Thank you. Thank you, Lord. Wow. What an incredible
day it is today, guys. I can't tell
you how much it means to me to come in to see your
smiling faces, to see all of you.
I missed last week and I was at a loss. I mean,
I mean, it was great. I mean, we had a. We celebrated a
19th year family reunion that we've been going to every year
in Texas. And it just so happens to be
Dana and I's 19th wedding anniversary on June 10th.
And so we got married back in 2006, and the Lord
has really blessed us and we had an incredible
time. But I missed you. So I'm glad to be back in the
house. Glad that Pastor Kevin is back in the house and thankful that he's
feeling better this morning. And it's Father's
Day. Come on. Father's Day.
Oh, man. I tell you what,
to get to preach on Father's Day is a dream come true.
I'm thankful for it. Why don't you, if you're a
dad in the house, why don't you go ahead and stand? We're gonna celebrate you.
We're gonna recognize you one more time. Okay? I know we already did it.
We prayed for you this morning, but give it up for all the
dads in. Lot
of dads in the house. We celebrate you
today. I hope your day is full of fun and
enjoyment. All right? With that being said, I want to
encourage you one more time. Back in 2011, this
movie came out and it spoke to me. The Lord
used it to change something in my heart and leave a
lasting impact on me as a young father
and as a man, really. And so we're going to go ahead and watch a
two minute clip of this video and I hope it has an impact
on you.
Courageous men of courage.
A courageous man stands in the gap. A courageous man
stands up and says, I will. I accept the
responsibility. And as a dad, as a father,
I'm here to tell you today I will.
Okay, this is a life
verse of mine, Joshua 24:15. As for me and my
household, we will serve the Lord. But this is only a
part of the verse. See, back in the time of
Joshua, he was encouraging the people of Israel.
And Israel has fallen to some of their gods
of their ancestors and started worshiping some other false gods.
And Joshua took a stand and drew a line in
the sand, saying, as for me and my house, we
will serve the Lord. And the people of Israel
followed him because God was on his side.
See, this is the stance that I want to take for my family.
And every day,
I will not choose the idols of my past, but instead I will
choose the God who saves. And
I'm really fortunate, man, to have some incredible men
that have taught me, that have poured into me, that have given me
courage along the way. One of those
guys is my father in law, Kirk Whitworth. He's sitting
right back over there. Kirk, raise your hand. Everybody say, hey, Kirk. Hey,
Kirk. Kirk. Back in
2005, I started working for Kirk.
And in 2006, I married my incredible bride, Dana,
his second. Well, middle daughter.
Middle daughter. And Kirk has
poured into me selflessly. And I
remember one time he told me, before Dan and I started having kids,
we had Noah in 2008. So I guess this was about 2007 or so.
Kirk told me something that I'll never forget. He said,
anyone can be a father. Anybody. All you
gotta have is genetics, right? All you gotta have is the ability to.
Anybody can do it. But it takes a man to be a
daddy. It takes a man to be a daddy. And
I didn't know what that meant. I didn't have any experience being a daddy before,
but Kirk did. Kirk raised four girls, and he was a
daddy to those four girls. And being a daddy
means that you're there for them and the hard times and
the easy times, that you stand for them. And I see a lot
of daddies in this house. I see a lot of daddies who put.
Put their trust in the Lord and do what's right for their families.
So thank you, Kirk, for teaching me that.
All right. Being a daddy to Noah, Judah and Elijah has been one of the
best gifts that God has ever given to me. And we've
got little baby Abigail on the way, due September 10th. So I get
to be a daddy to a little girl soon.
Yeah. So I'm really excited about that.
Got a lot of joy in this season of life. And
gosh, I know that you guys have been praying for us and our family,
and I can honestly feel those prayers. I know that the Lord is
moving and doing some incredible things and he's brought people to help
surround us and hold our arms up and continue the pursuit
of God in the youth group. And I'm just so thankful for everything that God
has ordained and that he's doing. So thank you, church.
I. I appreciate you. I hope you brought your Bibles. This morning.
We are going to get into the word of God. If you brought your
Bibles, go ahead and get it out. I love the sound of rice paper
flipping over. So if you brought your
actual Bible, then go ahead and get it out. If you brought your phone, that's
cool too. I like doing that. I like using my phone.
But we're going to turn to First Samuel, Chapter
17. First Samuel, Chapter 17. If you guys have
been following along with the greatest stories ever told, we have been in
chapter 16 where Samuel anoints David. And
then last week, Pastor Kevin brought a word out of 1st Samuel,
chapter 18, about David and
Jonathan's relationship. And so
we're gonna go one step back. Right in the middle there, the sweet
spot, chapter 17.
But before we do, I want to know, you guys like an
underdog story. Do you like an
underdog story? You like when the person who is not supposed to win rises
up and defeats the bigger person, the one who has
more talent, the one who has just all the accolades and the experience?
That's an underdog story. And this is the story of David
and Goliath. And honestly, guys,
if you don't come to church, right, you might have heard this
story. This story is used in sports events. This story
is used in business meetings and all
kinds of motivational speeches. The story is for everybody,
right? But I think the point of the story, and that's what I
hope to help you understand today,
is that the Lord is fighting
on our side. The Lord is the reason that David
was victorious in this story. So as
a church, we believe that the Bible is a story about
how God is redeeming, saving and making new his
people by his grace, for his glory among
all people. All people.
This is so cool because you and I are a part of this
story. You and I share in this
incredible joy of the story of
redemption. It's God's
nature, in effect. His nature is to redeem his
people in and through His Word.
It's the story. All throughout the Bible in human history,
we see all kinds of stories of redemption
where God has moved and people have been brought to
new life, made new in his image.
Scripture comes to life when we realize this,
when we realize that God is fighting for us
and that we have hope and a future in Him.
So what I want to do today, I want to take one of the most
well known stories in the Bible, the story of David and Goliath. We're going to
go through it line by line. I hope you guys read your
Bible because we are going to be in it a lot today, line by line.
And we're going to really hear what the
Lord is saying today. So many
of us are facing challenges. So many of us
Might even be facing giant sized challenges in the room
this morning. And it could be super easy for us to
try and relate our challenges, our stories, to what
David faced that day in the valley. Right?
We could be saying, oh, that boss at work, he's my
giant. We could be saying, that
diagnosis is my giant.
The Lord comes to fight our battles for
us. The point of the story is not to be
brave in the face of our giants. No. The purpose
is to ignite us with a passion for the glory of
the Lord. Ignite us with a passionate pursuit
after him. A life that says, I want nothing
else other than to follow you, Jesus.
Because when we're standing on the word of God,
we're trusting in the power of God and we're living for
his glory, the glory of, of Almighty God.
That kind of faith can defeat giants that even kings
are afraid to face. That kind of faith
moves us. It's a verb.
Faith moves us out of the way
and allows God to fight our battles for us.
Amen. Okay, so let's get into the story,
but let's not forget what happened. Remember chapter 16, David
anoints Samuel, anoints David with the horn of
oil. And the scripture says the spirit of the Lord came
powerfully on David. This is important, okay? We
can't go out there. David wasn't able to go out there and do it alone.
He's doing it in operation, in the spirit.
The spirit of the Lord came powerfully on David, therefore
he went. Okay, so
first Samuel, chapter 17, starting in verse one
says, now the Philistines gathered their forces for war and assembled
at Soca in Judah. They pitched camp at Ephes Damim between
Soca and Azekah. Saul and the Israelites assembled and camped in
the valley of Elah and drew up their battle line to meet the Philistines.
The Philistines occupied one hill and the Israelites another
with with the valley in between them. Okay, guys, this starts out and
it's like a movie. A picture of this mountains,
two mountains on each side, a valley in between them. One army
lines up for battle and they're the Israelites. Another
one, the Philistines. And they're set to
take take place. Get it in, get in there. I like to read
my Bible like it's a movie, like it's like it's coming alive.
A champion, verse four, named Goliath, who is from Goth,
came out of the Philistine camp. He was over nine feet tall.
Some scriptures, some translations say
six cubits and a span. And if you're
familiar with, you know, the ancient way of measurement, which
I don't know if a lot of you are, but a span
is from the tip of your middle finger to the
tip of your thumb. Okay, so it's a span. It's usually about 9
inches. They were a little bit smaller back then. But 9 inches is a
span. 18 inches is double the span. It's a cubit. Okay, so
six cubits and a span. If you're good at math, then
that's over nine feet. That's actually nine feet, nine inches tall.
That's a giant. Right?
This is a depiction of what the world
says David, or Goliath looks like. There he is in his
armor, his shield bare in front of him. Nine feet,
nine inches, stands head and shoulders above every man.
Goliath, a champion. Now, champion, that's
important to recognize there. That word is the first time
it's used in the Old Testament. It means a man between two
armies. Go. Goliath of Goth. He fought for the
Philistines. All right, let's go to verse five. He
had a bronze helmet on his head and wore a coat of scale. Armor of
bronze, weighing 5,000 shekels on his legs. He wore
bronze greaves, and a bronze javelin was slung on his back. His
spear shaft was like a weaver's rod and its iron point weighed
600 shekels. His shield bearer went ahead
of him. So this
guy had armor on that weighed more than most
Hebrews back then. Most of the Israelites, they probably didn't weigh
125 pounds. But this armor that
Goliath weighed weighed more than 125 pounds.
Okay? His spear, just the tip of his spear, weighed 15
pounds. And he was able to throw it right. That's
a lot of weight. That's a ton of weight. It weighed
more than most Israelites wore. He also had a
sidekick with him that carried a shield, and that shield was about the size of
a man. Guys, this is the most detailed
description that we see in the Old Testament of a warrior
anywhere. It helps us to get a picture of what was going
on in the valley that day. An invincible
character, Goliath, walks out covered in bronze armor, standing
head and shoulders above any other man, ready to take on
a whole army. Listen to what he says in verse 8.
Goliath stood and shouted to the ranks of Israel, why do you come
out and line up for battle? Am I not a Philistine? And are you
not the servants of Saul? Choose a man and have him come down to
me if he is able to Fight and kill me. We will become your
subjects. But if I overcome him and kill him, you will
become our subjects and serve us. Then the
Philistines said, this day I defy the ranks of
Israel. Give me a man and let us fight each other. On hearing
the Philistines words, Saul and all the
Israelites were dismayed and terrified.
Goliath just issued a
1v1amano e
mono challenge right there in the valley. He said,
anybody's man enough, come out and face me.
I'll feed you to the birds of the air and the beasts of the field.
He said, you will not prosper. Look at
me, I'm Goliath. I'm the champion.
Pretty much draws a line in the sand saying, come on.
What did the Israelites do? Well, it says
they were dismayed and terrified. They shrunk back in fear
and they mentioned Saul. Saul was with him.
Saul, he didn't want to see Goliath on the battlefield.
He didn't want to go hand to hand combat with him? No.
Saul was the tallest of all the Israelites. He
was the one that should have stepped up and said, I'll take you
on the king. But he didn't.
He shrunk back in fear with the rest.
Then we get to verse 12. Now,
okay, the scene shifts. The movie's on the battlefield.
Now we're going to go to the meadow. Verse 12.
Now, David was the son of an Ephrathite named Jesse
who was from Bethlehem in Judah. Jesse had eight sons,
and in Saul's time he was old and well advanced in years.
Jesse's three oldest sons had followed Saul to the war. The
firstborn was Eliab, the second, Amminadab, and the third, Shema.
David was the youngest. The three oldest followed Saul.
But David went back and forth from Saul to tend his
father's sheep at Bethlehem.
Bethlehem? Who else is from Bethlehem? Do you guys remember someone who was
born in Bethlehem? Yeah.
David is described as a boy here. Now, we don't know how
old he is exactly, but the scripture clearly
describes him as a boy, the youngest of all of his brothers.
He has the job of tending sheep and also playing
music for Saul. So he travels back and forth.
Verse 16. For 40 days. The Philistine came forward every morning and
evening and took his stand. 40 days, Goliath
stands, mocking the people of of God, mocking the
Israelites, challenging them, insulting them,
defying them.
Jesse said to his son David, take this Ephah of roasted
grain and these 10 loaves of bread for your brothers. And hurry
to their camp. Take along these 10 cheeses to the commander of
their unit. See how your brothers are, and bring back
some assurance from them there with Saul and all the men of
Israel in the Valley of Allah fighting against the Philistines.
Okay, so, Jesse, David's dad, he asks him,
okay, please take these provisions. Take these snacks
to your brothers. Oh, by the way, an ephah of roasted grain is
about 36 pounds. Okay? David's used to going back and
forth, but, man, strap on this grain. That's
36 pounds. Take these 10 loaves while you're at it. And these cheeses
need to go, so go ahead and take them as well.
Gosh, don't sign me up for that. I can walk two
miles and be out of wind. Goodness.
David says, okay, you know why?
Because he was obedient. David was an obedient son.
Obedience, even in the mundane tasks, can
place us on the path of God's extraordinary
purposes. He was set
on an extraordinary task.
Young people, don't miss this. I see you out there.
Don't miss this. Live in obedience.
Live obedient lives to
the Lord, to your parents, to your teachers, and to
yourselves. Do what you say you're gonna do.
This is important as you grow up and you understand
what it means to speak something
and then live up to it. Okay?
A lot of people say they're going to do something and don't
learn from that. Do what you say you're going to
do. Live in obedience.
All right, pause for a minute. This is my
family, just like David's family. We didn't have eight
sons. And that's not Jesse, but this is my dad, Jeff,
my mom, Nancy, the oldest there, Hannah, my sister.
I am in red. The big smile. And
my twin brother John is in blue. And Philip is the
youngest. Now, this picture was taken in 1988.
I was four years old. And
there's four kids there. Hannah was born December of
83. Philip was born October of 86. So if you do the
math, that's less than three years, two years, 10
months. And there's four kids there. My parents
are in their early 20s. Okay, so that's a lot to handle.
It's a lot to handle. Our family dynamic was different. It was
busy. It was full. It was close. Okay.
I'm the second oldest of four. And so, you know,
I'm used to kind of, I guess, me and John
fighting and, you know, my dad letting us
duke it out kind of a thing.
This is my dad and I. It was a couple years later My dad
was my hero. He's always been. He was in
my earliest of memories. And back then,
he could do no wrong. No wrong in my eyes.
It was hard for me to see him in a negative light at all.
And then everything changed. See, like a lot of families out there,
we were a family of divorce. My parents ended up getting
divorced whenever I was in the third grade. I was a little bit older than
seven, I guess I was almost eight. And my dad
remarried a year later to my stepmom. And
things would never be the same. My childhood would never
be the same as it was. This was me at my dad's
wedding. I couldn't get the picture to where I had my tux on there.
So you guys just get to see the top part of my tux. I was
nine years old, handsome.
But everything changed after that. Divorce kind of
breaks up a family. And
it happened to us. The next eight years were
filled with counseling sessions.
The next eight years were filled with court battles, were filled with
custody issues. And it wasn't fun.
It wasn't fun. I turned away
from the Lord at that time. I had given my life to the Lord at
a very young age and turned away from him and started to get into my
own things, my own desires. And I
tried to cope with it as best as I can, but I ran from God
like a lot of us would. I said, you know what, God? You're
cool and all, but I'm going to do what I want to do now,
and then I'll come back to you one day.
I spent several years running, and
then in 2008, my dad decided that he wanted to
minister the gospel to people. And this
wasn't a new thing. He was always a man of God, and he
wanted for us to grow up in the church. And
he just always had bills to pay, too. And so
he decided, okay, I'm gonna go into ministry, and then we're gonna start a church.
So in 2008, I helped my dad start a
church. He was already in evangelistic
ministry, traveling and going to different nations and speaking and doing stuff
like that. But in 2008, he
heard a word from the Lord, said he wanted to start a church in Murfreesboro.
So my father in law, Kirk, and I went with
him and decided to help him build a church. Global Fire
World Miracle center in Murfreesboro back in 2008.
This was me in 2010. I was. It was
actually January 20th of 2010.
So we're coming up on 15 years being ordained in ministry
as A minister of the gospel. And we stood there and
I received the plaque, and then I was
able to go out in ministry. So I went out and traveled with my dad
for a number of years, and we saw some incredible,
miraculous things that God did, and he moved in
power. It was wonderful. This was at one of our trips. We
went to Haiti, and people were just giving their lives
to the Lord, back and forth, and it was an incredible time
for those years in total, my
dad traveled to 85 nations in 15 years to preach
the gospel of Jesus Christ. 15 years.
That means he was gone a lot, right? So there was a little bit of
a balance issue there. I remember one time I asked him,
I said, dad, what's the most important thing in life?
What's the most. The one thing that you could tell me
what's the most important thing? And he said,
love the Lord with all your heart
and love. Know him deeply. Know him deeply.
Then he said, but the second is this. He said,
have others come to know him as well? Have others
go out and have others come to know him as well? And I thought about
that and I was like, man, I want that. I want to
know the Lord deeply, but I can't sacrifice my
family for it. There has to be a balance here, Lord. There has
to be something that's got to give. Because I saw what
you did, dad, and you know, you sacrificed a lot to
be on the road for 15 years of your life. You brought
thousands of people to come to know who the person of Jesus is,
operated in all kinds of incredible moves of God.
But your home life was not what I want.
So what is it that you want me to do, God?
And the Lord said, be a disciple for your family.
He said, your first ministry is in your family. And then everything
else will flow out of that relationship with the Lord.
Everything else. Trust me and I'll take care of it.
Thousands of people came to know God because of
my dad's obedience to the Lord.
Dad passed away unexpectedly Tuesday.
Just a normal Tuesday, August 9,
2022. So we're coming up on three years.
Not a day goes by that I don't think about Him.
Thankful for the legacy that he has given me.
All right, back to the story. Now that I've cried.
All right, we are in verse.
Wait, verse 20.
Early in the morning, David left the flock with a shepherd, loaded up and
set out as Jesse had
directed. He reached the camp as the army was going out
to his battle positions, shouting the war cry. Israel and
the Philistines were drawing up their Lines facing one another.
David left his things with the keeper of supplies,
ran to the battle lines and greeted his brothers
as he was talking with them. Goliath, the Philistine champion from God, and
stepped out from his lines and shouted his usual defiance.
And David heard it. That's important.
When the Israelites saw the man, they all ran
from him in great fear. So
David runs to his brothers on the battle
lines that day, and he hears something he's probably never
heard in his young life. Remember,
his relationship with the Lord was like this. He was
super close with God, and he
hears this mortal man defying
his God. I'm sure that brought all
kinds of. I mean, he rose up and just wanted
to take him on right at that moment. I'm sure he did.
We should be offended when we hear the word or the name
of the Lord taken in vain. When we should be
offended when we hear God being defied.
All of the other Israelites ran in fear.
Now, the Israelites had been saying, verse 25. Do you see how
this man keeps coming out? He comes out to defy Israel.
The king will give great wealth to the man who kills him.
He will also give him his daughter in marriage and will exempt
his father's family from taxes in
Israel. Three rewards, right? Great
riches. The king's daughter in marriage, and then, man, your family
is free in Israel. You guys don't ever have to pay taxes
ever again. Saul must have really wanted
somebody to step up to this champion from Go,
Right. I know some of us might say, oh, you know what? No
taxes. Let's go. I am in. Come on.
Great riches. I don't know about your daughter, but
she proves to be a snare later on, if you familiar with the story.
All right, so verse
26. David asked the men
standing near him, what will be done for the man who kills the Philistine and
removes this disgrace from Israel? Who is
this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the
armies of the living God? They repeated to him what
they had been saying and told him, this is what will be done for the
man who kills him. When Eliab, David's
oldest brother, heard him speaking with the men, he burned with anger at him and
asked, why have you come down here? And with
whom did you leave those few sheep in the desert? I know how conceited
you are and how wicked your heart is. You came down here
only to watch the battle. Now what have I
done? Said David. Can't I even speak?
Can't I even speak? David Responded to
them saying, who is this uncircumcised Philistine?
Why does he think that he has the authority to speak against the
Almighty God? See, David, his
relationship with the Lord was so close
that he couldn't take it. He didn't understand it. He said, why are
all you running? Stand up and fight him.
If I can get this to Click
Mary, you might have to. I might have pushed
pause or something.
Just click it for me whenever you get a chance.
Okay, I'll just read it. Our relationship with God is the most crucial
one we have. It's how we navigate all other
relationships. It's the source of our identity, strength,
and purpose, especially when facing our
own giants. David's relationship with God was so close
that he was not going to have anybody speaking bad about him,
about his God. In Eliab, David's
older brother, he was offended at the boldness of his
younger brother. He was probably offended because
his younger brother stepped up whenever he said, yeah,
I'm gonna run in fear with the rest of these guys, right? He
was offended at the boldness of David to say, who
is this uncircumcised Philistine? I'll take him on.
So what did he do? He tried to discount his younger brother.
He tried to throw insults at him. Assumptions. Who's
taking care of the sheep? Isn't that your job? Discount him in front of
all those people.
All right, reading on. See if they got this working. No,
let's go to verse 30.
He then turned away to someone else and brought up the same matter.
And the man answered him as before. What David said was
overheard and reported to Saul. And Saul sent for
him. So word starts to spread.
David's wanting to take on this challenge. Saul's probably like, oh, gosh,
finally there's a guy who's gonna step up and take on this giant.
Thank the Lord, right? So Saul sends for
David, and the stage is set for the present King Saul
and the future King David to come face to face
and us as readers to see the stark contrast
between the two of them as they respond.
So David says to
Saul in verse 32, let no one lose heart on account of
this Philistine. Your servant will go and fight for
him. Saul replied, you are not
able to go out against this Philistine and fight him. You're only a boy.
And he has been fighting. He's been a fighting man from his youth.
Notice the boldness in David as he speaks to Saul.
He is filled with boldness. He's ready to take on the
Challenge, he took action.
Saul responds to David as the world would. You're just a boy.
You're not able. You're not going to do this. He saw through
a worldly lens of this challenge,
this 9 foot, 9 inch giant and this little boy.
But he didn't see of the spiritual reality of
David's relationship with God. And that God is so much bigger than
anything that that giant had to offer.
Let's listen to David's response in verse 34.
But David said to Saul, your servant has been keeping
his father's sheep. When a lion or a bear came and
carried off a sheep from the flock, I went after it, struck it and
rescued the sheep from its mouth. When it turned on me, I seized it
by its hair and struck it and killed it. Your servant has
killed both the lion and the bear. This uncircumcised
Philistine will be like one of them because he has defied the
armies of the living God. The Lord who delivered me from the
paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will deliver me from the
hand of this Philistine. Saul said to David, go,
and the Lord be with you. Like I said,
David is aware of the spiritual reality here. He doesn't accept
Saul's viewpoint. He doesn't accept the words that
Saul hurled at him. You're only a boy, and he's been a fighting man since
his youth. David pretty much says,
saul, you have no clue who the giant in this picture is.
Do you not see that the Lord God Almighty
is with me, is with us, his people, and he
will fight our battles for us. David
chooses to see a spiritual reality that is lost
on Saul. How we respond
when authority figures disappoint or oppose us reveals
our character. It reveals who we
are, our character. See, David's character was
forged in the sheep fields with the Lord of hosts.
Every day he would talk with him, pray
with him, worship him.
See, ultimately, it's a matter of perspective. David chose
to see the bigness of God and Goliath
dwarfed in comparison. My prayer for us today
is that we would see the bigness of God in our lives,
that we would choose not to view the challenges, the
obstacles as these big overcoming things,
but that we would trust God to fight on our behalf.
Because fear is a liar.
Fear is from the enemy. And the enemy has no chance
against a God. And against the God of angel
armies, no chance.
Fear is a liar.
Verse 38 says.
Then Saul dressed David in his own tunic. He put a coat of armor
on him and a Bronze helmet on his head, David fastened on his
sword over the tunic and tried walking around because he was not used to
them. I cannot go in these, he said to Saul, because I am not used
to them. So he took them off. David rejects
Saul's approach to battle. He's
not familiar with them. He hasn't been tested. His armor hasn't
been tested. And you know what? This is also a foreshadowing to
what's to come. See, David wasn't
going to accept the old way of things. David wasn't going to conform
to the world, and that was before him.
David was going to trust on the promise and provision
of the Lord God, who brought him through victory over the bear
and the lion and the God of his ancestors, Abraham,
Isaac and Jacob, trusting in the promises that he has set before
them. This is what David depended on.
I cannot go in these, he said. So then, verse 40. He
took his staff in his hand. He chose five smooth
stones from the stream. He put them in his pouch of his shepherd's
bag. And with his sling in his hand, he approached the
Philistine. David went to battle
with what he knew. David was a shepherd.
He had a sling. He had a shepherd's pouch.
And he went and chose five stones from the
river, put them in his pouch and said, let's go, God.
He knew that the Lord was fighting for him.
David went to battle in his everyday
ordinary shepherd gear.
Verse 41. Meanwhile, the Philistine with his shield bare in front of him,
kept coming closer to David. He looked David over and saw that
he was only a boy, ruddy and handsome, and he despised
him. He said to David, am I a dog that you come at me with
sticks? And the Philistine cursed David by his gods.
Come here, he said, and I'll give your flesh to the birds of the air
and the beasts of the field. Careful,
Goliath. Goliath is insulted
because this warrior from the Israelite
army is just a boy. He came at him with not a
sword, but some sticks. He
said, a sling, some stones. He's feeling
insulted and he calls him out,
who am I? And he curses him by his
gods. Careful. Because
in Genesis, chapter 12, verse 3 says,
I will curse those who curse you. I will
bless those who bless you.
See, this is the word of the Lord. Goliath
cursed David. Therefore he's going to heap
curses on his head.
David, not to be outdone in pregame trash talk,
said to the Philistine, you come against me with sword and spear and
javelin, but I come against you. In the name of the Lord Almighty, the
God of the angel armies whom you have defied
this day, the Lord will hand you over to me and I will strike you
down and cut off your head. Today I will give the
carcasses of the Philistine army to the birds of the air and the
beasts of the earth. And the whole world will know that there is a God
in Israel. All those gathered here will know that
it is not by sword or spear that the Lord saves. For the
battle is the Lord's. And he will give all
of you into our hands. Wow.
Wow. All into
his hands. The battle is the Lord's. This David wasn't
set for personal glory. He wasn't out to seek fame and
fortune for his own doing. No,
the battle is the Lord's. He was out to give God
all the glory. And when we live in relationship with the Lord, a
vertical life says, I want God to get
all the glory. My relationship with
him says, he is worthy. He is the only one that
deserves the glory. This is
what our lives should say, God, you
get all the glory above everything else.
Later in chapter 18, King Saul kept David with
him. His shepherding days are over. The scripture
says that he brings him up as a high ranking
officer in the army. And David succeeds at everything that Saul
sends him to do.
The victory changed everything in
David's life. In the camp of the Israelites,
the Philistines were no more. They chased them down for
five miles and slew them,
just as David said. The birds feasted
on them.
Saul started to get
upset. He started to get jealous. Because when they returned home to
Jerusalem, there was a song that
the people were saying. And they were saying, saul has slain his
thousands and David his ten thousands.
He was jealous. Their relationship
became tense with suspicion, manipulation,
and eventually he started trying to take David's life.
See, success can test relationships.
Success can change things,
especially with those in authority.
This will test our integrity and our patience as well.
But it shouldn't change who we are in our relationship with the Lord.
Because if success happens in our own lives, then it shouldn't be
for us to receive the glory. It's for him
because we live vertical lives to please him.
Oh. Although David was successful on the battlefield that day, and the
nation of Israel triumphed over the Philistine army, the
ultimate purpose of this battle is to point us to a much,
much greater battle. One fought not in
the middle of a valley in Israel, but one fought in the
center of all history. See, on one side there's
an Adversary, the devil, the enemy. He's out to
steal, kill, and destroy all of us.
And we've taken the bait. We
have all fallen short of the glory. We have
all sinned, been lured by the enemy.
So who is going to take this adversary on? Who can?
Who can do it?
Not us, because we all, like the Israelites, run in fear.
But on the other side, a humble
servant
from the tribe of Judah in the bloodline of David, an
unlikely champion. He stares temptation
in the face day after day
and doesn't give in. Then one day, he
chooses the cross for us. He
goes to the grave. And it looks as if
the adversary has won. It looks as if
the enemy has won. Until
three days later, he rises from the grave.
His name is Jesus. He's the champion over
sin and death. And all who trust in him
will be free from sin, will be given true
life forever with him. This is the good
news of the gospel. Jesus
has conquered death, has conquered sin. And
just like David conquered Goliath that day in the valley,
we can rely on Jesus in our lives to conquer whatever
challenges we face. See, this
is the ultimate story that has the power to change all
of our stories for all of eternity.
That's the point of 1st Samuel 17.
That's the reason that we read this story today.
Not so we can trust in ourselves and what we have to
offer. No, that would be
foolishness. It's so we can put
all of our trust in Jesus and
every giant that we face. He is
faithful to go and fight for us and with
us. The God of the angel
armies is always on our side.
He's calling.
So if you're fighting a battle this morning,
if you're going. Going through something and you feel
like,
Lord, you're calling us out,
so. So I'm going to ask you to stand with me as
we come in to worship our risen Savior, the one who
defeated death and sin. Guys, there is
hope. This altar space is open
this morning. If you want to lay something,
you have a giant that you think is too big. You can trust
that the God of the angel armies is on your side. And
he is with you and for you in any
challenge that you face. Amen. Amen.