W2: A Humble Servant (MS: 1 Samuel 16:14-23; SS: Luke 14:11;Galatians 5:13)

Main Scripture: 1 Samuel 16:14-23 

Support Scripture: Luke 14:11;Galatians 5:13

Bottom Line: A humble heart serves.

Capture: Grab their attention with an illustration.

• Illustration/Story: Share a story about a time when you tried to make a big deal about

yourself, only to fall flat on your face. Many of us try to look impressive in front of

others, but often, those efforts end in embarrassment!

When I first got to college, I thought I would be the man because I played college basketball but that was not the case. 

• This week, we see that humbling ourselves before others often looks like service. It

can be easy to try and take center stage for some of us and make things about

ourselves. True humility, however, serves and prioritizes others above ourselves.

Context: 

Last week, we learned that David was anointed by David by Samuel and the Spirit of the Lord came to David! 

Now this week, we are reading into Saul and that he Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul! 

We have to put into some context in this part alone. The reason why is because the Spirit of God did not indwell believers in the OT era the way He does today. 

When a person today receives Christ as his Lord and Savior, the Spirit of God comes to indwell that person forever (1 Cor. 12:13) But here the Lord had rejected Saul as punishment. 

This is not look at God being evil, but that God is in control and operate only within divinely determined boundaries. 

The Bible teaches that God governs even the powers of darkness through His providence without being morally culpable for their actions. 

So there is 2 reasons by God let this happen to Saul

1. It was surely an act of judgment against Saul disobedience over God. 

2. Because he has this spirit in him, this will make him call on David so he can bring David in and provide music which will relief Saul from the evil spirit. It suppress the spirit, but didn’t take it away. 

So that mean, God uses the evil spirit to bring David in for His purpose. God did not create it, but He uses it for His glory which will bring David in and he allow it because of Saul disobedience and judgement. 

Remember, God is a judge, even today and He must judge sin! 

Now in verse 15-18, David has already have a good reputation and the servants knew about David and his ability to play music. 

Now we see the presence of God in David’s life was observable. 

So Saul even knew about David because ehe suggest him as well. For the time being, David became Saul’s armor bearer. 

An armor bearer was a special assistant to a king or military person. 

David main task was to carry the king’s armor. 

The armor bearer was available to carry out the king’s orders and wishes. 

God planned all this because David would gain some insight into what was involved in being a king. 

Unknown to Saul, God in His providence placed David- God’s choice of king as we learned last week- in his presence as his musician and his armor bear. 

So we can take from this, David was a humble servant to king Saul because he learned a considerable amount about what it meant to function as king during this time. He was a humble servant to a king that God did not choose. God choose David but it was not his time, so he was humble until the time was right! 

1. Serve Others in Humility

• Tension Question: Do you serve others in humility? Do you consider others often or

find yourself focusing on yourself? We often want to be honored, lifted up, and

respected by others. The only path to this kind of honor is through humility.

Scripture: Luke 14:11 

English Standard Version Chapter 14

11 For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”

Jesus is at a Pharisees house and show how he noticed how the invited guests chose places of honor closer to the host. Jesus takes an opportunity to go and talk about humility. Jesus here say rather seating at the best seat, you should choose the lowest place or seat. This will give the host an opportunity to move them up to a better seat. 

The Pharisees exalted themselves, assuming that they help important positions in the kingdom, but Jesus taught something different in the relationship between humility and exaltation. 

We as followers of Christ must live in an eternal perspective in mind. 

This is not saying that we should not seek for great things, but we are to assume lower positions of service and allow God to exalt the great for His glory and not our own. 

— The only way to experience true exaltation is through humility! Humility is the true path to glory! 

We read that with David. Last week, David was anointed by Samuel and knew he was going to be the next king, but instead of going up to king Saul and knowing this, he still a shepherd. And then he was called by Saul and when he was called, he humble himself to be a armor bearer and waiting to God to move him up, not him. Which shows the second point. 

2. A Humble Heart Serves

• Scripture: 1 Samuel 16:14-23 — In the verse just before this passage that we studied

last week, we see that the Spirit of the Lord fell upon David from that day forward,

meaning also that the Spirit departed from Saul.

• Imagine David’s perspective: he had been anointed King, and served in Saul’s courts

as a musician. We know from the later parts of David’s story that many times Saul

tried to murder David and threw spears at him in anger.

• David, however, availed himself to serve Saul — even though he knew that Saul had

lost the anointing as King!

He didn’t try to move as king himself, he let God do that. 

We see Saul favored David and David continues to obey God and began to receive honor in the eyes of the Israelites. This bring back to Saul evil spirit that he will become jealous, hating on David. But because David was obedience to God and continue forward, God moved him to kingship later on in Scripture. 

• This kind of humility is what we see as a result of the Holy Spirit — David, the

anointed King of Israel, served the angry King from whom God removed favor and

anointing.

• Like David, there are many areas of our life where we feel “above” service.

Regardless of your situation — choose humility. A humble heart that knows God

chooses to serve others regardless.

Bottom Line: A humble heart serves.

3. Serve Others in God’s Love

• Scripture: Galatians 5:13

English Standard Version Chapter 5

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.

— The beautiful part of a life with Christ is that we have

been given freedom. The purpose of this freedom, however, is to serve others in

love!

We get confuse of what freedom and biblical freedom is. The word “freedom” can be a slippery word. 

What freedom we think in our culture is to do whatever you want to do.

Biblical freedom is liberty from illegitimate bondage so that you can enjoy the responsibilities of a new relationship with God and fulfill your divinely ordained purpose that God gave you. 

Fulfilling the desires of the flesh is what got us into our messes in the first place! All the way back to Adam and Eve! To be a slave of sin is to be chained to your own selfish desires. Christ came to free us from this! 

For context of this text, the Judaizers were trying to keep the Galatians in bondage. Paul is telling them that you are free in your spirit and that you are free to do what God called you to do! To be free and go show others the freedom you have through the good news through obedience in His word! 

So to serve someone with love what does that mean? The biblical love is the decision to compassionately, righteously, and sacrificially seek the well-being of another person! So just as Jesus loved us, we must love other people like Jesus did! 

That is why our agape love is important and key because that is our source to be able to love other people! And how we love God? Through believing in Him and obeying Him! 

And because we must love people just like Christ loves us, we must also serve because Christ served. 

Since the Son of God served us through love, why would his disciples expect to do anything less? We are followers of Jesus! 

So even though David knew that he was anointed by God and got the Spirit of Him, he still became humble and served under the king Saul even though he had an evil spirit. 

In due time, we see that God lower Saul because of his disobedience and uplift David as king because of his servant love and obedience! 

Bring it to the Cross

One of the greatest chain fast food places is Chick-Ful-A. It is known for one thing- its service! Even though they are closed on Sunday, they still make a lot of money! The company prides itself on the fact that from the time a customer drives up and get food until they leave and hear the famous line “My pleasure” that customer will be served like no other in the country. To the point TikTok memes on how the service be and also other restaurant take what they do and put it in their stores. 

Most people recognize good service and they want to be the beneficiary of good service. We recognize that service is important. It makes the difference between what service we consider just ok, which to Chick-Ful-A it is great! 

God says that in the Kingdom greatness is measured by your heart of service. Because there was a man that came to serve! And His name is Jesus! He came to live the life we could not live, died the death that we should of died, and rose from the grave on the third day! This is important and how things should be in our lives! People should know us by our services because of Jesus in our heart! They should want to follow Jesus because of the service that we give to people! 

• There will always be a temptation to satisfy your sinful nature with the freedom you

experience in Christ. This is the opposite of humility! This is prioritizing what feels

good to you rather than serving your brothers and sisters.

• Ask yourself: “Am I going out of my way to serve the people in my church, school,

family, and friends?”

• Make a decision to pursue humility through service. Choose to prioritize others ahead

of yourself and serve them in love. It will produce humility in your heart!

• Application: Serve others in love.

Call: How do we respond to the message?

• Altar moment: Make a decision today to walk in humility and service. Think less of

yourself and ask God: “Where do you want me to serve, Lord?”