That's one of the most famous stories in the Bible, and I've heard it hundreds of times, but it seems like every time you read it, it's just as powerful as it always has been.
But we see the story here. The children of Israel are in a ray against the Philistines. They're in a valley, and there's a great battle that's about to take place.
Basically, each army has dug in, and they've got their positions, and they're kind of just at a stalemate, just kind of waiting for who's going to make the first move to start this battle.
And during this time, the Philistines send out this one man, this champion, Goliath, and the Bible says that his height was six cubits in a span.
A cubit is the distance from your finger to your elbow, if you have your hand out like this. It's about 18 inches, so basically by the time you add up six cubits in a span, he was about 10 feet tall.
Which, you know, there have been men, I don't know what the tallest man is right now, but I think he's somewhere around 9 or 10 feet tall in the Guinness Book or whatever it is.
But this guy is huge, and not only is he 10 feet tall, but he's very strong because the Bible talks about the weapons and the armor that he's carrying, how much they weigh, just for him to be able to wield those kinds of weapons.
He's extremely strong, he's 10 feet tall, and he's equipped with all this armor, he's got a brass helmet on his head, and he has a coat of mail.
Now, mail is talking about chain mail, and what that is, it's these little metal rings that are linked together.
And back then, this is before machines and industry, they would hand link each little chain, each little link of a chain, and weave it together into a shirt of armor.
This is basically primitive armor that he's wearing, and he's got a guy holding the shield, he just comes out and he basically offers a challenge and says that, you know, send me one man to fight with me, and I'll fight him one on one.
Instead of our two armies fighting each other, just send me one man to fight with me, and if I defeat him, then you'll be our servants, and if he defeats me, then we'll be your servants.
And the Bible says, look down if you would at verse number 11, when Saul and all Israel heard these words of the Philistine, they were dismayed and greatly afraid.
So the Bible tells us, not only were all the children of Israel afraid, even King Saul himself was afraid.
And King Saul was the man who was head and shoulders above any of the people.
So he had to have at least been probably seven feet tall, I mean probably more than that, if he's head and shoulders above any of the people, if he's a foot taller than anybody else, he was probably about seven feet tall himself, so he was a very large man himself.
He's scared to death, all the children of Israel are scared, there's a whole host of people, and not even one of them is willing to face Goliath.
Now, if there's one thing that the Bible says over and over again, it tells us not to be afraid, and never in the Bible is fear a good thing, unless we're fearing God.
I mean from start to finish, from Genesis to Revelation, the Bible talks a lot about fear, and every time it mentions fear, it's negative, unless it's talking about fearing God.
Jesus over and over again told us, fear not, even when they were faced with a storm that was going to capsize their ship.
Even when different times when the children of Israel were faced with huge enemies and huge hosts of the Ethiopians or huge hosts of the Midianites or the Philistines, they were always told, fear not, don't be afraid, God's with you.
And the Bible tells us in the New Testament, for God has not given us the spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.
So, whenever you're experiencing any kind of fear in your mind or in your heart, just know that that did not come from God.
That is not of God. That is the flesh. That is your human weakness, if you ever feel any kind of fear.
Unless it's fear of God, that's the only legitimate fear that we as Christians should have.
The Bible says, fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul, but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.
And so, the Bible says that when Saul and all Israel heard these words of the Philistines, they were dismayed and greatly afraid.
It says in verse 12, now David was the son of that Ephrathite of Bethlehem Judah, whose name was Jesse.
And he had eight sons, and the man went among men for an old man in the days of Saul.
And the three eldest sons of Jesse went and followed Saul to the battle.
And the names of his three sons that went to the battle were Liab the firstborn, and next unto him Abinadab, and the third, Shammah.
And David was the youngest, but the three eldest followed Saul. Verse 15, but David went and returned from Saul to feed his father's sheep of Bethlehem.
Because if you remember in chapter 16, David had been called into the king and he had been playing the harp for Saul.
But when this war broke out, Saul basically sent David home.
You know, he's not sitting around listening to harp music. He's got to go out to battle.
But when he sends David home, the three oldest brothers of David are in the battle, David's at home keeping the sheep.
Well, David's father sends him to go check on his three brethren to see how they're doing, to bring him some food.
And also he's supposed to bring some food for the captain of the host.
It says in verse number 17, and Jesse said unto David his son, take now for thy brethren and Ephod this parched corn,
and these ten loaves, and run to the camp for thy brethren, and carry these ten cheeses unto the captain of their thousand.
And look how thy brethren fare and take their pledge. He probably wants to give some cheese to the captain of the thousand so that he'll treat his sons well and not put them in any kind of danger and so forth.
So David gets there, and when David arrives on the battlefield, for 40 days straight, every day, the Philistine Goliath comes out and issues this challenge.
And says, send somebody out here to fight with me, and let's just settle this man to man, one on one.
And he laughs at him and he makes fun of God, and he swears by all of his false Philistine God, and everybody's just scared.
Nobody will face him, nobody will shut him up, nobody will do anything.
And for 40 days straight this has been going on.
David walks up and David watches this take place, and David hears the speech that Goliath gives, and it makes him angry.
It makes him infuriated.
And he says, how dare he stand here and defy God.
I mean the God of Israel that's performed all these miracles, God that's the only true God, and they're just making fun of him and mocking him,
and this guy, just because he's ten feet tall, thinks that he can just blow off his mouth about God.
And David's so angry that David said, you know, that he's going to go fight him, he's going to go face him.
It says in verse number 26, and David spake to the man that stood by him saying, what shall be done to the man that killeth this Philistine,
and taketh away the reproach from Israel?
For who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God?
And the people answered him after this manner saying, so shall it be done to the man that killeth him.
And Eliab his eldest brother heard when he spake unto the man, and Eliab's anger was kindred against David.
And he said, why camest thou down hither? And with whom has thou left those few sheep in the wilderness?
I know thy pride and the naughtiness of thine heart, for thou art come down that thou mightest see the battle.
And David said, what have I now done? Is there not a cause?
So notice that Eliab gets angry when he hears David speaking. What's David saying?
David's saying, hey, this guy doesn't have any right to be saying this, and so what do I get if I defeat him?
You know, what's the bounty? Okay, I get to marry the king's daughter, and my father's house is going to be free in Israel.
You know, and his brother gets angry. His brother didn't have the guts to go do it.
Eliab could have been, you know, volunteering and say, I'll go fight this guy.
But he wasn't, and notice he has to get on David and criticize him for being the one who wants to do something.
And you know, that's how it always is in life. You know, when you step out to do something for God, there's always going to be criticism.
Whenever you stand up and have the courage to face the enemy and have the courage to say what nobody else is saying,
and to do what nobody else is doing, of course there are going to be people there to criticize you and try to accuse you of being prideful.
Notice what he said there. You know, I know thy pride and the naughtiness of thy heart.
You know, you're just being prideful, you know, because you're going to do what nobody else is willing to do.
It says in verse 30, and he turned from him toward another.
So he basically just blows off his brother Eliab and spake after the same manner.
And the people answered him again after the former manner.
So he blows off Eliab and just shrugs off the criticism and just says, I don't care what you say,
and then he turns around and just goes back to his original conversation that he's having,
you know, finding out what the terms are of this battle and what it's going to take.
And it says in verse 31, and when the words were heard, which David spake, they rehearsed them before Saul and he sent for him.
And David said to Saul, let no man's heart fail because of him. Thy servant will go and fight with this felicity.
And Saul said to David, thou art not able to go against this felicity to fight with them.
For thou art but a youth, and he a man of war from his youth.
But the question is, if David's not able to go, then who is? Nobody else is willing to do it.
I mean, you have all kinds of trained warriors. You've got Saul who's head and shoulders above the people.
He's a great fighter. He's a great warrior. He's not willing to do it.
But yet, notice, everybody wants to criticize the guy who wants to do it and tell him,
you're not good enough. You're not going to make it. You're a failure.
But he's the only one who has the boldness and the courage to face the enemy.
It says in verse number 34, David said unto Saul, he's just been told, you know, you can't do this.
You're too young. You're a youth. He's a man of war from his youth.
David said unto Saul, thy servant kept his father's sheep and there came a lion and a bear and took a lamb out of the flock.
And I went out after him and smote him and delivered it out of his mouth.
And when he arose against me, I caught him by his beard and smote him and slew him.
Thy servant slew both the lion and the bear and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be as one of them,
seeing he hath defied the armies of the living God. This is interesting.
He's keeping the sheep. A bear comes, a lion and a bear comes. The bear comes and takes the sheep and takes it away.
Now, most people would probably just say, OK, well, just let him have that sheep. Not a big deal.
He goes after it to salvage the sheep. He actually goes after the bear.
He leaves the flock, goes after the bear, attacks the bear, rips the sheep out of its mouth,
and then the bear turns to attack him and he grabs the bear by the face and basically hits the bear in the face and just kills it with his bare hands.
And notice he's saying, look, obviously God delivered him. God allowed that to take place.
Obviously that's not going to be the normal outcome when you face a bear.
Now, thankfully I've never faced off with a bear. I've seen a bear and it ran away from me when I was hiking before,
but I didn't go running after it. I was just glad that it was running away. I just let it run away.
And so he's telling this story to Saul just to try to show Saul, hey, I'm not playing around here.
You know, I've done some stuff in the past where God has blessed me, where the Spirit of the Lord came upon me,
and I was able to defeat an enemy. If I was able to kill a bear and if I was able to kill a lion,
I'm sure that I can fight this guy and defeat him if God is with me.
And Saul armed David with his armor, and he put a helmet of brass upon his head. That's exactly what Goliath had on his head.
Also, he armed him with a coat of mail, exact same armament that Goliath had, and David girded his sword upon his armor.
And he is saved to go, he tried to go, for he had not proved it. And David said unto Saul,
I cannot go with these, for I have not proved them. And David put them off him.
So he puts on Saul's armor, but he'd never really worn armor before, so he wasn't used to it.
And so the shirt is really heavy, because remember what I told you, it's chains. It's chain linked together into a shirt.
Who knows what chain mail is? Put it up your hand if you know what it is.
Yeah, so it's extremely heavy, it's made out of metal. And he's not used to wearing it.
And so it wasn't comfortable to him, and so he put it on, he put the helmet on, it just didn't feel right.
So he just said, you know what, I'm not going to use this stuff. I'm just going to go with what I'm used to.
So he goes with just nothing. There's no armor whatsoever.
So he's got to get some weapons if he's going to face the enemy, it says in verse number 40, and he took his staff in his hand.
So basically he just takes a stick. I mean that's his weapon, a staff.
And you know, a staff is a weapon. I mean if you have a nice solid wooden staff, that is a bona fide legitimate weapon.
But when you're facing off with a guy who's a trained warrior from his youth who's got a sword and a spear and a shield, a staff is not going to be the best weapon.
But he said he took his staff in his hand and chose them five smooth stones out of the brook, and put them in a shepherd's bag, which he had, even in a scrip.
And his sling was in his hand, and he drew near to the Philistine.
And the Philistine came on and drew near unto David, and the man that bare the shield went before him.
And when the Philistine looked about and saw David, he disdained him, for he was but a youth and ruddy and of a fair countenance.
So he looks at him and he disdains him.
And basically what that means is that he just thinks he's a joke.
He thinks it's ridiculous. He looks at him and it's insulting to him that this is the one that they've sent to fight against him.
I mean, for forty days straight he's been issuing this challenge.
You know, and he's expecting finally some big warrior to finally say, you know what, I'm going to give this a shot.
And instead, basically a youth. Now we don't know how old he was. The Bible does call him a man, but it also calls him a youth, a lad, and a stripling.
So if I had to guess, and again this is just a guess, you know, I would say he's probably like seventeen, eighteen, nineteen, twenty.
You know, somewhere in that range of just a real young adult, right around that age.
And not only that, it says he was ruddy and of a fair countenance. Basically it'd say he was a good looking guy.
He didn't look like a mean hearted warrior. I don't want to say pretty boy because I know that he was not effeminate.
He was not a sissy. He was not effeminate. But he was just a really good looking guy. Just didn't really look like he'd been battle hardened.
Didn't look like a mean type of a warrior that you would think of that would just, you look at him and he just puts fear into you.
You just look at him and he just looks like a nice guy. He just looks like a pretty good looking guy.
And he's just a youth. He's just a young kid. You know, and basically he looks at him and it's just a joke to him.
He thinks it's ridiculous. And the Philistine said unto David, verse forty-three, am I a dog?
That thou comest to me with staves like, are you coming to spank me with a stick like I'm your dog?
And the Philistine cursed David by his gods.
And the Philistine said to David, come to me and I'll give thy flesh unto the fowls of the air and to the beasts of the field.
Then said David to the Philistine, thou comest to me with a sword and with a spear and with a shield.
But I come to thee in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom thou hast defied.
This day will the Lord deliver thee into mine hand, and I will smite thee and take thine head from thee,
and will give thy carcasses of the hosts of the Philistines this day unto the fowls of the air and to all the wild beasts of the earth,
that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel.
And so Goliath said, yeah, I'm going to take you and feed you to the fowl of the air.
He says, you know what, I'm going to kill you, David's response is, I'm going to cut off your head
and I'm going to deliver the whole host of the field of the Philistines, every one of your soldiers,
I'm going to give them to be eaten by the wild beasts and fowl of the air,
that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel.
Because, look, if you look at this battle, if David wins this battle, it's going to be God.
It's going to be the battle that's the Lord's, if he's going to be able to win this fight.
Because there's no way he's doing it in his own strength.
And God always loves to use people that are weak,
because the Bible says that God has chosen the foolish things of this world to confound the wise.
God loves to use the weak or the foolish or the unexperienced or whatever,
because he gets all the glory.
Because if he chose the talented and the good looking and he chose the strong and the skilled and the eloquent,
then people would just say, oh well that's just their personality, that's just their strength,
that was just his battle skills.
Well, Saul won the battle because he was just a good warrior,
and come on, he's only two feet shorter than Goliath anyway.
You know, that's why.
But when you look at David, you look at just this small guy, no armor, no equipment,
he said everyone will know that God is the one who won this victory,
that it's God that gives the victory to the winner here.
He says in verse number 47,
And all this assembly shall know that the Lord saith not with sword and spear,
for the battle is the Lord's, and he will give you into our hands.
And it came to pass when the Philistine arose and came and drew nigh to meet David,
and I love this part,
that David hasted and ran toward the army to meet the Philistine.
I mean, here is a man with boldness.
I mean, you don't see any fear in David here at all.
I mean, he just walks in, everybody else has had 40 days to get psyched up for this.
He just walks in, sees what's going on, and says, I'll do it, I'll fight against him.
If nobody else will do it, I mean, if it's been 40 days and no one's going to do this, I'll do it.
He doesn't have any armor, he doesn't have the right weaponry.
He just says, you know what, it's going to be God who does this.
God will give me the victory, the battles of the Lord's,
and he begins to walk toward the Philistine, and the Philistine comes at him.
You know, the Philistine attacks him.
And instead of maybe flinching or maybe getting a little nervous or trying to get ready here,
he just starts running toward him.
I mean, when the Philistine comes toward him, it says he hates it, he was in a hurry.
He just starts running toward Goliath as fast as he can.
And he ran toward the army to meet the Philistine, and David put his hand in his bag.
And keep in mind, this is while he's running.
He put his hand in his bag and took thence a stone and slang it
and smote the Philistine in his forehead that the stone sunk into his forehead
and he fell upon his face here.
So he's running toward the Philistine, pulls a rock out, puts in a sling,
spins the sling around, lets it go, and it hits him just right between the eyes.
And it says that it sunk into his forehead.
Now, I don't know here whether, obviously God here is the one who did a miracle,
because obviously we know that David is giving God all the glory.
He's saying it's going to be God, it's not going to be through weapons,
it's going to be God, it's the battles, the Lord's, and so forth.
You know, the amount of force that you'd have to sling that stone
for it to actually lodge into somebody's forehead.
I mean, think about that, because you'd expect it to hit his forehead and bounce off, right?
But the amount of force, and I don't know if God just maybe gave David strength to do that,
to sling it that hard, or if God somehow just gave that stone a little boost
and just kind of, you know, shoved it into his forehead.
But somehow when he's running, and think about it, how do you aim when you're running?
I mean, you're running and you're swinging a sling and you let it go,
and it just launches into his head, hits him right between the eyes,
sinks into his forehead, and he fell upon his face here,
so it hits him and he just falls flat forward on his face.
I mean, think about all that armor, all the lifetime of training
that it took for him to become this great warrior.
I mean, he knows how to use his sword, he knows how to use his shield, his spear,
he's got huge muscles, he's ten feet tall, and it's all just wiped out in one second with a rock.
Just throw a rock at him. Done. It's all over.
I mean, just the expense of the mail shirt and the helmet and everything, just worthless.
It says in verse 50,
So David prevailed over the Philistine with a sling and with a stone,
and smote the Philistine and slew him.
But there was no sword in the hand of David,
and you know, he just finished saying how he's going to cut off his head and everything,
he doesn't want to back out on that now.
Therefore David ran and stood upon the Philistine and took his sword
and drew it out of the sheath thereof and slew him and cut off his head therewith,
and when the Philistine saw their champion was dead, they fled.
So here they are, all the armies, the Philistines, just watching in shock and horror
as their great leader, their great champion, falls on his face.
Before they even can figure out what's happening, David runs over,
climbs on top of him, pulls out his own sword,
chops off his head and picks it up,
and they were so scared, they were so shocked, they run away.
Well now all of a sudden the men of Israel in verse 52,
now they have boldness, now they have courage,
and it says the men of Israel and of Judah arose and shouted
and pursued the Philistines until thou come to the valley and to the gates of Ekron,
and the wounded of the Philistines fell down by the way to Shearaim,
even unto Gath and unto Ekron,
and the children of Israel returned from chasing after the Philistines
and they spoiled their tents.
And David took the head of the Philistine and brought it to Jerusalem,
but he put his armor in his tent.
Now there's so much that we can learn from this story.
First of all, I think that the biggest thing we can learn
is that God is just looking for someone
who will volunteer to stand up and to stand for what's right
and to fight the good fight.
He's not looking for a certain person because of their talents or their abilities.
This was probably the least likely person to win this battle.
I mean, everybody looked at him and said, you can't do it.
I mean, his brother looked at him and said, you've got to be kidding.
Saul looked at him and said, you can't win this battle.
And Goliath looked at him and said, this is a joke.
This is going to be easy. There's nothing to this.
But you see, God is just looking for someone.
And you don't have to turn there, but in Isaiah 6, verse 8, the Bible says this.
Also I heard the voice of the Lord saying, whom shall I send and who will go for us?
Then said I, this is Isaiah talking, here am I, send me.
And that's what God's looking for us to say is, here am I, send me.
God is not looking for the talented or the skillful or the well-liked.
He's just looking for someone with boldness.
He's looking for someone who's filled with the Spirit of God.
He's looking for someone with courage.
And I've seen all kinds of people be used by God through the years.
I've seen people who were very shy go out soul winning and win many people to Christ.
I've seen people who you wouldn't think would be able to get up and preach a great sermon.
And people's lives be changed.
God is just looking for volunteers that would stand up and have the boldness to face the enemies of the Lord.
And you know, today there are few that have the boldness to say what needs to be said.
There are few that have the boldness to face the Goliaths of this world
and to face the Goliath of evil and the Goliath of sin and iniquity in our country that nobody wants to face up to.
And we've got plenty of pastors in this country, plenty of Baptist churches, plenty of preachers.
But we don't have a lot of Davids who are fearless, who have the courage and the boldness to stand up
and say what needs to be said and to fight the battle.
But notice, once David stood up and won his personal battle, which was just one on one, one man against another.
Once David stood up and won that battle, did you notice how everybody else rallied?
Everybody else suddenly had courage.
All of a sudden everybody else could win a victory.
And notice how one man's courage, one man who stands up for God, can actually rally thousands of people to stand up and do the same thing.
But it's hard to be that first one that will stand up and do what's right.
I've been in situations before where you'll be in a situation where maybe something's going on that isn't right
and nobody wants to say anything about it.
And then somebody stands up and says, hey, that isn't right.
And then all of a sudden everybody else says, yeah, yeah, that's true.
All of a sudden everybody else has the gun.
But somebody's got to break the ice.
Somebody's got to be the lone voice that stands up and says, hey, you know, the emperor is not wearing any clothes.
And then everybody else, okay, we see it too.
But you see, people's mentality is just to follow the crowd.
And the crowd, throughout the whole Bible, the crowd has no guts.
The crowd has no boldness.
The crowd has no courage.
The crowd is going to sit by and just expect, well, somebody else is going to do it.
You know, I mean, come on, it's been 40 days.
Somebody's going to volunteer.
Somebody's going to do it, but let it not be me.
And I personally believe that, you know, there were many other people who probably could have done the same thing.
I don't think that it was just only David here that could have done this.
Because it wasn't David that won the battle.
The battle was the Lord's.
David was just the one who stepped up to the plate.
David was the one that volunteered.
I think that if somebody else would have said, hey, this guy's defying the armies of the living God.
Who is he to say these things?
I'll go in the power of the Holy Spirit.
I'll go defeat this enemy.
And I think he could have chose a different weapon.
It wouldn't have mattered.
It was the fact that he went and fought against the Lord's enemies and he had the boldness and the courage to do it.
And he wasn't relying on the flesh.
He wasn't relying on physical weapons.
He wasn't relying on his armor.
He's just relying on God to help him win the victory.
And so we see that one person standing up and fighting a battle can embolden everyone else.
Can embolden those around you.
And you see, once he fights and wins, everybody else rallies.
Everybody else chases them.
They defeat the Philistines. They get freedom for the whole nation.
Now look at verse 55. It says in verse 55,
When Saul saw David go forth against the Philistine, he said unto Abner, the captain of the host,
Abner, whose son is this youth?
And Abner said, as thy soul liveth, O king, I cannot tell.
Now notice, it says that when he went forth against the Philistines.
So we've backed up in time now.
Because in verse 54, it talks about how David eventually takes the head of the Philistine to Jerusalem
and puts the armor in his tent.
But it says in verse 55, we kind of jump back in time.
And when Saul saw David go forth against the Philistine, as he's watching him go out to the battle,
he said unto Abner, the captain of the host, Abner, whose son is this?
So he's like, who is this guy that we just sent out to fight against Goliath?
Who is he?
Now what's funny is that he kind of should have known who he was
because this is the guy who had been playing the harp for him and had been his armor bearer.
But you know how it is when you're a really important person maybe
and then you've got all these servants around you,
Saul probably just wasn't paying attention to every servant that was around him.
He's got all these people waiting on him and servants and maybe it's been a year or something
and maybe David looks a little different, a little more grown up
and he just doesn't really remember him.
And so he says, who is this guy?
And Abner said, as thy soul liveth, O king, I cannot tell.
Verse 56, and the king said, enquire thou whose son the stripling is.
And as David returned from the slaughter of the Philistine,
so this is after the battle is over now,
Abner took him and brought him before Saul with the head of the Philistine in his hand.
And Saul said to him, whose son art thou, thou young man?
And David answered, I am the son of thy servant Jesse the Bethlehemite.
Now, here's the other thing.
The thing about, one of the great things about David,
he wasn't afraid to get his hands a little bit dirty.
You know what I mean?
And we have people today who, they think that they're great Christians
and they think that they're great preachers
and they think that they're living for God
but they want to have a positive only happy smiley Christianity.
And you know, when you're walking into the tent with a severed head in your hand,
that's just not the image that comes to mind with today's preachers
with a little pink, what do you call it in their pocket,
a little pink handkerchief and the matching pink tie.
That's not the kind of guy that David was.
And you know, just today I read through the book of Numbers today.
And I was reading through the book of Numbers and I've always believed this,
even going back to when I was a teenager, I remember,
to me the book of Numbers has got to be the meanest book in the whole Bible.
I don't know, maybe you have a different opinion on that
or maybe you feel differently about that.
But man, when I read the book of Numbers, it's like that is a mean book in the Bible.
And the thought that was on my mind was that if people read the book of Numbers,
they would have a totally different view of who God is
and I was just reading it and I just thought to myself,
you know, this just proves that the people with all their positive only preaching
and their positive only Christianity,
it just proves that they don't read the Bible
and most notably they don't read the book of Numbers.
And I'm just using that as an example.
There are other books that are gnarly books in the Bible.
Numbers is one of them.
And just as I was reading my Bible today, I was just thinking to myself,
people have got the totally wrong view of God.
They don't read the Bible.
They don't study it to show themselves approved.
You know, sometimes when you're serving God
and sometimes when you're taking a stand for God,
sometimes you're fighting against somebody.
Think about that.
And I mean that's the obvious thing in this story that we might just kind of pass over.
There was an enemy.
There was somebody who got their head cut off.
And you see, a lot of people probably in that crowd just said,
well, you know, I just want to love everybody.
In fact, I love Goliath.
And I did.
You know what I mean?
You know that there would be, I mean, if this was in 2011
and this was all of Christianity standing on one side of the valley,
99% would just be saying, you know, let's just love him.
You know, let's just love Goliath.
But David knew this man is an evil man.
He's a wicked man.
He wants us dead.
He wants to kill us all.
He's blaspheming God and I'm going to go kill him
and then I'm going to cut off his head
and then I'm going to carry it back as a trophy.
You know, and I'm going to walk into the tent
with a severed head dripping with Goliath's blood.
Now, we live in such a sanitary, sanitized society
that to us we hear that and we go, oh, man, I can't believe that.
You know, you'd be like, oh, man, is he wearing gloves or anything?
You know, where he handles that?
But, you know, this is reality.
And, you know, some things in the Bible are a little bit ugly
and we want everything to be pretty all the time, but it's just not.
I mean, sometimes things get ugly in the Bible.
And in order to serve God, sometimes you've got to fight against somebody.
Sometimes you've got to do something negative.
Sometimes you've got to say something negative.
Sometimes you have to harm somebody like you had to harm here.
Now, again, obviously the Bible says we wrestle not against flesh and blood
but against principalities, against powers.
In the Old Testament here there was a physical enemy.
We don't have a physical enemy that we're fighting against.
You know, I'm not going to cut anybody's head off.
But, you know, there are some spiritual heads to cut off.
You know, we don't wrestle against flesh and blood,
but we do wrestle against principalities,
against powers, against spiritual wickedness in high places,
against the rulers of the darkness of this world.
And you have to be willing to fight in order to serve God.
And you have to be willing to stand against something.
You know, yes, before something, but also stand against something
and be willing to fight and be willing to say something negative to someone
and not just always be, well, I'm just going to get along with everybody
and everything is great and I'm just going to be at peace with everybody all the time.
You know, I'm just not at peace with everybody
and I don't have a goal of being at peace with everybody.
I'd like to be more like David.
I'd like to look at the Goliaths of this world
and go running, screaming toward them
and throw a stone and plant it between the eyes
and bring them down so that maybe we could get some boldness in our brethren
and the people around us.
We need some fighters. We need some warriors.
We need some men who have the boldness and the courage to stand up
to an enemy that seems like it cannot be defeated
and to be filled with the Spirit, face off with that enemy toe to toe
and defeat that enemy by the power of God.
You know, if you look at our church, it's a great success story
of winning souls to Christ and reaching people
and basically doing something that others say cannot be done.
People today will say that starting a church
and having that church grow and being fundamental
and old-fashioned and King James Bible,
most people say that it can't be done, that those days are over.
And they'll say that today you have to go contemporary
and you have to change with the times, be a little more modern.
You know, I want to prove them wrong.
And they say, oh man, you can't preach hard like that.
You can't preach negative like that.
I want to prove them wrong and I hope you want to prove them wrong too
and show them, hey, it's not the sword and the spear of the world's new methods
that are going to win the battle.
It's going to be just the Spirit of God and the battles of the Lords.
And I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me.
We need a whole slew of young men that will rise up
and be a David of this generation.
And if you're listening to the sound of my voice right now, young man,
decide that you are going to be a David.
You know, you're going to have no fear.
And I mean, David, I mean, you don't see an ounce of fear.
Everybody else is scared to death, including Saul.
David has no fear.
We need men who will get behind the pulpit with no fear and preach.
Zero fear.
We need men who will go out, and ladies who will go out soul winning with no fear,
not scared to tell people the truth
and, you know, not to be a watered down soul winner
that basically just won't mention anything.
You know, hey, when I go soul winning, I tell people about hell.
I tell them it's real.
And I'm not afraid to tell them that.
And I tell people that they're not saved.
And I tell them the truth in love.
And I plead with them to be saved.
But you've got to be having the boldness to tell them that they're not saved.
You've got to talk about hell.
You've got to be willing to preach the gospel and not be scared to do it.
We need soul winners with no fear.
We need preachers behind the pulpit with no fear.
We need parents without fear that will raise their children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord
and not be afraid of what the in-laws think,
not be afraid of what the extended family says,
not be afraid of what the government says,
but just to do what's right in the sight of God with no fear
and say the battle is the Lord's.
That's what we can learn from this chapter.
God's not looking for a special person that's ten feet tall.
You know, God's just looking for somebody with the boldness,
somebody who's not afraid,
somebody who's not scared,
and He'll give the strength,
He'll give the power to win the victory.
You know, our government today is so ungodly and wicked,
it's unbelievable to me.
You know, it blows my mind every week, the stuff that I hear.
This week I was hearing statistics about how in New York City
at the highest abortion rate in America, in New York City,
60% abortion rate,
and that 38% of all abortions in New York City
are paid for by Medicaid.
So basically our tax dollars is what pays for it.
You know, it's basically the government is using money
that it collects from Christians and godly people
and using it to fund 38% of the abortions, okay?
They're paying for it with tax dollars.
And that's our government today.
Funding slaughter of infants.
Our government today, I think tomorrow
they start letting all the sodomites into the military.
Or is it today?
Or yesterday.
Time flies.
Recruiting sodomites into the military.
Not Davids and Salls, no.
A bunch of fairies that they're bringing into the military.
That's our government today.
And you know what?
Don't be afraid of that government.
Don't be.
Fear God and Him alone.
Our government is not worthy to be feared.
Only God is worthy of our fear.
And He doesn't want to share His glory and His honor
or His fear with anyone else.
And the Bible says,
Give therefore to all their dues.
Tribute to whom tribute, honor to whom honor,
fear to whom fear.
And listen, the Bible tells us to fear no one but God.
No one else.
That's the only person we should fear.
And we're not supposed to fear Satan.
The Bible says,
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil, for thou art with me.
And we shouldn't fear our evil government.
They have no power at all except what God allows them to have.
And God will destroy them someday.
And they will burn in hell
for all their wickedness and sodomy and abortion that they promote.
But let me tell you something.
I'm not going to let fear of them affect how I preach.
And I'm not going to let fear of them affect how I raise my children
or run my household
or run my marriage
or run my family.
We need to get the boldness of David here
to stand up and do what God tells us to do
and not care what the enemy says.
Not care how big Goliath is.
The bigger they come, the harder they fall.
And here we see a perfect example of that.
And so I hope this story encourages you to get some boldness
and to get some courage because
it's the same God today that was in this story.
I mean the same God who caused David to win that victory
is the same God that can help you to slay the Goliaths in your life.
And the same God that can help you to serve God
and to win souls and to preach the gospel
and to raise your children.
And those things might seem hard sometimes
and it seems difficult and there are a lot of enemies.
There are a lot of adversaries.
But you know what? The battle is the Lord's.
Just trust in Him, stand tall, be filled with the Spirit
and you too can win the victory.
Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.
Father we thank you so much for your word dear God
and for this great story and I never get tired of reading this story.
And I just pray that you would just help these things to sink down into our ears.
Help us not to be like the majority of Christians
just a bunch of scaredy cats running around with our tails between our legs.
Scared of our own shadow.
Help us to be bold like David was and to stand up for the truth,
not compromise, but to stand tall and to face the Goliaths of this world.
In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.