Overcoming Fear part 2

Turn over to 1 Samuel chapter 17.

1 Samuel 17 · chapter mention

We're going to finish up the lesson we began last week here in 1 Samuel chapter 17.

1 Samuel 17 · chapter mention

! If you didn't have your outline from last week, go ahead and slip your hand up.

James is going around here and getting new handouts here.

If you didn't have one, just go ahead and slip your hand up.

We've got one over here too, James.

If you have your one from last week, we're just going to review the first part here.

We've got one there and then one for Janice there.

And then over here, we've got a couple.

1 Samuel chapter 17.

1 Samuel 17 · chapter mention

And we began here in verse 1.

If you've been in church any length of time, or even if you haven't been in church,

it's probably a familiar story that people are familiar with.

It's the story of David and Goliath is how often they refer to.

And it's like you don't have to be in church very much or even around church to realize this is

something that you often hear and it's a very familiar story.

But we began looking at the reality of overcoming fear and how faith is greater than fear.

And here in 1 Samuel chapter 17, look here at verse 1 with me this morning.

1 Samuel 17 · chapter mention

And it says,

And Saul and all Israel heard the words of the Philistines.

And their reaction is summed up this way.

They were what?

Dismayed and greatly afraid.

Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, as we come before you this morning, Lord, as we just take a few moments to look at a reality.

Lord, fear is always around us.

Lord, it's part of our life.

Lord, things that cause us to be taken back or shaken up.

Lord, we pray that you just would help us understand the reality of fear, the powerful emotion, Lord, that we experience that oftentimes handicaps us or captivates us.

Lord, pray as we look at the life of David here.

And Lord, the principles we can learn that David learned from you of relying upon you.

Lord, help us to apply them into our lives.

And Lord, we ask it all in your precious name.

Amen.

As we look here, you know, we fear it is one of the most powerful emotions.

You know, people are, fear causes people to do all sorts of things.

You ever notice that when fear comes upon somebody, there's always an action resulted from it.

You know, there's some response to it.

Fear is a response that is present and it's powerful.

And it comes in many shapes and sizes.

You know, think about, you know, how does fear manifest itself?

Well, you got worry.

You know, have you ever thought that worry is really a fear?

It's a fear of the unknown or fear of what's going to happen.

You know, we have panic, you know, is fear of things, you know, anxiety.

You know, long-term, you know, anxiety coming is a fear.

It's based in fear because it's like I'm worried or overwhelmed by what's about to happen or what has happened or concerned about what's going to happen.

You know, you think about concern, doubt, dread, terror, you know, all these different things manifest itself in the form of really boils down to fear in our life.

You know, and fear oftentimes control us.

And today, oftentimes we see a culture that many times people live in an ongoing state of fear.

You know, people are scared about what's going on around them.

People are scared about the way the world's going.

I mean, it's when you read the news, I mean, the news, there's an element of it that ought to scare you in a healthy sense to realize what's going on and what it really means.

But you know what? We don't have to let that overwhelm us because we have a God that's greater than the world in which we live.

Fear is a response we will have, but fear ought not to be the driver of what we do.

I want you to understand the importance of this because fear can become overwhelming.

You know, people caught up in fear can become paralyzed or consumed by it.

But you know what? The Bible tells us that we can overcome fear.

Fear is going to be present.

I want you to understand what we're talking about today is not the removal of fear from your life.

Fear is a natural emotion God gives to us because there's some things you ought to fear.

It's just logical.

You know, this time of year, every time you see on the news, you go listen to the news of Yellowstone.

You get some person hops out and say, I'm going to pet a buffalo.

You know what? They've lost a healthy fear.

A 2,500 pound beast with horns, you'd better be a little respectful and fearful.

Fear is your friend sometimes, but fear ought not to drive us and allow to be controlling in our life.

Fear is your friend.

When we understand the picture here, because the Bible tells us to fear not.

To fear not.

You know?

When we're looking at David, and we began last week, look at that.

When we realize that David actually learned how to deal with fear.

He learned to deal with fear in his life.

You know, as a shepherd defending his flock, as a servant being pursued by Saul,

and as a king in battle, because of this, David's psalms abound in both the voicing of his fears

and his expression of trust in God.

I want you to understand that faith and fear counteract each other.

If you have faith, it doesn't mean fear is not going to be present,

but it's going to be more powerful than what scares you.

I guarantee you, David didn't look out at Goliath and said, this is absolutely nothing.

But he says, we're going to look.

He said, God is with him.

He said, God's, I'm not bigger than you, but God's bigger than you.

God is more powerful than you.

He understood the dynamic, and he learned to trust God.

You can read that through the psalms.

There were things that overwhelmed David.

As you read the psalm, man, there were things that overwhelmed his heart.

But the psalms always quickly turned to God that he served.

They turned quickly to God.

And they point there.

But we see here, and we talked about that paralysis of fear last week.

I mean, when you look at verse 11 here in our text, notice what it says.

And they were dismayed and greatly afraid.

In other words, their fear had made them do nothing.

They had gathered together for battle and did not engage.

They did not engage.

You know, and we talked a little bit last week about why they didn't and some things happening with that.

But I want you to understand that they needed to trust the Lord.

You know, consider Proverbs 21, verse 31, where it says,

Proverbs 21:31

The horse is prepared against the day of battle, but safety is of the Lord.

You know what?

You can have the best equipped army in the world with the best trained soldiers and still lose in battle.

You know, on Wednesday nights, we've been going through the kings of Israel.

We'll see that happen in the life of the kings.

They'll go out with a dominant force and get destroyed.

Think about Israel when they got ready to go into the land when they didn't trust God,

and they went to do it on their own means.

They got in trouble, even though they might have been overwhelming in number,

that they got pushed back by a small number.

Why?

Because they let the dynamics were not of themselves.

It was of the Lord.

Safety is of the Lord.

And we saw David's older brothers, you know, they were able-bodied men, but they didn't stand up.

They were bigger than David, but yet they were still intimidated by the champion of the Philistines.

That champion of the Philistines, neither the Philistine nor the Israel armies had engaged either in actual warfare.

They'd been there for over a month.

They'd been over there.

It had been many weeks.

They were sitting there on the opposite sides, and every day Goliath would come out and give this challenge.

David's presence, or excuse me, Goliath's presence was clearly meant to intimidate.

Now, when you read his description, it'd be an intimidating guy to go stand up to.

You know?

I mean, you think about the size of Goliath.

If you walked out, everybody in this room would be looking up.

He would be bigger than everybody in the room.

Matter of fact, some of you probably stack you twice and still not look him in the eye.

This is intimidating.

He was dressed to intimidate.

Everything about him was intimidating with his armor and everything he hauled out.

And he taunted them, intimidating the army.

They were blasphemy against that army's God.

In other words, he says, our God is greater than your God.

But also we find the fear that was in the leaders.

You know, worse than Goliath's definement was Israel's response.

You know, it's interesting.

Have you ever stopped to ask yourself a question?

Who was the largest guy in Israel's army?

Saul, the Bible says he stood ahead above everybody else.

So the king is the biggest guy and the king says, I'm not going.

They shrunk with fear and the dynamic that they were dismayed and afraid.

To be dismayed means to be shattered or broken, unable to stand because of fear.

You know?

I want you to think when you hear the word dismayed, think about Isaiah 41.10.

You know, think about what it says there.

It says, fear thou not, for I am with thee.

Be not what?

Dismayed.

Why can we not let fear grip us?

Because God is with us.

God is there as we walk through fear.

You know, when we understand that God has not given us a spirit of fear,

but of power and of love and of a sound mind.

But you know what?

Goliath is a good representation of what happens in our life

because you know what?

Satan deals in fear.

Fear is a powerful thing to keep people paralyzed from doing what God wants them to do.

Fear of the outcome, the fear of the unknown,

the fear of, Lord, what are you asking me to give up?

When we understand he seeks to intimidate, you know, fear silences us.

Think for a moment about dynamics going in our culture today.

Social media, when you really dig down into the root of it,

half the people are responding are bots.

They're not even real people, but they post in this mass number.

And what's it do?

It intimidates people into thinking,

well, everybody else is thinking differently than me

instead of realizing that that's not reality.

You know, what people post on X and Instagram and all this stuff is a alternate reality.

They show you what they want you to see and not what really is.

But you know what?

It intimidates us and makes people fearful.

We just went through a season in our country where they were intimidating people

with trying to make them fearful to do what they ought to do.

Fear is powerful, but we have God with us.

And Satan loves to use fear in our sphere of our life.

The world specifically singles out those who dare to stand for truth,

and they try to bully and criticize and cancel men and women of conviction.

You know what they're trying to do?

They're trying to scare everybody by overwhelming one.

The devil loves to use fear.

But I want you to understand intimidation isn't his only method to inject fear in our hearts,

whether it be a fear of moving forward in a direction we got.

We know God has placed in our heart, our fear of incurring more hurt,

as we work to rebuild a relationship, fear of sharing the gospel,

the fear of rejection or of the future or of failing.

You know, every way, shape, or form, Satan intends to seize our hearts with fear.

Fear is one of those things, and we realize it's the paralysis of fear,

but I want you to understand there's a potential of faith.

There's a potential of faith.

Ultimately, fear and faith are incompatible.

Fear will cancel out faith, or faith will cancel out fear.

Of course, there are times when we feel fear but choose faith.

You know, look over to Psalm 56.

Psalm 56 in verse 3, the Bible says this.

It says,

What time I am afraid, I will trust in thee.

You know, I want you to really think about that for a moment.

It doesn't say you're not going to have fear,

and there's not going to be things that are going to try and intimidate you

and try to stop you and try to hinder you.

But it says,

What time you feel fear, remember that you can trust God.

He is our rock that doesn't move.

You know, Isaiah 12, 2 says,

Behold, God is my salvation.

I will trust and not be afraid.

For the Lord Jehovah is my strength and my song.

He also has become my salvation.

You know?

But I want you to understand,

David, how did he learn to overcome fear?

Because we have to learn how to trust God.

The theory is great.

The application is more difficult.

We all understand we need to trust God,

but trusting God in our lives is a lot different than understanding the theory of it.

Because trust really makes us wonder.

It makes it challenges us to say,

God, are you really going to do this?

But you know, it starts something like David.

But it didn't start on the battlefield with Goliath.

David's faith in God didn't start that day with Goliath.

He was faithful in the little things before he got there.

He was faithful in the little things of his life,

trusting God,

even defending the flock from the bear and the lion.

You know what?

He had to learn to trust God to overcome those things.

He was there and understand that as David was there,

he was faithful even in just doing what he was supposed to do.

I imagine David, he wanted to be there with his brothers,

but you know what his job was?

Go back home and watch the sheep.

You know how you learn to be faithful and to trust God?

By trusting God what God has you doing right now.

By trusting God,

we need to be faithful in the little things in life.

You know, oftentimes one of the repeated lessons

we learn about the resilience from people in the Bible

whom God used greatly is to trust God's timing.

God often places us in a position of obscurity,

out of sight in order to prepare us for a greater battle.

You know what?

A whole crowd didn't cheer David on

as he killed the lion or the bear.

Matter of fact,

probably you found out if he didn't say anything about it,

nobody probably would have knew it even happened

because he was out in obscurity.

But you know what?

It was building his faith

by being faithful to do what he was supposed to do.

To be faithful in those things.

We learn from David to trust the timing in God's plan.

You know, David submitted to his keeping the sheep

and when he obeyed his father

and when Jesse sent him to deliver the supplies to his brother,

David was still doing what he was supposed to be doing.

He was faithful in those things.

But we have also here a faith-filled battle.

You know, David's faithfulness was a character trait

prompted in him to see Goliath through the eyes of faith.

You know what?

It's a faith-filled battle.

Well, how could David walk out there in faith?

Because he'd already learned to trust God

and he knew God was bigger than the giant.

God was bigger than what he was facing

because we see here that the heart of faith here,

while the men of Israel had hearts of fear,

this teenage David had a heart of faith.

Because you know what happens?

Fear warps our perspective.

Fear makes us focus on the obstacles

instead of what God can do through it.

It makes the obstacles bigger than they really are.

You know, they were looking at Goliath

and wondering how God could possibly do anything

against a giant like that.

But David was looking to God

and wondering how Goliath would stand a chance.

What was the difference?

One was looking through a lens of fear.

The other was lurking through a lens of faith.

They were both looking at the same thing.

They both heard the same thing,

but they had a different perspective.

You know?

We ought not to fear men.

You know, the Bible tells us in Proverbs 29, 25,

the fear of man bringeth a snare,

but whoso putteth his trust in the Lord

shall be safe.

You know, when we fear men,

their power, their position, their influence,

or even the disapproval of people.

You know, sometimes we fear

people disapproving of what we do.

We need to make sure to look at that

in light of what God wants

because we usually do things that dishonor God

when we're looking at what other people think about it

instead of what God thinks about it.

To keep our focus upon the Lord,

fear sees the obstacle,

but faith sees a victory.

You know?

While everybody else ran and hid,

we find David spoke up in faith.

You know, look here at verse 26

there back in our text in chapter 17.

It says,

And David spake unto the men that stood by him

and that would done to the man that killeth the Philistine

and taketh away the reproach of Israel.

For who is this uncircumcised Philistine

that he should defy the armies of the living God?

You know?

He understood

that there was going to be problems,

but God was big.

And we see a test of that faith.

You know, if you didn't already know

the outcome of the story of David and Goliath,

you probably,

you might have assumed

that when David first began showing a willingness

to take on Goliath

that everybody rallied for him.

You know?

Hey, you're the one that's going to go out!

Yeah!

You know what?

When he stood for what was right and had faith,

you know what happened?

Everybody else doubted him.

Everybody else questioned him.

Sometimes when you stand in faith,

you're not going to have a cheering section.

When you stand on truth and trust God,

you're not going to always be cheered.

You're not going to make everybody happy.

He was met with criticism.

You know, David's brothers accused him of pride.

You know, his oldest brother,

in verse 28, you know,

he got angry.

Why do you think David's older brother got angry?

When David said,

hey, look at it,

we're going to go take on the Philistine.

Why did his older brother get angry?

Yeah, you know,

it's a brother thing too, man.

Little brother, man,

you just sit down.

You don't know what you're talking about.

You're punching outside your weight class on this one.

I mean, I can just imagine the dynamic

that's going on.

He said, dude,

you don't even understand what you're talking about.

But Elab,

his older brother,

was harsh because he had been intimidated

and let fear cause him to not take action.

You know, when we get criticized,

you have a couple of choices.

You can quit or you can continue.

Quit or continue.

How did David respond to the criticism?

Look here in verse 29 in our text

because David didn't get in a big heated discussion

with his brother.

Notice when he looks at him,

he says,

and David said,

what have I now done?

Is there not a cause?

He didn't get all caught up

in all the remarks his brother made to him.

He didn't let all that hear.

He says,

hey,

is there not a cause?

Is there not something that needs to be accomplished?

Is there not something before us?

He focused on the need in front of him.

He wasn't bragging and suggesting someone fight Goliath.

He knew there was a reason to stir up vision and faith

and offer to fight.

He remained focused on that reason.

You know,

David faced a cause that was too great

to be intimidated from by the fear of criticism.

You know what his brother really said?

Go on out there and lose it for us.

You're going to ruin everything.

But you know what?

David didn't get hindered in his focus for the things of God.

You know,

you're going to face criticism for standing for truth.

Sometimes people are not going to like what you say.

You know,

look over to 1 Corinthians chapter 1 for a moment.

1 Corinthians 1 · chapter mention

1 Corinthians chapter 1.

1 Corinthians 1 · chapter mention

Because we need a faith filled for the battle.

Here,

notice what it says,

even as we go forth.

It says this in verse 18,

You know,

when you attempt to step out in faith and do something for God,

you can expect others to question your motives,

to question God's vision and the determination to accomplish what God has.

And whenever you're moving forward,

somebody's going to criticize.

You know,

if you're doing something for God,

you're going to have a critic show up.

Sometimes vision makes people feel as though they're losing control.

Sometimes it's an indictment of a lack of vision or willingness to lean into what God would have for us.

But I want you to understand,

don't let criticism by those who are around you stop you from doing what God wants you to do.

You know,

one made a quote that said this,

to avoid criticism,

do nothing,

say nothing,

and be nothing.

Because if you do something and say something and want to do,

want something to move forward with a purpose,

somebody's going to criticize.

That's a reality that we have.

David's courage was mentioned to King Saul who sent for David.

You know,

it was there before Saul that David was met by another form of opposition,

doubt.

You know,

look here at verse 33 in our text here.

Notice what it tells us here.

It says this,

and it says,

and Saul said to David,

thou art not able to go out against this Philistine to fight with him,

for thou art but a youth,

and he is a man of war from his youth.

The contrast between David and Saul is very easily seen.

The difference between the two.

David had no experience,

no resources,

no responsibility to that moment,

but he had a heart of faith to defend God's name and fight the giant.

Saul,

on the other hand,

was an experienced warrior with a full resources of an army and had every

responsibility to lead his nation in battle,

but he had a heart of fear.

He had a title of king,

but he didn't have the courage to lead.

You know,

it takes courage to lead.

Because people are not going to always be happy with what you do,

but you have the faith to say,

I'm going to trust what God says and move forward.

Because we're going to see here,

not only the paralysis of fear,

the potential of faith,

but the path of finality.

You know,

fear brings paralysis where faith sees victory.

And the path to victory begins with a step of faith.

You know,

you're never going to overcome fear sitting.

You're never going to overcome fear stewing.

You're never going to overcome fear by worry.

Or let it become something that dominates your life.

David did more than talk with the soldiers about the cause.

Before them,

he was willing to take on Goliath.

He willingly surrendered his service to King Saul.

But David's ability was doubted.

But David expressed his confidence in God.

You know what David really,

when he,

as you look at his story,

you know what happened to David?

David said,

yeah,

you're right.

I am nothing,

but God is big.

David never disagreed with who he was.

He said,

I'm just a young boy with no,

no experience to speak of.

I'm a young man,

but I trust God.

I've learned to trust him.

But I want you to see here.

David also had learned something else about having faith.

And that's to have confidence in proven means.

Because when Saul told David that he was too young and inexperienced,

not to mention he was going to go out against an experienced giant.

David didn't flinch,

but rather he recalled to Saul two previous life-threatening battles,

which he had delivered unto him.

You can read about those in verses 34 and 37,

talking about the lion and the bear.

You know,

when he talks about that,

looking at the lion in the face,

you know,

we see this and he tells us here,

and he says,

and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be as one of them,

seeing yet defiled the armies of the living God.

You know,

David said,

I've looked a lion in the face.

I've looked a bear.

And he says,

I'm going to go out and look Goliath.

Because you know what?

The other two were pretty scary too.

And God delivered me.

He was willing to step out.

David learned how,

because of previous battles,

that God would give him victory.

Even though no one else was there to witness David's courage,

those moments in David's life enabled him to step up

when everybody was looking.

You know,

oftentimes things that happen when nobody is looking,

impact the things that happen when people are looking.

And we see that dynamic,

and God doesn't waste trials in our life.

I want you to understand,

everything God allows to come into our life,

God uses.

Think about Romans chapter 5.

Romans 5 · chapter mention

Look over to Romans 5.

Look at verse 3.

It says,

And not only so,

but we glory in tribulations also,

knowing that tribulation does what?

Worketh patience.

Tribulation,

trials,

struggles,

problems.

Worketh patience,

and patience experience,

and experience hope.

And hope maketh not a shame,

because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts

by the Holy Ghost,

which is given unto us.

You know,

sometimes we're up against difficulties

that not only induce fear,

but they seem pointless.

Because you think nobody's seeing what's going on,

and it takes for you to get up and face another day,

sacrificially giving,

what God would have for us to do,

to get outside our comfort zone,

to do what God has instructed us.

I want you to understand,

the choices you make in private

is where your faith grows

to what you need in the future.

Because I want you to understand,

oftentimes we minimize those private battles in our life.

But if you're faithful in the private battles,

you know what's going to happen,

you're going to be faithful in the public battles.

The struggles that come,

it wasn't just David's inexperience that Saul doubted,

but also David's weaponry,

you know,

or lack thereof.

You know,

I always think about this picture here,

because it's really kind of comical.

Look here at verse 38.

It says,

And Saul armed David with his armor,

and put a helmet of brass upon his head,

and armed him with a coat of mail,

and David girded his sword upon his armor.

I always find it comical to think about this picture,

because it's kind of like,

remember,

Saul's bigger than the average guy,

and David's smaller than the average guy.

So here's Saul.

Well,

let's think about it this way.

You know,

James over here,

pretty big guy.

If I had,

if James was wearing a suit coat,

and I had him put on Matt's coat,

it's going to look pretty funny,

and Matt would look pretty funny wearing James's coat.

That's almost what Saul's armor would look like.

I mean,

it would have drooped down.

I imagine Saul's breastplate probably hit David down here,

when it was supposed to hit him at the belly button.

He probably looked like a little kid,

trying to imitate his dad.

I mean,

it's really kind of a comical picture,

when he puts all this weight upon him.

When we understand,

as valuable as Saul's sword may have been to Saul,

I want you to understand,

the point of this,

is those armaments that Saul had,

were not like,

ineffective,

or are not beneficial.

The problem is,

David had never used them.

They were untested.

They didn't fit.

David didn't have any experience using it.

You know what?

If David would have went out,

with things that are untested,

Goliath would have had his day with him.

I think it probably would have been,

one big swoop,

and David would have been launched.

But instead,

David throws off the oversized armor,

an unfamiliar sword,

and picks up his slingshot.

You know what?

He opted for what was proved.

What he was familiar with,

and what God had used for him to have previous victories.

The weapon of faith for Christians will always be the word of God.

The word of God is where we find our victory.

That's where we have to go back to.

As a believer,

we need to trust in the word of God,

like David trusted in his slingshot.

That sling,

everybody said,

that's not going to do something.

You know,

there's people today,

trust your Bible,

it's not going to do anything.

You know what?

They have no understanding what's in it.

Because it's not just the what,

it's the who.

We serve a living God.

David said,

I have a tool that's been proven,

and I'm going to trust it.

Sometimes Christians look at the battle around them,

and assume they need something more than the Bible.

They'll say,

yeah,

I understand that the Bible's good or important,

but I think I need something different for this situation.

You know,

we need to,

when we face challenges,

we need to take and trust what's been proven.

But you know,

if you don't trust in God's word,

if you haven't proved God's word in the little things,

you know what?

You're going to have trouble resting in that,

in the big things.

You know,

think about the sufficiency of scripture.

Look at 2 Timothy chapter three for a moment.

2 Timothy chapter three,

as Paul encourages this young man,

Timothy,

and he tells him this,

he says,

You know,

the Bible provides doctrine,

what to believe.

It provides reproof and correction.

It shows us where we're wrong

and how to get back on track.

It provides instruction in righteousness,

direction is how to live godly.

How we ought to live different from the world.

It does it all so that we can be wholly equipped to follow God and to serve others.

You know,

God's word is sufficient to fight our fears.

It is a promise.

It's the sword of the spirit.

Ephesians refers to it as that.

And we find here,

the confidence needs to be in the person of the Lord.

You know,

confidence in proven means,

but also in the person of the Lord.

You know,

can you imagine how shocked Goliath must have felt when David walked out?

I mean,

some of this stuff,

sometimes I wish they had a camera.

Just to capture the facial expressions.

I mean,

because I can imagine Goliath.

Here's a seasoned warrior.

He's an oversized warrior.

He's stronger than the average warrior.

He'd been seasoned in battle.

He had killed many men.

When David walked out,

it was almost like,

seriously?

Seriously?

You're sending him out?

After all this time,

this is the best you could muster?

I mean,

think about that.

When you read the text,

look there in verse 42,

because it gives us Goliath's response.

It says,

when the Philistine looked about and saw David,

it disdained him.

You know,

think about that for a moment.

David,

when he walked out there,

Goliath was almost angry

that this is all they would send.

I imagine Goliath was standing there

and he was just like,

he'll fall over.

But you know what?

Satan uses similar attacks.

He sends fiery darts

in an attempt to scare and intimidate

and belittle God's servants.

And he messes with our minds

in planting thoughts

that are a doubt and unbelief.

And his ultimate goal,

like Goliath,

is for our complete destruction.

You know,

1 Peter 5 tells us that.

Be sober,

be vigilant,

because your adversary,

the devil,

is a roaring lion,

walking about,

seeking whom he may devour.

You know,

if you think about

why was David confident,

it wasn't from lack of self-awareness.

You know,

sometimes people can be bold

and they don't even realize

what they're doing.

You know,

David was fully aware

of who Goliath was

and what was going on.

He didn't just wander.

It wasn't blind anger.

What motivated David?

Look at the end of verse 45.

It says this,

but I come to thee

in the name of the Lord of hosts,

the God of the armies of Israel,

whom thou hast defiled.

David trusted in the Lord

was the key to his victory.

What happened next on the battlefield

surprised everybody

except for one person.

There wasn't anybody on the battlefield

that day of what happened next

that wasn't standing in awe and shock.

Guarantee you,

the Philistines,

we know they were in awe.

Israel was in awe.

David's brothers were in awe

because remember what happened.

David walked out.

He took a stone

and he put it in his sling.

Now,

if you want to see something interesting,

this is a good thing for YouTube.

They've actually had people

do tests with slings on YouTube

to dynamic,

how hard can somebody throw,

how accurate can they throw,

and how quickly can they throw.

A sling is a very deadly weapon

and accuracy is amazingly well

to somebody trained with it.

Antiquity tells us

that they had entire groups of men

that would do nothing

but use a sling in battle.

Why would they put it

as a battle weapon?

Because man,

you could stand back

like a bow and arrow, man.

And if you watch it,

the reason I encourage you

to watch it on YouTube,

when you see these guys,

it's not like,

it's not the lasso method.

I mean,

these guys are this.

And I mean,

it's a crushing blow.

David used a tool

that was tested

that he knew

that he was familiar.

But the funny thing is,

it was a tool

that Goliath mocked,

that Goliath laughed at

until it hit him.

You know,

if you want to build your faith,

if you want to grow your trust,

we have to learn

to trust God

in the little things

so we can be faithful

in the big things.

It's the people

who know God

who trust God.

You know,

1 John 4 tells us this

in verse 4,

ye are of God,

little children,

and have overcome them

because greater is he

that is in you

than he that is in the world.

Fear paralyzes us.

Faith directs our focus

to the potential

of what God can do.

You know,

this morning,

I want to encourage you

that resilience comes

by choosing faith

over fear

and taking steps forward

in faith

in God

and trusting

in his word.

Let's pray.

Heavenly Father,

as we come before you

this morning,

Lord,

as we look at the reality

of David.