1 Samuel 17 (Part 2) :40-58

1 Samuel, chapter 17, this is the second part, the story of David and Goliath. As I've been thinking more about the story of David and Goliath here in 1 Samuel 17, it's sad that a lot of people think that this story is nothing more than a children's tale. Or worse yet, an allegory of, dealing with the biggest challenges of life. It definitely can be applied in our lives to the issues of the giants that we face. But the fact is, this is a true story. It involved real people who had real events. What was happening was the nation of Israel was at war against the Philistines. It was kind of a perpetual sort of a thing, but they were lined up in battle against one another with a valley in between them. They were each lined up on the side of a hill and the Valley of Elah was in between them. You can still go to the Valley of Elah today and see the land where these two factions came against one another to fight. And when they did they were, getting ready to go into war. And suddenly this huge soldier on the side of the Philistines emerged. And he began to call out one individual from the Israeli army to fight against him. And he, in essence, he said, let's not have all this bloodshed, not, this whole army against an army. Tell you what we'll do. I'm one man. You guys send out one man to fight against me and here's the deal. We'll make a deal. If I win, you are our slaves. If he wins, we will be your slaves. And it says he taunted them, and he did it morning and evening and he did… They were locked in this thing for 40 days. This went on. Every day they'd get ready to blow the trumpet and run toward the Philistines and the Philistines toward them to engage them in battle, and right before they would do that, Goliath would step out and make his usual taunt. The Bible says that all of the soldiers in the army of Israel were in dread of Goliath. Nobody was willing to go up against him.

As the story goes on, you'll remember from last week. We find out that Jesse, the father of David, sent David to the battlefront to check on how the battle was going, because he had some sons that were in the army. David went, and when he got there, he heard Goliath step out and give his usual taunt. David was aghast, and he began to ask questions to the soldiers around him. What is to be done if somebody does stand up against this brute? So they start explaining. Well, king's made a lot of pretty powerful promises related to that. First of all, he said he'd give him a lot of money. Second of all, he said he'd give him his daughter in marriage, whoever went up against Goliath and defeated him. And thirdly, he said that the family of that man would forever be exempt from taxes. Quite a motive or incentive, I should say, to go out against Goliath, but nobody would. David started talking about this and he said, somebody ought to do this. Somebody ought to go up against this guy. Well, that alone, that talk alone, that was the, David was the only one saying that thing during this whole 40 days, nobody dared to say such a thing. Nobody said, somebody really ought to go out and shut that guy up. No one had the guts to say that, except David. And word got to king Saul. There's this kid who's talking really big. And so Saul said, get him, send him to me. I mean, he’s desperate at this point. And David and all he said up to this point is really, somebody ought to go and fix that guy's wagon. And so they bring him before king Saul and Saul begins to speak to David. We talked about this last week and David gets even more bold. He says, I will go up against him. I'll go up against the giant. And immediately you'll remember what Saul said to him. You can't do it. You can't go up against him. He's a—he's been a fighting machine since he was a young boy and you are a young boy. He's been fighting since you were a twinkle in your father's eye. There's no way you can go up against this guy. We talked last week. We emphasize pretty strongly about how, when you're locked into that mode of walking by sight and not by faith, but by sight. You begin to see everything that happens in your life from a human perspective. And when you do that, it always leads to discouragement. Because you see it with the eyes of man, right? You're not seeing with the eyes of God, you're seeing with the eyes of man.

And the eyes of man always sees problems as bigger than they are. And then in fact, as we keep our eyes on our problems, they literally grow exponentially right before our eyes. They become giants. And that's often what takes place. So basically, Saul—but we see in David, this different perspective. We brought this all out last week. If you missed last week, I strongly encourage you to get on our website and listen to that message. Because essentially David is being told by Saul, he's too big. You can't win. You can't defeat him. And David is of the perspective. He's so big, I can't miss him. And it's just, it's that whole different way of looking at issues. When you, again, when you look at them through the perspective of man, the problem is too big. When you look at your issues through the eyes of God, you say, what is that to God? If God be for us, who can be against us, right? What is that to God? That's not a big deal to God. See, it's all in how you see it. It's all in how you view it. David begins to tell Saul about sometimes that he was out shepherding his father's flock and some predatory animals came and carried off a sheep. And it happened that it was once a bear and once a lion. And David said, I didn't just let it go. I went after the thing, and I killed the lion, and I killed the bear. That's amazing. And David says, I'm going to, I'll do the same thing with this giant. Saul finally, you'll remember, allows him to go on. Well, okay. But right before David goes out, he offers him his armor. Remember that? We ended last week with that. And we talked about how, once again, Saul is seeing the battle through the eyes of a soldier, and he's the kind of guy who puts his faith in things like armor. And so he offers Davis, well, before you… Listen, he's this guy is going to be armed to the teeth. He's going to, he's going to be protected by his own set of armor so you need to have some armor. Here's my armor, put it on and, and God be with you. David walks around in Saul's armor for a little while and he goes, I can't use these. I'm not accustomed to them. I don't know how to even move around in these things. And he, it says he took them off. We talked last week how essentially what Saul was trying to do was put his unbelief on David, because Saul saw things again as the man who is the best armed is the one who's going to be victor. David didn't care about those things. He knew he had the Lord on his side so it didn't matter what kind of armor he was wearing. So David rejected Saul's armor. And that's where we pick up the story.

We're in verse 40 so if you have your Bible there with you, let's begin there. It says in verse 40, and by the way, in case you need a title for this one, if you're taking notes, this is, How to Kill Giants. Okay. If you ever come up against any, this is how to do it. Verse 40,

Now, by the way, you might have always, and I always did, I always thought these were like, I figured it probably didn't need to be very big. I found out that they've actually uncovered sling stones. They call them sling stones because it was a fairly popular thing. I mean, a sling was something that a shepherd would have and he would use it potentially to ward off predators who might be coming against the sheep and so forth. And, as he gets pretty good with the thing, it can be a fairly effective means of discouraging an animal from coming at the sheep. But they've found these sling stones and they're like the size of tennis balls. I always thought they were like little, but they're actually pretty good size. So you get hit by one of these on the noggin, and I could see where it could, drop you to your knees, or have you do a face plant as in the case of Goliath here. But he takes five smooth stones, puts them in this pouch that he has slung over his shoulder. And it says

So this is it. This is how David is approaching the battle. This is how David is going up against Goliath. He has his shepherd's staff. And again, a staff would be used mostly for bringing, gentle correction to the sheep. And or not so gentle, depending on the sheep, I suppose. But, it's not a whole lot much better than that. I mean, I don't know how far it would go against a predator. If you start swinging it, and if it's fairly strong, maybe, but it's not going to do a whole lot against a guy like Goliath. But he's got his staff, he's got his leather pouch with five stones in it, and he's got his sling. And he's going up against Goliath. Oh, wait a minute, we forgot that other one thing he got. The Lord. Yeah, he's taking the Lord along with him. And it says, in verse 41,

So not only is this Philistine armed to the teeth, all this protective armor; leg and chest, piece and helmet and so on and so forth, he's got an armor bearer who goes before him and so forth. Wow. “42 And when the Philistine looked and saw David, he disdained him, (as the ESV puts it. Your Bible may say despised him, means the same thing) for he was but a youth, ruddy and handsome in appearance.” You see, the reason that he despised David was, he suddenly looked at this kid and he thought, beating this kid, killing this kid is not going to be very prestigious for someone like me. I'm a fighting machine. I've been fighting since before this boy was born. So what? Killing this kid? Are you kidding me? This is nothing. And he realized that they've sent this young boy against him and he despised him because he figured this is going to be too easy. There's nothing to this. I might as well be chasing away a dog. And in fact, he says in verse 43, “And the Philistine said to David, “Am I a dog, that you come to me with sticks?” Obviously referring to David's shepherd staff that he had in his hand. And then he went and did something really dumb. It says, “And the Philistine cursed David by his gods.” That was, theologically speaking, that was a really stupid thing to do. Because there was a statement that God made to Abraham concerning his descendants. And He basically told him that those who curse him would be cursed and those who bless him and his descendants would be blessed. It's one of the reasons why we, Christians, have such a strong opinion about our support for Israel. And we have such a strong opinion about the misuse politically speaking of Israel, because we know that there is a promise that God made to the people of Israel, that those who bless Israel will be blessed. And those who curse Israel will be cursed. Our government doesn't believe that at all, or they wouldn't be treating them the way they are. But we believe it because it's in God's Word. And it is established in the Scriptures. And when this man, when Goliath began to curse David, I got to wonder if David silently thought to himself, just keep going buddy, you're just digging a hole deeper for yourself as you do. Because remember, this is not a personal battle to David. You'll recall last week we talked about that. All of the other soldiers in the Israelite army saw this as a personal thing. And every single one of them said, I can't defeat this man. I can't do it. He wants to battle me, and I can't do it.

But this wasn't a personal thing for David. David said, Who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he defies the living God? David knew that the battle was with the Lord the battle in fact belonged to the Lord. That's why I have to wonder if when he heard the Philistine cursing, he was just thinking, buddy your goose is so cooked. Anyway, he goes on and then the Philistine kind of throws out some other taunts. Verse 44. “The Philistine said to David, “Come to me, and I will give your flesh to the birds of the air and to the beasts of the field.” 45 Then David said to the Philistine, “You come to me with a sword and with a spear and with a javelin, but I come to you in the name of the LORD of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. 46 This day (he says) the LORD will deliver you into my hand, and I will strike you down and cut off your head. And I will give the dead bodies of the host of the Philistines this day to the birds of the air and to the wild beasts of the earth, that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel,” Isn't that amazing? The Goliath taunts him and says, I'm going to feed you to the birds of the air and the beasts of the field. David comes back and says, actually, I'm going to feed your army to the birds of the air and the beasts of the field. You think you're going to do it to me, but the Lord God is on my side and we are going to feed your entire army. Boy, that is a… It's really something, isn't it? I mean, it's pretty easy to talk smack, when you're not really up against it. I mean, you can do that. Anybody can do that. They can talk a good fight. And even when David is standing before Saul and saying, I'll go up against the Philistine. Then he gets a little bolder and he says, I'll kill the Philistine and all this. And that's all one thing. And you think, okay, well, you're a kid, you've never been in battle and you don't really know what this is all about. But then he gets in front of Goliath. Now he is facing the enemy. This is where the rubber meets the road. And if you're going to become a puddle, this is the time to do it. But isn't it interesting that David maintains his courage before the Lord. And he says to Goliath, listen, buddy, you come to me with all these implements of warfare. I come to you in the power of the living God. You say, you're going to feed me to the birds of the air and the beasts of the field. Well, God, this day is going to feed your whole army to those very things. And he says, not only that, but God's going to give you into my hand and I'm going to cut your head off. Wow. He says in verse 47, “and that all this assembly may know (look at this guys) that the LORD saves not with sword and spear. For the battle is the LORD's, and he will give you into our hand.” This is interesting. Not only is David making one of the most powerful and important statements for you and I to understand about spiritual battles, but did you notice that he is so selfless, he says, and God is going to “give you into our hand.” He's talking about the Israelite army. But remember, he's talking about a bunch of cowards who for the last 40 days, not one of them has been willing to go forward and step out in the faith. that David has and to come against this Philistine, not one. And yet David speaks of that army that has been cowering in fear. And he says, this day, God “will give you into our hand.” Now, if you haven't underlined the essence of what verse 47 conveys, I want to encourage you to do it. And there are some other scriptures I'm going to share with you here in just a little bit but verse 47 is really a key verse for you and I to understand the dynamics of spiritual warfare. Because he says here that what is going to happen here in just a moment is something that God is going to do to make a statement. And here is that statement, “the LORD saves not with sword and spear.” Now, sword and spear isn't something you and I pick up unless you might be a collector. I don't know if you've ever seen my son's collection of swords. It's crazy. He has, like, almost every sword from the Lord of the Rings trilogy hanging on his wall. I actually have taken kids over to see them before, and they're all life size, regular weight, it's just, it's an amazing collection. He's just into that sort of thing. And his computer room is just, he's got them all. He's got, Gandalf's sword, and he's got Sting, and he's got, if you know the Lord of the Rings terminology, he's got them all. It's pretty amazing. But we pick those things up and it's like, good grief, I can't imagine going into battle with this thing. Swinging this thing around and hoping you hit something, and it's not you, or something. We don't battle that way, but we battle. And when we battle, it may not be a sword or a spear. But the world has ways of battling and whatever the worldly methodologies of battle might be, you couldn't put that right in that verse. the Lord does not save through the conventional means of warfare that this world looks at and accepts. Why? Because the battle belongs to the Lord. The battle is the Lord. Such an important reminder for you and I. Something that you and I need to think about. I don't know what battles you're fighting. We all fight battles all the time. Sometimes, they come from just the darkness of the enemy. Paul calls that the day of evil in Ephesians. He says, when the day of evil comes you better put your spiritual armor on. (Ephesians 6:13) And sometimes those battles come from within. They're the battles that we fight because of those inner desires that just want to drag us away because they're enticing us to live for sin and for ourselves. And so there's all these battles that we fight. Sometimes battles are with other, with people that are just really giving us a hard time. Whatever it is, God wants you to know that the battle is the Lord's. Verse 48. “When the Philistine arose and came and drew near to meet David, (look what David did) David ran quickly toward the battle line to meet the Philistine.” I like this because this is a key to how to win your battles against giants, against whatever giants are in your life. I want you to notice that David's response when Goliath came at him was not to stop and drop to his knees and say, okay, God, this would be a really good time for like a lightning bolt or something like that. Or I don't know. Oh, the ground opening up, maybe a good earthquake, or something of that nature. This would be a great time, God, because you promised You were going to— the battle belongs to the Lord. I've been talking you up real big here lately, so this would be a great time. You know what David does? He runs toward Goliath. As Goliath begins to move toward him, David doesn't back off. He doesn't step back from the situation. He doesn't try to, dodge. He runs toward Goliath. He's going to face this thing head on and deal with this situation. I like that. See, here's the thing. You might say, now wait a second here. Doesn't that contradict the fact that he just said the battle belongs to the Lord? I mean, the battle is the Lord's. So why is David running toward Goliath? This is a spiritual principle that you and I need to get a hold of in God's Word. Yes, the battle is the Lord's. Yes, the victory comes through Him. But God wants to do it through you as you step out in faith, as you face your enemy.

Head on, shoulder to shoulder. And you move toward that thing, not wincing in, in doubt, but instead responding with faith and coming toward that situation. That's the interesting, a very, very important thing that you and I need to see in this passage. David ran quickly toward the battle line to meet the Philistine. You get the impression here that David is anxious for this thing. He knows how this is going to turn out. He's like, let's do this, right? He's not doubting. And it says in verse 49,

And so just the concussion of that rock in the head it just absolutely, brings him to his knees, falls face down onto the ground. And it says in verse 50,

Now this is a summary statement. It hasn't given us all the details yet of how he killed him. It's going to go back now and do that. But the summary statement is for you and I to take note of. There was no sword in his hand. And again, a sword isn't the kind of a tool that you and I are going to use against our enemies. But the point of what he's saying is, the implements of worldly warfare were nowhere to be found among David. That's the point. And verse 51 then gives us the detail of how he finished him off.

Yikes! Aren't you glad they didn't make a movie of this? Oh, maybe they did. I just didn't see it. And it says,

Now, wait a minute, they weren't true to their word. Goliath has been saying for 40 days, if one of your men kills me, we will be your slaves, right? He's not being true to his word. All the Philistines should have said, all right, we're yours, but they turn around and they run. Don't ever expect the enemy to keep his word, ever.

But it's not going to go very well for them. Verse 52 says,

Can you imagine David? He's probably, we don't know exactly how old. Probably somewhere between 16 and maybe 21. More than likely a teenager. And he probably in his upper teens. But can you imagine this kid walking around with this head? He probably kept it for about a week or so. Do you guys see this? Yeah, David, we saw it, okay? But I can't imagine. But he's carrying this head around.

Now, this last comment by Saul in this chapter bothers some people because you'll remember in the previous chapter we're told that David had actually already come into the courts of the king as a musician. And he was playing for Saul whenever a demonic spirit would take hold over him and agitate him. And through his music he was calming king Saul. And we also know that Saul made him one of his shield bearers. So people read this here now at the end of David and Goliath and they go, what's up with this? Saul didn't even recognize David? That's not what it says. It says David asked Abner, the commander of the army about who his father was. He wasn't asking who David is. He knows who David is. He's saying, who is his father? In essence, he's saying, well, remember one of the promises? Who is whoever did this gets his daughter in marriage? Saul is basically saying, this guy's going to be a relative. What's his family all about? Tell me what his dad is, or who his dad is. I want to know about his family line. My daughter's going to be marrying into this family line. Who's his father? And Abner's like, I don't know. Nobody that I know. So that's what's going on there.

The chapter ends in verse 57 by saying, “And as soon as David returned from the striking down of the Philistine, Abner took him, and brought him before Saul with the head of the Philistine in his hand.” And Saul said, couldn't you have left that outside, dude? No, actually he didn't. “58 … (he) said to him, “Whose son are you, young man?” And David answered, “I am the son of your servant Jesse the Bethlehemite.”” And so we have the story of David and Goliath. But what we really need to do is we need to take just a moment here and we need to look through some other passages of Scripture. And if you're taking notes, you might want to write some of these references down. But I want to emphasize and underscore the message of David and Goliath, because if we haven't done it and I'm pretty sure you get it. But I want to reinforce this thing with the rest of God's Word because this is vitally important. And we're going to start in the Psalms and I'll put these up on the screen for you so you can just jot these down. But I want to show you, first of all, Psalm chapter 33 and beginning at verse 16, look at this passage. The Psalmist writes and says,

The king is not saved by his great army; a warrior is not delivered by his great strength. The war horse is a false hope for salvation, (or deliverance, if you will) and by its great might it cannot rescue. Behold, the eye of the LORD is on those who fear him, on those who hope in his steadfast love. Now, once again, you can hear, you can see in there that the things that are most desired from a worldly warfare standpoint are highlighted in this verse, such as a great army, a warrior with great strength, a war horse. And to have horses, even in that culture, gave you an incredible military advantage. Just from your ability to move quickly across the ground and so forth. But what the point of this passage is saying is that there is not deliverance with those things. So how then is someone delivered? It says, the eye of the LORD is on those who fear him,” who fear God.

Remember we talked last week about how the whole Israelite army feared Goliath. But they were putting their fear in the wrong thing. Remember we talked about that? We talked about misplaced fear. And we all do that. We misplace fear all the time. We put it in things we shouldn't be afraid of rather than the one whom we should fear. And this passage reminds us that :the eye of the LORD is on those who fear him, (and) on those who hope in his steadfast love. Let me show you another passage from Psalm chapter 44, verses 5 and 7.

Through you (the psalmist writes) we push down our foes; through your name we tread down those who rise up against us. For not in my bow do I trust, nor can my sword save me. But you have saved us from our foes and have put to shame those who hate us. Again, do you see the reference? Though we push down our foes, though we have victory from time to time. It's through Your name that we are able to be victorious. Not in a bow, not in a sword, but it's you, God, you've saved us from our foes and you've put to shame those who hate us. Then check out this passage from Jeremiah chapter 9, verse 23. I love this.

Thus says the LORD: “Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the LORD.”

Let not the mighty man boast in his strength. Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom. Those things are of the world. We don't go to war with those things, Look at Proverbs chapter 21.

Another great verse. That if it isn't underlined in your Bible, it probably should be. And then, this is probably one of the most important things that brings it to you and I now, in the New Testament from Corinthians. 2 Corinthians chapter 10, Paul writes,

We talked a little bit about this last week. I made reference to this verse But I wanted to bring it out in the conclusion of our study here, because this is the verse that really needs to underscore our entire understanding and application of the story of David and Goliath. This is the message for you and I. I seriously doubt you're ever going to come up against a 9 foot guy, wielding a sword, spear, and javelin. I seriously doubt it. I seriously doubt a big guy like that's ever going to call you out and ask you to go toe to toe with him in physical combat. But you and I fight every day, don't we? And we fight giants that are just as menacing, just as dangerous, just as severe, and have the potential of conveying just as much fear as does Goliath. I want you to think for just a moment now about the things that you battle. I want you to think about the things you're battling right now. Yeah. and they might be fears in your own mind and they might be a person or a circumstance that is upcoming. A situation, an event in your future that you are dreading.

It could be a financial situation. It could be a physical situation. I don't know, but we all have them. The question is, how are we going to face them? That's the question. That's the issue that this story brings out. And when we face those things in the strength of our own lives, our own humanity, oh, how weak we see ourselves. How weak we are truly, and how big those problems appear. Only people, as we face them in the strength and power and might of the Lord, can we overcome. Maybe your giant is unforgiveness. Somebody did something to you that was just horrific, and nobody's going to deny or minimize the pain that you have felt and the issues that you've struggled with over that thing. And you have not, try as you may, been able to forgive whoever did it to you. And to you, that's your Goliath. And he taunts you every opportunity. It makes you feel small and sends you running and cringing into the corner. How are you going to face that thing? Problem is, Christians, we learn to live with our Goliaths. We learn to live on the hillside and just, we learn to let them get up and taunt us. 40 days the Israelites sat in their state of paralysis. The paralysis that was brought on by fear for 40 days. You ever notice that 40 days is a recurring number in the Bible? Happens a lot. And for 40 days they sat and just listened to Goliath shoot off his mouth and they got to the point where this is just the way it is. Oh, there's Goliath getting up again. After a while you don't get all that surprised at what he says to you. You're not good enough. You're not strong enough. And I am going to beat you down to a pulp every single day. And I'm going to keep beating you down. And we just get used to it and we learn to live with it, whatever it may be. Maybe it's a besetting sin. Maybe it's an area of sin in your life that you just have not been able to get a hold of. Could be pornography. Could be any number of other issues. And try as you might, you try to live for the Lord, and this Goliath just keeps getting up, standing over you, and beating you down. I want to put 2 Corinthians back up on the screen here because again, I want to repeat the message of this verse.

--- For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. (what Paul is saying there in that first sentence is you can't beat the flesh with the flesh. Okay. It won't happen. And that's why he goes on to say that) …the weapons of our warfare… (have nothing to do with) …the flesh... (they have everything to do with the spirit. They are powerful. In fact, they are endued with) …divine power… Do you understand, Christians, that the Bible tells you and I that the power that has been given to you and I to fight our battles is the very same power that raised Jesus Christ from the dead. That's what the Bible says in Ephesians. The power that has been given to you and I through the name of Jesus Christ is that same power that raised Christ from the dead. You have that power at your disposal. Isn't that crazy? And yet, what do we do? We just let Goliath stand over us and taunt us while we sit and don't hurt me. And the very power to vanquish this giant forever is ours by faith through the name of Jesus Christ. So Paul says, this power that you have is infused with divine power. That's God's power to do what? Demolish and destroy strongholds. Wow. So maybe there's a stronghold of unforgiveness. Maybe there's a stronghold of pornography. Maybe there's a stronghold of fear. A stronghold of any number of any other sins. Maybe there's a stronghold of jealousy. I could go on. You get the point. God has given you and I the power to demolish those things, to destroy those strongholds. But the first step is for you and I to say, apart from Christ, I can't do this. I cannot battle this thing in the power of my own flesh. So the only way this is going to happen is through the power of the living God. And some people, some Christians, are like, I could never hear myself saying that to say that, have that come out of my mouth. But through the power of God, I mean, the way David talked to Saul and then to Goliath. I mean, you and I are kind of taken aback almost by that level of boldness. I will destroy you. I'm going to kill you and I'm going to cut off your head. Right. And we, we're even a little repulsed by it. It sounds like, wow. Is that arrogance? No, that's faith talking. That's what it is. It's faith talking. My God is going to destroy this thing in my life through His power, not mine. And the reason we can't imagine those words coming out of our mouth is because we have not the faith to speak them. The rest of the soldiers in the Israelite army had not the faith to go up against Goliath. David did. So what makes the difference? How does faith come? The Bible tells us. ---

Faith comes by hearing. Hearing by the Word of God. Right? So we have to be so immersed in the Word of God in our lives that we're built up in our faith. We understand what weight lifting is all about. We live in this incredibly obsessed culture of physical, stuff. We know exactly what weight lifting does. Well, God has given the Word to you and I to build up our spiritual muscles so that we might have faith. That's how we increase our faith. By just getting into the Word of God. You ever realize, have you ever done that? Have you ever been afraid and you went to the Scriptures and you just read again the promises of God that are given there about how He's going to take care of you. How He's going to see you through? Have you ever had that momentary feeling of just like, okay, Lord, I trust You. Sometimes it can be very fleeting for some people. Other people whose faith is stronger, walk in it a lot more than you might think, but it's available to all of us. God hasn't left any of us out. If we will come to the Word and consume it, and allow it to just penetrate our hearts. How much time are you spending in the Word? A day, for example. And think about how much time you're spending in the Word versus the time that you're allowing other things to speak into your heart. Think about that. Whatever those other things might be. Could be television. It could be radio. It could be something on the internet. It could be movies or books or something like that. It could be news, whatever it is. Think about how much time during a day you spend being influenced. Maybe it's somebody who's chirping in your ear, words of doubt and doom. And think about how many—some of you work with people like that and they're constantly just talking about faithlessness and doubt and the world we live in is… Then you leave work and you got the shakes just from listening to that all day long. Boy you're in a situation where you got to fill up on God's Word. You might even need to go to that person and say, you know what? Zip it. Because I, I can't listen to this. Sometimes you have to do that. But think about how much time during the day you dwell upon or think about or are influenced by those things which actually cause fear to rise up in your heart and mind, and then versus how much time you're putting the Word of God into your heart, and being influenced by the Scriptures. It really tells a pretty interesting story.

Guys, usually in most of our lives, if we're going to be honest, it's just, it's a huge imbalance. We get very, very little of the Word of God on a daily basis. And we get a lot of whatever else we're getting. I've told you guys for years that I have been a news hound. What I mean by that is, I used to watch the news on TV. Then I had all my different news pages set up on my browser, and I would go there daily. You know that about six, eight months ago, I stopped watching the news. It's been wonderful. And it's just, I got to the point and it's not like I'm an ostrich putting my head in the sand, but you know what? I realized it was having an impact on my heart. And I would look at current events and I would look at what was going on in the world. And I found myself getting increasingly agitated and increasingly anxious about world events, things going on in the world. I thought, you know what? I got to fast from those things for a while and I need to fill up my heart with God's Word. And I'm in the Word a lot, from the standpoint of just preparing teachings, but I can't, do you know that I can't feed myself just alone with what I study to prepare to teach you? I've got to be in the Scripture for myself. So about that many months ago, I said, okay, I got to start reading through the Bible again. So started going through the Scriptures, just reading through the Bible in a year or so, or whatever, however long it takes. I don't really care, but I got to keep reading the Bible. I got to be in the Bible every day. Got to be reading Scripture every day or I start to lose it. And I'm no different than you guys. I know that. You guys probably start to lose it too. And when the Goliath comes and stands over us and makes his taunts, and our heart melts like wax, that's what's going on. God is allowing you to see the situation for what it is. You're not responding in faith. You're responding in fear. Right? You're responding like the Israelite army, not like David. David stood up and said, who are you to talk against the living God that way? Who are you? You're nobody, he basically said to Goliath. And that is the way, I think that's the birthright that every born again believer has. The birthright to be able to say, the battle belongs to my God, and I'm going to face this in the strength, power, and might of the Lord. And I'm going to confess my weakness. I am weak, but He's strong. He has the ability to make me strong.