Goliath May Fall

Devo #1 - Olympic Football ‘25

Good afternoon, my name is Cody Tripp, and I’m the high school pastor at Good Shepherd Church down the street. I’m so glad to be with y’all this season.This week I was thinking about what you guys are feeling right now. You woke up this morning and something felt different in the air. You may have had butterflies in your stomach, maybe one of your parents made you a pregame breakfast. You have a mixture of excitement, of nervousness, maybe some fear, but most importantly you just can’t wait to hit somebody. You’ve been working hard this preseason. You’re prepared for battle.

The first battle that I want to talk about is one that a lot of you are probably familiar with, but maybe haven’t thought about since you were little. Maybe it’s a battle that you have never heard of, and that’s great, too! So I’ll set the scene. There’s two sides to this Battle, the Israelites and the Philistines. Back in these times, the Israelites were God’s chosen people, and other nations didn’t like that, so they were always fighting someone.

In this specific battle, there was a battlefield down below in a valley, and both armies were camping out on the hills overlooking the valley. Every morning, this literal Giant named Goliath, would lead the Philistine army by going down into the valley and mocking the Philistines. Nobody wanted to fight him except for this young guy named David. David was small but mighty. David said to the giant, “You come against me with a sword, spear, and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the LORD of Armies, the God of the ranks of Israel—you have defied him. 46 Today, the LORD will hand you over to me.”

It was like David was in the hurry up. Not because he was losing and it was getting late, but because his opponent wasn’t ready for it. He came out with tempo, put the stone in the sling, and threw it and it landed. The giant went down. The Israelites advanced, the battle was won.

David wasn’t scared of the Giant because he knew that the Lord had prepared him for battle. If you look at the chapter before this battle, we see David receiving power from the Holy Spirit. He went into the battle trusting his preparation.

Tonight, you’re going to battle on this field. And by the end, one team will win. But from my experience playing and coaching sports — the battle is often won before the first snap. It’s in how you’ve prepared, how you’ve practiced, how you’ve trained your body and your mind. One day, you’re going to go to battle with things in your life. It may be anxiety, insecurity, depression, the pressure to prove yourself. If you wait until the moment of crisis, you’ll already feel behind. But when you prepare your heart by leaning on God, by reading His Word, by surrounding yourself with the right people, you’re ready before the giant ever steps on the field. I’m excited to dive into the ways that we can prepare ourself for life in the next few weeks, but for now, it’s almost time for y’all to go to battle on the field. Let’s pray!