Richard Ellis Talks

Richard Ellis: Today, on Richard Ellis Talks. So if you've fought lions and bears, and a giant shows up, you're not just thinking, "Well, what am I going to do?" You know what you're going to do. You're going to take them on.

Now you say, "Well, if I had a chance to fight the giants, I'd fight the giants." If you can't fight the little battles, you will never take on the big battles. Welcome to Richard Ellis Talks with Richard Ellis. Thanks for allowing us to share this time with you. You may be stuck in traffic or stuck in life. Either way, today's message is going to help you get on the right track as you learn how much God loves you right where you are.

Richard's unique style checks all the boxes, with a lot of hope, insight, truth, and of course, humor. Today's talk with Richard will get our conversation started, but we want to keep it going with you. So, let's stay in touch through our website, RichardEllis.com. But right now, let's go ahead and get right into today's talk. Here is Richard Ellis.

The title of today's message is The Bears, The Lions, and The Giants. And we're going to start in 1 Samuel 16. I love these couple of chapters here we're going to look at today. And if you start in 1 Samuel 16, with verse 1, it says, "Now the Lord said to Samuel, 'How long will you mourn for Saul, seeing I have rejected him from reigning over Israel? Fill your horn with oil and go; I am sending you to Jesse, the Bethlehemite, for I have provided myself a king among his sons.'"

The people of Israel said, "Everybody else in the world's got a king, we want a king." And God said, "Okay, I'll give you a king." He gave them Saul. Saul turned out to be a piece of work, and at some point, clearly here, God says, "I'm out." And in the Old Testament, unlike the New Testament, when you become a Christian in the New Testament, an extraordinary thing happens.

When you become a Christian, the Holy Spirit of God takes up residence in your physical body, never to leave you or forsake you. In the Old Testament, the spirit of God came on people, but he could go off. He could go on, off, be on them, with them, but in you is something totally different. So yes, Saul was anointed king. The spirit of God was on him, but then God removed his spirit. And you don't, you know, as a Christian again, that can't happen to us, but back then this was a horrific thing when it happened.

So God tells Samuel, "I'm done with Saul, go to Bethlehem, Jesse, the Bethlehemite, he's got eight boys, and I'm going to pick a king from among his sons." So he goes there, they're a little nervous because Samuel's a prophet, "What are you doing here? Is this a good or a bad thing? If Saul finds out you're here, we're going to be in trouble." He sacrifices there.

Then he tells Jesse, "Bring out all your sons." And so, seven of them, as it turns out, are brought out. And he looks at one of them and goes, "Oh, certainly, this is the oldest, the tall, you know, he's got to be the guy." And God says, "No, it's not him. Don't look on the outward appearance. We're not picking someone based on how they look." So he's not the guy.

Verse 9, "Go down there." Then Jesse made Shammah pass by, and he said, "Neither has the Lord chosen this one." Thus, Jesse made seven of his sons pass before Samuel, and Samuel said to Jesse, "The Lord has not chosen these. It's not one of the seven." And Samuel said to Jesse, "Are all the young men here?" Is this all you got?

Then he said, "There remains yet the youngest, and there he is keeping the sheep." And Samuel said to Jesse, "Send and bring him, for we will not sit down till he comes here." So he sent and brought him in. "Now he was ruddy, with bright eyes, good-looking." And the Lord said, "Arise, anoint him; for this is the one."

Then Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the midst of his brothers, and the Spirit of the Lord came upon David from that day forward. So Samuel arose and went to Ramah. So it's important that his brothers saw this happen. Samuel pours oil, which is this anointing, symbolic of God picking somebody, and it's game on.

So let me go back to the Holy Spirit thing a minute. You say, "Well, Samuel anointed David king of Israel. That's a specific thing." If you are a Christian, I'm speaking primarily at the moment to Christians in the room and beyond. If you are a Christian, the same spirit that's being described here, again, has taken up residence in you. That should make a difference. You can't be a Christian without being picked.

You say, "Well, I don't understand that." You don't have to understand everything to believe it. You can't be a Christian without being picked. So if God picked you, and the spirit of God lives in you, that means something. There is a purpose for your life. There is a reason why you are still alive. And you say, "Well, it's not like he picked me king." You are his child, you are a servant of the Most High God. That makes incredible, extraordinary, mind-bogglingly miraculous things possible.

Because the same God who created and holds the universe together has chosen to live inside of you. So, the spirit of the Lord departed, if you go down a few more verses, verse 14, "But the spirit of the Lord departed from Saul, and a distressing spirit from the Lord troubled him." And Saul's servants said to him, "Surely a distressing spirit from God is troubling you." Like, "What's going on?"

"Let our master now command your servants who are before you to seek out a man who is a skillful player of the harp. And it shall be that he will play it with his hand when the distressing spirit from God is upon you, and you shall be well." So Saul said to his servants, "Provide me now a man who can play well and bring him to me." So music is going to play a part in Saul's life, and it has to be someone skillful.

Verse 18, "Then one of the servants answered and said, 'Look, I have seen a son of Jesse, the Bethlehemite, who is skillful in playing, a mighty man of valor, a man of war, prudent in speech, and a handsome person. And the Lord is with him.'" Like, there's something about this kid. This should be, all these other things, it's great to have someone say this, but this should be an observable trait, "The Lord is with you."

Is that observable in my life, in your life? And as a Christian, the Lord is in you. So the observation here that these servants had, one of them is, "And the Lord is with him." Therefore, Saul sent messengers to Jesse and said, "Send me your son David, who is with the sheep." And Jesse took a donkey, loaded it with bread, a skin of wine, and a young goat, and sent them by his son David to Saul.

So David came to Saul, stood before him, and he loved him greatly and he became his armor bearer. So Saul ends up loving David, and this is very important in the next chapter, became his armor bearer. So if Saul went to battle, he was the one, David's the one handling this armor. Then Saul sent to Jesse, saying, "Please let David stand before me, for he has found favor in my sight."

And it was so, whenever the spirit from God was upon Saul, that David would take a harp and play it with his hand. Then Saul would become refreshed and well, and the distressing spirit would depart from him. So, literally, this kid, who has been anointed king over Israel, and if you add this up, I think it's 16 years since his anointing to when he actually becomes king.

In this beginning of this process here, God is using the next king to minister to the current king, without the current king even knowing what was going on. 1 Samuel 17. So the Philistines or the Philistines, however you want to go with it, decided they were going to come up and battle at Socoh, and take on Israel. And I'm not going to read you every piece of this.

We'll go down to verse 3. "The Philistines stood on a mountain, one on one side, and Israel stood on a mountain on the other side, and a valley between them. And a champion went out from the camp of the Philistines named Goliath, from Gath, whose height was six cubits and a span." Now if you go look him up, six cubits and a span, a cubit is roughly from the tip of your finger to your elbow, about 18 inches, depending on how tall you are.

And there are some translations that say, "Well, this is really not six cubits." So he could have been anywhere from like 6'6" to 9'6". He's a big guy. Back then maybe people were like 5 1/2 feet tall. So if a 6'9" guy, my dad was 6'9" at his height, and it's big. You don't want to mess with 6'9". I can assure you. Especially when you're about two feet tall, it's very ominous.

So this giant of a man comes out, and he's defying the armies of Israel. So let's read some of this. He comes out. He had a bronze helmet on his head. He was armed with a coat of mail, and the weight of the coat was 5,000 shekels of bronze. And he had bronze armor on his legs and a bronze javelin between his shoulders. Now the staff of his spear was like a weaver's beam. So a huge piece of wood.

And his iron spearhead weighed 600 shekels. So he is weighed down with all kind of armor, all these weapons. And a shield-bearer went before him. So he had some guy carrying his shield. Then he stood and cried out to the armies of Israel and said to them, "Why have you come out to line up for battle? For am I not a Philistine and you the servants of Saul? Forget this all killing each other. You pick one.

I'll be the guy. Choose a man for yourselves and let him come down to me. 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." Now that was the deal. Remember this deal. Because if somebody did come out and kill Goliath, they had to all serve Israel. If somebody came out and Israel's guy was killed, then Israel had to serve them.

And the Philistine said, "I defy the armies of Israel this day. Give me a man that we may fight together." When Saul and all Israel heard these words of the Philistine, they were dismayed and greatly afraid. "Now David was the son of the Ephrathite of Bethlehem, Judah, whose name was Jesse, and who had eight sons. And the man was old, advanced in years in the days of Saul. The three oldest sons of Jesse had gone to follow Saul to the battle. The names of the three sons who went to battle were Eliab, the firstborn, next to him, Abinadab, and Shammah. David was the youngest, and the three oldest followed Saul."

"But David occasionally went and returned from Saul to feed his father's sheep at Bethlehem." So he played for him when he had the distressing spirit, and he's his armor-bearer. But every once in a while he goes back and checks on the sheep in Bethlehem. "And the Philistine drew near and presented himself 40 days, morning and evening." So this is every day in the morning. Send me somebody, I'll fight you. In the evening, send me somebody. No takers.

David then goes, his dad sends him up to the battle. Verse 24, "And all the men of Israel, when they saw the man, fled from him and were dreadfully afraid." So the men of Israel said, "Have you seen this man who has come up? Surely he has come up to defy Israel. And it shall be the man who kills him, the king will enrich with great riches, and will give him his daughter, and give his father's house exemption from taxes in Israel." Which I think has always been fascinating to me that you get the wife, you get money, and you don't have to pay taxes.

"Then David spoke to the men who stood by, saying, 'What shall be done for the man who kills this Philistine and takes away the reproach from Israel? For who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God?'" And the people answered and said in this manner, saying, "So shall it be to the man who kills him."

"Now Eliab, his oldest brother, heard what he spoke to the men. And Eliab's anger was aroused against David and he said, 'Why did you come down here?'" Now what does Eliab know? That Samuel showed up in their hometown and poured oil on his baby brother's head, and something's up. So, "What are you doing here? And with whom have you left those few sheep in the wilderness? I know your pride and the insolence of your heart, for you have come down to see the battle."

And David said, "What have I done now?" Like this must be an ongoing feud between the brothers. "Is there not a cause?" There's a reason to be here. Then he turned from him toward another and said the same thing, and these people answered him as the first ones did. "Now when the words which David spoke were heard, they reported them to Saul and he sent for him."

"Then David said to Saul, 'Let no man's heart fail because of him. Your servant will go and fight the Philistine.'" So who is this punk kid showing up saying, "I'll take him." And Saul said to David, "You are not able to go against the Philistine to fight with him, for you are a youth and he a man of war from his youth. You're just a kid. Do not let anyone tell you you're just a kid."

"But David said to Saul, 'Your servant--'" Now look at this. And I had a conversation with a young man recently about this passage and about what I'm about to share out of these next few verses. If we'll see in a second, he takes on Goliath and he kills him. And the question was, was this a miracle? Was David's killing Goliath a miracle? And I say the answer is no.

Now read the rest of this with me. "But David said to Saul, 'Your servant used to keep his father's sheep, and when a lion or a bear came and took a lamb out of the flock, I went out after it and struck it, and delivered the lamb from its mouth. And when it arose against me, I caught it by its beard and struck it and killed it. Your servant has killed both lion and bear. And this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, seeing he has defied the armies of the living God.'"

You say, "Well, how does he have this courage?" If you haven't been fighting the lions and the bears, you'll never take on the giants. You say, "Well, there's got to be a miracle here somewhere." Certainly God has protected David. He wasn't killed by the lions and the bears. This kid's got some game. He showed up like, "Who is this giant? I don't care how big he is. He's defying my God."

Now you say, "Well, was it all just bowed up and pride and arrogance?" No. The kid had game. So if you fought lions and bears, and a giant shows up, you're not just thinking, "Well, what am I going to do?" You know what you're going to do. You're going to take him on. Now you say, "Well, if I had a chance to fight the giants, I'd fight the giants." If you can't fight the little battles, you will never take on the big battles.

And when the giants of your life show up, you won't even think about taking them on. Keep reading. "Your servant has killed both lion and bear, uncircumcised Philistine would be like one of them, seeing he has defied the armies of the living God." "Moreover, David said, 'The Lord who delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear, he will deliver me from the hand of the Philistine.'" Now you say, "Well, but then God delivering him from the Philistine." Just stay with me.

"So Saul clothed David with his armor." So Saul put his own armor on David. "And he put a bronze helmet on his head. He also clothed him with a coat of mail." David fastened his sword, in other words, Saul's sword, "to his armor and tried to walk, for he had not tested it." Like, "Let me see how this feels."

"And David said to Saul, 'I can't walk in these, for I have not tested them.'" Like, "I don't know how to fight in your stuff." So David took them off. "Then he took his staff in his hand," so he's got a stick in one hand, "and he chose for himself five smooth stones from the brook, and put them in a shepherd's bag in a pouch which he had. And his sling was in his hand, and he drew near to the Philistine."

So, what does David go with? What he knows. Stop trying to fight someone else's battles or your battles someone else's way. Find out what you are comfortable in, what you can fight in, and fight in that. Stop trying to wear other people's armor. Put on the armor, spiritually, and then be yourself.

Now, you can't be yourself if you don't know who you are, and you'll never know who you are till you ask God to show you who you are. But once he shows you who you are, that you are his child, you're chosen, you're holy, you're blameless, you're all these things that he declares you. You take a deep breath and go, "Here we go." So who are you?

And you say, "Well, I'm not this, or I'm not that." Stop focusing on what you're not. Focus on who you are, what you do have. What are your skill sets? And where is God putting you, in what battles is he putting you? And again, if you are not going to take on the bears and the lions, you will never make it to the giants. But you'd be amazed if you take on the bears and the giants and do what you're supposed to do there, that God will give you opportunity on a whole another level.

So he gets comfortable. He's got his staff, he's got his shepherd's bag. And people, you hear sermons about why he picked five stones. I have no idea. You know, it wasn't a six-shooter clearly, so he went with five. Five stones puts him in his bag, his sling. And here we go. Now, this is back to why is it not a miracle?

Yes, God had given him courage. The spirit of God is on him in the Old Testament as we see. But the guy knew what he was going to do, right? What was his plan? This giant's taking on Israel, I'm not playing this game. I'm about to come take your head off. What's your plan? I got a slingshot, I got five rocks, and I'm about to take you out.

Now, why did he believe that? Because he was good at what he was good at. It wasn't his first rodeo with a sling and some rocks. What you practice in private will come out in your battles in public. So watch this. It's a crazy scene. These are I'm going to rent, I don't know if there's going to be like Netflix in heaven, but this is one of my first ones I'm going to, you know, I'm going to rent this one.

So he goes out there with his sling. Verse 41. "So the Philistine came and began drawing near to David. And the man who bore the shield went before him. And when the Philistine looked about and saw David, he disdained him for he was only a youth, ruddy and good-looking. So the Philistine said to David, 'Am I a dog? What do you think I'm a dog? That you come to me with sticks? You with your little staff? You're going to come down here and fight me with a stick?'"

"And the Philistine cursed David by his gods. And the Philistine said to David, 'Come to me, and I will give your flesh to the birds of the air and the beasts of the field.'" "Then David said to the Philistine, 'You come to me with a sword, 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.'"

He said, "Well, how was he able to say that?" You got to know your God. And stop focusing on what you can do by yourself. David had backup. I'll tell you who his backup was, God himself. But God sends us into battle. That's just how it works. And you say, "Well, what if it doesn't go well?" It's going to go well. You got to show up at the battle.

And this giant had defied the armies of the Lord. And again, if I can get this out, I'm going to read it again. "You come to me with a sword, spear, and a javelin. 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, and I will strike you and take your head from you." I'm about to take your head off, big boy.

"And this day I will give the carcasses of the camp of the Philistines to the birds of the air and the wild beasts of the earth, that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel." So what's at stake here? Part of what he's claiming is, "You say you're going to take me, guess what? I'm going to take you. The God of the universe is behind me, and everybody when I get done with you is not going to know, they'll think I'm great maybe, but they're going to know that there is a God in Israel."

And he can bring it. "Then all this assembly shall know that the Lord does not save with sword and spear, for the battle is the Lord's and he will give you into our hands." "So it was, when the Philistine arose and came and drew near to meet David, that David hurried and ran toward the army to meet the Philistine." Now, again, I'm telling you, if you're scared, you're not going to make it this far.

And you say, "Well, I'm scared." Here's how you get over being scared when you're facing giants. You practice with lions and bears. Okay? You got to be working the lions and the bears, you'll be ready for the giant. And you won't even think about not being ready, you'll be so ready. Runs toward this Philistine. Keep reading.

"Then David put his hand in his bag and took out a stone, and he slung it and struck the Philistine in his forehead, so that the stone sank into his forehead, and he fell on his face to the earth." Now by the way, David did not kill him with the stone. All he did with the stone was stun him, and the guy, you know, he hit him so hard in the forehead, knew where to aim.

"Oh, he just got lucky." You got to get off this getting lucky thing. You don't get lucky as a Christian. There's no luck. There is skill and the power of God. Sinks in his forehead, falls on his face to the earth. "So David prevailed over the Philistine with a sling, a sling and a stone, and struck the Philistine and killed him. But there was no sword in the hand of David.

Therefore David ran, stood over the Philistine, took his sword and drew it out of its sheath, and killed him and cut off his head with it." He killed Goliath with Goliath's sword. Beheaded him. "And when the Philistines saw that their champion was dead, they fled." "Now the men of Israel and Judah arose and shouted and pursued the Philistines as far as the entrance of the valley of the gates of Ekron."

By the way, all it takes is one kid to inspire a whole army. So you think, "Well, it's just me." It's never just you. God is at work in you and through you. And sometimes when we do what we are supposed to do, someone else does what they're supposed to do, and they go, "Okay, if he can do it, I can do it. I'm not getting left out of this."

Verse 53, "Then the children of Israel returned from chasing the Philistines and they plundered their tents." "And David took the head of the Philistine and brought it to Jerusalem, and he put his armor in his tent." I think that's kind of cool myself. I don't want the giant's head in my tent. But, um, it's always nice to have some trophies around.

Right? "When Saul saw David going out against the Philistine, he said to Abner, the commander of the army, 'Abner, whose son is this youth?'" And Abner said, "As your soul lives, O king, I do not know." So the king said, "Inquire whose son this young man is." "Then as David returned from the slaughter of the Philistine, Abner took him and brought him before Saul with the head of the Philistine in his hand." I mean, don't let your kids read this obviously, but people say, "Oh, here's the Bible, you need to read the Bible." You don't need to do that to an eight-year-old. Like, "What happened?"

"And Saul said to him, 'Whose son are you, young man?'" So David answered, "I am the son of your servant, Jesse, the Bethlehemite."

Guest (Male): Before Richard comes back to wrap things up for us today, I'd like to share a couple important things with you. Let me encourage you to take a minute and check out our website, RichardEllis.com. You'll find today's talk right there on the Talks page, along with all of Richard's audio and video messages. You can even forward them to a friend so they can hear them too.

You'll also find the prayer wall to add your prayer requests, a link so you can connect with us, the contribute page for you to be able to give to this ministry, all of our social media links and much more. So check it out, RichardEllis.com. And Richard's back now to wrap up today's talk.

Richard Ellis: Now, I don't have a physical giant in my life. For a while I did, kind of. My dad could, it could get wacky. But I can tell you that there are giants out there that want a piece of you and of us. And I need to, and you need to fight the bears and the lions and get you some wins so that when the big time comes, you can stand and having done all, to stand.

But none of this works without one person. And his sweet name is Jesus. And on a hill far away, stood an old rugged cross. And in his humanity, he fought in a garden against a real enemy. And three times asked his dad, "Is there any way this cup can pass from me? But if not, not my will, your will be done."

And he took on the giant. And it turns out the giant wasn't the devil, it was me and my sin. And he who knew no sin, became sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. So you've already won, you just don't know it if you're a Christian. And if you're not a Christian, you don't have to live this way anymore with fear and guilt and shame.

Guest (Male): This has been Richard Ellis Talks with Richard Ellis. The message of the gospel is one we take very seriously in our mission to reach the planet, and you have a vital part of doing that along with us. If you've been encouraged by these talks with Richard, be sure to tell someone about the change they've made in your life. You can even share today's talk with them through the website RichardEllis.com.

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