Show Notes
1 Samuel 17
Pastor Christopher Chelpka
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Episode Transcript
[00:00:08] Let's pray and ask God to bless the reading and preaching of his word.
[00:00:15] Our Heavenly Father, as your children, our hearts rejoice with all, with the knowledge of all the good gifts that you give to us in Christ.
[00:00:24] We recognize that every bite of bread, every sip of water comes from you.
[00:00:32] The relationships that we have, the jobs that we have, the opportunities that we have to serve others, all of this comes from your hand. Even our trials, Lord, we recognize and confess that these are not outside of your sovereign control, but that you use them to bless us and strengthen us. Oh Lord, how hard it is sometimes to see what you are doing and why you're doing it.
[00:01:02] But we're thankful that we are not required to figure these things out. We're thankful that you do not command us to know all things and be all places and do all things, but to trust you, the one who is fully able.
[00:01:20] We're also thankful, Lord, that as we put our trust in you, we we are reminded that you have all things under your power and that even the strongest forces in life can be brought down under your sovereign power.
[00:01:40] And even the weakest things in life, even people like us who were once dead in our trespasses and sins, even things that are not, can be made. Things that are can be brought to life, can receive resurrection, can enjoy the abiding and everlasting glory of God through the grace that we receive in Jesus Christ.
[00:02:06] We are not worthy of these things, O Lord, but we are thankful for them. And we praise you for them. And we ask that you would help us to live in them. Even now, as we come to the reading and preaching of your word, we ask that you would reaffirm and establish these things in our hearts. And for those who are hearing or understanding them for the first time, we ask that you would bring through your Word a new life in them that they might stand and praise you. We pray this all in Jesus name. Amen.
[00:02:45] Well, this morning we come to 1 Samuel 17. It is a long chapter, so I'll go ahead and let you be seated.
[00:02:55] It is one of the most exciting chapters in the Bible. It is the story of David and Goliath, a famous, famous account of this servant of the Lord, a shepherd, a boy who is called to come and do the Lord's work in saving Israel.
[00:03:20] So let's turn our attention to 1st Samuel 17 and I'll read this chapter as well as the first five verses of chapter 18.
[00:03:36] As we read about the we read the story of David and his enemy Goliath. Let's Remember that the whole Bible is pointing us toward David's grandson that would one day come. Jesus, who was the Messiah, the anointed one of God, who came not just to defeat, but worldly powers for a temporary time, but came to bring an end to sin and death and the devil, and actually accomplished these things through his work on the cross.
[00:04:17] Christ's grandfather, Jesus. Grandfather here. Great, great, so on. Grandfather David is foreshadowing the way. He's showing us the power that God works through his chosen king. He's giving us a little, you know, Costco sample size of the kind of work that Jesus does for us.
[00:04:41] So let's hear God's word this morning from 1st Samuel 17 and be encouraged.
[00:04:49] Now the Philistines gathered their armies for battle. And they were gathered at Soco, which belongs to Judah, and encamped between Socoh and Azakah in Ephes, Damim and Saul and the men of Israel were gathered and encamped in the valley of Elah and drew up in line of battle against the Philistines. And the Philistines stood on the mountain on the one side, and Israel stood on the mountain on the other side with a valley in between them.
[00:05:18] And there came out from the camp of the Philistines a champion named Goliath of Gath, whose height was six cubits in a span. He had a helmet of bronze on his head, and he was armed with a coat of mail, and the weight of the coat was 5,000 shekels of bronze. And he had bronze armor on his legs and a javelin of bronze slung between his shoulders. The shaft of his spear was like a weaver's beam, and his spear's head weighed 600 shekels of iron, and and his shield bearer went before him. He stood and shouted to the ranks of Israel, why have you come out to draw up for battle? Am I not a Philistine? And are you not servants of Saul?
[00:06:03] Choose a man for yourselves, and let him come down to me. If he is 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 Philistines said, I defy the ranks of Israel this day. Give me a man that we may fight together.
[00:06:27] When Saul and all Israel heard these words of the Philistine, they were dismayed and greatly afraid.
[00:06:39] Now David was the son of an Ephrathite of Bethlehem and Judah, named Jesse, who had eight sons in the days of Saul. The man was already Old and advanced in years. The three oldest sons of Jesse had followed Saul to the battle. And the names of his three sons who went to the battle were Eliab the firstborn, and next to him Abinadab and the third, Shema.
[00:07:03] I'm sorry about the lights. We'll try to fix them, but there's not much we can do, so we'll be patient.
[00:07:10] Continue on. Verse 14.
[00:07:12] David was the youngest. The three eldest followed Saul. But David went back and forth from Saul to feed his father's sheep at Bethlehem for 40 days. The Philistine came forward and took his stand morning and evening. And Jesse said to David his son, take for your brothers an ephah of this parched grain and these 10 loaves, and carry them quickly to the camp to your brothers. Also take these 10 cheeses to the commander of their thousand. See if your brothers are well, and bring some token for them.
[00:07:45] Now, Saul. And they and all the men of Israel were in the valley of Elah fighting with the Philistines. And David rose early in the morning and left the sheep with a keeper and took the provisions and went as Jesse had commanded him. And he came to the encampment as the host was going out to the battle lines, shouting the war cry. And Israel and the Philistines drew up for battle, army against army. And David left the things in charge of the keeper of the baggage and ran to the ranks and went and greeted his brothers. And he talked with them. Behold the champion, the Philistine of Gath, Goliath by name, came up out of the ranks of the Philistines and spoke the same words as before. And David heard him.
[00:08:30] All the men of Israel, when they saw the man, fled from him and were much afraid. And the men of Israel said, have you seen this man who has come up? Surely he has come up to defy Israel. And the king will enrich the man who kills him with great riches and will give him his daughter and make his father's house free in Israel. And David said to the men who stood by him, what shall be done for a man who kills this 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 the same way? So shall it be done to the man who kills him.
[00:09:11] Now Eliab, the eldest brother, heard when he spoke to the men, and Eliab's anger was kindled against David. And he said, why have you come Down. And with whom have you left those few sheep in the wilderness? I know your presumption and the evil of your heart for you have come down to see the battle. And David said, what have I done? What have I done? Now Was it not but a word?
[00:09:35] And he turned away from him toward another and spoke in the same way. And the people answered him again as before.
[00:09:41] When the words that David spoke were heard, they repeated them before Saul, and he sent for him. And David said to Saul, let no man's heart fail because of him.
[00:09:50] Your servant will go and fight with the Philistine. And Saul said to David, you are not able to go against this Philistine to fight with him for you are but a youth. And he has been a man of war from his youth. But David said to Saul, your servant used to keep sheep for his father.
[00:10:10] When there came a lion or a bear and took a lamb from the flock, I went after him and struck him and delivered it out of his mouth. And if he rose against me, I caught him by his beard and struck him and killed him. Your servant has struck down both lions and bears and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be like one of them for he has defied the armies of the living God.
[00:10:35] And David said, the Lord, who delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine. And Saul said to David, go, and the Lord be with you.
[00:10:47] Then Saul clothed David with his armor. He put a helmet of bronze on his head and clothed him with a coat of mail. And David strapped his sword over his armor. He tried in vain to go, for he had not tested them. Then David said to Saul, I cannot go with these, for I have not tested them. So David put them off. Then he took his staff in his hand and chose five smooth stones from the brook and put them in his shepherd's pouch. A sling was in his hand, and he approached the Philistine.
[00:11:21] And the Philistine moved forward and came near to David with his shield bearer in front of him. And when the Philistine looked and saw David, he disdained him, for he was but a youth, ruddy and handsome in appearance. And the Philistines said to David, am I a dog that you come at me or come to me with sticks? And the Philistine cursed David. By his gods, the Philistines said to David, come to me, and I will give your flesh to the birds of the air and to the beasts of the field. Then David said to the Philistine, you come to me with a sword and with a spear and with a javelin. But I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel whom you have defied this day. The Lord will deliver you into my hand and I will strike you down and cut off your head. And I will give the dead bodies of the host of the Philistines this day to the birds of the air and to the wild beasts of the earth. That all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel and that all this assembly may know that the Lord saves not with sword and spear, for the battle is the Lord's, and he will give you into our hand.
[00:12:32] When the Philistine arose and came and drew near to meet David David ran quickly toward the battle line to meet the Philistine. And David put his hand in his bag and took out a stone and slung it. And it struck the Philistine on his front. The stone sank into his front and he fell on his face to the ground. So David prevailed over the Philistine with a sling and with a stone and struck the Philistine and killed him. There was no sword in the hand of David. Then David ran and stood over the Philistine and took his sword and drew it out of its sheath and killed him and cut off his head with it. When the Philistines saw that their champion was dead, they fled.
[00:13:15] And the men of Israel and Judah rose with a shout and pursued the Philistines as far as Gath and the gates of Ekron so that the wounded Philistines fell along the way from Shaaraim as far as Gath and Ekron. And the people of Israel came back from chasing the Philistines. And they plundered their camp.
[00:13:33] And David took the head of the Philistine and brought it to Jerusalem. But he put his armor in his tent. As soon as Saul saw David go out against the Philistine he said to Abner, the commander of the army, abner, whose son is this youth? And Abner said, as your soul lives, O king, I do not know. And the king said, inquire whose son the boy is. And as soon as David returned from striking down the Philistine, Abner took him and brought him before Saul with the head of the Philistine in his hand. And Saul said to him, whose son are you, young man? And David answered, I am the son of your servant, Jesse, the Bethlehemite.
[00:14:11] As soon as he had finished speaking to Saul, the soul of Jonathan was knit to the soul of David. And Jonathan loved him as his own. And Saul took him that day and would not let him return to his father's house. Then Jonathan made a covenant with David because he loved him as his own soul. And Jonathan stripped himself of the robe that was on him and. And gave it to David and his armor and even his sword and his bow and his belt. And David went out and was successful wherever Saul sent him, so that Saul set him over the men of war. And this was good in the sight of all the people and also in the sight of Saul's servants.
[00:14:51] May God bless his word to us. Amen.
[00:14:59] Well, as I said, there's a lot here and there's so much to think about and meditate on, and there's so many little details that would be fun to explore, but we'll save those for perhaps some sermon discussions later.
[00:15:14] What we want to do this morning is focus on some of the main things that we see here in this passage. We want to focus on the strength of Goliath and the confidence that he has.
[00:15:31] We want to focus on the strength of Goliath and the way that the Philistines also. I'm sorry, the Israelites also had confidence in him, not as their own champion, but as one who was against him. Just as the Philistines put their confidence in his power, the Israelites feared his power.
[00:15:52] Both were sort of in the same headspace about Goliath, about the power that he had against the armies of the living God Saul. The same. Saul was afraid. Saul was dismayed. We are seeing these reactions.
[00:16:09] We want to focus on that this morning. We also want to focus on David's confidence and his.
[00:16:16] The way that he sees things differently.
[00:16:20] David does not approach Goliath the way that Goliath approaches Goliath or the Philistines or the Israelites or Saul. David is operating from a different place, a different mindset, a different heart, a different kind of confidence. He's seeing things differently. Everyone else sees a sword and a spear and a javelin and a giant man, a tall man.
[00:16:46] And David knows that God sees things differently.
[00:16:52] We were just told a chapter ago when Samuel came to the house of Jesse and was looking at the different sons, said, don't worry about who's tall and who's not.
[00:17:08] Earlier, even before that, we heard about when Saul was chosen as king and everyone was impressed by how tall he was, a hedge taller than everyone else. Don't be impressed by these things.
[00:17:23] David was not. David put his confidence in the Lord.
[00:17:28] And so of Course he was victorious.
[00:17:32] David didn't go out on a limb and take a risk that he had no right to take. David did what God had been telling his people to do since the times of the Exodus.
[00:17:44] Trust me and I will defeat your enemies.
[00:17:51] In a way, this chapter, chapter 17 is a parallel to a couple chapters we saw before. There was a previous fight with the Philistines. Remember, a previous fight when there wasn't a sword in all of Israel except for Jonathan and his armor bearer. A previous fight in which Saul was afraid and hiding and dismayed and terrified and all the people with him. You remember what happened there? Jonathan and his armor bearer, Jonathan, Saul's son, said, I think the Lord's with us.
[00:18:23] I think we can go. And he does, and he goes. And we read that this garrison of the Philistines simply fall before them, even though, like in our chapter, the Philistines are laying down curses, making fun of him, threatening him even as he, remember, crawls up that rocky crag on the way to go defeat them. Oh, the Israelites are coming out of their holes. Here they come, right? And it's a similar thing here. Are you, Am I a dog that you come at me with sticks?
[00:18:55] A chapter ago we heard about how David was ruddy and handsome in appearance. And perhaps we wondered, why is this description here?
[00:19:04] I think we see now why, as David comes up before Goliath, and Goliath sees this man, this young man who's not scarred and tested by battle, not gritty and fearsome, but a boy.
[00:19:23] Everyone's seeing things in a certain way, but there's really only one right way to see things.
[00:19:32] In addition to thinking about the strength of Goliath and the viewpoint or the heart station of David, we also want to think about Jonathan.
[00:19:45] Jonathan the king's son, Jonathan the prince, Jonathan the one victorious over the Philistines, who now, upon seeing someone who is going to take his throne, take his place, takes off his robe, takes off his sword, takes all of his kingly things and hands them to David.
[00:20:07] He sees that the Lord's anointing is on this one and not on him. And Jonathan doesn't fight it. He's not mad. He doesn't try to figure out a way around it. He doesn't try to kill David. Instead, his soul is knit to him.
[00:20:26] He says, I'm with him.
[00:20:29] And Jonathan's example here is exactly what we want to do with the Messiah. With the Lord's anointed in Christ, Jonathan gives up his throne for David. Jonathan doesn't depend on swords and power and thrones.
[00:20:45] He lays down all of his worldly claims for the sake of belonging to the Lord's Anointed One.
[00:20:51] Jonathan aligns his perspective and his heart with what God is doing. And he doesn't depend on the things of this world.
[00:21:00] And that's what we want to do with Christ.
[00:21:03] When we come to see Jesus as the conqueror, Jesus as the king, Jesus as the one who rules and protects and defeats our enemies, we want to say, I'm with him and give up anything and everything for the sake of belonging to him, the sake of knowing him, of being close to him. Even if it means separation from our parents, even if it means separation from worldly goods and power.
[00:21:31] We want to belong to the Lord and to his anointed.
[00:21:38] So how do we see some of these things?
[00:21:41] Well, first we see, of course, the Lord's power exercised through David as David tests him, or. Or as David trusts him, rather trusts him in this great, great victory.
[00:21:57] The story, right, is really clear. The Philistines and the Israelites come out for battle. They come out every day. The Israelites keep. It seems like they keep thinking, well, maybe today. And there's some skirmishes here and there. But then this giant man comes out of the ranks and he's like, take me.
[00:22:16] No, I'm going to take you. He challenges them, he curses them, he scares them.
[00:22:22] And we have these great descriptions of his armor, right? How tall he is, all these pieces that he's wearing, how strong he is to carry these things, the weight of them.
[00:22:36] The narrator here focuses in for us and allows us to see the shaft of his spear and the weight of his coat of mail, his shin guards, all of these things.
[00:22:49] He defies the ranks of Israel.
[00:22:53] David, like Jesus, is sent from his father. He's sent on a mission. He goes out.
[00:23:00] Interestingly, this is a period of 40 days.
[00:23:04] 40 days in which Goliath challenges the people of Israel.
[00:23:11] 40 days. And here comes this son, this Anointed One of the Lord, and he starts asking questions, what's going on here? This doesn't make any sense. And he asks one person and he asks another.
[00:23:27] There's different ways to read this. Personally, I don't think David's confused or trying to get confirmation. It's kind of obvious what's happening. It seems to me you can disagree with this. This is an opinion. It seems to me David's trying to rally the troops a little bit. He's asking around. He's trying to say, what's going on, guys? Because the word spreads that he's having these conversations. His brother gets mad, maybe embarrassed, and eventually Saul hears of it.
[00:24:00] Saul then gives him his blessing, more or less. He equips David with the very things that he thinks David.
[00:24:08] Armor, right. What David needs is to be strong. What David needs is armor. What David needs is protection. Saul continues to commit the same problem with his thinking, the same problem where his trust is placed, even as David comes into this position and offers to fight this battle.
[00:24:32] David hasn't tested the armor. He says, I cannot go with these. I've not tested with them. I've not tested them. And so he takes a staff in his hand, a reminder that he's a shepherd, and he takes these stones.
[00:24:46] Now, in the ESV here, it says that when David slings the stone, it strikes Goliath in the forehead and he falls down. There's another way to translate it, which is to say. Is just to say front. It's just the word that means front.
[00:25:03] Now, what does it mean when it says front when it. The stone struck David in the front?
[00:25:09] Well, it could mean that it strikes him right somewhere in the front. Right could mean forehead. Although it would be a little odd for someone to fall forward, being struck by a projectile, usually fall backward or to the side or something like that.
[00:25:29] One scholar suggests this relying even on someone else. He points out that the same word used for front is the same word that's used for the shin guards or greaves that are used almost exactly the same word.
[00:25:47] What he suggests is what happens here is when David slings this stone, Goliath is coming at him. This stone jams in the front of the shin guard, causing the shin guard not to bend. Then Goliath falls straight forward, face down, much like Dagon from earlier, the great Philistine God whom the Lord went before with the Ark. He falls down, straight forward. And you remember what happened with Dagon.
[00:26:17] His head fell off.
[00:26:19] His head fell off. And here, the same thing happens as the Philistines put their trust in this great champion, in this great armor. David strikes him in the front. And the very thing that was protecting Goliath, his armor becomes the cause of his downfall. It jams in that shin guard. He can't move. He falls down. He can't get up under the weight of all this stuff that he's wearing. The very things that were supposed to protect him and make him strong and make him a champion are now literally being the cause of his death. David then comes over, and he's not dead yet. He's been Struck down, he kills him, the text says, and cuts off his head with his own sword.
[00:27:10] This interpretation not only makes a lot of sense of the words that are used, of the actions that are happen, but it also shows us and helps to. It underlines even further this point that the strength of the Lord is not in the armor and the worldly powers of men.
[00:27:30] In fact, it's those things that when we trust in them, are our downfall. And so Goliath falls. He falls, he falls hard, he dies. And David is victorious over this enemy of the Lord.
[00:27:51] Similar things. It was not a battle out on the field like this, but similar things happened with the Lord Christ, David's greater son, the anointed one, the Messiah, the one who came. His victory was just as decisive, just as clear, over sin, over death, and over the devil.
[00:28:17] We, the people of God, did not defeat our great enemies. We did not come overcome death by accumulating for ourselves power.
[00:28:29] We did not. We did not overcome the evil one by accumulating for ourselves money or great military strength or political capital, or any of these things.
[00:28:43] We conquered in Christ because of his great strength, which came even through the cross of Christ.
[00:28:55] In the scriptures, we don't have descriptions of the Lord and how he looked. The scriptures really downplay, we could say, or maybe there's even a better word, the image. What Jesus looked like, he was not this amazing, beautiful, giant champion who came into this world, impressed everyone.
[00:29:20] No, he was put on a cross and made fun of and cursed at. He was stripped of his robe. A crown of thorns was put on his head.
[00:29:31] It seemed like he would not be victorious. It seemed like he would die. And he did die. But to show the great power of the Lord, to show the true victory over our final enemies, Jesus rose from the dead.
[00:29:48] Jesus rose from the dead. And he takes the sting out of death. He robs the grave of its victory. He embarrasses Satan and all of the evil spiritual, the demons.
[00:30:04] And he promises one day to cast them in a lake of fire forever where they will no more bother the people of the Lord.
[00:30:15] Who do you want to align yourself with?
[00:30:18] Who do you want to put your confidence in? In what will you take the fears and the hopes that are inside of you and say, here's what I'm going to trust in an ultimate way?
[00:30:33] Are you going to do it with laws, money, presidents, individuals, your fitness routine?
[00:30:47] Or are you going to trust in the one who conquers sin and death? The one who conquered so much that he rose from the dead and many, many People saw him.
[00:31:01] If Christ has already won, then our role is not to fight the powers of this world, but to align ourselves with his victory. He is the Messiah. And that's where Jonathan's example comes in.
[00:31:16] Jonathan, by all earthly rights, right, he would have been the next king. But as the Lord said, the kingdom had had been taken away from Saul.
[00:31:26] And Jonathan, unlike Saul and unlike others, willingly gives up this claim. It's an amazing moment. It's an amazing moment. You sense no hesitation on his part. He's kind of like the disciples early on in the Gospels where Jesus sees someone, he says, follow me. And they just lay there on their nets and they go. You're like, well, that was easy.
[00:31:48] Similar thing here with Jonathan. David conquers David does this great thing. He comes in the name of the Lord. He serves the Lord. He protects his people. He conquers their enemies. And Jonathan's like, it's wonderful.
[00:32:04] And not just because he says to in his own heart, oh, I can see the way the wind is blowing. I better leave, Dad. I better go with David. But his heart is knit to him. And we've seen from Jonathan's previous actions that his heart is also in the Lord. He's trusting the Lord.
[00:32:24] That's how he had his own victory. There's so much humility in Jonathan's actions here, so much power in Jonathan's actions, so much love in Jonathan's actions. They are definitely worthy to be emulated, even as we would desire to emulate the faith of David and his confidence in the Lord as he goes into this battle.
[00:32:49] His friendship with David was not based on advantage, but on love of the Lord. It's a good reminder for all of our friendships.
[00:33:00] In a way, Jonathan's faith may have cost him all the things that people see valuable in this life and indeed his own. A father gets upset with him later on, but those things don't matter when his mindset is right. When his heart is inclined to the things of the Lord, Jonathan, like David, sees things properly.
[00:33:24] You can imagine Jonathan standing before his father, Saul. Saul later rages against David.
[00:33:32] He could have said, he could have joined Saul. He could have had that throne. And instead he gave his heart to the Lord and to the Lord's servant.
[00:33:45] So when we think about the people and the things that we rely on in this world, when we think about the earthly, the worldly successes we desire, whether that's in our relationships, in our work, in military strength and other things, we've got to remember that these things, though they of course are powerful we wouldn't use that word if they weren't.
[00:34:10] It's limited, it's fading.
[00:34:14] These things can be gone in an instant, gone in a moment. Just like Goliath was.
[00:34:21] So confident, so strong. Everyone afraid of him on Israel's side, everyone confident him on Phyllis, the Philistine side. And in a few moments, it's all over.
[00:34:34] This can happen in our lives when we put our confidence too much in the things of this world. The Lord can take it away from us in a moment and we can find ourselves quite lost and struggling to know what to do next. But the thing to do next in those moments is to look to the Lord, the true king, the one who is the Lord of hosts, the one who has all power on his side, all glory on his side, and who, on top of that, extends his grace to those who would turn to him in faith and repentance.
[00:35:11] When we turn aside from our confidence in the things of this world and turn our hearts to Christ, he promises to give us everything we need.
[00:35:21] As I've said earlier, both in this life and for the life to come, everything.
[00:35:28] People struggle with that.
[00:35:30] Think about the rich young ruler coming to Jesus. You can think about other people who came to Jesus and wanted different things from him and just could not let go of the things of this world.
[00:35:42] People like the Pharisees who wanted to maintain their power at all costs. People like Herod who were willing to kill all of those babies so he could maintain control of his life. When we get fearful, when we lack faith, we start grasping like a person drowning, just grasping for things, trying to do all kinds of things in order to preserve ourselves. It's not necessary.
[00:36:11] It's not necessary.
[00:36:14] We can put our trust in the Lord. We can trust the things that he's given us, the means that he's given us, and know that however things turn out, God is working them for our good.
[00:36:29] And you can see that in the lives of various people throughout history. David, of course, but Paul. Remember how much Paul gave up for the sake of knowing Jesus.
[00:36:40] How he takes all the things, all the blessings he had in this life, and he says, I'm going to count them as rubbish for the sake of knowing Christ.
[00:36:50] You can think about Christians and believers throughout the world who have given up their own safety, their own security, their jobs, their families for the sake of knowing Jesus.
[00:37:03] Countless missionaries who have left the security of their homes for the Gospel.
[00:37:09] Many, many people who have endured many hard things for the sake of knowing Jesus Christ. And it has always, always been worth it.
[00:37:18] Why?
[00:37:20] Because of who he is.
[00:37:22] Because of the power of his love, the power of his grace, because of who Jesus is and because of what he's done for us, you can put all your confidence in him.
[00:37:34] So, brothers and sisters, wherever in your lives you're struggling, wherever in your lives that you're wondering what to do next, the answer is always put your faith in Jesus.
[00:37:45] Trust him. And you will need wisdom to know what that looks like in your particular circumstances. You will need friends around you and encouragement from the Word to know what it is to do next.
[00:38:00] But trust. As we have read earlier in James and as we know of God's provision for David here, God provides for what we need.
[00:38:10] And ultimately, even if we should die in this life, we've already risen in Christ, so we need not be afraid. Let's cling to him. Let's pray.
[00:38:23] Our Heavenly Father, we ask that you would humble us and that you would humble our faith in the things of this world.
[00:38:31] Lord, we ask that even as we pursue good things that you have called us to pursue, even as you tell us to work hard and provide for our families and be generous for others, even as you tell us to do well and be good stewards of our resources, our bodies and our time, and all these things, Lord, let us not put our ultimate hope in them.
[00:38:58] Instead, we ask that you would help us to use the. The our stations, our calling, our wealth, our gifts, our all of our resources for the glory of our King, who is already victorious, who has already won the battle and is one day coming again to judge the living and the dead and to make all things glorious and right, to bring judgment on the world, to finish on the work of judgment that has begun on the cross for sin, so that Satan and all those aligned with him would no longer disturb the peace and purity and unity of your people.
[00:39:47] Lord, you tell us that despite all of the powers of this world, nothing can compare to the strength and the glory of Jesus. And so we ask that the word of Christ would be strong in us. We ask that you would grow our faith in him and help us to see all things in light of him. Lord, we ask that you would knit our souls, our souls to Christ, that you would help us to have union and fellowship with him, to have confidence with him, that he would be our friend, that we would love him as we love our own soul, and that we would give up everything in this life that we might belong to Jesus. We pray these things in his name. Amen.
