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Collierville First Baptist Church
[09:30:05;37 - 09:30:12;23]
(Upbeat Music)
[09:31:35;34 - 09:31:40;59]
And break down the walls Of all my rage And you'll always pray
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You'll always pray
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And I will lay down for you
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Since you're whatever you want To my big room (Audience Chattering)
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All right, good evening. So glad that you're here tonight.
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We're gonna get right back into the life of David tonight.
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We're gonna cover a story that all of you are very, very familiar with. It's a story of David and Goliath.
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Everybody seems to know about them, even Tom Sawyer. You see that right here. When Judge Thatcher asked him the names of the first two apostles in the Bible, Tom blurts out, "David and Goliath."
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So at least he heard about David and Goliath, huh?
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The lesson tonight is a very important lesson
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because it's about faith.
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The Bible says in Hebrews 11.6,
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that without faith, it is impossible to please God.
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Faith is so important in all our lives because listen, at some point in our lives, we're all gonna face giants.
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Just like Goliath, we're gonna face giants.
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Those giants might be depression, it might be cancer, it might be the breakup of a marriage. It could be a lot of different things. But when those giants show up, how we handle those moments is absolutely crucial.
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The Bible defines faith in Hebrews 11.
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Verse one, faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. And there are so many examples of faith here in Hebrews 11.
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You got the faith of Noah, who being warned by God about an approaching time of judgment, a worldwide flood.
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And Noah by faith spent over 100, about 120 years building the ark, by faith believing God's word.
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And then you got the faith of Abraham.
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When he was called by God, he left his family and his home and he went to a place.
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And when he started on this journey, he didn't know where he would end up. But God said, I'll show you when you get there. By faith, he followed God.
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And this chapter, chapter 11 is so full of examples of faith.
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But tonight, we're gonna look at the faith of David, the faith of David. Now we're gonna run into a group of people called the Philistines.
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The Philistines were a part of the land of Canaan and God promised, remember what God promised the covenant people of Israel? He promised them that he would give them the land of Canaan, the promised land as their inheritance.
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And he told them that they had to drive out all the inhabitants of the land because of their wickedness and their vile immorality and idolatry.
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And Israel to their own chagrin did not follow through, they didn't trust God, they didn't believe God and follow through and drive everybody out.
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And as a result, the Philistines were still around in David's day.
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The Philistines were a thorn in the side of the Jewish people.
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Now, the Philistines were strong militarily.
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They were technologically advanced.
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They knew how to work with iron and they knew how to work with bronze
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and they can make weapons. In fact, the Bible says that the Jewish people had to go to the Philistines to sharpen their plowshares
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because the Jewish people didn't have that technology.
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And so they didn't have any way to make their own swords and stuff like that. And so the Philistines had a leg up on the Jewish people.
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Now, we know from last week that David was a man after God's own heart.
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In 1 Samuel 16 verse 13, the Bible says, "Then Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the midst of his brothers, anointed David in the midst of his older brothers,
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which in Jewish way of thinking, that is unheard of."
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It's always the firstborn, firstborn, firstborn.
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And the Spirit of the Lord came mildly upon David from that day forward.
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And Samuel arose and went to Rhema. Remember verse 14, but Tom pointed this out last week, verse 14 of 1 Samuel 16 says, and the Spirit of God left Saul, departed from Saul.
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And so there's a repeated theme in chapter 16 verse 18, chapter 18 verse 12, 18 verse 14, and 18 verse 28 concerning young David. The Bible says four different times, the Lord was with David.
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If you ever wonder why David was so successful,
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why David was so loved by people, he's so loved by, as evidenced by the Bible, it's because the Lord was with David, even during times of personal crises.
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Now let's begin tonight by looking at 1 Samuel 17 verses one to three.
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Now the Philistines gathered their armies for battle.
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They were gathered at Soko, which belongs to Judah, and they camped between Soko and Azeka in Ephesus Damen.
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Now, I want you to understand that the Philistines were located over by the Mediterranean Sea, all right? The Jews, the Jewish people were further in eastward of the Mediterranean.
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And so you've got the Philistines moving eastward in order to do battle with the Jewish people with Saul and his army.
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Verse two, Saul and the men of Israel were gathered and camped in the Valley of Allah.
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And drew up in battle array to encounter the Philistines. The Philistines stood on the mountain on one side while Israel stood on the mountain on the other side with a valley between them. I'll never forget, I think it was the first time Darlene and I went to Israel. We went by the Valley of Allah and we stopped.
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I asked the bus driver, we could stop.
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I just wanted to walk out in that valley.
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And you can see there's a mountain on one side, a mountain on the other side, and there's a valley in between.
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And that's where this took place.
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So in response to the Philistine invasion, Saul's army assembled there and they were separated from the Philistines geographically by this little brook, this little wadi, this dry riverbed that ran between in the middle of the valley.
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Separating the Israelites from the Philistine psychologically was a chasm of fear.
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I'm telling you Saul and the people of Israel, the army of Israel were absolutely saddled with fear. They were paralyzed with fear as we'll see tonight.
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Look at verses four to seven.
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Then a champion came out from the armies of the Philistines named Goliath from Gath, whose height was six cubits and a span.
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He had a bronze helmet on his head. He was clothed with scale armor, which weighed 5,000 shekels of bronze. He also had bronze greaves 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. His shield carrier also walked before him.
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Now Goliath was huge.
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He was a giant.
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I think this adds up to about nine feet, nine inches tall.
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Now can you imagine looking down in the valley on the other side and seeing a champion coming down from the mountain on the Philistine side, who is nine feet, nine inches tall.
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Can you imagine how the sunlight must have flashed off the bronze of his scale armor, of his helmet, of his shin protectors. He had bronze everywhere.
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And his weaver, the shaft of his spear
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was like a weaver's beam, the Bible says. And some suggest that it probably weighed 15 pounds. 15 pounds.
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Now, his armor seemed impregnable.
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His head was covered with a bronze helmet. His trunk was protected by a coat of scale armor weighing approximately 125, 126 pounds.
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I'm not sure David weighed a whole lot more than that.
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Bronze greaves served as shin protectors and his weapons were impressive.
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A huge spear, a shield carried by a young man, a bronze javelin and a sword. Can't you just imagine how intimidating he must have seemed to the Jewish people,
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even to King Saul.
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First Samuel chapter 17, verses eight to 11.
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He stood and shouted to the ranks of Israel and said to them, "Why do you come out "to draw up in battle ray?
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"Am I not the Philistine?"
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In Hebrew, it's not the Philistine, it is the Philistine
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with emphasis upon him being the champion soldier of the Philistine army. Am I not the Philistine and you servants of Saul?
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Choose a man for yourselves and let him come down to me. If he's able to fight with me and kill me, then we will become your servants.
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But if I prevail against him and kill him, then you shall become our servants and serve us.
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Again, the Philistine, the Philistine said, "I defy the ranks of Israel this day. "Give me a man that we may fight together." And when Saul and all Israel heard these words of the Philistine, now look at this.
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They were dismayed and greatly afraid.
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Can I tell you that fear will destroy your faith?
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It is the enemy of faith.
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So Goliath was willing to fight a champion from the army of Israel with a loser in his army surrendering.
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It was winner take all, okay?
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It was one-on-one combat as a substitute for combat between two armies.
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Now this mighty warrior insulted King Saul and the entire Israeli army.
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Look at verse 11.
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Look at, "They were dismayed and greatly afraid." Now look, when I read that, I started digging into these two terms, dismayed and greatly afraid.
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If only Saul, King Saul and the leaders of the Israeli army had dug a little bit into the word of God, they could have seen that this was not God's will, that God had provided something for them that no other nation possessed.
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For instance, in Deuteronomy chapter one, verse 21,
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the Bible says, "See the Lord your God has placed the land before you.
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Go up, take possession as the Lord, the God of your fathers has spoken to you." Look at this, "Do not fear or be dismayed." Specifically, "Do not fear or be dismayed." But how can God say that in Deuteronomy chapter one, verse 21?
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How can he say, "Don't be fear or be dismayed when you're facing the Philistine who is nine feet, nine inches tall, who is armored up, who is strong as an ox, how in the world could God say, do not fear or be dismayed?" Now I'm gonna tell you this, the reason being is that God would fight their battle if they would just trust Him.
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He'd fight their battle.
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Look at 2 Chronicles chapter 20, verse 14 to 15, Jehoshaphat was the king,
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and three armies had come against the nation of Israel or Judah, the Southern Kingdom. Three armies and Jehoshaphat was very concerned about that.
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And notice what the Bible says in verses 14 and 15 of 2 Chronicles chapter 20.
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"Then in the midst of the assembly, the Spirit of the Lord came upon Jehoshaphat, the son of Zechariah, the son of Benaiiah, the son of Jael, the son of Medaniah, the Levite of the sons of Asaph."
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Here's what this prophet said in this meeting. They were praying, they were seeking the face of God. And this prophet stood up and he said this,
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"Listen, all Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem and King Jehoshaphat, thus says the Lord to you, do not fear or be dismayed because of this great multitude for the battle is not yours, but God's."
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And I will tell you what happened in that battle.
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It's the most unusual battle you would ever imagine.
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God told Jehoshaphat to send the choir out before the army. Remember, there are three armies that come against them. You talk about overwhelming odds. It did not look good for Jehoshaphat and the army that he possessed.
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And God said, "I want you to send the choir out before the army and the choir was to go out singing praise to God."
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Not some kind of dirge, but it was a very, very, but they were singing praise to God. Why?
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Because without faith, it's impossible to please God. You talk about an act of faith.
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When Jehoshaphat obeyed God and sent the choir out before he sent the army to face these three armies who were coming against him, that was a momentous step of faith.
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And they were singing praise as if the battle was already won.
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And guess what?
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When they came over the hill,
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they found bodies of those three armies laying out there and all the good stuff they had. And they had won the victory, not by doing one single thing, because God had won the victory for him, because he turned the three armies against each other.
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And they killed each other.
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And the ones that were running away, they left their good stuff just strode behind and the Jewish army and the Jewish people had a field day of collecting all the good stuff from the dead and fleeing armies that had left.
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Faith.
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I don't know what you're facing.
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I don't know what you'll face tomorrow. I don't know what you'll face next week or next month or next year.
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But I'm telling you this, if you're a born again believer,
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you can trust God. You can have faith in God.
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If God can take a choir and put them ahead of an army and give the victory to the Jewish people, he can do whatever you need in your life. Okay? But you gotta believe that. You gotta believe it before you see it. Okay?
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Now, Goliath was a world champion trash talker. Let me tell you, athletes didn't invent trash talking.
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Goliath and Satan invented trash talking. But he was a trash talker. In fact, the Bible alludes to his arrogance and the insults he hurled at kings saw in his army. Look at verses 12 to 19.
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Now, David was the son of an Ephrathite,
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of Bethlehem and Judah, whose name was Jesse.
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And he had eight sons.
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And Jesse was old in the days of Saul, advanced in years among men.
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Verse 13, "The three older sons of Jesse
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had gone after Saul to the battle.
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And the names of his three sons who went to the battle were Eliab the firstborn and Abinadab the second and the third was Shema."
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Now, remember when Samuel came to Jesse's house to anoint the next king of Israel, he looked at Eliab and he said, "Man, that's gotta be the next king."
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That dude is tall, he's handsome, he's strong.
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He's gotta be the next king. But he wasn't.
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He wasn't. And every brother that Samuel came to, God said, "He's not the one, he's not the one, he's not the one."
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Finally, Samuel said to Jesse, the father, all these boys, he said to him, "Do you have another son somewhere?" "Yeah, I got my youngest son.
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He's out in the field taking care of the sheep."
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And Samuel said, "Send for him."
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I'm telling you, when David walked in the room,
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Samuel knew, that's the man.
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Why? Why was he the man?
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Because he had a heart for God. He had a heart for God. Now we're gonna see in the story today
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that Eliab would not have been a good king.
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We're gonna see that, it's gonna become very clear as we progress through this story. And we're gonna also see that David was cut out to be the king of Israel.
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Look at verse 14.
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David was the youngest.
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Now the three oldest followed Saul,
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but David went back and forth from Saul to tend his father's flock at Bethlehem. Remember, last week we looked at it and Saul had some kind of depression or had some kind of something. He was a little weird and he had problems and he'd get into these fits.
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And he said, "I need somebody to play some music for me." And somebody said, "Well, I know a young guy that can really play some music."
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And it was David.
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And they sent for David.
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And David became the go-to guy for Saul when he went into these fits and this rage
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and he would play his music and Saul would settle down. Settle down. Now later on, David would play the music and Saul would try to pin him against the wall with a spear,
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try to kill him because David was a threat to King Saul.
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Why? What was he a threat? Because he was a man after God's own heart.
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But because God had picked him out to be the successor to King Saul.
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And Saul knew there was something about David. Okay.
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And so David would go back and forth
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between helping Saul with his problems and back taking care of the sheep for his dad.
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And look at this, verse 16. "The Philistine came forward morning and evening for 40 days and took his stand." Now get this.
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You got two armies, one on one mountain, one on the other mountain, the Valley of Elah in between.
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And this Philistine giant,
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the champion of the Philistine comes out for 40 straight days and insults King Saul, insults the Israeli army and insults the God of Israel.
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40 straight days.
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There's something in my mind, somebody should have taken offense to that.
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Somebody should have stepped up and said, we need to shut his mouth.
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But nobody did.
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40 straight days. I'll tell you what. When you live in fear and you don't deal with it, that fear just gets larger and larger and larger. And it messes up your whole perspective.
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You can't see things the way God sees them.
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You see the way man sees stuff.
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And I'll tell you, there's a vast difference in the way we can look at something and the way God views something, okay?
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Look at this.
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So 40 straight days, he took his stand. Then Jesse said to David, his son, verse 17,
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take now for your brothers and Ephah of this roasted grain, these 10 loaves and run to the camp to your brothers.
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Understand this, it appears that a soldier in the Israeli army, his family had to provide for him when it came to something to eat, okay? And so Jesse, the dad of these three brothers that are in the Israeli army sends, not the fourth oldest son,
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or he sends the youngest, he sends David. Can I tell you, it was providential that he sent David.
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That's the act of God, all right? When you read these stories in the Old Testament,
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the Bible in the New Testament says that these stories have been provided for our instruction.
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There are things we can learn from these Old Testament stories that really benefits our lives and the way we live and the way we handle our own problems in life.
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So verse 18, bring also these 10 cuts of cheese. You know, I bet that cheese was Mississippi State cheese, eat them cheese. Have you ever had any eat them cheese? I'm telling you, that's the best cheese in the world. Now you old Miss People, you don't have cheese, we got cheese, okay?
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So bring these 10 cuts of cheese to the commander of their thousand and look into the welfare of your brothers and bring back news of them.
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For Saul and they and all the men of Israel in the Valley of Elah fighting with the Philistines. Well, there wasn't much fighting going on.
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There was a lot of posturing going on, okay?
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Goliath would come out and he would do his thing and the Jewish army would give their war cry. But nobody got into the Valley
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and got in to a fist of cuffs whatsoever or whatever kind of battle.
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Now, the emphasis in, when you get to this passage in 12 through 19, the whole emphasis changes to David.
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I told you how important David is in the scripture.
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He's mentioned more than any other person in the Bible.
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He's all through the Old Testament, he's all through the New Testament.
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And so the emphasis shifts to young David. Now we talked last week about the fact that we don't know exactly how old David was.
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But we do know this, I think we can honestly say that David was not old enough to be in the army.
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That's safe.
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And to be in the Israeli army, you had to be 20 years old.
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That's in the book of Numbers. You had to be 20 years old.
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So evidently it was not 20. Let's say that he was 14, 15 years old when he was anointed by Samuel. Well, he may have been 16, 17 years old right here. I don't know, I can't tell you for sure how old he was, but I know he wasn't 20 years old or older.
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He was still a teenager.
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Now, so David bore the responsibility of carrying food to his three brothers as well as the commander of their unit.
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Now, look at 1 Samuel 17, 20 to 24.
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So David arose early in the morning
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and left the flock with a keeper.
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You know, that's a little side bit of information,
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but it tells me something about David.
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David was responsible.
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That's what made him a good king.
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He was responsible.
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He was gonna make sure that he left the sheep
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in the good care of a good shepherd, okay?
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And then he took the supplies and went as Jesse had commanded him. Now, I think it's about 15 miles, somewhere along 15 miles from Bethlehem
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to the Valley of Allah, okay, about 15 miles.
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And so he left early in the morning and he came to the circle of the camp while the army was going out in battle array, and he was shouting the war cry.
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Israeli army was shouting the war cry,
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but nobody would take up the challenge of Goliath
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to fight him.
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Verse 21, "Israel and the Philistines drew up in battle array, army against army.
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Then David left his baggage
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in the care of the baggage keeper
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and ran to the battle line and entered in order to greet his brothers."
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So far, so good.
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As he was talking with them,
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with his brothers, the three brothers, "Behold, the champion, the Philistine from Gath, named Goliath, was coming up from the army of the Philistines and he spoke these words." Look at that, "And David heard him."
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David heard him.
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"When all the men of Israel saw the man, they fled from him and were greatly afraid." You see how that's repeated in this story over and over again.
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They were dismayed and they were greatly afraid.
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Now, David, on the other hand, was very courageous,
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very courageous.
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David, a man after God's own heart, had faith in God. He believed that nothing was impossible with God.
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Sometimes I think we hem ourselves or paint ourselves into a corner and we're dealing with something in our lives and we just don't see how in the world God can come through.
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I'll never forget when God called me to preach and Darlene and I were dealing with that decision.
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I remember we had people in our lives that we loved and we cared about them. And we had a lot of people saying to us, I'll give you an example. One guy who was a cousin of mine
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asked me to meet him at Tiger Inn for coffee in South Tilla.
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And I met him and we'd already made the decision
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that God had called me to be a pastor and that we were going to New Orleans to go to seminary.
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And my cousin looked across the table and said, "Chuck, have you lost your mind?
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"I'm serious."
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He says, "Son, you've got a wife and two little kids
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"and you're telling me that you're gonna move your family "to New Orleans and you don't even have a job."
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I looked at him, I said, I called his name, I said, "Listen, I'll never make you understand this "in a thousand years, but I can look at you now "and tell you this, I know that we're doing "what God's called us to do."
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It was a gigantic step of faith.
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Okay?
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And understand this, when you step out in faith,
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not everybody's gonna pat you on the back and say, "Go for it."
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They're not, I'm telling you.
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Some of your most vocal critics will be the ones that you would never think would try to undermine what God's wanting to do in and through you,
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a step of faith.
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So I'm telling you, you cannot let fear control you.
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They fled for him and were greatly afraid. So I've just listed a few giants
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that we can face in our lives.
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The giant of insecurity.
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Have you ever been around an insecure person?
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Oh my goodness, it is a giant.
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Or addiction.
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Man, I was so blessed last Sunday, I had a gentleman in our church who came up to me and had a big old smile on his face. His wife was with him. He said, "Pastor, I want you to know,
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"I've not touched a drop of alcohol in five months."
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Man, I almost had a hissy fit.
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I said, "I am so proud of you.
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"Can you imagine what a blessing this is to your wife "and to your little girl?"
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And I put my hand on his shoulders and I prayed over him.
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Addiction can be a powerful giant in people's lives.
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Depression.
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Depression can be a real giant in people's lives. Disease.
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Hey look, I want you to do something.
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I gave you some blank spaces there. I want you to do this.
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Just cover your sheet.
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And I want you to write down on that sheet. I want you to write down the giant you're facing right now. Write it down. Now some of you may not be facing a giant,
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but if you are facing a giant right now,
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I want you to write it down on that sheet, okay?
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I want you to know that you do not have to be dismayed and greatly afraid, you don't. Paul said, "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me," right?
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This Sunday, I'm gonna be preaching again in Romans chapter eight. Boy, there's a great text I'm gonna preach Sunday morning, Easter Sunday. I'm gonna read you the text. I'm not gonna preach you the sermon. (Congregation Murmurs)
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In Romans chapter eight, listen to this. We've just gotten through with verse 29 and 30. Look at verse 31.
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"What then shall we say to these things?
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If God is for us, who's against us?
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He who did not spare his own son,
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but delivered him over for us all. How will he not also with him freely give us all things?"
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Now you think about that in relation to that giant you wrote down on your sheet of paper.
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Who will bring a charge against God's elect?
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God is the one who justifies.
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Who is the one who condemns Christ Jesus? Is he who died? I'm gonna really send it in on verse 34 Sunday.
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Who is the one who condemns Christ Jesus? Is he who died? Died on the cross for our sins. Yes, rather, who was raised
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and who is at the right hand of God who also intercedes for us.
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Now you think about that in relation to any giant that you may be facing in your life.
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You got the death and the resurrection and the ascension of Christ and his throne ministry where he intercedes for you. Oh my goodness.
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All right, let's go back to the first thing.
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Look at verses 25 to 30.
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The men of Israel said,
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"Have you seen this man who is coming up?
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Surely he's coming up to defy Israel
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and it will be that 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." In other words, no taxes, no taxes.
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Verse 26, "Then David spoke to the men." So evidently they said that to David.
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Then David spoke to the men who were standing by him saying, "What will be done for the man who kills his Philistine and takes away the reproach from Israel?" Don't you love the way David thinks?
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For who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should talk the armies of the living God?
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Now look, it's not trash talk if you can back it up.
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I'm gonna tell you what, you're gonna see that David can back it up, okay?
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Verse 27, "The people answered him in accord with this word saying, thus it will be done for the man who kills him."
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David's not thinking about wounding the guy.
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He's thinking about killing him, okay? He's thinking about beating the Philistine, the champion of the Philistines and winning a battle for the whole army of Israel and the nation of Israel and for the glory of God.
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(Sniffs) Verse 28, "Now, Eliyab his oldest brother." Oh, here we come.
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"Eliyab his oldest brother heard when he spoke to the men
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and Eliyab's anger burned against David
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and he said, "Why have you come down?
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And with whom have you left those few sheep in the wilderness?" Don't you just hear the sarcasm in that?
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I know your insolence and the wickedness of your heart. Wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute. Samuel said he had a heart for God, had a heart like God's. But Eliyab, his brother,
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said he had wickedness in his heart.
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"For you come down in order to see the battle." You just wanna see the battle. You just wanna see people getting killed.
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But David said, "What have I done now?"
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Younger brother speaking to an older brother.
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What have I done now?
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Was it not just a question? Can I not ask a question?
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Then he turned away from Eliyab
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to another and said the same thing and the people answered the same thing as before. In other words, David says again, "What will be done for the person who kills this uncircumcised Philistine?"
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What will be done for him?
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Let me make sure I get this right.
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You can sort of see the way his mind was thinking.
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Though King Saul would not personally fight the giant,
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he would handsomely reward anyone who successfully did so.
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That tells you something about King Saul.
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Now, what was promised? Riches from the king, marriage to the king's daughter. By the way, when you read marriage to the king's daughter, I want you to know there were a lot of benefits that came with being married to the king's daughter that are not listed here.
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A lot of benefits. In other words, David would be royalty.
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Royalty. Now look at this. No taxes for that person's family for life.
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I'm sure if Jesse had heard this, he would've talked to one of his brothers, one of David's brothers, "Hey, man, get out there and take care of that guy."
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No taxes for life.
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Now you might think at that price tag, there'd be at least one crazy soldier who would jump down to that valley and take a chance. None.
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For 40 days. For 40 days, ladies and gentlemen.
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Goliath insulted the people of God and the God of the Bible.
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And nobody took him up on it. I guess they're thinking, "What good is it to be rich and royal and tax free if you aren't alive to enjoy it?"
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So Goliath's words were not just an insult directed against the Israeli, Israelite army.
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They were an assault on the living God. I'm gonna tell you what, that's exactly the way David heard it.
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David took up the offense of God.
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His interest in the matter obviously irritated Eliab.
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I asked myself, "Why was Eliab so upset?
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Was it his own fear of Goliath?
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Or was it the fact that he was envious of David?
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Of David's courage, of David's brashness,
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of David's heart for God?"
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Whatever the case,
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his attitude and action underscore the reason he would not anoint him to be the next king of Israel.
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Take your Bible. Look at Psalm 69.
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Which David wrote.
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Look at verse eight.
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David wrote this in Psalm 69 verse eight. "I have become estranged from my brothers
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and an alien to my mother's sons."
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Now, you know, when I thought about this and I thought about what David went through, I thought of Joseph.
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Joseph got the same treatment from his brothers, right?
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But he ended up saving their hide, okay?
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David got this same treatment from his older brother and he ended up saving his hide, right?
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And I thought about Jesus. Think about this. When you read these stories, when you read these stories, you gotta ask yourself, what does this teach us about Jesus?
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And listen to this. I think Jesus was in Capernaum
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and he had been doing miracles and teaching and everything and his family came to him. His family, his mother, his brothers and sisters.
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They thought he was crazy
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and they wanted to take him,
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take him back home.
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That's in the New Testament.
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So Jesus got some of the same treatment from his family.
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I say to you again,
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when you decide that you're gonna live for God
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and you're gonna be committed to Christ,
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you're gonna deny yourself, take up your cross daily and follow him, you're gonna seek to obey him in small things and big things. Don't, listen, don't be surprised if some family members come after you, if they don't make fun of you,
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if they don't ridicule you, if they don't try to talk you out of it.
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There's a quote here from J.D. Greer. It's a tragic irony
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that some of the most discouraging opposition Christians face come from the people who stand, who should be on God's side.
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Confronting an enemy like Goliath is frightening enough as it is, but often added to that are the supposed believers who do everything their power to prevent sincere young Christians from stepping out in bold faith.
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The cowardly people of God are always the biggest obstacle to the mission of God.
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Shoo. (Congregation Laughing)
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Look at 1 Samuel 17, verses 31 to 37.
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When the words which David spoke were heard,
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somebody went Saul.
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And they told Saul about what David had said.
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Verse 32, David said to Saul, Saul sent for him and David went to King Saul. Verse 32, David said to Saul, let no man's heart fail on account of him,
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on account of Goliath.
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He's saying that to the King of Israel.
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This king has some wacky moments in his life, okay?
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He's giving an instruction to the King of Israel.
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Let no man's heart fail on account of him. Your servant will go and fight with his Philistine.
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Then Saul said to David, look what Saul said.
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Man, go get him, right?
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No, look, look. You are not able to go against this Philistine to fight with him, for you are but a youth while he has been a warrior from his youth.
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You can't do that, David.
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You're too young.
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Verse 34, but David said to Saul, I love this, your servant was tending his father's sheep.
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When a lion or a bear came and took a lamb from the flock, I went after him and attacked him and rescued it from his mouth. And when he rose up against me, I seized him by his beard and struck him and killed him.
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David killed a bear and he killed a lion.
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I guess David looked at Goliath and said, hey, I can take care of you. I've already taken care of a lion and a bear. Can I tell you this? Listen, listen to me. This life of faith,
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you have to build on past successes of walking in faith.
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That's what David remembered,
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how he had walked in faith before
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and how he had killed a bear and killed a lion.
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I tell you, that's when memory serves you well. Like I will, to the day I die, I may have Alzheimer's one day, but I think I'll still remember what happened when God called Darlene and me into the ministry.
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I don't think I'll ever forget that.
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It was a humongous step of faith.
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Now we've had other steps of faith.
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I remember when we had Heather
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and she was just weeks old
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and Darlene took her for a checkup and came back and she was upset.
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And Dr. Brandon there in Starkville sent us to carry Heather to a pediatric cardiologist in Jackson, Mississippi.
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Said something wrong. Her fingertips are blue, her lips are blue. Just a little baby.
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And we went and he did all this checking and everything. He sent us back home to Starkville, put her on digitalis. I never will forget that. My little baby on heart medication.
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And he said, "I want you to come back." He said at a time, "I want you to come back. I want you to bring a suitcase and all likelihood we're gonna have to operate, do a heart surgery on your daughter."
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I don't ever forget that.
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You talking about a husband and wife getting on her face before God?
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I remember I was a deacon at first Baptist Starkville.
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I remember standing up on a Sunday night and asking the whole church to pray for Heather.
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And we went back, we kept that appointment, we went down there and he took Heather back and did all the tests and everything. He came back, he was scratching his head.
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He said, "I don't understand it."
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He said, "There's nothing wrong with her heart."
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I told him, I said, "I'm telling you, we've had a whole church been praying for this.
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This is God, this is a miracle."
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I'll never forget that.
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I tell you, you got to crystallize these moments in your life when you have stepped out in faith and God has come through. Because if he did it once, he can do it again, right?
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All right.
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Okay, where am I?
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Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear and this uncircumcised Philistine, verse 36, will be like one of them.
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Since he has taunted the armies of the living God,
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and 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 this Philistine." You see what David's doing? He's rehearsing in his mind reasons that he should step out in faith and go down there and take care of this Philistine.
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And Saul said to David, "Go and may the Lord be with you." Well, thank you, King Saul. (Congregation Laughing)
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I love David's response in verse 32.
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Saul immediately rejected David's offer.
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David countered with some reasons why he could defeat the Goliath. See, people will tell you why you can't do something and sometimes you got to tell them why you can do something, right?
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And David's way of thinking, fighting the uncircumcised Philistine would be just like the fights it had with the lion and the bear.
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I'm telling you, I like the way David thought.
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First Samuel 17, verses 38 to 40, "Then Saul clothed David with his garments
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and put a bronze helmet on his head
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and clothed him with armor.
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And David girded his sword over his armor and tried to walk for he had not tested them."
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So David said to Saul, can you imagine David?
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Now look, he gonna go down that valley
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and he gonna do battle with the champion Philistine soldier.
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And here he is. He's trying to wear the armor of Saul
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and he's all bound up. Look what happened.
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He said in verse 39, "David girded his sword over his armor and tried to walk for he had not tested them. So David said to Saul, I cannot go with these for I have not tested them.
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And David took them off and he took his stick in his hand
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and chose for himself five smooth stones from the brook
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and put them in the shepherd's bag, which he had even in his pouch
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and his sling was in his hand.
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A sling, now when I think of a slingshot,
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I remember as a boy, I'd go out and I'd find me a tree that had a Fort limb
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and I would cut it and I would take my bicycle inner tube and I cut them up and slice it and I'd take a little piece of leather and I'd make me a slingshot.
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That's not what this is.
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I'm gonna show you in a minute, not right now, but I'm gonna show you in a minute how this kind of sling worked.
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Now, so he took his stick in his hand, chose for himself five smooth stones from the brook, put them in the shepherd's bag, which he had even in his pouch and his sling was in his hand and he approached the Philistine. Now, don't overlook that. He approached the Philistine.
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In other words, he didn't stay up here on the mountain with the other, with the lyub and his other two brothers in the army of Israel. No, no, no, he went down into the valley
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to take on this big mouth.
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In the New American commentary,
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Bergen commented, he said, ironically Saul's actions confirmed and foreshadowed the royal status God promised David.
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The Lord had clothed David with a spirit
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that enabled kingship.
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Now Saul clothed David with the symbols that exemplified kingship.
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The writer's inclusion of the clothing incident probably was meant to serve two functions. I like this.
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First, to indicate the greater value of divine enablement over human devices.
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I'm telling you, it's more important for David
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to have the power, the spirit of God as it goes into that valley rather than having the armor of Saul.
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Second, and more importantly, to symbolize David's rejection of Saul's approach to kingship.
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Saul chose to dress in royal clothing such as all the other nations have. David would wear none of it. Instead, he would identify with the great shepherd leaders of the Torah, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, especially Moses and live by faith in the promises of God.
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Look at verses 41 to 44.
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Then the Philistine came and approached David
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with a shield barrier in front of him.
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Now, this would probably have been the large shield. There were small shields, there were large shield and there was a large shield and this shield barrier was out in front of Goliath.
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I'm telling you, there ain't no shield that's nine foot nine inches tall.
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Okay, you wanna see in a minute, that shield could cover a part of Goliath's body
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but not the most vulnerable part of his body, okay?
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When the Philistine looked and saw David, he disdained him
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for he was but a youth and ruddy with a handsome appearance.
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The Philistine said to David, am I a dog
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that you come to me with sticks
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and the Philistine cursed David by his gods, by the gods of the Philistines.
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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. In other words, what he's saying to David,
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say David, you little punk, I am going to take your life. I'm gonna take your head and I'm gonna give your body to the birds and the beasts of the field and you will not have a proper burial and you will have an ignoble death.
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He's trying to get in his head, right?
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You know, that's what Satan will do to you.
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He'll try getting your head.
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You know what it say to you? You can't do that.
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No way you can do that.
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And you cannot listen to the naysayers.
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Understand this, this is more than a physical battle. There's a spiritual battle taking place in this Valley of Elah.
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Spiritual battle. Can I tell you that this thing going on between Israel, America and Iran, it's not just a physical thing, it's a spiritual battle.
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(Congregation Applauding)
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Winning a contest against a boy
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who was not outfitted like a warrior and certainly didn't have the weapons of a warrior would not be particularly prestigious for such a champion of the Philistines. So he disdained David.
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Now, I want you to compare their qualifications. Look at the next page. I got a little thing here. Look at Goliath versus David.
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Goliath was an experienced warrior, a champion.
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David had never fought a war, ever.
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One of the most powerful, Goliath was one of the most powerful men in history.
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David was a mere youth with ordinary strength.
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Goliath was armed with the best weapons of war.
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David was armed with a stick, a sling and five stones.
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Goliath trusted in himself.
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David trusted in the Lord.
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Let me tell you,
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this wasn't much of a battle.
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It looked like that David was outgunned. I'm telling you, he wasn't. Poor old Goliath.
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Look at 1 Samuel 17 verses 45 to 47.
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Then David said to the Philistine, so the Philistine talked some smack to David. And then David came back
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and he had some words for the Philistine.
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"You come to me with sword, spear and javelin, "but I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, "the God of the armies of Israel whom you have taught him." Let me ask you a quick, you read that. Who's David trying to glorify?
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The God of Israel.
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Man, I love his moxie here, don't you?
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Verse 46, "This day, "this day,"
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this David talking to this giant, "this day the Lord will deliver you up into my hands "and I will strike you down and remove your head from you "and I will give the dead bodies of the army "of the Philistine this day to the birds of the sky "and the wild beasts of the earth, "that all the earth," look at that, "that all the earth may know "that there is a God in Israel."
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Fires me up.
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(Congregation Laughing) Would to God
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that we had some of David's passion,
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that we would be offended
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when people blasphemed the name of our Lord.
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Verse 47, "And that all this assembly may know "that the Lord does not deliver by sword or by spear."
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Look at the last part of this verse. "For the battle is the Lord's "and he will give you into our hands."
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David's bold and courageous faith was evident
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in his response to Goliath.
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His use of the sling and stone
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also was motivated by the fact that he was skillful in their use. He knew how to use the stick and the sling and the stone. He knew how to use them. And they were especially suited for exploiting Goliath's vulnerabilities.
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As David viewed it, Goliath was outnumbered
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and outgunned and overpowered for the Lord would fight with David against the giant.
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(Congregation Laughing)
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Look at 1 Samuel 1748 to 51.
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Then it happened when the Philistine, man, wouldn't you like to know what Eliab and David's two other brothers are thinking up here?
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Then it happened when the Philistine rose and came and drew near to meet David that David ran the other way and went back up on the mountain, right? No, no, no, oh no.
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David ran quickly toward the battle line to meet the Philistine.
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And what courage.
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And David put his hand into his bag
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and took from it a stone and slung it and struck the Philistine on his forehead right here, right here where there was nothing to protect him.
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And the stone sank into his forehead so that he fell on his face to the ground. Notice it, I got to think about this.
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The stone hit him right between the eyes.
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You would think he'd fall backwards, right?
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He didn't, he fell face first.
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Hey, there's a story.
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It's either in 1st or 2nd Samuel
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where the Philistines took the Ark of the Covenant
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and they captured it and they took it into the house of Dagon, their god,
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and they put it in the house of Dagon.
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And the next day, the next morning,
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when they went into the house of Dagon, Dagon was laying flat on the floor, face down on the floor before the Ark.
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They tried it again.
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The next day they came and Dagon was all broken up, face down before the Ark of the Covenant.
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And where's Goliath? Face down, dead as a hammer.
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It's a position of surrender. (Congregation Chattering)
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At least that's what I saw.
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So David put his hand in the bag and struck him in the forehead and the stone sank into his forehead so that he fell on his face to the ground. Verse 50, "Thus David prevailed over the Philistine "with the sling of the stone "and he struck the Philistine and killed him, "but there was no sword in David's hand."
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"Then 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 with it. "And when the Philistine saw that their champion was dead,
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"they surrendered to the Jews." Right? Because that's what the deal was, right? No, no, they fled.
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They ran home.
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David's weapon, of course, the Jews saw that Jewish army went after. David's weapon of choice against Goliath provided him with a tremendous advantage over the weapons of Goliath. Goliath's weapons were good for close hand-to-hand combat.
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You realize that they say
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that with one of those slings,
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you can sling a stone
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and hit a target 200 yards away.
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Now those stones are not little pebbles.
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Those stones, those stones are about the size of a tennis ball or a little smaller than a tennis ball.
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You imagine, an NFL player, an NFL quarterback can take a football and throw it 75 yards, a good one, 75 yards. When you take this stone and you put it in a sling and you get that centrifugal force going,
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you just imagine that they say that the speed on one of those things, 150 miles an hour,
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that's 150 miles an hour. I want you to watch this video.
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(Upbeat Music)
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(Dramatic Music)
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For my mother.
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(Dramatic Music)
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(Dramatic Music)
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I wanna close
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by giving you a couple of lessons we gotta learn. I want you to know that Jesus,
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who descended from David,
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who's seated on David's throne for all of eternity,
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he took out the real giant in our lives.
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The giant of Satan, sin and death.
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It happened on Easter weekend.
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And Christ went to the cross and died for our sin.
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When Christ was buried and rose again, he defeated death.
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And Genesis chapter three says
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that he defeated Satan right there on the cross.
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So Jesus has won against our main giant folks and rose.
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Now look, because of that in Christ, we have no need to fear death.
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You don't have to fear dying.
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Not if you're a believer,
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you have no need to fear the future.
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You have no need to fear pain of a broken relationship.
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You have no need to be afraid of the disapproval of others.
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Who will condemn you if God accepts you and blesses you?
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And through the story, here's the second lesson, through the story of David and Goliath,
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God gives us a pattern for how we can overcome the giants we face.
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We've talked about several little lessons and remember God's victories in your life. Remember those times you stepped out in faith that God came through.
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Remember use spiritual weapons, not fleshly weapons. Write down right there in your sheet, 2 Corinthians chapter 10, verse three and four.
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And then stay ready for the battle.
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Stay ready, spend time in the word and prayer. Worship with the church regularly. Worship with the church regularly. Humble yourself, repent of all known sin. Give generously and regularly to the Lord's work. Share the good news of the gospel with others.
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This puts you in a position to be ready when the giant raises his ugly head in your life.
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But remember this, Easter's all about the fact that Jesus has defeated the giant's forests.
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Okay, we've just got to appropriate that victory.
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Hey, let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you so much for the story of David. Thank you the way it dovetails into the life and ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ.
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Thank you Lord Jesus,
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that you've defeated the biggest giants in our lives.
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The giants of Satan, sin and death.
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And Lord, I pray that we would learn to walk by faith, that we would please you in every regard, Lord in Christ's name, amen. Thank you and God bless you. Come out, come out. Hey, don't forget, Friday night, Friday night,
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we have a service at 6.15, our Good Friday service. We're gonna close that Good Friday service by observing the Lord's Supper. And then Sunday morning, we have two services.
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One at 8.45 and one at 10.45. I encourage you to pick one and come and invite people to come with you, okay? Thank you and God bless you.