I. Introduction
-- turn in Bibles to 1 Samuel 17:20-40
20
Early in the morning David left the flock in the care of a shepherd, loaded up
and set out, as Jesse had directed. He reached the camp as the army was going
out to its battle positions, shouting the war cry. 21 Israel and the
Philistines were drawing up their lines facing each other. 22 David left his
things with the keeper of supplies, ran to the battle lines and asked his
brothers how they were. 23 As he was talking with them, Goliath, the Philistine
champion from Gath, stepped out from his lines and shouted his usual defiance,
and David heard it. 24 Whenever the Israelites saw the man, they all fled from
him in great fear.
25
Now the Israelites had been saying, “Do you see how this man keeps coming out?
He comes out to defy Israel. The king will give great wealth to the man who
kills him. He will also give him his daughter in marriage and will exempt his
family from taxes in Israel.”
26
David asked the men standing near him, “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?”
27
They repeated to him what they had been saying and told him, “This is what will
be done for the man who kills him.”
28
When Eliab, David’s oldest brother, heard him speaking with the men, he burned
with anger at him and asked, “Why have you come down here? And with whom did
you leave those few sheep in the wilderness? I know how conceited you are and
how wicked your heart is; you came down only to watch the battle.”
29
“Now what have I done?” said David. “Can’t I even speak?” 30 He then turned
away to someone else and brought up the same matter, and the men answered him
as before. 31 What David said was overheard and reported to Saul, and Saul sent
for him.
32
David said to Saul, “Let no one lose heart on account of this Philistine; your
servant will go and fight him.”
33
Saul replied, “You are not able to go out against this Philistine and fight
him; you are only a young man, and he has been a warrior from his youth.”
34
But David said to Saul, “Your servant has been keeping his father’s sheep. When
a lion or a bear came and carried off a sheep from the flock, 35 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. 36 Your servant has killed both
the lion and the bear; this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them,
because he has defied the armies of the living God. 37 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.”
Saul
said to David, “Go, and the Lord be with you.”
38
Then Saul dressed David in his own tunic. He put a coat of armor on him and a
bronze helmet on his head. 39 David fastened on his sword over the tunic and
tried walking around, because he was not used to them.
“I
cannot go in these,” he said to Saul, “because I am not used to them.” So he
took them off. 40 Then he took his staff in his hand, chose five smooth stones
from the stream, put them in the pouch of his shepherd’s bag and, with his
sling in his hand, approached the Philistine.
-- the novel, Don Quixote, by the
Spanish author Cervantes, is recognized as one of the most influential novels
in history -- it tells the purported true story of Alonso Quixano, an ordinary
Spaniard in the early 1600’s -- Quixano became infatuated with the age of
chivalry and because he couldn’t sleep, he spent all his days and nights
staying up and reading tales of chivalry and the romantic stories of knights
and their adventures until he went insane -- as Cervantes put it, “his brain
became dry”
-- he read so many stories about
knights that he began to believe the voices he read were really talking about
him -- and, so one day, he woke up and became someone else -- Don Quixote, the
legendary man of La Mancha -- called to be a knight and to go out and defend
the honor of his country and his lady
-- now since he did not live in the
age of knights, he had no armor -- so, he scrounged around and found mismatched
pieces of old armor that were laying around in various places -- he put them on
and mounted his old tired horse and went into the countryside, looking for adventure
-- “I know very well who I am,” he
said, “and I know who I can be."
-- this morning, I wanted us to
spend some time considering whose voices we are listening to and whose armor we
are putting on -- we’re going to revisit the familiar story of David and
Goliath from 1 Samuel 17 and see what we can learn for ourselves about knowing
who we are and who we can be in Christ
-- rather than reading this entire
passage, let me summarize the story for you and then we’ll look at some key
verses
-- as the story opens at the
beginning of 1 Samuel 17, we find the Israelite army, under the command of King
Saul, lined up for battle with the Philistines in the Valley of Elah -- the
Philistines were on one hill above the valley and the Israelite army was encamped
on the opposite hill, with the valley below them
-- every day, Goliath -- a giant who
was over nine feet tall would come out of the Philistine camp and come out into
the valley and cry out to the ranks of Israel, “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” -- and every time they heard Goliath’s challenge and saw him standing there
in his armor with his enormous weapons, the Israelites were dismayed and
terrified
-- this had been going on for forty
days when David’s father sent him to the battlefield to bring provisions to his
brothers and to see how things were going -- David got to the camp just as the
armies prepared for battle and Goliath emerged from the Philistine side and
issued his daily challenge
-- David was incensed at the way
Goliath challenged the Israelites and no one did anything except run in fear
when they saw him -- in verse 26, David says, “Who is this uncircumcised
Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God?” -- and David was
moved to action -- he was determined to take on Goliath in battle and defeat
him and tow in the hand of King Saul’s daughter in marriage
-- but just because you are led by
the Lord to do something doesn’t mean everyone around you will support you
II. The Voices of Discouragaement
-- look with me at verses 28-29
28
When Eliab, David’s oldest brother, heard him speaking with the men, he burned
with anger at him and asked, “Why have you come down here? And with whom did
you leave those few sheep in the wilderness? I know how conceited you are and
how wicked your heart is; you came down only to watch the battle.”
29
“Now what have I done?” said David. “Can’t I even speak?”
-- David’s brother Eliab heard him
speaking with the other men in the army -- he heard David’s indignation at
Goliath’s challenge and David’s intent to go out and fight Goliath to defend
the honor of God
-- rather than supporting him, Eliab
spoke to him angrily and asked him, “why are you here? -- where are your sheep?”
-- what he’s doing is trying to remind David of who he was -- David was the
youngest son in the family and he was just a shepherd -- a lowly profession --
not a job where skills or talents were required -- and certainly not a job for
a warrior -- with those words, Eliab was trying to put David in his place
-- how often does that happen to us?
-- you get inspired to do something -- to better yourself -- to be more than
you are -- and then your goals and your dreams get squashed by the voices of
others telling you that you can’t do that -- that you’ll never measure up --
that that is not who you are
-- we hear that voice a lot from our
family and friends -- from those who have known us our whole lives -- and it’s
especially biting when it comes from them -- it cuts right down to the core and
it can keep us from stepping out and doing what we are called to do
-- even Jesus was not immune from
the voices of family and friends speaking discouragement into His life -- after
the beginning of His ministry, Jesus returned to His hometown and began to
teach in the synagogue, and all He heard was criticism from those who gathered
to hear Him -- in Mark 6:3, it says that the people of His hometown took
offense at Him -- causing Jesus to say, “Only in his hometown, among his
relatives and in his own house is a prophet without honor”
-- Eliab goes on to try to put David
in his place -- “I know who you really are -- I know who conceited you are and
how wicked your heart is -- you didn’t come here to go to war -- you only came
to watch”
-- this shows just how much Eliab
really knew about David -- he was judging him based on his own prejudices and
on the past -- he had not seen how God was moving in David’s life nor what God
was doing through David -- he couldn’t see David as a man after God’s own
heart, but instead saw him as his little brother who never would amount to
anything
-- David had heard God’s prompting
in his heart to challenge Goliath, defend the nation of Israel, and bring glory
to God -- but now another voice is speaking into his ears -- a voice of
discouragement that sought to discredit his calling
-- we need to make sure we listen to
God’s voice instead of those who would speak discouragement and dishonor into
our lives
-- but Eliab was not the only voice
that spoke to David that day -- look back at verses 30-33
30
He then turned away to someone else and brought up the same matter, and the men
answered him as before. 31 What David said was overheard and reported to Saul,
and Saul sent for him.
32
David said to Saul, “Let no one lose heart on account of this Philistine; your
servant will go and fight him.”
33
Saul replied, “You are not able to go out against this Philistine and fight
him; you are only a young man, and he has been a warrior from his youth.”
-- here we hear the voice of the
king -- when word got to Saul about what David was saying about going out and
taking on Goliath, Saul called David before him -- he heard David’s plans -- he
heard David’s heart -- but then he speaks to him and tells him, “You are not
able to go out and fight against Goliath -- you are only a boy”
-- where the voices of our family
and friends tend to speak judgment from the past, the voices of the world speak
judgements based on appearance
-- Saul looked at David and saw him
as the world saw him -- a small shepherd boy -- not a warrior by any stretch of
the imagination -- not someone who would ever be able to stand up against a
warrior like Goliath -- so, he spoke discouragement based on what he saw
-- once again, David had to choose
between listening to the voice of God or the voice of another -- it comes down
to faith
-- yes, David was a small shepherd
boy, but he was called by God to take on Goliath that day -- looking at the
situation, there was no way he had a chance -- there was no way he could win --
everyone could see that and everyone said that -- but David didn’t listen to
their voices -- he trusted in the voice
of God and that made all the difference
-- heroes of the faith aren’t heroes
because they’re the biggest and the strongest -- as Paul said in 1 Corinthians
1:27-29, “God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise -- God
chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong -- God chose the lowly
things of the world and the despised things -- and the things that are not --
to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before Him”
-- heroes of the faith are heroes
because they listen to the voice of God -- they believe in what God says about
them -- they believe what God says they will become -- and they act on that
belief
-- we need to be discerning in the
voices we listen to and the voices we trust, because not every voice speaks
truth or God’s will into our lives
-- look at verses 34-37
34
But David said to Saul, “Your servant has been keeping his father’s sheep. When
a lion or a bear came and carried off a sheep from the flock, 35 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. 36 Your servant has killed both
the lion and the bear; this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them,
because he has defied the armies of the living God. 37 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.”
Saul
said to David, “Go, and the Lord be with you.”
-- if David had taken his brother’s
words to heart, he would have left the battlefield that day, never to return --
if David had taken Saul’s words to heart, he would never have become the mighty
warrior we read of in Scripture -- but David chose to ignore the voices that
spoke discouragement and disillusionment and death and instead heard and
trusted in the voice of God
-- he refuted the voice of Saul --
he spoke back to a king because he had heard the voice of the King -- he told
Saul that God had delivered him in the past and given him victory over the lion
and the bear -- and that he believed God would do the same with Goliath
-- in the face of overwhelming faith
and the conviction of David in God’s ability, all Saul could do was to tell
David to go ahead and face Goliath -- but he tried one more time to speak
worldly wisdom into the situation
-- look at verse 38
38
Then Saul dressed David in his own tunic. He put a coat of armor on him and a
bronze helmet on his head. 39 David fastened on his sword over the tunic and
tried walking around, because he was not used to them.
“I
cannot go in these,” he said to Saul, “because I am not used to them.” So he
took them off. 40 Then he took his staff in his hand, chose five smooth stones
from the stream, put them in the pouch of his shepherd’s bag and, with his
sling in his hand, approached the Philistine.
-- Saul realized he couldn’t stop
David from stepping into God’s calling to stand against Goliath -- but Saul
still didn’t believe -- he did not have faith in David’s ability to stand
against Goliath in God’s strength alone
-- so, he had his armor brought and
put on David because everyone knows you don’t go into battle with armor --
David put on Saul’s tunic and coat of armor -- he put a bronze helmet on his
head -- and then tied a sword around his waist -- but it didn’t fit -- it
wasn’t right -- because it was the wrong armor
-- just as the world will try to
speak counter to God’s voice, the world will also tell you what you are
supposed to do and how you are supposed to do it -- David was not called to go
into battle against Goliath as anyone else would -- he was called to go into
battle in the strength of God and God alone
-- so, he took off the armor and
told Saul he couldn’t go in those -- standing there, dressed in his shepherd’s
garb, David took the staff he was so familiar with and the sling he had used in
the past and grabbed five smooth stones from the stream -- and stood to face
the giant -- and we all know what happened next -- David slew Goliath with
nothing more than his sling and a stone so that, as he said in verse 27, “all
those gathered here will know that it is not by sword or spear the Lord saves
-- for the battle is the Lord’s and He will give all of you into our hands”
III. Closing
-- when God speaks and calls you to
do something, He’s going to make you able to fulfill that calling in ways you
might not imagine -- the world could not conceive of how anyone could stand
against Goliath without armor and a sword -- but God dressed David in spiritual
armor -- the armor of faith -- and the victory was won
-- not long after we started
Koinonia Church, we heard the voice of God telling us to give school supplies
and backpacks to Valdosta Middle School -- to commit to providing them with all
the supplies they needed for that school year -- and there was no way that we
could do that
-- we had less than ten people -- we
had no budget -- we had no resources -- we had no money -- but God said, “I
want you to give the school what they need”
-- others told us it was impossible
-- the voices around us said it couldn’t be done -- “call another church to
help,” they said -- “you’re too small to do this”
-- but we chose to listen to God --
and we stepped out and started to gather what we could -- we asked for
donations of school supplies, and a few things came in -- but not enough -- but
we persisted -- and we continued to do what we could -- and right before school
started, when it seemed like we had failed and just wouldn’t be able to do what
God had asked us to do, a check came in the mail from someone outside the
church -- we hadn’t asked for it -- we hadn’t expected it -- but it was enough
to buy all the school supplies we needed
-- and when people saw what that
little church did and what God provided through us, He was glorified, because
they knew we had not done it on our own
-- what made the difference? -- holding
fast to the voice of God we heard speaking to us and discounting the voices of
discouragement from those outside -- from choosing to fulfill this calling as
God led and not to put on Saul’s armor by asking a larger church to do it for
us -- by trusting and believing in faith that God would provide
-- we’ve seen similar things happen
here -- remember when this little church of 10 people gave out over 500 Bibles
in one month? -- putting a Bible in every home and giving a Bible to every
person who asked? -- even when we didn’t have the money to buy them? -- even
when others said we were crazy?
-- God wants to do great things
through us -- He is calling us to do great things -- things that we can’t do
apart from Him -- things that are impossible without Him
-- if we are going to do what He is
calling us to do, then we have to close our ears to the false voices and the
wisdom of the world that says we can’t do it -- and trust in Him with all our
hearts and minds and souls and strength -- and then, giants will fall and God
will get the glory
-- as we close this morning, I want
to challenge you to listen -- to spend some time this week listening for the
voice of God -- to close out the voices that are speaking death and
discouragement and disillusionment -- the voices that say we are too small to
do anything -- that say this church is in its last days -- and trust in a God
that wants to revive us and restore us and do great things through us
-- if God can speak to a small
shepherd boy and take down a giant, He can speak to a small country church and
revive a nation
-- let us pray
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