It's Not Up to You
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It’s Not Up to You
It’s Not Up to You
Ugh! Have you ever been around really slimy people? You know crooked people, selfish people, conceited people. Uggh! after being around them for any prolonged period, you feel like you need to take a shower.
We have been hanging out with King Saul a bit too long. It is a bit tiring, isn't it? Ugh, poor leadership, impatience, pride failure to trust God, sin, guilt, and rejection, I honestly don't know how much more I can mentally take, and if you are in that same place, I have some good news for you. Well, scratch that. I have some great news for you.
Today, we open up chapter 16, and we are introduced to David. The shepherd boy turned king. "The Man after God's Own heart". There are hundreds of Books and Bible studies on David. Next, to Jesus and argument can be made that he is perhaps the greatest character in Bible.
With that in mind, I sat down with a stack of legal pads and I prepared to concoct a 42 part sermon series on some of the traits of David and how we can become like David in 37 easy steps.
But something happened. When I sat down to look at the 97 traits that made David great, naturally, I turned to His selection as King of Israel. So I opened , and read about David being anointed King of Israel, and I had a pad of paper all ready to go, and write all of the things that made David great. But as I read, I found out that the story of David's anointing to the Kingship really isn't about David at all.
The story of David's rise to King is actually about God.
Pray
Church people sometimes can a bit heavy laden, and I get that, it is the way it is sometimes. What happens is Jesus reaches into the muck and mire of their sin filled lives and He pulls them out of the slimy pit of sin and He sets their feet on a rock. What happens is that at some point in every Christians life Jesus reaches in, and removes their heart of stone, and He replaces it with a heart of flesh.
And when that happens, When Jesus does that, you become so overjoyed that God did that, that you well, you fall in love with Jesus.
The heart of flesh that you now have becomes aware of Jesus, and the Holy Spirit impresses on you ways to do right with God, and sin starts to bother you.
As you look around the world you sin around you and your heart of flesh becomes heavy, and burdened. Because Jesus saved you, you want the Good news to spread, and you desperately want to see the Kingdom of God advance so you become hopeful and your heart is heavy when it doesn't advance.
Samuel is like that. We haven't talked a lot about Samuel, but he has this heart, a fleshy heart one that grieves for sin, and the obstacles to God's kingdom. In first Samuel 8.6 when the people first asked for king, it displeased Samuel, so he prayed to the Lord.
But when they said, “Give us a king to lead us,” this displeased Samuel; so he prayed to the Lord.
Then, last week in 1 Samuel chapter 15, when Saul disobeyed the Lord we read in verse 11 that when the Lord was grieved, Samuel was troubled and cried out to the Lord all night.
“I regret that I have made Saul king, because he has turned away from me and has not carried out my instructions.” Samuel was angry, and he cried out to the Lord all that night.
But it didn't end there for Samuel. After that horrible incident in chapter 15, when all was said and done, and Saul was confronted, and after all that Samuel still had to deal with the grief over the sin of Saul and the failed leadership.
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.
Church, if you are kept up all night grieving over the sin you see around you, or if apparent setbacks to the advancement of the Kingdom of God, cause you to mourn, you are not alone. You are just a bit like Samuel. God has given you a fleshy heart. But friends, you don't have to stay in that place.
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.”
Samuel, the Lord says, "How long will you mourn?" It is time to move on. The Lord says to Samuel I was the one that rejected him. Saul, the one the people chose. You don't have to mourn any longer Samuel. It is part of my plan, and my plan is always good. You may not always understand it, it may bring you sorrow for a time, but be assured my plan is good. I have a better way for my people than the choice that they made. I have a better way.
God is telling Samuel, yeah, it is hard to be under corrupt leadership, it may cause you pain for a while, but trust in God. Stop mourning, let's get back to the business at hand. God Brings Samuel back to the reason he was called in the first place.
God is bringing Samuel to the original task that he had done in the first place. I had you be my representative, and now it is time to get back to that. Pick up your, horn and your oil and let's go. Let's go a new King, this time one I pick, one of the sons of Jesse in Bethlehem.
Maybe you remember Jesse. Not the greatest lineage. Some of his family weren't even originally Jews. His Dad was Obed, who was the son of Boaz and Ruth. Ruth, a Moabitess, by all rites she should not have been part of God's family, but by the grace of God, through her faith, she became part of the lineage of Jesse, who is now going to become the father of the king.
Samuel, though, well he is a little resistant. And for good reason he has been hurt before. He poured everything he had into Saul, and it didn't work out, and Saul is mad, and rejected, and now Samuel who would rather just fold into a ball and be done, is to ready to be hurt again.
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.’
But the Lord has a plan.
Invite Jesse to the sacrifice, and I will show you what to do. You are to anoint for me the one I indicate.”
GO in worship, with the sacrifice, because, I got this. It is not on your shoulders anymore Samuel, I will show you who I have chosen.
So Samuel does what God says, and heads to Bethlehem, and something extraordinary happens.
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?”
They are actually afraid of him! When God is in control, we have nothing to fear, and Samuel has found out that apparently they are more afraid of Him, than he is of them.
Perhaps, God in His grace showed this to Samuel so he would be assured of God's plan.
So then Samuel replies,
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.
Saul went to the city of Amalek and set an ambush in the ravine.
16:5,
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.
Consecrate yourselves is the Old Testament way of saying “get cleaned up we are going to church.” It is the act of getting set apart for God, because they are going to enter into His presence, and we are going to Sacrifice, and God is going to do something big.
Consecrate is the Old Testament way of saying get cleaned up we are going to church. Make sure you are set apart for God, because we are going to enter into His presence, and we are going to Sacrifice, and God is going to do something big.
When they arrived, Samuel saw Eliab and thought, “Surely the Lord’s anointed stands here before the Lord.”
1 Samuel 16.
Samuel the prophet sees the one! But not so fast Samuel....
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.”
The Lord looks to the heart, and we can be thankful and overflowing with joy that God does that. God does not look at things of this world! Not even when choosing His king. God looks through to the heart. And he sees a man that he loves, and Eliab, is not him.
So Samuel keeps looking. Samuel sees 7 of Jesse Sons. Each time one comes before Him, the Lord has not chosen Him. Finally Samuel sees all the sons, and not one of them is the one the Lord has chosen. It is interesting isn’t it? The Lord has the prophet the one who should know the Lord the one who can see the desires of the Lord, and he can’t see the one the Lord has called. Maybe the Lord is showing Samuel, that it is really in the Lord’s hand, just to make sure that Samuel knows that it isn’t up to him.
In fact
So Samuel asks .
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.”
Sam 16:11
There is one more. He is out tending the flocks in the fields near Bethlehem. Send for him, go get him. He is not hiding, not like the last king, he is just doing his job, quietly. So insignificant that he wasn’t even considered by his own Father.
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.”
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.”
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.
David, was just being David, and God was being God. It wasn’t anything that David did that brought him to be king, it was God that made David king. So as I begin the 42 part series on 37 ways to be like David, I don’t see anything anything that David did that made him king that day, but I do see a God of grace and mercy and love that reaches down to a nation, that has rejected Him. And he reaches down and Chooses for Himself a King that will rule the nation.
Where are you in God’s Story?
Where are you in God’s Story?
Every single person in this chapter is affected by this great God. The people that were not mentioned, the everyday person, the people who sinned by asking for a King and rejecting God, they were about to get the greatest King that Israel had ever seen. Jesse and His sons, were written into the lineage of the Kingship in Israel, and eventually into the Lineage of the Lord Jesus Christ himself. Samuel, was called away from mourning for the sin of God’s people, and the failure of the leader to anointing David, the great King of Israel.
God’s grace, God’s mercy, God’s magnificent story doesn’t just stop in the Old Testament. See God has an impact on everyone us here, wether we want to recognize it or not. Every person sitting in this Church today, right now, can be written into the story of God’s plan for His kingdom. It is just a matter of where you are in that story.
God doesn’t care about the things that world cares about. God doesn’t care about your background, or your race or your money or your achievements or disabilitites or your abilities or your mental health, he cares about YOU> He care about your heart. He wants your heart to be wholy devoted.
Who Do You Mourn For?
Who Do You Mourn For?
Do you already know the Lord? DO you mourn for the sin you see around you? Is the world in a terrible place do you see it getting worse? Is the failure of the Church weighing heavily on your heart? Are you mourning, displeased, kept up all night, How long are you going to mourn, the Lord asked Samuel, How long are you going to mourn, the Lord may be asking you today. The world is steeped in sin. Your workplace may be corrupt and horrible, the town may be turning to drugs and idols and false religions, leaders may have failed, and there may even be poor leaders in your own families. But it isn’t up to you. God has it under his control.
God told Samuel to pick up his anointing oil, and go. It is not up to you, stop mourning, pick up your anointing oil and go. Your anointing oil is the Spirit of God through the Gospel of Jesus Christ. As you recieved the Holy Spirit in your salvation so pour out the gifts that the Holy Spirit gave you. Pour into the people around you. Pour out the love, the grace, and the mercy of Jesus Christ, to those the Lord has sent you to.
God doesn’t care about the things that world cares about. God doesn’t care about your background, or your race or your money or your achievements or disabilitites or your abilities or your mental health, he cares about YOU> He care about your heart. He wants your heart to be wholy devoted.
You may be frightened, Samuel was. Its ok, pray. Consecrate yourself to the Lord, pursue holiness, God will take care of the results, do not fear, and anoint those around you with the oil of the Spirit. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Show them that. Be a living testament to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. When you can tell them about Jesus. Tell them how Jesus changed your life, invite them to experience Jesus and consecrate themselves to God, bring them to Church.
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.
God doesn’t care about the things that world cares about. God doesn’t care about your background, or your race or your money or your achievements or disabilitites or your abilities or your mental health, he cares about YOU> He care about your heart. He wants your heart to be wholy devoted.
Jesus Calls You to Him
Jesus Calls You to Him
Maybe you aren’t there yet. Maybe you are still out in the field. That is great news, because God sees you as well. God doesn’t care about where you came from, or how you got here, he does not see things as the world sees them. He looks straight to the heart. He knows exactly where you are. It doesn’t matter if you are a drug addict, or an alcoholic, or a church goer. It doesn’t matter if you are a lier or a thief or an adulterer. It doesn’t matter because in this story, this story that God writes you into. It doesn’t matter who you are it only matters who He is. And He is Jesus Christ.
Jesus Christ lived the life that we could not live on our own. Jesus Christ,
He grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground. He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.
He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain. Like one from whom people hide their faces he was despised, and we held him in low esteem.
Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted.
But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed.
By his woulds we are healed. He took our sins upon the cross, our lies, our lust, our anger, our drunkeness, and he bore the punishment for those sins. He was the sacrifice, so that we could be set-apart to Him. Jesus makes us clean He takes out our heart of stone and replaces it with a heart of flesh. And he takes our life and he writes it i into His Story. Be part of His family God’s grace awaits you today. Ask him to be Lord of your Life, let him transform you by the power of the Holy Spirit, to be a new person, and a new creation. In Jesus Name
God doesn’t care about the things that world cares about. God doesn’t care about your background, or your race or your money or your achievements or disabilitites or your abilities or your mental health, he cares about YOU> He care about your heart. He wants your heart to be wholy devoted.