The Church of Eleven22 - Wk 9: King David

Episode Date: June 23, 2019

God does not call the equipped, but HE equips the called. “For the Lord sees not as man sees; man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.” Click the 1 Samuel Resources tab for the full study journal, summary recap videos and more.

Church of 1122 at all of our locations, would you stand and show a little love to my friend Michael, who's right here on the second road? Here at San Pablo. Amen. Amen. And amen. We are a movement for all people to discover and deepen a relationship with Jesus Christ. And all means all.

We're proud of you, Michael. We love you like crazy. Amen. Hey, so we are well into this. one initiative, which is really rooted in the Shema, hero Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. And when you see him for who he really is, then we love him with all of our heart and all of our soul and all of our mind and all of our strength.

And God has called us to be one church to reach one more generation. And we are rolling out the red carpet for families with kids with special needs. And Michael's just one of the many that are part of this family. And another thing that we're doing to reach one more is we're putting campuses all over the place. And so I want to let you know, you've heard about it, but I'll give you the official launch date for our Fleming Island campus. Anybody excited about going to Fleming Island? All right? If you clap, you've got to go.

I'll watch you. You're on camera now. No, it's going to be awesome. All right. So we're going to launch. Our official launch day will be August the 11th and 9 and 1122 service at Fleming Island campus. All right. That would be pretty awesome.

Amen. Amen. Hey, if you got your Bible's 1st Samuel chapter 16, and I apologize for my voice, fighting a little cold. I don't know how you get a cold in July, but I spent a week at family mission trip in Jamaica and then did family camp, and so one of your little germ bags got me.

So I was coughing a lot in the first service, so I drank a little NyQuil and then read the directions or the instructions, whatever. I think it's pretty much just Jack Daniels in food coloring, and so I chased it down with a red bull, so we'll see what happens. Okay? I know that makes some of you uncomfortable, but it's going to get worse. So we are studying the book of First Samuel, prophets, priests, and king,

and we're going to shift now. You know, the first little bit was about Samuel, the prophet of God, who anointed Saul. And last week, by the way, he didn't Pastor Britt do an incredible job with a very, very hard text. Amen. That's pretty much what I did. do just to keep him humble. I give him the hardest text in the whole Bible and then I go on mission trips. And so now we're going to make a shift because King Saul has really turned inward. He's turned things toward himself. He's disobeyed God now multiple times, not just one time, multiple times.

And in fact, he built a monument to himself. And so when we get to chapter 16, God is ready to move on and God is ready to anoint the next king. And so chapter 16, verse 1 says this. And the Lord said Samuel, how long would you grieve over Saul? Again, Samuel is heartbroken here. And he says, since I have rejected him from being king over Israel. You see, the reality is that Jesus will save anyone from their sins, but he doesn't necessarily promise to rescue us from all the consequences and collateral damage of sin. And so Saul has done this.

It's not just like this one-time mess up. It's over and over and over. He disobeys God. He tries to use God. God, he's building an altar to himself, and at this point, even in the last chapter, he even begins to refer to God as Samuel's God and not his own. You see, ultimately, Saul, when he was anointed king, his problem is that he was head and shoulders above all of Israel, and he knew it. The Bible says, God opposes the proud. So I don't know what you think.

you want to do for the Lord, but the number one way to prevent that is to have God oppose you in that, and that is what Saul did. And so now the Lord is ready to move on. He says, fill your horn with oil and go, and I will send you to Jesse, the Bethlehemite, for I have provided for myself a king among his sons. Now, what's important here is Jesse seems to be a nobody from a little nobody town. But Jesse is the grandson of Boaz and Ruth. And I don't know if you were here maybe a year ago whenever we studied the book of Ruth. And once again, the story of Ruth, it was a tragic situation. She was a Gentile that was widowed and it seemed to be, she seemed to be completely down and out. And God uses this tragic situation for his purposes, for his plan, and for his

glory. I mean, the redemptive history of the world at one point narrows all the way down, funnels all the way down to the obedience of this one little foreign girl. And now, once again, here we see God working where the king of Israel has gone off the tracks and it looks like everything is lost, but everything is not lost because once again, God works in all things for the good of those that love him and are called according to his purpose. And so verse 2 it says, and Samuel said, how can I go? If Saul hears it, he will kill me. Let me ask you this.

What do you do when God asks you to do something hard? And what I mean is, what do you do when God asks you to forgive that person that you know you don't want to forgive? And what do you do when God asks you to share your faith with that person, but you really care a little bit too much about what they think about you? or what do you do when at work in front of everybody, God ask you to stand up and do what's right. You see, apparently it is okay to say, okay, God, I hear what you're asking me to do,

and how do I do this? See, there's a big old difference between being scared and being full of fear. Fear paralyzes. God has no problem with you being scared. You just be scared and step out in fate to do what God has called you to do. because God will always make a way for everything that he has called you to do.

And the Lord said, take a heifer with you and say, I have come to sacrifice to the Lord and invite Jesse to the sacrifice and I will show you what you shall do. And you shall anoint for me, him whom I declare to you. So here's what happens. Anytime a prophet of the Lord back in the day would show up to one of these towns and he would sacrifice a heifer, this was like a big old worship service, that everybody in the town would show up in the town to see this thing. I mean, this is an all-scape.

This is like the Clay County Fair. Ain't nobody missing that. You understand? Like, everybody's coming. Where I grew up, you go to the biggest place, which would have been the Walmart parking lot, and everybody would gather together. And so, essentially, God's like,

all right, so you're going to do that. Everybody will be there. Tell Jesse to make sure all of his boys are there, and you've got a little shadow mission, all right? And so while you're there, I'm going to point out for you, the one that you should anoint. That's what he says.

Verse four. I think sometimes we read over verses like this too fast. Samuel did what the Lord commanded. Listen, obedience matters. Obedience matters. The reason that Saul's life has gone off the rails is because he did not do what the Lord told him to do. Multiple times the Lord was gracious to him

and told him what he should do. And instead he said, forget you, I got this. and look here, brother, you ain't got this. And over and over and over, Samuel just simply does what the Lord commanded, and he left the results up to the Lord. Samuel did what the Lord commanded, and he came to Bethlehem, and the elders of the city came to meet him trembling and said, do you come peaceably?

Now, in case you forget last week, here's the reason that they come trembling, because the end of the last chapter says that Samuel hat King Agag into pieces. So the rumor is swirling around. The stories are swirling around. Samuel is basically the Chuck Norris of his day. So when he rolls in the town, he's still humming. Come my life into pieces. Hey, guys, what's up?

And they're like, oh, no. Are you here peaceably? And he says, peaceably, I have come to sacrifice to the Lord. Consecrate yourself and come with me to the sacrifice. And he consecrated Jesse and his sons, and he invited them to the sacrifice. And when they came, he looked on Eliaab. This is Jesse's oldest son. And he thought, surely the Lord's anointed is before him.

You see, again, he told Jesse, Jesse, Jesse bring all your sons because God is going to anoint one of your boys. and so the first one that Jesse brings is the oldest, the biggest, the smartest, the best looking, and he looks at his outer appearance and he says, surely this must be the king that God would annoy it. Now, does that sound familiar to anybody? Any of you that have been paying attention during while I've been preaching up here, which I hope you have, doesn't it sound exactly like when Saul was anointed king? That Samuel, it seems like he is about to fall into the same trap that got him in the

this mess to begin with. That he looks at the resume, he looks at the physical stature, and that's what got him in trouble the first time. Anybody know anybody that says they love Jesus, but they continue to do the same dumb thing over and over and over again? Anybody know somebody like that? Is anybody sitting in the seat with that person right now? It's crazy, isn't it?

The same thing over and over. I can't tell you the number of people that come and seek count. for me, which is a terrible idea. There's only three sins in the whole world, okay? Lust of the eyes, lust of the flesh, pride of life. Takes me six seconds to identify it and you, tell you to stop, point you to the Bible, and then leave, all right? So you should really go see somebody that's better at this thing than me.

But the number of people, girls, how many of you know your girlfriend and should keep stating the same dumb dude? He has a different name and address, but it's like the same dumb dude. Or the person that struggles with alcohol and keeps walking into the bar. He's like, you probably shouldn't go in there. right? Or like my football coach used to say, if you don't want to fall down, don't walk in slippery places. This is

what Samuel is about to go down this same road again and be enamored with the exterior and miss what God is doing. Says, but the Lord said to Samuel, do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature because I have rejected

him. This next sentence is so important. You should underline it in your Bible. You should remember this. For the Lord sees, not as man sees, these. Man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart. Now, I think all of us would agree that it's not what's on the outside, but on the inside that counts. I don't know a human in America that would say that that's not true, that the heart is more important than the exterior. However, I know you would say that, but I think you're a liar.

And the reason I think you're a liar is because we say all kind of stuff that we think we believe, but your checkbook or millennials, your bank app and your calendar will tell you what's most important in your life. So today, before church, did you spend more time preparing your heart to meet the king or preparing your face and hair and body and all of that? You see, surveyed.

say, I don't know how this is true, but surveys say the average American spends 30 minutes a day getting ready. It takes me about 15 minutes. It takes my wife more than 15 minutes, all right? And then she's not all the way ready. It's in 15 minute increments because, you know, kind of in and out and like that one, not that one, and that, not that. You know, there's a whole situation. She has a fine job. I'm not complaining about it. She should just start earlier. But whatever, that's a different sermon. So let's just, let's just, let's just, let's just, let's just, just say that this study is right and that the average person spends 30 minutes physically getting ready every day. Do you spend at least 30? And that's just to get ready to go out into the day.

Do you spend at least that much time preparing your heart? Like if you really believe it's the heart that matters and not the external, then if you look at your calendar, what do you spend more time on? More time at the gym or more time in the work? Okay. Also, your bank account We'll tell you what the most important thing in your world is. And the average American spends about $4,000 a year in things like creams, lotion, moisturizers, anti-aging, makeup, hair, fitness, etc. And the average American gives about $2,000 away to any kind of charity. So what it tells us is that I know you feel like your heart is more important,

but what Americans do is we spend about twice as much money and a whole lot more time on what we look like on the outside. Now listen, I'm not saying that we should neglect the outside. In fact, this fall, we're going to do a whole sermon on what does it look like to love the Lord of your God with all your strength? Like with your physical body, what does it look like? But when we begin to worship that thing, listen to me, listen to me, it will let you down. Not physically. I mean, not philosophically, but literally stuff that used to be up is going to go way down.

That's what's going to happen to you, all right? Time and gravity are not your friend. And if you worship your physical self, I'm telling you, you're going to be highly, highly, highly disappointed. Can I get a witness from the 40 and up crowd? Amen. I'm telling you. I mean, seriously, if you're in your 20s and 30s, just look around, man. Look around.

This is your future. I mean, I get it. You're all 20 and flexible, and you eat pizza and ice cream. at night and just ha ha ha ha one day you can have to drink an Advil smoothie to make it to work on a Monday all right glory to God now again I'm not saying neglected but I'm telling you if you worship it it will let you down and we spend all of this time and energy and effort on what we look like and how we appear to everyone and if we really are seeking our deepening our relationship with the one who looks at the heart, then shouldn't we spend time,

effort, and energy on our heart? Now, I'll give it to you. There's a lot of folks that say, well, how do I do that? How do I train my heart or prepare my heart? I know how to get my physical self ready, and I know how to go to the gym and have a trainer, and I'm all for that stuff, man. But how do I do that with my heart? If you brought your journals, if you'll go back to page 70 and 71 in this, hopefully you've seen this thing before, this is a tool to do that very thing. Like, you know how to put on makeup, and you know how to go to the gym, and you know how to jump on a piece of cardio equipment. This discipleship journey is a tool that you can use to evaluate your life and say,

what am I doing to help stir the affections for Jesus in my heart? And if you don't have one of these, no problem. You can download our app. We should do it right now. If you haven't downloaded our app, download it right now. Go to the App Store, wherever you do that stuff, and download the C-O-E-2-2 app. It looks like a big E. And then on it, to the bottom right, you can go to a place called discipleship tools.

Hit that. A page comes up with me pointing out a TV screen. You can watch a video if you want to. Or you can just hit download the tool, and this discipleship journey will be right on your phone. So the next time you're bored, instead of sitting through Instagram, maybe you could take this discipleship tool and evaluate the areas in your life that you think need to be grown and prepared towards the Lord. Now, let me give you one warning, though. Much like going to the gym.

Remember how that one time when you didn't go to the gym for like three decades? Remember that? And then you woke up one day and you're like, I'm about to get right. And you showed up in there. And you signed up for like the platinum executive training thing. And now normally what you ought to do is it just kind of, you know, if you get a trainer or whatever, you identify, what do you want to improve? Your cardio, muscle mass, flexibility, kind of pick one of those areas and go for it.

And you're like, forget that, I'm doing it all today. I am going to make up for decades of neglect, and I am going to squeeze it all into the next hour. What happens? You do it, man. You're like, just ain't that bad. You're doing all kind of stuff. And you're in classes and burpees and whatever. and then you wake up in the morning and feel like somebody hit you with a sledgehammer.

And then you begin to think, well, I'm not going to go every day, maybe every other. I've got to let it breathe a little. And then the next day you're like, forget it. Okay. Sometimes, spiritually speaking, that's what people do. You wake up, you're like, I got to get my life right. And you show up to church, you're like, I'm going to go to everything. And in a minute you can be a little bit overwhelmed.

What this tool will help you do, this is what I want to challenge you with today, is what if you just took one step? What if you just use this? It's just a series of questions here on the right side, or you can look in your apps. The same thing. We have defined a disciple here at 1122 with our vision statement. A disciple is somebody that loves all people, discovers their identity in Jesus and deepens their relationship with Jesus Christ, because we're a movement for all people

to discover and deepen a relationship with Jesus Christ. And so you could just ask yourself these questions. All right, if a disciple is somebody that loves all people, then where am I serving others? and where am I sharing my faith? And maybe God will lead you to serve, or maybe God will lead you to write down your one more and start praying for that person or open your mouth and share your faith with them.

And a disciple is somebody that discovers their identity is in Jesus. Have you surrendered your life to the Lordship of Jesus Christ? Are you still just trying to be a better version of you? A disciple is somebody that discovers that it is our role as Jesus followers to steward everything that God has given us for His. glory. Are you doing that? These questions will help you with that. That a follower of Jesus is somebody that deepens their relationship with Jesus. And we deepen our relationship with the Lord by going

deeper in the faith family. Do you have other believers in your life to pray for you, hold you accountable that you could ask Bible questions to? We call that disciple group around here. And do you have the kind of disciplines in your world where you are connecting with the Lord? through his word, through worship, through prayer. And what I'm saying is, I dare you to just take one step. If it is true that the Lord does not look on the outward appearance as man does, but the Lord looks at the heart, what is the one step you can begin to take this very week

to do some heart work for the Lord? You see, because the reality is that a lot of people show up to church whenever you do, And you get these feelings, whether it's a preacher or the song or the spirit, whatever it is, you get these feelings where you're like, you know what, I do need to take steps with the Lord. I do want to deepen my relationship with Jesus. I really do want to reconnect with the Lord. And then the problem is that somewhere between here and your car, nothing happens. And good intentions are worthless.

Anybody got an unused piece of gym equipment at their house? Speaking of outward appearance, how is that helping? It's very helpful. It dries my clothes every day, okay. Right, it's not intentional. In fact, James, the brother of Jesus, he says this. He says, Be not merely hearers of the word and so deceive yourself, but do what it says.

He says, if we just hear the word, hear the commands of God, hear the challenges, and we don't do anything about it. We don't put it in the action. He says, it's like a man or woman who would look in a mirror and see their natural face and then walk away from it and forget what they look like. Here's what this means. Every single one of us this morning got up and we looked at a mirror. And all of us made a similar assessment.

We looked in the mirror and went, whoa, something must be done about this. Now, there's always a couple of you, be like, not me. we know, bro, we're praying for you. You should join a disciple group. You need help, all right? You need accountability. You need, you know. And I'm talking to the seventh grade boys mostly, all right?

You begin to smell like a hot dog and onions. Anyway. But most of us look in the mirror and we make this assessment. And then what we do not do is we do not abdicate the responsibility. We don't be like, Martha, do you see what the pillows did to my face? We've got to get new pillows. No. You make an assessment.

And then you do something about it. it. And if you didn't do anything about it, maybe not overnight, but over time, your friends would come up to you and be like, are you okay? Are you feeling okay? Are you sure you okay? We put your name on the knees board because we've been praying for you because it looks like, did you lose your job or you're sleeping in your car? Are you trying to go dreads just on this one side? And if you're like, oh, you mean this. Oh, I looked in a mirror. It would be like, okay, darling, you don't get credit for just looking in the mirror and thinking about it. You got to do something. you, your walk with Jesus. It's not like he loves you more because you do more stuff for him.

That is not how it works whatsoever. But if you want to abide in him, it is up to us to kill the things that are killing our relationship with Jesus and continuously do the kind of things that stir our affections for the Lord. Nobody ever just wanders into a deep and abiding relationship with anybody. I mean, Gretchen and I have been married for February will be 20 years. And I'm telling you, I know, man, you pray for her. But she was young. It's a covenant. She can't get out. But anyway. Honestly, man, no, this ain't preacher talk. It's as good right now as it's ever been in 20 years. But we work really, really hard at cultivating that kind of environment whereby our hearts towards one another are stirred. No one has ever neglected their way into an abiding.

relationship with anybody, including Jesus. It's just like in Florida, nobody's ever neglected their lawn into yard of the month. The chinch bugs will take it out in a minute. So what we need to, if it is true that God's not just looking at the outside, but he's looking at the heart, just like if you want to get in shape physically, there are some things that you can do that help you lean in towards the Lord. And then I pray, this is a promise of God. God says, draw near to me, and I will draw near to you.

you. That's what I'm talking about. I dare you to take one of those steps and start this week. And so then it keeps going. Oh, there's one other thing I just got to say. When I read this verse and I saw Michael's testimony, don't you just know that when God looks at our friend Michael that was on that testimony video, who is symbolic sitting right here, that he's not focused on the 21st chromosome. He's focused on his heart. And here's a young man who has a free heart. And here's a young man who has a free heart because Jesus has moved in on the inside. Look, I know a whole, and look, man, so Michael might have a hard time sometimes getting all of his words together and articulating exactly what he's trying to say, but I don't know about you. I know a whole bunch of people that are real smooth talkers,

but they have a wicked, wicked, wicked, depraved heart. Yeah, God's not looking at the outside. God is looking at the heart, and thank you for teaching us that today, man. Thank you. All right, so the first guy's out, the first kid's out, Elie up, whatever his name is. And then Jesse called a benedab and he made him pass before Samuel and he said neither has the Lord chosen this one and then Jesse made Shema pass by and he said neither has the Lord chose this one and Jesse made seven of his sons passed before Samuel and Samuel said to Jesse the Lord has not chosen these and then Samuel said to Jesse are all your sons here you see I think Samuel's kind of ticked here because Samuel was like, I know the Lord told me to come here, and he told me that the next king would come from you.

And so as I look around the circumstances, they don't seem to line up. So what is going on here? And then Jesse says, well, there remains yet the youngest. That word youngest, by the way, in Hebrew. It literally means the most insignificant. But behold, he is keeping the sheep. Now think about this. David, in the biggest day in Bethlehem, in the biggest moment in his family, he is forgotten and overlooked.

And I think Samuel gets mad. That's what happens next. And so Samuel said to Jesse, send and get him for we will not sit down until he comes here. Like, bro, you had one job. I told you to get the boys here and you left one out. And what's happened here is that Jesse, it seems like, has already predetermined the limit for what David his son could do. Now, Jewish rabbinical tradition and speculation says that David could be an illegitimate child. Now, I want to be very clear.

There is not a clear Bible verse that spells that out. And I don't necessarily think I'm in that camp. But as I read through the commentaries about this passage, there was a Jewish. rabbinical tradition that said he's the illegitimate son. Here's why, here's how they get there. One, Psalm 51.8 says this, behold, this is David talking. Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive me. Now, most of us would just say, that just means we're all into sin. But when you put this with the fact that Samuel says to Jesse, go get all your sons, and he's like, yeah, I got them all. And then Jesse's like, I mean, Samuel's like, you really got

them all? And he's like, well, I kind of got this other one, but I don't like to talk about him that much. Now, whether it's true or not, here's some things that are true. Number one, there are no illegitimate children. Because every child is an idea that started with God Almighty. And God knits us together in our mother's room. And God forms us in the womb and life begins at conception. And there are no accident old children. There are tons of accidental parents. That happens a lot. But every... Every child has been purposed of God. Don't you ever let somebody tell you you were an accident?

Because God doesn't make mistakes. God doesn't make accidents. So there are no illegitimate children. Amen? Secondly, whether this is true or not, no matter who you are or what you've done or what you've been told or how this world has tried to label you, the God of the universe can use you for a great thing. and to glorify his name.

And listen, I get it, man. I know that some of you grew up in a church or been a part of church, and they looked at you and they said, God's done with you. God's done with you because of this sin, because of your divorce, because of your orientation, because you mess this up. And what happens is this world, and even some churches will do this, this world tries to label us so then it can deal with the label instead of dealing with the person that God made and saved.

And so here's a boy that is out in the field as a shepherd. And just so you know, being a shepherd is not this incredible job that we think it is as 21st century Christians. Because we've been to too many Bible bookstores. And there's pretty paintings of like a shepherd and a big fluffy sheep. Nah, man, it was like the lowest of low of all jobs. And no matter what, man, no matter what you've done or who you've done it with or when you did it, God is not finished with you. Don't believe the lies of the enemy.

In fact, in fact, let me just, all right, I'm giving you permission to just tell the truth. Okay, you don't have to brag, but just tell the truth. Was anybody here, anybody here like a valedictorian in their class, raise your hand. Anybody? I didn't think so here at 1122. All right. How about this? Anybody go to college on a scholarship?

If you went to college on an academic scholarship, raise them high, come on, look up. Okay, that's good. What about athletics? Any of you play a high school sport? Everybody play a high school sport? Raise your hand? All right, cool. Any All-Americans, in all of our campuses, any all-Americans, raise your hand?

Raise your hand? Good. Okay, here, let me tell you this, all right? God can still use you, too. It's just real harder. It's real harder. Okay? Because in God's MO all throughout the scriptures,

he seems to take like the JVB team to go win the Super Bowl with. Like all the disciples that he chose, I don't have time to get into it, but all of them were probably rejected for what they really want to do. That's why they're all working with their dads or either tax collectors. God is like the king of taking the least of these so that he can make

much of himself. I mean, listen, just here's a few, all right? God's draft board. Noel was a drunk. Jacob was a thief and a liar. Joseph was a convict. Moses was a murderer. Rahab was a prostitute.

Gideon was a coward, David was an adulterer, Solomon was a womanizer, Elijah was fearful, Jonah was a racist, Jeremiah was depressed, Mary was a pregnant teenager, Peter was a hypocrite, James and John were power hungry, Matthew was bad with money, Thomas was a doubter, Paul was a terrorist, Samson had long hair, and Tebow was a gator. So he can use anybody. No illegitimate children, no way, man. God's got a purpose and a plan for every life. No matter who you, you know, you can use anybody. So, he can use anybody. No way, man. God's got a purpose and a plan for every life. no matter who you are, what you've done, what this world's tried to tell you if the tomb is empty, anything is possible. And then we're going to find this out next week when David takes out Goliath. We find out in chapter 17 that what could have been seen as punishment by David was actually God preparing him to be a hero. See, if he could have thought, why me, Lord, my brothers go get to work for King Saul

and they go get to fight and beep, you know, and I'm out here just tending sheep. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to tend sheep. You know, sheep are like the dumbest animal on the planet? If they're heading in the wrong way, you just kick them in the face. They'll go that other way. And maybe, and he's like, what am I going to do out here? He learns to play the harp, write some songs. And he's probably thinking, what a waste of time.

He's only the greatest songwriter ever in the history of the world. Three thousand years later, we're still singing Psalm 23, right? And then when he's just sitting there on the rock with nothing to do, he's like, maybe I'll just, you know, get good at this sling thing. Not that that would ever be useful for anything. See, let me tell you this. Sometimes what we see as punishment is actually God's provision for us as he's preparing us for some other thing that he has. He just hadn't revealed it yet. And the only way you will know, the only way you will know is God says, be faithful with a little.

And then I may give you more. it's only God that elevates and so don't waste your time out into pasture David never did and so he's out in the pasture and they go get him and it says now he was ruddy

and had beautiful eyes and was handsome that word ruddy in Hebrew is weird it can either mean ginger like he's a redhead with freckles or it can mean he's like disheveled and smells like dirt that's what it can mean either one either way what the Bible wants us to know

here is that when you look at him, you don't think mighty warrior. You think, that's a nice harp and he has pretty eyes. Nobody's thinking that should be the king. And yet, the Lord said, arise, anoint him, for this is he. You see, that word anoint in Hebrew is Messiah. It's Messiah. The Greek word for that is Christos or Christ. And so essentially what is going on here is that David is anointed or set apart. They would pour oil on him and say, this one is set apart for God's kingdom. And the reason that David is anointed king is not because of his resume. It's not because of his stature. It's not because of the people he knows.

The reason that he is anointed king, there's only one reason is because God has decided that God wants to use David for his glory. You see, here's the point. God does not call the equip, but he equips the called. That's it. That God does not call the equipped. The God did not save you because he needs you. He saved you because he loves you. And His divine power has given us everything we need to accomplish everything that he has called us to accomplish.

And yet, and yet on this planet right now, There are two fathers. There is the father of love, and there is the father of lies. And my question to you is, which one are you listening to? Because listen, man, I get it. I got saved when I was in high school, and I came back to my church, and I began to get involved, and they had leadership positions in the youth group, and they told me I could not hold one of those leadership positions because my parents were going through a divorce.

Now maybe they had they had their own reasons, I think they were dumb. But I began in that moment to hear the whispers from the enemy to say, you don't have what it takes. You don't have what it takes. If the people only knew the stuff you struggle with and the things that you've done, I'm telling you, the enemy wants to get in here. He wants to whisper those lies to you. He wants you to think, the reason you're out here in the pasture with the sheep is because you deserve to be out here.

This is punishment. Because of the things that you've done, God can never use you. again and God can never use you again and your divorce will be the biggest thing that ever happened in your life or that abortion will be the biggest thing that ever happened in your life or that drug addiction will be the biggest thing that ever happened in your life or that bankruptcy will be the biggest thing that ever happened in your life and God would never mess with a loser like you he needs winners you know what all that's called that's called condemnation condemnation is a lie from the pit of hell condemnation is a building term it's not a feeling

it's a building term that when somebody inspects a building and they condemn it, they are saying, this building is unfit for use. That's what the enemy wants you to believe. The enemy wants you to look at you and say, you are unfit for use. But then the gospel enters and says, but therefore now there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. You see, look what happens in the very next sentence with David. It says, then Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the midst of his brothers, and the Spirit of the Lord rushed upon David from that day forward.

And then Samuel rose up and went to Ramon. That the Spirit of the Lord rushed upon David from that day forward. Do you know what the Bible means when it says, Therefore, now there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus? That you may think I am unfit for use. And then God Almighty looks at your life, looks at the same building that the enemy said, that building is unfit for use.

Now listen, I'm not saying you're not jacked up. You're more jacked up than anybody in here knows, all right? You are. Wretched, wretched, depraved. We are sick people. And yet, through the power of the cross, God looks at us wretched and crooked and depraved. And he looks literally at you.

And he goes, that's not a building unfit for use. for anybody that would admit that they're a sinner in need of a Savior, for anybody that would believe that when Christ died on the cross, that counted for me, for anybody that would confess Jesus as my Lord, that's not a building unfit for use. In fact, that's going to be my permanent address here on earth. Did you know that's what the Bible means when it says your body is a temple? It has nothing to do with what you look like in a bathing suit.

Can I get a witness? Praise Jesus. It means that the almighty sovereign king of the universe, verses permanent address on earth is inside the heart of the believer. This is what happens here for David. This is what happens to every believer that puts their faith in Jesus. Listen, Christian, when you put your faith in Jesus, you are immersed in the Holy Spirit. You don't need more Holy Spirit. The question is, does this Holy Spirit have all of you?

And because when that happens, when you put your faith in Jesus, then the Spirit of God in you, he does a whole bunch of stuff. One is the Spirit of God in every believer is a deposit that holds your place in eternity with God. Then the role of the Holy Spirit in your life is to point people and point you to Jesus. You see, we saw in King Saul, he started pointing everything to himself. What we'll find out with King David is that he is a humble man that points to the Messiah. I mean, think about this. David is a shepherd, and he says, the Lord is my shepherd, which makes him a sheep, and he knows sheep or dumb.

That's what he's saying. He's saying the only way I can survive. Like sheep don't get to survive because they are like good survivor sheep. Did you know sheep don't even have a flight or fight instinct? They are just created with Velcro head to toe so predators can grab up. Bonder them easily. And David looks at that and goes, that's kind of like me. Okay?

You see, the Spirit of God points us to Jesus. A role of the Holy Spirit in your life is to begin to produce fruit in your life. Not manufacture activity, but as we abide in Jesus, as we do the things that we were talking about earlier, as you put yourself in the kind of environments that stir your affections for the Lord, as you get closer and closer to Jesus, what begins? what begins to happen is God in you begins to produce the fruit of the spirit like love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, self-control. If I take a two-by-four and I staple an orange to it, that does not make it an orange tree. If you walk out of here and you just try to be patient, you ever tried to be patient?

Think about that, you idiot, you can't. No, it has to happen from the inside out. This is called progressive sanctification. The closer you get to Jesus, the more this Jesus stuff starts coming out of you. Some of you have told me this. Some of you, I had a person after service went down one time come to me and said, look, I put my faith in Jesus, and I was always wondering, does it work? Does it work?

Does it work? I got it one night and I stepped on a Lego. You ever step on a Lego? You ain't felt pain. Do you hit a Lego about 2 a.m.? Right? And he said, out of my mouth came not a cussword. And I thought, that is self-contextual.

control. It's happening. I think I'm a Christian. That's what happened in that person's life. That is, that literally is the spirit in you producing kindness where kindness used to be absent. Producing gentleness where gentleness used to be absent. Producing love where love used to be absent. It's what the spirit does in the life of the believer. That the spirit of God is, the primary nickname that Jesus used for the Holy Spirit was this. He says, I'm going to sin for you a comforter, a comforter. A part of what happens when you put your faith in Jesus and the spirit of God dwells inside of you, then he can give you a peace that transcends understanding and guard your heart and mind in Christ Jesus. Here's what this means, that some of you got saved

this last year you put your faith in Jesus and this year you are walking into situations that used to freak you out. And now what's freaking you out is how even though the situation is going crazy, somehow you haven't put your faith and trust in the situation. You actually put your faith in Jesus. And when people say, how are you making it? You go, I really don't know. It's like this peace that transcends understanding. See, ultimately, if you did a good study of pneumatology, the study of the spirit in the New Testament, what you would find, is that essentially the Holy Spirit works on the thing in your life that God the Father pays most attention to, your heart.

So God says, don't look on the outside like man does, but I look at the heart. And when he anoints David, he rushes the Holy Spirit upon him to continuously nurture and grow and stir his heart. So let me ask you a question. If God is looking not at your physique and he's not looking at your resume and he's not looking at the external things in your life, but he is looking at your heart, then what does he see? What does he see?

Does he see fear and pride and condemnation? Or does he see a broken and contrite heart? David would say this in Psalm 51, 17. sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart. You know, at the end of every service, we close the same way, all the time, most of the time. We close by singing, we join our voices together to sing. The reason that we do this is because I'm telling you somehow, by the way God created thing in rhythm, there's something about the rhythm of music and the rhythm of the saints

joining their voices together that does a thing in your heart that other things just won't do. So today, I dare you, and I'm mostly talking to the men in the back. I dare you to open your mouth and sing. Not for your sake, and good Lord, not for your neighbor's sake, because we know there's probably a reason you don't. But that you would take a one little step of faith and see if God might do something to soften that thing that he is paying so much attention to. So that's why we sing.

It's for our hearts. And at the end of the services, we say this all the time. You notice we don't take up an offering. And at the end of the service, we say, man, we just want to bring to God our first and our best because he first loved us by giving us his best. This isn't about money. This is about Jesus said wherever your treasure is there, your heart will be also. And as an act of worship, every single week we want to make it our habit that we would bring a part of our heart to the Lord.

I say, God, I am overwhelmed that you are first. and so I want to take what has a tendency to be first in my life, this money, and I want to declare, you are the one thing that drives everything. I dare you to take a step of generosity this week and watch what God uses that to do in your heart. And then lastly, every week say, and won't you come pray? Why don't you come pray? We've got these rails, we've got these carpets, and why don't you just come and bend before the Lord and essentially say what David is saying here.

God, I bring to you a broken and contrite heart. Whatever ways in me that don't line up with you, would you point those out to me so that I can lay those on the altar? God, whatever hard parts of my heart that you need to chisel out of here at the altar in prayer, God, I offer them to you because I want to love the Lord, my God, with all my heart. Because I know you're not looking at all this other stuff that I've spending all this time, energy, and effort on, but I know you're looking at my heart. So today, at all of our campuses, when we close, when we sing, we just sing with your heart.

And when we bring our ties and offerings, God loves a cheerful giver what he or she has decided in their heart to give. And when we pray, like Hannah, in chapter one, why don't you come and pour out your heart to the Lord? Would you please stand and pray with me? our good and gracious heavenly Father, Lord, we love you because you love us first. God, I thank you and I praise you that though we live in a world run by the Father of Lies who wants us to attach our identity with our past activities. God, we live in a world that wants to label us by all of our people.

by all of these kind of external labels. God, I pray that you would set us free. You would set us free to understand that you and only you get to tell us who we are. And you tell us we're free in Jesus Christ. You tell us we are sons and daughters of the most high king. So, God, whether we feel like our lives are on top of the world right now or whether we feel like we're out in the pasture wondering, God, have you forgotten about me?

God, may we trust you, the sovereign king of the universe, who is also our heavenly father, that not just looks at, but takes care of our heart. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.