Pastor, author, and Bible teacher, Alan Wright.
And at the cross that day, when all of hell thought it was winning, I tell you, the devil was a sitting duck, for the crucified one took into his being the sin of the world, so that when you trust in him, your sin is cast as far as the east is from the west. That's Pastor Alan Wright. Welcome to another message of good news that will help you see your life in a whole new light. I'm Daniel Britt, excited for you to hear the teaching today in the series Son of David, as presented at Rinaldin Church in North Carolina. If you're not able to stay with us throughout the entire program today, I want to make sure you know how to get our special resource right now. It can be yours for your donation this month to Alan Wright Ministries. As you listen to today's message, go deeper as we send you today's special offer. Contact us at PastorAlan.org. That's PastorAlan.org.
Or call 877-544-4860. Now, more on this later in the program. But now, let's get started with today's teaching.
Here is Alan Wright. In some studies that they've shown that from 35 meters, a stone slung could travel at about 35 meters per second. That in a second it could hit. This, not to be too graphic about it, but to make the point, the Romans actually had an ancient implement that they carried with them to battle, that was kind of a pair of tongs, and it was designed for a specific purpose of removing embedded stones from soldiers who had been victims of a slinger, which was very common. And Gladwell makes this incredible point that while the cavalry wasn't susceptible to the slinger, because they're on the move, hard to hit a moving target, that the infantry was extremely susceptible to the slinger, especially a big lumbering soldier with 100 pounds of armor who couldn't move quickly at all. In other words, Goliath could have crushed anybody in Israel in hand-to-hand combat, but he was a sitting duck for a highly skilled slinger. They have some ancient Roman art that depicts somebody slinging a stone and knocking birds out of the air.
They have even pictures of coins being knocked out of the air. This became a precision skill, and David had been slinging every day of his life. He had nothing else to do. So the issue was this. David never once thought he was going to lose.
He was positive that he was going to win. Interestingly, scholars have noted two little details in this story of curiosity about Goliath, because the story mentions that Goliath had a shield bearer with him. Why does a giant of a man with 100 pounds of his own armor need a little squirt to walk along with him carrying a shield?
That's a question. And the other thing that's odd in the story is that David appears with his shepherd's staff and his sling and five stones. We're told that detail.
But Goliath says, why do you come at me with sticks? And it is proposed by some scholars that Goliath had this medical condition called acromegaly, in which a benign tumor grows in the pituitary gland, causing an overproduction of human growth hormone. The tallest man we have on on record, on modern record, was 8 foot 11, and he was still growing when he died. And he had this this ailment. But what they found is that often people with acromegaly, these unfortunate souls who experience this really dread disease, they not only grow into this giant of person, but it begins to affect other things.
And notably, it affects nerves connected with vision. And often they wind up with double vision, and they can't see very well. And so what is proposed is that Goliath had acromegaly, and that the reason he had a shield bearer next to him is that Goliath just couldn't see where he's going. They had to have somebody walk with them to tell them what was in front of him. And so when he saw David move forward him, and all Goliath could see was this little figure, this little guy, and he sees this staff, but he's got double vision, so he's got double vision, so he thinks he's holding a couple sticks in his hand.
And he said, what is this that you come at me with sticks? Not only was he a sitting duck because he was a big lumbering giant with a hundred pounds of armor and couldn't move, he couldn't really see his opponent from that distance. There was no question, but David is going to kill this guy. The issue was nobody thought that David would fight the way that he was going to fight. See sometimes the underdog, Gladwell says, is not really the underdog because he has hidden strengths that nobody knew about, and the opponent has hidden weaknesses that he has now discovered.
The one man that no one thought could beat Goliath was the only man in Israel that could defeat Goliath. He looked like he was absolutely the underdog, and yet he wasn't. That's Jesus. That's Jesus. He looked like he was the picture of weakness, and that's how he won it all. Phil Yancey in his beautiful book, The Jesus I Never Knew, he talks about the birth of Jesus, and he says if you were just to read these stories as if for the first time, never having read them, what would stand out at you?
And he said, what stands out to me? One of the words he used was underdog. He writes, I wince even as I write the word, especially in connection with Jesus.
It's a crude word, probably derived from dog fighting and applied over time to predictable losers and victims of injustice. Yet though the world may be tilted toward the rich and powerful, God is tilted toward the underdog. Perhaps the best way to perceive the underdog nature of the incarnation is to transpose it into terms we can relate to today. An unwed mother, homeless, was forced to look for shelter while traveling to meet the heavy taxation demands of a colonial government. She lived in a land recovering from violent civil wars and still in turmoil. Like half of all mothers who deliver today, she gave birth in Asia in its far western corner, the part of the world that would prove least receptive to the son she bore.
That son became a refugee in Africa, the continent where most refugees can still be found. But this underdog quality of Jesus, it didn't end with his birth or his early years. He had this appearance of weakness and vulnerability as the unlikely one to be the hero, the unlikely one to be a king, the unlikely one to be the son of David. Because he was raised in an obscure town, Nazareth, and no one knew him. So much so when he began his ministry, people mocked him and said, isn't this the carpenter's son? Can anything good come from Nazareth? When Jesus began his ministry, after his baptism, he went out into the wilderness where he didn't eat food for 40 days, so he became physically weak.
He started his ministry in a posture of the seeming underdog. And Satan himself appears to Jesus and begins to tempt him. Jesus, nearly starving, is faced with temptations like this. If you're the son of God, why don't you turn the stones into bread and just eat them? He said, if you're the son of God, why don't you take yourself and throw yourself off of this cliff because the angels will attend to you. He's referencing Psalm 91.
What would be so bad about this? Sometimes you read the temptation story. Why not just turn some stones into bread? He's God, after all, and nourish yourself.
You're nearly starving. Why not just throw yourself off of a cliff and angels would just approve that you're the son of God? See, the temptation was to be God but not be human.
The temptation was to give up this seeming underdog role and fight hand-to-hand combat. The devil wanted to lure Jesus into his style of warfare, of pride and showing off and selfishness. Do something for yourself, Jesus, if you're really God.
Just turn the stones into bread and satisfy and satisfy yourself. You don't need to stay human. But Jesus was resolute in the face of such temptation. He was not going to quit being human in order to be God. He would be both because humanity needed someone to represent them. We needed someone who was truly human or else how could you be paying a human price? How could you take a penalty for humanity if you aren't human?
And if you're going to be human, it's going to make you look weak. It means you got to sleep. It means you got to eat. It means you got to cry. It means you got to be betrayed. It means you got to be disappointed.
It means you got to experience what it's like to live in this broken world. And so he lived like this. He would perform miracles and they would just form posses against him. He would teach and then others would criticize him. The religious aristocracy would have left him alone if he had just compromised on maybe not healing on the Sabbath and a few other things. But he just kept resolutely moving as the God-man who looked like the underdog until he finally came to Gethsemane and sweat blood there and he turned to his best friends and he said would you please pray for me because my soul is sorrowful unto death and they fell asleep.
He looks like the guy that no way he's going to win for anybody especially when he's flogged and he's beaten and he's spat upon. He's too weak to carry his own cross. When he's nailed to that tree he's almost dead already and he's hanging there. He's suffocating and there's nobody defending him. Instead all the demons of hell are let loose to have free and unfettered persecution of the Son of God. He was expressed in the voice at the foot of the cross. Look he saved others but he can't save himself.
That's Alan Wright and we'll have more teaching in a moment from today's important series. Got some giants to slay? Need some encouragement in the midst of a trial?
Wondering if God really cares? Meet David. Who can compare to him? He was the ruddy, handsome, youth-tending sheep writing psalms and worshiping God in the humble Bethlehem fields. He was the lone Israelite brave enough to decapitate Goliath and the sole warrior adept enough to cut off the scourge of the Philistines.
He was the stately king who established peace, expanded the borders and reigned in prosperity for 40 years. Who else could be a gentle shepherd, a glorious hero and a noble king? Would there ever be another leader like David? Yes, the Son of David. His name is Jesus and he is a better David than David could ever be. He came to be your shepherd, your hero and your king. In a 12-message audio series, Alan Wright takes you on a thrilling adventure with David in order to point you to the answer for your every need, the Son of David.
Discover how Christ enables you to face your biggest obstacles, deal with your fiercest persecution and live as an heir of grace. It's an audio series from Alan Wright. As our thanks for your donation, we'll be delighted to send you Pastor Alan's audio messages in either a digital download or a CD album format.
Son of David, shepherd, hero, king. The gospel is shared when you give to Alan Wright Ministries. This broadcast is only possible because of listener financial support.
When you give today, we will send you today's special offer. We are happy to send this to you as our thanks from Alan Wright Ministries. Call us at 877-544-4860. That's 877-544-4860. Or come to our website, PastorAlan.org.
Today's teaching now continues. Here once again is Alan Wright. Just like he began his ministry, if you're really the Son of God, throw yourself down off of that cross. And he could have called a legion of angels, but he didn't. The Son of David was not going to be lured by Goliath into fighting Goliath's type of battle. You do not defeat pride by more pride. You do not defeat hate by bringing more hate.
You do not defeat hell by bringing more hell. He came to bring the kingdom of heaven. He had something greater at work. He had love. He had a love that is so perfect that when it is received, it casts out fear. He had a mercy and a grace so strong that he died for those who killed him. He had a love that was so perfect that it is timeless, that it is forever, that it would fulfill the promise that was given to David that someone from your family will be on the throne forever because it was planned to be a throne of grace so that anyone who believes in him would have everlasting life and would be given this opportunity to come behind the veil to the very throne of grace.
This is what he came to establish. And he wasn't going to be tricked by hell into coming down off of the cross. Instead, he died there and he said, Father, forgive them because they don't know what they're doing. He was abandoned. He was crucified. He was dead and he was buried and everybody in hell and everybody who watched thought that he was defeated and that he was the ultimate underdog. We didn't think he could win and he didn't win.
But then Easter came. You see, David never thought he was going to lose. He said, I don't even want to wear your armor, Saul. I'm not going out there to fight hand to hand with Goliath.
I'm going to sling a stone right between the eyes just like I had with bears and lions and God's with me. He had no doubt about it. Everybody, including Goliath, had assumed he would fight infantry style.
But he didn't. And Goliath was a sitting duck. And at the cross that day, when all of hell thought it was winning, I tell you, the devil was a sitting duck. For the crucified one took into his being the sin of the world.
So that when you trust in Him, your sin is cast as far as the east is from the west. Well, the best part of the story that takes place next is a great story because what happened at verse 50. So David prevailed over the Philistine with a sling and with a stone and struck the Philistine and killed him. And there was no sword in the hand of David. Then David ran and stood over the Philistine and took his sword and drew it out of its sheath and killed him and cut off his head with it. And when the Philistines saw that their champion was dead, they fled.
They ran. The Bible says, resist the devil and he'll flee from you. Just, you ever get into spiritual warfare, you have to let the enemy be reminded, I already understand you have been defeated. This is what gives the victory in spiritual warfare. You've been defeated.
Jesus has won. And the men, verse 52, of Israel and Judah rose with a shout, pursued the Philistines as far as Gath and the gates of Ekron. So the wounded Philistines fell on the way from Shireim as far as Gath and Ekron.
Why these details? Because anybody that knew the area would know that they ran them down for about 10 or 12 miles. They were running out there in their armor for 10 miles.
They got all the energy in the world. You see what they did was that they let out a shout. These guys were the most cowardly army on the face of the earth until that day when David defeated Goliath and suddenly they became the most courageous group of guys you've ever seen.
Here's what I mean. It would have done no good and don't you know it was said to each other and Saul maybe had come and said to him, you guys should have more courage, you ought to have more strength, you ought to have more faith. When somebody fights Goliath, no amount of telling somebody to have more faith gives them more faith, does it?
I could stand here and just in my blue in the face say, don't worry about your circumstances, just have more faith. And you go, yeah, I ought to have more faith and you walk out and go, I don't really have any more faith. I just feel worse about the fact that I don't have any faith. It doesn't work.
It doesn't work that way. Nobody got faith by sitting around going, I feel bad about the fact that I don't have enough faith. How did they get faith? They got faith when they saw what David did. See when they saw David, something happened.
Nobody had to tell him for it to happen. It just happened when they saw what David had done through his defeat of Goliath, they suddenly realized, wait a minute, I'm on the winning side and they had courage and they had faith and they began to take territory and they plundered the Philistines. They took back what was theirs and they kept their territory. You could say this, David's actions gave them faith. You could say it this way, David was the author of their faith.
The son of David, Jesus Christ, Hebrews says, is the author and the finisher of your faith. You want more faith? Fix your eyes upon Jesus. You want more courage for what you're going through? Get up in the morning and fix your eyes on Jesus. Meditate on what He's done for you. He has won the decisive victory. You want to be healed of fear and you want to be set free. Fix your eyes upon the one who died for you so that the enemy would be defeated forever. So they all let out a big war cry. They're running next to each other going, you know, I could have taken them myself, but anyway, I was just saying, you know, Eliab, isn't that your baby brother there? Yeah, well, I always believed in him, you know, and the thing was David, he didn't care.
Well, what he cared about was the sake of Israel and the sake of God's name. Matt Mosley harnessed himself in, dangled 50 feet below a helicopter, hovered over a crane, over 220 feet in the air, huge updrafts of heat swaying back and forth, and the nation watched. He managed to get down onto the narrow beam and realized that Mr. Ivar Sims was quite nervous stranded up there, and so he said to the 49-year-old construction worker, hey, your boss sent me up here to tell you you could knock off early today. It was just enough to get Sims relaxed so that he could put the harness on him and attach him and attach him also to the cable, and as they got swung out over the fire and out nearby the highway, he looked and said, you've caused a traffic jam on I-75, we better get down to the ground, and so they did, and all of us watched and cheered, because everybody loves a hero, because everybody needs a hero. You have a hero. His name is Jesus, and that's the gospel. Allen Wright and today's teaching on how David became a hero.
The bigger they are, the harder they fall. Got some giants to slay? Need some encouragement in the midst of a trial?
Wondering if God really cares? Meet David. Who can compare to him? He was the ruddy, handsome, youth-tending sheep, writing psalms and worshiping God in the humble Bethlehem fields. He was the lone Israelite brave enough to decapitate Goliath and the sole warrior adept enough to cut off the scourge of the Philistines.
He was the stately king who established peace, expanded the borders, and reigned in prosperity for 40 years. Who else could be a gentle shepherd, a glorious hero, and a noble king? Would there ever be another leader like David? Yes, the son of David. His name is Jesus, and he is a better David than David could ever be. He came to be your shepherd, your hero, and your king. In a 12-message audio series, Allen Wright takes you on a thrilling adventure with David in order to point you to the answer for your every need, the son of David.
Discover how Christ enables you to face your biggest obstacles, deal with your fiercest persecution, and live as an heir of grace. It's an audio series from Allen Wright. As our thanks for your donation, we'll be delighted to send you Pastor Alan's audio messages in either a digital download or a CD album format.
Son of David, shepherd, hero, king. The gospel is shared when you give to Allen Wright Ministries. This broadcast is only possible because of listener financial support. When you give today, we will send you today's special offer. We are happy to send this to you as our thanks from Allen Wright Ministries. Call us at 877-544-4860.
That's 877-544-4860 or come to our website, pastorallen.org. Allen, in this conclusion to this particular teaching on David and Goliath, and we are thinking about heroes and recounting a story here of, you know, anytime you've seen a heroic act happen in live action, real time, I mean, it stops everybody. It is. We are absolutely taken by a hero because we know we need one. And that's my word to speak to a listener today. You need to be rescued.
You need a hero. And I'm here today to say Jesus is a hero for such a time as this. He is the one that can fight a battle that no one else has courage to fight. He is the one who has won it for all of the people of God. And more and more, as you just see him, you will be conformed more and more into his likeness. Jesus Christ, the son of David, he's the real hero. Today's good news message is a listener supported production of Allen Wright Ministries.
