In episode 43 of the "No Doubt, No Fear, Only Believe" podcast, host Greg Ryan continues his multi‑episode series on the biblical power of spoken words. After introducing the series with John 1:1 and earlier discussions of Proverbs 18:20‑21, Ryan focuses on the Old Testament story of David and Goliath (1 Samuel 17). He outlines how Goliath’s taunting words paralyze the Israelite army with fear, while David’s response—rooted in his relationship with God and his anointed status—demonstrates the transformative effect of speaking in alignment with divine purpose. Ryan also touches on David’s family dynamics, the anointing narrative from 1 Samuel 16, and the practical lesson that our words can either empower or cripple. The episode ends with a promise to resume the story in the next installment, urging listeners to consider how their own speech reflects their faith.
Welcome to episode 43, Gospel of John, verse 1:1.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God, and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. Spending time in the Word of God is the best way to spend time with God. Welcome to No Doubt, No Fear, Only Believe podcast. Where we will encourage, inspire, and empower you to live your best life in Christ. Here's Greg.
If this is your first time with us, I want to thank you for being a part. We are continuing in this episode, it's— I think it's part 4, it all kind of starts running together. I think I started in episode 40 on the power of your spoken word, and we started out, we started talking about in Proverbs 18:20 and 21, and I'm not going to rehash all of that because I've got some more scripture that I want to read. But if you want to go back and begin at episode 40, it starts talking about the power of your words and where, you know, kind of builds a foundation that I'm about to keep building up on. And it is the power of the spoken word, your spoken word. And it's one of my favorite Bible characters, and it's King David. And the story— and it is a very familiar story— is why I wanted to start with this one in the Old Testament. On this, on the spoken word. We're going to talk, we're going to look at a few other scriptures just to kind of get this, not today, but just to kind of get this, um, sunk in to that, that the spoken word is extremely important. And this is the story of King David and Goliath, and it's found in 1 Samuel 17. And I, and I want to give you, and most of y'all that are listening to this probably know the story But the whole chapter of 1 Samuel 17 talks about the encounter with David and Goliath. So I'm not going to read that whole chapter. I think that would be nauseating probably to listen to on the— especially the way I read. And if you're not familiar with the story, you go back to 1 Samuel 16 where King David was anointed. And, and I've talked about this on a previous episode, so I'm not going to cover that. But he was anointed as king as a— he was a shepherd boy. They didn't even think enough to call him in when Samuel said, you know, that God has chosen a king, told his dad Jesse, hey, bring all your sons out, you know, God's chosen a king, I'm going to anoint one of your sons as king. And they didn't even think enough of David to even invite him to the anointing party. And it was all called because of him. So, I mean, you kind of got to see kind of how we look at things and how God looks at things. And I'm not gonna— I'm not gonna go into that, but I want to get into 1 Samuel 17. We're going to go 8 through 10. Then he stood and cried out to the armies of Israel and said to them, why have you come out to line up for battle? Am I not a Philistine and you the servants of Saul? Choose a man for yourself and let him come down to me. If he is able to fight with me and kill me, Then we will be your servants. But if I prevail against him and kill him, then you shall be our servants and serve us. And the Philistine said, I defy the armies of Israel this day. Give me a man that we may fight together. And I kind of want to stop there. A little side note, just to show you how— what a wonderful sense of humor God has. God did not— he— the giant is saying, and this is Goliath that was talking, and Goliath's saying, hey, bring a man down here and I'll fight with him. Now, Goliath had said is like 9 foot or 9 and some change. He's a big giant man. And he said, bring somebody down here and fight with me, and if that man defeats me, we'll be your servants. But anyway, the way I see this, God didn't pick a man. God picked a young boy. So we're going to read some more into this, uh, story real quick, but I want you to picture this. Goliath is using his words and he's, he's spoken to the Israelites and they are kind of, you know, they're coming out for, quote, battle. And then when he starts, you know, defying God and, and cursing them and all that stuff, then they get to hiding and cowering. You see that in the very next verse, verse 11. When Saul and all of Israel heard these words of the Philistine, they were dismayed and greatly afraid. So just so you got the picture, you got this giant, there's— they're on two different sides of these— this valley, they're, they're on two different sides of mountain or high peaks and there's a valley between them. You got Goliath comes out and is screaming and hollering and demanding one person. And then you've got King Saul and all of Israel on the other side, afraid and kind of cowering behind the other side of the mountain or the high peak. So now we enter, now we get, we are introduced back to David and you pick, if you go back to 16, one chapter back, you see how he was anointed and some other things I've already talked about. But not in this teaching. But I loved King David and his life and what it means for you and I. But I wanna concentrate on what David, when he went to the, he went and he heard the exact same thing that all of Israel heard, but because of his relationship with God and how he spent time with God and how, you know, it was described later as David was a man after God's own heart. And God specifically picked David. He had him picked out. He said, I have made a king for myself. He told Samuel, you know, go, go anoint the king that I have, I've picked, you know. So God— the people picked Saul, and, and so God says, you know, he, he pretty much took all of the— his anointing from King Saul, God did. And then he picked David. So this is God's man. It's actually— it's just a little boy, and we're going to see how, you know, Goliath kind of disdains him when we get to the battle. But I, I want to— I want to dig back into the word just to give you a little background. David's dad sent David to the front line that he, he found out. You know, they didn't have Google and they didn't have newspapers. They didn't have anything back then. So in order to get any kind of news you had to have couriers, people running back and forth. And so he sent David— Jesse did— to find out. He had 3 boys there in the, quote, battle, so he was wanting to know what was going on. And so he sent David with some, with some supplies, some food and stuff, and, and said, here, go find out what's going on at the battle. And so that's why David is there. David's not there because he's, you know, he's a busybody or nosy. He's just doing what his father commanded him to do. And so he runs up there, and then we're going to pick it back up in 22, because David— it says, and David left his supplies in the hand of the supply keeper, ran to the army, and came and greeted his brothers. Then as he talked with them, there was the champion, the Philistine of Gath, Goliath by name, coming up from the armies of the Philistines. And he spoke according to the same words, so David heard them. And all of the men of Israel, when they saw the man, fled from him and were dreadfully afraid. And you heard in that, in that verse where it said, and David heard them, that was in 23, 17-23. So David heard what Goliath said, and then the next few verses talk about people coming up and saying, hey, did you hear about that, the giant? And, and then they started telling him what the king was going to do for the man that that killed the giant. And so the next few verses, and I'm not going to read those, but it's kind of the motivation, trying to motivate people to, you know, to risk their lives for Israel. So David hears what the king is going to do for the man, and then of course his brothers— if you have any family— his brothers, you know, big brothers come in and they start, what are you doing here? You come up to see the battle. And there, you know, and that's kind of funny because there was no fighting. There was a bunch of cowering So they quote or talking about this battle and that David, they don't even see the irony or the hypocrisy that they're not even fighting, that they're scared. And David is the one that kind of gets his back all bowed up. David gets upset. And I kind of want to read that to you real quick. It's in 28, 17-28. Now Eliab, his oldest brother, heard when he spoke to the men and Eliab's anger was aroused against David. And he said, why did you come down here? And with whom did you— have you left those few sheep in the wilderness? I know your pride and your insolence of heart, for you have come down here to see the battle. And David said, what have I done now? Is there not a cause? I wanted to read that real quick to kind of see the family dynamics going on, the older brother getting on to the little brother. And so it really doesn't matter if you've ever gotten Sometimes I'm sure that my brothers kind of cue the eye roll, or family. I mean, they all love me and appreciate me and all that stuff, but there's times when I just got to say it, I'm kind of an idiot sometimes. David, there's no way that David was wonderful all the time. I know he was a man after God's own heart, but family, You know, they, they didn't respect that anointing or that, that he was anointed as king. You know, in the chapter before, David was picked out of all the brothers to be king. And so anyway, all that's going on, and I just looked at the clock and see that we're past— we're getting past the 10-minute mark. And so I can't really continue this because I don't want it to go— it's going to take another minute or two, or actually 5 or 6 to get out what I want. But I want you to see that, that Goliath had spoken words, and it— in the word, the power of the words made the whole army of Israel afraid. And they were so afraid that none of them would go fight him. Well, David wasn't in basking in all that fear, so he comes up just doing what his dad had told him. He comes up and then hears Goliath, and something inside of him you know, the righteous indignation comes up. And so he then starts getting motivated to go take care of business. So in the next episode, I'm going to pick up where I left off. And I want to thank you for being a part, and I'll see you. I look forward to talking to you in the next episode.
Thanks for listening to the No Doubt, No Fear, Only Believe podcast at www.nodoubtonlybelieve.com.
