Made to Worship | Week 4 · Rewind

Pastor Bill Bush · Nov 18, 2018 · 73 min watch · 3 min read

Made to Worship | Week 4

Big Idea

Quoting the message: Giving is something God wants for us, not from us, end quote. — it is a gift He designed us to experience, not a demand He extracts from us.

Using the story of David and Goliath as a foreshadowing of Jesus's victory over sin and death, Pastor Bill argues that financial generosity is an act of worship rooted in trust. Just as David ran at Goliath with nothing but a sling and faith in God, believers are called to honor God with their resources — not because He needs the money, but because giving battles selfishness, builds families, draws us closer to Jesus, and invites us into the victory God is accomplishing through His church.

Key points

1
1Worship is not just something we do at church — it is what we were made to be, and giving is one of its most tangible expressions.
2
2Israel's repeated failure to face Goliath mirrors how believers can sing God's praises in a worship service yet refuse to trust Him with their finances.
3
3Because God loved, He gave — love gives, and you cannot truly love God while withholding what He asks.
4
4We give first, letting our standard of giving determine our standard of living, because that is when we act most like Jesus.
5
5Giving is both a weapon to battle selfishness and materialism and a tool to build generous, unified families.
6
6David's courage — running quickly at the giant with only a sling — is a call for believers to stop delaying and start giving now, trusting that God shows up when we act.
7
7When you kill the big giant of financial fear, the rest of the smaller giants — marital stress, anxiety, disunity — begin to fall as well.

Application

Pastor Bill's challenge is direct: stop waiting for the right financial moment, the right armor, or the right feeling — just run quickly at the giant. Start giving today, even if the numbers feel impossible. Give first and let your standard of giving determine your standard of living, trusting that God will catch you at the bottom. Practically, that means deciding on a percentage, giving before the bills are paid, and — especially for parents — inviting your kids into the process so generosity becomes the culture of your home. The goal is not a transaction with God; it is an act of worship that says, 'I trust You more than I trust my bank account.' And when you do, Pastor Bill promises from his own experience, the giants that follow — financial stress, marital conflict, selfishness — start falling too.

Take it into your week

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Scripture in this message

From the transcript
“So here we go. It's the story is found in first Samuel 17. It's near the front of your Bibles. And like I said, you had Israel, which were called to be the people of God”
From the transcript
“so I wanna pick up in chapter 17, starting in verse eight. It says, Goliath stood and shouted a taunt across the Israelites. Now, he's nine feet tall”
From the transcript
“But this giant comes out, and he says this, and many of heard the story before, but you realize this was not a one time thing. If you go down to verse 16, it says, for forty days, every morning and evening, the Philistine champion strutted in front of the Israelite army”
From the transcript
“So now David shows up right when something interesting happens. He it's verse 20. It says, so David left his sheep with another shepherd and set out early the next morning with the gifts as Jesse had directed from his dad”
From the transcript
“if you go down to verse 28, what happens is they come back, they act all scared. David probably goes, this is weird. And he watches, and they're like, did you see the giant”
From the transcript
“he was angry. What are you doing here anyways? I said that like I knew a brother would. He's he hears him asking, what would the king give if someone goes and fights him”
From the transcript
“you go into Luke six, Matthew six, Luke six says, give and it'll be given to you. Meaning giving is something that's for us, not just from us”
From the transcript
“you go into Luke six, Matthew six, Luke six says, give and it'll be given to you. Meaning giving is something that's for us, not just from us. And then in Matthew six, he talks about store up treasures in heaven, not just here”
From the transcript
“John three sixteen, the verse that most everybody, at least you've seen on a sign at a football field, says this. For God so loved the world, he what? He gave his son”
From the transcript
“And when he comes out there, Goliath laughs and gets mad at him. In verse 44, he says, come over here and I'll give you your flesh to the birds and the wild animals”
From the transcript
“he says, and everyone assembled here in verse four forty seven will know that the Lord rescues his people, but not with a sword and a spear. This is the Lord's battle, and he will give you to us”

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7-day devotional

A personal reading plan from this message — scripture, reflection, and prayer for each day.

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Every generation has its Goliath — something that stands in the open field and dares you to come out and face it. For Israel, it was a literal giant. For most of us, it is something quieter but just as paralyzing: the gap between what we say we believe and what we actually do with our lives. Pastor Bill pointed out something worth sitting with: Israel's army knew God. They had songs for Him, history with Him, testimonies about what He had done. And yet when Goliath stepped out and issued his challenge, they stood still. Forty days of stillness. Fear has a way of freezing exactly the faith we claim to have. Financial trust is one of the places this freezing shows up most honestly. We worship on Sunday and worry on Monday. We sing about God's provision and then grip our bank accounts with both hands the rest of the week. The sermon isn't asking you to feel differently about that tension — fear is real and money stress is real. It is asking you to notice the gap. Because noticing is where things begin to shift. Israel's problem wasn't that Goliath was too big. It was that they had forgotten who was standing behind them. That is the invitation of this week: start looking at what — or Who — is at your back.

For reflection

Where in your life right now does your behavior not quite match what you say you believe about God's faithfulness?

Pray

Pray for honest eyes to see the gaps between your stated trust in God and the places where fear is actually calling the shots.

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Small-group discussion guide

For leading a group conversation about this message.

Open

David's story in 1 Samuel 17 is one most of us have known since childhood — but this message asks us to look at it with fresh eyes, as a picture of something much bigger than one shepherd boy and one giant.

Discussion questions

1
In 1 Samuel 17:8-11, the whole Israelite army hears Goliath's challenge day after day and nobody moves. Pastor Bill drew a connection between that paralysis and the way people can worship wholeheartedly on a Sunday and still hold back from trusting God with their finances. What do you think keeps people stuck in that gap between what they sing and what they actually trust God with?
2
Pastor Bill pointed to John 3:16 and made the observation that because God loved, He gave — and that love, by its nature, gives. What does that pattern, God's love expressed through giving, suggest about what generosity is actually supposed to be?
3
In 1 Samuel 17:45-48, David doesn't wait, calculate, or suit up in Saul's armor — he runs quickly at the giant. Pastor Bill used that image to describe a posture toward giving: act now, trust God to show up, and let your standard of giving set your standard of living rather than the other way around. What makes that kind of movement feel risky, and what might make it feel like an act of worship instead of just a financial decision?
4
Pastor Bill described generosity as a weapon against two specific enemies: selfishness and materialism. How do you think the practice of giving — especially when it's not comfortable — actually does battle with those things in a person's life?
5
Pastor Bill specifically encouraged parents to invite their kids into the practice of giving, so that generosity becomes the culture of a home rather than just a personal decision. What might it look like, practically, for a family to build that kind of culture together?
6
By the end of the message, Pastor Bill framed an act of giving not as a transaction with God but as a statement of trust — a way of saying, 'I trust You more than I trust my bank account.' How does that framing change the way we might think about what worship actually is?

Pray together

Courage to run at the giants we've been circling — and a growing trust that God is already out ahead of us

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Made to Worship

Week 4 · 4 messages

Where these passages are preached

1 Samuel 17 Luke 6 Matthew 6 John 3

Explore related topics

David and Goliath Financial Generosity Overcoming Selfishness Trusting God Worship Through Giving

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