After God's Own Heart | Week 3: His Courage | Message Only

Jun 09, 2026

Devotional

Day 1: The Shepherd’s Sling vs. the Warrior’s Armor

David refused Saul’s oversized armor, choosing instead the simple tools of his trade: a sling, stones, and staff. The army measured strength by human standards, but David measured by divine partnership. His confidence wasn’t in appearing bigger but in trusting God’s faithfulness with what seemed small. When we face giants, we often try to “armor up” with human solutions rather than embracing the humble, God-given tools already in our hands. True courage comes not from self-made strength but from surrendering to how God chooses to work. What feels inadequate to us becomes mighty when placed in His hands. [14:47]

“Then Saul clothed David with his armor. He put a helmet of bronze on his head and clothed him with a coat of mail. And David strapped his sword over his armor. And he tried in vain to go, for he had not tested them. Then David said to Saul, ‘I cannot go with these, for I have not tested them.’ So David put them off. Then he took his staff in his hand and chose five smooth stones from the brook and put them in his shepherd’s pouch. His sling was in his hand, and he approached the Philistine.”
(1 Samuel 17:38–40, ESV)

Reflection: What “armor” have you been relying on to face your challenges? How might God be inviting you to trust His methods instead?

Day 2: When Lions and Bears Become Resumes

David’s courage didn’t come from empty bravado but from rehearsing God’s past faithfulness. He reminded Saul of lions and bears defeated not by his skill alone but by divine intervention. Our giants shrink when we recall how God has already delivered us. Every trial overcome becomes a testimony, a stone in our sling for future battles. What we call a resume, God calls a record of His faithfulness. [11:46]

“But David said to Saul, ‘Your servant used to keep sheep for his father. And when there came a lion, or a bear, and took a lamb from the flock, I went after him and struck him and delivered it out of his mouth. And if he arose against me, I caught him by his beard and struck him and killed him. Your servant has struck down both lions and bears, and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be like one of them, for he has defied the armies of the living God.’”
(1 Samuel 17:34–36, ESV)

Reflection: What “lions and bears” has God already brought you through? How can those victories strengthen your trust in Him today?

Day 3: The Battle Belongs to the Lord

David didn’t face Goliath as a solo underdog but as a representative of the living God. His declaration, “The battle is the Lord’s,” reframed the conflict from a size comparison to a divine showdown. The army saw a giant; David saw a blasphemer. When we fixate on our inadequacy, we forget the battle was never ours to win. Victory begins when we stop measuring giants and start magnifying God. [16:54]

“Then David said to the Philistine, ‘You come to me with a sword and with a spear and with a javelin, but I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. This day the Lord will deliver you into my hand… that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel, and that all this assembly may know that the Lord saves not with sword and spear. For the battle is the Lord’s, and he will give you into our hand.’”
(1 Samuel 17:45–47, ESV)

Reflection: Where have you been fighting a battle alone? What would it look like to hand the “spear and sword” to God today?

Day 4: The Champion Who Faced Death for Us

David’s victory points forward to Jesus, the ultimate Champion who faced death unarmed. Stripped of armor and dignity, Christ conquered through surrender. His cross became the stone that felled humanity’s greatest giant: sin and death. Our battles find their ultimate resolution not in our courage but in His finished work. Every earthly giant bows to the name above all names. [30:44]

“‘O death, where is your victory? O death, where 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.”
(1 Corinthians 15:55–57, ESV)

Reflection: How does Jesus’ victory over death reshape the way you view your current struggles?

Day 5: Praying When the Rocks Don’t Fly

Declan’s story reminds us that miracles happen, but so does faithful waiting. His family prayed through blindness, chemo, and unanswered questions, clinging to God’s character over outcomes. Sometimes the stone flies; sometimes prayers seem unanswered. Yet the battle remains the Lord’s whether He delivers in a moment or walks with us through the valley. Our job isn’t to demand outcomes but to keep showing up, sling in hand. [28:52]

“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.”
(Matthew 7:7–8, ESV)

Reflection: Are you praying for a miracle or cultivating trust in the Miracle-Worker? How can you honor both hope and patience today?

Sermon Summary

The valley sets the stage as Israel lines one ridge and the Philistines the other, and Goliath strides out every morning to taunt God’s people. Goliath dominates the scene, nine feet tall, bronzed and brash, and Israel freezes because the math looks brutal. Saul and his army size themselves up against the giant, see JV against Division One, and their courage collapses under comparison. The text shows how fear grows when the problem fills the whole horizon.

David enters as a teenager with bread and cheese, but his heart catches fire when he hears God being mocked. David does not puff himself up. David remembers. The lion and the bear become his receipts of God’s faithfulness. David does different math, not me against Goliath, but God in the fight. Saul tries to make David look bigger with oversized armor, but David gets smaller, trades optics for obedience, and reaches for a sling that looks like a child’s toy. The scene turns when Goliath laughs, and David answers with the line that unlocks the story: “You come with sword and spear, but I come in the name of the Lord… the battle is the Lord’s.” The speech, not the sword, carries the weight.

The battle itself is over in a sentence. One stone finds a forehead, and Goliath eats dirt. Game over. Then comes the savage coda as David lifts the giant’s own sword and finishes what God started. The point lands: this was never David versus Goliath. This was God versus Goliath. The giant was not the variable. The only variable was the size of God in their eyes. Israel stared at the problem and shrank. David stared at the Lord and stepped.

The story then pushes into the room where modern giants roar. A family faces cancer, surgery, and sudden blindness. Prayer becomes their posture, a church becomes their circle, and sight returns where no specialist can explain it. The text does not promise outcomes on demand. It calls the disciple to name the giant and then name whose fight it is, releasing control while holding confidence in God’s character. Finally, the line of David delivers a greater Champion. Jesus steps into the valley none could cross, stripped, pierced, and then risen. If death bows to him, every lesser giant loses its swagger. The Name that sent a stone true is the Name that already holds the victory.

Key Takeaways

1. The battle belongs to the Lord Courage stops being a pep talk and starts being a transfer of ownership. When the fight is God’s, the heart can walk forward without image management or bravado. Faith names the opponent honestly and then names the Owner of the field. That shift is the hinge of the whole story. [16:22]
2. Courage remembers God’s track record Memory rewrites the risk calculation. David’s lion and bear are not trivia, they are training, receipts that God is not new to hard things. The disciple who keeps God’s past faithfulness close finds fresh strength to face today’s taunts. Remembered grace matures into present grit. [12:28]
3. Stop measuring against the giant Saul’s armor is the lure of looking bigger rather than trusting better. David refuses costume courage and chooses trusted tools, making room for God to be the decisive factor. Smallness before God becomes steadiness before danger. Faith fights with what obedience can carry. [14:47]
4. God versus Goliath reframes odds The scene reads different when God is the main actor. Giants are loud but not ultimate, and outcomes belong to the One they defy. This reframing does not deny the weight of the problem, it dethrones it. Hope rises when the scale of God sets the scale of the threat. [19:53]
5. Jesus is the better champion A greater Son of David has already stepped into the valley and broken death. His cross is not weakness but the weapon that emptied the grave, which means every present fight happens under a settled verdict. Disciples face giants from victory, not for it, in the name above every name. [30:44]

Youtube Chapters

[00:00] - Welcome
[01:48] - Rethinking the underdog script
[03:56] - Two armies and a valley
[05:17] - Taunts and a terrified army
[06:50] - Comparison shrinks courage
[08:53] - Frozen versus flexing
[11:46] - Lion, bear, remembered deliverance
[13:44] - Saul’s armor and false bigness
[14:47] - Sling, stones, and getting smaller
[16:22] - The battle is the Lord’s
[17:33] - One stone ends the fight
[19:53] - God versus Goliath
[20:49] - David Collins faces a giant
[25:18] - Sight returns, a living sign
[30:44] - Jesus, the better champion

Bible Study Guide

Bible Reading
1 Samuel 17:8-11, 45-47 (ESV)
8 He [Goliath] stood and shouted to the ranks of Israel, “Why have you come out to draw up for battle? Am I not a Philistine, and are you not servants of Saul? Choose a man for yourselves, and let him come down to me. 9 If he is able to fight with me and kill me, then we will be your servants. But if I prevail against him and kill him, then you shall be our servants and serve us.” 10 And the Philistine said, “I defy the ranks of Israel this day. Give me a man, that we may fight together.” 11 When Saul and all Israel heard these words of the Philistine, they were dismayed and greatly afraid… 45 Then David said to the Philistine, “You come to me with a sword and with a spear and with a javelin, but I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. 46 This day the Lord will deliver you into my hand… 47 that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel, and that all this assembly may know that the Lord saves not with sword and spear. For the battle is the Lord’s, and he will give you into our hand.”

Matthew 11:4-5 (ESV)
4 Jesus answered them, “Go and tell John what you hear and see: 5 the blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them.”

Observation Questions

What specific challenge did Goliath issue to Israel, and how did Saul’s army respond?
What tools did David refuse to use against Goliath, and what did he choose instead?
How does David’s declaration in 1 Samuel 17:47 reframe the purpose of the battle?
In the sermon, what modern example showed God’s faithfulness in a seemingly impossible situation? [25:18]

Interpretation Questions

Why did Saul’s army focus on their own limitations rather than God’s power when facing Goliath?
What does David’s rejection of Saul’s armor reveal about the difference between human effort and reliance on God?
How does the phrase “the battle is the Lord’s” change the way we view challenges that feel overwhelming?
Why is remembering God’s past faithfulness (like David’s lion and bear) critical for facing present struggles?
How does Jesus’ victory over death (as the “greater champion”) redefine our perspective on current “giants”?

Application Questions

What “giant” in your life (e.g., fear, illness, a relationship struggle) have you been trying to fight on your own? How can you intentionally transfer ownership of that battle to God this week?
David remembered God’s past faithfulness. What specific experience in your life serves as a “receipt” of God’s provision or deliverance? How can you remind yourself of it daily?
Saul’s armor represents trying to “look bigger” instead of trusting God. Where are you tempted to rely on appearances, status, or human solutions rather than obedience to God’s direction?
The sermon mentioned a family who prayed persistently despite impossible odds. Who in your community can you invite to pray with you about your “giant,” and how can you support others in their battles? [23:54]
How would your daily decisions change if you fully believed that every challenge you face is already under Jesus’ victory?
What practical step can you take this week to “get smaller” (like David with his sling) and create space for God to act in your situation?

Sermon Clips

28s

#WordsWinBattles

“In fact, when you read this, the the battle the speech leading up to the battle is much longer than the battle itself. And I think that says something because the speech is really where the battle was won. It was when David understood and declared and had the faith to say, you know what? It's God that's gonna fight this battle. It's not me. And the speech is actually the point. The battle is just kind of a subtext in this whole story, really. And that's what actually won the battle. The battle is the Lord's.”

31s

#BattleIsTheLords

“And so David says the one thing that the entire army forgot up to this point. And and he says that the battle is the Lord's. None of the other soldiers seem to remember this. They were looking at themselves in comparison to Goliath, and they're like, this is my battle. I've got no shot. David's like, it's not my battle. The battle is the Lord's. And because of that, because David knew it wasn't his battle in the first place, he found the courage to actually walk forward to step into battle with Goliath in this moment when everyone else was going the other direction.”

31s

#ChampionAlreadyWon

“And so, except Jesus didn't just defeat a giant. Jesus defeated death. And Jesus didn't even go into the fight with rocks and a stick. Jesus walked in, he didn't have any armor on. In fact, they stripped him naked. They put him on a cross, and yet somehow Jesus rose again three days later and defeated death itself. And so no matter what problem you have going on in your life, I can tell you what you really need. You need a champion, and you need a champion that's already won.”

34s

#GreaterChampionIsJesus

“You know, in this story, David and Goliath, the crowd needed a champion. They needed someone who was willing to step up and fight the fight that they could not fight their their themselves on their own. But we have a champion that's way better than David. Did you know that? See, years after the story that we just read, David and Goliath, another boy was born in Bethlehem, the same town that David was from. And this boy was born in the line of David. So he was a descendant of David, and his name was Jesus.”

31s

#RememberWhoFights

“And so I I want you to hear this. This story is not meant to shame you to say, if only you had more faith. That is not the idea. I hope that you hear the story and it strengthens your faith and encourages you that God is faithful, that God is good no matter what challenge you've got going on in your life. And at the end of the day, we cannot control the outcome. We can pray. We can be faithful to pray. We can show up each week and pray, but we cannot control the outcome. What we can control is to remember who it is that's ultimately fighting for us, and that's exactly what happened in this story.”

28s

#DavidChoseHumility

“I can't do this. And so but I think it's it's so natural, and it's what we do in our situations and in our problems. When we feel so small, we try to appear bigger, and we try to puff ourselves up. And that's exactly what Saul did. He was like, you're too small, David. I'm gonna try to make you look bigger even if you're not. And David's response to this was the exact opposite. David didn't try to get bigger. David actually got smaller.”

32s

#FlawedButLoved

“But David, we also know, had another side. He was also a murderer, and he was an adulterer, and he was a terrible father sometimes. Right? And and I love that. I love the idea that the Bible does not just give us, like, the PR version of David. It's not like the sanitized version of the life of David. It could have just edited it, make it look like David was a little bit better than he actually was. And yet despite all the shortcomings that David has, there's a lot of them, God looks at David and he says, this is a man after my own heart.”

33s

#CheerForUnderdogs

“Now if there's one kind of story that we love, it's an underdog story. Who doesn't love the underdog? Right? We all are cheering for the underdog. I love that. You know? And we love it in all different kinds of areas of life. In sports, it's like if it's the 16 seed against the one seed in March Madness, I'm cheering for the 16 seed. Anyone else, you know, you just kinda wanna see the little guy take the big guy down. Or if it's in business, we're cheering for the start up going against the big behemoth company rate or in literature. I mean, who doesn't root for Frodo and Sam going against Mordor? What hope do they have? Right?”

43s

#KeepEyesOnGod

“And we have a champion that's already won. The victory is in Jesus' hands. Let me pray, and then we got one more song for us. Lord, I just thank you. I thank you for miracles in our midst. Just incredible to see the way that you're working in our church and in our lives, Lord. And I just know that you're a God that is so much bigger than we can get our heads around. It's bigger than any challenge we have. Whatever feels like it's nine foot tall in front of our lives is taunting us every morning. Lord, I just pray that we would not look at the problems and the challenges and the struggles of our lives, the giants that taunt us, that we would keep our eyes on you.”

35s

#StopBeingFrozenByFear

“And so what I was thinking this week is like, wow. A lot of times when I read this story and maybe when you read this story, it's very natural. We put ourselves in David's shoes. And we kinda think, okay. I kind of I imagine I'm David. But can I just be honest with you? A lot of most weeks, most days, I'm more on either one of those two sides. I'm either frozen with fear, and I'm unwilling to take a step sometimes. So maybe you feel like that. A little bit more like the crowd and feeling like, what's what chance do I have? And we're frozen with fear. And I wonder how much we miss of what God has for us because we live in that posture.”

27s

#ProofsOfGodsFaithfulness

“And if you think I can't fight this guy, then what shot do you have? And David does not response respond with an argument. He responds with his resume, basically, and he's like, hear me out. And he tells this story, and he says, I've already seen God's faithfulness. I fought a bear, and I fought a lion. And God showed up in that. Now first off, I think it's pretty impressive. I don't know what teenager has, like, out there fighting lions and bears. Like, who does this, actually?”

33s

#SmallToolsBigFaith

“By every measure that Goliath could see, David just showed up to a sword fight with a pocket full of rocks. And he's like, what is what are you guys doing? Right? And then so this is this is the response. David said this, and this is this is such an important moment. David's response even as Goliath was laughing in his face was this. Then David said, you come to me with a sword and with a spear and with a javelin, but I come to you in the name of the Lord of armies whom you have defied,”

28s

#WrongArmorWrongFit

“But we can work with this. We can work with this. You know? We're gonna try our best here. And he's like, I'm gonna try to help you out, little guy. You know? And so he does what he he's like, I'm gonna try to make you look a little bit bigger. We're gonna try to give you a shot, and he gets the king's armor, his armor, which is like three sizes too big for David. And he puts the armor on David, and and David looks like kinda like a fool walking around, like, you know, with this clunky armor. And he basically says to Saul, like, this isn't gonna work, man.”

30s

#FaithBeatsTheMath

“And, because every single soldier did not have the courage to step up and fight Goliath. Not one of them did that. And now why? Why does this entire army, a whole army of men trained fighters freeze? Because they did the math. They're looking at Goliath, and he's crazy tall, and they're looking at themselves, and they're like, it's just not working out. Like, stats I mean, this guy is like division one, and we're JV down here. There's no chance that we have against Goliath. And so they lined up every single soldier”

30s

#WeAllFaceGiants

“And I think we do the same thing in our lives. I think we all have giants in our lives. We all have challenges in our lives. And sometimes it feels a little bit like we get up in the morning and the the giant, the challenge in our life is just taunting us whenever we wake up in the morning. And we just wake up every morning, and we just feel like whatever problem, whatever issue you have, and I don't know what it is for you this morning. It might be a relationship thing. It might be a financial thing. It might be a medical thing. We all have different things going on. It might be an addiction.”

31s

#ShepherdWhoSteppedUp

“Now David at this time is just a teenager, just like a young guy. In fact, he's not even old enough to be in the army. His big job at this time was delivering bag lunches for his brothers. And so David has got his big job, and he's gonna deliver cheese and bread to his brothers. And as he shows up at the at the encampment with the army, he sees Goliath taunting this army and taunting, ultimately, taunting God himself. something happens in David's heart.”

23s

#BestYouHaveIsEnough

“David went and he took a sling and stones and a shepherd's staff. And this is what the sling looked like. It looks just like this. I mean, like, it looks like a child's toy, basically. Right? He just took he would do this, and he had a rock in this thing. I don't actually have a rock. I'm not gonna hit you guys. Thought that would be a bad idea. But he just took this little thing, and he was and, like, this was the best that he had.”

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After God's Own Heart | Week 3: His Courage | Message Only

Devotional

Day 1: The Shepherd’s Sling vs. the Warrior’s Armor

Day 2: When Lions and Bears Become Resumes

Day 3: The Battle Belongs to the Lord

Day 4: The Champion Who Faced Death for Us

Day 5: Praying When the Rocks Don’t Fly

Sermon Summary

Key Takeaways

Youtube Chapters

Bible Study Guide

Sermon Clips

After God's Own Heart | Week 3: His Courage | Message Only

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