1 Samuel 17:1-58 “Facing Your Giants”

1 Samuel – Week 4- “Facing Our Giants”

1 Samuel 17:45-47

⁴⁵ David said to the Philistine, “You come against me with a sword, spear, and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the Lord of Armies, the God of the ranks of Israel—you have defied him.

⁴⁶ Today, the Lord will hand you over to me. Today, I’ll strike you down, remove your head, and give the corpses of the Philistine camp to the birds of the sky and the wild creatures of the earth. Then all the world will know that Israel has a God,

⁴⁷ and this whole assembly will know that it is not by sword or by spear that the Lord saves, for the battle is the Lord’s. He will hand you over to us.”

• Today, I want to talk to you about “Facing Your Giants.” The Battle Belongs to the Lord

Pray!

Introduction:

• We all face giants in life—
• Giants of fear, doubt, temptation, trials, and spiritual battles.
• These giants stand before us,
• Mocking our faith, intimidating us,
• And making us believe that victory is impossible.
• Maybe you’re in a season where you feel overwhelmed.
• The enemy keeps reminding you of your past failures,
• Whispering that you’ll never overcome that struggle,
• That you’ll never break free from that addiction,
• Or that your situation is too far gone.
• That’s exactly where Israel found themselves when they stood before Goliath,
• As we will see
• A warrior nearly 10 feet tall,
• Covered in heavy armor,
• And full of taunts against the people of God.
• He wasn’t just challenging them—he was challenging their God.
• And instead of standing firm, Israel was paralyzed by fear.
• But then comes David—
• A young, unlikely warrior
• With no armor, no sword, and no military experience.
• What made him different?
• He wasn’t looking at the size of the giant—he was looking at the size of his God.
• In 1 Samuel 17:45-47, David declares:

“You come against me with a sword, spear, and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the Lord of Armies, the God of the ranks of Israel—you have defied him. Today, the Lord will hand you over to me… Then all the world will know that Israel has a God, and this whole assembly will know that it is not by sword or by spear that the Lord saves, for the battle is the Lord’s.”

• That’s the truth I want us to hold onto today:
• The battle is the Lord’s.
• Victory doesn’t come through our own strength, strategies, or abilities—
• It comes through trusting in Him.
• Today, we’re going to look at three truths about facing the giants in our lives:
• Fear Will Paralyze You (1 Samuel 17:1-11)
• Faith Will Propel You (1 Samuel 17:12-37)
• Jesus Has Already Won for You (1 Samuel 17:38-54)
• Are you ready to stop living in fear and start walking in the victory God has already won? Let’s dive into

Truth 1:

Fear Will Paralyze You (1 Samuel 17:1-11)

• The enemy wants to weaken our faith by making victory seem impossible,
• Causing us to act in fear and become spiritually paralyzed

1 Samuel 17:4-7

⁴ Then a champion named Goliath, from Gath, came out from the Philistine camp. He was nine feet, nine inches tall

⁵ and wore a bronze helmet and bronze scale armor that weighed one hundred twenty-five pounds.

⁶ There was bronze armor on his shins, and a bronze javelin was slung between his shoulders.

⁷ His spear shaft was like a weaver’s beam, and the iron point of his spear weighed fifteen pounds. In addition, a shield-bearer was walking in front of him.

• As we just read
• Goliath was the picture of Fear
• He was an experienced warrior,
• Nearly 10 feet tall, fully armored, and terrifying

1 Samuel 17:8-10

⁸ He stood and shouted to the Israelite battle formations, “Why do you come out to line up in battle formation?” He asked them, “Am I not a Philistine and are you not servants of Saul? Choose one of your men and have him come down against me.

⁹ If he wins in a fight against me and kills me, we will be your servants. But if I win against him and kill him, then you will be our servants and serve us.”

¹⁰ Then the Philistine said, “I defy the ranks of Israel today. Send me a man so we can fight each other!”

• Now he begins to taunt Israel,
• By mocking God and His people
• He demanded a one-on-one battle—
• A fight no one believed they could win.

1 Samuel 17:11

¹¹ When Saul and all Israel heard these words from the Philistine, they lost their courage and were terrified.

• This made Israel feel paralyzed by Fear
• Saul and the Israelites became too focused on the enemy’s strength
• Rather than God’s power
• You and I face the same challenge
• Every day, we face giants
• Giants of Fear, Sin & Doubt
• We often allow the enemy to make them larger than life
• By reminding us of past failures when we try to move forward with the Lord
• Or they lead us to doubt who God really is (as old as the Garden- the original lie “Did God really Say?”
• But His Word reminds us this morning in

2 Timothy 1:7

“For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but one of power, love, and sound judgment.”

Isaiah 41:10

“Do not fear, for I am with you; do not be afraid, for I am your God. I will strengthen you; I will help you; I will hold on to you with My righteous right hand.”

Romans 8:31

“If God is for us, who can be against us?”

• So, if fear does not actually have the power to win
• Then what does?
• That brings us to our second truth

Truth 2:

Faith Will Propel You (1 Samuel 17:12-37) (to do only what he can do through you)

• Do you find yourself responding like Israel—frozen in fear—
• Here is the reality
• Faith grows when we shift our focus from the size of the problem to the size of our God.
• Faith grows when we stop trusting in our own strength and start trusting in his
• Faith grows when we surrender our weakness to his power
• As we are about to see
• God uses the weak and unexpected
• To accomplish His greatest victories.
• David’s confidence was not in himself but in God’s power.

1 Samuel 17:12-15

¹² Now David was the son of the Ephrathite from Bethlehem of Judah named Jesse. Jesse had eight sons and during Saul’s reign was already an old man.

¹³ Jesse’s three oldest sons had followed Saul to the war, and their names were Eliab, the firstborn, Abinadab, the next, and Shammah, the third,

¹⁴ and David was the youngest. The three oldest had followed Saul,

¹⁵ but David kept going back and forth from Saul to tend his father’s flock in Bethlehem.

• David Steps Onto the Battlefield with Confidence in God
• He was young, inexperienced, and overlooked
• In fact, in

1 Samuel 17:28 it reads

²⁸ David’s oldest brother Eliab listened as he spoke to the men, and he became angry with him. “Why did you come down here?” he asked. “Who did you leave those few sheep with in the wilderness? I know your arrogance and your evil heart—you came down to see the battle!”

• His brothers mocked him, and then in verse 33
• We see Saul even doubted him

1 Samuel 17:33

³³ But Saul replied, “You can’t go fight this Philistine. You’re just a youth, and he’s been a warrior since he was young.”

• But David saw Goliath’s challenge as an attack on God

1 Samuel 17:26

²⁶ David spoke to the men who were standing with him: “What will be done for the man who kills that Philistine and removes this disgrace from Israel? Just who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God?”

• And David’s Faith Was Rooted in God’s Past Faithfulness

1 Samuel 17:34-37

³⁴ David answered Saul, “Your servant has been tending his father’s sheep. Whenever a lion or a bear came and carried off a lamb from the flock,

³⁵ I went after it, struck it down, and rescued the lamb from its mouth. If it reared up against me, I would grab it by its fur,^[g] strike it down, and kill it.

³⁶ Your servant has killed lions and bears; this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, for he has defied the armies of the living God.”

³⁷ Then David said, “The Lord who rescued me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will rescue me from the hand of this Philistine.”

• He had already defeated a lion and a bear while tending sheep
• David knew that God’s power—
• Not human ability—would bring victory.
• Again, God’s word reminds us

1 Corinthians 1:27 –

“Instead, God has chosen what is foolish in the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen what is weak in the world to shame the strong.”

Zechariah 4:6 –

“Not by strength or by might, but by My Spirit, says the Lord of Armies.”

2 Corinthians 12:9

“My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”

• Today, do you feel weak, unqualified, or small?
• God often chooses the unlikely to do His greatest work.
• Trust in God’s past faithfulness to give you courage for today’s battles.
• Faith in God, not self-confidence, is what brings victory.

Truth 3:

Jesus Has Already Won for You (1 Samuel 17:38-54)

• Jesus has defeated our greatest Giant Sin & Death
• David’s Victory Was a Picture of Jesus’ Triumph Over Sin

1 Samuel 17:38-40

³⁸ Then Saul had his own military clothes put on David. He put a bronze helmet on David’s head and had him put on armor.

³⁹ David strapped his sword on over the military clothes and tried to walk, but he was not used to them. “I can’t walk in these,” David said to Saul, “I’m not used to them.” So David took them off.

⁴⁰ Instead, he took his staff in his hand and chose five smooth stones from the wadi and put them in the pouch, in his shepherd’s bag. Then, with his sling in his hand, he approached the Philistine.

• David rejected Saul’s armor, choosing to fight God’s way
• By refusing the conventional weapons of war,
• He was relying on God rather than human strength.
• Jesus did not come as the Messiah people expected—
• A warrior king with earthly power—
• But as a humble servant who fought with obedience and sacrifice.

Philippians 2:6-8

⁶ who, existing in the form of God, did not consider equality with God
as something to be exploited.
⁷ Instead he emptied himself by assuming the form of a servant, taking on the likeness of humanity. And when he had come as a man,
⁸ he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death—
even to death on a cross.

1 Samuel 17:45-47

⁴⁵ David said to the Philistine, “You come against me with a sword, spear, and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the Lord of Armies, the God of the ranks of Israel—you have defied him.

⁴⁶ Today, the Lord will hand you over to me. Today, I’ll strike you down, remove your head, and give the corpses of the Philistine camp to the birds of the sky and the wild creatures of the earth. Then all the world will know that Israel has a God,

⁴⁷ and this whole assembly will know that it is not by sword or by spear that the Lord saves, for the battle is the Lord’s. He will hand you over to us.”

• He declared that the battle belonged to the Lord
• David did not claim victory for himself—
• He made it clear that God was the one fighting the battle.
• Jesus also credited His victory over sin to the Father,
• Fulfilling God’s divine Will

John 17:4

“I have glorified you on the earth by completing the work you gave me to do.”

1 Samuel 17:49-51

⁴⁹ David put his hand in the bag, took out a stone, slung it, and hit the Philistine on his forehead. The stone sank into his forehead, and he fell facedown to the ground.

⁵⁰ David defeated the Philistine with a sling and a stone. David overpowered the Philistine and killed him without having a sword.

⁵¹ David ran and stood over him. He grabbed the Philistine’s sword, pulled it from its sheath, and used it to kill him. Then he cut off his head. When the Philistines saw that their hero was dead, they fled.

• David’s unexpected victory with a single stone
• Points to Jesus’ unexpected triumph through the cross.
• Just as David cut off Goliath’s head,
• Jesus crushed the head of Satan—fulfilling God’s promise
• Found in

Genesis 3:15

“I will put hostility between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring. He will strike your head, and you will strike his heel.”

Hebrews 2:14-15

“Now since the children have flesh and blood in common, Jesus also shared in these, so that through his death he might destroy the one holding the power of death—that is, the devil—and free those who were held in slavery all their lives by the fear of death.”

• Just as David held up Goliath’s severed head as proof of victory, Jesus holds the keys of death as proof that He has conquered sin.

Revelation 1:18

“I am the Living One; I was dead, but now look—I am alive forever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades.”

• Jesus Is Our True David, and We Are Israel
• David was Israel’s representative in the battle,
• Just as Jesus represents us in the battle against sin.
• Like Israel, we were powerless to defeat sin and death on our own.
• Jesus fought the battle for us,

Colossians 2:14-15 –

“He erased the certificate of debt, with its obligations, that was against us and opposed to us, and has taken it away by nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and disgraced them publicly; he triumphed over them in him.”

1 Corinthians 15:54-57 –

“Death has been swallowed up in victory. Where, death, is your victory? Where, death, is your sting? The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!”

• Fear Will Paralyze You (1 Samuel 17:1-11)
• Faith Will Propel You (1 Samuel 17:12-37)
• Jesus Has Already Won for You (1 Samuel 17:38-54)

Conclusion:

• The story of David and Goliath
• Is not just about an underdog overcoming the impossible—
• It’s about faith in the power of God to deliver His people.
• Every one of us faces giants—
• Fear, doubt, sin, struggles, and opposition that seem too great to defeat.
• But the message of 1 Samuel 17 is clear:
• The battle belongs to the Lord (1 Samuel 17:47).
• David’s victory was not about his skill but about his trust in God.
• While others cowered in fear,
• David stepped forward in faith,
• Declaring that God would fight for him.
• In the same way, Jesus, the Greater David,
• Stepped onto the battlefield of sin and death on our behalf.
• Through His sacrifice on the cross and His resurrection,
• He secured the ultimate victory—
• A victory that now belongs to all who put their trust in Him.

Call to Action: What step do you need to take?

1. Identify Your Giant – What is the battle you are facing today? Is it fear, addiction, doubt, or a challenge that seems impossible? Name it. Recognize it. Bring it to a God who fights for you.
2. Stop Fighting in Your Own Strength – David did not rely on armor or weapons but on the power of God. Are you trying to fight your battles alone? Surrender your struggles to God and trust in His power, not your own.
3. Step Forward in Faith – David didn’t just believe; he acted. Faith is not passive—it moves forward. What step of faith is God calling you to take? Is it repentance? Forgiveness? Boldness in your witness?

How do you take the step?

• Over the last few weeks
• We have talked about Prayer, trials, obedience
• And now today facing Giants
• At the conclusion of every week, we have seen
• That only a relationship with Jesus is the answer
• It’s because of Jesus that we can pray and see results
• It’s because of Jesus that we can walk through trials
• It’s because of Jesus that we can obey
• And it’s because of Jesus that we can face our giants
• But no matter how amazing a picture I can paint of him for you
• Unless you chose to lean in and know him more
• You will never experience all that he is to us
• So, today I want to invite you to
• One more call to action

1. Taste and See!

PsalmS 34:8

⁸ Taste and see that the Lord is good.
How happy is the person who takes refuge in him!

• David wrote this Psalm during some of the events that will take place in Second Samuel
• But he wrote it to remind himself and others
• That God is not just asking us each week
• As we hear these truths
• To have intellectual belief in what he can do
• But to pursue a personal relationship with him
• Let me show you what it looks like
• (Coca-Cola Chocolate Cake)

The Battle Is the Lord’s—Trust Him Today!

• Don’t let fear, doubt, or past failures keep you from stepping into the victory God has already won for you.
• Pray. Surrender. Take the step of faith. Trust in Jesus.
• If you’re ready to stop running from your giants
• And start trusting God,
• I invite you to respond today—
• I invite you to taste and see
• Whether that’s through prayer,
• Surrendering your heart to Jesus,
• Or stepping out in obedience in a new way.