Faith Seeing and Faith Speaking

in Revelation uh 21 and 22. So, so even while we're here in paradise, it causes us to long for the return of the Lord and to be with him, which will be our true paradise. So, anyways, that's enough of my uh preliminary here. I I'd like to go to 1st Samuel 17 with you this morning. What very familiar chapter and it's a long chapter. It's 58 verses, I think. Um, and we're not going to I'm just going to go through it quickly and just summarize a few things about this one of the most famous stories in the Old Testament. But really my interest today is I want to listen when David speaks. Do you have a you have a hand out there?

Yeah. because in in three different places David is going to speak actually here in 1st Samuel chapter 17 for the very first time uh David speaks in scripture and so we're going to see him speak to the soldiers in verse 26 we're going to see him speak to Saul in verses 32-37 and then we're going to see him speak to the giant verses 45- 47 and uh when we when we listen to what David says as when we listen to what David says, we realize that he he is doing faith speaking. He's bringing a consciousness of God into this this battle scenario. And so he is David unlike Saul and the Israelite soldiers.

I mean, he's seeing the giant and he's seeing the Philistine army, but he's seeing seeing it with a faith perspective because he's bringing God into the equation. And so for David, this battle and this giant looks very different because he's doing what I call faith seeing. He's seeing the God who is above the giant and the the God who is present in the battle. And that faith seeing then comes out in faith speaking. And I think this is very helpful for us today because first of all the same David's God is our God. Amen. He is the living God which means that he is active in our lives and he is aware.

He is with us to help us and he is as David will describe him the lord of oaths. He has unlimited capacity. And so we need to be we need to have a faith vision, a faith view of the everpresent God who is with us to help us. And the reality of God's presence then makes him very re relevant. It changes the picture. Our troubles and our problems. If if we have a faith view, if we're doing faith seeing, then it changes then the the reality in which we are in. And and that faith seeing then ought to lead to faith speaking. How we speak about our troubles and our problems ought to be with taking God into a account.

So that's kind of what I'm going to do. I should probably pray. Agreed. Is that what we do around here to begin? Let's pray. Heavenly Father, now we ask and pray that you would help us to learn from your word. Father, we pray that you'd open your word to our understanding. Lord, help me to be clear. Heavenly Father, even as we admire David's faith today, we would pray increase our faith. Father, we pray that uh that we would we would believe that you fill heaven and earth and everywhere we go, you are there. And if we are your child, you are there to help us. And so, Father, I I pray that that we would with that kind of faith view that that would change our perspective on our problems and on our troubles and then that it would even change how we speak about our challenges in life.

Help us father like David to do some faith seeing and some faith speaking. I pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Okay. So, real quickly, let me just draw your attention to a few things. You can see there I kind of did an outline of the outline of the of the chapter here. And uh let me just draw your attention to a few. Are your Bibles open? and and uh in 1st Samuel chapter 17, I say at our church, don't take my word for it. You better have your Bibles open and uh make sure that you are seeing for yourself if in fact that is the word of God. So 1st Samuel 17 or your Bibles open this morning. And notice first of all it says gathered for battle.

And on your handout I have a little bit of a map um there for you to see where the two armies lined up for battle. Now, if you look at where the the Philistines have have lined up, where they have amassed, you realize they are already in Israelite territory. And furthermore, if you see, can you see on your map there at page two? And if if if Saul is not successful in heading off the Philistine advance, then we're we're in the shephila here. This is kind of like the military buffer zone between the coastal plane and the hill country. And if if Saul does not stop the Philistines here, you see those little dotted lines?

Those are roadways into the into into the the hill country where the most important cities of Israel are. So this is not Kuster's last stand, but it could be Saul's last stand. And and if the Philistines overrun the Israelite army, then they will be able to go up to Bethlehem and Gibia and really the the the spine uh of Israel. So this is a critical battle right here. This is a for the Israelites. This is a a life and death life or death struggle for for the uh for the nation. So that's gathered for battle. Then notice then we have a champion and his cry. Verses 4 through 11 verse number four. And there went out a champion out of the camp of the Philistines named Goliath.

And you can see there kind of a fun uh little deficit. Can you see there uh Goliath is the big man and we we we think about his height almost 10 feet but sometimes we don't think about then what that means for his mass and you can see then uh David by comparison is is is really tow jam. So this is uh just the optics are not good here for this. But this champion will challenge an Israelite to a duel and then uh and then basically the outcome of that duel will determine the outcome of the battle. Right? if you're the the Goliath says if your people if if if your guy beats me then we'll be your servants and then vice versa if the other way around.

So he he he challenges he challenges Israel to send out an Israelite to fight him and challenges him to a duel. And notice in verse number 10, cuz here's his cry. And he says,"I defy the armies of Israel this day. Give me a man that we may fight together." And notice the response of Saul and his soldiers in verse number 11. When Saul and all Israel heard those words of the Philistine, they were dismayed and greatly afraid. Now Saul and his soldiers, who have they lost sight of? They've lost sight of their God. They've lost sight of the fact that that their God is with them in the B. They've lost sight of their identity.

They are they they belong to Jehovah to Yahweh and they're they're acting here like their God does not exist or that their God is not relevant for this particular battle. So a champion in his cry. Um notice then we get to and I'm I'm skimming through this because I want to get to particular sections today. But notice then verses 12-19, we kind of leave the battlefront. We go back to Bethlehem just a few miles away. And there David is tending sheep and his dad sends him to the front lines. Um, notice there in verse number 18, David's going to to take some food stuffs. Uh, and I lived in Wisconsin for 17 years, so I appreciate the inclusion of cheese there in verse 18.

And carry these 10 cheeses unto the captain of their thousand. And look how thy brother brethren fare and take their and and take their pledge. So, dad is sending David to the battlefront to essentially check up on uh Jesse's three eldest. How are they doing? How is the battle going? And again, if you look at your map, the outcome of this battle is going to have ramifications for people in Bethlehem. Uh so this is what gets David to the battlefront then to check up on his brothers. Then notice the next section then um at the battlefront there. And notice in verse number 20, then David, he gets up early, leaves the sheep behind, and he comes into the camp or the trench as the host was going forth to the fight and shouted for the battle.

And so just as he's walking into camp, the two armies are lining up. There's on the on the hillsides in in the middle is the Valley of El. They're both on the the hillsides and they're lining up yet again. This is the 40th day. And yet again, you have verse 23, you have the champion of the Philistines, Goliath, and he comes out to yet again challenge Israel to a a duel. And this is what David hears. And we'll we'll look at his how he responds to this. How David responds to this is very different from Saul and his soldiers. Look, look at how look at how the rest of the soldiers are responding. In verse 24, it says, "And all the men of Israel when they saw the man fled from him and were so afraid."

Again, they're they're they've lost sight of their God, but they've also lost sight of their identity as God's people. and and David is seeing something very different because he's taking God into the the calculus here. All right. Well, then just to summarize, then he uh then uh Saul hears David's brave words and so then he has an audience with King Saul and he has to actually convince Saul to let him go and fight the giant. That's verses 31-39. Then we have that epic scene in verses 40- 54 where David fights the giant and of course he wins and then just a little bit of a a little bit of a conclusion there where Saul then needs to find out um who's who David belongs to his family.

So but today what I want to do is can you see on your handout I want to go to these three places where David speaks. So verse 26, let me read. This is David speaking to the Israelite soldiers there says, "And David spake to the men that stood by him, saying, What shall be done to the man that kleth this Philistine and taketh away the reproach from Israel? For who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God? I want you to see something here. David has added something. So all throughout five times you have this word for defy in the chapter. Verse 10 and 25 26 36 and 45.

But look back in verse number 10. This is the the cry of the champion. He says, "I defy the armies of Israel." Okay, look at what the soldiers say. Israelite soldiers in verse 25. Um, see surely to defy Israel. You see that there? So the the the um back in verse number 10, the giant says, "I defy the armies of Israel." In verse 25, the soldiers say, "Surely this, to defy Israel, and notice what David adds here. He says, "This guy has defied the armies of the living God." You see how things are different in David's in David's viewpoint? I mean these are this Israelite army is no ordinary army. This is the army of the living God.

Yeah. And like in his comment here in verse 26 is and look David can see what all what Saul can see and what the other soldiers can see. He can see this 9 foot 6 in mass of a man with all of this armor. I mean, his his chain mail is like over a 100 pounds. And he's got he's got this sword and he's got two different spear, a throwing spear and a thrusting spear. And his throwing spear has this or this thrusting spear has this this his the head of that is like 14.5 lbs. Like that's a bowling ball on the end of your spear that you're going to I mean, he's a mass of a man. He can see this guy that's covered in in armor from head to shoulder.

He can see what Saul and the other soldiers see. But David can also see his God by faith. And so he says he has defied the armies of the living God. And who is he? Who do he thinks? Who does he think he is? How dare he defy? The armies of the living God and and by extension then the living God himself. And David understands what's going on here. this defying this giant is he's taunting he's belittling he's reproaching he's insulting he's scorning he's shaming not just the army of Israel but he's he's defying the God of Israel who does he think he is this uncircumcised this uncircumcised Philistine he's not a part of the covenant people of God and yet he is he is taunting and he is shaming and he is defying Yahweh, the covenant God of Israel.

And how many of you think that's a good idea? I got How many think you How many of you think that's a recipe for a success to defy the living God? In fact, you see, I included on your handout that if you blasphemed God, the covenant God of Israel, that was a capital offense. And David understands that this guy needs to die because he has committed a capital crime against the covenant God of Israel. Believe that. To David, this giant has already sealed his fate. He's already doomed because how dare he defy the living God. I mean, again, while Saul and his soldiers, while they are afraid, shaking in their boots, David's looking at that guy thinking, "How how dare he?

His days are numbered." Again, this is this is faith speaking. Who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God? That's faith speaking. And it's because David is doing faith seeing. His God is with him. His God is present in the valley. In fact, we even think of Psalm 23 which was penned by David. Right? Yay. Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death. I will fear no evil for you are with me. That wasn't just a song that David sang. That was something he believed there in the valley of Egla. Our God is present and he's a living God. He's not a dead God.

I've been walking uh on the on the beach the last few days and meditating on Psalms. And Psalm 15 is really Psalm 115 is really that parody of other gods. And it talks about how they have mouths but they cannot speak and they have ears but they cannot ear. They cannot hear, eyes but they cannot see, hands but they cannot. And it it's disparity of of of really every other god who's dead and inactive and unable to help their followers. And I I turned that around in praise to the living God there on the beach of white Kiki. I have trouble with your Hawaiian names here, but I turned that around and I praised God by saying I I I praise you are the living God.

You have a mouth and you have spoken in the pages of scripture and you have ears and you can hear the cries of your people and you have eyes and we know God does not properly have a body. This is anthropomorphic language. But you have eyes and you can see what's going on in our life and you have hands and you can carry your people in their time of need and you have feet. you can come to where your people are at. We serve a living God. And it's not just that God is with us, but God is with us to help us. And that's what David could see there on the battlefront. And that's why he said the words that he said.

Let's move on to the next the next speaking episode. If you go over then and you again let's get to where he's speaking to Saul and uh again I said he had to convince the king there first of all he's and notice in verse number 33 Saul said to David thou art not able to go against this Philistine to fight with Again, what was Saul not taking into account what God can do through a faithful individual? Right? He's actually right in the sense David in and of himself, he cannot. But what he's not taking into account is that a living God is with his servant David. And this living God through his servant David can take down that giant without any problem.

And so again, this just shows Saul, he's not doing faith seeing. He's not doing faith speaking. And and you know, as we see the response of Saul and the soldiers, it's a gut check for us because how many times do we act this way in the midst of our own problems and troubles? We're not factoring in a living God. So we're afraid. We're projecting defeat and we've It's like we have theological amnesia. We're losing sight of God. We're losing sight of our identity as God's people. So again, Saul says, "You're not able." And then look, let's look in our Bibles here. Let's let's see some more faith speaking from David.

Verse 34. For David said unto Saul, "Thy servant kept his father's sheep, and there came a lion and a bear, and took a lamb out of the flock. And I went out after him, and smote him, and delivered it out of his mouth. And when he arose against me, I caught him by the beard, and smoked him, and slew him." Don't try that at home. You know those commercial, the driving commercial. Don't try that at home. All right. Verse 36. Thy servant slew both the lion and the bear. And this uncircumcised Philistine shall be as one of them. He's already projecting victory, seeing he hath defied the armies of the living God.

Verse 37, David said, moreover, the Lord that delivered me out of the paw of the lion and out of the paw of the bear, he will deliver me out of the paw. It's the same word there, the paw of this Philistine. And Saul said unto David, "Go, and the Lord be with thee." Saul said, "You're not able." And David says, David says, "Let me tell you about what God has done for me in the past." and this this fighting this lion and this bear. The language here is it's not like these were not one-time occasions but multiple times where he had to deliver his sheep from the lion and from the bear. And look at his boldness.

I love what David is doing here. It's like he goes after the lion and the bear. And as he goes after the lion and the bear to deliver his sheep, he's trusting that his shepherd will deliver him from the lion from the bear. And can you see here how first of all those when when he suess successfully um killed the lion and the bear, he recognized that it wasn't because of his own abilities. again faith seeing he understood that that the Lord was with him in those moments and that the Lord actually was the one who delivered him from the lion and from the bear and his confidence here is as God has done in the past so he will do in the present.

He's bringing that kind of faith confidence into the battle that my God who has bailed me out time and time again will bail me out again as I go to fight this Philistine. I mean this is I'm again faith speaking. It's so different from King Saul and it's because David is doing faith seeing here. I think this is a good reminder here and I have some great quotations for you to consider um offline. I'm going to run out of time with my current trajectory here, but um I think this is a good reminder of of how we need to remember how God has provided and protected in the past, right? Those Ebenezer moments.

And then we need to draw upon those for our present problems. You know, sometimes we are getting anxious over something, some trouble, some problem, whatever, and we are forgetting all of the times in the past when the Lord delivered us. Sometimes out of bigger troubles than we're facing right now. Let's just get logical here for a moment, right? If God was able to deliver me out of the bigger, then surely he can deliver me out of something that is is is much smaller here. Um I love You're familiar with George Mueller, are you? And uh George Mueller uh he wrote a diary of all the ways that God worked in response to his praying.

And one of George Mueller's burdens was is that through the writing of his diary is he wanted to have something to point to as a visible proof that our God and father is the same faithful God as ever he he was as willing as ever uh to prove himself to be the living God in our day as formerly to all who put their trust in him. So his diary, he records all of these times and George Mueller would just simply pray and then he would stand back and God watch God work. And so you probably have heard for that one time again, you know, George Mueller with the orphanages and some I think at one point at their apex they were caring for like 2,000 orphans.

And there was one day when it was time for breakfast and all the children that the table has been set with the the cups and the plates and the bowls and the children are all standing there. Um there's no food on the table. There's no food in the fridge, no food in the cupboard. There's not even money to buy the food that these kids what these kids needed to eat that morning. And so George Mueller talked to the children. He said, "Children, you know, we must be in time for school." And so then he lifted his hand and he prayed, "Dear Father, we thank thee for what thou art going to give us to eat."

Have you heard this story before? We thank you right now, God, for what you are going to do. is confidence. It's the same kind of confidence that David is going to bring to the battle. Yeah. In fact, the way that David speaks about the outcome is he is he is talking about the outcome as though it had already been accomplished. He's projecting victory. I mean, it's fine. Anyways, George Mueller again, dear father, we thank you for what you're going to give us to eat. Then there was the knock on the door, right? The baker. You've heard the story. Baker says, "I couldn't sleep last night. Some somehow I felt you needed bread, so I got up at 2 2 a.m.

and baked some bread and here it is. It's done." And so Mueller thanked the baker uh and then praised God for his care and he said, "Children, we not only have bread but the rare treat of fresh bread." So good positive spin on breakfast there. You ever do that as parents? put a positive spin. And then came the second knock on the door. And now it was the milkman saying that his milk cart had broken down outside the orphanage and he wanted to give the children his cans of fresh milk so that he could empty his wagon and repair it. Not I mean and again here's the thing. God provided God provided in a special way.

Bread and milk for these orphans. God did it in response to the praying of George Mueller. But I want you before before the bread and the milk even showed up, George Mueller had confidence that God in some way was going to provide for these orphans. That's that's faith seeing a living God and faith speaking. All right. Again, no uncertainty. There's a lot of shs here in verses 36- 37. Let's go on to the last part. Then David's speaking to the giant. And again, for 40 days, uh, the giant has been waiting for a challenger. And by the way, who of all the men in Israel, who should have gone out to fight Goliath?

It should have been Tall Saul, right? And by the way, tall Saul, if he had faith in the living God, God could have delivered Israel through tall Saul. But but Saul lacked he lacked faith in his God. And so he was he was not prepared to go out into battle. So for 40 days the giant has been calling for a challenger. And then finally the challenger comes versus 43 43- 44. And here's this young man in his civvies, you know what I mean? And not not really not uh not armored, not carrying a sword, anything like that. And just before they engage in battle, the giant and David just before they David speaks and this is look, let's listen to what he says here.

Verse 45 then through 47. Then said David to the Philistine, thou comest to me with a sword and with a spear and with a shield, but I come to thee in the name of the Lord of hosts. the God of the armies of Israel, whom thou hast divided. See, it's gotten personal here. It's not just the armies. It's God himself. Verse 46. This day will the Lord deliver thee into mine hand, and I will smite thee, and take thine head from thee. He's not even carrying a sword. Where do you think? Where is he going to go? That's I know it's spoiler alert, right? That's the problem. We already know the end of the story.

And I will give thee the carcasses of the host of the Philistines this day unto the fowls of the air and to the wild beasts of the earth. And look, and David is very clear. God's going to do this. And God's going to do it for his own honor and his own glory that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel, a living God who shows up on behalf of his people to deliver them. Verse 47. And all this assembly shall know that the Lord saveth not with sword and spear. The battle is the Lord's and he will give you into our hands. And then David runs towards the giant. Don't you love that? No hesitation in full confidence.

Again, he is he is seeing his God there uh by faith. He is seeing his God. And he speaks these words of faith because he is seeing by faith his God. today as uh I need to wrap up [clears throat] and we understand too that the hero in the story is not David. Um and even David would if he was here today he says you're drawing too much attention to me. This was the Lord who delivered Israel through his anointed one. And it's actually a preview of what God will do uh at the cross. the Lord will deliver us from our sins through the anointed one. And yet still here David is an example to us of faith.

And he he was looking at the same battle lines. He was looking at the same giant. But what changed the equation for David was that he was also seeing God in the midst of all of that. And because by faith he was beholding his God, then he speaks these words of of confidence in his God to to deliver in this situation. I have a a little bit of a there at the very end, the conclusion. Um the tragedy is that were someone to hear our thoughts and words and our dangers and troubles, they would never guess that we had the living God. Good. Thanks, Lord. And so David's example is good for us today. Uh remember Moses by faith he he saw he saw the invisible.

He saw by faith he saw the unseen God. And that made a real difference then in not fearing the wrath of the king in Egypt. And here we see a similar thing happening by with David. by faith he is beholding his God there on the battlefront there there there in that valley of El um though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil for thou art with me and the presence and the power of God that David was beholding by faith made a difference in how he viewed the battle and how he spoke about the battle and today I needed this uh for my own life situation and you probably have a life situation that you need this for.

We need to uh we need to behold our God in the midst of our troubles and our problems. And then we as we talk to others about our challenges, we need to include God talk in there. We need to do faith speaking that uh betrays that we are doing faith seeing. So may God increase our faith so that as we face our own challenges of life, we will do so taking into account the power, the promises, the providence, the presence of a living Not.