1 Samuel: 17

This is the story of David and Goliath. We're starting a new sermon series today. It's called Stories about Jesus and you may be thinking. Wait a minute. I thought Jesus was in the New Testament. Astute observation. Yes, he is. He's also in the Old Testament, and I want to show you that my goal for the next four or five weeks is going to be to show you how to find Jesus in the Old Testament. Now it's not like we used to play Where's Waldo? When you were a kid, You know that book, right? The guy with the red and white striped pajamas that gets around hides all over the world. We think finding Jesus in the Old Testament like that. Is it like we're gonna look around whoops there he is I found him. It's not like that. It's not right. That is a matter of fact. It's It's more like it's more like the pages of the Old Testament or stained red with the blood of Jesus. When you see what I'm talking about, you'll see Jesus everywhere. So I don't want to ruin this story. So I won't say any more than that. We're gonna look at it together, but we're looking today one of most famous stories in the Bible to demonstrate that point. Now everybody has a different spin on the moral of the story, and I would put money on the fact that every one of you have heard the story of David and Goliath. It's a popular story. Even if you've never read the Bible before. Even this is the first time you've ever been in a church building. You've probably heard the story of David and Goliath. If you don't go something like this, a young gun is in his teens faces up against the non foot toll giant Warrior, and he kills him with a sling and the stone. And so everybody has their own spin. You hear things like this is an underdog story. You never want to underestimate the underdog or the bigger they are, the harder they fall. I'm pretty sure that that phrase comes from this story. If you banish your fears, you can take down a giant there's you don't hear. This is much anymore. But a lot of older preachers usedto Allah, garages, passages in the Old Testament. I'll give you an example. What they would say is like David went to the brook and he picked up five stones, and that's what he used to slay the giant you have five stones to and those stones or prayer and worship, and I don't know where they got that. It's not here. I saw. Interestingly, enough of it on Facebook this last week of a very popular preacher going on about the glyph having your sword. Maybe you will have seen that if you have, then just know that it's nonsense. And if you did see it, if you haven't seen it yet, you see it, just skip over it. There's everybody has their own interpretation of this story, it seems like, and all of those things you found a common root. I think those are all shallow readings of the story. There is so much more here. And though this is one of the most well known passages in all, the bobble, I'm hoping that many of you will leave here feeling like you've heard it for the first time today. I think it's because it's become so familiar that in many ways we've completely missed it. I want to ruin it for you. So I won't say anymore. Let me set the stage Important to understanding the story of David and Goliath is understanding the context in which it is so. Israel is there kind of in a bad way. They come out of the period of the judges, which is a very bad period. You can read the book of Judges Thio here about that. Basically, Israel did whatever they wanted. They started worshipping other gods. There was no loyalty towards the first. You are the one true god. First Samuel comes right after that and the story in first Samuel starts with Samuels Birth. His mother was Hannah Long story short handed, dedicated Samuel to the service of the Lord. After his birth he started with Ella. He was called to be a prophet of God and so he was a recognized prophet of God. The Lord spoke to him and then he spoke to the people. Now, in chapter four of first Samuel, Israel was at war with the Philistine Tze the Philistine Sze were one of Israel's biggest enemies. During this day there are few people who have caused the Israel lights. The Jews Maur grief than the Philistine In the middle of this one battle 4000 Israel lights Duh! And so there sit around thinking what went wrong? How do how do we prevent this from happening again? Somebody that I've got a bright idea. We'll go get the ark of the Covenant of the Lord that this was the thing that got it instructed to be made that represented his presence. It's set in the middle of the tabernacle and soon to be the temple. They said We'll go get this. We'll bring it out to the battle with us and then it will go and fight the battle for us. So they go get the ark of the Covenant of God that's supposed to be representative of God's presence. They bring it and they said it. And they're so excited that they erupt in cheering and the philistines or terrified. They said a God has entered their camp. This is the same God that made a mess of the Egyptians way back when we don't stand a chance. But we got to do our best. So act like men. Let's stand up and let's fight. And 30,000 men of israel dot They lost the battle. It was worse than the first time. But in fact the arc of God was captured. The art of God was captured and the Philistines took it and put it in the temple of their God. So it's like we're just gonna add this one to our collection. They're God's name was day gone. History tells us that the day gone was kind of like 1\/2 fish half man person mur man. You can think of it and that's what they worshipped. I don't have me wa but day gone is in his temple and they bring the Ark of the Covenant of God to the temple and they leave. They come back the next day, and when they come to day guns, temple to worship or offer sacrifices or whatever they do when they find this day gone, it's face down in front of the ark of the Covenant of the One True Living God. I think that's kind of weird. So they set day gone back up on his pedestal and they leave. They come back the next day and the comeback and Dave Gunness faced down again, except this time, his hands and his head had broken off. Now, if you have a god that you have to fix with crazy glue, it's probably not worth worshipping. Okay, just throw that out there. Free bit of advice. More than that, the city where the Ark of God was kept. The people in that city start getting tumors. And so they said, This is odd. So they took the ark of the Covenant of God to gaff another city in Phyllis, Tia and, um, another city. The Philistines and the people there got tumors, and they took it somewhere else. And those people got tumors, and they're like, What are we going to do? And so they come up with this bright idea. We can't keep this thing so they get to milk cows. It actually says Milk cows. They put the ark of the Covenant of God on court, and they yoke the milk cows to the cart. Another thinking waas. These milk cows have never pulled anything before. You don't have any experience pulling a cart. They're not gonna know what to do. We're to pin up their children there to pick up the cab's. We're going to set him on the road. And if they just start wandering around meandering, then we'll know this whole thing was just a coincidence. But if these milk cows who've never pulled the cart before, start taking the arc of God back to God's people, then we know that it was God himself who brought all this on us. And sure enough, that's exactly what happened. They get the orc of God back. Tam passes something like 20 years. Israel repents and commits to following the Lord. They they get rid of all of their false gods and idols. Samuel is interceding for them. This is a good period in Israel's Hist Street, the philistine Sze calm as they're gathered, worshiping the Lord. The Philistines calm up to fight against Israel, and God delivers them in a miraculous display. Short after that. Samuels about to die. His sons, they weren't nearly as devout. Let's put it that way. Is Samuel Waas They were judging the land and they said, We need somebody. We need a leader to lead us. All these other nations have kings. Why don't you give us a king now? Samuel didn't like the sound of that. He said I'd better go check with the Lord so he goes and praise and talking. And God's like They've rejected me. I was supposed to be their king. They've rejected me. But you know what? Give them what they want. Let's pick him a king. And so Samuel warns them. And they said no where we still want a king. So Samuel goes and anoints. A man named Soul is a different soul. That was ah, apostle of Jesus, Not solve. It became Paul of Tarsus. This is Saul of the Old Testament, the first King of Israel. And he was exactly what you would expect from a kingly figure in these days. He stood about a head taller than everybody else. He became a mighty warrior. He was very intelligent by all outward measures. He was the perfect king. He was exactly what you would expect from a king. And the people love him, and things go well for awhile. Sol leads many successful exploits against Israel's enemy, the Philistines. Until he doesn't soul turns away from the Lord. Samuel sins their gods in Samuel to tell soul that God's spirit had left him. And then God tells Samuel, Go find another king. Better fact, I've got the man picked out. I want you to anoint as king. So go to a man named Jesse. It's one of his sons. So he goes and finds Jesse. He says, Yes, we're gonna sacrifice and they go out to where they're alone. It's just Jesse and his family and he said, Bring your sons. I'm gonna know it One of them to be the next king of Israel's. He brings the oldest, and Samuel says that that man, he's handsome, he's strong, people gonna follow him. He's the type of person we want fighting against the Philistines, and God says that's not him. Azuma defy. God doesn't look on the outward appearance. God sees what's in the heart. He sees what people don't see. See, that was the problem with Saul, right? But Castle was chosen on outward appearances, things that you could quantify and measure. But God knew Saul's heart, that's all. His heart was far from God, and that's why soul failed as a king. And so Jesse has eight sons, seven are present. Samuel passes over all of them and says, The guy's not here, Jesse, do you have any more sons? And of course, this is a rhetorical question. It's not like Jesse be like, Sure, I really don't remember. If I have any more sons, let me go check with my wife Now the youngest. He just knew that he wasn't going to be chosen for King, so I left him out in the field shepherding his sheet. But he goes and gets him. And of course, this is David. David was probably no more than a teenager at this time, and they took a horn of oil, which would think of actual an actual horn filled with oil. All of oil and he poured it on David's head and this was a symbol of God's presence and anointing anointed him king. And then it said the spirit of God came on him mightily from that day forward. That brings us to our story today. I'm gonna start reading with you First Samuel, Chapter 17 first Samuel, Chapter 17. We're gonna read versus one through Lavendera. Stop and we'll talk about it. The Philistines gathered their forces for war at SOCO in Judah and can't between SOCO and a Zika and F s dummy. So this is not new. Israel and Phyllis teens have been in war for literally decades. Soul. The king and the men of Israel gathered and camped in the value of the law. Then they lined up in battle formation to face the philistines. He went camp on one side of the valley, another camp on the other side of the valley. You sit there in a stalemate, and the Philistines were standing on one hill. Israel were standing on another hell with a ravine between them. Then the champ, then a champion named Goliath from gaffe, came out from the philistine camp. He was non feet non inches tall. So sad note the original Texas pretty believe that six cubits and a span and then the weights, Aaron Shekels and that sort of thing. Your translation may preserve that with the CSB does is gives the best estimate of what those things would be today. So span would be like from the elbow to the tips of the A cube. It's like from the elbow to the tips of the fingers. Best we know so and then a shekel is a certain measure of way. They convert it into points of measures that we're familiar with. They didn't have feet and inches back then. In case you're wondering, so best we can tell Best estimate is Goliath was nine feet nine inches tall, any war bronze helmet and a bronze scale armour that weighed £125. There was bronze armor on his shins, and a bronze javelin was slung between his shoulders. His spear shaft was like a weaver's beam. The arm point of his spear. Wait £15. In addition, a shield bear was walking in front of him, so he stood and he shouted to the Israel light battle formation. Why do you come out to line up in battle formation? He asked them. Am I not a philistine? Are you not servants of soul? Choose one of your men and have him come down against me. If he wins in a fight against me and kills me, we will be your servants. But if I went against him and kill him, then you will be our servants and serve us. Then the Philistine said I had a father ranks of Israel today. Send me a man so we can fight each other. When soul and all Israel heard these words from the Philistine, they lost their courage. You were terrified. Stop right there. So, Goliath, over nine feet tall, he had armor that weighed £125 like that's that weighs more than some of you in here. Undoubtedly, some of the Israel lights soldiers weighed less than Saul's armor. It's spearhead was £15 which sounds kind of small in comparison to like you know everything else until you think about it. You ever played this game and some of you have to play it with you. But there's this game where you take a sledgehammer like a non pound sledgehammer, and you hold it on the end of the handle. And then you do like this. You try to touch your nose with it. These are the types of things we do in McLean County in case you're visiting. So we passed this on, but you take a like a non pound sledge and you hold it on the handle, tore. The handle will just come and cut your nose. And the objective is to move it like this so that the sledge hammer head comes and touches your nose, and then you bend it right back up. It's, you know, it's one of the things we do now. If you've ever done that, then you know how difficult it is. Unless you're a man like me to to maneuver a heavy weight on the end of a stick. And that just exacerbated with with glad here because the head of his spear wait £15. The shaft of it was like a weaver's beam, which refers to the diameter. So this thing is huge. If you don't believe me, next time you're in Home Depot, go find a bucket, you know, bucket of drywall dust there, sand or something like that. So drywall, mud or something like that and go get a pole like a um, I don't know, like the things you roll on the paint with. And then there's extension bolts and stick it through the end and then try to pick it up while holding down here on the end is difficult. It would take a man to maneuver a £15 spearhead on the end of a spear shaft, so he's a seasoned warrior. He's covered in bronze armor with a with an iron spear. He's immense and size, and by the way, the type of armor and equipment that he had here would be very uncommon. This was before things like bronze armor became commonplace. He's high tech. He's got the latest in military technology. So what is the author of First Samuel? Trying to communicate kicked us. He's invincible. He's unstoppable. The fact that he went through the trouble of listing all the pieces of his armour and the weapons that he had, he's trying to show us that this is a man who cannot be beat. This is man against machine. It's like Rocky Balboa versus Ivan Drago It He's not supposed to be able to be beaten, and it gives a challenge now. Israel, the philistine Sze been fighting for decades, and obviously these people were in no hurry to engage again. They were at a stalemate. It's kind of like when you're a kid and you're in middle school, high school and, like somebody starts yelling at somebody and then like they start yelling threats back and forth, and then all of a sudden, they're like the friends or pull them to either side of the lunch room and, like I'm gonna do this to you and then the other dudes like, Well, I'm going to do this to you And then inevitably, nothing happens, Right? Like nobody's willing to make the first move. That's what's going on here on a much larger scale. And so the Philistines come up with an idea. This was called representative warfare. It's It's not an uncommon thing. So while we're all sitting around, you're talkin waiting for something to have been. Why don't we just do this? We'll send our best warrior out. You send your best warrior out, and if we beat him, you'll just you'll just your are slaves and vice versa, and nobody meets the challenge. Nobody meets the challenges for 40 days. Nobody meets. The challenge is that you go on in the passage that says that David's three oldest brothers were insoles Army and David was being sent back and forth toe check on his brothers and to get supplies. And one day his father, Jesse, said, Hey, I want you to leave the sheep with somebody, and I want you to go take some bread and some cheese, Tow the officer and then your brothers and and check on him and see how they're doing. So it brings provisions. They go to the battle line, and it just so happens that when David shows up, that's when Glyph comes up. He's doing this twice a day, twice a day for 40 days, and I guess on day number 40 David just so happened. And to be there and here comes out Goliath. And when he does that, Israel lights. They all run back from the battle formation. They go hide in the tents, and David's just standing there like what do you all do it? David's response is different than everyone else's response. Everyone else's response is How can we take down an unstoppable opponent? We're doomed. David's response Is this. A 17 26? What will be done for the man that kills that philistine into rooms? This disgrace from Israel? Just who is this uncircumcised philistine? That he should defy the armies of the living God? So he's uncircumcised. Philistine, he said. This this man is not part of the covenant of God. And he's standing against God's people. Yeah, who gives him the right? How dare him and what what? What will be done for the man who kills that philistine a removed. This disgrace from Israel could be that Dave is just a man like everybody else. He just wants to know what the reward will be or it could be. Is he saying what I mean? Like, is the reward not good enough like you will not have an incentive to go out there and beat this guy? 40 days of this and not one of you has stepped up to the challenge. See, David, here's zealous for God's glory. It's a difference and perspective that everybody else in the camp of Israel they saw a big, invincible man compared to themselves. And David saw just a man compared to a one true living God. His brother's jealous, but they over here David talk and they bring him the soul. It sounds like this guy's just a kid. You can't go out there and David's like, Listen, I know I don't look like much, but I'm a shepherd Shepherd's hard work manual labor And he said What? When? When a sheep would be in danger about bear or line, I would take them by the by the throat, by the hair, and I would kill them all. Kill bears have killed lines, got delivered me from their mouth. He's gonna deliver me from this philistine, too. So Saul says the other would be with you, and he gives David his armor, which was probably the best armor in the camp, right? The king gets the best arms bronze helmet, all this stuff one. But the thing is, armor would be very personal, be measured and fit to just you and David says, haven't tested this yet. It's gonna be a hindrance to me rather than help. Just let me go is uncomfortable. And so we know what happens next. David goes down to the river bed, it says in my translation. Awadi. So what would happen in the Middle East is there were rivers and streams that were only active in some times of the year. It's still that way today, during rainy seasons, to be extreme water and during dry seasons it would just be a dry riverbed. And he went down there and he picked out five smooth stones. He put them in his pouch. He had a staff in his hand and had a sling, which would have been a piece of cloth or lever with two other thongs on either side. And then you would spin it and you release one side and that releases the stone. And that's how it was hurled. And he goes and he stands against Goliath. Let's pick up reading together. 1st 41 the philistine came closer and closer to David with the shield bear in front of him. But the philistine looked and saw David. He despised him because he was just a you healthy and handsome. He don't belong here. So this is like somebody you see. OK, think of like somebody from UFC And like they put Justin Bieber in the ring with him. And he's like, this kid don't belong here, right? And so he despises him. He gets angry like they really think that this is what they're gonna use to beat me. What are they thinking? He says that my dog, You come against me with sticks staff in his hand. No sword. Many cursed David by his gods. Come here. The philistine called to David and I'll give your flesh of the birds of the sky and the wild beasts. And David said to the philistine, You come against me with a sword spirit Javelin. But I come against you in the name of the Lord of Armies, the god of the ranks of Israel. You have defied him. Today the Lord will hand you over to me. Today, I'll strike you down, remove your head and give your the corpses of the Philistine camp to the birds of the sky and the wild creatures of the Earth. And all the world will know that Israel has a God. And this whole assembly will know that it is not by sword or by spear, that the Lord saves for the battle is the Lord. He will hand you overto us. I'm a philistine. Started forward to attack him. David ran quickly to the battle line to meet the Philistine. David put his hand in the bag, took out a stone to slung out, and he hit the philistine on the forehead of Sewn sank into his forehead and he fell face down on the ground. David defeated the Philistine with a sling and the stone David overpower the philistine and killed them without having a sword. And then David ran and stood over him. He grabbed the Philistine sword. He pulled it from its sheath and used it to kill him. They cut off his head. The philistine saw that their hero is dead. They fled the men of Israel, and Judah rallied, shouting their battle cry and chase the Philistines to the entrance of the valley into the gates of Akron. Philistine bodies were strewn all along the sharing road to gaff and akron. And that, friends, is the story of David and Goliath. Now, where do you feel when you read this story? Because I know what I feel. And I think I have an idea what most people feel based on the wacky interpretations that come out of this so well known story. I think we look at this and we say, I want what David has. We want to be David, right? How do you get that kind of courage to stand against a Giant and all other interpretations of the story, the ones I listed before and the ones you're probably here? If you go look it up on the Internet, they imagine us as David in the story. Before we can have that type of courage, though, we need to realize that we're not courageous, that we're not David, see if we want to insert ourselves into the story. We feel like we have to do that. Then probably the best place for us is on the sidelines, with the rest of Israel too terrified to face the giant. Maybe we're good life in this story, enemies of God standing against God's plan, not part of God's covenant people. So who's David? Jesus is David. How so? So the meditate on this passage this week, I had an idea of how I was gonna preach this long before I began preparing this message. This is something I've been planning from the beginning of the year, and I've been looking forward to preaching this text already had it worked out in my head. You know, you do driving down the road and you start getting pieces together months ago. But as I studied the tax this week is a really dove into it. I realized that he was scratched the surface, yet I can. I became amazed. Just became amazed at how deep this is. Because the deeper I looked, the more I saw Jesus David points us to Jesus. And every good thing that David Embodied finds its fulfillment in Jesus. So what I'm gonna do now is remind you of something in this story and show you how it points to Jesus. Look at the obvious things. First back way win. When ji, when Israel first got a king, they said we want a king to fight our battles. For us, that was the thing that they said. They said we want a king to fight our battles for us now. Saul didn't do a very good job of that, right? So when Goliath stands up and he says, Bring me a challenger who should have been the obvious choice. Saul, King of King of Israel. He stood a head taller than everybody else's mighty warrior. Why didn't he go out to meet Goliath? He was terrified. And God is saying you want a king to fight your battles for you. Here's mocking to fight your battles for you. Jesus is our king. That not only fought the battle, but he won the war. Right? So you know what happened in the temple With day gone when they brought the ark of the Covenant out. And the next day, David Big on had fallen on his face. The detail you might have missed in the story is when David took a stone and hit glyph in the forehead. It says that he fell face down in front of David. It won't happen. The next day, when they went back to the temple of Day, gonna set him back up his hands and his head had fallen off in the detail you probably didn't miss in. This story is David runs up and takes Goliath sword and he cuts Goliath's head off. God is saying all of my enemies will fall before the feet of my king. And then Jesus says, every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is the true king is the true lord. Let's let's dig a little bit deeper. David was God's people's representatives representative warfare. Whatever happened to David happened to the people of Israel? If he won, they won. If he lost, everybody lost. He was their representative. And Jesus is our representative. Hey, man, Big word imputation. There's your big word for the week imputation. It means getting something from somebody else. And when we think of a theological terms of imputed righteousness because of what Jesus did for us, we get hiss righteousness. The David came face to face with death for God's people. But, Jesus, he actually Dodd for us defeated death for us in the story. You see, this is where the biggest misconceptions about David and Goliath way think that its power, in spite of weakness, look against all odds. David pulled off the wind. This isn't power. In spite of weakness, this is power through weakness. You see, it wasn't unlikely that David would prevail. There is just unexpected. David knew before he ever walked out on the battle on how that was going to end. If those people had faith, they would have known it too. You see, David was a shepherd, right? You're talking about a guy who, on a regular basis would defend his sheep from wild, ravenous, hungry animals. I had no problem killing bears and lions. This is Yeah. He probably looks like an unassuming little shepherd boy, but not so. And for some reason, when we think of the slings and the stones that they used back then we think about like the slingshots we used to like it cans off of. Or like, you know, we're launching pebbles, right? So the stones that thes thes these people would use. And by the way, a lot of armies back then actually had sling users that archers. And then they had people in their army who threw rocks with slings because these rocks weren't pebbles like you, like the size of a tennis ball, Typically some of them as much as three inches in diameter. And you put that thing in. Ah, the swing that's about this long and you get to spin it around your head. Just imagine how much force that could have been absolutely kill somebody and people who, at practice like shepherds who regularly used these tools because they were cheap and effective to defend their sheep. They could put that stone wherever they wanted to. Even on the forehead of a non foot, nine inch tall man. It was not unlikely that David would win. It was just unexpected. You see, the Allies had a blond courage. He got rid of fear, he says. He looks at this shepherd Boy says. I have nothing to fear any marched in memory and a shield bearer there with him. It says that he never even take up. Is she? What doesn't give us any indication that he even picked up his shield? He was overconfident. David wasn't hot power through weakness. Not in spite of it was David's weak position as a shepherd that allowed him to prevail over the Giant. It's a mystery with Jesus. Jesus is power comes through weakness because he laid down his life for us. He was dying on the cross. His followers thought it was over with Regis story. It's a matter of fact. Just turn their with me, Luke chapter 24 24. We'll start in verse 13. This is right after Jesus had dot A couple of his disciples at this point had seen him risen from the grave. But what hadn't got out yet that Jesus is up and walking around now? That same day, two of them two of Jesus's disciples were on their way to a village called M A s, which was about seven miles from Jerusalem. Together, they were discussing everything that had taken place. And while they were discussing and or arguing, Jesus himself came near and began to walk with them. But they were prevented from recognizing him. Then he asked them, What is this dispute that you're having? Which each other as you are walking a picture? This the man that they've been following had just been sentenced to death by the Roman government for insurrection. And so they're probably trying to gather there their lives right. What are we gonna do now? When a stranger comes, I happen to say what you're talking about. All the while The stranger is Jesus. They don't know it seasons like Are you the only dude like if you had your head buried in the sand. You not know what's going on in Jerusalem. So Verse 18 the one named Cleophas answered him. Are you the only visitor in Jerusalem? He doesn't know the things that have happened here these days. I don't see how Jesus kept this mark off of his face. He said. What? Thanks? And they said to him the things concerning Jesus of Nazareth, who was a prophet, powerful inaction and speech before God and all the people, and how our chief priests and leaders handed him over to be sentenced to death, and they crucified him. But we were hoping that he was the one who was about to redeem Israel. Besides all this, it's the third day since these things happened. Moreover, some women from our group astounded us. They arrived early at the tomb when they didn't find his body that came in, reported that they had seen a vision of angels, said he was a lot. Some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just as the women and said, but they didn't see him, and he said to them how foolish and slow you are to believe all the profits have spoken patrons of this Wasn't it necessary for the Messiah to suffer these things? Interest, glory then, beginning with Moses and all the profits he interpreted for them the things concerning himself and all the scriptures. What a Bible study that must have been amazing. That must have been on the road walking with Jesus, by the way, they still don't know it was Jesus. They just thought it was a random dude. It's later Jesus reveals himself to them. He says he starts with Moses. Moses wrote Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, numbers, Deuteronomy and all the profits. In other words, he walked him through the Old Testament and showed them how the Old Testament bore Witness him power through weakness. Jesus is saying, didn't you read your old Testament? Because if you'd read the story of David and Goliath, you know that true power comes through weakness because of you'd read the story of Isaac and Abraham, you would know that God would provide a soccer vice Thio take your place because if you'd read the story of Adam and Eve, you would know that blood was necessary for the remission of sins. And as it says all over the Old Testament. Blood of animals is insufficient. A greater sacrifice was needed because if you'd read the story of the Passover, you would know that a greater Passover lamb had to come. Because if you had read the story of Daniel and the lines, Dan, that you would know the true servant of God would be willing to follow God the father, even if that meant certain death. And if you'd read Isaiah and you would know that the suffering servant was me, it's all about him. It's all about him. And I'm hoping As we walk through these stories that are so familiar to you over the next few weeks and show you a deeper meaning behind them, you begin to see these things to yourself. And you always read the Bible. Which is this in mind? Because he's all over silly is one question unanswered. Nothing with this. How do you get courage? Remember, right? Like God, that's all well and good. So what's the application of David and Goliath? Because you took it away from me. I used to think with God on my side, I could fight all my battles and our reason realize that I'm not David. I'm not Jesus, David. And the stories, that is, where does that put me? How did I get courage? Like David? Here's the answer. It's very complicated, so I shouldn't pay close attention. You'll know that I'm lying. Jesus gets it for you, Do you just gets it for you. You see, courage is not the absence of fear. That's what so many people think, right? There's only be afraid. I don't need to be afraid, and then I'll have courage. Don't know. The absence of fear is counterfeit courage, and in many cases it's just stupidity. That's what goal I've had but afraid of David and ended in his death. Courage isn't the absence of fear. Listen to this. It's the presence of joy. Courage comes when you have Joy Hebrews, 12 1 for two sisters. Therefore, since we also have such a large cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us lay aside every hindrance and the sand that so easily ensnares us. Let us run with endurance, the race that lies before us. What's our motivation? How do we do that? First, to keeping our eyes on Jesus, the source and perfecter of our faith for the joy that lay before him. He endured the cross, despising the shame and sat down at the right hand of the throne. Oh, God. What gave Jesus what he needed to endure the cross? The promise of the joy set before him. The promise of creation remade through his blood on the cross. The promise of a people bought back for him. Joy doesn't abolish fear, but it gives us courage. The greater David C has won the greatest battle. The greatest gift in the universe has been bought for us. It will be all okay. No, it's gonna be better than okay. In the end, the greatest giant, our sin and the death it causes has been defeated. And friends. We are free and whatever may come let it come. Ricans vase every hardship, knowing that the worst of it cannot come against us unless God expressly allows it. And then those hardships will be for our good and the worst this world has to offer. It's temporary. We have eternal joy. But for us, by our champion. How do you get courage like David? You look at who David points to. He looked to Jesus. You look long and hard in Jesus. You marvel at him. You're amazed by him. You love him and you believe him. In the moments that we put our everything in Jesus leaning not on our own ability or power, we could be courageous. And may God grant us to faith to just that. That's right. Oh, Lord, a rich your word is and how conned you were to reveal yourself to us. So fully so that you may be known. I pray we all take advantage of this wonderful gift. The gift, first of your word. And also the gift of prayer, Lord, so that we may communicate with you. We take advantage of this and get to know you and help us. Lord, give us eyes to see by the power of your spirit where Jesus is in the Bible. I pray that because Moses and all the profits bear witness about him. As we read Moses in the profits, we would see him and know him and give glory to him. Yes, These things in Jesus name, Amen.