Stay like David | Pr. Dr. Daniel

You're listening to a message to go from acts church.

We hope this message will light up your day.

Turn you to the Bible. Okay, First Samuel seventeen, and

today's scriptures are all from First Samuel seventeen. If you

have your Bible with you, the physical one or even

in electronic versions, you go to First Samuel seventeen. You

can stay there. We'll be not moving anywhere outside of

First Samuel every okay, okay, so we'll jump ahead to

verse twenty. Okay. Early in the morning, David left the

flock in the care of the of a shepherd. I

mess somebody else. You watch this for a hour. I

will go and busybody a little bit. I keep a bit, okay,

load it up and set out as Jesse. This is

the Dad had directed because, like I said, the Dad

sent him out to find out what's happened with his brothers.

He reached the camp as the army was going out

to its battle positions, shouting the war cry. Israel and

the Philistines were drawing up their lines facing each other.

David left his things with the keeper with the keeper

of supplies, ran to the battle lines and asked his

brothers how they were. As he was talking to them, Goliath,

the Philistine champion from Garth, stepped out of his lines

and shouted his usual defiance. So you can tell from

this description he's done a few times. He's very defiant. Right,

David heard it. Whenever the Israelite saw the man, they

all fled from him in great fear. Okay. So from

a boring, mundane life thing that he got this chance

to go out and see what's happening. And then when

he goes there he sees this, He has his encounter

with his brothers and see this giant thing happening. Okay, Now, Goliath,

we know Goliath, right, I mean we know the character Goliath. Right.

He is not your usual soldier, Okay, probably not even

a not even a regular big soldier. It's what I'm

trying to say. Imagine the biggest soldier you can imagine

in your in your head. He's bigger than that. Okay.

It means in the modern day soldiers, it's not is

beyond that. Okay. In the Bible, if you read for Samuel,

verse four, he says here, right, he talks about his height.

So Goliath for six point five cubits tall. Now for

those of you who like mats like me, six point

five cubits, you multiply that by aero point four five

seven to two meters. That will give you two point

nine to seven meters tall. So three meters tall? Who

is three meters tall? Here? Uh? In the the feet okay,

there's nine feet nine inches. Okay, just to give you

an idea quite tall. The tallest NBA player in history

is seven feet seven inches tall. So this is nine

feet and nine inches okay, Yaoming one of the taller

ones is seven feet six Okay, but he wasn't just

tall as in Goliath. Uh. Sometimes when say we mean

think tall, we think basketball is straight away correct? Right? Normal? Right.

The next part talks about he's also broad. His body

was built for rugby essentially, so it's like a basketball

player and a rugby player combined together. Because why do

we know this? Because we hear that his armor that

he wore on his chest and stomach weighed five thousand shackles.

This is in First Samuel seventeen to five. I mean

this more interesting because for kids, you know stats, I

like stats. So sorry, five point six sorry, five fifty

six kilograms roughly okay. So imagine wearing armor that is Zach.

How heavi a you know, fifty nola dirt is something. Okay,

So it's like almost two times of Zach, just one

on the body walking around, and I assume that it

wouldn't slow him down because he's strong. So the weight

of his armor shows you that it is not just tall.

He's so so strong, probably broad shoulders. He wouldn't be

skinny to wear that kind of armor. And not only that,

the other interesting point over here. Everybody knows what a

bowling ball is, right, I played bowling before when I

was younger. Now bowling ball, right, They usually go by pounds.

The weight of the ball. The lightest ball is roughly

about six pounds, and then it goes all the way

to about sixteen pounds. That's roughly two point seven kilos,

all the way to seven point three kilos. Okay. Now

they say that the hit of the spear that he

carried the miss weapon of choice, the hit you know,

just the end of the spear, Wait, six hundred shackles.

This is a first SEMMU seventeen seven. That is roughly

six point seven eight kilograms. Okay, So if you know

that range of bowling balls is the higher or heavier

range of the bowling balls. So it's like having toss

hammer you know the movie tors Hemmer. You can't lift

it up. It's that kind of weight. So putting that

all together, oh you put it up with it so

farst you revealer? Hi, Yeah, this is what it looks

like roughly. Of course I super imposed. I have fund

super imposing things like that. So it's like Yeoming taller

than Yeoming by the way, with a very broad shoulder,

with a spear, with a very heavy bowling board. The end,

that is your goliath. Okay, now you know the story, right, David,

what do you do? He was rouled up, Then he

went and picked weapon of his choice, right, what do

you do? Went to the river or the long Kung,

pick up a few stones, and then he went and

did his thing. But again before that, there's always an

excitement with him because he's like, yeah, finally I exit

my sheep life for a while. Put a pause there,

right then, even even more exciting than the lions and

the bears, I've encountered a right, So, like I said,

you probably hear this story a lot of times. Although

familiar and every everybody knows the story. Even a non

Christian kid as young as they are would know the

story of David and Goliath. So it's stually a very

good story to talk about. But at the same time,

like I said, even though it's familiar, there's still something

to glean from it. So at the end of the story,

you know, David kill Goliath a spoiler alert kind of thing,

you know, right, he he won, he saved the country,

became the hero, got the girl as well. By the way,

in case you're wondering where did it come from, next

verse you look at eighteen. Sorry, next chapter, look at

eighteen he talks about him getting the girl. Okay, as

I say, this is a great story, great ending, almost

a kind of like a Hollywood kind of ending. But

there's so much more to glean not just from the

start and the finish, but the middle parts of it,

the actual encounter that sometimes get missed because it's only

a small portion that we overlook. Now this is the

part where he goes and thick his five stones. So

my whole message today is centered around the topic bring

the thing up. I try to do it very teenager,

very gen z kind of thing. So I say slay

like David. Okay, but that's not the main thing, right,

The main thing is the five smooth stones to flex right,

flex right, no cap right on your giants, okay, okay,

So you know, try had try try to be relevant

family Sunday. So today is almost like a little bit

of revisiting of a Sunday School kind of a story.

But we're uncovering five secrets hidden within these five smooth stones. Sah. Okay, okay,

so I call it that. Now turn to me to

verse forty of the same passage here. You know, David,

you know he has just rejected the way a typical

soldier would protect himself as he prepared himself for battle.

Let's read verse forty. Then he took his staff in

his hand, chooses or choose five smooth stones. Very specific,

he didn't say five stones. He says five smooth stones, okay,

from the stream which is the river, the Long Kung

or whatever, put them in the pouch of his shepherd's bag,

and then his sling in his hand, and approach the philistine.

Five smooth stones. Actually, if you know the story right,

he needed one. Why did you choose five? I don't know,

Maybe just as a backup. But I think this five

smooth stone is actually symbolic of his preparation towards his victory,

because the preparation, as we know, will always bring you

to some form of victory. Right, nobody, Charles, You're running

a half marathon soon? Right again? Right? Full marathon soon? Yeah,

Preparation is always important. You need to have the right shoes, equipment,

the gel in this case, the right stones for the job. Okay.

So uh. And for those of you who and go life,

you know sometimes always tied to the different things that

we face, the problems, et cetera. Okay, if you have

to go life in your life, this is a story

for you as well, So just enjoy. I promise i'll

get you. I'll get this done by by three o'clock. Okay.

It's a very feminist, killing family Sunday kind of thing.

Is very very short because it's supposed to be simple. Now,

first question for the kids and also the adults. Yeah,

all right, if you are fighting somebody, show the picture

against Zach the beast that I created. If you're fighting

somebody like that, twice your height or maybe three times

to height, you know, depending on how tall or how

short you are, and you had a chance to select

a stone, what would you select the most reding, say,

the most jump sharp, the sharpest stone you can find?

But why why the sharpest stone cut right? You know

when you throw, you know, it's like a bullet like

kind of a thing. It cuts through the armor that

is already so thick, you know. But yeah, that's the

natural thing. That's why I say it's very interesting because

why didn't he choose five very very sharp, jagged, nasty

looking stones big size even, but he chose he chose

five very very smooth small stones. Have you ever thought

about that? Like I said, putting logic into it. And

again my choice would probably be the nastiest looking one,

most jagged I can find a bit pointy, right because

hopefully it looks like a bullet. But no, he didn't

do that. And I think this is where some of

the lessons we can glean from it. So I know

I showed that that that title over there, but it's

really what we can learn from the five s stones. Okay,

so just call it stone one to stone five. Correct

on the stone five. So the question is, now, if

you've ever been to a stream and you pick up stones,

from the stream. Right. Have you ever noticed that as

you reach for rocks under the water you pick it up.

Most of the time you'll see that the rocks are smooth. Right.

Only the ones that are probably less exposed to the

to the floor or the current of the water, then

it might be a bit more jagged. Now, how do

you think? Not I'm not a geologist of any sort,

but how do you think over you know this, this

this process happens that it becomes smooth. Right, As in

the stones, continuous water flow that would continuously chip away

somewhat at the stone, and then it would become smooth. Okay,

So the smoothness itself comes from a continuous friction, somewhat

friction that sometimes we don't like in life. Okay, sometimes

in life we have things that we don't like very much.

How come this you rub me the wrong way? Literally, right,

we rub me the wrong way? I feel. I think

sometimes we can, really, you know, get to the point

that we feel so ground up by the challenges the

friction in life, that we feel that there's nothing left.

And that's exactly the process that's happening over here. But

in the process of that friction, getting rid of what

we call let's just use a stone as the rough

bits that may not be suitable for the application later on.

Getting of those rough spots actually a process that we

to go through sometimes. Okay, why because we already notice

definitely from the story, the smooth rock did the job

for at least the first smooth stone did the job right,

So this is my first point. Anytime, now smoothn comes

through friction. Okay, that's the first rock. And now you

think about David. I already told you his job was very,

very boring, very dull. You think the process is repetitive,

and that's exactly what the water does to the rough

stone in the initial stages, and its slowly over time,

over years, it becomes smooth. Right, And this smoothening process

or this unroughening process is normal. You see, Moses also trained.

They in their same thing until the time he let

the people out of Egypt. You think it's always about

the Hollywood moment that we captured. No, it's a lot

of process, a lot of friction, a lot of mundane

stuff that he goes through. David as well, his job

was to watch the flock, right, his flock. He was

of course gaining in that process, gaining appreciation of what

he's doing is discipline, is insights. What is he gaining.

He is gaining the understanding of what the great shepherd

does right, because Jesus, you know, God is always likened

to the great shepherd, right that takes care of his sheep.

He's doing that as well. He's learning from it because

if you think that God, uh, you know, sometimes we

see ship going astray, we are sheeps right, goes go astray? Right,

It's very often that sometimes we can say, why don't

you just go back in line? You know, it's the

process of patients that he is also learning, the process

of Okay, come back, bring you to the grass again,

bring you to the waters. So sometimes we often do

things that are boring. We do tasks that maybe even

sometimes beneath our ability. Or I'm doing this in my

corporate work. Why am I doing the boring and mundane

things either in church or with people? Why am I

dealing with mere stuff that is not equivalent to what

I do in the corporate world. I have more important

things to do. Sometimes we even get treated with the

roughness of life that life chooses the curveballs et cetera.

These things collectively, I believe, the boring frictions, the chores,

the occasional excitement, the struggles like the like, the lion moments,

and all that, they all collectively make us all somewhat

smooth stones. Okay. And of course you don't already get that.

It's in preparation to allow us for that victory that

we read about earlier. Okay, So if you want to

be used by God, sometimes the process is actually like this.

We are akin or likened to that stone, slowly and surely,

preparing for greater things that God has in store for us.

That's my first point. I got five points, so nearly there.

All right, okay, second point, Uh, don't don't flash out first.

But remember when I first started. You know, the natural

instinct was to pick the pointy, sharppy, sharpy sharp rocks.

Sharpie is a brand. Okay, But the question is how? No,

before I ask the question and let's do a demonstration,

I'll step aside a little bit for a while. I

learned this from my physics class. No, not really, but

can you I than can help me out. I have

put a little bucket at the end. I need to

volunteers I'll get a kid, any kid very good at

throwing stuff like basketball at it. Yeah, you want to

come and help me out, Okay, I'll give you something.

It's very simple exercise. Okay, can help me. Ball this up? Yes,

ball this up as good as you can. Okay, all right,

we will make it too difficult. Now, just maybe step here.

Try to see where you can get a three point trow. However,

you're like, just throw it in. Okay, almost there, try

in Okay, all right, almost there. Fairly simple, right, and

and that that process now it is fairly simple, right, yeah,

but you get the idea. All right. Now I'll get

somebody else at a doubt to to do this. Thank you,

thank you for helping me. Hey, Brandon, since you're here,

come ah, Okay, it's sucking for it. That's your point.

Get now, your ball is like this, Throw it like that. Okay,

throw better, Yeah, it's it's not it's not the trying

trying yeah okay, hey no, no, no, no, qrush anymore just

as as it will. H But but you get the idea.

So one of the main points that I've learned is

is that the shape of the ball is fairly important.

The crumpled paper that made the ball symbolizes the woofness

of that shape. And then of course the one that's

a bit jagged symbolizes a rock that is a little

bit more jagged. Sometimes the aerodynamics is not so good

the projectile. Now, when I was during my my bucks

night that they call in Australia, it's like a bachelor

bachelor kind of thing. I didn't go into the bachelor

party party and all that life just went out with

some guys. What they did was they brought me to

a golf course, a golf driving range. Sorry, and then

they I've never picked golf before, by the way. And

then they they they said at the natural swing, that's

what they said. But one of the things that the

guys said is that actually sometimes the ball may have

a bit of deformity, the means it's not exactly round

and smooth that it's supposed to be. There's a little

bit of indentation because of impact or whatever. Then even

no matter how good you swing at the ball, it

would go of course. Okay, So my point here is

really that a pointed rock, a sharp rock that we

would naturally select weapon of choice. When you throw it,

it will never never ever fly straight or not so straight,

don't count Wait, la, okay, just throwing it. It will

not fly straight to the target. So my second point

being smooth stones fly straight to the target. What's the

target the problem? Okay, So if you want to choose

something to fix a problem, you need to make sure

that that something is suitable that would hit the mouth. Right.

Why do you want to hit the math is because

when you hit the mak you actually solve the problem,

not fixing other things or breaking other things in the process. Okay, Now,

like I said, David chose as an instrument whatever the

thing he chose because he wanted to follow God's will

and he will only have his mind fixed on hitting

the target. So he didn't choose things based on the

natural of what we would do. You know, why don't

we take something that's a bit rougher, because it will

not fly straight. It may fly all over the place,

like what Brandon demonstrated in the first one. Again I

said now to fail forgive me, but that is what

it is, right, It is not smooth. And I think

the important thing here is sometimes when we attack the

problem at the start a problem in life, sometimes we

also attract unnecessary things as we're fixing that problem. Now,

before I expound or talked a bit more about that.

Remember Moses, David, I mean, David is what we're talking about.

Butlet's talk about Moses for a while, one of the

other Bible heroes in the in the Bible and Exodus.

When Moses approached the pharaoh Pharaoh, Okay, what did he do?

He asks for the Pharaoh to release his people. He

didn't beat around the bush. You know, he went straight

to the point. Theoretically, he can talk about a lot

of stuff. Sometimes I have to learn that as well.

Just go straight to it. Don't be around the bush,

right because if he went off topic, he would it

will be akin to taking a rock that is pointy

and not fix the problem. He simply told Pharaoh one thing.

Let my people go very straightforward, no other way to

interpret it. Just let me go. So, like I said,

you really need to pick. You need to solve the

problem because you need to hit the mark and by

doing so, you need to pick something suitable in this

case to smooth rock. Now, second thing is sometimes when

we focus on the problem, it is that you know,

in the process we can get deviated a little bit, right,

How does it work? We may, we may it may

start up by trying to address the problem, but we

then attack not the problem anymore, but attack the person

who is contributing to the problem, mean to say, hey,

why is it so hard to work with? You know,

why isn't this guy compliant? Why is this fellow co

workers so difficult? Et cetera. And then the original problem

is already forgotten if you think about it. The issue

is then the debate on personalities, maybe even unnecessary hurling

of insults right anger that is not again not not

not meant to be there. But it's no longer going

to fix the problem. How many you know, if you

attack the person, it's not going to solve any problem

at all. And and this is exactly what I'm saying,

But you pick something you fix it straight away, rather

than something that is you keep throwing and then you

keep injuring people in the process and then don't really

fix the problem anyway. And sometimes it's like this, whether

it's at work or in church, you've heard people complain

about something doesn't get fixed because, like I said earlier,

you need to pick the right tool. You need to

pick the right equipment, and David knew that smooth stones

fly straight. They do not create what I call unnecessary

trouble because it fixes the problem straight away. So something

as painful as it sounds, or as difficult as it is,

or as unpopular as something is, you just got to

do the right thing, pick the smooth stone and fix

that problem. Okay, all right, second point, that's the second point. Next,

let's turn to first Samuel. I'm not even three od yeah,

I'm doing fine. Three more points right, turn to first

Samuel seventeen twenty six to twenty eight. Like I said,

this is meant to be very simple for everybody to understand,

not just adults. Right, So in Samuel seventeen twenty six

to twenty eight, we will actually see the third and

fourth smooth stone that we're talking about. Let's read. David

asked the men standing near him, what will be done

for the man who kills the philistine and removes this

disgrace from Israel? Who is this uncircumcised philistine that he

could defy the armies of the living God. I actually

wanted to share this Vegetail's video. When I grew up,

I mean, when my kids grew up rather, they watched

a lot of vegetails. So I still remember there's a

King David variation of a cucumber. I think saying this,

you know, saying this line over there. It's so funny.

But anyway, I digress. They repeated to him what they

had been saying and told him this was sorry. This

is what will be done for the man who kills him,

so basically talking about the reward. All right, now, we're

trying it. When Elliot, okay, David's oldest brother heard him

speaking with the men, he burned with anger at him

and asked, why have you come down here? This is

the older brothers. What are you doing here? You're not

even supposed to be here? Right? And what they say next?

And with whom did you leave those few sheeps right

in the wilderness? Amore? I know how conceited you are

and how wicked your heart is. Very strong words, you know, right,

his brother, So, elder brothers, please be kind to your

younger brothers. Right, you came down only to watch the battle.

How many of you like this older brother? Boo? Right?

Nobody likes it? Is he a real encouraging guy? No?

Probably not. You see what he's saying his words are

very sharp. Okay, focus on some of those words over

there with whom did you leave the sheep with? The

means is implying, bro, you're so irresponsible. How can you

abandon the sheep and come here just to keep right?

And then the other words that you can see is

a few sheep. Not only that he's saying that it's

low value stuff, even the mundane, boring, simple job. You

can't do a few sheep. He could just use the

word sheep, but he's it a few sheep. Right. That

also implies that David's job is unimp gotten, small, passantish,

you know, not important, of low value. And then here

comes the big the big one, conceited and wicked heart.

I don't think I need to interpret that. He's just

saying that, Yeah, such strong words, right for abandoning his posts. Right?

And then the last part that says, came down only

to watch the battle. And what's he saying? You come

here just to enterthing your bottom monia, just to tickle

your you know, just get get out of your responsibility.

You come here just to watch. How many of us

can take that kind of criticism? Not many? Right? How

many of you how would you respond. I know my

second son will probably do something like that a bit

more physical, right, most of the time, you know, Zech's

mouth sometimes can be quite shop ah. And then when

he loses the mouth better he fist will go flying

a little bit. Not fis like, but you get the idea, like,

we'll jab him, push him, shove him and all that

and and that's exactly what a normal person would do. Right,

So when you are doing things for God, what will

people say to you? Unimportant or whatever you're doing, it's

not gonna get impact. How can you be irresponsible to

do this for God while abandoning what you are called

to do? Are you only doing it to be seen

for self glory because people are watching you? Hopefully it

doesn't happen a lot in life, but sometimes it does

because you will face this, whether it work in church,

if your friends. When you do the right thing, sometimes

people throw hurl accusations at you. You may think it's

uncalled for, like you say, I say here conceited and

wicked heart very strong, you know, right? And again the

natural thing for David to do is to throw back

an insult. But what do you do? Or even better,

what what did he not do. He could have said

things like, oh, yeah, you're right, big brother, I'll just

head back to my to my thing, to my sheep thing,

all right. I'll let you deal with this tall, ugly looking,

broad shouldered basketballer that you have to deal with without me.

I'll just go back to my business. But you see,

neither did he attack his brother verbally or did he

abandon and give up? Okay, he let the insult rolled

off his back. Okay, And this is my third point.

Mockery doesn't stick on smooth stones or two smooth stones,

They roll off, right, Ever seen a smooth stone you

try to drop water that it will not stay, that

you'll roll off, assuming that it's not flat, right, it

will roll off. So whatever insults, however unjust it may sound,

it wouldn't stick on you if you just remain a

smooth stone. Okay, all right, Now we also see the

attitude of David's big brother, right, and what was David's

attitude to the whole thing? Let's read again the next slide. Okay,

so it's the same verses, but I'm going to focus

on some points over here. In verse twenty six is

who is this uncircumcised philistine that he should defy the

armies of the Living God. Every time I say this,

I always think of that cucumber in vegetails. If you

don't know what vegetails is, go on YouTube vegetails you

understand what I'm saying. It's just a kid's version of

vegetables talking about all the Bible stories. Okay, so it's

very very funny. They got no hands, but somehow they

can hold sorts. I don't know. I don't know to

ask you how. Yeah, yeah, you just watch it. I

don't know how to explain. Okay, now let's go to

verse thirty six. The next slide. Okay, yourself, Evans has

killed both the lion and the bear. Okay, talking about

the history here, this uncircumcised philistine will be like one

of them because he had defiled the armies of the

Living God. Thirty seven. The Lord who rescued me from

the paw of the lion and the poor the bear

will rescue me from the hand of the philistine. So

then the then king Saul said to David, go and

the Lord be with you. So all his preparations just

for a reason. He knows for a fact that the

Lord will rescue him, just as he is in the past,

all right. And then the king goes, okay, I'm convinced,

go go with that. But before that they six. You

can see that he's really not happy. His reaction was

because of what was said by the giant. Now let's

go to fourt five next light, David said to the Philistine,

you come against me with the word sorry in the

sword and the spear and the javelin. But I come

against you in the name of the Lord Almighty, the

God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied.

This day, the Lord will deliver you into my hands,

and I'll strike you down and cut off your head. Ye,

it's it's quite graphic labor. Yeah, this very day I

will give you. I'll give the carcasses of the phyliciing

army to the birds and the wild animals, and the

world will know that there is a God in Israel.

All those gathered here will know that it is not

by sword or spear that the Lord saves, for the

battle is the Lord's, and he will give all of

you into your hands. And and as the Philistine moved

closer to attack him, David ran quickly toward the battle

line to meet him. So again, if you can characterize

David's attitude, what is the one word you would describe him,

just based on all these verses that you read? No,

maybe not? Yeah, very convicted, okay, what else? Another one word? Resolute? Okay,

very passionate, angry? What else have you heard of the

word zealous being used? Hmm yeah, very zealous? Right? Actually,

this point here that I wanted to highlight is actually

the best of all the five stones that I see,

of the smooth five stones of David. This man is

so outraged over the insult that was heard to his God.

Why because it insults the honor of God? Now quite

quite frankly, right, we do not see a lot of

these type of behavior today, Right, we don't wally hear

people talking about it, or at least in the context

of God, other stuff like sports, politics. They triggered us.

We get outraged. We also do something as an expression,

But when something like that happens, we do not. We're

not passionate, we're not angry, righteous anger, good anger. We're

not zealous about it. Why, just some proof of thought,

have you ever heard of this expression? The best defense

is a good offense. Actually I looked it up by

see where this came from. George Washington. He actually talked

about it talking about a sports game, a football game. Okay,

And we all understand this, right, Sometimes when you are defending,

let's you're leading in soccer. Let's say you're leading your

defense so that you win the game, right, so you

don't leak a goal at the back. But even in sports,

we understand that sometimes it's better to attack as a

form of defense because nobody will see that you're going

to attack. Surprise attack, right. So, like I said, in

sports they call it counterattack when the opponents is expected.

So our attitude towards problems in general, sometimes it's very

very purely defensive mode. Now, what I mean by that

is sometimes we get discourage when he have difficulties. We say, oh,

you know, let's pray that you don't get to discourage.

It's still a very defense if approach right, right, you

have a very timid request to God, God, if you

would allow it, then yeah, let this set me free,

make it right. Defensive right, we don't act as though, yeah,

claim it, I need this. We are almost holding on

and not attacking it, attacking it like like like like

the action itself, we just yeah, it's very defensive. So

where is the offense? Even when it comes to somebody

talking bad about the God that you worship, sometimes we

may not even be respond like like him. And I'm

not talking about personal insults. Okay, I'm not talking about

you're going to insult the person if he insults your God.

That's furthest from what I'm trying to say here. But

you see in verse twenty six, who is is this

uncircumcised philistine that he should defy the armies of the

living God? And the same attitude is actually written here

again verse forty five. Let me just highlight some of

the points over there. I come against you in the

name of the Almighty God, right so that the world

will know that you are God. And not only that,

I will not fight you with the regular not with

the offense that we see, not with the jagged stones,

not with swords, not with spears, but ultimately the battle

is yours. But I will still respond, I will still

say something. So the second side of this is the

attitude that we need to have. And I'm gonna stop

here for a While'm gon show another video. Okay, Yeah, okay,

the rest the ball, but let's try again. Oh sorry,

just found with this video.

M hm.

Uh's yeah, let's go buck like h yeah yeah, m okay,

a bit too violent. Let's move on to but one

minute in the one minute mine you can it's a

family Sunday.

Yeah yeah, h you bread and.

Let this be a letting you all.

You ants ideas are very dangerous thing. Your mindless soil

shopping closers differ serve us.

Kay as are not.

Meant to serve grasshoppers.

Let's see the anty break band.

And you you a somehow managed to break mood for

themselves and you.

So, so who is the laker speaking at serve grasshoppers?

Excuse me not? Okay, I think it's stop there. But yeah,

it's not really the main point here. But standing up

for what is right is what this video is showing.

But more importantly, standing up what is truth? What is important?

What is actually? Uh? You know, when someone defiled the truth,

you need to stand up for it. We learned in

homes Right that the word of God is truth. Sometimes

when it gets challenged, you'll be like, yeah, so you

see one other thing. I want to highlight you too

as well you see a different way that David talked

to the Goliath problem as opposed to the other soldiers.

Let's look at Samuel seventeen twenty five. See, now the

Israelites have been saying, do you see how this man

keeps coming out, he comes out to defy Israel. That

shows you that the defiance or the defiling of the

truth happened a few times. It's not just once. He

repetitively or repeatedly defied and mock God. All right, the

King will then give great wealth to the man who

kills him. So this talking about the reward. The mists

the other soldiers are saying, you know, whoever who goes

up against this guy who is defiant, would then get

this reward. He will also give him his daughter, his marriages, exems, texts,

all these other carrots they were talking about. You see,

like I said, Goliath have been very defiant. David heard

it from the other soldiers that are there, but none

of them actually said that I'll do something about it.

All they say that this is happening, I'm seeing it.

These are the rewards if somebody does it. But it's

not me, as in the soldiers, not me. Somebody will

do it and somebody will get that reward. You see,

that's the problem here. David, on the other hand, actually

responded right, So I don't you can read between the lines,

right David? You know his brother accused him very strong words.

Is you know he's good for nothing and he's paraphrasing

here he only talks he comes to be seen. But

actually no, his brother was one of those that didn't

do anything. David was actually the only one who responded right,

And in verse thirty two the text is explicit about this.

David said to Saul, let no one lose heart on

the account of this philistine. Your servant will go and

fight him. David took it on personally. Was it even

his job? Remember not good heurder? Was it good holder

sheep sheep herder? Right, he's responsible for other things, but

he took matters in his own. He took action what

needs to be done. And how did this happen? My

fourth point, The heart was burning for God's honor. The

zeal for God's honor is so much that it moved

him to actually respond and do something. So sometimes if

you ask yourself, if we do not respond, is it

because this portion needs a bit more work. That's fourth stone,

by the way, the fourth smol stone, fifth stone. Nearly there,

fifth stone turns out that she has no stone at all.

Let me explain, all right, do you think that David

actually defeated Goliath using these tools that we mentioned the stones? Not? Actually,

you know, if you think about it's only one stone.

But maybe maybe he could have. Maybe even if you

think about it, if he really did it all by himself,

the careful selection, the correct selection, he would have won.

But actually no, it's still God doing it because his

chance is really one in a million or one in

the Trillian. Okay, the odds were stacked against him. Nobody

in Israel, all the burly men and army couldn't do it.

They're afraid to do it. They see the reward and

someone will do it. Certainly, the smooth stones didn't do

the job really as in I mean figurative. It didn't

actually need it to be done. It's actually God in

the picture. He could have even emptied the entire stream,

taken five hundred stones. If God wasn't in the mix,

he wouldn't have done what he needed to do. So

the fifth smooth stone is really next line absolute reliance

on God. Do you see what I mean? Yeah, yeah,

It's never about the stones. Really, David wasn't expect with

the sling. We notice he's trained up, but even the

most trained cannot do it. If God wasn't in the mix,

was in the picture. David was outrage yes, given he

was read outraged. They hurlt insults in my lord. But

even with that, he wouldn't have won the battle. Never

once did he ever thought that his skill with the sling,

or the fact that he selected the right smooth stones

would give him the the victory. You see. The funny

thing is in verse forty two, David accuses the sorry Goliad.

The accuses David and coming in him with sticks. Right, hey,

little boy, what are you doing? You're coming with sticks?

You treat me like a dog. I'm very rasing, but

you see here, am I a dog that you come

at me with sticks? But David tells Goliath the giant

in verse forty five, forget the sticks. I come to

you attacking you in the name of my Lord. I

come against you in the name of the Almighty Lord.

So again, yes, stones were involved, but ultimately he recognizes

God was involved, and this is what we always say.

The battle, all of it, not some, all of it

belongs to the Lord, is of the lords. And that's

David's attitude, and that's why he can rest in the Lord.

The smooth stones were just merely instruments, right, instruments that

God used for his victory. Ever wondered why sometimes even

like disciples, right, God didn't select the smartest, the sharpest,

two in the shed, as we call it, the best,

the most well read, the most religious leader of the day.

And sometimes we do that right, because there are lots

of warnings in the Bible. The Bible tells us. Sometimes

the smart man would trust his intelligence, right, the educated

person who would trust his signs. Rich men will trust

his wealth all right. Even the person who's regulars the

slingshot would trust his only aim and not put his

trust in the Lord. But not David. David and his

smooth stones were only instruments that God use for victory.

Never lose sight of that. If you lose sight of that,

you lose the key ingredient towards the victory that is

at hand. Extreme wisions. Join me as I close the

smooth stones, like I mentioned to you just now, it

will not give us any victory. As I said, it's

just merely an instrument. End of the last slide. That's

just the five points that I've shared earlier. If you

want to catch that, I'll just paraphrase it a little bit.

But that's the five smooth stones that we talked about today.

You need to have them, but at the same time

you need to have in your hands ready to be used.

You need to know them as well, right, because sometimes

when you know them, you also understand the different landmarks,

the checkpoints that God is leading you through different stages,

just like the first one I mentioned to you, the

boring and mundane. That's a smoothening process. Do not lose

faith in that process. Sometimes it's like, ah, why not?

Why are you rough smoothening out my rough edges. It's

so painful, don't you get it? Hey, that's decipush it

one on one, by the way, right, God puts you

through those sheep seasons, the unseen, the repetitive, leading a

small group, homes leaders. You know, your daily prayer. All

that is to build you up, build up your faithfulness.

As boring as it sounds, sometimes you need to ask God,

what is it that I should be learning from this process.

What is this moning process doing to me? What is

it preparing me for so that I really put it

David's shepherding years, you know, his training prepares him, like

I said, to understand the heart of the great shepherd,

so that when it actually matters, he was able to

do greater. So that's the first small stone. Right. Secondly,

don't try to solve problems with the wrong projectile right

Like I said the illustration earlier, If it's too jagged,

you're not really hitting the map. You crew or potentially

create an assary conflict. So stay focused on the real enemy,

the real problem here. You know, Moses when confronting Pharaoh, Pharaoh,

he was very very focused on his mission. He asked,

the one thing that matter, and that's what we need

to do. So your better is at work or in church,

you know, avoid getting sidetracked by the personal disputes. Ask

God why you're there. Remember, smooth stones, fly straight, and

even if you're criticized for good work, do not let

go of God. Hang on to him. Like I said earlier,

insults do not stick on smooth stones. Persevere, do not

give up, keep going. If David retaliated or had given

up or had gone home this you know, we would

have even heard of this story. Imagine that if he

let insult hit him and personalizes it. Imagine Peter, Remember Peter,

what did Jesus say to Peter in Matthew He rebukes Peter,

tell him get behind me, satan. Jesus is calling Peter satan.

You know, imagine that that insult. Whoa, you'll stumble you.

But no, Peter kept ongoing, even coming from Jesus himself.

He kept ongoing. When we face criticism of what we're

doing right, don't let the negativity or the things derail you.

Just focus on what God has revealed to you. Four point,

let your heart be outraged for the right reasons. Let

it be one that is outraged by the honor of God.

Call it holy anger. Right, ac up and speak up

whenever it's right. Don't hold it back. Be passionate. Be

passionate about it. And the last point is really trust

him fully completely, total dependence. And all these things is

part of the discipleship process. By the way, just not

only carry David true that day he gave him the victory.

But one thing I also want to highlight here outside

track a little bit. In the last chapter in the Bible,

you know, in Revelation, it talks about God saying I'm

the Alpha and Omega, the first and the last, the

beginning in the end in verse sorry, chapter twenty two,

Verse sixteen says, Jesus calls himself the rude and the

offspring of David, the bride and the morning star. What

an honor, you know, to be called an offspring of David.

So the question is really when the time comes, when

jesus second coming comes, he returns, will he say he's

off that lineage? Will you be what you're meant to be,

that disciple that you're called to be, because if your name,

if you can get to that highest honor to be

named like what David, how he was naming. Oh sure

he fell and all that kind of stuff, but his

heart was still right.

We hope you've been blessed by this message. For more

information on our church, please visit exchurch do org. We

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this week is going to be a good week ahead

for you. God bless