Misc. - "This is the King" - 1 Samuel 16

“This is The King”

Hey everyone! Thank you so much for being tonight.

My name is Hayden and I graduated from here in 2015. I met my wife here, felt God’s call on my life here, and consider it an honor to be here with you tonight. So, James, thank you! And Mason + Olivia, thank y’all.

Tonight, you are beginning a brand new sermon series on the life of David, so I want to invite you all to open you Bibles to 1 Samuel 16.

We’re going to begin reading in just a moment, but I wanted to mention that the text that we’re going through tonight is all about God’s call on David’s life to call to become Israel’s next King.

Opening illustration...

I saw Tajh Boyd.

I tell you this story because the story we’re going to read tonight is

I thought you would do a great job with 1 Samuel 16 on David’s call/Him being faithful in a waiting season.

What can we see about waiting/calling?

1. This Calling involved Providence

Tony Evans excerpt from “Pathways”

"The amazing thing about God's providence is that He is able to work all things according to His purpose without negating human freedom and choices.... the bible is clear on these two truths: God is sovereign, and humans really and truly choose their actions." (18)

"God's sovereignty is what He wants to happen. God's providence is where He sets things up and connects them so that His sovereignty does happen... This is because without a full awareness of where things are headed (sovereignty), we might wonder about the providential choices of God along the way."

sovereignty and providence of God: "Take baking a cake, for example. If you were to consider eating butter, eggs, flour, sugar, or any other ingredient in a cake all by itself, you would wind up with a mess that tastes awful. No one puts a tablespoon of flour straight into their mouth. You just don't do that. What you do, instead, is. blend them together in order to create a cake. Something delightful results out of the combination, not out of each thing examined and eaten on its own."

Notice God’s providential hand at work:

a. God’s Desire

His desire was to set up His Kingdom.

God’s desire was to prepare the nation of Israel for the true King… His Son Jesus.

God’s desire was to set up His throne in Israel.

So when He called to Samuel in verse 1, He was telling Samuel to get over it… and get ready because even the disobedience of a King couldn’t stop what God has planned.

"The kingdom agenda, then, may be defined as the visible manifestation of the comprehensive rule of God over every area of life.... The reason so many of us believers are struggling is that we want God to bless our agenda rather than us fulfilling His." (22-23)

"Getting into God's kingdom is through conversion, but getting God's kingdom into the manifestations of your everyday life comes through commitment and discipleship." (25)

"His kingdom is only visible when history emulates heaven." (25)

Think about God’s desire for your life! What has God called you to?

What we are called from and called to:

I. Called from labor to rest (Matt. 11:28) II. Called from death to life

(1 John 3:14 “14 We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren. He that loveth not his brother abideth in death.”

III. Called from bondage to liberty (Gal 5:13)

Galatians 5:13 ESV

13 For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.

IV. Called out of darkness into light (1 Pet. 2:9)

1 Peter 2:9 ESV

9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

V. Called from bondage to peace (1 Cor. 7:15

1 Corinthians 7:15 ESV

15 But if the unbelieving partner separates, let it be so. In such cases the brother or sister is not enslaved. God has called you to peace.

VI. Called to the fellowship of His Son

1 Corinthians 1:9 ESV

9 God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

What we are made by obeying the call:

I. We are made sons of God (John 1:12) II. We are made the children of God (Gal. 3:26) III. We are made the servants of God (Matt. 25:21) IV. We are made God's saints (Col. 1:1) V. We are made God's witnesses (I Thess. 2:10) VI. We are made workers together with God (2 Cor. 6:1) VII. We are called to a high calling (Phil. 3:14) VIII. We are called to a holy calling (2 Tim. 1:9) IX. We are called to a heavenly calling (Heb. 3:1)

God will never allow His work to die with the death or failure of a man. If it is God’s work, it goes beyond any man. Perhaps Samuel was paralyzed with mourning because of Saul’s tragic rebellion, but God was not paralyzed.

“it is ironic that Samuel’s initial reaction to the word of the LORD was fear of Saul instead of rejoicing at God’s provision to Israel.” - Johnny Mac

God not only let Samuel in on the secret of His desire, but He also did the directing on WHO the king would be.

b. God’s Direction

But it seems like as soon as we hear that God desires something for us. That He’s calling us TO something… we start asking questions:

What if I don’t marry the right person?

What if I get the wrong job?

Why do we ask those types of questions?

It could be a spiritual attack.

It could also be the fact that our thoughts aren’t always God’s thoughts.

Notice Samuel.

He quickly saw this situation by sight… in the way his peers did.

He thought like the world for a moment...

1 Samuel 16:1–10 KJV 1900

1 And the Lord said unto Samuel, How long wilt thou mourn for Saul, seeing I have rejected him from reigning over Israel? fill thine horn with oil, and go, I will send thee to Jesse the Beth-lehemite: for I have provided me a king among his sons. 2 And Samuel said, How can I go? if Saul hear it, he will kill me. And the Lord said, Take an heifer with thee, and say, I am come to sacrifice to the Lord. 3 And call Jesse to the sacrifice, and I will shew thee what thou shalt do: and thou shalt anoint unto me him whom I name unto thee. 4 And Samuel did that which the Lord spake, and came to Beth-lehem. And the elders of the town trembled at his coming, and said, Comest thou peaceably? 5 And he said, Peaceably: I am come to sacrifice unto the Lord: sanctify yourselves, and come with me to the sacrifice. And he sanctified Jesse and his sons, and called them to the sacrifice. 6 And it came to pass, when they were come, that he looked on Eliab, and said, Surely the Lord’s anointed is before him. 7 But the Lord said unto Samuel, Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him: for the Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart. 8 Then Jesse called Abinadab, and made him pass before Samuel. And he said, Neither hath the Lord chosen this. 9 Then Jesse made Shammah to pass by. And he said, Neither hath the Lord chosen this. 10 Again, Jesse made seven of his sons to pass before Samuel. And Samuel said unto Jesse, The Lord hath not chosen these.

God was involved in all this… but here Samuel is wondering… well who is it?

Here is God looking for His King, and while GOd was at work, David was too.

2. The Characteristics of David’s Posture

God calls people who are busy, not people looking for ways to avoid responsibility Moses (Exodus 3), Gideon (Judges 6), Elisha (1 Kings 19:19-21), Nehemiah (Nehemiah 1), Amos (Amos 7:14-15), Peter Andrew and James and John (Mark 1:16-20) and Matthew

His posture was bent toward God.

He was preparing himself without even realizing it!

He was doing the work before the work started!

Payton Manning  practiced indirection. He was the winning quarterback of Super Bowl XLI. It was a rainy night, and the ball was slippery. Rex Grossman, the quarterback for the losing team, fumbled the ball several times. But Peyton Manning never fumbled. A few weeks after the Super Bowl a reporter discovered that every few weeks during the year Manning had his center (the one who snaps him the ball), Jeff Saturday, snap him water-soaked footballs.

These characteristics of David’s posture should also be markers in our own lives. What were they?

a. David was Submitted

I’d say to authority

Psalm 86:16 ESV

16 Turn to me and be gracious to me; give your strength to your servant, and save the son of your maidservant.

Psalm 116:16 ESV

16 O Lord, I am your servant; I am your servant, the son of your maidservant. You have loosed my bonds.

I’d also say he was submitted to his father.

He’s watching the sheep!

b. David was a Steward

God’s

Matthew 25:21 ESV

21 His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’

c. And there he is, keeping the sheep: David was called for this great anointing when he was out

keeping the sheep. David simply did his job and was faithful in small things and what his father told him to do.

1. Keeping the sheep was a servant’s job. The fact that David was out keeping the sheep showed that the family of Jesse was not especially wealthy, because if they were wealthy a servant would be keeping the sheep. But they were not affluent enough to have servants.

2. Keeping the sheep meant you had time to think.

David spent a lot of time looking over the sheep and looking at the glory of God’s creation. God built in him a heart to sing about His glory in all creation (Psalm 19:1-4 and Psalm 8 are good examples).

3. Keeping the sheep took a special heart, a special care.

It meant you knew how sheep needed the care and help of a good shepherd. You learned that you were a sheep and God was your shepherd. During these years, God built in David the heart that would sing about the LORD as his shepherd (as in Psalm 23).

4. Keeping the sheep meant you had to trust God in the midst of danger.

David had lions and bears and wolves to contend with and the sheep had to be protected. “The country round Bethlehem was not a peaceful paradise, and the career of a shepherd was not the easy life of lovesick swains which poets dream.” (Blaikie)

5. David’s years keeping the sheep were not waiting time; they were training time.

It was not down time it was development time.

David was a great man and a great king over Israel because he never lost his shepherd’s heart. Psalm 78:70-72 speaks of the connection between David the king and David the shepherd: He also chose David His servant, and took him from the sheepfolds; from following the ewes that had young He brought him, to shepherd Jacob His people, and Israel His inheritance. So he shepherded them according to the integrity of his heart, and guided them by the skillfulness of his hands.

c. David Struggled

Being submitted and a steward was not always easy, yall.

1 Samuel 17:34–37 ESV

34 But David said to Saul, “Your servant used to keep sheep for his father. And when there came a lion, or a bear, and took a lamb from the flock, 35 I went after him and struck him and delivered it out of his mouth. And if he arose against me, I caught him by his beard and struck him and killed him. 36 Your servant has struck down both lions and bears, and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be like one of them, for he has defied the armies of the living God.” 37 And David said, “The Lord who delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine.” And Saul said to David, “Go, and the Lord be with you!”

I should have said it like this… David was Succesful.

He fought!

The battles you face today matter.

Holiness matters.

Prayer matters

3. The Consistency in David’s Preparation.

a. He was Anointed

b. He was Appointed

by Saul

c. He Anticipated

I started this message by telling you about a guy I recognized.

David would one day be recognized by others as a man after God’s own heart.