VIA | Same God | David + Goliath | Kris Bowman

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Well, hello, my name is Jess and I'm part of our team here at VIA, and I have the privilege tonight of reading our scripture for tonight and also sharing a bit of my testimony.

In the past couple weeks, we've done this because as we're in this series Same God, we believe that the same God who is changing the lives of our people that we meet in the Bible is the same God at work today and changing and moving in the lives of the people of Via.

And so I was saved from a young age and I always lived that Christian life where I didn't understand why I couldn't overcome sin or why I kept falling into the same patterns.

I was trying to earn the approval of others and the love of God.

And it wasn't until I was here two years ago and heard a sermon on Isaiah chapter 6 where he says, Woe is me, for I am a man of unclean lips, that I finally recognized my own sinfulness in the light of God's holiness and his glory.

Isaiah 6 · chapter mention

And I said, I cannot do this on my own.

So I surrendered my life to the Lord, and since then my life has truly never looked the same.

I have an identity that is not rooted in what other people think of me.

I know that the Lord loves me outside of what I can do for him or what I do that's good, that's bad.

Um, and he's filled me with a purpose that calls me to share the gospel and love others.

And so that is available to you tonight.

Um now for the reading of our scripture, we will be in 1 Samuel chapter 17.

1 Samuel 17 · chapter mention

We'll be reading verses 4 through 11 and 16.

It says, A champion named Goliath, who was from Gath, came out of the Philistine camp.

His height was six cubits in a span.

He had a bronze helmet on his head and wore a coat of scale armor, and bronze weighing 5,000 shekels.

On his legs, he wore bronze greaves, and a bronze javelin was flung on his back.

His spear shaft was like a weaver's rod, and its iron point weighed 600 shekels.

His shield bearer went ahead of him.

Goliath stood and shouted to the ranks of Israel, Why do you come out and line up for battle?

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

Choose a man and have him come down to me.

If he is able to fight and kill me, we will become your subjects.

But if I overcome him and kill him, you will become our subjects and serve us.

Then the Philistine said, This day I defy the armies of Israel.

Give me a man and let us fight each other.

On hearing the Philistines' words, Saul and all the Israelites were dismayed and terrified.

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

This is the word of the Lord.

Thanks, be to God.

Well, hey, can we give it up for just Settlemeyer?

You guys can have a seat, and if you have your Bibles with you tonight, that is gonna be the meat of our passage.

Uh at least where we're gonna begin at.

But if you are joining us at VIA for the very first time, I just want to say welcome.

Uh, and that we are so glad that you are here.

My name is Chris.

I get to serve as a part of our team here, and our team will be down front after the service.

We would love to get to know you.

Uh but you came at an awesome time because we are continuing our series, our fall series, called Same God, where we're looking at some Old Testament stories because we want you to know that the Old Testament is not irrelevant to our lives today.

When we look at these Old Testament stories, we can see that they ultimately point us to Jesus, but oftentimes there are some takeaways and applications that we can apply to our lives today.

And so tonight we are looking at the story of David and Goliath, the fan favorite.

But before we dive into the story, there's a couple of disclaimers that uh maybe we need to go through before we start going.

And so I hate to be that guy, but this story is not about you.

You are not David.

And your boss or your anxiety or your crazy family, they're not the Goliaths in your life, and you just gotta muster up courage like David and sling your proverbial stones to take out those giants in your life.

Now, that does not mean that there's not something for us in this passage.

We can and we certainly will apply lots of the principles that we find in this story to our lives today, but you need to know that the primary purpose of this scripture is to bring glory to God and to point us to Jesus.

It is not just some motivational speech for you to fight the giants in your own life.

And so, let's set the scene of this story.

You've got two armies, you've got one on each hilltop, the Israelites and the Philistines with a valley in between, and they are about to fight.

But if we are gonna understand this story, we need to understand an ancient concept called representative warfare.

And so, representative warfare, it's this idea that when you've got two armies, instead of these two armies fighting each other and losing thousands of men, what they would do is they would choose their best warrior, their best fighter, to fight on their behalf.

So these two warriors, they would come down into the middle, they would fight in the place of their nations and their armies, and the winner would then win the battle on behalf of their army.

Great example of this, if you've uh maybe kept up with the Hunger Games series, the whole thing is based on representative warfare, right?

Where one uh person fights on behalf of their district.

That's representative warfare, and that's where our story begins tonight.

And so 1 Samuel 17, starting in verse 4, it says, A champion named Goliath, who was from Gath, came out of the Philistine camp, and his height was six cubits and a span.

Now, what you need to know is that that word champion, it means one who stands between.

Goliath was the Philistine champion.

He was their representative, the one who was gonna fight on their behalf.

Scholars estimate he would have been somewhere between nine and ten feet tall.

Verse 5 says that he had a bronze helmet on his head, and he wore a coat of scale armor of bronze, weighing 5,000 shekels.

Now, that is interesting.

It says scale armor.

You know what else has scales?

A serpent.

So we're about five verses into this story, and we're getting some clues that something way bigger might be going on here.

And so, for my biblical scholars in the room, anytime that we think about scales in a serpent, we should go back to the garden.

Back to Genesis 3, where the serpent tempted Eve and she and Adam, they ate the fruit that God told them not to, sin entered the world, everything went to you know what, and uh, you know the story.

But what's crazy is that right after that happens in Genesis 3, God makes a promise.

Look at it in Genesis chapter 3, verse 15.

Genesis 3:15

God says, I will put enmity between you, that's the serpent, and the woman, and between your offspring and hers.

He will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.

Now, this promise in Genesis chapter 3 is the key to the entire biblical narrative.

Genesis 3 · chapter mention

From this very verse, God is giving us his plan for redemption.

He is looking ahead and foreshadowing Jesus that there will be a day when the Son of Man is victorious over sin and death and will crush the head of the serpent, Satan himself.

And so, thousands of years later, this verse finds its fulfillment in Jesus.

But all throughout the Old Testament, God is giving us little clues and hints that keep reminding us of what is to come.

And so this story tonight is one of those reminders.

It is no coincidence that Goliath is dressed in scales, like a serpent.

What's also interesting is that the word bronze, like the thing that everything that Goliath had was made out of, that word is used four times throughout our passage.

And the Hebrew word for bronze sounds very similar to the Hebrew word for serpent.

Now, that's intentional.

We are supposed to be thinking about a snake.

It's called alliterative wordplay.

It would be like if I were if I were trying to do this in English, uh, I would say to you, I'd tell this story, I'd say, hey, Goliath had a coat of armor that was made of scales.

Your mind would immediately go to a serpent.

And so what we're supposed to be thinking about is God's promise that the offspring of the woman would crush the offspring of the serpent.

And so what's being communicated here is that Goliath, think about representative warfare, is not just representing the Philistines, he's representing the offspring of the serpent.

And so the question for our text tonight is who is gonna represent the offspring of the woman?

Who is gonna crush his head?

And so Goliath he steps out of the Philistine camp and he urges the Israelites to send him an opponent.

And then in verse 10, he says, This day I defy the armies of Israel.

Give me a man, let us fight each other.

And on hearing the Philistines' words, Saul and all the Israelites were dismayed and terrified.

Verse 16 says that for 40 days, 40 days, the Philistine came forward every morning and evening, and he took his stand.

And so the Israelites, they needed a representative, someone to fight on their behalf.

They need a champion.

And about that time, a shepherd boy named David shows up on the scene.

And if we're thinking back to Genesis 3, this is the one who's gonna represent the offspring of the woman.

Now, if we go back one chapter to 1 Samuel chapter 16, we will see that David has secretly been chosen and anointed to be the next king of Israel.

1 Samuel 16 · chapter mention

But he doesn't get to take the throne just yet.

He's told to go back to the shepherd's field and to keep tending to his father's sheep.

But then one day, Jesse, which was David's dad, he calls David and he sends him on a supply run to the battlefield.

And so that's where our story is gonna pick up.

David gets to the camp and he goes to find his brothers, and the Bible says that as he was talking with them, Goliath, the Philistine champion, stepped out from his lines and shouted his usual defiance.

And David heard it.

Whenever the Israelites saw the man, they all fled from him in great fear.

Now here's what I need you to understand.

There's gonna be two things that differentiate David between the rest of the Israelites.

It's gonna be faith and fear.

And if you remember from a couple weeks ago, we define faith as relational trust.

That is what is going to characterize David in this story.

He is gonna step out in faith because he trusts the God that he has a relationship with.

Now, fear, on the other hand, is the absence of faith.

Faith will move you to action, but fear will keep you stuck.

And fear is what characterizes the Israelites.

But I want you to notice why the Israelites are in such fear.

Look at verse 11.

It says, on hearing the Philistines' words, Saul and the Israelites were dismayed and terrified.

And then in verse 23 it says, when he shouted his usual defiance, David heard it.

And all the Israelites fled from Goliath in great fear.

Now remember, who is Goliath representing?

It's the offspring of the serpent.

So can I ask you something tonight?

What lies has the enemy been shouting at you that have caused you to shrink back in fear?

What is his usual defiance towards you?

Has the enemy been shouting at you that you're not good enough?

Nobody loves you.

Nobody cares about you.

Nobody understands you.

You're never gonna overcome that sin in your life.

You're never gonna overcome the stronghold that has shackled your family for years.

Jesus isn't enough.

It's not good enough for you.

You'll never change, you'll always be the same.

Is that same enemy?

Is he telling you to cut yourself, to kill yourself, to isolate yourself?

Let me tell you that that voice is not from God.

It is straight from the pit of hell.

God has chosen you.

He has redeemed you.

He has bought you with the price of his own blood because he said that you are worth it.

And he is offering you life and life to the fullest.

A life that is characterized by love and joy and peace.

It is time for us in the room to stop cowering in fear to the enemy of our lives because Jesus has already crushed him.

And so I'll ask you again, who are you listening to?

David heard the voice of Goliath, but David was marked by faith.

David knew the truth of God's word, and so when he heard the lie of the enemy, he was able to say, wait a second, that's not right.

Who does this guy think that he is?

And so in verse 26, David asked the men standing near him, he says, What will be done for the man who kills this Philistine and removes this disgrace from Israel?

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

That's called an Old Testament insult.

You can work it into your vernacular if you want to.

But David, he steps in between.

It's almost as if he's reminding the Israelites of the God that they serve.

Like, hang on, wait a second.

Did you forget who your God is?

Did you forget who you are?

Can I tell you that we need more men and women like David who are willing to step in the gap and remind God's people that the enemy doesn't get to write their story?

That the enemy doesn't get to define their lives.

We need more people who are willing to step in front of the lies of the enemy and say, hey, that is not true.

That is not what God says about you.

That's not what God has for you.

And so the Israelites, they've shrunk back in fear, but David is going to move forward in faith.

So David goes to Saul, who's the current king of Israel.

He says, All stand in the gap.

I will be the representative.

Verse 32, David says to Saul, let no one lose heart on account of this Philistine.

Your servant will go and fight him.

So Saul replied, He said, You're not able to go against this Philistine and fight him.

You're only a young man, and he's been a warrior from his youth.

He's saying, This guy's been fighting since before you were born.

But David says to Saul, He says, Your servant has been keeping his father's sheep.

And when a lion or a bear came and carried off a sheep from the flock, I went after it, struck it and rescued the sheep from its mouth.

When it turned on me, I seized it by its hair, struck it and killed it.

Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear, and this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, because he has defied the armies of the living God.

The Lord who rescued me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will rescue me from the hand of this Philistine.

So Saul says to David, Go and the Lord be with you.

David's saying, Hey, my whole life, God's been preparing me for this moment.

Now, let's imagine David for a second.

Let's think back to chapter 16 where David becomes the chosen and anointed king of Israel.

Then he's told to go back to tending his father's sheep.

What do you think is going through David's mind?

He's probably upset.

At the very least, he would be confused.

He'd be thinking, I thought I was supposed to be the next king of Israel.

What am I doing taking care of a bunch of sheep?

He probably wants to be in the palace.

He probably wants to be on the battlefield with his brothers.

He'd rather be anywhere else than taking care of a bunch of sheep.

But is it possible that God uses the mundane moments of our everyday lives to prepare us for what he has for us later?

Could it be that God often uses the shepherd's field to prepare us for the battlefield?

That he uses the pasture to prepare us for the palace.

Is it also possible that God uses those moments to reveal more of his character, to build our faith in him?

And it's that very faith that's forced in the little moments that allows us to be confident that God is going to show up in the big ones.

David once found himself in a shepherd's field.

But it was in the shepherd's field that David cultivated a deep relationship with God.

It was in the shepherd's field that God was forging him into a warrior for the battlefield.

It was in the shepherd's field that he learned to care for the creatures under his provision, and it would prepare him for a day when he would be called to shepherd and lead the people of Israel.

And it was in the shepherd's field that God showed up for David in powerful ways.

And it built David's trust and confidence that God would continue to show up for him.

That's why in verse 37 he says that the Lord did rescue me from the paw of the bear and the lion, so now I know that the Lord will rescue me from the Philistine.

And so could it be that God is using your current moment to train you for a future one?

Don't despise your shepherd's field.

So Saul is convinced by David's little speech, and he tells him to go for it.

So David goes to the stream, he picks up his stones.

Time out.

I gotta tell you this because it's really cool.

You know why David?

David goes, he picks up five stones.

You guys know why he picked up five stones?

What'd you say?

Goliath had four brothers.

So David goes, he picks up one stone, he's like, Alright, boy, I got one for you.

And I got one for your brother.

And I got one for your other brother.

And another for your brother.

And I got one more.

David didn't think he was gonna miss.

He thought he was gonna have to get the other four, too.

And so he goes to the stream, he picks up those stones, he takes his staff, shepherd's staff, and he moves forward to the battle line.

And Goliath takes one look at him and he is furious.

David's got his staff in his hand, and Goliath says to David, he's like, Am I a dog that you come at me with sticks?

Which is kind of a hard line, you know, if we're being honest.

But then the Philistine cursed David by his gods.

Now, can I do one more thing?

I love the Bible.

You guys should love the Bible too.

Alright, listen to this.

So Goliath, right here, when he curses David, he he actually messes up.

He's so upset that David would think that he even had a shot with him that he curses him.

Now, if we think back to Genesis 12, that passage that Clayton taught on last week, when God establishes his covenant with Abraham, he says, I'll make your descendants as numerous as the stars.

He says, I'm gonna bless those who bless you and your descendants, and I'm gonna curse those who curse you and your descendants.

Essentially, what God's saying is when somebody blesses God's people, it's like they're blessing him.

But when they curse God's people, it's like they're cursing him.

Goliath curses David.

And a curse against David is a curse against God.

And a curse against God is a form of blasphemy.

And in Leviticus 24, the punishment for blasphemy is death by stoning.

And so now we're at the best part.

This is the climax of the story.

Everything has been building to this exact moment.

It's like in Gladiator when Maximus takes off his helmet in the arena and he goes to confront Commodus.

Please tell me you guys know that movie.

Alright, okay, all right, good.

All right, so Goliath says he's gonna feed David to the birds and the wild animals.

But David says, he says, You come against me with sword and spear and 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 will strike you down and cut off your head.

This very day I will give the carcasses of the Philistine army to the birds and the wild animals, and the whole 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, and he will give all of you into our hands.

Make no mistake about it, friends.

David's trust is not in himself.

David's faith and confidence are in the Lord.

And David is looking to make much of God, not himself.

David is concerned with God's name being glorified, not his own name.

He wants this battle to be a testimony that people can point to and say, the Lord showed up for us.

He wants the whole world to know that there is a God in Israel, the one true God.

And so let's keep reading verse 48.

It says, as the Philistine moved closer to attack him, David ran quickly toward the battle line to meet him.

And reaching into his bag and taking out a stone, he slung it and struck the Philistine on the forehead.

The stone sank into his forehead and he fell face down on the ground.

Now, let me tell you, this was not like one of those slingshots that you get at Walmart.

This was an old-time slingshot.

I watched a documentary on it.

And so what you would do is you would sling this thing, and the stone would come out of this sling at like more than a hundred miles an hour.

And so this stone hits Goliath, he falls to the ground, and verse 50 says that David triumphed over the Philistine with a sling and a stone.

Without a sword in his hand, he struck down the Philistine and killed him.

David ran and stood over him.

He took hold of the Philistine's sword and he drew it from the sheath.

And after he killed him, he cut off his head with a sword.

Just like he said that he would do.

This is the word of the Lord.

That is the story of David and Goliath.

And so if you're still with me, I got two takeaways for you tonight.

The first is this it's that Jesus is the greater David.

That Jesus is the greater David.

And so if you haven't caught on yet, this whole story is supposed to point us to Jesus.

David did not fight Goliath for David.

He fought Goliath for Israel.

And just like the Israelites, we needed a representative.

When death stood tall above us, when we were cowering in fear under the stronghold of sin, Jesus, the greater David, he stepped in to fight the battle on our behalf.

He took our place, he bore our sin.

He died the death that we deserve so that we might live the life that He has called us to live.

And Colossians 2 says that when you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ.

He forgave us all of our sins.

Somebody say all.

Having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness which stood against us and condemned us.

He is taking it away, nailing it to the cross, and having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.

Listen to me.

Someone who is gone between us and the enemy, and his name is Jesus.

And where David represented Israel, Jesus represents sinners.

He is the heel from Genesis 3, the offspring of the woman that has crushed the serpent's head.

And so when our representative wins, we win.

That is the gospel.

And so the second thing I want you to see is that because Jesus won, we don't fight for victory, we fight from it.

This is straight from our guy, Mr.

Clayton Heath.

It's one of my favorite things he's ever said.

Because Jesus won, we don't have to fight for victory, we get to fight from it.

I want you to see what happened after David took out Goliath in verse 52.

It says, When the Philistines saw that their hero was dead, they turned and ran.

Then the men of Israel and Judah surged forward with a shout and pursued the Philistines to the entrance of Gath, to the gates of Akron.

When the Israelites returned from chasing the Philistines, they plundered their camp.

When David won the victory on their behalf, the Israelites rushed the battlefield.

They plundered the camp of the enemy.

It was David's triumph that gave them the confidence that they no longer needed to fight for victory.

They were gonna get to fight from it.

Because the battle had already been won.

And so let me tell you, in the battles of your life, you do not have to fight for victory.

Your victory has already been won by your champion, by your representative, by Jesus Christ.

And so do you know what that means?

It means that the enemy no longer has a claim on your life.

He no longer gets to hold you captive in fear.

He no longer gets to have authority in your life.

The chains that have held you down, they have to fall off.

The lies that he speaks to you, they do not have any power because you have been bought with a price.

And so start raising the level of expectation for what God can and do and will do in your life.

And listen to me.

If Jesus has won the battle on our behalf, then we don't just experience the victory for us.

We get to carry that victory as we go out into the world.

And so if Jesus has defeated the enemy, then we get to storm the battlefield, to push back darkness, to establish light, to take back ground that the enemy has occupied here on earth.

Here's what I need you to know tonight is that our enemy Satan, he's called the little G God of this world.

And he has occupied ground on this earth for far too long.

Our job as believers is to take back ground for the kingdom of God, to advance God's kingdom until all the earth is filled with the knowledge of the glory of God.

I want you to see this in the New Testament in Matthew chapter 12.

Matthew 12 · chapter mention

Jesus says this.

He says, For who is powerful enough to enter the house of a strong man and plunder his goods?

Only someone even stronger.

Someone who could tie him up and then plunder his house.

Jesus is talking about Satan and the people that he has held captive.

Satan is the strong man, but Jesus is saying, I am the stronger man.

I have tied up the strong man so that we can plunder his house and rob the enemy of the souls he thought he was taking with him.

And in Matthew 16, Peter confesses that Jesus is the Messiah, and Jesus says to him, he says, On this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell will not overcome it.

And what's crazy about this verse is that gates are a defense measure.

They keep things out.

They keep things from getting out.

And so Jesus is describing a church that is advancing, that is charging the gates of hell, that is robbing Satan of the people that he wants to steal, kill, and destroy.

And so my point in all of this is that when we look at our story tonight, Jesus is the greater David who has crushed our enemy.

And since Jesus has already won the battle, we don't have to fight for victory, we get to fight from it.

And so now we get to charge the gates of hell to rob the enemy of the people that he thought were under his control.

And so that means that Satan no longer gets to claim your family.

You are urged to push back darkness into establish light.

To break generational sin that has robbed your family of joy for years.

To use your workplace as a catalyst for good, to be a light in your fraternity and sorority, to show them that life to the fullest doesn't look like a blacked-out Saturday night with a random hookup at the end of the night, but instead that they are already loved, valued, and chosen in the sight of Almighty God.

And so get moving.

Start charging ahead.

You are called to bring light into the darkness, to step in the gap on behalf of those who Satan is seeking to steal, kill, and destroy with sin, lies, and death.

Whether that's in your classroom, your workplace, your dorm room, your apartment, your sports team, your fraternity, sorority, your family, your friend group, start praying for the lost people in your life.

Contend.

Intercede on their behalf.

Share the gospel.

Don't keep your faith locked up in your bedroom because the Lord has placed you where you are on purpose and for a purpose.

And so wherever that is, do not cower, do not retreat.

You get to fight from victory.

Praise God.

Let's pray together.

Father God.

God, we thank you for the gift of salvation.

God, we thank you that you are our champion.

That you have stepped in the gap on our behalf.

That you sent your son Jesus to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins.

God, your word says that if we confess our sins, you are faithful and just to forgive us all of our sins.

And to cleanse us in your righteousness.

God, I pray tonight that the shackles would fall off of our people here.

God, I pray that they would realize that victory is not something that they have to achieve, it is something that they have received.

God, I pray that you would continue to speak and move in each of our lives, not just tonight, but all throughout our days.

God, we love you and we praise you in Jesus' name.

Amen.