Even When You Lack

1 Samuel 17:41-50

March 22, 2026 • Mount Pleasant UMC

It’s a tale as old as time, and one of the most well-known and best told stories in all of human history. It’s often used as a metaphor for an underdog defeating the assumed champion (cf. Armstrong, Valleys, pg. 79). Just say the words “David and Goliath” and all sorts of images come to mind. The new politician who is up against someone who has been in office for twenty plus years. The small upstart business trying to make it against a national chain store. The small band of rebels who take on a tyrannical empire (come on, you know I had to put Star Wars in here somewhere!). It’s a classic story that just happens to be true but there’s one big difference between all of those stories in the news or popular culture and the one in the Bible, and it’s wrapped up in this question: from where does the strength to win come?

This morning we’re continuing our journey through the Holy Land (from the comfort of our pews), over mountains and through valleys where significant Biblical events have taken place. This morning, we are going to end up about 15 miles southwest of Bethlehem in a valley between the sea and the ridge of mountains that runs down the center of the country (Vannoy, Cornerstone Bible Commentary: 1-2 Samuel, pg. 168). It’s called the Valley of Elah; “Elah” means “terebinth,” so it’s named for the terebinth (or oak-like) trees that were once part of the landscape. It was also a common place for battles, and in the lead-up to the passage we read this morning, it’s the place where the Israelites are facing their longtime enemies (and coastal dwellers), the Philistines.

The history nerd in me would love to get into how the Philistines and the Israelites came to be at each other’s throats, but we don’t have time for that. However, to me, having just come through a war between Hamas, who live in Gaza, and the Israelis, it’s notable that the Philistines lived largely in what today is known as Gaza. “Gaza” was one of their five main cities. Ultimately, the cause of this particular battle isn’t mentioned and it’s all that important. What is important is the way the Philistines proposed to end this war. Each army is on its own hill with the valley in between, and the Philistines suggest that each side send out its strongest warrior. These two warriors would face each other and whoever won, their side would be declared the victor. Honestly, while still violent, this seems like a more civilized solution than fighting until everyone in the opposing side’s army is dead. Why don’t we do this today to settle our differences? Just have two people fight it out. Israel, you send out your champion; the Philistines send out Goliath.

Goliath is not called a “giant” in the text, but he is big. The text says he is “six cubits and a span” (17:4), which translates to about 9 feet 9 inches. [DEMONSTRATION OF HEIGHT] In other words, he is someone everyone really looks up to. (Dominic, I need a rim shot here!) The beginning of chapter 17 goes into some detail about his elaborate armor, even that the metal tip on his spear weighed 15 pounds by itself (17:7). He’s one big, strong dude. And every day he came out into the Valley of Elah, reminded them of the challenge and asked why Israel wasn’t sending a champion out to face him. Meanwhile, all the so-called “champions” of Israel are back hiding in their tents. Even the king, Saul. Now, who would be the natural choice to face a guy who is almost 10 feet tall? It might be someone who was initially described in the Bible as being “a head taller than any of the others” (10:23). The tallest guy in Israel, apparently, is King Saul, and when we read Goliath’s taunts, we’re meant to wonder why Saul isn’t headed down into the valley to face Goliath (cf. NIV Application Commentary: One-Volume Edition, pg. 238). Why is this tall king hiding in his tent?

Meanwhile, over in Bethlehem, a small village that, at that time, wasn’t known for anything except maybe shepherding, there was a man named Jesse whose sons had mostly all gone to fight in the war. Three sons were in the army, but Jesse had one son still at home, a shepherd boy named David, and he decides to send David on a trip 15 miles from his home to the battlefront to check on David’s brothers (17:12-19). “Take them some snacks and see how they are getting along,” Jesse tells David, and so David shortly thereafter arrives at the Israelite side of the Valley of Elah and honestly can’t believe what he sees. Not only is this big guy shouting insults toward the people and the king, he is also insulting God. Insults against people David can tolerate. But he can’t understand why they are letting Goliath, an “uncircumcised Philistine,” get away with defying “the armies of the living God” (17:26). If they won’t send someone to fight Goliath, then David will go himself. And even when his brother calls him “conceited,” David is determined. No one should “lose heart” because of this Philistine (17:28-32).

The contrast between Saul and David is strong in this chapter. Saul is afraid of Goliath’s bluster and his invitation to battle; David is outraged by Goliath’s ridicule of the God of Israel. Saul is paralyzed by fear while David has great faith (Vannoy 167). And yet, most people would look at the two and say Saul was far better qualified than David to win the battle. David is not a trained soldier. He doesn’t have any armor or any weapons. He is not even old enough to be in the army. He’s the youngest, the shepherd boy, the runt of the litter. He lacks everything he needs to win the battle that is in front of him. And how often does the world tell you the same thing? You don’t have the skills to do that job so don’t even try. You can’t begin to accomplish anything successful. You will never amount to anything. The disease that threatens you will overwhelm you. It’s a hopeless cause. It’s a wasted effort. You will not succeed. That’s what we hear day in and day out. The world and the enemy of our souls try to get us to focus on our lack. They did the same thing to David.

David, you lack armor. So King Saul tries to fit David into his armor. Now, who thought that was a good idea? The Bible has already established that Saul was a tall guy, a head taller than most other men, and that David was good looking (17:42) but not all that tall. You could probably guess that the armor wasn’t going to fit. But, at the same time, if you’re sending a guy to die in your place the least you can do is give him your armor. David, you lack a weapon. So Saul fastened his own sword onto David’s side. Surely a king’s weapon is the best of the best so it will give him a fighting chance, no pun intended. David, you lack fighting skill, but that’s not something we can teach you right now. So try walking around in the armor and with the sword. And what I picture next is rather comical. It’s hard to walk in clothes that are too big for you, pants that are too long for you, or an outfit that is too heavy for you. You stumble and maybe fall, and that’s what I picture happening to David because these are not just clothes. This is heavy armor and what is probably a rather large sword. “I can’t do this. This isn’t going to work” (17:38-40). But David, you lack! And David says, “I have everything I need.”

So what does David have? He has his experience. Listen to the way he describes it to King Saul: “Your servant has keep keeping his father’s sheep. When a lion or a bear came and carried off a sheep from the flock, I went after it, struck it and rescued the sheep from his mouth. When it turned on me, I seized it by its hair, struck and killed it. Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear; this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them” (17:34-36). Now, David knows fighting Goliath isn’t the same as fighting a lion or a bear. He knows protecting the sheep isn’t the same as winning a war. But he marshals every experience he has had and all of his knowledge toward a new end. It’s not the same but he relies on the experience he has been through to help him in the future.

He also has five smooth stones. As you know from the story, he only needs one, but he picks up five stones. He kneels and carefully selects them from the stream nearby, all while Goliath is watching. He needs the stones because his weapon of choice this day is a sling. Now, it’s not a sling like you or I might have had growing up. [DEMONSTRATE HOW DAVID’S SLING WOULD HAVE WORKED.] So David takes his weapon of choice, something that fits who he is better, and he uses it to take Goliath down. He uses the tools that fit him, not what works for someone else. Over my years of ministry, I have been to a lot of conferences and read a lot of books, and the thing I notice about every technique and every program is that they all work. Every one of them. You never read a book that says or hear a speaker say, “We did that and that failed miserably. It was a complete disaster.” No one would buy that book. But I’ve learned that just because it works in one place doesn’t mean it will work somewhere else or maybe even anywhere else. In any task, and especially in any battle, David has to use the tools that fit him. He had five smooth stones.

And third, he has God. God is with him and along with that, David has great confidence and trust in God. Again, this ties back to his experience. He has seen God work in his life in the past and he holds onto those things. He told King Saul, “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” (17:37). David, who we know wrote many of our psalms, has a deep, deep trust in God in all areas of his life. His most famous psalm, written as he thought about walking in another valley (the valley of the shadow of death, a real place in the Judean wilderness that we’re going to visit later in Lent), he wrote, “I will fear no evil, for you are with me” (Psalm 23:4). He had experienced God guiding him, refreshing him, protecting him, and walking with him. Those experiences told him that in everything, “The battle is the Lord’s” (17:47). David has experience, he has five smooth stones, and he has God. The world says he lacks, but he has everything he needs.

And the world says you lack, but you have everything you need. You have the same things David had. First of all, you have experience. What’s your story? For me, when I look back, I think about when I joined speech team in high school and how Mr. and Mrs. Eiler worked with me, shaping me into a public speaker. I remember being president of youth group at Rossville Church, president of InterVarsity at Ball State, being involved in particular leadership throughout my early life and how those things have shaped me and prepared me for being a pastor. And then there have been hard times, too, and those have shaped me in other ways. I think I’ve shared this before but when I had my first heart valve replacement surgery, I realized how bad a job I was doing with hospital visitation. My goal before that had been to get in and get out as quickly as possible, but when I actually had to stay in the hospital I learned how long those days are. Hospital visits were different after that. I’ve been through loss and times when people I thought I could trust proved otherwise and all sorts of other difficult times. Those things have shaped me and honestly, God never wastes anything. Everything I have been through, everything you have been through have shaped you into the person who is now facing whatever you’re facing. Our experience makes us who we are and can, if we let it, make us brave when the world or the enemy tried to intimidate us (cf. Armstrong 80). Goliath repeatedly uses his size to try to intimidate the Israelite army and David, shouting and calling for someone to fight him. Because of his experience in the wilderness, David is not intimidated by such behavior. Nothing Goliath says is going to make him back down, and the same should be true of us. God has uniquely shaped you and prepared you for whatever battle you are facing now.

You not only have experience; you also have “five smooth stones.” You have the tools you need to fight the battle. Jesus once told a parable about a man who went away and entrusted his possessions to three of his servants. He gave one man one bag of gold, the second man two bags and third man five bags. Two of the three took what they had been given and invested it, doubling their money. The third took his one bag, hid it in the ground until the man came home and then gave it back to him (cf. Matthew 25:14-30). They are not rewarded based on whether or not they earned a certain amount. They are rewarded (or not rewarded) based on what they did with what they had. There are, obviously, a lot of applications that can come out of that parable, but here is one for our purposes today: they were expected to use what they had, not complain about what they didn’t have. We have each been given what we need to do what we need to do in good times and in times of struggle. You have the five smooth stones you need to take down Goliath. It’s likely you will only need one anyway! God will take what you have, when you offer it into his service, and use it to win the battle because “what God delights to do is turn odds upside down” (Goldingay, 1 & 2 Samuel for Everyone, pg. 84). When the world tells you that you lack, show them what you already have. When Goliath tries to insult you by telling you that you’re just a “dog with a stick” (17:43—which is an odd metaphor because dogs don’t fight with sticks—stay brave. God has given you exactly what you need to win the battle (cf. Armstrong 80).

And that brings me to a slight tangent: what about in our church? It’s so easy to fall into the comparison trap, where we think our church is better than or less than another church in the community or in the world. Oh, if only we had this or that—more money or more space or more this or more that. If only we had a pastor like that church has. If only we had a staff as big as that church has. Then we could do so much more. Friends, I’m here to tell you: this church has everything we need to do what we’re called to do and to fight the battles we’re called to fight. All we need are the “five smooth stones” God has already given us. The problem we and other churches face, though, is most often rooted in the fact that not all of us are offering what we have to the service of Christ and his church. Some of us are holding onto our five smooth stones. We can’t do it without you. The church has everything it needs—as long as we use the skills and talents he has given us for his kingdom.

And finally, you not only have experience and you not only have what you need, most of all you have God on your side and in your camp. You know the truth, and Jesus said that the truth will set you free (cf. John 8:32), so you can stay brave even when the world tries to defy God. And they will. They do. Goliath stands on the hill every day and shouts as he defies the armies of Israel (17:10), and for David, to defy and slander God’s people was the same as slandering God. “What bothers David is the reproach Goliath brings on Israel” (Goldingay 83) and the way, in his understanding, that reflects on Israel’s God. David is quite bold when he confronts the giant: “You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the Lord Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. This day the Lord will deliver you in my hands…” (17:45-46). But he can be that bold because his confidence is in God. He is brave because of who God is, and we can be too. Goliath accuses David of coming at him with “sticks” (17:43) and against sword and spear and javelin, a stick and a sling doesn’t seem like much. Sort of like taking on a tank with a nerf gun. “David lacked experience, height, armor, a shield bearer, the support of his family, and the example of his king. What do you lack? Energy, money, contacts, health, wisdom? It wouldn’t be a battle if the stakes weren’t high and the probability of victory low” (Armstrong 81). But God is faithful and he will show up. Sometimes it feels like the last minute when he does show up, but he will show up.

It’s interesting, isn't it? When people wait until the last minute to do something we want them to do, we get frustrated or angry. When God shows up at the last minute, we’re thankful and can’t wait to tell everyone. I’ve known people who were facing a financial crisis and a check showed up at the last minute, just in time to pay the bill. In that, they saw the hand of God. I’ve also known people who didn’t have that happen to them, and no, I don’t understand why God does that sometimes and other times he doesn’t. I had it both ways in my life, times God shows up the way I want him to and other times when God shows up in other ways. He will show up. He will not leave or forsake us. But he doesn’t always show up on our schedule or the way we expect him to. In every situation, God gives us what we need, not always what we want. Like I said, I’ve had it happen both ways, and it’s hard when things don’t happen the way we think they should, but that goes back to that trust we’ve been talking about. Do we trust God to give us what we need? Do we trust God to come through?

Jesus said that would even happen when we find ourselves in situations where we have to defend what we believe. Luke tells us that as the ministry progressed, opposition got harder to the teaching of Jesus and the disciples. And Jesus wants to encourage them to stand up for the truth. Don’t let the Goliaths push you around or defy your God. He tells them to not be afraid of those who can kill the body but can’t do any more (Luke 12:4). And then he says, “When you are brought before synagogues, rulers and authorities, do not worry about how you will defend yourselves or what you will say, for the Holy Spirit will teach you at that time what you should say” (Luke 12:11-12). We might put it this way: you’ll the the download when you need it. He will give you what you need. When you are in the valley, when you need to be brave, even when the world says you lack, you have everything you need. David knew. Jesus knew. The Lord will provide what you need. He gives you the strength you need to be brave even when the enemies roar. Let’s pray.