(One year at summer camp I “stole” a sermon from one of my favorite youth pastors and great discipler, Jamie Austin. It was a classic David and Goliath spill with a little bit of a different spin on it. Here’s how it went.)

David picks up five smooth stones and launches one of them at the Goliath’s enormous head. (This comes after an enormous amount of trash talking, no joke, go read it.) As we already know, but to everyone’s shock back then, the stone connects with the giant’s head and kills him.

But David isn’t stupid. If the giant isn’t dead, when he wakes back up he’s going to be extremely hacked off and have a killer headache (puns intended). So David takes Goliath’s own sword and cuts the giants head off.

End of story, right? No way. David then helps pursue the enemy army. A few hours later he shows back up to the king and he still has Goliath’s head! He’s hanging on to it! Why? It’s proof what he did that day.

Here is something to think about from that story. A lot of times we have things in our pasts that try to come back and taunt us. Giants in our lives, if you will. We don’t need to merely knock them down because they often wake and come after us again. What we need to do is kill them. Sometimes that means getting rid of CD’s or magazines. Other times it means stop hanging out with people who are dragging us down and pulling us away from Christ. Still other times, it may be having an honest conversation with someone.

Does it end there? Just like the story, no! You can use the past to help your future. Don’t be ashamed. It may not be the most comfortable thing to do.  Some of the people around you need to see the head of the giant you killed in your life so they can have faith and be encouraged to kill the giants in their own lives. (Jamie and I don’t mind if you “steal” that one either.)

That summer I told the students that they were entering into a battleground. That sin and the things of the past had to die. The same is probably true for you.

But I missed it in one way that summer. The battleground has nothing to do with trying to get sin out of you life. The battleground has to do with getting God in.

What giants do you want to brag about getting rid of?