WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:06.379 Now we're going to look back today at the passage that we, that David read, that was 00:00:06.379 --> 00:00:10.880 read from the front today by Callum. David probably read it somewhere else as well. 00:00:10.880 --> 00:00:15.780 But it's about David and Goliath and we didn't read the whole of the story, it's a really 00:00:15.780 --> 00:00:22.800 long story, but in our morning worship we've been looking at the children's Bible story, 00:00:22.800 --> 00:00:29.960 stories, and recognizing the importance of them in the Bible and kind of bringing them, 00:00:29.960 --> 00:00:35.560 I hope, into our consciousness once again. And I'm sure that you'll find today, if you've 00:00:35.560 --> 00:00:41.120 been here for the rest of these sermons, that there is a theme that emerges through these 00:00:41.120 --> 00:00:46.640 stories that we have from the Old Testament, which remind us, and I hope encourages us and 00:00:46.640 --> 00:00:52.359 encourages you that there is a consistency in the Bible message, there's a consistency, 00:00:52.359 --> 00:00:57.679 a beautiful consistency about what God reveals to us. He doesn't tell us everything and he 00:00:57.679 --> 00:01:03.359 doesn't randomly just tell us things, he gives us what he wants us to know and it all is 00:01:03.359 --> 00:01:09.719 beautifully consistent. And we find that there's a theme throughout these Old Testament stories 00:01:09.719 --> 00:01:18.879 that there's a common thread as God is revealing more and more about himself as he brings us 00:01:18.879 --> 00:01:24.319 to that point of the great revelation of himself in Jesus. 00:01:24.319 --> 00:01:29.239 But for many people the story of David and Goliath is a kind of myth, isn't it? A kind 00:01:29.239 --> 00:01:36.719 of the hair and the tortoise, that kind of myth, giant against a wee man, or at best it's 00:01:36.719 --> 00:01:44.439 maybe a story with a spiritual lesson like, be courageous and you can slay whatever giant 00:01:44.439 --> 00:01:51.719 you want, or believe in yourself and you can do anything with a kind of moralistic theme 00:01:51.719 --> 00:02:01.280 behind it. But actually these stories are far more radical and far more meaningful and 00:02:01.280 --> 00:02:07.760 irrelevant than just a moral lesson or a pleasant, or if you read it maybe, you thought 00:02:07.760 --> 00:02:20.159 unpleasant story about victory over giants. Now there's not, it's not, and none of these 00:02:20.159 --> 00:02:25.439 Old Testament stories are simply inspirational stories about the human spirit, however inspirational 00:02:25.439 --> 00:02:30.960 the human spirit can be and I'm not denying that, but there's a much higher lesson that 00:02:30.960 --> 00:02:36.800 God is teaching us in His Word. This is God's living Word, we remember that, we recall that, 00:02:36.800 --> 00:02:41.879 we keep coming back to that, that this is God's living Word, His spoken Word to us and He's 00:02:41.879 --> 00:02:50.000 saying, this is how it is. He's saying, this is who I am, this is who you are, this is 00:02:50.000 --> 00:02:58.640 who I am. He's saying, I alone are the one who gives life, I alone can overturn your death. 00:02:58.639 --> 00:03:06.519 It's almost, it's incredible, I know, every week we speak about death. You know, if you 00:03:06.519 --> 00:03:09.799 want to bring your friends along to something where we speak about death, bring them along 00:03:09.799 --> 00:03:15.239 to the church. We're always speaking about death, but we can't, when you're in Scripture 00:03:15.239 --> 00:03:20.239 you can't really help that because it deals with the biggest, because we also speak about 00:03:20.239 --> 00:03:25.839 life and I think that's very significant, these two things, life and death and that 00:03:25.840 --> 00:03:30.520 takes us to the central message often of God's Word and the answer that comes from 00:03:30.520 --> 00:03:38.280 God and so it never deals with just peripheral issues in our lives and today we celebrate 00:03:38.280 --> 00:03:43.640 life and we celebrate marriage and we recognize death and we see it because that's the human 00:03:43.640 --> 00:03:50.039 experience. So we come to David and Goliath and you all know the story of David and Goliath, 00:03:50.039 --> 00:03:55.719 everybody knows the story of David and Goliath, it's all been said before so I'm not going 00:03:55.719 --> 00:03:59.639 to repeat the story. If you don't know the story of David and Goliath, please go back 00:03:59.639 --> 00:04:05.879 to it in the Bible and read maybe chapter 16 and the beginning of chapter 17 as well 00:04:05.879 --> 00:04:08.360 and that will give you a fuller picture of the story. 00:04:08.360 --> 00:04:13.719 So I'm not really going to mention today one or two things that maybe you might think we 00:04:13.719 --> 00:04:18.560 would mention. I'm not going to speak about Goliath being a great big giant and the height 00:04:18.560 --> 00:04:23.000 he was, he was a big man. I'm not going to speak about the armor that he put on and 00:04:23.000 --> 00:04:28.439 how great and important that armor is. I'm not going to explain why or talk about why 00:04:28.439 --> 00:04:34.920 David chose five smooth stones, not about the trajectory of the sling or his shepherding 00:04:34.920 --> 00:04:42.120 skills and prowess. I'm not going to, I'm taking a chance today, I'm not going to repeat 00:04:42.120 --> 00:04:47.480 the story because I'm presuming that you know the basics of the story today. I'm not really 00:04:47.480 --> 00:04:53.120 going to explain the bit that I didn't read from the beginning of chapter 17. But I am 00:04:53.120 --> 00:04:58.280 going to ask, and I think we always need to come to God's word with this, why did God 00:04:58.280 --> 00:05:05.200 inspire this story in his living word? Why has he included David and Goliath in the Bible 00:05:05.200 --> 00:05:09.960 and how does it fit in with what he wants us to know about himself? Because that's where 00:05:09.960 --> 00:05:16.000 the Bible stories are about. They're about God and they're about us in relation to God. 00:05:16.000 --> 00:05:23.040 So I'm going to speak about four words that come out through this passage. One is defiance, 00:05:23.040 --> 00:05:29.439 the second is appearance, the third is absurdity, and the fourth is faith. So we're going to 00:05:29.439 --> 00:05:35.720 look at these four things in relation to this story, which I believe are part of God's message 00:05:35.720 --> 00:05:41.399 that comes through this and the other Bible stories to a greater or lesser degree that 00:05:41.399 --> 00:05:48.399 we've been looking at. The first is defiance, okay, because there's a theological undercurrent 00:05:48.399 --> 00:05:56.599 in this story. David and Goliath are not the main players in this story, although it does 00:05:56.599 --> 00:06:04.000 seem like that. This is a story of the Israelites who are God's redeemed people, God who has 00:06:04.000 --> 00:06:09.759 rescued them and brought them into a promised land and they are to be God's worshipers, 00:06:09.759 --> 00:06:16.240 they are to be people who stand for God, they represent God as it were, and they're the 00:06:16.240 --> 00:06:24.399 people from whom, as we look forward, the Christ will come. We're Christians today, we trust 00:06:24.399 --> 00:06:33.639 in Jesus Christ, the Christ came through this people. Okay, so there's an undercurrent beyond 00:06:33.639 --> 00:06:39.519 the individuals David and Goliath, but there are key words in this story which help us 00:06:39.519 --> 00:06:45.959 to appreciate that theological undercurrent, and David understands the theological and 00:06:45.959 --> 00:06:54.839 the spiritual undercurrent as a young shepherd, and he reminds us in verse 26, David said 00:06:54.839 --> 00:07:02.199 to the men who stood with him, by him, what shall be done for the man who kills the Philistine 00:07:02.199 --> 00:07:09.039 and takes away their approach from Israel? For who is this uncircumcised, not part of 00:07:09.039 --> 00:07:16.519 the covenant, Philistine, that he should defy, defy the armies of the living God? So in a 00:07:16.519 --> 00:07:25.079 nutshell, David gets what's going on here. He sees someone who represents unbelief and 00:07:25.079 --> 00:07:30.599 defiance against the living God, seeking to destroy and annihilate God and God's people 00:07:30.600 --> 00:07:37.240 here. He speaks about the living God. He knows that it's about the honor and reputation 00:07:37.240 --> 00:07:43.879 of the living God that is being challenged here, and it's interesting that the living 00:07:43.879 --> 00:07:50.939 God, there's another word for the living God in this chapter, Yahweh, the Lord, the redeeming 00:07:50.939 --> 00:07:56.960 God, the name of God who revealed, redeemed his people, Yahweh, and that comes across 00:07:56.959 --> 00:08:03.120 six times in this chapter. So there's this undercurrent of the Lord being his will or 00:08:03.120 --> 00:08:10.639 his reputation being at stake, but interestingly, the same word that David uses here about defiance, 00:08:10.639 --> 00:08:18.639 defying, that also is used six times. So the writer and the inspiration of God wants us 00:08:18.639 --> 00:08:26.039 to recognize that the Lord is central to this story, and defiance against the Lord is also 00:08:26.040 --> 00:08:31.160 central to this story. So when David speaks, and there's three speeches of David in this 00:08:31.160 --> 00:08:37.600 chapter, he focuses on the Lord. They're very God-centered. They're not about himself. It's 00:08:37.600 --> 00:08:43.000 not about, look at me, and look at my courage, and see what I'm going to do to Goliath. He 00:08:43.000 --> 00:08:52.960 is dependent on the Lord, and he recognizes who the Lord is, and recognizes the battle. 00:08:52.960 --> 00:09:00.360 So that defeat for the Israelites would have meant subjection and servility to godless 00:09:00.360 --> 00:09:08.200 and destructive idol-worshipping people. And Goliath himself in verse 43, when he rubbish 00:09:08.200 --> 00:09:13.080 is this young slip of a lad that comes down to fight him, he says, you know, he swears 00:09:13.080 --> 00:09:19.639 by the name of his own gods, and he recognizes that there's this spiritual battle, there's 00:09:19.639 --> 00:09:27.879 this spiritual defiance that's being outworked here. We also see it in the fact that David, 00:09:27.879 --> 00:09:33.600 did you know that David faces three Goliaths in this story? You only thought it was one. 00:09:33.600 --> 00:09:38.080 There's three Goliaths in this story. David fought two Goliaths before he even met the 00:09:38.080 --> 00:09:44.200 big man, because there was three Goliaths of defiance and unbelief in this story. The first 00:09:44.200 --> 00:09:51.920 is his own brother, Eliab. In verse 28, we have these words, now Eliab is older brother 00:09:51.920 --> 00:09:56.640 when he heard David speaking to the men. His anger was kindled, and he said, why have 00:09:56.640 --> 00:10:02.160 you come down, and why have you addressed these few sheep in the wilderness? I know 00:10:02.160 --> 00:10:07.600 you're presumption and the evil of your heart for you've come down to see the battle. So 00:10:07.600 --> 00:10:14.480 Eliab is just, he's contemptuous about David's stance and about what David is seeking to do 00:10:14.480 --> 00:10:19.720 in defense of the living God, and he questions his motive in the heart. You're evil in your 00:10:19.720 --> 00:10:25.759 heart. So that's a great defiant Goliath that David has to overcome, and then he has to 00:10:25.759 --> 00:10:33.360 overcome the defiance and probably more the doubt of Saul, the great king of Israel who 00:10:33.360 --> 00:10:41.159 in verse 33 says, you're not able to go out against the Philistine. And so there's the 00:10:41.159 --> 00:10:48.000 cynicism and doubt from Saul, and there's this contempt from Eliab, his own brother, 00:10:48.000 --> 00:10:53.879 and it's spiritual. It's a spiritual doubt and a spiritual unbelief and contempt that 00:10:53.879 --> 00:11:00.320 they have for the living God. And this story therefore is about spiritual defiance, and 00:11:00.320 --> 00:11:07.760 it's about the powers of darkness defying the living God. And that has been the story 00:11:07.760 --> 00:11:12.760 throughout history, hasn't it been, that the powers of darkness have deceived humanity, 00:11:12.760 --> 00:11:20.440 humanity have swallowed the lie and have been incited to rebellion, rejection and idolatry 00:11:20.440 --> 00:11:27.280 to crush God and in the Old Testament to crush the line that takes us to the living Savior, 00:11:27.279 --> 00:11:33.879 Jesus Christ. So defiance is the first word that we see here. And in response to that, 00:11:33.879 --> 00:11:41.519 the victory that David has over Goliath, then it is a signal victory. Corrie last week preached 00:11:41.519 --> 00:11:46.679 about Samson, same kind of thing. It's a signal victory. It was to prepare the Old Testament 00:11:46.679 --> 00:11:55.360 people and us, and they and we often forget that there is victory in God's revelation 00:11:55.360 --> 00:12:01.840 pointing forward. There's always that. This story of David and Goliath is pointing forward 00:12:01.840 --> 00:12:07.840 to something greater, and the divine trajectory of some greater victory. It's providing a 00:12:07.840 --> 00:12:15.600 lot of hints towards God's ultimate victory, promised, planned and enacted at Calvary. 00:12:15.600 --> 00:12:24.519 So these stories are not cobbled together, moral stories from a bygone Eastern culture. 00:12:24.519 --> 00:12:31.399 This is the great God focus pointing forward to the work of God on the cross. So defiance 00:12:31.399 --> 00:12:32.399 is the first word. 00:12:32.399 --> 00:12:37.639 The second word is appearance. This is very important in the story of David and Goliath 00:12:37.639 --> 00:12:43.559 as well. Well, you turn back with me to chapter 16. We didn't read chapter 16, but chapters 00:12:43.559 --> 00:12:47.000 if you have a moment and you have your Bibles, turn back to it because there's two very important 00:12:47.000 --> 00:12:51.519 verses that link in with the story of David and Goliath. The first is verse one of chapter 00:12:51.519 --> 00:12:56.840 16, speaking about Saul. The Lord said to Samuel, How long will you grieve over Saul 00:12:56.840 --> 00:13:06.199 since I have rejected him for being king over Israel? And then, verses six and seven, Samuel 00:13:06.199 --> 00:13:12.079 comes to anoint the next king after Saul, and he comes to the children of Jesse, the 00:13:12.079 --> 00:13:16.319 men. She's when they came, he looked on the liab and thought, Surely the Lord's anointed 00:13:16.320 --> 00:13:22.560 this before him. But the Lord said to Samuel, Do not look on his appearance or on the height 00:13:22.560 --> 00:13:28.360 of his stature because I've rejected him. For the Lord sees not as man sees man looks 00:13:28.360 --> 00:13:32.400 on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart. 00:13:32.400 --> 00:13:37.560 Saul had been rejected though he was discreet. He wasn't a man after God's own heart. Eliab, 00:13:37.560 --> 00:13:43.360 this great strong son was rejected because God looked to the heart. And it's Saul and 00:13:43.360 --> 00:13:52.639 it's Eliab in chapter 17 that are defiant against God because God and Goliath himself. 00:13:52.639 --> 00:13:58.120 And but the great, the great point of this chapter 16 is leading into chapter 17 is that 00:13:58.120 --> 00:14:02.840 God doesn't look on the outward appearance. God looks in the heart. God isn't impressed 00:14:02.840 --> 00:14:08.120 with Goliath. God doesn't think he's a big shot. He's not really scared of him. And 00:14:08.120 --> 00:14:14.679 indeed neither is David, amazingly. And so that is a very important lesson that comes 00:14:14.679 --> 00:14:19.840 out from this great Old Testament Bible story about David and Goliath is that God doesn't 00:14:19.840 --> 00:14:25.799 look on the outward appearance, but God looks in the heart. God sees our heart. God sees 00:14:25.799 --> 00:14:32.320 differently. He saw into David's heart someone who trusted in him, relied on him and was 00:14:32.320 --> 00:14:42.600 a man after his own heart who trusted in him for his salvation. And that heart trust 00:14:42.600 --> 00:14:48.040 was what enabled David to fight lions and Goliath. The heart that David had given him 00:14:48.040 --> 00:14:54.879 a different perspective to Eliab and also to Saul because his heart was changed. His 00:14:54.879 --> 00:15:00.120 heart was renewed. That's a really strong and powerful message for us today that God 00:15:00.120 --> 00:15:06.480 isn't impressed with what we look like. He's not impressed with our outward judgment of 00:15:06.480 --> 00:15:11.879 one another. He looks in the heart. And so the question when we come to God's Word in 00:15:11.879 --> 00:15:16.039 an Old Testament story, I've got nothing you'll learn about this story. I know what 00:15:16.039 --> 00:15:22.360 the story, God asks the question of us today, well, what are we like in our core? What's 00:15:22.360 --> 00:15:28.440 our core like? What's our heart that nobody else sees today? What is it like in relation 00:15:28.440 --> 00:15:33.480 to God? The eyeball to eyeball that we must do in our hearts before the living God that 00:15:33.480 --> 00:15:39.600 no one else sees. Our innermost thoughts, our desires, do we love Him there? Do we trust 00:15:39.600 --> 00:15:47.160 Him? That's why He is so important, isn't it? Because nobody else here, nobody you will 00:15:47.160 --> 00:15:51.600 ever meet, supposing you meet the most important person in the universe, none of them can look 00:15:51.600 --> 00:15:57.360 into your heart. None of them. Nobody can. Your best friend, your spouse, your lover, 00:15:57.360 --> 00:16:02.159 whoever it is, nobody can look into your heart, but the living God can. So do we relegate 00:16:02.159 --> 00:16:08.759 God to the back end of our lives? No, we can't because He looks into our heart and He sees 00:16:08.759 --> 00:16:14.960 beyond the outward appearance. We might look great outwardly, but He's saying that is not 00:16:14.960 --> 00:16:20.480 what ultimately matters. Now, what we are on the outside does matter, of course, and 00:16:20.480 --> 00:16:27.279 I contradict myself entirely, because it reflects our heart, or to reflect our heart. So there 00:16:27.279 --> 00:16:32.759 is a sense in which it matters, but not in the sense of being primary. It's not God's 00:16:32.759 --> 00:16:38.799 standard. So today your status, your career, your beauty, your power, your success, your 00:16:38.799 --> 00:16:45.120 comparative goodness, you look around, you say, I'm definitely better than them. The 00:16:45.120 --> 00:16:49.879 comparative goodness that we have, the judgment that we make on other people so quickly and 00:16:49.879 --> 00:16:57.480 so often, our intelligence, our evident Christian profession outwardly, God isn't moved by 00:16:57.480 --> 00:17:03.320 any of that, because He sees far deeper, He sees into our heart and what we are like in 00:17:03.320 --> 00:17:11.160 our soul, and our heart condition reflects who we are. And so the great reality of the 00:17:11.160 --> 00:17:18.839 gospel is we all need Him. None of us, the church can never be, Christians can never 00:17:18.839 --> 00:17:22.919 be self-righteous, and we can never judge others and say, well, they're much, much, 00:17:22.919 --> 00:17:28.759 much, much worse than I am, because we all need, because we all fall short of God's glory 00:17:28.759 --> 00:17:36.480 and none of us can meet His standard of perfection, and we all in our hearts look at them and 00:17:36.480 --> 00:17:40.919 need His salvation to change our hearts, to renew our hearts so that we love Him and we 00:17:40.919 --> 00:17:47.240 believe in Him and trust in Him and in who He is, because that then, what that does in 00:17:47.240 --> 00:17:53.319 terms of looking beyond appearance, when we commit Christ to our hearts to transform 00:17:53.319 --> 00:17:58.759 the heart that we can't transform, it then changes our perspective, doesn't it? The David's 00:17:58.759 --> 00:18:05.839 heart was right with God, and therefore he realized that Goliath was just a big galoot 00:18:05.839 --> 00:18:12.839 in many ways, because he had God on his side. Goliath wasn't a big problem. Eliath wasn't 00:18:12.839 --> 00:18:17.439 a problem. Saul wasn't a problem, because he was dependent on the living God, and he 00:18:17.439 --> 00:18:26.079 recognized that God was in his heart, and God, this was God's battle. So it changes, 00:18:26.079 --> 00:18:31.359 it changes us from the inside. So often, isn't it, in our lives, we want to change everything 00:18:31.359 --> 00:18:37.119 else, don't we? We want to change our circumstances, we want to change our looks, we want to change 00:18:37.119 --> 00:18:43.759 our prospects, we want to change what's happening outwardly, we want to change others, our husband, 00:18:43.759 --> 00:18:51.039 our wife, our neighbors, our boss, our colleagues, if only they changed, if only our circumstances 00:18:51.039 --> 00:18:56.879 changed, but God is saying, these things may or may not change, but primarily, He wants 00:18:56.879 --> 00:19:02.399 us to change our hearts, to look and see that it's not the outward appearance, it's not 00:19:02.400 --> 00:19:08.240 the Goliaths we face, it's not the problems that are on the outside, it's the internal 00:19:08.240 --> 00:19:13.080 attitude and the recognition of who God is. So, appearance is the second thing, and that's 00:19:13.080 --> 00:19:18.519 greatly challenging to each of us this morning in our lives. The third is absurdity. Okay, 00:19:18.519 --> 00:19:25.759 now, don't leave the building. I use that word advisedly when speaking about the word 00:19:25.759 --> 00:19:32.720 of God, and I don't mean to be flippant in any way. I use it in a sense to really try 00:19:32.720 --> 00:19:38.039 and challenge us a little bit, because there is absurdity. If you were here last week and 00:19:38.039 --> 00:19:44.079 you listened to Corey Sermon, you understand what I mean by absurdity, and that's no slight 00:19:44.079 --> 00:19:48.440 on Corey Sermon. It was the best sermon he's preached here, but he was speaking about 00:19:48.440 --> 00:19:54.519 Samson, this antihero. There was absurdity in that story, wasn't there? And in many ways, 00:19:54.519 --> 00:19:59.240 when we look at the genealogy of Jesus, or we look at the roll call of faith that we've 00:19:59.240 --> 00:20:07.639 been going back and forward to from these stories, the people that inhabit Jesus' genealogy, 00:20:07.639 --> 00:20:13.639 there's absurdity there. Absurdity, at least on the way that we often make decisions about 00:20:13.639 --> 00:20:19.960 what we think God should do. And this story is a story of absurdity, isn't it? David, he's 00:20:19.960 --> 00:20:26.759 just a teenager. He's a young boy. He's hardly got his muscles built up in his arms. He's 00:20:26.759 --> 00:20:34.960 skinny and he's a mismatch and he's a kid, and he has no military experience, no weaponry 00:20:34.960 --> 00:20:38.960 skills. He can't even fit into the armor. It's rattling around him like a skeleton 00:20:38.960 --> 00:20:48.440 on him. It's laughable. But this is God's choice of a redeemer. This is who God chooses 00:20:48.440 --> 00:20:54.440 to redeem his people at this moment. It's David that God chooses, and we see that in 00:20:54.440 --> 00:21:00.120 Samson in his absurdity, now Samson was big and strong, but could we say he was a man 00:21:00.120 --> 00:21:06.360 after God's heart? Yeah, but it didn't seem like that. God turns so often in these Old 00:21:06.360 --> 00:21:12.240 Testament stories and in our lives, he turns conventional wisdom and human expectation 00:21:12.240 --> 00:21:16.799 on its head. Now I'm going to go straight into spiritualizing this, and I hope it's 00:21:16.799 --> 00:21:22.319 not wrong to do so, because we take this story of David and Goliath and the David who's 00:21:22.319 --> 00:21:29.079 in this story and the absurdity of David. It's become a byword for absurdity, isn't 00:21:29.079 --> 00:21:35.839 it? David and Goliath. It's an absurd battle. It's an unfair, unequal battle. But I'm going 00:21:35.839 --> 00:21:42.440 to take that story and remind ourselves that that is exactly what God is telling us in 00:21:42.440 --> 00:21:48.920 Jesus Christ, the absurdity of Jesus Christ as God's choice of a redeemer. And we read 00:21:48.920 --> 00:21:56.880 from 1 Corinthians. Have you got any on the screens? There's nothing on the screens. Okay. 00:21:56.880 --> 00:22:03.799 Then 1 Corinthians chapter 1, I'm just going to look up 1 Corinthians chapter 1, because 00:22:03.799 --> 00:22:15.599 we know this passage and it's an important passage. 1 Corinthians 1 chapter 23. For 00:22:15.599 --> 00:22:21.200 Jews demand signs and Greeks demand wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling 00:22:21.200 --> 00:22:27.960 block to Jews and folly to Gentiles. But to those who are called both Jews and Greeks, 00:22:27.960 --> 00:22:33.159 Christ the power of God, the wisdom of God, for the foolishness of God is wiser than men 00:22:33.160 --> 00:22:38.800 and the weakness of God is stronger than men. So you've got foolishness and weakness. Okay, 00:22:38.800 --> 00:22:43.720 it's not absurdity, but it's kind of linked in, isn't it? Foolishness and weakness. That 00:22:43.720 --> 00:22:49.960 God's own word describes the cross in humanity's thinking is foolishness and weakness. So the 00:22:49.960 --> 00:22:58.519 greater son of David to whom David fighting with Goliath points to is Jesus Christ. And 00:22:58.519 --> 00:23:06.759 he is the Christ that humanity doesn't want. He's the absurd Savior. He's a nobody. He's 00:23:06.759 --> 00:23:15.200 nothing. He's a crucified Jew. He is weakness to the world. Many great atheists mock the 00:23:15.200 --> 00:23:23.839 gospel of Jesus Christ as being a gospel of weakness and patheticness and poverty. It's 00:23:23.839 --> 00:23:30.799 foolishness. But the reality is we mustn't just attribute that to others, because often 00:23:30.799 --> 00:23:37.359 we find an absurdity in the person of Jesus Christ because we want a Savior on our own 00:23:37.359 --> 00:23:44.559 terms. We want a Savior who will justify us and what we do and who we are and who will 00:23:44.559 --> 00:23:54.240 give us what we think we deserve. I deserve this. I don't deserve what's happening to 00:23:54.240 --> 00:24:00.599 me. I deserve to be well treated, because we think we have us, we often find the absurdity 00:24:00.599 --> 00:24:08.759 of Jesus as someone who demands our life and soul and who demands everything from us because 00:24:08.759 --> 00:24:13.399 of his outstanding and great love. Christ says to us in this absurdity, he says, you 00:24:13.400 --> 00:24:19.640 have nothing that you can offer me for yourself. He's not one thing. You cannot stand before 00:24:19.640 --> 00:24:29.400 me with one item that will enable me to justify you and say, come into my glory. He says, you 00:24:29.400 --> 00:24:36.080 have nothing, but I'm offering you everything. I'm offering you a clean slate. I'm offering 00:24:36.080 --> 00:24:42.240 you forgiveness and hope and joy and life and fullness. You don't deserve anything, 00:24:42.240 --> 00:24:50.079 he says, in his absurdity but judgment, but I'm offering you nothing but mercy and love 00:24:50.079 --> 00:24:56.640 and acceptance. But I'm saying to you as you put your trust in me, it will lead you 00:24:56.640 --> 00:25:03.400 to live an absurd life. An absurd life, well, you are to do good to those who hate you. 00:25:03.400 --> 00:25:10.559 You're to love those who persecute you. You're to give me 100%, not just 5% now and again, 00:25:10.559 --> 00:25:17.559 not just the odd Sunday morning of worship. I want it all. I want lordship over your life, 00:25:17.559 --> 00:25:23.559 over your thoughts, over everything you are because that's how you were made to live. 00:25:23.559 --> 00:25:33.480 It's absurd and foolishness and incarnate God who's born in poverty, isn't it? Nobody, 00:25:33.480 --> 00:25:41.240 nobody chooses that. Angels and demons couldn't second guess it. It's unspeakable. And yet 00:25:41.240 --> 00:25:51.480 the absurdity of a shepherd boy defeating Goliath is pointing towards the glory of Jesus Christ, 00:25:51.480 --> 00:25:57.920 incarnate, defeating the powers of darkness, of which all of this is a forerunner, finally 00:25:57.920 --> 00:26:06.960 and fully on the cross, defeated and will in fullness of time be destroyed so there 00:26:06.960 --> 00:26:12.880 is no more tears. So absurdity is the third thing. And I hope you'll think about Jesus 00:26:12.880 --> 00:26:24.279 Christ and his claims. It is the most radical, counterintuitive life that we live in Jesus 00:26:24.279 --> 00:26:31.839 Christ. It is the most reactionary of all lives. We shouldn't be people who are complicit 00:26:31.839 --> 00:26:38.799 in the unbelief and the defiance of the world and of the hearts around us and in us. 00:26:38.799 --> 00:26:44.680 So the last thing is faith. We've looked at absurdity, appearance and defiance. And the 00:26:44.680 --> 00:26:48.279 last thing is faith because this is a story as well about faith. It's the story of the 00:26:48.279 --> 00:26:55.519 faith of David. And that's very important because everything David says points to God, 00:26:55.519 --> 00:27:00.559 his faith in God. It's not about David just having courage. It's not talking himself in 00:27:00.559 --> 00:27:04.960 a good place and they're, oh, I can do it. He is utterly dependent on the living God to 00:27:04.960 --> 00:27:12.279 destroy animals that were seeking to devour his sheep and also Goliath here, the one who 00:27:12.279 --> 00:27:16.960 was defying the living God. And the interesting thing about David's faith, there's a couple 00:27:16.960 --> 00:27:22.759 of things here and with this I'll close as I apply it. First is that David knew himself 00:27:22.759 --> 00:27:27.960 in verse 39. We have the kind of slightly humorous story of him trying to put on the 00:27:27.960 --> 00:27:34.840 armour and it doesn't really work. And he says, look, I cannot go with these, I've not 00:27:34.840 --> 00:27:40.759 tested them. They're no use to me. I can't use these. He knew himself and he knew that 00:27:40.759 --> 00:27:46.559 he wasn't a big shot soldier and he couldn't wear all the armour here. He understood, he 00:27:46.559 --> 00:27:52.119 was a shepherd. He wasn't a soldier and he was willing to recognise that. And in his 00:27:52.119 --> 00:27:57.720 speeches he makes clear that he was weak and unable to fight these wild animals in Goliath 00:27:57.720 --> 00:28:06.720 on his own terms. He trusted in God. He knew himself. He never tried to be what he wasn't. 00:28:06.720 --> 00:28:13.000 He didn't ever try to be a first class soldier wearing the armour. He needed God. He was 00:28:13.000 --> 00:28:20.880 a shepherd boy who needed God. He knew himself. And he knew himself because he'd come to 00:28:20.880 --> 00:28:31.279 know God. He'd come to know God. Not about God, to know God, to love God as his Lord 00:28:31.279 --> 00:28:35.160 and as his Saviour. He's mentioned in the Roll Call of Faith very briefly, interestingly. 00:28:35.160 --> 00:28:39.039 There's some others, people who get much more in that chapter than David, the great King 00:28:39.039 --> 00:28:45.879 David, but he is mentioned. He's also mentioned in Acts 1322 where it's spoken about him as 00:28:45.879 --> 00:28:53.440 being one who had a heart after the living God. And interestingly his trust in God is 00:28:53.440 --> 00:29:00.480 based on his past experience. Verse 37, he says that, the Lord who had delivered me out 00:29:00.480 --> 00:29:05.000 of the pot from the paw of the bear will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine. He had 00:29:05.000 --> 00:29:11.119 seen God working in his life. He knew God's deliverance. The Lord was his Saviour. And 00:29:11.119 --> 00:29:17.319 that gave him great confidence. He had trusted in God, seen God at work. He was in relationship 00:29:17.319 --> 00:29:25.079 with God. And he knew that the battle was the Lord's here. It's interesting. There's 00:29:25.079 --> 00:29:30.160 three speeches and the third speech is kind of his words of testimony that he speaks about 00:29:30.160 --> 00:29:36.080 the living God and he's going to defy who's going to, why should Goliath defy the armies 00:29:36.080 --> 00:29:42.040 of the living God and such like. And what he says is important and he's frustrated when 00:29:42.040 --> 00:29:46.000 Eliab tries to stop him speaking. He says, am I not allowed to speak? You know, I've 00:29:46.000 --> 00:29:53.000 got a testimony. I've got something to share. And in this story his speech to Goliath is 00:29:53.000 --> 00:30:02.000 65 words in the Hebrew. Took me ages to count. And the words of the combat, the actual fight 00:30:02.000 --> 00:30:08.079 between Goliath and David is only 36 words. Now I think there's something interesting 00:30:08.079 --> 00:30:14.079 there because as in many cases in the Bible and indeed with the cross itself, it's understated. 00:30:14.079 --> 00:30:21.640 The battle is already won. The victory is assured. Yeah, takes a sling stone. Boom, he's gone. 00:30:21.640 --> 00:30:25.880 There's no great drama around the battle. What's more important is his testimony of the 00:30:25.880 --> 00:30:33.000 living God and the testimony of victory. You know, Lord of the Rings or Braveheart or Gladiator, 00:30:33.000 --> 00:30:39.280 all these films have this massive fight battle scenes. Yeah, that's tense and it's who's 00:30:39.280 --> 00:30:44.040 going to win and what's going to happen and it takes up a great big film. It's not like 00:30:44.040 --> 00:30:49.880 that in the Bible. Got a lot of testimony and just, well, the victory is won. It's almost 00:30:49.880 --> 00:30:56.440 understated. And that reminds us of the faith that David had in his living God. So as we 00:30:56.440 --> 00:31:01.760 close the challenge of faith, okay, that brings it right into our lives and right into our 00:31:01.760 --> 00:31:08.000 experience. The importance one of knowing ourselves and also knowing God. We need to 00:31:08.000 --> 00:31:16.200 know ourselves that we need God and that God doesn't want us to be what we are not. He 00:31:16.200 --> 00:31:22.680 doesn't want us. He's never created us to be someone else. He's created us to be ourselves, 00:31:22.680 --> 00:31:28.240 but ourselves who are not independent from Him. Don't wish your life away by wishing 00:31:28.240 --> 00:31:34.279 you were somebody else. Wishing your circumstances or your life or your person was different, 00:31:34.279 --> 00:31:40.920 your character and your gifts. Know who you are. Know who God has made you to be in your 00:31:40.920 --> 00:31:48.080 very self and your very being and that He loves you as you are. And in Christ, and as 00:31:48.080 --> 00:31:52.880 you take Christ into your heart and deal honestly with yourself, you will find your fullest 00:31:52.880 --> 00:32:00.800 identity, purpose and fulfillment in life. That takes time. Sometimes it takes humility 00:32:00.799 --> 00:32:12.519 and it takes honesty. Stop not dealing with yourself. Our time and our lives are so busy, 00:32:12.519 --> 00:32:17.759 we can fill them with lots of things that stop us asking questions about our own heart 00:32:17.759 --> 00:32:24.159 and who we are and about knowing ourselves. And the most important thing about knowing 00:32:24.160 --> 00:32:31.160 ourselves is we're spiritually lost without Christ and that we're spiritually found in 00:32:31.160 --> 00:32:38.279 Him. And we can only know ourselves therefore like David as we know God, not about God. 00:32:38.279 --> 00:32:43.600 And that knowledge of God is based on two things, isn't it? It's based on the past 00:32:43.600 --> 00:32:49.279 reality of the cross for us. Just as David could trust because of what God had done for 00:32:49.279 --> 00:32:55.799 him in the past. So we've got far more. We've got God in flesh who came of whom David is 00:32:55.799 --> 00:33:02.440 both an example and a type, as it were, that Christ defeated, we're told, He defeated the 00:33:02.440 --> 00:33:09.720 powers of Colossians 2, 14, 15. He defeated, He destroyed the powers of darkness on the 00:33:09.720 --> 00:33:16.960 cross and that greater revelation of the Goliath, as it were, and greater love as no man than 00:33:16.960 --> 00:33:22.960 this, that He's done that for you. You need to apply that to your life. That's where 00:33:22.960 --> 00:33:28.640 the sacrament is there because it takes it and applies it to our own life. We eat and 00:33:28.640 --> 00:33:35.759 we drink because it's that most person of all things. Don't just believe it as a theological 00:33:35.759 --> 00:33:42.440 thing that's out there. So there's the past reality of the cross. But also like David, 00:33:42.440 --> 00:33:46.880 there must be for us as Christians, our faith will only grow as we have a personal reality 00:33:46.880 --> 00:33:51.400 of Jesus Christ. Now there's, maybe that's a challenge. Maybe you're only relying on 00:33:51.400 --> 00:33:58.400 what Jesus did on the cross. But today, yesterday, this last week, has God been in your life? 00:33:58.400 --> 00:34:05.480 Are you aware of a changed heart, of answered prayers, of promises kept, of forgiveness, 00:34:05.480 --> 00:34:11.200 of a presence of Him in our worship, of how He's helped us to obey Him even against all 00:34:11.199 --> 00:34:16.799 the odds, and it's been the right thing to do. Do we have a testimony? Do we have words 00:34:16.799 --> 00:34:23.879 that we can say, this is my God, like David, this is my Lord, and I trust Him? Supposing 00:34:23.879 --> 00:34:29.960 everyone else denies Him, supposing I'm the only one left, and there's 160 red chairs 00:34:29.960 --> 00:34:38.239 here and I'm just sitting right in the middle on my own, I will not let go. And that brings 00:34:38.239 --> 00:34:43.199 a God confidence, what He's done in the cross, what He's done in our lives as Christians, 00:34:43.199 --> 00:34:48.079 it gives us a confidence that in our lives the victory that we need has already been 00:34:48.079 --> 00:34:55.479 won, our future is assured. Do we have that humble testimony that we live for and share 00:34:55.479 --> 00:35:03.439 Christ, not like trembling failures, but with a God confidence, even despite the seeming 00:35:03.440 --> 00:35:13.599 hostility and opposition that we face? I find it so easy to live for Jesus as if He is defeated, 00:35:13.599 --> 00:35:21.400 and as if Christianity is defeated, and as if I'm defeated, as if the outcome is undecided. 00:35:21.400 --> 00:35:26.880 May that change for me and for everyone, as we trust and embed our lives more in what 00:35:26.880 --> 00:35:33.559 He has done for us in Christ in our lives, and also when we look back to the cross and 00:35:33.559 --> 00:35:41.960 when we see the great trajectory of Scripture pointing that to us. Amen. May God bless His 00:35:41.960 --> 00:35:58.000 word and may you meet with Jesus through His word today.