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Dwell On These Things - "David Defeats Goliath" - 1 Samuel 17:1-58 · LifeAudio

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Speaker 1: This morning, we're continuing our look at the book of
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Speaker 1: 1 Samuel. And today we're going to be coming to
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Speaker 1: a passage that is probably, if I had to guess,
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Speaker 1: certainly top 10, but maybe even top three as far
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Speaker 1: as cultural familiarity in the Bible. Today we're going to
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Speaker 1: be in 1 Samuel chapter 17. And in 1 Samuel
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Speaker 1: chapter 17, this is the passage that actually talks about
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Speaker 1: David's defeat of Goliath. So if you would take your
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Speaker 1: Bibles and turn there with me. First Samuel 17, I
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Speaker 1: will tell you as you're turning there that oftentimes when
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Speaker 1: I've heard this passage conveyed, sometimes the main point gets skipped.
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Speaker 1: Sometimes the main aspect of it gets missed because it's
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Speaker 1: so popular in just cultural discussion. And today I'm going
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Speaker 1: to do my best to not miss the main point
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Speaker 1: of this passage. And I hope that if this is
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Speaker 1: a passage that you've never thought about, maybe some of
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Speaker 1: the broader implications of what's being communicated here, I hope
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Speaker 1: today that we do a good job of conveying those
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Speaker 1: broader things. So again, 1 Samuel chapter 17, starting with
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Speaker 1: verse 1. I'm just going to start off by reading
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Speaker 1: the first 11 verses, and they say this. Now, the
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Speaker 1: Philistines gathered their armies for battle. And they were gathered
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Speaker 1: at Soka, which belongs to Judah, and encamped between Soka
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Speaker 1: and Azekah and Ephes Damim. And Saul and the men
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Speaker 1: of Israel were gathered and encamped in the Valley of
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Speaker 1: Elah and drew up in line of battle against the Philistines.
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Speaker 1: The Philistines stood on the mountain on the one side,
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Speaker 1: and Israel stood on the mountain on the other side
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Speaker 1: with a valley between them. There came out from the
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Speaker 1: camp of the Philistines a champion named Goliath of Gath
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Speaker 1: whose height was six cubits and a span. He had
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Speaker 1: a helmet of bronze on his head, and he was
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Speaker 1: armed with a coat of mail, and the weight of
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Speaker 1: the coat was 5,000 shekels of bronze. And he had
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Speaker 1: bronze armor on his legs, and a javelin of bronze
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Speaker 1: slung between his shoulders. The shaft of his spear was
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Speaker 1: like a weaver's beam, and his spear's head weighed 600
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Speaker 1: shekels of iron. And his shield bearer went before him.
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Speaker 1: He stood and shouted to the ranks of Israel, Why
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Speaker 1: have you come out to draw up for battle? Am
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Speaker 1: I not a Philistine, and are you not servants of Saul?
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Speaker 1: Choose a man for yourselves, and let him come down
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Speaker 1: to me. If he is able to fight with me
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Speaker 1: and kill me, then we will be your servants. But
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Speaker 1: if I prevail against him and kill him, then you
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Speaker 1: shall be our servants and serve us. And the Philistine said,
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Speaker 1: I defy the ranks of Israel this day. Give me
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Speaker 1: a man that we may fight together. When Saul and
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Speaker 1: all Israel heard these words of the Philistine, they were
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Speaker 1: dismayed and greatly afraid. Let's pray. Lord, thank you so
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Speaker 1: much for your word, and thank you for the privilege
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Speaker 1: to be able to look at this portion of scripture
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Speaker 1: together today. We know, Father, that this is a portion
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Speaker 1: of your word that gets referenced all the time. People
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Speaker 1: reference it in sports contests. People reference it when facing
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Speaker 1: challenges in life. People reference it when something surprising overcomes
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Speaker 1: something that seemed magnificent. And so often when this portion
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Speaker 1: of your word gets referenced, the greater point of what
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Speaker 1: you were trying to communicate through these historical activities gets missed.
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Speaker 1: And so, Lord, today as we do so, as we
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Speaker 1: look at this portion of your word, we pray that
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Speaker 1: you would help us not to miss the important things
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Speaker 1: that you want us to understand. We pray that we
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Speaker 1: would grow from what you've revealed here. And we thank you, Father,
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Speaker 1: for giving us access to it. Father, as we look
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Speaker 1: at your word, we pray that you'd point our hearts
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Speaker 1: to your son, Jesus Christ. And we pray this all
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Speaker 1: in Jesus' name. Amen. So years ago, for a season,
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Speaker 1: for about eight years, my wife and I lived in Plymouth, Pennsylvania.
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Speaker 1: And when we were living there, much of the time
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Speaker 1: while we were living there, we lived in a house
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Speaker 1: that my wife and I bought that backed up to
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Speaker 1: a wooded mountainside. I very much like the setting that
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Speaker 1: this house happened to be in. Very nice setting to
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Speaker 1: live in. But when you're living in a context like that,
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Speaker 1: when you're in a house that backs up to a
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Speaker 1: wooded mountainside, that also often meant that we had to
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Speaker 1: deal with wild animals on our property. And so that
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Speaker 1: was kind of the trade-off that we, I guess, accepted
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Speaker 1: for living in that context. But the biggest nuisance of
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Speaker 1: all the wild animals that we had to deal with
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Speaker 1: was actually a bear who would frequently enter our carport.
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Speaker 1: We had an open carport on the side of the house.
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Speaker 1: That's also where we would keep our trash cans. And
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Speaker 1: so he would get in there and he would tear
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Speaker 1: apart our trash and he would leave a huge mess
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Speaker 1: for us to clean. And I remember at the time
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Speaker 1: looking at this situation, I'd get so annoyed with it.
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Speaker 1: Like I can't even tell you how annoyed I would
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Speaker 1: get with this. And I tried all sorts of options
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Speaker 1: to keep that bear out of our trash, but the
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Speaker 1: problem persisted. And every time I try something new, he'd
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Speaker 1: figure it out. Every time I try something new, he'd
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Speaker 1: figure that out as well. Well, one evening we were
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Speaker 1: driving our minivan with the kids in it. We came
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Speaker 1: home sort of late. And as we pulled into the driveway,
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Speaker 1: I caught him in the act. And I was like,
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Speaker 1: there he is. And we pulled in. He's right in
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Speaker 1: front of us. He's ripping up bags, and he's dragging
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Speaker 1: a lot of it through our yard and into the
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Speaker 1: woods behind our yard, making a complete mess. And I
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Speaker 1: remember in that moment, I just about lost my mind.
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Speaker 1: And I parked our van with my wife and our
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Speaker 1: four little kids inside, and I jumped out of the van.
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Speaker 1: And I grabbed a broom that was leaning up against
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Speaker 1: the side of that carport. And then I ran as
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Speaker 1: fast as I could run toward the bear while swinging
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Speaker 1: the broom. And the bear didn't even put up a fight.
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Speaker 1: It was a total wimp. And he ran away from
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Speaker 1: me and he ran back into the woods. And I
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Speaker 1: was like, you wimp. And I'm like yelling at the bear.
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Speaker 1: And my wife, meanwhile, is mortified, right? She's in the van.
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Speaker 1: And she told me that the entire time that I'm
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Speaker 1: attempting to engage this bear in combat, that she's there
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Speaker 1: praying for me. She's like, what am I witnessing? She's like,
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Speaker 1: am I going to have to witness what I don't
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Speaker 1: want to witness? And then after I chased him away,
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Speaker 1: and I'm feeling somewhat accomplished with having done that, I
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Speaker 1: then had to face her. And I remember her saying,
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Speaker 1: and I'm pretty sure that this is just about exactly
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Speaker 1: the quote she said. She said something to the effect of,
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Speaker 1: did you ever stop to consider that if he fought back,
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Speaker 1: that I'd be raising these children alone? And I thought,
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Speaker 1: you know what, you make a good point. She made
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Speaker 1: a good point. And as I recall, she put up
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Speaker 1: a stronger fight than the bear did. And you might
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Speaker 1: even say that I beat the bear and then she
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Speaker 1: beat me. And you can interpret that statement however you want, okay?
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Speaker 1: Maybe I mean it just like verbally. Maybe I don't.
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Speaker 1: Someone help, right? But then you get to 1 Samuel 17.
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Speaker 1: And this is one of the most popular and familiar
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Speaker 1: events in all of Scripture that And it's a portion
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Speaker 1: of scripture that it's been repeated to children for, like,
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Speaker 1: just about every child in the world has heard this
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Speaker 1: thing for almost 3,000 years. And here you have a
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Speaker 1: young shepherd, and he has to face this warrior. And
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Speaker 1: it tells us that he defeats him with a sling
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Speaker 1: and a stone as we work our way into the
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Speaker 1: chapter a little bit further. But this story is frequently
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Speaker 1: presented as maybe an encouragement to face our personal giants
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Speaker 1: with courage. Have you ever heard this story presented that way?
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Speaker 1: You know, just face your personal giants. Like it's just
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Speaker 1: a self-help section of scripture or something like that. I've
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Speaker 1: heard it referenced that way. And it's like, oh, that's
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Speaker 1: all cute and everything. But it's not really what this
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Speaker 1: passage is trying to get at on the deeper level. Now,
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Speaker 1: it is a passage that certainly teaches about faith. But again,
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Speaker 1: its primary lesson is, is much more than just overcoming
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Speaker 1: intimidating circumstances. It's much more than that. Here you have
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Speaker 1: David acting as Israel's representative in the midst of this conflict,
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Speaker 1: and he defeats an enemy that the nation is powerless
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Speaker 1: to overcome, and he delivers God's people from fear, and
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Speaker 1: he delivers God's people from oppression. Here it tells us
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Speaker 1: that the Philistines gathered their forces for battle in the
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Speaker 1: Valley of Elah, and Israel assembled their army opposite the
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Speaker 1: Philistine army on the other hillside, the opposite hillside. And
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Speaker 1: so you have this valley right between both of those hillsides.
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Speaker 1: And instead of beginning with a traditional battle where everybody
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Speaker 1: just sends their entire force toward each other, they did
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Speaker 1: what is sometimes done in ancient warfare, probably even sometimes
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Speaker 1: done to a degree in modern warfare as well. You
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Speaker 1: have the Philistines sending out a champion named Goliath. So
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Speaker 1: they don't all run out. They send out one guy,
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Speaker 1: their biggest guy. They send out Goliath. Now, scripture describes
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Speaker 1: him with some detail. It tells us that he's a
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Speaker 1: massive man, tells us that he's heavily armored. So he's
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Speaker 1: wearing all this armor. He stood about, so if you
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Speaker 1: do the math based on what it's telling us his
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Speaker 1: height was in this portion of scripture, it would result,
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Speaker 1: it'd be just under 10 feet tall, be about nine foot,
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Speaker 1: nine inches tall. So just like, like this far under
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Speaker 1: 10 feet tall. So that's pretty huge. It also tells
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Speaker 1: us that he had a spear with an iron point
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Speaker 1: on it that weighed what would be approximately like 15 pounds.
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Speaker 1: Just that point on the end of his spear. And
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Speaker 1: I actually was kind of curious this week as I
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Speaker 1: was looking at some of these details. I thought, okay,
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Speaker 1: if that's how tall he was and that's how heavy
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Speaker 1: some of the weapons he's using happen to be, I
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Speaker 1: wonder how heavy the guy was. I thought, has anyone
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Speaker 1: done some calculations based on what they assume his girth
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Speaker 1: would be going along with his height? What are the
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Speaker 1: estimations on how much he weighed? And some of the
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Speaker 1: best estimations I found indicate that he probably weighed somewhere
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Speaker 1: between 500 and 650 pounds. And we're told that an
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Speaker 1: armor bearer walked ahead of him carrying his shield. And basically,
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Speaker 1: when you look at this, everything about Goliath was designed
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Speaker 1: to produce fear. So when people saw this guy, when
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Speaker 1: the Philistines saw him, they cheered because they thought he
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Speaker 1: represents us. And they were thrilled with just kind of
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Speaker 1: his massive presence. They would stand behind him and they'd
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Speaker 1: be like, Goliath, you go out and You intimidate the Israelites.
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Speaker 1: And others would see Goliath and they would cower in fear.
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Speaker 1: They would shrink in fear. But Goliath would play into
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Speaker 1: this because he knew how people saw him. He knew
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Speaker 1: how people observed him. He'd play into this. And when
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Speaker 1: you look at verse 8, it tells us that he
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Speaker 1: shouted across the valley. He says, why have you come
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Speaker 1: out to draw up for battle? Am I not a
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Speaker 1: Philistine and are you not servants of Saul? He says,
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Speaker 1: choose a man for yourselves and let him come down
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Speaker 1: to make. Choose your guy. So Goliath proposed something that's
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Speaker 1: called representative combat. He says, send your guy. We'll do
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Speaker 1: some representative combat. You send your best guy and I'll
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Speaker 1: be the guy representing the Philistines here. So one man
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Speaker 1: from each army, he's saying, one man from each army
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Speaker 1: would fight. And then the outcome will determine the fate
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Speaker 1: of both armies. Instead of us all dying in that battle,
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Speaker 1: one guy, you send your best guy, we send our
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Speaker 1: best guy. And if an Israelite defeats Goliath, then the
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Speaker 1: Philistines say, all right, we'll serve you. But if Goliath wins,
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Speaker 1: and everyone's like, Goliath's going to win. Like, the guy's
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Speaker 1: a giant. He's obviously going to win. He's also covered
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Speaker 1: in armor. He's going to win. And so they're saying,
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Speaker 1: all right, Goliath's saying, if I defeat you, then you
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Speaker 1: guys serve us. And that's how it's going to be.
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Speaker 1: And it's interesting as he's calling these things out, because
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Speaker 1: keep in mind some of the things that we've talked
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Speaker 1: about in previous chapters. In previous chapters, you have the
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Speaker 1: Israelites saying, we would like to be like the other nations.
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Speaker 1: We would like a visible king who can lead us
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Speaker 1: in battle and help us to operate in such a
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Speaker 1: way that other nations might be intimidated about us. But
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Speaker 1: when you have Goliath calling this out, he's actually exposing
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Speaker 1: the weakness of Israel's king at the time, isn't he?
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Speaker 1: Because think about some of the other things that scripture
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Speaker 1: tells us. We also were told that when Saul was
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Speaker 1: chosen as king, he was basically head and shoulders higher
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Speaker 1: than everyone else. So he was kind of like their
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Speaker 1: giant in many respects. Saul was bigger than the other
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Speaker 1: people were typically, you know, the stature of the other
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Speaker 1: people in the Israelite community. And so they would look
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Speaker 1: at Saul and they're like, he's our giant. He looks
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Speaker 1: like a king. This guy's super, super big. But you
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Speaker 1: have Goliath now calling out the people of Israel and
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Speaker 1: you have Saul, who's taller than everyone else in Israel,
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Speaker 1: chosen to lead the nation in battle. If anyone was
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Speaker 1: going to be qualified to face Goliath, people would have
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Speaker 1: assumed it was Saul. But instead, what does Saul do
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Speaker 1: at this point? He's standing right there in the midst
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Speaker 1: of frightened soldiers. In fact, in verse 11, we're told this.
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Speaker 1: When Saul and all Israel heard these words of the Philistine,
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Speaker 1: they were dismayed and greatly afraid. So he's supposed to
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Speaker 1: be leading them. He's supposed to be inspiring them. But
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Speaker 1: the scripture tells us that Saul himself is dismayed and
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Speaker 1: greatly afraid. And then Goliath would repeat this challenge over
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Speaker 1: and over and over again. He would mock them with it.
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Speaker 1: Every day he'd come at them with it. He did
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Speaker 1: this every morning and every evening for 40 days. Can
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Speaker 1: you imagine having to hear that for 40 days? He
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Speaker 1: does it every day. Mocks the army in the morning,
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Speaker 1: mocks the army in the evening, but he's not just
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Speaker 1: mocking the army. He's also mocking Israel and he's mocking
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Speaker 1: their God. And he's saying, your God can't stop me.
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Speaker 1: Your army can't stop me. Your king can't stop me.
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Speaker 1: Send a man. And every day it was like, they
13:38
Speaker 1: didn't have TV, so they had to do something for
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Speaker 1: their entertainment. So they're like, hey, Goliath, it's evening. It's
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Speaker 1: time for the evening show. Go out and mock them.
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Speaker 1: Say something different today. Be like, all right, I'll mix
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Speaker 1: it up a little bit. Hey, Israel. And then he'd
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Speaker 1: come out there and he'd mock in a new way.
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Speaker 1: And you do it over and over and over again.
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Speaker 1: And each appearance, what it ended up doing is it
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Speaker 1: reinforced Israel's fear. They felt embarrassed. Like, as each day
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Speaker 1: is going on, they're thinking, what can be done about this?
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Speaker 1: We deal with this every day. And morale is starting
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Speaker 1: to get low, and people are getting frustrated because nobody
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Speaker 1: was willing to face him. And honestly, can you blame them?
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Speaker 1: I don't know too many people that would be willing
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Speaker 1: to stand up against this 10-foot-tall warrior who It looks
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Speaker 1: like a brick wall right there in front of you
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Speaker 1: with a reputation for being fierce in battle. Basically, what
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Speaker 1: people were illustrating was that nobody thought victory was possible.
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Speaker 1: Nobody thought that if they even did, they thought if
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Speaker 1: they faced him, they would basically be the person who,
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Speaker 1: you know, lost it all for Israel. Anyone watch the
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Speaker 1: World Series this week? Anyone feel bad for the last
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Speaker 1: guy at bat, right, when the World Series is won?
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Speaker 1: It'd be like you're the last guy at bat and
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Speaker 1: your army loses facing Goliath. You're going to be that guy.
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Speaker 1: Israel's going to remember you as the guy that lost
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Speaker 1: to Goliath. Do you want to be remembered that way? Well,
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Speaker 1: in the midst of all this taking place, you've got
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Speaker 1: Saul's standing army there, you've got Saul himself there, but
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Speaker 1: there's one guy that's not part of that standing army
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Speaker 1: when you look at the greater context of this chapter.
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Speaker 1: We're told elsewhere, it's revealed to us that David was
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Speaker 1: not part of Saul's standing army. In fact, his three
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Speaker 1: older brothers, his three oldest brothers specifically, had followed Saul
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Speaker 1: into battle, but David had not followed Saul into battle. David,
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Speaker 1: in fact, moved back and forth between serving Saul, which
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Speaker 1: we see happening in the earlier chapters. So he's moving
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Speaker 1: back from serving Saul and serving his father, Jesse. So
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Speaker 1: he's serving Saul for a period of time, and he's
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Speaker 1: serving Jesse now. for a period of time, taking care
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Speaker 1: of Jesse's sheep in Bethlehem. But Jesse looks at David
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Speaker 1: at one point and he eventually says, David, I need
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Speaker 1: you to go to the Israelite camp and I want
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Speaker 1: you to do something. I want you to bring some
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Speaker 1: food for your brothers. So bring some food for your brothers.
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Speaker 1: And I also want you to bring some provision, some
15:51
Speaker 1: food for their commander as well. Make sure that he's
15:54
Speaker 1: well taken care of. And so David, being the obedient
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Speaker 1: son that he was, said, okay, I'm going to do this.
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Speaker 1: David arrives and right as the army moves into position
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Speaker 1: to shout its battle cry, but it's kind of bluster here.
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Speaker 1: And from a distance, you might have thought, all right,
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Speaker 1: Israel sounds a little bit courageous in this moment. The
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Speaker 1: soldiers assemble, they make plenty of noise, and then their
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Speaker 1: confidence disappears like it's done every day for 40 days.
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Speaker 1: Goliath steps forward, he intimidates them, and they flee from
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Speaker 1: him in fear. They've been doing this over and over
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Speaker 1: and over again, and it's reinforcing something about the army.
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Speaker 1: It's reinforcing something about their king, Saul, and it's making
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Speaker 1: them feel absolutely terrible. And David's hearing this challenge. Now,
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Speaker 1: I don't know if word of this has gotten back
16:43
Speaker 1: to him to some degree, but here he's now hearing
16:45
Speaker 1: this with his own ears. He hears Goliath's challenge, and
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Speaker 1: he learns that Saul has actually offered a substantial reward
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Speaker 1: to anyone who would defeat Goliath. The king promised him wealth,
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Speaker 1: The king promised him his daughter in marriage, and the
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Speaker 1: king promised something else that would absolutely appeal to any
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Speaker 1: one of us living in this generation of time as well.
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Speaker 1: Freedom from taxation. You would no longer be taxed. Wouldn't
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Speaker 1: that be great? That might cause many of us to say,
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Speaker 1: you know, maybe I take a shot. You know, let
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Speaker 1: me take a shot at this guy. If I win,
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Speaker 1: then I don't have to pay taxes anymore? Correct. You
17:23
Speaker 1: don't have to pay taxes. So that was like a
17:24
Speaker 1: pretty big prize. You know, you're going to be wealthy.
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Speaker 1: I give you a daughter in marriage and no more taxes.
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Speaker 1: You just have to defeat Goliath. Not a small task.
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Speaker 1: But Saul had been offering that and it's a very
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Speaker 1: generous reward, but it still wasn't enough to motivate anyone
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Speaker 1: to actually do it. Because even though this reward is
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Speaker 1: hanging out in the air, they're thinking, yeah, but none
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Speaker 1: of that's good to me, dad. So maybe I don't
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Speaker 1: do that. But here you have David stepping into this.
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Speaker 1: And he's hearing this. He's seeing his brothers. He's seeing
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Speaker 1: the soldiers. He's seeing Saul. These are people he knows
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Speaker 1: up close. These are also people that, in other contexts,
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Speaker 1: he thought of them as brave, and he watches them
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Speaker 1: all quaking. He's thinking, why are you guys so afraid? Like,
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Speaker 1: everybody's so afraid. And then in verse 26, David confronts
18:16
Speaker 1: this whole thing, and he says it this way. He says,
18:18
Speaker 1: for who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy
18:23
Speaker 1: the armies of the living God? He's saying, who is
18:26
Speaker 1: this guy who does not live under the covenant of
18:29
Speaker 1: the true and living God, the sign of the covenant
18:31
Speaker 1: being circumcision? He's like, who is this uncircumcised Philistine that
18:36
Speaker 1: he should defy the armies of the living God? Right away,
18:40
Speaker 1: by the way, when you see David saying that, who
18:42
Speaker 1: can you tell that his confidence is ultimately in? The
18:45
Speaker 1: Lord himself. He's like, yeah, Goliath's bigger than us, but
18:49
Speaker 1: he's not bigger than the one who created us. He's
18:53
Speaker 1: saying you would defy the armies of the living God,
18:57
Speaker 1: those who are here representing his name. So David here
19:00
Speaker 1: is seeing the same exact warrior that everyone else is seeing,
19:03
Speaker 1: but he looks at this situation and he interprets it
19:05
Speaker 1: completely differently. He says, my eyes see it differently. And
19:08
Speaker 1: I'll tell you one thing that I've noticed the longer
19:10
Speaker 1: that I've walked with the Lord, and maybe you've noticed
19:12
Speaker 1: this about yourself, or if you're new to walking the Lord,
19:15
Speaker 1: you wait and see. You're going to notice this at
19:17
Speaker 1: some point. You will start to see everything differently. You
19:21
Speaker 1: will see everything differently. The longer you walk with Jesus Christ,
19:25
Speaker 1: you will see everything differently. The more you walk with him,
19:27
Speaker 1: the more he's going to open your eyes and your
19:29
Speaker 1: heart and your mind to start seeing and perceiving things
19:32
Speaker 1: in a very different way than you once did. You
19:35
Speaker 1: once saw the way this world sees, but now you're
19:37
Speaker 1: going to see things differently. You're going to see people differently.
19:40
Speaker 1: You're going to see circumstances differently. You're going to see
19:42
Speaker 1: your trials differently. You're going to see any challenge that
19:45
Speaker 1: you face differently. You're also going to see your temptations differently.
19:49
Speaker 1: And there are certain things that once appealed to you
19:51
Speaker 1: that will stop appealing to you in the same way
19:54
Speaker 1: because the Lord's going to change your perspective. He's going
19:56
Speaker 1: to change your eyes. And you can see that the
19:58
Speaker 1: Spirit of God was doing that kind of miraculous work
20:01
Speaker 1: within David because everybody else is seeing this giant and
20:04
Speaker 1: they're cowering in fear. And David sees the giant. And
20:08
Speaker 1: he doesn't see what everybody else sees. He interprets the
20:11
Speaker 1: situation completely differently. You have Saul and the soldiers focusing
20:15
Speaker 1: on Goliath's size. And they're focusing on his weapons. And
20:19
Speaker 1: they're focusing on his armor. And there's something said here
20:21
Speaker 1: that also shows they were focusing on his experience as well.
20:25
Speaker 1: They're like, this is a guy that could take us
20:27
Speaker 1: all out. We got to be careful here. But you
20:29
Speaker 1: have David focusing on something different. David focuses on God's identity.
20:34
Speaker 1: Like God's identity. not our limitations. He focuses on God's identity.
20:41
Speaker 1: And he makes it clear, Goliath isn't just insulting Israel.
20:45
Speaker 1: He's defying the armies that belong to the living God. Now, Eliab,
20:49
Speaker 1: David's oldest brother, looks at David's response here. Now, if
20:53
Speaker 1: you have any older siblings, I'm sure you could think
20:57
Speaker 1: of moments where they have maybe said something antagonistic to
21:01
Speaker 1: you or didn't really feel like hearing what you had
21:04
Speaker 1: to say. Some of you interact with your siblings with regularity.
21:08
Speaker 1: I could tell you, you know, I turned 50 this summer.
21:10
Speaker 1: I have a sister that is a year younger than me,
21:13
Speaker 1: and then another sister that's five years younger than me,
21:15
Speaker 1: and we're extremely close. So close that we speak to
21:19
Speaker 1: one another with great liberty. And we'll just tell each
21:23
Speaker 1: other whatever's on our mind. So if I don't like
21:27
Speaker 1: something that my sisters are doing, I will just say it. Now,
21:30
Speaker 1: I'm the oldest, so I'd be like the Eliab in
21:32
Speaker 1: this story. And he doesn't look super good there, which
21:34
Speaker 1: often happens to us oldest children. Solidarity, oldest people, right?
21:39
Speaker 1: But the truth is they'll say whatever they want to
21:41
Speaker 1: me too. Siblings speak without a filter. So other people
21:45
Speaker 1: are being polite to David. They're listening to David. They're
21:47
Speaker 1: giving him the time of day. They're answering his questions.
21:49
Speaker 1: But Eliab, David's oldest brother, looks at David and he
21:55
Speaker 1: gets irritated when he hears David speaking to the other soldiers.
21:59
Speaker 1: gets really, really irritated. In fact, he even accuses David
22:02
Speaker 1: of pride. He accuses, or he basically claims that you're
22:06
Speaker 1: just coming out here to watch a spectacle. You're not
22:09
Speaker 1: here to help. You're just out here to watch whatever happens.
22:11
Speaker 1: That's all. You just want to see a battle. You're
22:14
Speaker 1: just so bored with taking care of sheep. You want
22:16
Speaker 1: to watch people fight. That's why you're here. But David's
22:19
Speaker 1: question also did something else. And I think that this
22:21
Speaker 1: is part of why it was so irritating to Eliab.
22:25
Speaker 1: David's question exposed the army's failure. Like, why are we
22:29
Speaker 1: letting this guy talk to us like this? And Eliab
22:33
Speaker 1: was like, you don't even know what you're talking about. Quiet, brother, right?
22:36
Speaker 1: We have Eliab responding by attacking his character. He attacks
22:40
Speaker 1: his character. David looks at this situation, and he's like,
22:45
Speaker 1: all right, there's a lot of ways I could respond.
22:46
Speaker 1: I could argue. I'm not going to argue. And he
22:50
Speaker 1: actually didn't allow Eliab's criticism to silence him. He starts
22:54
Speaker 1: pursuing things. Because keep in mind, what does Scripture also
22:56
Speaker 1: told us about David? At this point, the Spirit of
22:59
Speaker 1: God has come upon David. So David is seeing and
23:02
Speaker 1: saying and perceiving and doing things, not just in his
23:05
Speaker 1: own wisdom, not just in his own strength. He has
23:07
Speaker 1: the strength of God and the wisdom of God guiding him,
23:11
Speaker 1: nudging him forward, giving him courage, where naturally speaking, you
23:15
Speaker 1: would expect him to be fearful. And so David keeps
23:18
Speaker 1: talking to people, and his words, as he's kind of
23:21
Speaker 1: confronting David, what he perceives, the limitations of Goliath, those
23:25
Speaker 1: words eventually reach Saul. And so Saul finally is like, hey,
23:29
Speaker 1: get over here. Let me talk to you for a second.
23:32
Speaker 1: And David told the king, he's like, listen, no one
23:34
Speaker 1: should lose heart because I'm willing to fight that Philistine.
23:37
Speaker 1: Stop losing heart. I'll go fight that guy. And Saul
23:40
Speaker 1: replied this way in verse 33. He says, you're not
23:44
Speaker 1: able to go against this Philistine to fight with him.
23:47
Speaker 1: For you are but a youth. He's been a man
23:50
Speaker 1: of war from his youth. You are but a youth.
23:57
Speaker 1: He's been a man of war from his youth. I'm
23:58
Speaker 1: looking around this room and I see some of you
24:00
Speaker 1: who are at a younger season of life. Let me
24:04
Speaker 1: give you a little encouragement. There will be people, especially
24:08
Speaker 1: if you decide to offer yourself to do things for
24:11
Speaker 1: the Lord, that the Lord's calling you to do, but
24:14
Speaker 1: you're still at a young season of life, there are
24:15
Speaker 1: going to be people that question your ability to do
24:17
Speaker 1: it because of your age. Let me testify to you
24:21
Speaker 1: that you don't need to worry about that. Still do
24:24
Speaker 1: the thing the Lord asked you to do, even if
24:26
Speaker 1: you're really, really young. Still do it. Your age is
24:30
Speaker 1: of no consequence to the Lord. Some of the most
24:33
Speaker 1: amazing people he uses in Scripture are people that are
24:36
Speaker 1: at a very young season of life. It's estimated that
24:38
Speaker 1: Mary was probably about 15 years old. The prophet Jeremiah
24:42
Speaker 1: was a teenager. There's other people in Scripture that were
24:44
Speaker 1: very young. David was still at a young season of
24:46
Speaker 1: life here as well. Don't be intimidated by your age,
24:49
Speaker 1: and don't let somebody tell you that that's a disqualifier
24:53
Speaker 1: from the Lord using you in a variety of ways,
24:54
Speaker 1: because he absolutely could use you. It used to drive
24:57
Speaker 1: me nuts when I was in my late teens and
24:59
Speaker 1: early 20s. I was getting very serious about my faith
25:02
Speaker 1: at the time, and I wanted to serve the Lord
25:03
Speaker 1: in a variety of capacities. And sometimes I'd meet people
25:06
Speaker 1: that supported those ideas, but often I would meet people
25:09
Speaker 1: who would basically mock the idea. They would mock the
25:12
Speaker 1: idea because And I was like, that's not something you
25:14
Speaker 1: should be mocking. Like, I'm saying I want to use
25:16
Speaker 1: my life for the Lord's glory, and you're going to
25:19
Speaker 1: mock it? And they would mock it. And the main
25:21
Speaker 1: disqualifier was, you're just not old enough. It's like, okay,
25:24
Speaker 1: so should I wait till like five minutes before I'm dead,
25:27
Speaker 1: before I actually do something meaningful? Or should I use
25:29
Speaker 1: the time that the Lord's given me right now? So again,
25:33
Speaker 1: your age is not a disqualifier. And don't actually put
25:36
Speaker 1: up in your mind with anyone who tells you that
25:37
Speaker 1: it is, because it's not. And here you have David
25:41
Speaker 1: being told something similar to maybe what you've been told
25:43
Speaker 1: at some points of your life. Again, Saul says you
25:46
Speaker 1: are not able to go up against this Philistine to
25:48
Speaker 1: fight with him, for you are but a youth. And
25:50
Speaker 1: he's been a man of war from his youth, meaning
25:53
Speaker 1: he's got clothing older than you are. And again, most
25:58
Speaker 1: people would look at this and they'd be like, Saul,
26:00
Speaker 1: that's a reasonable assessment. David is on the young side
26:02
Speaker 1: of life. But understand this, David wasn't a little child,
26:06
Speaker 1: like some of the retellings of this story happen to indicate.
26:10
Speaker 1: David was young, and you could also even say that
26:14
Speaker 1: at this point he was somewhat inexperienced in military combat.
26:17
Speaker 1: Those things are true. He was a young man, and
26:21
Speaker 1: he was inexperienced in many aspects of military combat. And
26:25
Speaker 1: you would look at Goliath and you'd say, all right,
26:27
Speaker 1: Goliath possesses every visible advantage. But then David remembered something.
26:34
Speaker 1: He's remembered the things that the Lord's already walked through
26:37
Speaker 1: with him on. different things that the Lord's already demonstrated
26:40
Speaker 1: his presence in his life. He remembered all those times
26:43
Speaker 1: that the Lord helped David protect those sheep. When a
26:46
Speaker 1: lion or a bear would come at those sheep and
26:50
Speaker 1: would try and threaten them or try and carry them off,
26:52
Speaker 1: what would David do? He would chase it. He would
26:56
Speaker 1: pursue it. Scripture tells us that he would strike those
27:00
Speaker 1: animals and then he'd rescue the sheep. And then if
27:04
Speaker 1: the predator turned against him, what would he do? David
27:08
Speaker 1: would seize it with his hands and he'd kill it.
27:13
Speaker 1: And so these are experiences that the Lord allowed David
27:15
Speaker 1: to have earlier in his life while he's taking care
27:18
Speaker 1: of sheep. But these were also experiences that helped prepare
27:22
Speaker 1: him for a challenge that nobody believed that he could
27:24
Speaker 1: face even in this moment here. And David explained it
27:27
Speaker 1: this way when you look at verse 37. He said this,
27:29
Speaker 1: the Lord who delivered me from the paw of the
27:31
Speaker 1: lion and from the paw of the bear will deliver
27:36
Speaker 1: me from the hand of this Philistine. And I love
27:41
Speaker 1: the fact that when you parse David's words here, when
27:45
Speaker 1: you look at what he's actually saying, his confidence isn't
27:48
Speaker 1: rooted in his skill or his ability to twirl a
27:54
Speaker 1: sling and kill a giant with a stone. He's trusted
27:59
Speaker 1: God who has delivered him in the past. That's what
28:02
Speaker 1: he's doing here. So the lions, And the bear, these
28:05
Speaker 1: creatures that David has dealt with in the past, they
28:08
Speaker 1: taught David that his safety and his success did not
28:12
Speaker 1: ultimately rely on his own power. It relied on the
28:14
Speaker 1: Lord who protected him and guided him and gave him
28:17
Speaker 1: his power, divine power to do what God was calling
28:20
Speaker 1: him to do. Goliath, humanly speaking, was stronger than David.
28:24
Speaker 1: But Goliath wasn't stronger than the Lord. And the Lord
28:27
Speaker 1: lived within David. Oh, by the way, the Lord also
28:30
Speaker 1: lives within you. He lives within you. The indwelling presence
28:34
Speaker 1: of the Holy Spirit under the new covenant, every believer
28:37
Speaker 1: indwelled with the Holy Spirit the very moment we trust
28:40
Speaker 1: in Jesus Christ. He lives within you. Coming back to this,
28:44
Speaker 1: Saul looks at David and he finally gives him permission.
28:49
Speaker 1: And he dresses him in his own armor. He takes
28:52
Speaker 1: his armor and he puts it on David. And by
28:54
Speaker 1: the way, this is by the way, further indication that
28:58
Speaker 1: David wasn't a little boy. Saul's not stupid in the
29:02
Speaker 1: sense of saying, well, let me put this on a
29:04
Speaker 1: 12-year-old and put this giant armor where he's walking around.
29:08
Speaker 1: I can't move my arms, right? It's not like that.
29:13
Speaker 1: He's a man. And so he puts man armor on
29:16
Speaker 1: another man. And the reason David takes the armor off
29:19
Speaker 1: isn't because he can't function in giant armor. The scripture
29:24
Speaker 1: tells us that he realizes, look, I'm not accustomed to
29:27
Speaker 1: wearing this. I haven't spent a lot of time wearing armor.
29:30
Speaker 1: This would be silly for me to wear this armor.
29:32
Speaker 1: You've got to practice with this stuff. I am not
29:34
Speaker 1: accustomed with this stuff. So he actually takes it off.
29:37
Speaker 1: And then he takes his staff, his shepherd staff. He
29:40
Speaker 1: takes five smooth stones from the brook. He's only going
29:43
Speaker 1: to need one, but he takes five. I guess you
29:46
Speaker 1: could say it's an insurance policy. Maybe if you want
29:48
Speaker 1: to like have one in your hand to threaten the
29:50
Speaker 1: Philistines if they come after you take out Goliath, right?
29:53
Speaker 1: And he approaches Goliath with the sling. Now, one other
29:57
Speaker 1: thing I'll say about David rejecting Saul's armor He wasn't
30:01
Speaker 1: rejecting Saul's armor to somehow prove that preparation or equipment
30:05
Speaker 1: aren't sometimes necessary tools. That's not the point of what
30:08
Speaker 1: he was doing here. But what he was trying to
30:10
Speaker 1: do is he's saying, I'm not going to pretend I'm
30:12
Speaker 1: something I'm not. I'm not going to pretend I'm something
30:16
Speaker 1: I'm not. I'm going to face Goliath with the skills
30:18
Speaker 1: that God's actually developed within me. During those years as
30:21
Speaker 1: a shepherd, he's developed some skills within me. And I'm
30:24
Speaker 1: going to use those skills. And even greater than that,
30:27
Speaker 1: I'm going to trust God's power as I use those skills.
30:30
Speaker 1: But Goliath looks at David as David comes out. And Goliath,
30:35
Speaker 1: keep in mind, for 40 days, in the morning and
30:38
Speaker 1: in the evening, over and over and over again, he
30:40
Speaker 1: mocks Israel. And now Israel finally sends a guy out.
30:44
Speaker 1: And the guy he sends out is a very regular-shaped guy,
30:48
Speaker 1: very regular-sized guy. And Goliath finally looks at the guy
30:53
Speaker 1: right there in front of him. He looks at David,
30:55
Speaker 1: and he's actually insulted by this. He's like, that's who
30:58
Speaker 1: you picked? That's who you send out to face me?
31:01
Speaker 1: You send a young shepherd, this young man instead of
31:05
Speaker 1: an experienced soldier? He's like, haven't you, like, do your
31:09
Speaker 1: eyes not function enough that you can see me? Have
31:11
Speaker 1: you not heard my words? Are you not familiar with
31:14
Speaker 1: my reputation? And so Goliath curses David. And then he
31:18
Speaker 1: also threatens to feed his body to the birds and
31:21
Speaker 1: the wild animals. He's laying this on very, very thickly.
31:25
Speaker 1: And you would think, all right, David, what are you
31:26
Speaker 1: going to say? Anything? Like, sometimes you don't have to
31:28
Speaker 1: say anything at all. But David, I believe inspired by
31:31
Speaker 1: the Spirit of God, responds to Goliath. He says this
31:34
Speaker 1: to him. And I often think in a moment like that,
31:37
Speaker 1: what would we say? Like, what would I say? What
31:39
Speaker 1: would you say? David says this, you come at me
31:41
Speaker 1: with a sword and with a spear and with a javelin,
31:45
Speaker 1: but I come at you in the name of the
31:48
Speaker 1: Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel,
31:52
Speaker 1: whom you have defied. That's what I come at you with.
31:58
Speaker 1: So here, David doesn't deny the reality of Goliath's weapons,
32:02
Speaker 1: but he knew that those weapons were not going to
32:04
Speaker 1: be decisive in this kind of battle. Goliath came with
32:07
Speaker 1: the finest instruments of war. He's got armor. He's got,
32:10
Speaker 1: you know, all sorts of things that he could use here.
32:12
Speaker 1: But David has something better. He comes in the authority
32:14
Speaker 1: of God. He's like, I'm going to depend on God's power.
32:17
Speaker 1: And then he continues when you look at verse 46,
32:19
Speaker 1: says this, this day, the Lord will deliver you into
32:22
Speaker 1: my hand. And keep in mind, Goliath said, I'm going
32:25
Speaker 1: to feed your body to the wild animals. I'm going
32:27
Speaker 1: to feed your body to the birds. They're going to
32:29
Speaker 1: pick you apart like you're pulled pork. Maybe I should
32:36
Speaker 1: have said pulled chicken. He's Jewish. Pulled chicken. We'll go
32:44
Speaker 1: with that. But this day the Lord will deliver you
32:47
Speaker 1: into my hand and I will strike you down. David's
32:50
Speaker 1: saying this to Goliath. I will strike you down. I'm
32:51
Speaker 1: going to cut off your head. And I will give
32:54
Speaker 1: the dead bodies of the host of the Philistines this
32:56
Speaker 1: day to the birds of the air and to the
32:58
Speaker 1: wild beasts of the earth, that all the earth may
33:01
Speaker 1: know that there is a God in Israel. I love that.
33:08
Speaker 1: So David's primary concern here isn't personal fame, even though
33:12
Speaker 1: that's been offered to him through Saul. It's also not
33:14
Speaker 1: Saul's reward. That's not his primary concern. What he wanted
33:18
Speaker 1: to be the end result of what takes place here
33:20
Speaker 1: was he wanted the nations to know that Israel's God
33:23
Speaker 1: is real, and Israel's God is powerful. And he also
33:26
Speaker 1: wanted Israel's army to learn that, in verse 47, the
33:31
Speaker 1: Lord saves not with a sword and spear, for the
33:34
Speaker 1: battle is the Lord's, and he will give you into
33:36
Speaker 1: our hand. That's what David wanted everyone to be aware of.
33:39
Speaker 1: And so Goliath now moves toward him. He's like, fine,
33:42
Speaker 1: it's time to fight. Now we fight. Goliath moves toward him,
33:46
Speaker 1: and the scripture tells us that David ran quickly toward
33:48
Speaker 1: the battle line. He places one of those stones in
33:51
Speaker 1: that sling. And by the way, when we're talking about
33:53
Speaker 1: a sling, it's not a slingshot. There's a very big difference.
33:56
Speaker 1: A slingshot, they're fascinating. They do a lot of stuff.
33:59
Speaker 1: Maybe you've even owned one, put one on your wrist,
34:01
Speaker 1: you're flinging stuff there, but you're stretching it back and
34:04
Speaker 1: you're springing it. That's a slingshot. That's not what David's using.
34:08
Speaker 1: David's using one of those pouches that has the two
34:10
Speaker 1: long straps and he's swinging it around in a circle.
34:14
Speaker 1: And then as you get good at this, you know
34:16
Speaker 1: when it's time to release one part of the strap
34:19
Speaker 1: You release that, and then the stone goes forward. That's
34:24
Speaker 1: what David is using. And he runs quickly to the
34:26
Speaker 1: battle with that sling. He places a stone in it,
34:30
Speaker 1: and he struck Goliath with one of those stones right
34:33
Speaker 1: in the forehead. Now, a skilled slinger like David, I
34:38
Speaker 1: actually read up on this this week because I was
34:39
Speaker 1: kind of curious. I was curious about two particular things.
34:42
Speaker 1: How much did Goliath weigh? So I found some stuff
34:45
Speaker 1: that talked about that, but I was also curious about
34:47
Speaker 1: How fast do we think that stone was going? And
34:50
Speaker 1: so I looked to see, like in that era of
34:52
Speaker 1: time with the tools that they had, a skilled slinger,
34:57
Speaker 1: how fast could he whip that thing? And I found
35:00
Speaker 1: out that you could whip that maybe about 90 to
35:03
Speaker 1: 120 miles per hour. You're skilled at it. If you're good,
35:07
Speaker 1: 90 to 120 miles per hour. That's the stone that
35:10
Speaker 1: went at Goliath's head. And the scripture tells us it
35:13
Speaker 1: sunk right into his forehead and he fell down face forward.
35:17
Speaker 1: And then David used Goliath's own sword to kill him.
35:21
Speaker 1: And he removes that head, that dented head. And when
35:26
Speaker 1: the Philistines look at all this, they're like, our champion's dead.
35:29
Speaker 1: And the scripture tells us that they fled. And Israel's
35:32
Speaker 1: soldiers at that point, they find their courage and they
35:35
Speaker 1: pursue them. And so you look at this victory. It's
35:40
Speaker 1: a victory that's shared with the entire nation of Israel.
35:44
Speaker 1: But it was a victory, or it was a battle,
35:45
Speaker 1: we would say, that David was the one who fought.
35:49
Speaker 1: So David fights it, and it's shared with Israel. Israel's
35:53
Speaker 1: soldiers didn't help defeat Goliath. They stood at a distance.
35:59
Speaker 1: They were unable, and also you could say unwilling, to
36:03
Speaker 1: save themselves. David won on their behalf. Do you see
36:07
Speaker 1: where I'm going with this? David won on their behalf,
36:10
Speaker 1: and they share the benefits of the victory. So what's
36:15
Speaker 1: the point of this story? Why is this included for
36:18
Speaker 1: us in Scripture? What are we supposed to learn that
36:20
Speaker 1: has eternal consequence? Well, this is the spot right here
36:24
Speaker 1: where this account points very, very obviously and naturally toward
36:28
Speaker 1: Jesus Christ. Because David was anointed to become king, but
36:32
Speaker 1: his kingship was not yet publicly recognized. And he enters
36:37
Speaker 1: here into a battlefield as an overlooked son from Bethlehem,
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Speaker 1: we can say. And he faced Israel's enemy as the
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Speaker 1: nation's representative. And then his victory becomes Israel's victory. When
36:52
Speaker 1: you look at what Scripture tells us about who Jesus
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Speaker 1: Christ happens to be, Jesus is the greater son of David.
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Speaker 1: He's the king God promised. Scripture tells us that like David,
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Speaker 1: Jesus came from where? Bethlehem. And when he entered this world,
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Speaker 1: he entered a world that was under the power of
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Speaker 1: sin and under the power of death and living in
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Speaker 1: fear of those things. But when he did so, many
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Speaker 1: people did not recognize his royal identity, very much like
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Speaker 1: we see illustrated in David's day-to-day life up to this point.
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Speaker 1: In fact, in John 1, verse 11, it says of Jesus,
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Speaker 1: he came to his own and his own people did
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Speaker 1: not receive him. Very much like Eliam. David comes and
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Speaker 1: Eliam's like, what are you doing? Just stop talking and go.
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Speaker 1: He came to his own, Jesus did, and his own
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Speaker 1: people did not receive him. Jesus faced enemies that were
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Speaker 1: far greater than Goliath, by the way. When you look
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Speaker 1: at what Scripture tells us about the enemies that Jesus
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Speaker 1: came to conquer, think about it in threes. He came
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Speaker 1: to conquer sin, sin which condemns us before God. He
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Speaker 1: came to conquer Satan, Satan who accuses us before the
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Speaker 1: Father and also deceives, right? Satan deceives us. And thirdly,
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Speaker 1: You have death. You have death standing as an enemy
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Speaker 1: that no human being can defeat. And what did Jesus do?
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Speaker 1: He defeated it. So we don't overcome these powers through
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Speaker 1: standing up to them on our strongest day. We don't
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Speaker 1: overcome these powers through courage or through discipline or through
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Speaker 1: religious effort or through human strength or any of those
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Speaker 1: things that sometimes people, I think, are tempted to use
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Speaker 1: as basically the be-all, end-all to save the day. We're
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Speaker 1: basically like Israel's frightened army. So if you want to
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Speaker 1: find yourself in the story of David and Goliath, Find
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Speaker 1: the frightened army, and that's us. And we need a
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Speaker 1: representative to fight on our behalf, and that's Jesus. David
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Speaker 1: defeated Goliath with a sling and with a stone, but
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Speaker 1: Jesus ultimately won his victory through what appeared to be weakness. Now,
38:53
Speaker 1: what do I mean by that? Well, he allowed himself
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Speaker 1: to be arrested. He allowed himself to be condemned and
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Speaker 1: mocked and crucified. Jesus endured all of that. And his
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Speaker 1: enemies looked at him, and they believed that they had
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Speaker 1: defeated him in that moment. you would say that the
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Speaker 1: cross looked like the collapse of his claim to kingship.
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Speaker 1: But what Jesus was doing was he was actually accomplishing
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Speaker 1: God's saving purpose. And in doing all of that, he
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Speaker 1: carried our sin. In doing all of that, he endured
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Speaker 1: judgment in our place. And he did something else that
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Speaker 1: sometimes gets skipped when we talk about what Christ accomplished
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Speaker 1: on our behalf. Jesus also disarmed spiritual powers that stood
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Speaker 1: against us. Again, look at what it says in Colossians 2.15.
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Speaker 1: It says of Jesus, he disarmed the rulers and authorities
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Speaker 1: and put them to open shame by triumphing over them
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Speaker 1: in him. through the work of Jesus Christ, the spiritual authorities,
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Speaker 1: the demonic forces, Satan himself, all of these beings that
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Speaker 1: stood against God's people have been completely defeated and have
39:54
Speaker 1: been triumphed over them. They've been put to open shame,
39:58
Speaker 1: very much like we see happening to Goliath. You look
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Speaker 1: at Goliath again, you see that he fell by a
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Speaker 1: weapon that David carries into the battle. You know, he
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Speaker 1: uses that sling, the stone damages his head, and then
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Speaker 1: David finishes him Goliath off with Goliath's own sword. Then
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Speaker 1: you look at what Satan has attempted to do. Satan,
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Speaker 1: through the generations, goes to great pain and great effort
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Speaker 1: to destroy the work of Christ. And even before he
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Speaker 1: destroys the outpouring of Christ's work, he tried to destroy
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Speaker 1: Jesus through crucifixion. And then crucifixion becomes the very means
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Speaker 1: that Christ used to break Satan's power. It's fascinating how
40:40
Speaker 1: that works. Goliath's own sword was used to kill him. Crucifixion,
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Speaker 1: which was meant to be used against Jesus, is the
40:50
Speaker 1: very tool Jesus uses to disarm the power of Satan. Again,
40:55
Speaker 1: I love what Hebrews chapter 2, verse 14 says of Jesus.
40:59
Speaker 1: It says, through death, he might destroy the one who
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Speaker 1: has the power of death. That is the devil. Destroy him.
41:08
Speaker 1: It's fascinating to look at this. It's fascinating to think
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Speaker 1: about this. You look at David's victory and you realize
41:14
Speaker 1: it was confirmed, you could say, in the moment that
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Speaker 1: Goliath fell. Jesus' victory was declared when he rose bodily
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Speaker 1: from the grave. Death couldn't hold God the Son. And
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Speaker 1: his resurrection assures us that our sins have been paid
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Speaker 1: for and that death has been defeated and that eternal
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Speaker 1: life belongs to the very one who has offered it
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Speaker 1: to us. And he gives eternal life to everyone who
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Speaker 1: is trusted in him. And you look at this portion
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Speaker 1: of Scripture from 1 Samuel 17, and you recognize David
41:47
Speaker 1: fought while Israel watched. Isn't that fascinating? David fought, Israel watched. Well,
41:54
Speaker 1: when did Jesus accomplish our salvation? When we could do
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Speaker 1: something to contribute to it or when we were helpless?
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Speaker 1: We were helpless. We don't contribute to his finished work.
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Speaker 1: He did it for us. We received the benefits of
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Speaker 1: the work that he did for us, but he's the
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Speaker 1: one who deserves the credit. In fact, Romans 5.19 says
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Speaker 1: it this way, for as by the one man's disobedience,
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Speaker 1: the many were made sinners, that's speaking of Adam. So
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Speaker 1: by the one man's obedience, the many will be made righteous,
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Speaker 1: speaking of Christ. And the beauty is our union with
42:30
Speaker 1: Christ means his victory becomes ours. Now we still face temptation.
42:35
Speaker 1: You're going to still face temptation this side of heaven.
42:37
Speaker 1: You're still going to face suffering. You're still going to
42:39
Speaker 1: face spiritual oppression. We also face the prevalence of physical
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Speaker 1: death as well. These are things we still face. But
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Speaker 1: none of these enemies can reverse what Jesus accomplished. None
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Speaker 1: of them. In fact, in Romans 8.37, we're told this,
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Speaker 1: in all these things, we are more than conquerors through
42:58
Speaker 1: him who loved us. We become conquerors because we're united
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Speaker 1: to him in his victory. Now, again, that doesn't mean
43:05
Speaker 1: Christians will avoid hardship. It doesn't mean that Christians will
43:08
Speaker 1: succeed in every single one of our goals. David's story
43:11
Speaker 1: here isn't a promise that every difficulty will fall if
43:15
Speaker 1: we just display enough confidence to overcome it or throw
43:19
Speaker 1: rocks at whatever's threatening us. That's not the lesson of
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Speaker 1: this story. The lesson isn't face everything in your own confidence,
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Speaker 1: face everything in your own strength. Look at the giant
43:28
Speaker 1: before you and recognize that you could stand against it
43:30
Speaker 1: in your own power. That's how I often hear people
43:33
Speaker 1: talk about this, That's not what this scripture is talking about.
43:37
Speaker 1: Faith isn't confidence in our own ability to overcome something.
43:41
Speaker 1: Faith rests in God's character and God's promises and God's
43:46
Speaker 1: saving power. Faith rests in him. He's the one who
43:49
Speaker 1: accomplishes it. He will accomplish it through you, but it's
43:54
Speaker 1: him who accomplishes it. David was able to face Goliath
43:57
Speaker 1: because he knew the battle belonged to the Lord. And
44:00
Speaker 1: you and I, and I'll say this as we wrap
44:02
Speaker 1: this up, We face life with courage because Jesus has
44:07
Speaker 1: already won the decisive battle. We aren't trying to earn
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Speaker 1: our own victory over sin. We aren't trying to earn
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Speaker 1: our own victory over death. We live from the victory
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Speaker 1: that Christ secured. We live from the victory. So just
44:23
Speaker 1: let that thought permeate your mind for a quick second.
44:26
Speaker 1: When you look at your life, when you observe what's
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Speaker 1: going on in your life, can you honestly say that
44:31
Speaker 1: right now you are living from the victory that Christ
44:34
Speaker 1: has secured on your behalf? Or do you let yourself
44:38
Speaker 1: believe that you need to succumb to the defeat and
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Speaker 1: the deception of Satan? Scripture is very, very clear that
44:46
Speaker 1: the same power that rose Christ from the dead already
44:49
Speaker 1: works within you. If you're united to Christ by faith,
44:54
Speaker 1: that power, His power The power of the Holy Spirit
44:58
Speaker 1: is already at work within you. You don't have to
45:00
Speaker 1: go through every single day preaching something to your heart
45:04
Speaker 1: that doesn't actually line up with what the gospel actually says.
45:10
Speaker 1: We live from the victory Christ secured. We were the
45:14
Speaker 1: fearful army. Now we're united with the victor. His victory
45:20
Speaker 1: is our victory. The very things that threatened us, the
45:23
Speaker 1: very things that mocked us, the spiritual forces that stood
45:26
Speaker 1: against us, death itself that stood against us. You don't
45:29
Speaker 1: have to go through your life fearful of everything that's
45:31
Speaker 1: cast at you. You can have all sorts of things
45:33
Speaker 1: cast at you. Don't be one of those people that
45:35
Speaker 1: goes through life afraid of everything. That's not a healthy life.
45:38
Speaker 1: It's certainly not a delightful way to live. Rest confidently
45:42
Speaker 1: in Christ who operates within you in ways that when
45:46
Speaker 1: you take those steps of faith and you allow him
45:48
Speaker 1: to do his miraculous work through you, you will watch
45:50
Speaker 1: him do a variety of things that will surprise you
45:54
Speaker 1: but it will also delight you. Live in the victory
45:58
Speaker 1: Christ has secured on our behalf. Let's pray. Lord, thank
46:05
Speaker 1: you so much for the fact that as we look
46:08
Speaker 1: at a portion of scripture like this today, so we
46:12
Speaker 1: look at these things and think about these things and
46:14
Speaker 1: wrestle with what it's like to walk with you in
46:20
Speaker 1: the midst of a fallen world and what it What
46:23
Speaker 1: was accomplished when you sent your son to represent us
46:27
Speaker 1: in his obedience and likewise represent us in his atonement? Lord,
46:36
Speaker 1: here we are as men and women who get to
46:39
Speaker 1: share in a victory that we didn't do the fighting for.
46:44
Speaker 1: Because of what he did on our behalf, we get
46:46
Speaker 1: to experience what it means to live life already having won.
46:52
Speaker 1: And it's not that we won, it's that you won.
46:55
Speaker 1: So Father, thank you for securing that victory through your son,
46:58
Speaker 1: Jesus Christ, and doing so on our behalf and inviting
47:02
Speaker 1: us to experience the joy of walking with you. Father,
47:06
Speaker 1: I pray that we would just continue to live as
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Speaker 1: men and women who are confident that your son actually
47:12
Speaker 1: is victorious, that we would be men and women who
47:15
Speaker 1: approach our day-to-day lives in such a way that we're
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Speaker 1: not fearful of worldly things, that we're not fearful of
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Speaker 1: the mockery that Satan sometimes will speak to us through
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Speaker 1: other people, or sometimes will try and just permeate our
47:26
Speaker 1: minds and our hearts with in our own thoughts. We
47:29
Speaker 1: pray that we wouldn't allow that to have its influence
47:33
Speaker 1: or its sway upon us. We pray that we would
47:35
Speaker 1: be men and women who look at you, Lord, and
47:37
Speaker 1: rest in the confidence that you fight battles for us,
47:41
Speaker 1: that we can't fight on our own. You are present
47:43
Speaker 1: with us in ways that we don't always recognize and realize.
47:46
Speaker 1: You are giving us your strength because you know that
47:49
Speaker 1: our strength wasn't sufficient. So you give us yours. But
47:52
Speaker 1: now that you've given it to us, we actually have
47:54
Speaker 1: your strength. We have your power. So since we have
47:58
Speaker 1: your power, Father, we pray that we would utilize it.
48:00
Speaker 1: The idea of you giving us the strength of your power,
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Speaker 1: the gift of your power, and then us not using it.
48:08
Speaker 1: What a wasted way to go through life that would be.
48:11
Speaker 1: So Father, help us to use the power. Help us
48:13
Speaker 1: to use the strength that you've entrusted to us. as
48:16
Speaker 1: we seek to be men and women who follow you
48:18
Speaker 1: in all context. Father, we're just so grateful for who
48:21
Speaker 1: you are. We're grateful for what you've accomplished on our
48:24
Speaker 1: behalf through your victorious Son. And we pray that we
48:27
Speaker 1: would walk with you faithfully each day that we live,
48:31
Speaker 1: not threatened by the things that really have no power
48:33
Speaker 1: over us. We pray this all in Jesus' name. Amen.