This week we come to the sixth and final teaching in our
series, “Flourish”. Let’s review where we’ve been.
- Week #1 – We were made in God’s image
- Week #2 – God made you to enjoy Him
- Week #3 – God made you to follow Jesus
- Week #4 – God made you to love others
- Week #5 – God made us (His body) for each other
- Week #6 – God made you to be you
Now these are the six lessons that will capture the time
this coming week in Vacation Bible School and throughout the summer in
Children’s Ministry. As you know, each of these themes/lessons is connected to
a main biblical text each week. These texts have been the focus of our
preaching. This week’s text is I
Samuel 17:4-11, 32-50 and the story of David and Goliath.
Tony Payne has said, “God uses two great methods for
achieving His Christ-centered plans for the world: redirecting and renewing
minds/hearts.” He does this through His Word preached and taught, through the
fellowship of His Body the Church, and through His indwelling Holy Spirit. It
is the Spirit who redirects and renews us. He is the One who changes and keeps
changing us into conformity to Christ.
Back to Tony Payne, “There is a Latin phrase that describes
the essential place of God’s Spirit in bringing change to people’s lives: sine qua non. It means, literally, ‘without which not’…so,
as patience is sine qua non for
raising children or playing golf, the internal work of God’s Spirit is sine qua non for the progress of God’s
agenda in us and in the world.”
Now all of this is terribly relevant to our study this
Communion Sunday, because the story of David and Goliath screams of the
necessity of walking in the Spirit. The truth is the essence of the story of I
Samuel 17 has much more to do with the battle between King Saul and the young
man David, than the one between David and Goliath.
By this time in Saul’s life, he has come to rely completely
on himself and his unrenewed mind. This is why he is so hopeless in the face of
the giant. This is why he has to be convinced to send David into battle. And
this is certainly why he seeks to protect him by every means he values, like
armor and spear.
The story of David and Goliath is the story of a battle
every one of us faces. Will we follow our flesh, listening to its fears, its
allurements, and its deceptions, or will we submit to the ways of God’s Spirit?
This Sunday we will dive into this text and see the contrast between the flesh
and the Spirit in four stark ways.
In preparation for Sunday, you may wish to consider the
following:
- What facts does the writer give us in Sunday’s text?
- What change can you see in King Saul from his anointing in chapter 10 to his description in chapter 17?
- How does he go from courage to fear in a few short chapters?
- What happens in chapter 16 that makes him behave the way he does in the Valley of Elah?
- Do the words of Psalm 51 resonate with what’s happening here?
- What is the key difference between Saul’s perspective and David’s?
- What does Saul mean in verse 37 when he sends David out with the words, “The Lord be with you”?
- What does David mean in verse 39 when he says, “for I have not tested them”?
- What does David reveal about living by the Spirit in verse 45 and following?
- How is “God made you to be you” explained from this story?
