David & Goliath
On August 24, Pastor Dave continued the Retold series—The Sunday School Stories You Thought You Knew and the Gospel You Didn’t See Coming—by revisiting one of the most familiar stories in all of Scripture: David and Goliath. He began by reminding the church that these “Sunday School stories” aren’t childish or simple—they’re gospel stories, each one pointing us toward Jesus and helping us see God’s kingdom more clearly.
He recalled how the series began with Noah and the Ark, showing that the flood was not a children’s story about animals, but a story about the seriousness of sin and the insufficiency of external solutions. The ark could not keep sin out—it only pointed forward to the Savior who could. Then, last week, the series moved to the Red Sea, where God made a way through the impossible. Now, standing in 1 Samuel 17, Pastor Dave explained, we meet David and Goliath—not as an underdog tale about bravery, but as a story that reveals our need for a Savior who fights on our behalf.
“Everyone loves an underdog story,” he said, listing sports moments, movies, and comeback stories that stir something deep in us. That’s why the David and Goliath story resonates so much. But, he warned, most sermons get it wrong. “Goliath isn’t just your problems or your stress or your fear,” he said. “Because if the message is just ‘be like David,’ what happens when the giant knocks you flat?” The heart of the story isn’t about us summoning courage—it’s about God sending a champion.
Opening 1 Samuel 17, Pastor Dave described the scene vividly: the Philistines and Israelites facing each other across the valley, and Goliath—nine feet tall, covered in bronze armor shaped like scales—stepping forward as the “man in between.” That image, he said, should take us back to Genesis 3, to the serpent in the garden. “Goliath isn’t just a giant,” he explained. “He represents sin, death, and shame—the enemy of God’s people.”
Israel’s army was terrified. Even King Saul, who should have been their “man in between,” was paralyzed by fear. “The opposite of faith,” Pastor Dave reminded, “isn’t doubt—it’s fear. Because fear paralyzes you.” Saul’s fear left the people frozen on the very ground God had promised them.
And then, into the fear, walked David. Not as a warrior, but as a shepherd boy delivering bread and cheese to his brothers. Yet when David heard Goliath mocking God, he couldn’t stay silent. While everyone else saw the size of the giant, David saw the faithfulness of God. “David wasn’t worried about the size of Goliath,” Pastor Dave said. “Because God’s plans always prevail, and the victory will always be God’s.”
When word reached Saul, David was summoned to the king’s tent. Saul looked at the young shepherd and dismissed him as unqualified. But David replied with testimony, not arrogance: he had fought lions and bears to protect his sheep, and each time “the Lord who saved me from the paw of the lion and the bear will save me from the hand of this Philistine.” David’s confidence wasn’t self-reliance—it was faith rooted in God’s past faithfulness.
As David stood before Goliath, the contrast was stark. Goliath boasted in his weapons; David trusted in God. “You come to me with sword and spear and javelin,” David declared, “but I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts.” Seven times, Pastor Dave noted, David referenced the Lord in this moment—because this was the point of the story. “It’s not my battle,” David was saying, “it’s the Lord’s.”
With one stone, slung at remarkable speed, David struck down Goliath. The victory came not through strength but through weakness—not because David was the hero, but because God fought the battle for him.
Pastor Dave then shared how this story has often been used as a motivational rallying cry, especially in youth camps or spiritual highs: “Go kill your giants! Defeat your fears!” But, he said, “what happens when you go home and your anxiety is still there? When your struggles don’t just disappear?” The gospel doesn’t tell us to become David. “The gospel never says you can overcome your shame or defeat your sin on your own,” he said. “The point is that we are Israel—and we need a David to fight for us.”
That David, Pastor Dave said, is Jesus. “When our Goliaths have created distance between us and God, God doesn’t send a pep talk. He sends a champion.” Quoting from Luke 4, he described how Jesus came to proclaim good news to the poor, freedom for the prisoners, and sight for the blind. “He fights the battle for you so you can walk in freedom,” he said. “He wins the victory we could never win.”
The message ended with an invitation: to stop trying to be David and start fixing our eyes on the true King. “Whatever has you paralyzed with fear,” he said, “stop trying to clean yourself up and get yourself ready. Fix your hope on the One who’s already fighting for you.”
Jesus may not be the hero we expect, but He’s the one we need—the one who changes us from the inside out. “He will make you a fighter,” Pastor Dave said, “because you’ll understand what it means to be fought for.”
And that’s the gospel truth at the heart of the story: the battle is the Lord’s, and the victory is His.
