What comes after Goliath is harder

Defeating a Goliath happens in a moment, but what follows takes a lifetime. Pastor Max opens with the degrees, promotions, and weddings we spend so much energy preparing for, only to discover they are starting lines, not finish lines. He tells the story of Matt Flynn, the Green Bay Packers backup who threw six touchdowns in one game, signed a $20 million deal in Seattle, and then lost the starting job to an unknown rookie named Russell Wilson. Launching Elan Church in January 2022 was a Goliath moment too, and then "Sunday comes around every seven days." Gifting can win a battle, but character determines whether you fulfill the call of God on your life, and the greatest obstacle to that call is you. Everyone leads somewhere, so this message is for every person in the room.

Test one: can you celebrate someone else's success?

In 1 Samuel 18, two men respond to David's rise. Jonathan binds himself to David in covenant and gives him his robe, tunic, sword, bow, and belt. Saul hears the women sing that David has slain his tens of thousands, burns with anger, and begins to keep a close eye on him. David was the same man in both cases; the difference was in the hearts of the people watching. David's success cost Saul nothing until Saul started comparing, and then it cost him his joy, his peace, and eventually his kingdom. Comparison turns someone else's blessing into your burden. Pastor Max admits this is hard, recalling pregnancy announcements after a miscarriage and a friend's young church receiving a free building while Elan was fasting for a venue. His response was to call and celebrate. If you have to be the biggest person in the room, eventually you will be the only person in the room. His prayer is that Elan would be a church of Jonathans, not Sauls.

Test two: can you honor someone who dishonors you?

Saul's comparison hardens into resentment, and he hurls a spear at David while David plays the lyre. Goliath wanted David dead for a moment; Saul wanted him dead for years. Not every challenge can be solved with a single stone. Some are tensions to be managed, like the family member you will see at Thanksgiving or the ex-spouse you still co-parent with. Pastor Max tells of his two-year-old son Levi being punched three days in a row at daycare. He advocated hard for his son, and David's example shows that dodging the spear and setting boundaries are right. What is not right is throwing the spear back. So Max took Levi shopping to buy a gift for the boy who hit him. When someone throws a spear at you, it says more about them than about you, and great leaders honor those who dishonor them. "Don't let someone else's lack of integrity cost you yours."

Test three: can you break the cycle that wounded you?

David dodged the spears, but he was still wounded. Saul promises his daughter Merab, gives her to another man, then offers Michal for a bride price of a hundred Philistine foreskins, hoping David will die on the front lines. A king takes a faithful man's wife and sends him to the battlefield to be killed. Years later, David does the same thing to Uriah in the story of Bathsheba. David never retaliated against Saul, but he replicated the behavior; what was done to him, he passed on. Pastor Max recalls meeting with someone in the early days of the church who blamed every problem on parents, grandparents, and others. You may not be at fault, but you are responsible to make sure the hurt stops with you. Hurting people hurt people, and what is happening in you will eventually come out of you. Your past may explain your behavior, but it does not excuse it.

God cannot heal what you hide

Everyone alive has experienced some level of trauma, whether an absent father, a controlling mother, or abuse that was never your fault. The only way to stop the cycle is healing, and that means bringing the wound into the open. Pastor Max points to Jesus, who was mocked, betrayed by a close friend, beaten, and nailed to a cross, and who knows exactly what you carry. The closing challenge is to lay the hurt at the feet of Jesus rather than walk out still carrying it, so it is not passed on to the people around you.