CBFC Worship Service 5/24/2026

It's a beautiful morning.

When you serve the Lord, it is, amen.

My name is Jared Hoddenstein.

I'm one of the elders lucky enough to be serving here at CBFC.

I'll be del bringing God's word.

If you want to get it open a while, we're going to be in 1 Samuel 17.

1 Samuel 17.

I titled this sermon, Who Do You Think You Are?

Simply because this is the story of David and Goliath.

This is the story of David and Goliath.

We're not going to talk about the action today.

I'm just kind of setting the table for this action-packed story that probably is the most famous story in the Old Testament.

So why did I title it, Who Do You Think You Are?

I get a sense as you read through this that many characters in the story are actually hinting at that question.

Goliath asks it of David.

He says, Am I a dog that you come at with come at me with sticks?

That's like, who do you think you are?

Who do you think you are?

David asks it of Goliath, Who is this uncircumcised Philistine?

Who do you think you are?

David's older brother asks it of David, Why have you come down here and where are the sheep?

Who do you think you are?

And Saul even asks it of David, you're not able to go against this Philistine to fight with him.

Who do you think you are?

It just seems fitting as we set the table.

Who do you think you are?

That's a question we're going to explore.

We're going to take a look at who the Philistines are, who Saul is, who David is, and Goliath.

He's in there too.

I got notes I have to follow.

So we are going to read this.

This is going to be a long read.

A long read.

It's going to set the table for the most well-known story in the Old Testament.

You can find Billy Graham preach a sermon on this.

I'm not going to come close to that.

Alright.

So set your expectations low.

But it's God's word, and no matter who brings it forth, God's going to honor his word.

Amen.

So we're going to read.

If you don't feel like you could stand through the whole thing, don't worry.

Alright.

It's it's seven chapter 17, verses 1 through 37.

But to honor God's word, I'm going to ask that you stand if you're able to.

And we're going to read through this.

It's going to be some distance here, but we we're going to read it because that's going to set the table for the action part of the story here.

So 1 Samuel 17, 1 through 37, God's word says this.

Now the Philistines gathered their armies for battle.

They were gathered at Soko, which belongs to Judah, and encamped between Soko and Azekah at Ephes Damim.

And Saul and the men of Israel were gathered and encamped in the valley of Elah, and drew up in a line of battle against the Philistines.

And the Philistines stood on the mountain on one on the one side, and Israel stood on the mountain on the other side, with the valley between them.

And there came out from the camp of the Philistines a champion named Goliath of Gath, whose height was six cubits and a span.

He had a helmet of bronze on his head, and he was armed with a coat of mail, and the weight of the coat was five thousand shekels of bronze, and he had bronze armor on his legs, and a javelin of bronze slung between his shoulders.

The shaft of his spear was like a weaver's beam.

His spear's head weighed six hundred shekels of iron, and his shield bearer went before him.

He stood and shouted to the ranks of Israel, Why have you come out to draw up for battle?

Am I not a Philistine?

And are you not servants of Saul?

Choose a man for yourself, and let him come down to me.

If he is able to fight with me and kill me, then we will be your servants.

But if I prevail against him and kill him, then you shall be our servants and serve us.

And the Philistine said, I defy the ranks of Israel this day.

Give me a man that we may fight together.

When Saul and all Israel heard these words of the Philistine, they were dismayed and greatly afraid.

Now David was the son of an of an apherthite of Bethlehem and Judah named Jesse, who had eight sons.

In the days of Saul the man was already old and advanced in years.

The three older sons of Jesse had followed Saul to the battle.

And the names of the three sons who went to the battle were Eliab the firstborn, and next to him Abinadab, and the third Shama.

David was the youngest, the three eldest followed Saul.

But David went back and forth from Saul to feed his father's sheep at Bethlehem.

For forty days the Philistine came forward and took his stand morning and evening.

And Jesse said to David his son, Take your brothers and Ephah of this parched grain and these ten loaves, and carry them quickly to the camp to your brothers.

Also take these ten cheeses to the commander of their thousand.

See if your brothers are well, and bring some token for them.

Now Saul and they and all the men of Israel went into the valley of Elah, fighting with the Philistines.

David rose early in the morning and left the sheep with the keeper and took the provisions, and went as Jesse has 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 and the baggage, and ran to the ranks, and went and greeted his brothers.

And as he talked with them, behold, the champion, the Philistine of Gath, Goliath by name, came up out of the ranks of the Philistines, and spoke the same words as before, and David heard him.

All the men of Israel, when they saw the man, fled from him, and they were much afraid.

And the men of Israel said, Have you seen this man who has come up?

Surely he has come to defy Israel, and the king will enrich the man who kills him with great riches, and will give him his daughter, and make him make his father's house free in Israel.

And David said to the men who stood by him, What shall be done for the man who kills the this Philistine and takes away the reproach from Israel?

For who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God?

And the people answered him in the same way, So shall it be done to the man who kills him.

Now Eliab, as the oldest brother, heard when he spoke to the men.

And Eliab's anger was kindled against David, and he said, Why have you come down?

And with whom have you left those few sheep in the wilderness?

I know your presumption and the evil of your heart, for you have come down to see the battle.

And David said, What have I done now?

What is it but a word?

And he turned away from him toward another and spoke the same way, and the people answered him as bef again as before.

And when the words that David spoke were heard, they repeated them before Saul, and he sent for him.

And David said to Saul, Let no man's heart fail because of him.

Your servant will go and fight with this Philistine.

And Saul said to David, You're not able to go out against this Philistine to fight with him.

You are but a youth, and he has been a man of war from his youth.

But David said to Saul, Your servant used to keep sheep for his father, and when there came a lion or a bear and took a lamb from the flock, I went after him, and I struck him and delivered him out of its mouth.

And if he arose against me, I caught him by his beard and struck him and killed him.

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 and the paw of the bear will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine.

And Saul said to David, Go and the Lord be with you.

Bless the Lord's word.

Let's pray.

Father God, we stand here before the King of the universe, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

And I just pray right now that your word would come alive, Holy Spirit, that you would guide us into all truth as we dig into 1 Samuel 17.

I pray that just your word and your truth would just speak through me, Lord, that it wouldn't be my words but your words, and that you would bless the reading of your word.

In the name of Jesus we pray.

Amen.

Told you that was a long one.

Woo! That was a long one.

Luckily, I read aloud at school all the time.

So there you go.

So my intro is, believe it or not, I teach fifth grade, so it's another picture book.

Please tell me you've heard of the giving tree.

This is a universal story.

At least nod if you've heard of the giving tree.

All right?

The universal story.

This was actually given to me by one of my families, that one of the students I had their families, they wrote a little message.

Mr.

Hottenstein, thanks for giving of yourself.

This was back in 2007.

So they're like in their 30s right now or something like that.

And it's an interesting, why do I start with this story?

So it's interesting.

In the world of elementary teachers, we're like the we always see the good in everything.

When you get into high school teachers, they're a little more morbid and things like that.

But we're always sunshine and Skittles.

And usually when teachers read this book, they're like, this is all about giving and just generosity.

And you should just give, give, give, give.

That's how they sound.

Give.

Just giving is good.

But if you read the story, we have a problem.

I don't get that message at all.

Like this tree gives, and literally, until it's chopped down and it's just like this lifeless stump at the end.

This kid just takes everything.

And I think this story is actually about selfishness.

It's the destruction that greed and selfishness brings.

And that's the when you really dig into the story, that's the message you get when you go deeper.

And I think the same thing, the same concept happens when you look at the story of David and Goliath.

It is a kid's story that's teached, that's taught in so many classes in kids' church, in Sunday school, on Wednesday nights.

Every kid has heard the story of David and Goliath.

And it goes something like this: the David and Goliath story is primarily applied as a metaphor for an underdog overcoming impossible odds.

It illustrates how courage, resourcefulness, and proper strategy can conquer seemingly insurmountable power, status, or size.

The implication is that we read ourselves into the story.

So therefore, we should stand up to giants in our lives.

The problem is that's just a very superficial reading.

The problem is, I think, when we dig deeper, there's a different message to walk away that's much richer.

And that's where we're gonna try and go today.

Not just this superficial reading, but really dig and search the scriptures.

So we're gonna be turning a lot.

You do not have to follow with me, you can just listen, but you want to wiggle those fingers and warm them up.

We're gonna be jumping all around to give us context to look at who these different people think they are, who are these people to set up the point that I think is is clear once you start digging into scripture.

So, Hebrews 11, the heroes of faith chapter where they list all these heroes of faith.

David's name is listed in there.

I think it's safe to say David is a hero of faith, but David is not the hero of this story, and neither are you or I.

We're not the hero of the story.

David's not the hero of the story.

I think you alone are not big enough to stand up to the giants in your life.

I think God will give you more than you can handle.

I can't tell you how many times growing up in the church, I heard that.

God will never give you more than you can handle.

That's not biblical.

God will crush you so that you come to just surrender to Him.

God will give you more than you handle.

It is Christ who steps in as our champion and fights for us.

The battle is already won.

The story, this story that we're gonna get to points to Jesus and his work on the cross defeating the giants of sin and death.

God is the hero of our story.

That's where we're gonna ultimately get to.

God is the hero of our story.

This is pointing to Jesus as our champion.

So I want to look at these distinct groups.

I want to look at who are the Philistines.

And I want to look at who is this Goliath of Gath.

I want to look at who is Saul, who is David, and then who do we think we are?

Some of them are gonna go by really quick.

All right.

So who are the Philistines?

When we started reading, 17, the Philistines gathered their armies for battle.

So when I started to study this, I wanted to get a concept of who are these Philistines, and it blew my mind how much I didn't recognize they showed up in 1 Samuel.

They're throughout the whole book.

I'm gonna hop around.

1 Samuel chapter 4.

1 Samuel 4 · chapter mention

If you want to slide all the way back to chapter 4, 1 Samuel 4, verse 1, and then I'll skip to 10.

1 Samuel 4:1

And the word of Samuel, and the word of Samuel came to all Israel.

Now Israel went out to the battle against the Philistines.

It opens with Israel battling against the Philistines.

Look at verse 10.

So the Philistines fought, and Israel was defeated.

They fled, every man to his home.

There was a very great slaughter, for 30,000 foot soldiers of Israel fell, and the ark of God was captured.

So it's gonna be a nice review, right?

30,000 Israelites wiped out by the Philistines.

That's crazy to think about that.

Who are they?

They're pretty powerful, but not more powerful than God.

Then, 1 Samuel chapter 5, verse 2.

1 Samuel 5:2

Then the Philistines took the ark of God and brought it into the house of Dagon and set it up beside Dagon.

Remember what happened to their God?

The next morning he's toppled on his face.

They set it back up.

The next morning, his head's off and his hands off.

And God's saying, I'm gonna take care of this God Dagon and these Philistines.

God's winning the battle for them.

1 Samuel chapter 6, verse 17.

1 Samuel 6:17

What happened as they captured the Ark the Philistines?

These are the golden tumors the Philistines returned as a guilt offering to the Lord.

Listen to these areas that were impacted.

One for Ashdod, one for Gaza, one for Ashkelon, one for Gath.

Ring a bell, ring a bell, Gath, and one for Ekron.

So God's just putting pestilence and disease into the Philistines.

They're like, we gotta get rid of this ark.

We gotta send it back.

And all parts of the Philistine area were were impacted.

Goliath was from Gath.

Wow.

Yeah.

First Samuel chapter 7, verse 10.

1 Samuel 7:10

We're skipping around, focusing on the Philistines.

As Samuel was offering up a burnt offering, the Philistines drew near to attack Israel, but the Lord thundered with a mighty sound that day against the Philistines, threw them into confusion, and they were defeated before Israel.

And that's where Samuel sets up the Ebenezer reminding stone.

So God defeats them with this thunderous noise.

First Samuel chapter 8, verses 19 to 20.

1 Samuel 8:19–20

But the people refused to obey the voice of Samuel.

So this is where Israel is going to decide we need a king.

Just listen to what listen to what they said.

But the people refused to obey the voice of Samuel, and they said, No, there shall be a king over us, that we may also be like all the nations, and that our king may judge us.

And listen to this, and go out before us and fight our battles.

That's the king they wanted.

They wanted a king to fight their battles.

Remember that, because when we go back and look at 1 Samuel 17, let's see what their king is doing.

So we have all of this, we're working our way through 1 Samuel.

1 Samuel 13, verses 3 and 4.

1 Samuel 13:3

1 Samuel 13, verses 3 and 4.

1 Samuel 13:3

Jonathan defeated the garrison of the Philistines that was at Giba, and the Philistines heard of it, and Saul blew the trumpet throughout all the land, saying, Let the Hebrews hear, all, and all Israel heard it.

Said that Saul had defeated the garrison.

Did you catch that?

Um yeah.

Jonathan defeats the Philistines, and Saul's like, Hey, I did it.

Saul did it.

Saul did it.

1 Samuel chapter 14, verse 52.

1 Samuel 14:52

We're getting there, we're getting there.

Listen to what Samuel, 1 Samuel 14, verses 52 said.

1 Samuel 14:52

There was hard fighting against the Philistines all the days of Saul, and when Saul saw any strong man or valiant man, he attached him to himself.

Why?

Because Saul didn't want to fight the Philistines.

Saul's sending out everybody else to do what he was appointed to do.

In 1 Samuel 15, Samuel turns Agag into chicken nuggets, according to Brian Barr, that great interpretation, right?

In 1 Samuel 16, David is anointed king privately.

And then we get to 1 Samuel 17, all of this happening, the Philistines are back on the scene.

Does it help put you into context about the Philistines?

Because when I read 1 Samuel, the whole book, as I was going through all the sermons, I wasn't paying attention to the Philistines.

Now all of a sudden, okay, it's clear how they're connected in all this.

So now who is Goliath of Gath?

Who is Goliath of Gath?

We're gotta go back into our story.

We're gonna go to Joshua and then we're gonna skip back to Numbers.

Joshua 11, 21.

I told you we're all over the Bible today.

Just giving you context of who these people are.

In Joshua 11, 21, this is just an interesting point about Goliath.

And Joshua came at that time and cut off the Anakim from the hill country, from Hebron and Debir and Anab and from all the hill country of Judah, and from all the hill country of Israel.

Again, the Anakim were thought to be these giants.

These giants, okay?

So Joshua took the whole land according to all that the Lord had spoken to Moses.

I I skipped the whole thing.

Verse 22.

There was none of the Anakim left in the land of the people of Israel.

Only in Gaza, in Gath, and in Ashdod did some remain.

Sounds like a clue that Goliath from Gath, he could be this Anakim.

Then I want to flip to Numbers chapter 13, verse 21 and 22.

Numbers 13:21

Numbers 13, 21 and 22.

These are when the spies now are going into Canaan.

So they went up and spied out the land from the wilderness of Zim to Rohab near Lebo Hamath.

They went into the Nageb and came to Hebron, Ahaman, Shishai, Talamai, the descendants of Anak.

So when these spies went in to spy out the land, they saw the descendants of Anak, these giants in the land.

And Joshua left them in Gath.

And the thinking is that Goliath was a giant related to the Anakim.

So who is Goliath?

He's a big guy.

Depending on what translation you use in verses 4 through 7, when we get into Goliath, I'm not going to reread it.

We see a vivid description of Goliath.

The Masoretic text, the Hebrew text, would have him as be his 9 foot 9.

The Greek Greek Septuagint has him at 6 foot 9.

Still a big dude.

You decide.

Most people go with the 9 foot 9 because it's more impressive.

Alright?

His body armor, when you calculate how much it weighs, 125 pounds.

This guy was huge.

This guy was huge.

I just had uh seniors come back to help run our field day, and a little 10-year-old kid that I had in fifth grade was now six foot nine.

He was giant.

I mean, he was so much bigger than I am.

It was scary.

It's absolutely scary.

So 6 foot 9 still is really tall.

Alright, 9 foot 9 is even taller.

So scary.

Scary stuff.

Verses 26 and 36.

This is the interesting description about Goliath.

Verses 26 and then 36.

Listen to how David describes Goliath.

And David said to the men who stood by him, What shall be done for the man who kills the Philistine and takes away the reproach from Israel?

For who is this uncircumcised Philistine?

Why would David describe him as uncircumcised?

Because that tells me where he's looking.

I don't mean it like that.

Came out wrong?

You'll get it in a second, alright?

Everybody's seeing a nine foot-9 giant.

David's like he's uncircumcised.

Why?

Because David's thinking about how big God is.

David's referencing the covenant of the Almighty God.

He's not looking at the size of Goliath, he's looking at the size of his God.

He's going back and remembering the covenant that God had with Abraham.

That covenant around circumcision.

If you want to go back and read it, you can.

It's in Genesis.

Genesis 17 and then Genesis 15 are the two covenants, and because of time, I'm not going to go back and read them, but you should.

It's powerful to see God's covenant with his people.

That covenant, this is the exciting part, right?

This is the exciting part of David connecting circumcision with Goliath and the covenant.

Do you know who the covenant points to?

The covenant is pointing ultimately to Jesus Christ on the cross.

That's what the covenant is pointing to.

Folks, David is seeing the deeper meaning here, and David knows I'm not the hero of this story.

The covenant keeping God is sending Jesus Christ.

That's the King of King and Lord of Lords.

It's the deeper message.

We're not reading ourselves into the story.

Jesus is there.

Jesus is the one preeminent, eternal.

He's there in this story.

We just have to see it in something as obscure as this uncircumcised Philistine.

Wow, that's awesome to see that covenant.

And then we look at who is Saul.

Who is King Saul?

He's the most pathetic picture we're going to look at right now.

And it's going to be really quick.

In 1 Samuel 8, remember they just called out?

Give us a king that he may do what?

Fight our battles.

You know, there's an interesting tidbit in Judges.

In Judges chapter 20, verses 14 to 16, it talks about a group of 700 left.

Judges 20:14–16

Left-handed slingers.

Guess where they're from?

Saul's hometown.

Saul grew up hearing legends about these 700 slingers.

If you're in that hometown, Bible scholars say that it was said that when you were in that hometown, that slinging was such a big thing that moms would train their kids to hit a slice of bread and then they wouldn't let their kids eat until they were able to hit that slice of bread with a sling and a stone.

So there's this culture of slingers.

Saul probably knew about these heroes, these legends, and he doesn't go out to battle.

He lets David step up, and to add insult to injury, how does David take out Goliath, not to jump ahead?

He uses the sling and the stone.

So there's that reference there that just gives us a perspective of Saul.

And then we go back and Saul lets Jonathan fight his battles and he takes the credit.

He unites himself with all these mighty men of valor so they can fight for him, so he can take the credit.

And then he lets this teenager go out.

Now there's the Bible does not give David's age at this moment in time.

But if you do some math and take some guesses, they think the best guess anywhere from 13 to 17 years old.

13 to 17 years old going into battle.

And what did Saul say?

Hey, go and the Lord be with you.

It's not like go and the Lord be with you.

That's so pathetic.

That this man that they wanted as their king to fight their battles is letting this teenager go fight for him.

He's this scared ruler that doesn't have the Spirit of God any longer.

Man.

So who is David?

Keep in mind he is now anointed with the Spirit of God on him.

In verse 12, this is the other interesting piece.

It says he is a son of an Epherthite.

It's an interesting thing to throw out there.

So if you dig, where do we hear that?

It might sound familiar.

It's actually how the book of 1 Samuel starts.

It's talking about a son of an Epherthite.

For interest of time, I'm not going to go back there, but we should.

I mean, we should preach for a whole hour.

No, we're not going to preach for a whole hour.

That son of an Ephraith, okay, kicks off 1 Samuel.

It's not just there.

The book of Ruth, guess who else are Ephraytes?

Ruth and her family.

It's tying it to the kinsman redeemer of Boaz, which is a foreshadowing, a type of Jesus.

And in Micah 5.2, we are going to turn to Micah 5.2.

You need to see this.

Micah 5.2.

Good luck finding that.

I'll just read it.

I even marked it because I didn't want to be up here thumbing through.

There you go.

Micah 5.2.

Listen to what this says.

This is a prophecy talking about the ruler to be born in Bethlehem.

Jesus Christ.

But you, O Bethlehem Ephra, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, for from you shall come forth from me.

One who is to be the ruler in Israel, who is coming forth, is from of old, from ancient days.

Therefore he shall give them up until the time when she was in labor has given birth, and it keeps going on.

It's all talking about who?

Jesus.

By saying this is a son, David is a son from Ephrada.

It is pointing directly to Jesus Christ.

It's reinforcing the concept that David isn't the hero, that we're not the hero, that Christ is taking center stage.

So we have the circumcision pointing to Christ.

We have the Ephrada, Epherta pointing to Christ.

It's incredible when you look at this.

Some other things I'm throwing out there.

I didn't even read a biblical commentary on this.

I just read it.

I'm like, that sounds familiar.

When you get to verse 17 and 18, I'm going to turn back verse 17 to 18 and Jesse said to David his son, take for your brothers an ephah of this parch grain and these ten loaves and carry them quickly to the camp for your brothers and take these cheeses.

I don't know why.

It just rings a little bit of that little boy and his lunch, five loaves and two fishes, of just this little kid, this innocent kid taken.

And what does Jesus do in that story?

I'm going to take that and use that and give God the glory.

And I just hear that in there.

I can't prove it.

It's probably wrong.

Billy Graham would not have said that, but I'm not Billy Graham.

I just think it points to Jesus.

It points to Jesus.

There is no way this little teenager is going to defeat Goliath.

There's no way.

The reality is this: 1 Samuel 17, 8.

Here's the third piece that I think points directly to Jesus Christ.

1 Samuel 17, 8.

This is what Goliath said.

He stood and shouted to the ranks of Israel, Why have you come out to draw up for battle?

Am I not a Philistine and are you not servants of Saul?

Listen to this: choose a man for yourselves and let him come down to me.

And 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.

This concept of champion battle in the in back in these biblical times, it literally means he who stands in between.

These armies on both sides of the mountain, picking one man to come down and represent the whole army.

Doesn't that sound like someone we know?

Tim Keller said it way better than I can, so I'm quoting directly from him and giving him all the credit.

If I could, I'd play the video clip.

Alright.

He does it so much better than I'm about to, but this is what he said.

Coming to the same conclusion.

David was fighting Goliath as a substitute representative of his army.

So if he won, the Israelites won without lifting a finger.

And if he lost, the Israelites lost.

And so his victory or defeat was imputed to them.

David risked his life to be the substitute champion to save his people.

But Jesus Christ, at the cost of his life, was our substitute champion, so his victory is imputed to us.

Jesus fought the real giants of sin and death.

Folks, David is not the hero of the story, and I'm not the hero of the story, and you're not the hero of the story.

Jesus is the hero of the story, and I think the circumcision, the son of an aphrodite and the champion, points directly to that.

When we dig deep, we come to that conclusion.

So we're left with the last point.

Who do you think you are?

Who are you?

See, the problem with reading ourselves into the story is this.

You all know the little story, the little engine that could?

I think I can.

I think I can.

I think.

Did you know that's actually was used in a sermon by a Methodist preacher?

It was a sermon illustration.

It's wrong.

Like, you can't.

Good news here.

You can't.

You can't do it in your own strength.

I don't care how much you think you can, you can't.

Life is too big.

I mean, this this idea of thinking that we can do this, I don't know.

It's it's pride is what it is.

When in humility we embrace our weakness, God's strength is made perfect.

The Bible talks so clearly about it.

In John 15, 5, talking about the vine and the branches, Jesus says, Apart from me, we can do nothing.

Apart from him, we can do nothing.

2 Corinthians 1, 8 through 10.

Paul's talking about being utterly burdened beyond our strength to the point of death.

Paul's saying, we couldn't do it.

We couldn't do it.

We were maxed out.

We couldn't do it.

So why?

So that we realize that God is our everything.

When I was a young Christian, I thought I could handle everything life threw at me.

And I judged everybody else.

Look at these weak Christians.

I'm not gonna fall.

I don't need somebody's hand holding.

I don't need help.

I'll be there to help others.

It was pride and arrogance.

That's what I thought.

I thought I was this mature Christian, unshakable in my faith.

I thought I was this David standing against these giants, that I could take them down.

And then God began to break me and show me that I can't.

That life is much bigger than me.

That I can't stand up to any of it.

I will never forget the story where it just came like crystallized for me.

I always say this, I'm up here, I have a lot of kids.

And uh I'm framing the context here.

So my son, this is going way back.

I won't tell you which one, because he's not even here.

He had waited to the last minute, he procrastinated on a school project, and this project was like the bulk of his grade.

And he he said, Dad, I need your help if I'm gonna get this done.

And everything inside me said, just fail.

But no.

I'm gonna so I'm at work and I realize I have to go home and help this kid.

And I'm not in a good mood.

I'm not in a good mood.

I did not have a good attitude about it.

I didn't serve with a smile.

I was like, all right, we're gonna get home and we're gonna get to work.

We sit down, he had nothing prepared.

Well, what do you got?

Nothing.

Nothing.

He didn't start at all.

At all.

So it's now we're butting heads trying to get this thing started.

Well, you want me to do the project for you?

I'm not gonna do the project for you.

Come up with a starting idea.

So we're fighting at the kitchen table, and all of a sudden, my wife comes down and says, There's a bird in the dryer vent upstairs.

Like, what?

A bird in the dryer vent.

Now we've had multiple animals come into our house.

It's an old house.

I've had birds and bats and all kinds of squirrels and things.

I've been attacked by squirrels.

It's I'm I got this.

So now I you gotta wait, you gotta do the project on your own.

I'm going up to the dryer vent.

Now I realize if I disconnect the dryer vent, it could fly into the house.

So I'm banging on this hose.

I'm like, what do I do with this thing?

I don't know what to do with it.

I'm getting more exasperated because I don't want to have the bird fly into the house, and the laundry room doesn't have a door, and now like, what am I doing?

I'm gonna barricade myself in here.

And about that time I hear the front door slam, and I hear my wife in a very panicked voice go, oh no, oh no, go and get that! Go and get that! Go get that! Go get that! And I'm like, I go downstairs, and my son, who was pretty young at the time, had a four-inch splinter directly through one fingertip embedded into the other finger.

I go, What?

How did you do that?

And he looked at me and said, I don't know.

How do you not know?

I mean, it's a four-inch splinter.

I don't know.

So I'm like, all right, well, let's pull it out.

I'm going to pull it.

It was embedded into the nail bed and it wouldn't separate.

So I'm like, well, this is gonna hurt, buddy.

And I go to pull.

I go to pull and it snaps.

I'm no so then I'm like, alright, so I'm gonna squeeze your fingers really hard.

They'll go numb.

It won't hurt.

He's like, what are you doing?

So I need a tweezers.

We don't have a tweezers.

All right.

Our aunt's next door neighbor.

So I said, I said, somebody out.

Go get a tweezers from Aunt Tina.

So they go out, the dog gets out.

I'm sitting there trying, I'm trying to like do surgery on my son.

They bring the tweezers back.

As the tweezers come in, whoever got them said, uh bad news, Dad, the dog killed one of Aunt Tina's chickens.

The dog comes running into the house covered with feathers.

Covered with feathers.

Feathers.

So I go, what are you doing, Switter?

I smack him.

My oldest daughter, who loves the dog, stands up and goes, Don't you touch that dog?

How dare you, you monster! So my oldest daughter's screaming at me.

I'm holding my little kid's hands, trying to get a splinter out.

My son comes in the room and he goes, Dud, what are we doing?

Are you gonna help me with my project or what?

I think I cried.

I think I cried.

We got the bird out, the splinter came out, we used ichthamol, that little ointment drew the yeah, whatever.

The point being, his project was done.

Later that night I sat down and I prayed and reflected on the day.

It was not my finest moment.

I'm pretty sure I didn't act like Christ in any of those scenarios whatsoever.

I'm pretty sure I did everything wrong.

And as I sat there, I realized for the first time life is way much bigger than I am.

I realized that I can't do this on my own.

And God started just opening my eyes through the Bible.

I'm not the hero of the story.

I don't care how tough you are, life is tougher.

It might be a financial, it might be a health diagnosis, it might be your kids, it might be your car.

Folks, you're not strong enough to do anything apart from Christ.

Folks, when we set this up, we didn't even get to the battle.

When we set this up, Christ is your champion.

Do you get that?

Christ is your champion.

So this is what I end with.

1 Corinthians 15, 55.

Listen to this verse.

I've never seen I've heard the verse, but in the context of what we're talking about today, listen to this.

1 Corinthians, sorry, 2 Corinthians 1.8.

What am I doing?

That was totally wrong.

I told you I can't do it.

No.

I was right first time.

I don't even have to look it up.

I have it written on my notes.

I really can't do this, folks.

Alright.

1 Corinthians 15, 55.

Death is swallowed up in victory.

Oh death, where is your victory?

Death, where is your sting?

The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.

But thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

When you read this book, you know how it ends?

It ends with this lonely old man sitting on a stump that's ripped down.

It ends with the boy's selfishness destroying everything.

Do you know how our story ends?

With Christ's selflessness restoring everything.

Maybe not here on this life, but eternity.

We serve our great God, amen.

Let's pray.

Father God, I we can do nothing without you.

The story of David and Goliath, it's so easy to see David as the hero.

It's so easy to read ourselves into this story, but God, Jesus is there if we look.

And man, did we look this morning.

Lord, I pray that you would pierce our hearts, Holy Spirit, that your word come alive, cut deep into our hearts.

If we've been making our life about us, Lord, I pray today that we would surrender to you.

Lord, I pray that we would look to you to step in as our champion with whatever things we might be facing, Lord, that we would see you as the one who stands between.

Lord, that you would get the glory, that you would get the honor, that you would get the praise, that we would see how big you are, God, and not how big these giants might be in our life.

Help us remember the covenant-keeping God, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, who sent his son to die on a cross to defeat the giants of sin and death and the grave.

We're not bound by that, but we are free, free to serve our King.

Lord, you are so good.

We praise you.

We thank you.

We pray all this in the name of Jesus.

Amen.

Thank you, Jared, for that word.

Let's let's stand to our feet as we sing, yet not I, but through Christ in me.