A Fresh Perspective

Tom Harding

Sermon Notes


Filters offer a new perspective on reality.


  • Control
  • Insecurity
  • Angst


What is the common spot you camp out in your brain?


Control           Trust

Insecurity       Security

Angst              Assurance


1 Samuel 17:4–7

Then Goliath, a Philistine champion from Gath, came out of the Philistine ranks to face the forces of Israel. He was over nine feet tall! He wore a bronze helmet, and his bronze coat of mail weighed 125 pounds. He also wore bronze leg armor, and he carried a bronze javelin on his shoulder.

The shaft of his spear was as heavy and thick as a weaver’s beam, tipped with an iron spearhead that weighed 15 pounds. His armor bearer walked ahead of him carrying a shield.


1 Samuel 17:8–11

Goliath stood and shouted a taunt across to the Israelites. . . I defy the armies of Israel today! Send me a man who will fight me!” When Saul and the Israelites heard this, they were terrified and deeply shaken.


“Does God value me?” 


Genesis 1:1

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.


God is your creator.


First filter - God is your Creator.

Second filter - God is YOUR Creator.


Psalm 139:13–16

You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother’s womb. Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it. You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion, as I was woven together in the dark of the womb. 16 You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed.


Revelation 21:5

And the one sitting on the throne said, “Look, I am making everything new!”


God is your Father.


Galatians 3:26–27

For you are all children of God through faith in Christ Jesus. And all who have been united with Christ in baptism have put on Christ, like putting on new clothes.


God the creator of all existence, crafted you on purpose, died and rose again, so you could call him Father.


1 Samuel 17:26

David asked the soldiers standing nearby, “What will a man get for killing this Philistine and ending his defiance of Israel? Who is this pagan Philistine anyway, that he is allowed to defy the armies of the living God?”


1 Samuel 17:32

“Don’t worry about this Philistine,” David told Saul. “I’ll go fight him!”


1 Samuel 17:37

The Lord who rescued me from the claws of the lion and the bear will rescue me from this Philistine!” Saul finally consented. “All right, go ahead,” he said. “And may the Lord be with you!”


1 Samuel 17:47

And everyone assembled here will know that the Lord rescues his people, but not with sword and spear. This is the Lord’s battle, and he will give you to us!”