Introduction

Good morning church and welcome back to worship. Today, we are closing out our series, 5 Smooth Stones. We’ve been journeying through the well-known story of David and Goliath, which I hope has been encouraging to you.

The challenger was a nine foot tall giant named Goliath, who looked to be the favorite in the battle. God then chose David, a simple shepherd boy, to fight against Goliath. This battle required a focus solely on his God… And finally, today, we get to celebrate victory.

I could not even contain my joy and excitement when I saw that win. Thinking back on it now, I’m reminded how important it is to celebrate the victories in our life, even more so in a spiritual sense. We talked last week about how God has provided all we need and one of the things He’s given us are the memories and testimony of His provision and goodness. As we remember Him, we honor and glorify Him in each and every victory.

We talked last week about how God has provided all we need and one of the things He’s given us are the memories and testimony of His provision and goodness.

Main Teaching

If you’ve got a Bible, turn with me one final time to 1 Samuel 17. I want us to pick up at verse 40…

Now, these few verses are of extreme importance. Here’s the first thing I want us to see about victory…

Victory Sends the Enemy Running

You know, much of our discussion so far in this series has been around the Israelite army. But what about the opposing force? Verse 51 gives us a glimpse into the immediate response of the Philistines after the victory. The Bible says they “turned and ran.” Why? Because their “champion” was now dead and they lost their hope.

I think this one phrase deserves a bit of our attention for a moment. If we put our hope and trust in a person other than Jesus Christ, we will eventually be let down. Maybe for you, this is a political leader of some kind. For others, we put hope in our coworkers. Maybe even someone in our family. Having trust in people is not bad. However, if those people take God’s place in our life, we will be let down. It is similar to what Jesus says in the Gospel of Matthew…

The Philistines seemed to store up their “treasures” in this human champion, Goliath. When he exited the scene, they were completely lost. The good news is, we have a God who is not only personal, but constant. He never changes or leaves us out to dry. Many of us may need to be reminded of Paul’s words in Romans 8:28…

We may experience seasons where we simply don’t know where God is. And I am here to let you know, from personal experience, God is still working, and He’s working for our good and His glory.

True victory, the kind ultimately won by God in your life, should not send you and me running, but the enemy. And that’s exactly what happens in David’s case in our story. He understands when the enemy goes running, God deserves the glory…

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“All will know that it is not by sword or spear that the Lord saves…” The story of David, and others throughout scripture are stories of God using improbable people to accomplish extraordinary things.