Champion Warfare

Good morning, church. Welcome. When you preach the Bible, the whole Bible and nothing about the Bible. So help me, God, you You cover all sorts of parts of the Bible you’ve never heard of. Today is one of those parts. Very obscure moment in your Bible on obscured passage. You’ve never heard of the story of David and Goliath. You’ve never heard of this story before, but that’s fine. I will try to unpack and talk you through that section of the Bible with you, if that’s all right. But just all seriously, um, today will be good. I am, uh I’m looking forward to this, but let’s let’s pray. Well, let’s get in. This should be It should be encouraging to me, at least. Let’s pray. Lord, I thank you for today. I thank you for thank you, Jesus for your church and what you’re doing in your church and how you’re leading and growing and building your church. Ask that you just really give us wisdom as we look at your word. Today I prayed. You just really instruct us as a congregation, I prayed You just really help our collective spirits to being printed by this Chapter 17. The first Samuel, I ask that you were just really instruct our soul. Um, in all these topics we’re looking at today, I thank you that whatever is worthwhile, you will redeem and you’ll drive it home to the heart, to your church. Whatever is worthless. Separate. Just help it toe run off their mind. And they would not focus on Lord, we commit this time to you in Jesus name. Amen. All right, so this matters. This matters in all seriousness to our lives. This story does matter of David and life if you’re Christian or not, if you’ve been around Christianity a long time or this is like a nostalgic, you know, felt bored Sunday school memory. We’re going thio as a young boy, young girl, or if this is, uh, some completely foreign story to you. Um, if some of you might think it’s a legend, a myth tale, a fable. But for most. But this story happened, you could go to this place and go to this valley and see where the armies were in camps on either side of this valley one. But regardless of before we get to the story, I familiarity sets you up for disadvantage. You tend to overlook things. You’ve heard it before. Like I know where he’s going. Jesus, manger. No room in the end, you just kind of you go on autopilot. So I’m gonna try toe, not summarize the way I normally would do It passes before we jump into it. I’m gonna just try toe share this story with you this morning with some fresh eyes, and I’m gonna attempt to make it add some color to it and make it fun for you. Aziz, we learn what God is teaching the church. But I know it’s a familiar to many of you, but I think we can We can work through that. I’m going to get this summer because it can kind of take the tension that the story builds. It takes the wonder and the shocking on the story. It just kind of e think it’ll be good. I so first Samuel 17 as we look at this, eso won. This is setting in a place you can go to your YouTube it and look at videos with this valley that we’re talking about. In the first three verses of first Samuel, 17 but on one hill about as tall as those oak trees. Branches is, uh, one part of this mountain little little Foothill range, and the other side of the valley is another as tall as those oak trees that you drive out of when you leave the parking lot. There’s these two mountain ravine mountain ravine foothill things where the Army’s encamped and there’s a strategic location that they’re on. It’s a very fertile valley in a very agricultural based economy that just there’s a lot of water flowing in this area with that creek, and they’re just natural water rainfall they had. But geography wise, there’s a very strategic location because it was like a choke point for trade. Trade would go in and out of this valley, very common. So if you control the value, not only control the crops in the agriculture in that area, which you could tax the trade that is transferring through that valley, so it’s prime real estate. If you’re playing the boardwalk, it’s ah, its monopoly, its boardwalk a monopoly. This is the place to be the place to set up your place. You wanna own Excuse me, E di, hear my voice when you talk for a living, that’s concerning sorry, online people. All right, so So. It’s the strategic wealthy location. But historians agree this place happened. This battle happened, Um, this exact battle, you can go look at archaeological remains where the soldiers got their paths, where they got their water from and where they encamped and where there’s pottery and it’s not. This is a more like recent ancient history, so this is not really debated. These two nations fought and battled in this location. But before we jump into this deeply, I’d like to talk about hype. According to Wikipedia, the average height of a man in Israel, Israel and average Israel light this morning is 5 ft nine inches tall, 5 ft nine, something like I got it. I’m an average is relight person. That’s great. I’m assuming 3000 years ago when this story, when this event in history took place. The height was not taller and might be a little shorter. But it’s about that 5 ft nine range. I am 6 ft to 6 ft 2.5 depends on how tall you are and how puffy my hair is, but I am 6 ft to my and and here is Brock Lesner. Maybe here’s Brock Lesner. He, uh, is 6 ft three. He Russell for Minnesota State Gophers. I believe he beat one of my teammates and a couple tournaments were at in college wrestling his bands. Big Man. I’ve seen him in person before. He went to the Got even bigger with performance enhancing substances in the W W E. I’m assuming Brock Lesner is 63 We’re talking about heights this morning, and if I lose you at the beginning, I lose you the whole sermon. So the next gentleman is Dwayne Johnson. Wikipedia Clarkson Men at 65 Remember marijuana? This guy thistles Dwayne Johnson anyway. Moving on LeBron James, the best basketball player in the history of basketball. Hey, is 6 ft nine. LeBron James King James. You know who’s 6 ft nine? LeBron James. This is Shaquille O Neal. He notices Shaquille O’Neal dunking on my cousin who’s 6 11, who played in the NBA. He’s over there. Geoff Foster. He’s my cousin. He’s a good dude, but Shaquille O Neal is 7 ft one inches tall. So to give you some, you know, six to Mike. If Shaquille o Neal was standing here, I would be tapping him on the cheek. Right here. 6 ft two is right there above our drum shield. Does that? Does that help you going on to the next photo here? Um, this guy is Ah, Robert Watt Low. He was born in the 19 forties, Grew up in Illinois. He’s the Guinness Book world record holder four, the tallest man at 8 ft 11 inches. That’s big 8 11 11. Okay, so he weighed £490. Guinness Book World record holder for Talisman that that Guinness can clock Goliath in these first few verses of Chapter 17 clocks in at six cubic Sina spanned. So for Bible trivia night, that puts him in at 9 ft nine inches, 9 ft nine inches. So to give you some perspective, the top of that concrete pillar that holds that is where it starts to curve. That’s 10 ft. So you go down three inches from the top of that concrete pillar is 9 ft night. I got the tape measure out this morning. 9 ft nine inches alive, you know, like all right, So we’re giants riel. Let’s circle the wagons there for a second and talk about that. 300 years before the Philistines in Israel, lights fought in this valley that we’re reading about today. The Egyptians reported their Egyptian army clashing with the cannon night Nation, and they recorded, um, five giant, fierce warriors who fought for the candidates who had Giants champions clocking in between 7 ft 29 ft tall. You can see giants and ancient stuff. You can see giants and more modern day stuff. Very large, significant people. I don’t know if I call Shack a giant, but he’s a giant. Some people find, you know, large men in large women is in our planet. I mean, you could go down a rabbit trail on YouTube of deep fakes and fakes of fake skeletons being photoshopped onto photos of dinosaur bones. I’m not talking that, but I’m saying, Were there large, significant people and are there large, significant people that have walked this planet? Yes, there’s a guy in the Middle East who is currently not the tallest, but he’s the tallest man alive. I didn’t pull them up to show you. I thought, that’s enough, But there’s there’s some very large significant people walking the earth at this time. Um, and these giants, um, this giant Goliath, he we look at him and his size and what he has going for him. And so what we’re looking at here is a champion. Warfare is the concept that we’re gonna talk a little bit a little bit about today. It’s the thought Is that one nation’s champion? Their best soldier goes on fights. Another nation’s champion and winner takes all from like a business side of taking over a country. If you have a mass army and you attack a nation and you kill all the men, it really hurts an agricultural based economy. When you kill half the people and then they don’t like you, there’s civil unrest. You just killed all the fathers and sons. And it’s just hard for that land to produce a lot of stuff, read attacks and take as a imposing nations. So this champion warfare, it saved lives. It’s a resource. Is that saved time? It saved it, saved it saved. A lot of it was more leaned upon and popular at this time of biblical battles. Um, it was kind of rare that it would happen, but the whole nation would attack a whole nation. There’s this common thing of champion warfare that we’re experiencing this morning. We look at Goliath as the Philistine champion. Scholars don’t think he was from philistine scholars. Think from his armor. He had some armor that was not from the Philistine Nation. He had the chain mill that they had, but he had some other armor and a helmet that was not adapted to their their local soldiers weaponry. They think he’s a hired mercenary, Ah, hired trained soldier who’s a four gun higher champion that worked for the philistine nation at this time. But we talk about his not just his height, but we talked about his physique. Um, and the technology he had was far advanced in the Israel lights. We talked last couple weeks about how there’s only two soldier to soldiers who had swords in the Israeli army, the king and his son Jonathan, and solve previously, and a lot of the other soldiers have this rag tag throw together kind of guerilla warfare militia kind of army that didn’t have their own weaponry. Goliath has the nicest get up that is up in the battle scenes at this time talks about the weight of his chain mail, the weight of his armory, his shin metal. He had his helmet, his full body shield. Scholars speculate he had this huge spear, which was huge, which was makes me unthinking from the weight of this armor and the weight of his weapons there for offense and defense that he had some mass think. Dwayne Johnson, Brock Lesner slash 3 ft taller. That physique. Not like the skinny, uh, world record holder guy, but more of a muscular, you know, Olympic athletes train psychopath, killer guy. Not good, but think of. Think of this aspect when you’re talking a hand to hand fighting hand to hand champion warfare fighting where it’s mano a mano and you’re finding if your soldiers and weapons and stuff think of boxing. The person with longer reach has an advantage because their arms are longer. I am 6 ft to my wingspan is 6 ft four, which has no bearing in this conversation. Just there’s I have a range that means I can start to impact flick damage on someone who’s got shorter arms or that is shorter because their arms shorter. Does that make sense? If you’re 99 and you have these long weapons, that means you can start attacking someone long before they get close to you. The advantages is through the roof. Physically height range, technology. It is a depressing situation. There’s your light Nation finds themselves in cutting edge armor. I mean, all of this weaponry is advanced, especially for a young, newly created kingdom monarch that’s struggling to just build weapons and establish a standing king and standing army. These weapons extended Goliaths range on an already unfair fight, even beyond what is fair. And Goliath is a true champion. He is a trained career soldier, hired mercenary. He’s the man. He’s the goat of all all champion warfare. He’s I’m sure he’s expensive, and he’s good at his craft of killing champions of other nations. Do we pick up the story in verses? Eight through 10. Champion warfare Goliath goes out, and he’s defying the nation of Israel two times a day for 40 days. That’s 80 times this is This event has occurred where he’s defying the king. He’s defying their God. He’s defying their army. The philistine goal is to put down this rebellion of this young kingdom more than just once, but it’s to put it down forever. They’re trying to break the psyche. They’re trying to break the spirit, break the resolve of this young king who is showing some previous success in battles against them and just squelches rebellion. They’re trying to break the psyche, the soul of a nation, these annoying Israel. Lights keep popping up, spouting off, killing a garrison and fighting here and this father son duos running around doing this guerrilla warfare style. And they’re like, enough. Let’s break them. Not just this army. Let’s break their mental resolve to fight back. So 40 days, two times a day, 80 times psychological warfare of defying their nation, their king, their God, he’s they’re just trying to destroy the nations will to fight back. That’s what’s going on the under trappings of demoralizing a nation. So they quit and they deserve. Okay, if being oppressed. People group verse 11. This text Here we look at displays Saul’s incompetence. He’s growing older and age. He’s an older gentleman, but he had some previous successes in the past, but we looked at last week have been about how uh, Samuel said, you know, the nation will be Tauron from you, just like you tor this robe and how God’s spirit has left you and he he knows someone’s coming. That’s God’s already anointed. Who’s gonna take over the kingdom from him? He knows he’s gonna lose power and lose the kingdom someday. So Saul is in, you know, paranoid panic. You know, I’m losing grasp of what’s happening. This world is too big for me in the last previous chapter last week. But beyond that, um, Saul was, hey was hired and selected to fight the nation’s battles toe lead them in the war. Saul can at this time hire a champion or he’s supposed to go be the champion. And if he can’t be the champion, he wants to hire it off and give that title of someone else. He’s gotta find a soldier and send them out and commissioned them to be the nation’s champion if he’s growing older. But remember that where we said that quote from Maxwell, everything rises and falls on leadership, solace in a hopeless situation, and he’s terrified and he’s discouraged, and his indecision is the decision. And as you sit there and his soldiers get attacked psychologically every day, two times a day. They would become terrorized and demoralized and deserting. And they’re losing men there. They’ve lost heart. The campus filled with fear, with hopelessness, with despair, with dread about the impending doom that a 9 ft nine champion warfare giant is going to kill our champion. And then we will be victims to these Philistines going forward. It’s a hopeless situation, glyphs taunting his, mocking his trash talking. It’s causing deep psychological attacks on these soldiers. The soldiers we’re deserting. They were losing heart. The Philippines goal was to break the will of those people so they would be led and governed by the Philippines. This is humiliating for us all. This is humiliating, hopeless situation. I mean, he’s a head taller than all the others. Re lights a head taller, so I don’t know, a head taller. I don’t I didn’t look that up, but I don’t know if there’s an exact quota for a head taller. My wife’s 59 I think I’m I feel like I’m a head taller, but I’m not quite a head taller probably than her. So, Saul, there’s nowhere to hide Hey, he’s the King bee. He’s the biggest guy in the room and their biggest guy is out here talking trash about us. We need to send our biggest guy out there. Sol, I felt like this once in high school football. I played football my senior year. One year it was a blast. I was this big in high school. My teammates were not this big. They were younger in just smaller on. I remember early in the season before we knew we were bad. Um, we were losing and some teammates came into like Mike. Lead us, Mike. Show us what to Dio. I’m thinking, I don’t know what I’m doing. This is before Madden, so I didn’t know, like how to play football the right way. I don’t know all those coverages and plays and stuff, so they dumbed it down for me, keep contained and go after the quarterback and keep contained and go after the quarterback on a very simple play from. But I felt like there’s nowhere to hide. I’m a head taller than everyone else. We’re all on the sideline. You could all see on the big guy and I don’t know what I’m doing. I I could relate to some of what solves experiencing here about the fear, the indecision, the just the anxiety, the dread, the panic. But that’s where we pick up in the story here of Champion Warfare, the nation’s best when against another nation’s best. But Saul had Saul had some options he could have done. Saul had a couple cards. He could have played a A. They could have all rushed down the hill and attacked Goliath in the evening. When he walked out for the 81st day, they all could have attacked him. I’m sure he would have killed many, but eventually 1000 on one. You know, you’d probably eventually killed glyph option two. He could have consulted the Lord. You don’t see anywhere in the Bible hereabouts all consulting the Lord. You don’t see any of that that God is not consulted. It’s not even an option that is portrayed. Here is an option that Saul would lean into. But what we see here is Saul is playing by the rules that his enemy, Goliath, is lying out for him. This is this seems to be the first time in the nation of Israel’s history there introduced the champion warfare strategy, which is becoming more popular at this time in biblical battles and stuff there used their new Everything’s new to you when you’re a new nation, but they’re playing by the rules that their enemy is setting for them. That your biggest and best fights our biggest and best. Saul is afraid he is not going to fight Goliath, and he’s being demoralized. And he’s losing, uh, relation all currency and legitimacy in the eyes of his soldiers and his generals. But why? It’s also fearful why fearful? This is where this gets very easy to apply to our lives as people living in Lincoln, Nebraska, in the year 2021. We live in a culture that is very fearful and it’s growing. It seems like increasingly mawr, prone to fear, anxiety, fear and anxiety are very common. I’m very aware of that as a pastor, as a person as a person has a brain that’s looking around at the way our country is running were given over to fear in our media and our our, our news and our think about everything that’s been happening politically, economy wise, health wise, you would probably define the year 2020 for your life is a year fear. If not, give it 5 to 10 years, you’ll look back and think, Wow, that was a generation defining year of my life or your whole your peers the rest of your life. You could talk about the year 2020 my older people’s generation before us. Maybe a grand parents would talk about Pearl Harbor and they could talk about that. You’re our generation in this room. You’re gonna talk about the year 2020 the rest of your life, and that whole year has been marked by. Our culture has been marked by fear. Some merited fear, some unmerited, some rials, some perceived, but regardless men and women. We could relate to this if we’re talking about this story, if many different angles, if you look through the angle of just fear and how did the people of God respond to fear? I think it’s highly applicable, like it gets real up in here real fast. The people of God we find are looking at the problem through the eyes of the problem. They’re letting the problem in this story. The Israelites, playing the problem define how to deal with the problem. There’s a suppressive people group imposing their will on the nation of Israel, and they say, Hey, and you gotta fight us our way. Not another way, not God’s way, not their history way. You gotta fight it our way. They’re looking at the problem through the eyes of Goliath. The terms of engagement are being set by their enemy. The thing is, thes relates, forgot their history. The Israel Lights came to the nation of Canaan back and do it around me. 9123 And they have a history of killing the giants and history and in Canaan back and do it around me. Nine. There’s no reference is seeking the Lord. No reference of reaching out toe the religious leaders of the day. No, no moving and advancing or circling around, attacking at night. No creative warfare, no new ideas just marked by indecision, anxiety, fear, dread, depression. That’s what this camp was. Just a heart heartless, hopeless situation. They’re looking at man centered, man centered problems with fearful eyes, and then everything changes. In Verse 24 David arrives, David arrives, and when David arrives, he looks at God centered problems with faithful dies. David arrives and he models. Ah, fear. But it’s a different kind of fear. He models of fear in the Lord he models, Having placed his trust in his confidence in God. David fears someone. And because he fears God, he’s able to be fearless. Everything else that isn’t God in his life. David. Dinner, fear, man. But David did fear he feared God. And we can relate to the Israel lights and have a misplaced fear and have a fear in people. We can fear people. We can fear our employer. Weaken fear, a boss. Weaken fear, circumstances. We can feel our culture. We can feel the what if we can fear the future. We can fear our smartphones and those APS that control us. But we don’t act like they control us. We can fear so many things and what we fear, the wrong thing. We should fear church. We should be a very fearful church. But we should fear the right things. We should fear God the way the Bible causes to fear God. We should put our trust in God. We should put our hope in God. Our confidence in God, not in man made structures that do not control us. Last week we looked at how the spirit of God departed salt. So Saul is operating on spirituals, fumes from a better version of himself in the previous history. And he doesn’t have a living walk with God right now. A living fresh faith in God. Right now, he isn’t a fume faith, not a full blooded faith. See, Christian, the Holy Spirit. If you’re a believer in Jesus Christ, we’re not in the same ecosystem as Saul. Us. That was the covenant age were in the church age. You have the spirit of God sealed in you as a believer in Christ, you have the word of God. That’s an advantage, salted and half spirit of God or the word of God. You have the church and the people of God give, um, or full manifestation of God’s spirit in God’s presence in God’s word in your life. And so for I could relate to salt to, but that doesn’t We don’t have the same tools in the toolbox. Christian. We have a completely different world. We’re in right now. In the 21st Century Post Jesus. Resurrection from the dead were in the church age with the blood of Christ on us with the spirit of God in us with the word of God in our heads hopefully and the people who got around you, You’re operating the different world. When it comes to fear, Christian. There should be courage from your fear of God. You should be strength from your fear of God. There should be power found because you fear God. Think of Joshua 18 You’ve probably heard this verse before. They’re about to enter the nation with the giants, the Canaanites and Joshua says this to this The nation. Haven’t I commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid of or discouraged for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go. The Lord your God is with you, Christian. Think of Psalms 23. Probably another incredibly popular part of your Bible. You probably might have memorized. This is a kid or you’ve heard this before as a kid. Psalms 23. And I would speculate in my mind that David might have pinned this psalm reflecting back on his experience of this day. We’re reading about right now Sounds 23 says this. The Lord is my shepherd. I have what I need. He lets me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside quiet waters. He renews my life. He leads me along the right paths for his name’s sake. Even though I go to the darkest valley, I fear no danger for you are with me, your rod and your staff. They comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil, My cup overflows, Onley, goodness and faithful love will pursue me all the days of my life. And I will dwell in the House of the Lord as long as I live men and women. Psalms 23 I mean, think of David’s life leading up to this moment. David was an obscure shepherd man Shepherd boy, and like it was the lowest job out there. If there was a nice job your dad had and a job no one wanted, it was being a shepherd. That’s like the job you give to your incompetent servants that can’t do anything else. Go shepherd cheap, stand in the field and watch them and lead him this field every day and then leave him here for water and leave him here. I mean, it’s just like it’s kind of belittling beneath you kind of job. David. Two times his life was just jarred out of his normal life. He was going about his normal business of watching sheep, and then the servant ran and got him last week and brought him to his father’s house of all of the seven brothers and all the elders of his tribe around. And then they annoyed him as the oil and called him to be the future king of Israel. He was plucked out of obscurity and dropped into this high stakes situation last week. Now, this week, David is sitting there doing normal life of playing the heart, First Castle and going home and working on his dad’s livestock agriculture area with sheep again, and his dad sends them off to drop off some food, probably gonna play the harp for Saul a little bit and then go back home. He’s in this back and forth in between work world of Saul and his father, and then he gets thrust into this very high stakes critical point filled with dread and fear in the nation of Israel. Think of this topic of fear. I just think it’s amazing getting a picture of David’s mind in Psalms 23. How he views Fear. I’m speculating that relates to this passage we just talked about. Even though I go through the Valley of Death, it feels like a valley of death. If a 9 ft nine champion of Gaff is staying there, Goliath and you’re supposed to go fight him, that’s going to get the old heart ticking. That’s gonna get the old fight or flight response cooking. Jesus, look at Jesus. Talking about fear. Jesus says this in Matthew 10. He says Don’t fear those who kill the body but are not able to kill the soul. Rather fear him, who is able to destroy both soul and body like Like, Why did you do that? Jesus says, don’t just fear people who can kill you fear those who can not just see you killed, but throw you in hell and watch you burn forever. Jesus, like, yeah, You should fear someone. Fear God he can. He can mess up this life and the next life for you. You should fear God like. Come on, Mike. That’s not that Jesus I wanna think of. Okay. Well, this is John 14. Jesus saying he says, Peace. I leave with you. My peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives you. Don’t let your heart be troubled or fearful. The Christians fears. Really There is one. We should. There’s one we should fear. There is one we should trust. There is one we should gain courage from There is one We should have a relationship that we worship that we trust that we fear That’s God We should fear God, Christians. If you’re running on fumes like Saul, your life’s filled with anxiety and dread and fear and indecision and anxious nous and fear. If you have a living faith in the living God you have out of that living walk of God that David had flows a real robust, fearless walk of God. Verse 25. Solace attempting to bribe his soldiers of a monetary reward because something needs to happen. And he offers his daughter as a prize. He offers ah, cash reward prize. He offers a you know, a 10% tax rebate on not just you, but all your family, which is a big deal. Um, but bringing in your daughter in the equation is a way to keep the young champions, the young generals close as your son in law. It’s a way to really keep your friends, close your enemies closer. It’s a way to really control the kingdom through marriage and marrying off your Children. That was very common at this time. It was a way to secure the loyalties of upcoming rivals to the throne. We see Verse 26 David’s age. We don’t know for sure. Um, scholars were speculating in the upper teens between 18 and 19. If he was 20 he would have been drafted off into a war like his older three brothers were. So he’s pride in the teens. The upper teens is what I was reading this morning. Um, David, he has a perspective that is different is a kingdom perspective. Instead of a personal perspective, Saul sits in the same situation, and he has a very personal perspective of me, myself and my my needs. David comes the same exact situation. He is the Kingdom of God perspective. Salisbury Man centered perspective, which drives out fear. David has a very god centered perspective, which drives out faith and courage and trust in the boldness that no one in the nation of Israel’s army had at this time. David is very God center. It’s always very man Center on David says this, he says, this uncircumcised philistine like What is that? Well, it means it’s referencing to a man who is not in a covenant relationship with God, David. Also, when he says what he says there in that last verse 27 it talks about how the battle belongs to the Lord. That kind of theme, we see that same theme, and Joseph Fat and Second Chronicles 20 when he says the battle belongs. The Lord David has a trust that God will do what he wants to do. And we’ll use David to accomplish his plan to defeat this uncircumcised philistine who is not in a right relationship with God. But David isn’t right relationship with God. Verse 28 Verse 28. We see a very personal attack from David’s brother, Elliot, the oldest. I mean, it’s just personal. This is mean spirited. It seems, and so we’re gonna circle the wagons and I’m gonna camp out here for a moment. Here’s how to deeply discourage someone. No, no, in case you want to really deeply discouraged someone. Let’s let’s look at how to do that one. You question their motives. You see that in this verse, he says. Why did you come here? Question David’s motives. The second thing is, you question their responsibility. Who did you leave those sheep within the wilderness? That’s a character assassination. Elliot knows that it’s a disk that you have to watch. Sheep. You don’t have a more prominent important job In my father’s household. You have to watch the lowly sheep. But on top of that, your neglectful of your lowly duty. David, who’s watching the sheep? Third thing, you question their heart. I know your arrogance. You’re evil heart, David. I mean, he’s also on this all knowing brother. But you know, one knows your motives. No knows your heart. People calling out your motives in your heart. Only God knows your mother is in your heart. Believer. The fourth thing we see here, he said you came down to see the battle. You’re just chasing the thrill. You came here for a show. You have no real interest in anything beyond just watching grown men get slaughtered in battle. I mean, there’s four ways he attacked. He attacked his brother. He questioned his brother’s motives. He questions his brother’s responsibility. He would question his brother’s heart. He question his brother’s actions like Mike, why’d you stop there? But if everything we’ve blown over, why did you stop there? I think this matters. Think of a couple weeks ago, armor bearer Jonathan the Filson Garrison. That acre and a half, I think, area of land. They killed 20 people. They went down the valley and up a different valley. There’s some similarities here in my mind, and Jonathan turned his armor. Veteran said, Hey, I don’t know what if Let’s try it on his armor bearer said, Do whatever you got in mind. I’m with you heart and soul and they killed 20 people. Then they remember a couple weeks ago. It was a good one, I thought was a good biblical battle, right? Think of Elia was not the armor bear. He was not the armor bearer. You got Armor bearer’s response to a person stepping on faith. And you got aliens response to person. Stepping on faith are repairs. Response. Talk little. Let your actions speak much. Go on with you, Elliot. You attack their mind. You check their motives, you check their heart. You text her. You just wow. Both men. Jonathan David stepped on faith, and both of them had people with them that knew them well. And the armor bearer and Ilia brother to that get their names in the Bible. We have an opportunity Church as we keep stepping on faith as sore church with missionaries and church plants and multiplying small groups and stepping out into a cove in future of a church covert church world, we could respond like an armor bear. And we could respond like Elia. We could do either. And we are doing either. I challenge you as brothers and sisters in the Lord. We cannot question people’s motives. They’re stepping out of faith. We should not question their responsibility. We should not question their heart. We should not question their actions. They’re attempting to do things for God. Let’s be armored bears get behind their back and just push 1st 29 30. David doesn’t get sidetracked by a critic. Doesn’t get sidetracked by a discouragement, but he keeps moving forward. He quickly replies to his brother and moves forward, and you will have moments. Church. In the future, we will have moments. I’m praying that we respond of heroic, faith filled armor bearer of faith. Verse 31. We see like a quick a little game of telephone word got quickly toe salt, and he might have a taker who will take him up on this champion warfare idea of representing the whole nation. Verse 32. We see this theme of God choosing the lesser Thio be the greater someone who is viewed lowly in the eyes of its peers. And in this culture that God uses in powerful ways, this is the things that the entire Bible David’s one of many who are thought least lowly oven written off, who God uses think about this obscure David in the field, had no intention of leaving the shape that morning. Got it really early to get there in the morning. He had no idea this was gonna happen. He had an obscure lesser life and got through him in the limelight of the nation’s the nation’s history is pivotal on what happens right here. His popularity takes off from this moment and all eyes of everyone that’s important in this nation are on him and his critical make or break moment in this young nation’s kingdom in their monarchy. Verse 33 Solid acknowledges reality. David needs Saul’s royal endorsement to go be the champion of the nation. If he doesn’t get it, he can just go out there. He’s gotta have Saul backing him to be. You know, a guy who’s never fought a battle his entire life, needs the king to get behind him, to build a go represent the nation Goliath has been fighting since he was a boy since he was a youth, is what it says. He’s a battle hardened, trained professional soldier mercenary psychopath who eats David’s for dinner. That makes sense. This’d just but saw misses. The main thing is, he’s acknowledging reality. Saw Miss is the fact that there is a reality of a faith factor that faith is in this situation. The battle Saul fails to see that the battle for what it really is, the battle is a spiritual battle It’s not a physical battle. The faith, the faith that David has in front of him in living, breathing color is the faith that Saul used to have remnants of in his past. He misses that reality and saw Mrs God, the God who really uses whoever he wants. Whenever he wants, however he wants in any way he wants. God loves to use obscure nobody’s that love him to accomplish his will. Verse 34 to 37. We see David’s testimony, this faithful little faithful in much testimony he got. David says God is a great deliverer and he puts his trust in God and he’s leans on the history of killing lions and bears. I mean, this is funny and weird, but my dad had sheep to, and we had, you know, is a different country, different technology. We had fences. They didn’t have fences at that time. But if I was a boy and I saw a lion or a bear attacking one of our sheep, I’d be like Dad, we lost one today, but the rest were okay. It was that one that was sickly. Anyways, we’re moving on, you know, But the rest are good the line in the mall. The rest, you know, just kind of move his long. But David had a different view. He would attack and kill lions and bears. He killed these apex predators so he could kill an apex predator Goliath. Later in life, he leaned into that previous history of him and God to have confidence for that president history. If you’re faithful, if little, you’ll be faithful. Much was what the Bible says. David faithfully cared for the sheep future in the later in the Bible. Jesus has the heart of a shepherd who carefully cares for the sheep and joking, My jokes refers to us and a metaphor as sheep God has a shepherd’s heart. David had a shepherd’s heart as well. Verse 38 39. Saul is attempting to clothe David in his armor, his own armor, because there isn’t a lot of armory floating around this army at the time. So I was hoping that if David goes out wearing his armor, maybe they’ll think I’m slouching and maybe they’ll think I fought the life instead of David is what’s all might be thinking. Perhaps perhaps, David just having fun knowing this wouldn’t work. Perhaps he was just curious and try to to honor the king. But regardless, David says, I can’t move in this weapons. I can’t move it. This armor, I gotta take this off. But Saul’s attempting to dress. David, in his disbelief, solves attempting to use his man made man, Senator map, weapons man center tools, man center thinking man center results to accomplish the plan of God. Ironically, this situation foreshadows what will happen eventually. I think it’s almost like 17, 18 years from now, after the scene where David actually takes over the royal kingship and becomes the king of Israel and would wear the king’s armor. Verse 40. So slings my, we don’t think of slings ever as people slings were like the modern day handgun back then, the monitor handgun. If you’re really skilled, the Bible talks about tribes that can sling with their right hand on their left hand. You can you can get a rock going if a sling 6500 miles an hour. I mean, if you can throw a baseball in the major leagues 100 miles an hour, I think a tool that extends the arm and gets that? Sen. Tropical Forest going 65 100 miles an hour like Okay, Mike. But think they hunted wrestling’s. They hunted us. That’s Dunga, bird or rabbit. They go over and catch it. I mean, they hunted for a living. You know, this is this is a tool that the Benjamin it’s were known as being deadly accurate with their slinging abilities and judges. 2016, a deadly range for a sling Army to attack, another army was 100 yards. That’s a football field, 100 yards, and people are pelting you of rocks, and they’re kind of getting closer what their aim is, think of. I shared the story a couple years ago, but my wrestling coach, you could ask Shane. I remember. I think it was our first year our team won a national title. It wasn’t me. It was Shane and those other guys. I love money three times, but our first year we want it. There’s just Goliath Team coach Denny wanted us to beat, and he drew old coaching. Andrew Goliath, 9 ft nine, scaled a life, hung it on the rafters of our dojo are wrestling. Gym were in college, and he he worked on it for two months over the summer where he got a sling, he watched him YouTube videos. He had this little David glyph speech he gave us. And then he practiced slinging rocks at this paper, cut out of glyph. He had, you know, yelled dramatically and he did it. And it was a speech. And I was, like, supposed to inspirational. It was good. It was good. But he hit Goliath in the ribs the first time, hit the life in the neck the second time. And then the third time, he missed the head. But it was pretty close. Older gentlemen, part time working on it for two months. So I’m saying David is dead. The actor of a sling 1st 43 47 Goliath mocks God. He’s mocking the king and he’s mocking the people of God. And then he mocks David Verse 45 to 47 David Response. And so Goliath is on the assumption that bigger, faster, stronger of a bigger, faster, stronger God. David’s on the observation. That doesn’t matter if I’m big or not. If how the right tools or not, if I’m the right size or not, if I’m equipped or trained or not. What matters if God wants us to happen or not? Because if David just a servant of God and Goliath, the servant of his God, the God dragon that the Philistines worshiped, it doesn’t matter. It’s just God using it doesn’t God will use for everyone to use to do whatever I want to do. It doesn’t matter if I’m big or not. That’s the two assumptions glyphs assumption was common. Larger soldier, better equipped serves a larger, better God. David’s David’s assumption of doesn’t matter. God will do. He wants to dio if whoever wants to use. But there’s also go life boasting him and his abilities, he says. And my dog that you come with me of sticks, come here and I’ll feed your flesh to the birds of the air and the beasts of the field. You know, he’s just man centered, boastful, proud, his entire character. This entire time, David comes any boast in God’s abilities and calls God a living god because he is a living faith in God and God, the god of the living conduce, whatever he wants and David Boast and God, a living god and defies a a man who taunts and blasphemies has got on. Then Verse 49. David Shot. We don’t Know the range when David took a shot, but he obviously targeted Goliaths. Weak point in his armor and his helmet and a 65 100 mile an hour rock hitting you in the forehead. We’ll do work that will do damage. Stun you, knock you out Whatever David runs over it takes Goliath’s sword and cuts off his head. And then we see later in the first time in 21 that this sword, when David’s on the run for his life from Saul, when he’s going psychotically attacking him, he goes on and run for his life, and he did have time to grab his armor, and one of the priests gave him a sword that was there. It was Goliath’s sword. It seems like they took glyphs, helmet, his chain mail, his armor, his shield, his sword, his spear. They spread it out to all the different places where the name there’s lights worship, so they’d be reminded of the philistine Zand Goliath and how God delivered their nation through David. And it just happened to be the location that had the sword, which David happened to use the rest of his time and all of his military conquest. What a great reminder. It obviously wasn’t so big that it was You couldn’t wield it. But his primary weapon of choice was, scholars speculate was Goliath’s sword the rest of his military career, which is robust, and we’ll be reading a lot of biblical battles in the coming weeks. So bring your husband, Verse 51. Ironic or funny, I find it ironic. Um, Goliath. The life ends the same way as diggin diggin the philistine God remember the Ark of the Covenant got loose, and the Philistines took it to their front of their place and was at the feet of diggin, you know, the next day they came in, its head was knocked off, its hands were knocked off his face down from the Ark. Goliath ends up in the same situation, decapitated and, you know, dead in front of God’s servant, David. I just find that ironic. 1st, 57 the head of the life. He grabs it by the hair, I assume, walks up and meets his father in law, Champion warfare having ahead of a defeated champion of a defeated nation and people group. You oppress and imposing tax and get Resource is from Was normal, you’d have a party, and over there would be a few heads of kings and champions you and your soldiers killed. Just It’s a wild time. It is a different world, and that’s the world. And so we took the head of the champion of gaffe Goliath to meet his father in law. What a wild situation and didn’t Saul meets his son in law and his skeptical suspicious. He views David as a perceived threat for the heir of the throne and Saul’s right. But David says, I’m just your humble servant. My father’s Jesse, you know I play the heart for you, man. I’m your guy. And then David faithfully serves him for years. What we see is we see 33 men. In this story, we see Goliath, who’s known for pride, arrogance, boasting and himself. That’s option a man centered solutions man centered strength man center technology. Me, myself and I. We see. We see Saul anxious, fearful and decisive. No consulting God. Goliath mocks God and boast done God and was proud against God and blasphemies. God saw absolutely forgetful of God. Man centered problems, man centered solutions. Anxious, fearful. We see Saul’s option and then we see option number three. David is a man who had a living faith in a living god he was confident in and trusted in God. Think of Think of Ephesians six Worf Warfare, Israel on the believer’s life near 2021 you could be whatever man or woman you wanna be. You have that choice God gave you that free will choice Ephesians six says this finally be strengthened by the Lord and by his vast strength, put on the full armor of God so that you can stand against the schemes of the devil. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood on blood but against the rulers and against the authorities against the cosmic powers of their darkness against evil, spiritually forces in the heavens. I assume that as our country becomes more and more post Christian, there’ll be more and more spiritually. Warfare will be exposed. Thio, I just assumed there’s this protection of Christianity is that veneer gets pulled away. You know, I imagine that’s just one of those unintended consequences of becoming a more and more post Christian society, which we already are post Christian. I imagine just getting more and more normal. I know we pastors and pulpits all over this city even talked about the world, the devil in the flesh. But in general, we don’t talk a lot about spirituals warfare. It’s not like a common thing we talk about. I’m culturally a Christianity in Lincoln, Nebraska. That’s not a very common thing, but think our society is gripped in fear. It’s a paralyzing straitjacket that many people wear. I know from my freshman year in high school that freshman year in college was like a five year stretch there, where I was very consumed to fear I would wake up, read my Bible in the morning, have a devotional. I’d eat some breakfast. I go downstairs and barf up my breakfast. I get on the school bus and go to school. I was only when I had a test, the presentation or a sporting competition, which was a lot of the time to do those things in school. I was just crippled. Unfair straitjacket that just maybe not think clearly. You’re anxious your heart rates that jacked up it just it just it gets to you. That was my high school experience. And then something changed. I learned how to fight spiritually, my freshman year in college and God’s completely changed area in my life. I haven’t thrown up 10 years. You know, it wasn’t even flew induced. If you’ve been paralyzed by fear, if it’s been 40 days like the Israel Lights or 40 years or whatever rather duration that ISS fears a straitjacket that destroys your faith in your walk of coffee, I challenge you. Look at David’s example. He’s an example for us of how to fight. David obeyed his father, Jesse. We see that in the very beginning. This David doesn’t fight. His brother, Elia David, respects the failed authority. The failed authority structure of Saul and David has heroic faith in the living God when he fought Goliath. But all this David could Onley do what he did because he had a living relationship with the living God is what he calls God. In this passage of Chapter 17, David had living riel walk with God, and out of that flew a courage nous courageousness that is uncommon. David confessed the name of the Lord, the living God that he conquered in that he loved. They wrote poems about that. He was saying Songs About David foreshadows a perfect king. David is a pretty good king of the nation of Israel, but he still has his faults. But a perfect king reigns in the perfect kingdom who reigns over the church King Jesus and the Onley way you could have victory against fear is through the power of the name of Jesus. And you could Onley will that through a relationship with God because you took away your sin and defeated sin and Satan the world, the devil, the flesh and that victory is yours. If you embrace a loving, trusting fear of God through the word of God and the people of God in the spirit of God, we have more than David because of Jesus Christ. We have the spirit of God sealed in your hearts, holding you secure because of what Jesus Christ has done. You’re forgiven and you’re given a new identity and the sun ship and a daughter ship and values and worth of the affirmation and approval that you could never get from anything and anyone in this world because of Jesus Christ. You have God’s spirit in you toe instruct you and encourage you and prompt you and remind you that the people of God around you you could Onley beat fear God’s way. Many women, if you’re given the theory of a heart for fear I could relate to you. Ben could relate to you. Shane can relate to. Many of us have worked through and conquered fear in your life. Use the tools that God gave you the toolbox. She start of Jesus. Amen. Church. Nate’s got something for us. Nate’s got a good word for us as we close out. So let’s pray. Amen. God, Thank you for David. Thank you for his faith. Thank you for his courage. Nous his career. His how courageous he was. Lord, I thank you for Jesus And how he has went into the defeat. The ultimate ultimate champion Lord, he defeated death. He defeated sin. He defeated Satan. I pray just really, Lord, help us to be a church that is fearless. Not because of a manmade Raul Raul. Let’s do it spirit. But in a submitting to Jesus Christ and loving our way through it and Jesus name, we pray. Amen.