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["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] All right. Good evening, everyone. Welcome to First Works Baptist Church. Let's all make our way inside and find a seat. Grab a songbook. Open that songbook up to song number 114, The Great Physician. Let's all stand for our first song, which will be song number 114, The Great Physician. ["The Great Physician"] Song number 114, The Great Physician. Everyone nice and strong all together on that first verse. The Great Physician now is near The sympathizing Jesus He speaks the drooping heart to cheer O hear the voice of Jesus Sweetest note and seraph song Sweetest name on mortal tongue Sweetest carol ever sung Jesus, blessed Jesus Your many sins are all forgiven O hear the voice of Jesus Go on your way in these to heaven And wear a crown with Jesus Sweetest note and seraph song Sweetest name on mortal tongue Sweetest carol ever sung Jesus, blessed Jesus All glory to the dying lamb I now believe in Jesus I love the blessed Savior's name I love the name of Jesus Sweetest note and seraph song Sweetest name on mortal tongue Sweetest carol ever sung Jesus, blessed Jesus And when to that bright world above We rise to be with Jesus We'll sing around the throne of love His name, the name of Jesus Sweetest note and seraph song Sweetest name on mortal tongue Sweetest carol ever sung Jesus, blessed Jesus Amen. Let's open our service with the word of prayer. Father, thank you, God, Lord, for your great healing, God, and free gift of salvation, Lord. I pray, Lord, that you would bless the service, God, bless every aspect of it, Lord, the singing, God, and the preaching, Lord. Feel, Pastor Mejia, with your Holy Spirit, God, as he preaches to us, Lord. I pray also, God, that you would be with us in the congregation, Lord, and that we would be edified, Lord, and leave here differently than when we came in, God. We love you, Lord, and it's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. You may be seated. Song number 30, Nothing But the Blood. Song number 30, Nothing But the Blood. Everyone nice and strong all together on that first verse. No other ground I know, nothing but the blood of Jesus. For my pardon, this I see, nothing but the blood of Jesus. For my cleansing, this my plea, nothing but the blood of Jesus. No precious is the flow that makes me white as snow. No other ground I know, nothing but the blood of Jesus. Nothing can force in a tone, nothing but the blood of Jesus. Not of good that I have done, nothing but the blood of Jesus. No precious is the flow that makes me white as snow. No other ground I know, nothing but the blood of Jesus. This is all my hope and peace, nothing but the blood of Jesus. This is all my righteousness, nothing but the blood of Jesus. No precious is the flow that makes me white as snow. No other ground I know, nothing but the blood of Jesus. If you did not get a bulletin, go ahead and raise your hand and one of the ushers can get one for you. Some important information on there as well as the prayer sheet that we will go over briefly. You see there our Sunday morning service is at 10.30. Sunday evening is at 5 p.m. and then we have our Thursday night Bible study at 7 o'clock. You see the soul winning times and teams, the list of expecting mothers if you can continue to pray for them. And also congratulations to Janelle and Jose on the birth of their baby girl Giselle Gianna Gonzalez. On May 10th, 11.52 p.m., 7 pounds, 10 ounces, 20 inches. And so congratulations to them, make sure you're a blessing to them, bring them a meal, be a blessing to them. You can see my wife for details regarding that. And then you see the important reminders there at the bottom and some of the upcoming church events. We have Ms. Sarah Solis' baby shower coming up this Sunday, May 15th. You can see my wife for more details about that if you want to help out with the baby shower. And then we have the P.E. end of school picnic on Wednesday, May 25th. Coach Hernandez has all the details regarding that. Giovanni Franceschini's graduation service is coming up Sunday evening, May 29th. And so be here to support that and celebrate with him. June birthday breakfast and Judea soul winning is coming up on Sunday, June 5th. And then June 19th is the Father's Day service. We will have a gift for all the dads that come on that day. Make sure you invite your dad or someone's dad to that service. Of course the service will be geared towards fathers. Looking forward to that. And then you see there the no food or drink allowed in the main auditorium except for water and coffee. No loitering in the fellowship hall or foyer during the preaching service. And of course make sure you silence your phones during the preaching so as to not be a distraction during the service. All right, you can pull out your prayer sheets there. Please continue to pray for our church corporately. Pray for God's favor in our church, for the soul winning. We see more people saved and baptized and assimilated to the church. You see the church family is there. If you can continue to pray for Abigail and her continued recovery and recuperation. If you could also pray for Keith and Carla Rivas. They were actually in a really bad accident last week. But they're recovering and so if you can pray that they would get better and make sure you shoot them a text message letting them know you're praying for them. But they're fine but I know that they suffered some injuries and so please pray for them. You see there the family's salvations, families to grow, forbearing women and expecting mothers and just the different needs there as well. If you have an additional prayer request that you'd like for us to place on the prayer bulletin, make sure you put that at the bottom. And we'll make sure that it gets on the bulletin for the following week. And that is it. Brother Moore is going to come on up and pray over these needs. Alright, let's bow our heads in the word of prayer. Dear Lord, Heavenly Father, thank you for an honor to be able to come to church. And let me just pray that we're able to be attentive at church and we're able to listen and adhere to the preaching that Pastor me has prepared for us out of your word. Lord, I just want to pray that you continue to bless our church and also it's just a blessing to have our church here. And Lord, we just pray that we continue doing the first works and we're soul winning and leading people to righteousness. And Lord, I also want to pray for the team leaders and as they're teaching people and discipling people in soul winning and just different aspects of life in the church. Lord, I pray for spiritual numerical growth for our church. I pray that our church continues growing closer to you, learning your word, meditating on your word, memorizing your word. And also we just pray that our church is continuing to reach new people so that they can come and get plugged into the Christian life. Lord, I also want to pray for the innocent in Almonte. I pray that I pray for those people there that ultimately they're able to hear the gospel and get saved. And Lord, I just pray for destruction for the wicked people there as well. Lord, I want to pray for family salvation for people who may have not been able to hear the gospel or they just weren't receptive yet. I pray that you soften their hearts so that they can receive the free gift of eternal life. And Lord, I just pray that you continue blessing our families as they continue to grow. Thank you for all the births that we've had. And Lord, I just pray for the new birds as they're growing up and healthy. And Lord, I also pray for the other ladies as well that haven't given birth yet. I pray that they have a healthy and safe delivery. I pray for Keith and Carla with their accident that they had. Lord, I pray that you keep them safe and console them through this time and help any injuries that they have. Lord, I just want to thank you again for our church. And Lord, I pray that we're able to grow closer to you after the sermon and we're able to learn more truths in your word, Lord. I pray that you have one name. Amen. Alright, please open your Bible to song number 169, Come Thou Fount, 169. Song number 169, Come Thou Fount. Song number 169. Everyone nice and strong all together on that first verse. Come thou fount of every blessing To my heart to sing thy grace Streams of mercy never ceasing Call for songs of loudest praise Teach me some mellow dishonest Sung by flaming tongues above Praise the mount I'm fixed upon it Mount of thy redeeming love Here I raise my nebeneezer Hither by thy help I'm come And I know by thy good pleasure Safely I'll arrive at home Jesus saw me when a stranger Wondering from the fold of God He to rescue me from danger Interposed his precious blood Oh to praise how great a debtor Daily I'm constrained to be Let thy goodness like a fetter Bind my wandering heart to thee Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it Prone to leave the God I love Here's my heart, oh, take and seal it Seal it for thy courts above Amen. At this time, the ushers will collect the offering. Tonight will be in 1 Samuel chapter number 17. 1 Samuel 17 1 Samuel 17 Good evening. Tonight we're in 1 Samuel chapter 17. 1 Samuel chapter 17, and the Bible reads, Now the Philistines gathered together their armies to battle, and were gathered together at Soko, which belongeth to Judah, and pitched between Soko and Azekah in Ephes-damim, 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 five thousand 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 six hundred shekels of iron, and one bearing a shield went before him. And he stood and cried unto the armies of Israel, and said unto them, Why 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 ye be able to fight with me and to kill me, then we will 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, and 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. 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 Iliab the firstborn, and next unto him Abinadab 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 forty days. And Jesse said unto David his son, Take now for thy brethren an Ephrathite of this parched corn, and these ten loaves, and run to the camp to 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 a valley of Elah fighting with the Philistines. And David rose up early in the morning and left the sheep with the 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 you seen this man that has come up? Surely to defy Israel is 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. And David spake to the men that stood by him, saying, What shall be done to the man that killeth this Philistine, and taketh away their reproach from Israel? For who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should defy the armies of the living God? And the people answered him after this manner, saying, So shall it be done to the man that killeth him. And Eliab his eldest brother heard when he spake unto the 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 thy 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 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 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 an 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 the shepherd's bag, which he had even in a scrip, and his sling was in his hand. 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 come to thee in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom thou hast defied. This day will the Lord deliver thee into mine hand, and I will smite thee and take thine head from thee, and 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 the 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 slang 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, to the gates of Ekron, and the wounded of the Philistines fell down by the way to Shamarim, 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 host, Abner, whose son is this youth? And Abner said, As thy soul liveth, O king, I cannot tell. And the king said, Inquire thou whose son 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. 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 pray. Dear Lord God, we thank you for our salvation, Lord, and for the Bible, Lord, and we thank you for this church you've given us, Lord, and we thank you for pastor. We pray that you bless him and fill him with your spirit as he preaches your word, and I pray that we learn something new today and we're edified by the preaching of your word, Lord. Bless this service, every aspect of it. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Okay, we're in First Samuel Chapter 17 this evening. We're continuing our Bible study with the book of First Samuel. And here in Chapter 17, we find probably one of the most exciting and popular stories in the Bible. And in fact, I was just mentioning to some of the men in our church before the service that typically, if I'm ever talking to my family and I'm kind of trying to fish for ideas of what to preach on, I always say, what should I preach on Sunday? What do you think I should preach on? More often than not, my kids will always come up to me and say, Dad, David and Goliath. Preach on David and Goliath. And for like an entire year, they've been waiting for this sermon for an entire year. Because I'm like, nah, I'm not going to preach. Dad's been preached a lot, and you know, maybe next time. But every time I ask them, like, what do you think I should preach on? They're just like, Dad, David and Goliath. Preach on David and Goliath. I'm like, no, no. So when we started the book of First Samuel, I told them, hey, we're going to be preaching on David and Goliath soon, you know, in 17 weeks or whatever. But then today I told them, I said, guess what today is? And they're like, David and Goliath! You know, they're like really excited about it. And so I love this story because of the fact that obviously it's a great story that really shows us that the underdog wins, right? You know, you have a lot of movies and stories out there that's kind of built upon this type of structure where you have the underdog and then, you know, defeats the giant Goliath. And so this is basically where it stems from. But it's a story that not only children love and they love to hear about and they like to read about, but also adults. Because of the fact that it's such a powerful story and it really helps us to admire David that much more as a youth because of his courageous attitude against the enemies of the Lord, against Goliath. And so we're going to begin today with chapter 17. We're going to look at the champion's threat here. In verse number one, we're going to look at the army's disposition referring to their arrangement. Look what it says in verse one. It says here, Now the Philistines gathered together the armies to battle, and were gathered together Ashoko, which belonged to Judah, and pitched between Ashoko and Azekah in Ephes-damen, 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 the mountain on the other side, and there was a valley between them. So we see both of the armies are simply arranging themselves, getting ready to fight, getting ready to battle. And this would seem as though it's like any other battle that's taken place during Saul's reign because of the fact that Saul is fighting against the Philistines. He's constantly conquering land that once belonged to the Israelites that was under the control and reign of the Philistines. But this story kind of takes a different turn because of the fact that now, you know, Saul is up against not just the Philistines as the army, but against Goliath, which is a very terrible sight from a human perspective. And so look at verse number four, we're going to look at the daunting problem that presents itself. So the army's disposition, now the daunting problem, in verse number four, it says, 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 five thousand 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 six hundred shekels of iron, and one bearing a shield went before him. Yeah, obviously you would need someone to hold his shield since he's holding so much weight on him. But, you know, the Bible kind of goes out of its way to describe what he looks like and give us a description of his physical attributes, really to kind of show us how terrifying this man would actually be to actually fight in person, right? You know, the Bible tells us here in verse four that his height was about six cubits and a span, some would say nine feet, others would say eleven feet. Regardless, he's a very large human being to fight up against, and we'll see in just a little bit that this strikes fear in the hearts of the soldiers, okay? This battle that the Israelites are facing is a lot different than all the other battles because of the fact of the height of this person, the largeness of this human being, this giant, so to speak. Now, there's a lot of principles that we can gather from this, but one of the main things is, you know, you'll hear a lot of people kind of make this parallel, and sometimes it gets a little corny, kind of gets a little cheesy every once in a while, but it is true to a certain extent because of the fact that, you know, Goliath can simply picture and symbolize the problems in our life, you understand? Right? Can't they? They do. You know, they can symbolize problems in our life, they can symbolize the enemies of God in our life. Why? Because sometimes when we are confronted with a problem in our life, it often seems bigger than what we can ever imagine, you know? Especially when you're dealing with it right at the moment, you're in the valley, you're on one side of the mountain, and you're in the situation, you're in the thick of it, you look at Goliath and it's like, man, this dude is huge, you understand? When you look at your problems, it's like, this problem is too big for me, you know? This problem is massive, it's huge, you see all the helmet of brass, the coat of mail, the brass upon his legs, between his shoulders, the spear, and you see all of the elements and the factors that come with your problems, right? You know, this is basically yourself magnifying the problem in your life. You know, sometimes we look at a problem and it's pretty big, but then we start noticing the brass helmet. We also notice the beam, we notice the spear, we notice all the coat of mail, and that's kind of how it is when we look at our problems. You know, when we look at our problems, we do a really good job at magnifying all of the little intricacies of our tribulation and our trials, right? You know, we're really good at just even adding to it, you know, kind of embellishing a little bit how big our problem really is. You know, Goliath is big, but God is bigger though, right? Obviously, Goliath, we're not saying that he's not a large human being, he's obviously a champion, this man is obviously a man of war, but at the end of the day, in comparison to God himself, I mean, he's not even a speck of dirt in the universe, okay? But, you know, like the Israelites, we, like the Israelites, have a tendency to magnify and embellish the qualities and factors and the elements attached to our problems. And we want to just define every single little problem, every single little aspect of our problem, and woe is me, we can't defeat this guy, he's too big of a giant, he's too large, he's a champion, he's going to destroy us, and, you know, that's not what God wants us to do. And obviously, you know, it requires a David to just have this childlike faith to come in and say, hey, Goliath is big, but our God is bigger, okay? And I don't want to get ahead of myself here, but we see the daunting problem is Goliath, but really more daunting than that is the fear instilled within the people to confront that problem, you understand? If people can just deal with that fear and allow themselves to increase their faith in God, you know, kind of compare that problem to God, that problem will get very small real fast, okay? Because then we realize that God, you know, can just simply flip a switch and change the problem, or he couldn't, but even then, you know, just count your blessings. You know, instead of looking at all the brass and the weaponry, think about the fact that, you know, you have an army, think about all the times that you've defeated the Philistines, that God has defeated them for you, think about the fact that you have God backing you, right? And the way we can apply that to our own lives is think about this, you know, you think about the worst problem that you're experiencing today, the worst possible thing that's happening to you today is still nothing in comparison to what the unsaved are going through, because the unsaved, guess what? On top of the problems that they probably share with you, they're going to hell! They're not saved! They can die at any moment, split hell wide open, whereas you, if you were to die at this moment, you know, you'd go to heaven. Or if you die 20 years from now, you'd go to heaven. Or how about this, you have Romans 8.28 backing you up, that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. Not all things work together for good for the unsaved, folks. Sometimes it gets worse before it gets better. And even if it gets better for the unsaved, it doesn't necessarily get better once they die. You understand? And so it's always good to, instead of just focusing on Goliath and how big he is and what of a champion he is, the daunting problem that you have before you, you've got to look at the silver lining and everything. The fact that you're saved, you have a church, you have a Bible, you're saved, you're a child of God, there's so much to be thankful for, there's so many blessings that we have as a church, as individuals, and the reality is that Goliath, although massive, does not compare to God's protection and his ability to deliver us. So we see the champion's threat here, look at Goliath demoralizing the soldiers. So we see the army's disposition, the daunting problem that they're faced with, and then Goliath's demoralizing the soldiers. Look at verse number 8, it says here, And he stood and cried unto the armies of Israel, and said unto them, Why ye come out to set your battle on a ray? And that I have Philistine, and he servants to Saul? Choose you a man for you, and let him come down to me. If ye 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. When Saul and all Israel heard those words of the Philistines, they were dismayed and greatly afraid. So what is Goliath doing here? Well, he's doing something that a lot of people in the ancient world used to do, which is if there was two different nations fighting against one another, in order to spare the bloodshed, they would choose the greatest fighter of each side to fight with one another, and whoever dies, basically that side would win. And although that seems gruesome, they would spare a lot of the lives of the soldiers on each side. And so, Goliath here is simply proposing, hey, you get your best guy, and I'm the best guy here obviously, you get them to fight against me, if you defeat us, we'll be your servants, if I defeat you, you're my servants. And so this obviously strikes fear in the heart of Saul, which is obviously not good because he's a leader. He's like greatly dismayed. If he's greatly dismayed, how much more afraid do you think his soldiers are? And by the way, that's a principle that we as leaders, it's okay for us to be afraid, it's okay for us to fear, it's okay for us to doubt, but we need to make sure that we quit ourselves like men, and put forth a persona that we're not afraid, even though we are afraid. And here's the thing, it's okay to be afraid as long as you step out in faith in spite of your fear. But the fact that the Bible's telling us here that Saul was dismayed and greatly afraid, is obviously probably telling us that he physically looked scared. And so he's demoralizing the soldiers, because who's going to want to fight against Goliath? You know, this seems like a great deal in order to spare the lives of a lot of soldiers, but who has the guts to actually go up against him? Nobody does, at least not from the army. He's demoralizing them and he's striking fear into their hearts. And by the way, the way we can apply this to our personal lives is that sometimes people or problems in our life will only give us limited options. Satan will try to give us limited options. Oh, this is your problem? Oh, these are your only two options then. You can only do this or you can do this. But the reality is this, we don't need to listen to Satan's options. Because Satan's options never work. We need to consider God's options. And don't ever allow Satan to only present you with column A or column B. You know, oh man, you can't marry a godly later. I guess you just might as well fornicate then. Or I guess you just have to develop some relationship with some worldly person and you think to yourself, well yeah, I guess that's the only choice I have. No, it's not the only choice you have. Are you kidding me? That's a stupid decision. Right? It's just like, oh man, things are just going tough. I guess you're just going to have to be dishonest at work in order to get X, Y, and Z or get this money or you have to steal this. No, those aren't the options. Those are Satan's options, but there's actually options outside of that where God can actually bless you. You know, Goliath is over here like, here are your options. You can either defeat me, we serve you or vice versa. But at the end of the day, God's obviously raising up a person to go and defeat Goliath. And so he's demoralizing them. So we see the champion's threat there. And then number two, we're going to look at the charge to David. It kind of takes, we kind of take a break from this particular scenario to look at what David's doing here in verse number 12. It says, 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. So we're going to look at the roles of his sons. Now first and foremost, I want you to remember that David at this point is already working for Saul. Because previous to this, in the previous chapter, we know that Saul is plagued by an evil spirit. And so Saul hires David to play the harp before him to kind of chill him out every time he gets moody. He gets a little moody, he gets a little angry, he gets a little upset. They bring David along and he has his ten strings of harps. He plays a little classical music or whatever and kind of chills him out. So he's kind of already working for Saul. We already see him introduced into the story here. But then he's reintroduced in verse number 12 and it says at the latter end, I want you to notice that it says, And the man went among men for an old man in the days of Saul. I believe what this is referring to is that when there is a war and there is somewhat of a draft, so to speak, where people were drafted in to fight the war. If a man was really old and incapable of fighting, his sons would basically go in his stead. So we see that Jesse was probably already old at this time. We don't know exactly how old he was. But it's obviously that he's old enough that his three older sons are going out to war, going out to battle. Which would also indicate that David is actually a very young man because he's not going out to battle. He's staying home, he's taking care of the sheep, etc. Look at verse 13. 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. 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 Philistines drew near morning and evening and presented himself forty days. Now a couple of things that I want to mention from these particular verses. Is that verse 15 says that David went and returned from Saul to feed his father's sheep at Bethlehem. Now we're going to see in a couple of verses that David is the star of the chapter, right? But he didn't seek to become the star, he was just doing what he was supposed to be doing. Which is what? Obeying his authority. Taking care of the sheep, obeying his authority, his brothers are out in the battle being little cowards. And then he himself is just kind of doing what his dad's telling him to do. He's taking care of the sheep, we're going to see later on. He's obeying his father by going and bringing cheese and food to his brothers. And so this is a good principle to learn that there's a prepared place for prepared people. And that if you want God to greatly use you one day, you better make sure that you're doing now what you're supposed to be doing as a single or as a married man or as a single lady or as a married woman. In the future for God to use you greatly, you have to be taking care of your responsibilities now. What you know God wants you to do now. You understand? Obeying God's commandments now. Just listen to this, God can't bless you with more if you're not a good steward of the commands that he's given you now. Right? To whomsoever much is given of him shall be much required. He that is faithful in much has to be faithful in little. And so in order for God to entrust more spiritual blessings and responsibility to you, you better be a good steward of what he's telling you to do now. Right? Which is what we see with David. You know, taking care of sheep is probably not the most glorious job. It's probably dirty and sheep are dumb, you know, and it's just like, we'll see later on. I mean, by the way, he did an excellent job taking care of sheep. Right? Because he delivered them out of the mouth of the lion and the bear. So he's still seeing some action, you know? And he's probably, you know, when that happens, he's like, I can't wait to tell someone about this. One day this is going to come in handy. Which, by the way, tells us that you should not undermine the little battles of today. Right? Do not undermine the little battles of today. Don't undermine the little successes of today because they are valuable for you in the future. We'll talk more about that later on. But look at verse 16, it says, The Philistine drew near morning and evening and presented himself forty days. So we take a little, I just waited out for five years or something. Maybe if I just waited out for a week, maybe if I just waited out for a year. Okay, well, you're going to have to put up with a year of Goliath just talking smack to you because it's not going to go away. Okay? It's a great principle there for forty days straight. And, you know, we as Christians, we need to face our problems head on and not run away from our problems. Too many Christians today run away from their problems, they avoid their problems, they don't want to deal with the issues of life. Folks, the Christian life is issues, issues and problems. And don't think, well, you know, yeah, but we go to a new IFP church, though. Our church is different than other churches. No, it's not. Here, let me let you in on a little secret. We just deal with problems differently. Here's the difference between our church and other churches. And let me say this, it's not the problems. Here's the difference is that we actually killed Goliath. Most churches just kind of wait for forty days. Wait for someone else to do it. They wait for someone else to take care of their problems. Our church, on the other hand, we just try to take care of it as much as possible. You understand? So don't think, well, we go to a new IFP church, we're never going to have issues. Wrong! Wrong! We're always going to have issues. Okay? Hey, there's going to be fornicators in our church, drunkards in our church, railers in our church. There's going to be heretics that come through our church. I mean, that's just the nature of the beast. Right? The difference is, how do we deal with those issues when they arise? You understand? We want to be a church like David. Then when the problem's there, it's like, what's the problem? I'll do it. I'll do it. I'll just go take care of it. Where's he at? Okay? Not like Eliab. You know, not like Abinadab and Shammah. Oh, they're in the battle! But they're not really fighting now, are they? And so deal with your problems now, because if not, they will present themselves to you 40 days from now. Every day for 40 days. Verse 17. We see the reoccurring thread. Look at verse 17. It says, Now Saul and they and all the men of Israel were in the valley of Elah fighting with the Philistines. But not really, though. They're there fighting with the Philistines, but they're not necessarily going to battle, going to war with them. They're just trying to figure out what to do. And so we see here, we're going to look at the cowardly response. So we saw the champion's threat, the charge to David to go and feed, to take care of the sheep and feed his brethren. But also, we're going to look at the cowardly response of the soldiers. Look at verse 20. Now here's a basic principle that has nothing to do with him winning battles, okay? But it's really good. I want you to notice in verse 20 that it says he rose up early in the morning and left the sheep with the keeper. Delegation! If you ever have responsibilities and you can't fulfill those responsibilities, delegate it to someone. Amen? If your responsibility is to throw away trash in the church or, I don't know, vacuum or something, and you can't make it, get someone else to fill your spot. Why? Because duties never conflict, amen? You know, Jesse had commanded David to take care of the sheep, but now he's commanding him to go and feed his brethren. So is he just going to leave the sheep by himself and just not do anything and just kind of go do what his dad... He could easily come back and say, well you told me to go feed the brethren. Sorry if the sheep are gone. I can't do both! I'm not a superhuman, you know? No, what he did is he let them in the care of the keeper. What does this tell us about David? It tells us he's a responsible person. Obviously he's not like, well I got other brothers. Someone will figure it out. This will somehow kind of take care of itself. God will watch them. God will take care of the sheep. No, he left the responsibility in the hands of someone else who is able and capable of taking care of his responsibility. Show us that he's a responsible young man, amen? Look at verse number 21. 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. So Goliath is intimidating the armies here. And verse 24, look at verse 25, it says, And the men of Israel said, Have you seen this man that has come up? Surely to defy Israel is 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. So everyone's running away from Goliath, right? But here's the thing, they understand there is great reward in defeating Goliath. I mean they're bragging about all of the rewards, riches, they'll get Saul's daughter to wife, they could live tax free in the land, it says right there, right? It says make his father's house free in Israel, in other words they're tax exempt. There's a lot of incentives here. My question is, the guy who's saying this, well what about you? You sound so excited about all these rewards. Doesn't this motivate you to go and fight Goliath? So Goliath is intimidating the armies, and everyone is clearly intimidated by him. However, David is not impressed. He's not impressed. Look what it says in verse 26, This guy is bold. David's like, so what does the guy get who actually kills this uncircumcised Philistine? He's not even looking at him like he's a giant. He refers to him as the uncircumcised Philistine who's committed to this great offense of defying the armies of the living God. So then the soldiers put forth the incentive once again, and they answer him, verse 27, after this matter saying, So shall it be done to the man that killeth him. Now, verse 28 is where we're going to see the chiding of Eliab. Now, this always happens, okay? In the Christian life, this will always happen. You always have an Eliab in your life, who when you try to make strides in the Christian life, and go forward and succeed, you always have someone try to just put out your flame a little bit. Look at verse 28, And 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? Oh, with the keeper. They're with the keeper, right? I know thy pride and thy 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? Now, verse 29, so many Baptist preachers have used this verse to preach a very inspirational sermon, and I probably have done it myself, maybe when I was in Bible college, you know, is there not a cause? How many of you have heard a sermon entitled, Is there not a cause? And it's often, you know, talking about like, you know, is there not a cause, you know, to defeat Goliath, and you know, fight for a good cause, and the cause of Christ, and you know, you can extrapolate a lot of principles from that, right? But that's actually not talking about that at all. Okay? When he says, Is there not a cause? He's saying, What's the cause of you reprimanding me? Because he's saying, What have I now done? Is there a cause why you're saying this? Like, have I done something wrong? You know, have I done wickedly? You know, is there a cause for why you're correcting me in such a manner? Okay? Sorry to burst your inspirational sermon, okay? Go look for another one. I mean, that's what it means, okay? And there's probably someone in here who's just like, Well, I still think I'm mean, right? You think whatever, you know? I'm telling you what David meant by that, okay? So he lives being a hater. That's what he's doing. Because what he, you know, what he should be doing is allow himself to be challenged by his little brother. And say, Man, my little brother's not even scared. What am I doing? I'm like the oldest of all the brothers. I should be going out there to fight. Instead, he's like, You're prideful. You're naughty. You're just coming to see the battle. I know you. Why aren't you taking care of the sheep and just kind of getting on him? And you know what? This reminds me of just Christians sometimes who just want to douse the flame of new Christians. These are new Christians, especially if they strike while the iron is hot, can be simply on fire for God from right off the bat. Okay? Doesn't happen all the time. But there's cases where it's just, you know, it's just the right moment for them. You know, it's just it's just the it's like a perfect storm, so to speak. They get saved and get on fire for God. And then they're just motivated. They're bold in the Lord. But then you just have an alive come to you now, don't you? You know, an older Christian or, you know, your family or, you know, some guy who's been a Christian or believer for a really long time. And they're just like, Are you just being naughty? You're just being prideful. You're just being arrogant. There are times when new Christians can be that way. I'm not denying that at all. And I'll tell you why. Because I was like that, too. Why are you nodding your head like, Yeah, so you're a groom? He's like, Yeah, for sure. No, I'm just kidding. When I first got saved, man, I got on fire for God. And one of the reasons that I believe I got on fire for God is because I was searching for the right salvation. And so when it was presented to me with assurance and I got saved, I was so excited about the fact that I was saved. You know, saved and that I now could understand the Bible. And then, you know, I started going sowing right off the bat, not because, you know, I knew about sowing, but because I was invited to go and preach the gospel and learn how to preach the gospel and sowing. And I was learning the Bible and I was being faithful to church. I was just excited about the things of God. And it manifested itself in me bringing people to church. I would bring people to church pretty much every single week until I was tapped out of friends for like, you know, three months or something. I would bring all my friends. I brought my family. I brought co-workers to church. I brought a ton of people to church. Some people got saved and got baptized. Some didn't. And I didn't know how to win people to the Lord well. And so sometimes I just bring my friends and bring them to a soul winner. And I would ask them, you know, something like some of you do, like, Hey, I'm bringing a family member to church. Can you witness to them? Can you get them saved? And I would, every service, I'd have someone new with me, you know, and I was really on fire for God. And I remember, you know, during that stage, there'd be people who'd try to douse that flame. And they would say words like this, like, Oh, you're just prideful, you know. Or how about this, you know, there'd be times when I would talk about, you know, I would ask people, So why are you Baptist? Like, why do you call yourself a Baptist? And people give me different answers. And I just asked the wrong person. They're just like, Oh, you're just so arrogant and prideful to ask that. I'm like, what's so arrogant and prideful to ask? Why are you a Baptist? Isn't that what we are? I'm just wondering, what's up with that? We can't talk about the Bible? And I would get rebuked. I would get reproved. And, you know, the worldly crowd wouldn't want to be around me because I was just spiritual Susie over here, asking about why we're Baptist and why we're King James. Just normal questions. But Eliab was always there. Eliab was always there. And you know what? Forget Eliab. I mean, where's Eliab in the rest of the story in the Bible? He's not necessarily someone who is renowned in the Word of God. You know, I don't see people making movies about Eliab versus Goliath. Even the unsaved know about David. Think about that, right? And so don't be an Eliab. And when we get young guys here, young ladies here who are on fire for God, and maybe they have a zeal but it's not according to knowledge, kindly reprove them, give them knowledge, but don't douse their flame. Don't be a fire extinguisher. Zeal, you should encourage that fervor, you should encourage that excitement for the things of God and that passion and not seek to douse it. In fact, allow it to influence you a little bit. You get some young guy and he's on fire for God and he seems a little too, you know, zealous for his britches or for his knowledge. Encourage him, correct him, but encourage him and don't try to stop him. Let him be on fire for God, let him be excited over the things of God, let him flourish and flounder, let them grow and be zealous for the things of God. It's good for them. We want people to be zealous. The Bible tells us to be zealous of good works. And, you know, maybe it's because I was just stubborn, but I was just like, I don't care what you guys think, I'm just going to continue to be zealous, you know. If I have to be zealous by myself, I'll be zealous by myself. And you know what, here we are 15 years later and I'm still zealous for the things of God. I'm still excited about the things of God, I'm still excited about soul owning, I'm still excited about the Bible, I'm excited about coming to church, I'm excited about preaching God's word, I'm excited about being an independent fundamental Baptist. And so, you know, you just never know if you just encourage that zeal within someone. And you know what, David, you know, he looks like he's a person who doesn't care either. He's like, is there not a cause? And so look at verse 30 here, we're going to see the courage of David. He volunteers to fight. Verse 30 says, And he turned from him toward another and spake after the same manner, and the people answered him again after the former manner. So he's kind of asking around, you know, he's just like, so what's going on here? Why is this guy, it's been 40 days guys. Why are we taking care of this like right away? This is an easy fix. Verse 31, And when the words were heard which David spake, they rehearsed them before Saul, and he sent for them. Sent for him, excuse me. So, he's making enough stir that it gets to the leadership. And Saul's like, alright, let's bring that guy over here. Because obviously no one else is going to Saul saying, I'll fight. Verse 32, And David said to Saul, Let no man's heart fail because of him. Thy servant will go and fight with his Philistine. He's like, these guys don't need to be afraid Saul, I'll do it. And Saul said to David, Thou are not able to go against the Philistine to fight with him, for thou art but a youth, and he a man of war from his youth. He's like, this guy's been fighting in battles since you were born, since before you were born. So now David's going to give his previous victories. We see David volunteers to fight, but now he's going to give his previous victories in verse 34. It says, And David said unto Saul, Thy servant kept his father's sheep, and there came a lion and a bear, and I took a lamb out of the flock, and I went out after him, and smote him, and delivered it out of his mouth, and when he arose against me, I caught him by his beard, and smote him, and slew him. Thy servant slew both the lion and the bear, and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be as one of them, seeing he hath defied the armies of the living God. This guy's got guts. He's like, well let me just tell you what I've done. Let me show you my credentials. You're looking at a shepherd here, and you know a bear and a lion came out to get the sheep, and I delivered those sheep out of the mouth of the lion and the bear. I killed both of them. Okay? And you know what? This uncircumcised Philistine is no different from these animals. And look, the principle that we can learn from this is that, just like before, in our Christian lives, folks, there's always going to be lions and bears. Lions and bears. These are the small battles before the big battles. You understand? Now, a lion and a bear, pretty dangerous. But in comparison to this great battle, it's really not much. And if you're not careful, you can have that perception of, oh you know what, I'm not going to take care of these little sinful habits, or these little sins, or these little problems now. I'm more about the big battles. No, you've got to take care of the little battles if you're going to win the big battles. You understand? And if you find yourself experiencing a big battle today, well, I hate to tell this to you, but that's probably a lion and a bear. And if the battle's big today, it only means that there's a Goliath waiting for you tomorrow. You understand? So take the bears and the lions seriously. Deliver the sheep out of the mouth of the lion, deliver the sheep out of the mouth of the bear. Earn some credentials in your Christian life before God. Because that problem with Goliath is going to come one day. You understand? Now, this is a public service announcement to let you know I'm not encouraging you to go fight a real lion and a bear. Okay? Don't do it. I just got to put it out there. Okay? Just in case. And if you're ever confronted with a lion or a bear, you know, be like, I'm like David. I'm like David. You know? Well, this is spiritually, we're talking spiritually speaking, you understand? Okay? And here's the thing, like a lion represents who? Satan. So, you know, the little battles that you have with Satan throughout your Christian life will prepare you for the future battles as well. Okay? What if David would have never fought the lions and the bears and delivered the lambs, the sheep out of their mouths, would he have been ready for this particular battle? I don't think so. I think God was preparing him. Okay? And so don't run away from problems, don't run away from the lions, don't run away from the bears, you know, face those things head on. And let me just say this is that the Bible doesn't record the actual fight itself. Right? They're fought with Goliath. And let me say this, your lions and your bears are fought when no one's eyes are looking. They're fought in your prayer closet. They're fought in your Bible reading. They're fought within the walls of your home with your spouse. I don't mean literally, but I'm saying, you know, dealing with battles together. Hey, they're fought with, you know, raising your children, they're fought with gaining character, they're fought with no one's eyes are looking, it's never recorded. Okay? Those are the battles that are important to fight. You know, because we want everyone to see our PR day, right? I'm just kidding. I'm serious. I mean, I post my PRs all the time. I'm speaking from personal experience. But here's the thing, no one ever sees the failures. No one ever sees the reps and the work that goes into it. You know, we always look at the highlights and you know what, the Bible's filled with highlights. But we don't see the actual fight with the lion and the bear because, but here's the thing, that doesn't mean it's not important though. It just means that not everyone's eyes are on that particular, you know, David was probably by himself. This battle, everyone saw it. I mean, for thousands of years, millions and millions and even billions of eyes have seen this fight. But you know, probably no one was there when you fought the lion and the bear. And so the principle that we can learn there is don't take the lion and the bears that you're fighting today lightly, okay? You know, just because it's behind closed doors, just because no one can see them or I want people to see my victories. No, those are essential in order for you to fight the ones that's going to be out in the open. Understand? You know, take our church for example. We fought a Goliath and we whooped that Goliath bad. That Goliath got whooped bad, okay? You know, in Omani. But you know, no one saw the years prior to that, four years prior to that, with our church growing, reading our Bibles, praying, asking God for boldness, learning doctrine, preparing ourselves for that future battle. They just saw that major war, you understand? Which was obviously publicized. But no one sees the little battles from day to day, okay? The little lions and the little bears that we fight from day to day. So here's some pretty good credentials, David. You know, this guy's over here, you know, whooping lions and bears. I mean, this guy's better than those, what are those guys called? That tribe in Africa that steal meat from lions? You guys know what I'm talking about? You guys know what I'm talking about? What? There's a tribe in Africa where they literally steal meat from lions. I'm not joking either, okay? And they do it by pure intimidation. They literally walk up to the lion when they've killed a prey, and the mere fact that they're so bold and approaching the lions, they literally scatter. And then they only have a couple of minutes to kind of hack off whatever meat's there, until the lions start figuring out, wait a minute, we're lions, you know? You know, it's like... You know that stupid song that plays, it's just like, oh man. And then they take off or whatever. Well, David's better than that, because he actually slew the lions. Okay? Anyways. So now the combat begins in verse 38. It says, In Saul armed David... I'm sorry, we're in verse number... Are we in 38? 38. Oh no, verse 37. David said, Moreover, the Lord that delivered me out of the paw of the lion, out of the paw of the bear, he will deliver me out of the hand of the Philistine. And Saul said unto David, Go on, the Lord be with thee. He was like, Amen, brother. I believe in you. Verse 38, And Saul armed David with his armor, and he put in a helmet of brass upon his head. Also he armed him with a coat of mail. And, you know, David's over here like... You know, because Saul's not wearing it, obviously. He's like blowing off the dust of it. Verse 39. And David girded his sword upon his armor, and he has said 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 of him. So David's selection of weapons... This is pretty interesting. He's about to go to war and Saul basically arms him with his own armor. He gives him his weapons. And, you know, you just think about like, you know, putting armor on a little kid or something. The helmet's probably going over his eyes. You know, he's like, he's kind of like, you know, he has a sword. Everything's just really big on... You know, he's like, he's kind of like, you know, he has a sword. Everything's just really big on him. You know, I think of my kids when they put on my shoes and they put on my hat and my jacket or something. He just looks kind of goofy, you know what I mean? But here's the thing is that David knows it, though. Because it says he has says to go for he's not proved it because he's like, let me see if I can even like walk with this. He's like, I can't, dude. I haven't proved this. He understands what his limits are. You understand? He understands that as much as I'm sure he would have wanted to wear the armor and use the sword and look really cool, he knew he was like, I can't do this. You know what I mean? So what does this tell us about David? Well, we'll see. Look at verse number 40. It says, And he took his staff in his hand and chose them five smooth stones out of the brook, and put them in a shepherd's bag, which he had, even in a scrip, and a sling was in his hand, and he drew near to the Philistines. What does it tell us? He just stick with what you know. Right? He's like, I don't really need this. Just give me my staff, the shepherd's staff. You know, give me my slingshot. All I need is five stones. In other words, he knew that at least the fifth one would hit, if you miss four times. He's like, and that's all I need. He just stuck with what he knows. He didn't need anything elaborate, anything fancy, you know, because obviously he didn't know how to use those things. He came to grips with the fact that, you know what, I haven't proved these things, I haven't worn them, I haven't trained with them, I'm not used to using these things, therefore I'm just going to stick with what I have. And you know what, as a church, this is a great attitude to have. We need to stick with what we know, amen? When it comes to soul winning, stick with what you know. Don't try to get all fancy and go to the Old Testament and let me just take you over here to Leviticus real quick, you know. Why don't you just stick to the Romans road? Stick with what you know, amen? And you know what, the longer you soul win, the more you're able to prove yourself, the more you're able to prove all things whole fast, that was just good. The more verses you're going to come up with to win souls to Christ, stick with what you know. Don't try to get all cute in your soul winning. Don't try to use things that haven't been proven and you just come up with your own cute little phrases or whatever, stick with what you know. Stick with what you know works, it was like, what do I know works? Well how about the things that your soul winning leader has taught you? How about the illustrations that you've heard your soul winning partners use? Well yeah, you don't understand me though, that I've been soul winning for six months. I know a thing or two about soul winning. I've got a lot of credentials, okay? Okay. But stick with what you know though. And if what you've learned in those six months has helped you, then use that. Build upon it, but stick with what you know, okay? And so he just sticks with the staff there, the stones, he understands, you know what, I'm not going to... He's obviously not prideful, he's not arrogant, he understands I can't use these things because I have not yet proved them. If I go fight with this I'm going to get whooped, okay? Which by the way says a lot about him because he even put off the mail from him, okay? He has no armor on. Whereas Goliath has a spear. He has a sword. All this guy has is his staff and his slingshot, okay? It's a sling. Look at verse 41. And the Philistine came on and drew near unto David, and the man that bare his shield went before him. And when the Philistine looked about and saw David, he disdained him. For he was but a youth, and ruddy, and of a fair countenance. So basically Goliath is scouring him, he's like... He notices that he is a youth, he's ruddy, and of a fair countenance. He's like, who's this cute little guy running up to me, is this a joke? He says in verse 43, and the Philistine said unto him, unto David, am I a dog? That thou comest to me with staves? By the way, what is a stave? It's a stick. He's calling David a stick. He's like, this is a little pole you're sending to me here, this little spear you're sending to me. And the Philistines cursed David by his gods. So he's scouring him, he's kind of mocking him, he's like, who's this little guy, what is he going to do? 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. So here we see David's selection of weapons, Goliath scorns David, and we're going to see David's courageous speech. Now this is savage. This is like a really good, I mean, he's like, you got some pretty cool weapons there, buddy. Got yourself a sword, spear, and a shield. I got God, though. I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts. This guy's bold. This day will the Lord, he's not saying this day the Lord might deliver you. He says this day the Lord, this day will the Lord deliver thee into mine 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, that all the earth may know about David. Is that what it says? No, it says that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel. And I think this is one of the main reasons God used David. Because he wasn't trying to take credit himself. You know why David was really upset? Because this uncircumcised Philistine was mocking the God of Israel. And what David wanted to do was salvage God's reputation by defeating Goliath and helping all the world to know that God is the one true God. Let me just say this, folks. As individuals, as a church, we can secure our success in this lifetime if we understand that the reason we do the things that we do is for the glory of God. Not to magnify ourselves, not to popularize ourselves, not so you can be so-and-so the best soul winner, so-and-so the best preacher, so-and-so the best leader, so-and-so the best church member. No, so we can show that we have the best God, the greatest God. And if you can show that to God that it's not about you, it's not about me, it's about the Lord, God will work things out together. God will have you triumph and succeed and achieve and accomplish great things because he wants to use you not to glorify yourself but to glorify him. That's why he gave him such a cool victory. I mean, this is a cool victory, folks. It's an awesome story, but it's because David had the motive of showing to all the people that there is a God in Israel. You know, the reason why we have this church is to show this world that there's a God in Anaheim Hills. You know, we showed that there was a God in El Monte, but that city is obviously a reprobate city who doesn't want to retain God in their knowledge. So God's like, alright, I'll take my business elsewhere then. I'll put that church somewhere else and allow it to flourish there. And so our desire should be that we want to glorify God. And look, a lot of achievements can be accomplished and a lot of problems can be solved if we just have this attitude right here. God, what will help me glorify you the most? What can I do to glorify you the most? Because at that point you're taking yourself out of the picture, which is what God wants. The more you take yourself out of the picture, the more glory God will get, the more he will use you to accomplish his will. That's how it works. That's why David is such an awesome person. It's because of that. And you know, he's very confident. He's like, he even prophesies of the fact that he's going to decapitate his head. He's like, I'm not only going to defeat you, I'm going to take off your head. You're going to be food for the birds and some of the beasts of the field. And everyone's going to know that the God of Israel is the one true God. Verse 47, What better way to show how mighty God is than to deliver Israel through a ruddy, fair countenance little dude with a sling and a staff. Right? Because then people look at that and they're like, that had to have been God. That's all God. That had to have been all the Lord. Because this ruddy, fair countenance little guy, he's not capable of doing that. He had to have God backing him in order to do that. And to that we say, amen. He's like, all the assembly's going to know that. And by the way, verse 47, you know, take those words to heart. God's not going to save you by your ability to pull a trigger, by your ability to swing a nunchuck, by your ability to pull out a knife, by your fighting ability, by your arm bars, or spinning back fist, or flying knee. The battles of the Lord's. Look at verse 48, Now that's not there an accident, folks. When the problem comes to you, you face it head on. Run to the problem, not away from it. Right? He's like, David's like, you're too slow. I'm going to come to you. I love this attitude here. You know, like, oh, look at Goliath. He's making his first move. David's like, no, I'm making the first move. He hasted and ran towards Goliath. No, he ran towards the army. No, man, this is awesome. My heart is beating really fast right here. Look at verse 49, And David put his hand in his bag and took thence a stone and slang it and smote the Philistine in his forehead, that the stone sunk into his forehead and he fell upon his face of the earth. First shot. He's running, takes out a stone as he's running, starts spinning it, lets it go. It flies so fast that it sinks into his forehead. I mean, that's some high velocity right there. Right? First shot. Now, it's a stone. You know, like the stone that the builders rejected. Right? The rock of our salvation. He doesn't need a sword because he has a stone. He doesn't need a spear because he has the rock. And I don't mean Dwayne Johnson either. He has the rock of our salvation. Amen? He knocks him down with one stone right through his forehead, you know, piercing the frontal lobe cortex. He just lobotomizes him right on the spot. And the guy falls dead on his face. Dead on his face. 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. He's like, there's no sword. I only have a sling and I prophesied that I was going to decapitate this guy. What shall I do? Verse 51. Therefore David ran, stood upon the Philistine, 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. He's like, man, I only had a sword. Oh, look at that. There's a sword right here. God will provide. David, he like takes it. And I'm sure this sword is so heavy, he didn't even have to swing it. He just had to let it drop on his head. He's like, cleared his head right off. Amazing. Now the principle that we need to learn from this is the fact that, you know, at the end of the day, it's the stone that brings us the victory. It's the rock of our salvation that brings us the victory. It's not by your gifts, not by your talents, not by how much money you have in the bank, not by how many possessions you have, not by how eloquent you are or how crafty you can be or how many witty inventions you have in your mind or how knowledgeable you are or whatever may be. It's the stone of your salvation. It's the rock of your salvation that will deliver you. The salvation of the Lord is what we see there. And that's what David was depending on. And then he decapitates him. So the salvation of the Lord, then David slices his head off. So he cuts off his head. Look at verse 52. Now we're going to see the chase. We're nearing the end here. We're almost done. It's a great story, amen? And the men of Israel and of Judah arose and shouted and pursued the Philistines until they had come to the valley and to the gates of Ekron. Oh, how bold. So now the Israelites are all emboldened, right? They're like, yeah, we're going to kill you guys. It's like, where was that boldness before? But what this shows is that when we stand in the gap, we make up the hedge and stand in the gap and actually do something for God that's courageous, it emboldens others to fight with you. So it's okay if there's only one person standing up to do right. Because that one person's influence will influence others to do right as well. It will encourage others to take a stand, to preach the Word of God, to stand against the Sodomites, to preach against the abominations of our culture, to stand up and do right because of the fact that all we need is that one person to stand up and do right. We just need David. So they arise and they start, you know, chasing the Philistines here. Look at 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 arm in his tent. So he's like walking around with his decapitated head. He's like carrying his head. He's like, oh man, I forgot. I got to put my armor away. He puts his armor in his tent. He's just like walking around with the head. Like, why is that? Well, some have speculated, and I think someone here told me this, and it makes sense. You know, because David pictures Jesus Christ, right, this is very reminiscent of what's going to take place in the end times. Because of the fact that, you know, you have the stone which the builders rejected, it smites the head, known as the New World Order, right? More specifically, we see, obviously earlier than that, the Antichrist receives a deadly wound to the head. But even after all that is done, after Daniel 70th week is completed, we see that the stone which the builders rejected, it smites the head of the New World Order, and the government shall be upon his shoulders. It smites the head off of Goliath, and now Jesus Christ is the head of the world, you understand? So it's very reminiscent of that, okay? So he's just kind of, you know, exhibiting Goliath's head around, just showing everyone, basically what kids would do, right? You know, they kill like an animal, they just want to show everyone, or you know, look what I got. Verse 55, 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, 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 Philistines, Abner took him and brought him before Saul with the head of the Philistine in his hand. He just brings the head with him. 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. And that will conclude there, but what a great story. What an awesome story of a courageous young man who just, you know, just believed in God. Just believed that God can use him. And you know what, the last thing that we can learn is simply this, is that sometimes young people have more faith than we do. You know, than older people do. You know, because of the fact that they just have a tendency to believe God more sometimes. Maybe it's their innocence or, you know, they don't really know all of the things, the factors and elements of this world, but sometimes they have more faith. And our goal as Christians is to just retain that type of faith in God. To have the faith of a child, to have the faith of David. Okay, that when Goliath comes, forget how big he is and what armor he has and weapons he has, you have God on your side. Okay, and so take that to heart. Hope you guys enjoyed that story. Let's pray. Father, we thank you so much for 1 Samuel chapter 17. What a wonderful story. It's an awesome story. I love reading it. And such an exciting story of a young man who just had a lot of faith in God. And I pray that Lord, you'd help us to take that to heart. That when we are faced with the Goliaths in our life, that we would face it head on. That we would haste and run to the battle, not run away from it. And I pray that Lord, you'd continue to give us victories from day to day over the lions and the bears, preparing us for that great battle ahead of us. And may you be honored through us, Lord, and through our church. May this church here exist that Anaheim may know that there is a God in Anaheim. That there is a God in California. That there is a God in the United States. That there is a God in this world. And may we be a burning and shining light of that, a testimony to show forth the praises of Him who has called us out of darkness into His marvelous light. We love you. We thank you. We pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen. Alright, we'll sing one last song. Song number 343. Revive us again. Song number 343. Revive us again. Song 343. Revive us again, everyone. Nice and strong all together on that first verse. We praise Thee, O God, for the Son of Thy love. For Jesus, who died and is now gone above. Hallelujah, line of glory. Hallelujah, amen. Hallelujah, line of glory. Revive us again. We praise Thee, O God, for Thy Spirit of life. Who has shown us our Savior and scattered our night. Hallelujah, line of glory. Hallelujah, amen. Hallelujah, line of glory. Revive us again. All glory and praise to the Lamb that was slain. Who has borne all our sins and has cleansed every stain. Hallelujah, line of glory. Hallelujah, amen. Hallelujah, line of glory. Revive us again. Revive us again. Fill each heart with Thy love. May each soul be rekindled with fire from above. Hallelujah, line of glory. Hallelujah, amen. Hallelujah, line of glory. Revive us again. .