Sermon Tone Analysis

The Anointing Looks Good on You

When they came, he looked on Eliab and thought, “Surely the Lord's anointed is before him.”

7 But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look on his appearance or on the height of 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.”

8 Then Jesse called Abinadab and made him pass before Samuel.

And he said, “Neither has the Lord chosen this one.”

9 Then Jesse made Shammah pass by.

And he said, “Neither has the Lord chosen this one.”

10 And Jesse made seven of his sons pass before Samuel.

And Samuel said to Jesse, “The Lord has not chosen these.”

11 Then Samuel said to Jesse, “Are all your sons here?”

And he said, “There remains yet the youngest,[a] but 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.”

12 And he sent and brought him in.

Now he was ruddy and had beautiful eyes and was handsome.

And the Lord said, “Arise, anoint him, for this is he.”13

Then 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 forward.

And Samuel rose up and went to Ramah.

The Anointing Looks Good on You

How many of you are only children in your families?

Now how many of you have younger brothers or sisters?

How many of you are the oldest child?

As the oldest child in my family I never had to wait for things.

I was always the first to get things.

I was the first to get a pedal bike.

The first to learn how to ride it.

Back in Bermuda when your sixteen you an get a 50cc scooter bike.

I was the first to turn sixteen and there I was the first to get an actual bike.

But on the flip side of things, I was the first to be called on to take care of my youngest sister who is 15 years younger than me.

I was the first to be asked to help teach her how to ride her pedal bike.

I was the first to help her learn to tie her shoes.

I was the first person to be asked to nurture and care for my little sister besides my mother and I was not the best choice for the job.

See I have another sister who is only 3 years younger than me.

She has all the qualities of a nurturing, caring compassionate sibling whereas I had all the natural masculine tough love tendencies.

When my baby sister fell off her bike for the first time and scraped her knee she cried and I told her to be a big girl, suck it up and get back on the bike.

Whereas my sister picked her up, kissed her boo boo better and got her a band-aid.

I was not in the right position to do what my mother expected of me, and my sister was more qualified to do the job that my mother had called me to do.

I said all of this to let you all know that Sometimes we place our youth in places where we believe they should be, but that place may not be where God needs them to be.

I have noticed over my 22 years of life that I haven’t always been placed in positions that I am called to be in.

There are times where I am placed in situations that I have no business being in.

Have you ever had that one friend that gets themselves into sticky situation that you had no part in, yet they call your name and drag you into it?

I can think of a time when I was younger that something like this happened to me.

I used to love playing football as a kid and one day my best friend invited me to play football with him.

I told him that I couldn’t go because I had to finish my homework.

His mother didn’t want him to play football either until his homework was done.

So he told his mother that he was coming to my house to do homework, but he didn’t come to my house to do homework.

He went to the football field and played football with some other boys.

When he got home, his mother was so mad at him and she called my mom.

Because my best friend told a lie, I got in trouble for something I did not do.

I got placed in a position where I was not called to be.

New Life Church do we ever place our children in positions where they are not called to be? Do we look at the size of our kids and place them in certain positions?

We look at their outward appearance and place them in positions that they do not need to be in.

I have seen taller children get placed in the center position on a basketball court, to grow up and end up being the shortest player out of everyone.

I have seen the child who loved to talk the most get the position as the scripture reader, when the quiet child wanted to read the scripture.

I have seen outward appearance fool the very elect into calling the wrong person for the wrong position.

Look at Saul.

He was tall and attractive and his attractiveness was one of the main reasons that God allowed Samuel to anoint him as king.

We find out later that Saul was the wrong man for the position.

The text tells us that something similar was about to happen as Samuel encountered Jesse’s sons.

Samuel had planned to anoint a son based off his outward appearance, but god doesn’t look at outward appearance.

God looks at the heart, and therefore sometimes we get upset when the young people we place into positions do not live up to the positions that we placed them in.

My mother had placed me in the position of a maternal figure for my baby sister when she was not there.

She had placed me in a position that I was not called to be in.

I was almost one hundred percent certain that I would not completely live up to this calling that she had placed on me and when she found out that I was not living up to the standards that she had for me she became very upset.

My outward appearance as the oldest child did not match my inward motivation to care for my sister.

Looking at me, my mother though that because I was the oldest, I was the most responsible.

She thought I was the most loving.

The most caring, but she did not realize that I was also the most tough.

When it appears that our young people are failing at the positions that we placed them in, maybe we need to stop looking at their mistakes, and start looking at ourselves for placing them incorrectly.

We need to stop beating them up and start building them up in a new position.

We need to stop breaking their desires to be in church and start bridging the gap between their desires and their capabilities.

We need not let our young people get to the place where Saul was.

In order to do this, sometimes we need to step back and let God call the young person for certain positions.

So my mother didn’t want to change my position as maternal figure for my sister.

It wasn’t until my sister came to my mother and told her that I was not acting as caring as I should to my sister that my mother moved me from that position.

Sometimes an external force has the power to change a young person’s position.

If you read the story, had it not been for the voice of God speaking to Samuel, the wrong person would have been appointed in the wrong position.

God needs to be the one to appoint people to positions and the one to take people out of their positions.

We need to listen to God’s voice when we pick our youth leaders.

We need not just look at their external features.

We need not pick a praise team leader because they can sing.

We need not pick a youth day preacher because they can preach.

We need to allow the Holy Spirit to guide us into all truth and show us who needs to be appointed.

We also need to remember that sometimes God calls the people that you least expect to fill the roles you never expected them to fill.

There is something special about the way that God works.

He doesn’t call the person most qualified for the position.

He qualifies the person who he calls.

In my mother’s mind I was the most qualified for the position.

I was the eldest, therefore I was the most responsible.

In her eye I was the best candidate for the job, but in actuality, my sister was called for the job and God was qualifying her for it.

David appeared to be the least qualified for the position of Israel’s new king.

He had never been in power before.

He was the youngest of all his brothers.

He had no experience being a leader.

Externally, he was not qualified.

David was a shepherd.

He was placed in a position of shepherding sheep.

His father placed him in a position that God did not want him in.

His position at the time made him appear the least qualified.