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Hi, this is Pastor Tom and I want to welcome you to week four of our look
through first and second Samuel, day one of week four. We're going to look at
first Samuel 17 the next two or three days. This is the story, the most famous
story in these books, the one that everybody knows, whether you're a believer or
unbeliever, wherever you live in the world, you know this story.

It's the story of David and Goliath. Now let me just catch you up to where we
are in first and second Samuel. We're doing this study of the heart.

Really, first and second Samuel are a matter of the heart. They talk about our
heart. And we've looked at Samuel, the man with an open heart.

We're through looking with him. He's off, he's gone to heaven now. This week
we're going to look at David, the man after God's own heart.

We're going to look at Saul again, the man with a troubled heart. And then next
week we're going to look at Jonathan, the man with a divided heart. We're
walking through looking at how God works in our heart.

And for much of the rest of first and second Samuel we're going to be looking at
David. A little bit this week and then after Jonathan next week we're going to
be focusing on David, who is called in the scripture a man after God's own
heart. You can see it in first Samuel 13, 14 and chapter 16.

What a title, what a title for this man that served God. Now why did David get
such a powerful tribute? He certainly wasn't perfect.

You probably already know that about his life. So it's not a matter of
perfection. Why was he called a man after God's own heart?

We're going to see as we walk through the rest of this study in the weeks to
come, five qualities in David's life that come to light. Number one, faith.
Number two, submission.

Number three, compassion. Number four, humility. And number five, worship.

And those are the five qualities that I see in the life of David that made him a
man after God's own heart. Each of these qualities were vibrant. They were alive
in David and they help you and I to see how we can live also.

Now today, the next few days, we're going to look at the first of those
qualities, David's faith. He had the kind of faith that could turn the
impossible into a victory like David and Goliath. For David, faith was much more
than just theology.

It was more than stained glass windows and organ music in some old church. For
faith, David meant life. It meant risk.

It meant stepping into the unknown. It meant trusting beyond the probable. It
meant fighting lions and defeating overwhelming armies and capturing enemy
cities.

Faith meant facing Goliath. So we're going to look at David and Goliath these
next few days. The story of the kind of faith that turns impossibilities into
realities, into victories.

And we're going to see two things about this kind of faith. We're going to see
what this kind of faith has to overcome. And we're going to see what this kind
of faith has to choose.

Let me begin 1 Samuel chapter 17 verse 4 with the situation. We all know what it
is, David and Goliath. It starts with this, with Goliath in verse 4.

A champion named Goliath, who was from Gath, came out of the Philistine camp. He
was over nine feet tall. He had a bronze helmet on his head and he wore a coat
of scale armor of bronze, weighing 5,000 shekels.

On his legs, he wore bronze greaves and a bronze javelin was slung on his back.
His spear shaft was like a weaver's rod and its iron point weighed 600 shekels.
His shield bearer went ahead of him.

Goliath stood and shouted to the ranks of Israel, "Why do you come out and line
up for battle? Am I not a Philistine? And are you not 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.

" And then in verse 16, "For 40 days, the Philistine came forward every morning
and evening and took his stand. " Now, David isn't in this battle. He's not
there with the armies.

Remember, he's the youngest son, so he's back taking care of the household,
taking care of the sheep in the household. But his father sends David up with a
meal for the sons, for the rest of the family, with some bread and some cheese.
And when he gets there, here's what happens in verse 26.

David asks 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? " They repeated to
him what had been said, telling him, "This is what will be done for the man who
kills him.

" So here's the situation. David's come. He sees there's this opportunity.

He sees that there is reward in the opportunity. He sees that there is this
threat against God. There is this person who is telling everyone that God is not
to be trusted, that God is not the greatest, and David can't stand it.

So he begins to have faith. But immediately he faces some things that could
steal his faith, some faith robbers. They're always going to be in your life.

When you want to take something and see how God can do the impossible, there are
people who want to make the possible impossible. Faith robbers. They have
statements and they have circumstances and they have ideas that will keep you
from faith.

They turn molehills into mountains. They turn possibilities into
impossibilities. These are the kinds of people and statements that change the
focus of your life, from God to the reasons you can't.

And David faces four of them specifically. Let's just walk through them because
they're the same kind of things you and I face that are going to rob us of
faith. The first statement that will rob us of faith is you're not ready.

You're just not ready. This came from David's older brother, Eliab. In verse 28,
when Eliab, David's oldest brother, heard him speaking with the men, he burned
with anger at him.

And he asked, "Why have you come down here? And with whom did you leave those
few sheep in the desert? I know how conceited you are and how wicked your heart
is.

You came down only to watch the battle. " Verse 28, the first thing that David
faced was this, you're not ready. You're out of place.

You're taking advantage. His brother being angry at him. You notice, if you look
at this, he questions his work.

He says, "You should be with the sheep. " He even diminishes his work. He says,
"Those few sheep in the desert.

That's all you can really do, David. Why don't you get to all that you can do? "
And then he questions his character.

He says, "You're conceited. You're wicked of heart. " Now, why does Eliab do
this?

Why do people sometimes say you're not ready to have faith? You're not ready to
take a great step of faith. Well, Eliab did it.

Same reason many other people do it. Because of his own fear. People will tell
you you're not ready when the truth of the matter is they're not ready.

You're not ready to share your faith when the truth of the matter is they're not
ready to share their faith. You're not ready to go on a mission trip when the
truth of the matter is they're not ready to go on a mission trip. You're not
ready for a life of purity when the truth of the matter is they're not ready to
live a life of purity.

Just go to an amusement park sometime. And go up to the roller coasters and
watch the parents tell their kids how they're not ready to go on the ride.
There's a park in our area that has a roller coaster literally called Goliath,
very fitting for our study this week.

This roller coaster is 26 stories high. It goes 85 miles per hour. It has a near
vertical 61 degree drop.

You have to be 48 inches tall to ride this ride. Do you know how many parents
walk up to that ride hoping their children are still 47 inches tall? Because
they don't want to ride that ride with their kids.

You're not ready, they say with a sigh of relief. Well, Eliab is saying to
David, you're 47 inches tall. You can't get on this ride.

You'll find in life that people that try to cut you down are usually short on
faith themselves. It may be about sharing your witness or giving comfort to a
hurting family or trying to teach a class. Your faith is going to be tested
sometimes with this.

You're not ready. You're 47 inches tall. Look from somebody else and you've got
to break through that.

You look at God instead. The second challenge he faces is the phrase, "You're
not able. " This came from Saul.

Saul just literally says, "You can't do it. " Beginning in verse 31 to 33, what
David said was overheard and reported to Saul and Saul sent for him. David said
to Saul, "Let no one lose heart on account of this Philistine.

Your servant will go and fight him. " Saul replied, "You're not able to go out
against this Philistine and fight him. You're only a boy and he's been a
fighting man from his youth.

" Saul just said, "You can't do it. Let's be realistic. You're only a boy.

Let's be honest. You're never going to be able to do this. " The world is filled
with experts on why it absolutely can't be done.

It's just a straightforward faith robber. And David faces it from the mouth of
Saul here. Think of how many lives and hopes and dreams and futures have been
destroyed by the words, "You can't.

" And people still love to say it. Why? Because it keeps us all at the same
level of mediocrity.

As long as no one in the army is willing to fight the Goliaths, everyone can be
comfortable in their fear. But once someone steps out, we're all challenged. So
Saul says, "You're not able.

" A third challenge is you're not me or you're not them. You're not this other
person who maybe could do it better than you. This is what's called the Saul's
armor syndrome.

I've got to be like somebody else. It comes from verse 38 when Saul finally
decides, "Well, David's going to do it. " Verse 38, "Then Saul dressed David in
his own tunic.

He put a coat of armor on him and a bronze helmet on his head. David fastened on
his sword over the tunic and tried walking around because he was not used to
them. " "I can't go in these," he said to Saul, "because I'm not used to them.

" So he took them off. Saul is essentially saying, "David, if I can make you
more like me, maybe then you can accomplish this. " Well, if it was for Saul to
accomplish this, we'll talk about this later in the week, he should have gone
and accomplished it.

He should have been the one. David wisely saw, "This is not for me. This is too
big.

This is too heavy. " He was not the size of a Saul, so he would have been
wandering around in this armor. Can you imagine how Goliath would have defeated
him?

David would have looked like a sardine in a can to Goliath. When you begin to
make faith an adventure, there's someone out there who's afraid to make faith in
an adventure, and they'll always be willing to give you advice that'll ruin your
faith. And one of the ways of advice is, you've got to be more like them to have
faith.

God made you to be you. The reason he made you to be you is you can have a faith
in a certain circumstance that no one else can have. So you look for the people
who say, "Let me help you to be more like Jesus," not the people who say, "Let
me help you to be more like me.

" You're not them. You're not me. And then there's the fourth challenge that he
faced.

Very simply, "You're not serious," and this one comes from Goliath. In verse 40,
"Then he, David, took his staff in his hand. He chose five smooth stones from
the stream.

He put them in the pouch of the shepherd's bag, and with his sling in his hand,
he approached the Philistine. Meanwhile, the Philistine, with his shield-bearer
in front of him, kept coming closer to David. He looked David over, and he saw
that he was only a boy, ruddy and handsome, and he despised him.

And he said to David, 'Am I a dog that you come at me with sticks? ' And the
Philistine cursed David by his gods. " He says, "It's just a stick, a skinny
stick you're standing up against me.

" Remember, David was a teenager, most likely, at this time, and an age when
words are taken to heart very seriously, but he didn't take those words to
heart. Faith and risk and personal commitment, they are exciting concepts until
this moment you face the Goliath, until your life is on the line. And then this
thought, this doubt is going to come into the back of your mind.

You're not serious. The temptation comes to retreat, to say, "I better get away.
I got to consider this a little bit more seriously.

" You see, there's always someone who's going to say, "Who do you think you are?
" There's always Satan in the back of your mind willing to put that doubt, "Who
do you think you are to have this kind of faith? " And the question is not who
you think you are.

The question is who you know God is. And that's where you stand. We're going to
talk about that more tomorrow as we see how David made his choice for faith.

But today, I know that many people live in a place of discouraged faith. Someone
has said one of these things to you at some point, and you've drawn back. You
haven't taken that step of faith.

Well, it's never too late. You can always take a step of faith. You're right on
the edge of faith, but it keeps getting discouraged by someone who says, "You're
not ready.

You're not able. You're not me. You're not serious.

" God can break through that by His power, through His Spirit. Let's pray right
now together that He would. Father, we pray together that You do something in
our lives that's above and beyond what we can do.

Help us to break through these things that would rob us of faith. Help us to
listen instead to You. We want to be humble.

We want to listen to others and good, wise words of advice. But Lord, we also
want to be faith-filled people and those who would spread doubt into our hearts.
Lord, help us to listen to You instead, to hear You instead.

Let us live this adventure of faith that only You can give to us, and we pray
that You would do this in our hearts, in our lives. In Jesus' name we ask this.
Amen.