In this sermon, the preacher discusses the story of David and Goliath from the Bible. He highlights David's heart for God and his willingness to watch over his father's sheep. The preacher then describes how the Philistines and the Israelite armies would gather for battle, but Goliath, a champion from the Philistine camp, challenges the Israelites to send one man to fight him. The Israelites, including King Saul, are too afraid to face Goliath, and even offer great riches and rewards to anyone who can defeat him. The preacher emphasizes the lack of courage and faith among the Israelites and draws parallels to the work of Jesus on our behalf.

Let's open up our Bibles to 1 Samuel, chapter 17. If you didn't bring a Bible, raise up your hand and one of us will bring one to you. We're going to deal with one of the most familiar stories in the entire Bible, the story of David and Goliath. And I know that many of you, it would be easy to sort of turn your ears off right now because you feel like you know it. Well, can I suggest to you that there's things in God's Word that even if you've gone over 10, 20, 30, 50 times, you're going to find more with an open heart and an open mind as you approach it again. And so I trust that as we go through the first 30 verses of 1 Samuel 17 together, the Lord will show many things to our hearts. Verse 1, Now the Philistines gathered their armies together to battle and were gathered together at Succoth, which belongs to Judah. They encamped between Succoth and Ezekiel in Ephesdamon. And Saul and the men of Israel were gathered together and they encamped in the valley of Elah and drew up in battle array against the Philistines. Philistines stood on a mountain on one side and Israel stood on a mountain on the other side with a valley between them. If you ever go on a tour to Israel, and it's something I highly recommend to everybody here, if you ever have the opportunity and the resources to go, you should go. One of the things that's a must see on your itinerary is the valley of Elah. You can go there today and it looks much the same way it would today as it would centuries ago in the time of David and Goliath. There's rolling green hills. The Bible here calls them mountains. That's from an Israelite perspective where they didn't have a lot of tall mountains in their area. We would probably call them just large hills. And in these large hills, you can just picture in your mind thousands of Philistine soldiers on one large hill, thousands of Israelite soldiers on another large hill and on the valley running between them would be the field of battle. And there they are encamped up on the high ground, ready and waiting to rush down to the low ground in between and do battle one with another. And here they are, their swords are ready, their shields are ready, their spears are trembling, they're ready to fight this battle. But then before the armies can come and connect and rush at each other, look what happens here at verse four. And a champion went out from the camp of the Philistines named Goliath from Gath, whose height was six cubits and a span. He had a bronze helmet on his head and he was armed with a coat of mail. And the weight of the coat was five thousand shekels of bronze and he had bronze greaves on his legs, those are like shin guards, and a bronze javelin between his shoulders. Now the staff of his spear is like a weaver's beam, that means it was very thick and heavy. And his iron spearhead weighed six hundred shekels and a shield bearer went before him. Then he stood and cried out to the armies of Israel and said to them, why have you come out to line up for battle? Am I not a Philistine and you are the servants of Saul? Choose a man for yourselves and let him come down to me. If he's able to fight with me and kill me, then we will be your servants. But if I prevail against him and kill him, then you shall be our servants and serve us. And the Philistine said, I defy the armies of Israel this day. Give me a man that we may fight together. As the army of the Israelites stand assembled on one large hill and as the armies of the Philistines stand assembled on another large hill, Goliath comes forth into the battleground between them and he's a large man. The Bible says six and one half or six cubits and one span. Little difficult to know exactly how tall that is in today's measurements. There's debate among Bible scholars how tall this might be. The estimates range anywhere from eight and a half feet tall to nine feet, two inches tall. We really don't know for certain, but we do know he was an exceedingly large man. Now, you shouldn't think, well, this is obviously just some legend from the Bible. Nobody's ever been that tall. I mean, even the tallest NBA players, they're, you know, seven feet and a few inches tall. You couldn't have somebody this big, could you? Well, yes, you could. Ancient historians on several occasions mentioned people who were as tall or taller than Goliath. And even in our own age, as a matter of fact, in 1940, a man died. His name was Robert Wadlow. He was eight feet, 11 inches tall. And it's not normal to find somebody that big, but it's certainly not unheard of in the pages of history. And so here's Goliath. Not only is he that big, but he's strong. He carries armor on him, estimates range. Again, it's a little difficult to translate it in today's weights and measures, but people think it's anywhere from 150 pounds to 250 pounds of armor and weapons that he carried with him. This man was a strong man. He was an able man to be able to use these armaments. And he was frightening because he came to Israel and he said, look, let's forget about this warfare business. Let's forget about sending one army against another. I'll fight for our side and you bring out a man to fight for your side and we'll settle it all right here. There's no need to shed all this blood. If you can find a man who can defeat me, then we'll be your slaves. But if I defeat your man, then you'll be our slaves. I think it's very interesting, the idea of doing battle through a representative. That's exactly how we're saved. Did you know that we're saved through a representative? You can't save yourself, my friend. I'm not saying that you shouldn't save yourself or that it's not a smart idea to save yourself. I'm telling you that you can't save yourself. You're not good enough. I'm not good enough. There's never walked this earth a person good enough to save themselves except one. And he's the one who can save us. That's Jesus Christ. And it's as if there's Adam, one representative for the human race, and we can be represented by Adam. We all are represented by Adam by birth. You were born being represented by Adam, fallen, sinful, by instinct, rebellious to God. But now comes forth a champion sent by his father here to represent those who want him to represent him. It's Jesus Christ. And he says, I'll represent you. And if I win this battle, then all those who are on my side win also. My friends, Jesus Christ has won the battle. He won it against Adam. He won it against Satan. And now he says, everybody who's on my side, they win also. I want to be on Jesus's side. I want him to represent me. I don't want to be represented by Adam. I want Jesus Christ to represent me. He's our champion. Even in this, we find an illustration of the person and the work of Jesus on our behalf. But Goliath stands forth and and he gives this bold proclamation. Israel says, come on out. One man fight me. Now, as I read this, I don't know if you had the kind of reaction I did when I read. I kind of scratched my head. I said, now, wait a minute. Wait a minute here. Why didn't the Israelites? There they are in their whole battle array. You've got maybe five hundred, maybe a thousand, maybe fifteen hundred Israelite soldiers just standing there on that hillside. They have their swords, their shields, their spears. They're ready to go. And here comes one man. Goliath. Now he's a big man. He's a strong man. He's a mighty man. But he's one man. And he says, fight me one on one. Why didn't the Israelites say, forget this one on one business and rush about 30 minute Goliath right then and just strike him down. You know why they didn't? Because they were crippled by fear. Look at it here in verse 11. When Saul and all Israel heard these words of the Philistine, they were dismayed and greatly afraid. Of course, that was Goliath's exact intention in issuing this challenge. The reason why he came out with full battle equipment and paraded in front of Israel, our Israelite army was because he wanted them to be dismayed and greatly afraid. Goliath was able to defeat the Israelites on fear alone. Now, if you've ever been involved in any kind of competition, you know something. You know that you can gain a huge advantage over your opponent. And it doesn't matter if you're in the Olympics, if you're a pitcher pitching to the batter and the bottom of the ninth of a World Series game, or if you're playing ping pong with your neighbor. If you can strike fear in the heart of your opponent, you've gone a long way to win in the battle already. And this is exactly what Goliath wanted to do. You see, first of all, if you strike fear in the heart of your opponent, maybe you won't have to fight a battle at all. Maybe they won't even show up. Maybe they'll be so afraid that they don't even want to risk it. Or secondly, if they do fight, you've got them so off guard because of the fear, so fighting outside of themselves, so off kilter because of it that they won't fight as well as they could have. And you've got a huge advantage over your enemy before the battle even begins. Don't you see that this, of course, is a significant strategy of the devil against us. We don't battle against flesh and blood enemies like Goliath, but we have our spiritual giants to fight against. And the devil has a heavy interest in making you dismayed and greatly afraid even before the battle begins. He wants you to operate on the principle of fear instead of the principle of faith in Jesus Christ and anything he can do to steer up that fear, to stir up that anxiety, to stir up that disquieted soul within you and to get you to live your life on that principle. What a huge victory for Satan. First of all, then, on so many occasions, you're not even going to engage Satan. You can stand back and say, well, I don't want to do that. I don't want to venture forth there. I don't want to be used of God. The devil might come and get me. The devil just laughs. Or you'll venture forth, but you'll be so afraid, you'll be so afraid of this or that or the other thing that you'll never be able to walk forth confidently in the boldness that Jesus Christ would give you. Friends, Satan has such a tremendous strategy in stirring up this fear, this anxiety in our hearts. We need to recognize that just as much as it was effective against the Israelites, it can be effective against us if we will allow it. And notice here also in verse 11, it says, And when Saul heard these words, he was greatly dismayed and afraid. You see, Saul had special reason to be afraid. Goliath was the giant among the Philistines, right? Now, who was it that was head and shoulders taller than anybody else in Israel? Saul. And he wasn't as big as Goliath, but the people of Israel looked around and said, well, who's the tallest guy around here? Oh, hi, King Saul. You should be the guy out fighting him. As a matter of fact, there's an ancient Jewish tradition that says that Goliath, in his taunting speech before the army of Israel, specifically called Saul out and he said, Come on, fight me. You're a coward. You've lost your courage. Yet Saul was dismayed and greatly afraid. At one time, Saul was known as a fierce and successful military leader, but now he's afraid. What's the difference? Remember last chapter, the spirit of the Lord has departed from Saul. You know, there's a courage that God wants to put in your life. That's a supernatural courage. I'm not talking about a natural courage, a courage that everybody can understand. You know, when you're bigger and stronger and mightier than you, when all the odds are in your favor, when you've got that all in front of you, anybody can be courageous. What's the big deal? But how about when you're facing a Goliath? When you're facing a giant? Friends, for that kind of courage, you need a supernatural work in your heart by the spirit of the Lord. But the spirit of the Lord had departed from Saul. If you need that courage from God, now you know where to seek it, don't you? The beautiful, powerful, constant infilling of the spirit of the Lord in your life, that can give you the courage that you need. The spirit of Lord really can give us courage when we're dismayed and when we're greatly afraid. That isn't the work of the spirit of the Lord. God wants to give us a holy boldness and a courage, not in ourselves, but in him. Saul had lost it. We also saw in 1 Samuel, chapter 16, that the spirit of the Lord, though it departed from Saul, it came upon somebody else and that somebody else is in verse 12. Now, David was the son of that Ephrathite of Bethlehem, Judah, whose name was Jesse. And he had eight sons. And the man was old, advanced in years in the days of Saul. The three oldest sons of Jesse had gone to follow Saul to the battle. The names of his three sons who went to the battle were Eliab, the firstborn, next to him, Abinadab, the third Shammah. David was the youngest and the three oldest followed Saul. But David occasionally went and returned from Saul to feed his father's sheep at Bethlehem. Oh, I love that. Now, when we last left David in 1 Samuel, chapter 16, David was in the royal courts of Saul. Pretty heady stuff, isn't it? Here he is just a boy, maybe in his late teens. We don't really know. Late teens, early 20s. We're not sure. But here he is just in the royal courts, put it up a position of real prestige and he's being exalted. There he is. He's playing his guitar, so to speak, for Saul, soothing him, bringing the spirit of the Lord in his midst and soothing him from the distressing spirit that had come upon King Saul. But apparently when Saul was feeling better and when David wasn't needed immediately around the palace, David would go home. And you know what David's attitude was when he went home. He'd go home and he'd say to his father, Well, father, I've been anointed of the Lord and I walk in the palaces of kings. You'll have to find somebody else to mine those sheep, father. I'm above that now because I'm anointed, because I've been in royal palaces. That wasn't David's heart at all, was it? David left the palace having been anointed king, having walked with kings. And what does he do? He goes home. He says, Dad, do you need me to watch the sheep? I know where to find them. And he went and he watched the sheep. Isn't that precious? What a heart for God this man David had. Well, verse 16 and the Philistine drew near and presented himself 40 days morning and evening. Isn't that remarkable? This went on for 40 days. The armies would gather together. Goliath would come in the middle. The armies would be ready to fight, ready to battle. They'd be shouting. They'd be yelling at each other. They'd all be ready to go. And then Goliath would step out and he says, forget this battle business. I'm one man. You bring one man and we'll settle it all right here. Nothing got settled there because there was no man trusting in God enough, courageous enough to come forward and battle Goliath. So verse 17, then Jesse said to his son, David, take now for your brothers and he thought this dried grain and these 10 loaves and run to your brothers, run to your brothers at the camp and carry these 10 cheeses to the captain of their thousand and see how your brothers fare and bring back news of them. Now, Saul and they and all the men of Israel in the Valley of Elah fighting with the Philistines. So David rose early in the morning, left the sheep with the keeper and took. Oh, did you notice that? What a good shepherd this man, David, is. He leaves the sheep. That's OK. He'll leave him with the keeper. He's not going to leave the sheep. He's not going to say, oh, I've got something important to do. More important than these stupid sheep. I'll go. Sheep can fend for themselves. David loved the sheep. He was a conscientious shepherd. Anyway, verse 20. So David rose early in the morning, left the sheep with the keeper and took the things and when his Jesse had commanded him and he came to the campus, his army was going out to the fight and shouting for the battle for Israel. And the Philistines had drawn up in battle array army against army. There they are. They're shouting. They're ready to fight. Goliath comes out, as he does before. Verse 22. David left his supplies in the hand of the supply keeper, ran to the army and came and greeted his brothers. Then as he talked with them, there was the champion, the Philistine of Gath, Goliath by name coming up from the army of the Philistines. And he spoke according to the same words. So David heard them and all the men of Israel, when they saw the man fled from him and were dreadfully afraid. So all the Israel army was dreadfully afraid. There was not one man among them who would take on Goliath. Every one of them fled from him when Goliath came out. Verse 25, so the men of Israel said, this is what they said to David. He was the newcomer here. He's not in on the situation. They inform him. Have you seen this man who has come up? Surely he has come up to defy Israel. And it shall be that the man who kills him, the king will enrich with great riches, will give him his daughter and will give his father's house exemption in Israel. My friends, isn't this pathetic? You know how it started. Saul, not willing to fight the battle on his own, his courage has left him. The spirit of the Lord has departed from him. Saul stands before his army and says, man, I'm looking for a volunteer. I want a man who's motivated by honor and courage. I want a man who's going to go out there and fight this battle and take on this giant and kill him. So step forward. Nobody comes. So he says, OK, I'll tell you what. I'll pay you great riches to step forward. Anybody come on right now. Let's go. If you'll kill the giant, I'll give you so many riches. Nobody comes forward. Saul says, OK, I'll give you great riches and my daughter. You can marry my daughter, marry into the royal family. You'll be a prince in Israel. Come on. Just somebody go out and kill this giant Goliath and you'll get the riches and my daughter. Nobody comes forward. So Saul lays down the trump card, says, OK, this is my final offer. I'll give you riches, my daughter and your whole family a tax exemption in Israel. And not even that would motivate anybody. See, friends, this was a spiritual battle going on. The reason why none of these men would step forward and do what needed to be done was not primarily because they were cowards. Yes, there was a streak of cowardice in them, but it wasn't primarily because they were cowards. It was because they didn't see things the way the Lord saw them. If you put these men in a different situation, in different circumstances, they might show tremendous bravery, awesome bravery. But in this situation, they weren't seeing things the way the Lord saw them. Look at David and what a contrast this is. Verse 26. Then David spoke to the men who stood by him, saying, David can't believe it. He says, what shall be done for the man who kills his Philistine and takes away the reproach from Israel? For who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God? And the people answered him in this manner, saying, so shall it be done for the man who kills him. You see, you see the difference in David's perspective. Other soldiers were focused on the danger of the battle or the material rewards to be won. But it seems that David alone was focused on the reputation of Israel and on the honor of the living God. This truly shows David to be a man after God's own heart. He cared about the things that God cared about. He saw the problem in spiritual terms, not just in material or fleshly terms. Friends, don't you see it here when the men of Israel said this man, David said this uncircumcised Philistine. You see him as a mighty man, David says, I see him as a man who has no part in the covenant of God, who worships idols and who has offended the people and the power of God. The men of Israel said, surely he's come up to defy Israel. David said that he should defy the armies of the living God. I love that. You know, David didn't say the armies of Israel. He said the armies of the living God. You know what I think David's thinking? He's not thinking singular of one army. There was Israel, one army there. David said, no, we're not just here as one army. We have the armies of the living God. And it's not just the army you see assembled here. We've got armies of angels and the power of the Lord, our commander in chief behind us. We shall be victorious because we've got the armies of the living God on our side. You see how differently David saw the situation. And finally, the men of Israel said the man who kills him. David said the man who kills this Philistine and takes away the reproach from Israel. David saw things from the Lord's perspective, but the men of Israel only saw things from man's perspective. This is getting good, isn't it? You're like, yes, here's a man. He has a zeal for God's cause, for God's program. He sees things the way the Lord sees. And this is thrilling. This is exciting. Lord, you're really going to do something here. And let me tell you, whenever the Lord is getting ready to do something like this, I can guarantee you something. The devil wants to throw a monkey wrench in. Just when you get your perspective the right way, just when you get your focus moving in the right direction, you know, the devil wants to ruin it somehow. And so we should expect an attack and look at how it comes here in verse 28. Now, Eliab, his oldest brother, heard when he spoke to the men and Eliab's anger was aroused against David and he said, why did you come down here and with whom have you left those few sheep in the wilderness? I know your pride and the insolence of your heart. Well, you've come down to see the battle. Eliab, David's oldest brother, is suddenly angry. And notice this. It's not a Philistine who's angry. It's not even a common soldier of the army of Israel. It's David's own oldest brother. The attack comes from someone in his own household and the attack pierces through his heart. And Eliab was angry. You might have thought that David's visit might have made Eliab happy. Here he is. He gets to see his brother, brings news from his dad, brings lots of goodies. Isn't it great to see my brother? Eliab said no. He was angry instead. Why? Let me suggest you four reasons why Eliab was angry. First, he was angry because he felt that David was a worthless, insignificant person who had no right to speak up, especially with such bold words. You see what Eliab said? Why did you come down here? And with whom have you left those few sheep in the wilderness? David, all you're fit for is chasing around a few mangy sheep around the wilderness. Go back to those sheep. We're doing man's business here. This has no involvement with you. Get away. That was Eliab's attitude. Friends, let me tell you something. When Eliab said that, a dagger went into David's heart. You know it hurt. This is his own brother and he thinks I'm worthless. He thinks I have no place here, that I should just get out of here. This hurts. Let me suggest to you a second reason why Eliab was angry. He was angry because he felt he knew David's heart and David's motivation. He says, I know your pride and the insolence of your heart. But Eliab didn't really know David's heart. Oh, he was sure that he did. Look at you, David. I know why you're here. You proud, insolent little guy. Why are you even here? You go back home. I know your motivation. I know what you're all about here. Eliab didn't know it at all. Eliab totally misunderstood David. He totally misunderstood his heart and what he wanted to do. Another dagger goes into the heart of David. That hurts. You know, when people misunderstand you. Assign evil motives to you when you don't have an evil motive. That hurts, doesn't it? David felt this hurt. Any time you step out for the Lord. You should be ready to be disregarded by some people, misunderstood by others. Be prepared for it. You're going to be disregarded by some. You're going to be misunderstood by some other people. Notice it here. I think there's a third reason why Eliab was angry. I think he was angry because he thought David was just trying to provoke someone else into fighting Goliath. At the end of verse 28, Eliab says, you have come down to see the battle. I think what David was doing was saying, you know, hey, I double dog dare you to go out and fight Goliath just because David wanted to see a battle. And I know what you're all about, Eliab saying, you want somebody to fight? Probably me, Eliab was thinking. David was trying to push me out into the battlefield. Forget it, David. You have no business here. And don't you just know that as he said that, all the men of Israel, all the soldiers, they laughed. Everybody laughs when a big brother is picking on a little brother. They laughed and that dagger went into David's heart again and he's hurt. Let me suggest to you a fourth reason why Eliab was angry. He was angry because, and this might be the greatest reason of all. Because David was right. He was right. Listen, you should be seeing this battle in spiritual terms. The problem was that there wasn't a man of God standing up and saying this uncircumcised Philistine has defied the armies of Israel, has defied the armies of the Lord of Hosts long enough. We're going to put an end to it. David was right. And that's the last thing you want when you're walking in fear and cowardice and in the flesh. Last thing you want is someone who's right and is and is walking in the spirit and walking in the Lord's grace. You don't want them around. Man, is that annoying? Does that get under your skin or what? Here you are, you're in the flesh and somebody is in the spirit comes along and you just want them away from you. Even though they're right, we can all relate to that, you know, we come on to verse twenty nine and I suggest to you what verse twenty nine could have said. Verse twenty nine could have said, then David's countenance was fallen and he said, I don't have to take this from anybody. I'm going home to my father, Jesse. That's what it could have said. Verse twenty nine could have been that way. But David had a decision. Friends, he didn't have a decision about the hurt that came into his heart. He received one, two, three, four dagger like wounds to his heart. David didn't have a decision about that, but he had a decision what he was going to do with it. David, you're misunderstood, you're wrongly accused, you think people know you and they don't. You're right, and people despise you because of it. You're despised by your own family, David, and it hurts. What are you going to do with that? Look at what David does, verse twenty nine, David said, what have I done now? Is there not a cause? I love this. David protests. What have I done now? But he doesn't stay there. He's not saying now, let me prove that you're wrong, Eliab. First of all, I'm not here on my own authority. My father sent me. Look, here it is. He told me what to do and I brought this and I brought that. He doesn't go into the big defense thing. He registers a small protest. What have I done now? But then he lifts his highs higher and says, is there not a cause? Listen, Eliab, this isn't about me. This isn't about you. This isn't even about Goliath. This is about the honor and the glory of the living God. That's the cause that we're here about. And that's what we need to get in our perspective. Verse 30 says, then he turned from him towards another and said the same thing. And these people answered him as the first ones did. David is putting the perspective that the look exactly where it should be. Friends, think about that phrase. Is there not a cause? David's attitude is completely different than the other men of Israel, including King Saul. David was concerned with God's cause before everything, before his own personal safety, before his own personal glory, before his own personal honor. He had a passionate concern for God's cause. And that's what was going to see David in this different perspective. That's what David saw that nobody else did. Now, we look at this and we go, man, I want to be like David. Well, where did David get this perspective? Where did David get this passion for God's cause instead of a concern for himself? Friends, I'm going to suggest to you that it was born in secret and nursed in solitude. It was when David was with the Lord and those sheep out in the middle of the wilderness, where there was no person he could talk to except God. And then those times of sweet communion and fellowship with the Lord and the Lord alone. David received such a reality of the presence of the Lord so that when he came and faced this battle scene, then he saw Goliath. But let me tell you something. The Lord God in heaven was more real to David than Goliath was. For all the Israelite soldiers, Goliath was more real than the Lord God. But David looked at Goliath and he said, listen, I don't know about this guy. He's big. He might be a good fighter. I don't know. But I know that there's a Lord God in heaven who loves me and who has a calling on my life and who wants me to do great exploits for him. Goliath, I don't know. But the Lord, I know. Men of Israel, they look at the situation and say, listen, I don't know about the Lord, but I know there's this big guy and he can put the hurt on me. I don't want any part of that. So what's more real to you? If you want the Lord God to be the surpassing reality in your life, more real than any other person, more real than any other thing, more real than any other circumstance. And my friends, it's only going to come as you continue to spend time in the secret place with the Lord. Now, I'm not saying that God doesn't have a marvelous work for you to do as we all come together. Of course he does. God has things that he wants to work in your life that can't be worked in in any other way through the fellowship of the saints, through his work as we come together and worship and and communion together and hearing the word. There's a work God has to do in your life through times just like this. And I'm also here to tell you that there's a work that God wants to do in your life. That's only going to happen in the secret place. That's where David's are built in the secret place. So David, having that kind of heart before God. Could bear the misunderstanding and the rebuke of his brother. When David was misunderstood and rebuked publicly by his own brother amid the laughs of the other soldiers, he could have blown it, but he showed the strength of the armor of God in his life. And he replied rightly. He didn't care about his glory or his success, but only for the glory and the success of the Lord's cause. So you could just stop it right here. You could just stop it at the end of verse 30. You don't even have to go to the rest of the chapter. Now we will next week. Now, I don't want to spoil the story for anybody, but Goliath loses and David wins. We'll see how it happens next week. But I didn't mean to let the cat out of the bag for anybody here. But that's that's how the story ends. But I'm telling you that right now, at the end of verse 30, Goliath is a dead man right there before David ever stepped out on that field of battle. Goliath's dead. He's gone. But the battle's won right there at verse 30. The Lord had put this strength in David and Satan gave it his best attack at it through Eliab, his brother. And David was having no part of it. He was keeping his focus, his mind, his heart on the Lord. He was keeping his focus on the Lord. He wouldn't let anything distract him from the Lord's cause. Goliath's dead. You could start digging his grave right then. A big grave. But you could start digging it. Because the battle was won right there. Friends, don't you want to be able to say that the battle's won in your life, that your life is lived for the cause of the Lord God, not your own personal glory or honor or comfort. But God's given you a higher call, a higher purpose. And you're not going to let the Eliabs or anybody else distract you from it. God can put that hunger for that in your heart right now. He can fulfill that hunger as you spend time with him in the secret place. Let's pray and ask God to do that in our lives. Lord Jesus. We need you, Jesus. We need you to stand forth as our representative, as our champion. Lord, just as much as Goliath stood for the Philistines and David would stand for Israel, we need the son of David to stand for us right now and to be our champion. We know that as we find ourselves in you, that you can give us that passion for your cause and a dying to self, a dying to our own glory, our own comfort, our own honor. We can find it in you instead. Help us, God, help that to be real in our lives, not just in words, but in our thoughts and in our lives. We love you, Jesus. We want you to make us like David's before you. Stir up your cause in our heart and draw us close to you in the secret place. In Jesus name, Amen.