Get Ahead of Yourself

I was 19 years old and standing in the biblical location of the Valley of Elah. I was there with the tour group from our church and we were seeing all the different sites and I had been most excited as far as Old Testament locations to get to see here, to get to be here. The Valley where David and Goliath duked it out. It's been mesmerizing me ever since I first came across it and heard about it as a little kid in a children's Bible or a Sunday school story. And so to stand there and watch, I remember one of the funniest things was seeing so many people from our tour group picking up rocks, you know, kind of thinking, oh man, maybe this could be the one. And while I was watching this play out, one of the tour guides came up to me and said, I should bring you back here late at night when the Department of Tourism trucks from Israel show up and they dump out fresh rocks for these tourists to pick up. And I thought, oh my gosh, people are so gullible. And I laughed and then he walked off and I thought, oh, dang it. And I took the rock out of my pocket. I had picked up, threw it to the ground, but then I thought better of it and picked it back up and kept it because I figured, hey, this might be made in China, but it's a pretty dang good memory of being here in this moment. If you have a Bible, we're going to be in two places today, 1 Samuel 17 and 21. And I want to give to you a message that I'm calling Get Ahead of Yourself. I want to welcome you at every Fresh Life location, church online, as well as those of you joining us at partner churches as we come to the set of this show, House of David, brought to you by The Wonder Project, at one of the locations where they're able to bring this incredible show to life. And they gave me the chance to bring us all into the Valley of Elah, where behind me is the Philistine army spread out as far as the eye can see. And in this virtual production environment, you're able to sort of be there and see it and feel it. I'm telling you, when I saw this for the first time, it made my heart pound, it made my breath, having seen the real thing.

But then to see it with the Philistines encamped and imagining the crowd partying and the champion Goliath coming forward and no one in Israel being willing to go against him in combat, just absolutely iconic. This is for sure one of the most famous moments in David's life. It takes place in 1 Samuel 17. He volunteers. You know the story. He volunteers to go and he knows he's going to get to marry one of the king's daughters. There's going to be some drama over which one. We get that. But he says, I'll do it. And then in verse 40, it says, Now pause right there, your attention, please. I just love the thought that David, who could have got the rocks anywhere, anyhow. Right. He chose to quiet himself by a brook as he selected the stones he would bring into this battle. And I can't help but think of Psalm 23. And I think about the Lord leading David as he lived his life, choosing to live a life of worship besides still waters and in green pastures. And he looked to God, his eyes were on God, because you know what's interesting? That has to happen in order to get down to get some rocks from a brook. Well, listen, you can't do it like this unless he had some mad flexibility. What do you have to do? You have to kneel. And I think this is perfect because David was someone who always consistently chose to bow before the battle. And I just love that before going up against Goliath, he's here on his knees, because here's what you need to know. You can't rise like a lion unless you first bow like a lamb. And Scripture says if we humble ourself in the sight of the Lord, God will exalt you. God will lift you up. Here's Goliath, this massive mountain of a man saying, here's what I'm going to do. Here's what I'm going to do. And David didn't come against him and go, I'm going to, you know, no, no, no.

David didn't come armed with a slingshot. He had one. David didn't come armed with these five stones. He had them. David said, I come to you with a name, the name that's above every other name. And the Lord's going to deliver you into my hand. And so I love that David did what he did, armed with the power of God's presence and keeping his eyes on the Prince of Peace, the commander of angel. armies." And so the text continues, verse 48. So it was when the Philistine came, arose and drew near to meet David, the David hurried. Dude, who is this? He's running towards, sprinting towards the army to meet the Philistine. Then David put his hand in his bag, took out a stone. He slung it and struck the Philistine in his forehead so that the stone sank into his forehead and he fell on his face to the earth. So David prevailed over the Philistine with a sling and a stone and struck the Philistine and killed him. But there was no sword in the hand of David. So what does David do? David is going to take Goliath's sword and turn it on Goliath, decapitating this foul creature with his own weapon, just like we see in the episode. For my mother. So so God get my horse and my armor. Come on. No. So fight with me. David. Oh, God. OK, just so we're totally clear, this is exactly what happened after Goliath fell on that day.

Verse 51 says, Therefore, David ran and stood over the Philistine, took his sword and drew it out of its sheath and killed him and cut off his head with it. OK, can we just also chef's kiss to the show's creators and to Michael and Martin for this portrayal, because it is fire. But I love the unique little details. Let me point out a couple of them. You hear Goliath yell out, for my mother, which in the show you have Doeg killing Orpah, which is Goliath's mom in the show. Now, did that happen? That is just fiction. That's just more arcs and interesting. We do know Doeg was a henchman for Saul. We do know he was nasty. We do know he does go on to kill all these priests at Nob. So bad dude for sure. Did he kill Goliath's mom? Well, that for sure is not in the Bible or in any. me history that I've ever read. Yet, Orpah? Goliath's mom being named Orpah? When I heard that on the show, I was like, that's weird. I do know an Orpah in the Bible, and it made me do some digging, which is what, again, John Irwin wants this show to do, what we're here to do. They picked the name Orpah, which is, of course, a name from the book of Ruth. OK, so let me just quickly. In Ruth, you have a man and a woman, Naomi and Elimelech,

in a time of famine, leaving Israel, leaving Bethlehem, which means place of bread, but there was no bread, which is so ironic. So they go to where? Moab, a faraway place, which is always a picture of not trusting in God. Their two sons, Malon and Chilion, marry Moabite women. Not what they should be doing, not who they should be marrying, but when you go to the wrong places, you end up doing the wrong things. And so here's what happens. All the boys die. Elimelech dies. Malon dies. Chilion dies. So Naomi, a woman, is left alone with two daughters-in-law, Ruth and Orpah. And she's like, OK, girls, I'm going back to Israel. I never should have left. This was all a mistake. You guys just stay here. Stay in Moab. Do your thing. Be pagan. This is very bad evangelism, by the way. Stay here. And Orpah says, peace out. She's gone. Back to Moab, back to paganism, back to her false gods.

Ruth says, not me. I'm going with you. Naomi says, no, don't do it. Don't do it. I mean, come on, girl. Get together. And Ruth says, where you go, I go. Where you die, I die. Your God, the God of the Bible, my God. And where you get buried, I'm getting buried. Now, we know how this all ends. She ends up married to a dude named Boaz, a leading prince in the house of Israel in Bethlehem, in this area. And she and Boaz will end up being a part of the Messianic line. They show up in the New Testament bringing Jesus into this world as Jesus' great-great grandparents, OK? So it's a fabulous story. Orpah, according to rabbinic literature, which could be legend and myth, ends up having giant babies, one of which is named Goliath. Now, this isn't Bible. It's extra biblical. But there is writing that tells this story, whether it's true or not, going back to only a few hundred years around the time of Christ. And so it's not just complete fancy and fiction that the show's creators wrote this.

They're actually nodding to what actually does exist as a myth or a legend out there. And so it's pretty cool, because whether true or not, it does bring together what is the holy war on the seed that would become Christ running through as a byline the entire Bible from Genesis 3 all the way to the book of Revelation. What do you mean? God tells Eve after the fall, I'm bringing forth a Messiah who will be born seed of woman. Now, that's very unusual, because generally speaking, when a person comes onto this world, it takes the seed of a man and the egg of a woman. So God only using the seed of a woman and not having a man involved, of course, is a reference to the incarnation. And so Genesis 3 has rightly been called the proto-eugongelion, the first instance of the gospel, the good news being told. God said to Eve, mama's going to knock you out. Jesus is coming. He's coming through a woman. This is the first Christmas card ever given, OK? And so through that moment, Satan, who hears this, the serpent, knows, OK, if a child of this woman is going to come and crush my head, I need to stop that at all costs. And so you see from Genesis 3 all the way to Revelation a satanic hatred of the royal seed that would bring Jesus. And we know it's going to be the Jewish nation.

And so why does Cain kill Abel? Why does Esau hate Jacob? Why is there a constant thread of anti-Semitism, of Herod trying to kill baby boys during the Christmas account? Why do we have in the book of Revelation the dragon trying to eat and devour the baby born of the woman and the hatred that Satan has for the church? God's always going to establish his plan, his rule, his reign. His plans can't be thwarted. And the devil's always going to try and stop it, because, guys, he's read the back of the Bible, and he knows how his story ends and does not want that leg of fire, does not want that mortal head wound. And so that explains everything. And if this Orpah, Goliath, which is, let me just say this, my personal take, probably not true, because if Ruth's David's great-great-grandma and Orpah's Goliath's mom, that would mean Goliath is like super crazy old and David's young. So the timeline doesn't quite work, but it does work as a perfect portrayal on the battlefield of what's happening in history. And that is. The forces of evil and the forces of good coming together and God's looks like a little child. How can it ever happen? How can a sinless son of God come into the world through a woman?

How can it work? Any more than a little child could take down a full-grown mountain of a man. Which is probably a good time to point out that in the show we see Martin portraying Goliath as almost like 30 feet tall or something, right? When in reality, he was six foot nine or nine foot nine. Depending on whether you're taking the Masoretic text or that which is found in the Dead Sea Scrolls and was also translated in the Septuagint. But during the time of the patriarchs, the average man was only five feet tall. So even almost seven feet tall would appear like a giant and 10 feet tall almost would really look like a giant. But the point is Goliath was really stupid big. David was teeny tiny and yet God's plans always come to pass and can't be stopped. And Jesus did come into this world. And guess what that tells us? He is coming again. The reason I believe in the second coming, He came the first time. All right. So that's all to start with. We now need to read another text. This is 1 Samuel 21 to connect the dots in our message. And David said, verse eight, to Himalak, Is there not on hand a spear or a sword? For I have brought neither my sword nor my weapons with me,

because the king's business required haste. Pause there. David, many years have gone by. He's been working for Saul for a while. Saul's been trying to kill him because Saul is low key crazy. Okay. And so David has to get out of town. And where does he go? He goes to Nob. Sanctuary city of priests. He goes to a place of worship. He goes to where the tabernacle was. He goes to where he could get alone with God. He could talk and get help from God's people. So the priest said, The sword of Goliath, the Philistine, whom you killed in the valley of Elah, there it is, wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod. If you will take that, take it. For there is no other except that one here. And David said, There's none like it. Give it to me. Come on, touch three people and tell them, Give it to me. Give it to me. God wants to give you something in your future, but something has to happen today to set that into motion. Having read the scripture,

let's now turn our attention to the screen and watch it played out. Do you have any weapons here? The sword, the bow? I had to leave in haste. There's no sword here except one. Come. Come. The sword of Goliath. It is all that is here. If it aids you, take it. Thank you. I needed to remember. Remember what? The greatness of God. Father, soldiers are here. What do they want? Him. What do they want? Him. David did indeed get ahead of Goliath by taking off the head of Goliath. But what I want to show you that connects these two stories is that in so doing, he got ahead of himself also. Like I said, the title of his message, Get Ahead of Yourself. Now, that's something in our culture we say people shouldn't do.

And it can be good advice. You know, a girl who's just gone on her first date and is now immediately, you know, pinning wedding dresses on Pinterest. It's like, oh, hold on. Let's not get ahead of ourselves here a little bit. So it can be good advice, but it also is terrible advice because in many ways, God does want you to get ahead of yourself. You see, a lot of us are living hand to mouth spiritually when God says we've been blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ. God wants us to have not just enough, but more than enough spiritually and emotionally. He wants us to have margin. He wants us to be living at the level of the head and not the tail, from above and not beneath. only. God doesn't just want you to get by and squeak by and barely be not burning out, but to get ahead for there to be overflow, even in lean times. And for that to happen, you have to lay the foundation today. Hear me loud and clear. Future you, I know you like to imagine what future you is going to be like, oh, he has abs or she's, you know, out of debt or, you know, they're so emotionally intelligent. No, listen, future you is just an exaggerated version of current you because time doesn't change you. It just makes you more of what you are today. And so what we have to understand is that in order to be a different version of ourselves in the future, that change has to go into effect today. Why was there a sword waiting for David in 1 Samuel 21? Listen to me. It's because he took it from Goliath in 1 Samuel 17. And what heads of giants that come against us in Jesus' name that we take off today will be waiting for

us in the future, the sword from that vanquished foe down the road. I'm, of course, using language that's poetic, but I do want you to understand that the Bible says that what we sow, we will reap. And we can't of the spirit reap corruption any more than we could of the flesh reap the spirit. You can't sow death and reap life. So if we do things that are positive for our spiritual growth and direction today, we fight battles today, don't procrastinate and put them off, the benefit of them will be waiting for us down the road. The sermon in a sentence is this, what you fight through will be waiting for you. And future you is going to thank you for every fight you pick with an enemy to take some ground today as God wants to prosper you wherever you put your feet, doing hard things in Jesus' name. I want to show you just a few ways you can work this out. Four, if you want to jot them all down, take notes. The ways you can do this, getting ahead of yourself, is number one, plant yourself spiritually. You got to plant yourself spiritually. I see this in David choosing in a time of crisis to rush to Nob, to go to where the priests were, to go to where the tabernacle is. Ladies and gentlemen, this is us choosing in our moments of crisis, in our difficult times, to seek God through being planted in the local church. The Bible says that those who are planted in God's house will flourish in his courts. David himself said, one thing I seek, one thing I desire, to behold the beauty of the Lord gazing on him in his tabernacle. David prioritized the local church. And what did he get as a result? He got bread and a blade. The priests gave him food to eat and a weapon for his hand. And so it is. Why is it so important for you to come into the church regularly? You'll get a bread for your stomach, living word of God, and a blade for your hand. You will have provisions for your journey and you will have protection for all that awaits you by way of trial in the world. The second thing is this, you need to honor authority. David's on the run from Saul, but we will see as the show continues to progress, he never is willing to lay his hand against the Lord's anointed. He is very careful to remain under authority. Saul, I don't want to hurt you. Saul, I don't want to fight you. He's under authority and he's under the priestly authority. He asked for the weapon. He asked for the food. He's under Samuel's authority. He honors his father, Jesse, who sends him to the battlefield with bread and with cheese. Even though he's the anointed king, he could say, do you know who I am? No, he's under authority. And this will come back to haunt us in a good way, right? We talk about coming back to haunt you. If you today choose to get under God's authority and under the spiritual authority in your life and the political authority, Romans 13, the state,

they don't bear the sword in vain. That will only bless you when you're in authority and you choose to remember, hey, I'm still under God's authority. I never get to a place where I don't need to yield, where I don't need to submit. I'm so thankful for all I learned when I was an assistant pastor and a youth pastor and a creative pastor that benefits me today. And I believe if you're not willing to be led, you're not ever going to be able to be good at leading. If you can't be tested, you can't be trusted. So plant yourself spiritually, honor authority. Number three, worship constantly. David's constantly worshiping in the midst of the difficulty. I believe that's why he knelt to pick up these stones. He was worshiping. He's on his knees. I believe going to the priestly city, he's just living a life of praise. You know, his best songs he'll end up writing in his most difficult moments. And that's because every hard, every challenging, every difficult thing, he worshiped his God. way through it. And worship that hurts like hell, heals like heaven. So when you send your praise to God, you're sending your praise ahead of you. And it's there ready to change the atmosphere and operate in the heavenly places in Christ. When the praises go up, His power comes down. And David's constantly living a life of worship. He wrote 73 psalms of our book of Psalms. All right, number three is worship constantly. Here's another way you can get ahead of yourself. You can tithe stubbornly, tithe stubbornly. What does tithing mean? Tithing means that whenever God blesses us with a paycheck or with a bonus check or a birthday check from grandma, whatever God gives you, an allowance that you say, I want to take the first and the best and honor God by returning it to Him. I want to give it to Him. And it takes faith to do that. And it takes faith to say, I want to honor you and what you've entrusted to me. It keeps the prosperity from turning into idolatry, from worshiping money and saying, I'm going to trust you, God, and I'm doing so because you told me I'm supposed to. And I see this sort of mentality of tithing in the sword being in Nob, the priestly city, and not in David's tent. What do you mean, Levi? Well, I mean, it's not shown in the show, but the Bible says this is 1 Samuel 1754. David took the head of the Philistine, brought it to Jerusalem, but he put Goliath's armor in his tent. Well, of course he did. You kill a giant, you get to take it and keep the spoils of war. David kept Goliath's armor. It was his because he was the only one who fought Goliath. And yet, why is the sword in the priestly city of Nob? Well, in the show, we have the

sword being a plot device with Abner and the God of swords and all this. That's fiction. What's true, it would seem, is that David took the greatest example of Goliath's sword and chose to not keep it in his tent, but to surrender it to God, saying, you gave me this, but I want this to be sort of a tithe to you. And I love this because now we're being poetic. But David, because he gave the sword to God in one season, God was able to return it back to him in a different season. And really, the totality of Scripture talks about our giving, giving God the opportunity to give back to us what we actually need it because he doesn't need us to give to him to have. He can never lack. But we do need what happens when we give to God and that he's able to bless us with peace and provision. And our giving sort of opens up the windows as God's able to rain down blessing. So what we could say is that our giving prevents God from being able to give to us what he wants to. So my encouragement to you looking out into the future with all you're going to face is tithe stubbornly, no matter what. Put God first. Now, I want to close with this thought. My children's Bible as a little one did not depict David decapitating Goliath. That would be troubling for the little kids, right? But it's really how it happened. And I think it's appropriate and prophetic because Jesus is the greater David. He's the son of David to wear his mantle and be the perfect David. Where David fell in many ways, Jesus never did. And it's foreshadowing when David decapitates Goliath because the Bible says in Hebrews Jesus, the greater David, would through death, destroy him, Satan, who has the power of death. How did he destroy Satan? By dying. That's not usually an effective military strategy. It's not like I'm going to hurt you. How? By letting you kill me. Yet for Jesus, it worked. He destroyed the devil, crushed his head. How? By dying. So he cut the devil's head off, you might say, using Satan's own sword. And if you haven't trusted in Christ, you can today. And because of Jesus, have power over death. That's the best, ultimate, eternal way of getting ahead of yourself. And you will find when your last breath on this earth comes, that like David penned in Psalm 23, death won't defeat you. You will pass through the valley of the shadow of death, fearing no evil, because Jesus will be with you in that moment to welcome you into your heavenly home. And so, Father, we thank you so much for the victory that is yours in your name, not because of our sword and spear, our armor, our prowess with the slingshot, but because the battle belongs

to the Lord. Thank you that Satan couldn't stop you from defeating him. And I pray, God, All of us, with the various battles we need to fight in this life, in this world, the various giants coming against us, that we can trust in you and release. And I just even pray that you would now open your hands. Everyone, listen to me. Open a hand up if there's a battle in your life. Maybe it's financial, medical, relational. Just open, release, release, release. Victory comes in the name above every name. So we worship. That's the war. So thank you, Father. Thank you, Father. Goliath will fall in your name. You put your hands down. And I want to invite anybody who's not trusted in Jesus. Come into church today, invited by a friend to be a part of this series based on a TV show, or you're just watching this. You're not even quite sure how you ended up. The algorithm brought this to you, but God's speaking to you. He loves you. He knows you, cares for you, knows every hair on your head, every thought you have while it's a far off. And he'll save you if you invite him into your heart. But he won't kick the door down. He knocks. And he must be invited in.

And if you ask Jesus to be your Lord and Savior, he will forgive you. He will heal you, give you the promise of eternal life and peace to live with every day you're still on this planet. So with your heads bowed and eyes closed, pray this prayer with me. No one praying alone. All of us praying together. We're praying for those of you at every church, watching online. God, save those who need to be rescued from death and hell. Say this to God. Dear God, I'm sorry for my sins. I ask you to forgive me. Thank you for sending Jesus to do what I couldn't, to be what I'm not. I believe he died and rose from the dead. Be my Lord and my Savior. In Jesus' name.