In this sermon, Pastor Chuck Smith discusses the story of David and Goliath from the Bible. He describes David as a young shepherd boy who was chosen by God to defeat the Philistine giant, Goliath. The Philistines and the Israelites were gathered for battle, and Goliath challenged the Israelites for 40 days. David's father sent him to bring food to his brothers in the army, and when David heard Goliath's challenge, he volunteered to fight him. Despite being a young and inexperienced boy, David's faith in God gave him the courage to face and defeat Goliath.

Oh, let the Son of God enfold you With His Spirit and His love Let Him fill your heart and satisfy your soul Oh, let Him have the things that hold you And His Spirit like a dove Will descend upon your life and make you whole Welcome to The Word for Today A broadcast ministry of Pastor Chuck Smith Of Calvary Chapel, Costa Mesa, California Pastor Chuck is currently leading us on a verse-by-verse venture Through the entire Bible And on today's edition of The Word for Today We'll be following David's encounter with Goliath As we pick up in 1 Samuel, Chapter 17, Verse 1 And now, with today's message, here's Pastor Chuck Smith Now the Philistines gathered together their armies to battle And were gathered together at Sokoth Which belongs to Judah And they pitched between Sokoth and Azekah And Saul and the men of Israel were gathered together And pitched by the valley of Elah And set the battle in array against the Philistines And the Philistines stood on one mountain On the one side, Israel stood on the mountain on the other side And there was a valley between them And there went out a champion out of the camp of the Philistines Named Goliath of Gath Nine feet tall A cubit is about 18 inches A span is about 6 inches And you measure a cubit by the elbow to the tip of your finger Without, you know, Stanley retractable rulers It was a good alternative when you're building your house You know, you say, well, I want my room to be 18 spans You know, so you just use your elbow and the fingers And you've got just about 18 inches And then the span, you know, would be measured out this way So, you know, it's a good alternative So the fellow was nine feet tall Think of the money he could have made today as a basketball player And he had a helmet of brass upon his head He was armed with a coat of mail Which were the overlapping little pieces of metal To protect against a spear or arrow And the weight of the coat of mail Was 5,000 shekels of brass Or about 150 pounds That, to me, would be a little cumbersome To try and fight with a mail weighing 150 pounds of brass He had greaves of brass upon his legs Or shields upon his legs And a target of brass between his shoulders Now that doesn't mean a target for them to shoot at But it's just sort of a chest protector Over his heart, actually And the staff of his spear was like a weaver's beam And his spear's head weighed 600 shekels of iron Or about 20 pounds And he had an armor bearer who carried his shield Who went in front of him And he stood and cried unto the armies of Israel And said unto them Why are you come out and set your battle in a ray? Am not I a Philistine and you are servants to Saul? Choose a man for you, let him come down to me And if he is able to fight with me and to kill me Then we will be your servants But if I prevail against him and kill him Then you shall be our servants and you will serve us And the Philistines said I defy the armies of Israel this day Give me a man that we might fight You that have been to Israel can now just sort of close your eyes And get a mental picture of the Elah Valley For the rest of you we'll have to try and Give you a word picture of the Elah Valley There are hillsides on either side of the Elah Valley The little stream flows down The valley itself, the stream for the most part is dry Except during the rains Interestingly enough I've never seen a little stream with so many smooth stones Our guide teases us every time we go there Because people are always picking up stones Out of the Elah Valley, they're out of the stream And he says don't worry we had a truck dump a fresh load of stones last night So you know there will be stones for you to pick up But evidently As they were fighting Neither army was capable of mounting A full offensive against the opposing army That could carry them up the hill on the other side Always the advantage was to the fellow on the higher ground It's always easier to run down the hill at an enemy Than to run up the hill at the enemy It's always easier to throw stones down on an enemy Than to throw stones up at an enemy And so they had a standoff as far as the Armies battling each other They would come down and they would face off in the valley And then they would both retreat It was just sort of a big thing where every afternoon They would come down and they'd have a big fight And wail at each other and then they would retreat back up into the hills And neither side was able to mount a full offensive That could carry them up the hill against the others And so this fellow Goliath Was offering a fight with winner take all In other words send your champion against me The two of us will fight If he can kill me then we become your servants If I kill him you become our servants A winner take all And he defied the armies of God I defy the armies of Israel Send a man to fight me So when Saul and all of Israel heard Those words of the Philistine They were dismayed and greatly afraid And of course he no doubt intended it to be a Awesome sight that would just Throw fear in their hearts I'm sure that a lot of the armor was just for that purpose I mean come out there with this huge 150 pound Coat of armor on and this huge spear That spear would be too big to really be practical in battle But I imagine it would be awesome to look at And to see this guy lift up this spear with a Shaft on it like a weaver's beam and a 20 pound spearhead you know And the whole thing was just to inspire That kind of fear and it was effective They were dismayed And they were afraid, greatly afraid Meanwhile Back at the ranch David The son of that Ephrathite of Bethlehem Judah Whose name was Jesse Who had eight sons And the man among them For an old man in the days of Saul Jesse was getting old The three eldest sons of Jesse Followed Saul to battle The names of the three sons that were In the army were Eliab And Abinadab and Shammah And David was the youngest of the eight sons The three oldest sons followed in the army of Saul But David After he had ministered to Saul being brought in To play the harp to soothe Saul's troubled spirit He had returned from Saul To feed his father's sheep at Bethlehem David was a simple little shepherd boy And the interesting thing In going over to Israel today you can go back Four thousand years as far as Progress in history is concerned And around the fields of Bethlehem today You can still see little boys Twelve, thirteen, fourteen With their little flock of sheep And you see them out there today Throwing stones at the sheep When the sheep and all start to roam The little kids will pick up rocks and throw them At the sheep, get them back into the herd again And it's just reminiscent of the times of David It's just like going back in history and looking at scenes From the past And so David was just a simple shepherd boy It is interesting that When David Decided to build a temple for the Lord I decided to build a house for the Lord I live in a palace, God lives in a tent, not fair I'm going to build the Lord a house And God had to reject David's desire because he was a man of war He had shed so much blood God told the prophet Nathan When you go back and tell David he can't build me a house Because he's a bloody man You tell David I'm going to build him a house Tell David that I took him from the sheep coat And from following after the sheep And I made him the king over my people That's quite a thing, here's a little kid out Following sheep on the hillsides of Bethlehem And he's become the king over God's people What God had done to elevate David But that's not all From David will come the Messiah David got wiped out by that news He realized that God's grace was so great He knew that God had been so good to him, he was nothing And yet God had made him king And David said and now you speak of the things to come The Messiah Lord he said that's too much, what can I say And David was just brought to a place of silent worship before God The man who I feel in all of history I know of no man who was more articulate In his praises unto the Lord Read the Psalms Whenever I am looking for a more effective way to praise God I turn to the Psalms I mean David just Was so articulate in his praises unto the Lord And yet When he saw the goodness and the grace of God to him I mean here he was, he messed up, he blew it He had messed up his life, he had taken Bathsheba And he had done all these horrible things And yet God speaks to him and says David From you the Messiah is going to come I mean the grace of God just absolutely Wiped him out And the grace of God wipes me out There are times when I find that What can you say God you are so gracious You are so forgiving, you are so good I don't deserve it I'm not worthy but Lord What can I say David wiped out by the grace of God Well here's David following the sheep Just a young boy out there in the hillsides Around Bethlehem And the Philistine drew near every morning and every evening And he presented himself for 40 days I mean this is getting rather monotonous Twice a day for 40 days, here's this guy out there Bellowing out his challenge, defying the armies of Israel And Jesse said to David his son I want you to take this Of parched corn for your brothers And these 10 loaves of bread that your mother baked And run to the camp of your brothers And take also these 10 cheeses for their captain And find out how they're doing Take their pledge Now Saul and all of the men of Israel Were in the valley of Elah fighting with the Philistines And David rose up early in the morning And he left the sheep with the keeper And he took and went as Jesse had commanded him And he came to the trench And the host was going forth to fight and they shouted for battle The guys were psyching themselves up, you know, beginning to shout And psyching themselves up to go out to the battle Against the Philistines Bethlehem is probably 9 miles 11 miles from Elah Valley So David would appear had a chariot He probably, I imagine, got up quite early And really, you know, hustled to get out there as early as he could And he got there just about the time These guys were psyching themselves up to go out to fight For Israel and the Philistines Have put the battle in array, the army against army The guys were getting lined up, they're ready now to go at it again In their daily foray And David left his carriage in the hand of the keeper of the carriage And he ran into the army and came and greeted his brethren And as he talked with them Behold, there came up the champion This Philistine of Gath, whose name was Goliath Out of the armies of the Philistines And he spoke according to the same words And David heard them And all of the men of Israel, when they saw the man, fled from him And were sore afraid Again, he is terrifying the armies of God Fleeing back to their tents The guys are all psyching themselves up, you know And then this guy is out there saying, send a man And all these guys sneak him back to their tents All the psych is gone And the men of Israel said to David, have you seen this man That has come up Surely to defy Israel has he come up And it shall be that the man who kills him The king will enrich him with great riches He'll give him his daughter And he'll make his father's house tax free In Israel And David spoke to the men and he said What will the king do for the man who will kill this Philistine And take away the reproach from Israel Who is this uncircumcised Philistine That he should defy the armies of God And the people began to Tell David, this is what's going to be done To the man who kills him And Eliab, who was the oldest brother Heard David speaking to the men And he was angry with David and he said Why have you come down here Who did you leave those few sheep with I know your pride and the naughtiness of your heart You've come down that you might see the battle You know, why have you come down here You just, you know, came down to get into mischief Who did you leave your sheep, you better get out of here You better get home, you're going to get in trouble David Evidently David was a brash little kid And his brothers knew that he was one of those kinds Of course a lot of times the youngest son You know, he always has seven older brothers He can pick fights with guys and the older brothers are always there to You know, to help him out The youngest often times becomes very brash And brave, you know, because he always knows He's got his big brothers behind him My youngest brother was that way He never worried about getting in fights Because he had his big brothers around always And he was seven years younger than my younger brother So, I mean, you know, he had his big brothers And David was probably just a brash, and eventually got angry You know, who did you leave those sheep with You came down here for mischief, you know, I know the naughtiness of your heart Angry with David David said, hey, what have I done, man Is there not a cause And he turned from his brother And he said, what did the king say he would do Why will he give the guy that will wipe out this Philistine And so they told David again And so when they heard David speaking of You know, hey, I'll go fight this guy They ran and told King Saul Hey, Saul, we've got a volunteer To fight the giant David said, don't let any man's heart fail Don't be afraid, fellows, because of him For your servant will go out and fight this Philistine Don't be afraid, guys, I'll go fight him Oh, man And so they brought David before Saul Saul said, hey, you know, I'll fight him 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 is a man of war from his youth And David said to Saul, your servant was Keeping his father's sheep And there came a lion and a bear and took a lamb out of the flock And I went after them And I smote them and delivered it out of his mouth And when he arose against me I caught him by his beard and I killed him And your servant killed both the lion And the bear, and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be as one of them Seeing he has defied the armies of the living God Now David Saw things in the proper perspective Many times we are so Overwhelmed by the enemies We are so overwhelmed by our problems that we lose True perspective And when we lose the true perspective, fear grips Our hearts And hey, we are just open for defeat David saw the thing in the true Perspective. It isn't Me against this giant It is this giant Against the great God that I serve So it isn't poor me I'm facing this giant of a man It's poor giant He's facing the eternal God of Israel And seeing it in that light David Saw it as this man is defying The armies of the living God He doesn't have a chance So David said You know, God who delivered me out of the paw of the lion And the paw of the bear will deliver this uncircumcised Philistine And Saul said to David Go and the Lord be with you We'll return with more of our verse-by-verse study of 1 Samuel In our next lesson As we continue to follow the story of David and Goliath And we do hope you'll make plans to join us But right now, I'd like to remind you That if you missed any part of today's message Or perhaps you'd like to order a copy for that special friend or loved one You can do so by simply contacting one of our customer services And they'd be more than happy to assist you with the ordering details Simply call 1-800-272-WORD And phone orders can be taken Monday through Friday 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Pacific Time Once again, our toll-free number is 1-800-272-9673 And for your added convenience You can order online Anytime when you go to www.thewordfortoday.org And while you're there, be sure to browse through the additional resources That include Bible studies, commentaries CDs, DVDs, and so much more Once again, that's www.thewordfortoday.org And for those of you who still prefer to write You can use our mailing address Which is PO Box 8000 Costa Mesa, California 92628 And be sure to include the call letters of this station with your correspondence And now, on behalf of The Word for Today We'd like to thank all of you who share in supporting this ministry With your prayers and financial support And be sure to join us again next time As Pastor Chuck Smith continues his verse-by-verse study Through the book of 1 Samuel That's right here, on the next edition of The Word for Today And now, once again, here's Pastor Chuck Smith I'd like to encourage you to take some Ventures in faith this week It may be God wants to work, and all He needs is you Just making yourself available The world has yet to see what God can do Through just one man Who is totally committed to God May we commit ourselves to the work of God May we venture out in faith Trusting the Lord to do His work Through our lives May God bless you and be with you Strengthen you in every good work In Jesus' name I'd like to recommend ordering this year's One Step to Freedom conference and DVD Entitled Inside Out Hear guest speakers Pancho Juarez, Jerry Brown And myself, Tommy Cota And see for yourself some extreme and amazing Life-changing stories of people who have been changed From the inside out To order this year's conference for a friend or a loved one Call the Word for Today at 1-800-272-WORD Or visit us online at thewordfortoday.org Again, the number to call is 1-800-272-9673 This program has been sponsored by The Word for Today In Costa Mesa, California