Today I would like to share the grace of God under the title, “David, A Man of God.” What kind of person does God use? He always uses those who have a dream and have faith in God. When the Israelites were attacked by the army of the Philistines, David had a dream by collapsing Goliath, “The whole world will know that there is a God in Israel. All those gathered here will know that it is not by sword or spear that the Lord saves.” God worked through David who moved forward with dreams and gave amazing victory to the Israelites. In the past, there were many little kingdoms in a small region. Therefore, it was crowded with all these many little kingdoms. Just think about ancient Korea, we had Korkuryo, Bakje, Silla, and Koryo in our country. In the same way, wars kept going on. As their country could not grow, they attacked other countries to take advantage of their resources. So at that time there was a terrifying general named Goliath from the Philistines. He was overwhelmingly and much more huge than any other people. He provoked a fight by insulting the army of Israel. 1 Samuel 17:8-10 says, “Goliath stood and shouted to the ranks of Israel, ‘Why do you come out and line up for battle? Am I not a Philistine, and are you not the servants of Saul? Choose a man and have him come down to me. If he is able to fight and kill me, we will become your subjects; but if I overcome him and kill him, you will become our subjects and serve us.’” He threatened the army of Israel so loudly. “Then the Philistine said, ‘This day I defy the ranks of Israel! Give me a man and let us fight each other.’" On hearing the Philistine's words, Saul and all the Israelites were dismayed and terrified. At that time, there wasn’t any war machine but only hand-to-hand combat. Nowadays there are various war machines such as machine gun, cannon, combat plane, and bomb, but in the past they did not exist. They had to fight with swords and spears. So Goliath cried out to Israel, “"This day I defy the ranks of Israel! Give me a man and let us fight each other. If he is able to fight and kill me, we will become your subjects; but if I overcome him and kill him, you will become our subjects and serve us." Goliath was fully armed and cried out to resonate through the mountain against the army of Israel, King Saul of Israel and all the Israelites were terrified at this. When the Israelites saw Goliath, the Philistine champion from Gath, they all ran from him in great fear. Even before the war began, they were already defeated. King Saul was totally embarrassed at the words of Goliath. Then David visited the battlefield by his father’s errand to bring roasted grain and bread to his elder brothers. As David reached the camp, Goliath, the Philistine champion from Gath, stepped out from his lines and shouted his usual defiance, and he heard it. When the Israelites saw the man, they all ran from him in great fear. David said to them, “Why are you afraid of this lesser man?” David had a great experience in his shepherd life. You know, experience is most needed in our life of faith. Little experience will bring good faith while great experience will bring great faith. Therefore, it is so important in Christianity to have a real experience. When Samuel worked as the prophet of God, David had a great experience as a shepherd boy. 1 Samuel 17:34-35 says, “But David said to Saul, ‘Your servant has been 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 its mouth. When it turned on me, I seized it by its hair, struck it and killed it.” David wasn’t an ordinary boy. There must have been many bears and lions in Israel. This youngest boy who did an errand for his father bravely went after a bear or a lion as it carried off a sheep from the flock and struck it and rescued the sheep from its mouth. Therefore, David said, “Why are you brothers and other Israelites so cowardly? I will fight against him!” At that time David was a teenage boy of seventeen years old. This teenage boy volunteered to fight against the Philistine giant so other adults all laughed at him, saying, “Fools rush in where angels fear to tread. He doesn’t know how terrified Goliath is! So he is just bluffing like that!” However, David kept shouting, “If anyone fight instead of me, come forward right now! Why are you making a terrible noise without bravery to volunteer to fight against him?” Then the Israelites went to Saul and said, “There is no one who volunteers to fight against Goliath. But here is a seventeen year old shepherd boy who wants to fight, but we are afraid that he will be killed instantly. However, there is no one volunteer among us so why don’t you let him go and fight against Goliath?” David said to King Saul, “The LORD who delivered me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine." Saul said to David, "Go, and the LORD be with you."(1 Samuel 17:37) He said to King Saul, “I have a great experience. I killed lions and bears so why should I be afraid of this Philistine enemy who resists our God? I will handle him so don’t worry!” You know, in our daily lives we have to face many Goliaths. What will you do when lions and bears like Goliath come to your business or your health? You can’t just run away from them! Even if it happens, if you have an experience that overcame some problems like lions and bears through prayer to God in your past suffering, it will be an enormous resource. Your past experience can be a great resource of your faith now. Why? As you overcame some problem like a bear or a lion, you can face any problem with boldness. “How petty it is! I will go up to Osanri Prayer Mountain and pray and then have a lunch and come back. Don’t look for me any other place!” When you go up to the prayer mountain and pray, God will make you pass the test of faith because you have an experience of His mighty power. All of us need real experience. If our faith has no experience, it will be like an joke. Even through little experience, we can have a great faith to conquer the devil our enemy. Even though David was a just teenage boy, he already had a great experience to strike and kill bears and lions. As God made him experience all of these, he became a shepherd boy with great boldness. David said in Psalm 146:3-5, “Do not put your trust in princes, in mortal men, who cannot save. When their spirit departs, they return to the ground; on that very day their plans come to nothing. Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the LORD his God,” How great and awesome these words are! But only those who have real experience of God can confess like this! Most people are really afraid of receiving God’s help. However, David was fully armed with faith, he didn’t fear any circumstances. We must also believe in Almighty God. David had a small feature and had no experience of training with real arms and furthermore, he had never worn a coat of armor. In human perspective, David had no possibility of winning. Then Saul dressed David in his own tunic. He put a coat of armor on him They all became a heavy burden to David. David fastened on his sword over the tunic and tried walking around, because he was not used to them. So he took them off. And he wore a bronze helmet on his head, but he couldn’t raise his head so he had to look down only. So he took it off, too. He discarded all of these arms and then he took his staff in his hand along with five smooth stones in the pouch of his shepherd's bag and with his sling in his hand. He said to Saul, “I will bring a victory to you!” His early experience of God gave him a great boldness so he could move forward with bravery. Psalm 3:6 says, “I will not fear the tens of thousands drawn up against me on every side.” Even if the tens of thousands draw up against David on every side, he already had a great experience of victory to compete with them in his heart. Why do we fear when we face difficulty? It is because we don’t know who our God is. As we are ignorant of our Almighty God, we fear any hardships or difficulty. David was well aware that the outcome of all matters depends on God only. 1 Chronicles 29:11 says, “Yours, O LORD, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the majesty and the splendor, for everything in heaven and earth is yours. Yours, O LORD, is the kingdom; you are exalted as head over all.” No matter how weak and fragile we may be, if we believe in God and pray to Him, we can overcome any difficulties. Nevertheless, worries, anxiety, and fear fill our hearts to the full because we do not look up to God. The Israelites ran from Goliath in great fear because they didn’t looked to God for help. If they had experienced the living God, they would have known that even Goliath was a mere dust in front of Him. While David estimated Goliath, he also judged David. The armies of Israel and the Philistines confronted each other on both sides of the field. They cheered for their own army saying, “Kill him! Kill him!” just like in athletic sports. From Israel David came forward while Goliath from the Philistines and they faced each other in the field. Goliath was astonished at David. “The Israelites quite didn’t catch what I said. How can this tiny little boy come forward as he doesn’t seem to be a match for me?” He looked David over and saw that he was only a boy, ruddy and handsome, and he despised him. He said to David, "Am I a dog, that you come at me with sticks?" And the Philistine cursed David by his gods. "Come here," he said, "and I'll give your flesh to the birds of the air and the beasts of the field!"(1 Samuel 17:42-44) Goliath underestimated David. However, David judged Goliath, “Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear; this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, because he has defied the armies of the living God.”(1 Samuel 17:36) They judged each other. “Then he took his staff in his hand, chose five smooth stones from the stream, put them in the pouch of his shepherd's bag and, with his sling in his hand, approached the Philistine.”(1 Samuel 17:40) David chose five smooth stones from the stream and put them in the pouch of his shepherd’s bag. He could resist his enemy with one stone, but why did he bring five stones? David had a great faith! He said to himself, “As Goliath comes forward as a general, his younger brothers must follow him to the battle. Speaking of his brothers, I should destroy them all!” He meant that he would kill Goliath and his other brothers with five stones! Have you seen the swing of sling in the TV? They put stones in the sling and swing it! If sling program were included in the Olympic games, David would always win a gold medal. Then it wasn’t that easy because Goliath was fully armed from head to toes! There was only one open spot that was between his eyes. David should hit that spot! All other places wouldn’t hurt at all even if seriously hit. Then we understand that David relied on God! As God was with David, his stone sank into Goliath’s forehead, and he fell facedown on the ground. David ran and stood over him. Without a sword in his hand he took hold of the Philistine's sword and drew it from the scabbard. After he killed him, he cut off his head with the sword. 1 John 5:4 says, “for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith.” Today while you are listening to my preaching here, if you have worry, anxiety, restlessness, irritation, despair or any difficulty, you must pray because God loves you. “It will be done according to your faith!” We Christians have an unimaginably new world. Through the fourth dimensional spirituality, our new thoughts, new dream, new faith, and new mouth confession will make us live a new life like David’s. Deuteronomy 31:8 says, “The LORD himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged." Isaiah 41:10 says, “So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.” David won the battle against the Philistines and pleased God very much. Some may say, “What do we care about war?” actually war happens in the entire area of our life. Our life itself is war! Adults have their own war in their workplaces while children in the competitive college prep environment. Husbands and wives have their own war of domestic dispute. However, human strength and wisdom can’t solve all these wars. We believers must have God’s help to win over this war of life. In order to get His help, we must have dream in our hearts. David dreamed, saying “The whole world will know that there is a God in Israel. All those gathered here will know that it is not by sword or spear that the LORD saves.”(1 Samuel 17:46-47) With this dream and faith, he boldly came forward so God gave him a great victory!