Two kings.
One sought to serve.
One sought to be served.
One waited for the word of the Lord.
One took matters into his own hands.
One lived a life defined by faith.
One lived a life controlled by fear.
One won a war with an enemy’s sword.
One ended his life on his own sword.
One became a giant killer.
One ended as a giant failure.
Join us Sunday to explore the lives of David and Saul, and why this matters for us today.
“The king’s heart is a stream of water in the hand of the LORD; he turns it wherever he will.” – Proverbs 21:1
“As the heavens are high and the earth is deep, so the hearts of kings are unsearchable.” – Proverbs 25:3
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Notes Transcript Video Audio iTunesGrace Fellowship Church
Brian Krawczyk
Series: Famous Kings
January 13, 2013
Giant Killer or Giant Failure?
1 Samuel 17
We are going to be digging into the Bible together today. That’s what we do every Sunday. If you don’t have a Bible, you’re going to want one. If we could get our professional Bible cart drivers to come and pass out Bibles. If you need one, just throw your hand up in the air.
As Buddy was sharing about Athens and talking about birth (that birth is always miraculous), the thought I had too as we’re praying into that as a church body, that God would do an amazing movement for the kingdom there on that campus, is births are always miraculous, but they’re also always messy.
I mean, they’re always messy, but I remember when Eden (our first child)… We went to one of those birthing classes at the hospital. They show you the videos of what to expect. I’m like, “Oh, this is sweet.” I’m sitting there with my wife, and I wasn’t really paying attention. I kind of turned to the screen right as the miracle happens. I was like, “Oh dear! Is there any way we can avoid that?” I am still scarred and wake up screaming at night sometimes, but we have a beautiful little girl.
Then I was thinking about this last one. We just had Jakin five months ago. It was just as miraculous, just as messy, but actually it was so fast the doctor wasn’t even at the hospital. I was trying to tell the nurses, “Hey, I think this is happening.” They’re like, “Oh, she is fine. She is measuring at (whatever). It will be fine. We’re calling the doctor. She is on her way over.”
Then finally I look, and I ran out in the hallway, and I was like, “I can see the head! Is that normal?” It was like panic attack. Everyone dropped what they were doing and came running in. I caught the baby in some towels. It was all over the place, but at the same time, I say this… I knew what I was doing. I mean, I didn’t really know what I was doing, but there was a difference.
So I’m thinking about Athens. The reason I say all of that as you’re praying for Athens is this is a bunch of young kids. They are fired up to see God move on their campus. As fired up as they are, they’re also scared to death. They don’t really know what they’re doing, and it’s going to be beautiful and miraculous, and it’s going to be messy.
I think one of the most powerful things we can do as a congregation, you can do as men and women, is to walk alongside (whether it’s physically with your presence or in prayer) with these kids who have a heart for the Lord and have a heart for their lost friends, who need what you have from years of walking with God, of having been through the mess, of having seen the miraculous.
So our prayer really is that God would raise up out of this congregation (and our heart for Grace Monroe is that God would raise up) a generation of spiritual fathers and mothers, because there’s no lack of excitement and inspiration and activity on campus, but there’s a lack of parents. So some of you, God might be putting that on your heart. I love that Buddy was telling me there is a group of Free Birds from Midtown who are caravanning to Athens tonight, which is awesome. It’s going to be a big party with a bunch of college students and Free Birds. It’s going to be great.
All right, go ahead and turn to 1 Samuel 17. As a church, as we’ve been walking together in this One Story series, moving and just walking through the unfolding story of Scripture from Genesis to Jesus, the story of the kingdom, I think it is incredibly appropriate and timely that, as we come into the beginning of the year, we find ourselves at this point in the story coming to the line of kings, specifically the life of David and, with that, the life of Saul.
The word that just really resonates for me looking at everything going on down at Midtown and Monroe and with Athens and what’s happening here with in our nCommunities is we’re really in a season of advancement. God is taking what he has done here in your hearts and lives and the stories you have lived and pushing them out farther. That DNA of grace, grace-filled people, not just the name on our building but a way of life, and moving it further and onward for the kingdom.
But I think it’s critical that we recognize wherever there’s advancement, whether it’s in your own life, your own spiritual growth, your character for your family, as a church, there’s always a battle. The Enemy isn’t going to give up territory easily. No, he is not looking at UGA and going, “Okay, there are 30,000 college students. There are some really dark places on that campus. I’ll just let you have that one. That’s fine. Yeah, sure. Athens, that’s yours. That’s cool. There are other campuses I’m going to go spend my time on.”
He is not looking at the marriages of this community and the largest school system in our region and saying, “Oh, those kids? Yeah, you can have them. That’s fine. I’ll just let that battle go. That’s not a big deal.” These neighborhoods filled with sons and daughters, husbands and wives, who Satan is just going to go, “Oh yeah. Brookwood? That’s fine. You can have Snellville. That’s fine. Atlanta.”
No! I mean, as we say we want to see a kingdom movement, the cities transformed, the communities revitalized with the values of the Lord (peace and love, joy, forgiveness, reconciliation, restoration, kindness, grace), we say we’re going to take a step forward into dark, scary places because we know the Light has come into the world and the darkness cannot…will not…overcome it.
As we step into those places, as we advance, there’s battle. In 1 Samuel, there are two kings, both of them given the same position to lead the people of God. Now what’s interesting is God had already set up a king, and it was himself from the beginning in the garden. The people were oppressed, and there were battles going on. They were scared, and they’d been up and down. It felt like every step forward was two steps back.
They come to Samuel the priest, and they say, “We want a king. We want a human king like all these other nations. We want somebody who is going to lead us into battle.” Now Samuel’s heart was grieved, and God’s heart was grieved, because what they were saying is, “We want a human we can see more than we want the God who has led us this far. We want something tangible. We want somebody else to fight this battle for us,” even though God had already said, “The victory is yours. I’ll fight for you.”
God gives them what they ask for, and they get a king. Then we trace these two kings’ lives through the book of 1 Samuel. They end up in very different places. One of them, David (we know the story of Goliath; we’re going to dig into that in just a second), becomes a giant killer, and not just a giant killer, but he raises up a generation of men who become giant killers. He had his failures, but when we look at the life of David, a man after God’s own heart, we think of him as a success.
Then we have Saul, who ends up a giant failure. He had some successes, but when we look at his life, we think of him as a disappointment. So what makes a giant killer? That’s what God is calling us to as a church, right? I mean, don’t you have that sense that there are big battles in front of us but that God is raising up people who will step into them? What makes a giant killer? That’s where we’re going to look. So if you want to turn to 1 Samuel 17, we’re going to just look at the life of David a little bit and dig in and then apply it into our own lives.
Really as you’re processing this and as you’re reading this, advancement may be for you personally something God is doing in your heart. For some of you, advancement may be something in your family. For some of you, it may be something that’s bigger than your family, that is for others (your neighborhood, community, the city). So at this point, Saul has become king. He has had some victories, but then his heart turned away from God. He began not to listen to God.
It’s interesting, just as a note. We don’t have time to actually cover the spectrum of 1 Samuel. I mean, there’s so much gold in those hills that you can dig it out later. Whenever Saul ended up in a place as king of fear, of insecurity, of trial, oftentimes attached to it will be phrases like this: “So I decided to… I said I would… I thought it best to… So I did…” Saul was a man who did what was best in his own eyes. We know where he ended up.
Over and over again through the Scriptures as David comes into places of fear, struggle, trial, there’s a phrase that shows up over and over and over again: “And David inquired of the Lord…” His men are freaking out, so David inquired of the Lord. He is being chased into caves, so David inquired of the Lord. The Philistines are raising up an army, so David inquired of the Lord.
The first step for us as a church to become giant killers, to take territory for the kingdom, places that currently are broken, lost, hopeless, dark, is we have to hear from God. We have to be a people whose lives are defined by hearing from God. See, faith and fear are two sides of the same thing. It’s just where you’re looking. There was not a lack of fear in David’s life. It’s just that whenever fear raged up around him, he turned to the Lord.
Saul faced some of the same problems, and whenever fear raised up around him, he turned inward. Are there places in your life where you’re defined, paralyzed, stopped by fear? Is there something you’re just afraid to do? I mean, you know if you were to stop and just pause for a second and ask the Lord, “God, what was the last thing you directed me towards?” is there something that’s keeping you from stepping into it? Is there any area in your life where you’re controlled by fear instead of defined by faith?
Samuel, the priest and prophet, anoints Saul king, and then he was going to present him to the people. They go. They gather all the people around. They’re going to present this king. Saul, by the way, is a tall, strong, good-looking guy. I mean, he looks like a king. I mean, if you’re going to put the title on somebody, if you’re going to say, “This guy fits the position,” Saul was the man.
So they have this ceremony set up, kind of like the inaugural ceremony. Everyone is gathered. All of a sudden, they’re like, “Hey, is he here? I mean, he is kind of a big part of this whole ceremony. It’s Saul who is becoming king.” So they ask God, “God, is the man you want around?” God answers them. He says, “Yeah, actually he is hiding in the baggage.” So they go find him among the luggage carts, and they drag him forward and put a crown on his head.
The people say, “Long live the king!” But his heart was defined, controlled, by fear. As he moves forward, as his heart turns away from God, as he begins to not listen to the Lord, God says, “I’m taking the kingdom from you, and I’m going to give it to a man after my own heart.” He points to this little boy, David, a shepherd, the most insignificant of his family, and says, “That’s who I want.”
God actually makes it really clear. He says, “You know, I don’t look at outward appearance. I look at the heart.” So we come to a point in chapter 17 where Saul is still leading the army. He is still king by position, although he has really never been king by character. He steps forward into the battle line, and the Philistines, who he has warred against all the days of his kingship, are lined up. They’re divided by a valley.
So the Philistine army, a massive army, is on one hill. The Israelite army behind Saul is on another hill. Across that valley, a giant steps forward out of the Philistine army, a guy named Goliath. He was 9 feet tall. He had huge armor, a huge spear, a shield bearer. I mean, he is a champion, a warrior.
He cries out, “Who defies me? I defy you, the army of Israel. Raise up a champion, and come fight me. Here’s what we’ll do. I’ll stand in the place of my army. You give me one. We’ll fight. If you win, we will become slaves to you. If we win, you become slaves to us.” Everyone in Israel cowers in their tents, including Saul. Who was the man who God had for that battle? Who was the one who was in the position? Who was supposed to be the champion?
Who was supposed to step forward and say, “No, I represent a living God, who fights for me. You do not defy the God of Israel, the creator God of the universe”? It was Saul. Saul was king. Saul was the champion who should have stepped forward into that valley. Instead, he runs, and he hides and never engages in the battle that has been set before him.
So we have that scene. If this was a movie, what would happen is… You know, we’re watching the movie. Saul is trembling in fear, and so is the army with him. Verse 10. “Then the Philistine said, ‘This day I defy the armies of Israel! Give me a man and let us fight each other.’ On hearing the Philistine’s words, Saul and all the Israelites were dismayed and terrified.” (1 Samuel 17:10-11)
So it would pause if we were watching the movie, and all of a sudden, it would cut to a scene father away on a pristine, beautiful country hillside. Birds chirping. Quiet. Everything is as it should be where a dad has sent three of his oldest sons to the army. There wasn’t CNN at the time, so he is not really sure how it’s going. He is probably assuming they’re doing really well. He is proud. He has warriors for sons.
He has no idea they’re actually cowering in fear under their blankets in their tents. So he grabs his youngest son, David, and he says, “Hey, why don’t you go check up on your brothers? Take them some supplies. Here’s a care package. You know, they’re probably hungry. Here’s some bread and cheese. Go check up on them.” David was tending his father’s sheep. He was a shepherd. He was faithfully serving.
“Early in the morning David left the flock in the care of a shepherd, loaded up and set out, as Jesse [his father] had directed. He reached the camp as the army was going out to its battle positions, shouting the war cry.” (1 Samuel 17:20) So for us to become a church or to step into this season of advancement, to be a church of giant killers, first we have to hear from God. Second, we have to learn what it means to serve.
See, for David, David had been appointed king, and then the next place we find him is tending his father’s dirty sheep. Then when his dad asked for just this mundane and menial task that actually seems to have no significance except, “Deliver some bread and cheese to your older brothers. Now, they’re doing something special. Those guys are heroes. David, just grab another shepherd. We don’t even have that many sheep anyway. Take a care package to your brothers…”
David could have said, “No!” David could have said, “Well, you know, I’m busy. I have things to do. I’ll take my time.” David could have missed the greatest opportunity of his life. Sometimes our biggest breakthroughs come on the back of the mundane. It’s when we’re doing the thing that just doesn’t seem to matter, that no one notices, that you think, “This doesn’t count for anything,” all of a sudden, God presents something that steps into your midst, and you’re facing a Goliath.
No matter how advanced you get, how much you get promoted… That’s hard. I mean, y’all are a very successful group. A lot of you have gone very far in your lives. The further you get, the higher up you go, the more influence you get, the easier and easier it is to forget what it means to serve, because all of a sudden you have all these people who are wanting to serve you. “Let me get that for you. Let me do that for you.” May we always be a people who are looking for opportunities to serve in the secret, hidden places.
David was faithful. David served in the seeming mundane and finds himself on the front lines of the battle. He rises early in the morning, just as the armies are coming into their battle positions. Verse 22: “David left his things with the keeper of supplies, ran to the battle lines and asked his brothers how they were.” (1 Samuel 17:22)
I think it’s interesting the way that’s worded. Circle that in your Bible, because go back to Saul. Saul, stepping into the most significant moment of his life, is hiding among the baggage. David, stepping forward into the most significant moment of his life, drops his baggage and runs to the front lines.
Some of us in here are hiding in our baggage. There are things in our past, there are experiences we’ve had, ways we’ve been wounded, ways we’ve wounded others, that we look at, hold onto, focus on, and use as an excuse to not move forward into what God has for us. Are we willing to leave our baggage at the cross? Was Jesus’ death enough that we can drop our baggage and move forward into what God has next, or are you hiding in your baggage?
So he hears this chant, this battle cry, this affront, insult to God and his people. He sees the Israelite army (verse 24) running from Goliath in fear. “Now the Israelites had been saying, ‘Do you see how this man keeps coming out? He comes out to defy Israel. The king will give great wealth to the man who kills him. He will also give him his daughter in marriage and will exempt his father’s family from taxes in Israel.'” (1 Samuel 17:25)
So not to over-spiritualize this. I mean, David was a young boy. So he shows up on the battle lines and witnesses what’s happening. He hears them talking about what’s going to happen to the man who steps forward and kills this giant. You can almost imagine as a young boy. I mean, just think about a young teenager. He is like, “Okay. All right. Yeah, blah, blah, blah. Taxes. Wait. What was that about the king’s daughter? Go back to that. So you get the girl?”
Now we know there were other motives in David’s heart, but the Bible… It’s interesting the writer of this story chooses to let us know there may have been some other motives there, and that’s okay. He steps forward in faith. They repeated to him what he had done. His older brother, who actually was a witness to Samuel anointing David as the future king, probably full of jealousy…
You don’t know what emotions are going on in this older brother who was literally passed over to go to the younger brother to be made king. He comes running up angry. “Why have you come down here? […] I know how conceited you are and how wicked your heart is; you came down only to watch the battle.” (1 Samuel 17:28) Honestly, maybe a little bit self-condemning. Here’s an interesting thing. It tends to be that the most critical people are the most self-condemning people.
If you meet somebody and the way they live their life is just to point out where everybody else is failing, to show you what’s wrong, where you don’t measure up, just a critical person, I almost guarantee you there’s a whole lot of self-condemnation, because we tend to hate in others the things we hate in ourselves. The only sin that is unbearable is our own. So when something feels unbearable, it’s probably pointing back to something in our own hearts.
So David gets overheard. Saul hears about this young kid who has shown up. He calls David to come be with him. “David said to Saul, ‘Let no one lose heart on account of this Philistine; your servant will go and fight him.'” (1 Samuel 17:32) Now his brother had already told him, “This is ridiculous. You’re just a little kid who tends a couple of sheep. Go home.”
Now the king is telling him, “‘You are not able to go against this Philistine and fight him; you are only a young man, and he has been a warrior from his youth.’ But David said to Saul, ‘Your servant has been keeping his father’s sheep. When a lion or a bear came and carried off a sheep from the flock, I went after it, struck it and rescued the sheep from its mouth.
When it turned on me, I seized it by its hair, struck it and killed it. Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear; this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, because he has defied the armies of the living God. The Lord who rescued me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will rescue me from the hand of this Philistine.'” (1 Samuel 17:33-37)
See, David was able to step up and step into this battle because he had already fought battles. He was able to trust God in this moment with a giant because he had a history of trusting God. Now not to minimize the battles he fought, because for some of you as you’re reading this story, maybe that’s exactly where you are.
Maybe you’re not at a Goliath moment where it is some huge cause. Maybe it’s something in your own heart that you’re fighting. Maybe it’s something for your family, in your neighborhood, for a friend. Maybe there’s a battle in front of you that you need to fight. David was able to look back and go, “Oh no, no. God met me there. God met me here. There was this time, and yeah, God was there for me then.” He had a history with God, and so he was able to step into the next phase of his story.
Many of you have powerful histories with God. For some of you, it may be just recalling the things God has done. It’s hard to see a victory when you’re in the middle of a battle. It’s not till you look back a year, two years, five years, ten years, and go, “Oh! That’s what God was doing.” There’s an interesting statistic about marriage. They did a study where marriages that were unhappy, they were dissatisfied and, on the scale, they were ranking themselves as moving towards divorce.
They did a study five years later of those same couples. What they looked at was they did the same index of marital satisfaction and happiness, peace, all that kind of stuff. They looked at the couples who had gone on and gotten divorced and the couples who had stayed together. The couples who stayed together, in terms of personal satisfaction and joy in life, measured significantly higher than the ones who had gotten divorced.
Now there are some of you who are walking through the baggage of divorce. I make this point to say as the researchers (this isn’t Christian; it’s just a psychological study) tried to understand why that was… Because the reason they started the study was the assumption that if you’re unhappy in marriage and you get divorced, you’ll be happier. That was just kind of the psychological insight. I mean, it made sense. If you’re not happy, get rid of what’s not making you happy and you’ll be happy.
Then all of a sudden the researchers were like, “Well, we’ve actually never tested that theory.” When they did, they found out it wasn’t true, because the very things that were making them unhappy, that made it feel unbearable in that moment, a lot of them were rooted in time, things like a sickness of a spouse, of a child, an illness, a death, financial stresses, a job change, a move.
When they moved through those things together, on the other side of that battle, they looked back, and they had grown. They would rate it and say, “We have never been happier, more satisfied in our marriage than we are now.” That’s just one example of all kinds of battles you face. As you’re fighting them, what feels like a battle, what feels like a struggle, what feels like a constant disappointment, it may be that you just need to press into it, to look to God for faith and not fear, to hear from him so you can look back and see the victory.
So we need to hear from God. We seek to serve. Then the next blank there is having a cause worth fighting for. When he comes up and he is confronted by his brother, it says in verse 29, “‘Now what have I done?’ said David. ‘Can’t I even speak?'” (1 Samuel 17:29) That little phrase right there, “Can’t I even speak?” is translated a lot of different ways. It’s just kind of a couple of words, so there are a lot of ways to try to understand that.
The King James actually translates it as, “Is there not a cause?” (1 Samuel 17:29) “Isn’t there a cause? I mean, I’m not just chatting about the weather. Isn’t there something significant facing us? Isn’t there something that’s worth fighting for?” As I say, it feels like we’re in a season of advancement.
It also feels like (just in conversations with people and with families) we’re also in a season of God reawakening dreams, places people have given up on, forgotten about, disappointments they’ve had. The thing they would have said if you had asked them 10 years ago, 20 years ago, “Man, what were you really hoping for in life?” “Oh man, I always wanted to do this. I always thought I would be this. I always wanted to go here, but then this happened. This didn’t happen.” God is bringing back those things and saying, “No, no. I put that desire in you for a reason.”
What are you passionate about? What’s God firing you up about? When you see it, it burns on you. It’s a cause that’s worth fighting for, to sacrifice time and money and energy, to say, “No, no. This is worth going after.” Really when we talk about our Grace Groups, our nCommunities, as a leadership team, and personally for myself, to be really honest, I have zero to little desire to just create some nice small groups.
Honestly what I love about this church family is I think you’re the same way. What we want is to be a community that God is stirring in our hearts the things we are passionate about, the things that are worth fighting for, and then together, pressing in to those things. The reason we do community is so God can stir us up toward love and good deeds, right? That’s what Hebrews says. So we can move forward into all God has for us.
Going back to the idea of victory. You can’t see it in the battle. Sometimes we need to be surrounded by people who see it for us. Sometimes when we’re living a life of fear, we need people with faith to surround us, to call out those dreams God is putting in our hearts. What are you passionate about? What is God burning in your soul? The greatest cure for boredom is to find a cause. Find something worth fighting for.
I love the story of Barb and a couple of ladies several years ago who were at one of the ExoBoxOlogy things, the women’s things we did. I didn’t do it, so I can’t say we. They did. I’m not allowed to come. Jody had asked a question: “What has God given you to bless others?” So they were discussing it. They were like, “Gosh!” The way Barb tells her story, they’re looking in their lives going, “Man, we’re getting older. We don’t really have much to give.”
All of sudden it hit them. It was like, “Well, we like to sew. So we can do that. I don’t know what God can do with that, but we can get together and sew and pray for each other.” They started to, and that’s our Heartstrings that’s in here. Now several years later, I mean, the stories they tell about the single moms and the kids who are in hospitals who they’re blessing because of this small thing, the only thing they had to offer, of sewing caps and scarves and clothes. God just took this thing they loved to do already to use it to advance his kingdom.
Or I think about a friend, Rus, who does that car show we do to raise money for KidzLife. I’ll never forget the conversation I had with Rus. We went to Waffle House, and he had just gone to a car show. He loves classic cars. He was reflecting on the last show he had been at. He said he realized… It was like mid-conversation. He was talking to this guy, and they were just talking about the car and just general stuff.
Then the conversation all of a sudden turned and started to get deeper, more significant, and personal to this guy’s life. All of a sudden, it hit Rus, “I’m here because I love cars, but there are a whole lot of people here who desperately need the love and grace of Jesus. What if the whole reason I even like cars is because there are a bunch of other people who like cars who need to find out there’s a God who loves them?”
So this season, there’s an nCommunity of guys who are going to use cars as their thing, because they already love it. They do it. Or Carrie, who loves mountain biking, decided with a group, “You know, there are a whole lot of people who are out at the parks who don’t know Jesus. If we want to advance the kingdom, we’re already there. What if we were just more intentional about the way we ride together to invite people in to something we’re already doing?”
Or people who are passionate about marriage. There’s a couple in our church who was divorced for years. Then God turned their hearts back to one another, and they got remarried. Now they walk alongside couples who are struggling. I think about Celebrate Recovery and a group of men and women who have walked through their own battles, their own addictions, their own places of struggle. Now they, on the other side of victory, turn around and bring others through their battles, their addictions, their struggles. “We’ve been there. We’ll stand with you in that.”
What is God stirring in your heart, and what’s keeping you from running to the battle line? Saul takes confidence in David’s confidence and says, “Go, and the Lord be with you.” (1 Samuel 17:37) We’re in verse 38. “Then Saul dressed David in his own tunic. He put a coat of armor on him and a bronze helmet on his head. David fastened on his sword over the tunic and tried walking around, because he was not used to them. ‘I cannot go in these,’ he said to Saul, ‘because I am not used to them.’ So he took them off.” (1 Samuel 17:38-39)
David was able to fight that battle because he was positioned there because he was seeking to serve. He was hearing from God. He had history with God. He had fought battles before, and he knew who he was. He knew who he belonged to. Because of his history with God, he was able to say, “I don’t need another man’s armor. I don’t need to look like somebody else. I don’t need somebody else’s weapons. God has given me what I need.”
Second Peter 1 says he has given us everything we need for life and for godliness through our knowledge of him. There are six billion people on the planet. There are however many hundred in this room. Every one of you has a unique story. Every one of you has a unique gifting. Every one of you carries something different and faces a different battle.
The reason we can say we’re a body is not because we’re all a bunch of similar identical parts, but that we come together with what God has put into us and by his Spirit filled us with to fight what we has put in front of us and to fight for the things he is calling us to. David knew who he was, and he knew who he belonged to. He didn’t need to look like another man. He stepped into the battle with a sling and five stones.
We know what happens. He runs to the battle line. This mammoth of a man steps forward, insulted that a little boy would be the one they send to fight him. He puts a stone in that sling, whirls it over his head, launches it, and it sinks into the head of the giant. He falls to the ground dead. David walks up, grabs the giant’s sword, cuts off his head, and brings it back to the army of Israel.
The people rise up around him, chase off after the Philistines, and win the battle. What’s interesting is Saul, because of David’s success and his growing influence, becomes very jealous and ends up turning on David and chasing him to kill him. David is in this season of hiding in caves and caverns and running from Saul the king, because Saul was trying to kill him. He runs up to the temple of God to flee into the mountains, alone, without food, without a weapon.
He comes up to the priest, and he says, “I need something. I need anything. Do you have a weapon?” The priest turns, and he looks. “Well, all we have is that sword on the wall.” The sword belonged to Goliath. So David went to the wall, took the sword of Goliath, and that became his weapon of choice for the rest of his life. The very weapon that was held against him to kill him became a place of strength and power for the rest of his life. Amen!
The battles you’re fighting aren’t just for you. The win you win, the victories you have, whether it’s individually in your own character and heart or in your home as a family or in your community, every battle you fight is the opportunity for God to give you something to hold onto to fight for others.
Now flip that around because Saul, remember, at the end of his life, surrounded by the Philistine army, alone on the top of the hill, all of a sudden his stature and size and good looks aren’t helping him. In fact, the bigger he is, the better target he is. The archers have taken him down. So he turns to his armor bearer, and he says, “Kill me. I don’t want to be humiliated by the Philistines.”
The armor bearer says, “No, no, no. I’m not going to touch you.” So Saul takes the sword he was meant to fight Goliath with but tried to give away, the sword that was meant for the battle that was his to fight that he never fought, and falls on it and dies. Fight the battles God has for you. Step into the places God is calling you to. Identify the things that are holding you back.
So what does that look like as we move forward as a church? This is what we’ve talked about. I just can’t say it enough. I mean, we really believe church is more than showing up here on Sunday morning. It’s the way we do life and the way we live and pursue the kingdom together. So for some of you, maybe it’s just to pray through this catalog. What does it mean for you? How are you running toward the battle lines?
Maybe the way you’re running toward the battle line for 2013 is to figure out, “Is there something that is going on in the body that stirs my heart?” Then step into that. So as we talk about sign-ups and we joke up here and try to have fun with it, we can’t be more serious. There are places God is calling us to advance as a church that you carry the sword we need to fight with.
So as you are praying about what it means to run toward the battle line, maybe for you it is figuring out what it is in here. For some of you as you look through here, there may be something God is burning in your heart, a passion he is giving you, a dream he is reawakening that is not in here. Praise the Lord. Amen. There is no lack of great causes to fight for.
If that’s you, then I would invite you (this is a way last-minute invitation) next weekend, we’re joining with Monroe and with Midtown, all of the leaders of our Grace Groups, and we’re going to be at the DoubleTree Hotel at Northlake Mall there right at LaVista Road for Friday night and Saturday to just take a time with all our leaders in the room and step back and just ask the Lord, “Okay, God, what do you have for us? What are we moving into? What does this season look like for us?” To pray and be encouraged, equipped, and then blessed to be sent out.
So if there is something God is burning in your heart, I would invite you come join us. Join us next weekend. Come and just be a part of it. Just listen and hear from the Lord and try to discern what he has. If there is any way that can bless you to move forward, then come be a part. If you want to be a part, then just email me. I’ll give you my email. You can write it down. It’s
We’d love for you to come be a part of that even if you don’t know exactly what that means, what God is calling you to. You just have a sense he is doing something in you. Just so you know, my role (just to clearly define it) is really simple, and I love it. My role at Grace is simply to raise up missional leaders and to launch communities on mission.
That’s kind of a fancy way of saying it, but the way to really say it is to figure out what God is doing in you and do whatever I can to help you move forward in that. Anything I have that I can give, or anything I can point you to or resource you with, I want to help to set you up to do what God is calling you to.
For some of you as you’re praying, “God, what does it mean to run toward the battle line?” maybe it’s finding one of the groups here. Maybe it’s coming to that learning community. Maybe to run to the battle line for some of you… This is interesting as we talk about advancing. Sadie and I have had the blessing, the privilege, of this summer stepping in and helping lead the church in Monroe. We have fallen in love with that community.
So we actually are beginning to root ourselves more in that community. One of the things we realized is there are a lot of you who live in Walton County. Grace here is strategically placed to reach this community, the neighborhoods, the nations, the next generation. I mean, we talk all the time. We’re within eight miles of eight of the largest high schools, but I really feel Grace Monroe is strategically placed to reach Walton County.
There are some of you who I would just invite into this journey, whether it’s for six months or a year or a week a month. Maybe to run to the battle lines for you means, “What does it look like to go after the families, the next generation, the kids who are in our own backyard as we talk about Grace for Walton?”
If you’re interested and want to hear kind of our vision and what’s going on there and sort of the story to where God has taken us and where he is taking us next, then I invite you to dinner at my house. So all you Walton County people, on Sunday night, February 3, we’re just going to have a dream dinner. So you can come and dream with us about what that would look like to take Walton County for the kingdom. So there’s my email right there. Again, please email me if you’re interested in that.
Then lastly, maybe for you what it means to run to the battle line is to come to Athens tonight, to pray for those kids, to engage in what God is doing for that campus at UGA, to take what God has put in you and to walk alongside a young man or a young woman who needs what you have. So that’s the question. What’s the battle line God is calling you to? How do you run forward into the battle? Is there anything holding you back?
As we close, I just want to pray for you, for us as a church. What’s interesting is David fought his giant. Some say the reason he took five stones is because Goliath had four brothers. We don’t know if that’s exactly true, but we do know later on his life, this group of guys who surrounded David, a ragtag bunch of misfits, fearful, scared, discontent, in debt, end up becoming giant killers themselves. So stand with me. Just close your eyes. I just want to pray for you out of Paul’s words to the Ephesians. Just hold your hands out as like a posture of receiving.
I pray, finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ who reigns over all things, may you put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the Devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.
In the name of Jesus, therefore, put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. In the name of God, the Word who became flesh, full of grace and truth, may you stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist and the breastplate of righteousness in place.
In the name of Jesus, the bringer of the good news of the kingdom, may your feet be fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In additional to all of this, may you take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the Evil One that are coming against you. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God.
So we pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. We pray wherever we open our mouths, words would be given to us so we may fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel. May the God of the universe, the Father of Abraham, Isaac, and Joseph, the God of Moses and David, the Father, the Lord of Jesus Christ, send you forward in grace and love and peace. In his name, amen.