Slaying the Giant Pt 3

do to you, Lord. Lord, we just thank you that we live in a country, Lord, where we can freely worship you and praise you and spend time in your word. Luxury, Lord. So Lord God, we just thank you that we're able to do what we can and do what we do. We ask your blessing upon this evening, blessing upon the word as it goes out, and help us to lift a joyful noise to you. We love you and we praise you in your precious and holy name. Amen.

And have a seat if you like. God, we just thank you for how good you are to us, Lord God. Pride for us, Lord, which was paid for. We give you thanks for what you've done for us, Lord, for the new life that we have in you. And God, this evening as Pastor Ryan comes, pray that you just speak mightily through him. God, just speak directly to our hearts, Father. We love you, we praise you, and we thank you. In Jesus' name, amen.

All right, before I get out of here, it's Pastor Ryan's birthday.

Happy birthday to you.

I'm pretty sure I'm fired now. I was going to say we should have cut that mic off a couple minutes ago. All right. Yeah. Well, good evening. There's nothing I'd rather be doing on my birthday than teaching God's word. So open up to the book of 1 Samuel chapter 17. 1 Samuel chapter 17. John 3.16. Tonight we come to, I would say, one of the most familiar passages of scripture,

maybe of all, besides maybe John 3.16, and it's the story of David and Goliath. I suppose there's probably been movies made about this, but I can't believe that there's not been a more epic movie made about this because it's just such a great story. And so the title of the message tonight is, of course, just slaying the giant, because while what David does is amazing, it's not what he's trying to do. It's what he's trying to do. It's what he's

amazing. There's also great spiritual lessons we can learn from what they go through. Now, the last time that we left David, God had anointed him as king. And after God had anointed him as king, of course, he still remained as a shepherd boy, taking care of the flocks, but he also was given another job. And that job was to play music for the king, because King Saul had come to a

place in his life where he was so far from God that God had actually removed his spirit from him and put an evil spirit on him. Judgment, if you will, was coming upon the life of Saul. And so the only thing that made him feel better was for David to play music for him. And so David spent part of his time living in the palace with Saul, which was probably pretty good for David, because he learned a lot about what it looked like to be a king from that. But he also spent part of his time

in the fields. And so that was the last time that we left David. So when we pick up tonight, we pick up in verse one of chapter 17, and this is what it says. It says, now the Philistines gathered their armies for battle, and they were gathered at Soco, which belongs to Judah. And they camped between Soco and Ezekiel in that place that I can't pronounce. Saul and the men of Israel were gathered together and camped in the valley of

Elah, and they drew up in battle array to encounter the Philistines. And the Philistines stood on the mountain on one side, while Israel stood on the mountain on the other side with the valley between them. Okay, so before we get to Goliath, in this first portion of scripture is called a challenge from Goliath. That's the first point that we're given here. Before we get to that, though, this picture is painted. So I want you

to put yourself in the scene a little bit, because I think that's an important part of reading God's word, especially stories of the Old Testament. Kind of allow yourself to paint that picture in your mind. Picture the rolling hillsides of around Bethlehem, around Jerusalem, of kind of that southwest portion of Israel. Now, don't picture like Ireland-type hillsides, right? Because it's

not Ireland. Picture rocky hillsides and perhaps a valley that maybe does have some grass down in it, but rugged terrain, but a beautiful valley that flows down through there. And on each side of the valley, you have what they call mountains, but what those of us that have been to the mountains would probably call foothills, right? Giant hills, right? And on one side, you have all of the armies of Israel, and on the other side,

you have all of the armies of the Philistines. Now, the Philistines, of course, are an enemy that has faced Israel for quite some time now. We were introduced to the Philistines in the book of Judges. As a matter of fact, it was Samson who first started facing the Philistines, and that battle has continued now. And so both armies are ready to go. They're ready to go to

Bethlehem. Battle, right? But they're kind of waiting for the right time, trying to maneuver against each other, figure out what the best way to go to battle is. But the entire army is ready. Saul is ready. He's a pretty good military leader. But there's one little kink in things. There's one little wrench that's thrown into this whole situation, and it comes in verse 4. Then a

champion came out from the armies 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 clothed with scale armor, which weighed 5,000 shekels of bronze. He also had bronze greaves, or if you will, shin guards, on his legs, and a bronze javelin slung between his shoulders. The shaft of his spear was like a weaver's beam, and the head of his spear weighed 600 shekels of iron, and his shield carrier walked.

Before him, he stood and shouted to the ranks of Israel and said to them, why do you come out to drop in battle array? Am I not the Philistine and you servants of Saul? Choose a man for yourself and let him come down to me. If he's able to fight with me and kill me, then we will become your servants. But if I prevail against him and kill him, then you shall become our servants and serve us. Again, the Philistine said,

I defy the ranks of Israel this day. Give me a man that we may fight together. So the first thing that we're given is this picture of Goliath, right? So we're told that he was a pretty tall guy. His height was six cubits and a span. And I bet you're thinking to yourself, how tall is six cubits and a span? It is somewhere in the general range of nine foot tall,

anywhere from about eight foot eight to about nine foot six, how you add all that together. So that's a pretty tall guy, but let me paint the perspective for you of how tall that is. So I did a little measuring yesterday while I was down here working. And from where I'm standing on this stage to that ceiling is about eight foot eight inches. So imagine if you will, that from where I'm standing right now to that ceiling,

Goliath was at least that tall, if not taller. That's a pretty big dude, right? Like we hear those numbers, but we don't always think about those kinds of numbers, right? Like I've been around some really tall guys in my time. My best friend in high school was six foot five. And so we were pretty fun to watch walk around together because you may not realize this, but I'm not tall. I know I put that off. Like I'm a pretty tall guy and have really

long legs, but I don't, I'm only five foot six. And like I said, my best friend was six foot five. So we shopped in completely opposite ends of the spectrum. Anytime we had to buy jeans, right? I was buying a pant leg of his and he needed something that would cover my entire body. Anyway. So, so that's about how tall this guy was only. He wasn't just a really tall guy.

This was a big burly guy, right? Don't picture Kevin Durant, right? Picture Shaquille O'Neal. Cause he was just, he was a force to be reckoned with. And I know that because of this, because we're told what kind of armor he carried. It says in verse five, that he had a bronze helmet on his head. He was clothed with scale armor, which weighed 5,000 shekels of bronze. And he had

bronze greaves, if you will, vanguards over his legs and a bronze javelin and the head of the, the spear weighed, uh, where'd it go? 600 shekels of iron and his shield carrier walked before him. Now, if you were to add up all of that armor, all of that armor weighed somewhere in the range of about 175 pounds to about 225 pounds. Now I thought that's a lot of weight, but I wonder if that's only because I don't carry that around all the time. So I did a little bit of research. I would say,

our most elite fighting force in United States military, there's probably arguments over this, depending on what branch you serve in, but I would say the most elite fighting force are the Navy SEALs, right? And so I looked up how much does the gear that a Navy SEAL carries weigh? Because these guys are, these are solid dudes, right? Like they have to train really hard to do this. The gear that they carry weighs anywhere from 80 to a hundred pounds. So basically double

at least the gear that the most elite warrior, and the United States military is able to carry. And if you've ever seen someone like a Navy SEAL completely geared up, you're like, whoa, that's a lot of stuff that they're carrying. So he's got twice as much of that on him. So he's a big, powerful guy. And did you also hear how he was described? Look back up in verse four, because I think that word is really important. He is a

champion. In other words, this wasn't just some averagely big guy, right? I remember growing up, being around the really big guys. And anytime I saw a tall guy, which from my perspective was almost everyone, anytime I saw a tall guy, I thought, I bet they're really good at basketball, right? And then you see them play basketball and you're like, maybe not. Maybe they're actually not

good at basketball. But then you'd see a guy who was just a unit, right? And then they could also be athletic enough to play ball. And you're like, wow, that's pretty amazing. For instance, I'm a Kansas City Chiefs fan. And Chris Jones, who by the way, is a giant and much smaller than Goliath. Chris Jones, I think is like six foot six or something like that, maybe six foot four.

And if you ever see him next to average human beings, you're like, wow, that guy, that guy's a beast, right? I would not want to meet him anywhere, really, other than just to say, hello, sir, it's really nice to meet you. I would not want to face him. But the guy moves so fast and you're like, wow, how can you be that big and move that fast? That's so scary that you're able to do that,

right? And that's kind of like Goliath, like he's just this big guy who's a champion. He's not new to war. He's not making these boasts because he's never been, he's making these boasts because he's never been beaten, right? So he's this champion. He is a giant. And this is the challenge that he puts out. He says, why would we do all of this war stuff? You choose a man. You choose one

representative from the armies of, and you can almost hear the disdain in his voice when he says the armies of Saul. Choose one man who can come to you and say, I'm going to do this. I'm going to come to you and say, I'm going to do this. I'm going to do this. I'm going to do this. I'm going to come and fight me. And we'll just make this a battle between me and that guy. And I promise you

all win, but whoever wins, the other will be the servants forever. And then he goes on to talk a little bit of smack, right? He goes on and talk a little bit of trash. He, he says, I defy the armies of Israel. Can you even find a guy who can do this? Right? He's, he's very intimidating in the way that he puts things across. Well, I got to thinking about, and I thought, you know, we all face giants in life, right? So sometimes those giants are actual

physical things, physical people, maybe that you have to face for me, it's everyone, but, but some of our actual people that you have to face, but more often than not, it's situations, it's things, it's, it's stuff that we deal with in life that sometimes seems a little bit bigger than us. And I thought I should make a list of the giants that we face, but then I thought, no, I'm not going to do that. I'm going to make a list of the characteristics of the giants that we face. So this is the list that I made of the characteristics of the giants that we face in life. Number one, they are big. The giants that we face in life

are big and whatever the giant is for you, whatever it is that seems overwhelming to you in your mind, at least it seems like a really big thing. And in your mind, it can be a huge thing that you're facing, whatever it is, whatever the giant, you have to deal with right now in your life, it feels really big. The second thing about the giants that we face in our life is that they are powerful. And I think sometimes we sell ourselves short and other people sell us short and they say, listen, you're, you're making that way too big.

No, genuinely, some of the giants that we face are, are powerful things. Some of the things that we have to deal with in life truly are powerful and they have power in our life. Otherwise it wouldn't be a giant that we are facing, right? The third thing is that they are intimidating. Those giants that we face are sometimes the most intimidating thing and they strike fear in our heart. And we think I could never overcome

that because it's entirely too intimidating. And it's constantly calling out to me saying, I defy you. Just see if you think you can face me, just see if you can overcome me because you can't. And so those things are really intimidating in our lives. But then the fourth thing about giants is that they always seem impossible to defeat. They always seem impossible to defeat. And apart from God, they probably are.

And so the nation of Israel finds themselves in a place where they're facing this giant. And this particular giant has a name. His name is Goliath. And he's a real human being. That's very big. That's very powerful. That's very intimidating. And that's very, very powerful. And that's very, very intimidating. And that's very, very, very seems impossible to overcome. What's your giant? What in your life feels really big,

really powerful, really intimidating, and like it's impossible to overcome? Because I want to tell you right now, if you have one of those in your life, this chapter is handmade for you. So we have seen the challenge that came down from Goliath. But the next thing that we see is two responses. A response of fear and a response of faith. Notice what it says in verse 11.

When Saul and all Israel heard these words of the Philistines, they were dismayed and greatly afraid. The only thing that would be better right now is if it panned to Saul and he said, I am dismayed and greatly afraid. That would have been an amazing moment in the Bible. They didn't do that. Samuel thought that seems like the not right thing to do there. But here is Saul and all

of the nation of Israel feeling somewhat dismayed. And he said, I am dismayed and greatly afraid. And he said, I am dismayed and greatly afraid. That would have been an amazing moment in the Bible. He was somewhat overwhelmed and fearful about what's going on. Do you know why Saul was probably fearful? Who is the tallest guy in all of the nation of Israel? His name was Saul. He wasn't

just kind of taller than everybody. He was a head and shoulders taller than everybody, right? Now, I've never been given a measurement on Saul. I actually tried to look up what was the average height of a Jewish man at that point in time. I couldn't find anything. Maybe I just didn't look close enough or Google for long enough. Interestingly enough, when I said how tall is,

Jesus popped up a whole lot. Like that must be a search a lot of people have. How tall was Jesus? So I thought that was kind of an interesting, interesting thing. But Saul's pretty scared because he's going, hey, head and shoulders taller than everybody in the nation of Israel. Everybody's going, gosh, who could fight that guy? Saul's going, don't look at me.

You know why Saul's scared? What has left Saul? The spirit of the Lord. He doesn't have that spirit inside of him any longer because where does that boldness come from? That boldness comes from the confidence that can only come through the Holy Spirit and that's gone. He doesn't have that anymore. And so all of the nation is looking at their leader and their leaders freaked out.

So what does all of the nation do? Well, they're all scared too, because they're like, dude, the tallest guy here, the greatest warrior, if you will, that we have, is that scared? Maybe we should be that scared. I'm not as experienced of a warrior as he is. I'm not as big as he is. I definitely can't do that. And so it's interesting to me how fear, oftentimes begets more fear. Have you ever noticed that? That when one person, especially

if they're a leader, is really nervous, if they're really scared, everybody that's following them, they tend to be pretty scared too, right? That's why sometimes you have to move forward in confidence in spite of your fear. That's what bravery really is, right? And so this is how the nation is responding. They're like, I don't think so, Tim. But I want you to notice David. Notice what it

was. It was the son of the Ephrathite of Bethlehem and Judah, whose name was Jesse. And he had eight sons. And Jesse was old in the days of Saul, advanced in years among men. The three older sons of Jesse had gone after Saul to the battle. And the names of his three sons who went to the battle were Eliab the firstborn, second to him Abinadab, and the third Shammah. David was the

youngest. Now, the three oldest followed Saul. But David went back and forth from Saul to tend his father's flock at Bethlehem. And then the Philistine came forward morning and evening for 40 days, and he took his stand. Now, again, I want you to think about the intimidating presence of this guy who undoubtedly, because big dudes almost always have a big voice, although sidebar,

it's always funny when they don't. Can we all agree with that? Big voice that just boomed. And when you speak in a valley like that, it tends to carry sound really well. Every day for 40 days, this giant stood up and said, you can't beat me. If you can find somebody to fight me, I will defeat him. And all of the nation of Israel, day after day after day, heard this and felt defeated more and more and more.

Again, perhaps you can relate with the people of the nation of Israel. Perhaps you're facing a giant in your life. And every day that giant stands up and says, you can't win. You will always struggle with this. You will always battle with this. I will always defeat you. And pretty soon, you kind of start to believe the giant, right? And that's exactly what the nation of Israel is doing. So David, who is the youngest,

is watching the flocks. And I think this is an interesting point to be made about David too, because remember, one day David is in front of the king playing music to soothe him when he has those spells, when he has those times when he's a little bit discouraged. But when he's not playing music for the king, when he's not the king's personal worship leader, what does he do? He goes back home and says, listen, I know I used to take care of the sheep, but that's not really who I am anymore. I'm sort of a big deal now.

I think somebody else should take care of the sheep while I'm home. I need to rest up. I need to make sure the calluses on my fingers don't go away so that I can keep playing that harp the way that I'm supposed to. I really need to be working on my music, you know, to make sure I've really got stuff for the king. I got to stay focused. No, that's not what he does. What does he do when

he goes back home? The guy who was playing music for the king goes back home and hangs out with the sheep. Why? Because he was a shepherd. And shepherds take care of sheep. Shepherds lead. Shepherds serve. And that's exactly what David did is he took care of his sheep. And so he would come back from doing that and he would lead the sheep. And as he would lead the sheep, God would teach him things. God would teach him exactly what he

would need to know. And we're going to see in just a few minutes that that time of leading the sheep was incredibly necessary for what he would have to face, not only with Goliath, but with everything else he would have to do with the name of God. So he would go back and he would take care of the sheep. He was David, the youngest, taking care of the sheep. Well, what were his three oldest brothers doing?

Out fighting the war. Actually, they were out being scared. So Jesse, verse 17, said to David, his son, take now for your brother an ephah, this roasted grain, and these 10 loaves and run to the camp of your brothers. Bring also these 10 cuts of cheese to the commander of their thousand and look into the welfare of your brothers and bring back news for them. For Saul and they and all the men of Israel are in the valley of Elah fighting

with the Philistines. So David arose early in the morning and he left the flock with a keeper and he took the supplies and went as Jesse had commanded him. And he came to the circle of the camp. And while the army was going out in battle array, shouting the ward cry, Israel and the Philistines, the Philistines, the Philistines, the Philistines, the Philistines, the Philistines, the Philistines drew up in battle array, army against army. And then David left his baggage in

the care of the baggage keeper. And he ran to the battle line and entered in order to greet his brothers. And as he was talking with them, behold, the champion, the Philistine from Gath named Goliath was coming up from the army of the Philistines. And he spoke these same words and David heard them. And when all the men of Israel saw the man, they fled from him and were greatly

afraid. So once again, do we have the picture painted in our mind of what's taking place here? Here's this young man who, by the way, had already been anointed king, didn't care that much about that, was going to do what his dad told him to do, who goes up to the battle line to deliver some things. And he goes through and as he's talking with his brothers, as he's having this conversation, hey guys, how are things going? I thought a whole lot more fighting would be going

on right now. It seems like there's a whole lot of standing going on right now. Why is everybody just standing here? And you can imagine, I don't think this happened because I don't think one of walking would have shaken the ground, but you can almost picture it, right? You can almost kind of hear the ground shake a little bit as Goliath walks out. And as he walks out, that booming voice

cried out across the valley, the same thing that he'd been crying out for 40 days. And as he cries out the same thing, he's been crying out for 40 days. All of the men of Israel fled and were greatly afraid. All of the men, including who? His brothers, right? Because all of the men of Israel fled. So the men of Israel, verse 25 said, have you seen this man who's coming up? Surely he's

coming up to defy Israel. And it will be that the king will enrich the man who kills him with great riches and will give him his daughter and will make his father's house free in Israel. In other words, free from taxes. Hallelujah. Then David spoke to the men who were standing by him saying, what will be done for the man who kills this Philistine and takes away the reproach?

From Israel. For who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should taunt the armies of the living God? And the people answered him in accord with his words saying, thus, it will be done for the man who kills him. Now, again, you can imagine what has taken place over the last 40 days with all of the fighting men, right? First day, Goliath comes out and Saul goes, anybody,

anybody up for this one? Anybody want to, I know I'm tall, but we can't lose me. Okay. I'm a pretty big deal here. I can't do this. Anybody up for doing this? A couple of days go by. Nobody. Okay. I'll tell you what, whoever does this, I will give you great amount of riches. I will give you more money than you can imagine. If you do this still, nobody comes forward, right? It's kind of like when the

boss asked for overtime, who has to work overtime? Then they have to keep adding. Well, next time he goes, okay, tell you what, whoever's willing to go out and fight him, I will not only make you incredibly rich, but I will give you my daughter. As your wife. Ooh, you could be, you could be the son of the King, right? That'd be, that'd be pretty amazing. That one still didn't work. Interesting. So about 30 days goes by and all

of a sudden he comes out and says, not only will I make you rich, not only will I give you my daughter, but I'll tell you what, I'll throw in the fact that all of your family, totally free from taxes. Nobody ever has to pay taxes again. Now, right now, a lot of people would go, ah, hmm, probably not. Still can't get anybody to go forward. And David hears this and he goes, whoa, what do you mean?

All this is going to be done for the one who, who does, who takes care of this guy who destroys the one who would defy the armies of Israel. Who is this uncircumcised Philistine? I love this. David talks a little trash on him. Who is this uncircumcised Philistine? And right then everybody went, oh, right. And he says he would come and defy the armies of the living God. David knew who

David was fighting for. David knew what this really meant because it wasn't just the nation of Israel and their reputation that was at stake. It was the name of the living God that was at stake. Now, as he's sort of getting a little righteous anger roll and he's about to get going with things, notice what happens. Now Eliab, his oldest brother heard when he spoke to the men

and Eliab's anger burned against David. He said, why have you come down here? With whom have you left those few little sheep in the wilderness? I know your insolence and the wickedness of your heart. You've come down to see the battle. David said, what have I done now? Typical little brother. Was it not just a question? And then he turned away from him to another and said the same thing. And the people answered the same thing.

Now, David sees a giant and he knows all those things are true. He knows he's big. He knows he's powerful. He knows he's intimidating, but you know what David refuses to believe? That he is impossible to defeat. He does not believe that last thing. He knows the reality of the giant, but he also knows the reality of his God. And he's thinking maybe he wants to do

something about it. But you know what happens to David? The same thing that happens to you and I when we decide to start staring down the giant. The same thing that happens to you and I when we think we might want to take a really big step of faith for God. The same thing that happens to you and I when God starts to use us, he starts to face criticism. Did you notice that? His brother is like, what do you think you're doing down here? What did you

just come here to see a little fighting? You just come here to see a little battle? Who's taking care of those? Did you notice the verbiage he used? Those few little sheep that you have? Who's taking care of that handful of sweaters you got out there, right? Who's taking care of all that stuff? He said, you just are looking for some glory. And David's going, what am I doing now?

And listen, when we face giants, when we take steps of faith for God, we need to expect a few things. Number one, we need to expect a few things. Number two, we need to expect a few things. We need to expect that there will be critics. Listen, somebody's always going to be there to criticize you, no matter what kind of step of faith you're taking. Trust me, it happens all

the time. People will always criticize because when you walk in faith, people that aren't walking in faith, they don't like it because it makes them feel kind of bad about themselves. And so they'll criticize you for it. The second thing that you can always expect is that there will always be people that tell you that you can't. There will always be people that say you can't do that. You're never going to be able to do that.

You go, really? All the time. All the time. When God calls you to do big things, when God calls you to face giants, there will be some people, and they're usually the ones who try to weigh out all the things, which are sometimes really important. But when it comes to taking steps of faith, you have to go, but this is what God called me to do. And I know what you're saying.

I know it sounds impossible. I know it sounds hard, but quit telling me I can't do it because it's what God's called me to do. Number three, there will always be people who don't understand. There'll be people that don't understand. They don't understand your heart. They don't understand your motives. They don't understand your reasons why. And listen, that's okay. God didn't call them

to face the giant. God called you to face the giant. And you have to set aside the criticism. You have to set aside that you can't do it. And you have to set aside the fact that sometimes people don't understand. And you have to move forward with faith in what God has called you to do. And that's exactly what David does. He says in verse 31 that when the words which David spoke were heard,

they told them to Saul, and he sent for him. David said to Saul, let no man's heart fail on account of him. Let your servant go and fight with the Philistine. Saul said to David, you're not able to go against this Philistine to fight with him. You're just a youth. He has been a warrior from his youth. There it is again. Did you notice that? Now David goes to Saul, who's not

willing to face him himself, and says, don't worry. I'm going to do this. I'll go fight him. And what's the first thing? Saul doesn't say maybe we should reconsider this. He says, you can't do it. Right? He goes straight. Jack Nicholson. You can't handle the truth. You can't do this. You're just a kid. And he's been fighting like a man since he was a kid. You can't do

this. But this is why it's important, the life that David had led up to this point in time. Because notice what it says in verse 34. But David said to Saul, your servant was tending his father's sheep when a lion or a bear came and took a lamb from the flock. And I went after him, and I attacked him, and I rescued it from his mouth. And when he rose up against me,

I seized him by his beard, and I struck him and killed him. Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear, and this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, since he has taunted the army's notice of the living God. David said, the Lord who delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear, he will deliver me from the hand of the Philistine. And Saul said to David, go and may the Lord be with you. You know why it was really important that David

continued to be a shepherd? Because all of the time of David hanging out with the sheep in the wilderness prepared David for facing Goliath. Because he faced battles that seemingly were impossible when he was in the wilderness, right? Like Bear Grylls looks at this and goes, I've never done that. Of course, Bear Grylls never did anything, he said. But that's neither here nor there.

He with his bare hands killed a lion, and with his bare hands he killed a bear, because he was going after his sheep, because he was protecting his flock. And quite frankly, he said, God delivered me from them, and God is going to deliver me from this. Friends, do not, do not despise the day of small things. Because God is using every little victory that you have to prepare you for the next big victory. God is using everything that's going on in your

life right now to prepare you for what's coming next. You see, God used David's time of facing the lion and the bear to prepare him for facing Goliath. God is going to use David's time of running from Saul in the wilderness to prepare him for leading the people. God uses everything in our life to prepare us for what's next. And so every time you face something hard, don't just say, oh, woe is me. I can't believe this hard

thing is happening. No. View it as your training ground. Lord, what are you preparing me for? That's why we have to start learning to ask the right questions. Quit asking why, and start asking what. Too many of us, when bad things happen in our life, we say, why? You can imagine it, right? Like David is out in the wilderness with the sheep, and a lion comes along and takes one of the sheep from him, and he goes,

Lord, why? Why am I facing this really hard thing? Why am I facing this difficult thing? Why couldn't you have just protected me from the lamb? Aren't you in charge of all of creation? No, he didn't say that. He said, what? What do you want me to do? Well, I better go get the lamb, because I'm going to have to answer for this, and they're my flock. I'm going to go after them. And what are you teaching me? I don't know yet,

but it's preparing me for what's next. And that's exactly what God was doing with David. And did you notice the answer of faith that he gave? Everybody else is scared, but David said, I've seen God's faithfulness. He delivered me then. God's going to deliver me now. God's past faithfulness prepares us for our present battle. And so, David says, I can do this, but he's going to have to

be able to fight with the right weapons, which is the third point that I want to make here, the right weapons. Notice what it says, verse 38. Then Saul clothed David with his garments, and he put a bronze helmet on his head, and he clothed him with armor. David girded his sword over his armor and tried to walk, for he had not tested them. David said to Saul, I can't go out with these, for I have not tested

them. And David took them off, and he took a stick in his hand, and he chose for himself five smooth stones from the brook. He put them in the shepherd's bag, and when he had, even in his pouch, and his sling and his hand, and he approached the Philistine. Now, there are two different types of weapons that he has available to him right now. The first one are Saul's weapons, Saul's armor, right? Saul says, if you're

going to go, you're going to go with the best armor that you've got. I'll give you mine. Now, what did we know about Saul again? How big of a guy was he? Head and shoulders taller than everybody else in the nation of Israel. So, he starts to put this armor on David. Now, there is some conjecture amongst commentators as to whether or not the armor was actually too big. I'm here to tell you right

now, if that guy was a head and shoulders taller than everybody, the armor was too big. David was probably 15 maybe, max, 20 years old at this point in time. And there, trust me, there is physically a major difference between a kid that's 20 years old and a guy that's 50 years old, right? I'm learning that. And so, there's a physical difference between the two, right? And so, he puts it on and he goes, what am

I doing here? Like, I'm swimming in metal. This isn't awesome. And he tries to walk it. You can just imagine, right? Like he's Frankenstein or something trying to walk around. He said, I can't do this. This stuff doesn't fit me. And, did you notice what it said? I haven't put it to the test. I haven't tested to see whether or not this armor is going to work. You see,

what Saul tried to give David is what too many of us try to use to face the giants, the weapons of the world. You see, too many of us, when we're facing the giants, we try to get all the weapons of the world together. We try to talk to everybody else and say, well, how would you face the giant? How would you do it? And we get all the wisdom from the world. And all the wisdom from the world speaks to us. And we go, those are some great

weapons. And then we try to face the giant with the weapons of the world. And we find that we get beaten. Why? Because they don't fit. They haven't been tested. And quite frankly, they're not the weapons of faith. And so, David says, I can't use all of that. So, what does he choose instead? The dumbest weapons ever to face a giant, right? Remember what Goliath is wearing? He's wearing stuff on his

shins. He's wearing scale armor, which you can picture, just little pieces of metal all over him that weigh an incredible amount. He's got a helmet on. And he carries a spear that is bigger than anyone should ever carry in their hand, right? Like he's carrying a beam with a spearhead on the end of it. That's what he's carrying. And what does David grab? Well, let me read it to you one more time.

So, he took his stick, which is his staff, his shepherd's staff, right? Took his stick in his hand, and he chose for himself five smooth stones. Now, I know what you're probably thinking. Now, wait a second. Goliath is one guy. Why did he choose five stones? Did he not believe that the first stone would kill him? Oh, I absolutely believed he thought the first stone would kill him. But do you know that later on in 2 Samuel, we find

that Goliath had four brothers? I think David was ready for battle. I think he was ready. There you go. And if Goliath's four brothers took off after him, he had a stone with their name on it. Five smooth stones because he used the weapons that he knew, he used the weapons that he was used to, and he used the weapons, listen, of faith. We are told in Scripture that we have weapons that are not carnal

but that are spiritual in nature for the pulling down of strongholds. Let me put it to you in 1 Samuel chapter 17 speak. And those weapons that we have are prayer, the word of God, and the power of the Holy Spirit. We have everything that we need in that to pull down the giants. And so that's what he does. He gets all this stuff together. Sorry, I'm running out of time.

I'm going to keep rolling. I promise. So, verse 41. So the Philistine came on and approached David with the shield bearer in front of him. And when the Philistine looked and saw David, he disdained him, for he was but a youth and ruddy with a handsome appearance. Then the Philistine said to David, Am I a dog that you come at me with a stick? And the Philistine cursed David by his gods.

The Philistine also said to David, Come to me and I will give your flesh to the birds of the sky and the beasts of the field. There's this intimidation, right? He sees David come out. Picture, if you will, this giant, you know, Shaquille O'Neal on steroids coming out, covered in all of this armor. And he's got like a minion next to him, holding the rest of his armor,

holding his shield, you know. And then out walks David. Probably in whatever robe he normally wore to work with the sheep, right? So just like maybe a tattered robe that he's wearing. And he's got a stick and probably some sort of a pouch on his side with a leather sling in his hand. No helmet, no armor, no sword, no armor bearer. And you can just picture Goliath going, You?

You're the guy coming to face me? Oh, this won't be a problem at all. And so he starts talking trash to him. Now, if David was not a man of faith and that intimidation was coming at him, he would have gone, You're right, that's a bad idea. I'll catch you. Catch you on the flip side, right? That's not what he says. David gives it back. I love this. David said this to the Philistine, verse 45.

You come to me with a sword and a spear and a javelin. I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel whom you have taunted. This day the Lord will deliver you into my hands, and I will strike you down and remove your head from you. Get it, son. And I will give the dead bodies of the army of the Philistines this day to the birds of the sky and the

wild beasts of the earth, that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel, and that all this assembly may know that the Lord does not deliver by sword or spear, for the battle is the Lord's, and he will give you into our hands. Isn't that great? This little dude, right, just starts talking some serious trash on him. Only the trash that he talks has nothing to do with his ability. It has everything to do with God's ability. And it's a whole lot

easier to be confident when you have already seen the faithfulness of God. And that's exactly, that's exactly who he is. He's confident right now. So, then it happened, verse 48, when the Philistine rose and came near and drew to meet David, that David ran quickly toward the battle line to meet the Philistine. I would like you to pay attention to that. David ran to the battle line. And David

put his hand into his bag, and he took from it a stone and slung it. And he struck the Philistine on the forehead, and the stone sank into his forehead so that he fell on his face to the ground. David prevailed over the Philistine with a sling and a stone, and he struck the Philistine and killed him. But there was no sword in David's hand. So David ran and stood over the Philistine

and took his sword and drew it out of its sheath and killed him and cut off his head. And then when the Philistine saw that their champion was dead, they fled. Now, I want you to think about something here. What Saul, or what is Goliath wearing on his head? He's wearing a helmet. Some have even said that Philistines at that point in time, when they wore a helmet, it had visors

on it to protect their eyes. So there was pretty good coverage, perhaps even of his forehead. And David slung this stone, and where was it able to penetrate? It sunk deep into his forehead. How did that happen? If he's got this helmet protecting his head? Well, of course, God guided the stone. Was David probably really good with the sling? Absolutely. Was the victory

the Lord's? Absolutely. Did it sink deep into the bronze helmet and into his head? I don't know. I hope in heaven, this is one of the things that we get to watch on repeat. I still go back and watch Gladiator sometimes. I hope every now and then they're like, hey, can we replay that David and Goliath thing? That was awesome. And David's like, would you guys stop? And we're like, no, this is epic, dude. Come on.

He's like, it was all God. We're like, we know, but let's watch it again. I don't know how it happened. So anyway, he falls, and there lies Goliath. And so what does David do? Well, he wants to make sure it's a complete battle. So he takes the sword, and he cuts off his head. Now, I just want to say one thing. When you're fighting against a giant in your life, and you start to have victory over the

giant in your life, don't take any chances. Cut off its head. Put it to death completely. Whether that giant is a sin in your life, whether that giant is anxiety in your life, whatever. If it is an addiction, when you start to have victory, don't take any chances. Finish it off. And that's exactly what David does. And notice what happens. All of the Philistines fled. You can just imagine they're like, yeah, oh.

And then they turn around and run, right? And so the men of Israel and Judah arose, and they shouted, and they pursued the Philistines as far as the valley and to the gates of Ekron. And the slain Philistine, the Philistines lay along the way to Shearim, even to Gath and Ekron. The sons of Israel returned from chasing the Philistines and plundered their camp. I would like to remind you that while

fear begets fear, faith begets faith. That's why sometimes the greatest things you can do is read the stories of other people that have defeated the giants. I think it's a beautiful thing, not only for us to read the stories in the Bible about what God has done, in people's lives, but for you to get your hands on the biographies of great men and women of God from the past who have seen great victory in their life, because it will be one of the greatest inspirations that you have to remind you, God is still in the business of doing miracles. God is still in the business of doing big things. God's still in the business of defeating the

giants. And that faith tends to beget faith in everybody else around us. And that's exactly what happens. So they defeat the Philistines. Then notice what happens, verse 54. When Saul saw David going out against the Philistines, he said to Abner, the commander of the army, Abner, whose son is this young man? And Abner said, by your life, O king, I don't know. The king said,

you inquire whose son this youth is. When David returned from killing the Philistine, Abner took him and brought him before Saul with the Philistine's head in his hand. Take note of the fact that he was not going to let go of that thing. And Saul said to him, whose son are you? And David answered, I am the son of your servant, Jesse, the Bethlehemite. What a beautiful picture of God's

victory. So as we close here tonight, not only do I want to remind you that in your life, your life when you face giants, I know that they're big. I know that they're powerful. I know they're intimidating. And they may seem, impossible to overcome, but the God that you serve is bigger than all of the giants that you can face. The last thing I want to share with you is this. Did you notice

the interesting picture of Jesus that was given to us in this chapter? Did you pay attention to it? You see, in order to defeat the giant, there had to be one substitute, one ambassador that acted for all of the nation of Israel. And that one ambassador gave victory to everyone who would believe in him. This is an Old Testament picture of Jesus giving us victory

over all of the things of the world as we allow him to be our ambassador. And we simply believe in what he's able to do. A beautiful picture of Jesus that's given to us in the Old Testament. So next time we're together, we will continue on with the story of David and Saul and a little bit of Jonathan. But for now, let's pray. Let's pray. Father, thank you so much for who you are. Thank you for your

word. I pray that you would continue to bless it to our souls. I pray that you would bless it to our lives. And Father, continue to lead us and guide us in you. And Father, for every person that's in here tonight, for every person that's maybe watching online, for those that are facing those giants, Father, would you give us that victory that we need? Father, would we start to view

the difficulties in our lives, not through the impossibilities that they present, but through the faithfulness of the God that we serve. And Father, we thank you in Jesus' name. Amen. Be blessed.