Finding Courage to Face Giants

Well, let's continue our series, Chasing David. If you are just joining us, this is week two. We put together a book. Each chapter correlates with each weekend message in this series, and you can grab that. You can grab it online. You can grab it at the TLC info desk today. And then there are small groups and classes meeting all over the county. In fact, we're doing this with eight other churches, so they're meeting all around the Bay Area every single night of the week, studying this material together. And these are some of the pictures that some of these groups just sent me this week. It is not too late to sign up. Again, you can do that at the info desk or online at TLC.org/smallgroups.

Well, I wanna start with this question. What causes you anxiety? Or put it another way, what giant challenge are you facing in your life right now? What is keeping you up at night? I really want you to think of what that might be for you right now. Now, in case you're going, I'm good, let me just jog your memory. It could be an illness that you're facing or something about your finances or anxieties or challenges about your kids or about your schooling or your work or the future or getting your marriage to work better or an addiction that's got its claws in you or maybe you're afraid of aging or maybe you're just having anxiety about all the anxiety that you're feeling. Maybe you'd say, all of the above, I'm feeling every single one of those things.

Here's the problem with all this anxiety. We all know anxieties can paralyze you. They are unproductive. They keep you from moving forward in life. They're unhealthy for you. So this morning, what I wanna talk about is the power to get past the paralysis. If you need courage today to face an anxiety or a giant challenge in your life, you cannot find a more inspiring story than the one we're gonna look at this morning, David and Goliath. David and Goliath has probably inspired more Sunday school lessons and children's books and comic books than any other Bible story bar none. In fact, in a very recent internet poll, when asked to name a Bible story, here are the top three most frequent answers just from the general public. Number one, the crucifixion of Christ. Number two was David and Goliath. Number three was the birth of Christ. So David and Goliath comes in ahead of Christmas.

We all think we know it, and from my perspective, that's the only problem with the story, right? As I come to preach it to you, it is so familiar to us that we think we know it already, but how much of what you think you know about this story is true? And how much is just kind of a fairy tale? I think you'll be surprised. As we continue chasing David today, David and Goliath, I call it finding courage to face giants from 1 Samuel 17. Grab your message notes, they're in your bulletins. You can download them online if you're joining us online. Today, I have one simple goal. I want you to be able to picture this story, to be able to imagine it. Because I think if you can imagine this story the way the original readers did, it will impact you the same powerful way.

Because this story enabled an entire nation to have the courage to fend off almost certain extinction. And you can be inspired the same way, but only if you realize this is a story for grownups and not children. And you'll only be able to realize that when you really imagine this and picture this the way they did. So let's start with 1 Samuel 17 verse one. It says, "The Philistines now mustered their army for battle and camped between Soko and Judah and Azeka. Saul," that was the current Israelite king, "countered by gathering Israelite troops near the valley of Elah. And so the Philistines and the Israelites faced each other on opposite hills with the valley between them."

Okay, we've already encountered our first problem. Because for most of us, all the names that the writer so precisely gave us, so we could picture this, are just meaningless. Random syllables, "Azeka, Elah, blah, blah, blah." Israelites, Hittites, Vegemites, it doesn't mean anything to us. When I was a kid in Sunday school, David existed on some generic flannel graph background that looked like rural Indiana, the same exact one as Jesus and every other Bible story, right? So I had no sense of time or place related to this, but this story did not happen on flannel. It happened in a real place. All these details are in the Bible so the readers can picture the reality. It's so riveting when you really picture this, the picture it's painting.

So let me help you with that. Here's a satellite photo of Israel, thank you Google, the ocean to the west. You've got the coastal plain, where all the agriculture happens, the coastal mountain range, and the inland desert, kind of like here in California. 3000 years ago, the coastal plain was Philistine country. All the good flat farmland, all the coastal mountain range was Israelite country, less places to grow food, but at least they're protected up there in the rocky hills, right? And just like in California, a few ravines start in the mountains and go down to the coastal plain, kind of like the Salinas Valley or the Ella Valley, where this storing happens. This is where the Philistines and the Israelites bump into each other, right at the border zone.

So let's zoom in on that. Verse one says the Philistines were near a place called Azeka, which archeologists have actually found. They found the Philistine fortress from this storing. And then in 2009, they found an Israelite fortress on the other side. So we can now in only the last eight or nine years can say with certainty where these border skirmishes between the Philistines and Israelites happened. We know this is where the story takes place. So what's it like? Well, here's a view from the Israelite side, looking toward the Philistine fortress of Azeka, that the Bible talks about here, the Israelites would have sat on these hills on our side, looking toward the Philistine army.

Earlier this year, I went with an archeologist and we drove up to the top of those Philistine ruins and we looked down on the Ella Valley toward the Israelite side. And you can see what a strategic spot that was. And then we also went over to the ruins of the ancient Israelite walled city, which has been carbon dated by Oxford scientists to the exact time of King David. And we're gonna visit this place a little bit further in this week's small group video. So this is the stage for this story. Again, the Israelites would be looking that direction as the giant struts around there in the Ella Valley.

So let's get to the giants. Next verse. A champion named Goliath, who was from Gath, came out of the Philistine camp, his height was six cubits and a span. Now, if you're like me, you don't really know what this means. And what you know from Sunday School in the comic books is he was a giant. And our minds, when we hear that word giant picture, the BFG or the Jolly Green Giant, and that puts this firmly in the realm of fairy tale or mythology, right? So we gotta ask how tall is six cubits and a span? Because nobody uses this anymore, right? Nobody says, "Dude, the waves today were at least two cubits. Spring or gopher would board, right?" So what is this?

Well, depending on what scholar you read, this is somewhere between eight and nine feet tall. So is that even humanly possible? Well, the tallest guy in modern history was a man named Robert Wadlow. He died at 1940 in Missouri. He was about 25, and he was nearly nine feet tall. This is a picture of him next to his dad. Amazing. So nine feet is possible humanly. Now, the most ancient texts, the Septuagint, the Dead Sea Scrolls, they're about 2,000 years old, they put Goliath's height at four cubits and a span, not six. That's something like six, nine to seven feet, the size of a tall NBA player. So to help you picture this, here's Kevin Hart standing next to Shaquille O'Neal. Shaq is about seven feet tall, and Kevin, and here's why I wanted to show you this, he's about five, five, which they know from studying skeletal remains that are about 3,000 years old from the land of Israel. This was the average man's height in David's time.

So this sort of thing is approximately the picture being painted here, not a fairy tale size giant, but still pretty intimidating in a fight, right? And it gets worse because Goliath's just bristling with the best armor, verse five. He had a bronze helmet on his head. He wore a coat of scale armor of bronze weighing 5,000 shekels on his legs. He wore bronze, greaves of bronze, jazzy javelin was slung on his back. And the spear shaft was like a weaver's rod and its iron point weighed 600 shekels. His shield bearer went ahead of him. What's with all the detail about all the bronze and all the iron? What's the point the author is making?

Well, remember historically, this happened right after the late Bronze Age collapse that we talked about a couple of weekends ago. All the major empires were wiped out by the late Bronze Age collapse, partly because of raids by the mysterious Sea Peoples. They would come in on their ships and they would loot the cities. Now who were these Sea Peoples? We don't really know who they were, except for one clue. The Egyptian Pharaoh Ramses II on his funeral temple actually had his artisans carve a picture of the Sea Peoples with kind of a warning. He identifies the different tribes that had banded together to form this gang of pirates. Like, watch out for these people. He seems to be saying the Sea Peoples aren't raiding anymore but these dastardly people are still out there. Watch out for them.

The problem is we don't recognize any of the tribes he names. Except for one, the Philistines. He says they were part of the dreaded Sea People warriors and then they settled with all their loot, all the best stuff from all the empires they had conquered and they settled to do some farming on that beautiful fertile coastal plain. I was thinking kind of like Thanos in the Avengers movies. They wipe out the world and now they're just gonna farm. But you see why this is important. When people read this they realize the Israelites are not just facing some random enemy. They're facing the enemy that has wiped out the most advanced armies. When people read this story they went, "No way, the Philistines? The Israelites are doomed." Because these people have all the best stuff that they've stolen from the armories of the world and then they put their best stuff on their best guy. That's what these verses are meant to explain.

Meanwhile, Israel was practically in the Stone Age. The Bible says at the time there was not a single blacksmith in all of Israel. They had zero metal weapons. King Saul had armor because he stole it but that was it. So here's the point to the story. It's not just about David versus Goliath. That's just a microcosm of the big picture. It was all of the Israelites with their rocks against the Philistines with the world's best weaponry. The point is it was hopeless. There was literally no way this was gonna work. Israel was doomed. Now the one disadvantage of all the heavy armor was that it's a liability up in the hills, right? It's too heavy. The Bible says that the Philistines had 6,000 armored charioteers but the chariots can't go up in the hills where there's no roads and the Israelites are just bounding around from rock to rock.

So what are they gonna do to get this border skirmish under control? Goliath stood and shouted a taunt across to the Israelites. I am the Philistine champion. But you are only the servants of Saul, you peons. Choose one man to come down here and fight me. If he kills me, we will be your slaves. But if I kill him, then you'll be our slaves. And this is called champion warfare. A rep from each army would fight to see who would win the war. Verse 16, for 40 days, a month and 10 days. Every morning and evening, the Philistine champion strutted in front of the Israelite army. And I love that word, strutted around. I kind of picture Mick Jagger only like super, super tall just strutting around and sticking out his tongue at these people.

And for 40 days it says, whenever the Israelites saw the man, they all fled from him in great fear for 40 days. They didn't ignore it, but they didn't move forward and do anything about it either. They just sat there scared. And this is exactly what your giants of fear and anxiety can do to you. You keep staring at them, listening to them, almost hypnotized by them. They're driving you crazy. You're listening, you're listening, but you're not actually doing anything about it. You're paralyzed, you're unproductive, while every morning and every evening you hear their taunting voice. There's no hope. You're such a fake. What made you think that you could do this? You could never do it. Why don't you just give up right now? You stink, you stink as a spouse, you stink as a Christian. Everybody thinks you stink and you know you stink. You hear their voices, don't you? Like the taunts of Goliath.

And then on day 40, David shows up and there's a breakthrough. And this story shows how you can finally have a breakthrough to day two. Like as in, you can be changed when you walk back out those doors this morning. And here's how. In this story you see three approaches to fear, really in the three major characters. Have you ever thought about that? First you've got Goliath and his approach is tell myself, they're weak, I'm strong. Pump myself up, put my opponents down. I'm the champion. You're just peons, you're slaves of Saul. It's ego centered courage. He looks at the challenge and says, "I have more power than this." It's like every pro wrestler you've ever heard, right?

And the reason I wanna bring this up is if we're not careful, we can imagine this is the lesson from this story to be more like Goliath. To look at our challenges and just pump ourselves up all the time. This only works for short periods of time when you need adrenaline. But eventually we're all gonna hit something that is bigger than us, stronger than us, scarier than we can imagine, and then what are we gonna do? Well often we lapse into the Saul approach and we look at our challenges and think, "They are strong, I am weak. I can't do this." It's ego centered cowardice. I'm not strong enough, I don't know enough, I'm not skilled enough, it's still all about me. I have insufficient power. Sound familiar?

Now you look at these first two columns, for most of us these are the only alternatives we ever hear about in our American culture especially. But if you're going to conquer the real giants in life, and I mean the Goliath's, that'll hit you from time to time of illness or unemployment or addiction or real kind of imagination captivating fear and doubt. In those instances there is only one approach that works and it's a third alternative, the David approach. You know David only shows up on the scene because his dad gave him some bread and cheese to take to his brothers. Did you know that? He's just the delivery boy. He's not even a soldier. He's just the teenage Uber Eats delivery guy. That's true, but he approaches the whole problem in a totally different way than anyone else.

He says, I am small and weak, but God is strong. David never denies the power of the giant. In fact, as you'll see, he even points out the advantages of the giant. But David says I have God centered courage, not me centered. He says I have God's power. Now I'm gonna tell you something personal. I have personally discovered that if I wanna move past my biggest challenges, crippling anxiety at times, fear about giant challenges, this is how I felt five years ago when we began the whole 2020 campaign, strong temptations. Goliath's method doesn't work anymore and Saul's method certainly doesn't. I have to get to the point where I say I am powerless to overcome this giant in my own strength, but God is stronger.

So the question is how do I live in that third column? That's page two. Let's talk about facing fear with calm confidence. See the opposite of fear actually is encourage. The opposite of fear is peace. And all through this story David comes from a place of calm confidence as you will see. How does he do it? Four components and I put them in the acronym FEAR, fear. How do you face your fears with calm confidence? First, find out the facts. Find out the actual facts. Listen, information breeds confidence. Don't build imaginary mental monsters out of fear and worry, get the facts. First thing David does, David asks the men standing near him, what will be done for the man who kills this Philistine and removes this disgrace from Israel? You know one thing I love about David, everybody else is focusing on the problem and he's focusing on the benefits, right?

Find out the facts, investigate. Is your giant an illness? Get the facts about it. Is it overcoming anxiety? Buy some books, get the facts. Is it raising teenagers? Good luck. No, I mean get the facts. Grab some books, ask advice. Then E stands for eliminate defeatist thinking. Defeatist thinking is I may as well not even try. Because I'll never conquer this. It'll never work. That kind of thinking just stops you in your tracks. And look who David hears it from first, his own brother, Eliab, who asked, why have you come down here? I know how conceited you are and how wicked your heart is. Sometimes the worst criticism will come from your own parents or family. And some of you have heard those voices. You will never amount to anything. I knew you couldn't do this, I knew it. Why'd you even start?

What do you do then? Well, what does David do? Very important, verse 30. David then turned away to someone else. Did he argue with Eliab? No, just turn away. Rejection is not fatal. It's just somebody's opinion. And you don't have to waste time fighting a family skirmish while the real giant is out there roaming around. Choose your battles wisely. But King Saul piles on the defeatist thinking when David says, I'll fight the giant. Don't be ridiculous, Saul replied. There's no way you could fight this Philistine and possibly win. You're only a boy. And he's been a man of war since his youth. But David persisted. Listen, there's no doubt you're going to hear the defeatist voices of Saul, of Eliab, and sometimes it's even your own voice. Is anybody here your own worst critic? Can I just see a show of hands just honestly? Because I am, I'm just a natural Eeyore, right?

You even have to eliminate defeatist thinking when it comes from your own head. So how do you do that? Well, that's point A. And this is really the heart of what this passage is teaching. I must continually affirm my source of strength. Affirm my source of strength. It's God and not me. This is the difference between positive thinking and positive faith. David didn't go running up to the Goliath saying, I think I can, I think I can, I think I can. That's positive thinking. Goliath had positive thinking. David had positive faith. I know I can because God can. And he is my source of strength. Don't miss this. David tells Saul, the Lord who rescued me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will rescue me from the paw, the hand of this Philistine.

Now how does he know that? He can't see the future. Nobody can and maybe that's what's kind of driving you crazy. You're so worried about what's going to happen next. Look at what David does. He looks back at what God has done in his past. And he says, based on that evidence, I believe God will do great things in the present. And you can do the same exact thing. In fact, just close your eyes for just a second. And I want you to think back on two big challenges that God helped you through in your past. David would say, he helped you fight that bear. He helped you with that lion and he can do it again. So watch this. It says, then he took his staff in his hand, chose five smooth stones from the stream. By the way, why five? Why not just one? There's only one giant. We find out later Goliath's got brothers, four of them. He put them in the pouch of his shepherd's bag and with his sling in his hand approached the Philistine.

And I really want you to picture this. Here's a photograph of the oldest known sling in existence. This was excavated in Egypt in a tomb in 1914. What you're looking at is almost 4,000 years old. Now, how effective were these little things? Two years ago, National Geographic published findings from a research project that found that a sling stone in the hands of an expert has about the same stopping power as a bullet from a 44 Magnum handgun. This is not a toy. Yet Goliath taunts him. "Am I a dog that you come at me with sticks?" And the Philistine cursed David by his gods. "Come here and I'll feed your flesh to the birds and the wild animals." David, totally calm. David said to the Philistine, "You come against me with sword, spear, javelin, but I come against you in the name of the Lord Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied."

Now the phrase, "In the name of the Lord," you heard a song with that lyric earlier today. By saying this, David is saying, it's like if somebody says, "Stop in the name of the law," that's saying, "I am deputized, I'm acting as a representative of the law, I have authority," David here is showing that he truly believes, follow me here, in his anointed identity as God's chosen leader. And this is why he is so confident. He believes he is a part of a bigger plan that God has for his people. And the same concept is true of you. Now, last week I heard some people after church tell me, well, I don't see how David's anointing has any relevance to me because I wasn't chosen to be Israel's king as David was. Well, let me ask you this, did God still choose you? Does God still have a plan for your life that he promises he will work out absolutely no matter what? Does the Bible say you're a chosen, adopted, called, anointed child of God? Yes, yes, yes.

And like David, if I see my identity with clarity, I'll have courage and adversity. Does that make sense? If I see my identity in Christ with clarity, then I'm going to have courage and adversity because if you see yourself as a beloved child of God, an empowered ambassador, part of something bigger, that changes everything. So David calmly continues, this day the Lord will deliver you into my hands and I'll 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. It's funny 'cause he's like, I'll see your one carcass and I'll raise you an army. And the whole world will know that there's a God in Israel because this is an impossible battle for them to win.

All those gathered here will know it's not by sword or spear that the Lord saves 'cause they didn't have any swords or spears. For the battle is the Lord's and he will give all of you into our hands. Wow. Now, did you notice that it's all about God? I come in the name of the Lord, the Lord will deliver you to me, the battle is the Lord's, it's all about God. If you read the story again, you'll notice nobody else in the whole story talks about God. Nobody does, not even King Saul. David shows up and he never stops talking about God. In fact, this is the David difference. God focus versus giant focus. The reason all the other Israelites failed is their minds were full of Goliath. David's mind was full of God. Is your mind full of your Goliath? Or is your mind full of God?

Now, please watch this carefully. This was David's advantage, not his sling skills. There were hundreds of other people in Israel who were good with a sling. In fact, in the book of Judges, which happens just before this, it says in the tribe of Benjamin alone, there were 700 expert slingers. 700, where were they when this happened? Watching on that hill, paralyzed with fear. What sets David apart is not his ability, it's his faith. And Michelangelo's statue of David conveys this so well. I don't know if you know, but in art history, one of the things that was so revolutionary about this is every single other classical artist portrays the action in this story. They showed David firing the sling. Or David slicing off the giant's head. But what Michelangelo got, and what he shows, is the most important moment of the story. What's going through David's mind right before all that, with the sling over his shoulder. He's sizing up the giant.

Now, how does a marble statue show internal thoughts? Well, Michelangelo did it. And what's so cool is David's expression changes depending on the angle you're viewing the statue. If you're really up close, David looks worried and concerned, right? But then if you're viewing it from the giant's distance, his expression changes to resolution. See, what Michelangelo understood was that this was the moment the battle was won. Before a pebble was picked up, before the sling was slung, before the sword sliced. And this is the moment the battle is won for you. How are you sizing up your giant? You say, "I don't know what you're talking about. Let's practice being like David in this moment." I wanna ask you to complete this sentence in your mind. My giant is, just think of what it is for you right now. In fact, I'd encourage you to write it down in your notes. My giant is something. The thing you thought of in the intro, relationship problem, a financial problem, a sin problem, some big project. If it's the person you're sitting next to, do not write their names. Just write some random initials. And if you don't know, just leave it blank. Let it stand for all the giants.

And then underneath, write, "But my God is bigger." See, I don't have to know what you wrote on your giant line. And I don't have to know how many giants you put on that line because you could take every single giant in this whole room, add them all up, and the second line is still true. My God is bigger. God is bigger than any problem you have. And giant killers have that perspective. And that is what makes the difference in the battle, not skill. It's about what captures your imagination. It's about what you've been thinking about. It's about your faith. Now, listen, I'm your pastor, but I forget this all the time. I mean, just like you, I'm awake in the middle of the night and I hear the thoughts of those Goliaths. Who are you? You're nobody. You could never do this. And occasionally, when I share those anxieties with people, they'll, trying to be helpful, tell me things like, "But Riddae, you can do it." Those things you're afraid of, those only loom large at night. That's not a big deal at all. And I know they mean well, but that's not the way it feels to me.

And so I'll show you what I did this week. I got a rock from our yard to represent a sling stone, and I wrote on it with a sharpie, "My God is bigger." And on the back, I wrote part of David's speech against Goliath, "The battle is the Lord's." So I've had this on my desk where I work at home, and then at night I've been taking it to my nightstand. And when I wake up in the middle of the night, or I'm looking at something in the middle of the day that seems so big to me, and I feel so intimidated and nervous, what I do is I look at this phrase, "My God is bigger." And you know what? It really helps. Because it's not trying to get me to Goliath style, imagine that I'm bigger than the problem, because I feel like I'm not bigger than the problem. But my God is bigger. And I figured this helped me so much that I wanted to do it for you.

And so here is what I'm giving you this morning. Don't ever let it be so that I never gave you anything. You know how Oprah gives her studio audience sometimes like a new car? Well, today I'm giving you each a rock. And they're in buckets as you leave, and I'd encourage you to just grab one this morning if you're facing a giant, and maybe you'll write on it, "My God is bigger," or some other verse from the Bible from this story that will remind you of this truth and will help you to have faith in your true source of strength. Now there's one more point, because there's an element without which your giants will not fall, and that's the R, and that stands for run to battle.

After all is said and done, you have to run to meet the challenge and stop just sitting there thinking about it. Verse 48, as the Philistine moved closer to attack him, David ran quickly toward the battle line to meet him. David ran quickly to meet him. And he moves so fast in this story. What's funny to me is after 40 days of stalling, it comes down to just a few minutes. David shows up, he makes a speech, (whooshing) boom, giant falls, David walks up, takes Goliath's sword, cuts off his head, brings it to Saul, done. It's kinda like instead of a mic drop, he does a head drop, you know, boom, it's over, finished.

And watch this, verse 52, then the men of Israel and Judah surged forward with a shout and pursued the Philistines. When did they shout? When did they charge? After they saw David kill the giant. And this is what can happen every single time you face down a giant in your own life. People will be inspired. So run to battle. Because here's the thing, and I don't want you to miss this, David wasn't just an example for us, he was a forerunner of the ultimate champion, the son of David, the one who would defeat an even bigger enemy, Jesus, who won final victory over sin and death and evil, and then rose from the grave and promised us a world with no more giants. No more sin, no more sorrow, no more suffering, no more pain, no more death, no more oppression for all who love him. And this is why you can be confident no matter what.

Because you see your hero gaining the victory for you. You see Jesus slaying the ultimate giant, so now we can search forward with a shout and fight our own giants. Here's the bottom line, act on what you say you believe. You see, I believe that the Israelite army all believe the same exact stuff David believed if you would have asked them, do you believe you're God's chosen people? Absolutely, but they didn't act on what they said they believed. If you believe that you're part of a bigger plan, if you believe that Jesus won the victory, then put your pebble into play. Even if you think, I don't have much to offer, put it into play, because you have no idea what God can do through that action. Like in this story, the dominoes that might fall.

Let me close with this, I think of the history of this church. Abandoned, shut down, empty for several years in the 1920s. It was a ghost church, a haunted chapel. And then on March 30th, 1930, 11 people met to restart Twin Lakes Church. And in one of the earliest minutes, it says after all bills were paid, they had 19 cents left in the bank account. 11 people with 19 cents put their pebble into play and we are sitting in what eventually happened. And this weekend we break ground on the next phase of their vision. 11 people with 19 cents. You see, you just never know what you could be starting when you give God your pebble and see what your source of strength does next. So let's pray together, praise God. Would you bow with me in a word of prayer?

Father God, you see the Goliath's who fiercely threaten and taunt and oppose people in this room. Giants, help us to remember our identity, our chosenness in you. Help us to see Jesus winning the victory for us and fill our minds with David's spirit of faith. Help our imagination to be captured by this. God, I just wanna pray specifically for people who've been listening to the taunts of the Giants every morning and every night in their own minds. God, I pray that they would not be full of Goliath, but full of your words standing on your promises. And so God, we take our place today in the triumph of our hero, Jesus. And it's in his name we pray. Amen, God is good, amen.