Go to 1 Samuel, chapter 17.
We've been in 1st Samuel for quite some time now and we've been
walking verse by verse through this wonderful book of the Bible
that reminds us of God's provision and his power through various
individuals lives.
We looked at Samuel obviously at the very beginning of 1st Samuel
and seeing how he is ordained by God to be in the ministry, to
be a minister in the, in the temple there, and then also further
on ministering to the leader named Saul.
And we even saw Saul at the very beginning as he was anointed
of God, was greatly blessed by God.
And I think the, the thing that we can think about with Saul
is just great potential.
Saul had so much potential, but because of his selfishness, because
of his pride, and because of his turning away from the Lord, he
found himself not in God's power and provision, but ultimately
found himself in God's judgment.
And then we saw David come onto the scene.
And we all know the story of David.
We understand that David was a man after God's own heart and God
selected him to be the next king, but he also prepared him obviously
way before he took the throne.
And we saw that in 1st Samuel chapter 17 when it dealt with David
coming against Goliath.
So that's where we're going to conclude here today in First Samuel
chapter 17.
And we're going to start in verse number 50.
Last week we left off at the very end of the battle and the, the
standoff between the giant and David.
And obviously on paper Goliath should have won.
Obviously we know that he was much taller, much stronger, had more
experience.
But the thing that was different was that he was in rebellion
to God.
And then David on the other side was smaller, younger, weaker,
but yet he had God on his side.
And so we looked at 1st Samuel chapter 17 a few weeks ago and we
said let's think about not just thinking about David.
This even though David is the centerpiece to the story, ultimately
one might argue that God is the centerpiece of the story.
But when we were looking at the humans here, we see David and
we often think about David in this narrative.
But I also want us to think about two other individuals in this
story because I think that so often we can skip over a lesson in
those stories as well.
And so think about Saul, think about Saul as he comes to this battle
in the valley of Ewa and he stands against Goliath because he
heard the same things that David heard.
Think about when Goliath got out into the valley and he starts
saying all These things against the God of Israel, basically
mocking the God of Israel.
And then he comes and says, hey, anyone want to stand up against
me and the power of God?
And no one did.
And think about who the natural person was that should have
stood up.
It should have been Saul.
Saul was the king.
First of all, he was the selected leader to stand up against
the enemy.
But.
But two, we know that Saul was a man that was head and shoulders
above everybody else.
So even physically, Saul was the man for the job.
But because of Saul's lack of faith and in turn, his fear, he cowered
away from the opportunity to see God work through him.
And we.
And we talked about the contrast between faith and fear.
And I think all of us have to come to grips with that decision
when we come to a difficulty in our life, maybe we could even
call it a giant in our life.
And if we're honest with each other here tonight, and I hope that
we are, all of us come to certain situations in our life that
can be like a giant to us.
Maybe it's a physical situation that we're going through,
maybe it's an emotional situation, maybe it's a spiritual
situation, but nonetheless, we come to a situation or a circumstance
that causes us to fear.
Anxiety could be many different emotions that we're experiencing.
But when we come to the situation, we can either face it
in fear or we can face it in faith.
And so Saul faced it in fear.
If you go back and look just in this chapter, there was multiple
occasions in which Saul had an opportunity to stand up, but it says
that he was in fear.
And then his leadership rubbed off on other people.
So Saul's fear led to everybody on the battlefield in fear.
Right.
And that's really what it looks like in our own life.
All of us are called to some level of leadership.
And the Bible says that as we walk in fear, so we then are going
to lead others to fear.
And so David on the other side says, no, I'm going to have faith.
And so he trusts in the Lord.
He trusts not in his own strength, but he trusts in what God
had done before.
So he called back.
Remember, he called back to the lion, he called back to the bear,
and he called back to the power that God had through him.
And that's who he utilized for his victory against the enemy.
So let's look at verse number 50 here.
This is the conclusion to the chapter.
And there's one other person I want us to look at, but I want us
to kind of see that after we read these Next few verses, verse
50 says, so David prevailed over the Philistine with a sling
and a stone and smote the Philistine and slew him.
But there was no sword in the hand of David.
Therefore David ran and stood upon the Philistine and took his
sword and drew it out of the sheath thereof and slew him and cut
off his head therewith.
And when the Philistines saw their champion was dead, they fled.
Now let's stop right there.
I know that this can be somewhat graphic, but we need to
understand why this is here and what this is teaching us.
And so David is going to make certain that his enemy is dead.
He doesn't just leave it to the stone that hits him on the head.
No, he takes a step further and he eliminates the threat of Goliath
by removing his head with his own sword.
Now you would say, why do we have to emphasize that?
Well, I do believe that that's here for a reason.
And what that means for us is that we can't mess around, we can't
compromise with sin in our life.
We might think that, hey, you know what?
I fought off that, that temptation today, but we can leave
ground for it to come tomorrow.
What he does here is he wipes out his enemy.
We have to wipe it out.
We have to cut it out.
The Bible actually speaks of those things in the New Testament
that, that sin and these things can be like a canker or a
sickness and we have to cut it out.
And so David uses Goliath's own sword to remove him and to say,
you know what?
This is a final judgment.
This is a final, final wiping away of this naysayer of God.
And so, yes, there was three people that I really want us to think
about.
There was David, there is Saul, and then there's Goliath.
What does Goliath represent?
Well, some people might say that Goliath represents a sin or
a fear in our life.
And certainly he could represent that, but he also represents
those that are in rebellion to God.
If you go back, think about what Goliath was saying.
Goliath was saying, who could judge me?
Who could fight against me?
Not even this God that you claim to be all powerful.
He can't even stop me.
And so what Goliath was showing was he was showing the opposite
side of faith.
He was showing the opposite side of submission and humility to
God.
He was showing a sense of pride and self exaltation.
And we would even maybe argue that he was talking about false gods
and idolatry.
But nonetheless, we see the outcome of the one who rejects God,
the outcome of the one who is in rebellion to him, and ultimately
it's defeat.
And we can transfer that over to the New Testament.
And we know that the promise of God is that one day he is going
to make all things right.
He is going to have every single person to kneel down before
him.
Philippians chapter two says that every knee shall bow and every
tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.
Now, those that are in faith, those like David, and those that
are here tonight that might trust in Jesus Christ as Savior,
one day we will be crying out to the Lord in faith and experiencing
the blessing of knowing that he is our God and He is our conqueror
and he is our Redeemer.
But then those that are in rebellion will still cry out, knowing
that God is who he says he is.
But it will be in judgment, it will be in separation.
And ultimately we know that it'll be an eternal death.
And so Goliath is a picture of those that are judged in their sin.
And so David is the vessel in which God uses to bring about that
judgment upon the Philistines, and particularly with Goliath.
So at the end of verse 51, we see what the Philistines see.
Their champion was dead.
And what do they do?
They flee.
And so the.
The faith that David displays shows number one, the strength of
God, but then number two, the inadequacy of the God of the Philistines.
And they were looking to Goliath as the.
The figurehead of their God.
And when he falls, they run because they realize that the God
of Israel is more powerful than anything that they have ever
seen.
And so we see that the Philistines see their champion fall
and they run.
And obviously they understand that David's victory was God's victory.
So David's example gave them fear of their rebellion.
But then look at verse number 52, because now we see another side
of the coin.
These Philistines are running because they're on the other side.
But what happens in verse 52?
And the men of Israel and of Judah arose and shouted and pursued
the Philistines until thou come unto the valley into the gates
of Ekron.
And the wounded of the Philistines fell down by the way,
to sh.
Even unto Gath and unto Ekron.
And the children of Israel returned from chasing after the Philistines,
and they spoiled their tents.
And so we see on the other side, the people of Israel see David's
faith in the Lord and see the power of God working through him.
And that empowers them, that encourages them, that strengthens
them to a place where they say, you know, we can do this.
And so this is a lesson for us that when we live in faith publicly,
other people will be encouraged and strengthened in their
faith.
And so David is going to be the example of trusting in the Lord.
So David's example gave them courage and faith in the Lord.
I think about this, and I quoted this verse last week, but
I think it's important for us to note again, even though I don't
think David ever read First Timothy 4:12 because it hadn't been
written yet, but the same principle is there.
First Timothy 4:12.
Let no man despise thy youth, but be thou an example of the believers
in word and conversation and charity and in spirit, in faith and
in purity.
Now, that's the theme verse for our team group.
But it's important to note that even a young person, even a
person who has inexperienced Christian walk, can be an example
to those around them by the way that they live.
And David was example to everybody around him, and they saw
the power of God working through him.
And I hope that you have a desire in your life to have the power
of God working through you so that others can see that testimony
and that public display of God's provision and protection and
power.
So verse 54.
And David took the head of the Philistine and brought it to Jerusalem,
but he put his armor in his tent.
And so this is the conclusion of the battle.
And now Saul is going to it.
It says here basically that Saul is going to ask some questions
about David.
And these could be somewhat confusing for us because in our minds,
Saul already knows David, right?
David has been in the king's court, and we know that he's been
playing music for the king in this time.
And so you could read this passage of Scripture and be somewhat
confused if you don't really understand the context to this.
And there's actually two different ways to view these next
few verses.
And.
And I'll pose both of those to you.
But it says in verse 55, and when Saul.
Saul saw David go forth against the Philistine, he sent unto
Abner, the captain of the host, Abner, whose son is this youth.
And Abner said, as thy soul liveth, O king, I cannot tell.
And the king said, inquire thou whose son this stripling is.
And as David returned from the slaughter of the Philistine, Abner
took him and brought him before Saul with the head of the
Philistine in his hand.
And.
And Saul said unto him, whose son art thou, thou young man?
And David answered, I am the son of thy servant Jesse, the Bethlehemite.
So some people read that passage and say, well, there's a
contradiction in Scripture because Saul knows who David is.
Why is he asking about David's lineage?
Well, it could be very reasonable that he knows who David
is, but he doesn't know David's father and David's lineage
and David's.
And that was a very important for them to know who the father was
and to what line they came from.
So this could be simply Saul saying, david, I know you, but who
do you come from?
And that's actually another important question because if you
remember what was promised to David in his victory, it was promised
that he would.
Saul would give David his daughter to Mary.
So he kind of needs to know who the new family line is going
to be.
And also there were some benefits with taxation and things
of those, of those areas.
And so he's going to basically just inquire about David's family
line here.
And so that could be one angle.
And I think probably the angle in which we could look at that passage
of Scripture and understand it, the other side of it is that
some people thought that maybe David had been in Saul's court, but
when he had played music for Saul, he was like behind a curtain.
And so maybe Saul had never met David face to face.
He had only heard about him and heard his music.
We don't know that for sure.
So I think that either way you look at it, Saul is asking what David's
lineage is, who he's from.
And obviously David says, I am the son of thy servant Jesse from
Bethlehem.
And so we all understand the connection there.
We understand David's lineage and we understand the implication
of that and the importance of that.
But this doesn't mean that Saul didn't recognize David.
It just simply means that he's asking about David's family background.
And so Saul promised his daughter to the man who killed Goliath.
And so now David is going to reap the benefits of that.
And we're going to study that more in First Samuel, chapter 18.
And so David comes back, he's won this great victory, but we know
that this victory would not be found outside of his relationship
with God.
And I think that's how we have to understand every victory that
we have in our life.
And I think that we could study 1st Samuel 17 in many different
ways.
But I want to think about it from the idea of the theology of
victory, you say.
What do you mean by that?
The theology of victory.
Well, how we should think about our victory in the scope of
who God is and what he has done.
We're going to have a lot of victories in our life, and those
are times to celebrate.
I think we can go to a lot of passages of scripture that speak
to the victory that we have in the Lord.
But I think the greatest passage of Scripture, and this is
just my opinion, is Romans chapter 8.
And so if you would like to turn there with me, I would encourage
you to turn there with me to Romans chapter 8.
We see that we are told about this wonderful victory that we have
in being in the family of God.
Now it's going to say something here that I think is so
encouraging.
And it starts with Romans chapter 8, verse 1.
That tells us that there's no more condemnation to those that are
in Christ Jesus.
Now, right there, that is victory.
I don't know about you, but there is victory in Jesus.
And the fact to know that even though we are not perfect, we have
no more condemnation because we are in Christ Jesus, that that's.
That's enough.
I could stop there and say, that's the victory, but God says
that there's more.
And we could break down all of Romans chapter 8.
We don't have the time to do that.
But what I would like to tell you here this evening is that there's
another victory that we see later on.
In Romans chapter 8, it says in verse number 9, but ye are not
in the flesh, but in the Spirit.
If so, be that, the Spirit of God dwell in you.
Now, if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.
And so what is that telling us?
It tells us this.
Another victory that we have in the Lord is the fact that we don't
have to live in our flesh anymore, but now we get to live guided
by the Spirit.
That might not sound immediately like a victory, but the
victory is already won in the fact that when we decide to yield
our lives over to the Spirit, we know that God is guiding and directing
and he's the one who is giving us the steps.
But yet we turn back to the flesh as believers.
Even though the Bible says that we're no longer bound by the
flesh, sometimes we turn back.
And there's that battle that Paul describes in Romans chapter
seven.
But I think that it's so important to note that the victory
is given to us in the fact that God is living within us.
And in that same passage, it says the same power that rose Jesus
from the dead is living within us.
And so that is a victory that we have in the Lord.
Another one we can see there in verse 12.
It says, Brothers, we are debtors.
Not to the flesh, to live after the flesh, but if he live after
the flesh, ye shall die.
But if he lived through the Spirit to mortify the deeds of the
body, ye shall live.
And so what this means is that we don't have to live in the bondage
of sin anymore.
Verse 15.
For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear,
but ye have received the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry,
abba, Father.
Another victory is that we get to be in the family of God and we
have the benefits of being a child of the King.
We can call God Father in a more clear and I would say, appropriate
way.
We can call Him Daddy.
We have a personal connection with Him.
That word abba is a personal, endearing term that we can cry out
to him and have a personal God and a personal father.
You know, I have a lot of relationships with a lot of people,
but I really can't think of too many that are more intimate than
those are with my children.
I mean, my children can come to me at any point.
Okay.
You know, I have an office door and I.
When I first became a pastor, I said, I have an open door policy.
Anyone can come in.
Well, I realize that there's a boundary that has to happen, okay.
Because I might be on a phone call that's pretty important, and
someone just barging in might.
Might not be appropriate.
Right?
So there's an open door policy with exceptions.
Okay?
But with my children, for the most part, there's an open door policy.
Why?
Because there's nothing that brings more joy to my heart than
seeing my children run, call me Daddy and wrap their arms around
me.
Because you know what?
That's not always going to be there.
I take sometimes as parents, we know, we've taken that for granted.
But one of the exciting things is that my children would come to
me and want something from me and I can provide for them.
That's the type of relationship that we have with the
Lord.
He wants us to come to Him.
He wants us to cry out to Him.
And so that is a victory in and of itself, is that we are part
of the family of God and we have that access.
And then we go to verse 17, it says, then we are joint heirs with
Christ.
We're beneficiaries of the inheritance of the blessings of God.
We could go verse by verse, but I think about that, and I think
about later on in that passage.
It says something amazing.
And.
And I think that we get so used to it because we've seen it
so often within church and within Bible studies.
But think about the implication that verse number 37
says.
If you go back just a few verses, it says, who shall separate
us, verse 35, from the Love of Christ.
And then you list a bunch of things that we could consider in
our life.
Giants, okay?
Problems, issues.
He says, verse 35 shall tribulation or distress or persecution
or famine or nakedness or peril or sword.
Now, many of us, most of us, haven't faced the sword for our faith,
but many of us do go through situations of distress.
It's famine, spiritual famine, for sure.
Maybe not physical famine, but we go through those times of emptiness.
We go through times of tribulation.
Then he says in verse 37, no, nay, in all these things and all
these problems that we might face in this world, we are more than
conquerors.
And I love that phrase, more than conquerors, because in the Greek,
You've heard me say this before, maybe if you've been in one
of my sermons.
The Greek word actually literally means super conquerors,
meaning above conquering.
It says that we're more than conquerors or more than victorious
through what, him that loved us.
So the idea really is this, that any victory that we have in
our life, whether we think it's a minute victory or an extreme
victory of our salvation, any victory that we have is victory in
Jesus.
That's why we sing that song, Victory in Jesus.
Because it's always because of him.
It's always through him.
Now, why do we emphasize this?
Because the temptation sometimes is to think that we have
done something, that we have accomplished something.
You know, as a.
As a pastor, as a man, as.
As anybody, as a human being, we see things happening and we see
what we've poured into it, and we start to think, and have that
fleshly temptation to think that, well, it's because of me.
It's because I have done that.
It's because I have sacrificed.
You know what?
I deserve this.
I put the work in.
But let me tell you, and I know this isn't something that we
want to hear in our flesh, but the Bible says the only thing that
we deserve for the wages of sin is death.
But the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
So with that being said, thinking about the theology of victory,
I don't have any victory in myself.
The only thing that I have earned the only thing that I have
won in my life is death.
But the Bible says here that we're more than conquerors through
him, through Jesus, through our Lord that loved us.
And then he says, for I am persuaded that neither death, nor
life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things
present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other
creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God,
which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
He reminds us again in verse number 39.
The whole idea of us not being able to be separated from God's love
is because of Jesus Christ.
It's not because we're good people.
It's not because we go to Middletown Baptist Church.
It's not because we're American.
Even though those are all good things.
I'm happy that I go to Middletown Baptist Church.
I love this church.
I really do.
I wake up every day thanking the Lord that I get a church family
that I can come to and I love and I enjoy.
I wake up every day thanking the Lord that I'm living in America
and I have air conditioning and that I have, you know, food and
everything here.
There's all these great blessings, but the biggest blessing
is it says that nothing will be able to separate us from the love
of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
And so we think about these things, and we think about victory,
and we think about everything that we have in our life.
And we might ask the question, why do I have what I have?
Or how did I get to where I am?
Well, you might have worked really hard.
I, I, I can appreciate that.
I think we should work hard in the Lord.
I think we should strive to be excellent in all that we do.
I think we should do everything that we possibly can to
honor God by the way that we live.
First Corinthians, chapter 10, verse 31.
Whether, therefore, you eat or drink or whatsoever you do, do all
of the glory of God.
So it's not about being lazy and just saying, well, you know what?
Hopefully God works in my life.
No, the Bible does speak to us working.
But ultimately, at the end of the day, everything that we do, every
victory that we have, any gift, as James, chapter one, verse
17 says, is coming down from God.
Now again, you're like, pastor, why are you emphasizing this?
Because think about David.
Let's go back.
Let's go back to David.
I guarantee you, because I know this in Scripture, that David
understood that the battle was won through the Lord.
If I can point you to Scripture and I can show you what
it Says he says, I know that this battle was given to me by the
Lord.
He says, I'm fighting this battle in the Lord.
So David understood that he didn't do this on his own.
David understood that this was ultimately through the power of God.
And so he says, I'm facing you not with this sling and the stone,
but I'm facing you in the power of God.
Now you would say, did David forget about that?
Well, later on we know that he did.
Later on, we know that there were times in David's life where
he was tempted to think that he, he had the right to do something.
We know that David later on did struggle with areas of pride
and lust and greed and all those things that we can see in our
lives today.
He did it all for God.
If you go to 1st Samuel, chapter 17, verse 46, I think verse
46 is the one that summarizes it all of this.
He comes in 45 and says, I come to you in the name of the Lord.
And then verse 46, he says, this day will the Lord deliver thee
into my hand.
And at the very end of that verse, he says that in all the earth
might know that there is a God of Israel.
So obviously, David was working in 1st Samuel, chapter 17
with the right theology, but later on in his life, there were
periods where he wasn't working with the right theology.
And, and we could pick apart certain things.
David's life, obviously his interaction with Bathsheba, and remember
how bad it got.
It kept spiraling because he kept thinking he could handle it.
Well, maybe I can be victorious if I just send Uriah into
battle and make sure that this is all covered up.
Right.
It's his own way of thinking.
It's his own victory that he's trying to win.
And so we know that just because we can experience the victory
of God and know that it's his victory in our life doesn't mean
that we're set forever.
It means that we have to every day be resolved to give it over to
the Lord and be prepared for the next giant that might come.
Because for David, he was prepared for Goliath.
He was ready to go.
But I would venture to say that later on, he wasn't as prepared
to go when he had spiritual confrontation that came up.
I. I don't want to preach too far ahead in the book, but we know
that in the times in which David should have been on the battlefield,
he was not on the battlefield.
He wasn't where he needed to be.
There was times in which he should have followed God, and yet
he turned away.
So again, it's not here to beat up David, because David, we
know, was a man after God's own heart.
And if David could fall into the trap of thinking that the victory
was his, guess what?
All of us can fall into the trap of thinking that the victory
that we have in our life, the blessings that we have in our life,
came from us and not from the Lord.
And so we need to be reminded, we need to go back to the well that
never runs dry to say, lord, it's because of you that I had this
victory yesterday.
It's because of you that there's this victory today.
And it's only because of you that I'll have that victory tomorrow.
Some of us might be facing struggles in our life right now.
I don't know everyone and everyone's story.
I don't know everyone's battle that they're going through.
But I do know this thing that you are going through a battle, or
if you're not going through a battle right now, you're coming out
of one, or if you're not coming out of one, you're about to
go into one.
That's the reality of the Christian life.
And so what I would encourage all of us to do this evening is resolve
in our heart to say, you know what?
I'm going to give the battle over to God.
And when he gives me that victory, I'm going to give him all
the honor and glory for what he is going to do.
For some people, it's a physical struggle.
Some of you might say, you know, Pastor, you don't know what
my.
My pain is like right now.
You don't know what I'm struggling with.
And that might be the case.
I might not know.
But the good thing is, is the Bible tells us that God knows our
pain.
God understands our struggles.
He's the great physician.
He can touch us if it be his will and take that away.
But he also has the grace and the peace to touch us and give us
the peace and strength, even if he doesn't take away the physical
pain.
We know that through the life of Paul and many others, there's
some other instances in our life that might not be physical,
but it might be spiritual.
I heard a dear brother recently giving his testimony, and
it hurt my heart.
It broke my heart that he said what he said, but it was true what
he said.
And so I'm not upset about him saying what he said, but it broke
my heart that it had to be this case.
He Said, you know what?
The greatest hurt that I've ever experienced in my life was through
other Christians within the church.
And that hurt my heart that he said that.
I'm not denying that that's true.
Because some of us might understand that there have been times
in our life where a Christian has hurt our feelings, that another
brother or sister in Christ has done something to hurt us.
And, and, and that breaks my heart because it shouldn't be that
way, but it.
The reality is that it is.
And so what do we do when someone that we think is a Christian,
or maybe someone who is a Christian, hurts us?
What do we do?
How do we respond?
Well, the thing is, is that one of the many, many gifts of Scripture
is to remind us that our faith is not in somebody else.
Our faith is in the Lord.
So we keep our eyes on the Lord.
We don't keep our eyes on other individuals.
So if another individual hurts me, the reality is, is that I don't
justify the hurt.
I don't.
I don't celebrate them.
But what I can do is understand that my relationship with
God is not tied up with somebody else.
That if someone else harms me, I need to pray for them.
I need to.
Hopefully they ask for forgiveness.
Hopefully there's restoration.
But at the end of the day, just because I'm hurt by someone
else doesn't mean that God hurt me.
It actually means that God can give me more strength in the midst
of the battle.
So I say all that to say this.
There could be some spiritual hurt that's going on within certain
individuals.
And it might have been something that's happened long, long
ago.
And the idea might be that I might not be able to have restoration
with that person.
But what I do know is that I can look to the Lord and He can heal
my wounds.
He can give me the peace that passeth all understanding.
And so when I heard that testimony, it really rang true to
me that, you know what?
It's not just people outside of the church that can hurt us.
It can happen in our midst.
And we have to be so careful with that.
Because I think that when we go back to New Testament and we think
about the Lord's design for the church, and his prayer for his
body is that we would be unified.
He doesn't say that we would be perfect, because the reality is,
is that none of us can be perfect.
He doesn't say that we'll have a lot of people, a lot of money,
a lot of power.
His prayer is that his church would be unified and so often a lot
of the pain that we face and a lot of the struggles that we face
come through being disunified and being broken apart and free,
fragmented.
So what do we do?
Well, we think about certain things in our life as being victorious.
One of the victories that we can have within the church is being
unified because we're fighting against the enemy.
And when we're unified, that's a victory in and of itself to say,
satan, you cannot overthrow us, you cannot divide us.
And so the only way that that's going to be able to happen
is that we go back to What Romans chapter 8 says, to be filled
with the Spirit.
And it's a daily struggle being filled with the Spirit, or
am I going to yield to the flesh?
David certainly yielded to the flesh.
And we're going to talk more about those instances.
But in 1st Samuel chapter 17, we certainly see that he was led
by the Spirit.
And being led by the Spirit, he was able to see great victory.
And if you follow the Spirit in your life, if you yield to the
Spirit, if you're unified, if you're, if you're encouraging, if
you're acting in ministry as God has called us to act in ministry,
we're going to see great victory.
How do we define victory in the church?
I. I think we go back to what the New Testament has to say about
that.
When we're acting like Christ, when we're living like the body of
believers, when we're building up the spiritual house with living
stones and building our house upon the sure foundation of Jesus
Christ, I think we can slay our Goliaths that we face in this
world.
You know, the church is facing a lot of, a lot of opposition.
Whether, whether we know it or not, there's opposition that comes.
And opposition can come directly or maybe even indirectly.
You know, I know that when we were in Rwanda, you know, I didn't
know what to expect when I got there.
I thought, like, are there going to be, like, people as soon
as we get off the plane, persecuting us?
There wasn't that.
But then I heard, okay, there's only 20 churches in Rwanda.
Like 90 something percent of them got wiped out.
You're like, why did that happen?
Is the church, is the, is the government against them?
And when you ask them straight up, it's not in a direct attack against
the church.
And the fact that, hey, they don't care what you preach, but it's
an indirect attack in the fact that they're putting all these sanctions
upon churches to make sure that they're just right so that they
can open up their building.
Well, indirectly, Satan has used those things to limit the furtherance
of the gospel.
So Satan works trick.
He's a very tricky guy.
He's deceitful.
And the Bible says that he doesn't always come saying, hey,
I'm Satan.
Hey, I'm evil.
He's going to come in certain ways.
But what we're going to see is that there's many different things
that are opposing the church.
And so for Rwanda, it was the sanctions of the rules and trying
to have enough money to get everything together so that they
can meet in person.
For the American church, we don't have to face that as much.
But there are a lot of other things that are fighting against
the church here.
I would venture to say that the number one thing that's fighting
against the church is just worldliness.
Just.
Just trying to live in the world and be like the world and look
like the world and then try to make church happen and work the way
that the Bible says to work.
So we can't be worldly.
We can't love the things of the world.
There's other things that are attacking the church in more, I would
say, overt ways.
I mean, you look at all the agendas that are being painted on
the Internet and the media, right?
All those agendas that are against the word of God are an attack
against the truth.
And what the church can do is either one, embrace all of those
false beliefs and bring them into the church, and then it's no
longer the church.
Now it's a church that's filled with evil.
Or a church can just ignore what's going on around and not fight
what's going on.
Or the church can say, you know what?
We're going to just stand up for the truth.
We don't have to buy into the lies.
We don't have to teach our children the way that the world teaches
their children.
We don't have to have our marriages the way that the world
tells us to have our marriages.
We don't have to go about all these things the way that the world
tells us.
Why?
Because God tells us something different.
And so we need to be aware of the attack at hand and say, you know
what?
There are Goliaths that are coming against us, mocking our Lord,
coming against us in ways that we might not have ever expected.
But nonetheless, at the end of the day, we know that if God puts
a giant before us, he will give us the tools, he will give us
the power.
He will Give us the comfort.
He will give us all the things needed for battle.
And one of the things that I would really point you to is in the
book of Ephesians, putting on the armor of God, right?
We need to put on the armor of God every single day.
And when we put on the armor of God, we're able to stand, as the
Bible says, against the wiles of the devil.
And they're wiles, and he's a wily guy.
But at the end of the day, we know that he is no more powerful
than, than our Lord.
And we know that our God is all powerful and there's nothing
that can limit him.
And so when we turn it over to him and say, lord, you do church.
We want to do church your way.
I want to live my Christian life the way you call me to live.
I've been thinking about this a lot recently.
We try to add so much into church that's just not there.
And we try to make those the things that we need to focus on.
The Bible gives us the marching orders to follow.
And if we follow those things, God will multiply.
God will produce fruit.
We look at it from the perspective of, well, if we just
help God out a little bit by doing this.
Now, I'm not saying that we, we have to, you know, worship the
same way they did in Acts Chapter two.
I think that all of you guys are thankful for air conditioning
and lights and things of that nature.
That's not how they worshiped in Acts chapter two.
We know that.
But what I will say is that there's certain elements that we
find in the book of Acts that we should always have within our
church.
And when we focus on the material more than the spiritual,
we get our priorities all messed up.
And so what we have to do is say, hey, there's nothing wrong with
having facilities.
There's nothing wrong with having programs.
There's nothing wrong with doing all these things that we do
as long as we're making sure that we're hitting all the things
that God tells us to do in scripture that are non negotiables.
And so we say all that to say that that is the victory.
The victory is following God.
And so David's victory was in faith, following the Lord.
Saul's defeat really was the fact that he faced it in fear.
And so in his fear, he didn't get to see the victory in the Lord
personally.
And then we see Goliath's defeat was in his rebellion to God
and his.
In his open mocking of the Lord.
And he faced judgment.
So we will come back not next week, because next week is vbs.
And so there's going to be a lot of different things going on
next week.
So we will take one week off when it comes to our corporate Wednesday
night service.
But when we come back in two weeks, I won't be here, but Pastor
Ethan will be.
And Pastor Ethan will be speaking in 1st Samuel chapter 18,
and he's going to be walking through that chapter for a few weeks
there and just be used to that here on Wednesday nights.
We're going to take some time to share some preaching there, and
I think that's important as well.
It's always good to hear another voice preaching the word
of God.
And there's so much here in First Samuel.
You know that David has a lot to learn from in the good way and
to learn from and to not do what he did in some bad things.
And then we'll work our way into Second Samuel.
And I think that we can ultimately glean a lot of information
that not only can just stick in our heads as, you know, Bible
knowledge, but we can apply to our hearts and into our lives to
see practical application when we stand in faith.