Finding Victory in Christ: The True David

Devotional

Day 1: Our Protection Is the Presence of God

True protection in spiritual battles comes from God's presence with us.
David faced Goliath not with the armor of Saul, but with the confidence that God was with him, just as God had delivered him from the lion and the bear. The presence of God was his shield, and because of this, he feared no evil. In our own lives, we often try to protect ourselves or others with our own wisdom or resources, but the greatest security we can have is to walk closely with God, trusting that His presence goes before us into every challenge. When we fear God above all else, we find freedom from the fears that would otherwise control us. [37:16]

1 Samuel 17:37
And David said, “The Lord who delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine.” And Saul said to David, “Go, and the Lord be with you!” (ESV)

Reflection: Where in your life are you relying on your own strength or resources for protection instead of trusting in the presence of God? How can you invite God’s presence into that area today?

Day 2: Our Weapon Is God Himself

Our greatest weapon in spiritual battles is not our own ability, but God’s power working through us.
David did not rely on his sling or stones, but declared to Goliath that he came “in the name of the Lord of hosts.” The real weapon was God Himself, and David’s faith allowed him to step forward in boldness. In the same way, we are called to face the challenges and opposition in our lives not with self-confidence, but with confidence in God’s power and presence. When we remember that God is for us, we can move forward, knowing that no enemy can ultimately stand against us. [47:21]

Romans 8:31
What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? (ESV)

Reflection: What is one challenge you are facing right now that feels overwhelming? How can you shift your focus from your own abilities to God’s power as your weapon today?

Day 3: Our Victory Is Found in Christ’s Victory

We are not the heroes of the story—Jesus is our champion who has already won the ultimate victory.
Just as David defeated Goliath on behalf of the Israelites, Jesus has conquered sin and death on our behalf. We are like the soldiers on the sidelines, unable to defeat the enemy ourselves, but able to charge the field in the victory that Christ has won. Our daily battles are fought from a place of Christ’s finished work, not our own striving. When we remember that His victory is our victory, we can live with confidence and freedom, no longer paralyzed by fear or defeat. [59:40]

1 Corinthians 15:57
But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. (ESV)

Reflection: In what area of your life do you need to stop striving for victory on your own and instead rest in the victory Jesus has already won for you?

Day 4: Our Identity Is “Beloved” in Christ

Our true identity is found in being loved by God and transformed into the image of Christ.
David’s name means “beloved,” and his confidence came from knowing he was chosen and loved by God. As followers of Jesus, our identity is not in our achievements or failures, but in being God’s beloved children. As we pursue the heart of God, He shapes us more into the likeness of Christ, so that others see not just us, but Christ in us. This identity gives us the confidence to live boldly and love others deeply, knowing we are secure in God’s love. [01:09:51]

1 John 3:1
See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. (ESV)

Reflection: How does knowing you are God’s beloved child change the way you see yourself and interact with others today?

Day 5: Our Mission Is to Make God Known

God’s desire is that all the earth would know Him, and He calls us to join in that mission.
David’s motivation in facing Goliath was not to make a name for himself, but to show the world the greatness of God. As we follow Christ, we are called to live in such a way that God’s name is made known through us. This means stepping out in faith, sharing the good news of Jesus, and letting our lives reflect His love and power. Even when we feel afraid or inadequate, God empowers us by His Spirit to fulfill His purpose, so that all may know there is a God who saves. [01:01:52]

Matthew 5:16
In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven. (ESV)

Reflection: Who is one person you can intentionally show or share God’s love with this week so that they might know there is a God who saves?

Sermon Summary

This morning, we gathered around the story of David and Goliath in 1 Samuel 17, a passage that is both familiar and deeply profound. As we entered the valley of Elah with David, we were reminded that every believer is engaged in a spiritual battle. The enemy seeks to steal, kill, and destroy, but our protection is not found in our own strength or strategies—it is found in the presence of the living God. David’s confidence did not come from armor or weapons, but from his relationship with God, who had proven faithful in the past. The fear of the Lord, not the fear of man or circumstance, is the beginning of wisdom and the source of true courage.

David’s refusal to wear Saul’s armor teaches us the importance of authenticity and trusting in the unique ways God has prepared us. We are often tempted to take on the fears and expectations of others, but God calls us to walk in the confidence of His presence and the gifts He has given us. David’s weapon was not just a sling and stones, but the very name and authority of God. He faced Goliath not to make a name for himself, but to make God’s name known among the nations.

Yet, the heart of this story is not about us being David, bravely slaying our giants. The true David is Jesus, the greater King who faced the ultimate Goliath—sin and death—on our behalf. We are not the hero; we are the soldiers on the sidelines, unable to defeat the enemy ourselves. But when Jesus, our champion, conquers sin and death, we are invited to charge the field behind Him, sharing in His victory. Our confidence, our weapon, our victory, and our identity are all found in Christ. As we pursue the heart of God, we are transformed into “little Christs,” living out our beloved identity and joining God’s mission to make His name known in all the earth.

Key Takeaways

1. True protection is found in the presence of God, not in human strategies or borrowed armor. David’s confidence came from knowing God was with him, and this same presence is available to every believer. When we fear God above all else, we are freed from the paralyzing fear of people and circumstances. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and the foundation of spiritual courage. [37:16]
2. Authenticity in our calling means refusing to wear the expectations or fears of others. David did not try to be Saul; he trusted the unique preparation God had given him through years of faithfulness in obscurity. We are most effective when we walk in the gifts and experiences God has given us, rather than imitating someone else’s journey. God delights to use our “five smooth stones” when we offer them in faith. [42:20]
3. The real weapon in spiritual battle is not our skill or resources, but the authority and presence of God. David faced Goliath “in the name of the Lord of hosts,” demonstrating that God Himself is our strength. Our victories are not for our own glory, but so that “all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel.” Our motivation must always be to magnify God’s name, not our own. [47:21]
4. Jesus is the true and greater David who has already won the decisive victory over sin and death. We are not the hero of the story; we are the soldiers who benefit from our champion’s triumph. Our role is to charge the field in faith, living out the victory Christ has secured, rather than striving to defeat giants in our own strength. In Christ, His victory becomes our victory. [58:55]
5. Our identity is rooted in being beloved children of God, transformed by Christ’s victory. As we pursue the heart of God, we are shaped more and more into the image of Christ—“little Christs”—who live with confidence, humility, and purpose. The world should see not just us, but Christ in us, as we walk in the freedom and boldness that comes from knowing we are loved and called by God. [69:51]

Youtube Chapters

[00:00] - Welcome
[29:08] - Introduction and Family Acknowledgments
[30:29] - Opening Prayer
[31:12] - Pursuing the Heart of God: David’s Example
[31:54] - Recap: Saul, David, and Goliath
[36:03] - The Reality of Spiritual Battle
[36:45] - Truth 1: Our Protection is God’s Presence
[41:05] - Saul’s Armor and the Temptation to Imitate
[43:59] - Truth 2: Our Weapon is God Himself
[45:42] - Goliath’s Insults and David’s Response
[47:21] - The Name of the Lord: David’s True Weapon
[51:48] - Truth 3: Our Victory is in Christ’s Victory
[54:38] - Application: Who Are We in the Story?
[57:11] - Jesus, the Greater David
[58:55] - Charging the Field Behind Christ
[66:42] - Truth 4: Our Identity as Beloved
[69:51] - Becoming “Little Christs”
[71:11] - Closing Prayer and Invitation

Bible Study Guide

Observation Questions

What reasons did David give Saul for his confidence that he could face Goliath? (see 1 Samuel 17:37)
Why did David refuse to wear Saul’s armor before going out to fight Goliath? (see 1 Samuel 17:38–39)
According to the sermon, what was David’s true weapon in the battle against Goliath? [47:21]
In the story, what was the reaction of the Israelite soldiers after Goliath was defeated? (see 1 Samuel 17:51–53)

Interpretation Questions

The sermon says David’s confidence came from God’s presence, not from armor or weapons. Why is the “fear of the Lord” described as the beginning of wisdom and courage? [37:16]
What does it mean that David was “authentic” in his calling, and why is it important not to wear someone else’s “armor” in our own spiritual battles? [42:20]
The pastor said, “We are not David; Jesus is the true and greater David.” How does this change the way we read the story of David and Goliath? [57:11]
The sermon describes our identity as “beloved children of God” and “little Christs.” What does it look like for someone to live out of this identity in daily life? [01:09:51]

Application Questions

The sermon said, “True protection is found in the presence of God, not in human strategies or borrowed armor.” Are there areas in your life where you are relying on your own strength or someone else’s advice instead of God’s presence? What would it look like to shift your trust? [37:16]
David refused to wear Saul’s armor and instead trusted the unique ways God had prepared him. Is there a place in your life where you feel pressure to be someone you’re not, or to meet others’ expectations? How can you step into authenticity this week? [42:20]
The sermon said our “real weapon” is the authority and presence of God, not our skills or resources. When you face challenges, what do you usually depend on first? How can you practice depending on God’s presence in a specific situation this week? [47:21]
The pastor reminded us that “we are not the hero; we are the soldiers on the sidelines, unable to defeat the enemy ourselves.” Is there a “giant” in your life you’ve been trying to defeat on your own? What would it look like to let Jesus be your champion in that area? [58:55]
After David’s victory, the Israelites “charged the field” behind him. What does it mean for you to “charge the field” in your faith, living out the victory Christ has already won? Is there a step of faith you sense God inviting you to take? [58:55]
The sermon described our identity as “beloved” and said that as we pursue God’s heart, we become more like Christ. What is one practical way you can remind yourself of your identity in Christ this week? [01:09:51]
The pastor mentioned that God delights to use our “five smooth stones” when we offer them in faith. What are some “small” gifts, skills, or experiences you have that God might want to use for His glory? How can you offer them to Him? [42:20]

Sermon Clips

Often, though, we lack faith and we falsely fear what we are not to fear—ourselves or other people or the world. True confidence comes through fear. Well, that doesn't make sense. This seems like the opposite. Well, fear of God. The remarkable thing about fearing God is that when you fear God, you fear nothing else. Whereas if you do not fear God, you fear everything else.

We're always pursuing the heart of God. But here we have a great example. And the man who was said to be the man after God's own heart, David. And so we're looking at his life, and this whole story of David is this ongoing story is an illustration for us of how we are to pursue the heart of God. [00:31:20]

Christian, we are in a battle because we have an enemy who wants to steal, kill and destroy us, who wants to get us off track from serving and loving our God. And so we are in a war zone. We are in a battle. [00:36:16]

You want to be protected against the enemy? Well, it's found through the presence of the living God. And that's one of the secrets that David knew. One of David's secrets was that as we looked at last week from Psalm 23, is that the Lord was his shepherd. And because of that he lacked nothing. [00:37:21]

If we are a Christ follower and we're walking in fellowship with our God, we bring the presence, the actual presence of the living God with us wherever we go. Wherever we go to any spiritual place of darkness, we bring the spirit of the living God, the presence of the living God, and it is our protection. [00:38:16]

David was already protected. Saul's trying to protect him, to go in his stead. And what else is also ironic is the fact that King Saul is putting his kingly armor on David. He doesn't know that David's been anointed as king. He's putting his kingly armor on David, who will replace him. [00:41:28]

David was comfortable in his own skin. He was confident in what God had called him to. He was confident in the faithfulness of his own skill and craft as a shepherd and how God had protected him before. [00:42:33]

The greatest protection that we can give our kids is the presence of God over their lives and to encourage them to be all that God wants them to be. So David puts off the armor and he puts off man's fear, the fear of Saul. And he's saying, God, here I am, shepherd boy, use me. The presence of God was with him. [00:43:21]

David knew it was God was his weapon, but he also knew that God wanted to use him, that God wanted him to be active in the matter, that he wanted to physically use his skill and his confidence in God. [00:48:55]

David wasn't trying to make a name for himself. He was trying to make a name for God. He was trying to show how God's name was great. [00:49:58]

David knew that he had a little stature, but he wanted to show off his big God. And it's the same for us. Well, I don't have much impressiveness. Well, whatever. You have the little that you had. God wants to use the little that we have. He wants to use like, I just have a little bit of faith. Well, hey, Jesus said that faith of a mustard seed can move a mountain. Well, I just have these little. Five little stones of faith. God wants to use your five little stones of. [00:51:15]

We're the soldiers. We're there on the sidelines. We're the soldiers. We're following our king of fear. We're following our king of pride. We're following our king of disobedience against a holy, good God. And we're confronted with the fact of maybe one of us needs to go up and try to be a champion against Goliath, but we can't. No one's ever been able to do it. [00:58:25]

But our King Jesus, he conquered sin and death, and by his death and his resurrection, the ultimate Goliath. Jesus is the victor over. Jesus is the victor over the ultimate Goliath, and we are the soldiers. So when we see and we learn and we find out that our champion Jesus has taken on Goliath and has conquered him, what is our response? It's the same response as the soldiers here in the story. We charge the field, we see that Goliath has fallen, and we charged the field behind our champion, Jesus. [00:58:55]

The main point I want you to get out of this sermon is that in Christ, victory is our victory. You want to be victorious against the Goliaths in your life? Well, it's in Christ's victory that we find our victory. [00:59:57]

Often we're worried about our own giants, and rightfully so, and how we would pull off fighting against them, taking them down, forgetting, confidently forgetting that God's already given us the victory. God's already given us the victory. [01:00:09]

So the big enemy is Goliath and the little enemy, the things that we deal with, that's the rest of the Philistines that we're worried about. We're worried about the rest of the Philistines. But we need to charge the field behind our champion because when we declare that the big champion of Goliath has been defeated, guess what the Philistines do? They flee. They flee the enemy, the enemy of God flees. And we walk into what Jesus has already accomplished for us. [01:00:29]

As Christians, as followers of Jesus, we need to be spiritually awake and remember of all that Christ has given us and that we are just charging the field behind Jesus. [01:03:23]

And as soldiers, we find our victory is in Christ. Victory. So we're going to see all these different truths. Our protection, our weapon, our victory, it's all found in God. It's not ourselves. And as soldiers of our victorious King Jesus, we should be the most confident people on the planet. [01:04:36]

True confidence is a proper understanding of who God is and who we are in relationship to him. And if we truly know that because of Christ, there's no one that should be more confident than Christians, because our confidence isn't in ourselves. Our confidence is in Almighty God, just like David's confidence was in Almighty God. [01:05:09]

Hopefully, as we step into faith, as David did step into this moment of faith, our faith has been developing in the secret heart of the small yeses of saying yes to the things that we know that God has called us to on a daily basis. And we step into a moment of faith, hopefully we will be unrecognizable. David was unrecognizable here to Saul here. Hopefully we would be unrecognizable because it's God in us. It's Christ in us that is doing the work, that's transformed us to look more like Christ. [01:07:44]

Because of Christ, we're called. We're all called to be little Davids. Okay, sweet. I get to be a David. At least I get to be. We're not David. We get to be little Davids. And that's pretty exciting. God's called us to some pretty big things in faith. We're little Davids following our big David of Christ waging war. [01:08:37]

Our identity. You know what our identity is. Remember what David's name means. Anyone else remember what David's name means? It means beloved. David's name means beloved. And it speaks something to his identity and our identity that we are loved by God. We are a child of God, and we love because he first loved us. We love him and we love others because we've experienced the love of God. [01:09:42]

Our identity becomes beloved in Christ and then we become not just little David's. The goal of this whole pursuing the heart of God is that we would become little Christ. Funny enough, that's where we get the word Christian. Christian just means little Christ. And that's our goal as we pursue this trajectory of pursuing the heart of God. [01:10:26]

And hopefully there is such a change in us as we pursue pursue the heart of God that we become unrecognizable Christ in us. The hope of glory. That's our goal. [01:10:56]

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