SELF-SUFFICIENCY

1 Samuel 17:4-11

Every time we begin a new year, it is but natural for us to hope and pray for new and better opportunities. Despite everything that had happened in the previous year, or the seeming obstacles before us, we should believe that God is able to open bigger and better opportunities for all his children. Our attitude should be: This year is going to be my best year ever!

Now, in order for this to become a reality, I firmly believe that we must shift our focus from our giants to our great God. Whether we accept it or not, we are all facing some giants in life. These giants are everything that keeps us in experiencing God's best in our lives. They are the obstacles that hinder us in moving to the next level in life. Just like in the life of David, they are the Goliaths that we need to slay if we want to arrive at God's destined place for us. Clearly, David's promotion happened because he was willing to confront and defeat his Goliath.

This is the main emphasis in my new series - Slaying the Giants. We will spend five Sundays dealing with five different giants the Devil can use to hinder us. Today, I'll talk about self-sufficiency, and on the following Sundays we'll talk about strongholds, slothfulness, selfishness, and shortsightedness. I'm convinced that confronting and defeating these giants can bring us to the next level in life. I'm aware that for some people, they may not appear as giants they need to be concerned with. But, when you go to the Bible, you would definitely understand why we should deal with them.

Obviously, before you can slay your giants, you must be willing to confront them first. In our text, the Israelites were so intimidated by Goliath that for 40 days, they were hiding from him, instead of facing him. If they were hoping he'll just go away, they were mistaken. Everyday he came out and challenged them, and the more they delayed, the more they got intimated by him.

I know it's the same with us. If we don't confront our giant, it won't go away, it would only become bolder, and much harder for us to handle. Allow me to just throw in the key verse for all of us:

Throughout this series, I would use this statement of Paul to encourage us to confront our giants. We don't have to be afraid. With God's help we can win a glorious victory. David had absolutely demonstrated the reality of this passage. His remarkable courage clearly came out of his conviction that his God was much bigger than the Goliath who was trying to intimidate him. Such is the conviction we all need to develop if we are to stand successfully against our giants.

Let's identify together the giant of self-sufficiency, and learn how we can successfully overcome it. There are three key concepts I want us to see:

I     THE APPEARANCE:

Before we look at our text, let's first define what self-sufficiency is. Often this refers to the state of not requiring any aid, support, or interaction for survival. This is literally the attitude that says, "I don't need anyone or anything to survive."

Our text presents Goliath who personifies the very same attitude. By just listening to him challenge the armies of Israel, you can sense the arrogance and pride that typically springs out of a self-sufficient man (vs.8-10). Perhaps, it is safe to think that an attitude like this develop through a period of time because of some contributory factors. For Goliath:

• His huge size - He is 9'9 in height with a body that can carry an armor as heavy as 120 - 215 pounds.
• He's fully equipped - He had a full armor, from his head to his feet. He had everything he needed including a shield bearer who stood with him (vs.5-7).
• He's a champion - He had the experience. He has already proven his skills to fight in battles (v.4).

With all of these, he became self-reliant, prideful, and arrogant. He did not need anyone from the Philistine army to fight with him. He came out by himself to challenge his enemies with the confidence that no one can measure up to him.

Self-sufficiency is dangerous, and anyone can easily fall into this attitude. Just like in the life of Goliath, image, possessions, and experience can easily contribute to such an attitude. In life, we need to constantly guard ourselves from it. Even God's people need to take heed. In the Old Testament, whenever God's people had enjoyed some prosperity, they were most vulnerable to self-sufficiency. In the height of Judah's prosperity, God spoke to His people through the prophet Jeremiah:

Indeed, we cannot boast about anything we have because everything comes to us because of the kindness of the Lord. Are you willing to acknowledge this truth? Again, the dangers of self-sufficiency are arrogance and pride. Once we sense these attitudes in our heart, we have to deal with them decisively before it's too late.

We need the Lord and we can consistently manifest our dependence on Him by not neglecting the following:

1. Bible (Psalm 119:105)
2. Prayer (Hebrews 4:14-16)
3. Holy Spirit (Ephesians 5:17-20)
4. Church (Hebrews 10:24-25)
5. God's Work (1 Corinthians 15:58)

Neglect on these things doesn't happen overnight. They develop through a series of small disregard here and there until Satan is able to convince us that we don't need them. Show me a Christian who have neglected these things, and I will show you a Christian who is living a defeated life because he has chosen to live away from God. Only you and the Lord can know whether you have neglected any of these areas which can lead to living independently from God.

II    THE ACCOUNTABILITY:

Secondly, I want us to be aware that when there's self-sufficiency, God will surely deal with it because He cannot stand pride and arrogance.

For every Goliath, God brings a David. I say this because it is obvious that David came into the scene by God's providence. David was not a soldier, he was only a shepherd. But by God's working, he was sent by his dad to his brothers, who happen to be soldiers, so he can hear some news about them. As soon as David was there, he heard the challenge by Goliath (vs. 12-26). Unlike Goliath, David had nothing to boast. This was his very first time in a battlefield, and he was never trained to fight with sword or spear. By all measurements, he was very much inferior to Goliath. He was literally an underdog. But, David focused his eyes on God. He did not see the bigness of Goliath, he saw the bigness of his God. Listen to him talk about his God:

David majored on His God. He believed that the battle was not his own to fight; it was the Lord's. Perhaps, this should be the attitude we need in life. Whenever problems and difficulties and all other giants come in our lives, we should never forget that the battle isn't ours. The Lord will do the fighting for us.

The reality is: God has dealt with Goliaths throughout the Scriptures. God held self-sufficient people accountable and dealt with them by bringing someone who can show them the power of God:

• Pharaoh had Moses
• Ahab had Elijah
• Haman had Mordecai
• Nebuchadnezzar had Daniel

I trust that we won't wait for God to deal with us if we know there's some attitude of self-sufficiency. He definitely has a way to let us know that we need Him, and we cannot make it in this life without him.

III   THE ADVANCEMENT:

When David finally defeated Goliath by simply using a slingshot, the God David represented received tremendous credit. David was used to advance the glory of God.

Oftentimes, God uses ordinary instruments in order to advance his name and kingdom. Notice what the apostle Paul told the Corinthians believers:

I hope we will understand the rationale behind this. God has created us to bring honor and glory to Him. When we are self-sufficient, our natural tendency is to ignore God and elevate ourselves. Once we acknowledge that we are nothing with Him, then God could now use us to advance His honor and glory.

Here's the beauty of this truth that we should not miss. Just like David, whenever we are committed to advance the glory of God, then God causes us to advance in life too. God promoted David to be king in Israel because he lived and acknowledged God in his life.

This principle is very much what God had said in 1 Samuel 2:30:

Those who honor me will I honor, but those who despise me will be disdained.

I hope we will never go through life's journey independently from God. Instead, we will do our best to acknowledge Him and honor Him in our life.