All right, let's go ahead and start our Bible study here this evening.
If you have your Bibles, turn with me to First Samuel, chapter
16.
First Samuel 16.
And we've been studying through First Samuel now for quite
some time.
And one of the things that we've seen for the last few weeks
has been a study on the dangers of pride.
And we've looked at the life of Saul, and we've seen his pride
get the best of him.
We've seen his pride control him.
And certainly we see the same principle in the New Testament when
the Bible says that God resists the proud but gives grace
to the humble.
And so certainly Saul, as all of us do, need God's grace.
We're in desperate need of God's grace.
But Saul did not respond in a sense of humility.
He did not respond in a sense of repentance, but he responded in
a sense of pride and an obstinate heart, a hard heart against
the things of God.
And if you saw his.
His spiral downward, we saw that his heart eventually got to
a place where he was celebrating his own fleshly, sinful
actions.
You remember, God called him to wipe out the Amalekites, and he
didn't wipe them all out completely, but he was.
He was in his heart, secure in the fact that he did the right thing.
But what happened is, is that his heart of wickedness caused him
to have a heart of deceit.
He deceived himself.
And so in that case, we know that God judges Saul by taking the
throne away from him, by not allowing him to be the king forever
and not allowing his children to be the king.
But we know that earlier on that God told Saul through Samuel
that he would have a king that would be a man after his own heart.
And that's what we're going to see here in First Samuel, chapter
16.
God is going to select through Samuel the new king.
And this will be a king after God's own heart.
Though he's not a perfect king, he will be a king that desires
to have that relationship with God.
And we know that right away.
Saul doesn't just get kicked out of the throne.
He stays there, and he holds on to it for a very long time.
And we know that David doesn't just come right on the scene and
become king, even though he's promised in this chapter that he
will be king.
So one of the challenges of going through passages of Scripture
that we're all really familiar with is that we just gloss right
over the meaning behind much of the text.
Sometimes we know the story, and we just move right through it.
But I would challenge us all as we go through these next few chapters
to really dig in and see the spiritual lessons that we can gain
from studying these very familiar stories.
And they're familiar, familiar stories for a reason.
These stories are familiar because of the simple fact that there
are some great amazing truths here in these passages.
So let's look at First Samuel, Chapter 16, and we will go verse
by verse through this, and hopefully you will be able to see
some things here that we can apply to our own lives.
So first Samuel, chapter 16.
It says, and the Lord said unto Samuel, how long wilt thou mourn
for Saul?
Now we'll stop there, because that's where we left off in chapter
15.
If you remember, Saul's rebellion led Samuel to mourning.
And really, it should break our hearts when people turn their
backs against the Lord.
It should break our hearts when we see someone who has so much
potential, but because of their pride, because of their sin,
they do not allow God to work in their life.
And that would certainly be the case for Saul.
So Samuel had so much invested into Saul.
If you think about how much Samuel had invested into the life
of Saul when it came to his prayer, when it came to his anointing,
when it came to even his counsel.
And there might be individuals in our life that we have invested
into, that we've prayed for, that we've served, that we've sacrificed
for.
But yet at the same time, not always does our work produce fruit.
Sometimes we serve people, we sacrifice for people, we invest in
them, we pray for them, and sometimes they still turn their back
against us, and more importantly, the Lord.
And so what do we do?
Well, there is a time for mourning.
The Bible says that there is always a time for mourning, but also
there is a time for moving on.
If Samuel would have just stayed in that mournful state, if
he would have just stayed and that heart of brokenness, he would
not be able to do the next steps that he's called to do when
it comes to anointing the new king.
And so there is that measure of discernment that we all must have
when it comes to that measure of how much we're supposed to mourn
and how much we're supposed to just move on.
And I know that's a difficult thing for all of us to have the answers
for, and it's different for everybody.
But for this case, we see that God directly speaks to Samuel and
asked him, how long wilt thou mourn for Saul?
So this is basically him telling Samuel it's time to move
on.
And when God tells us it's time to move on, it doesn't mean
that we forget about what's happened in the past.
It doesn't mean that we write people off.
But what it does mean is that we don't want other people's rebellion
to hold us back from what God has called us to do in obedience.
And so here in verse number one, that question is asked to Samuel,
how long are you going to wait?
He says, seeing I have rejected him from reigning over Israel.
So basically what God is telling Samuel is this.
I'm telling you to move on.
I have a plan.
Follow my plan.
And that's really the difference between passiveness and
patience.
Passiveness is me waiting back and not doing something that God
has called me to do.
Patience is me waiting for God to tell me to move.
And when he tells me to move, I move.
And so oftentimes we can sit back, think that, thinking that we're
really patient, but it's not patience.
When God calls us to do something and we don't do it, that's
passiveness, and that's a sin.
And so here Samuel is challenged by God to take the step
of moving on by basically saying, I've rejected Saul as king.
You should reject Saul as king and move on and obey me.
So he gives him instructions.
And when God calls us to do something, he gives us clear instructions.
And he's giving Samuel very clear instructions.
He says, fill thine horn with oil and go, and I will send thee
to Jesse the Bethlehemite, for I have provided me a king among his
sons.
Now all God tells him is that he needs to fill this horn with oil.
And we'll talk about the significance of that oil here in
a moment.
He says, fill the horn with oil and go to a place called Bethlehem
and go to a man named Jesse, because one of his sons will be king.
Now, he doesn't tell him everything.
He doesn't tell him which son yet.
And I think that's important to note that when God does call us
to do something in our lives, he might not tell us every detail,
but he will tell us certain steps of the way.
So he tells Samuel this much.
Go to Bethlehem.
Go to Jesse.
It's one of his sons.
But he doesn't tell him which son yet.
And we know that.
And so he says, fill your horn with oil.
And that.
That obviously, for.
For Samuel meant something for us.
It might not mean as much in our culture, but for Samuel, he would
have understand what this meant because he knew that God wanted
him to anoint someone else as king.
And so by filling the horn with oil, that meant, hey, I'm ready
to anoint a new king.
And so that's the idea here, that that anointing oil would be
the identification of God's selection of a new king.
And so God will allow us to sometimes understand certain steps
of the way and what we're going to do.
And that's what he does here.
And he says, go to Jesse.
Now, Jesse is an interesting character.
We know Jesse actually is related to a person that you might
know named Ruth.
So Ruth and Boaz are Jesse's grandparents.
Now, the Bible did say back in Root chapter four, that there would
be a great blessing.
He says that there would be this blessing to Ruth.
And we.
And if you just read Ruth on its own, you wouldn't know what that
blessing completely would be.
But we know the rest of the Bible.
And we know that David comes from the line of Ruth, who was not
an Israelite.
She was from another place.
But God blessed her because of her faith.
And we know that David's a blessing because the king would come
from Rahab's line.
But even in a greater sense, we know that Jesus, the Messiah comes
from the line of David.
And so we know that Ruth had this beautiful blessing from the
Lord here.
And this is the culmination of that.
And obviously Samuel doesn't know all of these implications yet,
but he's going to find out here sooner or later.
Now, right away, Samuel has some questions, and I think that
all of us would have some questions.
And again, I think we've talked about this quite a bit.
It's one thing to ask God questions, it's another thing to
question God.
I think it's completely biblical to ask God questions for
clarity, for understanding, for comfort.
But also we do know that it would be a sin to question God and
his decisions.
And so here Samuel says, how can I go?
It's a question that maybe some of us might ask.
Well, you, you would say, why is he asking this question?
Well, if Saul hear it, he will kill me.
So Samuel knows what's at stake.
By taking this risk of going and anointing another king, God is
calling him to do something very difficult here.
It's not like Saul's just going to say, oh, that's great, amazing,
you're anointing a new king.
Let's celebrate him.
No, Saul is going to fight tooth and nail to keep the line of
the throne in his Family name.
We're going to see that as we study first and second Samuel, that
there's going to be all of this push to stop David from being
king.
And so what we see here is that God asked Samuel to do something
that is a risk.
I want us to think just for a few moments about risking something
for the Lord.
Now, when God calls us to do something outside of our comfort
zone, from our perspective, it's a risk.
From our perspective, there's something at stake.
If I get caught in this case, if I get caught from Saul, what's
he going to do?
He's going to kill me.
He's not going to be okay with me anointing a new king.
But from the other side of the coin, think about it.
It's a risk for Samuel, but when God calls us to do something,
it's never a risk for him.
God doesn't risk anything because he knows the outcome.
He's in complete control.
So oftentimes when God calls us to do something that we deem dangerous
or possibly risky, we might lose something.
If God's calling us to do it, it's not a risk.
It's a risk in trusting him.
But ultimately, when we trust him, there is going to be no failure.
And so Samuel asked this.
He says, how can I go?
Because if I go, Saul is going to kill me.
And what did the Lord say?
The Lord says, take a heer with thee and say, I'm come to sacrifice
to the Lord.
Now this is interesting.
Basically, God says, well, you don't have to tell anyone what you're
doing.
Just go.
And if anyone asks you, say you're making a sacrifice.
Now this isn't God telling Samuel to lie.
This is God explaining to Samuel to use discernment, to use
wisdom, and he's really going to make a sacrifice.
And ultimately we do know that there is going to be a sacrifice
here, and we can understand Samuel's fear.
I could understand Samuel's fear.
And there isn't any doubt in my mind that if Saul did find out
about this, there would be some major issues and he would consider
it to be treason and he would put him to death.
But, you know, at the same time, we have to look at Samuel and
we have to see Samuel and go through that process of wrestling
with God and coming to a crisis of belief moment and trusting
in the Lord.
And all of us, if we're going to do something for the Lord, have
to come to that place in our life where we take that crisis of
belief and we act in Faith.
All of us are going to be tested in our faith.
If we are not being tested in our faith, we're not living in our
faith.
I'm just going to be honest with you.
If you've never been tested in your faith, there's a good chance
that you haven't taken a step of faith, faith in the Lord.
Because what I would say is this.
If God is true to his word, which he always is, he says in the
New Testament, if we live for him, there will be some measure of
persecution.
There will be some level of trials and tribulations.
I, I saw this thing on the Internet recently, and they said,
if you think you're having a bad day, ask Job if it's bad.
All right?
So, you know, it's all in perspective.
It's all relative.
Sometimes in our life we think, wow, this is the greatest
risk.
We, we, we could never do this.
Because if this doesn't work out, I don't know what's going to
happen.
Think about all the other people that have trusted the Lord
over the years and seen how it's worked for them.
And I think that that's going to give us the perspective to know
that we all are going to have to come to a place in our life where
we have to take a step of faith.
And so was God telling Samuel to lie?
No, he's.
He's not telling him to lie.
Everything that he tells him to do is true.
Samuel does offer a sacrifice, and it doesn't appear that God ever
is telling him, hey, lie.
But he is telling him to the certain extent of use, discernment,
be wise as a serpent, but harmless as a dove.
There is a level of being discerning in the truth that we divulge
to people around us.
And so the truth is that that whole situation that God is doing
is he's protecting Samuel so that he can do the work of the Lord.
And so he says in verse number three.
Three.
Okay?
So he says, tell them that there's going to be a sacrifice.
And then he says, and call Jesse to the sacrifice.
So he says, have the sacrifice set up.
Have Jesse come.
And he says, I will show thee what thou shalt do.
So this is the first step of faith.
He says, get to that point, and then I'll show you what to do.
I don't know for, for you, but for me, I don't like the unknown.
One of the worst things that I deal with in my life, in my own flesh
is not knowing tomorrow, not knowing the answer, having to wait
for Something, one of the least favorite things that I've ever
have to do is like, if someone comes and tells me, hey, I have to
have a serious meeting with you, I have a lot of problems.
Let's meet in three weeks.
And I'm like, no, please just tell me everything right now.
Like, I'll stop, I'll cancel my schedule.
I just want to get this resolved right now because I can't
deal with that waiting.
But sometimes God gives us that moment, or more than a moment,
maybe a long amount of time where we don't know the certainty
of what tomorrow is going to bring.
And really to the truth of the matter is none of us know really
the circumstances of tomorrow.
And so in this case, he says, samuel, you must go.
Regardless of what Saul's going to do, regardless of anybody
else, you need to go and get to Jesse.
And when you do that, then I will tell you.
So really, if he didn't go to that place of offering the sacrifice
to Jesse, he would never know what the next step is.
And for many people, they're not willing to take that first step
of trusting the Lord to that point, and they're not going to able
to see that second step that God has called you to do, that next
step, that, that furtherance of faith.
And that's really what the Bible says.
Faith is not just saying that we believe something.
Faith is a belief in our hearts that is manifested, that is
demonstrated through our action.
It's this.
It's, Lord, I believe so.
So the action isn't faith.
Faith is in our hearts.
Faith is what we stand on.
But to prove that we have faith, there's got to be that action.
You've heard me say this before.
You know, I can say all day that I'm the greatest husband, that
I'm a greatest father, but it doesn't make me a good father or
good husband.
What makes that is the action.
Now, it starts in my heart, but it moves in my action.
So Samuel could have said, lord, I trust you.
I know you're going to give me the next step, but I'm.
I'm going to do it from here.
Well, that wouldn't work.
So him believing that God was going to give him the next word,
was him actually moving and doing this, which we see he does.
And so he says, I'm going to go and I'm going to tell you then.
And he says, and thou shalt anoint unto him whom I name unto
thee.
Meaning God is going to give Samuel the name of the one who he
is going to anoint.
And so the first king of Israel was anointed for the people.
If you remember that, it was all about the people, who the people
wanted.
Ultimately, God allowed for it, but it was the king of the people.
And now we're going to see that this is going to be a king of
God's choosing, which shows a completely different path.
And ultimately we know that God works through this selection
of David.
And David is greatly blessed.
And that's what's going to happen here.
So verse 4.
And Samuel did that which the Lord spake and came to Bethlehem.
So this proves Samuel's obedience, and it proves Samuel's
faith.
Samuel goes to make the sacrifice.
And so we know that Bethlehem was a small town.
It wasn't very far from where the major city of Jerusalem was and
still is to this day.
You knew that Ruth and Boaz are from there.
Ultimately, we know that Jesus is going to be born in Bethlehem,
but Bethlehem is a significant city there in Israel and still lives
to this day.
And then he says, and he says he goes to Bethlehem.
And the elders of the town trembled at his coming, saying, cometh
out peaceably.
So this shows the other side of the coin.
Samuel's coming to Bethlehem.
And they're this little town, and they're like, what?
What are you doing here, Samuel?
What are you doing?
Now remember, what was the last story?
What did Samuel do in chapter 15 that might cause some people to
panic?
Well, if you remember, Samuel just got done killing the king, the
Amalekite King, Agag, with a sword in front of everybody.
So right now, to many people's eyes, Samuel is the hand of God's
justice upon the the people there.
So think about yourself.
If you're in Bethlehem and you saw Samuel coming your way, just
fresh off of slain Agag, the king of the Amalekites, you might
be thinking, okay, is he going to do the same thing here?
And so they're afraid.
They think that God is coming to judge them.
They said, okay, Samuel is bringing his reputation with him.
And so they tremble and they ask, are you coming peaceably?
And he said, peaceably, I am come to sacrifice unto the Lord.
Sanctify yourself.
Set aside yourselves and come with me to the sacrifice.
And he sanctified Jesse and his sons and called them to sacrifice.
And so the idea was that, hey, Jesse, you and your sons are going
to come and we're going to have the sacrifice.
They would watch the sacrifice, they would share in the
worship.
And then at the end of that, Samuel is hoping and trusting in
the fact that God would reveal to him who he's going to anoint.
Verse number six.
And it came to pass, when they were calm, that he looked at Eliab
and said, surely the Lord's anointed is before him.
And so we see that Samuel, like any of us would do, sees the
Son and he looks at him and thinks, this is going to be the king.
Evidently he had all the outward character traits of a king,
just like Saul did.
He looked like a good choice.
Most likely.
He saw a tall, handsome young man who looked like a good king.
And we see something really interesting here in verse number
seven, because to the eyes of Samuel, who was a.
Was a faithful man, Samuel was a man of faith.
Samuel was a man of obedience.
And so we're not gonna fault Samuel here by looking at this young
man, Eliab, and thinking, well, obviously he's the king.
It's just natural.
He will look at him and say, this is the king.
But God's gonna give him a lesson here that I think is so important,
and I think it's important and lesson for us because we often think
that God can only use the ones that make sense, that look the part,
that have the experience, that are talented or.
Or whatever we think makes a person used by God.
But we're going to see in verse seven, it says, but the Lord
said unto Samuel, look not on his countenance, don't look at what
the outside looks like, or on the height of his stature.
Don't look at how tall he is.
Saul was tall.
That.
That didn't equate to a good king.
He says, don't look at his countenance, don't look at his height,
because I have refused him.
For the Lord seeth not as man seeth, for man looketh on the outward
appearance, but God looketh on the heart.
So Samuel did make a mistake in the fact that he looked at the
appearance of Laab and thinking he's the one, obviously,
without even searching after the Lord's guidance and looking at
what the Lord sees.
And so we see that God says, no, it's not about what he looks
like on the outside.
It's not about how good looking it is.
He is.
It's not about how tall he is.
He didn't have the heart of a king.
And remember, that's what God's looking at here.
God wanted the heart of a man who was after him, who desired his
will, who was willing, who was ready, who was moldable, who was
ready to follow him.
And so though Eliab Looked good, God refused him.
And we see that verse number seven.
God is stating a fact here.
He says, I don't look on the outward appearance.
I look at the hearts.
But we also think of this as a challenge for us, maybe even in our
own lives, though we can't see somebody's heart to not just act
on what we see in front of us right away, but to seek after someone's
heart.
Now, we can never see a man's heart, but we certainly, as the Bible
tells us, we can know what that man or woman's heart is by being
around them and asking them questions and seeing what they love
and seeing what they do instead of just making a quick judgment
call upon someone by saying, well, they must be godly because
they look this way.
We have to be very cautious about that because if we went back
to the time of Jesus, we would look at Jerusalem and we would look
at these different cities and where will we go for the most religious
people?
We would go to the synagogue.
And if we went to the synagogue, we would find Pharisees
and we would find Sadducees and they would look religious.
But we know what Jesus had to say about them because their heart
was not in the right place.
They had an exterior of religion, but the inside their heart
was not in the right place.
And so I'm not saying that we don't look on the outward appearance,
but we don't judge somebody.
And ultimately God doesn't judge somebody by the outward appearance.
He looks upon the heart.
Now, if the heart is in the right place, the outward will be
there.
But what we see is that the outward can be fake.
I can put on a mask, I can put on an exterior, I can say certain
things, I can persuade.
And so what God says is, he says, I don't look at that, I look
at the heart.
And you know, oftentimes we're, we're thinking in many ways
that somebody who is, what we would say maybe is, you know, they're
intelligent or they're charismatic, or maybe they're good
looking.
And we say, well, obviously that person is going to be used by
God.
Look how many talents they have, look how much potential they
have.
But we saw the dangers of that with Saul, right?
Look at how tall he is, look at how strong he is, look at how
powerful he is, look at all these things.
But we know that Saul's problem was his heart was not in
the right place.
And so we see that, yes, man looks on the outward appearance.
That's natural.
But it's God who looks at the heart.
So even the best of men will maybe even look at the outward appearance,
but God looks on the heart.
And so this is an exhortation for all of us to understand that
it doesn't matter if I lack in certain areas.
God can still use me if my heart is ready, if my heart is willing
to grow closer to him and let him use me.
Think about all the people that God used.
Many times, God uses the one that's not the person that we would
assume.
Sometimes God uses the person who we would consider to be the underdog,
that we would consider not to be the one that has the most potential.
If you go through the stories, I mean, he took out fishermen.
I mean, nowadays, maybe fishermen aren't even today.
Fishermen are still kind of rough, okay?
But think about Peter and the other fellows that were with them
there on the Sea of Galilee.
They were not the guys that everyone was lining up to to say,
when you must be the next rabbis, you must be the next.
The next leaders.
They were the ones working out in the Galilee waters and getting
fish and probably stinking and doing all that kind of stuff that
probably not the average person was interested in doing.
But at the same time, God uses them.
God uses those that have a heart ready for service.
And so I often think about that and think about, you know, God
could have chosen any of these brothers.
But we know ultimately God chooses the one that has a heart
ready for service.
And so for us today, it's not about looking apart.
It's not about having all the academic credentials.
It's not about having our.
Our outward appearance all put together.
It's about having a heart ready to be used by God and desiring
to be used by God and to know him in a greater, more personal way.
So we see verse number seven.
God tells him it is I who look upon the heart, verse 8.
And Jesse called Abinadab and made him pass before Samuel.
And he said, neither hath the Lord chosen this.
And so all of you know this story, right?
All of the brothers are lined up in front of Samuel, probably from
the assumption that, well, here's the next best one, okay?
Not him, the next best one.
And so we see this happen multiple times.
We see it happen with Abinadab.
And no, the Lord has not chosen Abinadab.
Verse 9.
Then Jesse made Sham up to pass by.
And he said, neither hath the Lord chosen this.
And again, Jesse made seven of his sons to pass before Samuel.
So the way that I envision it in my mind is he starts with the
best one and just starts working down the line.
And Samuel says unto Jesse, lord, have not chosen these.
So this is a confusing moment, probably for Samuel, because he's
like, okay, Lord, you made me come here.
You led me to this place.
Now it's not making sense to me.
Like, I. I'm here.
You've lined up these boys, and each one of them you're saying
no.
Are you just getting me all the way to Bethlehem to tell me that
you've changed your mind, what's going on?
And sometimes that's how it works with us.
Sometimes God gets us to a place, and the way that we assume
he's going to work does not work the way that he has planned
in his.
In his purpose for us.
And so verse 11.
And Samuel says to Jesse, are.
Are these.
All thy children are here?
All thy children?
And he said, there remaineth yet the youngest, and behold, he
keepeth the sheep.
And Samuel said unto Jesse, send and fetch him, for we will not
sit down till he come hither.
So obviously Samuel recognizes that this is probably the one because
of all the other ones haven't been selected.
He's like, are there any others?
And they go, yeah, there's one, but he's not even here.
They didn't even consider David to be a candidate for being
king.
Now there's a lot of debate on how old David is at this point in
time.
Most likely he's very young, probably, you know, a young teenager,
if that, or maybe even younger, some think.
But nonetheless, we know that David is young here, and we know
that he's unassuming.
This shows that David had no regard within his family.
His father doesn't even mention him by name.
And we see that he wasn't even invited.
When he says, hey, Jesse, invite all of your sons.
He doesn't even invite David.
He's left out.
Maybe because he was out shepherding or maybe just because
they didn't give him any respect.
But either way you look at it, there was an idea here that Samuel
goes, well, you need to call him, because I'm pretty sure he's
going to be the one.
And so when we consider David as the youngest and we consider David
is probably unassuming.
He wasn't probably strong.
He wasn't big.
We see that, you know, it makes sense.
Even in our society today.
The.
There's a lot of people that just kind of fly below the radar.
And that's exactly what's happening here with David.
But God's going to use him.
So he Says, fetch him, bring him here, verse 12.
And he sent and brought him.
Now he was ruddy and with all of all beautiful countenance and
goodly to look to.
And the Lord said, arise, anoint him, for this is he.
And so David is out keeping the sheep.
And we know that ultimately he's being faithful to what God has
called him to do at that point in time by obedient to his father.
And obviously we know later on that he learned a lot of lessons
from his sheep keeping.
And so he's out there doing a servant's job, but ultimately he's
obeying the Lord, which means that that's, that's the best thing
you could ever do.
And so David is going to be chosen.
And we see somewhat of a physical description of David as
it says there that he has a ruddy complexion.
And there's a lot of different interpretations of that ruddy complexion.
Some interpretations of that would be fair or he had a fair complexion.
Others would mean another interpretation of that would be that
he had red hair and red cheeks.
Again, there's a lot of interpretation there that we don't
want to get too caught up on.
But basically the Bible does say that he would be considered attractive.
He, he would have been good looking, as it says there.
And ultimately God says, okay, it's not about the outward appearance.
We know it's his heart, but that's just a description of him.
And so he tells Samuel to anoint him.
And so David is anointed.
He's chosen.
And so by outward appearances, David was not qualified, but from
the inward qualification of his heart, he was qualified and God
selected him.
And so we know what made David the right man.
It was his heart.
It was his desire for the Lord.
So what makes me the right man?
What makes you the right person for the Lord?
Well, it's not about how a attractive we are.
It's not about how many people follow us.
It's not about how hard we work.
What makes us qualified to be used by God is by having a heart
ready for service, to have a humble heart of submission to him
and saying, lord, whatever you want from me, I'll do.
Think about all the way back at the very beginning of the story
of Samuel, right, Samuel was called and he thought it was Eli.
And eventually he found out that it was God talking to him.
And he says, lord, I'm ready, I'm listening.
What do you want from me?
And that's all what really God wants from us is just to be willing
and ready to do what he has for us in our life.
I. I remember the day.
It's.
It's unique because there was multiple times in my life where I
was like, lord, I want to work for you.
I want to serve you.
But I wasn't ready to give him everything.
I remember in high school, especially in.
In Christian school, we had so many opportunities to have these
speakers come in, and, And I think that most of them, their whole
goal was to get us to commit our lives to.
To the ministry, which I think is a.
Is a valid cause.
I'm not saying that every single person is called to vocational
ministry.
That's certainly not the case.
But they would always come in and they'd be like, give your heart
to the Lord.
Give him everything.
And I remember going down front and saying, okay, Lord, I'll
give you, like, some, but I really want to do some of my own
things.
You know, at the time, I wanted to be a professional baseball
player.
You know, that shows you how delusional I was.
And I was like, well, I'll be a professional baseball player then.
When I'm done and retired, then I'll serve you, Lord.
But let me just do what I need to do there.
Let me get accomplished what I need to get accomplished.
That's not submitting myself to the Lord.
And I remember the day that God really got a hold of my heart
and he had to break me to a point where I said, okay, Lord, wherever
you want me to go, whatever you want me to do, I'll do that.
And that's not an easy thing to say.
But it is in many ways a scary thing to say because you don't know
what the next step is.
But it's a blessed thing to say because ultimately it's a willing
heart to be used by God.
Now, God's not going to send everyone to the most dangerous places.
I. I know that.
That was always my fear.
Well, if I commit myself to the Lord, he's going to send me to,
you know, a nation that they spear you as soon as you walk in
for the cause of the gospel.
And I'm like, I don't want to do that.
I was scared to do that.
And the reality is, is that sometimes God does call certain people
to those dangerous situations.
And oftentimes it's the people that said, I will never go there,
Lord.
Don't send me there.
And that's.
We had a fella at our old church that he says, lord, I want
to be a missionary to you.
For.
For you.
I want.
I'll go anywhere except for like the heart of Africa that was
always like, you know, growing up.
That was like the heart of Africa, all the animals and stuff.
You know, where he ended up becoming a missionary to.
He actually went to Africa.
Okay, he, he went, he went to the middle of Africa, Zambia, and
then he went to South Africa.
And, and so the idea would be that sometimes God does use unassuming
people for dangerous or risky things in our own perspective.
And David certainly has no idea what he's signing up for here.
And really he's not signing up.
God's selecting him and he's agreeing to it.
But David has no idea.
He just hears you're going to be king.
And does that mean he's going to be king tomorrow?
Does he have to wait?
No, we know that David has to wait a long time and he has to go
through a lot of trials and sometimes God's going to call you
to do something that it might not come to pass tomorrow.
He might say, hey, I want to use you here.
And it might be a time of waiting, it might be a time of trial,
it might be a place in our life where we actually feel like,
well, Lord, obviously you don't have me going here because
there's trial after trial after trial.
But what we're going to see with David is that God works through
those trials to build him into the king that he needs to be.
And that's what we're seeing throughout this whole passage.
And so verse number 13, then Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed
him in the midst of the brethren.
And, and this is the important part.
And the Spirit of the Lord came upon David from that day forward.
So Samuel rose up and went to Rama.
So what we're going to see in this passage of Scripture is that
the Spirit of the Lord comes upon David.
And so that literal oil anointing is a picture of God coming
upon the life of David and guiding him in the Holy Spirit.
Now we as Christians are super blessed in the fact that when we
trust in the Lord as our Savior, that very thing happens to
us, that the Spirit of God comes and lives within us.
It's not just for a time, as many people in the Old Testament
got to experience, that God would come upon them and there would
be these moments of spirit filled action.
But we as Christians get the unique opportunity to have the Holy
Spirit living within us at all times.
And one might ask then, well, if we're all living with the Holy
Spirit, why do we all not just act like David and act like Daniel?
And act like all these people of great acclaim in Scripture.
Because oftentimes the Bible says that we can be indwelled by
the Spirit.
The Spirit lives within us.
But oftentimes, as Christians, we're not filled with the Holy Spirit.
Being filled with the Holy Spirit is something different.
Being filled with the Holy Spirit is that the Holy Spirit is
the one driving.
I'm not the one driving.
I'm obedient to what the Holy Spirit has for me.
I'm stepping into places where I would never go on my own accord.
But God's leading me here.
God's testing me here, God's speaking for me here.
God's moving in this way.
And folks, I cannot describe to someone what it means to be completely
guided by the Holy Spirit unless it's experienced.
But what I will say to you is that when the Holy Spirit's guiding
you, there's nothing to fear.
And there's complete confidence in the Lord.
There's complete confidence, control of God in your life.
And though there might be some uncertainty in our human state, what
it is, is like, hey, God's moving me.
God's changing me.
God's given me the words to say.
God's given me the patience here.
God's holding me back from saying the things that I would say
before, right?
There's a whole picture of what the Holy Spirit does for our
life.
And we see here that the Holy Spirit comes upon it, says the Spirit
of Lord came upon David from that day forward.
Now, that doesn't mean that David is sinless, but we do know
that David is able to move and do things beyond his own limitations.
If you don't know about that, just go one chapter over.
We're going to study David going out and slaying Goliath.
David could not and would not have been able to do that.
In his own strength, he was able to do something beyond his own
limitations because God was resting upon his life.
And many other things that David does.
He admits that I could not do this without the Lord.
This battle is the Lord's.
This victory is only because of God.
And that's what it means for us in our own life.
As Christians, we have to understand that when God calls us
to do something that sometimes might be beyond our own human limitations,
that he is going to bless us and give us strength.
And as Philippians 4:13 says, that we can do all things through
Christ which strengtheneth us.
And the idea would be that we don't just do whatever we wanted
to.
And God blesses that.
But if God calls us to do something.
He's going to give us everything that we need to accomplish
the things that he's called us to do.
So what do I mean by this?
I mean this.
God has a plan and a purpose for each of you.
He really does.
Now, for you, it might not mean to go to a foreign country and
be a missionary.
For you, it might not be that you're holding vocational, you know,
a ministry.
Even though it really helped me free myself from the bondage of
my fear.
Let me tell you something.
In love, you, you don't have enough strength, you don't have enough
wisdom, you don't have enough experience.
You don't have all the things to do what God has called you to
do.
But the beauty is, is that when you have a relationship with
God, he gives you everything you need.
He's going to give you the wisdom, he's going to give you the
strength.
He's going to give you the patience.
He going to give you the endurance.
And so what I would encourage you to do, when we come to these
passages of scripture where we see David doing these amazing things,
we're going to see David do some really amazing things in his
life.
And we saw, we're seeing Joshua and Moses do amazing things.
We see Daniel doing amazing things.
We look at the New Testament and we see, you know, Peter and Paul
and all these people doing things that we're like, wow, that's
so amazing.
Those people are beyond us.
No, the Bible tells us that all of those people are just like
us.
But.
But it was a heart that desired God and his power to rest
upon our life.
And I think a lot of times we sell short the power of God and what
we can do, and ultimately what God can do through us.
And so David is anointed king here.
And we see so many awesome lessons.
And so I just want to kind of summarize these lessons and then
we're going to be done.
But I will say this.
First of all, David gets anointed by God through Samuel, through
Samuel's obedience.
So one man's obedience to the Lord leads to a great king being
selected for service.
Now, ultimately, we know that God could have used anybody.
And if Samuel would have said no, maybe God would have had another
man stand up or someone to get to a place where they could have
brought that anointing to David.
But Samuel gets to be a part of this because of his obedience.
And one of the things that I'd like you to think about here this
evening is what could you be A part of.
If you're willing to say yes to the Lord.
I. I've.
I've said no too many times in my life to the Lord, that I'm.
I'm not.
Not proud of those moments.
But there's been times in my life that I've said no, I can't do
that.
And, and maybe you guys know what I mean by that.
Maybe God's really pushing in your heart to help somebody out or
pray for somebody or call somebody or.
Or teach something or serve in an area.
And you go, you know, that's.
I don't have enough time, or I'm too busy or I'm.
Or overwhelmed.
I'm not saying for you to neglect the things that God already
has you to do, but what I am saying is that there's times in our
life where God's pressing on our heart, and we come up with every
reason to say no, and we say no.
And I would just say, what are some of the things that maybe God
would have us to be a part of if we just said yes?
And so are we willing to say yes to the Lord?
And then secondly, we look at this place of where Saul comes and
possibly could kill Samuel.
There's a risk there.
And Samuel says, no, I'm willing to risk it for the Lord.
I'm willing to take that step for the Lord.
And here's a question that all of us, I think, have to contemplate
here this evening.
It's one that I'm contemplating a lot in my life.
What am I willing to risk for the Lord if it's not.
If it's something that God's calling me to do, it's not a risk,
because if God's calling me to do it, it's secure.
And so what I would say is, on our perspective, what am I willing
to risk for the Lord?
Am I willing to risk someone mocking me?
Am I willing to risk someone rejecting me?
Am I willing to risk failing?
And by the way, if you're serving the Lord, it's never a failure.
I can.
I can tell you time after time of opportunities that I've had, and
then I've just stumbled all over it, and I've said, you know
what?
I messed that up.
I. I messed that sermon up.
I was thinking about something else, or I got distracted here, and
I was not able to communicate what I wanted to communicate.
And I felt like a failure.
I felt like a.
A someone who really fell short.
And, you know, in those moments, people being nice or people
really being honest have Been like, wow, I really needed that.
That was a great help.
And I'm like, really?
You understood what I was saying?
And there have been times where I felt like, man, I really
nailed that.
That was amazing.
And nothing, you know?
And so what.
What do I mean by that?
I mean this.
There's times in our life where we think that we've messed
up, that we've failed.
But, folks, if we're in the will of God, it's not a failure,
because we're not the ones that are giving the increase.
Think about this principle.
It's in First Corinthians, chapter three.
I'll summarize it for you.
But you can go there and you can look at it.
There were these people in the church at Corinth, and they were
like, I'm from.
I'm from Paul.
Like, Paul's my guy.
And then the other guys were like, why?
I'm from Apollos.
So Apollos is my guy.
And Paul comes in and basically checks them on this, and
he says, why are you looking at me?
And Apollos, he was like, we're just ministers of the grace
of God.
He says, some water, some plant, but God gives the increase.
And it's the idea that all of us, anything that happens within
ministry, it's not about us.
We get a chance to sow the seed.
We.
We get a chance to water that seed, but we can never produce fruit
on our own strength, on our own will.
It's always God who gives the increase.
And so what do we do?
We faithfully sew that seed.
We faithfully water those plants, and we allow God to do the
great work in our life.
And so if there's a fear of failure, well, I. I could never do
that.
Well, the truth is, is that we might stumble, but we can't fail
if we're in the will of God.
So.
So that's a lesson in and of itself.
And then we see ultimately that.
That big lesson at the end of that passage where, you know, Samuel
walks in and he sees all of these really impressive young men,
and he thinks that they're the king.
And God says, nope, that's not them.
They don't have the heart.
They might look the part, but they don't have the heart.
And for us, I'd rather be a David than any of these other brothers,
right?
I. I don't want to look the part, but not have the right heart.
And that everyone goes, wow, he must be a good Christian.
But then God knows, really what's going on behind the scenes.
I'D rather, if I had to choose one or the other, I'd rather please
God than anybody else.
Now, I don't think that those have to be two different things.
I think we can please the Lord and in many ways be a blessing to
other people.
But if me being accepted and praised by other people is higher
than my desire to honor God, that's where the issue is.
And so oftentimes that's what it is.
People aren't looking to honor God.
They're looking for other people to notice them and say, well,
they must be good Christians.
And folks, it's okay to notice other Christians.
It's okay to give honor to honor whom honors do.
But at the same time, we want to make sure that we have an audience
of one that we're praising and honoring.
Because the truth is that if we're honoring God, everybody else
is going to understand.
And if they don't understand, they aren't people that we want to
be pleasing.
That's the truth of the matter.
If.
If people can't.
In your family and your friends and your work, if they cannot
respect your stand for the cause of the Gospel, then it's not
someone who we want to please.
Because I don't want to please the world.
Certainly I don't want to please people that are telling me
to sin.
I'd rather please God.
And if the people can understand that, great, amen.
You're on my side.
But other people that mock us for our faith, I don't want to please
them.
Because what's gonna.
What's gonna please them?
Something that's against what God has for us.
And David has many chances to stand in the truth.
And he in many ways stands for the truth.
And in.
Sometimes he falls.
And there's going to be times where we stumble and fall.
But at the end of the day, when we come back to this idea of
God sees the heart, my desire is that my heart is pure.
Before the Lord.
Think about what David prayed.
And this comes much later on in his life when he's, you know,
caught in sin and he's.
He's feeling the conviction of the Spirit.
He says, search me, oh God, know my heart, try me and know my
thoughts.
See if there be any wicked way in me and lead me in the way everlasting.
You know, I think that should be all of our prayers.
To search our hearts daily, Lord.
Search me if there's something in my heart, Lord.
I want that to be right before youe.
Before I get it right with anybody else.
The Bible says to take it to the Lord first.
Even though I might need to deal with other people in my life,
I need to get it right with God.
And if you remember, David doesn't say, well, I really sinned
against Bathsheba, and I really sinned against Uriah, and
I really sinned against all of my family.
Ultimately, what David said is, lord, I sinned against you.
So even when we sin against other people, the real major issue
is that we've turned our hearts against God.
And so we're going to study through the life of David, his ups
and his downs, what to follow, what not to follow.
And we can ultimately see how we can be people after God's own
heart in our own lives.
And so that's a challenge for all of us here this evening.
Now, we're going to come to a passage of scripture next week, and
we're going to talk about how an evil spirit troubles Saul and
how God intertwines David with who will one day be his greatest
enemy on this earth.
And we're going to see how this all begins to start.
And it starts out pretty smoothly until Saul actually finds
out the future for David, and he tries to dictate to David and
to God what the future will be.
And it'll be an interesting story nonetheless.