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00:01 Good morning. Let me do some advertising first. Uhhuh. We have lately uh few
00:07 people from India in our midst from Kerala, from Bangalore, Bangalorei, Chennai,
00:13 uh Hyderabad. So we are going to we're trying to start an Indian service. Uh
00:18 this will be run by brother Ram Ki um who will be coordinating it with uh
00:24 brother David Adams. Brother Rami is from Hyderabad is Ram here. So if you know anybody from India, okay, please
00:31 contact brother Rami. He will help us run this ministry. Thank you, brother Ramy. All right,
00:40 today we're going to look at a very famous text. This is probably one of the most famous uh text in the Bible. You
00:48 don't even have to be a Christian to know this text. In fact, it is taken a life of its own. Now the question is how
00:56 do we apply it today? So I want to take a few verses for you to look at u and
01:01 I'm going to take it from the entire chapter of uh chapter 17.
01:07 And when Goliath arrives on the scene, this is what we're told in 1711 to give
01:12 you the context. On hearing the Philistines words, Saul and the Israelites were dismayed and terrified.
01:19 And if you know the story, Goliath comes forth and issues a challenge. The
01:24 challenge is, is there anyone there who's willing to fight me one on one? He
01:30 does this for 40 days. And in verse 24, we are told, "When the Israelites saw the man, they all ran from him in great
01:38 fear." 40 days, he comes out from the ranks of the Philistine army and he issues this challenge. And then one man
01:45 comes forward, a kid, a boy, a teenager. And he says this, David says to Saul,
01:53 "Let no one lose heart on account of this Philistine. Your servant will go
01:58 out and fight him." But the king has no confidence. And the king replies, "You
02:03 are not able to go out against this Philistine and fight him. You're only a
02:09 boy and he has been a fighting man from his youth." Now, what is the consistent
02:16 line we see in all of this? What is the train of thought that runs through the whole thing?
02:22 It's got to do with this thing called fear. And I think to make the text relevant to us today, and I think it's a
02:30 serious topic, I want I want us to sort of this morning just pause and ask, what
02:36 do you fear most? There are some in our midst who are at
02:43 door, death door, and they're fearful of los. We must pray for them. Some of us
02:50 don't have that, but we are fearful for other things. Our business is on the
02:56 verge of breaking down. Our marriages are not doing very well.
03:02 Our children are involved in things that make us very worried. So fear is
03:09 something that grips us. And today in this text we see how a young man dealt
03:16 with this fear completely differently from how the entire nation deals with
03:21 it. So as we look at the story of David versus Goliath, I want you to ask, what
03:28 is your Goliath? What is your fear? What is the thing
03:35 that makes you wake up in the middle of night in a cold sweat? I think it's important. And how do we
03:42 face our deepest fears with the power of God? So, let's come before God and pray on this. Lord, we uh
03:51 we come before you. And although sometimes you come to church, we put on a smile. We put on a a face of
03:57 confidence. You know, inside what we shake and tremble, the things that bother us, the things that make us
04:05 worried, the things that give us sleepless nights. We don't tell others in church. We keep it to ourselves. But
04:13 Lord, you know our hearts. As we look at today's chapter and how a young boy faced a giant of a man
04:21 and how true his one act brought salvation
04:27 to the people of God. Teach us to learn from this story, Lord, and teach us to
04:33 apply in our lives that we may be people who can come before your throne with confidence. We say this in Jesus name.
04:41 Amen. Now, this is such a famous story, right? There are multiple applications
04:47 of it. And and like I said, you don't have to be a Christian to appreciate the story. Who doesn't know the story of
04:52 David versus Goliath? Everyone knows it. One small kid against a giant of a man.
04:58 So let me go through a few common applications of it or how most people will see the story and this is a movie
05:06 done during my time. All the young people don't appreciate. I hear the youth are here with us. Where are the
05:11 youth? They don't appreciate these things. Okay. But okay, corrected. But when I
05:17 was a kid, this was the movie. This is Star Wars episode 5. And in the opening
05:23 of this movie, you find the Galactic Empire coming out with a weapon called
05:29 the Imperial Walker. This is a giant. It's big, massive. Nothing stands in its
05:36 way. No gun, no armor. It pulverizes everything. These are giants. These are
05:45 Goliaths. So what does the Rebel Alliance do? The Rebel Alliance sends out this little coochie rat snow
05:52 speededer to fight the walker. I mean, how can you do that, man? I mean, come on, man. This guy is huge,
05:60 big, 10 stories high. You send out this little small twoman vehicle. But you
06:05 see, he's got a harpoon. Now, what's got a harpoon got to do with it? A harpoon
06:10 isn't even a weapon of war. And this is how the movie goes. The snow speededer
06:16 in one of the most famous battle scenes of all science fiction history. I'm a bit of a geek. I admit it. He wraps Luke
06:24 Skywalker wraps the walker around with the harpoon and this giant colossus fall. So what's the moral of the story?
06:31 The moral of the story is the underdog can beat the giant. The underdog just
06:38 needs to think outside the box. needs to move the battle to another platform
06:44 where he can win. And that is often the most common application of David versus
06:51 Goliath. You're an underdog. Don't get intimidated by giants in your
06:57 life. You can beat them. The bigger they are, the harder they fall. And one of
07:04 the most famous books written by it is by Malcolm Gladwell. I've actually seen his lecture on this. is a business book.
07:11 Is an application tell you you're a young startup, you're a small company, you can take against the multinational.
07:18 Don't get intimidated. Don't get worried. Goliaths giants, you can break
07:24 them. Now, what's the problem with an application like this? And and I'm not saying it's untrue. It's got some
07:30 truths. The problem with an application like this is completely omits God from
07:35 the picture. God doesn't factor in So that's the problem of it and and it's
07:42 a biblical story and we all know the story of David versus Goliath is the
07:48 public declaration of the anointing of David to become king and how David will
07:54 take on the throne. So while it is true the story does talk about the underdog
07:60 that's not the main intention of the story. Now here's another interpretation of it and this one has God right in the
08:07 center. And this one takes Goliath as your trouble, which I think is a fair
08:13 application. And you look at how the books, all the names sound familiar. I don't know how you don't get sued, you
08:19 know. I mean, how to conquer your Goliath. Conquering your Goliath, conquering your own Goliath. I mean, can
08:26 you imagine borrowing a book to a friend, you know? Which one are you talking about? You know, you know, overcoming your Goliath, overcoming
08:33 life's Goliath, you know, overcoming Goliath from the inside out. I mean, come on, man.
08:40 Can you imagine borrowing a book like that? Which one are you talking about? So, it's a very popular story. Now, in
08:45 this very common church application, the way it goes is this. Goliath is your
08:52 problem. You are David. You just need a sling. The sling is your faith. Now,
09:00 here the problem comes down. the metaphor starts to break down because the moment you attach a symbol to
09:07 everything, what does the five stones refer to? So you find in this
09:12 illustration, everyone has a different interpretation of a stone and you must
09:17 understand David only used one stone, you know. I mean, how how do you apply metaphor? I mean, in the in the book of
09:24 Judges, Samson had long hair. Does it mean anyone who's got a ponytail,
09:31 current company included, if he cuts his tail, he's going to lose power? I mean, it's not logical, isn't it? So, here is
09:38 a very common popular church interpretation, the Christian interpretation, but I want to suggest it
09:45 goes off. And here's popular author Charles Swinder. And I read Charles Swindle. I think he's a godly man. And
09:52 this is what he says. He says, "I don't know what your intimidating giant is today." You may relate to your job, your
09:59 roommate or your school. Maybe it's a person, a lawsuit, unemployment, a
10:06 disaster, maybe even your own partner in life. Now, up to here, I think Charles
10:11 Swindo is on track. Now, here's where I think he goes off. God is saying to you
10:17 right now, all I ask of you is five smooth stones and a sling of faith. I'll
10:22 take it from there. Now, it gives you a bigger problem. Does it mean
10:28 every problem you have, every issue you have, every fear, if you
10:34 just step out in faith, you will be victorious.
10:40 Now, it doesn't square with the rest of the Bible because in the New Testament, many people die. Steven dies, the
10:48 apostles die. A lot of people step out and lose their life because God wants us
10:54 to go through that kind of suffering sometimes. So this again this interpretation
11:00 goes off. So here we have a very popular story of David versus Goliath. And how
11:07 do we find the right biblical way of understanding the story? And I think the
11:13 key has got to do with who you think David is. And you see for most of us we
11:21 automatically assume David refers to us. Now that's a bit presumptuous you know
11:28 because we told in the earlier chapter David is anointed to be king of Israel.
11:36 I'm not anointed to be king of Malaysia. You're not anointed. David stands apart.
11:43 But here's the clue. He's anointed to be king. And in this chapter, the anointed
11:51 king goes out to fight as what? A shepherd
11:57 or to be more accurate, the good shepherd. And thousands years later, the son of
12:05 David, a savior from the town of David,
12:10 the good shepherd, will take on a bigger Goliath, the
12:15 Goliath of sin. And so the story is the key to unlock this popular story is
12:23 Jesus. We're going to see how that applies to us today. But let's look at three points. And we're going to look at
12:30 this and break it down. First is the lack of courage. Then we're going to look at worldly courage. And we're going
12:36 to look at spiritual courage. Let's look at lack of courage. And lack of courage springs from a self centered faith.
12:45 We are told in verse 11 on hearing the Philistines words. This is when Goliath
12:52 issues the challenge. Saul and the Israelites were dismayed and terrified.
12:58 So both the king and the entire people became fearful. Now if you go back
13:05 earlier we told this the people demand a king from Saul. They say we want a king
13:12 over us then we will be like the other nations with a king to lead us and go
13:19 out before us and fight our battles. Well that didn't happen did it? Why did
13:25 they want a king? Go ahead and fight for us. What happened? King got afraid.
13:31 Now, here's the issue, isn't it? As Christians, what is our two
13:36 commandments? To honor God with all your heart and mind, your soul, honor your neighbor, to
13:42 love your neighbor is it springs from a relationship of Jesus where he's our savior and our king. Meaning, we are to
13:50 serve under the kingship of God. But here's the issue. Did the Israelites
13:57 want a king so that they could serve? Not really. Actually, they were the kings in their life. They wanted a king
14:04 so that they would be like the other nations. And you find God will tell Saul
14:11 that the Israelites have rejected God as king. Now, what does that mean? The
14:16 question is this. If your faith is centered on yourself,
14:22 you're going to breed fear. Meaning is this. Now, nowadays, we have a lot of people who do church hopping.
14:28 You know, they come to one church, then go to another church, they have a thick list, you know, and you find a church where people don't offend them, the kids
14:35 are quite happy, you know, you give them some space, they'll sit in the church at the back. Meaning, I go to a church to
14:43 see what I can get. I don't go to a church to see how I can
14:48 serve the king. And a lot of people go to church that way. They settle in,
14:55 they're happy, no one disturbs them. Then one day, a giant will come across
15:03 the ravine. Just like what it happens to the Israelites. One fine morning, the Philistines come and attack. One fine
15:10 day, you wake up, you find your health's not good. One fine day you get a phone
15:16 call and someone tells you this is what happening to your kid, your son, your
15:22 daughter. One fine day you go to your office, you find your work isn't so
15:28 stable. One fine day becomes one bad day. And
15:34 all it takes is one bad day to break you. Why? because you have a
15:41 selfcentered comfort zone faith. And if you are like the Israelites where
15:47 you want a king just like everyone else, when the storm hits you, when the waters
15:54 break over, when the earth crumbles in front of you, you will break in fear.
16:01 Lack of courage springs from a self centered faith. Secondly, lack of
16:07 courage is revealed in how we handle responsibilities. Verse 23. Now the Israelites have been
16:13 saying, do you see how this man keeps coming out? He comes out to defy Israel.
16:20 Now what happens then? What is King Saul's plan to fight Goliath is by
16:27 giving an external incentive. The king will give great wealth to the man who
16:32 kills him. He will also give his daughter in marriage and will exempt his founder family from taxes in Israel.
16:39 They are all external incentives. And here's the point. You cannot
16:46 externally make a guy brave. Now, who is the guy most qualified to fight Goliath?
16:53 You find in 1 Samuel 9 there's a description of Saul you know and let me
16:58 just quickly go to you about how Saul is described in chapter 9 verse one there
17:04 was a Benjamite this is about Saul a man of standing so this guy is a man of
17:11 standing and this is interesting you know about him you know an impressive young man without equal among the
17:18 Israelites and hear this a hit taller than any of the others. So, who's the
17:25 tallest guy in Israel? Saul. So, the only guy really capable to fight
17:33 Goliath is Saul. He's tall. He's a warrior. And hello, he's the king.
17:41 That's what kings do. But Saul has basically washed his hands
17:46 off it and he's trying to bribe people to go and take his place. Now, here's
17:51 why fear sets in our life. We say we're Christians. Why? Because we
17:57 say we carry our cross. We we say we we follow what the Bible says that when
18:03 Jesus says that whoever wants to follow me must take up his cross, lose his life
18:09 for my sake. But we don't like to hear that part. We don't like to hear all the bits in the Bible about suffering. We
18:16 don't like to hear the bits about Bible about, you know, I need to sacrifice. I don't like to hear this bits in the
18:22 Bible about sin. So what I do? I take my cross, I make it shorter. I make it
18:28 lighter. No, I like that kind of cross. Then I come to church. I like all the
18:34 nice stuff when they talk about grace and forgiveness. I love it when the church talks about prosperity, how you
18:39 going to make money. I love it when they talk about love. But don't don't talk about hell and sacrifice. I don't want
18:46 to hear all of that. And that's the problem, isn't it? And when when you have a faith which is comfortable in
18:54 nature, denies all these kind of things, you have no confidence.
19:02 It doesn't breed confidence. Why? Because you have taken away the responsibilities demanded as a follower
19:10 of Christ. Now, that's important to pick up. To be a disciple of Jesus, there are
19:15 responsibilities. And when that happens, it encourages supple intimidation.
19:22 This is what Goliath tells the Israelite, choose a man and have him
19:27 come down to me. That's verse 8. But we find in verse 23, he shifts. You know,
19:33 this is 40 days. 40 days he challenges the Israelites. And he says this in verse 23, Goliath steps out from his
19:42 line and the Israelites says, "Do you see how this man keeps coming out?"
19:47 Other translations have it coming up. You know what he's doing? 40 days he's
19:54 intimidating you. First he steps behind the line, then he comes up slowly, then
19:59 he comes up more and more. I mean Dr. Enawing calls this the salami effect.
20:06 You know what the salami effect is, right? I slice a bit first. Is it? After that, I slice a bit more. Before I know
20:12 it, you're going to I'm going to slice you all the way back. And that's what they do to you in this country. They
20:18 tell you you cannot preach the gospel to certain people. Either they will throw you in jail. Then they have a big
20:24 operation to frighten you. So the church gets frightened. So they slice off a bit of the church. Then they come and tell
20:31 the church, you cannot use certain words in the Bible. These words are only to our faith although it's against the
20:37 constitution. You do that there's going to be blood on the streets and the church gets intimidated so they slice up
20:43 a bit. A salami effect. Now that applies to us personally. You intimidate you
20:50 intimidate you and then you back off and back off and it's always done very slowly. Now the Philistine tactic is
20:58 very interesting. They do this for 40 days you know. So you try to imagine
21:03 this a big army comes you know camps at the ravine the Israelites go on the other side one big fellow know 9 ft tall
21:10 comes out and says you know like those Chinese movie or Bruce Le you know the you know he
21:18 does that for 40 days and the other side 40 days. So after 40
21:25 days the Philistines are amped, you know, come on, come on, show me what you got. Come, come, come. And they slowly
21:31 come forward. They intimidate you. Now your fear does that to you.
21:38 Whether it's death or a sickness or you're worrying over your kids, it does
21:43 that to you. And after a while it will completely take over you
21:49 because the only thing you ever think about is that problem
21:55 because God suddenly becomes very small and the people who intimidate you become
22:03 very big or your problem becomes very big. And we see this in Saul. Saul
22:10 doesn't want to fight. He's chickenening out. And you know what he does? Saul
22:16 dresses David in his own tanic. Now remember this. You know Saul is at
22:23 least 6 foot plus. You know he's the tallest man in Israel. How tall do you
22:30 think David is? David is a kid. Now the way the text is described is
22:36 really funny. He put a coat of armor on. He went pron.
22:41 And you can imagine David walking around like thatong gl long. That's the way the text is being described is stupidity.
22:49 You know what Saul is trying to do? Saul is doing this. Hey, you go and be king.
22:55 Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I give you my armor. You go. He's not thinking straight.
23:01 Now, I I I want you to pause and think about that. You think about the last time you had a great problem.
23:08 Doesn't it consume you? You wake up, you think about it. You eat
23:13 also, you think about it. At night, you think about it. You pray, that's the
23:19 only thing you pray about. It gnors at you. It consumes you and it overtakes
23:27 you. This is what fear does. And in the end, in the most cliche thing, Saul says
23:35 to David, "Go and the Lord be with you." I mean, here
23:41 is the most cowy king you have in the most cliche remark. Go and the Lord be
23:48 with you. Do you think he really meant it? Keep calm. As Masimo will tell us,
23:54 fake it till you make it. And one of the most interesting parts is
23:59 found in New Testament. Peter in an act of utter bravado tells Jesus Lord why
24:05 can't I follow you now I will lay down my life for you very brave this guy I
24:11 will lay down my life for you and Jesus says will you really lay down your life for me you can almost sense the sarcasm
24:17 in Jesus' voice I tell you the truth before the rooster crowns you will
24:23 disown me three times now why is this important here's one question I want to ask
24:31 Are you brave? And I'm talking to myself alo or are you a coward? Well, I just
24:37 insulted all of you. But I tell you, most of us are much more bigger cowards
24:47 than we care to admit. Than we really care to admit. We really don't have the guts that God wants us to
24:54 have. Let me recap it for you. breeding ground is a selfserving faith.
25:00 The moment you're comfortable in church, no one rocks your boat, you're happy
25:05 coming to church every Sunday and you you don't squirm, don't get into issues,
25:11 you breathe faith. Number two, when every time you just think of your
25:16 problem, you don't think of God, you just think of your problem, it means you're symptomatic of it. And when it
25:23 intimidates you, overwhelms you. And lastly, we're more concerned about
25:29 solving our problems than honoring God. I give you example. Let's just say someone sues you
25:35 or threatens you. What is the immediate respond? I want to get the peep out of
25:41 this problem. I don't care how I do it. You're not concerned about honoring God. Have you noticed in the entire text,
25:47 Saul doesn't refer to God at all? Who is the one who is concerned that the
25:54 Philistines are insulting God? David. Because Saul is overwhelmed. And when
26:01 that happens in the end, we use spiritual cliches to cover empty lives. How do we do that? We come to church and
26:09 we sing songs like just now, you know, about victory. We sing songs about hallelujah, God is good, you know,
26:16 savior, he can move the mountains. We just sang that. Then we go home and get worried about own mountain. You see in
26:24 the end a spiritfilled person isn't a guy who can preach very well. He isn't a
26:30 guy who has great power and tell you prophecies. A spiritfilled person isn't
26:35 a guy who's very talented, very public in church. A spiritfilled person has
26:42 courage. And when I look at this list, I want to humbly suggest this to you. Most
26:48 of us suffer from this. You you think about it. And and I want
26:54 this morning to see how the text teaches us to get spiritual courage. And I think
26:60 it's great application. But it starts first with some honesty. And if you're
27:05 like me, you look at that list, I think all of us need to confess we have these
27:11 problems. And our problems become bigger than God. Now, let's go on and and and
27:19 and and and wrap this up. And in Romans 8:15, he says, "You did not receive a
27:25 spirit that makes you a slave again to fear." We're supposed to become close to
27:31 call God aba father. And the context of this Roman text is about sin. Meaning this, all fear, guess root in sin. Now,
27:40 in in the book, A Tale of Two Cities, anybody here who's ever read it? Any any any uh refined people here? Nobody reads
27:48 here. Okay, not implying I'm refined, but uh let me just give you a bit of the
27:53 story. In book one, you are introduced to the father of the heroine, and he's
27:60 been wrongly in prison for 18 years, Dr. Manet. To cope with the horror in
28:06 prison, he becomes a shoe maker. It's a very tragic story because it's a
28:12 form of psychosis. He's becoming psychotic because he cannot deal with the fear. He becomes a shoemaker. Now, a
28:19 lot of us have this. Have you noticed when when some of us are upset what we do? We tap our fingers or we don't hear
28:25 certain things or we behave in a strange way. We we have our own ways of dealing with our fear. Now, what happens in the
28:32 book is that he's released from prison. And in book three, his son-in-law gets
28:38 framed and is supposed to go to the guillotin. And you know what happens to him? He's not out of prison. You know,
28:44 he goes back to becoming a shoemaker. And what Charles Dickens is saying is that the real prison isn't the physical
28:51 one. The real prison is up here or in here
28:56 because we are all prisoners of ourselves. And this is what God's telling us this morning. This is not the
29:04 way you and I are meant to live. You're not meant to live your life a slave to
29:11 fear. Whether your fear is loneliness or facing the future alone, whether your
29:17 fear is uncertainty about your health, whether your fear is worrying about
29:23 money or about your children, you and I are not meant to live that
29:30 way. You did not have a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear. You are
29:38 supposed to cry aba father. How do we do that? Let's look at worldly courage and
29:43 let's take this in perspective. Now there we have yaing. That's probably the
29:49 height Goliath is. But Yaoing looks very kind. You know you so you try to imagine
29:56 a mashup between Yaoing and Richard kill. All these young people don't understand this movie. This is for Moon Raker before your time. When we used to
30:04 do real movies without CGI, you know, when movies actually had plots to all you young people, okay? And Richard Kill
30:10 is big and he's got iron teeth. So imagine the mashup between Richard Kill and Yaoing. That's the guy we're looking
30:17 at. He's big right now. That's not all. We are told this. He was over 9 ft tall.
30:22 Now look at the way is described in detail. He had a a bronze helmet. Bronze
30:28 is high-tech at that time. Number two, a coat of scale armor, meaning his head
30:35 was protected, his body was protected, and not enough. He worn bronze grease,
30:41 meaning his legs were protected, and they were heavy. What is he saying? He's
30:46 Iron Man. He's Iron Man.
30:52 This is what the text is saying. Now, let's look at his armory. You know, he's got a sword and a spear. You know what
30:57 that's used for? We call that close combat. You want to fight me? I got a sword. Not enough. I got a spear. But
31:04 he's got a javelin. You know what a javelin is for? Longd distance combat.
31:09 In case the Israelites sends an archer against me, because the archer is long distance, this guy is an expert throw
31:16 over the javelin. Not only that, the text tells you he has a shield carrier.
31:22 You know what a shield carrier is? It means your shield is so huge it covers everything. So he's got a full body
31:30 shield. You know what the text is telling us? He's Optimus Prime.
31:36 No, actually it's not true. He's Yaoing plus Iron Man plus Optimus Prime. That's
31:42 the way the text is saying. And he's saying lia bring it on.
31:50 Bring it on. He is big, totally armored up. He's got every weapon in the
31:58 arsenal. The Philistines have planet Pat. You got nothing on me. 40 days they
32:05 do that and the army is amped. You know, we going to take on the Israelite. We're going to do it. Yeah. Oh yeah. Come on.
32:12 And then word breaks out. Hey, the Israelites are going to bring out a combatant. Ah, 41 days. Now we're going
32:19 to have a grudge match. Who is he? Is he going to be an archer? Is he going to be
32:25 a big man? Is he going to be a real good swordsman? Maybe a a spear holder?
32:33 No. You know, you know that Chinese movie. You know, you know, you you must imagine
32:39 it. You know, it's like this. The guy comes out there and this this young boy comes out like aha carrying a stick.
32:48 young punk with a stick, no armor.
32:54 And what does Goliath do? He looked David over and saw there was only a boy,
32:60 brought in handsome. He despised him and he says something fatally wrong. Am I a
33:08 dog? You come with me with sticks. This is misdirection
33:14 because David took the stick as a sign of authority because that's what
33:20 shepherds do. He wasn't going to fight with the stick. He was saying he's under
33:26 God's authority. But in providence, this giant not very intelligent, you know. He
33:32 actually thinks David is going to fight him with a shepherd staff. And he does
33:38 something even more stupid. He charges David, meaning he's not using his
33:45 javelin. He's not using his shield. And so you have this big nine foot guy going
33:52 boom boom goes up. And the text tells us David quickly rushes down because
33:59 Goliath doesn't realize about the sling. Now, let me explain a bit about the
34:05 sling in case you think it's a kid's toy. In Judges, we told this about the Benjamite army. And the Benjamite army
34:12 had this. Among these soldiers, there were 700 chosen men who were left-handed. By the way, left-handed
34:18 people are very clever. Of course, no personal reference to anyone left-handed on poopit or
34:24 otherwise. Okay? Each of whom, here's the key word, could sling a stone at the
34:32 hair and not miss. And here's a picture ironically of a Palestinian boy using a
34:39 sling against the Israelite army. How the tables have turned. But here's it.
34:44 The point is this. Do you know what we call this in modern military terms is
34:50 called a ballistic missile. David has a ballistic missile.
34:59 So what happens? A giant 9 ft tall comes out without a shield. You're a sitting
35:05 duck. The guy's got five stones. The moment Goliath cames out, he was dead
35:10 already. So when we see the story of David and we see this picture, it's
35:16 entirely possible. It's possible. Now, what are we learning
35:22 from here? You and I don't have giant metal suits and stuff like that. But what do we
35:29 have? We have confidence like Goliath.
35:34 What was Goliath's confidence in? His armor, his arsenal, weapons, his height.
35:42 What's your confidence in? I'll tell you what our confidence is in. Our bank account.
35:49 The fact that our monthly checkup at the hospital shows up. Clean state of health. The fact that your kids are in
35:56 university doing well. The fact that you go to work 9 to5 no
36:02 problem year after year of course you're fearless
36:07 no problem and Jesus tells us this story then he said about rich man this what I'll do
36:14 I'll tear down my barns and build bigger ones and then I will store my grain and my goods and I'll say to myself you have
36:20 plenty of good things laid up for many years take life easy drink and be merry
36:26 but God said to him you fool this very Tonight your life will be demanded from
36:31 you then who will get what you have prepared for yourself. You see, if
36:36 you're Goliath and you have all this stuff, you know who God is really to
36:41 Goliath himself. He is God of his life. And the challenge
36:46 God is asking us today for all of you who don't have many problems, where is
36:52 your confidence in? If your confidence are in these things, the Bible is telling you is foolishness.
36:59 Secondly, when you have this kind of confidence, you become like Goliath. You learn to despise those who don't have
37:07 it. Let me wrap it to you. There are two extremes about worldly courage. One is
37:14 the selfcentered middleclass guy who just too comfortable. The second is a
37:19 stupid suicide bomber. There's a very fine line between bravery and stupidity.
37:25 But what what why why is hate and anger so powerful? because it drives you to
37:32 not think straight and it consumes you. I had a friend who was doing very well
37:37 in his life at everything. Then he lost somebody very very close to him. He
37:44 never recovered from it. I had breakfast with him a few months ago and he told me
37:49 he's completely fearless. I said why? Because I have a death wish. Everything
37:55 I have made has no meaning. I rather die to be with this person he loves so much.
38:02 You see, hate, anger are great, great catalyst for bravery, but that's not
38:10 godly bravery. So, what am I trying to tell you? Godly people should be brave,
38:17 but brave people are not necessarily godly. You see the difference? It's a big difference. You know, just because
38:23 you're willing to blow yourself up doesn't earn you points with God. So, how then do we look at spiritual courage
38:31 after so much long? How do we look at spiritual courage? Number one is this
38:36 word called imputation. Now, it's a big word. The word imputation means to
38:42 credit. I'm going to read you the text in verse eight. He says this. Goliath says,
38:48 "Choose a man and have him come down to me. If he is able to fight and kill me,
38:55 we will become your subjects. If I overcome him and kill him, you will
39:00 become our subjects and serve us." This is called warfare by representation.
39:06 It's a very important point. What is this saying? Because of one man, the whole nation
39:15 will be set free. or because of one man, one man's
39:20 victory, the whole nation will have victory. You see where I'm going with this? Because of a shepherd boy who
39:29 fought a Goliath, the entire nation had victory.
39:34 Because of the good shepherd who fought the Goliath of sin and suffering,
39:43 all of us have been imputed with that same victory.
39:49 That is the key to the story of David and Goliath. Everything else is padding.
39:56 So what are we saying? The story of David and Goliath points to this.
40:02 Points to this. Jesus has given us that victory over sin. The biggest Goliath in
40:10 our life. We have already won. We have really been victorious.
40:17 His victory has been imputed or credited to us. Now having said that, I can look
40:22 at a lot of faces like so how does it refer to me? But you see the story doesn't end there. You see, that's why
40:29 this is such a great story. Let me look at the end of the story to you. Okay? And turn with me to verse 51. Okay?
40:41 Great story. And this is what we we told. When the Philistines saw the hero
40:47 was dead, they turned and ran. You know what the Philistines are doing? They're breaking the word because if you lose,
40:53 you're supposed to serve the Israelites. So they ran. But here's the interesting story. The Israelites have just been
41:00 imputed with victory. They have won. Nothing to do. What? But look what happens to this
41:07 bunch of Israelites who were cowards. Look at verse 52. Then the men of Israel
41:14 and Judah search forward with a shout and pursued the Philistines to the
41:20 entrance of G and to the gates of Echron. from imputation
41:27 is this word called transformation. What God did on the cross
41:36 will result in what God will do in us.
41:41 This is the key to the story. You see, David in the story of David
41:47 Goliath doesn't refer to me and you. It refers to Jesus. So where am I in the
41:52 story? I'm the average Joe blow there. I'm the guy in the army who saw my
41:59 problem and chicken out. But because of what Jesus did because of the imputation
42:07 of his righteousness of what he did on the cross, he has transformed us. There
42:12 are three points I want to pick up. But let me first read Martin Luther who got the ling years ago. He said, "When David
42:18 overcame the great Goliath, they came among the Jewish people, the good report and encouraging news that a terrible
42:25 enemy had been struck down and had been rescued and given joy and peace and they sang and dance with glad in it." Thus
42:32 this gospel of God, you see Martin Luther got it right of New Testament is a good story report sounding forth into
42:39 the world by the apostles telling of a true David Jesus who strove with sin,
42:44 death and the devil and overcame them and therefore rescued all those captured in sin afflicted with death and
42:51 overpowered by the devil. There are three points I want to pick up. Number one, spiritual courage turns weakness
42:58 into strength. David said to the Philistine, "You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, I come
43:05 against you in the name of the Lord Almighty." The story sets this up. Here's a guy who's big, who's got
43:10 everything. The other guy is a shepherd. That's the way the story is set up, you know. But a shepherd's going to win. And
43:17 the Hebrew writer says this, "What more can I say? I do not have time to tell you about D
43:24 whose weakness was turned to strength and who became powerful in battle and routed foreign enemies is a clear
43:31 reference to this battle weakness into strength. So here's the great news. You don't have to be
43:37 special. You don't have a lot of money in the bank. You don't to have good health. You don't have to be popular.
43:44 But God will turn that weakness into strength. You got to get that through.
43:49 transformation. What is God saying to you and I? Each one of us has the potential to be a
43:57 hero. But why is it we don't want to? And here's the second point. Because worldly
44:03 courage is external. Spiritual courage is internal. And in the earlier chapter, Saul almost
44:11 anoints the older brother of Jesse, which looks big. And God says, "Do not
44:17 consider his appearance or his height. I have rejected him." The Lord does not look at the things man looks at. Man
44:24 looks at the outward appearance. The Lord looks at the heart. And Saul echoes the same kind of feelings we do have.
44:31 You're not able to go out against this Philistine to fight with him. You're a youth. While he's been a warrior from
44:36 his youth, what's the point? Now, here's one thing I want to ask all of us upper
44:42 middle class comfortable Christians with no problems. Now, there's a painful
44:47 question. The painful question is this. How valuable are these things to you? If you treasure them, you know what God is
44:54 telling you? God is telling you you're a coward because these things are external.
45:01 Real courage is internal. It springs from God's grace that's going
45:06 to turn me and you weak creatures to be powerful heroes from God. Lastly,
45:12 spiritual courage is not the absence of f fear. It is not that. And we look at
45:18 Jesus as he went to the cross in the garden of Gethsemane. He did this. My father, if it's possible, may this cup
45:25 be taken away from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will. Meaning even
45:31 Jesus struggled to go to the cross. He had to endure the cross. And the
45:36 psalmist tells us this. When I'm afraid, I will trust in you. In God whose god
45:43 word I praise in God I trust. Then the psalmist flips it. I will not be afraid.
45:48 What can mortal man do to me? Now what the Bible is saying is that you don't
45:54 have to be fearless. You need to surrender that fear to God.
46:00 Now, how do we apply this to our lives? How do we apply this especially if you
46:05 and I are going through a trouble? And I I want I want now right now to to push it out to anyone here who's got a
46:12 medical problem, who who's worried that maybe the next week or the next month, God will take you home. I I want to
46:19 suggest this now to those of you who who worried for your kids or your finances or your marriage. I want to give you
46:26 four points and I pray that they will be as valuable to you as it is for me.
46:32 Point one, focus on Jesus, not your fears. The Hebrew writer continues, "Let
46:38 us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfector of faith, who for the joy set before him, endured the cross." Look at
46:44 the word endured the cross, meaning he struggled with it, scorning his shame, sat down the right hand of the throne of
46:50 God. Consider him who endure such opposition from sinful men so that you
46:56 will not grow weary and lose heart. Focus on Jesus. And and we told the
47:01 story in Matthew when Peter got on a boat, he saw Jesus walking on the water. He walked on the water and came towards
47:08 Jesus. So far not bad. Wow, he can walk on the water. Then Peter makes one bad mistake. You know what he does? He looks
47:14 at the wind. But when he saw the wind, he was afraid. But if he didn't look at a wind, if he
47:21 looked at Jesus, he would not have been afraid. So here's the first thing I want
47:26 to plead to us in your problem you're facing now. Don't let it overcome you.
47:32 Look at Jesus. Focus on Jesus, the perfector of your faith. And the more you do that, you'll
47:40 find you will not lose heart. And you're struggling with something tonight you go home. Don't every night just pray about
47:45 your problem. Don't let it consume you. Focus on Jesus. You find you you you do
47:50 things to change you. Number two, submit your fears to God. Take that and give it
47:56 to God. And the peace of God, the peace of Jesus which surpasses all human
48:02 understanding will fill you. And the psalmist says this, "God is a refuge and strength and everpresent help in
48:07 trouble. Therefore, we will not fear.
48:13 Though the earth gives way, the mountains fall into the heart of the sea. Though the waters draw and foam,
48:18 and the mountains quake and search, and then in verse 10, he ends at the end of
48:24 the psalm. Be still and know I'm God. And here's our problem. When we have
48:29 problems, isn't it? We don't see God. We only see our problem. So, I want to encourage you again to find some quiet
48:36 time, be still, and let Jesus fill you. I mean, if you have a problem now, go
48:43 home and say, "God, I'm going to put it to you." And although God, I hope this problem disappears, but if it doesn't,
48:49 Lord, I have victory in the cross. God, I'm afraid, Lord, but I just going to put it to you. Would you would you, God,
48:56 just take my problem, Lord. L I I'm sitting right now here in church. I I'm struggling with something. No one else
49:02 in church knows, but God, I'm just going to give it to you and teach me, Lord, to be still. And Lord, I pray your presence
49:09 fills me. Would you do that? I want you to just feel that. Thirdly, for all you guys who have no problems, I'm now
49:16 talking to all you guys who got no issues, who's got a lot of confidence.
49:22 And here's the thing what God is saying. Step outside your comfort zone. Because we read just now, the Lord who
49:28 delivered me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will deliver me from the hand of the Philistine. David
49:35 had a prior experience with God already. And Jesus says this, "I'm the good
49:40 shepherd." The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. The hired hand is not the shepherd who owns the sheep.
49:46 When he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away. David doesn't do that. So, here's one question
49:53 to your faith. When was the last time you did anything for God which was a risk?
50:00 I'm asking myself that. I mean, like for me, getting up here and speak is no big deal because people let me talk a lot.
50:07 Some of you do your thing. So what? But here's the thing God's asking you. When was the last time you took a risk?
50:14 Go out and do something for God where someone will spit you in the face. Ah,
50:20 get scared, right? Go and tell the gospel to someone who will really be
50:25 very combative. Go and go and help the poor in an area which is difficult.
50:33 You see, David could fight Goliath because before that he had that
50:38 experience. But if you and I sit in church every Sunday, day in day out and
50:44 then do our routine, go and mark a globe cafe, come out here and talk,
50:49 the next day a problem comes to you or it will drown you. You know, it will
50:55 drown me. Brothers and sisters, it's so important to pick this up because most of us are
51:01 comfortable middle-class Christians who don't know problems.
51:06 And when it hits us, it hits us like a tidal wave. So, I'm trying to seek that
51:11 for myself to go out beyond my comfort zone and take a risk. Challenge me and
51:17 you on that. And lastly, love deeply. There is no fear in love. Perfect love
51:25 dries out fear because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is
51:30 made not made perfect in love. I want to close with this. Now what is John saying? He's talking about confidence
51:37 because the context of this text is this. One day you and I are going to
51:42 feel face God in judgment. So here's a question to you. Do you have that
51:48 confidence? Because if you have that confidence, you don't fear the punishment.
51:55 John is telling us that the more you love, the more you will drive out fear.
52:01 It's a wonderful such a different way from the way the world describes courage
52:07 because the world drives courage by hate. Scripture teaches us to drive
52:13 courage by love. How? Is made perfect by what Jesus did for us. And when he has
52:20 done that in us, it transforms us daily as we go out to love each other. In the
52:27 closing story in the city uh tale of two cities, this is a love story. Since you guys don't read this kind of books, I'm
52:32 going to give away the plot. The story is very simple. A girl falls in love with two guys. Very cliche like a Hong
52:38 Kong movie. So he marries one guy. He marries a French guy. The French guy gets framed at the end of book three is
52:46 supposed to go and get his head chopped off. the English guy who is a real
52:51 terrible guy but in the end you know what he does he swaps the place with the French guy because he loves the girl so
52:58 much and he goes to the galatin and the book is wonderful because of his
53:03 love for the girl he takes the place of the husband and in the final chapter of
53:09 book three in the tale of two cities as he goes up there he quotes the gospel of
53:15 Matthew he says I am the resurrection and the life. He who loses his life will
53:24 gain it back. It's a reference from the story of Lazarus. And then the guillotin
53:29 comes down and he dies. Why did he do it? Because he loved the
53:34 girl so much. It transformed him. Now God loves us so much.
53:40 That love is meant to transform us. The more you go out and love others, love
53:47 people in church, love people who you don't like, the more you go out there
53:52 and show love indeed. You know what you're going to become? You're going to become courageous. Here's a simple
53:58 example. You think of your kids. Every parent I know is courageous for his
54:04 kids. Am I not right? You will die for your son and your daughter, but you
54:09 won't die for God. Why? because our understanding of love is trapped.
54:16 But today, God is saying the good shepherd laid down his life for us and
54:21 he's encouraging us to love deeply. And as you love deeply, you will become
54:27 courageous. I want us the worship team to come up and we want to do something today.
54:33 I want us to really take our problems and bring it before God and that we
54:39 learn to focus on Jesus. What happened? Can I get the slide back up? Okay, thank you. And not focus on
54:48 our fears that you surrender your problem to God and be still and know he's there. Step
54:55 out your comfort zone and learn to live deeply because the good shepherd loves
55:01 us. What we're going to do is this. We're going to read this as a public reading together. And then we're going
55:07 to sing a song. And today we want to do an alter call. And we're going to ask the church leaders to come in front. And
55:12 I want to challenge you if you're struggling with anything. Will you not be afraid as the song plays? Would you
55:20 come in front to be prayed over? Shall we stand up and shall we read this together? Okay, let me stand up and
55:27 let's read together. The Lord is my shepherd.
55:32 I shall not be in one. He makes me lie down in green pastures.
55:39 He leads me besides quiet waters. He restores my soul.
55:44 He guides me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake.
55:50 Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no
55:56 evil. For you are with me. Your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You prepare
56:04 a table before me. In the presence of my enemies, you anoint my head with all. My
56:12 cup overflows. Surely goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life. and I will
56:19 dwell in the house of the Lord forever. Lord, we come before you now in prayer
56:24 after this long morning. And we remember the good shepherd, how a shepherd boy fought a Goliath and
56:33 foreshadowed the good shepherd who fought sin. And though we walk through the valley of death in our own problems,
56:39 oh Lord, and and that valley of death for some of us can be very real. There's some of us here who who are at death
56:46 door and we and we we we we sometimes just look at some in our church who are so
56:52 ill. Some of us have so much problems, oh Lord. But teach us to take this
56:57 psalm. Though we walk through the valley of death, we oh Lord shall fear no evil.
57:04 Why, oh Lord? Because your rod, your staff, they comfort me. And it was that
57:10 rod that David used on that day that brought salvation to Israel.
57:16 Teach us Lord to just focus on you. And right now as we sing this song to teach us to be still.
57:23 Lord, we just ask that anyone out there is just struggling with with any fear or any need. Would they have the courage to
57:29 come in front to be prayed over to be not worried what people think? Being
57:34 embarrassed is the last thing we should be concerned about. but to come forward to be brave enough to receive prayer.
57:42 We say this in Jesus name. Amen.
