Join Pastor Jack Hibbs in a deep dive into the true story of David and Goliath, exploring the spiritual truths that transcend beyond personal heroism or the triumph of an underdog. In this episode, we unravel the profound faith and confidence David had in God as he faced one of his world’s greatest challenges. Discover how the battle’s essence lay not in human strength but in spiritual assurance, calling believers to embrace the power of the Holy Spirit against life’s adversities.
00:00:02 David and Goliath: Running Toward Victory
You see, David wasn’t running exactly toward Goliath. He was running toward the God of victory. He knew that there was going to be a war. He knew that there was going to be a victory and that in that victory, in that war, it would take place with Goliath as a factor. David runs toward Goliath because he knew where the action was going to be.
SPEAKER 02 :
This is Real Life. Welcome to Real Life Radio with Pastor Jack Hibbs. I’m David Jay, thanking you for joining us today as we listen, learn, and are challenged by God’s Word, the Bible. What if 2026 wasn’t about doing more, but about knowing God more? This January, we’re featuring one of the most powerful and timeless books on Christian faith, Knowing God, written by J.I. Packer. Now, this classic has helped millions of believers move from knowing about God to actually knowing God personally. With deep biblical insight and heart-centered focus, Packer invites you to explore God’s character, his love, and what it really means to walk with him. It’s not a quick read. It’s a life-changing one. Start your year with truth that will reshape your mind, strengthen your heart, and deepen your faith.
SPEAKER 01 :
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SPEAKER 02 :
That’s Knowing God by J.I. Packer. Get your copy for a gift of any amount at jackhibbs.com. On today’s edition of Real Life Radio, Pastor Jack continues now in his series called First Samuel and a message titled Winning the Battles of Life Part 5. Samuel of the Old Testament was the last judge of Israel and the first of its prophets. So here, as we continue in chapter 17, we’ll consider how God wants to empower our lives, not with physical strength or power that comes from the world, but through the power of the Holy Spirit. You see, the true story of David and Goliath is not just about underdogs or personal heroism. It’s about living in the confidence that comes from belonging to Christ, no matter how much the enemy tries to fill us with fear and redefine our identity. So today, Pastor Jack teaches that Goliath’s challenge with the army of Israel was not just physical, it was spiritual. David, with tremendous faith, was so sure of God’s power in this battle that he not only runs toward Goliath, he runs toward his God, confident of Israel’s victory. Now, with his message called Winning the Battles of Life, Part 5, here’s pastor and Bible teacher Jack Hibbs.
SPEAKER 01 :
Can you imagine? Of course, it was not to happen. But what if Goliath, before getting the opportunity to have his neck or his head cut off, what if he fell on his knees and gave glory and honor to the God of Israel? What do you know, Christian? Listen, what do you know about the nature of God? That God will forgive any man, any woman who will cry out to him. God would not say, well, you know what? I’ve got this kind of battle set up, Goliath, and it’s really going well according to my plan, and I really need you to really lose your head over this one. If Goliath would have confessed, repented, God would have forgiven. That’s a hard thought for us. Can you imagine? Okay, look, is Osama alive or dead? Everybody wants to know. It’s an NBC poll. You can go online right now and vote. What do you think? Why are they asking us? Is Osama alive or dead? You know what? This is my theory. I think God gave it to me. It’s not my own. But according to, in my opinion, the United States, Osama bin Laden will always be alive. Even if he’s dead, he’s got to be alive. Do you understand why? Do you understand? He can’t die. Osama can’t die. Because if Osama dies, then we cannot encroach and make incursions into any other country alive. We can blame a lot on Osama, we need him alive. If he’s dead, we’re never gonna know it. But God doesn’t do business that way. Is Osama dead or alive? Listen, only God knows for sure. But I tell you something, what about my life? What about your life? The things that God wants dead in our lives. God, is this dead in my life? Lord, is this thing, whatever it might be, is the Goliath of my life dead? Well, the power Of this world, we are not equipped for on our own. We need the power of God. We talked about that very much so. And so why don’t you look, 1 Samuel 17, picking up all around verse 47. Then all this assembly shall know that the Lord does not save with sword or spear, for the battle is the Lord’s, and he will give you into our hands. That’s little David speaking. Man, what a verse to memorize, people, for all of us now in the problems of our lives. Then my family will know that the Lord does not save with sword or spear, for the battle is the Lord’s, and he will give it into our hands. My family will know, my church will know, my friends will know, those who serve alongside me will know. David makes a claim, and this is a claim that David was assured of. The world’s gonna know by what’s gonna happen here. Tremendous faith. Now, was David proclaiming something that he hoped would come to pass? Or was he proclaiming something that he knew, certainly acting in faith, but he knew that God was going to do? He had an assurance of faith that God was going to be the victor. In a strange and interesting way, Goliath had cursed the God of David. And not only that, but Goliath was calling down curses upon David by his gods. mustering up all these gods that we talked about last time these gods of pornographic is sick worship freaked out things of their idols that have been unearthed throughout archaeological time oh my god of this will destroy your god David my god of this will destroy your god David my god of that will destroy your god David and it’s like the Mount Carmel thing you know Elijah, standing there. And if you read the fight in print, there’s 850 prophets there total. 450 of Baal and the astroths that are there, the pornographic gods of the universe at the time. Astroth worship, twisted, freakish, sick. There’s young ears and young faces I see tonight. I can’t describe what they would do. It’s not good. Sick worship, and there’s just Elijah. Just Elijah? No, just Elijah and the God of the universe. And he’s standing there on that mountaintop, and many of you have been there. And God, supernaturally, manifests his power. Do you know the nature of your God? This is a key thing in our Christian experience. Because, you know what, when all else fails, and your foundation is shaking, You can always lean on the fact that you know the nature of your great God, that he loves you with an everlasting love, that his thoughts toward you are for hope, and that he’s on your side. And so we learn this. You look at verse 38, excuse me, 48, and it says, so it was when the Philistine arose and came and drew near to meet David, that David, look in your Bible, what does it say? Hurried and ran toward the army to meet the Philistine. He’s hurrying, he’s running up there. You say, David, what do you need, glasses? No, the great thing is, you see this monster Goliath coming, David runs toward him. What a tremendous story, oh, what a, okay, yeah, Goliath’s huge, David’s small. But behind, apparently, by faith, David can see that behind Goliath stands the God of Israel. Who’s bigger? Who’s bigger? I mean, it looked like one of those little, you know, here’s the, you know, this thing, and then this thing, and then this little guy here, and then there’s this bigger one. He’s bigger than the little guy. The one in the middle is bigger than the little guy. But then the guy in the middle turns, and there’s the next one next to him, and he’s huge. And it’s the God of Israel. What we need to see is that David was not running exactly toward Goliath. David was running toward his God. Because David knew by faith that the war would be taken care of in hand-to-hand, Christian, aren’t we called to hand-to-hand spiritual combat in this spiritual world we live in? Fighting against principalities and powers, demonic spirits and those things. Pastor Jack, don’t talk about that, don’t talk about that. Oh, wake up, it’s true. You see, David wasn’t running exactly toward Goliath. He was running toward the God of victory. He knew that there was going to be a war. He knew that there was going to be a victory and that in that victory, in that war, it would take place with Goliath as a factor. David runs toward Goliath because he knew where the action was going to be. David’s not running forward saying, I’m such a good aim, I’m going to nail you and take you down, you big uncircumcised piece of pork. That’s not what he’s saying. He’s not saying, you know what, I’m really agile. Oh, watch. I can bring you down. You can swing your sword, I can run up your sword, poke you in the eyes and run back down before you ever know it. He’s not like Muhammad Ali and he’s just, you know, with his feet. What I was doing standing here right now, because you couldn’t see my feet, is I was moving my feet all around behind the pulpit. Remember the Muhammad Ali? Some of us are old enough to remember the shuffle. And the boxer, the guy Muhammad Ali would come into the ring and the boxer would be there and they’d be going like this and Muhammad Ali would start dancing. And the guy would go, what is this? I’ve never seen this before. And boom, he’s down. David was not thinking, I’m just going to do a little dance. Do a little moonwalk thing and the Goliath looks down and whoosh. No, no earthly planning. None of that stuff. Well, let’s go out there. We sing this song, the battle belongs to the Lord. And then why do we go about to fight our spiritual battles with worldly implements? The battle belongs to the Lord. Let’s pray. All right, now pull out your checkbooks. It almost seems like the prayer part was a covering just to get to the checkbook. Make that pen look like a sword and you ride out that victory. Just ride it out. Wait a minute. No fleshly manipulation, no things being played with. David takes off because he knows there’s gonna be a war and it’s gonna be between the God of Israel and this uncircumcised Philistine. And that’s what’s going on in your life and my life. Why is this thing so difficult to kill in my life? Answer, I’ve been trying to kill it on my own. Come on, let’s fess up. I’ve been praying so hard and I still got the problem. I’ve tried everything. I’ve done this, I’ve done this. I think we’re so funny. It’s kind of like, you know, we discuss spiritual battles like backaches. I learned this weekend how to, I keep going to call it snowboard, but this is wrong time of the year. Wakeboard. I fell in love with wakeboarding yesterday. Was it yesterday? Yesterday? It doesn’t matter. First time I ever did it in my life. It’s very cool. You know what happened the next day? 1,200 milligrams of Advil. That’s no joke. I could hardly get out of bed. I used physical powers to do something, and then finally I told my daughter, I said, you know how I got up this time? Man, when are you going to get up? Okay, we’re tired of pulling the boat around to pull you up. When are you going to get up? And, you know, being the spiritual guy that I am, I said, God, please help me to get up. Please just pick me up. And I got up. And they’re going, oh, he got up finally. And I’m thinking, oh, God, thank you, Lord. Now, they may think, well, he just hung in there and persevered. No, no. The boy was praying. Lord, help me. But we go to our spiritual battles in our lives. Whatever it might be. Our thought life. And we try to do, you know, just think a happy thought. We hum some friendly Disney tune. It doesn’t work. You’re going to take the Makaira. Do you know what the Makaira is? The Makaira is the sword of the spirit, which is the specific word of God to use in our life’s battles. When you are having temptation thoughts or you’re having this going on in your life, whatever it might be, don’t quote, as I said before, don’t quote Genesis 1-1. It doesn’t work that way. Quote a specific verse like go to Corinthians and say right then and there, Lord, your Bible says to bring every thought under the captivity of Jesus Christ. And Lord, I’m bringing this evil thought that’s in my head under the captivity of Jesus Christ. And I pray that in your name, Lord. And you say, Pastor Jeff, I’ve done that. And what do you think the answer is, class? Do it again. And again, and again, and again.
SPEAKER 05 :
You’re listening to Real Life with Pastor Jack Hibbs. To learn more about this ministry or to catch up on some previous episodes, go to jackhibbs.com. That’s jackhibbs.com. And now, let’s get back to today’s message. Once again, here’s Pastor Jack.
SPEAKER 01 :
Why is it in church? You can have such a happy day, and you come to church, and we worship, and people are praising the Lord, and we’re just blessed, and you can be sitting in church and have the most perverse thought in your mind that’s not even, I mean, what is that? Two of you know what I’m talking about? It’s like, where did that come from? It’s like this photon. I don’t think like this normal. What was that thought? Why did I think this way? There’s a spiritual war going on. And David takes off. I mean, the Israeli army must be going, what is he doing? There’s some guy standing there holding an umbrella over Saul, King Saul’s head with the sun shining real bright. The armies are chanting and ranting and stuff, and Goliath’s there, and David, he’s getting ready for battle. He runs. This is amazing to me. People, Christian, let’s, we would say, if we’re a bunch of guys together, buck up. Buck up. It’s come on, you know what? The Lord’s our strength. He’s given us the Bible. Let’s go forward. It’s going to work in him. Let’s go. And we get up and we move. It’s hard to do, everybody, on your own. We talked about that on Sunday. It’s hard to do on your own. I think God’s designed it so we can’t do it on our own. God’s designed the church to be an organism that lives together. And healthy sheep, by the way, have you ever seen healthy sheep? You can always tell a healthy… A healthy sheep. A healthy sheep is always looking for the opposite sex sheep. You know what I mean? If it’s a male sheep, is that the right term? You vets are going to all yell at me later. You know, you got a boy sheep and a girl sheep, whatever those things are called? Sheep. And when the sheep are healthy, the sheep, it’s like, hey, we’re healthy. You know what I mean? We’re feeling pretty good here. We’re well fed, got nice safe pastures, things are quiet, got a good shepherd over there taking care of things, sheepdogs are all cool, everything’s quiet. Hey, wanna go down to the creek for a little drink, you know, there in the brook and talk a little bit and healthy sheep produce sheep. When sheep get together, you get more sheep. David’s a shepherd. He knows how to take care of things. You know what? Yeah, that’s right. He killed a lion and a bear. Oh, no, no. Last time, remember, he said he did it by the power of God. And if God delivered these enemies into my hands, he certainly delivered this man who was taunting the God of Israel. We’re living in very prophetic times. Watch what happens. A tremendous age. The Bible tells us that God will stand for Israel and all the world will not. Ezekiel tells us in this Ezekiel battle that God will show up as it were and then it says the Jews will know in Israel that God sits upon his throne. It implies, listen, it implies that they do not know that now. Guess what? 90 plus percent of Israelis in Israel today don’t even believe in God. They teach the Bible as a storybook. Ask Steve if I’m telling you something different. They teach it as something that was made up to justify an existence of the Israeli people. They don’t even believe. And yet that’s exactly what the prophet said would happen. You turn to God and God will fight your victories. It’s a very awesome moment. Verse 39, then David put his hand into his bag and took out a stone and he slung it. 49, and struck the Philistine in his forehead so that the stone, listen to the graphic of this, it’s beautiful. Guys, you gotta love it. The stone sank into his forehead. It sank in. It wasn’t a It was a . The cool part is, listen, read the Bible very carefully. The stone didn’t kill him. Read on. Let’s be careful. Remember that. But watch. The stone didn’t do the killing. Watch. It stunk into his forehead and he fell on his face to the earth. So David prevailed over the Philistine with a sling and a stone and struck the Philistine and killed him. The and killed him is the cool part. Now just before, I’m gonna ask them to put this graph up, it’s very, very cool. Take a look at this, this is the cutest thing. Just before Goliath falls down, this could have been what the scene looked like. If you look to the screen and I’m looking for my, there you go. Look at, is it not, now that’s just about as big as our mortgage payment looks. That’s just about as big as that health problem feels. You say, Jack, you know what? We’re having a great time going through the Bible tonight, exciting and all that stuff. But you know what? My father is suffering from this or from that as I am this evening. My sister is suffering horribly from a stroke. It’s terrible. You want to cry. I talked with Laura after service last Sunday and her and I are in exactly the same place. Her father has suffered a stroke and he’s captured inside of his body. My sister, after years, six years of fighting cancer, She gets hit by this bonehead stroke and she’s in a bed. She’s locked inside of her body. And I’m just heartbroken, you know. You talk to her on the phone and it’s terrible. She can talk. Sometimes she can. And I pray, Lord, you know, heal her. And then on the other hand, honestly, I’m telling you, I’m saying, Lord Jesus, just take her home. Our God is awesome. If my sister goes home or not, if Laura Lee’s dad goes home or not, listen, praise the Lord, Rick. I heard a message, is it true? That God chose through surgery to get all of Rick’s cancer. Praise God for that. You know, hallelujah. Awesome. But even if God did not, is not God still great? Isn’t he awesome? Isn’t he loving and wonderful and compassionate and caring? Yes. But sometimes we see our enemies like that little graphic. David’s standing there. Now… The Bible is very, very… clear to always point out that we always appear to be the underdogs did you know that God wants us that way the underdog in Deuteronomy chapter 1 verse 30 and 31 it says the Lord your God who goes before you will fight for you according to all he did for you in Egypt before your eyes and And in the wilderness, when you saw how the Lord your God carried you, as a man carries his own son. And all the way that you went until you came to this place today. People, that’s God. Did you ever see in Deuteronomy 1.30 and 31? Come on, I’ll carry you. Christians, let’s wake up. I tell you, we’re going to wake up. It’s better to wake up now while we’re hearing it. Let’s God shake the earth and he really gets our attention. Be seated firm. Know your foundation. Our God is great. He’s strong. He will stand for us. We just need to understand what that means. Sometimes through miraculous deliverance like he did with Steve as those terrorists were coming in behind the fence that one night. So gently sometimes does God do a miracle. It appears to be something natural. Or We’re living in the days when God says in the scriptures, men will hate one another and turn on each other. Evil days, days of terror. He’s a powerful God we serve. And he loves us.
SPEAKER 02 :
pastor and Bible teacher, Jack Hibbs, here on Real Life Radio with his message called Winning the Battles of Life, Part 5. Thanks for taking the time to be with us today. You know, this message is part of Pastor Jack’s series called First Samuel. It’s a series highlighting the prophet Samuel, who was called by God during one of Israel’s darkest times to bring the people back to a heart of true worship. And we’ll continue on the next edition of Real Life Radio.
SPEAKER 04 :
Your week is packed. You’re running on empty, and sometimes Sunday already feels like a distant memory by Wednesday. That’s exactly why real-life devotions exist. Each week, Pastor Jack Hibbs brings you a short but powerful moment in God’s Word designed to encourage, equip, and refocus your heart. It’s not another podcast or a long sermon. It’s a few meaningful minutes that meet you right where you are. Whether you’re on a commute, going for a walk, or you just need a reset in the middle of your day, Real Life Devotions are ready when you are. Fresh encouragement, straight from the scripture. And it’s all just one click away. Check out the newest devotion now at jackhibbs.com. That’s jackhibbs.com. Your place for real faith, real encouragement, and real life. That’s Real Life Devotions at jackhibbs.com.
SPEAKER 03 :
Daniel Cohen here from Israel. If you love Pastor Jack Hibbs’ fearless approach to teaching God’s Word, you’ll love The Real Life Network. It’s built for warriors who want the truth, God’s truth. On The Daniel Cohen Show, we bring you stories the mainstream media downplays. It’s time to start getting your news from people you trust, and it’s totally free. Sign up now at reallifenetwork.com.
SPEAKER 02 :
This program is made possible by the generous contributions of you, our listeners. Visit us at jackhibbs.com. That’s jackhibbs.com. Until next time, Pastor Jack Hibbs and all of us here at Real Life Radio wish for you solid and steady growth in Christ and in His Word. We’ll see you next time here on Real Life Radio.
