Pentecost 5 - Empowering

Scripture: 1 Samuel 15:34-16:13

1 Samuel 15:34–16:13 NIV

34 Then Samuel left for Ramah, but Saul went up to his home in Gibeah of Saul. 35 Until the day Samuel died, he did not go to see Saul again, though Samuel mourned for him. And the Lord regretted that he had made Saul king over Israel. 1 The Lord said to Samuel, “How long will you mourn for Saul, since I have rejected him as king over Israel? Fill your horn with oil and be on your way; I am sending you to Jesse of Bethlehem. I have chosen one of his sons to be king.” 2 But Samuel said, “How can I go? If Saul hears about it, he will kill me.” The Lord said, “Take a heifer with you and say, ‘I have come to sacrifice to the Lord.’ 3 Invite Jesse to the sacrifice, and I will show you what to do. You are to anoint for me the one I indicate.” 4 Samuel did what the Lord said. When he arrived at Bethlehem, the elders of the town trembled when they met him. They asked, “Do you come in peace?” 5 Samuel replied, “Yes, in peace; I have come to sacrifice to the Lord. Consecrate yourselves and come to the sacrifice with me.” Then he consecrated Jesse and his sons and invited them to the sacrifice. 6 When they arrived, Samuel saw Eliab and thought, “Surely the Lord’s anointed stands here before the Lord.” 7 But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” 8 Then Jesse called Abinadab and had him pass in front of Samuel. But Samuel said, “The Lord has not chosen this one either.” 9 Jesse then had Shammah pass by, but Samuel said, “Nor has the Lord chosen this one.” 10 Jesse had seven of his sons pass before Samuel, but Samuel said to him, “The Lord has not chosen these.” 11 So he asked Jesse, “Are these all the sons you have?” “There is still the youngest,” Jesse answered. “He is tending the sheep.” Samuel said, “Send for him; we will not sit down until he arrives.” 12 So he sent for him and had him brought in. He was glowing with health and had a fine appearance and handsome features. Then the Lord said, “Rise and anoint him; this is the one.” 13 So Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the presence of his brothers, and from that day on the Spirit of the Lord came powerfully upon David. Samuel then went to Ramah.

6/16/2024

Order of Service:

Announcements

Opening Worship

Prayer Requests

Prayer Song

Pastoral Prayer

Kid’s Time

Special Music

Offering (Doxology and Offering Prayer)

Scripture Reading

Sermon

Closing Song

Benediction

Special Notes:

Week 3: Special Music

Opening Prayer:

Mighty God,

to you belong the mysteries of the universe.

You transform shepherds into kings,

the smallest seeds into magnificent trees,

and hardened hearts into loving ones.

Bless us with your life-giving Spirit,

re-create us in your image,

and shape us to your purposes,

through Jesus Christ. Amen.

Empowering

Perspective

Jesus taught extensively about seeing things from God’s perspective rather than our own. Whether it was the miracle of the fish and loaves, where He told the disciples to feed the crowd of over 5,000 people with five loaves and two fish, or the parable of the mustard seed, Jesus consistently taught that God sees more than we do. He sees the potential of small things that can grow into great things. He sees the potential of a small group of children at VBS that could develop into a ministry to clothe and equip children for school for decades. He sees the potential for empowered disciples sent out to make new disciples, like a farmer set before an open field, in each of us.

Sometimes, it is tempting to work by making our best guesses and hope that Jesus will figure it all out and fix our mistakes as we strive to serve Him. After all, He is God, and we are not. There are limits to how much we understand. But Jesus demonstrated that God wants us to see and understand as much as we can handle at whatever point we find ourselves. He wants us to see our world through His eyes.

And there are so many possibilities! In every tiny seedling, we could discover an oak tree, a rose bush, a stalk of corn, a grapevine, a dandelion, a thistle, or a blade of grass. God has placed all these things in our world, and to our untrained eyes, sometimes it is difficult to tell what they will be. We can only see what they were and are. God wants us to learn to see the hidden potential in each other the way seeds hide their potential and only reveal it as they grow. As the church, God calls us to make disciples, calling the lost and dying to find new life in Him and helping them hear God’s call on their lives to grow into the kinds of disciples He created them to be. We do not make them look like us. We help them look more like Jesus, and we can do that faithfully when we follow the example of Jesus, judging not by outer appearance and reputation but by learning to see the character and potential.

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Strengths

When we think about potential, we usually start considering the strengths of those around us. What can they do? What talents do they have? How can we use those strengths, those gifts, to connect them to our work, our family, and our church?

Twenty years ago, I taught a district ministry session about how to grow your church family, and I told them that the sooner you give someone a job, the more likely they are to stay with you. It made sense to me to get people serving as quickly as possible. However, after putting that theory to work for several years, I discovered that it only works well in the short term and becomes a perfect recipe for burnout. It helps create people who jump from church to church, trying to find a place to fit in and only knowing how to use the two or three strengths they believe God has given them. After going through multiple churches, many leave church altogether, frustrated that they never felt like they fit in. I’ve known several people who served in a church for 15-20 years, held important positions, and gave generously but never felt like they were truly part of the family. Plugging people in to serve with their gifts is not enough.

King Saul did not have a good and growing relationship with God, and making him king of Israel did not help him spiritually. If anything, it made it worse, and he burnt out quickly. The whole situation saddened Samuel, the prophet who had done his best to follow God faithfully and care for his people. God chose him initially to show the people the foolishness of their desires for a king, but Samuel and the people followed Saul because he appeared to have all the right strengths. He was tall, handsome, from a good family, and willing to lead. He even demonstrated that he was religious when he was first anointed king. No, more than religious... he had an authentic experience of being touched and led by the Holy Spirit.

If you listen to business managers who are good at working with people - hiring, firing, and holding them accountable to their jobs, they will tell you that choosing those who work for and with you is perhaps the most critical part of keeping a business running well. Furthermore, when you ask how they can tell who will be a good fit, they resoundingly declare the worldly proverb:

“Past performance is the best predictor of future behavior.”

Whatever they have done or been like in the past is what you can expect them to do and be in the future. Keep that in mind, and you will rarely be surprised.

Our challenge as followers of Jesus is that this is a worldly proverb, not a biblical one. It makes a lot of common sense but condemns us to be judged by our past sins forever. The grace of Jesus not only gives us new opportunities to live and serve differently than we have done in the past, but it also gives us hope for a new birth, to be a new creation, and to live and serve differently than ever before.

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Calling

So much of our struggle to lead, teach, and serve God faithfully comes from our confusion about who is responsible for what. Specifically, we get in trouble when we get mixed up about which job is ours and which job is God’s.

Samuel followed God faithfully, putting his grief over Saul aside and going to the house of Jesse to anoint the next king of Israel. He did this faithfully and cautiously because this act was high treason, and Saul could have had him killed without question. Once he got to Jesse’s house, he figured it was time for him to go to work, and he began following the ancient script of looking to the eldest male in the family for leadership. Eliab, the eldest son, would have already been leading the family, possibly the biggest and strongest if the boys were young and the most experienced if they were older — the ideal candidate for leadership in anyone’s book.

This is where God steps in and reminds Samuel, who is in charge and can truly see potential and the authority to call it out of us. He tells Samuel that people make the mistake of judging by outward appearance, but God looks at the heart to determine each person’s true potential.

Samuel thought he could guess who the next king of Israel would be in the lineup. Not only did he guess wrong twice, but he could not even see the person God was preparing. That is Samuel, who did have a good relationship with God. Our perspective is limited regarding the calling of God on our lives, so we, like Samuel, should be constant in prayer and always listen to God to correct our thoughts and actions as we work alongside Him, raising up new disciples with Him. If we intend to make disciples of Jesus for the next generation and lead others to follow Him faithfully, we need to pray that God will help us see others the way He does.

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Empowering

If you are thinking, “I’m not a leader. This sounds like good information for pastors, committee leaders, and those who run the church for us,” I want to stop you right there. I’m pretty sure there are people in your life who need your encouragement to grow in their relationship with Jesus. Many do not attend church at all and are struggling to keep what little faith they have each day. Some of them you thought of as soon as I said they might not be in church. They are the people that you often think about inviting to church about 10 minutes too late. They are the ones who feel comfortable sharing more of what is going on in their life with you, and they may not quite know why. They are the people that God occasionally brings to your mind and heart, and you frequently pray for them. These are the people God wants you to help lead to Him.

Samuel was a mentor to Saul. He was the one that Saul went to when he wanted to hear from God. But Samuel empowered David to have his own relationship with God, which allowed David to be a better, more faithful leader. Samuel acted as a father figure to Saul more than he did for David, and that probably took more effort and time. But He gave David the greater gift in that He faithfully called out in David something only God could see - the shepherd-king of Israel. David immediately began to treat the people as if he were their loving, protecting shepherd, but he would have to wait 20 years before they would officially give him the throne.

Samuel empowered David by seeing him the way God saw him and sharing that vision with him. More than just human potential and human strengths, Samuel called out Godly potential in David and helped him see all he could be with God.

As he poured the anointing oil down David’s head, Samuel did not realize that a giant named Goliath was just down the road. Like the woman who anointed Jesus’s feet with perfume, they did not realize that a savior of the people had been marked that day. They were simply being faithful to follow God and call out what God had told them when they spent time in prayer listening to Him. None of them knew that Goliath had four brothers just as big as he was and that David would have to call out some mighty warriors of God from a pack of thieves and outcasts, turn them into generals, and empower them to take down giants with him. None of them knew why they were empowering others with God. They only knew God called them to do it, and they followed Him faithfully.

Who has empowered you, calling out God’s vision of who you are in Christ?

How have you been surprised by how God empowered you to do things that were not your typical gifts and strengths?

Who is God calling you to empower around you? Will you seek God’s vision for their life and faithfully call out what He sees in them, preparing them to follow Him faithfully?

Closing Prayer

Heavenly Father, You created us in Your image, and we have turned away from You, trying to reshape our world according to our desires. Even worse, we have tried to raise the generations that have come after us in our image rather than Yours. We fight about our differences, pass on our generational sins to them, and then we wonder where the next generation of leaders is. Lord, forgive us for passing on our ways instead of Yours. Forgive us for trying to make those you have brought into our lives look and act like us instead of looking and acting like You. Most of all, Lord, forgive us for failing to seek Your will for their lives and to encourage them to live into Your vision of Who they are in You. Remind us of who we are in You, and Help us to see those around us as You do. Help us to empower them faithfully to follow and serve You. In Jesus’ name. Amen.