Crude, but Effective - Pastor Stacey Shiflett

Crude, But Effective

1 Samuel 17:28 “And Eliab his eldest brother heard when he spake unto the men; and Eliab’s anger was kindled against David, and he said, Why camest thou down hither? …I KNOW THY PRIDE, AND THE NAUGHTINESS OF THINE HEART…”

Let's get one thing straight. In 1 Samuel 17, David was in the perfect will of his Father. He was right where he was supposed to be, doing exactly what he was supposed to be doing. He was there because his Father sent him there.

What was his brother’s opinion?

What was Eliab’s discernment telling him?

That David was supposed to be feeding the sheep, and that he had a heart full of pride and naughtiness.

And if that's not enough, you've got King Saul telling David he couldn’t fight Goliath, and shouldn't fight, all while telling him what weapons to use; even though he had never fought and had no plans to do so.

Apparently, Saul thought David’s slingshot was ugly.

And crude.

And unconventional.

And wouldn't work.

But it did.

Saul did everything he could to stop David from fighting.

Told him he couldn’t.

Told him he didn’t know how.

Told him he didn’t have the experience.

David insisted on it. Was not there a CAUSE?

When Saul couldn’t stop him from fighting, he tried to weigh him down with unproven armor.

He tried to hinder him with untested techniques and methods.

David, proving he was not proud, laid his slingshot to the side.

He laid his staff and script on the ground, and put on Saul’s armor.

That brand new, never used, never tested coat of mail.

Not a single scratch on it.

Probably still had the price tag stickers on it.

A sword that had never tasted the blood of the enemy.

The Bible says in verse 38, 39, “And Saul armed David with his armour, and he put an helmet of brass upon his head; also he armed him with a coat of mail. And David girded his sword upon his armour, and he assayed to go; for he had not proved it. 

He “assayed to go.” Meaning he tried it. And it didn’t work. It was nice and shiny and popular with all the boys, but IT WOULDN’T WORK FOR HIM.

The first thing David had to do to deal with the giant was learning how to take everybody’s advice and everybody’s “help” and put it aside.

“And David put them off him.” (vs. 39)

In Saul’s eyes, David’s style was a “put off.”

They were “put off” by his passion.

They were “put off” by his “cause.”

They were “put off” by his disregard for their professional opinion.

They were “put off” by his exaggerated stories of past battles with lions and bears.

They were “put off” by him even being there.

But the best thing David did was take all their discernment, their advice, their armor, their battle strategies, AND PUT THEM OFF HIM.

Watching rank amateurs over the last two weeks let the whole world know how “put off” they are for my Facebook post confronting blatant compromise and the infiltration of the devil’s music into our churches has been real blessing.

They think they have all the answers, but they don’t even know the questions.

If anybody reading this thinks that I am in any way deterred, discouraged, demoralized, diminished or making any plans to detract or de-escalate, here’s my answer.

Is there not a cause? 

It’s amazing how many Eliab’s we have today.

The giant of apostasy is defying the armies of God.

The reproach is so thick you can cut it with a knife.

But what do they do? They run. They cower. They hide.

They get angry at the ones that want to fight.

They psychoanalyze their spiritual condition.

They tell them to go home and do their “job.”

Oh, they know all the Bible verses.

Listening to them, they are the only one’s right with God.

They have the right approach.

They have the right spirit.

They the right motives and the right technique.

But do you know what they DON’T have?

They do not have any plans of actually doing anything about the giant.

They’ve never done it and they aren’t planning on doing it.

Goliath should have been taken care of LONG before David showed up.

Instead of fighting the giant, they are denying it even exists.

Some have even promoted them to music director.

They brought ole Goliath up on the platform and gave him a microphone and keyboard.

But they want to tell us how to fight the giant?

They are IN LOVE with Goliath of Gath!!

They won't stop until their whole church is full of Gathites.

Not once have they shown the younger generation of preachers how to publicly confront compromise.

They won't use their platform to boldly defend old-time religion as it is being bulldozed and steamrolled over by the emerging church.

They won't offer to step up and take the heat and draw fire from every liberal and compromiser in the country.

But they know how to do it.

They know how Jesus would do it.

They know how a spiritual leader would do it.

They know how – they just never do.

And they never will.

They are not a part of the solution because they are part of the problem.

They can’t fight Goliath because they’re too busy patting Eliab on the back.

They won’t fight Goliath because they’re preoccupied buying all of his CD’s.

BUT - we should listen to THEM, because they are experts in pride and the spiritual condition of the one’s angered by the reproach.

They can’t fight and won’t fight the giant, but they have a doctor’s degree in pride detection.

Just for the record:

When I want your advice on how to fight (the battle you won’t fight), I’ll ask you.

If I need to borrow your mail, your sword and your helmet, I’ll ask you for it.

If I need a heart check and a spiritual analysis, I’ll be sure to get your expert opinion.

In the meantime – stop offering me advice on how to something I’ve been doing for 40 years.

You can mock and laugh and scorn and criticize all you want to.

You can preach against me from your pulpits.

You can lambast me from your social media platforms.

You can call me anything you want to call me.

You might not like me being here.

It’s clear that my presence is far more disturbing that that of the giant.

You’ve made that quite clear.

But for now, that giant still needs killing.

There is a reproach that needs taking away.

It’s called THE EMERGING CHURCH.

And I hate the very scent of it.

I hate what it’s doing to our churches.

I hate what it’s done to our young people.

I hate what it’s doing to this country.

The armies of the living God have been defied long enough.

So, with God’s help, I’ll run TOWARD the giant that most people run FROM.

And I won’t stop until I cut its ugly head off.

To the Eliab's out there, it might look like pride and naughtiness of heart.

You can mock my methods.

You can attack my approach.

You can question my slingshot all you want to.

Guess what?

No amount of peer pressure can stop me.

No amount of public shaming will get me to retract my post.

No man is big enough, popular enough or has enough clout to shut me up.

With God's help...

I’m going to keep standing for what I’ve always stood for.

I’m going to keep fighting the way I’ve always fought.

I’m going to keep pushing back against this tsunami of apostasy.

I’m going to keep using what I’ve always used.

I’m going to keep calling out and pointing out compromise.

I’m going to keep on preaching, keep on warning, and keep on posting.

You might think my slingshot is ugly and inadequate and crude.

But I'm going to keep slinging it.

You want to know why?

BECAUSE IT WORKS.