Least Likely to Succeed

We are starting a new series this morning. Tilted Yes, You: Fulfilling God’s Purpose.

This four-week series explores the lives of a few unlikely people whom God used to do amazing things. Through the stories of David, Rahab, John Mark, and Gideon, we will see that God uses the small, the outsider, those behind the scenes, and the timid to do amazing things in the world.

This morning we will be diving into our first story about David.

If you have you bible go head and turn to 1 Samuel 17:1–47. If you do not have you bible you can follow along on the screen in a few moments.

Before we look at the story of David and Goliath. I have a question for you. So think for a moment.

What if you were voted the “Least Likely to Succeed” in your high school yearbook?

What would you do? Would you try to do everything to not be the least likely?

There are story all over the place of people that were told this and have gone on to do great thing and have multimillion-dollar business.

here are a couple.

The creator of Food Network, Jack Clifford was told that he was least likely to succeed. He went from a nobody to creating a multimillion-dollar network.

The founds of one of the best chicken restaurant back home Raisin Caines. They submitted a business plan for class and was told my the professer that it would not work. They were give a C- minus for the plan. This business has now expanded internationally.

What does this mean for us?

How can God use me if I do not have anything to offer?

1 Samuel 17:12–18 CSB

12 Now David was the son of the Ephrathite from Bethlehem of Judah named Jesse. Jesse had eight sons and during Saul’s reign was already an old man. 13 Jesse’s three oldest sons had followed Saul to the war, and their names were Eliab, the firstborn, Abinadab, the next, and Shammah, the third, 14 and David was the youngest. The three oldest had followed Saul, 15 but David kept going back and forth from Saul to tend his father’s flock in Bethlehem. 16 Every morning and evening for forty days the Philistine came forward and took his stand. 17 One day Jesse had told his son David, “Take this half-bushel of roasted grain along with these ten loaves of bread for your brothers and hurry to their camp. 18 Also take these ten portions of cheese to the field commander. Check on the well-being of your brothers and bring a confirmation from them.

David’s family would have called him “Least Likely to Succeed”

—if they thought of him at all.

right before this verse we just read. Goliath sets an ultimate. Send one out to fight him to decided the war.

We know how this story ends most of us have read it or lessoned to other sermon on it. At some point. This story is the ultimate underdog story.

David this shepherd boy that was over look when Samuel came to anoint a new king. The youngest boy of of all eight of Jesses son. He would have not much to give at this point.

In the meantime, he served his father and brothers by tending to the fields and protecting the sheep from bears and lions. When the Israelites were fighting the Philistines, David’s father sent him to take food to his brothers at the front line (1 Samuel 17:12–18). David went there and eventually saw that his brothers and the army of Israel were afraid of the Philistine champion Goliath, butDavid was not afraid (vv. 19–37).

David request

To everyone’s surprise and amusement, David requested the chance to challenge Goliath. King Saul obliged David and invited him to fight for Israel. Saul wanted David to wear the king’s armor to defeat the giant (17:38–40).

Have you ever showed up somewhere only to realize you are unprepared for the situation?

Maybe you didn’t bring the right tool to perform a job. Or you dressed

casually for a formal occasion—or vice versa. It can be embarrassing! People

can doubt if you know what you are doing or if you are in the right place.

1 Samuel 17:41–47 CSB

41 The Philistine came closer and closer to David, with the shield-bearer in front of him. 42 When the Philistine looked and saw David, he despised him because he was just a youth, healthy and handsome. 43 He said to David, “Am I a dog that you come against me with sticks?” Then he cursed David by his gods. 44 “Come here,” the Philistine called to David, “and I’ll give your flesh to the birds of the sky and the wild beasts!” 45 David said to the Philistine, “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. Today, I’ll strike you down, remove your head, and give the corpses of the Philistine camp to the birds of the sky and the wild creatures of the earth. Then all the world will know that Israel has a God, 47 and this whole assembly will know that it is not by sword or by spear that the Lord saves, for the battle is the Lord’s. He will hand you over to us.”

David used what he knew

He could have used all the other arm that everyone else had but it did work for him. You see, David knew how to use a sling. He knew how to throw it just right. He used a rock to defect a 9 foot tall man. David was prepared.

God can use you with what you have

You do not have to have everything figured out. You do not have to every deal crossed off. The story of David emphasizes God’s control over his people and his sovereignty in choosing whom he would work through. If you are willing to let God me in control. If you are willing to say God this is for you.

“Goliath must have considered himself invincible. He failed to understand, however, that he and his shield bearer were no match for David and his God. Goliath’s observation merely echoed Saul’s opinion that David, far from being a worthy opponent, was ‘only a boy.’ The Philistine, who ‘despised’ David, was not impressed” (Ronald F. Youngblood, “1 & 2 Samuel,” in Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1 & 2 Samuel, The Expositor’s Bible Commentary 3 [Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1992], 700). While people might have thought David was the least likely to defeat Goliath, God had different plans.

Will you be faithful to let God use you, even when you are small

The story of David and Goliath reveals that God can use the smallest and least likely people to bring about his will.