Well, welcome.
We are working our way through 1st and 2nd Samuel.
This is sort of one big epic story.
It feels like a great Netflix series waiting to happen.
Eli and Samuel, the rise and fall of King David, David and Goliath today.
And what we talked about last week is that God looks at the heart.
He looks past the appearance and he looks at the heart.
In fact, we greeted each other last week in a way I want us to greet each other this week.
Everybody turn to their neighbor and say, You look so good.
Just turn to your neighbor, turn to somebody.
He looks so good.
Now everybody look back and say, Who cares?
Who cares?
Just say, who cares?
Who cares?
That is 1 Samuel 16 and 17.
That God looks past our appearance, how much we're dressing ourselves up and how well we're doing in life, and he looks at our hearts.
In 1 Samuel 16, Samuel, the prophet, is grieving that King Saul is not going to be the king much longer.
But God directs him, Samuel, to go and anoint a new king from Jesse's sons.
Samuel gets there, he looks through all these boys, and here's what happens as these sons gather.
1 Samuel 16, starting verse 6.
When they came, so the boys, all these sons, Samuel looked on Eliab and thought, surely the Lord's anointed is before him.
But the Lord said to Samuel, Do not look on his appearance or on his height of his stature, because I have rejected him.
For the Lord sees not as man sees.
Man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.
Then Jesse called Abinadab and made him pass for Samuel.
And he said, Neither has the Lord chosen this one.
Then Jesse made Shema pass by, and he said, Neither has the Lord chosen this one.
And Jesse made seven of his sons pass before Samuel.
And Samuel said to Jesse, The Lord has not chosen these.
Then Samuel said, Jesse, are all your sons here?
And he said, There remains yet the youngest, but behold, he is keeping the sheep.
And Samuel said to Jesse, Send and get him, for we will not sit down till he comes here.
And he sent and brought him, and he was ready, and he had beautiful eyes, and was handsome, and the Lord said, Arise, anoint him, for this is he.
Then Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the midst of his brothers, and the Spirit of the Lord rushed upon David from that day forward.
And Samuel rose up and went to Ramah.
Point number one is this is God does not see you as man sees you.
All these boys come strutting in front of Samuel, but the one that the Lord anoints is the forgotten one, the youngest one.
He's doing the lowly job.
That's the one that God sees because God's looking at the heart.
Back in 2017, there's a really sweet movie called Wonder.
And it's about a boy, the story of Augie.
And Augie was born with facial differences.
And so because of that, he was homeschooled and he doesn't go to school until the fifth grade.
And because of his facial differences, when he gets to school, of course he's rejected and bullied because of what he looks like.
But there are a few kids that see past his outer appearance.
And there's a scene in the cafeteria where a little girl realizes what's inside of us is more important than what we look like.
Let's watch just about a minute and a half clip.
I wonder what happened.
Maybe Jack Dr.
Not Very.
He sees past the exterior.
He sees past our skin.
He sees past our weight, our hair color.
He sees past our resume.
He sees past our disciplines or how disciplined we are.
Now we are drawn to what impresses, what feels strong, what looks and feels put together, right?
When Samuel sees Eliab, he's, well, this is the guy.
I mean, look at his, he's so tall and of stature.
I mean, this is the guy.
Look at all these impressive sons.
Surely it's one of these.
No, no, no, it's the one they forget about.
Because of verse 7, for the Lord sees not as man sees.
Man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart, which is incredibly good news if you're aging.
Amen.
Right?
If you get, like if you have a little bit of something here.
I used to have a chin.
The chin is now going away.
It's just sort of like this slant down to my neck.
I have bony shoulders, always have.
So maybe you're aging, or maybe you just have something about your body that's like, I don't like it.
Isn't it good news to know that your imperfect failing body is not what God sees, that he actually sees your heart?
And God doesn't even look on your resume.
He doesn't look on your Peter Millar quarter zip, which I love.
They're so soft and I love them.
God looks at our hearts.
This is a foundational principle of how God works and relates with us.
Now back in 1990, People magazine began to do the most beautiful people, people cover.
Like every year they do this.
The most beautiful people, people.
So on the cover, this uh past year in 2025 was Demi Moore.
Here's a picture of Demi Moore, uh, 62 years old.
I'm sure no work's been done.
None.
There's no work done there.
Uh she is beautiful.
I fell in love with her back at Ghost.
I don't know anybody else that that age, my age, she loved Ghost, right?
Like that's when I fell in love with her.
So the magazine picked her.
She's the most beautiful person in the entire world.
And the magazine said they picked her because she's finally becoming okay with herself, which is a wonderful, wonderful thing.
She said that she brutalized herself with workouts and never feeling beautiful.
Here's what she said about beauty.
On a human level, I find it's authenticity and positivity.
Beauty comes out of comfort with being exactly who you are.
Now, she is beautiful.
She's beautiful at 62.
She was beautiful 30 years ago.
The magazine's filled with beautiful people.
They are beautiful, which is great.
And maybe you're beautiful.
Fantastic.
I love that you're beautiful.
Maybe you take care of yourself.
Maybe you're in shape.
Maybe you have good skin care.
Maybe you get Botox.
Wonderful.
Great.
I don't care.
That's fantastic.
Look wonderful.
In fact, be disciplined.
Volunteer.
Come to church.
All these things are wonderful.
But God looks at your heart.
He sees through all of that and he looks at our hearts.
Here's what Jesus says on this topic Matthew 23, 25 through 28.
Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you clean the outside of the cup and the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence.
You blind Pharisee, first clean the inside of the cup and the plate, that the outside also may be clean.
Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people's bones and all uncleanness.
So you also outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.
Right?
Jesus is saying, you can behave and act and put on a show and look righteous and kind.
But God looks at your heart.
What's going on on the inside?
Matthew 5, 8, blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
Back in 1 Samuel 16, Saul's unraveling, the king's unraveling.
He's having a tough time.
He asked for someone to come and play music for him to calm down.
I was like, oh, this is kind of like when I'm so anxious.
I feel like I'm about to have a panic attack.
I'm so worried about something.
And if just Carrie Job can sing worship over me, just put on my AirPods, I'll put on some Carrie Job, the blessing, and just let it just like put it on repeat.
And I was like, calm down.
This is what Saul is doing.
So he's like, I need somebody to play music for me just to calm me down.
Well, guess who's been playing music?
Because he's been out tending sheep.
He's been a little bored, so he's been playing his instruments.
David.
David's been tending sheep and playing music.
So they send for David.
He's been anointed to be king, but he's not king yet.
There's a long waiting period.
So they send for him.
1 Samuel 16, 21.
And David came to Saul and entered his service.
Saul loved him greatly, and he became his armor-bearer.
And Saul sent to Jesse, saying, Let David remain in my service, for he has found favor in my sight.
And whenever the harmful spirit from God was upon Saul, David took the lyri and played it with his hand.
So Saul was refreshed and was well, and the harmful spirit departed from him.
Point number two, God is quietly at work even when it seems like nothing is happening.
See, David serves before he leads.
Even before he serves Saul, there's these years of him being a shepherd.
And then we can see as the story plays out, all his incredibly ordinary, faithful life creates his future.
Most of our lives are just filled with ordinary, small, faithful living.
And God uses all of that.
God is faithful in the small as we are faithful in the small.
See, many of us are in seasons that we can feel insignificant, we can feel hidden, but with God, nothing is wasted.
None of that is wasted.
See, there's two histories occurring in all of our lives.
One is the current events.
Your current events, what happened last week in your life, what will happen this coming week in your life.
That's the current events of your life.
Now, those current events make up a story that's being formed over time.
That second story, that's the real story, and that's called providence.
Here's how the Heidelberg Catechism defines this idea of the providence of God.
The providence of God is the Almighty, everywhere present, power of God, whereby, as it were, by his hand, he still upholds heaven and earth with all creatures, that's us, and so governs them that herbs and grass, rain and drought, fruitful and barren years, meat and drink, health and sickness, riches and poverty, yea, all things come not by chance, but by his fatherly hand.
Now that doesn't mean you're gonna have a pain-free life, and it doesn't mean you're gonna have answers for all of your pain, but what it does mean is that God is working out a story over time and he knows you.
He knows your pain, he knows you're small and you're ordinary, and he is writing a story for you.
That's the power of providence that God cares for you and he's sovereign.
Now, back in 1 Samuel 17, God's people have some vicious enemies.
These people are the Philistines, they're on one hill.
God's people, the Israelites, are on the other hill, and they're gonna battle.
But first, what happens is this giant from the Philistines comes down into the valley.
The guy's like nine feet tall, bronze helmet, bronze armor, huge javelin.
This guy's a stud warrior.
And he's coming out into the valley because he's being a representative warrior.
I'll represent my army.
You send somebody out, we'll fight one-on-one.
Whoever wins, wins for their whole army.
Whoever loses, loses for their whole army.
1 Samuel 17, 8 through 11.
Goliath 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?
Choose a man for yourselves.
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 ranks of Israel to say, Give me a man that we may fight together.
When Saul and all Israel heard these words of the Philistine, they were dismayed and greatly afraid.
Now there in the army, there's three brothers of David that are there battling.
They're at the camp and they go out to the battle line.
They hear this.
And then there's David who's tending the sheep.
He's sort of running back and forth.
He's tending the sheep, he's handling some of that, and he'd run food up to his brothers that are in the battle.
While he's up there running food up to his brothers, David hears this.
He walks out to represent his army.
For 40 days, Goliath does this.
Nobody's brave enough to go out to fight this guy.
And then David hears him.
And David says this, uh, 1 Samuel 17, 26.
And David said to the men who stood by him, What shall be done for the 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.
Now Eliab, his eldest brother, typical big brother, 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 town to see the battle.
And David said, What have I done now?
Why is it not but a word?
And he turned away from him toward another.
That's what little brothers do.
Big brother, all these claims, little brothers ignores them and moves on.
So David turns away, spoke in the same manner, and then the people answered him again as before.
When the words that David spoke were heard, they repeated them before Saul, and he sent for David.
And David said to Saul, Let no man's heart fail because of him.
Your servant will go and fight with this Philistine.
And Saul says to David, you're just a boy.
Like, what are you gonna do?
But Saul doesn't know something that David knows.
See, David's been tending sheep.
He's just been doing the small ordinary stuff, just been faithful.
And the whole time he's been doing that, he's had to defend these sheep.
So he has fought bear and he has fought lion.
He has killed bear and he has killed lion.
A giant's just not that big of a deal.
He's done it before, and he can do it again.
So David is like, yeah, I'll go fight him.
I'll have to take him down like I took down the bear and the lion.
So David picks up five smooth stones from a stream, puts them in his pouch, walks out into the valley, slings it, hits Goliath right in the forehead, drops the giant, goes, takes the guy's own sword, cuts his head off.
Kind of gruesome, but kind of cool, let's be honest.
1 Samuel 17, 43.
And the Philistine said to David, Am I a dog that you have come to me with sticks?
And the Philistine cursed David by his gods.
The Philistine said to David, Come to me, and I will give you flesh to the birds.
This is a lot of trash talking right before the fight.
Then David said to the Philistine, You come to me with a sword and with a spear and a javelin, but I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you 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 hosts of the Philistines to say to the birds of the air and to the wild beasts of the earth, and 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.
So sure enough, David walks out there, drops him, cuts off his head, wins the battle.
In the 1500s, there was an artist, Tatian, who painted a painting of this scene, David and Goliath.
Here's a picture of the painting.
This painting hangs, it's on the ceiling of the sacristy of a church in Venice, Italy.
So sacristy is where the church prepares the communion.
So they're there preparing the feast for God's people that symbolizes how enough, more than enough, Jesus is for us.
And whoever's preparing that can always look up and see this painting.
It's incredibly similar to our church, right out of that front hallway there by that kitchen sink.
Very similar setting.
Very similar.
If you look at this painting, your eye is naturally drawn to the sky.
All this event and action and energy is below.
But the artist wants your eye to go to the sky.
The break in the clouds.
Because it's highlighting the victory was through the divine.
Which was David's point.
God's with me.
I'm not alone.
I have outside help.
And David doesn't just fight for himself, he fights for his people.
And when he wins, they win.
The victory that he wins is imputed to his people.
This is how this story is a beautiful image of the doctrine of imputation for us.
Just as Jesus goes to the cross and dies for our sin, all of our guilt put upon him, all of his righteousness given to us, so we are secure as God's beloved because of Jesus.
That's imputation.
Just as David's victory is given to the soldiers, Jesus' victory is given to us.
The story tells us our story in this way.
Number one, there are giants everywhere.
We are more helpless than we want to admit.
And number two, we need help.
We are not David, but we need a David.
And this is how David points us to Jesus.
Point number three, we live from victory, not for victory.
We live, fight, live our lives from a point of a victory already given to us.
It's already, it's over.
That's over.
Romans 6, 17 through 19.
For if by the trespass of one man death reign through that one man, how much more will those who receive God's abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ?
Consequently, just as one trespass resulted in condemnation for all people, so also one righteous act resulted in justification and life for all people.
For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous.
And this is about whether we're going to use our lives attempting to earn justification, earn forgiveness, earn being loved by God, or we're going to receive it through the one man Jesus.
Are we trying to deliver ourselves, or are we resting in Jesus to deliver us?
Are we living to try to earn a beloved identity?
Or are we receiving that?
That we already have it.
We already have it through Jesus.
See, all the soldiers went home victors.
None of them even fought.
But they get to go on with their lives, and their lives are forever affected by David's victory.
Just like our lives.
This victory that we have for forgiveness, righteousness, a relationship with God that's secure being God's beloved, that's a victory that's given to us, and we get to move on with our lives.
Not to fight for being loved or forgiven, but to fight and live from a position that we are already loved, already forgiven.
Here's the gospel promise we'll close with.
Here it is.
We don't fight to earn God's favor.
We fight from God's favor.
We don't strive for victory.
We live from Christ's victory.
Let's pray together.
Heavenly Father, thank you that we don't have to be David and constantly take down the giants of our hearts and minds and lives.
Thank you that you are with us and you know us.
And when it comes to these giants of guilt, shame, separation, condemnation, discontentment, unworthiness, these issues in our hearts that you see past our skin and our resumes, you see our hearts, and these giants you take care of for us.
Help us to receive all the more, trust all the more that we are already loved, forgiven, righteous, worthy, secure in Jesus alone.
May we live our lives from the victory already given to us.
Would you set us free in this way?
Free to live and free to love.
In Jesus' name we pray.
Amen.