Christians Are More Like Goliath Than David

God Centered Theology

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In his book, Courageous Faith, Life Lessons from the Old Testament Heroes, Ed Heinsohn, who, as far as I know, is still on staff at Liberty University.

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I haven't failed to check. He's getting a little older now, but I believe he's still there. But he told of a time, and this was written many, many years ago, he told of a time when he had a conversation with one of his closest lifelong friends,

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Ed Dobson, who I believe has already passed and gone to be in heaven. At the time, he was pastor of Calvary Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

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And he told Ed Heinsohn, now they're both Ed, but Ed Dobson told Ed Heinsohn, he says,

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I think most Christians are more like Goliath and David. And the statement got

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Ed's attention, and I think it should certainly get your attention as well, because typically when we either preach or discuss or talk about David and Goliath, we typically do it, you know, it's usually some type of underdog application, and you can overcome this, that, and the other, and so on and so forth.

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There's certainly nothing wrong with that. But I think today you will agree this will probably be a different look at something that you have known most of your life.

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And so it makes sense that it would grab Ed Heinsohn's attention. So he replied and said, what do you mean?

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And so Ed Dobson said, he said, well, look at Goliath. He has enormity.

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He's over nine feet tall. Would have been a wonderful NBA player. He has equipment, over 100 pounds of armor, plus his weapons.

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He has experience. He's a man of war. And then

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Ed Dobson went on to say, he says, we often don't trust in God. We certainly claim that we do, but not really.

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He says we trust in our size, our budget, our high -tech equipment, our state -of -the -art programming, our history, heritage, titles, roles, different things.

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Ed Heinsohn went on to say that he thought it was quite an observation, and I agree. Sometimes we trust everything but God to get the job done.

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Not David. Not David.

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So what I want to consider this morning out of 1 Samuel chapter 17 is how

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Christians can be more like Goliath than David. You probably, no doubt, have never heard a sermon where we would have been.

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It was the first time for everything. We always think of ourselves as the meek and small

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David, and through the power of Christ overcoming large obstacles. And you've heard whole sermon series and books written about the giants in your life and overcoming them.

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And there's obviously, certainly nothing wrong with this at all, and there's a place for it. And I would certainly even concur and preach it if the opportunity presented itself, and the

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Holy Spirit so instructed me to do so. But in this case, I want to take it from a different angle. So I want to question who, so let's jump right in, was self -absorbed.

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And we see that in the three following ways. He was self -absorbed, number one,

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Goliath put his trust for security in someone other than God.

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His trust for security in someone other than God, and obviously that person was himself. Look with me at the first verse of chapter 17, it says,

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Now the Philistines gathered their armies for battle. And then skip down to verse 4, it says, Then a champion came out from the armies of the

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Philistines, named Goliath from Gath, whose height was six cubits and a span, very tall, a bronze helmet on his head.

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And he was clothed with scale armor which weighed 5 ,000 shekels of bronze. He also had bronze greaves on his legs, and a bronze javelin slung between his shoulders.

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The shaft of his spear was like a weaver's beam, and the head of his spear weighed 600 shekels of iron.

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And his shield carrier also walked before him. Yeah, I talk a lot on Wednesday nights how you study something all your life, and when you really dive into the

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Word of God and spend time in meditation, God will show you things you've never seen before. I have known this story my entire life.

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I have read this chapter several times. I never noticed that Goliath had a shield bearer.

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Your pastor learned something. Studying for this and reading through it, and it was actually one of the final times

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I was going to lose this year,

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I think. There's going to be many sports references today, so just go ahead and be ready to plug your ears. Not only...

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Excuse me. I said that wrong. Shield carrier.

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I said barrier. A carrier before him. So, imagine you're a Philistine, and you're told to be the shield carrier for Goliath.

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That means, right? It means you're dead first. It means if anything goes down, it's going to happen to you first.

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They're going to protect their champion, but you're going to die. If that had been... Have you seen this guy?

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I don't think he needs a shield carrier. This poor, unfortunate soul.

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At one point in his life, he turned from his pagan religion and was saved by the grace of God, so I can meet him in heaven one day and say,

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Man, what in the world were you thinking? Shield carrier for Goliath. So, he not only trusted in what he was wearing, and who he was, and how big he was, and what he could do in war, he even put trust in a shield carrier.

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If you put your trust for your security, Obviously, nothing wrong with savings accounts, and retirement plans, and good income and a job, and all those things that money brings us, because we all want to have money and have retirement, so on and so forth.

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But, while you should always see that, is God providing that security for you through those things.

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The things themselves are not your security. God has a way of removing idols from his people.

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And there's been people I've known in my life where they've worshipped money, and God has a way of removing it from you, to get you into a place where you'll worship

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Him more than that. And money is the subject of this context, but you can put a lot of different things in there.

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Some people are workaholics, they worship their job, and obviously we're joking about the sports things, but there are people out there that worship sports, and worship all these different things, and their identity is wrapped up in it, it's everything that they are.

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And sports are fine, you can watch, and follow any team you want to, and we get excited, we get upset, it moves us to tears sometimes, but it's just a game.

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It doesn't provide us security. God does. And Christians that put their trust for security, whether it's money, job, whatever it is, fill in the blank with whatever you want to.

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You put your trust for security in that, rather than God, you're Goliath.

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Do we look to God for security, or to things like money, possessions, our ability to gain more of it?

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I've always thought, I must not be humble enough for God to let me be rich. Because you know, they always, man,

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I tell you, it's such complete heresy, well, maybe not abject heresy, because it's not quite on that level, but we borrow the term heresy.

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It's heresy when you hear people preach and talk about how if you're rich as a Christian, you're doing something wrong. That's not true. You can have wealth as a

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Christian, but the key is, and I've said this before, is it's there for you to use for someone else.

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It's not there for you. It's never meant to be your security.

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It's meant to be something that obviously, you know, you have greater opportunity to help others, you know, so on and so forth.

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But see, the difference is, and the key for Goliath here, you know, this armor he had, no doubt, was not cheap.

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He didn't get it at a Dollar General, okay? This was expensive stuff. And he took it too far, and said, well, this is my security, this is what

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I trust in. We need to see everything that we have, everything that we are is by the grace of God.

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If you have a good job, if you have money in the bank, if you have a good retirement, whatever it is, nothing wrong with any of those things, but you need to understand where it came from.

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And also make sure that your attitude towards money is proper. Never look at your money as being yours.

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It's not. Nothing you have, the very clothes on your body, the very hours, you wouldn't even exist if it wasn't for God.

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We need to be very careful in what we, you know, we casually say these things, and you know, we all do it very well intentioned, and I've done it too, so we certainly don't mean to be sinful, but we need to be careful about our vocabulary.

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You know, we say, that's my house, or my bank account, or my job, you know, and we obviously are not thinking like life when we say these things.

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It's just the way we talk. But maybe we need to change our vocabulary. Maybe we need to say it a different way.

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Because, you know, the things we say and the things we think about tend to proceed out of the heart of man, do they not?

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So maybe there's some deep -seated pride that needs to be dealt with. Trust in yourself, and get away from possessions for a second before we move on.

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Trusting in your flesh never satisfies. Life with some sin of the flesh, or some lust of the flesh, you know it doesn't satisfy.

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It may satisfy for a moment. It may satisfy for as it gets to a level, and it says, felt good, want more and more.

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So don't trust for security. For success in someone other than God, Himself.

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Christians are more like Goliath when their pride controls and dictates their actions. Pride is one of those things that slowly eats away at you over time.

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You know, there's some sins that will take you out like that, and you're done. It will floor you.

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The consequences are immediate. And you feel it. Lord, I'm so sorry.

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I repent. Some things are more deceptive. And they slowly, because pride is going to constantly make you feel like,

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I'm good. I've got it all together. Everything's turning up roses.

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And you don't see that little bit, that slow, until you're so consumed, that you become

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Goliath. Satan wants to feed your, want to feed humility.

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Why do you think the Bible instructs us, and I think it's in the book of James, humble yourself, we are instructed in the

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Word of God, and we are to be submitted to the Word of God, in the aspect of humility, because it doesn't come natural.

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We naturally want to be, you know, I'm one of the football guys. It's all about, you know, football is like, and there's plenty of good

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Christians involved in professional sports. That's certainly true. But overall, it's marketed, and it's put out there as, look at what one man did.

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He put the team on his back, and yada yada yada, and you know what? If the Lord wanted one of his legs to break, or one of his bones to break in one of his legs, mid -stride, and his career be over, he could do it.

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If I'm so consumed with pride, you better hope and pray that your fall comes in this life.

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I would hate to have to go my whole life, and then stand before God and answer for that.

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To see, because when we stand before God, you'll see yourself as He sees you.

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Don't be like Goliath in that regard. Also, Goliath put his trust for security, his trust for success, and then also, and this is the last one for Goliath, Goliath put his trust for deliverance, for deliverance in someone other than God, himself.

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Verse 43 of the chapter, says,

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The Philistine said to David, Am I a dog that you come to me with sticks? So we fast forwarded into the narrative here.

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This is the point in which, David's already got his sling, he's already got his stones, he's gone out to meet

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Goliath, and he says, Am I a dog that you come to me with sticks? And the Philistine cursed David, notice this, he cursed

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David by his gods, little g. Faith and trust was in his gods, plural.

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All these pagan countries, they didn't have just one God, one true God. That's why you see throughout the whole

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Old Testament, specifically with Nebuchadnezzar, when God brought him out of that crazy animal -like state, the first thing he says,

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I believe in the one true God of Israel. All over the place, it's the one true God of Israel.

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One true God of Israel. Paganism, the other characters, it's their gods, multiple gods.

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Gods for everything. God of the sun, God of the building, God of the football team, you know, if you want to bring in 2018 terms.

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They had gods for everything. I just cringe when I watch TV, like, well the golf gods really want him to win.

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Lord Jesus. There's no golf. I know some of y 'all play golf, may have even said it a time or two,

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I've even done it, like, well if God's love me today. We all fail on that. The difference between someone casually saying something and what was going on here.

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Adulterous gods, that he put his faith and trust in for deliverance over and against the way

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David was acting. Well look at him. But there's a reason why he put his trust for deliverance in his gods and not the one true

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God. One word answer. Fear will cripple you.

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Pride will slowly take the step because of fear.

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This giant of you will keep you crippled until you overcome it through the power of the

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Holy Spirit. And see, here's the key to this. Goliath, he seemed bad.

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Why do you think they refer to Christians as having a quiet, humble confidence? Because it's different than the world's.

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And puffed up, in case you were

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Goliath, it's because you fear that God might fail you. Whether it's this lowly, if he fails, guess what?

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No shield. Whether it's your sword, your status.

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When you don't trust God for deliverance is what I call the status quo approach.

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The status quo approach will equal status quo results. You see that?

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Status quo will always equal status quo results.

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If fear has gripped you, if it's caused you to be less than you should be in Christ, if you keep on trusting in other things to deliver you and to empower you and take you into the future, as long as you live in fear and stick with what's comfortable, because that's what a status quo is, right?

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It's comfort. It feels good. It's familiar. We'll experience it differently.

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What does Einstein, I think it's Einstein's quote that say that the definition of insanity is doing things the same way and expecting to get a different result?

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No doubt. Had fought every battle the same way. Same armor.

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Put it on the same way. Got the same sword. The same...

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Absorbed. And if you trust in your own power, you will, because God calls us to trust in His power.

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He calls us to be obedient to Him and not what the world says. So let's contrast that with David.

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Goliath, self -absorbed. David, same three things, security, success, and deliverance, but they're going to look far different for David.

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So let's look at them. David showed that he trusted God, trusted God for his security when he said he killed the lion and the bear and this

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Phil's team will be just like him. Look at verse 31 with me, if you will. When the words which

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David spoke were heard and they told them to Saul, he sent for him. David said to Saul, let no man's heart fail on account of him.

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Your servant will go and fight with this Phil's team. Saul said to David, you are not able to go against this

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Phil's team to fight with him for you are but a youth while he has been a warrior from his youth.

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But David said to Saul, your servant was tending his father's sheep. When a lion or bear came and took a lamb from the flock,

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I went out after him and attacked him and rescued it from his mouth. And when he rose up against me, I seized him by his beard and struck him and killed him.

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Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear and this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them since he has taunted the armies of the living.

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Notice David didn't say anything about he's taunting me or he's threatening our comfort or threatening

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Aaron. He said he's threatened the army. In general situations, the

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Christian's confidence is a quiet humility. That does not mean there will not be times when you will need to stand firm and stand tough and speak out and speak for God.

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He does here and he isn't speaking out because of his own accord. He's doing it because he put his trust for security and notice something else here.

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And Ed quotes this person a few times. I'm going to quote him myself. And for those of you that aren't

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Star Wars fans, feel free to roll your eyes at me at any point in time. But the great deal, do or do not, there is no try.

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Do or do not, there is no try. Now Star Wars is fictional. If there's some die hard Star Wars fans here, please forgive me.

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But Star Wars is fictional. It's not real. The New Testament under shepherd, the

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New Testament pastor, the sheep which of God entrust to your care, the care of the pastor, we are to warn about threats coming, heresies, anything that would creep at the door.

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And he says, just like the bear and the lion, this Philistine will be no different. I'm going to go out there and he's going down.

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What a trust David had and have that trust in God.

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If it also showed that he trusted God for his success, security and his success because David said,

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I have not tested them. Look at verse 38. Then Saul clothed

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David with his garments and put a bronze helmet on his head and he clothed him with armor. David girded his sword over his armor and tried to walk for he had not tested them.

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So David said to Saul, I cannot go with these for I have not tested them. And David took them off.

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And he took his stick in his hand and chose for him five smooth stones from the brook and put them in his shepherd's bag, which he had even in his pouch.

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And his sling was in his hand and he approached the Philistine. He said, I have not tested them.

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Saul tried to put David in similar to Goliath.

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You notice? Well, Goliath's got this. Well, bless

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God, you better put on it. Today's world.

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Too many churches want to try to reach. You can't engage in Satan's system in this world.

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You can't put on the world's armor and then expect to defeat Christians.

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We have the bulls essentially trying to give

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David a killing giants for dummies book. We don't need one of those.

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The Holy Spirit will illumine scripture to you. He says,

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I don't need it. He don't need it because he couldn't trust it.

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Think about it. If God has shown you in your life that you can trust him in a certain area, when that time comes again, are you not going to trust all the more?

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I'm sure the first time David came to attack his sheep, he was scared.

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No doubt came through when he was obedient. And because he was obedient,

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God blessed his obedience and then grew his faith and his trust in God.

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So when the next test came, he'd be more confident in facing it because of God's blessing in the past.

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It doesn't mean we're promised that things will get easier. It actually gets harder. This thing for our obedience, when it gets harder and you have to trust

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God, the heart of the change that's required, the more faith and trust that you have and the more in obedience you walk, the more glory

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God gets. Lastly, David showed he trusted God for deliverance when he said, he will deliver me from the hand of Philistine.

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Our last scripture for this morning, verse 45. Then David said to the Philistine, you come to me with a sword, a spear, and a javelin.

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Philistines this day to the birds of the sky and the wild beasts of the earth, that all the earth may know was the

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Lord's. Christians tend to get too comfortable with defeat.

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Let that sink in for a minute. Too comfortable with defeat. I'm not sure,

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Billy can probably correct me later, I don't know if this will be an insurance term or a business term, but I think they talk, and some of y 'all busy me,

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I think they have a term they talk about, acceptable loss. Sort of like a, I guess it's an accounting term maybe.

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Talk about acceptable loss, you know, what you're willing to give up or willing to lose because you got something else on this side of the ledger and it all bounces out and this, that, and the other.

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Nothing wrong with those things, that's how we go about doing things, right? But in spirituality, in the

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Christian walk, in church, Christians in their own personal life, when too many churches get used to and get, and they'll say, well it wasn't as bad as the last time.

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We only got 50 every time.

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And in some cases by the world standard, but in the spiritual war,

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God is trying to accomplish through His decree, and His prescriptive will, in and through your life and mine, nothing but victory.

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Don't get comfortable living a defeated life. Jesus Christ called us to live abundant life, to have victory, to be not just conquerors,

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I don't care if it's a 9 foot tall Philistine, on the job that's giving you, making your world like some sickness that's come to your doorstep.

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Some hurdle that you have to get over in your personal life, whatever it is. You face it the same way

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David did. Walk in obedience to God. There may be cases where God doesn't necessarily remove it, but you still can be drawn closer to God through it.

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So I have to ask you the question, are you more like David or Goliath?

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This is not the topic of the sermon today, but the question can still be asked. Is our church more like David or Goliath?

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Do you trust in yourself, and what you can produce, or go back to the well, and what you know will work?

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Do you trust that more than you do in God? If you do, you'll fail. God will not bless disobedience and sin.

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And one of the sins we commit as Christians in our lives is when we trust anything else other than God, and what

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He has said. It matters not if it's tradition, idols, armor we put on that we think works.

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If we do not, as the Holy Spirit working over our service today, and Melody's selection of trust and obey, so just like the song said, if we do not trust and obey

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God, and what He has said, then we will fail. We must decide to stand firm like David did, in regards to what

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God has said. Not what man thinks, what God has said.

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What God has shown Himself to be, like David trusted Him. Based on who

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God has shown Himself to be, and that is faithful. Even when we are not.

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So my friends, let's choose to be like David, and not