("Pomp and Circumstance")
- All right, folks, welcome to Anchor Baptist Church.
We're gonna go ahead and get started this evening.
If you will grab a hymnal and turn to our first hymn,
number 424, "O Come, All Ye Faithful."
Plenty of practice for those that were out with us
on Monday, 424, "O Come, All Ye Faithful."
("O Come, All Ye Faithful")
We'll sing there starting on the first.
♪ O come, all ye faithful ♪
♪ Joyful and triumphant ♪
♪ O come ye, O come ye to Bethlehem ♪
♪ Come, let we hold him ♪
♪ Born the King of Angels ♪
♪ O come, let us adore him ♪
♪ Christ the Lord ♪
♪ Sing, choirs of angels ♪
♪ Sing in exultation ♪
♪ O sing, all ye bridles of heaven above ♪
♪ Glory to God all ♪
♪ Glory in the highest ♪
♪ O come, let us adore him ♪
♪ Christ the Lord ♪
♪ O come, let us adore him ♪
♪ Christ the Lord ♪
- Amen.
If you'll bow your heads with me,
we'll open in a word of prayer.
Heavenly Father, we thank you for this evening
for another blessing of an opportunity
to gather together, to sing praises out for you
and to hear preaching from your word.
And that you would open all of our ears
to the message that you've laid on pastor's heart
this evening and that you would help us
to apply the spiritual truths to our lives.
Just incline your ear to us
as we continue to sing out more praises
surrounding your son's birth this season.
These things we pray in Jesus' name, amen.
All right, for our next hymn,
turn one page, if you would, to 425.
No room in the inn.
425, 425.
No room in the inn.
We'll sing there starting on the first.
♪ No little chamber ♪
♪ No soft cradle bed ♪
♪ No lace but a manger ♪
♪ No air for his head ♪
♪ No raises of black necks ♪
♪ No thought of their sin ♪
♪ No glory but sadness ♪
♪ No room in the inn ♪
♪ No room, no room for Jesus ♪
♪ Forgiven, welcome, free ♪
♪ Lest you should hear at heaven's gate ♪
♪ There is no room for me ♪
♪ No sweet consecration ♪
♪ No seeking his choir ♪
♪ No humiliation ♪
♪ No place in the heart ♪
♪ No thought of the Savior ♪
♪ No sorrow for sin ♪
♪ No prayer for his neighbor ♪
♪ No room in the inn ♪
♪ No room, no room for Jesus ♪
♪ Forgiven, welcome, free ♪
♪ Lest you should hear at heaven's gate ♪
♪ There is no room for me ♪
♪ No one to receive him ♪
♪ No welcome while here ♪
♪ No one to relieve him ♪
♪ No staff for us near ♪
♪ No seeking his treasure ♪
♪ No weeping for sin ♪
♪ No doing his pleasure ♪
♪ No room in the inn ♪
♪ No room, no room for Jesus ♪
♪ Forgiven, welcome, free ♪
♪ Lest you should hear at heaven's gate ♪
♪ There is no room for me ♪
- I handed out those prizes to those of you that did it.
On the inside is our service times
listed Sunday morning at 10.30,
Sunday evening at 4.30,
and our Wednesday evening Bible study
of course at seven o'clock tonight.
All of our soul winning times are listed there
and they meet here at the church building.
And then we go from here out into the community.
Our nursing home ministry schedule is listed there
if you've partaken that.
It's definitely a great blessing
to people that often don't get a lot of visitors.
So keep up the good work with that ministry for sure.
Our year to date statistics are listed there.
I had a couple more salvations this evening at the church.
So great job on that, keep up the good work.
On the right side is our list of expecting ladies.
Please be in prayer for Ms. Whitney Reed from her pregnancy.
Also upcoming events coming up real soon
is the ladies Christmas party.
Then make sure you plan to stay home
with the kiddos during that time.
Looking forward to ladies having a good time there.
December 21st, the next day is going to be
our Christmas soul winning push.
It's gonna be a Saturday soul winning rally
just with some food and coffee.
So really excited to go preach the gospel that day
and get people saved around Christmas time.
December 31st is gonna be our New Year's Eve party.
Lord willing, I'd like to make this a yearly tradition
where we have a men's preaching night
and a time of fellowship of food, games and all that.
Really looking forward to that.
And if you are a man that wants to preach a sermon,
you just gotta wear a shirt and tie,
have a King James Bible,
and there is a sign up sheet in the back.
Don't forget to sign up because you signing up
tells me how long the sermons should go.
One person signs up, they'll just preach for an hour.
But the more people that sign up,
obviously the less time or a lot for that.
Because I don't think you wanna hear preaching
till midnight, okay?
I know that's biblical, but we also wanna have some fun.
We also wanna eat some food, so we're gonna do both.
If you'd like to give online, that QR code is there.
Some details.
(indistinct)
And there is our prayer request list in the back.
Please make sure you email me
about any requests that you have.
I know this time of year, a lot of people are getting sick,
so do just keep our church in prayer for help for everyone
and just the communities that we interact with.
And we're gonna go ahead and go to the Lord
in prayer as a church now.
Lord, we thank you for this evening.
We thank you for this great time of year
where we get to sing such wonderful songs
about our Savior's birth.
We pray that you'd help us during this month
to be thinking about you and to be walking in the Spirit.
We also pray for the requests that our church has
from Ms. Remy for her visa process,
that your will would be done in her life
and also just for her healing of her tumor as well.
Lord, that you bless her.
We pray for Brother Moses, who had to flee Germany,
that you would just bless him in the United States here,
that you'd give him work and just help his life
to be rooted and grounded here, Lord.
And we also pray for the brethren
that are soul winners over there in Germany
that are continuously facing increased persecution,
that you just help them to be steadfast,
that you bless them and help them
to continue to preach the gospel there, Lord.
And we pray also for Brother James Perry
for his back pain, that you bless him,
and Brother Hall for his mother's salvation
and her healing as well from cancer.
Lord, I also wanna pray for my grandfather,
who's been having a lot of health issues,
that you just heal his body as well.
We pray for Brother Alex in Texas,
that you bless him in his endeavor to find work.
I just pray that your will would be done
in his situation, Lord.
We also pray for Ms. Sean Furr,
that her coworker, Terry, would be healed
of the cancer that she's facing,
that you just put your hand upon her life,
Lord, and bless her.
And we also pray for all of our members
who have family members who are not saved,
pray that their hearts would be softened.
And those of us that have family members that are saved,
but backslidden, we just pray that around this time of year,
they would hear the preaching of God's word,
they'd read the Bible,
they'd start getting their lives back on track,
and even come to church, Lord,
and just pray that you'd help us to be ministers
to other people during this time.
We love you very much, in Jesus' name we pray, amen.
All right, that's gonna be it for announcements.
At this time, we'll go to our third song.
- All right, for our third song this evening,
if you'll grab your white handouts
and turn to Psalm 126, Psalm 126, 126,
and your white handouts.
When the Lord turned again, the captivity of Zion.
Psalm 126.
We'll sing there on the first.
♪ When the Lord turned again the captivity of Zion ♪
♪ We were like them that dream ♪
♪ Then was our mouth filled with laughter ♪
♪ And our tongue with singing ♪
♪ Then said they among the heathen ♪
♪ The Lord hath done great things for them ♪
♪ The Lord hath done great things for us ♪
♪ Whereof we are glad ♪
♪ Turn again our captivity ♪
♪ O Lord, as the streams in the south ♪
♪ They that sow in tears shall reap in joy ♪
♪ Then said they among the heathen ♪
♪ The Lord hath done great things for them ♪
♪ The Lord hath done great things for us ♪
♪ Whereof we are glad ♪
♪ He that goeth forth and weepeth ♪
♪ There in precious sea shall doubtless come again ♪
♪ Shall doubtless come again with rejoicing ♪
♪ Reigning in his sheaves with him ♪
♪ Then said they among the heathen ♪
♪ The Lord hath done great things for them ♪
♪ The Lord hath done great things for us ♪
♪ Whereof we are glad ♪
- As the offering plates are being passed,
turn if you would to 1 Samuel chapter 17.
1 Samuel chapter 17.
(gentle guitar music)
- Good evening.
Tonight we're in 1 Samuel 17 and the Bible reads,
"Now the Philistines gathered together their armies to battle
and were gathered together at Shokoho,
which belongeth to Judah, and pitched between Shokoho
and Askei and Ephah-Sedim,
and Saul and the men of Israel were gathered together
and pitched by the valley of Elah
and set the battle in array against the Philistines.
And the Philistines stood on a mountain on the one side
and Israel stood on a mountain on the other side
and there was a valley between them.
And there went out a champion out of the camp
of the Philistines named Goliath of Gath,
whose height was six cubits and a span,
and he had a helmet of brass upon his head,
and he was armed with a coat of mail,
and the weight of the coat was 5,000 shekels of brass.
And he had greaves of brass upon his legs
and a target of brass between his shoulders,
and the staff of his spear was like a weaver's beam,
and his spear's head weighed 600 shekels of iron,
and one bearing a shield went before him.
And he stood and cried into the armies of Israel
and said unto them, "Why are ye come out
"to set your battle in array?
"Am not I a Philistine and ye servants to Saul?
"Choose you a man for you and let him come down to me.
"If he be able to fight with me and to kill me,
"then will we be your servants,
"but if I prevail against him and kill him,
"then shall ye be our servants and serve us."
And the Philistines said, "I defy the armies of Israel
"this day, give me a man that we may fight together."
And Saul and all Israel heard those words of the Philistine,
and when Saul and all Israel heard those words
of the Philistine, they were dismayed and greatly afraid.
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 Eliab the firstborn and the next unto him Abinadab,
and the third Shammah, and David was the youngest,
and the three eldest followed Saul.
But David went and returned from Saul
to feed his father's sheep at Bethlehem,
and the Philistine drew near morning and evening
and presented himself 40 days.
And Jesse said unto David his son,
"Take now for thy brethren an ephah of this parched corn
"and these 10 loaves, and run to the camp to thy brethren,
"and carry these 10 cheeses unto the captain of their thousand,
"and look how thy brethren fare, and take their pledge."
Now Saul and they and all the men of Israel
were in the valley of Elah fighting with the Philistines,
and David rose up early in the morning
and left the sheep with a keeper,
and took and went as Jesse had commanded him,
and he came to the trench as the host was going forth
to the fight and shouted for the battle.
For Israel and the Philistines had put the battle in array
army against army, and David left his carriage
in the hand of the keeper of the carriage,
and ran into the army, and came and saluted his brethren.
And as he talked with them, behold,
there came up the champion, the Philistine of Gath,
Goliath by name, out of the armies of the Philistines,
and spake according to the same words.
And David heard them, and all the men of Israel,
when they saw the man, fled from him and were sore afraid.
And the men of Israel said,
"Have ye seen this man that has come up?
"Surely to defy Israel he has come up,
"and it shall be that the man who killeth him,
"the king will enrich him with great riches,
"and will give him his daughter,
"and make his father's house free in Israel."
And David spake to the men that stood by him, saying,
"What shall be done to the man that killeth this Philistine,
"and takeeth 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 them,
and Eliab's anger was kindled against David,
and he said, "Why camest thou down hither?
"And with whom hast 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?"
And he turned from him toward another,
and spake after the same manner,
and the people answered him again after the former manner.
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 the Philistine,
"with this Philistine."
And Saul said to David, "Thou art not able to go
"against this Philistine to fight with him,
"for thou art but a youth,
"and he a man of war from his youth."
And 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."
David said, "Moreover, the Lord that delivered me
"out of the paw of the lion,
"and out of the paw of the bear,
"he will deliver me out of the hand of this Philistine."
And Saul said unto David, "Go, and the Lord be with thee."
And Saul armed David with his armor,
and he put in helmet of brass upon his head,
also he armed him with a coat of mail.
And David girded his sword upon his armor,
and he assayed 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,
and he took his staff in his hand,
and chose him five smooth stones out of the brook,
and put them in a shepherd's bag,
which he had even in a script,
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.
And the Philistine said unto David,
"Am I a dog, that thou comest to me with staves?"
And the Philistine cursed David by his gods.
And the Philistine said to David,
"Come to me, and I will 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 am come to thee,
"in the name of the Lord of hosts,
"the God of the armies of Israel, who now hast defied.
"This day will the Lord deliver thee into my hand,
"and I will smite thee and take thine head from thee,
"and I will give the carcasses of the hosts of the Philistines
"this day unto the fowls of the air,
"and to the wild beasts of the earth,
"and all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel."
And all this assembly shall know
that the Lord saveth 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,
that David hasted and ran toward the army
to meet the Philistine.
And David put his hand in his bag,
and took thence a stone, and slung it,
and smote the Philistine in his forehead,
that the stone sunk into his forehead,
and he fell upon his face to the earth.
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.
Therefore, David ran and stood upon the Philistine,
and took his sword, and drew it out of the sheath thereof,
and slew him, and cut off his head therewith.
And when the Philistines saw their champion was dead,
they fled.
And 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 Sharem, 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.
And when Saul saw David go forth against the Philistine,
he said unto Abner, the captain of the hosts,
Abner, whose son is this youth?
And Abner said, as I so liveth, O king, I cannot tell.
And the king said, inquire thou whose son this stripling is.
And as David returned from the slaughter of the Philistine,
Abner took him, and brought him before Saul,
with the head of the Philistine in his hand.
And Saul said to him, whose son art thou, thou young man?
And David answered, I am the son of thy servant Jesse,
the Bethlehemite.
Let's bow our heads for a word of prayer.
Father in heaven, we thank you for this day in our church,
and we thank you for your salvation.
And we just ask that you look over the service,
and we ask that you feel blessed with the Holy Spirit,
and help us to get this from the word,
that we can apply to our lives.
And we just ask that you look over this all,
that we go a couple ways, and do something good.
- Amen, all right, well we are in 1 Samuel chapter 17,
and this story is probably one of the most
well-known stories in the world.
I guarantee you, everyone you work with,
all your family members, they all know the story
of David and Goliath.
And quite honestly, preaching through such a famous story
can be a little bit intimidating,
because it's such an epic story.
But I'm gonna try to do it justice this evening,
it's a long chapter, so we'll jump right into it here.
1 Samuel chapter number 17, verse one.
The Bible says, "Now the Philistines gathered together
"their armies to battle, and were gathered together
"at Shoko, which belongeth to Judah,
"and pitched between Shoko and Ezekiah in Ephesimim.
"And Saul and the men of Israel were gathered together
"and pitched by the valley of Elah,
"and set the battle in array against the Philistines.
"And the Philistines stood on a mountain on the one side,
"and Israel stood on a mountain on the other side,
"and there was a valley between them.
"And there went out a champion out of the camp
"of the Philistines, named Goliath of Gath,
"whose height was six cubits and a span."
Here in this chapter, we're introduced to really the villain
of this chapter and of this story, and that is Goliath,
who is a giant.
I mean, this man is absolutely huge,
and he's described as a champion.
It's kind of interesting 'cause it's the only time
that word is used in the entire Bible,
and it's not really used in a positive light,
but just interesting side note there.
But the Bible says that his height was six cubits
and a span.
Now, from the Bible itself, I cannot prove to you exactly
how long a cubit was or how long a span was.
A lot of people have made estimates of these things,
and so the best I could give you this evening
are the best estimates that are out there.
What I'm about to say is not 100% proven from the Bible,
but this is the best idea out there,
that a cubit is about 18 inches long,
and a span is about nine inches long,
which is usually your pinky to your thumb
is about nine inches long.
That would be a span.
And this would make Goliath roughly nine feet,
nine inches tall, which is insane to think about.
And I wanted to help you kind of visualize this a little bit
because the tallest person alive today
is a man named Sultan Kozin, and he's eight foot three.
All right, so let's see what an eight foot three man
would look like.
I can't have anyone in this room stand up and demonstrate.
That's for sure.
So eight foot three is about right there.
That is the tallest man alive today.
All right, here's Pastor Thompson, six foot eight.
That's pretty tall.
But there's a big difference between that and eight foot three.
Now, I can't even show you Goliath
'cause these ceilings are only nine feet tall.
So he's a full nine inches above that.
Or I'm sorry, these are only eight feet tall.
So he's a foot and nine inches above these ceilings.
That's pretty crazy to think about.
So yeah, he couldn't even stand in this building today.
The code is not made for Goliath
in the United States of America.
But just think about that as you're reading this story
that this guy was bad.
This dude was huge.
I mean, if he's nine foot nine, imagine how broad he was.
Imagine what his arms and his legs looked like.
I mean, this was a scary looking dude.
Hence why he's the champion of Gath, right?
Now, go to Genesis chapter six.
Because here we are introduced in the Bible to a giant.
And the Bible does teach giants existed at one point.
And they used to be a lot more of them than there are today.
I mean, that guy that I told you about,
Sultan, I would consider that guy a giant.
I mean, he's eight foot three.
That's huge.
But some people get a weird idea
that giants in the Bible were like 500 feet tall.
And they usually call them the Nephilim.
But Genesis six one says this.
And it came to pass when men began to multiply
on the face of the earth and daughters were born unto them
that the sons of God saw the daughters of men
that they were fair.
And they took them wives of all which they chose.
And the Lord said, my spirit shall not always strive
with man for that he also is flesh.
Yet his days shall be in 120 years.
Verse four, there were giants in the earth in those days.
And also after that, when the sons of God came
into the daughters of men and they bear children to them,
the same became mighty men which were of old men of renown.
And so the Bible says that before the sons of God
went in unto the daughters of men and had children,
there were already giants.
And after this, there was also giants.
Because people like to look at this story and they say,
oh, the sons of God here
and the children of men aren't two human beings.
It's like some sort of weird demon creature
and human beings making this weird hybrid
known as the Nephilim.
And people will teach that the Nephilim
were literally these 500 plus foot tall giants.
In fact, I know of someone, I used to live in Boise, Idaho.
And I know of someone that pointed at the foothills,
the mountains on the base of the mountain range there
and said that those aren't mountains.
Those are fossils of the Nephilim.
They weren't joking, they weren't kidding.
They actually believed that the foothills
were fossils of Nephilim.
So look, Goliath, huge, big guy, he's a giant,
but he wasn't 500 feet tall, okay?
He was nine foot nine.
You can go back to 1 Samuel 17, 1 Samuel chapter 17.
As you're turning there, Hebrews 1.5 says,
"For unto which of the angels said he at any time,
"Thou art my son, this day have I begotten thee."
So in Genesis 6, it was told us that the sons of God
went unto the daughters of men.
And people say, oh, that's angels, that's fallen angels.
But yet in Hebrews 1, the Bible says,
"Unto which of the angels said he at any time,
"Thou art my son."
He's saying, hey, I never told any angel at any point
that they were my son, right?
Who are the sons of God?
Us that are saved, we are the sons of God.
Now, verse five of 1 Samuel 17 says this,
it's gonna describe his loadout here for combat,
and he had a helmet of brass upon his head,
and he was armed with a coat of mail,
and the weight of the coat was 5,000 shekels of brass.
Now, again, I can't tell you exactly
what a shekel was in the Bible,
but from the best research I could find,
this would translate to about 155 pounds.
This is just the, what does it say here?
He was armed with a coat of mail,
and the weight of the coat was 5,000 shekels of brass.
So picture today like a soldier would wear
some sort of bulletproof armor vest, right?
This is their version of that.
It's a coat of mail that's used to protect him in combat,
and just the coat weighed 155 pounds, give or take.
Now, I looked this up.
The average combat loadout for a US Marine today,
all of their gear, their backpack,
their bulletproof armor, their guns, their bullets,
all their stuff, typically weighs between 60 and 100 pounds.
So Goliath, he had all sorts of other equipment,
but just his chest protector, if you will,
weighed 155 pounds.
Now, I've got 155 pounds here on the stage this evening.
I'd like to ask Brother Dan
if he'll come deadlift this for us.
And when you lift this, Brother Dan,
hold it up for a while,
'cause we're gonna read Psalm 119 while you're holding,
no, just kidding.
(laughing)
All right, so Dan's a strong guy, okay?
This guy trains jujitsu, he's a strong guy.
Quite honestly, he could deadlift way more than this.
This is not a big deadlift, I'm telling you right now.
But imagine this being around your chest
and walking around and being in combat.
All right, go ahead and lift that for us.
And hold it once you're up at top.
All right, so Dan's a man, okay?
And 155 pounds is nothing for him.
But Dan, do me a favor, can you go ahead and curl that up?
Can you curl that?
No, you cannot, all right, go ahead and put that down softly.
All right, you can be seated, thank you.
All right, so Dan's a strong guy.
And he could pick up 155 pounds, no problem.
But imagine walking around and wearing 155 pounds
on your chest and fighting and running and being in combat.
I mean, that's insane.
And us, if we were to find Goliath's armor,
we might be able to deadlift it,
but we couldn't even curl it to put it on our bodies, okay?
Even strong men today couldn't have done that.
So I just want you to understand
what a beast this guy was, carnally speaking.
What a monster this guy was, carnally speaking.
And I think that God gave the story
of David and Goliath for a reason,
because Goliath is just like the pinnacle of human strength.
David is just like the meanest, baddest enemy
that you could possibly find.
It says in verse six,
and he had greaves of brass upon his legs,
and a target of brass between his shoulders,
and the staff of his spear was like a weaver's beam,
and his spear's head weighed 600 shekels of iron,
and one bearing a shield went before him.
So just the tip of his spear was about 15 pounds.
And you know, it'd be funny if we just had
someone with a 15 pound weight and just like,
see how long they could hold that out.
That was just the tip of his spear.
I mean, this guy was huge.
Verse eight, and he stood and cried
unto the armies of Israel and said unto them,
why are ye come out to set your battle in array?
Am not I of Philistine and ye servants of Saul?
Choose you a man for you and let him come down to me.
And notice right away here,
the pride that comes from this man, Goliath.
And carnally speaking,
you could kind of understand where he's coming from,
but here's the thing, it doesn't matter how big you are,
it doesn't matter how bad you are,
it doesn't matter how in the flesh
you might think that you're strong,
there's never a good reason to be prideful
because we all know the end of this story
that Goliath loses.
Okay, let me read this verse for you.
Proverbs 16, 18 says, pride goeth before destruction
and in haughty spirit before a fall.
You know, you and I ought to remember that,
that, hey, we're not Goliath.
No one in here is nine foot nine.
No one in here can walk around with 155 pound vest.
And he didn't have a reason to be prideful.
We also don't have a reason to be prideful.
But notice what he's saying, he's saying,
why are you come out to set your battle in array?
He's saying, why are you even coming to fight us?
He's just losing pride, right?
He's saying, am not I a Philistine?
You know, he's taking pride just in the fact
that he belongs to the Philistines.
And you see people like this today
where they'll have an improper love for their country
to where it kind of goes towards pride.
And pride is always wrong.
Here's the thing, you could love our country,
you could be dedicated to our country,
you could respect our country,
but there's nothing about you
that makes you better than another person
simply because you were born in America.
Now here's the thing,
America is objectively better
than every country in the world.
I believe that 100%.
But you are not objectively better than someone else
just because you were born here.
Why?
Because you didn't build this country.
When you're born in this world, you've done nothing.
And sometimes people have this prideful view like,
well, I'm an American,
therefore I'm better than everyone else.
No, you're not.
Now here's the thing, America better, yes it is.
But you being an American, no, that's not true.
And sometimes even other people think that
in different countries.
They even think that sometimes Americans are better
than them intrinsically,
but you know what, that's not true.
Goliath here is not special because he's a Philistine.
We're not special because we're Americans.
No one's special because of their nationality.
Verse number nine says,
if he be able to fight with me and to kill me,
then will we be your servants?
But if I prevail against him and kill him,
then shall ye be our servants and serve us?
He gives this challenge to Israel saying basically,
hey, if you beat me, we'll serve you.
And of course, Goliath has no thought in his mind
that he even could possibly lose.
So he's given this huge prize basically out there saying,
hey, we're just gonna serve you if you could beat me.
And of course we know what happens.
Verse 10 in the Philistine said,
I defy the armies of Israel this day,
give me a man that we may fight together.
When Saul and all Israel heard those words of the Philistine,
they were dismayed and greatly afraid.
And we see when Goliath gives the children of Israel
this challenge, this dare,
what do we see the responses of the children of Israel?
Fear, right?
And I think that Goliath could represent
in a Christian's life, just anything that you're afraid of,
anything that seems like an insurmountable task,
a obstacle that you can't overcome,
something that you can't defeat.
Everyone has something like that in their life
or they have at one point
where they look at something in their life
and they think, you know what?
I just can't provide for a family on one income.
This is just a Goliath in my life.
I can't beat this.
And you start to be afraid.
You start to have fear in your heart thinking,
hey, I'm not sure that I could do this.
Sometimes people are this way out, soul winning.
Sometimes people are just shy as a natural disposition
and they just are terrified at the thought
of walking up to a stranger, knocking on their door
and talking to them about heaven and hell.
I mean, that can sometimes be a little hard
for people who are extroverts to do,
so much more someone who's introverted.
It's like, they don't like talking to people
about the weather.
They don't like talking to people about football.
It's like, you're asking them to go talk to people
about heaven and hell, right?
And they could feel fear.
You know, soul winners could even sometimes shake in fear
of going soul winning.
And it could be kind of like a Goliath to them.
You know, some men, you've read your Bible,
you're filled with the spirit,
you've got the word of God in your heart
and you want to preach a sermon someday,
but you're just too scared, right?
It's a Goliath for you.
You're afraid of it.
But here's the truth about fear,
is that fear is always amplified by our perspective.
Fear is always amplified by our perspective.
Because here's the thing,
when you're just a man in the flesh,
I mean, here's five foot nine Pastor Oz.
If I were to go fight some nine foot nine dude,
and that's my perspective, five foot nine,
I mean, I'm going to be pretty afraid in the flesh, right?
I mean, this dude is just going to crush me.
This guy is going to destroy me.
And sometimes we're looking at the job we have
or the amount of money we have.
And we're looking at the mouths that we got to feed.
We're just looking at whatever this challenge is in your life
that you're seeing as insurmountable.
And the reason it's so scary to you
is because you're looking at it from your perspective.
But think about this.
What if you look at Goliath from the perspective of God?
You're going to be afraid of Goliath when you're God?
No, because nine foot nine is nothing
to the Lord God Almighty.
And here's the truth about fear.
Fear is amplified by a bad perspective.
This is how you defeat fear.
Doesn't matter if it's about your finances,
doesn't matter if it's about your health
or preaching the gospel or preaching a sermon,
is you have to reframe your mind into a spiritual viewpoint.
You have to look at the problems of life.
You have to look at the challenges of life
and not see them as, wow, I'm small, I'm weak, I'm short.
Here's this giant Goliath.
You have to think, yeah, I'm weak, I'm short,
I'm not strong, but guess who's God?
I serve the Lord God of heaven.
And that changes your perspective.
Now all of a sudden, Goliath is not so tall.
Goliath is not so big.
Goliath is not so bad.
But here the children of Israel are terrified.
Go to Isaiah chapter 41, Isaiah 41.
I wanna show you a verse that highlights
what I'm talking about of changing your perspective
when it comes to fear.
Isaiah 41 verse 10, the Bible says, fear thou not.
And notice that next word, for.
You know what that means?
Because.
Why aren't you going to fear?
Well, let's change our perspective a little bit.
Fear thou not, for I am with ye.
Be not dismayed, for I am thy God.
I will strengthen thee, yea I will help thee,
yea I will uphold thee with the right hand
of my righteousness.
See, when we look at things through the flesh,
it kinda makes sense to be scared because we are weak.
Because we can't beat Goliath in the flesh.
But hold on, fear thou not, for I am with thee.
That changes things.
When God is with you, that changes things.
The Bible says that I could do all things
through Christ which strengtheneth me.
It doesn't say, hey, I could just do all things
'cause I'm awesome, because I'm a go-getter,
'cause I'm just good at things that I try.
No, no, no, you could do all things
because of Jesus Christ.
And here in this story, we're gonna see a little boy,
David, kill Goliath, and it wasn't because the little boy
could beat up Goliath in a fight, okay?
Goliath could have stomped David physically,
but it was because God was on David's side.
And when God is on someone's side, that person is unstoppable.
Go, if you would, to Ecclesiastes chapter 12.
Ecclesiastes chapter 12, while you're turning there,
I'll read Ephesians 3:20, it says,
"Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly
"above all that we ask or think,
"according to the power that worketh in us."
You know, the Bible says that God's able to do
exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think.
And those of us that are in this room that are saved,
you know, we've already put our trust
in God to save us from hell.
We're all fully persuaded in here
that our sins have been forgiven,
that we will never dip one little toe into hell.
We believe that we're saved, that we're delivered,
but yet so many Christians today,
they've put their faith in God to save them,
yet they're fearful of their finances.
They're fearful of their job.
They're fearful of raising their kids.
They're fearful of their marriage.
They're afraid to follow God's commandments.
But let me tell you who you should fear.
Look at Ecclesiastes 12-13.
Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter.
Fear God and keep his commandments,
for this is the whole duty of man.
See, when you fear Goliath, you're gonna be feeling small.
You're gonna be feeling insecure.
You're gonna be feeling like you can't do something.
But when you fear God, Goliath is a little bug to God.
Goliath is nothing to God.
Goliath could do nothing to the Lord.
Go back to 1 Samuel chapter 17.
1 Samuel 17.
And so when we're introduced to Goliath,
we see his strength.
We see his might.
We see his dread.
We see his pride, right?
But now we're gonna be introduced to David in this story.
In verse 12, the Bible says,
"Now David was the son of that Ephrathite of Bethlehem Judah,
"whose name was Jesse, and he had eight sons.
"And the men went among men for an old man
"in the days of Saul."
So David's father's old.
He's got eight sons.
"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 Eliab, the firstborn, and next unto him Abinadab,
"and the third, Shammah."
If you remember Eliab,
this is the one that passed before Samuel.
And Samuel immediately thought like,
"Man, this has to be the guy.
"This has to be the one that God chose
"because he's so strong and he's so fierce looking."
But of course we know that David's gonna be
the star of the show in this story.
First 14 says, "And David was the youngest,
"and the three eldest followed Saul."
Verse 15, "But David went and returned from Saul
"to feed his father's sheep at Bethlehem."
You know, I don't think this detail's put into this chapter
just as an accident.
You know, everything in the Bible's there for a reason.
And God's just not seeing like,
"Hey, how long can I make first Samuel chapter 17, right?"
This is put in there for a reason.
Why?
Because we're about to see David do something great.
We're about to see David accomplish a feat
that is known by everyone in this world basically
today in 2024.
But you know what David was doing?
Before he was doing something great,
he was doing something small.
He was doing something humble.
He was doing something lowly.
Right before David went
to kill the biggest, baddest giant around,
you know what he was doing?
He was being a lowly servant
of his father keeping the sheep.
Isn't that kind of a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ?
How when he first came to this earth,
he came as a servant.
He came lowly.
He didn't come trying to build a reputation for himself.
But then, you know, Jesus came lowly the first time,
but next time it's not gonna be that way.
Next time he's gonna be cutting some heads.
Next time he's gonna be rolling and raining
with a rod of iron.
And also, this kind of pictures the devil
and the Lord Jesus Christ.
If you would go to Matthew or Luke chapter...
Oh, I'm sorry.
Go to Matthew chapter four and Luke 16.
Matthew four and Luke 16.
We'll go to both of those real soon.
Matthew chapter four and Luke chapter 16.
Luke 16 verse 10 says this.
He that is faithful in that which is least
is faithful also in much.
And he that is unjust in the least
is unjust also in much.
If therefore you have not been faithful
in the unrighteous mammon,
who will commit to your trust the true riches?
And if you have not been faithful
in that which is another man's,
who shall give you that which is your own?
You know, I've heard this quote.
I don't know who said it, but I like it.
It says, "How you do some things is how you do all things."
How you do some things is how you do all things.
You wanna know why David ended up being
such a great man of God,
someone who ended up becoming the king,
leading the armies of Israel in battle,
someone who as a boy was able to accomplish
such a great work for God, killing Goliath,
because David was willing to do the humble tasks.
David was willing to do the tasks
that no one else wanted to do.
Everyone else was watching the battle.
Everyone else was following Saul.
Everyone else was following Jesse.
And yet David is just serving.
And you know, this is a truth
that we need to internalize as Christians,
that if you want to do something great someday,
if you want to be someone that is elevated
and exalted by God,
maybe you want some sort of position in the church
as a deacon or as a pastor, or as an evangelist,
you want a promotion at work,
you have to be willing to do the small things well.
You have to be willing to do the tasks
that don't get a lot of glory,
that don't get a lot of attention,
but yet you just humbly go about your life,
serving God, doing the little things.
You know, that's things that God likes.
You know, I think about this guy Mark Driscoll,
who said, who's now a pastor.
And he said, yeah, I never grew up going to church.
I've never been to church,
but God talked to me and told me
that I should go start a church.
No, that's not how it works actually.
You know, David didn't just drop out of thin air
and just become a mighty man of God.
David just didn't drop out of thin air,
as we'll see later in this story.
And this is the first fight David's ever had.
No, David was someone who was already doing right,
faithfully for a long time.
And this is why it's so important,
like when someone's gonna be ordained in the ministry,
that it's someone that's faithful.
You know, the Bible talks about
how deacons have to be proved, right?
We wanna see in a man of God,
we wanna see in someone that's going into leadership,
that they're able to do the small things faithfully
for a really, really long time.
Because, you know, it's kind of hard for someone
that is motivated by pride,
someone who is motivated, that's self-willed,
to just fake it for a really long time,
because they want that position immediately, right?
But someone who actually is just doing things
for the right reason, they could be patient.
They could wait.
They don't have to rush things.
And if it's not God's will, then they're not going for it.
Matthew chapter number four, Matthew four.
Now, stay there in Matthew four,
1 Samuel 17, 16 says, "And the Philistine drew near,
"morning and evening, and presented himself forty days."
Forty days.
That's why I said I kind of think of this story of Jesus
and the devil in the wilderness,
is because, you know, Goliath is just presenting himself
to Israel morning and evening for forty days.
I mean, this had to have been quite the spectacle,
where every day he's going out and giving this challenge
for forty days straight.
Look at Matthew four, verse one, it says,
"Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness
"to be tempted of the devil.
"And when he had fasted," notice, "forty days and forty nights,
"he was afterward and hungered.
"And when the tempter came to him,
"he said, 'If thou be the Son of God,
"'command that these stones be made bread.'
"But he answered and said, 'It is written,
"'Man shall not live by bread alone,
"'but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.'"
So, you know, we see this story that's very similar
where the devil's coming to Jesus,
and the devil's trying to provoke Jesus to sin.
The devil's reviling him.
And here, what is Goliath doing?
He's going up to the children of Israel,
and he's kind of provoking them, he's defying them,
he's trying to challenge them.
Go to 1 Samuel 17, let's keep reading in the story,
1 Samuel 17.
"And Jesse said unto David his son,
"Take now for thy brethren an ifah of this parched corn,
"and these ten loaves, and run to the camp of thy brethren,
"and carry these ten cheeses unto the captain of their thousand,
"and look how thy brethren fare, and take their pledge.
"Now Saul and they, and all the men of Israel,
"were in the valley of Elah, fighting with the Philistines."
You know, one thing I noticed for the first time
reading this chapter is when I've read this chapter,
I kind of just pictured Goliath, he gives the challenge,
and the people are afraid,
and they're kind of like in limbo for a while,
and then David goes and fights Goliath.
But really, this was 40 days,
and the Bible says that there already was fighting
with the Philistines.
So there had to have already been a lot of death going on
before David and Goliath fight,
which to me would kind of add to the people's fear,
would kind of add to the children of Israel's feeling
of dread and hopelessness,
when they've already been fighting for 40 days,
they've probably lost a lot of people,
and it also goes to show the bravery of David,
and the trust that he had in God,
when there probably already has been tons of people killed,
yet he was still willing to go and fight the Philistine.
Verse number 20 says, "And David rose up early in the morning,"
and notice, "and left the sheep with a keeper,
"and took and went as Jesse had commanded him,
"and he came to the trench as the host was going forth
"to fight and shouted for the battle,
"for Israel and the Philistines had put the battle in array,
"army against army, and David left his carriage,"
notice, "in the hand of the keeper of the carriage,
"and ran into the army and came and saluted his brethren."
You know, not only was David just a humble person,
not only was he just willing to do things
that other people probably weren't really that excited to do,
he was willing to do things
that he wouldn't really get glory from,
also when he finally does go,
it says that he left the sheep with a keeper,
David's a responsible person,
David's someone that is diligent,
and I wanna read for you, stay there,
Proverbs 12, 24 says,
"The hand of the diligent shall bear rule,
"but the slothful shall be under tribute."
And you know, you see David's life
is just on an ascension from this point
where God is just gonna promote him,
God's gonna make him the king someday,
and it's like, why did that happen?
It's not like God, I think some people think
that God is just randomly picking leaders out of a hat
or something like that,
but no, it's that he was the person that had the character
that was worthy of leadership,
he was someone that was humble,
he was someone that was diligent,
leaving the sheep with a keeper.
You know, this is a good thing for us men to remember at work
is that, you know, if you want to be someone
that could be promoted to management someday,
you gotta make sure that you're being diligent
with the things that you already have, right?
He that is faithful, not which is least,
he is faithful also in much.
You know, if David's the type of guy
where he's willing to be faithful with the sheep,
he's willing to keep, you know,
make sure there's someone to watch the sheep,
keep the sheep when he leaves,
he's probably gonna be someone
that cares about God's people, God's sheep,
when he's ruling and reigning over the king
or over the nation of Israel.
Look at verse number 23.
Verse 23 says, "And as he talked with them,
behold, there came up the champion,
the Philistine of Gath,
Goliath by name out of the armies of the Philistines,
and spake according to the same words,
and David heard them."
So he keeps giving this challenge over and over.
"And all the men of Israel, when they saw the man,
fled from him and were sore afraid.
Everyone else, except for David,
was running away from this Philistine.
Everyone else was scared.
Everyone else was looking at this
through the eyes of the flesh."
Look at verse 25.
It says, "And the men of Israel said,
'Have ye seen this man that has come up?'"
Notice their perspective, right?
It's all about Goliath.
"Surely to defy Israel has he come up.
And it shall be that the man who killeth him,
the king will enrich him with great riches
and will give him his daughter
and make his father's house free in Israel."
Now, there's a lot of guys, I'm sure,
even in the new IFB that'd be willing to fight someone
to get this prize.
I mean, this is a luring prize, right?
I mean, you get great riches.
You get the king's daughter, all right, that's good.
And your house is free in Israel.
I mean, they're in such a dire situation here
and everyone's afraid.
They're just like, "We'll just give you tons of money.
We'll give you the king's daughter.
We'll make your house free."
I mean, all the prizes are coming out here.
They need to do something.
And look at verse number 26.
It says, "And David spake to the men that stood by him,
saying, 'What shall be done to the man
that killed this Philistine and taketh away
the reproach of Israel?
For who is this uncircumcised Philistine
that he should defy the armies of the living God?'"
Notice we finally get someone in this story
that has the right perspective.
Everyone else is saying, "Oh man, the scary Philistine.
Oh man, Goliath's so bad."
And then David looks at him and he says,
"Who's this uncircumcised Philistine?
Hey, guess what?
We've got God on our side."
And he was like, "By the way,
what did you say was gonna happen
to the guy that kills this Philistine?
I wanna hear that again and make sure I heard that right."
'Cause it sounds like he's attracted to this offer.
He thinks this is a good offer, right?
And you know what?
There's nothing wrong with doing something
with the motivation of getting a reward.
There's nothing wrong with doing something to get an award.
You know, this is called ambition.
And while ambition can be taken too far, absolutely,
ambition can become ungodly.
And some people have an idea of just like,
success at all costs.
You know, it doesn't matter what commandments of God
they violate.
You know, we need more people today that are ambitious.
We're living in a day where a lot of the young men
of our nation have no ambition whatsoever.
A lot of men are just totally content
to stay living in mom's basement till they're 28, 30 years old.
You know, they have no drive, they have no passion,
they have no desires.
It's like, they don't wanna go get a good job.
They don't wanna start getting the riches.
They don't wanna go get a woman.
They don't want to bring their family freedom someday.
They just wanna do nothing.
And people even have this idea sometimes spiritually
where they think it's wrong to want to do the work of God
with the hope or expectation of some sort of reward.
But let me tell you something, God is a God of rewards.
God is a God that will reward his servants.
God is a God that will reward his soldiers.
And it makes no sense to send out a soldier into war
and not pay that person and not give that person food
and not take care of that person.
It's a stupid mentality that looks down
on getting any type of gain whatsoever.
Now, there's some people that think
that gain is godliness, right?
And they could take that ambition too far.
But then you have this weird like Gen Z mentality
where they're just doing nothing with their lives.
And people today are like this spiritually too.
They're just content to do nothing.
They're content to have no rewards in heaven.
They're content not to try hard.
They're content to look at the Goliaths of their life
and do nothing about it.
Let them defy, let them defy God, who cares?
You know, a lot of pastors are like this today.
They don't really care that there's a bunch of Goliaths
going around defying God, blaspheming God,
that there's a bunch of false prophets out there
teaching false damnable heresy,
that there's a bunch of faggots going up
and down the streets of our country
during the month of June, waving their pride flags.
I mean, those are some Goliaths out there
that we need some men with some drive
saying, hey, I wanna fight this battle.
I wanna fight these guys.
And you know what?
The reward is not wrong in that battle.
Go to Hebrews 11.
Let me show you that, Hebrews chapter 11.
I like that David is ambitious here.
And of course this is tempered by his character.
The fact that he is humble.
The fact that he is diligent.
You know, when you have those things coupled with ambition,
that is a great combination right there.
Hebrews 11 six says, but without faith,
it is impossible to please him.
For he that cometh to God must believe that he is
and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.
God is a God that rewards us.
And you know what?
I don't know about you, I thank God for that.
You know, the Bible talks about, you know,
what can I render unto the Lord for all his benefits
that he's done for me, that he's given me.
The Bible talks about how Jesus or how God daily loads us
with benefits.
And we can just spend all night just taking turns
talking about all the great things that God has done for us.
Who so findeth a wife obtaineth favor of the Lord,
the Bible says.
That's a reward.
Hey, the fruit of the womb is his reward, the Bible says.
I mean, there's all these rewards that God gives us.
It makes no sense to look down on someone for saying,
hey, I too want a wife from God.
Hey, I too want children from God.
Hey, I too want God to bless my life in some sort of way.
No, we should all want that.
We should all be willing to fight for that.
Look at verse 24 of Hebrews 11.
Verse 24, it says, "By faith Moses,
"when he was come to years,
"refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter,
"choosing rather to suffer affliction
"with the people of God
"than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season,
"esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches
"than the treasures in Egypt,
"for he had respect unto the recompense of the reward."
What's that saying?
Moses was thinking about, he had respect unto,
he put it into the equation
when he was making his decisions
that there was gonna be a great recompense of reward for him.
And let me tell you,
someone that's rich in heaven today is Moses.
I mean, he's gotta be one of the richest men in heaven.
He was a great man of faith.
A huge portion is dedicated to him in the Hall of Faith.
And let me tell you something,
people that hate on individuals for having ambition,
for wanting to accomplish something,
for wanting to set a goal and reach it,
for wanting to have better finances,
or spiritually, for wanting to build a great church
that's godly, that's preaching hard,
that's doing great things for God,
to wanna reach thousands of souls for Christ,
to wanna preach the best sermons you possibly can.
People will look at that kind of person and say,
"Wow, that person's prideful, that person's in the flesh,
"that person's just only concerned about getting the rewards."
Let me tell you what that type of person is, lazy, lazy.
And today we have a lot of people
that because they're stupid, quite frankly,
because they're lazy, because they have no ambition,
because they can't fathom themselves
actually setting a goal and reaching it,
they can't imagine themselves actually dreaming big
and doing something great.
When they see someone else do it, they despise that person
because they themselves are lazy and have no vision.
But I'm telling you, David was not a person
that was just walking through life,
he didn't care about anything, he was apathetic.
No, he said, "Hold on, whoa, there's a reward here?
"There's a chance that I'm gonna get the riches
"and the girl and the freedom?
"Hey, bring it on, Goliath, let's fight!"
That's the attitude that he had.
Go to Matthew 6, Matthew chapter 6.
These people are lazy, that hate on people that have a dream,
that hate on people that have a vision.
Matthew chapter 6, verse 19 says,
"Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth,
"where moth and rust doth corrupt,
"and where thieves break through and steal."
See, our ambition shouldn't be geared
towards the carnal things of this world.
Our ambition shouldn't be you just dedicating your whole life
to just becoming rich for the sake of being rich.
That's not God's will for your life.
Look what it says, "But lay up for yourselves
"treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust
"doth corrupt, and where thieves do break through nor steal.
"For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also."
Oh, you're not supposed to do things for rewards.
Jesus literally told me to lay up treasure in heaven.
Sounds like God wants me to care about rewards.
Sounds like God wants me to look at my life
and have a vision and have an end goal,
saying, "Hey, I wanna get to heaven
"and not have a dry bank account when I get there.
"I wanna get to heaven and I wanna have great riches
"laid up, not on this earth.
"I don't care about my house, I don't care about my car,
"I don't care about my clothes,
"but what I do care about is the kingdom of God.
"I do care about my bank account in heaven."
And he says to literally,
"Hey, go ahead and lay up those treasures.
"Go ahead and heap those rewards unto yourselves."
And so guess what?
That's why we do things like, I don't know,
praying to God, going to church, preaching the gospel,
fasting.
See, people that fast and then they tell you about it,
they brag about it, they lost their what?
Reward.
So doesn't it make it seem like
one of the reasons you would fast
is so you could get a reward?
There's nothing wrong with getting a reward.
He's literally telling you
to lay up treasure for yourself in heaven.
I want rewards from God.
Go to 1 Timothy chapter five.
I want as many blessings from God
as God is willing to give me.
Why would I not?
While you're turning there, Malachi 3:10 says,
"Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse,
"that there may be meat in mine house.
"And prove me now herewith, sayeth the Lord of hosts,
"but I will not open you the windows of heaven
"and pour you out a blessing,
"that there shall not be room enough to receive it."
You know why I tithe to church
and why I always have since I've gotten saved?
It's not because I just really love supporting a family
of six off of 90% of my income.
It's not that I just think that that's so easy
or that that's just no problem for me.
It's because I want the blessing of God.
It's because I believe that living off the 90%
with God's hand on your life is way easier,
way easier than living off the 100%
with God's curse on my life,
with God's chastisement coming down upon me.
'Cause let me tell you something,
God has a way of making your money disappear like that.
God could take away everything you have in one day.
And we live in Oklahoma City, folks.
There's these things called tornadoes.
I don't care how much money you got saved up.
I don't care how good of a house you have.
God could blow that thing down in one instant
if he wanted to at any time.
And you know what?
I'd rather just say, God, I trust you with my finances.
God, it's gonna have to be in your court to provide
and take care of all these kids and take care of my wife.
And I'm not really that stressed about it,
'cause I'm only thinking about today.
I'm thinking about the kingdom of God.
That's what we should be thinking about.
And there's nothing wrong with tithing for a reward.
When you're thinking about it, you're giving your money away
and it seems counterintuitive.
It's like, well, I'm getting rid of my finances.
I'm getting rid of 10% of my income.
But the Bible literally says
that he'll pour you out a blessing.
So I'm expecting a reward from God when I tithe.
Go to 1st Timothy 5.17, it says,
"Let the elders that rule well
be counted worthy of double honor,
especially they who labor in the word and doctrine.
For the scripture saith,
thou shalt not muzzle the ox that treadeth out the court.
And the laborer is worthy of his reward."
Notice that last phrase.
The laborer is worthy of his reward.
You know, when you go to work,
are you going there just out of the goodness of your heart?
You just wanna volunteer your time to your company.
You don't need a paycheck, right?
I mean, you just go there, you clock in,
you just love your boss so much.
Hey boss, don't worry about paying me.
I'm just doing this
because I really love your company so much.
Or do you do it for a reward?
You do it because you wanna pay your bills.
You do it 'cause you expect some sort of recompense for that.
The Bible literally says the laborer
is worthy of his reward.
And you know what, what David is about to do?
He's worthy of his reward.
Why? 'Cause he's actually willing to have the ambition
to go fight Goliath.
Go back to 1 Samuel 17.
To me, that was one of the more encouraging things
about this chapter is thinking about, hey, you know what?
God's still looking for men that have godly ambition.
God's still looking for men that have a vision in their lives.
Verse 28, in Eliab, here comes the haters.
In Eliab, his eldest brother heard when he spake unto the men
and Eliab's anger was kindled against David.
And he said, why camest thou down hither?
And with whom hast 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.
You see the criticism from the do nothings?
Hey, it's been 40 days, Eliab.
You had your chance.
How come you haven't gone and fought Goliath yet?
Yeah, because you're scared.
'Cause you don't wanna take on the challenge.
And here comes your little brother
and you wanna despise him.
You wanna think that he's prideful.
You wanna criticize him because he actually wants
to do something great for God.
This is what the lowlifes, this is what the do nothings do.
They look at a church like ours and they say,
oh, look at these few sheep.
Oh, look at this strip mall.
Oh, they actually think that they could reach this city
by knocking on their doors and asking them straight up
if they're going to heaven.
Yes, we can.
You better believe that we can.
Doesn't matter how many people we have.
Doesn't matter that, oh, where's this few sheep?
Oh, it's a strip mall.
Hey, guess what?
Is God on our side or not?
That's what matters.
I don't care about the Goliath.
I don't care how many people are in this city.
I don't care how many haters there are.
I don't care how many people online hate me or hate you
or think that you're stupid for going to this church
or anything like that.
All I care about is what God thinks.
I don't care what the Philistines think.
Look at verse 29, and David said, what have I now done?
Is there not a cause?
And here's the thing, those of us that do have ambition
and we are motivated by a reward, here's the truth though,
is that we're not motivated purely by a reward
because we also say, hey, is there not a cause?
Yeah, we want the reward.
Yeah, we want God to bless our lives.
But also, hey, is there not a cause today?
Why we go out soul winning?
Is there not a cause today?
Why we go out and reach the world with the gospel?
Is it because we're gonna be blessed necessarily
by doing that?
Is our lives so much better that we go out in the wind
and in the cold and just go to the most ghetto areas
and go into people's apartments
where they're choking you to death with their cigarette smoke
and their kids are throwing food all over the walls
and there's a mattress on the middle of the floor
as soon as you walk in, right, Brother Cameron?
Are we doing that?
'Cause that is just the most fun thing in the world.
Or are those people gonna die and go to hell
if they don't believe in Jesus Christ?
Hey, there's a cause today for what we're doing.
And guess what?
It's not just for reward.
There's also a cause that we believe in.
You know, is there not a cause today
for us to show up to God's house
that Jesus Christ died for,
that Jesus Christ spilled his precious blood for?
Is there not a cause to come here today
and be assembled together with God's believers
and to realize, hey, iron sharpeneth iron,
and so a man sharpens the countenance of his friend?
There's a cause today for coming to church.
You know, when you skip church, people miss you.
You know, people come to this church
because you're their friend.
And more important than that,
Jesus wants you to be in this church.
And it's Christmas time, you know,
we're thinking about the Lord even more.
This is the best time of year.
You know, this is a great time of year to be in church.
Is there not a cause for that?
Look, is there not a cause that we pray unto the Lord?
Is it just a vain exercise for us like the Catholics,
just chanting, repeating over and over?
Or is there not a cause when we wanna pray to the Lord
that we actually believe that God can move
in a situation we're praying about?
That we believe that God could actually tip the scales
in whatever we need him to tip the scales for?
It's not just a vain exercise.
Hey, is there not a cause today that we pray?
Is there not a cause today that we follow
the Bible's commandments about child rearing
when the world thinks that you're crazy
for spanking your children?
Hey, is there not a cause?
Look at your hellions.
There's a cause, right?
There's a cause, there's a cause to serve God today.
And you know what?
We should never allow people that criticize us,
people that want to talk down to us
or make fun of the size of our church or anything like that.
We should never allow people like that to move us.
We should never allow people like that
to draw us away from our own steadfastness
and realize, well, you know,
maybe if we were doing something right,
our church would be bigger.
Hey, Lord willing, it will be bigger someday,
but it doesn't matter what size it is.
It matters, is the truth being preached here.
It matters, is God's people here.
It matters, is this church doing the work of God.
Well, you know what?
Then be steadfast.
Verse number 30.
And he turned from him toward another
and spake after the same manner.
And the people answered him again after the former manner.
And when the words were heard which David spake,
they rehearsed them before Saul and he sent for him.
Verse 32.
And David said to Saul, let no man's heart fail because of him.
Thy servant will go and fight this Philistine.
See, everyone else was scared.
Everyone else said it couldn't be done.
Everyone else said, hey, David,
go back to those few sheep that you had in the wilderness.
But David said, hey, I will go fight this person.
I know it's been 40 days.
I know none of you grown men have the stones to do.
It needs to be done.
Here am I a stripling.
Here am I a young boy.
Hey, I'll go take care of this giant.
Go to Isaiah chapter six, Isaiah chapter six.
People like David are so rare.
Everyone thinks they're David, right?
Everyone wants to be like David and rightly so.
But let me tell you, people like David are rare
because the whole nation of Israel, they're afraid.
They've got the wrong perspective.
They're unwilling to fight.
But just this one man was willing to fight.
Isaiah six, eight says, also I heard the voice
of the Lord saying, whom shall I send?
And who will go for us?
Then said I, here am I, send me.
You see, God was looking to use someone.
God wanted to send someone.
And here's the good news.
If you're a person that actually does have ambition,
that actually does want to do a great work for God
in your life, God is so ready to use you.
It's not even funny.
Because God is constantly looking around through this earth
and you know what he's seeing?
He's seeing Christians be afraid.
He's seeing Christians be lazy.
He's seeing Christians go criticize Christians
that actually want to do something great for God.
I mean, that's the majority today.
The majority of saved Christians do take the grace and run.
The majority of saved Christians
are not going to be in church.
And if they ever come to church,
they're probably not going to stay in church
their whole life.
And if they do come to church,
it's probably Sunday morning only.
There's very few people that are free to thrive,
read the Bible every day, pray to God every day,
diligently keep God's commandments,
go soul winning every week.
Those are the few in this world.
And you know, God is looking for people
where someone will say, hey, hey, I might be a child.
I might be small.
I might have no strength.
I might be nothing in comparison to this Goliath right here,
but here's what I am.
I'm willing.
I'm willing to go, God.
I'm willing to do what you called me to do.
And let me tell you,
that person is going to be used greatly by God.
That person is going to be doing great works.
Verse 33 says, and Saul said to David,
thou art not able to go against this Philistine
to fight with him, for thou art but a youth
and he a man of war from his youth.
See, not only times will people just accuse you of pride
or just try to put you down,
try to, you know, quench your fire that you have for God.
Other times people will just tell you,
no, you can't do this.
But here's the thing.
We cannot allow people, even well-meaning people,
to ever derail us from what God has told us to do.
You know, when we read something in the Bible,
when we see a commandment from God,
sometimes people are going to look at that
and because they have the flesh,
they're looking at things through the carnal lens.
They're going to look at your decision and say,
you can't do that.
I mean, people today, they think you're crazy
if you don't go to college.
And I'm not saying that going to college is always wrong
or anything like that.
There's a time and place for it.
But like, if you just decide not to do that,
many people, they'll think you're nuts.
A lot of people today, if you say,
hey, my wife is going to stay home
and produce zero income for our family
and we're just going to keep pumping out kids
as often as we can.
And I'm just going to bear it all on my shoulders.
They're going to say, you can't do that.
And you know what?
Oftentimes from a fleshly perspective,
it's kind of true if we didn't have God's hand on us.
But if you do, again, I can do all things through Christ
which strengtheneth me.
No, Saul is wrong here and of course it's Saul,
the one that was disobedient to God.
It's Saul, the one that's backslidden.
It's Saul, the one who's praying to God
and God's not hearing him.
It's him that always wants to look at a David
and tell him he can't do something.
You know, it's always the washed out pastor
who's gotten backslidden from God
that wants to call out the young Davids
and try to discourage them from doing something for God
and say, oh no, you can't do that.
You're too young.
You know, this guy's a man of war from his youth
and you're just a youth.
I mean, isn't that an interesting thing that he brings up
because isn't that an accusation that we hear sometimes?
You're too young.
You're too young to be a soul winner.
You're too young to be a preacher.
You're too young to be a pastor.
Hold on a second, I thought that the Bible says,
let no man despise your youth.
Why does the Bible say that?
Because people are gonna despise your youth.
People are gonna see, you know,
people are gonna see a teenager knock on their door
and say, hello sir, we're from Anchor Baptist Church.
We're just inviting people to church
and you ask them that question.
If you were to die today,
are you 100% sure that you'd be going to heaven?
And they're thinking, what is this child
to talk to me about spiritual things?
Yeah, but if that child is saved
and that child knows the Romans road,
that child could save your soul from hell.
That child could slay a Goliath out there,
spiritually speaking.
And guess what?
It doesn't matter what your age is.
It matters who you're trusting.
It matters who your God is.
And while everyone else is afraid,
the old men, the seasoned warriors,
they're all afraid to preach hard.
They're afraid to go slay the Goliaths.
Here comes David.
He says, who's this uncircumcised Philistine?
The little child is the one that beats him.
The little child is the one that kills Goliath.
Verse 34, and David said unto Saul,
thy servant kept his father's sheep.
He's saying, hey, it's not like
I haven't been working hard here.
It's not like I have no experience.
You know, I've been faithfully keeping his father's sheep.
And notice, there came a lion and a bear
and took a lamb out of the flock.
And I went out after him and smote him,
delivered it out of his mouth.
When he rose against me, I caught him by his beard
and smote him and slew him.
You know, I just picture David saying this so nonchalantly
'cause I picture that he's speaking to a king.
He's probably speaking very properly, very respectfully.
And he's just like, Saul's like, no, you can't do it.
And David's like, well, sir, I've kept my father's sheep.
And there was a lion and a bear that came after me
after the flock one time.
And you know, it came up to me and I grabbed it
by the beard and I slew it.
Yeah, it's like, you know, it's like,
that's pretty amazing what he did.
But I just picture him saying it so nonchalantly.
But it's like, hello, a bear and a lion is not nothing.
I mean, these are ferocious beasts.
And he is a child, he's a stripling, he's a young boy,
yet he already has experience in battle.
He already has experience.
You know, I've never seen a lion in the wild.
I've seen bears several times.
And I think I've told you this story before
that the first time I ever went hunting in my life,
me and my dad are outside of the truck
and he's drinking his coffee.
We're loading up our rifles.
And I'm not even kidding.
We take one step into the wilderness
and all of a sudden we get charged by a black bear.
And it was a bluff charge.
If you don't know what bluff charge is,
it's when an animal basically is going straight at you,
but they divert at the last moment.
They weren't really trying to do anything to you.
It was basically them just saying like,
this is my territory, get out of here.
Okay, and let me tell you something.
I was a boy.
I was a lad.
And it happened so fast,
I had no clue what even happened
until I see the thing running away.
But my dad, he's a man, you know.
At the time, I remember he had his cup of coffee
and he was like this after it happened.
You know, because it's like, we just got charged by a bear.
And David's this little boy and he's like,
yeah, you know, a lion came up to me, a bear.
And I just grabbed that lion by the beard and I just slew it.
I mean, that's amazing.
This dude, you know, he wasn't just like,
oh yeah, I'm a farmer,
but you know, I'm just gonna put in the minimal effort.
He's like, no, something's coming after my flock.
I don't care if it's a bear.
I don't care if it's a lion.
I'm gonna kill those suckers.
I'm gonna do everything I can to destroy.
Hey, that's a good pastor, right?
I mean, what is a pastor?
It's a keeper of sheep.
That's what David was.
He was someone that was keeping the sheep
and he said, hey, the lion comes, the bear comes.
I don't care how big they are.
I'm gonna kill those suckers.
And is any coincidence that later on when Goliath comes,
who's ready to slam?
David is, the one that already has killed the lion,
already has killed the bear.
And this is the truth that you have to understand
from this passage,
is that the battles that you face today,
the battles that God has given you in the past
were given to you to prepare you
for the battles of the future.
See, God knew who would be the man
that actually has the stones to go fight Goliath.
He knew who was the man that was actually gonna be faithful,
who was actually gonna trust in the Lord,
who was actually gonna go fight that guy.
And so God said, here's a test for you.
Here's a lion.
Here's a test for you.
Here's a bear.
And when we bear the challenges, no pun intended,
in our lives, that God gives us well
when we do fight off God's enemies,
when we do fulfill God's will
at something that was a smaller task,
now God feels comfortable to give you a bigger job.
And you gotta realize that every challenge
that you have in life, every trial that God gives you
is an opportunity for you to glorify God,
for you to be faithful.
Because you know what?
You're gonna see that what happens soon,
the effect that this had.
Look at verse 37, David said moreover,
the Lord that delivered me.
Notice his trust was not in himself, not in his flesh,
it was in God.
The Lord that delivered me out of the paw of the lion
and out of the paw of the bear,
he will deliver me out of the hand of the Philistine.
And God said unto David, go and the Lord be with thee.
Verse 38, and Saul armed David with his armor
and he put in helmet of brass upon his head.
Also he armed him with a coat of mail.
So you know, Saul's thinking logically here
that all right, well you're a boy
and you're gonna go fight the biggest, baddest dude,
I'm just gonna give you all the armor,
all the weapons of war that you possibly had.
Verse 39, and David girded his sword upon his armor
and he has saved to go, for he had not proved it.
And David said unto Saul, I cannot go with these,
for I have not proved them.
David put them off him.
You know, lesson we can learn from this
is that we need to stick with what works.
And sometimes even well-meaning people
are gonna try to get us off the path of what we know works.
You know, I don't think Saul meant ill by this gesture.
I mean, he's thinking, you're gonna go fight Goliath,
here's all the armor, here's the best sword.
You know, I think Saul meant well in this situation,
but David hadn't proved those things.
And you know, there's movements without Christianity
even among saved people today that think,
well, you know, maybe soul winning
isn't the best way to reach people.
Maybe we need to make our church
a little more secret sensitive.
But hey, guess what, we haven't proved that.
We know what works.
We know that going to someone and confronting them
about salvation works.
We know that the Bible way to heaven works.
Hey, lifestyle evangelism doesn't work.
You're not just living a good life
and just light is radiating off of you
and people are like, what's different about you?
How do I get to heaven?
No, that doesn't work.
That's a bad method of spiritual warfare.
You know what works?
Confrontational soul winning.
You know what works?
Hard preaching.
We don't need a new style of preaching.
We don't need a new method to try to get people convicted
under the preaching of God's word.
Hey, hard preaching does the trick.
It did the trick for me.
It helped me.
Going to church, hey, we know that works.
We know that the King James Bible works.
We know that we don't need to go to the new versions
that add and delete from God's word.
Hey, this has been proved.
This is the sword that's been proved.
Also just, you know, a carnal tip for men
is I hope that if you are a man
that does carry a weapon every day of your life,
I hope you prove that thing,
'cause it's not very wise to just carry something
that you haven't proved.
It's not very wise to just carry something
that you're protecting your life with.
It's like, oh, I've never shot this thing.
But you carry it every single day of your life.
That's a bad idea, okay?
You're going to war.
You wanna go to war with something that you've proved,
something that you could do with your eyes closed,
something that you know how to fight with.
That works physically, by the way,
and more importantly, spiritually.
Verse 40, and he took his staff in his hand
and chose him 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 men 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.
You know, young, ruddy, light complexion,
and of a fair countenance.
Sounds like the opposite
of what Goliath probably looked like.
Goliath probably had the scars,
Goliath probably had the big muscles,
Goliath probably looked mean and nasty,
and he's challenging the children of Israel
for 40 days straight to fight him,
and what do they present to him?
A little boy, a little boy.
Hey, let no man despise thy youth.
Verse 43, and the Philistine said unto David,
am I a dog?
Yes, you are, that thou comest to me with staves,
and the Philistine cursed David by his gods.
Again, I just have to mention this
when I see the word curse in the Bible,
because people often teach that cursing
is saying four-letter words.
No, you know, Goliath is not saying, bleep you, David,
you bleeping little child.
No, he's cursing him by his gods, right?
He's saying, may the God of Astereth curse you
or do whatever, that's what he's doing here.
Don't think that this is a cuss-out session,
as we would think.
Verse 44, and the Philistine said to David,
come to me, and I will 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.
You see, the right choice was made
to give David a chance to fight this battle
because he was the only one that was looking at things
through the spiritual lens.
And you know, it's often very few people in this world
that look at things through the spiritual lens.
Most people are walking in the flesh.
Most people are looking at their problems as Goliath,
and he's saying, hey, you're coming to me
with a sword and with a spear
and with your 155-pound armor plate, but guess what?
That means nothing because I'm coming to you
in the name of God.
I'm coming to you in the name of the God
of the armies of Israel.
Verse 46, this day will the Lord deliver thee
into mine hand, and I will smite thee.
Imagine being nine foot nine
and being told this by a little kid.
This is David.
I mean, just imagine, I wonder if he still had a high voice
too, I just would love to see this.
I'm gonna smite thee, he says,
and take thy head from thee,
and we'll give the carcasses of the hosts
of the Philistines this day under the fowls of the air
and to the wild beasts of the earth.
You have to imagine that the bystanders
probably roared with laughter when little David said this.
I'm sure all the Philistines were laughing
and cursing the children of Israel
as this little boy starts talking smack
like he's from the West Coast or something.
Shout out, First Works, saying,
"Hey, I'm gonna cut off your head."
I mean, that's some smack talk right there,
and from a child.
Notice why, that all the earth may know
that there is a God in Israel,
and all this assembly shall know
that the Lord saveth not with sword and spear,
for the battle is the Lord's,
and he will give you into our hands.
Notice the motivation to fight Goliath.
Why is it that you should fight Goliath in your life?
Why is it that our church should fight Goliath?
Why should we be willing to take the hard stands
and to do the tasks that other people don't wanna do
and to preach the things that other people
are too afraid to preach?
How about this for a reason, that all the world may know?
That should be the end goal of everything
that we do at Anchor Baptist Church.
Everything should be motivated by that vision
that all the world may know.
Why do we go out soul winning?
That all the world may know.
Why do we life shame our sermons?
That all the world may know.
Why, Lord willing, someday will we go to other countries
to preach the gospel so that all the world may know?
That's our goal.
And notice, though he was motivated by reward,
he also said, is there not a cause?
What was that cause?
That all the world may know.
Verse 48, "And it came to pass when the Philistine arose
"and came and drew nigh to meet David,
"that David hastened and ran toward the army
"to meet the Philistine."
See, there's no doubt in David's mind.
When he made the decision to fight Goliath,
all doubt was passed from his mind.
He wasn't thinking, man, I really hope
that I could beat Goliath.
Hey, he knows that in his flesh he can't beat Goliath,
but he knows that God is on his side.
He knows that he's standing for what's right,
and so not only does he just go fight Goliath,
but he hastens and runs to go fight Goliath.
I mean, what a brave child.
You know, you children, you should not underwrite yourselves
and underestimate yourselves in the things
that you can do for God if you actually decide
to fully put your trust in the Lord.
Not just trust for salvation, though, of course,
you need to put your trust for Jesus for salvation.
But you know what, the world has yet seen
what a man or a child can do
when he fully trusts in the Lord.
Because here's a little kid going to fight Goliath,
and he runs to him.
It's an amazing story, verse 49.
And David put his hand in his bag and took thence a stone
and slung it and smote the Philistine in his forehead,
that the stone sunk into his forehead,
and he fell upon his face to the earth.
I mean, that's brutal right there.
That stone just went deep into the forehead of Goliath.
He falls to the earth, 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.
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.
Just imagine being a bystander of this story.
David is telling Goliath,
hey, I'm gonna take your head from you.
I'm gonna kill you.
I'm gonna win.
And everyone laughs and everyone laughs.
And all of a sudden this little kid just starts sprinting.
I imagine the laughter is probably still going on.
And then David pulls out a little stone out of his sling
and everyone's probably laughing.
Oh, how cute.
Look at this little boy that thinks he's gonna kill Goliath.
And all of a sudden that stone gets embedded
into Goliath's skull.
He falls down like a rock.
And the Philistines look at their champion,
the nine foot nine beast of a man,
and they see a little boy walk up to the dead body
of this champion and take out this man's sword.
I imagine it's probably hard for him to even pick it up.
If his armor weighs 155 pounds, he takes that sword.
He puts that blade to his neck and cuts off his head.
That was the feats of a child that trusted in God.
It's pretty amazing, isn't it?
People say the Bible's boring.
I don't know what you're talking about.
I mean, this is action right here.
This is a great story.
And it's not just a story, it's true.
And notice says, and when the Philistines
saw their champion was dead, they fled.
They probably went from laughing to running away
like scared little girls.
Verse 52, and 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 Shereim, even unto Gath and unto Ekron.
You see the result of David being the one person
who was gonna look at things spiritually,
the one person that was gonna face Goliath,
the one person that was gonna go fight and kill him.
It had an effect on the entire congregation.
What happened is now all the men of Israel and of Judah
arose and shouted and pursued the Philistines.
You know, this is another reason why you and I
in our lives should take on the Goliaths in our lives.
Why we as a church should take on the Goliaths of our day.
Because when people that are on the sidelines,
when people who aren't already sold out for God,
who don't know, are they fully in, are they out?
They're kind of in limbo.
When they see a man, take a stand.
When they see the world come after him,
when they see that person fight God's fights,
but that person trusts in the Lord and sees God deliver him,
you know what that does?
It causes other people to wanna join.
It causes other people to wanna get on board
and that zeal is contagious.
I mean, for 40 days, everyone in Israel was too afraid.
They're making excuses, they're saying it can't be done.
And one little boy actually goes and serves God,
actually does what God wanted him to do.
And now the whole nation was turned around
because of that one boy.
You know, you can't underestimate
the importance of leadership.
And I'm not talking about a certain position,
I'm talking about you in your family.
I'm talking about you as a leader
being an ambassador for Christ.
When you stand for God, when you stand on the rock,
when you do the commandments of the Lord
and people say, you can't be successful,
God can't bless your life, you can't do that.
And then all of a sudden they see,
oh, wow, God delivered that person.
You know what, that has an impact on people.
That has an impact on people's hearts.
Verse 53, 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.
And 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, is thy soul liveth, O king?
I cannot tell.
And the king said, inquire thou whose son the stripling is.
And as David returned from the slaughter of the Philistine,
Abner took him and brought him before Saul
with the head of the Philistine in his hand.
What a picture.
Verse 58, 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.
Go to Hebrews chapter four, we're just gonna look
at a few more verses, we'll be done this evening.
You know, why is it that we love this story so much?
'Cause I don't know about you,
this is one of the coolest stories in the Bible.
It's super famous for a reason.
Why is it that we all love this story?
You know, I don't think it's just because
of the underdog theme, because usually,
even in the sports world, you'll hear broadcasters
talk about two guys are going to fights,
kind of a David and Goliath situation.
Two baseball teams, they're kind of outmatched,
it's a David and Goliath situation.
You wanna know why I think that this chapter
appeals to us so much?
Is that we all can see ourselves as David in this story.
Why, because all of us have Goliaths in our life.
And maybe those of you that are really young,
and you haven't really experienced life yet,
you're a kid, let me tell you,
there's some Goliaths coming in your life.
There's some trouble, there's some enemies,
there's some fights coming your way,
and you may not realize it now, but there's coming a day
where you're gonna need to know God in a real way.
And you're gonna be able to rely on God in a real way.
You're gonna have to trust him when it seems like
everything's on the line.
Those days will come for you if you serve God.
And they may not have happened to you yet,
but those of us that are older, we know that it's happened,
and we know that it's happening again and again and again.
And that's why I think that we see this story,
and we're so drawn to it, is because all of us in here,
we want to be that exceptional person,
we want to be that person with ambition,
we want to be that person that says, "Here am I."
But when that happens, you know what that means?
It means you've gotta fight Goliath.
And the question is, are you gonna go through the fights
of your life, through the battles of your life,
the challenges of your life, are you gonna be looking
at everything through the carnal mind and the doubtful mind?
I can't do this because I'm not strong enough,
I'm not rich enough, I'm not good enough,
I'm not tall enough, whatever it is,
or are you gonna look at things and say,
hey, I'm coming to this world, I'm coming to my problems
in the name of the Lord God of Israel, and when you do that,
that's actually how you defeat Goliath in your life.
Hebrews chapter four, I'll read for you,
first Chronicles 29, 11, the Bible says,
"Thine, O Lord, is the greatness and the power
and the glory and the victory and the majesty,
for all that is in heaven and in the earth is thine,
thine is the kingdom, O Lord,
and thou art exalted as head above all."
Why was it that God was able to allow this little boy
to defeat Goliath?
Because guess what, everything's God's.
God is the one that is above all,
and with God on David's side, hey, he could defeat Goliath.
Look at Hebrews 412, last place, that will turn,
and I wanna read this verse because though we don't fight
a physical fight today, we don't fight Goliath's,
we do fight a spiritual battle.
You know, what way are you gonna approach this battle
of life, are you gonna approach it with the carnal mind
or are you gonna approach it like this?
Verse 12, "For the word of God is quick and powerful
and sharper than any two-edged sword,
piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit
and of the joints and marrow
and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart."
Here is the practical truth that we walk away today in 2024
from the story of David and Goliath,
is that we know you will have Goliath's,
you will have battles.
You wanna know how you face those battles?
You face those battles with this right here.
This is your sword.
But do you wanna look at the battles of life,
looking at it through a carnal lens
or do you wanna believe this book?
Do you not wanna just believe this book?
Do you wanna do this book?
Do you wanna preach others this book?
Do you wanna not trust in your own heart,
but trust in the Lord, not in your own understanding?
Let's pray, Lord, thank you for this day.
Thank you so much for the word of God
and thank you for this great example of a young boy
who though he's younger than most of us in here,
we look to the story of a young boy
with such awe and admiration
that a young man was able to put his trust in you,
not just for salvation,
but to get him through a seemingly impossible battle.
I just pray that whatever the battles
people are going through in this room,
whether it's their finances, their health, their marriage,
it's whatever it is, God,
I just pray that you'd help them to look at things
through a spiritual lens,
to not look at their problems
as big as they are in the flesh,
but that they would look to you,
the one whose word can solve our problems, Lord.
We love you in Jesus name we pray, amen.
- All right, at this time,
we'll go to our last song for the evening.
Number 427, "We Three Kings."
427, 4, 2, 7, "We Three Kings of Orient Are."
427 there on the first.
♪ We three kings of orient are ♪
♪ Bearing gifts we traverse afar ♪
♪ Field and fountain, wood and mountain ♪
♪ Following yonder star, oh ♪
♪ Star of wonder, star of night ♪
♪ Star with royal beauty bright ♪
♪ Westward leading, still proceeding ♪
♪ Guide us to thy perfect light ♪
♪ O'er the king on Bethlehem's plain ♪
♪ Hold thy brains to crown him again ♪
♪ King forever, ceasing never ♪
♪ Over us all to reign, oh ♪
♪ Star of wonder, star of night ♪
♪ Star with royal beauty bright ♪
♪ Westward leading, still proceeding ♪
♪ Guide us to thy perfect light ♪
♪ Rank and sense to offer at high ♪
♪ Incense on the deity high ♪
♪ Prayer and praising, all men raising ♪
♪ Worship in God on high, oh ♪
♪ Star of wonder, star of night ♪
♪ Star with royal beauty bright ♪
♪ Westward leading, still proceeding ♪
♪ Guide us to thy perfect light ♪
♪ Her is mine, it's bitter perfume ♪
♪ Breeze a life of gathering gloom ♪
♪ Sorrowing, sighing, bleeding, dying ♪
♪ Sealed in the stone cold tomb, oh ♪
♪ Star of wonder, star of night ♪
♪ Star with royal beauty bright ♪
♪ Westward leading, still proceeding ♪
♪ Guide us to thy perfect light ♪
♪ Glory us now, behold him arise ♪
♪ King and God and sacrifice ♪
♪ Alleluia, alleluia ♪
♪ Heel through the earth and skies, oh ♪
♪ Star of wonder, star of night ♪
♪ Star with royal beauty bright ♪
♪ Westward leading, still proceeding ♪
♪ Guide us to thy perfect light ♪
- Amen, with that, you are dismissed.