Glad you're here this morning. We are continuing our study of the book of First Samuel and this morning we are actually at a very critical place in the book of first Samuel chapter 16 In fact marks a a major transition in the book as it marks the beginning of the story of Israel's great champion poet Prophet and King So if you are able would you please stand as we honor the reading of God's word We're reading from first Samuel chapter 16 verses one and then read verses six to the end Here now the word of the Lord the Lord said to Samuel How long will you grieve oversaw since I have rejected him from being King over Israel? Feel your horn with oil and go I will send you to Jesse the Bethlehemite for I have provided for myself a king among his sons Six when they came he looked on Ilya been thought surely the Lord's anointed is before me But the Lord said to Samuel do not look on his appearance or the height or his stature because I have rejected him For the Lord sees not as man sees man looks on the outward appearance But the Lord looks on the heart Then Jesse called the binadam and made him pass before Samuel and he said neither has the Lord chosen this one Then Jesse made shame or pass by and he said neither is the Lord chosen this one Jesse made seven of his sons pass before Samuel and Samuel said to Jesse the Lord has not chosen these Then Samuel said to Jesse are all your sons here and he said it remains yet the youngest but he behold he is keeping the sheep and Samuel said to Jesse send and get him for we will not sit down till he comes here and He sent and brought him in now he was ready and had beautiful eyes and was handsome and the Lord said Arise annoying him for this is he and 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 Ford and Samuel rose up Went to Rama now the spirit of the Lord departed from Saul and a harmful spirit from the Lord Tormant at him and saw servant said to him Behold now a harmful spirit from God is tormenting you let our Lord now command your servants who are before you to seek out a man who is skillful in playing the lie and when the harmful spirit from God is upon you He will play it and you will be well So Saul said to his servants Provide for me a man who can play well and bring him to me One of the young men answered behold I have seen a son of Jesse the Bethlehemite who is skillful in playing a man of Valor a man of war prudence in speech and a man of good presence and the Lord is with him Therefore Saul sent messengers to Jesse and said send me David your son who is with the sheep and Jesse took a donkey laden with bread and a skin of wine and a young goat and sent them by David his son to Saul David came to Saul and entered his service and Saul loved him greatly and he became his armor bear and Saul sent to Jesse saying Let David remain in my service for he has found favor in my sight and whenever the harmful spirit from God was upon Saul David took the lion plated with his hand so Saul was refreshed and Was well and the harmful spirit departed from Father would you open the door of our hearts this morning and we may receive you with our hearts through Jesus Christ or Lord Amen, please be seated For those of you on Facebook or social media whatever it is Do you have a look on Facebook or your friends status their pictures and everything? else that they post and sometimes wonder is Everything always about my friends. It does it always to look so perfect and happen If you're not on Facebook, maybe you watch TV reality TV, which is ironic in itself and See just how things appear to be so perfect You know you know what I'm talking about? You know that their hair looks so perfect Their clothes are well pressed and they look like they're always wearing designer clothes and everything looks so good Their children are always well-behaved with smiles and they take pictures everything just looks so perfect They're marriage Seems like they go out every Friday night and they're always kissing and hugging Everything is just rosy. It's so beautiful. Even their dogs and their cats. They seem to behave well Is it real? Is it all real? Is it always real or is it simply mere appearance? You know our text this morning is giving us a hint It's telling us about God choosing his servants God choosing a man that he wants to lead Israel after Saul's rejection and so God is showing us just how He looks at the hearts And not outward appearance because looks Appearances can be deceiving but before he gets in verses one of this chapter to five He actually gives us a little introduction of what's really going on and the chapter begins in verses one the way things ended in chapter 15 with Saul with Samuel Sorry morning and grieving over this rejected King Samuel stands before God's people in this morning and grieving because Saul has been rejected his kingship has been rejected and Samuel here stands before God because he doesn't know What will happen to the kingdom of God What will happen to the people of God now that God has rejected this king that they had chosen are the enemies the Philistines and others going to overtake God's people is they are going to be civil strife now that there is no king You know, it's amazing that Samuel is actually grieving and his grieving is commendable because Samuel is not grieving because the Ravens could not make it to the Super Bowl Samuel is not grieving because oh well, I did not get my favorite ice cream flavor Or because we painted the house a different color and I don't like it anymore Or because our favorite TV show God cancelled and the directors never gave me a heads up so I could prepare myself emotionally He is grieving his morning over the people's sin because remember it was people's sin that brought them to where they are He's grieving over a rejected king a man that he had invested his own time Trying to help him so that he could lead his people a question for us this morning. Do we ever grieve over our own sin Over the sin of others over the sin of our country and of our churches. Do we ever get to a place where we're mourning But God has a plan here. He's choosing a new king for Israel and so the question to the answer How long will you grieve saw I'm set saw over saw The answer is this I have provided for myself a king the God that Yahweh The one that God looks on to the one that God is providing is his choice And not the people's choice and I think God is here really showing us his his grace and mercy Remember how the book of 1 Samuel started how did it start with the morning woman that was asking for a gift for a child Hannah grieving and Now here God is showing his people that I am the true king that never loses control of my kingdom You know why because even saw a failure saw might be the rejected king you might have failed But that is not beyond God's mighty hell So it's time for you Samuel to stop mourning and grieving because you need to look to the future For I have provided a king for myself and so verses 1 to 5 I actually see it as an introduction to all of You know to what God is about to do and so in verses 6 to 10 we're going to see three things And here I think God is presenting to us that God sees what we cannot see God sees what we cannot see and that God often chooses those who are most unlikely And then thirdly we will see that God equips those whom he chooses to serve So we start by looking at how God sees what we cannot see look at verses 6 to 10 You know say the Samuels obeying God you've been told war Go out and annoying to the sun one of the sons of Jesse that I'm I picked out for you. He doesn't know who it is And then he tells him tell the people that you're preparing for sacrifice and when they come I will show you so Samuel is he obeying the Lord's command to go to Bethlehem I know into one of the sons of Jesse he has no no clue who this is going to be And so what does Jesse do? Jesse doesn't know which son is elected so he rightly rightly brings out his first born son Ilya he must have been a good-looking man His appearance his height his stature. What does that remind you? Mr. Isra himself saw the man that was chosen because of his appearance because of his of his wide and big shoulders because of his his height By meal look Samuel had a hunch on whom God had chosen this particular day. He says this is it This is he he must be the guy because he fits the description of a man that we would choose He really does underscore the perils of our impressions, doesn't it? That God had told Samuel he had chosen someone but Samuel sees Ilya and that's it. He thinks He is my man. Why? Because man sees to the eyes but God sees to the hearts He's looking at the outward appearance while God's eyesight we will Reminded this morning that God's eyesight is superior than ours because God is not limited or Restricted by anything God cannot be deceived by our outward appearances He sees a person's heart He doesn't simply see with the physical eyes as we do but according to his heart And the point of view is this that God's point of view is this It is determined by his will and his purpose You know scripture in fact in in first Samuel if you go through it you will actually see how how first Samuel described and defined What the heart is Chapter one verses eight tells us that the heart is the seat of all emotions Chapter six verses six. It is the seat of all will Chapter 1728 all motives chapter 21 verses 12 our reason Chapter 25 31 our conscience Almost everything about us first Samuel is actually giving us the Definition description of what our hearts are And of course we know our hearts are in a relatively inaccessible because if you're doctor and you're surgery you can see someone's The physical heart, but that's not what we're talking about But God is the one who is able to probe or innermost regions and assess one's true character He goes beyond what man can see And you know david has a particular face In God's heart God's purposes That's what makes him different from his brothers That's what makes him different From Saul why because God Has chosen David to be the man that he's going to fulfill his plans For the nation for his people But we should also be careful. I should know not to think that God in any way form or shape Opposes find appearance or good looking people or physical beauty because in verse 12 We actually read that david was a handsome looking man with with beautiful eyes God does not oppose Good looking people so all of you here good looking people don't be afraid okay But the point is this that external appearance neither qualifies or disqualifies one for God's purposes Did you hear that appearance neither qualifies or disqualifies you? It simply does not matter What matters is the fact that God looks on the heart and that matters The most important qualities that God looks in all of us are these There are those things that command us to God A willingness and a desire to obey God that's it So regardless of how you look or you think you look It doesn't matter But we all know that we live in a world that is obsessed with physical beauty where physical beauty outranks or spiritual depth success in church and business is always always defined with materialistic terms Charisma is what is prized beyond everything else beyond character That we even as a church we're looking for the movers and shakers Those who are going to sell our church well You're looking for a pastor that can go out there and make connections And make sure that our church grows to about a thousand two thousand people But do we ever ask do we ever stop and ask our question Can he pray do we ever stop and ask ourselves does he enjoy being with his wife We ever stop to ask ourselves how does he treat his family his children Even more Do we ever stop and ask can this man we Weep for his own sin and the sins of others Church we need to repent of our desire to keep up with appearances Because God is able to see his people Well God is able to see what his people cannot see Because sometimes we're living in darkness You know Samuel was a great prophet wasn't he But even here we are shown that Samuel might be a great prophet But he's still a sinful man He's still looking to the outward appearances and saying Oh, Eliah, he must be the guy I think it points it's really a review on our on our focus And the obsession with with with with outward appearance That we can have a beautiful sanctuary That we can have great music playing that we can have superb preaching I'm not claiming that in any way since um and yet our hearts be so far away From God Because it's merely an appearance Is this what is in our heart? I hope and pray that it is not Here's my prayer for you this morning. Here's my prayer for me this morning As one commentator puts it. I hope that this defines Who we are and what our heart looks like I quote the lowly sense of personal unworldliness The wandering contemplation of the divine love The eager longing for mercy to pardon and grace to help Faith that grasps the promises The hope that is anchored with the veil The kindness that breeds benediction all around The love that beareth all things Believe it all things Hope it all things endure it all things It is these things Breathing from the heart of the congregation Breathing from this congregation That gives pleasure to God End of quote may that be my prayer this morning Secondly, God often chooses the most And likely from the most And likely of places look at verses 11 to 13 I think it's really a description that the kingdom of God Is only safe with God The kingdom of God is only safe with God Not when people make choices not even when the prophet of God makes choice Remember what God's people had done in earlier in the chapters in the beginning Taking the arc of the covenant to the battle What happened? They succeeded right? They failed Remember what the people did in chapter 8 asking and demanding for a king They have succeeded right? Wrong. They have failed yet again You know, we can be so mesmerized And God isn't Samuel sees Eliad And sees his great human qualities and thinks This is the man But those are not the qualities that God is looking at He rejects God ends up rejecting seven of Jesse's sons And then Samuel asks Do you have any other sons? Because God has rejected all the ones that you presented to me Do you see that in verses 11? Jesse, you can almost imagine how he's talking to Samuel He's scratching his head and thinking What is going on here? Then he says, well, there is a A little young boy That's still taking care of the sheep Then Samuel says, well, no shepherd, no party No sacrifice is going to be made on this particular day until this young man is brought here You realize that Samuel is only mentioned in verses 15 This is the first time we hear David being mentioned He's so obscure And he's only mentioned right here in verses 13 The text, of course, doesn't tell us But there's one commentary that I've been really enjoying reading through as I As I work through the sermons A Ralph Davis has an excellent commentary on the book of first Samuel And he says this, you know, when David comes in as he was asked by his father to come in He comes in fresh from the fields and washed and smelling like sheep And then Ralph Davis notes that this is the stuff that songs are made of You know, I can identify with that so well because I used to take care of sheep and goat and man, they smell And so in this most unlikely and humble place is God has found a king of his own choosing What a beautiful thing that God strange and refreshing way of trumpling Of our human standards that he's choosing this shepherd boy because God God is not a slave to our conventions He actually goes beyond them You know, God often turns things upside down at least in our own perspective We think things are being up turned upside down but they really are not They're being put in the better perspective As the youngest son takes the place of the oldest Genesis 25 23 Has in that being the theme of the book of first Samuel Haven't you heard this story before that God always looks on and chooses the The smallest the weakest of all the most in significant of all people to accomplish his purposes And just like he chooses David Just like he chose his people just like he chose you every single one of us here Did he choose you because of your outstanding righteousness and uprightness is that why God chose you? I'm glad that's not the reason He's choosing David not because David is such an outstanding awesome righteous man Do you know why he's choosing David? He's choosing David because he knows one thing that David security only lies and rests Upon God solid foundation And this solid foundation is on his promises not on his performances We don't even know what he's been able to achieve until we get to chapter 17 What does that tell us this morning? We need to be careful to judge others on the effectiveness Especially when we look on their appearances and think well I don't think that God has chosen you because I don't think you look pretty enough Or don't think you look like you're qualified enough But even we even more we need to be careful while all the effectiveness because most of the times we feel inadequate I know I certainly know every single day is a struggle for me Because I feel inadequate That does not look down upon that Because the question is not a question of abilities a question about God equipping us You've heard my story before so I'm not going to tie you with my story of how I got called into pastoral ministry But I'll tell you one thing I've never told you before that I get phone calls from my friends who are in ministry right now The one question they ask me is this Just how are things going on at Grace Presitudine Church? I'm sure you've learned what it means to be a pastor and my answer is always the same I have absolutely no clue what I'm doing, but the people still keep having me here and I'll keep doing it
And that is the honest truth Because God sees the things that we miss And that those people that He chooses to accomplish His purposes may surprise us sometimes I hope I surprise you sometime But they should give us great hope, right? You know where hope lies in that? He lies in us understanding that the same God who is able to choose those whom he's called He is able to save us from our little saviors that we create for ourselves That God is able to save us from our self Chosen solutions to our problems because I do that all the time Instead of letting God make the choice and allow me to serve His kingdom Something significant is happening in the nation of Israel And if Jesse and his sons if Samuel and everybody else who is who is watching Seize with their own eyes. They will fail to see They will miss it because you know what 200 years after this events the prophet Michael would prophesy this He would say but you or Bethlehem Epitha who are too little to be among the clans of Judah from you shall come forth for one who is to be ruler in Israel Was coming for this from old is from old from ancient of days and we know who that man was. It is the most strange choice for a king With David's greatest descendant Jesus Christ himself Do you know what people say to Jesus when God chose him to be his true son and the son who'd come to save the sins of man You know what people said they said he's just one of us in the book of Mark chapter six verse three Other said look at him. He's a gladden a drunkard a friend of the tax collectors and sinners And other said war is Christ to come from Galilee what good can come from Galilee And other said as Jesus was it was hung on the cross. They said let him save himself. He cannot save himself And yet regardless of people's opinions about him the The psalmist in in Psalm 118 would profess even before he got on to the cross and say that the stone The builders rejected has become our cornerstone praise be to God that he would do so for that we must rejoice Because God's choice was not as pretty As we would think finally We get to verses 14 to 23 that God equips those he chooses I must make a mention here that there seems to be a gap between Verses one to verses 13 and then 14 to the end actually Hebrew scholars claim that chapter 17 comes in between right there And the reason is because Saul seems to already know who David is here But he introduces himself in chapter 17 as we shall see a great sermon that you should look forward to next week By God's grace With that said God is here equipping David God's rejection of Saul meant that is spirit departed from him in verses 14 We see that God's spirit depart from Saul and now he's upon David he no longer has the supernatural equipping For the calling that God had given him Now he has to face his challenges with his own strength and ability what a sad situation It is sad because we have to think about the Holy Spirit who is the greatest blessing that we can have That the withdrawal of God's spirit is the worst possible calamity that anyone of us can experience And yet the indwelling presence of God is the greatest possible help because with the Holy Spirit even the weakest Can accomplish the greatest things in the kingdom of God We may lack everything in life But with the Holy Spirit we can still experience the joy of God's salvation in our life And we have to be reminded this morning that what is true of the church of us I should say what is true of you and I is also true of the church that our ministry is dependent upon the work of the Holy Spirit And that without that We are nothing We may have the best performance. We may have the best Experience we could ever claim and in an outward manner But virtually nothing of the spiritual value John 155 right apart from me You can do And yet we see God punishing Saul with a hump with spirit that torments him Now past today and preached a great sermon last week about God's judgment So I'm not going to go into that because I don't think that that's the weight of this text but I'm going to mention this I'm going to say only this little paragraph but if you have any questions about this text this verse If it's so difficult for you, please talk to me send me an email. Let's talk after this after the after the sermon That it is misleading for some of the translation that the call it an evil spirit That the best way for us to look at it might be to think of it as a harmful spirit It is not Yahweh it is not God but it is from God it is definitely from God And it is coming to Saul because of his persistent sin. It is a harmful spirit meaning The spirit is sent as an act of judgment on Saul's sin Yes, God is love and yes God is good, but God is also just and he hates sin Saul's judgment is here. I think a warning of the far greater torment that solves that souls in hell will experience as a result of disobedience And in that case eternal punishment Saul's problems here are not as a result of his refusal to accept that they are sorry as a refusal To accept God's authority structures and God as then put it so well last week is justified in sending this harmful spirit to torment King Saul Remember again the context God is looking at Saul's heart. He knows it better than we do And so Saul's followers what do they do? They notice his troubles are caused by God His alienation from God yet their remedy was superficial They are calling for a lie actually in the in the in the old times, you know People who played those musical instruments were seen to combat evil spirits
But Saul's problems was his sin against God his rebellion against God They are only putting or doing patchwork addressing psychological symptoms of what Was fundamentally a spiritual problem yet God Gives that his grace as well, but there's irony here As a rejected king seeks relief from the newly appointed king you see that David is now becoming a superior man He's now dependent upon David David is not not only God's choice, but Saul's choice He's a means of grace towards Saul And here we see David as a as a servant of God's restraining grace in his life And because of David, Saul is here being blessed blessed so that he doesn't go into complete madness He still has his sanity But the people of God are actually being blessed as well Why because they still have a king a king who hasn't gone man What an encouragement for us to work for those people who think that they're working in In really dark places a places that are so difficult in their lives That God can still use is that God still continues to use us as as a source of light To our brokenness and we know how the story goes That Saul will soon turn against David and seek to kill him We know how the story is going to go When we stand out for the truth when we're trying to do right Does the world love us and say oh you church you're doing such a great job We appreciate you so much No The world hates us and despises us especially when we stand out for the truth But God tells us that we must remain the salt of the earth That we are called to a ministry of consolation so that the world will not choke itself in its vomit And that we're so we're called to bring to bring light into the darkness through the sharing of our gospel And I think by presenting the seemingly mundane circumstances through which David comes into the royal court The author the narrator here of this passage wants us to see one thing that God Is fully involved in in David summons to come and serve the king to come and be a source of grace towards him That Saul is bringing his own replacement without even noticing without knowing So I might have been the man of the people David is the man of God A man after on God's own heart Do you know that God do you believe that God is truly at work in your life as he was in in David's life Do you see it every day in your life? You have a look back and see how God has brought you this far in retrospect That how God has orchestrated things that you could never have seen in your life Especially when things look so confusing and so messy because it's not the times that we Clearly cannot see that God is at work in our lives. You know what we say and I always say this too But we never go far enough. We always say and you've said it to you things happen for a reason right But we never go beyond that things don't just go happen for a reason The events of our life happen for God's holy wise and infinitely good purposes. Did you hear that When you look at your life, don't just say things happen for a reason No, the events of your life happen for God's holy wise and infinitely good purposes You know the text doesn't tell us this But I wish the text gives us an idea of what what what was going on in David's life emotionally Can you imagine what David was asking himself after being anointed and he has to wait this long to become the king? Did Samuel make a mistake by anointing me? Am I really supposed to be the king? A king's musician that's all You're anointed me to be king and now you're just telling me that I'm just gonna play the liar for king saw That's it drive his demons out of his head How long Lord how long do I have to wait for this to happen But David would rather be anywhere else than outside God's will for his life It is the tension that we all experience right? God's calling upon our life and our everyday experiences sometimes they don't seem to Be together and so we're confused We we ask ourselves Lord God. Where's the big picture here? Can I just get the big picture so I know I'm gonna go tomorrow Can you just tell me how this is gonna work out so I know what I'm supposed to know But we forget just how our lives are meshed together with God's will Just like we are David is left to just Not have the big picture in front of him and see A is gonna lead to B and B is gonna lead to C and C is gonna lead to Z and we're done
And God is here equipping him because this great calling that is given to him require a straining He has to go back to shepherding a lowly occupation But you know who else talks about this shepherding. Do you know what Jesus describes himself The shepherd must lay down his lie for his sheep Are you willing to let God use you in even in in some menial ways in some little ways in some ways that you might think Or what does this have to do with the what does that have to do with my life with where I'm going This is what I want to achieve. But what does this have to do with me? Getting that unless we see the way God sees will miss it Because you only see Outwardly I like what Jesus says in Luke 4 18 It is where David is It is what Jesus says when the spirit of God comes upon him. You know those words, right? The spirit of the Lord is upon me Because he has anointed me to proclaim the good news to the poor He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering Of the sight to the blind to set at liberty those who all cry Because it does make a difference when the Lord is with us. That's what we're told here David had the Lord the Lord was with him and he was being recooked by the power of the Holy Spirit We know that in Jesus Christ not only did God's Spirit come upon a man But through the Holy Spirit this man Jesus Christ himself took on Human flesh and he was called Emmanuel God with us. The son of David is the one who is with us today And we know that he Jesus when he came he did not have the appearance that people would be pleased with That it was born in a lowly place a place where cows feed And that his message was not common with people I love what the prophet Isaiah says that he had no form or majesty that we should look at him No beauty that we should desire him that he was despised and rejected By man a man of sorrows and acquitted with with grief and one from whom and hide their faces He was despised and we have steamed him not And he continues to say this by his wounds. It is by this ones that we are here Who needs to hear this message today? I do Do you know I need to hear this message today? It is because of this one reason I get frustrated every single day asking myself when is God's promises going to be fulfilled in my life I get frustrated going through life because I also imagine my life being somewhere and I don't seem to know How am I going to get there? When will I get there? What are the circumstances that are going to lead me to get there But we need to be reminded of one thing this morning That's all Stand as the rejected king and David is here. We're told is they're chosen one of God and through him through this David David is the clearest and the most direct Type or foreshadow of Jesus Christ and in him God's promises are fulfilled in Christ Jesus. It is a reminder that God is with you God is with me and that sometimes even when you think about our lives though We may be opposed and hated and despised That people sometimes may look down upon us because of our background of our skin color of our Being equipped of anything that people might look down upon us of all inadequacies some of us feel so inadequate in our lives But that God is looking at our heart and he's saying this to you this morning is your heart's desire to live in complete obedience of his word To live in complete obedience of his word through Christ and by grace alone. Is that your desire? And if that's your desire he's saying this for you that God's will for your life will be fulfilled and his plan for you will be realized You can take that to the bank because he will strengthen you He will equip you He will sustain you by his spirit Until you make it to the end Amen Father, we thank you that you have called us that you have chosen us to be your children that you continue to equip us for the work that you've given to us You Lord continue to remind us that we need to hold on to this promise To this great hope that you promise to us that you're always always with us We praise you and honor you for your word. We pray this in Christ's name Amen