David

We're in 1 Samuel chapter 17, actually.

The Bible reading is a complement to the passage we're looking at, which is an awesome passage of scripture, David and Goliath.

Does anyone know the story?

We do, don't we?

We're in a teaching series we've entitled Strong Eyes.

Now, the logo of the series should give away the fact that we're not talking about physical eyesight, we're talking about the eyes of our heart.

And CXX is Latin for 120, because we've reflected last week on the fact that Moses died at 120 years old with strong eyes.

They weren't strong eyes here so much as the eyes of his heart.

And our church, NorthernLife, is turning 120 this year, which is an awesome thing, something to really praise God for.

And we want, like Moses, to have strong eyes, amen, as we move on beyond 120.

And so that's the Latin CXX for 120.

Last time I preached on David and Goliath was June 2016.

June 2016, it was in the old red building.

It was that dilapidated, lovable old building that was needing renewal.

Was anyone there at the time?

A few of us.

And we were talking about giants in the land.

They were different giants back then.

One of the giants we were looking at was, how are we going to manage building this nine-story building?

North Point would do it for us, but it had a whole lot of challenges that came along with it.

It would take two to three years.

Would weather permit it all to happen well and within time and within budget.

Then we had to build the centre here, the ministry centre.

There were lots of other challenges.

Max was taking me around in his car looking for somewhere that we could have our ministry centre.

We didn't have that sorted at June 2016 when I was preaching about the giants in the land, David and Goliath, and referring to what are our giants as a church?

We had other giants.

Where were we going to be worshipping?

We had ideas that it would be at Barker as it worked out.

It didn't last that long there.

We ended up going down the road, but there were other things we were praying for.

What's going on with this?

Hopefully that won't keep moving.

Other things were, would we have an OH&S issue with North Point?

We used to pray.

Does anyone remember praying for safety?

We were praying for things like, Lord, help us not damage the neighbor's foundations and get sued.

There were so many issues that could have caused a problem.

Doug Schouler was looking after finances, and he was always like, you know what?

It's not often you come through with money in your pocket after this.

So there were lots of challenges.

That was 2016.

It's now 2023 and we made it.

Praise God.

God defeated on our behalf a lot of these giants, and it didn't come without a lot of hard work as well.

Notwithstanding, another big giant that we didn't know was out there lurking, called COVID and COVID lockdown, but we have made it through.

2023 will bring for us other scary giants, I am sure.

But this morning, I hope, as per usual, when you come to this passage, as a church, we will be really encouraged in the name of Jesus, by the bravery and the belief of David, a young man, but far more by the faithfulness and power of his God, who is our God.

So, we're in 1 Samuel, chapter 17, verse 1.

Now, the Philistines gathered their forces for war and assembled at Soko in Judah.

They pitched camp at Ephes Dammim, between Soko and Azekar.

The story of David and Goliath is set in Israel.

Now, if you were to go to Jerusalem and head west, 55 ks later, you're going to come to the Mediterranean.

And so, that's about the distance from the CBD of Sydney to Parramatta.

So, if you're headed that direction, halfway along, you're headed south towards Liverpool, that's the distance that Soko, this battle is from Jerusalem, Liverpool to the Sydney CBD.

And in this location, there are a couple of hills and a valley, and the Philistines are on one side, and the Israelites under Saul's command are on the other.

And in the middle, in the valley, they're meeting.

And a champion, verse 4, named Goliath, who was from Gath, came out into this valley.

And he came out of the Philistine camp, his height was six cubits and a span.

Scripture goes on to say that he was a proper giant.

Does anyone remember Shaquille O'Neal?

Anyone?

So this is Shaquille O'Neal next to Robert Wadlow, who is the Guinness Book of Records tallest man in history.

Shaquille O'Neal is seven foot one.

Seven foot one.

So a five and a half, six foot person is, let alone a small boy named David, young man.

They're pretty small compared to a giant like that.

Apparently, we're told he's not just a thin man, he's a very strong man, this man named Goliath.

He wears 57 kilograms of armour.

That's three bags of 20 kilo cement.

That's a lot of weight, isn't it?

Carrying that around.

This man is a genuinely powerful human being.

His spearhead is seven kilograms.

It looks something like that recreation of it.

He's genuinely freakishly powerful.

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

Am I not a Philistine?

Are you not the servants of Saul?

Choose a man and have him come down to me.

If he's 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 Philistines 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.

The giant just happens to be an accuser.

If we read further on, he likes to call them dogs and of very little worth.

He's an accuser of the brethren.

Now, in the Bible, in the Old Testament, in particular, you find things we call types.

Types of Messiah.

So Joseph is a type of Messiah.

David is a type of Messiah.

They point us towards what Jesus will ultimately be like.

And there are other types.

Types of the evil one.

Types of the Satan.

And that's what the Satan is.

Satan means accuser.

Did you know that?

If you are being accused by a powerful evil being, in your heart or mind, that makes sense, because the devil is not just being called the devil, he's called the accuser for a reason.

And this giant is a type of the accuser.

It's a powerful metaphor for life, isn't it?

The giant's in the land.

Imagine, 3,000 years approximately this story has been told.

Do you reckon throughout that whole period of history, human beings have been able to relate to giants in the land?

It doesn't matter when you live, we have giants.

Sometimes they're physical, not so much for us, people trying to break in and cause us harm.

But we certainly have giants that live in our minds.

They're not all imaginary, but this was an imaginary giant I had growing up.

My grandparents lived in Brisbane.

And at the end of their cul-de-sac in Brisbane, this was the house.

There was a fully haunted house at the end of their street in Brisbane.

At least, that is my memory.

That's a giant.

I went back there later as an adult, and it looked more like this.

And I found that a powerful and profound truth for life.

Don't you think?

The devil is a coward, and he attacks people when they're young.

He attacked Moses when he was young.

He attacked Jesus when he was young.

And often, he attacks us when we're young.

And he makes claims about what we are and who we are, what we've done, no matter if it was done to us.

And we have this challenge as young people, as children, to learn how to not make an agreement, to not make an inner vow with some of these accusations and say, no, that's not who I am, but he's very good at it.

Some of the agreements we make to these giants in our lives are, I will never be.

And this thing we will never be becomes a hurdle, a giant in the land that is scary, is a fear mongerer.

No one could ever love me, is another giant.

There are so many of them.

I am shamed and spoiled.

I am a failure.

I can never risk failure.

I could never do...

And these and so many other agreements in avowals drive the decisions that we make in life, and sometimes, sometimes lead to addictions and dependencies.

Giants in our lives, sometimes they are imaginary, but as we know, very often they are real.

There were big bad giants that did things to us in our lives, and we walk with a limp, we carry the scars, and we're wary of them, but they tend to make accusations.

So there is a nine-foot giant in the valley, and he's accusing the people of Israel, and they are scared, and so we pick up the story in verse 12.

Now David was the son of an Ephrathite named Jesse.

Now, has anyone ever wondered what an Ephrathite is?

I looked it up, it's exactly what you thought.

A man from Ephrath.

An Ephrathite named Jesse, who was from Bethlehem in Judah.

Jesse had eight sons, and in Saul's time, he was very old.

And in heaven, as we read about David, a musical motif like Indiana Jones in the Temple of Doom or something, da-da-dum-dum, da-da-dum, starts playing, because David is a great type of messiah, and he's a hero that is coming on the scene.

We heard, talked about him.

We read about him in the chapter before, but he's on the scene.

He's a shepherd, one of several brothers.

He's got seven older brothers, and he's from Bethlehem, which is not that far below Jerusalem.

And he's been travelling 23 kilometres to Soko West, where this battle is going on, and where his other older brothers are.

It's a strange predicament David finds himself in, because in the previous chapter, if you've read it, it's chapter 16, Samuel, who was a very significant character in Israel, he's a seer, priest, judge, prophet and military leader, he turns up and he has just anointed young David.

He doesn't say, you're going to be king, at least we're not told that David knows he's been anointed to be king.

But if that special man comes and anoints you, I reckon you're thinking, I'm a bit special.

Something's going on in my life.

Yet, he continues to basically be a water boy, carrying supplies down to the battlefront.

And of course, the other weird thing is Saul has this depression and the only thing that stops him flying into fits of rage is music, and the music happens to be played by David, who is a great harpist.

And so, he's this water boy, he's a musician, he's taking his time, he's waiting.

And we're actually told for 40 days, verse 16, the Philistine came forward every morning and every evening and took his stand.

And we know if you've done any of the Bible Loop teachings, these 40 days is a period of waiting, isn't it?

400 years, a period of waiting, 40 days, 40 years.

They're all periods where characters in the Bible, Jesus included, learn patience.

They learn that God is sovereign.

So David is waiting to be released into his calling.

He's being faithful in small things.

And he's trusting that God will give him some big things.

But these years aren't wasted, are they?

They're not wasted.

Who needs to hear that today?

Serving in the background is not a time that's being wasted.

When do you reckon he got the inspiration to write some of his classics, like Psalm 23?

Wasn't it when he was a shepherd?

Wasn't it when he was in these times of waiting, these seasons, that are frustrating?

They're long.

But in those times, he was able to learn about the God who was with him in the valley of the shadow of death.

Amen?

He learned what it was like to be in the harness of obedience and humility.

Verse 23 tells us, as he was talking with them, that's David with his brothers, Goliath, the Philistine champion from Gath, 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.

And David is wondering, who is going to do something?

What is going to be done about this blaspheming, problematic Philistine?

And in verse 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?

David is spending a lot of time with God, isn't it?

It's what you tend to do as a shepherd.

It's not a bad vocation if you want to spend some time with God out under the stars.

Have you ever noticed that if you haven't been spending quality time with God by his spirit, if you haven't been thinking about images, ideas and information that are holy and good and pure, then when you are confronted by that which is worldly, it's sort of water off a duck's back.

Now, I know some of us are working in environments that it's hard not to become familiar with that which is worldly and even blasphemous.

But have you noticed that when you are spending time in the presence of God, it pricks your conscience when you hear someone use his name in vain?

Would you say that's true?

I think David is living through this situation right now.

He is spending time in God's presence, and the Israelites are used to hearing these taunts from the giant, and David hears it, and he's like, who is this guy?

Who is this guy?

Defying the armies of the living God, blaspheming the name that is above every other name.

Verse 27, they repeated to him, to David, what they had been saying, and told him, this is what will be done for the man who kills him.

And then he gets confronted and challenged by his siblings.

His older brother, Eliab, heard what he said to the man.

He became very angry with David and said, why have you come here?

With whom have you left those few sheep in the desert?

He's cheeky, isn't he, this older brother?

You're not in the army, and you don't even look after them, these sheep.

I know of your pride and the sin of your heart, you have come to see the battle.

Classic prophet not welcoming his own town.

And maybe you've experienced that.

You feel the sense of God's call on your life, and those closest to you can't see it.

David goes to Saul and asks if he can have a shot at this giant.

Many of you know the story.

Please keep yourself interested, because it's worth it.

David and said to Saul, let no one lose heart, because that's something that we all do, isn't it?

Don't lose heart on account of this Philistine, this accuser, this giant in the land.

Your servant will go and fight him.

So he's talking to the king.

He's, don't lose heart, king.

Here I am, the heart playing young man who looks after a few sheep.

And Saul, reading into the text, he's probably thinking, OK, David, you're a good musician.

Now you're a comedian.

Now you're a comic.

Great.

Saul replies, you're not able to go against this Philistine and fight him.

You're only a young man.

He's been a warrior from his youth.

You can't do it, David, Saul says.

But David knows that words matter.

Amen.

Words matter.

Of course, they mattered in the Garden of Eden.

The whole fall of man's sin in humanity was because words were not taken seriously.

Yes.

Jesus was challenged by the same accuser, the same trickster, to disobey his heavenly father when he came and challenged Jesus in the wilderness.

And Jesus said, man does not live on bread alone, but every word that comes from the mouth of God.

Words do matter.

And David is saying back to Saul, you know what?

I've heard words from my heavenly father.

I've heard words from the living God.

And they are more clear in my mind and my head and my ears than your words, King Saul.

I'm not afraid.

It's because of a concept we've talked about before called front stage and back stage.

Some of you have heard it before for sure.

I came across this concept some years ago, maybe a decade and a half ago, and it's just stuck with me, the idea that we live our life on a front stage and a back stage.

And there's a curtain in between.

And what's on the front stage is everything that you show other people in your life.

But there's this back stage that only God sees and maybe a few people that you allow to come back with you.

On the front stage, I guess extroverts to make a great generalisation, they probably have more available to see on the front stage.

Sometimes they have a less developed back stage.

Is that fair to say?

Maybe not.

Introverts, they tend to give away less on the front stage and they have a more developed back stage.

When you think about Christianity, one of the problems is when we live our lives with a polished up front stage for others to see, but we're not careful about what we are doing and allowing to gather on the back stage.

And the metaphor goes something like people can store sewerage vats on their back stage, stuff that is no good for their soul, but no one can see it, so they think, well, it's fine, it will never come out, but some time along the way, the sewerage spills and comes out underneath the curtain.

And people are looking around going, well, what's that?

So how do we get around it?

Well, we look at the life of David and we say, we noticed that he exercised faith-inspired obedience on the back stage.

And I would put it to you that it's hard to do the right thing on the back stage unless it's driven by something, amen?

Because no one's watching apart from an invisible God.

To do the right thing when no one is looking is to have faith-inspired obedience.

I'm going to live a certain way on the back stage of my life because God said to.

Faith-inspired obedience.

And I think we're seeing in the life of this young man, David, what happens on the front stage when the challenges come, when the giants turn up, you have faith-acquired confidence on the front stage.

When you've exercised faith-inspired obedience on the back.

Yes?

Have you experienced that in your life?

When you step out in faith and debate on the back stage and you see God come through and do what he said he'd do, and change you and give you victory that no one else knows about, when the time comes to step out in faith with courage on the front stage, it's a whole lot easier.

Backstage obedience produces front stage confidence.

David said to Saul, Your servant was taking care of his father's sheep when a lion, when a bear came and took a lamb from the flock.

I went after him and fought him and saved it from his mouth.

David has done some stuff on the back stage.

He's exercised his faith-inspired obedience.

He defeated a lion and a bear.

The Bible doesn't say he did it at once.

That would have been impressive.

But, you know, sometimes, like, you think, well, there must have been an angel come down with a tranquilizer, you know, when that lion was coming at David.

Because, of course, he would have just sat back and watched God do all the work.

But if you think about Jonathan and his armor bearer running up hill at the Philistines, they fought all day.

And that's often what happened.

People actually had to fight.

I find it quite inspiring to think, maybe he actually fought the animal.

Maybe he did really fight the animal.

And that's impressive.

Think about some sizes of people.

A big sort of wrestler, we'll get to that in a minute, but a big wrestler might be 125 kilograms, a man.

The giant, Goliath, maybe he's 200 kilograms.

How?

Evan knows this exactly, but my research says 250 kilograms.

Look at him.

He's such an expert on animals.

Maybe 245, mate.

But I do appreciate checking in with you.

250 kilo animal travels at 60 kilometres an hour.

What about a bear?

They're not just cute and cuddly, the Eurasian bear.

They're about 400 kilograms.

Unbelievable strength.

Very fast.

Now, it's not nice that he had to kill these animals, but it would seem that he needed to, to save the sheep and to save his own life.

The point of this thinking about these animals is, it's jolly impressive that he defeated these animals.

So imagine this.

David is not just filled with reckless faith.

He's actually confident that probably with his sling as a weapon by the grace of God, he is a weapon with backstage acquired, obedient and confidence for the front stage.

He's like, you know what?

I'm not even scared about taking on a giant.

It's only a human being.

And so Saul, like Lord Farquaad from Shrek says, well, okay, off you go.

I know you're fodder, but it's a sacrifice I'm willing to make.

So then Saul dressed David in his own tunic, put a coat of armour on him and a bronze helmet, the 57 kilos.

And of course, when God calls you to do something, it's not to do it the way someone else might have done it.

Amen?

Do it the way you've been called.

And you've been gifted.

And so that's not going to work.

Verse 40, he took his staff in his hand, because he said that can't work.

He took his staff, chose five smooth stones from the stream, put them in his pouch.

And with his sling in his hand, he approached the Philistine, five smooth stones.

Why do you reckon there were five smooth stones?

It's a very interesting question.

Didn't he only need one?

Didn't he only need one?

What is the answer?

Well, there are lots of answers.

You could be Googling it now.

It's the New World Order.

Don't listen to the preacher.

Just look it up on Google.

Well, some people say there were multiple giants.

He did actually have multiple brothers.

So maybe there are a few other giants that David was afraid of.

I like the idea that David wasn't sure that he'd get him with one.

Don't you love that idea?

It wasn't going to necessarily be easy.

But he's like an archer.

He's not just a silly boy.

I mean, he's got a proper weapon.

So he takes five smooth stones because he just might miss, but he's not giving up.

Because he has decided by God's grace and God's power, I'm slaying this jolly giant.

So he runs to the battle.

A long time ago, it would be about 23 years ago now, I think, a bunch of people saw this giant at this church, the giant of redeveloping an old building.

Nineteen years ago from when we actually moved in, so it's, I guess, close to 23 years.

Wasn't that a big giant to take on?

So many churches fail to take on that giant.

It's just a big challenge.

Financially, they go under, or the thing that stops most churches from doing the redevelopment that they needed to, or lots of things, the market, property market, and the type of people they have.

But a lot of the time, the type of people they have, some less, more risk averse people just say, no, we're not doing it, and we'll split the church down the middle before we do.

You know, you hear, I could name churches that had great opportunities to do something like we did, but they didn't because people, they just didn't have the courage to step out.

But our people, those that have gone before, and some who are here with us today, had this dream, and guess what?

Guess how many stones it took?

More than one.

More than one.

I don't know if you'll know off the top of your head, Gary, but there are a couple of stalls, weren't there?

Yeah, in the process.

It looked like we might have done a couple of hundred thousand dollars in a DA that wasn't going to get used, but we kept going.

Kept praying, kept trusting, kept stepping out.

And 19 years after it started, it was done.

This building was refurbished and demolished and built into the centre that we have today.

What are you waiting on to take out in your life that's a genuine giant?

I've got some giants that have turned up this year, and I'm sort of working through how we're going to tackle them.

And I'm sure you do too.

We certainly do as a church.

Those same giants, they're not the main ones we're looking out for, but how do we solve the issues that confront us this year?

Well, we do it by faith and with courage that God is the same God who came through for David.

David said to the Philistine, You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the Lord Almighty.

That's a cool line, isn't it?

For the next prayer meeting.

What did take the giant down?

It was a sling, it was a good arm, it was skill, it was some obedience on the backstage and confidence that was built for the front stage.

But the actual reason was the power of the name of the Lord Almighty.

That's always the power for the people of God.

Not just in a church situation, in our private lives, this is where we find the power.

He says, I come against you in the name of the Lord Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defiled or defied.

This day, the Lord will deliver you into my hands, I'll strike you down, and cut off your head.

This very day, I will give the carcass of the Philistine army to the birds and the wild animals, and the whole world will know that there is a God in Israel.

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

We remember lines like that, don't we?

He ran to the battle.

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, just like Dargon, the Philistine God had done before.

Face down, the mocking giant, the accuser of the brethren fell face down.

So David, verse 50, triumphed over the Philistine with a sling and a stone, and this is a very important line, without a sword in his hand.

The symbol of might, the symbol of power, the symbol of military confidence and victory.

He didn't have a sword, without a sword in his hand.

He struck down the Philistine and killed him.

So we're stepping out again as a church, and we're stepping out as individuals because the church is made up of individuals, aren't we?

What's the giant in your land?

As I look around the church, I see people that have slayed giants, really do, people that have got up off the canvas, as it were, getting through difficult relationship breakdown, cancer, kids turning out, making choices that break our hearts.

The list goes on and on and on.

Would you agree?

Look around the room.

We've got people that are in their 90s, have been married for 50 plus years, others that have gone through the grief of losing their closest loved ones.

But we've got back up off the canvas, and by God's grace, we are a church of giant slayers, aren't we?

Aren't we?

I'm not trying to be silly and rally the cause.

I'm just trying to really ask you, are you a giant slayer?

Because you can be when you realise it's not in your strength.

It's being honest on the backstage.

Because no one's got a super clean, completely clean backstage, amen.

No one has.

It's what we need, the grace of God.

But as a church, if we can cling to the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the blood of Christ, which is enough.

The evil one is defeated.

Ultimately, I think it's Revelation 13, by the blood of the lamb and the word of their testimony.

And so as we move on into another year and face whatever giants may come our way as a church, as individuals, there's nothing better we can do than keep our eyes on the greatest giant slayer, hallelujah.

Sin, death and the devil, the three big giants that we will ever face as people on this planet.

Jesus defeated.

He's the giant slayer.

And he invites us to come into his power by his grace, and we're called to be his body.

Saints, we are giant slayers because we're in Christ, amen?

That's why we're giant slayers.

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