Today on Summit Life, an encouraging message from Pastor JD Greer. Real courage doesn't come from not having difficulties or knowing that the way is going to be smooth.
Real courage is knowing that you have a God that is better than life and a God that is larger than death who constantly stays beside you and says, surely my goodness and my mercy are going to follow you. Welcome to Summit Life, the Bible teaching ministry of JD Greer. I'm your host, Molly Vidovitch. Today we're continuing our teaching series called The Whole Story. If you're just joining us, Pastor JD has been giving us an overview of the whole Bible from Genesis to Revelation.
If you've missed any part of this study, you can find the previous messages at jdgreer.com. Are you up against a giant today? Maybe you're facing a scary diagnosis or a financial crisis. Maybe your kids are rebelling or someone you love has walked out of your life.
Whatever it is, it feels insurmountable. When your problems seem larger than life, it often feels like God has abandoned you. Well, today Pastor JD offers hope that our God is fighting for us even when we can't see it. We're looking at the story of David and Goliath. Let's pick up where we left off yesterday in the book of 1 Samuel. 1 Samuel 17, verse 1. Now the Philistines gathered their armies for battle. Verse 3, and the Philistines stood on the mountain on the one side and Israel stood on the mountain on the other side with this big valley between them. Verse 4, and there came out from the camp of the Philistines a champion named Goliath whose height was six cubits and a span which would have made him in our measurements about nine foot six. And he stood and shouted to the ranks of Israel, why have you come out to draw up for battle? Am I not a Philistine? This is, this is meet the Philistine right here. And are you not just servants of Saul?
Choose a man for yourselves and let him come down to me. And if he is able to fight with me and kill me, then we'll be your servants. But if I prevail against him and kill him, then you shall be our servants. Verse 16 says that every morning and every evening Goliath did this for 40 days.
All right. Meanwhile, Jesse sends ruddy David up to see his brothers at the battle with some crackers and cheese. So he brings the snacks to his seven older brothers who were doing the fighting. Verse 23, as David talked with them, behold, the champion, the Philistine of Gath, Goliath by name came out of the ranks of the Philistines and spoke the same words as before. But this time David heard him jump down to verse 32. And David said to Saul, let no man's heart fail because of him, your servant, me ruddy little David, I'll go fight the Philistine. And Saul said to David, you were not able to go against the Philistine to fight with him for you are but a youth.
And he has been a man of war from his youth. But David said to Saul, your servant used to keep sheep for his father. And then there came a lion and a bear and took a lamb from the flock. And I went after him and struck him and delivered it out of his mouth.
And when he arose against me, I caught him by his beard and I struck him and killed him. Verse 37, the Lord who delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear will deliver me also from the hand of the Philistine. And Saul said to David, go and the Lord be with you.
When the Philistine looked and saw David, he disdained him. Verse 43, the Philistine said to David and my dog, could you come out to me with sticks? 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 see the problem dude is you come to me with a sword and a spear and 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. And so this very 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, to the wild beasts of the earth, that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel and that all this assembly may know that the Lord saves not with sword and with spear for the battle David says is the Lord's and he will give you into our hand.
And he's going to prove that right here. Verse 48, when the Philistine arose and came and drew near to meet David, David ran quickly toward the battle line to 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 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 his sheath and he killed him and he cut off his head. And when the Philistines saw that their champion was dead, they fled and the men of Israel and Judah rose with a shout and pursued the Philistines and they plundered all their camp. What is the main point of this story?
Is it that the bigger they are, the harder they fall? How about there's always hope for the underdog so never stop believing in yourself? Or how about this, if you trust God, God will give you victory over all the giants in your life. Are those the main point of this story? No. The story of David, like all stories in the Bible, is not David you.
That's not the way it goes. In the Bible, it is David Jesus you. It is a book about him. It is not written to give you a bunch of heroes whose examples you're supposed to emulate as much as it is to give you a savior that you're supposed to adore and to hope in. Jesus was the small unassuming shepherd boy who fought the real giant, Satan, our sin and the curse of death.
He fought as our representative on our behalf while we all stood on the sidelines like cowards doing nothing to help him. Our real Goliath was our alienation from God and the penalty we owed because of our sin and that is something that Jesus knocked out for us on the field of battle all by himself. So David, Jesus, now you. All right, because after we do that, now you can understand what it means for your life. Number one, because Jesus has taken out the real giant in my life, I can bravely face all the lesser giants. So write this down if you're taking notes.
Do a little letter A here. In Christ, I don't have to be afraid of death. Y'all, if cancer comes, I don't know for some of you it has. If cancer comes, ultimately, I don't have to be afraid of it because even if it kills me, Jesus has taken the sting out of death.
In fact, King David would write it himself this way. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil for thou art with me. You see, Jesus took the real sting out of death, which was alienation and separation so that now when you go through cancer, when you walk into death's doorstep, what you're going to deal with is only the shadow because Jesus actually took the full impact of it. In Christ, I don't have to be afraid of death. In Christ, I don't have to be afraid of the future flying out of control. So if you lose your job, you got something more secure than money to hang on to. And that thing that's more secure is God's personal promises to take care of you.
Again, here's how David wrote it. The Lord is my shepherd, so I'll never really be in need. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He prepares a table before me in the presence of my enemies.
You know how comforting that is? The moment that all my enemies are trying to kill me, God's fixing me a five-course meal right in the middle of it and they can't touch me. Surely goodness and mercy, David says, are going to follow me all the days of my life. I can't get away from it. When I wake up, it's there.
When I get up in the morning, when I go to bed at night, you can never separate me from it. I'll dwell in the house of the Lord forever. I'll never be abandoned. I'll never be alone.
I'll never be forsaken. So if I lose my job, it's not the end of the world. Because you want to know what really would be the end of the world? Losing your relationship with God and standing in judgment before him.
And since Jesus took care of that, you can be confident that he'll take care of this situation too. Just ask yourself, what would feel like the end of the world to you? What would feel like the end of the world? Losing a job? Losing a loved one? Maybe getting hurt in a relationship? I know people in our church who pull back from being in relationships because they got really hurt in a relationship and they think, I just can't have that ever happen to me again. And so their hearts damaged and they can't trust. They can't love. But see in Christ, you can go, you can go back into those relationships because listen, even if you get hurt again, that won't be the end of the world.
Why? Because Christ took into himself the real end of the world for you. Christ has given you true life. A life that joblessness cannot threaten, a life that friends cannot damage and a life that cancer can't even kill. So yay though, I walk through the valley of the shadow of death or the valley of joblessness or poor health or a bad marriage, I will not be afraid because thou art with me.
Your rod and your staff, which are instruments of protection, they're the ones that bring comfort to me and they're always fighting for me and you never go to sleep. Here's this, let her see in Christ, I don't have to fear the disapproval of others. I have the absolute approval of the only one whose opinion really matters. I've told y'all before that for most of my life, I've been captive to what other people thought about me. Well see in Christ, I know that even if people reject me, even if people don't like me, I have the absolute approval of the only one whose opinion really matters anyway. Y'all sometimes even as I preach, even in the very moment of reaching, I will have these thoughts. I look out and partially it's some of your faults because there are some of you that are extraordinary sermon listeners. There's about five of you in every audience and what I mean by that is you smile and whenever I make eye contact you nod like this and I'm just like I feel awesome right now and I always figure out who you are and I just look at you the entire time but see the right between you and the next person like that are a bunch of really bad sermon listeners and everybody's and they just consider like this and they get this kind of look on their face and I'm like are they mad are they what's going on and I start like feeling like I think I'm really terrible at this based on that person's expression I am a very terrible preacher I think you should probably do something else in my life and I get the I just get kind of overcome with this like I don't think these people I don't think that guy right there like I think that guy's mad at me that guy might come up and punch me after this thing is over and in the middle of that kind of thought when the Holy Spirit helps me I get those other quick glimpse you're like what is all happening in your head as you preach you preach the same thing five times you watch what happens in your mind um so as I'm as I'm seeing this I'll get this image of God the father um like right here just kind of in heaven he's standing right up there and I get this image of him looking out over heaven watching me preach and then I kind of picture him like calling the angels like blowing a whistle like hey guys come here watch this gets them all around he's like y'all look it's JD he's trying to preach again and as usual he's going way too long and his production team's going to kill him but that's my boy that's my boy and he's doing exactly what I told him to do and I'm proud of it and I suddenly get this big feeling of like confidence again and I'm like if he's smiling at me I don't even care about your frown so go on with your bored self just put your head down I don't care what you do because he's happy he's listening he's into it and if I got his respect I can endure your scorn you're listening to Summit Life with Pastor JD Greer to learn more about this ministry including how to partner with us financially visit jdgreer.com did you know that Summit Life is featured on radio stations all over the country and even overseas we love hearing from people all over the world Dave recently wrote in about how he is using Summit Life resources to reach people where God has currently placed he and his family he said previously we have used your content in Canada in our life groups and gained knowledge that I now use with non-Christian university students in Thailand as we share God's love in a new exciting way with students and young adults we have seen many lives transformed isn't that amazing join us in praying for Dave and his family as they share God's love in Thailand also let's pray that the ministry of Summit Life continues to equip those spreading God's good news worldwide and if this program has become a trusted source of spiritual encouragement for you give us a call and share your story we'd love to praise God with you and pray for you call us today at 866-335-5220 now let's return for the conclusion of today's teaching once again here's Pastor JD see in Christ I don't have to be afraid of the disapproval of others by the way this is also how you gain the courage to be honest about your faults to admit that you don't always have it together let me tell you the secret of those people who can admit that they're messed up in front of everybody else the secret is they know that they're accepted by Christ and I know that if I'm confident in Christ I don't need you to think that I'm perfect and awesome in order for for me to know you why because Christ accepts me and so I can be weak and I can be vulnerable because ultimately your admiration is not my life Jesus is my life real courage is not the assurance that everything's going to go smoothly real courage doesn't come from finding your inner awesomeness so you're a snowflake you're a rainbow you're a skittle it's not finding that real courage doesn't come from not having difficulties or knowing that the way is going to be smooth real courage is knowing that you have a God that is better than life and a God that is larger than death who constantly stays beside you and says surely my goodness and my mercy are going to follow you you can't get away from it all the days of your life wherever you go that's where I'm gonna go with you now y'all before I go on to the second thing here let me ask do you know Christ like this because see he's your representative but you've got to receive him as your representative he went out on that field and he fought for you he restored God to you but you have to personally receive him as savior and lord here's the second big thing number two because Jesus won this battles I can trust God to fight my lesser battles for me also you see old testament stories like this one do two things as I showed you first and foremost most importantly they point us to Jesus secondarily they give us an example for how we should live those are the two purposes of these stories in that order so really quickly what is a giant in your life let me give you a definition of a giant a giant is anything that prohibits the advance of the will of God in your life you see Satan will oppose all the good things God wants to do in your life he'll do it in your marriage he'll do it when you're within the lives of your kids he will do it in your job he will even do it in your health how do we overcome the giants that Satan uses to impede the progress of the will of God you do it like David did running confidently toward them believing that God will fight for you listen the Christian life is not just learning to endure defeat well there's a lot of Christians that talk like that's what it means to be a Christian you're just going to walk through life and learn to endure suffering yes you need to learn to endure suffering well but the Christian life is also seeing the power of God and his salvation break into different spheres of your life again let me just use David to teach this to us this is an all David weekend psalm 27 13 I remain confident of this David said watch this I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the where say it say living I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the in other words not just in death I'm actually going to see God's goodness in life a lot of people think it's only going to be in death it's only in the sweet by and by no God says I want you to see it now you see I think of this when I pray for my kids and I pray for their salvation and I pray for the salvation of their future kids oh my god I want to see your goodness break into my family I think about it when I pray for this church oh my god yeah I understand that you could give us a difficult you could make this church fail and fail and fail and you would still be good not still be heaven that'd be awesome but god I want to see you use this church to reach people in Raleigh Durham and I want to see us baptize 50,000 people I want to see us reach an entire generation of teenagers and college students I want to see us actually transform this community I think I want to see God's goodness in the land of the living and I'm not going to be satisfied until I see him break in and transform everything it is perfectly fine for you to pray for victory over cancer so that you can keep serving God and blessing others who need you yes God might have a different and a better plan but you can ask him for the outbreak of his goodness in this area it is perfectly fine for you to ask God to bless you in your career so that you can give glory to him and use your prosperity to further the cause of his mission it's okay for you to say God and multiply what you're given to me so that I can sponsor 100 compassion kids you can be asking God to move you should be asking God to move powerfully in the lives of your friends and you should be expecting him to do so God I want to see your goodness in the land of the living y'all and when God doesn't do what you think he should do you just know that it has nothing to do with him not caring or forgetting about you how do you know that because you saw him face the real giant you saw him take out sin and condemnation and death and you know that if he did not default from you if he did not run away when he faced that giant for you surely he's not going to abandon you when you face these lesser ones where do you see the kingdom of God needing to advance have courage don't look at the size of the giant look at the graciousness of God listen giants are not a problem to God they never have been what kills us is the giant of unbelief that resides right here which brings us back to the last question I want to ask where do you learn this kind of courage where do you learn to listen to God's voice and act in faith let's go back real quick to chapter 16 verse 13 to where the spirit of God first rushes on David this is so important where do you learn this right after verse 13 okay here's my Bible I know you can't see this rule well there's verse 13 right there verse 14 is right here in between verse 13 verse 14 changes the subject and starts talking about Saul again so David just got anointed David has been chosen to be king then we change the subject and this little itty bitty thing between verse 13 and 14 is a white space about that big in my Bible what do you think that white space was like for David because that white space lasted about seven years after David gets anointed to be king what's he do he didn't you know run down to the palace and start doing a an intense elite king training program he doesn't go down to hosanna republic and try on robes sorry but he doesn't do any of that back to the pasture now I'll tell you guys I went to seminary and in seminary they taught us how to exegete heiress tents of greek verbs and hebrew cognates and blah blah blah they never taught me how to exegete a white space and a white space is the most difficult thing in the Bible to interpret because it's that space where you think God ought to be doing something and he's not right it's a white space where you're like God I don't understand what was his life for David did God did you forget you anointed me to be king and I went back and I started to shovel sheep dung did you make a mistake did I make a mistake no David no mistake it's that God uses the pasture to prepare his king it's only in the pasture that God's going to build into you his skill his patience endurance and character y'all listen y'all listen chuck swindoll says that three words characterize David's time in the pasture I would encourage you if you can to write them in that little tiny white space in your Bible write these three words the first word is obscurity nobody paid any attention to David during that time obscurity second word monotony monotony what you do today David I watched the sheep they went from here to there what else you do I practiced with my slingshot could knock that apple off a tree want to see nope I don't care David what else did you do I got so bored I played a harp wrote a song you want to hear it I call it the 23rd song not really David don't want to hear a song written by a blue-collar worker who's not skilled at all not particularly anything else David uh a bear attacked the sheep I grabbed his beard and killed it with my knife it's beard David do bears even have beards David did can anybody verify this nope obscurity monotony you see there's a third word reality and that third word is that in the pasture the reality is that God though nobody else is paying attention to David God the master builder was using every moment every second to shape him with the slingshot right that was going to come in handy with the harp David's going to write the most famous song ever written the song that brings more comfort to Christians in the hour of trial than any other song that's ever been written in the pasture God honed Dave David's courage in the pasture David learned to forgive and be patient in the pasture he learns humility you can only be so proud when you spent the majority of your life shoveling cheap dung David never really forgot where he came from and that's going to be the secret to his success because he never forgot about how small he was and how much he owed to God this is how God works in your life already in the series we've seen it haven't we we saw it with Joseph we saw it with Moses we saw it with Joshua when God calls to you and says call somebody he trains them in the pasture hey mom what'd you do today I changed diapers your children rise up and call you blessed nope hey teacher what'd you do today I tried to teach some kids a long division they appreciate it nope one tried to flush his math book down the toilet hey business professional what'd you do today I settled some accounts hey student what'd you do some nonsense and calculus and history that I'm never going to use obscurity monotony see the reality is is that God's at work and at all shaping you and moving the mission forward do not despise the pasture do not despise suffering because these are God's laboratories for forming in you the heart of a king that's what he does so let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus see let this mind be in you that was also in him that though he was in the form of God he did not choose equality with God as a thing to be clung on to but he made himself of no reputation took the form of a servant and humbled himself and became obedient even obedient to the point of the cross therefore therefore God has also highly exalted him and given him the name that is above every name that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow in heaven and on earth that's not just about Jesus it's about you it's telling you how God will exalt you you want to be exalted by God you want to be used by God you want to have the spirit of God rush upon you it means that the way up is the way down you become a servant you become humble you become obedient and then God raises you up in the power of his spirit so don't despise your pasture because what God is doing is he's putting into you a power you can't get any other way are you learning to trust God through your giants and your pastures you're listening to summit life the bible teaching ministry of pastor and author jd greeter this ministry exists with two main objectives in mind first to take people deeper into their understanding of the gospel message and then second to take that passion and advance the gospel message wider into the world and that mission includes reaching the littlest members of our list today and the most important is the the littlest members of our listening family kids while most of our monthly featured resources are designed for grown-ups jesus said let the little children come unto me and we never want to forget that that's why this month we've created a joyful gospel focused activity book just for kids each page is filled with activities coloring pages word searches bible verse fill in the blanks and more we want to help make learning about the gospel fun for your family while helping you teach them important lessons about the lord and what it means to trust him and follow him and this is a digital resource which means your family or even your church won't have just one shot to color your way through these pages and activities you can reprint them anytime you'd like or print multiple sets for your kids in sunday school class or children's church this resource comes with our thanks when you support summit life at the suggested level of 45 dollars or more just give us a call at 866-335-5220 or it might be easier to give and request the kids activity book online jdgrier.com i'm molly vidovich next time we'll learn about david's biggest failure it's a cautionary message about the danger of sexual sin so we'll see you right back here thursday on summit life with jd greer today's program was produced and sponsored by jd greer ministries
