2021-06-13 1 Samuel 17
Notes
Transcript
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 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.
I. David and Goliath is a story about the glory of God.
I. David and Goliath is a story about the glory of God.
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.”
A. The battle was never about who had a greater army.
A. The battle was never about who had a greater army.
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?”
Illus: There has probably never been a story more misused than the story of David and Goliath.
The poor interpretation goes… every one has goliaths in their lives and as you are david, you need to face those goliaths. Your faith in will help you conquer your goliaths.
Sadly we all come to scripture rewriting a book about God into a book about us. We have take a book about the glory of God and his work through men and turned it into a book about ourselves.
David rightly saw the offense. The philistines were defying God. They were mocking God.
The Bible says that often God refuses to give you what your want because you seek to spend it on yourself. In other words if your life is about conquering your Goliaths, you wont because God isn’t about empowering you to fulfill your dreams and goals.
David defeats Goliath because he sees goliath rightly, as a glory thief of God. David conquers Goliath because he joins God in restoring that glory.
The battle was never between David and Goliath. It was never about David’s strength. It was about God’s glory and God picked a runt of a man with shepherds weapons to make the point that no man takes glory from God.
15 When the servant of the man of God rose early in the morning and went out, behold, an army with horses and chariots was all around the city. And the servant said, “Alas, my master! What shall we do?”
16 He said, “Do not be afraid, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them.”
17 Then Elisha prayed and said, “O Lord, please open his eyes that he may see.” So the Lord opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw, and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.
B. David understood that it was about the glory and power of God.
B. David understood that it was about the glory and power of God.
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?”
Illus: God does not share his glory.
When studying this passage there is the obvious question, who are you.
Some will say, you are david facing your Goliaths. In this line of thinking we want to make ourselves the hero of the story.
Some will say, you are the scared Israelites standing on the side. That’s fair. In many ways we are the people who have lost faith in the power of God. We are the people so blinded by looking at the world through human eyes that we cannot see as God sees.
I want to make the case that there is a great chance that we are Goliath in the passage. We are not the grand hero of our passage, we are not semi neutral bystanders of the passage, but instead we are the villain of the passage who needed a rock to noggin.
We are glory stealers. We live in such a way to elevate ourselves. Even in the way we do religion, in many ways our faith is more about ourselves than about God.
Our lives should be lived for the glory of God and the fulfillment of his mission of this earth. That said, most of our lives, decisions, dollars, are spent on ourselves. We want the glory and spoils of our lives.
We don’t live for God we live for ourselves.
Over the last week I have had younger adults tell me that we need to cater the worship more for them, and I have had seniors tell me we need cater the worship more towards them.
Let me say this out loud.... every segment of our church is asking for the church to build the worship to please them. In this we have made ourselves the center of worship. It is no longer about giving God his glory, but instead pleasing ourselves.
Even in worship we are robbing God.
We are not david we are Goliath.
David understood what needed to happen in the moment. God‘s glory needed to be restored. It needed to happen through destroying the story stealer.
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 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.”
II. David knew God could handle God’s business.
II. David knew God could handle God’s business.
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 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!”
A. The battle was not David vs. Goliath. It was God vs. Goliath.
A. The battle was not David vs. Goliath. It was God vs. Goliath.
And David said to Saul, “Let no man’s heart fail because of him. Your servant will go and fight with this Philistine.”
Illus: I started this sermon talking about who you were in the story. I do believe in many ways that we are not Goliath.
To be david we need to completely reorient our lives around the glory and mission of God.
That means we cease to live for ourselves and begin to see everything in terms of God’s glory and his purpose of redeeming the world. All of our lives should be given to that purpose.
When your life is aligned with the glory and purpose of God, the battle changes.
As long as you keep living for yourself and your glory, you wont experience the power of God because God will not bless those who seek to spend God‘s power on themselves.
When your life is aligned with the glory and purpose of God, the battle changes.
It is not longer about you, but instead about God. You stand in confidence that God handles God’s business. You just get to be apart of it. You get the honor of being used for God’s business.
David seems overly assured of his victory. His sureity was not in his skill to fight, but was by faith that God will not be mocked.
4 Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.
37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.
38 For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers,
39 nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
B. God’s faithfulness in the small things helped David understand the battle for what it was.
B. God’s faithfulness in the small things helped David understand the battle for what it was.
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!”
Illus: God prepared David for this moment. David saw that God had been faithful when he was a shepherd, and through that faith, he understood God would be faithful in this moment.
God is always faithful. He is constantly working out his plan for his glory and worldwide mission.
When we join God in his plan, we will see him work miraculously in our lives. We will see Him accomplish things we could never do on our own.
Often those don’t begin with huge things, but small places where we can understand his faithfulness. As we learn to trust God in the small things, our faith grows and God calls us to greater and grander faith.
Here is the challenge. Trust God with your family, align your family with the mission of God. Align your priorities with his glory. Do the same with your work, with our church, and with your relationships.
As you learn to trust God with these things, God will begin to use you in greater and greater ways.
1 The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?
2 When evildoers assail me to eat up my flesh, my adversaries and foes, it is they who stumble and fall.
III. David didn’t need to be a warrior, he needed to be a shepherd.
III. David didn’t need to be a warrior, he needed to be a shepherd.
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 Philistine.
A. David did not defeat Goliath. God did. David was simply the instrument God used.
A. David did not defeat Goliath. God did. David was simply the instrument God used.
Illus: God did not call Saul, or one of the mighty men to defeat Goliath. He called a sheep herding kid who was making a delivery run to defeat Goliath.
Why? because it was never about David. God used the foolishness of a boy defeating the champion of the philistines to show that it was God who was their hope.
God is ready to use you. He is ready to work in our church. For that to happen we have to stop being Goliath, stealing glory for God, and align our lives to give God glory and accomplish his mission.
When we align ourselves with God, God will wield us in his grand plan and we will see ourselves as instruments in the hand of our king.
10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might.
11 Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil.
12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.
13 Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm.
14 Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness,
15 and, as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace.
16 In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one;
17 and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God,
18 praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end, keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints,