Sermon Tone Analysis

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Introduce who I am

1 Samuel 16:14-23 “Now the Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul, and a harmful spirit from the Lord tormented him.

And Saul’s servants 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 lyre, 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, prudent 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.

And David came to Saul and entered his service.

And Saul loved him greatly, and he became his armor-bearer.

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 lyre and played it with his hand.

So Saul was refreshed and was well, and the harmful spirit departed from him.”

Background

1 Samuel is a historical narrative and it includes poetry, short story, obituary, song, laments, covenants, and prayer

The author is anonymous but is called Samuel due to how instrumental Samuel is in anointing the first 2 kings of Israel.

I believe talking about the history of this is important to truly set up how much of a mess Israel is in.

God never intended for Israel to have a King

God wanted Israel to trust and rely soley on him

God had chosen, set apart Israel from all other nations as his chosen people.

What we find in 1 Samuel chapter 8 is that Israel demands to have a King

Rather than being set apart, Israel wanted to be like everyone else who had a King

Even though Samuel warns Israel about a King, they refused

God, in his sovereignty, grants their request

The king is to be second to God, doing God’s will and work for the people

The King anointed was Saul and he was to be serve under the Lord, God

Saul was to be a reflection of God, doing what God commands and fully trusting in him

When Saul would do this, there were blessings and prosperity, but when Saul didn’t, tormoil ensued

Ultimately, Saul rejected the Lord and leads in his own way

Samuel chapter 15, God rejects Saul and that is what leads us to chapter 16 and the anointing of David

In Chapter 16 verse 13 We find that the Spirit of the Lord rushed upon David

And in verse 14 we find that the Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul

Gods provision for Saul is withheld and so he allows for Saul to be tormented (troubling, annoying, evil)

Not only is Sauls Kingship dysfunctional,

You may be a witness that when leadership is dysfunctional then this spills over.

It doesnt matter if its business, politics, non-profits, etc.

And now you have a man who is suppossed to be under God and following Him but he doesn’t

This of course starts to spill over to Israel who called for a King in the first place

We find dysfunction in Israel and now we have God’s answer in King David - So what happens next?

Here is what we don’t find:

We do not find King David taking the throne right away

We do not find Samuel proclaiming David King to Israel

The armies of Israel are not compelled to follow David.

Instead, We find David being called into King Sauls Service.

David is going to have to wait to be King

David is going to have to be patient, to trust God, and not allow pride to come up

I wonder, what dysfunction are you in?

Is there dysfunction in your relationships?

Dysfunction in your finances?

Dysfunction at work?

Dysfunction with your health, dysfunction in attitude, dysfunction in

It’s easy to look at the dysfunction of government, and I promise you it is dysfunctional

At the end of the day, what is the dysfunction going on in your life that keeps you up at night?

I want you to think about this dysfunction or situation that you are in as we continue today.

And we know that God is control, we trust that God is going to work things out

Still, in our humaness, dont we hate waiting for it to be fixed?

Many times we dont even know if our function will be fixed

Isn’t it hard to be patient, to fully trust God?

We are American, we hate waiting for everything - traffic, food,

What I want to do today is provide you with some reminders or action steps to help towards waiting and dealing with the dysfunction in your life

The dysfunction is’nt going to go away overnight

How to Act

As we look at our text today, we can find that David, in this period of waiting to be King, is drawing close to God

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, prudent in speech, and a man of good presence, and the Lord is with him.”

It was evident that the Lord was with him

And I want to take this time to remind you that as you have trusted in Jesus Christ alone for salvation, then you have the Holy Spirit within you

You are a Christian - Your a new creation, you seek Godly things and not the things of this world

Often, in the midst of our dysfunction, It can be hard to act like a Christian

Let me be clear, we dont act like a Christian to keep a good reputation.

If the reputation is your goal then you are missing the point of Christianity.

What we are wanting is to have such a deep deep love and relationship with Jesus that as we draw closer to him, our attitude and life changes so that no matter what dysfunction is happening, our only response is a Christian one.

That it is evident to a watching world that that my response to waiting in the dysfunction is different from that of others

Davids aim was not reputation, his aim was to seek God and it spilled out into all areas of his life

As you examine your own dysfunction evaluate how have I been acting?

Have I been acting like a Christian?

Can others tell that my response to this situation is different from that of others?

Your answer will reveal so much more than just “I am or I am not acting like a Christian”.

It will reveal where your heart is, it will show what you are truly loving, and will often expose the sin in your life

David was a man after God’s own heart, is that where you are at

Pray that the Holy Spirit continues to guide you and convict you

As we look at this text, we can deduct a couple of traits from David that we should be eximplifying in our waiting

Willingness to Serve

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.

And David came to Saul and entered his service.

Iv’e already touched on this but rather than impatience, David displayed patience

Patience - the capacity to accept or tolerate delay, trouble, or suffering without getting angry or upset.

As I read this I recognize in myself that I have trouble with this.

Road trips - estimated time, im going to beat it, restroom breaks are timed,

Trouble - I want a solution now, fix it and move on

suffering - Who wants to endure anything that they do not like?

I can tell you how much I struggle with it, but I should not ever use it as a valid excuse because God has given me the capacity to be patient through the Holy Spirit

Galatians 5:22 “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,”

These are fruits that the spirit gives to all believers, every Christian is able to produce these because of the Holy Spirit

When I was a Sr. in high school I sat in an interview at NASA and told them my weakness is patience

I am telling you today I still struggle with patience

With the help of the Holy Spirit, I have grown and do not struggle as much as I did in High School, but I do still struggle

There should always be growth if you are actively working on it

As we look at the definition, the key to patience is to endure (delay, trouble, and suffering) without anger or upset