The Giant Slayer

[0:00] Good morning again. Hey, I'm Donnie. I'm one of the pastors here. I've been out for the last couple of weeks on a little break. It was, yeah, a pretty tough little run there for a while, and just some of the pastors on the team here just decided I needed a little break, and so really thankful for that. They told me I had to go somewhere where I had to turn my phone off and I couldn't come back. So I'm really thankful. If you're new to Win Harbor, I just, I want to say I'm thankful to be on a team like that, a team that cares about me and my family, not just what I do, but cares about me. And then I just want to tell you that not for a second while I was gone, did I worry about Win Harbor or did I, you know, went, oh, I hope everything's okay.

[0:37] Like, just we have such a phenomenal team of other pastors and staff and volunteers and just folks in the church, and I missed some key moments. I missed some things where, you know, people were trying to get me to help with something, and I wasn't, and that's an anxiety I feel when I take a break like this. But man, every single person so far has said, gosh, you know, you weren't there, but this person was there, or this staff member was there, or this volunteer was there, or this other pastor was there. And I just love that this church is bigger than, you know, than me. I'm just, I love that it doesn't take me to hold this church together. I'm so thankful for that.

[1:11] I think that's a real good sign. And so, but it's good to be back. I walked in this morning, got like emotional. I think you're the most beautiful, amazing church in the whole wide world. I know I'm biased, but that's how I feel. And so, it's good to be with you. Also, just really quick, we have a culture where we are really fighting to push back in the darkness of addiction. And one of the ways we do that is by celebrating when really, you know, good things happen, people hit milestones, because usually we just hear about hard, sad, bad things. You don't really ever hear about good things. And so, to her total dismay, I'm going to embarrass my sister-in-law, Jen, who is over here.

[1:46] She hit three years sobriety this week. And that is amazing. Yeah. So, yeah. My brother hit four years a few weeks ago, a month ago. And so, yeah. Yeah. So, yeah. We tell those stories. I mean, both of those people, I know personally, both of those people should be dead. So, it's amazing, man. God.

[2:11] So, if you're here and you're struggling with that, we will help you. It won't be easy, but we'll get around you, and we will do everything we can to help you. All right. So, we're jumping back into the series. Look to the Rock is what it's been called. And it's helping us see Jesus in the Old Testament.

[2:27] And we need this, because a lot of times, it just feels like the Bible is kind of weird. Like, what's happening in the Old Testament? This guy, this God in the Old Testament feels really irritable and, you know, temperamental and just downright wrathful. And then in the New Testament, we got Jesus. And whoo, he's better. He's kind of like a hippie, sort of like, you know, barefoot a lot. And, you know, just outdoors a whole lot. Like, we like this guy. It can feel like subconsciously there's two gods, and we're really excited about this New Testament guy. Some of us might even be a little dark. We're more excited about the Old Testament. We're like, yeah, burn them. You know, like, we...

[3:01] But it's like, we don't have to reconcile these two things. We don't. And then for a lot of people, we just say, let's just live in the New Testament. Maybe we can grab Psalm 23. That's a good one.

[3:11] We'll keep that one. You know, bring it over here. Lord is my shepherd. We need that, you know. And a couple little other little tales and stories we'll bring across. But like, by and large, a lot of folks live like it's just the New Testament. That's just terrible, because it's not two gods. It's one God. It's the God of the Bible, not the God of the New Testament or the Old Testament.

[3:28] The God of the whole Bible. And we need both of those things, because this is God showing us who he is. What's his character? What's his nature? Also, the New Testament's constantly quoting. The Old Testament, Jesus is always saying that, you know, that Old Testament, it was all pointing to me.

[3:43] When he rose from the dead, he came and found his disciples on this road to Emmaus in Luke 24. And it says, Jesus pointed them, showed them all the ways where the scripture's pointing to him. It says, their eyes were opened, their minds were blown. Oh my gosh. They'd read the Bible. They'd read the Old Testament their whole lives, and never had they seen how it really all pointed to Jesus. And so that's the point of the series. And so if you're getting to know who Jesus is, this is a great series for you. If you've been in church longer than I've been alive, this is a great series for you.

[4:11] Because a lot of us have heard these stories and just maybe only seen a part of what's there. Maybe we've missed the whole thing on some of these stories. So we've looked at a lot of the big ones, the kind of felt board stories like Garden of Eden, Abraham, Isaac, Passover, Exodus, all those things. Today we might come to the most famous, most beloved of the Old Testament stories. My kids, Wyatt and Jed, this morning, seven and 10 years old, asked me, Dad, what are you preaching on?

[4:37] And when I told them, Wyatt, my seven-year-old, said, it's about time. So, you know, in case you don't ever think I get good, honest feedback, I do. Okay. And that's the story of David and Goliath. Wyatt was like, it's about time, Dad.

[4:53] That's the one. And so we're going to read it. Now, it's a long story. And so we're just going to take our time and go through it. And then we're going to see some stuff. And I bet there's some stuff you're like, I knew that. And there's something like, oh gosh. So it's going to be fun. Here we go. First Samuel chapter 17, we get the setting of the scene. It says the Philistines, these are the bad guys. Boo, Philistines. They gathered their armies for battle. Here they go.

[5:15] And they were gathered at Soco. Where is that? Well, it belonged to Judah. That's what you need to know. It was part of the territory that was meant to be occupied by God's people. It was their land. And these Philistines, boo, they show up on God's territory. There they are making camp.

[5:33] They encamped between Soco and Ezekiel in Ephistamim. And Saul, this is the Israelites. Yay, good guys. The men of Israel were gathered and encamped in the Valley of Elah. And they drew a 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. And a valley in between them. I mean, this is epic. And it looks like, who's going to win? It's a nail-biter. And then something shifts. And there came from the camp of the Philistines a champion named Goliath of Gath, whose height was six cubits in a span. That's over nine feet tall. He's a biggin, all right? He had a helmet of bronze on his head. He was armed with a coat of mail. The weight of his coat was 5,000 shekels of bronze. That's 125 pounds. Like, some of y'all don't even weigh 125 pounds. That's his coat, all right? He had a bronze armor on his legs. He had a javelin of bronze slung between his shoulders. The shaft of his spear was like a weaver's beam.

[6:32] And his spear's head weighed 600 shekels of iron. That's 15 pounds, right? And his shield bear went before him. He stood and shouted to the ranks of Israel, why have you come to draw up for battle? Am I not a Philistine? Are you not servants of Saul?

[6:48] Choose a man for yourselves and let him come down to me. Goliath's like, there's no need in everyone getting involved here. Let's just, it's just, let's make it more civil. You pick a guy. Hey, they pick me. We'll just have a nice little, you know, fist fight here and see what happens, right? If he's 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, I defy the ranks of Israel this day. Give me a man that we may fight together.

[7:17] Well, when Saul, the king of Israel and all Israel heard these words of the Philistine, they were dismayed and greatly afraid. Now, David over here, a little side story. David was the son of an Epaphatite of Bethlehem and Judah named Jesse, who had eight sons. And we learned in the chapter before that, you know, he's got just enough kids to start forgetting them. And David's the one he forgets. All right. He's this little runt who his dad didn't even remember. Okay. So he's there.

[7:48] In the days of Saul, the man was already old and advanced in years. So Jesse couldn't fight. So his three oldest sons of Jesse, they followed Saul to the battle. They were sent. And the names of his three sons who went to battle were Eliab, the firstborn. And next to him was Abinadab, the third one, you know, Shema. David was the youngest. Okay. And there's some other kids who don't even get mentioned. The three eldest followed Saul, but David went back and forth from Saul to feed his father's sheep at Bethlehem for 40 days. The Philistine came forward and took his stand morning and evening.

[8:21] So this is not like a one time, like, you know, those fights in middle school, maybe you don't, where it's like, you know, push against the lockers, your mom, couple jokes, then we're done. This is 40 days of this dude walking out being like, come on, anybody, come on, any takers? And everyone terror, like just cowering in terror, right? He came forward and took his stand morning and evening. Twice a day, this guy was pulling this off. Jesse said to David, his son, take your brothers and ephaph of parched grain and these 10 loaves and carry them quickly to the camp for your brothers. Also take these cheeses to the commander of their thousand. Just see if your brothers are well and bring them some, bring some token from them. Like this dad is just worried sick. He's too old to go fight. This thing is dragging on and on. Here's some food, take them and bring me something so I know they're still alive, right? Now Saul and they and all the men of Israel were in the valley of Elah fighting with the Philistines. And David rose early in the morning, 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. And Israel and the Philistines drew up for battle, army against army. And David left the things in charge of the keeper of the baggage and ran to the ranks to went and greet his brothers. And he talked with them. Behold, as he talked with them, behold, the champion, the Philistine of Gath, Goliath by name, came up out of the ranks of the

[9:39] Philistines and spoke the same words as before. And David heard him. All the men of Israel, when they saw the man, fled from him and were much afraid. And the men of Israel said, have you seen this man who has come up? Surely he's come up to defy Israel. And the king will enrich the man who kills him with great riches and will give him and his daughter and will make his father's house free in Israel.

[10:03] David said to the men who stood by, what shall be done for this, the man who kills this Philistine and takes away the reproach from Israel? Who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God? The people answered him the same way. So shall it be done to the man who kills him? Now Eliab, his eldest brother, heard when he spoke to the men. And Eliab's anger was kindled against David. And he said, what have you done? Why have you come down? And with whom have you left those few sheep in the wilderness? Very like condescending. I know your presumption and the evil of your heart for you have come down here to see the battle. And David said, what have I done now?

[10:41] Classic little brother. Like, I just asked a couple questions. What have I done? Right? Was it not but a word? David can't figure out what's the anger all about. And he turned away from him toward another and spoke the same way. And the people answered him as before. Now these words that David spoke were heard and they were repeated and then repeated them before Saul. So words getting back to Saul.

[11:03] There's a guy out there who's saying, hey, what should be done for the guy who kills this giant? All right? So he gets back. And so Saul sends for David. And then David goes to Saul and says, let no man's heart fail because of him. Your servant will go and fight with this Philistine.

[11:19] Now Saul, having seen who it is, says, you're not able to go. You're not able to go against this Philistine. You are just a youth. This man's been, he's been a man of war from his youth. And David said to Saul, your servant used to keep sheep for his father. And when there came a lion or a bear and took the lamb from his flock, I went after and struck him and delivered him out of my mouth. And if he arose against me, I caught him by his beard and struck him and killed him. This is not hunting from like, you know, 300 yards away with a rifle. He's close enough to grab the beard of a lion and kill him.

[11:51] And this is some like hand-to-hand stuff. 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. And David said, the Lord who delivered me from the paw of the lion, from the paw of the bear, will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine. Saul said to David, go and the Lord be with you.

[12:10] Like, God bless you, buddy. Nice knowing you. Let's try to get you set up here. Saul clothed David with his armor, put a helmet of bronze on his head, clothed him with a coat of mail. David strapped his sword over his armor, and he tried in vain to go. I mean, you get this, the guy is so small and so puny, he can't even move with all this armor on, for he had not tested them. Then David said to Saul, I can't go with these. I have not tested them. So David put them off. He took his staff in his hand.

[12:41] He chose five smooth stones from the brook and put them in his shepherd's pouch. He gets dressed like a shepherd. Sling was in his hand. He approached the Philistine. The Philistine moved forward and came near to David with a shield bearer in front of him. And when the Philistine looked down, he had to look down. Like, that's not even. You know, when you got to look down to see who's there, right? He looked down and saw David. He disdained him, for he was but a little kid, a little youth, ruddy and handsome, but little kid. And the Philistine said to David, am I a dog that you come at me with sticks? And the Philistine cursed David by his gods. The Philistine said to David, come to me, and I will give your flesh to the birds of the air and the beasts of the field.

[13:20] I mean, this is just epic stuff. David said to the Philistine, yeah, 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. And this day, the Lord will deliver you into my hand, and I will strike you down and cut off your head. You see why Wyatt loves this story. And I will give the dead bodies of the hosts of the Philistines this day to the birds of the air and the wild beasts of the earth, that all the earth may know there is a God in Israel, and that all this assembly may know the Lord saves not with sword and spear, for the battle is the Lord's, and he will give you in our hand.

[13:56] When the Philistine arose and came and drew near to meet David, David ran quickly toward the battle line to meet the Philistine. David put his hand in his bag and took out a stone and slung it and struck the Philistine in his forehead. This is the point where I've normally thought, like it's just like this little boing, like kind of, you know, like cartoon sort of sound. No, it says the stone sank deep into his forehead. Y'all, that, he was cooking with peanut oil. That thing was moving, like, that is serious. And he fell on his face to the ground. So David prevailed over the Philistine with a sling and a stone, struck the Philistine and killed him. There was no sword in the hand of David. Then David ran and stood over the Philistine and took his sword and drew it out of its sheath and killed him and cut off his head with it. Then the Philistine saw their champion was dead and they fled.

[14:40] And the men of Israel and Judah rose with a shout and pursued the Philistines as far as Gath and the gates of Ekron. So the wounded Philistines fell all, all the way from Shearim to as far as Gath and Ekron.

[14:51] And the people of Israel came back from chasing the Philistines. They plundered their camp. Here's a nice little touch at the end. David took the head of the Philistine and brought it to Jerusalem, but he put his armor in his tent. Wow, what a story. And some of you have heard that one a lot.

[15:08] Some of you maybe have never heard it. Welcome to the Bible. It's crazy. What's the story really about? Well, there's layers, okay? There's layers. And commentators, when we study historical narrative like this, they tell us that there's three layers, basically, three major layers. There's a bottom, a middle, and a top. The bottom layer is the personal layer. It's the story of the person, David, right? The middle layer is what that story has to do with Israel and their national history, right? And then the top layer shows how that story fits into this big story, that metanarrative, so to speak, the big story that's being told, right? What do we, us people here, what do we typically do with this story? Well, we typically gravitate to, sort of sink our teeth into the low personal level, right? What does this story have to do with me? Well, usually we make the story about us conquering our enemies. Some of you are going, that's not what it's about. This is an amazing personal narrative. I mean, gosh, this little runt, little shepherd, little runt kid, you know, he runs errands for his family, you know, they actually forgot him at one point, and next thing you know, he's king. I mean, he kills a guy who's nine feet tall, who's, you know, throwing a 15-pound spear and got some clear anger issues. Also very strong, CrossFit. Would have been like a good outlet for all this, like, tension Goliath felt, but, you know. It's not hard to see why this is such a compelling story personally. Now, how many, show of hands, of us grew up with this story, knowing it? Real quick, show of hands. Okay, hands down. I'm just going to do a little quick survey here. How many of you, when you read the story, always thought of yourself as the Philistines? Anybody? No. How many of you always thought you were the older, cowardly, kind of arrogant little brothers, big brothers? Anybody?

[16:52] Nope. Okay. How many of you guys really identified with Saul? Old, just unable to do anything, right? No hands? Anybody here really thought they were Goliath? They, like, read the story as, like, a six-year-old, and were like, yeah, that's me. That would have been dark, so I'm glad, glad no, right? Who were you always when you read the story? Who's left? You're David, right? Who's David? He's God's, he's God's anointed. So you're always David. I'm always David. That was me too, by the way.

[17:24] It's unfair to not tell you that. Always, when I read the story. Okay, well, then who's Goliath? And who are the Philistines? It depends on the day. If you're David, then who Goliath is and who the Philistines are depends on the day. I grew up going to West Carter High School, and every year we play East Carter, mullet bucket, big game. And on this side of the mountain, and on this side, with a valley in between us. In West Carter, we were definitely David, and East Carter was definitely Goliath, right? And God was on our side. But it turns out that there are Christians in Beaufort and down east. It turns out they, on that side, thought they were David and thought we were Goliath.

[18:10] And I imagine, can you imagine God up in heaven going, this one is a tough one, you know? The Philistine one was easier, you know, clearly, you know? But I mean, both of these guys. It just depends on the day. And what if, like, your parents got a job or you moved to Beaufort, and you're from Moorhead? Oh, gosh, am I a Philistine now? You know?

[18:31] This has kind of been the historical thing. Civil War, the north was Goliath, the south was, was, you know, was, sorry, the north was Goliath, the south was David. But people in the north thought they were David and thought the south was Goliath. Politically, who's Goliath? Oh, some of y'all think it's Joe Biden. Some of y'all think it's Donald Trump.

[18:52] Who are the Philistines? Oh, they're the Republicans. Oh, they're the Democrats. I hope you can just see with me some of the, just at a surface level, how problematic it is if you and I are always David. And just a few kind of points here. I mean, number one, firstly, we're just throwing out the whole context of the story. What we're doing is instantly reading our individualistic culture, which is, what does the Bible have to say about me, me, me, me, me, right into the story? Forget everything else. It's just about me. That's the first problem, which is not great. Secondly, the enemies change from day to day, year to year. That's not great.

[19:27] How's God supposed to keep track? I thought I was supposed to destroy them. Now you want me to keep it. It's like, thirdly, it's just downright arrogant if we're always David. If we're always David, we're always right. And not just right. David wasn't just right. He was righteous.

[19:46] That meant like God had his back. He stood on behalf of God. It can't always be David. It can't always be true. Co-workers after the same promotion, Goliath. Like, it can't always be that. But that's what we've done when we've lived in the personal, the bottom layer. The story is always a story that's meant to encourage us to have courage as we face our Goliath, which could be anybody.

[20:12] The personal angles are endless. But that's not really where the attention lies from the author's point of view. It's just the point we can most easily sink our teeth into. The author seems interested in that second layer, how this applies to Israel. And so what would they have thought? Well, the people of Israel saw David as their ultimate king. Now there's no way to sum up all this guys. David's like a major figure in the Bible. We're not going to say all of it today. So some of you are going to come up after us like, well, you didn't say this and you didn't mention that and you didn't quote all of Chronicles. I didn't. You're right. Okay. I didn't. We're just hitting the surface. But they saw David as ultimate. It's a crucial moment in Israel's national history.

[20:48] David, the secretly anointed king in the previous chapter, who comes as a shepherd king to save Israel from its arch enemy and bring it into the promised land, killing the giant that terrified. I mean, this is massive. And this story in a way ties all kinds of other stories together. We don't have time to get into this, but there's a lot of like, there's a lot of like parts of the story that are analogous to like other major stories. You know, we've got Goliath who he dresses his coat of mail was meant to look like a serpent, was meant to look like scales, right? And what does David do?

[21:20] He steps forward and he cuts his head off. Where we're right back to? Garden of Eden, snake, Adam, right? Head wound. Then you've got Goliath who's a likely descendant of the Anakin, which is these giants that terrified the people of Israel before they went into the promised land.

[21:36] And Caleb and Joshua said, we can go. And everyone said no. And you've got Goliath, the likely descendant of them. Man, we're right back there. Then Goliath taunts the people for 40 days, no doubt somewhat symbolic of the 40 years spent in the Exodus. His brothers mistreat him. It's kind of like what happened with Joseph. And there's all these layers, how David, he sets up to be this, he's like better than Adam, better than Joshua, better than Joseph, better than all this stuff, right? He's God's chosen man to deliver his people and bring them safely home to the promised land.

[22:07] He's who they've always longed for. So I think that's where they would have gone with that. That's personal and that's national. That's as far as most people make it with the story.

[22:17] What about that third part? What about how this fits into the bigger story of the Bible? It's a big story, no doubt, but how does it fit in with the bigness of the whole Bible? We don't even have to leave the story to find out. All we have to do is just listen to David.

[22:33] I'm going to reread a couple of verses. Don't worry about the whole thing, just a couple of verses. Let's just listen to David. Who does David seem to think the story is about? David said to the Philistine, you come at me with a sword, with a spear, with a javelin.

[22:46] I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. This day the Lord will deliver you into my hand. I will strike you down and cut off your head.

[22:56] I will give you the dead bodies of the hosts of the Philistines this day, to the bird of the air, the wild beasts of the earth, that all the earth may know there is a God in Israel, and that all this assembly may know that the Lord saves, not with a sword and a spear, for the battle is the Lord's, and he will give you into our hand.

[23:16] Whose name comes up the most? Yeah, the Lord. According to David, this isn't ultimately a story about David and Goliath.

[23:28] The story of David and Goliath, according to David, is not ultimately a story about David and Goliath. I know, mind blown, right? And when we make it ultimately about David and Goliath, we miss the point.

[23:40] This is not about the little guy coming out on top. This is not a Bible version of the movie Rudy. It's not what this is, right? It's what we've made it, but it's not what it is.

[23:52] Should you get courage and face hard things? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That's just not what this story is ultimately about. It's not firstly about David's courage, although that's what we think about, or Goliath's height, although that's what we think about.

[24:05] It's not firstly about David or Goliath at all. It's firstly and ultimately about God's power to deliver and save his people despite all the odds. And David's clear if you look back at the story. He's clear he doesn't rely on his own strength.

[24:17] He's clear this isn't about him hating the Philistines and how Israel's so much better than all the nations. He says, you are defying God. This is about you and him. In fact, David doesn't even want his name to be famous.

[24:29] He doesn't want the whole world to bow to Israel. He says he wants the whole earth to know that there's a God who saves. He wants the third layer. He wants that. And the people of Israel got to see some things about God in this story that God wanted them to see.

[24:43] He's the God who sees. He knew they were in that situation. He saw that. He saw that. He saw the giant. He saw the situation. He sees. He hears. He cares. He saves. He delivers.

[24:54] He can do anything no matter how impossible it seems. He saves through surprising ways, through surprising means. God wanted his people to see who he really is. God wanted them to see him on display.

[25:06] And the word was to spread. As the story was told, there is a God who saves. But despite David thinking the story wasn't primarily about him, the people of Israel made it one about him basically instantaneously.

[25:20] Okay, we flip over to the next chapter. 1 Samuel 18, 6. They were coming home. When David returned from striking down the Philistine, the women came out of all the cities of Israel, singing and a dancing to meet King Saul with tambourines and songs of joy, musical instruments.

[25:34] Pause. Saul was like, man, it is good to be king. Look at all the ladies, right? Very next verse. And the women sang to one another as they celebrated. Saul struck down his thousands and David his ten thousands.

[25:45] The story right away, before David's even back in town, is not about a God who saves. It's about David.

[25:56] And that's sad. Because as good as David was, he was not God.

[26:09] And it was a mistake for them to put that kind of hope on him because in time he would prove that he was not God in a really massive way. He was going to sin catastrophically.

[26:20] And thousands of people would lose their lives because of him. David would let God's people down and then he would die. It was misplaced hope.

[26:34] So if it wasn't David who God's people were meant to look to, who would it be? The Bible has a lot to say about that. Let me just read one little verse. Jeremiah 23 5. Behold, Jeremiah prophesies, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will raise up for David a righteous branch.

[26:52] And he shall reign as king and deal wisely and execute justice and righteousness in the land. God says, there's another hero coming and this one will take on an even bigger giant.

[27:04] And this is how we begin to see Jesus as the true and greater David. Not remotely the time left to really unpack all this, but I just want to help you see again the wave caps. Like David, we find out early on that Jesus is going to be king.

[27:17] Jesus is this promised king who would come after David. Listen to what the angel Gabriel says before Jesus is even born. He says in Luke 1 32 that Jesus will be great.

[27:28] He will be called the son of the most high. And what? And the Lord God will give him the throne of his father David. Very clear. The beginning of Jesus's ministry, fast forward 30 years.

[27:38] John 1 49, Nathaniel answered him, teacher, rabbi, you are the son of God. What? The king of Israel. Right back to David. And then when Jesus is crucified, what's the sign that hang above his head?

[27:53] King of the Jews. Gabriel says actually he's not just the king of the Jews. In Luke 1 33 he says, yeah, he'll reign over the house of Jacob forever. And but of his kingdom there will be no end.

[28:03] Scripture goes on to tell us that he will be called king of kings and lord of lords. Although anointed king, David faithfully served in the background as a shepherd until the moment came. And in the same way, Jesus's birth announcement clearly called him the king.

[28:18] But Jesus lives as a carpenter's son for 30 years. When he does begin to teach and perform miraculous miracles and minister, people are shocked and they mockingly ask.

[28:29] In the same way that Eliab mocked David, they say, isn't this Joseph's kid? This is some little punk kid. You know, this is a little carpenter's kid. Eventually people do see his miracles.

[28:41] And like David, they burst out into song. As he comes into town, Luke 19, he rode along. They spread their cloaks on the road. He was drawing near already on the way down the Mount of Olives.

[28:51] And the whole multitude of disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice. And all the mighty works they'd seen. Saying what? Blessed is the king. Not blessed is the good teacher. Blessed is that nice guy who's good with kids.

[29:04] No, blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord. Peace in heaven and glory in the highest. It's really clear that Jesus is meant to come as this ultimate king. The final, like the final eternal king.

[29:18] The most notable aspects of David's, you know, life and, you know, was his giant slain and the fact that he was a shepherd.

[29:29] This combination is really potent. Do we see that with Jesus? Listen to how he describes his purpose to some Jewish listeners. He's just cast a demon out of somebody. And this is what he says in Luke 11, 20.

[29:42] He says, if it's by the finger of God I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you. Listen to the illustration he gives. When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own palace, his goods are safe.

[29:55] But when one's stronger than he attacks and overcomes him and takes away his armor in which he trusted and divides his spoil. Whoever is not with me is against me.

[30:06] Whoever does not gather with me scatters. Jesus emerges as this surprising hero. Carpenter's son who comes to slay our greatest enemies, death and sin and ultimately Satan.

[30:18] Jesus says, there's a strong man who's really armored and it's really scary and everyone's really. And then there's a stronger man that comes along and says, I got it. Takes us right back to David and Goliath.

[30:32] Only so much more. David beat Goliath. Wow. Impressive. Sure. But after that, God's people still went on to struggle with sin and with death. I mean, maybe another giant slayer would come along who could take on the next version of Goliath, Goliath's grandson or something.

[30:48] But no one would have imagined that there was a giant killer capable of taking on sin and death. But Jesus' scripture shows this is our victorious king who's taken on even those giants.

[31:02] In fact, we see this picture in Revelation. John gives us this glimpse into eternity and there's Jesus risen from the dead. And John says, I saw him and I fell at his feet as though dead.

[31:14] But he laid his right hand on me saying, fear not. I am the first and the last, the living one. I died and behold, I am alive forevermore and I have the keys of death and Hades. Jesus is our victorious king.

[31:29] What about the shepherd? David kills a bear. He kills a lion. That's all impressive. What about Jesus? Jesus says in John 10, 11, I'm the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.

[31:42] The shepherd who died for his sheep. David's a good shepherd. Really good. Great leadership stuff there. All kinds of great stuff. But all those stories, David came out alive.

[31:53] Jesus said, yeah, when I see a wolf, I'm not going to back down, but I'm going to go further than that. I'm the one who's going to lay down my life for you. If according to the, if according to David, this is a story, not just firstly about David and Goliath or Israel or all the, if it's firstly about how God saves his people by his power through surprising means, delivers them from the giants that terrify them.

[32:14] Well, then it points us straight to Jesus. Our giant slain shepherd king, our hero of heroes. Some of you might be thinking, well, thanks for ruining my favorite Bible story.

[32:29] Because here I was facing the giants and then you took it all away. Does this story have nothing personal to offer any of us? Is there nothing that we can, is that lower, does that bottom level not even count?

[32:40] Is there nothing even there? No, surely there is. The problem is when we start and stop there. It's better to start with the top layer and work your way back. Right? So the fact that Jesus is the greater David who took out our biggest giants, sin and death, and will ultimately one day destroy Satan.

[33:00] Like that's like, that's a book of Revelation. He will take that ancient serpent and throw him down. Like because of that, does it change our lives today? You betcha. You betcha. We get to join Jesus in his mission to push back darkness.

[33:14] There's very much still a real battle going on between good and evil. The problem is that we usually miss it. My friends, the real battle between good and evil is against your neighbors and your coworkers and your family members who disagree with you over COVID or politics.

[33:35] I hate to break it to you, but they're not Goliath and you're not David. The real battle is against actual evil. It's actual real darkness.

[33:47] But we get caught up in these squabbles and we miss it. We live our lives fighting fights that aren't even real fights. Not in light of this. We actually have victory in Jesus.

[34:00] He's taken out our greatest foe. But what do we do? Do we just stand around? No, look what they did. Remember, look what they did. 1 Samuel 17. So the Philistines saw their champion was dead. They take off running.

[34:11] The men of Israel do what? They rise with a shout and they pursue the Philistines as far as Gath and the gates of Ekron. That's a 10 plus mile run, by the way.

[34:22] That's a long chase. They lead a whooping all the way home, right? I mean, it's not like a little jog. That's 10 miles. For 10 miles, they pursued them and slaughtered them all the way back.

[34:34] Goliath was slain. What's there to fear? Let's go. Courage got into them. Hope got into them. Purpose got into them. They took off running.

[34:46] Man, that is a beautiful picture of the church. Jesus, our great giant killing shepherd king, hero of heroes, has taken out death.

[34:57] He has taken out sin. He has taken away the authority of Satan over our lives and one day he will throw him down. What do we do? Stand around and fight with each other? No, we get up with a shout and we run and we push back darkness.

[35:12] All the way back into our dying breath. Why? Because we, like David, want the whole world to know there is a God who saves. There is a God who saves.

[35:23] And unfortunately, a lot of us end up siloed in these little squabbles, these other fights. And we never, like we never live for this, this end. Live for this end to see dark, real darkness pushed back so people know there is a God who saves.

[35:37] If you're here, you're watching this and you're not yet a follower of Jesus. One, I'm glad you're here. Gosh, a lot of courage to come here and be with us if you're not sure you believe all this and how you fit in and all the rest.

[35:48] Man, I hope that what you haven't heard this morning will be the classic dare to be a David and, you know, maybe you'll get that promotion at work. I hope what you've heard is, man, there are enemies you have no chance of beating.

[36:02] Your sin, death. You can have all the courage in the world, you're not gonna beat those. But there's someone who has. There's someone who has.

[36:13] Who has faced them in your place. Who slayed them in love for you. And the call is to come and surrender to him. If that's you, we'd love a chance to talk with you and pray with you.

[36:26] If you're here, you're watching this and you're already a follower of Jesus, you know, it's like a hobby to make enemies these days. Like how many people can we get, you know, angry at us and write off and all the rest?

[36:37] And that's unfortunate. But what's even more unfortunate, I think, is how we spiritualize our grievances with people. Now we're David, we're righteous.

[36:48] Well, you know who they are. And the truth is that all of us who are followers of Jesus have been Philistines.

[37:00] On the wrong side of the law of God, destined for the wrath of God, but for the mercy of God. And my encouragement to my friends here in the room is that we would stop assuming that we're David.

[37:14] Look to Jesus, who is the greater David. And join together in pushing back real, actual darkness. So our community and the world can know there is a God who really saves.

[37:30] And I think that probably means a course correction for some of us. Who feed in our minds and our thought life. Who just feast on just things that just make us feel really hateful towards other people or whatever the case may be.

[37:44] Maybe a bit of a course correction for you. Maybe for you, you like know all this, but like you haven't really seen how it connected to purpose in your life. Man, we are like the people of Judah who get to run.

[37:55] Our king has conquered. Goliath is laid on the ground. Head cut off. Let's push back darkness. Look what Jesus has done. Man, if he can do that, he can do anything.

[38:08] Let's push back darkness. Let's show this community. Let's show our neighbors and our coworkers and our friends and the world that there is a God who saves. That's what we're to live our lives for.

[38:20] Those of us who are followers of Jesus are now going to take communion. And, you know, I bet when David walked back into town, I bet he didn't have to buy a drink for at least a year. I mean, everybody wanted to like, no, shrimp burgers on me, David.

[38:32] I got you. I got you. You know? Why? They wanted to honor him. Look what he did for him. Man, communion is a chance where we get to just, you imagine the toast that went around for David.

[38:45] Man, we got Jesus. How much bigger of a toast does he deserve? This is a chance for us to toast him, to honor him. Jesus, there is no one like you.

[38:56] Hey, if they were looking for a man, couldn't have picked me. I couldn't have done it, but you did. You did what none of us could have done. And in love, you did it. You took on that giant. You laid down your life for us.

[39:09] Honor him. Don't just eat and drink. Honor him. Toast him. Celebrate him. Jesus, we do. We honor you. It's unfortunate how often we, we're just so quick to make the Bible about us.

[39:26] I love that you, Holy Spirit, do have application for us. I love that. But so often what we miss is the bigness of who you are. God, you trying to show us something through this story. It's not just that the people of Israel needed to know.

[39:39] In this room, people need to know there is a God who sees. A God who cares. A God who acts. A God who saves. A God who does the impossible.

[39:50] A God who saves in surprising ways. Through a surprising Savior. Jesus, we honor you. We look to you. God, help us not sink our hope.

[40:03] They sunk their hope on David. It seems silly to us, but we do it every day. Help us not sink our hope on anyone other than you. We look to you, Jesus. We honor you, Jesus. And we live for you, Jesus.

[40:16] In your name we pray. Amen.