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Hendersonville Seventh-day Adventist Church, NC

David Wright

What Giants Are You Facing

The year was 1918 in the small town of Alton, Illinois, which is the suburbs of St.

And on a particular day, February 12, I believe it was, Robert was born into the Wadlow family.

His birth, at his birth, his height and his weight were normal, everything checked out, he was the perfect baby.

But As time passed, there was something that they began to notice that was a little bit odd about little Robbie.

By his first birthday, he was 3 and a half feet tall, over a foot taller than everybody else about his age.

When he was enrolled in kindergarten, he was exactly my height, which isn't tall, but for a kindergartner, that might be a little intimidating for you teachers out there.

Anybody taught kindergarten here in the room?

He was averaging about 4 and a half inches a year, sometimes more.

Good luck keeping him in clothes that fit.

They had to make special desks just to accommodate him.

And by the end of his high school time, when he graduated as a senior in high school, he was 8 feet 4 inches tall, as you can see in some of these pictures.

Were you or were you not there on March 6th?

Instead, he kind of became a celebrity of sorts, traveling with the Bailey Brothers Circus and various speaking engagements.

And he was in fact sponsored by some shoe companies who would custom make and supply him with his size 37 shoe.

Well, he had hyperplasia of his pituitary gland.

To put it Simply, he had a high level of growth hormone that never stopped.

Until the day that he died, he was growing and growing and growing.

He had to wear leg braces, and that was back in the day when everything was metal and hinges and all the rest.

And on 1 particular occasion, it wasn't wearing just right and his leg brace was faulty and he got quite a sore and a blister on his leg.

And because of a parasitic infection, and because of his autoimmune disorder, he finally passed away, but he was only 22 years old.

But upon his death, he was 8 feet 11 inches, almost 9 feet tall.

In 1986, a life-size statue was erected in his hometown of Alton, Illinois, and you can go there to this day.

And there's about 10 other replicas in museums and Ripley's Believe It or Not's in various places and you can go up and just see how tall this Robert was, who was known as the gentle giant.

Now today, in Scripture, we're gonna read about another giant, but I don't know if we can describe him quite so kindly.

He wasn't particularly known for being gentle.

It's the very Well-known story of David and Goliath.

And while we don't know his exact size, it's estimated that he was about 9 and a half to perhaps even 12 feet tall, depending if you take the normal cubit or the royal cubit.

Metaphorically speaking, this morning I want to look at what giants you are facing.

Perhaps there was a class that you had to pass and it's not looking like it's gonna happen.

Perhaps there's some financial giant that looks like it's going to crush you perhaps.

There's a lifestyle habit, and you can't seem to give it up Perhaps a lump has been not diagnosed as malignant Perhaps your child's in rebellion perhaps.

It's a serious surgery and the odds are not good.

This morning I want to look at 5 keys found in scripture of this well-known story about facing the giants of life.

5 giant lessons if you want to call them that, worth remembering, that I feel are practical, biblical, and doable.

5 keys I believe will bring you hope and comfort and direction and courage.

And so if you have your Bibles, I invite you to turn with me to 1 Samuel 17.

Thank you, Susan for reading that for us.

1 of my favorite stories in all of scripture.

And while you're turning there you may recall that leading up to this story, Saul has been doing things his way and not God's way.

And by the time we get to chapter 15, the Lord is grieved that he made Saul king.

And so in chapter 16 Samuel comes to the house of Jesse and after seeing all 7 of David's older brothers, older siblings, seemingly taller, he asks if there's any more.

Little David is out with the sheep, but he's just a lad certainly you can't consider him Many suppose David to be somewhere about 16 perhaps Yet when he comes he is the 1 chosen of the Lord, and he is anointed to be Israel's next king as a teenager.

And so, we find ourselves now in 1 Samuel chapter 17 where we come across this story that we all know so well David and Goliath Thought to have happened the same year as His anointing so he's still a young man and so let's pick up the story 1st Samuel chapter 17 and will begin in verse 2 and Saul and the men of Israel were gathered together and they encamped in the valley of Elah and drew up in the battle a ray against the Philistines.

The Philistines stood on a mountain on 1 side and the Israelites stood on a mountain on the other side with a valley between them.

And we're really just talking about maybe 300 foot high hills and this nice little playing field down below.

And so we read on, and a champion went out from the camp of the Philistines named Goliath from Gath, whose height was 6 cubits and a span.

He had a bronze helmet on his head and he was armed with a coat of mail and the weight of the coat was 5000 shekels of bronze.

He had bronze armor on his legs and a bronze javelin between his shoulders.

Now the staff of his spear was like a weaver's beam and his iron spearhead weighed 600 shekels, that's about 15 pounds.

Then he stood and cried to the armies of Israel and said to them, Why have you come to the line come out to line up for battle?

Am I not a Philistine and you the servants of Saul choose a man for yourselves and let him come to me if he's able to fight with me and kill me then he will be then we will be your servants but if I prevail against him and kill him then you shall be our servants and serve us and the Philistines said I defy the armies of Israel this day.

Give me a man that we may fight together.

And when Saul and all Israel heard these words of the Philistine, They were dismayed and greatly terrified.

This is rather pathetic in comparison to all the props that Chris brought this morning, which he did a wonderful job.

Now if Goliath was about 9 1⁄2 feet tall, conservatively speaking, this is not quite, maybe here is where that guy was in the first part of the story.

But Goliath at 9 and a half feet would be more like here.

Now if he's 12 feet, his feet are on that floor.

Tall, big, come on, bring it on, he says.

His upper armor weighs about 125 pounds, But we don't know how much his helmet weighs.

We don't know how much his things on his legs weigh.

In fact, verse 16 tells us he comes out morning and evening saying again and again and again, when are you gonna send somebody out?

It's very clear that the Bible writer wants us to understand Goliath is intimidating.

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What Giants Are You Facing

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