Victory Fellowship
BTCS - Hope Is Here: Week 3 – Hope for the Underdog
October 3, 2021 – Scripture: 1 Samuel 17:20-50 (32-37)
Intro: Good morning, Church. I want to thank you for joining us this morning for the third week of our series called Hope Is Here. The first week we talked about how Jesus brings us hope when we are weary from the heaviness of life and how we do not have to walk alone. The second week we talked about the hope that comes from the grace of Jesus when we are broken because of sin, and how we can forgive because we have been forgiven. Today we want to talk about the hope that is given to us when we feel like we are facing more than we can handle and we are the underdog.
David was only a young boy when he decided to go toe-to-toe with a Philistine giant. Everyone else was too afraid to fight because it seemed like more than they could overcome. They were right. The only way this battle would be won was by trusting God to intervene. On his own, David was an underdog, but with God, he was an overcomer.
There is no enemy you can face in this life that God cannot give you the victory over. But you must trust in Him. When the Church comes together in great faith, there is nothing it cannot do. The Israelites were fearful until David stepped up in faith. Sometimes a community of believers needs someone to go first. That step of faith can ignite others to follow.
Someone with the audacity to believe that my God is more powerful than any force in the universe, that together we can do amazing things, and if God is with me, there is nothing I cannot overcome. We choose faith over fear.
Illustration: There is a reason that so many of us love some of the classic movies in our culture. Movies like Rudy, Rocky, Cinderella Man, and Cool Runnings are loved because they all have a common theme. They are all movies about underdogs. They are films about unlikely characters overcoming amazing odds. We cheer for the underdog because, somehow, we feel like if they can win, so can we.
Life is full of daunting situations, isn’t it? Parenting children can feel incredibly overwhelming. Navigating global pandemics can be more than we can handle. Juggling careers and family can be hard to do well. Growing in your faith and defeating sinful habits can be a challenge. I would argue that is because these things are not meant to be done alone.
The Bible is full of stories of characters who, against all odds, experience victory. There is a common thread in these stories as well. The characters all are fully aware that without God on their side, there is no hope of a favorable outcome. Left to themselves, they would face defeat. One of the classic stories of an underdog is the story of David. This account takes place long before David is King of Israel. At this point, he is just a boy.
1 Samuel 17:20-21 Just hours before David arrives at the front lines of a massive conflict between the Israelite and the Philistine armies, he is in the fields taking care of sheep. It is clear from the beginning of this story that David has found himself in a position that is above his paygrade.
WE ARE RARELY PREPARED FOR THE FIGHT
The truth is that we are hardly ever prepared to handle what life throws at us. It’s a phone call with a diagnosis. It’s a discovery of infidelity. It’s a temptation we did not see coming. No one asks to be placed in a position where there is no clear route to victory. This is where David finds himself within the first few verses, and it might be where you are today. When we find ourselves in this place, we need some kind of hope.
Story: Not prepared for Erick’s passing. (Try to relate to the congregation on what it is like to meet a challenge without being prepared.)
It is at these times when we have to decide how we will respond. Do we give up and accept defeat, or do we trust in God to give us the strength to carry on?
David arrives at the front lines to check on his brothers who are fighting in the Israelite army. It is at that point that he gets the first real look at what the Israelite army was facing.
1 Samuel 17:23-26; 32-37 You can hear the determination within David. Though he is just a boy, he knows someone has to stand up to this threat. This threat is a massive man named Goliath. Goliath was a decorated warrior from Philistine. He struck fear into the hearts of all who saw him. He was a giant. He was terrifying. The whole of the Israelite army was paralyzed with fear. No one was willing to take on this giant. However, someone has to do something, and David is willing to.
What causes a young boy, an underdog, to take on such a mountainous task? Hope. Hope that he will not fight this battle alone. Hope that with God’s help there is nothing that is impossible. Hope that what little he has to offer is enough. David’s reasoning for this hope comes from God’s faithfulness in the past. God was with him when he was protecting sheep in the field from lions and bears, surely the Lord would protect him now as well.
IF GOD IS FOR US, NOTHING CAN STAND AGAINST US
When we find ourselves in seasons of struggle, sometimes we have to remind ourselves of how God has been with us in the past. Hope is a derivative of trust. When we believe that something or someone is trustworthy, it gives us hope.
Story: (Tesia with me in the pool) There was no fear. There was no concern. There was only trust in my love to catch her as I had in the past. David’s confidence comes from God’s faithfulness, and it is the drive he needs to overcome.
1 Samuel 17:40-47 Saul, the King of Israel at the time, tries to fit David with armor and weapons to protect him in the conflict, but none of them fit. As if David being a boy did not make him disadvantaged enough, now he is going to fight Goliath with nothing but a slingshot and five smooth stones. After Goliath breathes out threats to this little underdog, David responds by telling him that though Goliath fights with sword, spear, and javelin, he is letting God fight his battles for him.
THIS IS HOW WE FIGHT OUR BATTLES
Maybe you don’t feel equipped to overcome the things that you are facing. You are in good company. Maybe you know that your trial is too much for you. This is a good place to start. It is only when we realize that our battles are not waged in conventional ways, but rather in the spirit, that we will begin to experience God fighting for us. For David, this is a spiritual battle, and it takes God’s involvement to experience a victory.
Paul speaks to this in Ephesians 6:12.
In Ephesians 6:12 Paul reminds his readers that if our battles are not really about the physical world around us, then we can’t overcome by physical means. It takes a spiritual approach. We fight our daunting battles by submitting to the will of God. We fight our most difficult circumstances by bringing them to God in prayer. We fight the evil that we come against by inviting God to intervene on our behalf.
David calls upon God as he engages Goliath on the battlefield. With a single stone, a precise throw, and the power of God, David’s shot flies straight and true and connects with Goliath’s forehead. The giant falls to the ground, dead. This single victory turns the tide of the entire war. The Philistines run, and the Israelites pursue. Because of David’s bravery and trust in God, they are all given hope that they too can be a part of the triumph of God.
HOPE IS CONTAGIOUS
David’s hope in God spreads like wildfire. The entire story changes. It is no longer about defeat; it is now about victory. There is something that happens within a fellowship of faith when just one person has the audacity to believe God for great things. The church benefits greatly from just one person with a little hope, because hope is contagious. It spreads.
It takes one person with a heart for missions. It takes one person who believes that prayer changes things. It could be the spark that ignites a whole congregation of hope. That person could be you.
Even though you cannot see how God might come through, faith is believing that it is still possible, simply because “He is.” When a whole church begins to function in this way, that is when the world changes.
PRAYER
SONG: He Is
Samuel 17:32-37 NLT
32 “Don’t worry about this Philistine,” David told Saul. “I’ll go fight him!” 33 “Don’t be ridiculous!” Saul replied. “There’s no way you can fight this Philistine and possibly win! You’re only a boy, and he’s been a man of war since his youth.” 34 But David persisted. “I have been taking care of my father’s sheep and goats,” he said. “When a lion or a bear comes to steal a lamb from the flock, 35 I go after it with a club and rescue the lamb from its mouth. If the animal turns on me, I catch it by the jaw and club it to death. 36 I have done this to both lions and bears, and I’ll do it to this pagan Philistine, too, for he has defied the armies of the living God! 37 The Lord who rescued me from the claws of the lion and the bear will rescue me from this Philistine” Saul finally consented. “All right, go ahead,” he said. “And may the Lord be with you!”
