When You’re Facing a Giant
The Original Game of Thrones

Below is an automated transcript of this message

Good morning, church. It’s good to see all of you here. It’s, also, good to greet those of you that are watching online, as well.

We are continuing our series entitled, “The Original Game of Thrones.” We began this series last spring, when we went through the first fifteen chapters of 1 Samuel. Now, we’re in season two of “The Original Game of Thrones.” We’re going to be covering, over the next few weeks, 1 Samuel, chapter 16 through the end of the book. Today, we’re in chapter 17. We get the title of this series from the verse that’s found in chapter eight of 1 Samuel. In this verse, the Lord is speaking to Samuel. 1 Samuel 8:7 (ESV) And the Lord said to Samuel, “Obey the voice of the people in all that they say to you, for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me from being king over them.” That’s the “Game of Thrones” that all of us have played since Adam and Eve. We’ve rejected God as king.

Who do we want in God’s place? We want ourselves. We want to be king of our own lives. We want to be in control of our own lives. This is the desperate situation that humanity finds itself in up to this day; we keep playing the “Game of Thrones.” We keep trying to be in control. The more we try to be in control, the more anxious we become and the more trouble we find ourselves in.

In chapter 17 of 1 Samuel, we’ll see where it leads these two nations: the nation of Israel and the nation of Phyllis. They encounter each other in battle and the two champions face each other. One is the champion, a giant named Goliath of Gath. The other is a small shepherd boy, a young teenage boy named David. We’ve entitled today’s message, “When you’re facing a giant.”

How many of you know what that means to face a giant? Do you know what I’m talking about? I’m not necessarily talking about Goliath. I’m talking about anyone or anything that strikes fear in your heart and makes you become almost disabled with anxiety, to where you lose sleep. You don’t know how you’re going to overcome it. You don’t know how you’re going to face it. Giants make us want to run away; they make us tremble and they make us lose sleep. Maybe it’s someone that you need to talk to that hurt your feelings; they’ve done something that you feel like you need to confront. You are just afraid and you’re losing sleep over it. You, really, would rather run away. You’d rather break off that relationship, but instead, you feel like you need to face it.

A “giant” is something that you need to face. Maybe it’s an addiction, maybe it’s alcoholism or drug abuse. Maybe it’s pornography or maybe it’s some other thing and you’ve tried over and over again and it keeps winning. It keeps defeating you. It’s a giant and you have become so exhausted, you’re afraid to face it any longer. Maybe it’s a bad medical diagnosis. There was a shadow on the x ray. Tests are coming and you don’t know how you are going to get through this. Those are just a few of the giants that we face. All of us will face things and people that scare us. It will seem too large and too overwhelming to face alone. There are many kinds of giants.

What do you do when you’re facing a giant? In 1Samuel, chapter 17, David put his faith in God to overcome a Philistine giant, named Goliath, who threatened all of Israel. I believe today we can have faith in our God. We can put faith in God and overcome the giants that we face. How is this possible? As we look at the text, we’ll see three lessons for having faith in God to overcome the giants that we face.

We have fifty-eight verses to read. Do you have your seatbelts on ? We’re going to take it in three portions. Let’s read the first 27 verses. Let’s dig in and let the Lord speak to us.

1 Samuel 17:1-27 (ESV) 1 Now the Philistines gathered their armies for battle. And they were gathered at Socoh, which belongs to Judah, and encamped between Socoh and Azekah, in Ephes-dammim. 2 And Saul and the men of Israel were gathered, and encamped in the Valley of Elah, and drew up in line of battle against the Philistines. 3 And the Philistines stood on the mountain on the one side, and Israel stood on the mountain on the other side, with a valley between them. 4 And there came out from the camp of the Philistines a champion named Goliath of Gath, whose height was six cubits and a span. 5 He had a helmet of bronze on his head, and he was armed with a coat of mail, and the the weight of the coat was five thousand shekels of bronze. 6 And he had bronze armor on his legs, and a javelin of bronze slung between his shoulders. 7 The shaft of his spear was like a weaver’s beam, and his spear’s head weighed six hundred shekels of iron. And his shield-bearer went before him. 8 He stood and shouted to the ranks of Israel, “Why have you come out to draw up for battle? Am I not a Philistine, and are you not servants of Saul? Choose a man for yourselves, and let him come down to me. 9 If he is able to fight with me and kill me, then we will be your servants. But if I prevail against him and kill him, then you shall be our servants and serve us.” 10 And the Philistine said, “I defy the ranks of Israel this day. Give me a man, that we may fight together.” 11 When Saul and all Israel heard these words of the Philistine, they were dismayed and greatly afraid. 12 Now David was the son of of an Ephrathite of Bethlehem in Judah, named Jesse, who had eight sons. In the days of Saul the man was already old and advanced in years. 13 The three oldest sons of Jesse had followed Saul to the battle. And the names of his three sons who went to the battle were Eliab the firstborn, and next to him Abinadab, and the third Shammah. 14 David was the youngest. The three eldest followed14 David was the youngest. The three eldest followed Saul, 15 but David went back and forth from Saul to feed his father’s sheep at Bethlehem. 16 For forty days the Philistine came forward and took his stand, morning and evening. 17 And Jesse said to David his son, “Take for your brothers an ephah of this parched grain, and these ten loaves, and carry them quickly to the camp to your brothers. 18 Also take these ten cheeses to the commander of their thousand. See if your brothers are well, and bring some token from them.” 19 Now Saul and they and all the men of Israel were in the Valley of Elah, fighting with the Philistines. 20 And David rose early in the morning and left the sheep with a keeper and took the provisions and went, as Jesse had commanded him. And he came to the encampment as the host was going out to the battle line, shouting the war cry. 21 And Israel and the Philistines drew up for battle, army against army. 22 And David left the things in charge of the keeper of the baggage and ran to the ranks and went and greeted his brothers. 23 As he talked with them, behold, the champion, the Philistine of Gath, Goliath by name, came up out of the ranks of the Philistines and spoke the same words as before. And David heard him. 24 All the men of Israel when they saw the man, fled from him and were much afraid. 25 And the men of Israel said, “Have you seen this man who has come up? Surely he has come up to defy Israel. And the king will enrich the man who kills him with great riches and will give him his daughter and make his father’s house free in Israel.” 26 And David said to the men who stood by him, “What shall 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 defy the armies of the living God?” 27 And the people answered him in the same way, “So shall it be done to the man who kills him.”

We can overcome the giants we face by… 1. Getting God’s perspective.

David said to the men, “who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should say such things and defy the armies of God?” He saw something different. They saw with the world’s eyes, with the human perspective, but when David saw the giant, he just saw someone else that God could defeat. David had a different perspective.

As we look at this, let’s look at the background a little bit. We see a lot of names that are difficult to pronounce, it’s always helpful to look at a map,plus, I love maps. The Israelites are coming from this direction from the east, going towards the west. The Philistines arrived by the way in this area of the Middle East, probably about the same time the Israelites did. The Philistines were probably sailors from the Aegean Sea. They probably had a Greek background and they had more advanced technology. They were better at military and other things; they were better at battle. They had taken this portion here of the Promised Land. So, here are the Israelites and but they’re starting to come into the land of Judah. The battle breaks out right here. We see Israel and we see the battle lines of the Philistines at the land of Socoh. It is not that far from Jerusalem and Bethlehem. Go to the next slide; I have a photo. This is a photo of the Valley of Elah in modern day Israel. You can see the stonework right here at the bottom. That’s an overlook where you can take a photograph. You can stand right here. This would have been the land where the Israelites would have been encamped. Over here would have been the land where the Philistines were encamped. In the middle was the Valley of Elah where the battle would take place and where Goliath would come out.

Now, why do I take the time to show you these things? It’s not just because I like maps and it’s not just because I’ve been to Israel . It’s because I want you to understand that the story is history; it’s not a myth. These are real places and real people; it really happened. When you read the Bible, you can trust it. It’s describing real places and real people. We can see where this battle took place. You can go there today and see that land.

Now, when we talk about myths, it’s easy to say, What about Goliath? He was six cubits and a span tall. Well, what in the world is a cubit? Well, a cubit is the distance from your elbow to your middle finger, which averages about 18 inches. I measured mine earlier this week, mine is 19. So I’m a little above average. A span is from the thumb to the little finger which averages nine inches. Mine is exactly nine inches. So I must have hands that are smaller in arms that are longer. If you look at this, this is how people used to measure. I don’t know how accurate measurements were in those days. If you take this 18 inches plus a span of 9 inches, Goliath is 9 ft. 9 inches. That’s pretty tall. How could a man be that tall?

According to the Guinness Book of World Records, Robert Wadlow was 8 ft 11 inches tall, just shy of nine ft tall, so it’s not out of the realm of possibility. I was reading earlier about the wrestler, Andre the giant; do you remember him? He had a problem where he continued to grow his whole life; the growth hormone in his body just kept going. I think it was the same thing with Robert Wadlow.

When we look at a story like this, of Goliath the giant, it actually could happen. So he is a giant. What about the description of his armor? This description of his armor is the most detailed description of armor during that time period, found in any piece of literature anywhere. It’s very descriptive about the weights of it, how big it was and so forth. It says that he wore a helmet of bronze and he’s armed with a coat of mail. Literally in the Hebrew, it says a “coat of scales.” What does that look like? Let me show you a picture. Here’s a coat of scales. Here’s what a coat of scales looks like; see the scales? It’s not the coat of mail like you would see in more modern times that knights would have worn hundreds of years later. It was more primitive; it had overlapping scales to keep arrows from penetrating. Ironically, the god of the Philistines was the god Dagon, and Dagon was half fish and half man. I am not talking about Aquaman. I’m talking about Dagon right now . Dagon was a fish from the waist down and a man from the waist up. How appropriate that Goliath would be wearing a coat of scales. It weighed 5000 shekels; if you convert that to modern weight, it is 125 lbs. He is wearing 125 lbs. of armor. His spearhead was like a weaver’s beam and thickness to the shaft. The spearhead weighed 15 lbs. He was a walking tank.

Here comes Goliath down the hill. How long has this been going on? The battle has been going on for 40 days. The Philistines are on one side and the Israelites are on the other. They’ve been hearing Goliath go down into the valley of Elah and saying, Give me a man to fight me. All of them ran away. They’ll get afraid and run back up the hill and then they will go back down the hill. This has been going on for forty days.

Don’t miss the fact that the battle went on for 40 days. Remember that, just a few generations before this, the Israelites were coming to take the Promised Land and they sent twelve spies. Ten of them came back with a bad report and they said that they saw giants and we were like grasshoppers in their own eyes. You can read about that in the book of Numbers. We were like grasshoppers. They ran away and the Lord caused them to wander in the wilderness for forty years. For forty days, Saul and his men, including David’s three big brothers, Eliab, Abinadab and Shammah, go down in the valley to fight. When they see Goliath, they run away.

David shows up. Notice what it says in verse 12, “Now David…” In this corner, we’ve got Goliath, and now David. Let’s talk about who David is. He keeps his father’s sheep and oh, by the way, he brings “vittles” for his brothers. He goes back and forth. He plays the lyre for Saul, as we learned last week. He goes back and forth; he watches the sheep for his dad. This time, his dad says to him, Go check on your brothers and take them some food. Here’s some bread. David is probably pulling a donkey load of food. His father continues, Here’s ten cheeses for the commander, because we want to be in good with him. We don’t want him to put my boys on the front line. This will keep my boys on the back line. He’s “buying him off” with goat cheese. David is a teenage boy, he’s a servant . He’s not a warrior, but God has his heart. To look at him, you won’t even notice, but what you can’t see is that God’s got a hold of this man and he has a different perspective.

Whenever Saul and the others saw this “walking tank,” Goliath, they were dismayed. The word, “dismayed,” means literally in the Hebrew, “shattered, broken or beaten down.” One look at him and they were defeated; they were greatly afraid. David looked at him and said, Who is this guy who thinks he is talking about us and our God this way?” Who does he think he is defying our God? You see, David’s view of God was bigger than any giant. The problem for many of us is our view of God is too small. In David’s eyes, God is bigger than any giant.

Remember what was said about David earlier in chapter 16?It says, 1 Samuel 16:7 (ESV) “But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.” God rejected the older brothers, but He chose David because of David’s heart.

How do you see the things around you? How do you see giants? Is your God bigger than the giants? Is your image of God too small? Get a perspective from God’s perspective, that’s how we’ll summarize those first verses. Let’s keep reading.

TEXT: 1 Samuel 17:28-40 (ESV) 28 Now Eliab his eldest brother heard when he spoke to the men. And Eliab’s anger was kindled against David, and he said, “Why have you come down? And with whom have you left those few sheep in the wilderness? I know your presumption and the evil of your heart, for you have come down to see the battle.” (Pastor Gary commentary: Doesn’t that sound like everybody’s older brother? He’s letting little David have it. Like, a typical little brother, he replies, “What have I done now?”) 29 And David said, “What have I done now? Was it not but a word?” 30 And he turned away from him toward another, and spoke in the same way, and the people answered him again as before. 31 When the words that David spoke were heard, they repeated them before Saul, and he sent for him. 32 And David said to Saul, “Let no man’s heart fail because of him. Your servant will go and fight with this Philistine.” 33 And Saul said to David, “You are not able to go against this Philistine to fight with him, for you are but a youth, and he has been a man of war from his youth.” 34 But David said to Saul, “Your servant used to keep sheep for his father. And when there came a lion, or a bear, and took a lamb from the flock, 35 I went after him and struck him and delivered it out of his mouth. and And if he arose against me, I caught him by his beard and struck him and killed him. 36 Your servant has struck down both lions and bears, and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be like one of them, for he has defied the armies of the living God.” 37 And David said, “The Lord who delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine.” And Saul said to David, “Go, and the Lord be with you!” 38 Then Saul clothed David with his armor. He put a helmet of bronze on his head and clothed him with a coat of mail, 39 and David strapped his sword over his armor. And he tried in vain to go, for he had not tested them. Then David said to Saul, “I cannot go with these, for I have not tested them.” So David put them off. 40 Then he took his staff in his hand and chose five smooth stones from the brook and put them in his shepherd’s pouch. His sling was in his hand and he approached the Philistines.”

We can overcome the giants we face by… 2. Learning to trust God’s power.

Both the elder brother and King Saul tried to steal David’s courage. They tried to discourage him. Eliab comes to him; Eliab, by the way, is one of the guys that’s been running up and down the hill, afraid of Goliath for forty days. Here comes David, the one that Samuel had come and anointed. Samuel had overlooked Eliab, so he’s like picking on David about leaving the sheep. He accuses David of having an evil heart, but when God looks at David, He sees a heart after God’s own heart, Eliab gives him a false accusation.

That happens often, sometimes in your face. A “giant,” even your own brother in law or your own brother. It’s often a family member who comes to you and says, You should be afraid; you’re not up to this. They will try to steal your courage.

David goes to King Saul, who is the person in authority. It will often be a person in authority who will say, You can’t do this, you’re just a youth. When Saul looked at David, that’s all he saw. He just saw this young kid; he just saw this young guy. You’re just a youth and Goliath has been a warrior since his youth. You can’t do this. That’s not how David thought. David’s faith had been tested and he had learned some things along the way. He remembered the things he had learned in the past. He had learned to trust God’s power. He had seen and faced smaller giants and God had helped him overcome them. When he faces this bigger giant, he says, God helped me with the lion and he helped me with the bear. This guy is just another beast of the field. I’ll take him on, too. He sees him as one more chance to trust God, one more way to trust God.

We see Eliab’s anger. Probably, he was jealous or maybe he was thinking, What are you trying to do here? You don’t know what you’re doing. David replies with this great language; more “heart language,” if you will. In verse 32, he goes to Saul and he says,“Let no man’s heart fail because of him. Your servant will go and fight with this Philistine.” It’s hard to miss the word, “heart,” that keeps pumping throughout these chapters. There’s something about seeing what’s on the inside of a man rather than what’s on the outside. “Let no man’s heart fail.” David overcomes what King Saul says to him. Then, David begins to talk to Saul about how he defeated the bear and the lion. There’s one part that I really like about the way he defeated the bear and the lion. He says, “I took him by the beard and killed him.” So, I’m thinking, that’s the Lion’s mane. I’m starting to think that David had the Holy Spirit rushing on him in such a way that he was almost a “Samson” like character. Even before he goes to battle, he’s already a warrior protecting his flock. Let’s not overlook this. Don’t make so much of a big deal about David. Instead, make a big deal about the Holy Spirit that’s on David, pumping the blood through his veins, so that he snatched it by the beard and killed it.

Where does that confidence come from? It’s not from David, it’s from his confidence in the Lord. He kills the line and the bear, explaining this to Saul, because he needs to convince Saul to let him go fight. If David loses the battle, then the Israelites are sunk. It’s a crazy story in one way, it’s another crazy story that Saul says, Okay, I guess I’ll let you go, I guess I’ll let you represent Israel. Saul has had forty days and couldn’t find a champion so far, so he decides to suit David up. Remember, Saul was a head taller than every Israelite in all of his land. Here comes teenage David; he tries on the armor and probably the helmet was too big and the stuff was too big. He comes out and says, I’m not used to this. I don’t know how to use this stuff because I have not tested it.

Here’s what the bible says in 2 Corinthians 10:3-4 (ESV) 3 “For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. 4 For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds.” Here’s what David concludes; I’ve not tested that. God has not proven that. God has proven that, if I just go out as a shepherd with my shepherd’s staff and my sling, He will prove Himself. This whole idea of armor and a sword and a shield, I don’t know how to use that. Plus, I think God can save without that. You see, we’re often tempted to use worldly means to accomplish tasks. We think we’re going to accomplish something God has called us to do, but we take advice from the wrong people. Why take advice from Saul? Saul has been sitting there for forty days biting his nails. David, you are not ready. If you’re going to fight Goliath, you need to fight him with armor. David says, No, I’m not going to fight him with armor. I’m going to fight him with the Lord’s help. I’m going to go like a shepherd. I’m going to go with what God’s done in the past, and that way, God gets the glory. He’s not going to go with a javelin, a spear, a shield and armor. He’s going to go with a staff, stones and a sling.

When you face a giant, do you remember how God has helped you in the past? It says in Psalm 77:11-12 (ESV) 11 “I will remember the deeds of the Lord; yes, I will remember your wonders of old. 12 I will ponder all your work, and meditate on your mighty deeds.” We heard from Devin Jennison earlier, who gave her testimony. She was telling us a story of how God had worked in her life. I know it was beneficial to her to tell the story because it brought to her memory how God has worked. No matter what she faces, God has done this. She has moved from Florida to North Carolina. God gave me this job; He’ll handle this. Do you see how that works? When we hear her story, it encourages us. If God will work with her, maybe He’ll work with me. This word, in Psalm 77, is so important to our faith here. You hear the word, listen to it and remember how God has helped you in the past. You remember how He’s brought you through in the past. If He will bring you through the past, He’ll bring you through the future. He will bring you through what you’re facing right now, no matter what it is. It’s important to remember.

Back in chapter seven of 1 Samuel, the prophet Samuel was praying and the Philistines were overrunning the Israelites and he was praying, “God deliver us.” God sounded off like thunder and thunder crashed down from the heavens. It caused the Philistines to be confused and they started turning on each other and then the Israelites routed them and overthrew them. At the end of that day, Samuel gathered the people of Israel to give God thanks. He set up a stone, a memorial stone and he named it Ebenezer, which in Hebrew , means “stone of memorial” or “stone of remembrance.” That way, every time a daddy would come up with his son or daughter and they would ask, What’s that big stone? He would reply, that’s an Ebenezer; it reminds us of how God gave us the victory over the Philistines at this place.

It’s important that we remember and it’s also important that we tell our children and our grandchildren what God has done in our lives. Some people will say, Pastor, would you go talk to somebody for me? I am not a “special person” at telling people about Jesus; we’re all called to go tell what Jesus has done for us. You’re the worldwide expert on what Jesus has done for you. You know more about what Jesus has done for you than I do know what Jesus has done for you. You are the expert, so just go tell people, Let me tell you what God has done for me. It causes people to come to faith because they see your faith. Let’s get good at learning to trust God by remembering what He’s done in the past. Let’s keep reading.

1 Samuel 17:41-58 (ESV) 41 And the Philistine moved forward and came near to David, with his shield-bearer in front of him. 42 And when the Philistine looked and saw David, he disdained him, for he was but a youth, ruddy and handsome in appearance. 43 And the Philistine said to David, “Am I a dog, that you come to me with sticks?” And the Philistine cursed David by his gods. 44 The Philistine said to David, “Come to me, and I will give your flesh to the birds of the air and to the beasts of the field.” 45 Then David said to the Philistine, “You come to me with a sword and with a spear and with a javelin, but I come to you in the name of the LORD of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. 46 This day the LORD will deliver you into my into my hand, and I will strike you down and cut off your head. And I will give the dead bodies of the host of the Philistines this day to the birds of the air and to the wild beasts of the earth, that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel, 47 and that all this assembly may know that the Lord saves not with sword and spear. For the battle is the LORD’s, and he will give you into our hand.” 48 When the Philistine arose and came and drew near to meet David, David ran quickly toward the battle line to meet the Philistine. 49 And David put his hand in his bag and took out a stone and slung it and struck the Philistine on his forehead. The stone sank into his forehead, and he fell on his face to the ground. 50 So David prevailed over the Philistine with a sling and with a stone, and struck the Philistine and killed him. There was no sword in the hand of David. 51 Then David ran and stood over the Philistine and took his his sword and drew it out of its sheath and killed him and cut off his head with it. When the Philistines saw that their champion was dead, they fled. 52 And the men of Israel and Judah rose with a shout and pursued the Philistines as far as Gath and the gates of Ekron, so that the wounded Philistines fell on the way from Shaaraim as far as Gath and Ekron. 53 And the people of Israel came back from chasing the Philistines, and they plundered their camp. 54 And David took the head of the Philistine and brought it to Jerusalem, but he put his armor in his tent. 55 As soon as Saul saw David go out against the Philistine, he said to Abner, the commander of the army, “Abner, whose son is this youth?” And Abner said, “As your soul lives, O king, I do not know.” 56 And the king said, “Inquire whose son the boy is.” 57 And as soon as David returned from the striking down of the Philistine, Abner took him, and brought him before Saul with the head of the Philistine in his hand. 58 And Saul said to him, “Whose son are you, young man?” And David answered, “I am the son of your servant Jesse the Bethlehemite.”

We can overcome the giants we face by… 3. Giving God the praise.

Here’s the third lesson. Giving God the praise. Get His perspective, learn to trust His power and remember what He’s done for you in the past. As you’re facing a giant, remember it’s God that will do it. Praise Him. Give Him the glory for what you’re facing.

When it came time for David to stand before Goliath, he praised the Lord. Goliath came to him with sword and shield and he cursed him. David came to him and said, I come to you with the name of Yahweh Jehovah, the God of Israel. You come to me with all that. I come to you with a name. His name is the Lord. That’s how David faced Goliath. He came up to him and Goliath disdained him. It says that Goliath took one look at him and he hated him. This is your champion? In the world’s eyes, from a human perspective, it was laughable. Here David comes. He’s got his shepherd’s staff; it’s got a little hook at the top and is pointed, for poking and for pulling. That’s why Goliath says, “Am I a dog that you came to me with a stick?” You’re going to throw a stick at me? David has his shepherd’s garb on; it’s probably like a robe that comes down to his knees. He’s wearing sandals; there’s no armor anywhere. He has a leather strap around here with a pouch. He’s got his sling with his five stones inside. He’s ready.

I see that some of our young people went to the beach yesterday and a lot of them came back “ruddy.” “Ruddy” means you’ve been out in the sun and your face has turned red. David has been working outside, so he’s “ruddy.” He’s good looking. He is just a young kid and the giant hates him.

David says in verses 45 through 47, “You come to me with a sword and with a spear and with a javelin, but I come to you in the name of the LORD of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. 46 This day the LORD will deliver you into my hand, and I will strike you down and cut off your head. And I will give the dead bodies of the host of the Philistines this day to the birds of the air and to the wild beasts of the earth, that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel, 47 and that all this assembly may know that the Lord saves not with sword and spear. For the battle is the LORD’s, and he will give you into our hand.” The Lord will deliver you into my hand; he’s got these two purpose clauses in verses 46 and 47, which explain why the Lord is going to do this. Here’s why the Lord’s going to defeat you and your whole army. At the end of verse 46, he says that the reason this will happen is that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel. It’s so His name will get glorified all over the earth. I’m going to defeat you and this army, not because of me, so don’t look at me. It’s so God will be famous.

And then, he says in verse 47, “that all this assembly may know that the Lord saves not with sword and spear.” Who’s “the assembly?” That’s his brethren; they are the ones who’ve been running away for forty days. I want the whole world to know so that God gets the glory, but I also want you all to know, this whole assembly here to know, that when God wins this battle it wasn’t me. It was God, for the battle is the Lord’s.

What are you facing? What’s got your knees rattling together? Can you say this, that the battle is the Lord’s? You see, life is like warfare; if we go through life thinking that it’s just going to be easy all of the time, it’s just not so. Christianity is a very practical faith and it gives us the tools to face our giants. If you want to face a giant, one of the best things you can do is to give God the glory right out of the gate. That one right there, boy, that one’s got me shook up, but the battle is the Lord’s. It’s too big for me. If you keep trying to control it, you will keep getting defeated. You’ll keep on being anxious and losing sleep until you’re able to say this, You are God and I’m not. As long as you’re trying to be in control, you’re sitting on the throne, you’re trying to be king, you’re trying to be in control, you will be defeated.

The year 2020 should have broken all of us of trying to be in control. I know that everything our leadership team planned for 2020, once March of 2020 hit, everything we planned went out the window. It seemed like every week we’d have to make a new plan. Finally I said, Let’s stop planning. Let’s just try to live right here and do the best we can. Maybe that’s one of the greatest lessons that we can learn from this past year is God, I’m not in control. You are God and I’m not. You’re the king. I’m your servant.

David is a servant but it makes him powerful. It makes him so that he comes full of praise, praising God, as he faces Goliath. The battle is the Lord’s. I like how he faces Goliath. Goliath comes down the hill. Remember how I gave you that picture of how the Philistines are on this hill and the Israelites are on this hill and the valley lies down here. Here comes Goliath, boom, boom, boom! coming down. He weighs more than I do just in armor. He comes down the hill. How does David come? It says, he ran quickly. That had to freak Goliath out. Oh, if we could have been there and we could have seen that. I bet Goliath went, Uh huh ? I bet his eyes got real big. That little bugger is coming at me.

Notice this, David hadn’t even loaded his sling yet on the run. He pulls out a smooth stone. Now, you’re thinking it’s a pebble, but it’s not. It’s golf ball size; this is a big stone. Kids, it’s not like this (Gary makes a gesture of a modern sling) it’s not like that kind of sling. It has two strings with a leather pouch at the end. You get so much power and momentum with this kind of sling. David had practiced; he had tested that system. He knew how to kill a lion and a bear. And so when he threw that thing it hit Goliath right between the eyes. The bible says it sunk in his head and he was already running forward. You’d think if it hit him, maybe he fell backwards, but all that weight coming forward, he went down like a tree, Boom! on his face.

When God defeats a Goliath in your life, when he defeats a giant, there’s no way we can get the praise. It’s too big. But when God does it, He gets the praise. That’s why He delights in David; He delights in people that know that they are a servant and the least of these. He delights in those kinds of people that will make room for God at the throne of their heart.

David defeats Goliath. This next part is just throwing it right in Goliath’s face. He didn’t even have a sword, so he had to go take the giant’s sword, which was still in the sheath. Goliath hadn’t even gotten it out yet; he was already dead on the ground. David goes over, puts his foot up on Goliath’s back and pulls that big old sword out. He chops Goliath’s head off and he holds it up. When he holds it up, all of Israel is shouting. Can you hear the men shouting? All of the Philistines take off running.

Here comes the map again. We’ve shown it before, but it is just to give you an idea. Here they are there in the battle. They chased them to Gath, which is several miles away, all the way to Ekron. They can’t get into it because it’s a fortress and they closed the gates. They fight them all the way and then they come back and they pillage all of the belongings that the Philistines had left behind. And then, David carried the head of Goliath back to Jerusalem, which is not that far away. Saul probably after all the battle had happened, camped out over here somewhere because we know that David showed the head of Goliath to king Saul when he came to his tent. This is kind of graphic, but Saul probably put it on a stake right there as a warning to the Jebusites who still held Jerusalem because Israel didn’t have Jerusalem yet. David defeats them later in the story. It was put there as a reminder of what God does to giants when you put your faith in God.

We have this closing scene. Do you remember what the promise was? The promise was for anyone who kills Goliath, they would get wealth, the princess and your father’s house will be set free of taxes. David goes to the king. Saul had already asked Abner, the commander, Whose boy is that again? He knows David. David’s been going back and forth playing the lyre for Saul. He loves David. But he can’t remember his name because he’s getting ready to make that whole house tax free. David tells him, I’m the son of Jesse, the Bethlehemite, the Ephrathite. Remember hearing that earlier? Jesse, the Ephrathite from Bethlehem.

What is an Ephrathite? Is he from Ephraim? No, he is from the tribe of Judah. You will see it again in Micah, chapter 5. It’s probably what the name was called by the Canaanites before the jews renamed it Bethlehem, which means “house of bread.” “Beth” means house. If anybody here is named Beth, your name means “house.” Lehem means “bread.” Bethlehem means “house of bread.”

David closes with, “I am the son of your servant Jesse the Bethlehemite.” I am just a servant; in fact, I’m the least. I’m the runt of the litter. I’m the eighth son of your servant, Jesse. And so, the chapter closes.

Who are you in this story? Are you the Philistines? Are you the Israelites? Are you David? Don’t you want to be David? Here’s the problem: If we take this story across the bible bridge into the present, David is not us. He’s a picture of Jesus. This was representative warfare. Two champions, whichever champion won, the whole army would win and the other army would lose. JD Greer, in his book on 1 Samuel says, “The entire scene of David’s conflict with Goliath is cast in the light of representative warfare. When David takes on Goliath, it is not merely one man against another; this is Israel and Philistia, squaring off… We stand in a situation similar to Israel, in need of a representative to save us from the menacing giant of sin.”

The only way to face the giants in life is to have Jesus, the son of God, the son of David, face the biggest giant of all and that is sin. We can’t defeat it on our own. None of us can defeat it. Jesus, like David, was obedient to His Father and became a servant. He came and gave His life on a cross and died for our sins. On the third day, He was raised again. David slew Goliath with a stone, but Jesus rolled away the stone and defeated sin, death and the grave. If you know Him and you have his Holy Spirit in your life, you can face any giant in this world today. Let’s pray.

Lord. We thank You for Your word. We thank You for this story. Lord, some of us are facing something right now. Maybe, it’s some decision that has us quaking in fear. Maybe it’s a person that we need to talk to . Maybe it’s a job. Maybe it’s school. Maybe it’s a boss, Maybe it’s a medical condition. Maybe it’s an addiction. There’s someone here this morning that needs help facing a giant. Lord, be with them right now. The biggest giant of all, l Lord, is sin, death and the grave. No one can defeat that but You, Lord. Is that you, my friend? Have you ever given your life to Jesus? You can do it right now in prayer. Pray like this, right now, right where you’re at, Dear Lord Jesus, I’m a sinner. I believe You died on the cross and were raised from the grave on the third day. Come and live in me. Make me the kind of person You want me to be. Forgive me of my sins and make me a child of God. I want you to be my Savior and Lord. If you’re praying that prayer, believing, He will save you. He will win the victory for you, as your representative and as your champion. Others are here and you know Jesus. He is your Lord and Savior, but you’ve forgotten what He’s done for you and you’re facing something right now. It has you anxious and afraid. The bible says, “God has not given us a spirit of fear but of power and of love and of a sound mind.” Right now, would you name the giant to the Lord and say Lord, this battle is Yours. We pray this all in Jesus’ name. Amen.