1 00:00:02,320 --> 00:00:04,440 Lord Jesus, indeed we do need you. 2 00:00:05,200 --> 00:00:08,960 We need you every hour. We need you in every possible 3 00:00:08,960 --> 00:00:11,640 way. Lord, thank You that we have 4 00:00:11,640 --> 00:00:16,640 confidence that you meet us in our need and that we can trust 5 00:00:16,760 --> 00:00:20,840 fully and completely in you, our Lord and Savior. 6 00:00:22,000 --> 00:00:25,280 And He speaks to us this way. The Lord said to Samuel, how 7 00:00:25,280 --> 00:00:28,760 long will you grieve over Saul, since I have rejected him from 8 00:00:28,760 --> 00:00:32,960 being king over you? Fill your horn with oil and go. 9 00:00:33,400 --> 00:00:37,120 For I am sending you to Jesse the Bethlehem mite, for I have 10 00:00:37,120 --> 00:00:41,720 provided for myself a king among his sons. 11 00:00:43,120 --> 00:00:44,400 And this is the word of the Lord. 12 00:00:45,600 --> 00:00:48,560 The grass Withers, the flowers fade, but the word of our Lord 13 00:00:48,840 --> 00:00:50,760 it stands forever. Amen. 14 00:00:51,800 --> 00:00:54,120 All right, please be seated and grab your Bibles if you would 15 00:00:56,040 --> 00:00:58,680 work your way to First Samuel Chapter 16. 16 00:00:58,680 --> 00:01:01,520 We're putting a pause on our study in the book of Acts, and 17 00:01:01,520 --> 00:01:04,720 we are returning to a study in which we looked at last summer 18 00:01:05,080 --> 00:01:08,120 through the book of First Samuel, in particular, First and 19 00:01:08,120 --> 00:01:12,600 Second Samuel in particular. We are looking here at the story 20 00:01:12,600 --> 00:01:15,960 of King David. Now when I introduce people to 21 00:01:15,960 --> 00:01:19,040 my family, my extended family, I usually receive one of two 22 00:01:19,280 --> 00:01:21,240 responses, one of two interactions. 23 00:01:21,400 --> 00:01:25,520 One I get dawning comprehension of people that kind of go, oh, 24 00:01:25,520 --> 00:01:30,280 now I get it when they meet my parents or the other one is that 25 00:01:30,280 --> 00:01:35,080 they get a confused dawning look upon their face and they say, 26 00:01:35,080 --> 00:01:38,320 but they're so nice, where'd you come from kind of a thing. 27 00:01:38,480 --> 00:01:41,240 So usually when they meet, if you want to get to know me, if 28 00:01:41,240 --> 00:01:43,680 you need to know me a little bit or you want to get to know me 29 00:01:43,680 --> 00:01:47,120 well, knowing my parents, knowing my family, knowing my 30 00:01:47,120 --> 00:01:50,880 extended family, the people that I love in the door, that goes a 31 00:01:50,880 --> 00:01:52,720 little great way towards speaking about me. 32 00:01:52,720 --> 00:01:55,680 That's certainly true of getting to know me spiritually. 33 00:01:56,040 --> 00:01:58,640 If you want to know a little bit about me spiritually, if you 34 00:01:58,640 --> 00:02:01,680 learn, if you read about some of the theologians and some of the 35 00:02:01,680 --> 00:02:05,640 people in the past that have impacted me to identify pretty 36 00:02:05,640 --> 00:02:08,240 clearly some of my own particular tendencies and 37 00:02:08,240 --> 00:02:10,080 thoughts, you can see where they came from. 38 00:02:10,360 --> 00:02:14,080 Well, we are doing pretty much the exact same thing by looking 39 00:02:14,080 --> 00:02:17,000 at King David. When we look at King David, we 40 00:02:17,000 --> 00:02:20,480 are looking at someone that Jesus intentionally self 41 00:02:20,480 --> 00:02:24,000 identified with. The goal of all scripture, the 42 00:02:24,000 --> 00:02:27,200 goal of the Old New Testament, the goal of the New Testament 43 00:02:27,200 --> 00:02:30,760 that speaks very clearly about Jesus Christ as well as the goal 44 00:02:30,760 --> 00:02:35,880 of the Old Testament, it is to highlight point, to magnify 45 00:02:35,960 --> 00:02:39,400 Jesus Christ for us. The intent of this sermon 46 00:02:39,400 --> 00:02:42,080 series, the intent of every sermon series, the intent of 47 00:02:42,080 --> 00:02:46,000 every time you come to worship has got to be to see, to 48 00:02:46,000 --> 00:02:49,600 understand, to worship Jesus more and more clearly. 49 00:02:50,000 --> 00:02:53,640 And so as we look at King David, even though King David lived 50 00:02:53,640 --> 00:02:58,200 1000 years before Christ, what we are doing is we are looking 51 00:02:58,640 --> 00:03:03,200 at King David not to see King David, but to see Jesus Christ. 52 00:03:03,200 --> 00:03:05,800 We're going to identify that fairly clearly because there are 53 00:03:05,800 --> 00:03:08,680 going to be points where we look at King David and we look at him 54 00:03:08,680 --> 00:03:10,480 and we go, OK, that's pretty good. 55 00:03:10,680 --> 00:03:13,480 We can understand why we're looking at King David here. 56 00:03:13,480 --> 00:03:16,120 He lived a good life in this way and stuff like that. 57 00:03:16,120 --> 00:03:18,480 He's going to serve as a function, as a model for us. 58 00:03:18,800 --> 00:03:21,880 That's going to be attractive. In some ways that's the case. 59 00:03:22,400 --> 00:03:24,240 In other ways, we're going to look at King David. 60 00:03:24,240 --> 00:03:27,120 We're going to say, why in the world are we reading about this 61 00:03:27,120 --> 00:03:30,480 guy? He's a terrible example for us. 62 00:03:30,680 --> 00:03:34,040 Indeed, King David is not an example for us, positively or 63 00:03:34,040 --> 00:03:36,800 negatively. What King David does is he 64 00:03:36,800 --> 00:03:40,560 highlights Jesus Christ, and that's going to be the 65 00:03:40,560 --> 00:03:43,600 consistent theme of everything in which we talk about here. 66 00:03:43,600 --> 00:03:48,920 As we look at King David, we are looking through King David to 67 00:03:48,920 --> 00:03:52,920 see Jesus Christ and I urge you over the next 8 weeks, we're 68 00:03:52,920 --> 00:03:55,480 going to be looking at King David to make sure that that's 69 00:03:55,480 --> 00:03:58,800 what you hear from the pulpit. Don't allow us to get distracted 70 00:03:58,800 --> 00:04:02,000 and don't you be distracted by the idea that what we're doing 71 00:04:02,000 --> 00:04:05,400 is putting forward good moral example for you to follow or an 72 00:04:05,400 --> 00:04:08,240 illustration of how to live your life or something along those 73 00:04:08,240 --> 00:04:09,840 lines. That's not what we're doing. 74 00:04:10,120 --> 00:04:13,280 What we're doing is we're highlighting the key central 75 00:04:13,280 --> 00:04:16,720 biblical themes that run all the way through the Scriptures that 76 00:04:16,720 --> 00:04:19,240 point to and highlight Jesus Christ. 77 00:04:19,519 --> 00:04:22,480 In part, what I'm doing is trying to to demonstrate for you 78 00:04:22,640 --> 00:04:25,120 how it is that we're supposed to read the Scriptures as a whole, 79 00:04:25,280 --> 00:04:28,120 both the New Testament, certainly, but also the Old 80 00:04:28,120 --> 00:04:32,200 Testament, how you're supposed to identify Jesus Christ as the 81 00:04:32,200 --> 00:04:35,600 core focus of this material. And we're going to see that here 82 00:04:35,800 --> 00:04:39,080 as we look at King David. Now I realize it meant not many 83 00:04:39,080 --> 00:04:41,840 of you remember what we talked about last summer when we looked 84 00:04:41,840 --> 00:04:45,040 at the first part of First Samuel and that we are in 85 00:04:45,040 --> 00:04:47,520 material that is less common for people. 86 00:04:47,640 --> 00:04:50,320 And so I want to give a quick background over the next couple 87 00:04:50,320 --> 00:04:52,400 of weeks. I'm going to be reiterating this 88 00:04:52,400 --> 00:04:54,280 so you can Orient yourself a little bit. 89 00:04:54,480 --> 00:04:57,680 As I said, we're about 1000 years before Jesus Christ, the 90 00:04:57,680 --> 00:05:01,200 coming of Jesus Christ. We're about 400 years or so 91 00:05:01,440 --> 00:05:04,360 after the Israelites have been freed from Egypt. 92 00:05:04,360 --> 00:05:08,320 Lots of people know that after 400 years of captivity in Egypt, 93 00:05:08,560 --> 00:05:13,040 the Moses let out the Israelites to Mount Sinai and then 94 00:05:13,040 --> 00:05:16,360 ultimately indicate Canaan land, where Joshua, the leader 95 00:05:16,560 --> 00:05:19,840 captured the Canaan land and settled the tribes of Israel, 96 00:05:19,840 --> 00:05:23,080 the 12 tribes of Israel. The 12 tribes of Israel for the 97 00:05:23,080 --> 00:05:28,600 next couple 100 years were ruled by judges and the judges did a 98 00:05:29,200 --> 00:05:33,160 adequate, at best job, largely a poor job. 99 00:05:33,480 --> 00:05:36,160 Certainly towards the end of their time they were doing a 100 00:05:36,160 --> 00:05:39,840 really poor job and society was reflecting their poor 101 00:05:39,840 --> 00:05:42,800 leadership. There was social chaos. 102 00:05:43,200 --> 00:05:46,800 There was religious chaos. There was military and political 103 00:05:46,800 --> 00:05:49,440 chaos. There was financial chaos. 104 00:05:49,800 --> 00:05:54,400 It was a bad time to live. And into this spiritual 105 00:05:54,400 --> 00:05:58,360 darkness, God calls the prophet Samuel. 106 00:05:58,800 --> 00:06:00,840 Now the prophet Samuel is somebody who we're going to be 107 00:06:00,840 --> 00:06:04,160 referencing numerous times here throughout the next 8 weeks. 108 00:06:04,360 --> 00:06:08,880 The prophet Samuel is called in the midst of this social 109 00:06:08,880 --> 00:06:13,440 darkness or cultural darkness, but literally also in darkness 110 00:06:13,680 --> 00:06:17,600 where he hears God's voice calling him and Samuel responds 111 00:06:17,800 --> 00:06:20,640 to the Lord. And one of the first tasks that 112 00:06:20,640 --> 00:06:25,680 Samuel is tasked with doing is to lead God's people. 113 00:06:26,240 --> 00:06:31,240 And he too leads God's people in ways that are unfaithful, 114 00:06:31,920 --> 00:06:36,840 unjust, unholy, and unrighteous, particularly in the way his sons 115 00:06:36,840 --> 00:06:38,640 respond and treat different things. 116 00:06:39,560 --> 00:06:45,120 So the people reject Samuel's leadership, and instead they say 117 00:06:45,120 --> 00:06:47,040 they want a king like all the nations. 118 00:06:47,160 --> 00:06:50,080 They look at the prosperity of Egypt and say, why can't we have 119 00:06:50,080 --> 00:06:52,880 a king like the Egyptians? They look at the Hittite Empire, 120 00:06:52,880 --> 00:06:55,640 the power of the Hittite Empire. They say, why can't we be like 121 00:06:55,640 --> 00:06:59,080 the Hittite Empire? Or they look at the Venetians 122 00:06:59,200 --> 00:07:03,120 when the power and the military might of the Philistines. 123 00:07:03,320 --> 00:07:04,760 And they say, why can't we be like them? 124 00:07:04,760 --> 00:07:07,560 We want to be like them. Give us a king just like all the 125 00:07:07,560 --> 00:07:10,720 other nations, so we can be like all the other nations. 126 00:07:11,640 --> 00:07:15,400 And God gives them a king that is just like all the other 127 00:07:15,400 --> 00:07:17,440 nations, like all the other kings. 128 00:07:18,160 --> 00:07:23,560 And in time, very quickly, King Saul, who's another prominent 129 00:07:23,560 --> 00:07:28,600 figure in our story, King Saul leads the Israelites into 130 00:07:28,800 --> 00:07:32,080 territory that is just like all the other nations. 131 00:07:32,280 --> 00:07:37,840 Disobedience, corruption, unfaithfulness, despair. 132 00:07:38,880 --> 00:07:43,920 And so we are about halfway into Saul's reign here, and God says 133 00:07:43,920 --> 00:07:49,600 this is not the king for you. And God rejects Saul as king, 134 00:07:50,960 --> 00:07:55,120 and Samuel is crushed. He's crushed. 135 00:07:56,920 --> 00:08:01,440 So we get the first Samuel chapter 16, and the Lord said to 136 00:08:01,440 --> 00:08:05,880 Samuel, how long will you grieve over Saul, since I have rejected 137 00:08:05,880 --> 00:08:09,120 him from being king over Israel? Now why is he grieving over 138 00:08:09,120 --> 00:08:11,720 Saul? I think he's grieving over Saul 139 00:08:11,720 --> 00:08:16,000 for a couple of reasons. One is because he sees that 140 00:08:16,000 --> 00:08:18,760 because of the breakdown of the leadership, the representative 141 00:08:18,760 --> 00:08:21,360 of God to the people has gone off the beam. 142 00:08:21,360 --> 00:08:24,760 Saul has failed tremendously in his responsibilities, and 143 00:08:24,760 --> 00:08:27,920 because of that the people are suffering. 144 00:08:28,440 --> 00:08:32,120 The people are suffering in their misery of unfaithfulness 145 00:08:32,320 --> 00:08:39,159 and disobedience and idolatry and wickedness and poverty and 146 00:08:39,159 --> 00:08:45,560 misery and oppression. God's people are suffering and 147 00:08:45,560 --> 00:08:52,680 Samuel the prophet is grieving the great loss of the of the 148 00:08:52,680 --> 00:08:55,240 righteousness and the moral righteousness of the nation. 149 00:08:55,920 --> 00:09:01,080 Samuel desires for God to be reflected in the people in which 150 00:09:01,080 --> 00:09:04,800 he dwells, in the the nation in which he lives with. 151 00:09:05,120 --> 00:09:10,040 He wants God's people to be reflecting God himself, and 152 00:09:10,040 --> 00:09:16,120 their failure to do so grieves Saul Samuel tremendously. 153 00:09:16,440 --> 00:09:18,640 He is broken. Because of this. 154 00:09:20,000 --> 00:09:24,200 We live in a time period that is very similar. 155 00:09:25,080 --> 00:09:27,920 I hope when I was listing out what it was like to live in the 156 00:09:27,920 --> 00:09:32,800 darkness of that time that you just weren't thinking of ancient 157 00:09:32,800 --> 00:09:35,920 times and how bleak and ugly things were then. 158 00:09:36,480 --> 00:09:40,040 Because we can apply all of those characteristics to our 159 00:09:40,040 --> 00:09:47,960 current society right now. Which causes me to wonder, where 160 00:09:47,960 --> 00:09:55,080 is the grief? Do you as a Christian, do I as a 161 00:09:55,080 --> 00:10:01,000 Christian, feel grief over the society that is broken around 162 00:10:01,000 --> 00:10:04,200 us, over the misery of the people that are here, over the 163 00:10:04,200 --> 00:10:08,040 ungodliness and the wickedness in which I spend every day of my 164 00:10:08,040 --> 00:10:09,600 life? You spend every day of your 165 00:10:09,600 --> 00:10:13,040 life. Where is the physical grief, 166 00:10:13,280 --> 00:10:17,440 the, the, the, the morning that the Scripture is so clearly 167 00:10:17,440 --> 00:10:22,040 called for? And I worry that we don't see it 168 00:10:22,040 --> 00:10:25,360 for one of two reasons. 1 is that we have isolated ourselves 169 00:10:25,560 --> 00:10:27,280 from the suffering of this world. 170 00:10:27,640 --> 00:10:31,680 We have our friends, we have our church, we have our safe 171 00:10:31,680 --> 00:10:34,640 ministries. And sure, we're doing a lot of 172 00:10:34,640 --> 00:10:37,800 stuff and we rub shoulders with the people around us, but we 173 00:10:37,800 --> 00:10:42,200 haven't really engaged with them in such a way as to experience 174 00:10:42,480 --> 00:10:48,160 their grief. Or worse than that, we're 175 00:10:48,160 --> 00:10:53,080 standing from afar wagging our finger, saying, look at how 176 00:10:53,080 --> 00:10:55,960 miserable they are because of their ungodliness and their 177 00:10:55,960 --> 00:11:00,560 wickedness. And indeed, they are suffering 178 00:11:00,560 --> 00:11:02,840 because of their ungodliness and their wickedness. 179 00:11:03,480 --> 00:11:07,040 But that has moved Samuel to grief. 180 00:11:08,880 --> 00:11:11,680 The second reason why I think Samuel is in great grief is that 181 00:11:11,680 --> 00:11:16,720 Saul, King Saul, the failure was Samuel's failure. 182 00:11:17,640 --> 00:11:20,120 King Saul was somebody that Samuel counseled. 183 00:11:20,440 --> 00:11:24,240 Samuel nurtured him. Samuel walked with him. 184 00:11:24,440 --> 00:11:30,360 Samuel gave advice to him. Saul's failure was Samuel's 185 00:11:30,360 --> 00:11:36,800 failure, and he's feeling the grief of this now. 186 00:11:36,800 --> 00:11:40,880 God rebukes him. But look carefully at that 187 00:11:40,880 --> 00:11:43,600 verse. God is not rebuking him from 188 00:11:43,600 --> 00:11:47,680 grieving his own failure or society's failure. 189 00:11:48,280 --> 00:11:50,560 I think that's something that the rest of the Scripture calls 190 00:11:50,560 --> 00:11:53,880 us to be people that are passionate about the world 191 00:11:53,880 --> 00:11:56,560 around us in such a way that it grieves us it more. 192 00:11:56,560 --> 00:11:58,640 It makes us mourn when we see those kind of things. 193 00:11:58,840 --> 00:12:02,000 And if you're not doing it, you've got to check your own 194 00:12:02,000 --> 00:12:08,160 heart. But God doesn't rebuke him for 195 00:12:08,160 --> 00:12:09,920 grieving. What does he say here in verse 196 00:12:09,920 --> 00:12:14,120 one? How long will you grieve? 197 00:12:15,040 --> 00:12:20,680 The grief has made Sam Samuel inert. 198 00:12:21,400 --> 00:12:24,960 The grief has robbed him of his action. 199 00:12:25,240 --> 00:12:30,880 The grief has robbed him. And here's the key of his faith. 200 00:12:32,120 --> 00:12:36,200 God instead calls him to act in the midst of his grief, not 201 00:12:36,200 --> 00:12:39,920 denying the grief, not denying the rejection of Saul as king. 202 00:12:41,040 --> 00:12:44,520 But Samuel is to act in grief, in faith, in the midst of his 203 00:12:44,520 --> 00:12:47,760 grief. Fill your horn with oil and go. 204 00:12:47,760 --> 00:12:50,680 One of the prime responsibilities of the prophet 205 00:12:50,680 --> 00:12:54,640 of God is to anoint the king, is to anoint the new king with oil. 206 00:12:54,800 --> 00:12:57,440 So fill your oil with go. I will send you to Jesse the 207 00:12:57,440 --> 00:12:58,080 Bethlehem. Mike. 208 00:12:58,080 --> 00:13:02,160 Why? For I have provided, for I have 209 00:13:02,160 --> 00:13:05,760 worked. Samuel, in the midst of the 210 00:13:05,760 --> 00:13:11,760 darkness, hear my voice. I have worked. 211 00:13:12,680 --> 00:13:17,640 So get up and go. Yes, the grief is present. 212 00:13:18,240 --> 00:13:22,240 Yes, the sorrow is there. But if the grief and the sorrow, 213 00:13:22,520 --> 00:13:28,160 even godly grief and sorrow turns to unbelief, turns to a 214 00:13:28,160 --> 00:13:32,960 faithlessness, Samuel is prompted here by God saying, 215 00:13:33,240 --> 00:13:34,960 don't you? And here's the kicker. 216 00:13:35,400 --> 00:13:40,680 Trust my voice. Don't you trust my voice? 217 00:13:41,240 --> 00:13:45,720 I will do this. Now go and act in faith. 218 00:13:46,760 --> 00:13:51,480 This is the theme that runs through all of the scriptures 219 00:13:52,280 --> 00:13:56,800 that we are to trust. Not what we're experiencing, not 220 00:13:56,800 --> 00:14:00,400 what we see, not with what we feel, not with what we 221 00:14:00,400 --> 00:14:07,080 understand, but we are to trust God's voice and we have God's 222 00:14:07,080 --> 00:14:09,960 voice. This is why we consistently urge 223 00:14:09,960 --> 00:14:13,120 you to open the scriptures, to have the Scriptures before you, 224 00:14:13,320 --> 00:14:16,920 to know the Scriptures, because this is what we understand is 225 00:14:16,920 --> 00:14:20,320 the word of God speaking to us. This is the voice of the Lord in 226 00:14:20,320 --> 00:14:23,400 the midst of our sorrow, in the midst of our brokenness, in the 227 00:14:23,400 --> 00:14:26,560 midst of our sadness. This is the voice of the Lord 228 00:14:26,640 --> 00:14:29,360 that pulls us through, that says yes, in the midst of everything 229 00:14:29,360 --> 00:14:34,760 that's happening here, trust me. And of course, the greatest 230 00:14:34,760 --> 00:14:39,280 fulfillment of that is Jesus Christ the this brutal death, 231 00:14:40,000 --> 00:14:44,160 this vicious rejection, this horrific thing. 232 00:14:44,560 --> 00:14:49,280 And Jesus hanging on the cross nevertheless says, trust me, 233 00:14:50,240 --> 00:14:55,280 trust me. So verse 2 Samuel says, what? 234 00:14:55,280 --> 00:14:57,520 How can I go? If Saul hears of it, he will 235 00:14:57,520 --> 00:14:59,200 kill me. Remember, Saul is king. 236 00:14:59,400 --> 00:15:01,080 Saul's been king for about 20 years. 237 00:15:01,080 --> 00:15:03,120 He's going to be king for about 20 more years. 238 00:15:03,440 --> 00:15:08,120 And Saul says, hey, I don't want any other king, but most kings 239 00:15:08,120 --> 00:15:11,560 don't treat it lightly whenever a contender comes through the 240 00:15:11,560 --> 00:15:16,680 throne or or an alternative. And so Samuel says, if Saul gets 241 00:15:16,680 --> 00:15:18,160 wind of this, he's going to kill me. 242 00:15:18,160 --> 00:15:20,760 What am I supposed to do? And the Lord says, take with you 243 00:15:20,760 --> 00:15:23,840 a heifer and say, I have come to sacrifice to the Lord. 244 00:15:24,000 --> 00:15:28,200 In other words, go and worship. Saul's not going to stop you 245 00:15:28,200 --> 00:15:30,280 from worshiping. Go and worship. 246 00:15:30,480 --> 00:15:35,520 So Samuel goes and he worships and God continues in verse 3 and 247 00:15:35,520 --> 00:15:39,400 invite Jesse to come and sacrifice and I will show you 248 00:15:39,760 --> 00:15:42,640 what you shall do. And so in other words, get Jesse 249 00:15:42,640 --> 00:15:45,680 on board. Go over and find this guy Jesse 250 00:15:45,800 --> 00:15:49,520 and say, Hey, look, I've come to anoint a king and bring along, 251 00:15:49,520 --> 00:15:53,880 bring along your your sons. Verse 4 Samuel did what the Lord 252 00:15:53,880 --> 00:15:57,920 commanded and came to Bethlehem and that is the Bethlehem that 253 00:15:57,920 --> 00:15:59,520 you recognize. This is the Bethlehem where 254 00:15:59,520 --> 00:16:03,520 Jesus will be born 2000 years or 1000 years later, come to 255 00:16:03,520 --> 00:16:06,000 Bethlehem. The elders of the city came to 256 00:16:06,000 --> 00:16:09,240 meet him trembling and said, now why are they trembling? 257 00:16:10,040 --> 00:16:13,960 They're trembling because this is the prophet of God that is 258 00:16:13,960 --> 00:16:16,720 coming. And the prophet of God comes 259 00:16:17,280 --> 00:16:20,160 with the word of God, with the judgment of God, with the 260 00:16:20,160 --> 00:16:22,760 condemnation of God, yes, with the grace of God. 261 00:16:23,200 --> 00:16:25,200 And so the elders are don't know what's happening. 262 00:16:25,200 --> 00:16:27,880 This is imagine this, you get a knock on the door and you open 263 00:16:27,880 --> 00:16:31,360 up and it's an IRS agent. OK, what's your immediate? 264 00:16:31,840 --> 00:16:35,080 OK, Immediately you're panic. No matter how faithful you are 265 00:16:35,080 --> 00:16:37,760 in taxes, one of the things that immediately go through to your 266 00:16:37,760 --> 00:16:40,720 head is what did I miss? Oh my gosh, what did I miss? 267 00:16:40,720 --> 00:16:43,800 And you begin to travel panic. You begin to tremble. 268 00:16:44,080 --> 00:16:48,080 And so trembling, the elders come to him and say, do you come 269 00:16:48,080 --> 00:16:51,560 peaceably? And IRS agent, are you just 270 00:16:51,560 --> 00:16:54,800 looking for a glass of water? You know, do you come 271 00:16:54,800 --> 00:16:57,360 peacefully? And Samuel says, yes, I come 272 00:16:57,360 --> 00:16:59,760 peacefully. I have come in verse 5 to 273 00:16:59,760 --> 00:17:03,520 sacrifice to the Lord. Consecrate yourselves and come 274 00:17:03,520 --> 00:17:06,599 with me to the sacrifice consecrate. 275 00:17:06,720 --> 00:17:10,760 By the way, it's it's a fancy term. 276 00:17:10,800 --> 00:17:15,359 It means prepare yourself, prepare yourself for worship. 277 00:17:16,280 --> 00:17:20,839 Now, I'm might be writing on you all sorts of evil, and I 278 00:17:20,839 --> 00:17:23,800 apologize if this is the case. Please come up to me afterwards 279 00:17:23,800 --> 00:17:28,720 and correct me, but I have great fear that the extent of your 280 00:17:28,720 --> 00:17:31,840 preparation for worship is saying, come on honey, let's get 281 00:17:31,840 --> 00:17:37,840 in the car. I have great fear that we lack 282 00:17:37,840 --> 00:17:40,680 something fundamental that is spread throughout the 283 00:17:40,680 --> 00:17:43,120 Scriptures. Spread throughout the scriptures 284 00:17:43,120 --> 00:17:46,200 is the call that when we come into the presence of the Lord, 285 00:17:46,360 --> 00:17:49,120 we consecrate ourselves. We prepare ourselves. 286 00:17:49,360 --> 00:17:52,120 Now that preparation can take a bunch of different looks. 287 00:17:52,320 --> 00:17:54,160 It can look differently in different ways. 288 00:17:54,320 --> 00:17:57,960 I appreciate that, but consecrate yourselves. 289 00:17:57,960 --> 00:18:01,440 One of the things that we we tend to do is say, OK, give it 290 00:18:01,440 --> 00:18:03,640 this. That's the first song that 291 00:18:03,760 --> 00:18:05,720 Brendan plays for us at this worship service. 292 00:18:05,920 --> 00:18:08,960 It's supposed to be a moment for you to reorient yourself and 293 00:18:08,960 --> 00:18:12,040 prepare yourself for worship. But is that really the extent of 294 00:18:12,040 --> 00:18:19,200 our consecrating ourselves that we spend 3 minutes preparing to 295 00:18:19,200 --> 00:18:21,000 meet with the Lord of the Universe? 296 00:18:22,240 --> 00:18:25,400 I had a good friend of mine who refused to allow his kids to go 297 00:18:25,400 --> 00:18:29,720 out on Saturday nights and I kind of thought, wow, why are 298 00:18:29,720 --> 00:18:32,840 you doing that? And he said it is so that they 299 00:18:32,840 --> 00:18:36,360 are prepared for worship. They don't do anything special 300 00:18:36,360 --> 00:18:39,040 Saturday night. They just keep the kids in and 301 00:18:39,040 --> 00:18:44,360 they have that time as a family. That's consecrating yourselves 302 00:18:44,840 --> 00:18:46,880 for worship. So consecrate yourself for 303 00:18:46,880 --> 00:18:49,360 worship. And he consecrated Jesse and his 304 00:18:49,360 --> 00:18:52,160 sons and invited them to the sacrifice. 305 00:18:52,760 --> 00:18:55,640 Verse 6. When they came, the sons, when 306 00:18:55,640 --> 00:19:00,880 the sons came, Samuel looked at Eliab and thought, surely this 307 00:19:00,880 --> 00:19:02,880 is the Lord's anointed that is before him. 308 00:19:03,120 --> 00:19:06,680 Eliab is the first son, and the first son comes along and 309 00:19:06,680 --> 00:19:10,160 Jesse's, Jesse's very proud to introduce his first son to him 310 00:19:10,160 --> 00:19:11,880 and says, this is the Lord's anointed. 311 00:19:12,160 --> 00:19:16,400 And the Lord said to Samuel verse 7, do not look on his 312 00:19:16,400 --> 00:19:21,160 appearance or on his height and stature because I have rejected 313 00:19:21,160 --> 00:19:24,680 him. For the Lord sees not as man 314 00:19:24,680 --> 00:19:26,920 sees. Man looks on the outward 315 00:19:26,920 --> 00:19:30,320 appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart. 316 00:19:31,720 --> 00:19:35,000 All right, now here would be an easy moment to slip into a some 317 00:19:35,000 --> 00:19:38,840 moralistic point about saying, look, don't judge a book by its 318 00:19:38,840 --> 00:19:41,640 cover. Don't trust your first 319 00:19:41,640 --> 00:19:43,720 impressions. If you want to hear a story 320 00:19:43,720 --> 00:19:46,160 about the failure of first impressions, ask Kelly what she 321 00:19:46,160 --> 00:19:47,720 thought about me when she first saw me. 322 00:19:47,960 --> 00:19:52,200 That's a fun story. OK, First impressions, we, we 323 00:19:52,200 --> 00:19:54,840 know that don't judge a book by its cover. 324 00:19:55,240 --> 00:19:58,640 We know that we're supposed to look not at outward appearances, 325 00:19:58,640 --> 00:20:02,280 but at the heart. We know that that's a great 326 00:20:02,280 --> 00:20:05,480 little moral story. And yes, I urge you to live that 327 00:20:05,480 --> 00:20:08,040 way, too. That's not what it's doing here 328 00:20:08,040 --> 00:20:10,960 in Scripture. It's pointing to Jesus Christ. 329 00:20:11,280 --> 00:20:13,080 How is it pointing to Jesus Christ? 330 00:20:13,360 --> 00:20:17,720 Because it's highlighting a problem that that resides in all 331 00:20:17,720 --> 00:20:21,320 of our hearts. We judge by the outward 332 00:20:21,320 --> 00:20:23,600 appearance. We trust by the outward 333 00:20:23,600 --> 00:20:26,120 appearance. Eliab here comes across the 334 00:20:26,120 --> 00:20:29,320 stage and Samuel is impressed with him. 335 00:20:29,520 --> 00:20:32,400 By the way, Samuel was exactly impressed with Saul. 336 00:20:32,600 --> 00:20:35,520 Samuel was impressed with Saul for the exact same reasons. 337 00:20:35,600 --> 00:20:38,960 Saul was tall, Saul was Hampson. Here comes Eliab. 338 00:20:38,960 --> 00:20:40,720 Liab is tall. Liab is handsome. 339 00:20:41,000 --> 00:20:44,800 Tall counts back then for being a king, it counts. 340 00:20:44,800 --> 00:20:48,440 As being king it counts sociologically today too. 341 00:20:48,440 --> 00:20:52,320 If you ever do the studies, you realize that people the taller 342 00:20:52,440 --> 00:20:55,040 candidate gets elected 70% of the time. 343 00:20:56,080 --> 00:20:57,400 But that's neither here nor there. 344 00:20:57,600 --> 00:21:01,320 Back then, the king was leading armies and was leading army. 345 00:21:01,320 --> 00:21:04,320 I see a couple small guys in the crowd smiling because they know 346 00:21:04,320 --> 00:21:05,440 they're never going to get elected. 347 00:21:06,840 --> 00:21:11,400 We got, we got the king is leading in, in, in battle, and 348 00:21:11,400 --> 00:21:14,600 he leads from the front. And it counts to know where your 349 00:21:14,600 --> 00:21:16,800 king is, where the battle is happening. 350 00:21:16,920 --> 00:21:19,680 And so being a head taller than everybody else, you're always 351 00:21:19,680 --> 00:21:22,840 able to see where King Saul goes because he's so tall. 352 00:21:23,000 --> 00:21:25,840 And Samuel says, hey, Eliab is going to be nice and tall. 353 00:21:25,840 --> 00:21:27,480 We're going to be able to follow him too. 354 00:21:27,840 --> 00:21:33,600 It makes sense to trust what you see with your eyes, and God says 355 00:21:33,600 --> 00:21:37,040 don't trust your eyes. It makes sense to see with our 356 00:21:37,040 --> 00:21:41,320 eyes that it would be easy to live a life if you had fame or 357 00:21:41,320 --> 00:21:44,080 if you had money. Life would be so much easier. 358 00:21:44,400 --> 00:21:46,760 Don't trust what you see with your eyes. 359 00:21:47,000 --> 00:21:50,200 It would be so easy for the government, with all of its 360 00:21:50,200 --> 00:21:54,640 power and with all of its money, to solve some of the social 361 00:21:54,640 --> 00:21:57,000 issues that confront us as a society. 362 00:21:57,640 --> 00:22:00,000 It would make sense that it would be able to do that. 363 00:22:00,400 --> 00:22:03,480 Don't trust what you see with your eyes. 364 00:22:03,480 --> 00:22:05,080 What are you supposed to trust in? 365 00:22:05,680 --> 00:22:07,960 God doesn't look at the outward appearance. 366 00:22:08,200 --> 00:22:12,960 God looks at the heart. Now if we're really sloppy, 367 00:22:13,320 --> 00:22:17,040 we'll sit here and say, well God looks at Eliab's heart and sees 368 00:22:17,040 --> 00:22:20,040 that Eliab's heart's no good. He's going to look at Abinadab's 369 00:22:20,040 --> 00:22:23,160 heart and say that it's no good. And Shamas heart and say it's no 370 00:22:23,160 --> 00:22:26,520 good and goes down and then he sees David and David has this 371 00:22:26,520 --> 00:22:29,000 nice little pure heart and we all do this. 372 00:22:29,160 --> 00:22:32,280 OK, some of you laugh because you know the story of David. 373 00:22:32,760 --> 00:22:36,760 He doesn't have a pure heart. David doesn't have a pure heart. 374 00:22:37,120 --> 00:22:41,400 We are told in the Scriptures, and why it is that we miss this 375 00:22:41,400 --> 00:22:44,400 is beyond me. We're not supposed to trust our 376 00:22:44,400 --> 00:22:47,760 hearts because our hearts are deceitful above all things. 377 00:22:49,200 --> 00:22:52,480 David's heart is deceitful above all things and it gets them into 378 00:22:52,480 --> 00:22:55,960 a world of trouble, as we will find out here together. 379 00:22:56,080 --> 00:22:59,080 So why is it that God says that He looks at the heart? 380 00:22:59,400 --> 00:23:05,320 Because at the heart is what the heart is, where God is at work. 381 00:23:06,320 --> 00:23:11,280 We're told that we're told that God transforms our lives from 382 00:23:11,280 --> 00:23:13,680 our hearts. He takes a heart of stone and he 383 00:23:13,680 --> 00:23:16,600 makes it a heart of flesh. In other words, the point of 384 00:23:16,600 --> 00:23:19,040 this is that God doesn't care what a lie it brings to the 385 00:23:19,040 --> 00:23:21,800 table. It only matters what God brings 386 00:23:21,800 --> 00:23:24,040 to the table. And what does God bring to the 387 00:23:24,040 --> 00:23:26,360 table? God brings it to the table. 388 00:23:26,360 --> 00:23:30,480 The ability, the heart, the power to make a heart of stone, 389 00:23:31,000 --> 00:23:34,440 a heart of flesh, that's what God can do. 390 00:23:34,720 --> 00:23:37,800 And so he says to Samuel what he says to each one of us over and 391 00:23:37,800 --> 00:23:39,520 over again and throughout the Scriptures. 392 00:23:39,840 --> 00:23:43,000 Don't trust what you see with your eyes. 393 00:23:43,200 --> 00:23:45,440 Don't trust what you feel with your feelings. 394 00:23:45,440 --> 00:23:47,640 Don't trust what you sense around you. 395 00:23:47,640 --> 00:23:49,360 Don't trust your own understanding. 396 00:23:49,800 --> 00:23:53,600 Look to where God is doing his work. 397 00:23:53,960 --> 00:24:01,600 Trust in Him, trust in his work. And so he says in verse 8. 398 00:24:01,720 --> 00:24:05,640 Then Samuel then calls Abinadab the second son, and made him 399 00:24:05,640 --> 00:24:08,440 pass before Samuel. And Samuel said, neither is the 400 00:24:08,440 --> 00:24:11,720 Lord chosen this one. Then Jesse made Shama pass by. 401 00:24:11,720 --> 00:24:13,560 And he said, neither is the Lord chosen this one. 402 00:24:13,960 --> 00:24:17,040 And Jesse made the seven of his sons pass by Samuel. 403 00:24:17,440 --> 00:24:20,000 And Samuel said to Jesse, the Lord has not chosen any of 404 00:24:20,000 --> 00:24:22,760 these. Then Samuel said to Jesse, OK, 405 00:24:22,760 --> 00:24:26,680 so Jesse, Samuel has been sent to anoint a king. 406 00:24:26,880 --> 00:24:29,600 He knows what he's doing there, and he's passing by all these 407 00:24:29,600 --> 00:24:31,400 guys, and God's not picking any of these. 408 00:24:31,720 --> 00:24:34,680 And so he's like, God, did you want me to anoint one of these 409 00:24:34,680 --> 00:24:36,840 guys from Jesse? God says yes. 410 00:24:37,400 --> 00:24:42,560 And so then Samuel kind of turns to Jesse and says, are these all 411 00:24:42,560 --> 00:24:44,360 of your sons? Verse 11. 412 00:24:45,440 --> 00:24:47,920 And Jesse says, well, there remains yet the youngest. 413 00:24:47,920 --> 00:24:49,480 And behold, he's keeping the sheep. 414 00:24:51,560 --> 00:24:56,240 OK, David by name, notice what's happening here. 415 00:24:56,400 --> 00:24:58,480 Samuel says, hey, I'm going to pick one of your sons to be 416 00:24:58,480 --> 00:25:00,560 king. And Jesse says, oh, great. 417 00:25:00,560 --> 00:25:02,880 So he brings all of his sons. Well, not all of his sons. 418 00:25:02,880 --> 00:25:06,400 He leaves one of them behind. How does Jesse, how does God, 419 00:25:06,760 --> 00:25:08,720 sorry, how does David feel about that? 420 00:25:09,320 --> 00:25:12,720 You know, he doesn't even count worthy enough to be walked in 421 00:25:12,720 --> 00:25:15,680 front of Samuel for choice. And this is something that the 422 00:25:15,680 --> 00:25:19,520 Scriptures also identify fairly clearly, that God's choice is 423 00:25:19,520 --> 00:25:23,160 not our choice. God's will is not our will. 424 00:25:23,880 --> 00:25:26,120 And So what happens here is he's passing by. 425 00:25:26,280 --> 00:25:29,000 He says, well, there is that one other guy, but he's a young. 426 00:25:29,040 --> 00:25:33,320 He's a young man. Now, Samuel David is young at 427 00:25:33,320 --> 00:25:35,960 this point in the game. We're not exactly told how old 428 00:25:35,960 --> 00:25:40,240 he is, but he doesn't become king yet for about 15 to 20 429 00:25:40,240 --> 00:25:42,040 years, and he becomes king when he's 30. 430 00:25:42,280 --> 00:25:46,440 So that means that Samuel is somewhere around 10 to 15 years 431 00:25:46,440 --> 00:25:49,960 old as a young boy. OK, Now, if you're like me, 432 00:25:49,960 --> 00:25:52,160 there's a number of you out there that are raising kids or 433 00:25:52,160 --> 00:25:56,000 grandkids and, and you know what 10 to 15 is like, I kind of 434 00:25:56,000 --> 00:25:59,520 forgot what 10 to 15 is like. I'm, I don't have kids around me 435 00:25:59,520 --> 00:26:01,800 that age and I have to fight to try to remember what they are. 436 00:26:01,960 --> 00:26:06,040 So just as a visual image for a second, Alexander, Alexander 437 00:26:06,040 --> 00:26:07,160 come running up here for a second. 438 00:26:07,600 --> 00:26:12,480 Alexander Scott right here is Alexander. 439 00:26:12,480 --> 00:26:14,200 How old are you? I'm 14. 440 00:26:14,320 --> 00:26:17,000 Alexander's 14 years old, so he's right in that window. 441 00:26:17,400 --> 00:26:21,360 Now, everybody can admit that Alexander's got a lot going for 442 00:26:21,360 --> 00:26:23,040 him. We can imagine that he has 443 00:26:23,040 --> 00:26:26,480 kingship potential here. But on the other hand, is he a 444 00:26:26,480 --> 00:26:29,760 king right now? Is this what we want as a king? 445 00:26:29,760 --> 00:26:31,680 As much as we appreciate you, man, we're not that much. 446 00:26:31,680 --> 00:26:33,200 OK, Thanks. OK. 447 00:26:33,640 --> 00:26:39,960 That's the applaud him. That's a that's a 10 to 15 year 448 00:26:39,960 --> 00:26:41,920 old. That's how old King David is. 449 00:26:42,040 --> 00:26:43,560 Sorry. That's how old David is. 450 00:26:43,840 --> 00:26:46,480 When Samuel comes and says you're going to be king. 451 00:26:46,680 --> 00:26:50,040 It's great reason why Jesse says, man, this isn't the right 452 00:26:50,040 --> 00:26:53,840 one. Because Jesse's looking with his 453 00:26:53,840 --> 00:26:57,440 eyes and trusting what's on the appearance. 454 00:26:57,720 --> 00:27:02,040 He is not listening to the voice of God. 455 00:27:03,120 --> 00:27:06,440 He's not trusting the way he is intended to trust. 456 00:27:07,520 --> 00:27:12,840 Verse 12 and Jesse brought him sent and brought him in. 457 00:27:13,320 --> 00:27:16,160 Now David was Ruddy and had beautiful eyes and was handsome. 458 00:27:16,320 --> 00:27:19,320 I was supposed to bring him up after that and say Disney 459 00:27:19,480 --> 00:27:21,240 beautiful eyes and Ruddy and handsome. 460 00:27:21,920 --> 00:27:23,120 I missed that. Sorry about that. 461 00:27:24,520 --> 00:27:27,960 And the Lord says arise and annoyed him for this is he. 462 00:27:28,400 --> 00:27:32,280 Then Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the midst of 463 00:27:32,280 --> 00:27:36,000 his brothers and listen to this. Is this a great message. 464 00:27:36,160 --> 00:27:38,880 The great summary text of what we've been learning. 465 00:27:39,400 --> 00:27:43,760 And the Spirit of the Lord rushed upon David from that day 466 00:27:43,760 --> 00:27:47,400 forward, and Samuel rose and went to Rama. 467 00:27:47,520 --> 00:27:52,200 The Spirit of the Lord rushed upon David that we're used to. 468 00:27:52,200 --> 00:27:54,440 If you read the scriptures, you're used to the Spirit of the 469 00:27:54,440 --> 00:27:57,440 Lord coming upon people or falling upon people. 470 00:27:57,560 --> 00:27:59,040 That's the language that's normally used. 471 00:27:59,200 --> 00:28:02,840 Here's the only time where's where the Spirit rushes upon 472 00:28:02,840 --> 00:28:06,320 somebody and I love it because it emphasizes again what we've 473 00:28:06,320 --> 00:28:09,760 been talking about. The calling of God comes first, 474 00:28:10,560 --> 00:28:13,760 the equipping of God comes second. 475 00:28:14,680 --> 00:28:18,480 God does not sit here and say, OK, David's got all of the right 476 00:28:18,480 --> 00:28:23,120 abilities, let's pick him. Rather, God says, this is my 477 00:28:23,120 --> 00:28:27,400 man, and then he gives him everything he needs to be 478 00:28:27,400 --> 00:28:30,080 faithful. Because we trust David. 479 00:28:30,080 --> 00:28:33,200 Not because he's got a pure heart, not because he's Ruddy 480 00:28:33,200 --> 00:28:36,480 and handsome, not because he's old and mature. 481 00:28:36,760 --> 00:28:42,400 We trust David because God has called him to the task. 482 00:28:42,760 --> 00:28:44,480 What are we told about Jesus Christ? 483 00:28:44,480 --> 00:28:49,960 That there was nothing that should cause us to desire him. 484 00:28:50,640 --> 00:28:54,840 He was not beautiful of form. He was not special to look at, 485 00:28:55,440 --> 00:28:59,840 and yet the Lord has anointed him and called upon him to 486 00:28:59,840 --> 00:29:04,560 sacrifice his life for each and every one of us. 487 00:29:04,840 --> 00:29:10,600 We look not to appearances, but we listen to the voice of God. 488 00:29:11,720 --> 00:29:16,160 I pray this week that you will not be overwhelmed by what you 489 00:29:16,160 --> 00:29:19,560 see. You will not be overcome by your 490 00:29:19,560 --> 00:29:23,560 own wisdom and understanding, you will not live by virtue of 491 00:29:23,560 --> 00:29:27,640 what you deem to be right and appropriate, but that you will 492 00:29:27,640 --> 00:29:33,200 listen for the voice of God and trust in Him, Jesus Christ, our 493 00:29:33,200 --> 00:29:34,720 Lord and Savior. Let's pray together. 494 00:29:38,120 --> 00:29:42,960 Lord in heaven, we do thank you again for blessing us with Your 495 00:29:42,960 --> 00:29:48,160 word that speaks so of the power of Your work in our lives. 496 00:29:48,880 --> 00:29:52,760 Lord, as you have taken hearts of stone throughout this world 497 00:29:53,040 --> 00:29:56,560 and turn them into hearts of flesh, so we pray that you would 498 00:29:56,560 --> 00:29:59,560 do that, continue that transforming work in our own 499 00:29:59,560 --> 00:30:05,280 lives and cause us, O Lord, to trust not in what we see, not in 500 00:30:05,280 --> 00:30:09,480 what we understand, but to trust only in You and in Your word. 501 00:30:09,680 --> 00:30:12,760 Make it so, Lord, we pray. Through Christ our Lord, we ask. 502 00:30:13,120 --> 00:30:13,520 Amen.