Courage, Your Giants, and the Giant, Part 2

Today on Summit Life with J.D.

Greer. Today we're finishing up one of the most famous stories in the Old Testament, David and Goliath. Now let me just tell you, if you're the one who struggles to find courage and adversity, the story of David and Goliath is not just meant to give you hope that God will defeat all of your giants.

Instead, Pastor J.D. shows us that it points to an even greater victory, Jesus' victory over death. And because of that victory, we can have audacious courage in the face of our fear. Are you ready to find that type of courage today? I know I am.

So let's rejoin Pastor J.D. in 1 Samuel chapter 17. Then David took his staff and his hand and chose five smooth stones from the brook and put them in his shepherd's pouch. These aren't real weapons. They're shepherd's tools.

They're kids' tools. By the way, these five stones, let me just say this on record, are not symbolic of anything. I point that out because every once in a while I will hear some well-meaning Bible teachers say something like, now these five stones represent worship, prayer, Bible reading, tithing, and K-love music.

Those are all great things, y'all. That is not what these rocks represent. These are just five rocks that he picked up, which I will add, taking only five stones feels like a heck of a lot of confidence to me.

I would have wanted like 30 of those things. The sling was in his hands and he approached the Philistine. And when the Philistine looked and he saw David, he disdained him for he was but a youth, ready and handsome in appearance. And the Philistine said to David, am I a dog that you come to me with sticks? Verse 44, the Philistine said to David, come to me and I will give your flesh to the birds of the air and to the beast of the field. Then David said to the Philistine, you come to me with sword and with a spear and with a javelin, but I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. This day, the Lord will deliver you into my hand and I will strike you down and cut off your head. And I will give the dead bodies of the host of the Philistines this day to the birds of the air and to the wild beast of the earth.

Not bad for a novice trash talker if you ask me. Now watch this, that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel and all disassembly is fellow Israelites behind them. They may know that the Lord saves not with sword and spear. Notice the two audiences David is looking at. One is the world and he's going to show them that God exists. And two is God's people to show them that God always keeps his promises for the battle is the Lord's. He will give you into our hand. I want you to notice that David is asking different questions than everybody else.

Everybody else is asking how big is our enemy and do we have anybody big enough to beat him? David only asked, what does God want in this situation? You want to know where you want to know where courage comes from? Courage begins when you change the question. Courage comes when you stop asking, what am I capable of? And you start asking, what does God want?

Because if God calls me to it, he'll see me through it. Verse 48, when the Philistine arose and came and drew near to meet David, David ran quickly toward the battle line and meet the Philistine. And David put his hand in his bag and took out a stone and slung it and struck the Philistine on his forehead. The stone sank into his forehead and Goliath thought, well, this is the last thing to ever enter my mind. And he fell.

I worked hard on that one, y'all. And he fell on his face to the ground. Then David ran and stood over the Philistine and took his sword and drew it out of its sheath. David doesn't even have a sword, y'all. He had a borrowed Goliath sword.

And he killed him and cut off his head with it. When the Philistines saw that their champion was dead, they fled. And the men of Israel and Judah arose with a shout and pursued the Philistines and they plundered their camp. You know, when you think about it, I mean, what did this representative battle, what difference did it make? I mean, the same armies, what you're seeing is that David's courage gave them courage.

And what you're also seeing is that God not only went before David, God also went behind David and that God fought him on all sides. What a great story, right? What a great story. Here's the million dollar question. What's the main point of the story?

Is the main point, the bigger they are, the harder they fall? How about there's always hope for the underdog. So never stop believing in yourself. Don't stop believing.

Hold on to that feeling. Is that the main point? Maybe it's that underdogs tend to tap into strengths that giants forget about. And that's Malcolm Gladwell's take. Or how about this, if you trust God, God will give you victory over all your giants in your life. Be that a lousy job, the girl who's mean to you at school, a rival football team, the boss who's holding you down. Is that the main point?

Trust God and he will remove all the obstacles from your life. Or how about this, is the main point, God has appointed you to conquer the giant of mediocrity and thrive in your job and in your relationships and in your finances. I've heard all of these taught as the main point of this story.

And I don't want to say that there is no application toward those things, but they are not the main point. Let me teach you something about Bible interpretation, particularly Old Testament interpretation. This is a common mistake that people make when they're reading the Bible. The story of David is not David, you. The story of David is David, Jesus, you. Don't cut out the middleman.

In this case, the middleman is really important. He's the main point of every one of these stories in that first two thirds of your Bible. This book, this book, first and foremost, is not a book about you. This is a book about Jesus, which is number one, if you're taking notes. Number one, Jesus is the true David. Jesus was the small unassuming shepherd boy who fought the real giant Satan, that scaly snake who wielded the sword of our sin and the spear of our curse. Jesus, like David, defeated that giant as our representatives while we all stood on the sidelines like cowards do with nothing to help him, while all of our idols, all those Sauls that we had chosen to put our trust in instead of him, while they all stood pathetically on the sidelines, utterly unable to deliver us.

Almost a thousand years after this, after this David and Goliath battle took place, a small baby was born in Bethlehem, where David was from. He was gonna take the field as our representative and utterly crushed the head of Satan all by himself. Jesus was in every way our representative. He lived the life that we were supposed to have lived. He faced every temptation that Satan threw at him, and he overcame all of them. Then he died the death that we'd been condemned to die. He fought as our representative, and he died as our representative, and because of his victory, we are now freed from all of Goliath's threats. You see, Goliath in this story is not primarily supposed to represent contemporary obstacles that you face in your day-to-day life, career difficulties, or chronic pain, or cancer, or comrade Putin, or China, or all the folks on the other side of the political aisle. Goliath is a picture of Satan, that scaly snake who defies God, threatens his people, and attempts to thwart his purposes. In his hands, he holds the sword of our sin and the curse of death that goes with it.

He is called the accuser of the brethren, the taunter of the brethren, which means day and night he reminds you of your shortcomings, and your limitations, and your sins, and your failures, and your shame, and in your strength, you cannot overcome him because the facts he brings up before you are mostly true. But at the cross, Jesus took the curse for your sin, and in so doing, he took the sword of our sin out of Satan's hand, and he killed him with it. The writer of Hebrews says it this way, Jesus partook, Jesus partook of our flesh and blood that through death he might destroy the one who had the power of death, who held the weapons of death, that is the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death had been all their life were subject to lifelong slavery.

Does that sound like he's describing the scene in 1 Samuel 17? There we stood on the sideline captive to our shame, and our guilt, and our fear of sin and death. Then Jesus came and partook of our flesh and blood, and he disarmed our enemy on our behalf. He not only disarmed the enemy, he decapitated the enemy. And now we no longer live in captivity, terrified by his greatest threat against us, which was the fear of death. Our hero defanged the snake.

Our hero took the stinger out of the power of death. This past Easter, I told you a story about a girl, a three-year-old girl in the backseat of her car driving down the interstate, or dad driving down the interstate, she's in the backseat, and there's a bee, and she's terribly allergic to bees, so she begins to panic. Dad, be a bee, and she's swinging all around in the backseat, and she's like, and she's panicking, because if this bee stings her, it's gonna be bad news. So the dad does what dads do, he's driving down the interstate, and he's rolling down the window, and he's trying to shoot the bee out, can't get the bee out, so he pulls a car to the side of the road. He takes her, he leans over top of her, and this bee is now up against the back window, and he takes his hand, and he covers over the bee. And he holds it there for 20 to 30 seconds, and then he takes his hand away and opens his hand, and that bee flies out, at which point the little girl starts to panic again. Dad, the bee's gonna come back, the bee's gonna come back, he's gonna sting me.

And dad said no, and showed the little girl in his hand is that stinger of that bee, and he says that bee can never threaten you again. When Jesus died on the cross, he took the stinger out of death, so that yes, you and I die, but death, where is your sting? Grave, where is your victory? Number two, because of Jesus' victory, see, that means I can have undaunted confidence.

Because of he took the stinger out of death, because of his victory, I can have undaunted confidence. Here's how this story gives you confidence. What if, in all those things that scare you, all those things that cause you anxiety, what if the real threat in all those things was gone?

Here's what I mean. We fear rejection. We fear that something we say, or something we do, or something we do, or something that's discovered about us is gonna make others turn away from us, but what if Jesus had taken the sting out of that by making us permanently acceptable to God in him? So that in him we hear, there is now no condemnation for those of you who are in Christ Jesus. He has removed your sins as far as the east is from the west.

Nothing can separate you from his love. In him we hear our heavenly father say, you are my beloved son or daughter, in whom I am not well pleased. You see, if I know that I have his affirmation, what other people think about me becomes a lot less important. It's not that I don't care about what people say. It's not that you don't care about what people say about you.

Only an arrogant fool would care nothing about what others think. It's just that we're no longer captive to their opinions, controlled by them, paralyzed by them, living and dying for them, because our sense of approval comes from somewhere else. You're listening to Summit Life with J.D. Greer. For more information about this ministry, visit us at jdgreer.com. Each month we curate a special premium resource for all of our gospel partners and financial supporters as a way to say thank you for your support. This month we've created an all-new eight-week Bible study to expand on your study of the life of David. This new study takes eight key passages from King David's life, and it helps you work through them with the analysis of the text, application questions, and prayer prompts.

We still search today for identity, security, happiness, the same things that Israelites wanted from their new King David. So let's learn the same lessons and pursue God completely along the way. We'd love to send you this study with your gift of $35 or more to this ministry.

To give, call us now at 866-335-5220 or give online at jdgreer.com. Now let's get back to the conclusion of our teaching today. Once again, here's Pastor J.D. Sometimes we're paralyzed by fear of failure. Some of you don't want to get out there and try new stuff because failure feels like a verdict on your life. You fail at something, you lose at something, and you hear this voice, it's Goliath, saying you failed to succeed at that, therefore you are a failure. You're not good enough.

You have no value. So you're just not going to get out there and try things for fear you will fail. But what if Jesus took the stain out of that fear?

I said, well, actually as high as the heavens or above the earth, that's how great his love is for those of you who are in him and you are fearfully and wonderfully made and I have blessed you to be a blessing. I have a purpose for you and you're going to be a blessing. I've predestined that, that you should go and walk in good works. And there's nothing that can actually separate you from that plan.

That frees me up all of a sudden, doesn't it? Because I still don't want to fail at anything. I don't like to fail, but failure is no longer a verdict on my life. I've already been declared valuable and my usefulness is assured and guaranteed to me by God. Maybe you're scared of death.

Maybe you're scared of bodily harm. Jesus took the sting out of that fear by defeating death and promising us his resurrection and then assuring us that God is now working all things in our lives together for his glory and our good. So he says, don't fear those that can kill the body because you have on your side, the one who resurrects the body and promises now to turn whatever the enemy meant for evil, he will turn it for good. Jesus defeated the real enemy and all those things. So when Goliath, the accuser, the taunter says to me after a personal failure, well, God can never forgive you.

Jesus stands there as my representative. And he says, no, I've separated you. I've separated your sin as far away from you as the East is from the West. Your sins were red like scarlet.

I've made them white as snow. And now my mercy is for you are new every single morning. Or when Goliath, my accuser says, your life is over.

It's going nowhere and it's going to amount to nothing. You're not making any difference to anybody. Jesus, my hero stands there and he says, no, I've chosen you. I appointed you to bring forth fruit. I've determined to give you a future and a hope and nothing can stand against my good purposes in your life.

No weapon formed against you will prosper. All those who rise up against you will fall. Jesus' victory means that I can speak up now when God tells me to, even when I know doing so might cause me pushback or mockery or loss of face before others, because his victory assures me that God is with me. And if God is for me, who can really be against me? I know he stands by my side because he stood in my place. Jesus' victory means that I can obey God fearlessly now, even when I know it might cost me dearly, even if it means my own friends and family turn on me. Because Jesus has promised that there's nobody who's left, brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or fields for his sake, who will not receive a hundred times back in this life and even more in the life to come. The story of David and Goliath does not mean that God now serves as your genie who will immediately eliminate any problem. What it means is in suffering, in loss and death and pain, God has removed the stinger and he is weaving all things for his glory and our good. And that gives you confidence. But lastly, number three, because of Jesus' victory, I can have audacious courage.

Listen closely to this. Listen, like I said, this story is mainly about what Jesus would one day do on the cross and the big giant of our sin and death that he would eliminate. But listen, it's not just about that. This story also gives us a picture of how God works through his people today when they trust him. You see, yes, David was a picture of the coming Messiah.

That's the main point. But David was also a real guy at a real point in history, living among real people, facing real danger. God had promised to give Israel the land of Canaan and defeat all the enemies like the Philistines, and Goliath stood in the way of them, and he Goliath stood in the way of that. David perceived that Goliath was in opposition to what God wanted to do. And so David said, you will not stand in the way of what God wants. In our day, don't we see the enemy trying to threaten and for the work of God in our day, just like David did in his? I see him attempting to do that in our church. I see him attempting to do that in our community, in our nation, in my family, in the life of some of my friends. This story shows me that when I see Satan defying the good things that God has intended for my children, I can reply to him, you will not undo God's good work in my kids' lives. I don't care how loud your threats are or how big your sword is. Think about it. If Goliath represents Satan's challenges to the work of God, when I see Satan working in my family to undo God's work there, can I not say what David said?

You will not. You come to me with sword and spear, but I come to you in the name of the Lord my God. This story means that when I know what God wants in a situation, when I change the question, when I know what will glorify him, I can pray that into existence. This story means that when Goliath, the slave master stands defiantly in front of a group of people that I know Jesus died for, and he stands there saying, these people are mine. This unreached people group, this part of the city, that group of friends, they belong to me.

Your children belong to me. I can rush at him in Jesus' name with my little slingshot and my five rocks. And I can say, no, Jesus, by his blood, purchased for God, people of every tribe and tongue and nation to serve as a kingdom of priests and reign forever with him.

And that includes these people. He has said he will build his church and the gates of hell will never prevail against him. By the way, sometimes we totally mess that verse up. We say the gates of hell will never prevail against us.

And we act like that means that when Satan attacks us, we will fend off the attacks. Let me state the obvious here. Gates are not an offensive weapon. Gates are a defense. You don't attack somebody with a gate.

Here's my gate. I'm going to beat you over the head with it. What Jesus is saying is when the gates of hell are trying to keep you out, you can just walk right through them because I will build my church, and nobody, not Satan or any Goliath, will stand in my way. Satan stands defiantly in front of somebody I know God wants to reach, and I say, you stand there with sword and spear, but I come to you in the name of the Lord my God. Who can stop the Lord Almighty?

Who can stop the Lord? The other story means it's right for us to try big, audacious things for God. Things like we want to plant a thousand churches.

We want to plant a campus with no more than 15-minute driving time from everybody in the triangle. We want to see a gospel revival come to our city, to UNC Chapel Hill, NC State, North Carolina Central. On our pastoral team, we say we want to have a bias for audacity. We want to be sensible, but we want to have a bias for audacity, and it's because of what we learn from stories like this one in the Bible. Jesus' victory doesn't mean I will never face any obstacles or even that I will always win in an earthly sense over all the obstacles. It just means that when I see Satan work in a situation, I can stand against him with an even more brazen defiance and say, the battle belongs to the Lord, and God will fight for me, just like he did for David. I started this message talking about courage.

I said there were four kinds. No courage. That's what Saul had because he compared his size to his enemy's.

That's where some of you are. You're Saul. You've looked at the opposition, and you're terrified. The question you need to ask is, have I surrendered to do God's will?

Have I surrendered to do his will? Because courage starts with knowing you're living out God's purposes, doing his work, and you've got him at your back. Some of you have no courage. You're Saul. Some of you have no courage. Some of you have disappointed courage.

That was Israel. The Saul that you have chosen for yourself has utterly failed you. The thing or person you trusted in, you're Saul. The marriage, the job, the friend, they've utterly let you down, and now you're bitter. Psychologists tell us the measure of our hope in something becomes the measure of our disdain for it when it fails us. The reason some of you are so angry at men is because a man failed you, and you had so much hope in him. Same thing for men with women. You put so much hope in the husband, the wife, the job, the boyfriend, the friend.

Now you're utterly bitter, and you feel defeated and unsure if you can ever get back out there and trust again, afraid that you're just going to get hurt again. You have disappointed courage. Then you've got counterfeit courage. That's Goliath who thought that his superior strength would assure him a victory. That's where some of you are, that little group I talked about that's naturally fearless.

Most of you are Goliaths. You're probably in the most dangerous position. You feel confident about the future because you're metaphorically taller. Your armor is thicker.

Your sword is bigger. Your scoreboard is an unblemished record of W's. There's nothing so far in life that has come at you that you haven't been able to handle. Tragically, soon you're going to be disabused of that presumption, some failure, some disease, some divorce. It awaits. Then there's real courage. For those of you that have real courage, like David, you have it because you keep your eyes on Jesus. You have courage because you know the victory belongs to Jesus. The victory belongs to him, and you're in him, and he stands beside you and fights for you, and the victory belongs to him. Keep your eyes on his finished victory, and it'll give you undaunted confidence and audacious courage. Real courage only comes from having your eyes fixed on Jesus.

You may be the toughest, smartest, or wealthiest person alive, but the only one who can provide you with the strength to face life's toughest battles is Jesus because victory belongs to him. If you've missed any part of today's teaching, or if you'd like to catch up on our brand new teaching series, you can always do that free of charge at jdgrier.com, compliments of our generous gospel partners and daily supporters. And speaking of our gospel partners, we have a very special premium resource this month for each of them, as well as anyone who gives a one-time gift to support this ministry, and you're not going to want to miss it.

It's a brand new eight-week Bible study through the life of King David, which of course pairs perfectly with the teaching series that we'll be in for a few more weeks. We'd love to send it to you as our way to say thank you for your gift of $35 or more to support this ministry or for becoming a monthly gospel partner. To do that, call us now at 866-335-5220 or give online at jdgrier.com. While you're on the website, don't forget to sign up for our weekly newsletter. It's a great way to stay connected with Summit Life, and it's completely free to subscribe.

Sign up when you go to jdgrier.com. I'm Molly Vitovich. Thanks for joining us this week. We hope you have a fantastic weekend as you gather with your church family, and we'll see you next time as we continue looking at the life of David on Summit Life with J.D. Greer. Today's program was produced and sponsored by J.D. Greer Ministries.