"The Shepherd King" Revival Series Part 1 - The Lord Looks at the Heart

[Music] [Music] for those of you who are regulars you'll notice that our background is a little different and you've probably gathered that we are beginning a new series and you're correct i've been looking forward to this for some time we're going to be talking for probably the next 12 presentations about the life of one of the great bible characters and that would be david a series called the shepherd king now today's presentation is going to be part one talking about how the lord looks at the heart there's very few people in history i don't just mean bible history but i mean history in general that have experienced as much adventure in the highs and lows and the many facets of life as the subject that we're going to be considering in the next few weeks you know there are people in history that you might call soloman the magnificent or ivan the terrible or alexander the great but there really is no superlative that you can find to describe this incredible character david matter of fact a couple of hundred years ago bible critics even some of the scholars were saying well david really just was manufactured he's a series of stories that came from a hebrew lore there really was no person named david just like sometimes they argued there really was no king arthur that he's a fictional character from hebrew history made to inspire but and to teach some lessons but there really could never possibly be one individual that had that much talent and adventure packed into a single life and that's what they said and so they downplayed and they dismissed the story about david and the accuracy of his experience but then some things happened that began to shake up the critics for one thing some discoveries remain for instance talking about the house of david in 1993 and 94 in northern israel there was a section of a monument stone the stilley and it was found in the tel dan dan is a northern territory of israel had an inscription on it and i think we've got a picture of it up there on the screen and in the inscription it talks about the house of david and that just really shook up the critics and by the way it is today in the museum of jerusalem and it generated a lot of debate and articles but they looked at it and they looked at it again they said that's what it says meaning there really was a person named david and it was his monarchy known as the house of david well even before that they'd found another inscription it's what they call the moabite stone written by king misha of moab and during roughly the same time period and again they found the inscription the house of david these stellas were stone monuments or pillars that they would inscribe history on and even joshua did that when the children of israel crossed over they plastered some rock and they put the blessings and the cursings on this they would put the history of nations on these rocks and then at karnak in egypt there's a pharaoh is pharaoh shoshnek the first he's actually in the bible referred to as shaishak same king he records his victory over rehoboam who is the grandson of david and in the different cities that he mentions there's one location referred to as the heights of david and so when you think about how little excavation is really done in that territory there's probably a lot more yet to be discovered every time they try and build in jerusalem they run into artifacts they just don't have time to stop and dust off and sift through all of the artifacts that they discover and there's probably going to be more that will come to life but there's plenty i think that you can find in history that tells us that david was a real person even the way the story of david is recorded in the bible it not just it doesn't just glorify his good deets and his feats and his valor it talks about his weakness and his bad decisions and you read about it you see this was a very human individual now of the people that you can study in the bible few have a bitter a bigger impact on biblical history and christianity than the character of david abraham is mentioned 232 times in the bible moses is mentioned 850 times in the bible jesus has mentioned 981 times his name in the bible but the name of david is mentioned more than a thousand times in the bible you know there are other people in the bible that had the name moses and there are other people in the bible that had the name jesus and joseph but there's only one person in the bible that had the name david there's no other parallel to this individual about 66 chapters in the bible that's a lot is dedicated to david of the 150 psalms 76 of those psalms are called psalms of david now there are some psalms like the second psalm for instance it doesn't say a psalm of david but when peter quotes from the second psalm in the new testament he calls it a psalm of david so there are some of the psalms that probably were written by david that he doesn't even get credit for and so the impact of the person we're going to consider on the christian faith and bible history is really hard to measure david was a remarkable person the name david it means beloved it's very similar to the word love in the bible and it means the favorite or the beloved one there's even a book in the bible and you kind of gather that the whole purpose of this book is to introduce the coming of david it's called the book of ruth when you get to the end of the book of ruth it says boaz and ruth they have this baby name obed it's a wonderful love story about a moabite girl who immigrates and comes to bethlehem and how her family is redeemed it's a story of redemption and the whole story concludes by saying they had a boy named obed who then had a boy named jesse who had a boy named david and so it all leads into the story of this magnificent king now david is not the first king and maybe i'll get to that in a minute one reason i think it's really important for us to do this series you might be thinking oh pastor doug we're a christian church why are we going to spend so much time in the old testament talking about an old testament character that doesn't bother me it does bother some people but you need to know that the first thing it says in the new testament it talks about the genealogy of jesus the son of david and so to understand jesus you really need to know something about david because david is a type of christ he is probably one of the most profound types of christ joseph moses david very powerful examples in their lives of jesus the book of jeremiah chapter 23 verse 5 behold the days are coming says the lord that i will raise up to david a branch of righteousness a king will reign and prosper and execute judgment and righteousness in the earth prophecy about christ is called the branch of david revelation 22. here you are at the end of the bible and jesus is speaking it's in red letters and christ said i've sent my angel to testify to you these things in the churches i am the root and the offspring of david the bright and morning star and so you see friends it's so important that we are talking about the life of david because when you talk about the life of david you're talking about jesus and you'll be surprised as we explore the lessons in the bible from the experience of david how much you're going to learn about jesus and so really to understand this now our study today just so you want to know what the neighborhood will be if you go to the first book of samuel chapter 16 that is going to be the nucleus for where we're going to be first samuel chapter 16. we cannot dive right in and start talking about david without giving you a little background david was probably born about 0 10 10 b.c of the events we're going to consider transpire about 1025 bc for those of you that like world history this is about the time that some people left southern china in boats and began to explore and settle polynesia this is about the same time the chinese discovered gunpowder this is about the same time in the americas the olmec civilization began to develop math and build pyramids and you're talking about a thousand years what we used to call bc which was before christ until the agnostics changed it to bce and tried to get rid of any reference to god in that you've got to understand something about the king before david now david is not the first king of israel i've heard some say that technically he's not even the second king of israel there was one man that was a king in israel for a brief time during the time of judges a himalay uh he's not a good guy and he didn't end well he got hit on the head by a stone that a woman threw off the wall and he had kind of a short violent reign but the first king of the united kingdom was a king by the name of saul and you may remember the story about the fall of saul is is uh not a happy one but it's there it's an important study the people up until that time when they entered into the promised land they were led by generals like joshua and judges sometimes the priest but they were different from the other nations in that the lord was their king and you know some of the ancient kingdoms didn't really have a singular king some of them like the philistines didn't have one king they were divided into they called them kings but they were divided into like five districts and they sort of had this coalition of district kings well the hebrews had their 12 tribes and they would have various judges but they really saw god as their king but then something came over and they said you know we don't have like a capital we don't have a king who leads us out and we want to be like the other kingdoms we want someone who's going to go fight our battles for us we don't want the headaches of of organization and they came to samuel who had been a faithful prophet for many years probably over 40 years samuel would be the last of 12 judges and they said and you'll find this in first samuel chapter 8 verse 5 now make us a king to judge us like all the nations just an interesting footnote now you don't mind if i stop and teach instead of preach along the way just something you might want to know it was never god's original plan for them to have a king but god knew they would eventually have a king because during the time of moses he said when you have a king. and so god foresaw that they would eventually clamor to have a king and but it wasn't his original plan he was to be their king they said make us a king we want to be like the other nations which is already a sign of going the wrong direction and so finally samuel consented and after being guided they picked uh saul is their king it's interesting the name saul means asked for and it's almost like that so you asked for it and when samuel helped pick the king and saul was chosen he was very tall he was kind of what every everyone would have pictured if you said picture a mighty king they say charlemagne was a very large man he wrote a very big horse he was a you go to france you see some of the statues of charlemagne he's huge and of course they always do that with statues but they say in real life he was a big man mighty warrior this is what they pictured with saul he was a big man the bible said he's a head and shoulders above everybody else and they've done an enough excavation during that time period and they were kind of the same height as we are it's kind of interesting you know you go to europe and england they excavate and you look at the armor that the men wore they were short they just all had rickets they didn't eat well but when they do the excavation in the middle east they were about our size matter of fact some of them got to nine feet and a half that's goliath friends we'll get to that later but uh so to say that saul was a head and shoulders taller than everybody else you know he's probably uh six feet four or something he was a tall man and everyone thought what a king and he started out humble a matter of fact later when he was rebuked by samuel samuel said to him when you were little this is first samuel 15 when you were little in your own eyes even though he was tall he was humble were you not head of the tribes of israel and the lord anointed you king of israel saul was chosen by god but with power often comes temptation you've heard the expression many times power corrupts and as saul went out in the spirit of the lord and he was victorious in the battle and all the people began to praise him and sing about him it began to go to his head he started thinking i really must be something special chosen by god victorious in battle and here just with a few men we defeated much bigger armies and he started to take the glory on himself and he became proud and then he got to where he wasn't listening to the direction of god he wasn't obeying the commandments of god and god began to withdraw his spirit from saul on two separate occasions he was given some opportunities to redeem himself some major tests on one occasion samuel specifically said to saul before you go down to battle with the philistines wait seven days i will come to you at gilgal i'll offer sacrifice wait for me saul went down for this massive battle all the forces of the philistines have gathered and he waited and he thought that they they were going to attack any time and he lost faith and he said look out of samuel's getting old he forgot he's running behind i'll do what no no man was supposed to do but the levites and the priests he offered sacrifice and right when he did that samuel came samuel said because you disobeyed god was getting ready to establish your kingdom there would have been a dynasty of kings a monarchy named after you if you had proven yourself faithful but now you're going to lose the kingdom because you lost patience a lot of people lose everything when they lose patience well several years went by even though god said your monarchy won't continue he still had a chance to redeem himself samuel was sent again to saul he said i'm sending you to fight against the mortal enemies of israel the amalekites amalek was the son of esau and they were the first to attack israel when they became a nation and they came out of egypt said i want you to go attack and annihilate those people do not take any of the spoil destroy everything they are corrupt diseased people saul was given an order if you don't destroy them they'll destroy you and he said wipe them out saul didn't want to do that and the people they said to the king oh you don't want to destroy all these sheep they won they beat the soldiers and they said don't destroy all the the animals i mean you know we'll keep them we'll sacrifice these instead of sacrificing our own and so we'll end up with more and he gave in to what the people wanted which is a major failure for a good leader if you're going to be a spiritual leader you've got to get your leadership from god not from the people because the people are always going to kind of lead you down you need to stand and lead back to god and he gave in to the people gave into the crowd and god told samuel look saul has stopped following me he not only saved the sheep and the goats and and the cattle he did not kill agag he said you know it'd be nice to bring back a trophy we've captured the king alive after all if they captured me i wouldn't want them to kill me and so let's bring them back as a trophy put them in prison and you know because he did not annihilate agag and the house of ag uh you read later in the book of esther there was someone who tried to now annihilate all of the jews his name was haman the a-ga guide when you don't follow god's orders god can see down the line he knows what he's saying and so saul did not obey and ultimately god said in a message through samuel to obey is better than sacrifice and to hearken than the fat of rams your rebellion is like witchcraft because you are not obeying me you're going to lose the kingdom and first samuel 13 13 samuel said to saul you have done foolishly you have not kept the commandment of the lord your god which he commanded you for now the lord would have established your kingdom over israel forever but now your kingdom will not continue notice the lord has sought for himself a man after his own heart and the lord has commanded him to be a commander over his people because you have not kept what the lord commands you notice the word command command command command do the commandments of god matter to god if you believe the bible it's pretty clear that they do and so again you read in first samuel 15 28 samuel said to him the lord has torn the kingdom of israel from you and has given it to a neighbor of yours who is better than you well as soon as saul heard this instead of thinking of humbling himself saying lord i'm sorry you know even a wicked king like ahab when he humbled himself god showed mercy to him and there were several times when kings humbled themselves and he showed them mercy but saul instead of repenting and being sorry he began to be suspicious and say someone else is going to get my kingdom that's just not fair and he was angry with god and he began to wonder and plot and think well maybe i can stop that prophecy if i find out who's going to be king in my place i'll get rid of him you know someone else who did that his name was herod the great he killed all the babies in bethlehem because he was threatened that there'd be another king and that same spirit it's a diabolical spirit of jealousy began to come over saul and he began to drive the holy spirit out of his life so god is patient from the time that god first told saul you're going to lose the kingdom when saul offered sacrifice what only the priests were supposed to do several years went by and then he had the failure with not fulfilling his will with the amalekites and it may actually be that king david was born around the time god said i'm seeking a man after my own heart because he sees saul reigned for 40 years it was about 10 or 12 years into his reign he began to fail he became proud so ultimately now go to matter of fact i want you to go to chapter 16. i told you this a while ago sorry i never went there go to chapter 6 chapter 15 of first samuel and it says after this last announcement of judgment that samuel made on saul in verse 35 samuel went no more to see saul until the day of his death nevertheless samuel mourned for saul and the lord regretted that he had made saul king over israel now you know where else you find those words when it says the lord regret it well yeah just before the flood god said god was sorry that he had made man now god chose to make man and god chose saul the history could have been completely different saul had the freedom to be a good king and god gave him the benefit of the doubt even though god knows all things god doesn't make everything happen god knows everything that will happen but he's not making everything that happened you have a free heart and a free will to choose and saul made very bad choices he chose to be proud he chose to be rebellious and god regretted that he made him king saul samuel continued to mourn for saul because he had had such great hopes and he spent a whole night praying for him now you look in that chapter 16 verse 1 here's where you see samuel the prophet he's been prophet faithful prophet many years going on his last mission now the lord says to samuel how long will you mourn for saul seeing i have rejected him from being king over israel a matter of fact in the previous chapter it says at one point samuel spent the whole night in prayer oversaw now that may bother you to hear this but it is true that even though he prayed all night for somebody the prayer was not answered because it makes a big difference when you pray for people god's spirit can work in their lives in dramatic ways i believe jesus prayed for judas don't you think i think that god prayed for adam i mean sometimes people have a freedom and adam prayed for cain and it's important and god does answer prayer don't misunderstand but not every time as long as a person has a free will and so samuel was mourning that saul he was worried about the kingdom he says what am i going to do now saul's not king i'm too old to do this samuel's sons had not been faithful they were to be judges and they started taking bribes that's when they started asking for a king and god said how long will you mourn for saul see and i've rejected him from reigning over israel fill your horn with oil it's interesting that when when samuel anoints saul he uses a vial but when he anoints david he uses a horn of oil which was something that they used in the temple it says go i'm sending you to jesse the bethlehemites for i provided myself a king from among his sons and samuel is singing with saul is still on the throne he says in verse 2 how can i go if saul hears it he'll kill me he had already seen that saul was acting vindictive and jealous and threatened what does it mean if you're anointing one king why another king's still alive isn't that viewed as treason that'd be treacherous some of you if you remember your bibles you know that elisha the prophet told one of the sons of the prophets says i want you to go to israel and i want you to anoint a general their name jehu to be the king and after you anoint him and proclaim that he's to be the king run for your life because if word gets back to the sitting king that someone else has been chosen as king you can be seen as a uh a traitor and so you know samuel's going uh saul may not look how am i supposed to do this i'm gonna you know when he when saul was anointed it was a great fanfare and everybody was excited about this king and he was announced and and says i don't want to do that how can i do it if saul hears he will kill me it's also interesting hasn't god taken care of samuel all along the way that he should begin to question if god could take care of him at this point and god says look here's what you do take a heifer with you and say i've come to sacrifice to the lord now god's not telling samuel to lie he did that very thing they did come to bethlehem to offer sacrifice it was absolutely true then invite jesse to the sacrifice and i'll show you what you shall do and you shall anoint for me the one i name to you so it wasn't that unusual samuel started the school of the prophets he would go he went on a circuit around israel rama which was his hometown was about 11 miles north of bethlehem you've got jerusalem about four miles away from jerusalem you've got bethlehem and then you go 11 miles north from there you've got rama from that central location samuel used to go on a circuit through israel like a good priest and a teacher and a judge and he would judge the people he'd offer sacrifice he'd intercede for the different districts and the tribes and so it wasn't going to be that unusual that he would go to this tribe of judah offer sacrifice in bethlehem but he was then going to call jesse into an inner room way into the house for the family and he was going to do this anointing service ostensibly that's what happened and so samuel did what the lord said can you say amen do you do what the lord says when you know what he says you might ask questions but when you know what god says you need to do it and don't be a here but a doer samuel did what the lord said and he went to bethlehem and the elders of the town trembled they saw him coming maybe with a servant or two and one there one of them's pulling a heifer for sacrifice and they said do you come peaceably they're trembling when samuel comes why well i don't know if you remember that when they prayed for king god gave him a king and after samuel introduced the king and said this is the way of the kingdom then samuel says now you've sinned a big sin and asking for a king you've rejected god and asking for king it's wheat harvest now and you're getting ready to harvest but i'm going to pray and god's going to send thunder and rain and destroy your crops so samuel prays and thunder and rain comes and destroys their crops this is a fellow who prayed and things happened so when he came to your town you went uh-oh they all had guilty consciences and they thought now what's up what did we do has he found out so they're worried about what his presence means is he coming to bless or is he coming to curse did we do something wrong the elders of the town trembled at his coming this is not your regular appointment do you come peaceably he said peaceably shalom i have come to sacrifice to the lord sanctify yourselves clean up and come together we're going to offer sacrifice and come with me to the sacrifice and then he met jesse and the bible says jesse was an ancient man at this point meaning he was one of the elders in bethlehem and he would be hosted by one of the families he said jesse i'm to be hosted with you and he consecrated jesse and his sons and invited them to the sacrifice and so when they came they offered the sacrifice and then he evidently he goes into this because you don't want this being too public he maybe goes into jesse's house and he meets with them before they sit down to the free see they would offer the sacrifice and then they would begin to butcher the sacrifice for the family and they would eat of it and maybe he went in the house jesse at a home probably a large home he's an elder in the land and he said look i'm here on a special mission he had to tell jesse what was up it says i'm to choose and anoint one of your sons says he comes into the house that he samuel looks at eliab and he said surely the lord's anointed is before him now eliab was he was as close to saul as any of the sons of jesse he is tall dark and handsome he looks like a prince he looks strong he's the firstborn you know the firstborn are usually the most responsible ones because they've got to manage all the other siblings any of you firstborn and the ones who are the hardest to live with are the babies because they get spoiled and they have everyone else picking up after them and they get all the gooey and lovey and attention mom and dad want to be good parents for the firstborn by the time the last one comes who cares now samuel is a prophet but because your prophet does not mean you're a person prophets do not walk around everything they say is a prophecy a sith lord i want a sandwich thus saith the lord please pass us all thus saith the lord it's not everything is with us saith the lord prophets are just people that's important because some people think that so samuel is thinking like any human wow that's a striking young man he looks like a fine king he looks like he might even have be better than saul maybe not as tall but and he's looking on the outside and even prophets sometimes forgot to look on the inside and god said to him i'm in verse seven very important verse first samuel 16 7 the lord said to samuel do not look at his appearance or his physical stature because i have refused him for the lord does not see as a man sees for man looks at the outward appearance but the lord looks at the heart so jesse called a minidab and made him pass before samuel said neither has the lord chosen this one and jesse made shama to pass before samuel said this is not the one and jesse made seven of his sons passed before samuel and samuel said to jesse the lord has not chosen these and samuel's beginning to think oh man did i misunderstand he's scratching his head and he's thinking i'm almost sure god sent he told me one of the sons of jesse maybe and while he's wondering he thinks are these all of your sons and jesse says sort of dismissively well there's the youngest and he said are these all your sons he says there remains yet the youngest and there he is and the way it's worded in the hebrew there he is it's almost like behold or look over the valley there on the hill with the sheep that's him see the guy he's kind of slinging stones and goofing off yeah there's david he's very passionate and he's just singing and whistling all the time you don't mean him and samuel says to jesse are they all here he says well there's david he said send him and bring him for we will not sit down they'd sacrifice but they hadn't had the feasts yet we will not sit down until he comes here so he sent and he brought him now he was ready and the word ready means reddish and we're not sure how to apply that as i did a little study on it and scholars say could mean he had red hair which is not unheard of my mother was jewish my brother had flaming red hair you have never met anyone with redder hair than my brother it's as red as it was orange so you can have jews with red hair and i my mother and father had brown eyes i have blue eyes you can't have jews with blue eyes they're not sure what it means rudy could have meant red hair or it could have meant that he had ready cheeks that he was fair complected he came running in and his cheeks were red and the way that word translates there there was something bright about his face it can sometimes translate bright eyes they don't know if that means that he had red-haired blue eyes they don't know if it meant that he just had a beautiful eyes but there's something striking and attractive about his appearance it's very clear and it's interesting that you know it says that sometimes about these types of christ that they were beautiful you know moses you remember they were throwing all the babies to the crocodiles and the amram and jochebed then they had moses after the kings edict presumably aaron and miriam were born before the king made the edict that says throw all the baby boys in the river it wouldn't matter for miriam but it wouldn't matter for aaron but then it says they had moses and it's almost like they were thinking oh shay we keep him or not and he said he's a good looking baby the bible says he was a beautiful baby it's almost like if he wasn't how i am but so they said let's keep them but what mother doesn't think her baby's beautiful it says joseph was beautiful david was beautiful moses was beautiful they're all types of christ and you ever sing that song isn't he beautiful and jesus is beautiful and so it's just telling us that there's this inner beauty that the outward beauty is reflective of it's it's almost strange because first it says don't look on the outside finally when he does look at him he says okay i'm going to look on the heart says he is beautiful both ways now that's another reason that makes david unusual not only does he have all these he's a general he's a shepherd he's a warrior he's a songwriter he's a poet he's an administrator he's a builder and he was good looking on top of all of that and samuel then took the horn of oil and he anointed him in the midst of his brothers and the spirit of the lord came upon david from that day forward now why did god pick david because he was good-looking or he said i found a man after my heart probably this is one of the most important things you could say about david it's said about david in a way it's not said about anyone else in the bible there was something about his heart the lord has sought himself a man after his own heart if you could pray i wrote a song years ago i will not sing for you i said lord let me see with your eyes let me hear with your ears lord let me speak with your lips and then say lord let me love with your heart give me a heart like your own i'm going to give you the whole word someday but i thought that's the most important thing you could pray for is that you could have a heart like god's heart if i could love the lost the way jesus loves the lost i'd be a lot better pastor and evangelist problems we don't love like the lord loves we could see things the way the lord sees but david had an outlook on life he had a passion for others like the lord he had a love for the father and for god and for obedience like the lord and but often we look at things like samuel did we look on the outside and i remember years ago i took my uh our son micah out looking for a car and it was time for him to get his first car and i made the mistake of stopping at a chevy dealer and he looked at a red camaro and he said surely the lord's anointed is before me i said oh micah you've got to look at the heart i said it's a gas guzzler and it's going to be a piece of junk in about five years no you've got to look on the inside don't look at the red on the outside the police will look at the red on the outside and you'll get a ticket our lady goes to macy and she looks across the floor and she sees a beautiful dress surely the lord's anointed is before me doesn't know that it's made from recycled plastic bottles in china and hasn't looked at the price tag yet we always look on the outside you know one of the main things that jesus was teaching when he began his ministry what's important to jesus is inner value he talked about the religious leaders who prayed to be seen of men on the outside they did their fasting to be seen of men they did their giving to be seen of men all of it was to be seen and god said it's good to pray it's good to fast it's good to give but you do it and your father who sees in secret will reward you openly god is really interested in what you are on the inside because if you're right on the inside the outside will change isn't that true you know what integrity is integrity means you're the same person when no one's looking as you are when they are looking and god wants us to be renewed and transformed on the inside this is the most important thing what are you in the heart acts 13 22 you notice it says and this was in our scripture reading when they removed saul he raised up for them david as king whom he also gave testimony and said i have found david the son of jesse a man after my own heart who will do my will and so often when people make the most important decisions in life a girl looks at a man and says surely the lord's anointed is before me and god says do not look on their outward appearance look on the heart you want to see who are they really on the inside men do the same thing well you see a beautiful girl i've been looking for my wife surely the lord's anointed god said no you can't afford that one you've got to look on the heart deuteronomy 6 thou shalt love the lord your god what's the great command all of your heart all of your soul all of your strength david love the lord like that it says in psalm 78 and he chose david his servant and he took him from the sheepfolds to shepherd jacob his people in israel his inheritance so he shepherded them according to the integrity of his heart what was different about david he had an honest heart if you could show david he was wrong he would listen to you there's several stories that we'll be looking at later where david he would listen to anybody and he was willing to accept rebuke where some kings were too proud for that he was reasonable he wanted to do truth and justice with the most important things to david you read some of the psalms and you can tell what's in his heart the bible says in second chronicles one of my favorite verses for the eyes of the lord run to and fro through the whole earth god is scanning the world to show himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is loyal to him that means god is looking down from heaven he wants to do wonderful things he wants to show himself strong he wants to do miracles for you if your heart is wild if we are fully surrendered to god and our hearts are loyal and our passion in life is to know him and do his will he wants to reveal himself to you first kings 8 39 then here in heaven solomon is praying your dwelling place and forgive and act and to give to everyone according to his ways whose heart you know and notice what solomon says for you alone know the hearts of all the sons of men god can look on the the devil might look on the outside and know what you're thinking but he can't read your heart you can pray in your heart and only god really knows what you're praying that's okay you can read in the bible when nehemiah prayed in his heart when he was before the king he said oh lord give me favor in the sight he didn't say it out loud but god heard that prayer so god knows what you're thinking the bible says often jesus knew what they were thinking and he would answer their thoughts at the feast with simon mary magdalen was here jesus knew what simon was thinking oh if this man was a prophet he'd know what man or woman this is that touches him jesus answered what he was thinking and when jesus told the sinner the paralytic your sons your sins are forgiven the scribes and pharisees thought who is this that forgive sins jesus knowing their thoughts answer it see when you pray in your heart jesus hears your prayer because jesus knows your heart now david goes on and he becomes one of the greatest kings following this anointing the oil is poured on him a symbol of the spirit going in but i don't want to rush past the way that god prepared him for this great life work was through spending time out in country in solitude you know it's often true that through communion with god you can't get it with the busyness of life some of us we say we're too busy to have time for communion but um you've got to have communion with god david out there following the sheep he had a lot of time out in nature to pray and to think and it wasn't just david how did moses get prepared moses thought i'm going to save israel and god said no you need some time following sheep and he sent him out there to take care of jethro's sheep for 40 years how did joseph prepare for his great life work he spent time taking care of sheep he spent some time out in the wilderness and the nation of israel before they could enter the promised land he sterilized them he taught them about who he was in the wilderness they were purified you know i read something last night in the book patriarchs and prophets about david while he was out there taking care of the sheep it says daily revelations of the character and majesty of his creator filled the young poet's heart with adoration and rejoicing in contemplation of god and his works the faculties of david's mind and his heart were developing and strengthening for the work of his afterlife he was daily coming into a more infinite communion with god his mind was constantly penetrating into new depths for fresh themes to inspire his song and to wake the music of his harp it's interesting we have a harp here today while we're talking about that that's quite by chance next week we're going to have one on purpose it's going to be an older heart who can measure the results of those years of toil and wandering among the lonely hills the communion with nature and with god the care of his flocks the perils and deliverance the griefs and the joys of his lowly lot were not only to mold the character of david and to influence his future life but through the psalms of israel's sweet singer they were in all coming ages to kindle love and faith in the hearts of god's people bringing them near to the ever-loving heart of him in whom all creatures live you know when you read the 23rd psalm that beautiful psalm you wouldn't have the 23rd psalm if david hadn't been out there following sheep but he had incredible ability he was very bright i'm convinced that david was extremely intelligent uh i think there's practical reasons for thinking he was extremely intelligent if you had given him a test he would have scored very high one reason is he fathered solomon who was the wisest person that ever lived next to jesus right you look at the scope of understanding he had david in his time in the hills it was preparing him to be a military leader you know to be a good military leader i downloaded a free book one time that talked about this ancient general the writings of this ancient general his advice on how you work in military he said you need to know geography you need to understand the land and how the land will work for or against you in the battle and i i just read that it was on a plane i got bored and i read this thing about how important topography and the country and knowing the country is in a battle boy did that ever come in handy in david's life he know all the nooks and crannies he ended up you know david among being a poet and being a military genius and being an administrator and a judge he was a spelunker you know what spelunker is they explore caves that's one reason i like david david spent time in caves well how do you think he found those caves when he was roaming the the territory of judah that's where you've got the dead sea area and some of those caves you'd hide from saul and so his time out there in the wilderness it really came in handy later in life and you might be thinking lord why do you have me out here following sheep all these years sometimes that your time out there you know what you might have a different wilderness than i have and i quite literally did have a wilderness for a while but the lord is preparing you in that experience he's teaching you you might not know why doing auto mechanic work for years is preparing you for ministry but you'd be surprised so a lot you can learn about people from a car you didn't think i was going to say that someday i'll preach my sermon on that and finally not only was he prepared in solitude david was spirit-filled it says there in first samuel 16 13 saul took the horn of oil and anointed him in the midst of his brothers and the spirit of the lord came upon david from that day forward so samuel arose and went to rama samuel did what he was supposed to do and he went back to his home that was the last mission of samuel but the spirit of the lord came on david and it began to move in him and you think once the spirit came over him he'd now go to the palace and say hey saul i'm king i just want to let you know can you move over you know he had patience he went from this experience his brothers watched him get anointed with oil they had to keep this top secret and then he goes back to take care of sheep and he said look if god's the one who chose what to do god is the one who chose when to do it and i'm not going to rush now you may not know that this was not the only time david was anointed david was anointed three times he was anointed here by samuel and then you look in 2nd samuel 2 when he finally was accepted to be king in judah he was anointed in hebron that was his first capital and then finally after a protracted battle for three and a half years with ishbashith the the son of saul he was anointed king over all israel in jerusalem three and a half years later isn't that interesting once as a child and once at the beginning of his being king when he was 30 years old and once three and a half years later does that sound at all familiar to you jesus speaks in the temple as a child then when he's 30 years old jesus is anointed with the holy spirit and then before he is crucified he's anointed by mary magdalene do you know she anoints him with oil before he dies so there's almost like three anointings there as well well in conclusion this was really an introduction to david this morning but the main thing i want you to realize is it tells us the spirit of the lord came on david but the spirit of the lord departed from saul and a distressing spirit from the lord troubled him you might wonder why would a distressing spirit trouble him i'll talk about that a little next week the most important thing is david had surrendered saul had not the lord wants to reveal himself to you he wants to lead you he's got some plans for your life and the only limitation on what god can do in your life is how you've surrendered your heart in mark 8 35 jesus said whoever desires to save his life will lose it but whoever loses his life for my sake in the gospels will save it saul refused to humble himself and give his heart to god he lost the kingdom david had a heart like god's own heart he surrendered his heart to the lord he gained the kingdom now i don't know about you friends but i want to live and reign with christ i want to be in that kingdom and what god wants is your heart people look on the outside our world is preoccupied with external things we all want to make a good showing but with god he wants to know what's on the inside i heard a pastor say one time in the world everyone judges the family but what kind of house they live in god wants to know what kind of family lives in the house in the world they'll have some hollywood event and everyone looks at the dress the woman wears god could care less about the dress the woman wears god wants to know what kind of woman wears the dress a man always want a high-powered car look at me look at this car people look at the car you drive god wants to know what kind of man drives the car god is wanting to know who are you really all right do i have your heart do you belong to me are you willing to be made new and be a new creature and be spirit-filled david nothing was more important to him he did some he did some calculating out there when he was counting sheep and david said what profit is it if you gain the whole world and lose your soul and somewhere out there on the hills he made his decision that nothing could be more important than god knowing god serving god loving god his family would come together and he would listen to history i don't think i mentioned to you jesse his father was born before samson jesse lived all through the time of samson jesse no doubt those nights you know no television or computer they'd tell stories and jesse would tell his boys about the spirit-filled judge of israel his ups and his downs and david would listen to these things and the boys would listen and david was inspired they'd hear the stories of moses david knew the scriptures jesse's family read the scriptures to the family and he made up his mind he said i want to follow god i want god to have my heart and it gave him such joy that he just could not contain himself and he filled the hills with songs there because nothing was more important to david than god do you want to have a heart close to the heart of god [Music] you

Channel: AmazingFacts

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Length: 51min 58sec (3118 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 15 2021