God and Goliath | 1 Samuel 17:37-47

Good morning, everybody. Welcome to Watermark Community Church. It's good to be with you here together. If you're visiting as a guest, I'm so excited and so thankful that you would trust us with your time. I want you to know something. When we gather together in this place on a Sunday, it is not for a speech. This is not for you to listen to me. It's for you to hear from God and for his living and active Word. So, we've been prayerful that the Lord would speak today to exactly where you are through a mystery of the Spirit, mystery through the Word, and mystery of preaching. May it be so.

Today we're going to be covering in The Life of David series… As we just started last week, now we will find ourselves in the super-obscure, little-known passage about David and Goliath. It's like, "Dude, unbelievers know about David and Goliath," just from watching ESPN or the Sweet 16 or whatever. They'll talk about the one who has no chance, the underdog, overcoming the one who has all the story, the background, and the statistics, and then it happens.

I told my kids… We were in our little morning devotional time before breakfast as they went off to school. I was like, "Hey, kids, today I'm going to tell you the real story of David and Goliath." They looked at me strangely, like, "What do you mean 'real' story? What have you been telling us all along?" I was like, "Well, I'm going to read it to you from my Bible. There's more to it." Literally, they just got up and left the table. I was like, "What? Something I said?"

They ran upstairs, and Penny and Judd grabbed their children's Bibles and came trotting down. They were like, "Here! Here! It's right here." They turned to the story of David and Goliath. I was like, "No, no, no. I'm going to read from the Bible." They were like, "This is a Bible, Dad." I was like, "Well, uh, I hate to break it to you, but that's not, uh…" Then Penny just started reading it. She was like, "And David slung his stone. Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh! Zip! And it hit Goliath, and he went down, down, down. What did you learn from the story?"

I was like, "Uh, Penny, that's not it, actually. So, yes, he threw a stone…" Then I just laid it on. I was like, "So, after he… It said the stone sank in his forehead and he fell forward on his face, but David didn't have a sword, so David ran up to dead Goliath…well, fallen Goliath. We think he was dead. He pulled Goliath's sword out of the sheath, drove it into him, and then cut his head off and carried his head into Jerusalem. Have a great day at school."

Penny was like, "No!" Judd… I mean, I'm doing the mannerism of how you hold a dead head. Judd was like, "With it dripping?" I was like, "Yep. It was dripping." That's the story of David and Goliath. That's what happened. We leave some of those parts out. We have romanticized the story. We've kind of trimmed and edited some of the details to maybe make it a little more acceptable to our ears. Like, "You know what? We don't need to share that part, that he cut his head off and carried his head into Jerusalem. Man! Let's tell a story in the way we want to tell a story."

But we don't have that license to change God's story. It's not our story. It's not even David's story. It's God's story. He's the one to make it and to tell it, and we are to retell it. So, I don't care if you're Jerry Garcia or even John Mayer who's now touring with them. David is the OG Deadhead. (That's about how many laughs it got in the first service. I thought I'd run it back.)

Here's what I would say. In the story of David and Goliath, I would rename the story God and Goliath. It's not David and Goliath. You're going to see it super clearly from David's own words. He's like, "Oh, you have mistaken. This is not about me. This is all about God. He's the one who has put me here, and he will give deliverance. He has delivered me before. He's going to deliver me now. Watch and see what the Lord is going to do." This is God and Goliath.

We all face giants too, every single one of us. You're going to find yourself… Maybe you already are right now. You are in a battle, maybe financial or health or death and loss or sin. You have a sworn enemy, Satan, and you have giants of sin, giants of death, and giants of Satan. You have that in the story God is writing in your life. That's bad news, right? Like, "Great. I've got giants?" Yes, you have giants.

Here's worse news, frankly: you can't kill those giants. You have giants, and you can't kill them. Have a great week of worship. Christ can. The good news is that Christ kills the giants of sin, death, and Satan. What you cannot do, he is able. It's what we're going to see in today's passage. We have giants in our story that God is writing for us, but he's going to get the glory because the battle is his.

We're going to be reading in 1 Samuel 17:37-47 in this God and Goliath story and how God, Jesus Christ, the God-man, kills the giants we face. As we read, let me make crystal clear: you are not David. Don't read yourself into the story as David. Jesus is David. He is the Son of David who came and gives us deliverance.

If anything, being in the story, you would be one of the fearful soldiers watching this shepherd walk into battle. You'd be there watching to see "Is Jesus really going to come through?" That's what's happening in our lives. It's what happened with them as they watched David. Like, "Are you kidding me? If you lose, we're all slaves. Did you hear what he said?" Yet he walked. So, God is the hero. God is the author. God wins the battle. David is just pointing us to the Son of David, Jesus, who slays giants.

In case you're like, "Man, you're making a whole lot of allegory out of this. Jesus isn't David. David is not Jesus. That's too much. That's a stretch. You're building too much of a bridge…" In John, chapter 5, the Pharisees are like, "Who are you to say these things?" and he says, "You search the Scriptures because you think in them you'll have eternal life. They attest to me." He was like, "Every single story is all pointing to me for God's glory. I'm here to deliver you."

So, today we're going to see some Christ-exalting, giant-slaying truths we can apply to our lives. Here it is in 1 Samuel 17:37-47. It's a really long chapter. I can't read it all, but you already know the story anyway. Here you're going to hear… This is the outline you'll see in the story: the story is the Lord's, and if the story is the Lord's, then the glory is the Lord's, and if the story and the glory are the Lord's, it's because the battle is the Lord's. Verse 37:

"And David said [to Saul], '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!' 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.

And 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. His sling was in his hand, and he approached the Philistine.

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 Philistine said to David, 'Am I a dog, that you 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 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.'"

The story is the Lord's, thus the glory is the Lord's, because the battle is the Lord's.

1. The story is the Lord's. I have three subpoints here.

A. Past deliverance gives present confidence. Past deliverance will give you present confidence. You need only to look to your past and see God's faithfulness, and you know he will be faithful. You don't know how, but you know that what he did in the past he'll do again now because he's the same yesterday, today, and always. His character doesn't change, though your circumstances will. Past deliverance will give you present confidence.

This is what David says to Saul. In verse 37, he says, "The Lord who delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear will deliver me…" He's like, "He did it then. He'll do it today. He did it with a lion. He did it with a bear. He'll do it with this giant because the Lord is a deliverer." He has no confusion.

While he's out there taking care of the sheep, all day every day, bored out of his mind because sheep don't run very fast, he's just practicing his sling all day. "Let's see if I can hit that branch, see if I can hit that rock, see if I can hit that squirrel." Finally, he does a bear and a lion, and he's like, "No. It's not that. The Lord is the one. He is the one who has delivered me, and he'll deliver me today, because my past deliverance gives me present confidence."

So, my application to you there is "Don't lose your God-confidence." Don't ever lose your God-confidence. I did somewhat this past week. Circumstances, fear, anxiety, and anger started to creep in because I was losing my God-confidence. I've seen such deliverance in my life from God, but now I was putting myself in that position. It shouldn't be the case.

I was starting to look at myself versus my circumstances instead of God versus my circumstances. This is the difference David had. The rest of the soldiers and Saul were looking at it like, "All right. This is me against him." Theologians think he was 9'9". Not a big dude…a giant. They were comparing themselves to themselves against Goliath.

David alone was like, "No, no, no. I'm not comparing myself as shepherd versus giant. I'm comparing myself as Savior versus giant. You're not going to fight me; you're fighting God. Those are really bad odds for you." The comparison was God versus circumstance instead of self versus circumstance. That will give you God-confidence and make all the difference no matter what battle you find yourself in. Past deliverance will give you present confidence.

B. God's people tell God's stories. David and Goliath is one of the most well-known stories. It's on par with Jonah getting swallowed by a whale or, really, Jesus' life, death, and resurrection. Everybody knows about David and Goliath. It's a well-known story. Here, David is God's person telling God's story. He's like, "The Lord delivered me from this and that, and he will again." He's testifying to the deliverance of the Lord, and that is what we do. Why? Because God has delivered us in our battles against certain sins, struggles, loss, and difficulty. How dare we be silent?

God's people tell God's stories. David makes sure to tell Saul. He's testifying to it. May we also. May we never be content to be saved but not share God's stories. If you are saved, then you share God's stories. You tell people of his goodness. As it says in Psalm 22:31, "…they shall come and proclaim his righteousness to a people yet unborn, that he has done it." God's people tell God's stories.

There was a re:gen leader, Larry Cropp, who was an amputee and partially blind from diabetes. He was taken off life support this past week. His self-appointed caregivers, Steve and Mary Nagle-Perkins, walked with him through his diabetes, through wheelchair and building ramps, and took him into their house. Like, "Hey, you're our family in Christ, so you're our family. We're just going to care for you all through your days no matter what the affliction." I called Steve because Larry had passed. Larry had gone home to the Lord.

I called Steve as he was walking out of the hospital right after Larry's last act, which was to donate his organs as they took him off life support. Now I was concerned about Steve. I was like, "Man, you've been carrying a lot. You've walked with him through so much and just carried him. You have borne burdens in such a way that set an example. How are you?" He literally laughed at me and rebuked me. He was like, "John, how am I? John, anything you see good in me is from Jesus. May it be perfectly clear. Anything you see in me, John, is Jesus." God's people tell God's stories. Don't be content to be saved; share your story.

You have Nate and Teresa Graybill. Nate was caught looking at porn back in 2000. (Don't worry. If you're looking at porn, we don't usually announce this stuff from the stage.) His wife Teresa was like, "Hey, you need to tell our pastor," and Nate's response was, "I don't think I'm ready for that." She was like, "Okay. Cool. Then I'm going to go sleep with my mom at her house until you're ready to tell the pastor." He was like, "I think I'm ready to tell our pastor." He was like, "Please don't go tell your mom."

He shared to the entire church, and then God used him to write a little curriculum called re:generation, which is now in 300 churches around the US and world, and all of these people are finding freedom in Christ. Why? Because God used Nate and Teresa to share their story. God's people tell God's stories. Now others are finding freedom from the battles and giants they face themselves. This is what happens every Watermark News. Every Sunday you walk in, it's God's people telling God's stories about his great deliverance.

C. One dead giant means all giants die. Let me ask you something. Bible nerds, listen up. Raise your hand. Anybody heard of Ishbi-benob? Okay. Nobody, huh? You're like, "I didn't know you were going to do the Apocrypha." It's not. So, nobody has heard of Ishbi-benob. Surely you've heard of Saph. Saph? Show of hands. No? Nobody has heard of Saph? Well, how about Lahmi? Certainly you've heard of Lahmi. One person has heard of Lahmi. You're like, "I went to junior high with him." Different Lahmi.

Lahmi was the brother of Goliath. Ishbi-benob was a giant. Saph was a giant. They're all dead. One dead giant means all giants die. They are found in 2 Samuel 21 and 1 Chronicles 20. Here we get a whole chapter about this bad giant. He's killed, and the next ones, those other four giants who are listed in those chapters, barely get a sentence. They're a footnote in this Bible, because God is portraying, "The battle is mine. I'm going to drop that giant, and when I do, you're going to know that all giants die before me, the Lord Almighty. You have nothing to fear."

It's like God whispered Drowning Pool through the Scriptures. "Let the bodies hit the floor! Let the bodies hit the floor!" He's like, "I've got this." (That went over so much better than the Grateful Dead. You guys are messed up. We have some angry people instead of stoner people in the crowd.) One dead giant means all giants die. Do you know why I talk about my alcoholism so much? That's the dead giant in my life.

I don't talk about it so that you're like, "Well, good for you. Attaboy. Eighteen years. Way to go, John." I'm telling you as often as I can, "My giant is dead. God killed my giant that I couldn't." Why? Because I know that everybody has some. Everybody is facing a giant. Everybody has a battle. So I'm here to testify, "I've got a dead giant, and that means your giant will die, too, in Jesus Christ." It's not because of me. That giant was killing me when it was because of me. I brought Jesus into the fight, and that giant hit the floor.

Here's another thing about "The story is the Lord's." David that day thought he was bringing bread and cheese to his brothers. His dad was like, "Hey, go take some food to your brothers." David thought he was bringing bread and cheese. God flipped the script and, that day, brought a giant to his knees.

You never know when your day of deliverance is going to come. May it be today because you stop putting your faith in yourself and start putting your faith in Jesus, the Son of David, the giant killer, and maybe the giants hit their knees today in deliverance. The story is the Lord's, and if it is, then the glory is the Lord's.

1. The glory is the Lord's. David knew this. Listen to the doxological (which is glory-giving) words David says. He hasn't even won the battle yet, and he's like, "God is about to show off, and nobody is going to think that a little shepherd boy is the one who brought about the victory. I'm not going to let there be any mistake about who brought this victory to pass."

Verse 45: "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…'" He's like, "You come at me with the physical. I'm about to come to you with the supernatural." "…the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied." He says in verse 46, "The Lord will deliver you." "I'm not going to do this. This isn't David throwing stones. The Lord is going to deliver you."

Now, he's going to use people all throughout the stories of God, but God is going to be the one who will deliver. Then he goes on to say, "…that all the earth may know…" I mean, this was thousands and thousands of years ago, and people know the story of David and Goliath. This is pregnant with prophecy. "…that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel, and that all this assembly [the Philistines and the Israelites] may know that the Lord saves not with sword and spear."

He's like, "I'm not going to share my glory with another. God is about to be put on display for these armies that have gathered and for all the world to know the story is the Lord's and, thus, the glory is the Lord's, every single ounce." So, you're not the hero of your story. You never were, and you certainly aren't.

When we get to the end of the book in Revelation, you see these elders who are crowned. They've been given crowns…maybe a crown of life, a crown of righteousness. They've been given crowns by their God, like, "Well done. Enter into the joy of your master." What you see them doing with those crowns is falling to the ground, face in worship, and casting the crowns right back to the Lord. The glory is the Lord's. Anything in me… It's all Jesus. It began with Jesus. It continues with Jesus, and will for eternity. The glory is his.

The Bible is crystal clear that apart from Jesus, we were dead in our trespasses, children of wrath, doomed and destined to hell forever apart from Jesus intervening. So, Jesus walks in, just as David did, into a certain battle with certain destruction, certain death, certain slavery to our Enemy, and he walks forth victorious in our lives. So, all the glory is his. God saved you, sanctifies you, and one day will glorify you.

The question is…Will you glorify God with your story or will you be content to let them think you're just a good guy? "You're a really good grandfather." "You're such a good mom and volunteer at the school." "You've really helped our business this quarter." "You're a great student." "You're such an asset on this team." When you hear those things, will you receive it or will you reflect it and say, "Oh, the story is not mine; the story is God's, so he gets the glory. Let me tell you. Anything good you see in me is all God."

I told some lady at Walmart… I was there with my son and just started telling her about my dead giant and my Jesus. Instantly, she was like, "Could you help my nephew?" I was like, "Of course. He killed my giant. He'll kill his too." Give him all the glory. Isaiah 43:7 says, "…everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory…"

Your very existence is for the glory of God, that you would put God on display to a watching world, that whenever anyone sees you and anything good in you, they would look at you and you would reflect back glory to God and tell them about Jesus, because everybody has giants, but they may not have Jesus, so you tell them.

Woe to the glory thief. Woe to the one who receives Christ and receives glory instead of reflecting it rightfully to whom it's owed. Woe to the glory thief in the boardroom. Woe to the glory thief in the neighborhood with the nice house. Woe to the glory thief on the team with the accolades and the awards. Woe to the glory thief of the résumé. Woe to the pastor who doesn't proclaim Jesus and give him all the glory. I keep a sign on this podium to remind me "It's not about you." Woe to any glory thieving because the glory is the Lord's.

1. The battle is the Lord's. I love history and looking at the root of things. I found this, and it blew my mind. Nobody has heard of Saph or Lahmi. Anybody ever seen this? Yeah. We've got a military guy over there. Paul knows what it is. This is the very first flag of the US Navy. That's an interesting flag for the Navy. It has nothing to do with anything. It has something to do with land rather than sea. Why in the world is that?

It's because General George Washington of the Continental Army commissioned some ships, and every single one of those ships flew this flag. Why? Why this flag? Because they knew they had no chance against the British Royal Navy, an undefeated superpower. Here they are, this ragtag bunch of colonists, slapping together some boards to make boats to push back Great Britain. Are you kidding me?

So they knew, "The only way out, the only way to freedom, is an appeal to heaven," which was borrowed from the philosopher Locke, who basically says to a people, "If you find yourself under a government, and they have left you no option, there remains for you an appeal to heaven." Those boats pushed back the British navy, and here we sit as a sovereign and free nation.

Now, we'd do well to keep flying these flags. We've gotten really far from this, sadly, but I pray we would never get far from this in the church, that in the church we would remember "Oh, every battle I will ever face is only and always going to happen by an appeal to heaven." You see, I think sometimes we trust Jesus in our salvation. "Lord, deliver me from hell." But then in this… "Man, I've got this. I know what to do. I have enough wisdom, training, background, experience, like, charm. I can make myself a chameleon to navigate this."

It's like, "No, no, no, no." This began in Christ. It will continue in Christ. You need an appeal to heaven every single day. This is a supernatural war that demands supernatural weapons. It's a supernatural war you have found yourself in, and it demands supernatural weapons, just like he said. "You come to me with sword, spear, and javelin. I come to you in the name of the Lord."

The point is explicit right in the text. It's 1 Samuel 17:47b: "For the battle is the Lord's, and he will give you into our hand." Every person walking this earth, all eight billion, have three sworn enemies: sin, death, and Satan. It's a fallen world, and we are surrounded by giants. You find yourself daily in a battle with one or all three of those giants, and Jesus alone will defeat them all. The battle is not yours; it is the Lord's.

Stop comparing yourself to your circumstances. Compare your circumstances to your Savior, because he's the only one who will deliver you from those three giants. So, we get a little farther toward the epistles to the church in Ephesians, chapter 6, where the Lord peels back the veil. He says, "You don't wrestle against flesh and blood."

You think it's your annoying neighbor. You think it's that estranged family member. You think it's your hard circumstances at work or the financial frustrations you find yourself in. This is not a wrestling against flesh and blood. This is against the present powers of darkness, the rulers, principalities, and authorities. He's talking about the demonic realm that hates God's people.

So, he's like, "We're not going to go about this with sword, spear, and javelin, because you fight a supernatural war with supernatural weapons." So, he begins by saying, "Be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might." Not yours…his. Jesus is your David to fight your giants. Then he gives us every bit of the supernatural armory…helmet of salvation; breastplate of righteousness; belt of truth; shield of faith; gospel shoes; sword of the Spirit, which is the Word; and praying continually in the Spirit.

He sends us out with this weaponry that is all purely spiritual and all purely from Jesus. You can't get your own faith. Faith is from God. You can't get your own righteousness. That's from Jesus. You can't get your own salvation. That's from the Lord's life, death, and resurrection. You can't get your own gospel. All of it is from Jesus, and that is who we follow into battle, because he is our deliverer.

So, three things. Christ over sin. Only the Son of David, the one who was promised in the Davidic covenant where it says, "There shall always be a king from you, David." Now we have Jesus, the Son of David, who is delivering us from sin. Christ over sin. There are two ways by which. One is forgiveness of sin and the other is freedom from sin. Some of you have forgiveness of sin, but you don't have freedom from sin. You're still stuck in it.

That thing you began in junior high…the eating disorder, the giving yourself to guys, the porn addiction, the same-sex struggle, the shame from the abortion, whatever it may be…still remains. You're forgiven, but you don't have freedom from it. Jesus wants to give you both. He doesn't stop. It's not à la carte. What he begins he will finish, he will complete, if you let him, if you stay behind him and let him be your victor against these giants.

There are a lot of people at re:generation every Monday night at 6:30 getting both forgiveness and freedom from sin. I see Eric and Shoni Tucker, long-time re:gen leaders and coaches. Have y'all seen some giants fall in your lives and in the lives of others? They've been discipling people in re:generation for almost 20 years and have seen the giants of sin fall dead in the name of Jesus Christ.

Then there's also Christ over Satan. It says in 1 John 3:8, "The reason the Son of God came was to destroy the works of Satan." He came to drop this giant Satan. He is victorious over him. God stands out of time. The victory is already won. Here we stay remaining in this battle, but he already has victory over Satan. The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. He will strike the heel, but he will crush his head. So, Christ over Satan.

It's an interesting thing. If you read the narrative in 1 Samuel 17, Goliath doesn't say to David, "I'm going to kill you, and then I'm going to kill everybody behind you. We're going to wipe Israel out." He doesn't say that. Instead he says, "Send somebody to fight me, and if I win, y'all are my slaves. You guys are going to be slaves to Philistia. You're going to do what we say." That is precisely what Satan is after.

It says in 2 Timothy, chapter 2, that unbelievers have been taken captive by Satan to do his will. That's slavery: to do the will of Satan. It's terrifying. I think some of us, though we have found freedom by placing our faith in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of our sins, believing in his life, death, and resurrection, that he conquered sin, death, and Satan and walked out of the grave, although no other prophet of any other religion ever has… Those say, "Work your way to God." Here, God sends the deliverer to crush our enemies. We just trust in him.

Yet some of us, though we have seen the giants fall, will still wander back into enemy land. We'll still go back to the Enemy or listen to Satan and his temptations, his whisperings, his lies, to draw us away. It would be the same as if, after conquering Goliath, they were like, "All right. Let's go have a picnic in Philistia where all of the other enemies live." Instead, it says, "Come out and live in the promised land that is Jesus." Christ over Satan.

I teach my kids a prayer. I teach you now. It's from Jude and Zechariah…Zechariah, chapter 3, and also from Jude. It's a really short prayer, a really powerful prayer. Speak it out loud. "The Lord rebuke you, Satan. The Lord rebuke you, Satan." It says in Jude that the archangel Michael would not bring a slanderous word against him but rather said, "The Lord rebuke you, Satan." Christ over Satan. "The Lord rebuke you, Satan." I tell my kids, "If you're ever scared, if you ever feel the presence of evil, say out loud, 'The Lord rebuke you, Satan.'"

Then, thirdly, Christ over death. First Corinthians 15:26: "The last enemy to be destroyed is death." There's already victory. We're still experiencing death, but in Christ you will never die. How can I say that? Tomorrow we're going to have a memorial service for Larry Cropp, the re:gen leader who is now at home with the Lord, but he's not dead. Christ over the giant of death. Larry is not dead. His body will be laid to the ground. His spirit lives on. To be away from the body is to be at home with the Lord, words I prayed over him when he was there on life support.

Christ over sin, Christ over Satan, and Christ over death. Larry is alive, and so will be you forevermore if you are in Jesus. The story is the Lord's and the glory is the Lord's because the battle is the Lord's. Think about this. There is a boy with his father, and the father says, "There's a war happening. Your brothers are in danger, so go to them. Take provision." So, here comes a young man from Bethlehem, and there he finds his brothers in impossible odds.

So, he walks forth into what looks like certain death and delivers the enemy into the hands of the Lord and sets all the people free. When that giant fell, all of the Israelites pressed upon the Philistines, and they fell, and they plundered them. So also you have, mirroring the Scriptures then until Jesus, a Son with a Father being sent by the Father from Bethlehem to his brothers and sisters who have found themselves in a battle of certain impossible odds. He goes forth to slay the giants, and they walk forth in victory. This is our Jesus. It is his story, and he gets the glory, and the battle is the Lord's.

Now, in a room this size and the words I've shared, I know there are many right now who are facing a battle of your own. You're in the midst of it. I see head nods already. If you're in the midst of a battle, I just want to invite you to stand up. It says God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble. I realize it requires humility to stand up right now, but what's going to happen is you're going to be prayed for. So, thank you for trusting us with that battle.

You can say to those around you, as people around you move toward you… May no one stand and not be prayed for, all the way up in the balcony on the very last row. Move toward them. In a word, you can just say, "Financial. Mental. Emotional. Spiritual. Temptation." Whatever it may be. You say one word to them, and, people, lay your hands on them and pray to God to bring the victory. The battle is the Lord's. Let's all pray.

With all of the people praying and continuing to pray, Lord, you're able to hear every single prayer, every cry, every tear. I thank you, Lord, for all of those who have trusted us, the body of Christ, with their pain, with their circumstances. Now, Lord, I pray for healing, for freedom. Lord, now I invite every single person to pray with me these words, just to repeat them after me if you desire. "God, it's your story, not mine. Because it's your story, not mine, God, it's your glory, not mine, and, God, it's your battle, not mine."

Lord, thank you for Jesus Christ, the one who's victorious for us, the Son of David, who has conquered the giants of sin, death, and Satan. May we walk in that God-confidence as we follow you home. We stand now and sing. Lord, we stand and sing to you, not words on a screen but to our risen Savior, because you are our deliverer. In the mighty name of Jesus Christ, amen.