1 Samuel 17:40 – And he took his staff in his hand, and chose him five smooth stones out of the brook, and put them in a shepherd’s bag which he had, even in a scrip; and his sling was in his hand: and he drew near to the Philistine.

1 Samuel 17:41 – And the Philistine came on and drew near unto David; and the man that bare the shield went before him.

1 Samuel 17:48 – And it came to pass, when the Philistine arose, and came and drew nigh to meet David, that David hasted, and ran toward the army to meet the Philistine.

1 Samuel 17:49 – And David put his hand in his bag, and took thence a stone, and slang it, and smote the Philistine in his forehead, that the stone sunk into his forehead; and he fell upon his face to the earth.

1 Samuel 17:50 – 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.

1 Samuel 17:51 – Therefore David ran, and stood upon the Philistine, and took his sword, and drew it out of the sheath thereof, and slew him, and cut off his head therewith. And when the Philistines saw their champion was dead, they fled.

Hello readers, new blog time today. I’ve had a little break from blogs for one reason or another, but it’s not for lack of God’s word delivering, providing, and being fresh, new and faithful ever day. Today’s blog is about “A little stone for a big head”. Today I am, of course, referring to the story of David and Goliath. It’s a famous story, a story which has inspired faith and courage in many Christians through history. What a story it is, a little shepherd boy, a nobody, who takes out the champion of the Philistines with his sling and a stone.

Are you a big head or a little stone? Goliath had a big head. Often we can get quite a big head, we think we’re something when we are nothing. We are filled with pride, self importance, confidence in ourselves and our resources and abilities. But a little stone took the big headed giant down. God uses little stones and he makes them very lively. I hope you are blessed by this blog today, you can be a little stone of great value to a great victory for God.

The Bible says in 1 Peter 2:5 – “Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.” Did you know that you and I, if we are saved and abiding in Jesus Christ and he in us by faith, are what the Bible calls lively stones? Are you interested in being a lively stone? Or are you a big head waiting to be taken down as you surely will be? The image of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream, of which he was the head of gold was smashed in pieces by the stone cut out of the mountain. The mightiest man in the mightiest empire had his big head smashed by a little stone. When you get saved, when you realize your place before God, when you realize your desperate need of the grace and mercy of God, you’ll lose your big head.

Why on earth would we as Christians be likened unto lively stones? What can a Christian have in common with a stone? The thing is, Jesus Christ is referred to as the Rock, he is also in that same book of 1 Peter called the chief cornerstone. A cornerstone is the vital, fundamental and foundational stone in building a house. Christ and Christians are referred to as stones, because stones have some very distinct qualities. A stone doesn’t change over time. We shouldn’t change. Our God doesn’t change. Truth doesn’t change. And your Bible should not change.

God wants you and I to be lively stones. That’s something I am interested in. It was a lively stone that whizzed through the air and hit Goliath between the eyes. How can we be lively stones? And it seems like a contradictory term doesn’t it. Because stones are dead aren’t they? They’re inanimate objects. David caused an inanimate object to become very lively. God can make you a lively stone. You can’t be a lively stone until you come to the living stone first. Christ can give you his miraculous life.

And if you think about it, Peter kinda knew what he was writing about in this whole stone business… after all, Jesus had changed his name to Cephas, which means “a stone”. When you’re born again, you become a lively stone, because Jesus is the living and the corner stone. Peter was a pillar of the early church the Bible says. He had the qualities of a living stone. He helped to build. He was a builder, not a destroyer. Jesus said to Peter… when thou art converted, strengthen the brethren. Jesus said to Peter after his resurrection… feed my sheep.

Jesus used Peter as a vital person in building up people in the most holy faith. Your life can be useful, your life can be meaningful, your life can count. One of the most important uses of stones is in building, and you can build a very sure, strong, lasting house out of stone. As Christians, when we are stones, we should be able to build people up in the faith. We should be useful. We should be reliable. We should be trustworthy.

We can also be used to defeat the enemy. Faith is fight. It’s a fight to believe, it’s a fight to obey. Christianity is warfare. And you’re going to face some Goliaths. Goliath was a big man, a giant in fact, and he had a big head in more ways than one. You read 1 Samuel 17 and you realize he was a big head. Look at the way he’s talking, he’s talking like a big head. There are a lot of big heads out there. There are a lot of giants out there. We have a lot of enemies out in this world, which oppose Christ, which oppose faith and truth and righteousness, which are gigantic to us. What giants are looming up in your life? What giants are defying your life, your faith?

We are living in a society where Goliath is looming up everywhere. The giant Goliath opposes God, and opposes all who follow God. There are many Goliaths looming up before us both personally and corporately, champions of the enemy who challenge our faith, our belief, our trust, our courage, and our obedience to God. Fear is a Goliath, Goliath did make Israel very afraid. Maybe you have your own personal Goliath, maybe your Goliath is lust, or pride, or doubt. Maybe your Goliath is the lies of the devil, Goliath spoke great things, but they were lies… he was no match for the God of Israel, but they believed his lies.

The Goliath of Bible correctors loom up before us today, telling us our Bible is wrong, that it can’t be trusted, that it’s got mistakes… have you got an answer to that Goliath which has put such fear in you your life is cowering down in your trench hoping he’ll leave you alone for a minutes peace? And when we should be running toward the enemy, we are fleeing from the enemy. Christians are like that today. Instead of courage we have fear.

But this blog is about a little stone for a big head. I’ve always loved the picture of David going to the brook to select some stones for his sling. He comes to a clear little running stream, and through that clear water, David sees, and selects and picks out some smooth stones sitting at the bottom of the brook. Think about those stones. Those stones had sat in water for a long time, and the water had smoothed their rough edges off. They were perfect to be used in a sling. Are you a great fit for God’s sling? Are you able to be selected and deployed against the enemies of God? A big stone couldn’t go in a sling, an odd shaped stone couldn’t go in the sling, David looked for something that’d fit his sling just right, suitable for use.

What makes us suitable for use? Often we can’t be used in God’s sling because we haven’t been in the water of the word of God, water flow and water action upon those stones which has taken off all those edges and shapes which would make us very inaccurate and unreliable and unusable to someone with a sling. In that brook, David found some smooth stones that he thought, hey, I can use that one, and that one, and that one will be good! The kind of person God is going to use is someone that has been in his word, who trusts his word, who God has worked in the life of. How are you going to fit in his sling when you’re the wrong shape and size and won’t fit to his sling? God makes us fit for his use, just as Paul wrote to Timothy, and if we have our own ideas, wisdom, thinking, ability and so on… God is going to use us.

The stones had to be right for David’s sling, David wasn’t going to be changing his sling, his sling was just right. God’s not changing for you, he’s going to use someone who’s let the word of God smooth out and shape. God is looking for some smooth stones to sling at the enemy, stones that can hit the big head between the eyeballs and knock him down flat. That could be you. Your dead little life can be made very lively with repentance and faith. God make me fit for your use, rather than me expecting God to work with my disobedience and rebellion and big headedness. And this was a victory against all odds. The little shepherd boy whips the biggest, baddest giant the enemy has got. And not even a contest! If you decide to step out in faith in your life, you’ll find that giant will go down easy. It’s crazy, but the giant was no match for David!

David says, I can go and take this giant out. Who does he think he is? My God is far bigger and better and badder than he is. And he goes to the quiet brook, a stream gently flowing, and he’s looking for something suitable for his sling. When God goes looking for someone he can use, he’s looking for a smooth stone that he’s going to make very lively. If you’re too busy with you living your life, you don’t need God’s life, you’re useless to God. God won’t use us, because we don’t fit in his sling, we won’t fly right, we’re no good for his business. Jesus said I must be about my Father’s business, but we don’t let God shape us and smooth us so he can use us, no, we are too busy shaping our own life.

Think about those stones are sitting in that stream, and maybe you’ve been a nobody nothing in your life. But you’ve been in God’s word. You’ve been soaking it in. God’s word has been flowing over your heart and soul. God’s shaping you. God’s smoothing you out. He’s make you fit for flight. Imagine putting a weird shaped little rock in your sling and it doesn’t fly a straight line but curves to the left or right. Imagine a stone too heavy, too burdened down by a defiled conscience, too burdened by a life of disobedience to God. The stone had to be pretty light to work well in the sling, and only God can lighten that huge load of sin and guilt and disobedience that you have accrued in your life. Those stones had been sitting in the brook, and the action of the water had taken those rough edges and odd shapes off. And just like that, God’s word takes us and shapes us and makes us fit for his purpose. Don’t expect him to select you and use you when you refuse to read or believe or obey his word, when you don’t want to be made lively because you love that death that you abide in.

You know, in this is many salvation pictures, being raised out of death. Whizzing through the air is very different to sitting lifeless and motionless underwater. Being born again is receiving the breath of life spiritually speaking. These stones went from underwater to in his bag and in the air. Do you want to lay around your whole life not doing anything, not achieving anything. Of course those stones couldn’t do anything about their state, but David could use them and with David’s power and ability and his God, he could make them very lively. Salvation is life where there was death. God is willing to reach down and pick you up out of a life of sin, and he can give you purpose and give you a role in his story of redemption.

Those stones couldn’t’ jump up out the brook, but David was going to make this stone a very lively object. That stone had no capacity to put itself in the sling or generate the force and momentum and power and energy to travel right to the spot it was meant to go. How did that stone even know where to go? Yet in the hands of David, the stone hit the perfect spot to fall Goliath. We have to realize a crucial truth. There’s nothing about us that makes us able… it’s the God who makes us able. We have no life, it’s God who gives us life. We truly are dead stones that have become living stones because God has revived us. We have no power or ability. But we do have potential that God has given us, potential only realized through believing and obeying the word of God, surrendering our lives to his design and purpose. God knows how to use us to take out a big head. Sadly, so often we have no power of God in us, no Holy Spirit life and energy and ability in us. We are trying to take make ourselves fly, when we cannot! We are trying to achieve purposes and goals that we can’t make in our ability. That stone didn’t know where to go, but God knew where to send it and how to send it.

The stones liveliness and ability came from the person using it. Our life comes from Jesus Christ. Because he lives, we live. That’s only how. If God is using you, if you are willing, you’re going to go whizzing through the air as you are meant to do. But you can’t do it. That stone can’t fly by itself. It can’t cause itself to fly. It can’t cause itself to be useful. It can’t cause itself to win a great victory. But in the hand of David, that stone was deadly, lethal, and very lively. When are you going to accept you can’t do it? When you see you can’t do it, then God can use you. You can’t be good enough. You can’t defeat Goliath. You can’t pick yourself up. You can’t make yourself fly.

But those stones were in a very important place, a place you have to be. In the water, immersed in the water of the brook. And over time, that water worked on those stones, and made those stones just right for David to think, yep, I can use you, I  can win a great victory with you little stone. David didn’t use Saul’s armor and weapon, nah, he went to the brook for his weapon for battle. God’s not going to use someone confident in his own ability, God is using someone who will trust in God’s grace and power and ability. God’s not looking for someone great in their own power and might, someone with their own armor and weapons, God is looking for a little smooth stone who HE is going to make very lively. He can make your little life very lively and use you to win a great victory. Time spent in the brook, time spent in the BOOK is not wasted time. Time spent with God working in your life personally, convicting you of sin, dealing with your sin, saving you from your sin, that’s what makes you able to be used by God and for God.

The Bible says that David put five smooth stones from the brook in his shepherds bag, even in his scrip. It’s funny how the Bible is called the scripture, and those stones are in his scrip. God’s writing your story. He’ll write a story of victory with your life. Victory over sin, victory over this world, victory over Satan, victory over death. Rather than authoring your own story, let Jesus Christ be the author of your faith and your life. That story will read so much better than anything you can script.

One thing I thought about writing this blog was that I’m kept in his scrip. You know what we are kept by? God keeping his promises. God keeping his word. I don’t keep me, God keeps me. We are kept by God keeping his word. He keeps his word, and because he keeps his word, I am kept. My life doesn’t rely on me, it relies upon he who is faithful and true without fail. My confidence isn’t in me, it’s in him. And then we are useful in that position where we are trusting in him, not in ourselves. Our entire Christian life doesn’t hinge on what we can do, because we can’t perform, we can’t do a thing. Our entire Christian life doesn’t depend on us, but on God. When we decrease, then he will increase. What an increase it was for a small stone that lay at the bottom of the water to then be whizzing in the air at great pace and accuracy into Goliath’s forehead!

So David met with Goliath out on the battlefield, everyone else watching on. This world is watching on. It’s waiting to see a Christian who will just trust God. It’s waiting for a Christian who’ll allow God to use him in a mighty way. That stone didn’t really have to do much did it. All it was was lying there in the bottom of the stream. God did all the work, and in our life, it’s “Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the Lord of hosts.” God knows how to use you, when to use you, where to use you. All you need to be is a little stone willing to receive the life of God. Out on that battlefield, a smooth small stone flew to it’s target and God won a great victory. God got the glory. That’s what our lives should be about, bringing praise and honour to the Lord Jesus Christ. He’ll use you, small little small stone, and he’ll use you to flatten the big head of the enemy.

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