1 SAMUEL 17 PURSUING GODS HEART DURING GIANT BATTLES2017 Teaching by Jerry B Simmons

Teaching Transcript: 1 Samuel 17 Pursuing Gods Heart During Giant Battles

You are listening to FerventWord, an online Bible study ministry with teachings and tools to help you grow deeper in your relationship with God. The following message was taught by Jerry Simmons in 2017. You can turn with me to 1 Samuel chapter 17, unless you're in junior high and high school. In that case, you can head out with Jonathan across the way. We're going to be here in 1 Samuel chapter 17 this evening.

It is a very famous passage, a very famous chapter, because here we find the encounter of David versus Goliath. And so we're going to consider this encounter and what it means for us, but

As we usually do, we want to begin by reading through a piece of the passage that we're looking at. And so we're going to look at verses 1 through 10 here of 1 Samuel chapter 17. And so let's read through this passage and then we'll get into the message that God has for us this evening. 1 Samuel chapter 17 verse 1 says...

Now the Philistines gathered their armies together to battle and were gathered at Soko, which belongs to Judah. They encamped between Soko and Assyria in Ephes Damim. And Saul and the men of Israel were gathered together and they encamped in the valley of Elah and drew up in battle array against the Philistines. The Philistines stood on the mountain on one side and Israel stood on a mountain on the other side with a valley between them.

And a champion went out from the camp of the Philistines named Goliath from Gath, whose height was six cubits and a span. He had a bronze helmet on his head, and he was armed with a coat of mail, and the weight of the coat was 5,000 shekels of bronze. And he had a bronze armor and his legs and a bronze javelin between his shoulders.

Now the staff of his spear was like a weaver's beam, and his iron spearhead weighed 600 shekels, and a shield-bearer went before him. Verse 8, Then he stood and cried out to the armies of Israel and said to them, Why have you come out to line up for battle? Am I not a Philistine, and you the servants of Saul? Choose a man for yourselves and let him come down to me. If he is able to fight with me and kill me, then we will be your servants."

But if I prevail against him and kill him, then you shall be our servants and serve us. And the Philistine said, I defy the armies of Israel this day. Give me a man that we may fight together.

Here we are introduced to Goliath in 1 Samuel chapter 17 as he challenges the army of Israel and really challenges and says, forget this army to army combat. Let's just settle this one-on-one. I'll represent the Philistines. You guys pick one guy to represent you and let's settle this right here on the battlefield, just the two of us. Now,

Now, as we've been looking at the book of 1 Samuel, we've been looking at and considering the theme of pursuing God's heart.

And now we finally got to David, who is the man who pursued God's heart according to God's own declaration. He was a man after God's heart. And so we get to see that modeled and demonstrated in David here in chapter 17 as we look at this encounter. And so we're talking about this evening, pursuing God's heart during giant battles. And I want to encourage you this evening to be thinking about right now,

some giant battles in your life, perhaps giant battles that you've faced in the past, giant battles that you're encountering right now, or giant battles that are on the horizon for you, that you anticipate, you know that there are some things that one day you're going to have to deal with these things.

One day these things are going to have to be addressed. And these things, and you know it's coming, and you're just waiting for that day. And as we look at the example of David here, we get some great insight for pursuing God's heart during these huge issues and huge things that we have to face.

in life. And so I want to encourage you this evening to be pursuing God's heart, to let David be the example for you for how to deal with these situations that you will face in this life. And as we look at verses 1 through 10, it gives us point number one for this evening, and that is you will face giant threats. This is a fact of life.

as Jesus gave the parable of the wise and the foolish builders, right? He talked about the wise builder who built his house upon the rock and the foolish builder who built his house upon the sand. He compared both of them to whether or not they heard the words of Jesus and did them. They both heard the words of Jesus, but the ones who did the words of Jesus and lived out what Jesus said built his house upon the rock. And the one who heard Jesus but didn't do what Jesus said built his house upon the sand, right?

But the interesting thing about that parable is both houses experienced severe storm. The torrents beat against both houses. And the only difference between them was one was built on the rock and so it stood and the other, when it faced the storm, collapsed because it had no foundation.

And as we look at these first 10 verses here of 1 Samuel 17, we need to recognize, first of all, and come to terms with this reality that we will face...

We will face dangers. Even you might describe them as giant threats or giant battles in our lives. And we talked about this a little bit last week as well as we did an overview of the life of David in the various seasons that we go through as believers. And sometimes it's seasons of apparent failure. And there are seasons of great threats that we experience. And we talk about this a little bit last week as well as we did an overview of the life of David.

And again, these are maybe things that you might be experiencing right now, that we go through these various times in our lives, and sometimes the threat is different than other times in our lives, but sometimes there's a huge family issue that is just overwhelming.

over, you know, looming over us in our lives and dominating, you know, the things that are taking place. Sometimes at work, there's these huge situations, a big crisis, some type of, you know, major event or major thing that is happening, and it's a giant threat.

Sometimes we face medical issues in our lives and it consumes us. And there's, you know, and not even in a negative way in the sense like inappropriately consumes us, but it's just, it's all you can do to survive. It's all you can do to push on and to do what needs to be done to get better and get through that medical condition.

Sometimes paying the mortgage is the giant threat that you face. Sometimes it's direct spiritual battles, as we talked about on Sunday, that the spiritual...

things that we face, as Paul explained in Ephesians chapter 6, that we don't wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers and rulers of darkness of this age and the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. And we saw that there is the reality and the very dangerous threat of the enemy, and he has great power, and we need to be aware of that. And so there are some giant threats that we face in this life.

There's big enemies that stand before us, and we need to pursue the heart of God in the face of those enemies.

But first we have to come to terms with this reality. You will face giant threats. It's going to happen. And if you don't feel like it's happened yet, well, you're next. It's a reality of life. We're going to face these kinds of issues that God doesn't shelter us from the storms of life. He helps us through them. He, you know, takes us through the battle, but

But we still have to face the battle. And we still have to have the giant Goliath standing right in front of us many times. And this guy is really impressive. Now, jumping back here into chapter 17, verse 1.

It tells us that the Philistines gathered their armies together to battle, and they were gathered at this place, and Israel was gathered on this place, and it's describing this two hills, and don't think of like massive mountains. Think of like, kind of like the foothills over here off of La Sierra, that area, you know, it's like there are two hills, and then there's a valley in between, and so they're camped out on one side, they're camped out on the other side, they're right there facing each other, and then they would meet in the middle.

And as they would have this setup and the kind of like this, you know, show that they're putting on the threats that they're giving to one another, out comes Goliath into the midst. In verse 4, it tells us, a champion went out from the camp of the Philistines named Goliath from Gath. And it says his height was six cubits and a span.

Now, a cubit is believed to be about 18 inches, or the measurement from the elbow to the fingertip, you know, so that varies depending on person. It also varies historically, so there's not an exact measurement. But 18 inches is the conservative estimate for a cubit. So six cubits, and then a span. A span is the distance from your thumb to your pinky. It's usually considered to be about nine inches.

So the reality here, as we look at Goliath, is that he was at least, conservatively, we're looking at probably nine feet, nine inches tall. Nine feet, nine inches tall. This is the man who walked onto this battlefield and is going to now challenge anyone to hand-to-hand combat, to one-on-one duel. Now,

Nine feet, nine inches. I don't know how well you can picture that kind of size. So I wanted to kind of give you some perspective. So starting to just compare Richard to myself, Richard's a whopping four foot, six inches, and I'm five eights. That's just a little joke. He's actually five six. Okay, so I shorted him a foot. Okay.

But by means of comparison, we also have Rick Dominguez, 6'1", and I was trying to think of anybody in our congregation that's taller than him. I think he's probably the tallest at the moment. So he's the closest to Goliath, although he's probably a little bit skinnier than Goliath was. But so you can kind of see the scale there. And then Goliath would have been a little bit taller. Yeah.

Now, you may or may not have noticed this image, but if you look back towards the door, right, attached to the light is that picture. You can't see it from this side because it's, you know, facing the door. But turns out these lights are right about nine feet, nine inches tall.

tall. Goliath would have had to duck his head or he would have hit his head on these light fixtures that we have. I mean, that's the height that we're talking about. That's the kind of giant that faced the army of Israel. And now I would ask you to consider this evening, are you facing anything that big?

Are you facing anything like that? And we do. We go through seasons. We go through battles. We have issues in our lives that pop up and that roar their heads. And there are these huge threats that you just stand there and look up and wonder, how on earth am I ever going to be able to survive this, much less be victorious?

There was a big enemy now on the battlefield. But not only that, this big enemy had some heavy armor. Verse 5 tells us, he had a bronze helmet on his head and he was armed with a coat of mail and the weight of the coat was 5,000 shekels of bronze.

And he had bronze armor on his legs and bronze javelin between his shoulders. So he's decked out in this bronze armor. And we don't know the total weight of everything, but it specifically says the chain mail that he wore, that was 5,000 shekels of bronze. Now a shekel was a unit of measurement.

And so it was a weight, you know, that they would use to measure out things. And so when they measured this out, it required 5,000 shekels. That was the weight. Now, for us in our system today, that's equivalent of about 125 pounds. So picture that the chain mail that he wore. I mean, have you ever been backpacking and, you know, you kind of wrestle with that 30-pound pack? You know, it's like, can we get it down to 20, please? I got to hike four miles, you know? Uh,

125 pounds would have been just the chainmail, not to mention the rest of his armor and the things. They estimate it was probably about 200 pounds in total, all his armor together that he was carrying and had on him as he was going into battle.

And so this giant, by himself, he would have been, you know, a huge opponent. But now he has this armor that is, it is strong. It is, you know, impenetrable, impossible to get past, you might imagine, or you might begin to think. But not only does he have this heavy armor, but he has powerful weapons. In verse 7, it tells us, the staff of his spear was like a weaver's beam.

and his iron spearhead weighed 600 shekels, and a shield bearer went before him.

And so he had this staff, uh, for his spear and it was like a weaver's beam, which probably doesn't mean a lot to us, but it means it was, it was long. It was hefty. You know, it wasn't a little stick, a little twig, you know, that, that little shepherd staff. It was, it was hefty. It was, uh, something to, you know, to take note of. And then the spearhead weighed 600 shekels. Now, if you're good at math, you've already figured out that's probably about 15 pounds, uh,

we're talking about. Now, 15 pounds isn't heavy for a dumbbell, but for a spearhead, that's at the end of what he throws. Now, you understand that would be a huge threat to anyone. That would be a huge threat to any kind of armor you could wear, that this would be a powerful weapon that Goliath had. So you have this big enemy with heavy armor and powerful weapons, and

And he has loud threats. In verse 8, it tells us,

But if I prevail against him and kill him, then you shall be our servants and serve us. And the Philistine said, I defy the armies of Israel this day. Give me a man that we may fight together.

Here, Goliath is showing absolute defiance and disgust with the army of Israel, challenging them, calling them little girls, calling them big sissies, you know, saying, come on, let's do it one-on-one. You know, we'll fight on behalf of the armies. And he's shouting these loud threats,

Very intimidating, you could understand, as he is there with his huge stature and heavy armor and powerful weapons. And now he's shouting at their face.

And saying, you guys are weak and you're not going to be successful. You might as well give up right now. That is the challenge that Goliath is throwing at the army of Israel. And again, as we discussed on Sunday, this is a tactic of the enemy and something that he uses quite frequently, that he brings this intimidation against us. So again, I would remind you, you will face giant threats.

You are going to have obstacles in your life that are large and loud and tell you just to quit, tell you just to give up. Are you facing things that big in your life? Facing things like that that are huge and heavily armored and have powerful weapons and are a great threat to you.

or to your family, or to your workplace, or whatever the case may be, that these are the kinds of things that we face. Now, I think it's interesting to consider this. We're gonna get into David and David facing this giant, but here's something you need to think about. This is not something that only David experienced because he was a man who pursued the heart of God, but this is something that all of the army of Israel faced, right?

All of the army of Israel, including Saul, who was not seeking after God, who was not trying to please God, he faced this giant also. He had this giant in his life. And the point I'm wanting to make here is, with or without an all-out pursuit of God and a seeking to please God in your life, you're going to face these giant threats. You're going to face, you're going to have these huge issues and obstacles in your life.

Now, the primary difference between David and all the rest who were too fearful to come against Goliath is David pursued God's heart. David walked with God and sought to glorify God. And because of that, he had what he needed to face the giant and to be victorious in that battle.

And so we'll see that begin to develop in verses 11 through 27 as we come to point number two, and that is you can respond differently than others. Check out how the army of Israel responded in verse 11. It says,

So Goliath comes out again with his impressive stature and heavy armor and powerful weapons and loud threats. And it has their intended effect on the army of Israel. They are intimidated. They are freaked out. It says they are dismayed, but I think it's interesting, dismayed and greatly afraid. They weren't just dismayed and they weren't just greatly afraid.

But the author here is making a point to record for us, they were both dismayed and greatly afraid. And I don't think that has to do, you know, with the exact details of the definitions of these Hebrew words, but he is using this combination to describe to us the condition of their hearts and where they were at. They were absolutely in a position of helplessness.

They weren't just a little bit troubled by this. They weren't, you know, just greatly afraid, but they were absolutely undone. They had no idea how they were going to get through this. They had no idea what was going to happen. And it just emptied them of all willpower, of all strength. This is how the army of Israel responded. But David's going to come on the scene now and he's going to respond differently.

He's going to see the same scene, hear the same words, see exactly the same situation, but he's going to have a different response because David pursues God's heart and he really does trust God. Verse 12. Now David was the son of that Ephrathite of Bethlehem, Judah, whose name was Jesse, who had eight sons. And the man was old, advanced in years in the days of Saul. The three oldest sons of Jesse had gone to follow Saul to the battle.

The names of his three sons who went to the battle were Eliab, the firstborn, next to him Abinadab, and the third, Shammah. Verse 14, David was the youngest and the three oldest followed Saul. Now we saw last week that

In chapter 16, that David is introduced to the throne room of Saul in that as Saul had this distressing spirit, David would be on the scene to play the harp and Saul would be able to be calmed and alleviate the pain and the things that he was going through.

But it wasn't a permanent, full-time position. David would come and go. And that's what's being described here. He would be with Saul. Now as Saul's on the battlefield, David's been at home watching the sheep, you know, going back to his original role. In verse 15 it says, but David occasionally went and returned from Saul to feed his father's sheep at

at Bethlehem. And so there was this kind of constant back and forth. David would go for a little bit to be there, to play some music when it was needed, but then he would head back home. But now as he's going to be, well, in verse 16 it says, and the Philistine drew near and presented himself 40 days, morning and evening. Then Jesse said to his son David, take now for your brothers an ephah of this dried grain and these 10 loaves and run to your brothers at the camp.

and carry these ten cheeses to the captain of their thousand, and see how your brothers fare and bring back news of them.

So David's at home with his dad watching the sheep, and they're unaware of this threat. They don't know what has happened. The news hasn't reached them yet. And so Jesse says to David, hey, why don't you go check on your brothers? Here, take some supplies, you know, go provide for them, and go see how they're doing. We haven't heard back from them for a while. Usually the battles are, you know, don't take this long. We should have heard something back. So go see what's going on. And it tells us that for 40 days this has been happening, that David's

Over a month, Goliath has come out and shouted at the people and, you know, been on the scene, this impressive looming figure over them, challenging them, and they're just sitting there in defeat. Verse 19. Now Saul and they and all the men of Israel were in the valley of Elah fighting with the Philistines.

So David rose early in the morning, left the sheep of the keeper and took the things and went as Jesse had commanded him. And he came to the camp as the army was going out to the fight and shouting for the battle. For Israel and the Philistines had drawn up in battle array, army against army. And David left his supplies in the hand of the supply keeper, ran to the army and came and greeted his brothers.

So David gets to the camp just as they're lining up again. And it seems like it was just kind of a daily routine. They would line up and shout at each other from either sides of the valley and

and threatened to come and attack, you know, threatened to come and fight. And then Goliath would march out, and then everybody would just give up. Okay, never mind. And then next day, they would talk to themselves, okay, this time, today we're going to do it. We're going to really go into this battle. We're going to actually do this today. Today's the day we go fight. And so they would go line up again and shout again, and they would shout, and then Goliath would show up. And then, you know, so it just gives us this picture of this daily routine. And David shows up as

Israel and the Philistines are drawn up for battle and they're shouting and they're psyching themselves up and they're getting ready for the battle. Verse 23, then as he talked with them, there was the champion, the Philistine of Gath. Goliath by name coming up from the armies of the Philistines and he spoke according to the same words. So David heard them.

Verse 24, and all the men of Israel, when they saw the man, fled from him and were dreadfully afraid. So now as David is on the scene, he gets his introduction to Goliath. He's there talking with his brothers. They're getting ready for the battle. He's, you know, just kind of catching up, seeing how things are going. And Goliath, boom, boom, boom, boom. He shows up on the scene.

And he speaks the words that we saw earlier. He challenges them. He defies the armies of Israel, calls them weaklings and little babies and says, you know, let's fight one-on-one. In verse 24, you can see the men of Israel, when they saw Goliath, they're still in the same condition. 40 days later, after going through this and, you know, going through this routine day after day after day after day, they're still in the same position. They fled and were dreadfully afraid.

Verse 25, so the men of Israel said, have you seen this man who has come up? Surely he has come up to defy Israel, and it shall be that the man who kills him, the king will enrich with great riches, will give him his daughter, and give his father's house exemption from taxes in Israel. David's new on the scene, and so the guys around him begin, have you seen this guy? I mean, check this guy out. He's nine feet, nine inches tall. He's got this huge armor. He's got these powerful weapons, and

Man, Saul's given some great promises where whoever could defeat this guy, but we don't know who could defeat this guy. None of us are bold enough to step up and to do it. Now, again, I would ask you to consider this evening, are you facing anything this big? And there are things that we face in life, and there are things that we go through that cause people to behave just like the army of Israel, to be dismayed and greatly afraid. Verse 11.

And verse 24, to flee and to be dreadfully afraid. When you go through those situations that everybody else is freaked out about, overwhelmed by, do you have that same reaction as the people around you? Or do you have a different reaction? And the point is you can respond differently than everybody else.

It is pretty common for us to kind of get caught up with and sucked into the same kind of responses, you know? So the boss comes and says, look, it's going to be rough, but here's the new deadline for this project. And then everybody's like freaked out and grumbling and complaining and, you know, you don't have to respond just like everybody else does.

The family gets the news. Here's the situation. Things aren't like what we expected. They aren't like what we thought. And all of the family freaks out. But you can respond differently than others. You don't have to have the same approach and outlook as everybody else. Notice how David responds here in verse 26.

It says, Verse 27, David's response is not like the response of everybody else.

They're fleeing. They're running. They're hiding. They're dreadfully afraid. David's like, what did you say the reward was? You can already tell right here. We're not even into the part where he's, you know, getting bold and declaring what he wants to do, but you can already tell he's interested. This looks like an interesting possibility here. What did you say the prize was? I could do this. You can see the heart of David here that he's ready to face this battle. It's his first encounter, right?

It's the first time he's introduced to Goliath. Everybody else is still freaked out after 40 days of this. But David is there and he says, this isn't that big of a deal. Now, as David approaches this, you need to understand David is able to have this attitude because of his pursuit of God's heart. And you can see in verse 26 at the end, he says, who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God?

David is not out for his own glory, and we'll deal with that more in a minute. But he's not just, you know, one of those guys who's just always looking for a fight, you know, and never saw a fight that he didn't want to be part of. You know, that's not what David was like. It's not that he was just thirsty. He just wanted something challenging. He just wanted to do something crazy, you know, because he woke up with a crazy, you know, itch today, and he just was like, I'm going to do something crazy.

But what really struck at the heart of David is this guy is defying the armies of God. He's coming against God. And it's God's glory, it's God's honor that's at stake. And so David here is interested in the opportunity. I will step up to defend the honor of God, David says. I will step up to do the work of God. I will step up because I want God

to be glorified and honored before the Philistines and before the nation of Israel. And this heart, again, it's about pursuing the heart of God. What does God want in this situation? What does God want in this scene? And how does he want us to react? And let me just remind you that you have the choice. You can respond differently than everybody else.

That you can make the choice to respond in a way that honors God and that represents God, that reflects the heart of God. I don't know what you're facing and if you're facing anything this big, so big that even everybody around you is freaked out and greatly afraid and dismayed and dreadfully afraid and unable to face the issue at hand. But you don't have to be overcome by that same fear.

By that same dread, you don't have to respond the same way, but you, pursuing the heart of God and desiring for the honor and the glory of God, can have a different response. So you know, God's able to handle this. God's able to work even in the midst of this. As I was thinking about this point, I was reminded of Isaiah chapter 54, verse 17, where

where the prophet Isaiah declares, what really God declares through the prophet Isaiah, no weapon formed against you shall prosper. And every tongue which rises against you in judgment, you shall condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and their righteousness is from me, says the Lord. Here's what God says, no weapon formed against you shall prosper. Now,

Don't mistake and try to take this and twist it to mean that you won't have any battles or even that you won't have any defeats. But no weapon formed against you shall prosper. The enemy will not have his way. This is your heritage as a servant of the Lord. This is your rightful place that God will have his way in your life. And no matter what the enemy brings against you, he doesn't get to have his way.

Your heritage as a servant of the Lord is that God is on the throne and he will complete the work that he began in you. And so we have this great promise. And that's a good reminder of why we don't have to respond like everybody else does. We respond sometimes like there is no hope, even though we have these promises from God.

We respond as if the weapons formed against us will prosper, even though we have this promise that it won't prosper. We respond like everything's not going to work out together for good. When we have the promise that God will work all things together for good to those who love him and are the called according to his purpose. We respond, well, remember what Paul wrote to the Thessalonians?

as they were worried about and concerned about the believers who had died. And they thought, man, they've missed out on the rapture. They've missed out on what God has in store. And Paul says, look, you need to understand, we're going to be caught up together to meet them. And he uses that to explain, look, so when a believer dies, we sorrow, but not as those who have no hope. We respond differently than others.

Because we have these promises of God. We have these words of God. We have what God has declared to us. And so we can face the same giant. We can face the same situation. But that doesn't mean that we have to. Now, this is an important point because it is very easy to get caught up in the crowd and their response. And when everybody else around you is freaking out, giving up,

It's easy to just fall in line and to be right along there with them. But I want to encourage you this evening, as one who is pursuing God's heart, you don't have to give up when everybody else gives up. You don't have to freak out when everybody else freaks out. You can choose to trust God and seek to honor God even in the midst of this huge battle that you are now going to face.

And that's what David does here. He's seeking the honor of God. He's saying, look, this guy is fighting against God. It's kind of like we read about Jonathan a few chapters earlier. Jonathan came to the conclusion, all of a sudden one day he realized, you know, God's big and he can save us if it's just a couple people. He doesn't need a whole army to save us. And he goes and he tests the waters and God uses him to start a great victory. And David here has that same heart. He's saying, look,

It's not about me. It's not like David is saying, I'm so amazing. Goliath will be no problem. He's saying, Goliath is trying to fight against God and God's bigger. This isn't that big of a deal when you compare Goliath to God. You compare Goliath to Richard and there's a substantial difference. But you compare Goliath to God and it's the reversed substantial difference. Goliath is nothing different.

And the things that we face, although they're massive for us, if you zoom out enough to see God in the picture, you'll see that God is much bigger than anything that we face. So big that he can handle the problems that we're in and the issues that we face, and he can arrange them for good for those who love him and are called according to his purpose. And so our job is to focus on loving him, pursuing the heart of God. But as we pursue the heart of God,

In the midst of these difficulties, in the midst of these giant battles, moving on now to verses 28 through 39, you also need to understand that you will experience resistance from others. That's point number three. You're going to face giant battles. There's going to be great threats in your life. And many people around you in the same circumstances are just going to be undone and have nothing left and give up. But you don't have to respond that way. But understand that as you

choose to not respond the same way, there will be some resistance. And if you're not prepared for this, this can be very discouraging and it can like, you know, suck the wind out of your sails. You need to understand right up front, right at the get-go, as you seek to honor God, especially as everybody else around you is just given up in that pursuit, there is going to be some pushback to your decision to

to glorify God and pursue God's heart even in the midst of this battle. You will experience resistance from others. Verse 28, now Eliab, his oldest brother, heard when he spoke to the men. And Eliab's anger was aroused against David and he said, why did you come down here? And with whom have you left those few sheep in the wilderness? I know your pride and the insolence of your heart for you have come down to see the battle.

Here, David gets some pushback. He gets some resistance. As everybody else is freaked out and given up, and David says, what did you guys say the prize was? I might be interested in that. I might fight this guy. I might be willing to do that. And his brother, Eliab, overhears. And here comes the judgment and the accusation. David, your heart is wrong.

David, you have no idea what you're talking about. Your pride and the insolence of your heart, you've come down here to see this battle. And there's this disgust that Eliab has for David as he judges David's heart. Now, it's not accurate. It's not the truth, but it's the accusation. It's the judgment that Eliab brings. And check out David's response. He just gives some gentle truth. And David said, what have I done now? Is there not a cause?

I haven't done anything wrong. Look, there's a reason. There's a Goliath. And he just goes on in verse 30. Then he turned from him toward another and said the same thing. And these people answered him as the first ones did. Hey, I might be interested. What'd you guys say the reward was again? What's going to happen if this guy is defeated? David is falsely accused, but what does he do? He just carries on. His motives are questioned. What does he do?

He just gently says the truth and just carries on. Listen, this is really important because sometimes it hits us out of left field and it's your brother. You wouldn't expect that judgment and that accusation to come from them. But here's your brother saying, dude, you're just messed up. You're wrong. Your heart's wrong. You're way off. And we can be rebuked even though we're pursuing the heart of God. And at that time, there's a temptation. There's a very real temptation.

to stop pursuing the heart of God and to give up on what he has prompted in your heart. And so be ready. There will be some pushback. You will experience resistance from others. And let me just say that sometimes we're familiar with this. This isn't like, I can't believe that would ever happen. I mean, we know this even before we read these verses, right? We've experienced that in our lives. And within the church,

I would suggest that sometimes we hold back from doing what God puts upon our heart because of our anticipation of what other people might think or what people might say is going on in our hearts. And can I just say, stop that?

Just stop it. Listen, if God puts it upon your heart to do something, if God directs you to go pray, if God directs you and puts it upon your heart to step out in faith and do something new, if God puts it upon your heart and stirs you up, go for it. And you can be paralyzed and you think, well, I don't know, Dave's gonna think I just am...

out for my own glory, and I'm just trying to, you know, establish my kingdom, and gather my following, and get well known, and be famous on Twitter, you know. And we can talk ourselves out of what God has put upon our heart by worrying about what everybody else is going to think. Now, there is absolutely room for wise counsel, and we receive from one another, and that's absolute room for that. But don't let

Other people's opinions and their estimation of you and your heart stop you from actually doing what God has called you to do. And sometimes we do it to ourselves because we wrestle with, we have this desire to teach, let's say. And I'm using that as an example because that's what I'm very personally familiar with. It's kind of a weird thing to be gifted to teach. And there's all kinds of weird battles that you have to fight in your mind. And sometimes you wonder, am I doing this right?

for my sake? Do I have this desire to teach for my sake? You know, is it for me? Is it because I want to be well known or liked or, you know, even preparing a message? Am I working hard to prepare this message because I want to be a good teacher and be thought of as a good teacher? I want to, you know, come across this way? Or am I preparing and working on this for your benefit and for God's glory? You know, there's all these battles that we have to face in our mind. But listen, you

Don't quit because there are those battles. If God's put it on your heart to teach, then pursue it. Develop that gift. Learn how to teach and volunteer and offer to teach. And sometimes it's like, I can't believe he offered to teach. He just wants the glory. You know, it's like, no, if God's stirring that in your heart, then make yourself available. Look for opportunity and go forward with what God's put upon your heart. Now, I'm just using teaching as an example, but you get the point. Whatever God's stirred upon your heart,

You go for what God has said. You do what God has said. Make sure it's from God. Make sure it's the Lord stirring you and prompting you. And that's where feedback and people around us can be extremely valuable, especially those that God has placed over us in authority. But so many times I think we hold ourselves back and talk ourselves out of what God wants us to do because we're so concerned about what other people might think or say or talk about us, trying to figure out whether or not we're in it for our own selves or in it for God's glory.

ambition to serve God is good. Paul told Timothy, this is a faithful saying, if a man desires the position of a bishop, he desires a good work. He goes on to say, here's the qualities, here's the character. And you can't, you know, remove that and just say, hey, you desire it, great, you have it. No, no, there's qualifications, there's character. You have to have character. You have to be one who actually pursues the heart of God. But listen,

If you're desiring to please God and to know God and walk with God and he puts things upon your heart, then do what God has called you to do. Regardless of if your brother stands there and says, oh, you just want glory. You just want this. You're just thinking about that. And when that happens, because it will happen, just carry on like David did. Just keep on pressing forward. No, no, God's stirring something in my heart. I know my brother says this about me, but what does God want to do? Verse 31 says,

Now, when the words which David spoke were heard, they reported them to Saul and he sent for him. Then David said to Saul, let no man's heart fail because of him. Your servant will go and fight with this Philistine. And Saul said to David, you are not able to go against this Philistine and fight with him for you are a youth and he a man of war from his youth. This scene is so comical as you kind of picture it in your head, right? Here's David. Now, we don't know exactly how old he was, but most likely he's a teenager, right?

He's not, you know, full grown. He's not this massive, you know, I can't think of any modern day wrestlers. Hulk Hogan is the only one I can think of. That's a long time ago. John Cena or something like that. Anyways, he's not the rock. There we go. He's not the rock, okay? He's not just like, like if the people were lined up, you'd be like, oh yeah, David, that's the guy I want to fight Goliath. No, no, he's just a kid, right?

And he's not normally a warrior. He's usually got a harp. He's out in the field watching sheep. You know, he's like, he becomes a warrior. Okay, so don't get me wrong. He could fight. But you understand, that wasn't like his life. That wasn't like who he was. It wasn't like the natural thing. Like, oh yeah, pick David. He's the natural one to do this. And so here's David standing before King Saul.

who is a head and shoulder above everybody else. Remember King Saul? He's tall, probably taller than Rick, right? So if there's anybody who's close to matching Goliath, it's King Saul. But he's sitting there scared. He's not going to do it. And here comes this little kid. He says, hey, don't let everybody freak out. I'll go fight him. Like, you dumb kid, you know, you think you can just do whatever you want. It's not going to be easy. You know, he's not going to go easy on you. I mean,

And Saul says to David, you can't go against him. You're a, you're just a kid. He's been fighting since he was a kid. He's going to take you out easily. And again, we see you will experience resistance from others. And you say, hey, I want to go do that work for God. And here comes Dave again, man, big discourager. He says, you can't do that. You're just barely a brand new Christian. Yeah. How do you expect to be able to do that? You don't even have your own life together.

How do you expect to be able to do that for God? How do you expect to be able to accomplish that or pray for that person or do this or do that? And sometimes it's someone around us. Sometimes it's the enemy just speaking to our own minds. But there comes this discouragement. Again, everybody else facing this is just giving up. And there is pressure for us to give up too. But David, a man who pursues God's heart, he presses on. Saul says, no, you can't fight him. But verse 34, but David said to Saul, your servant used to keep his father's sheep.

David here, in response to Saul saying, you're just a kid. What do you know? He says, no, no, I fought a lion. I fought a bear. And this isn't David just, you know,

humble brag, you know, like trying to like say, no, no, you don't know how serious I am. I mean, I'm really impressive, Saul. Once you get to know me, you'll recognize how impressive I am. No, David is recognizing God was with me then.

So I can trust him to be with me in this. Verse 36, your servant has killed both lion and bear and this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them seeing he has defied the armies of the living God. Moreover, David said, notice, the Lord who delivered me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear, he will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine. And Saul said to David, go and the Lord be with you.

You can see here very clearly, David's confidence is not in his techniques or his strength or his experience. His confidence is in the Lord. God has delivered me from lions. God has delivered me from bears. And this uncircumcised Philistine, this guy who's fighting against God, God's gonna protect me against that. I can trust God in this situation. That's what David is saying. And so Saul says, go and may the Lord be with you.

Now again, this whole scene, like, I just can't wrap my mind around being in Saul's shoes and saying, okay, kid, yeah, go ahead. I mean, just send a little kid to slaughter. Like, Saul has become so defeated in his lack of pursuit of God, he's willing to just let some dumb kid go. I'm speaking from Saul's perspective, right? That he's just so given up. But David is here saying no.

Listen, I have experience. God has worked in the past and I trust God to continue to work. As you face these experiences, as you face these giant battles, call back to memory those previous battles that God has delivered you from. And let that be an encouragement for you and a model and a reminder. God's gotten me out of those situations before. He's worked mightily on my behalf before. Here is David. He really does trust God.

So Saul says, okay, I'll let you go, but you got to do it my way. Verse 38. So Saul clothed David with his armor and he put a bronze helmet on his head. He also clothed him with a coat of mail. David fastened his sword to his armor and tried to walk for he had not tested them. And David said to Saul, I cannot walk with these for I have not tested them. So David took them off.

Saul says, okay, you can go, kid, but here, put on all this armor. And, you know, I don't know where Saul's mind and heart was at at this time, but maybe he kind of hoped, well, David will put this on and realize, oh, yeah, I'm no match for Goliath. Look, I can't even fit Saul's armor. Remember Saul? He was tall. He was big. He...

He was impressive in size. And so here's David and he's like, I can't even walk in this, you know, they're kind of like falling over. Again, it's kind of a comical scene when I play it over in my head. Maybe it wasn't as funny as it looks in my head, but he could barely walk. He can't even move around. And he says, I can't wear this. This isn't mine. This isn't for me. I haven't tested this. David is saying, I need to go with what I know, with what I have experience with. And so he's going to go forward now. Now,

He experiences resistance from his brother, judging him and accusing him. He experienced, you know, the discouragement of Saul and then the direction of like, you know, here, you have to do it this way. If you're going to battle, here's how we battle. But David's going to do something completely and radically different. He's going to approach the battle in a way that no strategist would have ever come up with. Because David is a man who pursues the heart of God.

He's going to battle with God's plan. He's going to battle with God's strategy. And again, this is where we need to be. Following the example of David, are you facing something big? Are you willing to go forward, but there's that resistance, there's that judgment, there's that direction. You have to do it this way, and it just doesn't fit.

Doesn't fit what God's put upon your heart. I like what Dave Guzik says about this. He says, often people try to fight with another person's armor. They see God do something wonderful through someone else and then they try to copy it without really making it their own. This is never how God's work is most effectively done. Sometimes we're gonna go fight the battle and it's someone else trying to impose upon us

certain things. Sometimes it's us looking at, oh, look at Saul's armor. Man, I want to, I could really be effective if I wore that. Look at how he leads worship. Look at how he does this. Look at how he handles his family. Look at how he is in the workplace. And we think, you know, that's the formula. If I just put those same pieces of armor on, then it'll be effective.

But the reality that we learn from this as we go forward looking at David, there really is no substitute for you having a real relationship with God and hearing from him and doing what he puts upon your heart. And if you're just trying to copy other people, you're trying to wear Saul's armor, you're not going to be effective. We got to pursue God's heart. We got to give ourselves to know God and to want to please God above all else and above everything else.

Well, finishing it up now in verses 40 through 54, we have point number four. And that is, you must know God, trust God, and glorify God. Verse 40. And so here we see David doing something radically different.

He doesn't reach into the armory. He doesn't go throughout the army. Hey, anybody my size? I'm going to go face Goliath. Anybody have something Micah wear? What does he do? He takes his staff. He goes and gets a few small stones from the brook, and he draws near the Philistine. Doesn't make sense. This isn't master strategy. This isn't some ingenious plan. The only thing that's ingenious is that David has heard from God,

He's seeking to glorify God, and so he's going forth at God's direction. David wasn't comfortable in Saul's armor, and his trust wasn't in, I have to have this superior armor. His trust wasn't in, I have to have better weapons. He trusted God to use the simple tools that he had. And listen, this is really important. We can be so caught up in the tools sometimes, so, you know, enamored with

Well, I could really be victorious in this battle. I could really accomplish great things, you know, if only I had this or that. And the reality is God can take you. And you might think, man, somebody else could pray for that person way better. God might say, not in my handbook. I pick you. Paul tells us that God chose the foolish things of the world to confound the wise.

David says, I'm not going to try to fit somebody else's mold or fit somebody else's armor. I'm just going to use what God has given to me. You know what I have experience with? A sling. I know it's not really impressive, but God's called me to this. I'm going to use what he's given to me. I'm not going to try to force him in some mold that others expect of me or that I think is going to be successful. David is not trusting God.

in himself or in his tools. He's trusting in God. God can use the simple things. Verse 41. So the Philistine came and began drawing near to David and the man who bore the shield went before him. And when the Philistine looked about and saw David, he disdained him for he was only a youth, ruddy and good looking.

So the Philistine said to David, am I a dog that you come to me with sticks? And the Philistine cursed David by his gods. And the Philistine said to David, come to me and I will give your flesh to the birds of the air and the beasts of the field. Then David said to the Philistine, you come to me with a sword, with a spear and with a javelin. But I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied.

This day, the Lord will deliver you into my hand and I will strike you and take your head from you. And this day, I will give the carcasses of the camp of the Philistines to the birds of the air and the wild beasts of the earth that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel. Again, here it's clearly revealed. Where's the heart of David in all of this? He knows God, he trusts God and his desire is to glorify God.

Again, I like the picture here. The Philistine, Goliath, he sees the commotion, right? He sees, all right, the crowd's partying. All right, someone's coming. All right, armor bearer, you know, come on, take my shield. And he gets ready. He like, you know, starts to get ready for the battle. And all of a sudden, he's a giant. I imagine giants have bad eyes. A little kid? Yeah.

You think I'm a dog? Like, what is this? He's just as perplexed as we are looking at, Saul, you let this little kid come fight me? Like, what's wrong with you? He's cursing David, defying God, trusting in his armor and his strength. And David calls him out on that and says, you come to me with the sword and the spear, but I come to you in the name of the Lord.

I am here for God. I am here for God's glory. And this day the Lord will deliver you into my hand. And notice he says at the end of verse 46 that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel. David's heart, David's desire is for God to be known and for God to be glorified. This is

is the heart of David because he pursues God's heart. He really wants God to be known. And this is the key for any battle that we face and any giant that we face. This needs to be our heart. This needs to be our desire. And I said, look, if God's stirring something in your heart, go for it. But also, make this your desire. Make this your passion that all the world would know that there is a God.

God loves to use simple vessels so that I don't get the credit and I don't get the glory, but God has chosen the foolish things of this world that he might be glorified. There's going to be great threats. There's going to be great opportunities. Either way, pursue the heart of God and go forward and do what God has put upon your heart for the glory of God. That's what David desired.

Verse 47, then all this assembly shall know that the Lord does not save with sword and spear, for the battle is the Lord's, and he will give you into our hands. We don't wrestle against flesh and blood, David said. That's not the real battle. It's not with sword and spear that God is like concerned. You know, I don't know how we're going to get victory over the Philistines because we're missing a couple swords. You know, God's not concerned about that. He doesn't need those weapons. He

And David's willing to trust God and go with what he has as God prompts his heart. Verse 48. So it was when the Philistine arose and came and drew near to meet David, that David hurried and ran toward the army to meet the Philistine. Then David put his hand in his bag, took out a stone, and he slung it and struck the Philistine in his forehead so that the stone sank into his forehead, and he fell on his face to the earth.

So David prevailed over the Philistine with a sling and a stone and struck the Philistine and killed him. But there was no sword in the hand of David. Therefore David ran and stood over the Philistine, took his sword and drew it out of his sheath and killed him and cut off his head with it. And the Philistine saw that their champion was dead and they fled. David goes forward trusting God using simple tools and

He invests himself. I mean, he puts himself on the line. He hurries and runs towards the army to meet the Philistine. And God directs that stone right where it needs to go. One shot, boom, Goliath is down because David pursued the heart of God. This isn't just random. I mentioned it before. It's not just David. You know, he just liked to pick a fight and just wanted a good challenge. The Lord was prompting David's heart. Through all of this, the Lord was stirring this up.

Because David was pursuing the heart of God. He was wanting to know God. God has already declared, this is a man after my own heart. This is one who is seeking to glorify me. God says, I can use that kind of person. They're going to be successful against all kinds of giants. They're going to have victories. God's still looking for that, and he's still able to work. And so again, considering all the battles that we face and the giants that we face, we could face a variety of things.

And you could try to fix your family problem using the armor of the person next to you, you know, and just like everybody else trying to fix the same problems with the same tools and not being very effective. But do you know God? Are you doing what God is putting upon your heart? Are you following what he is saying? Because you are pursuing the heart of God, that the thing that matters most to you is that God is honored and glorified in your life. You could have victory in that situation.

You can come out differently. You can approach it differently. You don't have to respond and have the same results as everybody else. In the workplace, when everybody else is dismayed and broken up and just defeated, you don't have to have the same attitude, the same heart. When everybody else is just given in to the same corrupt behavior, you don't have to just give in to the same corrupt behavior. You can do different. Pursuing the heart of God and responding as God speaks to your heart.

And again, on and on and on, any difficulty we face, these truths supply. We have for us a great model in David, a man after God's own heart, encouraging us to do the same, to pursue God's heart. And in doing so, we can face giant battles. Amen? And so let's take some time just to do that this evening, to begin to pursue the heart of God. Kim's going to lead us in a song and

As she does, let's just call out to God and seek to know him and seek to honor him. At any time during the song, if you feel the need, you're prompted by the Lord to pray for one another. Don't talk yourself out of it. Don't worry about someone judging you for why you might be praying for someone. Just do what God puts on your heart. Pray for one another, encourage one another, ask for prayer, whatever needs to happen. Let's take this time, spend it with God and pursue his heart and respond as he speaks to our hearts.

Let's worship the Lord together.