David wasn't afraid of Goliath because he recognized that God was on their side.
This young teenager trusted in God.
Why?
What was different about David than King Saul?
What was different about David than his older brothers?
What was different about David than every other Israelite soldier?
In this episode we're going to look at the life of David from the Old Testament of the
Bible.
And what's really cool about the Bible is it has guidance for us as we interact with
youth today or as we navigate life as a youth.
The Bible has great examples of young people doing extraordinary things.
So the example we're going to look at today is from the Old Testament book of 1 Samuel
chapter 17.
And this is the famous biblical story of young David defeating the Philistine giant named
Goliath.
But I want to focus on a different aspect of this story and look at David and his identity
and the courageous stand he took.
Not against Goliath, but the stand he first took against his brothers, the Israelite army
and King Saul.
And now we know that young David was a teenager, he was the youngest son of Jesse, he had seven
older brothers, and at this time in his life he was not a part of the Israelite army.
Probably because of his age as a teenager, but also his duties at home.
And the Israelites were in the valley of Elah fighting against the Philistine army.
And the Philistines had a scary champion named Goliath, who was a giant, he was about nine
feet tall, his armor weighed about 200 pounds, and this guy was a scary enemy.
For 40 days, Goliath challenged the Israelite army, and not a single person went out to
fight Goliath.
For 40 days.
Now David's father Jesse, his three oldest sons, Jesse's three oldest sons, David's older
brothers, were a part of the Israelite army.
They were in the valley of Elah, they were a part of the army fighting the Philistines.
So Jesse sent David to the battlefield to check on his brothers and to bring them food.
And so David went.
He found someone else to watch his sheep, which was his duty at home, and he went with
the supplies given to him by his father to check on his brothers.
And what I love about this story is talk about God's timing.
So right when David rolls into camp, Goliath is out there challenging the Israelites again,
right, that he's been doing for 40 days.
And that's right when David rolled into camp.
So we heard Goliath challenging the Israelites.
And right away, David starts asking questions.
And he walks into camp and the men of the Israelite army, King Saul, are terrified.
They've been terrified for over a month, they're terrified.
So let's read David's response in 1 Samuel 17, verses 26 and 27.
Goes like this.
And David said to the men who stood by him, what shall be done for the man who kills the
Philistine and takes away the reproach from Israel?
For who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living
God?
And the people answered him in the same way.
So shall be done to the man who kills him.
Who should defy the armies of the living God is what young teenager David said to the Israelite
army.
So before David fought Goliath and stood up to this nine foot tall giant, he first had
to speak boldly to the Israelite army, to his older brothers, and to the king of Israel,
King Saul.
And that did not go well.
If you keep reading, one of David's brothers had a huge issue with David being there and
David asking that question, like, hey, what happens if somebody defeats Goliath?
His brother started attacking David's heart.
Started attacking David's heart and saying, you're just here for yourself.
You're just here for your own glory.
Why are you even here?
Who's watching your sheep?
Someone who was tearing him apart, someone in his own family.
But David didn't let that bother him.
He brushed it off.
You see, David was the only person there who understood something.
He was the only person in that whole camp who remembered who was on the Israelites side.
He said, who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living
God?
And David remembered that while, yes, the Philistines had a giant, the Israelites had
something better.
The Israelites had the living God, the creator of the universe, who's a lot bigger than a
nine foot tall giant.
David understood maybe better than anyone, certainly better than anyone in the Valley
of Elah that day.
He understood the fear of the Lord.
David wasn't afraid of Goliath.
as he recognized that God was on their side.
This young teenager trusted in God.
Why?
What was different about David than King Saul?
What was different about David than his older brothers?
What was different about David
than every other Israelite soldier that day?
Two things.
One, David was walking closely with the Lord.
He knew his creator.
He spent time with his creator.
Read the Psalms.
The majority of the Psalms were written by David.
They show of an intimacy that he had with God.
He had trusted in God before.
This wasn't the first time.
God had delivered him from bears and from lions.
He trusted in God.
He was walking closely with him.
And because of that relationship,
he wasn't worried about this new challenge.
And maybe he was.
Maybe he was a little worried about the giant Goliath,
but he knew what he had to do.
He had to take a stand
because he knew that his God was bigger than Goliath
and that Goliath was insulting his God.
He was walking closely with the Lord.
And reason number two is David knew his own identity.
He knew that he was a child of God.
He knew who he belonged to
and that he can have confidence in not himself,
but in God, have confidence in how God saw him.
And God saw him as his beloved child.
And so David knew his identity,
his identity was grounded in that,
in being a child of God.
And like I discussed a little bit in the previous episode,
identity is something that's important.
We're all gonna have to figure it out
and come to an understanding at some point
of who we truly are.
And for some people, it takes a while.
For others, it doesn't.
David had it figured out pretty early on.
But the youth and young people in Generation Z
are trying to figure out their identity,
trying to answer that question of who am I?
And if you're a youth in Generation Z, here it is.
Your identity is this.
You are a child of God.
You are a child of the creator of the universe.
And that's it.
And yeah, you're gonna try to navigate your future
as you finish high school
and you're gonna figure out a career path
and what you wanna do with your life
and who you're gonna be.
And you should be asking yourself those questions
and striving for what's next.
And you should be setting goals.
But all of that should operate under the context
of who you are first.
And who you are first is a child of the living God.
And if you understand that,
then it doesn't matter so much who you are
because if you put your identity in your career
or you put your identity in being an athlete
or you put your identity in something else,
what happens if that thing goes away?
It'll feel like a part of you died.
It'll be a hard thing to navigate.
But if your identity is first grounded
in being a child of God,
then it doesn't matter as much what you're doing
because the who is more important.
Who you are is more important than what you do.
So remember that.
You are a child of God.
If you know a youth in Generation Z,
give them that message today.
Maybe tell them for the first time
or remind them of their identity in being a child of God.
And encourage them to operate under that knowledge
of who I am, who they are as a child of the living God.
And remind them of how their God sees them,
how their God views them, how their God values them.
And here's the cool thing.
Just like David did,
young people today can accomplish extraordinary things.
They can.
And if you're a young person today
and you've been told otherwise, that's not true.
You can do extraordinary things.
Paul tells Timothy in 1 Timothy 4,
don't let people look down on you because you are young.
Paul saw something in young Timothy who was leading a church
that maybe other people around him didn't see.
God can use young people in extraordinary ways
if they're walking closely with the Lord
and if they know who they are and how God sees them.
You see, age doesn't matter.
Put God on the throne of your life,
trust him, and allow him to lead you
and watch what happens.
Remember who you are as a child of the living God,
just like David did.
And don't be afraid to boldly take a stand
when you feel led.
Because maybe the people around you,
even the older people around you, are missing something.
Maybe they're missing the importance of the situation.
And David caught something that other people didn't.
And he was willing to boldly take a stand
because of his relationship with the Lord
and because he knew who he was.
Remember that today.
You are God's child.
He loves you, he cares about you,
and he wants to know you and he wants to use you
to do extraordinary things, just like David did.
Next episode we're gonna look at another example like we did with with King David this morning.
We'll look at another biblical example and talk about how we can use that example to help the youth in our lives
or if we are a youth to navigate life today, just like someone in the Bible did.