Your Strength Was Never the Point | 1 Samuel 17

They were like, "He had that dog in him." I went, "Oh, that came from some place." And I think it came from a place of faith. David not once says, "Does he know who he's dealing with? Do you know I killed a bear? Do you know I killed him?" Which he had by this point, I mean, which is crazy. Let's just talk about that. None of that is what he claims. He says, "You mess with the wrong God." That's what he says to Goliath. He's like, "The reason I'm gonna beat you is because you mess with the wrong God." This is the Crossroads Daily. No experts, no perfect people. Just honest conversations about what happens when the Bible shows up in real life. Hi, I'm Chuck. I'm Jamie. I'm Zach. I'm Misha. And we are still in First Samuel, this crazy narrative of all kinds of interesting conquests and leadership changes and all the things. If there's any story that even if you didn't know was in First Samuel, you've probably heard. You know this story. You know this story, right? David and Goliath is a story. Everybody's heard or the term has been used. You know, I think about whenever there's an underdog

in sports and he talk about it. This is a David versus Goliath kind of thing. There was also a survivor season called David. What's the real thing? Oh, pretty sure. You can fact check me, but I'm pretty sure there's a season of that. Someone will affect you. Those survivor people are committed to their show. Very much so. But yeah, so you probably familiar with this story. And at its core, it's about God enabling someone to do. What seems impossible? And so I'm guessing you probably had a time or two in your life where you were facing something that seemed impossible and you need to courage. Talk about that. Talk about time when God gave you courage to overcome or do something that you thought was seemingly impossible. I'll give a childhood example. Despite my tall stature, I was really short as a kid. This I did gymnastics and I had a really terrible fall. Like coach hit me and I fell off the beam. And I didn't want to do it. And my dad and I had a conversation about it. And he's like, we do hard things. And so I feel like the only reason I got back. Like I didn't know as a kid that was the reason or whatever. But like just even I think about that of like I was nine. Okay.

Like my mom was like, we're done. You're done. No more because she's like watched it happen. But my dad was like, no, we can do hard things. And I think it was encouragement. But I think that that like I mean, that's the root of encouragement, right? Courage to do the thing. That's right. That's right. Man, are you are you grateful or not grateful for your dad? I mean, I'm encouraging you to do it. I'm glad because that's kind of set a precedent of like, I can fail. I can hurt myself. I can do things and I will try to get back up. I may not stay in that sport for much longer. I think I finished like that competition season. And then I was like, okay, what about swimming? Like, no way. What about swimming? You don't hurt yourself swimming. That's good. Yeah. Yeah. That's a good example. Did you say your coach hit you? She was like, you know, you do the thing where you're like, okay, I'm going to make sure you don't fall. Yeah.

And then as I was like landing the cartwheel on the beam, she just like hit my hip accidentally, like moving her hands away. Oh, yeah. And then I hit every, like it felt like I hit every body part. Oh, so it was not great. Oh, man. And that doesn't happen in swimming. It does not happen in zoning. I'll say for me not to be a bummer. I mean, the thing that came to mind was in December of last year, we lost my dad and it was a long struggle with cancer and just you could see it coming, you know? And it was just one of those things like, man, I couldn't have been ready for it. I don't know if I would have wanted to be. It just had to happen. And it was something I was not pumped to face. But I did and I couldn't have done it without my family and people in the community and God being with me for sure. Yeah. If you don't want me to ask, what did that look like? Like, do you have an example of a place where you're like, man, God gave me something in this process that I know of, man. Just the funeral for sure, like just going into it. Because it's like, what do you expect? I don't know. Yeah, just something just not looking forward to it. And it felt like both honoring and like a good start to the grievance process. Like just some of the things people shared about my dad were like,

yeah, they nailed it. And something that stuck with me from that is the pastor said, the best way to honor a good man is to live like him. And that's kind of the whole thing we're doing. That's the life of following Jesus. - Yeah. - Thank you, Ned. - Yeah. - I'd say what I relate to this story a lot is I perceive a lot of goliaths in my life. And so I had a tendency I would say and still have this struggle to like, if something gets a tough enough, I wanna quit and run mainly just because I want people to view me as someone who can accomplish something, someone who is accomplished and successful. And when I can't be viewed as that, I wanna tuck tail and run. - You don't wanna fail. - Yeah. And so a lot of that I can trace back to like growing up and playing sports before I went through like growth spurts, I was pretty good at, I still think I'm pretty good sports. So I was pretty good sports and excelled. And you know, I grew up in a household that had a lot of intellect in it. My dad was in academia. My sister was high performing and stuff like that. And just something about hitting this middle school

in high school years when things got a little tougher. Again, I was going through growth spurts like it was just like I had bad feet and stuff. And I just didn't know how to overcome like these physical and sometimes emotional struggles. I wanted to tuck tail and run until I started following the life of Jesus. Really, like I do remember it was a sermon. Chuck, I think you gave it actually. Oh, come on. Oh, it was a sermon when I was in college hearing like, wait, there is no shame in condemnation when you were in Jesus, when you follow him. And it just hit me like a freight train of like, there's actually a shame I've been holding when I don't accomplish this material success. Yeah. So yeah, like that perception of Goliath just started to shrink down and down and down. And it still creeps up. Yeah. I still have like it's my natural tendency to believe something is a Goliath in front of me, but that was super helpful. Man, that's so powerful. And I love what you say cause I think like David, David's courage against Goliath came from someplace. You know, David had a dog in him. That's what they would say. They were like, he had that dog in him.

That came from someplace. And I think it came from a place of faith. The thing that strikes me as I read this is David, not once says, does he know who he's dealing with? Do you know I killed a bear? Do you know I can, what she had by this point? I mean, which is crazy. But let's just talk about that. Like, killed a bear and a lion. I mean, I probably give me some arrogance walking into a situation. None of that is what he claims. He says, you mess with the wrong God. That's what he says to Goliath. He's like, the reason I'm gonna beat you is because you mess with the wrong God. And man, I think that's a word for us. It's like, when we're facing something that's hard, when we're facing a Goliath, it isn't about our strength. That's not the problem. That's not the thing that's gonna overcome is the fact that that thing mess with the wrong God. And you know, I know this as a parent. Like, I'm nice. People know I'm very nice and kind. And I try to be and I am. I'm naturally, but like, ooh, you mess with my kids? You will see another side of me. I asked you for most parents. And you better what the side of me,

'cause if my wife comes, it's gonna make it worse. So you better, you don't want any parts of that. But like, I think that's the thing that David had confidence in, is that you defied the army of the living God. Like, so today, I love what you're so specific. So today I'm gonna kill you and I'm gonna cut off your head. Like, he's like, this is what's gonna happen. And then it happens, right? There's something about this story that I think is so powerful for us because we do still have Goliath's. What's a Goliath that you're facing right now? Something that like is right in front of you. And how are you encouraged by knowing it's not about Goliath, it's about Goliath messing with the wrong God's child when it came into your life? - I think I am changing as a person right now and I'm very resistant towards it. This isn't a fully fleshed out thought. I'm so wrestling with God around it. But yes, like just yesterday, I was talking to my wife about this, about how so many of the struggles that I've been having with her, with her kids, I think I have to deal with like, I've been like recently, within the last six months,

dealing with like this extra ball of angst. And that's not natural to me. Usually anxiety and things like that, like fall off of my back. And I've been feeling it. And because I've been feeling it and feeling like this is not who I am, I've been trying to avoid it or just ignore it or say this is not me and not like, yes, I'll go to God to it. But I don't think I've been giving it to God. I think recently I started to realize like, no, I'm changing as a person. I have two young kids. That has been changing me. My relationship with my wife, like we've been changing as people and therefore our relationship has been changing. And so taking that to God has been a very freeing thing to do. But before that, it felt like a wall that I was just kept hitting like a goliath that just kept hitting this backing up from and saying that like, that's not me. So I need to go somewhere else or do something else. - What I love about what you're saying though is, yes, it's resisting the tendency to run away and instead to run toward God and that wall, right? - That's what happens in this story too is like, you know, Goliath is talking trash the whole time.

- That's right. - And then he's like, who's gonna step up for 40 days and then David's like, I will. - That's right, that's right. - And he runs towards him, even that detail. Like, I think that's part of what threw Goliath off. - Yeah. - Well, he's coming, he's running. - Yeah. - He's running and by the time he kind of came to with it all, it was too late and there he is. And so, man, I, we could talk about this forever. - Yeah. - I bet we all have a Goliath. I bet there's something that feels big, feels hard, may have been there for a long time, you know, says that Goliath was talking to the nation of Israel day after day, you might have something in your life that feels like a day after day kind of talk. And yet, with God, Goliath can be defeated. And if we run to God, instead of running away from the problem, away from the Goliath, I think we get to experience his power in that way. So, I'm encouraged by that. I'm grateful for that. And I'm grateful for you guys sharing. (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music)