Faith Over Fear: The Battle of David and Goliath Unveiled

So we're going to go ahead and continue our sermon series here in First Samuel.

And so if you were with us last week, we looked at the first part of 1st Samuel 17, and we looked at David and Saul and really the contrast between the life and the actions of David and Saul.

And we talked about faith versus fear.

And really, we saw Saul characterized by his fear, and we saw David characterized by his faith.

Saul saw the circumstances around him, specifically the giant, the Goliath, the.

The one from Gath, the Philistine champion.

He saw Goliath and he saw the overwhelming odds against him.

And he said, you know what?

I. I don't want to do that.

And I don't.

I don't want to stand up against him.

And there was fear amongst the camp.

And really, Saul's leadership, his fearful leadership, led to a bunch of fearful people.

And we see David, who was the unassuming guy that came on the scene, and he comes in, he says, is there not a cause?

Why are we letting this Philistine mock our God?

Our God is way more powerful.

He says, who is this Philistine compared to our God?

And.

And those words.

And ultimately, David's action proved his faith.

And his belief was that God was going to take care of him, that.

That no one can stand against the Lord.

And so we looked at the differentiation between Saul's fear and David's faith.

And we're all called to have that type of faith.

We're all called to stand up against that giant that we might be facing in our life and face it with faith instead of fear.

And fear can do a lot of things for us.

Fear can bring us doubt.

Fear can bring us trepidation.

Fear can bring us apathy.

It can bring us all these different things that we don't want to have in our life.

But what faith brings us is faith brings us courage, confidence in the Lord.

And even I love that word confidence.

If you.

If you're like me, sometimes I like to dig into the meaning of words and how the word is created.

And the word confidence is a.

Is a Latin word, confide, which means with faith.

So really, when we're living with confidence, we're living with faith.

And we can have confidence in all different types of things.

There's some people that have confidence in their own skills or their own glory or their own wisdom.

But, folks, all those things in our own strength will fall.

They will falter.

But faith in God will never falter.

And so we're going to pick it up here in verse number 31.

And so if last week was faith over fear, this week is being prepared for the position that God has us for in our life.

A lot of times in our life, we don't think that we can do what God's calling us to do.

But if you recall back, what do we Talk about?

Philippians 4:13.

I can do all things through Christ, which strengthened with me.

That doesn't mean that I can do whatever I want.

But what that means is that when God brings me to a position, or if he brings me to a trial, or he allows this test to come to me in my life, he's going to give me the preparation, the power, the provisions, and ultimately his presence to give us the things that we need to equip us in that battle.

So verse number 31, we come right off the heels of David making this statement of faith, and obviously the people are.

Are moved by this.

And the word gets back to Saul, verse 31.

And when the words were heard, which David spake, they rehearsed them before Saul and he sent for him.

And so obviously Saul is interested.

This, this gives him some sort of interest to say, who is this individual who's standing up against Goliath?

And David comes before him.

And obviously Saul and David have already known each other by this point.

We know that David's been there with Saul.

And so David said to Saul, let no man's heart fail because of him.

Thy servant will go and fight with this Philistine.

So we see David really putting his feet to his faith.

It wasn't that Saul was, was like, you know what, can someone fight him?

No.

Saul is at this point hopeless.

And now David comes on the scene.

And David begins to stir in the hearts of the people some type of hope.

And so he says, all right, everybody, you calm down.

God's got the situation, and I'm willing to be the one that steps into God's plan here.

And, and we even know earlier on, David's older brother was questioning David's motivations.

But we know the heart of David here, and David's heart is to follow God.

So verse 33.

And Saul said to David, thou art not able to go against this Philistine to fight with him, he says, for thou art but a youth.

And he a man of war from his youth.

And so we see Saul's perspective.

Saul's perspective is still set in the material world.

Saul's per.

Perspective is still set in this on paper or fight that might be happening.

He says, look, David, you're.

No, you're Nobody.

You're, you're, you're young, you're weak.

And Goliath, who he is, he's big, he's strong, he's experienced.

And so Saul thought David was disqualified because of his age.

He thought that he was disqualified because of his size.

He thought that he was disqualified because of his inexperience.

And this shows that Saul is still looking at the battle in a very natural sense.

Instead of looking at it from the spiritual sense, he's basically looking at all the things that are before him and saying, you know what?

It just doesn't add up, David, so don't do it.

And I don't know if you've had anyone in your life that has told you that, you know, they looked at what you're doing in your life, and they might say, that doesn't make a lot of sense.

And sometimes when we follow God in faith, it doesn't make sense.

And maybe you've even been tempted in your own life to think the same thing about yourself.

You know, I'm not qualified.

You know, we don't have any really young youth in this room.

But the reality is, is that all of us at some point could probably identify with David in the fact that we thought that we were inexperienced or not capable to do something.

But David has faith that God is more powerful.

And it maybe it even makes me think about the passage that we see in the New Testament when Paul is talking to Timothy and he says, let no man despise thy youth.

And so it's not always about age.

It's not always about experience.

It's about having faith in the Lord and being a willing vessel for God to work through you.

And so you might think in your life, you know what?

People are saying things.

Maybe people are saying that I can't do this or that maybe God isn't going to be faithful.

All we have to do is go back to the fact that if God is working in our lives, he will get us through the struggles that he's bringing us to.

So verse number 33, he says, you can't do it.

You're a youth.

He's been fighting since he was a youth.

And let's look at David's response, because David could have responded in such a way that says, you know what, Saul, you're right.

Maybe I was a little bit too overzealous.

Maybe I was too emotional.

Maybe I need to back up.

But no, he doesn't respond that way.

And David said unto us all, thy servant kept his father's sheep and there came a lion and a bear and took a lamb out of the flock.

And I went out after the.

After him and smote him and delivered it out of his mouth.

And when he arose against me, I caught him by his beard and smote him and slew him, thy servant, slew both the lion and the bear.

And this uncircumcised Philistine shall be as one of them, seeing he hath defied the armies of the living God.

Now we'll stop there.

What does he do here?

This is very important to note because so many times we're going to read a passage of Scripture that we've heard probably a thousand times and just gloss over it and not really dig deep into the spiritual implications.

What does David do here when he's faced with this naysayer, when he's faced with, with doubters?

He recalls back to what God has done before for him.

He.

He calls back to the power that God has provided in the past, and he's reminded of that.

And he uses that for his fuel, his motivation to trust in God today.

So when we're sitting here in our own lives and we're thinking, you know what?

I don't know if God's going to get me through this one.

Well, go back to how he got you through the last one.

Go back to the time he got you through that one 20 years ago.

And, and I think that in my life, sometimes I'm so tempted to forget about God's faithfulness yesterday that I'm doubting God's faithfulness today and maybe even tomorrow.

And so sometimes that's why in church we need to recount what God has done for us in the past.

We need to share our testimonies with people.

We need to share it with those that might need that encouragement within their life.

And so that's what he does here.

He.

He recalls what God has done for him in his life.

He says that, hey, you know what?

I had this lion come against me.

I had this, this.

This bear come against me and steal my father's sheep.

And yet God got me through it.

And I was able, through the power of God to wipe out those enemies.

And I'm going to do the same thing in the power of God.

And he says that right there.

He says, the, this uncircumcised Philistine shall be as one of them, seeing he hath defied the armies of the living God.

And David said, Moreover, verse 37, the Lord that hath delivered me out of the paw of the lion, and out of the paw the bear.

He will deliver me out of the hand of this Philistine.

You see it there, right?

He doesn't take credit for Himself.

Verse 37.

He gives all the credit to the Lord for the past victories and for this victory that is to come.

And I think that's so important for us to know in our lives because we're tempted.

At least maybe I would be tempted at some capacity in my own life to think that if I wiped out a lion and I wiped out a bear, I'm a pretty strong warrior.

And maybe there was a temptation to start to think that that came from his own strength.

But we're going to see that when he goes out against Goliath, he completely relies on the power of God to have this victory.

And so when we're facing struggles in our own life that might seem too daunting, that might seem overwhelming, we have to go back to the fact that it's not we who are fighting the battle on our own.

When we're believers, we're fighting the battle with God on our side, the one who conquered death.

The Bible says in Romans that the same power that rose Jesus from the dead is the one that's living within us.

And so oftentimes we think that we're limited and in our own selves we are limited, but we're serving a God who is unlimited in his power and his wisdom.

And so Saul said unto David, go, and the Lord be with thee.

And so Saul recognizes that David is convicted and, and, and that confidence is seen in the power of God.

And so Saul agrees to support David to go, and he says, go, and the Lord be with you.

And we, we know that, that Saul definitely didn't understand what that meant.

By this point in time, he had already drifted away from the Lord.

And so verse 37 is essentially Saul saying, well, I see God's on you, so I'm going to trust that he's going to deliver you.

And so David knew that God's help in times past was a promise and a reminder that he would be there now.

So verse 38, let's see.

Saul continues to think about it from his man focused perspective.

So Saul arms David with his armor.

So Saul's like, well, the only way that I can help you is give you this armor.

And we're going to see.

You guys know the story.

This armor is not going to fit David.

And he put a helmet of brass upon his head.

And he also armed him with a coat of mail.

And David girded his sword upon his armor, and he essayed to go.

So he's getting ready to go, for he had not proved it.

And David said unto Saul, I cannot go with these, for I have not proved them.

And David put them off him.

Now what, what is this all about?

Well, David is getting prepared for battle.

We know by God, but now Saul is going to try to prepare him for battle.

And Saul is going to still be in his natural mind, in the flesh, in the things that are outward.

And he figures that, hey, if this guy's going to go out to battle against Goliath, we might as well put the best armor on him, give him the best tools.

And so he gives him his armor and he's the king.

And so we know that Saul had the best armor.

And Saul tries to put his armor on David, but it's not going to work because why?

Saul's armor didn't fit David.

It wasn't for David, it was for Saul.

God already had prepared for David a better route.

Everything was too big and David couldn't move well with them.

He says, you know, I'm not, I'm not like, this isn't like me, this isn't for me.

And so the Lord God of Israel was going to give him the army armor that he needed.

And he didn't need Saul's protection, he had God's protection.

And I think so many times in our life, at least for me, I can speak from my own experience.

Oftentimes when I'm going to take a step of faith, I want a lot of other people to validate me.

I want people to tell me, hey, that's a good idea, that, that, that's a good thing.

Let me, let me give you some resources.

Let, let me help you with this.

And sometimes that might be the case, but other times people might be well intending, but they might not have the best advice.

Because maybe someone might say, yeah, I wouldn't do it that way.

Well, the truth is, is that if God has convicted your heart and given you confirmation and the peace of the spirit and he moves you that way, someone might question you, but they might not have the same perspective.

They might not have the grace of God resting upon their life.

And so what we see here is that David respectfully tries to put Saul's armor on, but he says that's not going to work.

And so David moves on.

He trusts the Lord.

And so many people try to give us their way of doing things and maybe there's godly wisdom, maybe there's good guidance And I think that we should seek godly wisdom within our life.

But in this case, Saul was not giving David the right advice.

And so David moves on and he trusts the lord.

So verse 40, David is going to arm himself in the guidance of the Lord.

Verse 40.

And he took his staff in his hand and chose him five smooth stones out of the brook and put them in a shepherd's bag, which he had even in a script.

And his sling was in his hand and he drew near to the Philistines.

So most of you know the story.

David goes down to the brook, right there in the valley of Eli.

He picks up five smooth stones.

Now, when I was growing up, I always wanted to know why five, why five smooth stones?

And there's a lot of debate about this.

I, I, I've searched this over and over and over again.

And one thing that I did find, and some of you may or may not know this, but Saul did, or, excuse me, Goliath in 2nd Samuel, chapter 21 reminded that Goliath did have four relatives who were also giants and his associates and him, David and his mighty men went and killed those guys later.

And so some commentators say, well, he was getting ready for Goliath's four brothers to come after him.

Maybe that's what was the case.

Other people say, well, he was just being prepared.

Maybe he was, you know, storing up backup just in case he needed them.

But whatever the case is, it's there five smooth stones and he's ready and he's prepared to go to battle with his sling.

And most importantly, the power of God, verse 41.

And the Philistine came on and drew near unto David, and the man that bear the shield went before him.

So we see that Goliath is coming towards him along with Goliath's armor bearer.

And, and this is where the rubber meets the road.

David could have been brave back in the camp with Saul.

David could have been brave with the brook there with the stones.

But now he's face to face with the giant, with his enemy.

And now really, here's the test.

He could have said all he wanted to say behind the scenes, but now he is going to act in faith.

And really interestingly, we see throughout scripture that it is important for what we say.

Certainly we should profess our faith in Jesus Christ, but in the book of James, it also talks about how that empty faith that isn't proven by our actions is empty Now.

Now, salvation is not by works.

We know salvation is by faith.

But true faith is going to produce works and actions that come along with that.

And so we're seeing David already in his heart believing.

He believes that God is going to do this, but he's proving to others his belief in God by going out to the battlefield and standing against the Philistine.

That's real faith.

That's substantial faith.

And I think for me, I. I'm very tempted to be outwardly faithful around people who are faithful.

So, like at church, it's very easy for me to stand up and say, God is good.

God's going to get us through this.

But the test is when we're actually away from church and we're in the world and we're struggling with persecution or we're struggling with.

With a trial or sickness.

That's when true faith matters.

And so I would encourage you to think about this.

I would encourage you to think about taking that step and.

And putting feet to what we believe.

And so he says, okay, I'm going to go.

And he goes, verse 42.

And when the Philistine looked about and saw David, he disdained him, for he was but a youth and ruddy and a fair countenance.

And so we're going to see here that Goliath looks at David and he says, he's no threat.

He's nobody.

He's just a little kid.

Basically.

He says he can't do anything.

And his Response in verse 43, and the Philistines said unto David, am I a dog?

That thou hast come, comest to me with staves.

And the Philistine cursed David by his gods.

Now, it's really interesting verse, verse 43, he says, am I a dog?

When I was in Rwanda and we were talking and we were using a translator, I had to really remember that some, you know, English, American idioms are not going to transfer over into Karawandan.

Okay, so, for example, if I was telling the guys they're about to go do a skit before our church service, and I said, okay, guys, go break a leg.

They're going to be like, transfer over to Kirajan.

And they're going to say, break a leg.

What does that mean?

You know?

And we know in America that means that's a good thing, like, go do well.

But for them, they wouldn't make sense.

So when we look at this, am I a dog?

We would take it from our perspective of he's just saying, am I a dog?

But there's actually a lot more to that in the Hebrew.

It was a question of his manhood.

It was a question of his Masculinity.

And essentially what he's saying is like, are you really going to come against me with this little guy?

You're questioning me?

And he takes it personal, which we might understand why he would take it personal, because he doesn't understand the power of God.

Goliath walking as a pagan, he's walking as a rebel to God.

He's cursed God, and now he's trusting in his own gods.

But ultimately we know that the God of Israel is far more powerful than any Philistine or their false gods.

So verse 44.

And the Philistines said to David, come to me, and I will give thy flesh unto the fowls of the air and to the beasts of the field.

Now, I don't know about you guys, okay, I, I try to put myself in the shoes of Bible characters sometimes and, or, or in their sandals.

And so David's going out, and if I'm David, I'm like, okay, I'm gonna do this.

But when he says that.

And I, I, I don't know what Goliath would have sounded like, but if he was a giant, he probably was a pretty imposing character and a pretty imposing VO voice.

And he's giving a pretty imposing statement here that he's going to not only kill him, but give the flesh into the fowls of the air, into the beast of the field.

And so David is tested here.

Basically, what Goliath is saying is, bring it on, okay, I'm going to give you everything that I got.

And sometimes that's what the enemy does.

Sometimes that's what someone who is opposed to God's plan is going to do within our life, they're going to fight even harder.

Because sometimes we think if we stand up, people are just going to give in, or the enemy is going to give in.

But oftentimes they're going to rear up.

They're going to get even more grounded in their evil.

And so what's going to happen here is that really David is going to be tested in verse 45.

Then said David to the Philistine, now come to me with a sword and with a spear and with a shield, but I come to thee in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom thou hast defied.

Now, I mean, you could summarize everything about David in this chapter to verse 45.

This is his marching orders, this is his motivation, this is his confidence.

He says, yeah, you come to me with a huge sword.

You come to me with a big spear, a Big shield.

We even saw earlier on in this chapter that his armor and his things probably weighed over 200 pounds.

I mean, this is.

This is huge weapons against him.

But David said, I've got something bigger.

I've got a bigger weapon.

I've got more power.

And he says right there, I'm coming in the name of the Lord.

So, folks, I'm going to tell you this.

We are given tools to fight with.

The Bible tells us in the book of Ephesians that we have the armor of God.

And, you know, many of the people that are facing trials in their life think that they have to do it on their own.

But the Bible says that God gives us the helmet of salvation.

He gives us the breastplate of righteousness, the belt of truth, the shoes of the gospel of peace.

He gives us our offensive weapon, the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God.

Folks, David gives us an example of trusting in the word of God, the name of God.

But also we even see in the New Testament that, that Jesus gave us the example of what to do when we're facing a trial, when we're facing a temptation.

And that is to quote Scripture, that is to rest in Scripture.

And so we see David trusting in the Word.

And I encourage you to trust in the Word as well.

One of the things that was taught to me very early on in my life, and I wish I could tell you that I was faithful in it in all cases, but I haven't been.

But one of the things that really helped me out in my life, and it might help you, is that if you know that there's going to be trials in your life, and by the way, trials will come, temptations will come, evil will come.

The.

The truth is, is that when we are able to hide God's Word in our heart, Psalm 119 is all about that.

Hiding God's Word in our heart, that we won't sin against him.

Folks, be prepared, be ready, have your tool, have your five smooth stones ready to go.

And the truth is, is that in my life, I know where many times evil is going to attack.

Some of us have those sins that easily beset us.

And I would encourage you to get into the Word, find passages of Scripture that you can pull up in times of struggle, in times of doubt.

If you have areas of fear in your life, if you have areas of pride, if you have areas of temptation and lust, or you have temptation of, of any of these things that we're called not to do within our lives, find those Scripture verses that Speak to that and be able to deal with that in a way that's being preparation for battle.

And so David was prepared by the word of God to go into battle against Goliath.

And you are prepared in the word of God so that you can go into the giant that you're facing within your life.

And so verse 46, he says, this day the Lord will the Lord deliver thee into my hand.

This is speaking of confidence.

He says, I will smite thee and take thine head from thee, and I will give the carcass of the host of the Philistines this day unto the fowls of the air and to the wild beasts of the earth, that all that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel.

Now, if you don't catch what he's doing there in verse 46, he's not just saying, hey, I'm going to win.

He's saying, God wins.

And I want everyone to know that God wins.

This would be kind of a very roundabout way to go about our idea of sharing the gospel with people.

David is saying, I want everyone to see the power of God.

I want everyone to see the salvation of God.

And for us in our life, the way that we go through trials is going to be one of the greatest messages that we can preach to the whole world.

I mean, if we're Christians and we say, hey, you should trust in Jesus, you should find his salvation, you should understand his forgiveness.

But yet we walk in fear, or we walk in cowardice, or we walk in some type of selfishness, then that's not going to be a testimony that proclaims to the whole world that Jesus changes their life, that he gives us the strength.

It's a.

It's a testimony that we're not confident that we're not consistent in our faith.

But what David says is, I'm going to beat you in faith.

And this victory is going to show the whole earth that there is a God in Israel.

And so his whole goal was to profess to the world the power of God, the truth of God, the salvation of the Lord.

And that should be our goal as well.

Our goal should be to profess to the world the power of God, the forgiveness of God, the salvation that he extends to us.

You know, there's.

There's a time in one's life where I do believe that we should narrow down our focus to understand what our purpose is in this world.

And, and I think every individual has to come to grips with that at some point.

Many people walk through Life not knowing their purpose and waste many, many years.

And I'm going to tell you that as a Christian, your narrowed focus is to give glory to God by leading people as the Great Commission tells us, to know the truth and the salvation of Jesus Christ.

Now for some people, that's preaching behind a pulpit.

For other people that's serving at different capacities within the church.

But all of us are called to proclaim that message to a lost and dying world.

And when you understand that, that's your focus.

When you understand that really all of everything that we do in our life is a call to bring people to Jesus, it at least gives us a direction in where we can go.

And so I would tell you that one of the things that I've been really working through in my life is, is trying to simplify very what we would consider complex things.

And I would say life for many people is complex.

A lot of people ask the question, what's the meaning of life?

As a Christian, what am I supposed to do?

What are these relationships supposed to be like?

And, and for me, I'm just going to tell you the way that I'm understanding the Christian life to be that I really believe that all relationships should be either one of two things.

Either an evangelistic relationship or an edifying or exhortation relationship.

Meaning if they're unsaved, I'm doing everything that I possibly can to point them to Jesus.

Okay, it might not be that I'm preaching a three point sermon and giving them a poem and an outline every single day, but my desire for them should be to know Jesus and understand his truth and salvation.

And then if they're a Christian, I don't need to get them re saved.

What I need to do is show them the truth of God and they can grow and encourage them and edify them in the truth of who Jesus is and their spiritual growth process.

And so for all of us, if we narrow that down, every victory that we have in our life can point to those two areas.

And so that's what he's saying here.

He's saying, look, I want everyone to know.

And so verse 47, and all this assembly shall know that the Lord saveth not with sword and spear, for the battle is the Lord's and he will give you into our hands.

The battle is not a physical battle, even though there might be some aspects of physicality within our spiritual life.

The Bible says that we don't wrestle against flesh and blood.

He says this is not a victory with the sword and the spear, but this is a spiritual victory that the Lord is going to give us and that the Lord is working in our lives.

And so David is professing the power of God, he's professing the presence of God, he's professing the provisions of God.

And, and so he's going to slay Goliath.

Verse 48.

You guys know the story.

And it came to pass when the Philistines arose and came and drew nigh to meet David, that David hasted and ran toward the army to meet the Philistines.

So again, I think every single verse is just building and showing us David's faith.

David runs towards him and David put his hand in his bag and took fence a stone and slang it and smote the Philistine in his forehead.

That the stone sunk into his forehead and he fell upon his face to the earth.

And, and this shows just ultimately the power of God.

Now you would say, I, I've seen those videos where there's guys who are, you know, I don't know about you, but I, I've watched videos of these guys that really can sling the stone and go.

And, and certainly there's probably some physical strength that's going behind David's hand here.

But at the end of the day, we know through context of scripture that this is completely by God.

This is a victory that comes through the power of God.

And so at this point in time, David is victorious, but he's not done with the battle.

We're going to see what he does next.

Verse 50.

So David prevailed over the Philistine with a sling and a stone and smote the Philistine and slew him.

But there was no sword in the hand of David.

Therefore David ran and stood upon the Philistine and took his sword and drew it out of the sheet thereof and slew him and cut off his head therewith.

And when the Philistines saw the champion was dead, they fled.

So what's the result of this?

Those that are rebellion to God flee.

They run because the power of God has been proven.

And so many Christians struggle with the understanding of fear or maybe the understanding of doubt.

But at this point in time, I would venture to say that the Israelites, when they see this happen, there was no doubt in their mind that God was in control, that God is powerful enough.

David shows them what it means to trust in the power of God.

And so though we know David's not perfect, though we know that David makes a lot of mistakes in his life, in this case right here in this passage of Scripture.

He shows us what it means to walk in faith, to to exercise the power of God through his life.

And so David shows victory and David is trusting in the Lord.

And we're going to see the next week how, how really Saul responds to this and how many of the people respond.

And we're going to see that there's some questions there.

We're going to see that ultimately there's some jealousy that comes about in 1st Samuel chapter 18.

But what are some lessons that we can learn from this whole instance of the battle?

Because really I think you can break down 1st Samuel 17 into three sections.

You have the pre battle, the preparation, you have the battle itself and then you have the aftermath of the battle.

And so ultimately what we can see is that there's two responses to trials within our life.

We can respond with faith or we can respond in fear.

And David responds in faith, Saul responds in fear.

But then we also need to see that when God does call us to exercise our faith, he prepares us for the battle at hand.

And I don't know how God's prepared you in your life.

God's prepared different people in different ways.

But ultimately it's preparation in the word of God.

It's preparation and knowing what God has said.

You know, I think a lot of times many reasons why people don't trust in the Lord is because they don't know what God has promised.

There's been a lack of understanding of the promises of God or maybe there's just a lack of trust in the promises of God.

So I would encourage you to dig deep into the word of God.

I would encourage you to read passages of Scripture that are promises to the New Testament Christian.

And like Romans chapter 8.

Romans chapter 8 is a wonderful passage of Scripture to be reminded that nothing can separate us from the love of God, that, that we're more than conquerors, that there's therefore now no condemnation to those that are in Christ Jesus.

I would encourage you to read passages of scripture like first Timothy, chapter four, verse 12, let no man despise thy youth and many other passages of Scripture that give promises about how God is going to be with us.

Philippians.

Philippians is a great passage.

Philippians 4.

I don't know if you've ever just walked through a whole study in Philippians, but particularly Philippians chapter four tells us many things about the joy of the Lord, about having some type of what I would say is confidence or maybe even just contentment in what God brings to us in our life.

There's so many Christians that are just walking in life with discontentment.

And a lot of times it's like, well, God hasn't given me what I think I deserve, or God hasn't given me something that he has promised me.

But at the end of the day, when you go and read passages like Philippians chapter four, or you go through the book of Ephesians, you realize that God has given us abundant spiritual riches.

And so I want to take you just to a few verses that, that speak to some principles in that.

And if you go to the book of Psalms, Psalms 1:19, Psalm 119, we know that the psalmist here is giving us the power of the Word of God.

And really, if you think about it, David was trusting in the power of the Word of God and, and the proof of the Word of God.

If you go to Psalm 119, and man, we could pick out so many verses in this chapter.

But I think we could start with verse number five, which is actually the theme verse for our NBC kids program on Wednesday nights.

Oh, that my ways were directed to keep thy statutes.

The desire would be that our ways, that our path would be directed by the Word of God.

You know, it's so easy to get distracted with the things of this world and allow us to make our decisions about our families, about our personal walk, about even our Christian life through the feelings or the, the motivations that the world tells us to trust in.

But when the Bible says that we should have our ways directed by his statutes, it means this, that we should trust in the Word above what we feel, or trust in the Word above our culture.

And so verse number nine.

Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way by taking heed thereto according to the Word of God.

How do.

How are we going to find the right path?

How are we going to be cleansed in our way?

Well, taking heed unto the Word of God, so many other verses that we could look at in this passage of scripture.

Verse number 11, the.

The right there, it says, thy word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against thee.

If you jump ahead even more, you.

Psalm 119, 105.

I mean, very, very, very popular verse.

It says this.

Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path.

I. I don't know about you, but there's been times in my life we'd like to, especially me and my son, we like to go out into the wilderness and, and explore.

And sometimes we have gotten turned around in the dark and, you know, you trust in your flashlight.

When your flashlight dies, then you're just trying to figure it out.

And it's a scary feeling to be lost.

It's a scary feeling to be in the dark.

It's a scary feeling not to know which way is north, south, east, or west.

And you're walking in the wrong direction.

And.

And so sometimes that's how people are walking about in this world.

They're in darkness.

They're trying to find their way.

But it's like, I hope that this is the right way.

I hope that I'm raising my children properly.

I hope that me doing this is the right decision.

But there's no consistent understanding of the lighted path.

There's no.

There's no way to know what.

Which.

The next.

The next step is going to be into a hole or to.

And maybe a.

Wild animals over here.

Right?

There's.

There's all these things that could happen in the dark.

But the Bible says in Psalm 119, 105, that the word of God is a lamp unto our feet and a light into our path.

It can show us which way to go, which way to step, which way to trust in.

I. I like 1:15.

Or, excuse me, verse 114 of Psalm 119.

Thou art my hiding place and my shield, my I hope in thy word.

There's.

There's so many verses here, and I would love at some point to go through all Psalm 119.

But what I will say is this.

If we're trusting in the Lord, to trust in the Lord means to trust in His Word.

We can't say we trust in God, but then we deviate from His Word.

And so what David says is this.

Look, God is going to give us the victory, and I'm going to trust in that.

And I know that's a simple message.

I know that's a message that we could, you know, even give to our children.

Is this.

If God says it, we have to trust in it.

Titus, the book of Titus tells us that God does not lie.

And so when God's Word says something, as much as I might doubt it, as much as I might have a hard time understanding it or wrapping my mind around it, what I have to do is say, lord, I trust in you.

In this process.

I might not know all the answers.

I might not have the why behind this.

I might not even know what the outcome is.

I'm a planner.

I like to plan things far out in advance.

But God has taught me so often that I can get myself in trouble putting my Trust in my plans.

I've got my one year plan, my three year plan, my five year plan, my ten year plan.

And that's great.

I don't think there's anything wrong with planning.

I think it's a good thing to plan.

But at the same time, God has proven himself over and over again to show me that those plans are good, but he has different plans.

I know if I go back 10 years, so this, this June, we have been living in Delaware for nine years.

Okay?

We moved in 2017, we moved in 2017 here.

So that would be, that would be nine years.

And you know, if I went back 10 years into my life and thought out my 10 year plan, I'm going to tell you my 10 year plan.

I love it here.

But my 10 year plan was not to be in Delaware, okay?

I was living in Florida at that point.

I had a plan.

I had, I had thoughts about where I was going to be, what I was going to be doing.

But now I look back and say I couldn't have planned it any better.

God ordained everything just to be so.

And I'm thankful for that.

And I'm thankful that God didn't allow me to have my plan because my plan would not be where I am today.

And I think all of us could have testimonies of that.

I think all of us could say, you know what, I see God's hand in this.

And if I was about my own devices, I might have went the wrong way.

But God has allowed us to take those steps.

And I would even say that even when we do make mistakes, God is powerful enough to recourse, correct us and get us right back on track.

And so I would encourage you to trust in the Lord.

Next week we're going to look at 1 Samuel, chapter 17, the conclusion of the matter and what the outcome of that would be.

And most of you know the story, but I think that it's always good to be reminded of these very, very famous stories.

And they're, and they're popular for a reason.

And then we'll come back and then one of the unique things that we're going to be doing on Wednesday nights here moving forward is that you will be hearing, you'll still be hearing a lot from me, I promise you that.

But also on Wednesday nights, you're going to hear a lot more from Pastor Ethan.

And so what we're going to be doing is kind of working through passages of scripture together.

We won't be preaching at the same time.

That might be a little bit Confusing.

Okay, we talked about it.

We shopped around that idea of like, maybe we could stand up on stage and talk back and forth to each other, but that might be a little distracting, but we might get through a passage and then so Pastor Ethan might be going through it after.

And so we're going to work through that.

And, and I think it is a beneficial thing for you to hear other voices and, and see different, not, not different teachings and different perspectives because we should have the same perspective on the Word of God.

That is the word of God.

But sometimes it is good to have a different viewpoint from the perspective of the way that it's delivered.

Because I was just having a conversation with a dear brother about this, that when we were reading through scripture.

I've read through scripture many times, but each time I read through scripture I get something new, I get something more.

And that's the power of scripture.

And so I just love the fact that the Word of God is alive and it's sharper than any two edged sword.

And we're excited to see what God's going to do through this study.

Someone asked, where are we going to go after First Samuel?

Well, I think the most logical place would be Second Samuel.

And we'll just go right into that.

And I hope that this is a study that you've been able to track and if you haven't been able to track through this, we do have different online sources in which you can go to.

We have a podcast, we have a website, we have a YouTube channel, Facebook.

And you can go back and listen to all those sermons.

And not just First Samuel, you can go back and listen to, you know, a lot of sermons.

So you can do that if you feel led.