Just One Story: Introduction

I occasionally ask myself, “If God spoke directly to my congregation, what would he say and how would he say it?” In other words, I am asking myself what should be different about us. I think about this rather often, and it usually results in a sermon series or a series of lessons for Wednesday night Bible study. Of course, God has already spoken directly to our church, Iglesia Betania in Denton, Texas, just as he has already spoken to all churches through the Scripture and the illumination of the Scripture by the Holy Spirit. So, what has he said that we have missed? What do we need to know more than anything else, especially in these turbulent days.

How God would convey his message is easy. He would tell a story. God did not give us a systematic theology or an academic text, but a redemptive history. That is the way God primarily reveals¹ himself to us. Nearly all of the Old Testament is historical narrative. Even the gospels are a history rather than a systematic Christology. Certainly, parts of the Scripture are instructional. The Ten Commandments and much of the epistles are more instructional in nature, but even they are within the context of the redemptive history of God. This poses a bit of a problem for us. Because so much of God’s message to the church is related through Bible stories we learned as children in Sunday School, we often fail to take them seriously and to study them as mature believers looking for the deep spiritual truths embedded in them.² Sister Maria Montemayor, a great saint who was a member of our church for many years and is now with the Lord, said that the Old Testament stories were God’s kindergarten. Of course, all we really need to know we learned in kindergarten, right? Well, maybe not everything, but those kindergarten lessons are valuable and life-long.

The story God would probably tell to my congregation,  and I am sure to many others, is the story of David and Goliath. Most of us already know that story as related in 1 Samuel 17. Briefly, it is the story of young David. He was visiting his brothers in Saul’s army when Goliath, the giant Philistine, mocked and challenged the Israelites to a one-on-one duel. David volunteered to take on Goliath and in spite of his youth killed him with a small stone launched from his sling. It is a simple story, but it is both profound and foundational to our understanding of God and his work. It is also commonly misunderstood as we shall see down the road a bit.

There are at least six important spiritual truths in this story that I wish to explore. Those six truths are:

    The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob
    Uncircumcision
    The Bigger They Are . . .
    Don’t Bring a Knife to a Gunfight
    Can You Hear Me Now?
    It’s Not About David

What does this great story say to us? Well, keep and eye on this blog and we will see what he has to say. “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. (Revelation 2:11)”

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Notes
1. I am using the present tense ‘reveals’ rather than the past tense here because I firmly believe that God’s work of revelation to his people is active and vital. Not in the sense that he is giving us new biblical revelations, but that he actively works in us through the illumination of the Spirit to deepen our understanding of him, his character, his will, and his purpose.

2. For more information about how we perceive truth in modern society see Neil Postman’s Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business. It is very insightful.