Today I want to talk about David and his viewpoint.  The story of David and Goliath is a very common sermon.  We hear people talking about how David defeated Goliath often, but today we are going to look at what happened leading up to the defeat of Goliath.  

I’m reminded of a quote by Biz Stone,

“Timing, perseverance, and ten years of trying will eventually make you look like an overnight success.”

― Biz Stone

The point is that it is often the actions that we do leading up to the completion of a task that mean more than actually doing the task.  Think about in a natural standpoint.  You spend the first 20 or so years of your life working to learn things.  Then when you get out of high school or college, what you know – or the preparation you have – determines what you make.  

David defeated Goliath before he ever threw the stone.  It was his actions leading up to Goliath’s defeat that made the difference.  

1 Samuel 17

This story starts out in 1 Samuel chapter 17 when the armies of Israel and the Philistines look like they are equal in strength. 

3 The Philistines stood on a mountain on one side, and Israel stood on a mountain on the other side, with a valley between them. 

1 Samuel 17:3 NKJV

If you listen to any war strategist, they will all say the same thing, “THE HIGH GROUND MATTERS”.  Naturally, it looked like the battle was anyone’s game.  Men would come down from both sides to fight in the valley and return to their own high ground.  A battle like this could go on and on for ages.  

Think about your own life.  Maybe there is one particular battle you are fighting.  Maybe it’s a sickness or it’s an addiction.  One day the battle goes your way the next day it seems like the enemy is pushing forward.  In a place like this it’s easy to get discouraged.  Today we are talking about how to overcome the enemy and push through this kind of battle.  What is the viewpoint we have to have to see victory in our lives?

Your Enemy Fights with Thoughts

The devil is a defeated foe, but he also knows that he can devour those who surrender to him.  That is why he walks around AS a roaring lion seeking whom he MAY devour (1 Peter 5:8).  The father of lies knows that if he can get you to start thinking about the situation from the wrong perspective he can convince you to defeat yourself. Let’s look at how Goliath tried to do just that. 

8 Then he stood and cried out to the armies of Israel, and said to them, “Why have you come out to line up for battle? Am I not a Philistine, and you the servants of Saul? Choose a man for yourselves, and let him come down to me.

1 Samuel 17:8 NKJV

Notice the Israelites are God’s army, but in that moment, the enemy (Goliath) was forcing their viewpoint into the natural.  He called them “the servants of Saul” and later in verse 10 he said he defies “the armies of Israel”.  

11 When Saul and all Israel heard these words of the Philistine, they were dismayed and greatly afraid.

1 Samuel 17:11 NKJV

The people of Israel didn’t look at the God that was with them.  Instead, their viewpoint was on who THEY were in THEMSELVES.  That is why they got discouraged.  

Your Thoughts Affect Your Actions

These thoughts affect everything that you do.  The whole of Israel was scared.  They believed themselves to be defeated already.  Those kinds of thoughts will only lead to one destination – defeat.  Jesse was so certain of this fact that he sent expensive cheeses to his son’s captain in hopes of better treatment. 

18 And carry these ten cheeses to the captain of their thousand, and see how your brothers fare, and bring back news of them.”

1 Samuel 17:18 NKJV

Jesse wanted to do everything he could to try to protect his son’s from what they feared was certain death at the hands of the Philistines.  

Choose what you Think On

2 Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.

Colossians 3:2 KJV

“Set” is an action verb.  See in verse 23 of 1 Samuel 17 we see that “David heard [the Philistines]”. David heard the EXACT same thing, but while all the other men were afraid of him because they couldn’t defeat him in their own strength, David wasn’t.  Why?  Because, David didn’t look at Goliath as an enemy opposing himself.  He saw Goliath as an opposition to God Himself. 

26 Then David spoke to the men who stood by him, saying, “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?”

1 Samuel 17:26 NKJV

If you are doing God’s will for your life, who is the enemy really coming against?

Think about when someone in authority tells you to do something.  Maybe one of your peers or someone you know starts to tell you not to do the thing that you boss told you to do.   What are you going to do?  Well most often you’d simply say, “The boss told me to _____”  

This is essentially what David did.  His viewpoint was this,

“God told me we are going here and you are trying to oppose what HE told ME to do.  That means that HE is going to have to handle the situation.” 

David knew God and His character.  David hung around God.  That is why he knew what God would want.  We have to do the same thing so that when the enemy comes against us we can say, “God’s got me because I’m going where He told me to go.”

To Be Continued…

There is a lot of stuff that we can pull from this one chapter about how to defeat the enemy’s attack in our life.  This is just the start.  If you haven’t already, go ahead and check out our previous post here for more content like this.