Kenneth Copeland - Release Your Faith Like David
We've been talking about the fundamentals of faith. Believe it in your heart. Say it with your mouth, corresponding action. So let's go now and check this out. We've checked it out all over the New Testament. So now then First Samuel, Chapter 17. The Battle Chapter. Hallelujah. This is when Goliath made David king. You think Samuel made him king? No, Goliath made him king. His victories and it wasn't a light victory. It was a victory. It was a victory of and that was won, lost and won with words. Faith and words, are you listening to me?
Now the Philistines gathered together their armies to battle them. We gathered together and Socoh, which belonged to Judah and pitch between Socoh and Azekah and Ephes Dammim. Saul and the men of Israel were gathered together and pitched by the Valley of Elah and set the battle in array against the Philistines. The Philistines stood on a mountain on one side, and Israel stood on a mountain on the other side, and there was a Valley between them. And there went out a champion out of the camp of Goliath out of the Philistines named Goliath of Gath, whose height was nine foot seven. Nine foot seven. Yo. He had a helmet of brass on his head. He was armed with a coat of mail. And the weight of the coat was 125 pounds.
Can you imagine a man with a coat on that weighed 125 pounds? Wow. He had greaves of brass upon his legs. His lagerns were, were brass. And a target of brass between his shoulders. The staff of his spear was like a weaver's beam and the head of his spear, the head of it, weighed 15 pounds and he's going to throw that thing. Whoa. Wonder what he weighed? Woah, there's a big boy. He stood and cried under the armies of Israel and said unto them, "Why are you come out to set your battle in array? And I'm not I a Philistine. And you servants to Saul"? Now you can catch onto something right there. You know that the scripture says that Saul was head and shoulders taller than any man in Israel.
Now if you just figure it a little bit. Saul is seven feet, but this other guy's nine foot seven. But I can tell now, Saul is well known for combat powerful combat soldier. I believe that Goliath is wanting to fight Saul and he's trying to egg him on to get Saul out here. Well, the King had no business out there doing that and he knows that. Anyway, be that as it may. Verse nine, or choose a man for you. Let him come down to me. If he'd be able to fight with me and kill me, then we will be your servants. But if I prevail against him and kill him, then shall you be our servants and serve us. The Philistine said, "I defy the armies of Israel this day. Give me a man that we may fight together".
Now this guy did this twice a day for six weeks. Are you listening to me? This would get very old. Saul and all Israel heard those words of the Philistines. They were dismayed and greatly afraid. Now, David was the son of the Ephrathite. Of Bethlehem, Judah, whose name was Jessie, and he had eight sons. And the man went among men for an old man in the days of Saul. Very distinguished man. And the three eldest sons of Jesse went and followed Saul to the battle. The names of his three sons that went into the battle. Eliab have the first born next to him, Abinadab. And the third Shammah. David was the youngest. The three eldest followed Saul.
Now that gives us a clue to the age of David because if you were 20 years old or older, you had to go into the army. Well, obviously he's under 20. So, he could have been 19 he could have been as young as 17. And but we do know that he's just a kid. I mean a very young, just teenage boy. David rose up early in the morning, left the sheep with a keeper and took and went and as Jesse had commanded him, he said, "You go down there and take this to your brothers and take their report on how the battle is going on".
And, and he came to the camp as the host was going forth to the fight and shouted for the battle for Israel and the Philistines had put the battle in array, army against army. And David left his packages in the hand of the keeper of the carriage and ran into the army and came and saluted his brethren. And as he talked with him, here came the champion Philistine of Gath. Goliath by name, out of the armies of the Philistines, and spake according to the same words.
And David heard him. And all the men of Israel, when they saw the man fled from him and were sore afraid. And the men of Israel said, "Have you seen this man that has come up surely to defy Israel, has come up, and it shall be that the man who kills him, the King will enrich him with great riches. Give him his daughter and make his father's house exempt from taxes in Israel". David spoke to the men who stood by him, said "What will be done for the man who kills this Philistine and takes away the reproach from Israel? For who is this"?
Now, notice, notice who is this uncircumcised Philistine? Now, David has already done some pretty terrible combat with a lion and a bear. Huh. I am totally convinced. Completely convinced. Now David, David is a Jew. His dad is an educated man. A powerful man. Huh? David had heard the stories of Samson. I'm convinced of it because he did the same things that Samson did. He killed a lion with his bare hands. This is a teenage kid. He's not a big guy, but he's got a covenant with God. This is the same man that said, "The Lord is my shepherd. He's my shepherd". Glory to God. I said, hallelujah. Thank you Jesus.
Oh, don't you love it? And he, David said to Saul, "Let no man's heart fail because of him". And his brothers, they got on him. And he said, "What have I done? Is there not a cause"? He actually said, "I only ask when it a good question. Is there not a cause"? He's a teenager and his older brother's ragging him out again. I only add, yeah, the family fuss is going on right out there in that valley. I have an idea that David's pretty pampered. Because he's... well anyway. And when the words were heard, which David spoke, they rehearsed them before Saul and he sent for him. David said to Saul, "Let no man's heart fail because of him. Thy servant will go and fight with this Philistine".
And Saul said to David, "You're not able to go against this Philistine to fight with him. You're nothing but a youth. And he's a man of war from his youth". David said to Saul, "Thy servant kept his father's sheep and there came a lion and a bear and took a lamb out of the flock. And I went out after him". That man, he had to catch him. I went out after him and smote him. Whoa. I smote him and delivered it out of his mouth. And when he rose up against me, I caught him by his beard and smote him and slew him. Boy, the anointing of God came on that little, get that little man and he just killed mister lion and mister bear right there on the spot. Saved his lambs.
That's a type of Jesus, you know, there we were in the very jaws of death. Then he just came in and we excepted him as Lord and savior and he just ripped us out of the hands of the devil and just kicked the devil out of our lives. Oh, Glory to God, our champion. Thank you Lord Jesus. Glory to God. And this uncircumcised, covenant-less Philistine shall be as one of them, seeing as he defied the armies of the living God. And then David said, "Moreover". He got a little stronger here, the anointing's coming on him.
See, "The Lord that delivered me out of the paw of the lion, the paw of the bear, deliver me out of the hands of this Philistine". And Saul said to David, "Go and the Lord be with you". And Saul armed him with his armor and put a helmet of brass upon his head, turned with him a coat of mail and David girded with his sword upon his armor. And he said to go for he'd not proved it. And he said to Saul, "I can't go with these. I haven't proven. I haven't trained with this. I don't know how to use this". And he took them off, he laid aside the weight that so easily beset him. Huh?
Wasn't any sin here. But here's some armor that was way too heavy. He just shucked that. I don't need that. All of this stuff was made for hand to hand combat. He never intended to get anywhere close to that giant. He intended to kill him with that rock. Flat intending to kill him. If he did get in close, he had that Shepherd's hook. That's a dangerous weapon, but somewhere he just discarded that. Now listen to this, he took his staff in his hand, chose him five smooth stones and it didn't take but one, he had a five shooter, but it only took one shot. Out of the Brook, put them in a shepherd's bag, which he had even in a script and his sling was in his hand and he drew near the Philistine.
Oh, that stupid stuff you see in the movies. Like he's out here. You're doing... Come on. Boy that... Just bull. The Philistine came on and drew near to David. The man that bear his shield went before him, the Philistine look about and showed David and he disdained him for, he was but a youth and ruddy. And of a fair countenance. The Philistine said to David, the Philistine said it, the devil knows he's got to say it. He knows how it works, but he has to say it with fear, not faith, but fear, it works for him. Fear. It works for him. Am I a dog? Yeah. That thou comest to me with saves?
The Philistine cursed David by his God. And the Philistine or the devil said to David, "You come to me, I'll give your flesh under the fowls of the air and under the beasts of the field". And those were the last words of his life. It's time for the devil to have the last words of his existence in our lives. And look what happened. Then David said it. David said it. Say it. David said it. He believed it in his heart. You know he did because he has a covenant with God. He knows what God's word has said. He is a man of the word and he believed it in his heart and he said it with his mouth and he wasn't quiet about it. Glory to God. Out of the abundance of his heart, his mouth spoke and shouted. He came at him.
David said to this Philistine, "You come to me with a sword and with a spear and with a shield, I come to you in the name. I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, Lord of hosts, Lord of hosts". That's the Lord of the angelic host. Angels were all over that. That battle field that day. Come on, come on. Come on. Your ministering spirit kid with you all the time. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. And I will. I'm not going to try. I will. I will smite thee. I will take your head from you and I will give the carcasses of the host of the Philistines this day to the fowls of the air and to the wild beast of the earth that all the earth may know. There's a God in Israel.
Boy, he's on it, isn't he? And he's on him like a bad habit, brother. Whoa, man, don't you love it? And all this assembly shall know that the Lord saveth us not with a sword and spear for the battle is the Lord's. And he will give you into our hands. He will. He'll give you into our hands. And it came to pass when the Philistine arose, came and drew nigh to meet David. David hasted and ran, ran toward the army to meet the Philistine. He's running. And while he's running, he's got his eye on this guy, while he's running, he reaches in that shepherd's bag. He didn't take his eye, he didn't have to.
Man. He was so good with this thing. He had practiced with this and practiced with this. David knows right where that rock is. I mean, he's running, he's running toward this guy boy, I mean like a rifle bullet. And that angel right behind that rock. The Lord of hosts, one little small spot, the only little... of Course that guys heads this big, it's a pretty good target. Big as a basketball. But that one little spot right there, right between his eyes. And down he went. God, I love it. Thank you Lord Jesus. He ran and smote the Philistine in his forehead. The stones shrunk into his forehead and he fell upon his face to the earth.
So David prevailed over the Philistine with a sling and with a stone and smote the Philistine and slew him. But there was no sword in the hand of David. Therefore, David ran and stood upon the Philistine and took his sword. Drew it out of the sheath thereof and slew him and cut off his head therewith the Philistine army and saw the champion was dead, they ran off. But now wait a minute. Wait, stop back up. Did he kill him with the rock or the sword? It said he smote him with the rock and slew him. He took off his sword and slew him. The rock was a kill shot, but the sword finished him right on the spot. It was a kill shot, but that sword just finished him off right then and there and he just picked his head up.
I'm going to close with this. He took his head and his armor and he put it in his room. In his tent. He's just a kid. He puts everything in his room. But he's got his blood dripping giant head... A teenage boy had just killed a biggest man on the planet. Come on, glory be to God. And don't you put your teenagers down when they're full of the Holy Ghost and they want to tackle a Goliath. You say, come on sweetheart, let's go get him. Let's go after it. You can do this thing in Christ Jesus. But first we're going to pray. We're Christians. Well, maybe you know, we're Americans. You can be anything you want to be. No, can't. You don't need to be doing that. You're going to be exactly what God's called you to be. Don't go in and say, "Now, Mama wants you to be a lawyer". It don't make no difference. Momma, what you want. It's what God wants. In train child up to seek God for himself.
Would you stand with me? Please stand with me. Lift your hands and let's glorify the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords. Our champion, the champion of all champions, glory be to God. No wonder, no wonder. No wonder Jesus is called the son of David. Hallelujah. David, a man after God's own heart and you my dear sir, you my dear sister. You are people after God's own heart. We are Holy Ghost champions. We never quit. We never give up. We stand on that word and we never turn it loose and we never stop and we'd never quit.