The King

LIMAVADY INDEPENDENT METHODIST CHURCH

SERMON NOTES FROM SUNDAY 7 MAY 223 AM

1 SAMUEL 16 VERSES 1 – 13

We are turning this morning to this portion of scripture with the thought on our minds of the king.  We want to get our eyes on the God of heaven who was working behind the scenes.  We are told life is like a race – Hebrews tells us to keep our eyes on him, the author and finisher of our faith.  When we do that we cannot go astray.  On the past 2 Sundays we were thinking about Gideon.  The children of Israel had rebelled against God and the enemy had come in and destroyed the land.  The Israelites were in fear of their lives so they went to hide in the mountains and dens.  God was working in the background.  We need to keep that in our minds – in our lives, in our fellowship, in our province and in our nation.  God is still working in the background.  He is control of all the situations happening in our world today.  God heard their cries and he brought forth a Gideon.  He is working things out for our good.  Let us think through this story of how God is working in the background.

 

The sovereignty of God’s calling.  God is working out his plans.  Israel had come through the time of judgment.  A dark time in Israel.  God blessed his people but then Israel turned away from God.  They became complacent, went more and more into sin.  They cried unto God and he heard them.  God delivered them out of that situation.  Samuel was now old in age.  He didn’t live up to his reputation.  The people wanted a king, one who they could look up to, to lead them into battle.  Samuel felt hurt about what was being asked of him.  God gave him an answer to that problem – “they haven’t rejected you but they have rejected me.”  God knew the situation and he gave them a king in Saul.  He was a man after man’s own liking not God’s.  God told Samuel “I have provided me a king”.  God is working in the background.  No-one else knew about this.  God was working out his plans, overseeing the details.  How apt we are to get our eyes on men in certain situations but man will fail us and let us down.  David proved that – he said in Psalm 142 “no man cared for my soul.”  Something happened in his life.  He likened it to being in a horrible pit, a place he couldn’t get out of.  He was sinking deeper and deeper every day.  He looked around him and no-one was able to help him.  Sometimes we get ourselves into the situation where we can see no help.  No-one has the answer for us.  Psalm 40 “the Lord inclined his ear unto me, he heard my cry, he reached down to where I was and he lifted me out of that miry clay.”  There is nothing too hard for the Lord.  “He set my feet upon a solid rock.”  That is what some need too.  Looking in the wrong direction for your help but it should be the Lord whom we look to.  God is sovereign over all things.  Samuel went down with a little oil – verse 6.  As Jesse’s sons began to pass before Samuel he wondered which one the Lord had chosen.  As he looked at the first son he thought surely this is the Lord’s anointed.  God spoke to him and told him he was looking at the outward appearance but he looked at the heart.  God is looking at our hearts today.  What does he see?  Someone who has never trusted Christ for himself?  Think of God putting all the stars in the heavens.  When Jesus stepped up in the boat he rebuked those waves and winds.  We see Jesus’ sovereign power over the cleansing of peoples sicknesses or the blindness of a man sitting on the road to Jericho.  Or in the raising of Lazarus from the dead after being in the grave for 4 days.  Let’s not put our trust in man today.  It should be based on Christ not thinking we know better and best.  Samuel put his confidence in God.  It is the Lord who sets up kingdoms and brings them down.  Nebuchadnezzar in Daniel 2 saw a vision of different metals.  Daniel in his interpretation told him that God had given him the power and prominence.  In chapter 4 when Nebuchadnezzar went out into the gardens he declared “is not this great Babylon that I have built.”  When those words were in his mouth God brought him down.  “The king’s heart is in the hands of the Lord, as the rivers of water he turneth it withersoever he will.” (Proverbs 21 verse 1)  We need to pray for those in authority.  It is a challenge to us.  We should pray for kings and those who rule over us.  Remember those who are elected into government as well as the king on the throne.  Pray that God will bring the right ones into authority.  God’s sovereign hand in the background.

 

The secrecy of God’s calling.  Jesse knew nothing in this decision by God and his  sons don’t know anything about it either.  David was out under a tree.  He knew nothing of it.  God was working it all out secretly.  God was calling Samuel in the quietness of the night in the temple.  Samuel was just a little boy serving in the temple.  He got up in the morning and opened the doors to the temple and closed them at night.  He also attended to the needs of Eli the priest during the day.  He knew nothing of God’s plan for his life.  God spoke to him in the night time. God was working and no-one knew about it.  Not even Eli the priest himself.  Samuel was the mighty prophet of God.  God was working in the background.  He was working in this young mans life.  The sheepfold was his training ground, away from the public gaze.  Only a young boy.  He seen the hand of God in his life.  He could testify to Saul the king of the night when the bear came and God delivered him.  And when the lion came God also delivered him.  It was his responsibility to look after his father’s sheep.  Surely it is a reflection of Jesus and the work he came to do.  He was guarding the sheep of Israel.  He was doing his Father’s work on the cross of Calvary.  He was showing God’s love to the world.  He was showing obedience to his Father as well, providing a way of salvation for us all.  Jesus said “I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do.” (John 17 verse 4) Have you accepted that today?  David in his obscurity was being fit for this task in the secret place.  Joseph was only 17 years of age.  Sometimes we cannot understand the road God takes us down.  We can allow the devil to have a foothold in our lives.  Maybe you are going through a hard time.  Remember when Joseph went out to meet his brothers.  They rose against him and sold him as a slave.  He was sold into Egypt and the house into which he was brought into, the wife told lies about him.  He didn’t understand why the world was turning against him.  He was cast into prison for something he didn’t do.  God was working in the background bringing him down into Egypt to be the second in command.  A position of respect and authority.  The Israelites were 400 years in Egypt.  Moses was 40 years in obscurity.  God was preparing him to go down to speak to Pharoah and bring the Israelites out.  In the story of Esther we see Haman who hated the Jewish people.  He made a vow and had the king sign it.  He wanted all the Jewish nation completely wiped out.  God was working in the background to work it all out.  God brought about the demise of Haman through a girl called Esther.  She would become a queen and God would deliver the nation through her.  Haman was so wicked he had planned the gallows to kill Mordecai.  God worked it out that Haman would be on those gallows not Mordecai.  He was working secretly behind the scenes.

 

The simplicity of God’s work.  Some say David is about 16 years of age at this point.  He was out keeping the sheep, counting them, looking after them, feeding them, taking them to the cool water that no wild animal comes down to the flock and take them away.  Maybe we are not where we should be today.  God wants to guide us into the right place.  He is working out his plan.  They never expected this lad.  God spoke to Samuel about him. This is the one I have chosen.  God didn’t look upon the gifts of David but looked at his faithfulness.  Samuel calls for the young man to be brought.  When David was brought in Samuel knew he was God’s appointed man.  God is not looking for great talents but faithfulness today.  David was not perfect by any means.  He was always ready to admit his wrong, to come to repentance and trust in God, to bring him back to God.  We are only called to be faithful today.  We are not judged on our success but our faithfulness.  Caleb in the Old Testament earned the right to the land he would possess not because of his strength and ability.  His testimony was – he wholly followed the Lord.  The only testimony I want to have before God is that I wholly followed the Lord.

 

The significance here that God has.  David was to be the king of Israel.  God would carry out his plan and Samuel poured the oil on David.  Samuel anointed David for that task.  David was taken out from the family.  There is a separation. The oil poured on David speaks of the Holy Spirit.  Our ministry needs that Holy Spirit today.  God has a task for you that only you can carry out for him.