Five Smooth Stones: The Challenger

Introduction

Good morning, church! I am excited to be with you this morning. You have chosen an awesome Sunday to be with us. We are kicking off a brand new sermon series, all about a very well-known story in scripture.

Story: Introduced to David and Goliath probably by mom and dad....but first remember with Ms. Gabrielson....explain.

Fantastic event in the bible. It’s a story about an unlikely hero named David, defeating a mighty giant and enemy named Goliath.

But there is so much more to be learned from this story than a simple statement, “God is bigger than my giants.” While this is no doubt true, let’s unpack the whole story to see what we can learn. Not going to do all of that today.…shorter sermons than the last series.

Todays as we kick off the series, we need to focus on the larger than life challenger, Goliath.

Main Teaching

If you have a Bible with you, turn with me to 1 Samuel 17. Over the next four weeks, we are going to essentially cover this entire chapter. However, today we are going to start reading in verse 1. Follow along with me…

Read 1 Samuel 17:1-11

1 Samuel 17:1–11 ESV

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. 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. 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. And there came out from the camp of the Philistines a champion named Goliath of Gath, whose height was six cubits and a span. 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. And he had bronze armor on his legs, and a javelin of bronze slung between his shoulders. 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. 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. 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.” And the Philistine said, “I defy the ranks of Israel this day. Give me a man, that we may fight together.” When Saul and all Israel heard these words of the Philistine, they were dismayed and greatly afraid.

Now, just spend a moment picturing this man Goliath. The Bible says he was nine feet tall.

I’m not sure about you, but I’ve only met someone who is around seven feet tall. Add another two feet to your favorite NBA player, and you’ve got Goliath.

But also big, hairy, smelly....It’s pretty easy to see why the Israelite army would have been intimidated, because they were confronted with a clear and dominant-looking enemy.

Today, I want to see what we can learn from Goliath about our present enemy.

The Bible says the evil one is “prowling around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour” (1 Peter 5:8).

We must be aware of what our challenger looks and sounds like if we are going to be successful in opposition and persecution. And interestingly enough, our present day enemy sounds a lot like the Israelites ancient enemy.

The first thing we see from Goliath is…

The Enemy Will Question

Did you notice what Goliath asked the Israelites in verse 8? “Why are you all coming out to fight?”

Part of this is a challenge to one on one combat.... let’s just settle this me and one of your guys.

Israel’s army + God = victory for Israel. Goliath wants to get Israel off its game. Let’s make it personal, me against your best guy.

It’s a trick, its a trap, its trying to get Israel off of its game and it s the same thing our enemy the devil has been pulling since the very beginning.

That’s what the devil likes to do. Question what God says, question how we should interpret it, question our faith in.

The devil loves doubt and I have no doubt that he has tried to prompt that in your life.

The reality is, we all have this natural tendency to doubt from time to time. And the devil, the evil one, is the king of doubts. He is constantly planting doubt in our heads that leads us to question God.

Even all the way back in Genesis, the first book of the Bible, this is exactly how he operated. Genesis 3:1 “Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?””

Here, the evil one asks a simple question that causes doubt to slip into the minds of Adam and Eve. He is in the business of distracting folks like you and me from the truth. Therefore, we need to be aware of the questions we may be confronted with.

In the case of Goliath, can’t you just see the Israelite heads dropping after this question? “He’s right, we are wasting our time. We can’t defeat him. We can’t fight against him.”

And you know what, that specific thinking would make the Israelites completely accurate in their assumptions. They are right! They can’t defeat Goliath on their own.

However, there will soon be a warrior who rolls up to the scene and doesn’t try to fight his enemy with his own strength.

This is something we can’t miss. Some of us have allowed discouragement and doubt to slip in because we have the wrong perspective on our battle.

The Bible makes it clear we were never meant to fight the enemy on our own. In fact, if we try to do it all on our own, we will fail.

When we receive questions from the evil one, we need to know how to respond. Not with fear, but rather in faith, knowing, as Joshua 1:9 says, “Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go.”

Interestingly enough, right after Goliath asks this question to the Israelite army, he makes a profound statement. He says, “I am the Philistine champion, but you are only the servants of Saul.”

The Enemy will Condemn

The word “but” is extremely important in the Bible. Every time we see it, we can assume it is in between two different (and often opposing) statements. For instance, in Acts 1:6-8 “So when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

And in a similar sense, here in verse 8 Goliath is seeking to elevate himself above the rest of the Israelite army.

What advantages does Goliath have over the typical Israelite soldier - list some out.

Now, it’s clear, at least on paper, Goliath has the advantage. And therefore, he speaks with a tone of condemnation. He’s extremely confident going into this.

However, there’s an important statement we can’t miss here, because it shows us a key tactic of the evil one in our lives as well. Goliath, when speaking about the Israelites, says, “you are only the servants of Saul.”

A few minutes ago, we spoke about doubt. But here, I want us to talk about trust. When we remove everything else, who do we trust? Who do we serve? Who do we look to?

Who are we trusting? World says you can only trust yourself...

But that’s incredibly weak.

Maybe you can trust a few key people....but even that is weak.

Government, political leaders even pastors....we will all let you down.

It’s kind of like a story Alistair Begg tells… thief on the cross.

Welcome to heaven....why should you be here?

What do you know about faith, about grace, about going to church....

Tell is it expiation, propitiation, or substitution?

Guys like I don’t know, I don’t know any of that.....

I’ll I know is the guy on the middle cross said I could come.

Any time you try to answer one of life’s big questions....salvation, hope for the future, bearing up under tragedy, dealing with temptation.

The second you start answering the question with the word “I,” you’re done.

The way you answer life’s biggest questions is: the guy on the middle cross said:

I could be saved

I could go to heaven

I could be in a relationship with God

I could have hope

I could survive tragedy

I could deal with Goliath because I understand it’s not about me and my strength, it’s all about what the guy on the middle cross has said, has done and will do!

The difference between the Israelite army and David, as we will see next week, is perspective on the situation.

David realized it wasn’t him vs Goliath....it was was the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob whom Goliath had defied that was coming against him.

In our own lives, what kind of perspective do we have when we receive questions? When we hear a voice of condemnation, do we automatically just believe it to be true? or do we step back and think I don’t have to defeat this....my DAD does.

Well Saul, and the armies of Israel don’t have that perspective yet so this dialogue between Goliath and the Israelite army comes to a temporary close in verse 11. The Bible says, “when Saul and the Israelites heard this, they were terrified and deeply shaken.”

The Enemy will Strike Fear

And that’s a huge tactic of the devil. He wants to feed you lies, condemn you and say you are on your own and can only trust your own power and he does all of this because he wants you to be AFRAID!

After heart attack I was really afraid....probably tired of me talking about it....but big deal for me. And I deal with emergencies for a living.

But my body let me down, convinced it was going to happen again.

Young family

Hope did enough

Hope life insurance be enough

Terrified I wasn’t long for this world.

And in that season of my life (and it was a LONG season) even though I shouldn’t have been afraid, I was!. I was believing lies. I was listening to the wrong voices. And fear caused me to spiral out of control in many other areas of my life. Impacted choices made out of fear that I still have to deal with today.

Devil wants us afraid. It will drag us down, cause us to question God, and fear will often try to keep us from stepping out in faith.

Check this out - Matthew 14:24-28 “but the boat by this time was a long way from the land, beaten by the waves, for the wind was against them. And in the fourth watch of the night he came to them, walking on the sea. But when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were terrified, and said, “It is a ghost!” and they cried out in fear. But immediately Jesus spoke to them, saying, “Take heart; it is I. Do not be afraid.” And Peter answered him, “Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.””

This story is one of Peter taking an action step of faith. There are four crucial words spoken by Jesus, however, prior to Peter taking his step: “Do not be afraid.”

Peter seemed to have the confidence he needed because of the voice he chose to listen to and trust.

So what did he do, stepped over the edge of the boat and became a pedestrian of the Sea of Galilee. Check this out…Matthew 14:29 “He said, “Come.” So Peter got out of the boat and walked on the water and came to Jesus.”

He made a great choice....listened to Jesus’ voice, followed His command, trusted Him.

But here’s the thing about that choice to listen to God’s voice and ignore the others....it’s not a one time thing. You don’t just check the box “I trust God” and it automatically happens.

Look what happens….. Matthew 14:30-3

Matthew 14:30–32 ESV

But when he saw the wind, he was afraid, and beginning to sink he cried out, “Lord, save me.” Jesus immediately reached out his hand and took hold of him, saying to him, “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?” And when they got into the boat, the wind ceased.

13. Distracted….problems looked bigger…forgot to trust. Not a one time question to be answered……

That is a question you are going to have to answer everyday, some times many times a day. That’s the question we will be confronted with today: which voice are we listening to in order and trust?

Conclusion

The word of God shows us consistently what God’s voice actually sounds like. That’s why it is so important to spend time reading and studying it.

In fact, I’ve heard it said we must “soak and bathe in the word of God.”

And that is the key to dealing with the enemy. We can’t rely on human strength or the power we think we have on our own.

Instead, the enemy will only be consistently defeated by a reliance on God’s strength! On His power and not our own.

Your Home Work:

Consider this week how you are relying on your own strength and resolve. Think through some areas where you know you need to ask for help, but you haven’t yet

Try to recognize the voice of doubt, condemnation, and fear this week. Remember, this is not the voice of God in your life.

And finally, spend time reading the Bible this week. Consider reading Ephesians chapter 1 and highlight or write down all the ways God blesses you in and through Christ. He is our great high priest, friend, and savior.

And then let the challengers line up - You were never meant to fight this battle alone and you NEVER HAVE TO!

Let’s pray together.