuel 17 we find the account of David and the giant Goliath. The Philistines had gathered their forces for war against the Israelite’s.  The Philistine army gathered on one side of the mountain and the Israelite army gathered their forces on the other side of the mountain, with a valley separating the two. Every morning and evening for 40 days, the Philistine camp sent out their champion warrior named Goliath with a challenge. Goliath was a giant of a man, who stood over 9 feet tall. This champion warrior named Goliath would challenge the Israelite army to send someone out to fight him and if their man killed him, the Philistine’s would be their subjects but if Goliath killed their man, then the Israelite’s would be subjects of the Philistines. Every time Goliath issued his challenge we read Saul and Israelite’s were dismayed and terrified; sounds a little like today, right

Along comes this shepherd boy named David, who was sent by his father Jesse with some much-needed nourishment for David’s brothers and their commander. When David arrived, Goliath was making his usual challenge, so David asked, “Who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God?”  David says to King Saul, “Let no one lose heart on account of this Philistine; your servant will go out and fight him“ You can hear the chuckling and laughing that had to be taking place among the Israelite army when they heard David’s words.  ‘Hey Joe, wanna to hear something funny, this crazy, young shepherd boy wants to fight the giant Goliath. What a joke’ King Saul told David he wasn’t able to fight this giant Goliath for he was only a young boy and Goliath had been a fighting man from his youth. David’s reply to King Saul’s words that he was only a boy is what I believe needs to be the heart and minds of God’s people today

“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. 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” Now that is a word of confidence! The reason David could say these words with much boldness was because he had ‘history’ with the Lord. David knew he was no match for Goliath but David wasn’t going out to fight Goliath in his own strength. In the eyes of man, David wasn’t qualified to fight Goliath; but in the Lord’s eyes, David was more qualified than the whole army of Israel to fight this battle. David saw first hand  in his own life what the Lord could do through someone who had no other choice than to place their trust and hope in the Lord

Isis, racial violence and even the most difficult personal difficulty anyone may face are nothing when all of our trust and hope is in the Lord. What is needed today are David’s; Christians who have personal history with an Almighty, miracle-working God and who aren’t afraid to stand against anything that would defy the Lord. The Lord has placed the sign and put the word out: ‘Greatly Needed: David’s’ Are you ready and able my dear friend to apply for the job?