Episode Transcript
[00:00:04] Good morning, church.
[00:00:07] What a joy to be together. It is.
[00:00:10] We make jokes like this often, but it is legitimately. When you just sit in a room and listen to God's church sing Amazing Grace, you can just pack up and go home, right? Like, oh, my gosh. What. What the heck am I going to say? That was better than what we just said to each other.
[00:00:25] Dang.
[00:00:27] I am so glad, you guys, you didn't have to agree with it that hard. You could have fought me a little bit on that.
[00:00:37] I am excited for us to be together today. We are doing something, man.
[00:00:43] We're continuing our series in 1st Samuel today. We finished out one of our mini series within One Samuel. We're starting a new one today. And this, this is just one of those things as a pastor, I get to say. But I. I genuinely, I feel this. I experience this as a believer. Like, isn't. Isn't God's word just refreshing?
[00:01:01] Like, isn't there a truth to that? Like, how privileged are we as a church that we get to do this? We're sitting in a room right now with air conditioning, and we just got to, like, stand together in unity and praise the Lord and confess together and sing the truths of the gospel to one another. And now we get to sit and read through the word of God and reflect, reflect on the goodness of God to us.
[00:01:24] It is such an embarrassment of riches. We are blessed beyond measure. Amen.
[00:01:29] Regardless of what brought you in today, we say this sort of thing a lot. Whether you are right now encouraged or discouraged, whether this has been a joyful week or a difficult week or everything in between the spectrum of human experience. Right now, in this moment, you, beloved, are gathered in a room with brothers and sisters who love you and want to see you flourish in your faith.
[00:01:53] That is true of you. Right now, we're celebrating the real gospel of the real Jesus, which is life for the dead, food for the hungry, water for the thirsty. God is good to us, beloved.
[00:02:06] So let's jump into that. Today.
[00:02:08] We're going to be in 1st Samuel 16. If you want to go ahead and turn there. If you don't have a Bible with you today, we have house Bibles around the room. Look under the rows. They're on the edge there. We really believe in the importance of access to God's word here at Emmanuel Fellowship. If you don't own a physical copy of God's Word, I would strongly encourage you to just take one of those pew Bibles home. Or even better, talk to one of the pastors. We'll get you a nicer one. But we're starting this new series and I think I forgot to put the graphic in. I did that. That's not. That's not Bruce's fault. That's my fault.
[00:02:36] We're starting a new series today that I'm calling Hard Mode.
[00:02:40] And listen, I know some of you are immediately rolling your eyes because, yes, that is a video game reference, but I actually think. I think it's helpful. It's helpful. We're going to spend this little chunk of First Samuel, this series, talking about this movement in Israel from Saul's reign as the first monarch to David's reign as the second monarch. And we're going to be focusing in on this incredibly awkward in between time where Saul is still physically reigning as king, but God has rejected Saul's kingship and anointed David as his replacement. I'm calling it Hard Mode because these texts cover about 15 years of David's life.
[00:03:27] That awkward in between, from being anointed as king to actually taking on the kingship, represents about a decade and a half of David's life from when he's anointed till he takes the throne. What we're going to see in these texts as we work through them is we're going to see the work God does to sanctify and prepare David for his role as king. And spoiler alert, it's hard.
[00:03:56] It's difficult.
[00:03:57] It is through trial, it's through hardship, it's through sacrifice, it's through suffering that God matures and moves David from the young shepherd we're going to meet in our text today to the godly and strong king in Acts 13 all the way in the New Testament in Acts 13, there's this moment where the Apostle Paul is speaking and he's recounting Israel's history. And when he gets to David's reign, he says this in Acts 13. After this, he gave them judges until Samuel the prophet. Then they asked for a king and God gave them Saul, the son of Kish, a man of the tribe of Benjamin for 40 years. But after removing him, he raised up David as their king and testified about him. I have found David, the son of Jesse, to be a man after my own heart, who will carry out my will thousands of years later.
[00:04:48] This is David's legacy in faith and in Scripture.
[00:04:54] The king after God's own heart, who sought the the Lord who carried out his will. David was a man.
[00:05:02] He was a man with sin, like all of us. But this is somehow how his life Gets summarized why?
[00:05:11] Well, there's a lot of reasons, but one of the big ones, clearly presented in Scripture, is that God himself intervened in David's life to form him as this king, to sanctify him, to make him holy. Even though it blew up David's life in really difficult ways, even though it was brutally hard, even though he lived literal years in pain, in difficulty, he trusted God's purposes in his trials. And, guys, that's where we get the serious name. That's where hard mode comes in. Because David lived his life on hard mode, and God used that to form him into this man after his own heart.
[00:05:58] One of my favorite video games is a game called Celeste. It's a real game. You can look it up. It's a platformer, so think, like Mario jumping on different platforms. It's flat. I think I have a picture of it.
[00:06:10] Yeah, that's what it looks like.
[00:06:12] It's about a girl climbing up a mountain, and she's got to jump on platforms and dodge spikes and not get squished by rocks. Back and forth, back and forth. You're jumping, climbing to the top. It's really fun. It's on Nintendo. It's a great game.
[00:06:23] Here's why I mention it.
[00:06:25] This game is really stinking hard.
[00:06:29] Like, it's really hard. The difficulty of the game is actually the point of the game. You play this game and you have to get every single button press, every single movement exactly right, or you get spiked, squished, or deaded, and you just die over and over and over and over and over and over and over until you get the button combination exactly right.
[00:06:48] The difficulty of the game is the point of the game.
[00:06:51] It's actually what makes Celeste fun is losing over and over and over and trying to figure out exactly the right puzzle pieces to put together so that you can get to the next piece.
[00:07:03] It's really fun, but I think it's the appropriate kind of cheese that connects us to what we're talking about right now.
[00:07:09] James 1 famously says in the opening of his letter, he says that it is through our trials, through our suffering, that we find both growth and sanctification that ultimately, ultimately become our joy as believers.
[00:07:28] Right. Consider it pure joy when you face trials of many kinds.
[00:07:36] The difficulty of Celeste is what makes it a fun game.
[00:07:41] I'm not saying that the difficulties and trials of your life are fun.
[00:07:44] They're hard, but they are meaningful when they're submitted to Christ. So that's what we're going to be for the next several weeks, just A light hearted series first Samuel 16. And we're going to open this today by looking at David's being anointed by the prophet Samuel. It's a powerful story. It's a famous story, has one of the single most famous verses in the Old Testament. But within this overarching theme of God sanctifying us through difficulty and challenge, the main point today that we're going to see is that God anoints us. Normies like you and me.
[00:08:22] God anoints normies like you and me. I know that's a silly way to start, but I believe it's helpful because the work of God to advance his kingdom isn't done by superheroes and elites.
[00:08:36] The only superhero, the only elite in this world is Christ himself.
[00:08:41] But by God's grace, he works his kingdom, work through us. Beloved, God anoints the rejects and the castaways and the weaklings. Normal people, us, you and me.
[00:08:59] That's who Christ anoints. That's who Christ works through through.
[00:09:05] Beloved, you have a role in this. We, we're culturally trained to step back passively to see the problems in this world, to see the needs of lostness and to go, I can't do that. I need the hero, I need the strong person to show up and fix that. We're culturally trained to step back and look for someone else. But beloved, you were the one through whom the Holy Spirit works to advance his kingdom.
[00:09:31] You're the one that he anoints and works through to advance his work. He's the one doing the work, but he does it through you. Beloved, you have a role to play a part in God's work in this world. And trust me when I say this, you don't want to miss it.
[00:09:46] So pray with me. And we're going to look at this text. Jesus, we need you today to be our discipler Holy Spirit. We need you to be the one to do the ministry you promised Jesus that you would do. Where you illuminate the text to us, where you remind us of things we've forgotten, where you teach us new truths of the Gospel, where you challenge us on our sin, where you encourage us in our when we're beaten down, Lord, where you do this work of drawing us to life in you. We need you to do it because we're weak. And so we pray this in your name, Jesus. Amen.
[00:10:21] First Samuel 16, starting in verse one, we read this.
[00:10:25] The Lord said to Samuel, how long are you going to mourn for Saul since I have rejected him as king over Israel, fill your horn with oil and go. I'm sending you to Jesse of Bethlehem because I have selected for myself a king from his sons. Samuel asked, how can I go? Saul will hear about it and kill me. The Lord answered, take a young cow with you and say, I've come to offer a sacrifice to the Lord. Then invite Jesse to the sacrifice, and I will let you know what you are to do. You are to anoint for me the one I indicate to you.
[00:10:57] Samuel did what the Lord directed and went to Bethlehem.
[00:11:02] So our text picks up some indeterminate time after the events of chapter 15. We don't know exactly how long because Samuel kind of writes like this. There's lots of just skips of time in between scenes, but apparently not too much time has passed because Samuel is still mourning Saul's rejection as king. Remember, Samuel was the leader who sought Saul out, right? Like, he's the one who anointed and installed Saul as king. Israel was asking for a king, but. But through Samuel, God chose Saul, right? And so Saul specifically like his rejection. Like, even though Samuel may have been a harsh man at times, a strong man, he obviously loves Saul.
[00:11:46] His sorrow that Saul is not following the Lord, that Saul has been rejected as king. His sorrow for Israel of what this means for them in this fledgling state of their monarchy. And he's likely thinking of his own life and ministry, right? Like, Saul was supposed to be his legacy as a leader as he moves toward the end of his life. And can we just stop, like, before we get too far, can we just stop for a quick second and think about how relatable that reality is?
[00:12:15] How many times in life have you had the plan or the relationship just completely let you down, right where it felt like things clicked into place and then it just totally falls apart.
[00:12:30] How many times have you been really let down by a leader you trusted, a boss, the pastor, politician, a celebrity?
[00:12:39] Like, these things are.
[00:12:41] They're real losses.
[00:12:43] We really feel these things. There is real mourning. And I think the problem is that mourning is important, but we can get stuck, right?
[00:12:53] We can be so let down and so disillusioned that we lose some of ourselves in the morning.
[00:13:00] I know some of you have been there before. Some of you are probably there right now.
[00:13:04] One person's sin, one person's failure on your life becomes this dominating theme of your mind and thoughts. And you come back to it over and over and actually can hold you up from living the life you're supposed to live.
[00:13:18] Sometimes we need help to break out of that Unhealthy morning that has become brooding. Right?
[00:13:26] And beloved. You need to hear this. Like, I just feel like someone in the room probably needs this today. If that's where you're at today, you don't have to live there.
[00:13:35] You can be broken free from that. You can mourn what you need to mourn, and you can actually take steps toward what God has next for you.
[00:13:46] You can actually be free from that.
[00:13:48] We don't know in this text for certain how bad it was for Samuel, if it was that bad. But it was bad enough that God himself intervened to bring Samuel back to reality.
[00:13:59] How long are you gonna mourn for Saul?
[00:14:02] Samuel, I have a mission for you. Fill up your horn with oil and go. I've chosen someone else. You've got to go anoint him king. Remember back just a chapter ago, when Saul failed his mission, Samuel rebuked Saul for making excuses and not obeying. Right. God desires obedience. Well, now Samuel has to live what he preached.
[00:14:22] He has to be the one to take God at his word and obey. And Samuel hesitates.
[00:14:28] Listen, in spite of Samuel's words to him, Saul is still very much king of Israel. Right. And I don't know if you have interacted with many kings. I haven't. But I've been told one of their defining characteristics is not wanting to be replaced as king. Right.
[00:14:44] And so Samuel figures if Saul hears that I'm out recruiting his replacement, he's going to kill me.
[00:14:54] And so God gives them a cover story. Right. Go offer a sacrifice for the community.
[00:14:58] They need one anyway. Make sure you invite this guy, Jesse. I'll let you know what to do from there.
[00:15:04] So Samuel not only has to engage God's rebuke over his extended mourning, he has to take this step of real obedience. He has to go and he has to do something difficult and risky, and he does.
[00:15:17] I think as we dig into this story, it's important again to consider this idea of what this means for us in our own mourning.
[00:15:28] Sometimes we should mourn. The preacher in Ecclesiastes says there's a time to mourn. Right? That's. That's part of life. Sometimes life in this world is just hard enough that mourning is the right and godly and necessary reaction when we're let down, when we lose something or someone precious, when life doesn't turn out as we planned. But there's a time for our hearts to turn from mourning back to the Lord and to the work of seeking his kingdom that he has set for us.
[00:15:58] And sometimes it's hard to navigate how and when to do that.
[00:16:02] This is silly, but I remember when I was 18 and I mean like in the first couple months of when I really started to take my faith seriously, I had a couple people challenging me in my life to really live out my faith and to not kind of have this two faced, go to church and do the things I want the rest of the time.
[00:16:19] And during that time, I put myself out on a limb with a girl I liked and I kind of told her what was going on. She just totally shot me down and it blew up my face. And I was someone who was already struggling with a lot of anxiety and depression.
[00:16:31] It just wrecked me and I wasn't doing well and I was up in the middle of the night and I couldn't sleep. And I remember at this time I had these spiritual leaders who were saying, listen, if you want to take your faith seriously, you need to turn to the Lord when your heart is troubled. That's what we need to do. And so I okay, and I just as an 18 year old pick up my Bible and open it randomly and start reading. And I open it up to First Samuel and I read the chapters we've been reading over the last couple months at like 2 in the morning. And I'm going, what the heck does this have to do with anything? Jonathan's killing people and they're killing people and God's mad, like, what is this? Right? And then I got to this exact verse and I'm here to tell you this is not the main point of this text, but this is actually burned into my own story of faith and seeking the Lord. Because this was this moment in all my immaturity and all the stuff I was dealing with, with my emotional and mental health and all the stuff I was dealing with in my spiritual life and pursuing Christ. The Lord grabbed me in this moment and just said, I'm calling you to something and you need to see you have mourned enough.
[00:17:33] I'm calling you to something. You need to stand up and be a part of that.
[00:17:37] God used that to break me through to a place of spiritual obedience, of actually beginning to live and walk out my faith. And guys, I know this is like the teen drama application of this text, but the truth holds. Like, I think this is the heart of texts like Philippians 3:13 where Paul, speaking of his own story, talks about forgetting what is behind and reaching forward to what is ahead. I pursue my goal, the prize promised by God's heavenly call in Christ Jesus.
[00:18:07] There's a time to move forward.
[00:18:10] By the way, that's not to say that your past doesn't matter.
[00:18:13] Some of us have the tendency to just stuff our bad and difficult experiences and pretend they didn't happen and not process them. I'm not saying that our experiences, our past are incredibly important. They describe us and they affect us in real ways. And because they are so weighty, sometimes we need the Holy Spirit's power to gently remind us to keep moving that that moment describes you, but it doesn't define the rest of your life.
[00:18:43] That God's call in your life, that the direction of God's movement toward your sanctification, your participation in the kingdom doesn't end because of something tragic or difficult.
[00:18:54] Sometimes we need to be urged back into the steps of obedience.
[00:19:01] I'm just here to tell you guys, there is something so life giving in being drawn back to movement when you have been bogged down to not wallow in our sorrow, but to actually take steps toward the kingdom. Some of you need that encouragement today. The Lord sees you, beloved.
[00:19:22] He knows your mourning.
[00:19:24] He knows your story. He feels your sorrow with you. He mourns with you. And simultaneously, simultaneously he has amazing work for you in his kingdom.
[00:19:36] It might be time for you to start taking steps toward him again.
[00:19:40] Okay, read on with me and let's see how God worked this out in Samuel's Steps of Obedience. Picking back up in the middle of verse four it says this.
[00:19:48] When the elders of the town met him, they trembled and asked, do you come in peace? In peace, he replied, I've come to sacrifice to the Lord. So consecrate yourselves and come with me to the sacrifice. Then he consecrated Jesse and his sons and invited them to the sacrifice. When they arrived, Samuel saw Eliab and said, certainly the Lord's anointed one is here before him. But the Lord said to Samuel, do not look at his appearance or his stature, because I have rejected him.
[00:20:15] Humans do not see what the Lord sees, for humans see what is visible. But the Lord sees the heart.
[00:20:21] So Jesse called Abinadab and presented him to say, I said that word, that name, so confidently. Did you catch that? I didn't even struggle over that.
[00:20:31] I'm going to mess up the next one. Now unpresented in the same way, the Lord hasn't chosen this one either. Samuel then wait, Samuel said, Then Jesse presented Shema. But Samuel said, the Lord hasn't chosen this one either. After Jesse presented seven of his sons to him, Samuel told Jesse, the Lord hasn't chosen any of these.
[00:20:51] So Samuel obeys and he treks to this unknown little community called Bethlehem. And I know what you're thinking.
[00:20:59] I've heard of that town before.
[00:21:01] Yeah, I know, it's famous in the Bible. It's in this book called Ruth where they talk about it.
[00:21:09] In fact. In fact, this guy Jesse, this is Bible trivia for you. Ruth's grandchild. Great grandchild. Grandchild, grandchild.
[00:21:20] Bethlehem's also in the New Testament. That was. That was a dumb joke. I'm sorry. That's where the story takes place, where Ruth happens. Jesse's the grandson of Boaz and Ruth. He's well known, wealthy leader within this community. So it's not a surprise that Samuel would invite his family to a community sacrifice. But notice, and if you caught this, when Samuel arrives, he doesn't exactly get a warm welcome, right?
[00:21:45] He gets to town and people are like, why are you here? One commenter said, I think said it perfectly, that apparently the phrase hacked agag to pieces had traveled ahead of Samuel.
[00:21:57] And people were now curious what sort of ministry he was in fact bringing to their community.
[00:22:03] They want to know if he's coming with a harsh word to them, a rebuke from the Lord. But Samuel says he brings peace. And so the community gathers for this sacrifice and the feast that goes with it. The text says that Samuel consecrated Jesse and his sons. This likely means he just gave them instructions, instructions for what to do. Usually there's no one specific set of instructions for consecration for worship in the Old Testament, but it includes lots of things like not eating blood and not touching dead bodies and those sorts of things. So he gets them, gives them instructions on how to get ready. The point we're supposed to see here is that Samuel is making sure that there's not any reason that Jesse or any of his family would skip the sacrifice, right? He's setting this thing up because if they're not consecrated properly or if it's the morning of the sacrifice and one of the kids is like, oh, shoot, I touched a dead goat yesterday, like, he can't come. And so Samuel gives them instructions to make sure Jesse and his family get to this event.
[00:23:02] And then we get to the famous part of the text. As they're preparing for the sacrifice and the feast, Jesse's sons enter in, and Samuel sees Eliab, Jesse's oldest. And Samuel gives him one look and just goes, this is the guy, right? Like, this is the dude. And it just kind of harkens us back to the story of Saul's anointing. Kings are supposed to be strong, they're supposed to lead and fight and command respect. This is what Samuel sees in Eliab.
[00:23:33] But God hits the brakes.
[00:23:35] Don't look at his appearance. I haven't chosen him. God actually uses this word here, rejected. And I think it's a way of reminding Samuel how well it went last time he saw Buff Muscle King and pick that guy, right?
[00:23:50] Like, where's Dylan?
[00:23:52] Dylan White.
[00:23:55] If we were picking the king of Emanuel Fellowship Church today, we'd all be tempted to pick Dylan, right? We can all agree that that's where we'd go naturally.
[00:24:06] But God stops Samuel because he doesn't pick by outward appearance.
[00:24:12] The Lord looks upon the heart. We can't see Dylan's heart, but I'm sure it's wonderful in there. That was not saying that you're shallow.
[00:24:20] It's just saying that you're the buffest guy here. All right?
[00:24:25] This is a fundamental biblical truth.
[00:24:28] The Lord sees under the surface.
[00:24:31] The Lord sees the heart. God sees our real person. He sees behind our physical appearance. He sees what? Under the mask that we wear for the world because he knows the real us.
[00:24:44] And so this leads Samuel to this strange experience where he works his way down by age. The list of David's brothers. What about this one? What about this one? What about this one? And God doesn't choose any of them.
[00:25:00] I think it's really important to pause at this truth for a moment, to consider this fundamental biblical reality that God knows us on a way that we don't know one another, that he sees truths about us as people that we can easily hide from one another. God sees the real person.
[00:25:20] We use this phrase in Emmanuel often, but it's so core to how we not just understand, but experience the gospel. You, beloved, are seen by Jesus.
[00:25:31] He really sees you. Like, he really, really sees you. The real you, the strengths and weaknesses. Everything about you, it is known by the Lord. Hebrews 4:13 says, no creature is hidden from him. All things are naked and exposed to the eyes of him, to whom we must give an account.
[00:25:53] All of us are fully and completely exposed before the knowledge and judgment of the Lord. And here's the thing that. That is simultaneously scary and comforting, right?
[00:26:06] It's scary because it means God knows the real you.
[00:26:12] Not the social media you, not the Sunday morning at 10:25 when you're shaking hands and getting coffee, you. But you.
[00:26:21] All of you.
[00:26:23] The you that you hide, the you that no one else knows. The you that you're ashamed of. Of.
[00:26:31] That's scary to think that God knows that about you.
[00:26:35] The parts about you that you hate most, that you work as hard as you can to hide from the world.
[00:26:40] But it's also comforting.
[00:26:43] It's comforting because here's the thing.
[00:26:46] We can actually trust God's love.
[00:26:50] Think about that for a moment. He knows that about you.
[00:26:54] He knows you that truly that into Me, warts and all. And he still loves you.
[00:27:03] He's crazy about you. He still seeks you out and chooses you. Beloved, Jesus knowledge of us is scary because it's exposing. But God is not like the people we know.
[00:27:15] He's not fleshly and flawed. He does not turn away when he sees our sin and wickedness. He doesn't hold your failures against you. He meets you in your vulnerability, when you with love, with safety, with grace, with redemption.
[00:27:32] He redeems us in our weakness and brokenness. God's knowledge of us. Hear this, beloved. It's one of the greatest gifts. It's a real comfort in the face of this painful world.
[00:27:45] God's knowledge of you is comfort to you in the brokenness of this world.
[00:27:51] Read on for me. Let's look how this text lands out. Verse 11.
[00:27:55] Samuel asked him, are these all the sons you have? Which is such a great question.
[00:28:01] Well, they're still the youngest, he answered, but right now he's tending the sheep. So Samuel told Jesse, send for him, we won't sit down to eat until he gets here. So Jesse sent for him, and he had beautiful eyes and a healthy, handsome appearance. Then the Lord said, anoint him, for he is the one.
[00:28:18] So Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the presence of his brothers. And the spirit of the Lord came powerfully on David from that day forward. Then Samuel set out and went to Ramah.
[00:28:30] I love this scene for so many reasons, but I really love just the pure comedy of that moment when Samuel works his way down the list and just goes, you have any more, like, any more kids?
[00:28:43] Did he mishear God? No. This is human error, right?
[00:28:47] Could imagine Samuel looking over to Jesse any, any others, anywhere.
[00:28:53] And again, there's this piece we easily miss here. And I think we miss it because not only is this translated into English, but David is a legend, right? Like David is this hero of Scripture. And so we're. We're kind of predisposed to read his heroism into basically all the texts where he's there. And so we can miss this.
[00:29:11] But the author actually really wants you to see here that David is not the pick.
[00:29:18] He's not the guy to pick you See, at this point in Israel's history, shepherding wasn't really considered men's work.
[00:29:27] And here's what I mean by that.
[00:29:29] It was like, it took hard work, it took muscles, but it was dirty and lonely. And in small to medium scale, like most families did, really did not take any skilled labor.
[00:29:42] It's where you sent people who couldn't get other jobs. And if you had a large enough family, it's where you sent your daughters.
[00:29:48] Families that sent their sons to tend the sheep sent them there until exactly the moment when the son was strong enough to do literally anything else more productive for the family.
[00:30:00] It was not considered an honorable or good job.
[00:30:05] But David is in the fields with the sheep. He's such a background idea to his dad that his dad either didn't think to call him in from his work for the feast or he actively didn't want him there. Like, this is the grown up table. You're still at the kids table.
[00:30:22] We don't know which of those it was, but either way, it's a bad look for David, right?
[00:30:29] And Samuel responds strongly. Go get him. We're not doing this till he's here.
[00:30:36] No one even can sit till he gets here.
[00:30:39] So David is brought in and the text says, he has beautiful eyes and is handsome. And maybe you're reading that and you're going, hey, didn't God just say that appearance doesn't matter? Like, why is David also getting compliments, Right?
[00:30:52] But this is another example of the cultural separation.
[00:30:55] See these, these comments here on his eyes, on his handsomeness.
[00:31:01] These were basically a way of saying he's like a cute little boy.
[00:31:06] That's functionally what the text is saying here. Like, if Eliab is Dylan White, then David is like Ephraim Donahue, right? Like, he's just cute little. He's just a cute little kid.
[00:31:17] Maybe not that young, but you get the point.
[00:31:20] David is genuinely laughable as king material, especially when you set him next to his brothers.
[00:31:28] And yet David is God's man in this text.
[00:31:34] God speaks and Samuel anoints God's chosen one, David.
[00:31:40] It's a really strange scene, but it points to this larger point of where we're going with the series. Guys, David is no king right now.
[00:31:50] He's not. He's not ready for this.
[00:31:53] He's young, he's inexperienced, he lacks maturity, he lacks skills, he lacks strength. All the things that Samuel knows to look for, David has none of them.
[00:32:05] But God sees under the hood.
[00:32:08] He knows what is inside David. He knows the potential that is there for his kingdom. And in David's anointing, we see God working his will and bringing about his good future through a totally unexpected package.
[00:32:24] Right?
[00:32:26] God is not working through the hero, Eliab the superstar, but through David the kid, the normie, right?
[00:32:37] You and me, that's what we're supposed to see here.
[00:32:42] And this brings us to this fundamental tension that we will experience over the rest of these David narratives, especially as we see him grow and more and more in Christ likeness. As we read David's story, we're going to be tempted to see ourselves in David. And to some extent, by the way you are supposed to, the book is written that way, like David is this normal person, like you and me. And God uses him in these amazing ways. So God can use us like we're supposed to see David in what, in what it looks like to walk in faith, to trust in the Lord and to find the life and the call that he has for us. And that's beautifully true and it's a right understanding of these texts, but it's actually not the most important aspect of David's story.
[00:33:27] The text today wants to make sure that we know that above all of that, David is God's anointed one.
[00:33:34] And that anointing, this anointing of God is important because it draws us to the deeper and the more important truth, the truth that the normies like David and us point beyond ourselves to the real anointed one.
[00:33:52] See, the tradition of anointing God's kings, it's actually really important for us and how we understand our faith. It's actually really locked in to some of the practices and language of our faith.
[00:34:04] We get a word from this tradition of anointing kings that will be familiar to most of us. Messiah were translated in Greek. Christ.
[00:34:13] It just means anointed one.
[00:34:16] When we call Jesus Jesus Christ, that is not his last name.
[00:34:21] That either would have been the name of his father or that would have been the town he grew up in. Jesus Bar Joseph or Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus Christ is his title.
[00:34:31] Jesus the anointed one.
[00:34:33] So what's an anointing? Like, what does that mean? Why do Christians still use that term today? Right.
[00:34:39] Anointing is something we see in scripture that functionally it happens when someone would pour a special anointing oil onto a person or a thing. And that pouring out of this scented oil was meant as a physical analogy. Think of it similarly to how we understand communion or how we understand baptism. It's this acted out physical parable that points to a spiritual truth.
[00:35:03] Anointing, the pouring out of this sacred liquid onto a person or an object. It harkens back to God's very creative act in the garden.
[00:35:13] This is what the rabbis tell us about these anointing practices in ancient Judaism. You know, God spoke to the physical world and worked it, and he brought it into being. And a big part of this is the story of the garden, when God harnessed these waters and put these rivers in place and flood from that grew up the garden. And that idea of the water flowing through the land and bringing about and sprouting up life around it, of channeled water and rivers feeding a garden, became this image in the ancient Jewish mindset of God working his will in the world.
[00:35:50] So anointing has liquid poured out on an object or a person that represents both God's presence and God's work in that person or that place. The text tells us we just read that the Spirit of God came upon David with his anointing and worked through him the rest of his days. And we'll see that play out in David's life and David's reign. He's a normal person, but God works through him. His anointing is an image of this, a parable of this. God works through David to do his work in the world.
[00:36:21] And that is why this title, Christ or Messiah is so appropriate.
[00:36:26] Because Jesus is the embodiment of anointing. He is God in the flesh, working in this world to bring about his kingdom.
[00:36:35] Jesus, as we will say often in the coming months, is the better David.
[00:36:41] He's a better version of David. And that's where this text gets so cool. Because David's anointing was for David. It was to help him be a good king. And the Spirit worked through him. But Jesus's anointing is different than David's and better than David.
[00:36:56] David was a normal person, like you and me. He was completely and totally dependent on God to pour out his spirit on him and work through him. But Jesus, beloved, is God.
[00:37:07] Jesus is the anointing. So he brings it with him. It doesn't end with him because of Jesus accomplished work on the cross. God's anointing, that is a word for his presence and his action on earth. It continues working through Christ into us as his followers and into the world.
[00:37:25] Jesus called himself the living water, the well from which we drink to find life. He is the anointing. And his anointing moves from him through the cross, through salvation, into us, the church. And we carry that anointing with us through the Holy Spirit within us, bringing God's presence in his work into the world and sharing it with more and more.
[00:37:47] God moves his kingdom, his gospel, his redemption forward day by day, heart by heart, through normal people like us.
[00:37:58] Come on, church, be honest for a moment.
[00:38:03] That's cool.
[00:38:05] But that also sounds really familiar.
[00:38:08] Sounds an awful lot like our mission statement as a church, right?
[00:38:13] IFC people say it with me.
[00:38:15] As Christ pours into us, Christ pours out of us.
[00:38:19] I don't know if you've ever taken time to look at them, but in the back of the room we have these paintings.
[00:38:24] Kaylin Tennell, my sister in law, who was a member of our church, where they moved, made these paintings for our mission statement back when our church planted. I love these images. I think they're actually really helpful.
[00:38:35] I'll put them on the screen so you don't have to all cring your neck.
[00:38:38] It's, it's three paintings in order. And it goes through our, our vision statement as a church. It's the well, the cups in the world. And in this first picture of the well, we're reminded of John 4 that Jesus is the living water, that he is the source of life, that Jesus in the, in the language of our text, is the anointing of God living on earth. It's all about him.
[00:39:00] He's the life, he's the power, the Spirit, the Spirit. We talk about the Holy Spirit. That's the spirit of Christ who dwells within us as believers. We draw deep from the well of the living water. And below that you see the water pouring from the well. And the second image is this image of these cups.
[00:39:18] Because the anointing of Christ becomes our anointing when we receive the power of Christ, when we find forgiveness from our sins, redemption, when we walk in obedience and participate in the kingdom, we are filled to the brim with Christ himself. The Spirit that rose Jesus from the dead dwells within us. That's how our sins are forgiven. That's how we're redeemed. That's how we're sanctified. And so Jesus's anointing in a very real way becomes our anointing. As the Spirit gives abundantly of his power and his love so that we're filled to the brim and that we're able to share with one another as a church.
[00:39:53] When you show up on Sunday, when you show up to discipleship group, when you show up to small group, when you pray for one another, when you're doing this Work. The Spirit of God which has been poured out on you is pouring out of you into your brothers and sisters. And that anointing begins working in the circle, building up our church, drawing us back to Christ.
[00:40:11] And the last image is the image of that same water being poured out on the earth, the world.
[00:40:17] Because eventually, as we continue to draw from Christ and be filled to the brim and overflow to one another, sharing the goodness of the Lord, sharing the reality of the Gospel, the anointing of His Spirit with one another, we find that there's so much of Jesus that He's so gracious, so lavish with pouring out his spirit on us, that there's enough to go around.
[00:40:40] There's actually too much for us to keep to ourselves.
[00:40:44] And when you're finding life and freedom in Christ, when you're growing in your faith and finding joy in him, you'll find that it actually overflows out of you into those around you.
[00:40:53] And that naturally you begin to take that same gift you've been given and give it to those around you.
[00:40:59] And eventually this anointing that is Christ, that is moving through his church, pours out into the world, and more and more and more and more and more are brought into the life and freedom of Jesus. And all this happens not because of cool paintings at our church, not because of a mission statement on our website, but because God anoints the normal people.
[00:41:21] Because that's the promise of the Gospel, that God's Spirit saves and redeems and speaks through the Davids and the Sams and the Dylans and the Ephraims and everyone to advance his kingdom in this world.
[00:41:38] Beloved, does that not bring you joy?
[00:41:42] Does that not spark hope within you, that you have been invited into this wonderful work?
[00:41:50] But here's the thing. Here's the thing.
[00:41:53] Drinking deep of the Gospel of the living, well, that is not a passive experience.
[00:41:59] That's not something you just sit back and wait for. That's about seeking out the living water.
[00:42:05] All of us, beloved, all of us are weak. All of us are sinful.
[00:42:09] If we are to be filled with Christ, it will be because we are choosing to seek him out. Because we're taking the steps we can take. Not because we're some super Christian who has it all figured out and got all our spiritual disciplines all lined up. And our Bible has more underlines than anyone else. Not because we're so amazing at this point, but because in our weakness, we're taking the steps we can toward Christ, actually being active in our faith and Seeking him out, Looking at the state of your faith now and going, man, this is a mess. But I know I can take this step toward him. I know I can grow in obedience here and taking those steps and seeing how as we move toward Christ, he moves towards us and faithfully fills us up with himself, brings about real life, real sanctification.
[00:42:54] It looks like something, a life. Living into your anointing in Christ, it is unavoidably difficult because we are normal, because we are sinful, because we are weak, because we are David, we need help.
[00:43:11] It's hard.
[00:43:13] If it were up to us, we would fail. We would run away. But beloved, we are not on our own.
[00:43:20] We are anointed by the very spirit of God, the Spirit that rose Jesus from the dead and dwells in his children and dwells in you and me.
[00:43:29] So what does it look like? What does it look like for you today to embrace the heart and to actually trust the spirit to form you band. If you want to come back up, we're going to land out.
[00:43:43] I'm reminded of this legendary within Christian circles, this missionary, Hudson Taylor. If you've never looked up and read a biography of Hudson Taylor, it should be on your bucket list of books. Hudson Taylor founded the China Inland Mission. He's an English dude. In the 19th century, he was going to medical school to become a doctor. And he began to understand his faith and understand his call, and then felt this weighty call from the Lord to step out in obedience and go and bring the gospel into the inner depths of inland China, where most Westerners weren't welcome, where there was no presence of the Christian church, where the people were completely and totally unreached. He was totally unqualified. He had no money, he had no funding, he had no sending. He didn't speak Chinese. He didn't know anything about any of it.
[00:44:28] But he was almost a medical doctor and he thought that could probably get me somewhere.
[00:44:34] And as he started praying about this and bringing his church into it and speaking to his pastors about it, and they're kind of like, yeah, I have no idea how you go be a missionary in China. I don't even think they let people in, but they kept praying about it. And the thing I love about Hudson Taylor's story, He's in his 20s at this point, is he just begins, begins training himself with zero clue what he's training himself for.
[00:44:58] And so he goes, I bet people in China walk a lot.
[00:45:02] I'm going to stop riding the horse and carriage. I'm going to Walk everywhere.
[00:45:05] So he just does.
[00:45:07] And then he gets in his head and he goes, I bet the restaurants aren't as good there, and I bet I'll be poor if I'm a missionary.
[00:45:14] I'm gonna see how little food I can eat and still be strong enough to do my job. And so he starts training himself on what he's eating and his physical activity.
[00:45:23] And then he goes, I wonder how hard it is to learn Chinese. And he starts seeking out, like, he does all these things with no clue what God is gonna actually call him to, what the details are gonna be. He begins physical and mental and spiritual training, just taking the steps he can take, living this difficult life. And you know what's amazing is God used this dude to not just break the gospel into inland China for the first time in history, but to start one of the largest missions movements in church history that is still active today, still functioning today.
[00:45:56] And he ended up spending most of his life traveling throughout Europe and the United States, calling up young people and college students and high school students and married couples to go and say yes to the call and go on the mission field. Thousands of missionaries stepped into the field and preached the gospel and did the work because of Hudson Taylor's willingness to walk to work and eat an apple for lunch.
[00:46:20] Come on, church.
[00:46:23] To say yes to Christ, to say yes to the anointing that Christ has poured out on you, the kingdom work he's called to you unavoidably means your life will be harder, but it will be more fulfilling.
[00:46:40] It will be the kind of life you want to leave.
[00:46:44] And so, as we land out today, I'm going to ask you guys, as we always do, just to take a minute in prayer before we continue on in our response. And I want you to ask Christ this question. As you reflect on His Word, I want you to just ask yourself this.
[00:47:00] If Christ has faithfully filled you with his spirit, if he has anointed you, if he has done the work of salvation in you, where is the place where you can take the anointing of Jesus today that no one else is going to take?
[00:47:15] Because I'm here to tell you, beloved, that place exists.
[00:47:19] That person exists. They are breathing right now.
[00:47:23] That may be a kid, that may be a grandkid, that may be a neighbor, There's a reason that Christ has built the life for you. He has built.
[00:47:35] He has put his spirit within you. You.
[00:47:38] You are the missionary that he has raised up. You have his anointing to go and do his work. You do.
[00:47:48] That's not by accident.
[00:47:51] It's because that's exactly how Jesus works. He seeks out people like us to go and advance his kingdom.
[00:47:59] So I'd encourage you to ask the Lord today what does it look like for you to take a step forward in obedience?
[00:48:04] Where are you called to take that anointing, to pour out that living water so that someone else may drink and find life?
[00:48:13] And when you've sat in that for a moment, when you maybe feel like the Lord has given you that next step of faith and obedience, I would encourage you, for those of us in the room who are in Christ, to continue your response through communion.
