25 Aug Fighting the giants in life

1 Samuel 17:31-54

³¹ When the words that David spoke were heard, they repeated them before Saul, and he sent for him. ³² And David said to Saul, “Let no man’s heart fail because of him. Your servant will go and fight with this Philistine.” ³³ And Saul said to David, “You are not able to go against this Philistine to fight with him, for you are but a youth, and he has been a man of war from his youth.” ³⁴ But David said to Saul, “Your servant used to keep sheep for his father. And when there came a lion, or a bear, and took a lamb from the flock, ³⁵ I went after him and struck him and delivered it out of his mouth. And if he arose against me, I caught him by his beard and struck him and killed him. ³⁶ Your servant has struck down both lions and bears, and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be like one of them, for he has defied the armies of the living God.” ³⁷ And David said, “The Lord who delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine.” And Saul said to David, “Go, and the Lord be with you!”

³⁸ Then Saul clothed David with his armour. He put a helmet of bronze on his head and clothed him with a coat of mail, ³⁹ and David strapped his sword over his armour. And he tried in vain to go, for he had not tested them. Then David said to Saul, “I cannot go with these, for I have not tested them.” So David put them off. ⁴⁰ Then he took his staff in his hand and chose five smooth stones from the brook and put them in his shepherd’s pouch. His sling was in his hand, and he approached the Philistine.

⁴¹ And the Philistine moved forward and came near to David, with his shield-bearer in front of him. ⁴² And when the Philistine looked and saw David, he disdained him, for he was but a youth, ruddy and handsome in appearance. ⁴³ And the Philistine said to David, “Am I a dog, that you come to me with sticks?” And the Philistine cursed David by his gods. ⁴⁴ The Philistine said to David, “Come to me, and I will give your flesh to the birds of the air and to the beasts of the field.” ⁴⁵ Then David said to the Philistine, “You come to me with a 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. ⁴⁶ 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 beasts of the earth, that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel, ⁴⁷ and that all this assembly may know that the Lord saves not with sword and spear. For the battle is the Lord’s, and he will give you into our hand.”

⁴⁸ When the Philistine arose and came and drew near to meet David, David ran quickly toward the battle line to meet the Philistine. ⁴⁹ 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 he fell on his face to the ground.

⁵⁰ So David prevailed over the Philistine with a sling and with a stone, and struck the Philistine and killed him. There was no sword in the hand of David. ⁵¹ 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. When the Philistines saw that their champion was dead, they fled. ⁵² And the men of Israel and Judah rose with a shout and pursued the Philistines as far as Gath and the gates of Ekron, so that the wounded Philistines fell on the way from Shaaraim as far as Gath and Ekron. ⁵³ And the people of Israel came back from chasing the Philistines, and they plundered their camp. ⁵⁴ And David took the head of the Philistine and brought it to Jerusalem, but he put his armour in his tent.

I am sure many of us, if not all of us, are familiar with the story of David and Goliath. This story is so well known among both Christians and non-Christians. It is very common that I believe many of us are missing the point of the story. If non-Christians can look at a story in the Bible and come to same conclusion as Christians on the meaning of the story, then we know something is off. The common interpretation of this story is that this story is a moral tale of a boy who had the courage and bravery to fight a giant. So the meaning of the story usually goes something like this. There is hope for the underdog. It does not matter what the odd is, if you have courage, you can beat the odd. Or, never stop believing in yourself. Courage is found from within you. Trust yourself and fight your giant. Or, there is a Christian version of the same principal. If you trust God, then you will overcome your giant. Just like David trusted God and killed Goliath, you too can slay your giant if you trust in God. Or, God has anointed you to rule over Goliath. Now go and slay Goliath. I remember one of the first sermons I preached was on David and Goliath. I did not have the copy of the sermon, praise God, but I remember it was something along the line of “We need to have Godly ambition like David in order to defeat Goliath. David was determined to beat Goliath because he was offered riches, tax free life, and a beautiful daughter of the king to marry. He saw Saul’s daughter and said to himself “she is mine.” He had a big dream. Without Godly ambition, you won’t have the courage to fight Goliath.” It was a bad sermon. Some of you are thinking, “Wait, what’s wrong with that? I always thought that the story of David and Goliath was written to inspire us to fight giants in our life.”

I want to be very sensitive to all of us. I realised that many of us are facing challenges in our lives. We are facing giants. I know for some of us, we faced the giant of uncertainties. We do not know which path we should take. For others, you faced the giant of unfulfilled desire. You have been praying for God to give you a husband, a wife, a child or a job. Many of us are facing challenges of struggles, grief, pain and hurt. But hear me now. The main point of this story is not to inspire you to go out there and fight the giants in your life. There something much deeper going on in the story. One of the most common mistakes we make in reading the Old Testament narrative is that we straight away put ourselves in the shoe of the hero of the story. In this case, we automatically read the story and equate ourselves to David. David is us and Goliath is the challenges we face. However, this is not the right way to interpret the Old Testament narrative. There is only one hero in the Bible and that hero is not you. The hero of the Bible from Genesis to Revelation is Jesus. Tonight, I want to give you another lens from which we can rightly interpret the Old Testament narrative. It is called the Jesus’ lens. So rather than putting ourselves straight in the story, we put Jesus in the middle between David and us. It is only when we see the story of David through the lens of Jesus that we can overcome the giants in our lives.

Let me give you a little bit of context to our story. In 1 Samuel 16, God told a prophet named Samuel that he was not happy with King Saul. Saul was the first king of Israel and he became proud and God rejected him as king. God told Samuel to go to the house of Jesse and anoint a new king. Samuel went to Jesse’s house, knocked on the door and said “God sent me to anoint one of your son to be the next king of Israel.” And Jesse thought, “Well, well, well, I know exactly which son God wants to anoint. It must be Eliab, my firstborn son.” So Jesse called Eliab and when Samuel saw Eliab, Samuel thought “Oh my, this guy is the exact king material. He is handsome, tall and strong. He must be it. Behold, the next king of Israel.” Then God said, “Not him Sammy. Do not look at how handsome, tall and strong he is. For I do not look at the outward appearance but I look at the heart.” Samuel told Jesse, “He is not it. Do you have any other son?” Jesse was surprised and he made seven of his sons walked before Samuel and Samuel said no to all of them. And Samuel said, “I am not trying to offend you but do you have any other son that you might have forgotten? Because I know that God told me to anoint one of your sons but God said no to these seven.” “Well, there is another one, my youngest one. But I don’t think he is it. He does not what it takes to be a king.” “Well Jesse, God is looking for a different kind of king than what you and I have in mind. Get him here. We won’t sit till he get here.” So the youngest son came and God said, “This is it Sammy. Anoint him to be the next king of Israel.” Then Samuel took the oil and anointed him and from that moment the Spirit of the Lord was with the young man. And the name of this young man was David.

Now, we get into 1 Samuel 17. David versus Goliath. Three things that I want us to see from this passage. The battle; the ultimate battle; our battle.

The battle

1 Samuel 17 is one of the longest narrative in the Bible. The author gives us lots of detail for a purpose as we will see. At the beginning of the chapter, we are told that a war breaks out between Israel and Philistine. The Philistine is the enemy of Israel. They are actually one of the nations that the Lord has commanded Israel to destroy in the Promised Land. However, Israel failed to do so and they became one of Israel’s greatest enemy. And we know from history and from the narrative that the Philistines are technologically advanced. They are one of the first nations to work with metals. That is why in the narrative you find again and again how the author refers to the Philistine’s work with metals. Israel is far behind the Philistines in regard to weaponry. So at beginning of chapter 17, we find Israel and her soldiers stand at the mountain on one side and Philistine and her soldiers at the mountain on the other side, with a valley between them. Then Goliath shows up from the camp of Philistines. Goliath is described as a champion, which literally means “the man between two armies.” And Goliath is not your ordinary soldier. We know from the description that he is at least 2.5 metres tall. For some of you, he is double your height. He is NBA material. The dude can dunk without even jumping. And not only he is tall, but he is also big. He wears armours that weight about 57 kilograms and he carries a spear that weight more than 9 kilograms. The point of all these details is to create an image of an invincible enemy.

But it does not stop there. This invincible enemy then challenges the Israelites in a one on one battle, in which the winner takes all. This is called the battle of champions where the nations in war would send their champion to fight each other. Pay attention to the significant of this battle. Your champion will not only fight for you but they fight as you. So if your champion win, you win. But if your champion lose, you lose. There is so much at stake in the battle of champions. However, there is not a single person from the camp of Israel that dare to stand up as Israel’s champion and fight Goliath. We know from the narrative that king Saul even offers great rewards to the person who can fight and kill Goliath. The person will be given great riches, one of Saul’s daughters to marry, and tax exemption for the rest of his life. How many of you would like that? Not a single person among Israel’s soldiers raise their hand. They probably think, “What good is riches, being the king son in law and tax exemption if you are dead?” So Israel are in dismayed and greatly afraid.

Every time I read this story, I am always reminded of Yakub. Who is Yakub? Yakub was my goliath in elementary school. When I was in elementary school, I was short, chubby and nerdy. The moment I said that, some of you automatically recall the picture of me with red bow tie and straight finger in my family picture. Yep, that’s the one. And Yakub was at least twice of three times my size. I am not lying. He was really big and fat and he loved to bully me. One day, he made fun of me in front of the girl that I had a crush on and I had enough. So I pushed him, ran few steps backward, turned toward him, and I ran as fast as I could toward him and I did a karate kid jump kick. In my mind, what would happen next is that he would get a taste of my powerful jump kick, fall back few meters and realise that I am not someone whom he should mess with. But in reality, when my beautiful jump kick landed on him him, rather than having him fall back, I was the one who bounced back and fell over. He was that big. And from that day forward, I always ran and hide whenever I saw Yakub. I think that’s what the Israelites feel when they see Goliath.

Then the scene changes to David. David is probably playing guitar, trying to perfect his new song called Psalm 23, while watching over few sheep. His dad calls him and says, “David, I want you to take these lunchboxes to your brothers and when you return, bring back a token from them to let me know that they are okay.” David takes those lunchboxes and runs toward the battlefield. When David gets to Israel’s camp, he hears a great shout. “Israel, where is your champion? Are you afraid to fight me? You chicken. You are bunch of cowards and your God is no God.” David hears the insult Goliath throws at Israel and the God of Israel and David is enrage. 1 Samuel 17:26 – And David said to the men who stood by him, “What shall be done for the man who kills this Philistines and takes away the reproach from Israel? For who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should defy the armies of the living God?” I love it. While everyone sees Goliath and sees an invincible giant, David sees Goliath and he sees an uncircumcised Philistines who dares to defy the armies of the living God. David is angry for the right reason. He is angry that Goliath makes fun of God and the people of God. While everyone is awestruck at the size of Goliath, David is awestruck that Goliath dares to defy the glory of God. Then his brother, Eliab, probably still upset that David was chosen to be king instead of him, rebukes David for showing up at the battle and made such comment. And David replies, “Chill out bro. I’m just asking a question.”

News travel fast and someone tells Saul that there is a man who wants to fight Goliath. Saul is excited. Finally, someone responds to his offer. So, Saul summons David to see him. At this time, Saul is probably expecting someone who is tall, big and strong to show up. If Goliath is HULK, then Saul is expecting THOR to show up. But when Saul sees David, he says, “You ain’t fighting Goliath. You can’t. You are too small. You are like Ant-man. There is no way you can beat Goliath. Not a chance!” And listen to David’s answer carefully. This is massive.

1 Samuel 17:34-37 – ³⁴ But David said to Saul, “Your servant used to keep sheep for his father. And when there came a lion, or a bear, and took a lamb from the flock, ³⁵ I went after him and struck him and delivered it out of his mouth. And if he arose against me, I caught him by his beard and struck him and killed him. ³⁶ Your servant has struck down both lions and bears, and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be like one of them, for he has defied the armies of the living God.” ³⁷ And David said, “The Lord who delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine.” And Saul said to David, “Go, and the Lord be with you!” Do you hear that? David is saying, “I know I may not look like it, but I have killed many lions and bears with my bare hand. I know Goliath is big but God is bigger. King Saul, this battle is not about me. This uncircumcised Philistines has defied the armies of the living God. He mocked the glory of God. This is not David versus Goliath. This is the Lord versus Goliath. And in the same way God gave me strength to beat the lions and the bears, God will give me strength to beat Goliath.” David understand this battle rightly. This battle is not about Israel but this battle is about the Lord. Goliath might be big but in comparison to the living God, Goliath is like a speck of dust. The Lord will win this battle. David has the right perspective of the battle. He is passionate for the glory of God.

So Saul reluctantly let David fight as Israel’s champion. However, to increase the odd, Saul clothes David with his armours. But it does not work. David can’t move in Saul’s armour. Then David politely refuses to wear Saul’s armours. Instead of using Saul’s armour, David goes and collect 5 stones from the river and he put them in his pouch. Why 5 stones? Because 5 is a number of grace. No, I am just kidding. This is a narrative. Not every detail in the story has spiritual meaning. One thing that we do know for sure is that David’s refusal to wear Saul’s armours is David’s refusal to fight the Lord’s battle using human method. The human method to fight Goliath with his amazing armours is to equip yourself with the best armours. But David understand better. He is saying to Saul, “I am not going to fight your way. I am going to fight this battle the Lord’s way. I am going to trust the promise of God and see the power of God works through it.”

So now we have the two champions face one another. When Goliath sees David, he cannot believe what he sees. Here we have an amazing pre-game trash talk. Goliath says, “Am I a dog that you come to me with sticks? Are you serious? You are sending this young boy to fight me? This fight going to end in 5 seconds. Don’t you have a stronger warrior that you send a boy to fight me? You piece of trash!” And Goliath begins to curse David and the God of Israel with words that must be censored. And I love David. David would not be out done in pre-fight trash talk. So David replies with God’s trash talk. And what he says is extremely crucial.

1 Samuel 17:45-47 – ⁴⁵ Then David said to the Philistine, “You come to me with a 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. ⁴⁶ 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 beasts of the earth, that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel, ⁴⁷ and that all this assembly may know that the Lord saves not with sword and spear. For the battle is the Lord’s, and he will give you into our hand.” David is telling Goliath that this fight is not between David and Goliath. This is not even a battle between Saul and Goliath. David comes in the name of the Lord, which mean that David fights the battle as God’s representative, as God’s champion. This is a fight between the Lord and Goliath. So now David is saying, “Goliath, you have no idea who you are messing with. I am going to kill you and cut off your head. And everyone will know that the Lord saves. This battle is the Lord’s and I am going to kill you!” You know what’s amazing? David says that he is going to cut off Goliath’s head and David does not even have a sword. All he has is a sling and 5 stones.

So the fight begins. You can hear the background soundtrack as the two champions rush toward one another. Here is what’s interesting though. The battle is so anti-climax! Did you notice? The author puts so much emphasize in what happened leading to the fight but the fight itself lasts less than a minute. David runs toward Goliath, takes one stone from his pouch, aim his sling toward Goliath’s head, releases the shot, boom, it hits Goliath’s forehead and Goliath falls on his face to the ground. And then David grabs Goliath’s sword and cuts off Goliath’s head with Goliath’s sword and he wins. That’s it. After all the pre-game trash talk, Goliath is extremely powerless before the one true God. And look what happens next.

1 Samuel 17:52-54 – ⁵² And the men of Israel and Judah rose with a shout and pursued the Philistines as far as Gath and the gates of Ekron, so that the wounded Philistines fell on the way from Shaaraim as far as Gath and Ekron. ⁵³ And the people of Israel came back from chasing the Philistines, and they plundered their camp. ⁵⁴ And David took the head of the Philistine and brought it to Jerusalem, but he put his armour in his tent. David’s victory over Goliath is Israel’s victory over Philistines. David won the war not only for Israel but as Israel. This is what we see in the story of David and Goliath. David fights Goliath not for his own sake but because he is passionate for the glory of God. And David fights Goliath not with human method but by trusting in the power and promise of God. And this victory turns a bunch of cowards who were hiding in fear into an invincible army who slaughters their enemy.

The ultimate battle

I hope you can see already that this battle is so much more than simply having courage to defeat Goliath. Goliath is a picture of an invincible enemy that no one could defeat. With another word, he is the picture of Satan and the power of sin. No human can destroy the power of sin in their lives. All of us were born in sin. We are under the slavery of sin and we are separated from God because of it. So the question the text is asking us, who can saved us from Satan and the power of sin? Who will fight to set God’s people free? The answer is the one whom God has anointed. David has been anointed by God to be the King of God’s people. Jesus is the anointed one of God who came to be our King. Jesus is our champion. Jesus is the champion sent by God to fight our battle.

But Jesus is not just a champion, he is our champion. And this is very important. Do you realize that sometime when you talk about something that you love, you put yourself in the equation? So when Manchester United won their game, I did not say to Edrick, “Bro, Manchester United won.” I said, “Bro, we won!” I put myself in the equation. I mean, I do not play for Manchester United. Ole does not even know I breathe. But when they won, I feel like I won as well. I am involved somehow. Or maybe a better analogy is a defence attorney. If you get into trouble and you hire a defence attorney, he or she will act on your behalf. If your attorney is dumb and makes terrible mistakes, then you are going to jail. But if they are smart and brilliant, their victory is your victory. In a similar but greater way, Jesus’ victory is our victory. Jesus is our champion.

And just like David, Jesus had a humble beginning from Bethlehem. Just like David, Jesus lived passionately for the glory of God. Just like David, Jesus trusted the power and the promise of God over human methods. Just like David, Jesus was mocked by his own brothers. But unlike David, Jesus did not only risks his life for the people of God, Jesus lost his life for the people of God. But that’s not the end of story. Through his death, Jesus absorbed all the punishment of God toward sin. Jesus became us and took all the punishment of sin upon himself and he died because of it. But on the third day, Jesus rose again and he conquered over death and sin. Just like David slayed Goliath using Goliath’s sword, Jesus destroyed the one who has the power over death, the devil, through his death. So whoever trusts in Christ’s victory, also received Christ’s victory over sin and death. If you put your faith in Jesus, the Goliath of sin and death no longer has power over you. Ladies and gentleman, I come to tell you a good news. Christ our champion has won and because he won, we won. David is not the hero of this passage. Jesus is the true hero of this passage.

Our battle

It is only when we understand the point of this passage that we can rightly apply this passage into our lives. So does this passage teaches us to have courage to face Goliath? Yes, but in a very different way than we think. The world tells us that in order for us to have courage to fight Goliath, we need to trust in ourselves. The mantra goes like this. Looks at yourself in the mirror and tell the person you see in the mirror that he or she is awesome. Tell him or her that they are incredible. They are amazing. And then try to imagine your giant. Whatever it is, get a picture of your giant in your mind and imagine yourself fighting that giant and win over it. Rewind and play that scene again and again in your head until you believe it. When you start to believe that you can overcome your Goliath, now go and conquer those cockroaches that you are afraid of. The Christian version of this mantra goes like this, “If I read my Bible enough, if I pray enough, if I fast enough, then I will overcome my giant.” Let me ask you a question. Who is the hero of this story? You. If you are the hero of your story, then you are in the wrong story! You are not David. If we have any role in the story of David and Goliath, we are the people of Israel who hide in fear. David fought and won as our champion and because of it we can rise, shout and fight our enemy. Yes, there are giants in your life that you need to overcome. Giant is whatever stop you from living God’s purpose for you. So how do we do that? Three things that we can learn from this passage.

First, live for the glory of God. All throughout this narrative, the author carefully and intentionally points out to us that what drives David to fight Goliath is not because David has been anointed as a king and he wants to make a grand entrance but rather that David is passionate for the glory of God. David is enraged at the fact that Goliath dares to defy the armies of the living God. David is not fighting for his sake but for the glory of God. If we live for the glory of God, the way we face our trials would look very different. We no longer ask God to free us from our trials, but we ask God to be glorified in our trials. So when we pray, we do not say, “God, please kill Goliath for me. Please set me free from this pain. Please give me this or that.” But rather we pray, “God, please glorify your name in my life whatever the cost. If that means that you will slay Goliath then do slay Goliath. But if you will be glorified through me enduring the pain and struggles that I am in right now, then so be it. I desire to see your glory being known more than anything else. I desire your glory more than my comfort, my triumph or my success. God, glorify yourself in me and through me.” When is the last time we pray like that?

It also means that we are not going to sit idly while his glory is not known. We are passionate for people around us to know and taste the glory of God. It does not mean we start going around hitting people with stones and chop people’s head off, but it does mean that we want to tell them about Christ. We want them to experience the joy of salvation that we experience. We are not content to shut up while people around us are under the slavery of sin. We are the people who have been entrusted with the gospel and we want others to know the gospel. We desire to see the glory of God made known in our marriage, in our family, in our work, in our school, and in our community.

Second, trust in the promise and power of God. In your fight with giants, remember that the battle is the Lord! It is not your battle. David knows that the same God who has delivered him from lion and bear will deliver him from Goliath. And my friend, our greatest giant has been defeated. Jesus has conquered over sin and death. Therefore, whatever other giants that we face in life right now, we do not fight for victory but we fight from victory. We are not trying to win. Christ has already won! And the good news is that if Christ has defeated our ultimate giant, he will also defeat all other giants. Right now inside of every believers, there is the third person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit. That’s why we can confidently say that he who is in us is greater than he who is in the world. God has given us a divine resources to make his glory known. When we face our giants, we are not weak in our battle. We have the promise and the power of God inside of us. Whatever it is that keeps us from living the purpose of God in our lives, Christ has defeated them. Do not believe the lies of the enemy. They might throw some trash talk at you but remind them that they have been defeated. It is time for us activate some God trash talk.

In Christ, we do not have to fear death because death only bring us to Christ. In Christ, we do not have to fear the future. We don’t have to worry about the future of our job, wife, husband, children because God will never fail to give what is good for his children. In Christ, we do not have to fear disapproval because we already have the smile of God. As I already told you, approval is my idol. It still hurts when I see you guys yawn in my sermon but because I have the approval of God, I can endure your yawn. You might be bored and quiet when I preach but God is listening and shouting amen again and again as I preach. In Christ, we do not have to fear the pain of relationship. Yes we will get hurt. Yes people will forsake us and leave us. But it is okay because we already have the one who will never leave us nor forsake us. Every relationship in this world will come to an end but only relationship with Christ will never ever end. Because Christ has defeated our ultimate giant, now we can trust him to conquer all other giants.

Third, look to the Son of God. This is very important. As you live for the glory of God, as you trust in the power and the promise of God, you need to continually look to the Son of God. You find this rhythm repeatedly in the book of Hebrews. Hebrews 11 tells us of all the heroes of faith in the Old Testament and the author keeps saying, “Remember Abraham, remember Moses, remember David, but looks to Jesus.” Remember David but looks to Jesus. Hebrews 12:1-2 – Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, ² looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

The author said for the joy that was set before him. But what joy? What is it that Jesus did not have before he came and suffered? Is it the joy of the Father? Is it God’s glory? No he already has all that from eternity. What is the joy that he does not have until the cross? You. Me. Us. Jesus endured the cross for us. Can you imagine that? No, not the perfect version of us. But us in our weakness and frailty. Jesus loves us to the cross. We are his joy. And he is not only the founder of our faith but he is also the perfecter of our faith. Don’t miss it. Jesus is committed to your joy to the end. He will not give up halfway. He will perfect your faith. This is what you see when you look to Jesus. Consider him and what he went through to get you. That’s where we find the courage to fight our giants. The source of true courage is not to trust in yourself and defeat your giants but look to Jesus because he has defeated your giants. It is not having Jesus as a brave example but Jesus dying on the cross for you that will give you courage. Let me close with a quite by Timothy Keller. “The more we look into Christ’s heroism, the more heroic we can actually become.”

Discussions:

1. When you think of the story of David and Goliath, what is the first thing that comes to your mind? Why?
2. When God chose a king for himself, he chose David instead of Eliab. What does this tell us about the way God operates?
3. What is the reason(s) behind David’s courage to fight Goliath?
4. Why is it important to have Jesus not only as champion but as “our champion”?
5. “If you are the hero of your story, then you are in the wrong story.” Explain. How does this truth help us to interpret the Old Testament narrative?
6. What does it mean to live for the glory of God? Give some daily applications or implications.
7. What is the different worldly courage and biblical courage? How can we have true biblical courage?