David: Anointed For The Task

SERMON: 2015-09-20--s0315--david-anointed-for-the-task SOURCE DURATION: 00:39:31.000 PROPOSED CUTS: 1 CONFIDENCE: 0.95 APPROVED: false REASON: The recording begins with the exposition of David's obstacles and continues through pastoral application and a concluding prayer, forming one continuous sermon structure. ACOUSTIC EVIDENCE: available ACOUSTIC MUSIC INTERVALS: none ACOUSTIC SPEECH OVERLAP: no ACOUSTIC BOUNDARIES APPLIED: none Inline CUT markers identify each proposed audio boundary after the relevant word. --- ORIGINAL TRANSCRIPT WITH PROPOSED CUTS MARKED --- It's easy, I think, to underestimate the obstacles that David had to overcome in order to become king over Israel. Let me just quickly list three of those for you. Number one, David was very young. As a matter of fact, Josephus, the ancient Jewish historian, says that he believes David was only 10 years of age in this story when Samuel anoints him to become future king. Modern commentators make him a little bit older. Most estimate that he was probably 15, but still really only a boy. The fact that in this story, if you've ever read the whole chapter of 1 Samuel chapter 16, the fact that David was not invited to the party when Samuel comes to Jesse's house gives you an indication of how lowly he was viewed on the scale of importance in his family. He was very young. Not only was he very young, but he was very inexperienced, probably had never been away from home, certainly had no political or military experience. In fact, the apostle, or Samuel, sorry, King Saul's comment in 1 Samuel chapter 17 when David volunteers to go to battle against Goliath is extremely telling. Here is what David says, "You are not able to go out against this Philistine and fight him. You are only a boy, and he has been a fighting man from his youth." And the implication is not only is he but a boy, but clearly he is no match for Goliath. He is extremely inexperienced. Third, Saul is still king. Now Saul wasn't particularly interested, you will recall, in becoming king, but once he was king he wasn't going to roll over and let David take his throne away from him. And so if David is 15 years old when he is first anointed by Samuel to become king over Israel, David doesn't actually become king over Judah until 15 years later at the age of 30, and not over all Israel until another seven and a half years have passed. So Saul was not about to roll over. In fact, while the first half of those years David spent in military service to Saul and became the kind of warrior, king that we know him to be, the second half of that period he spent fleeing before Saul through the wilderness, and most of his Psalms or many of them were written during that time when he didn't know if he was going to live or die with King Saul hot on his tail. So there were a lot of obstacles that David had overcome and yet in this text he has clearly no hesitation as the story unfolds in future chapters, he has no hesitation to step into the kingship that God is calling him to. And the reason for that I believe with all of my heart is because David understands, David understands that with the call of God also comes the equipping power of God. And that of course is the significance of the text that we have before us this morning one Samuel 16 13. So Samuel took the horn of oil, anointed him in the presence of his brothers, and from that day on the spirit of the Lord came upon David in power. The spirit of the Lord came on David in power. If you're familiar this morning with the Old Testament then you will know that there are three leadership offices in the Old Testament through which God governs his people. They are prophet, priest, and king. Each of these offices is entrusted with a different area of responsibility from God to direct the people of God. And so a prophet speaks forth the word of God. A prophet was anointed or equipped to know when God's people got off track and would speak into that situation, would call people to repentance, would warn them of judgment, and would also promise them the restoration that God would eventually bring as he brought his people to their knees. They were the conscience of Israel. Not very popular, as prophets typically aren't even today. People don't like to hear what God has to say. Priests were anointed by God's Holy Spirit to serve as middlemen, if you will, between a holy God and a sinful people. And priests had as their job the responsibility to teach Israel the law of God. This is how you must live if you're going to stay in relationship with God. They also brought sacrifices before God, both as a way of making sure sin issues were dealt with and also on behalf of people's surrender to God. And they made it possible for a holy God and a sinful people to remain in fellowship with each other. The whole tabernacle worship and later on the temple worship was their responsibility. It made it possible for God to dwell among his people and to give his blessings to them. And then you had the king. The king, earlier judges that God raised up but they were tired of that and they rejected Samuel you will recall and they said we want a king and God gave them Saul and Saul turned out to be a bad dude and now it was going to be David. And the job of a king, of course, was to guide the people in the ways of God. It was to protect them from their enemies. It was to make sure that justice and righteousness and all of those kind of issues were dealt with and they were administratively responsible to keep the people of Israel on track and serving God. Now each of these offices was called by God and typically they were anointed by the Holy Spirit, they were anointed with oil as an indication of the Spirit of God coming upon them to empower them for service. And being anointed with oil in the Old Testament then, this kind of anointing that we're talking about served a two-fold purpose. Number one, it meant that they were set apart for service to the Lord. When you were anointed with oil, everybody knew that God was calling you to a particular task. Sometimes a prophet, typically prophets were not anointed with oil but Elijah anointed or Elijah anointed Elijah as his successor. It's very much like commissioning somebody publicly, the coronation of a king or a queen or any issues of that nature. But secondly, anointing with oil then was an indication that this person was being empowered by the Holy Spirit for the job to which he or sometimes she was being called. And that's what happens in this particular story when we read again in verse 13, Samuel took the horn of oil, anointed David in the presence of his brothers, there you have the public setting aside and from that day on, the spirit of the Lord came upon David in power. If you're going to lead God's people on behalf of God, you have to be empowered by God through his Holy Spirit to do the job. In the time that remains to us this morning, I want to try to outline for you four areas or four ways in which this anointing power of God's Holy Spirit came to expression in David's life. The first place where we really see the anointing of God's Holy Spirit on David's life is in an ability to discern the mind of the Lord, an ability to discern the mind of the Lord. As I said a moment ago, if you're going to provide leadership to God's people on behalf of God, if God is going to entrust you with the work of his kingdom, if you will, then it is extremely important that you know what it is that he wants so that you can carry out his wishes. We're not just independent contractors. We are representing his will on earth, wanting to have it done on earth even as it is done in heaven. Now, as you can appreciate, that poses a problem or two. I love the way the apostle Paul describes the complexity of who God is in the book of Romans chapter 11, the verses 33 and 34. He bursts out with his doxology. He says, "Oh, the depths of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God, how unsearchable his judgments and his paths beyond tracing out. Who has known the mind of the Lord or who has been his counselor?" Who of us here would say that there are times when God confuses us? Ever have that in your life? You know, you pray for this and this happens. You're going in this direction with your life and everything blows up underneath you. I was thinking about this in connection with a migrant situation in Europe just the other day. What's God doing? You know, there are those who say the Muslims are going to overrun Europe and it's going to cause all kinds of problems. There are other people who are saying our hearts go out to displaced people and we're supposed to demonstrate Christian mercy. And people are ambivalent and the nations are ambivalent. Hardly anybody knows what to do. And life is full of situations like that because who has known the mind of the Lord? Sometimes later it becomes evident, but in the middle of it, it can be incredibly confusing. And one of the reasons we need the anointing of God's Holy Spirit in life as his people is so that we can understand the mind of the Lord and know what our response ought to be. Paul again, he puts it this way. In 1 Corinthians chapter 2, 11 and 12, he says, "Who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the man's spirit within him? In the same way, no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God." Understand, what are you saying here? Only you know what you're thinking. Somebody else won't know what you're thinking unless you express it. Only the Spirit of God knows what God is thinking. But then he goes on, next verse says this, "We have not received the Spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God that we may understand what God has freely given us." The purpose of the anointing is for God to give us understanding, he will give us the gift of wisdom so that we can do the Father's will. And this, of course, comes perfectly to expression later on in the life in the ministry of Jesus, who says, "I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself. He can do only what he sees his Father doing because whatever the Father does, the Son does likewise." David gets anointed by the Spirit so that by the anointing of the Holy Spirit, he can get a handle on what it is that God is doing and what his part is in that process. Not always easy, not always simple, but it enabled him to stay on track. A second place in which the anointing of the Holy Spirit shows up in David's life and then by extension in your life and in my life, as we'll see later on, is that the Holy Spirit gives an ability to discern the correct strategy. That is to say the Holy Spirit not only shows us the big picture, but the Holy Spirit can show us the very specific steps that need to be taken in a very specific instance. Psalm 143 verse 10, "David, teach me to do your will, for you are my God. May your good Spirit lead me on level ground." If you look at the history of David as the story unfolds in 1 and 2 Samuel, then you discover there is a multitude of times when David has to make very specific decisions. When he's being chased by Saul, "Where will I go? Will I go to this city? Will I attack these people? Will I be safe? What do you want me to do?" Each of those decisions has far-reaching consequences. When he goes to the tent of meeting and he gets the priest there to give him the showbread that is in the tent of meeting and Doeg the Edomite hears about it and reports it to Saul, you know what happens. What? Eighty-some or close to that priests get killed by Saul. What he does has huge consequences. Later on when he goes to the city of Cala and he's been directed by the Lord to go and help them and to deliver them and it's marvelous, but then Saul discovers that he's there and comes to catch him because he thinks now David is finally caught in the city and he can't escape because he's in a walled city. What David does is he does so often is he seeks the Lord for a specific direction and he says to them, "These people of this city, are they going to hand me over? Am I safe here? Can I sit this out?" Perhaps you know the story. What does the Lord say? "No. They're going to hand you over because when it comes to saving their own bacon, to giving you up, they'll give you up with a drop of a hat no matter what it is that you've done for them." But David hightails it out of there. So very specific moments and very specific strategies that the Holy Spirit gives to David in order to direct his steps and it's no exaggeration to say that in your life or in my life, there are many situations where you and I have to make important decisions. They range from shall I marry this woman or this man to do I buy this house or do I buy the other house? What do I invest my money in? What kind of ministry and church do I become involved in? And let me tell you something that I've learned over the years and try to walk this out before the Lord myself. Sometimes it really doesn't matter. Sometimes the Lord just says, "Listen, here are these opportunities and you just make up your mind prayerfully and I will direct you and guide you and later on you will see that I had my hand in what it is that you're doing." Many of us have experienced that. But every so often, and I cannot tell you how that works, but every so often it is like the Lord says, "No, this is the very specific thing that I need you to do and you will not have rest in your spirit until you obey." How many of you know what I'm talking about? See? Lots of, and you know, I've talked about this before, lots of time in preaching or teaching. There will be times when it really doesn't matter very much whether we go this way or that way. But every so often I'll be in the middle of a sermon preparation or getting ready for a particular teaching session and it's like the Holy Spirit says, "No, that's not where it's going." But it always produces a battle in my heart before the Lord because when I know where I'm going I like to go where I'm going, thank you very much, because there's a lot of work to backtrack and start all over again and you don't know where that's going to go. But I've learned over the years if you want the favor of God, then you've got to step out in obedience and trust Him in those places because that is the job of the Holy Spirit. That's why Jesus said, "Whatever I see the Father doing, that's what I'm doing." It is the Father who knows where He is at work. You know there hasn't been a single time when I've had to change a sermon topic that somebody didn't come to me afterwards and said, "You know, that's exactly the word that I needed to hear at that particular moment." That is the Holy Spirit giving us the strategy step by step to accomplish His purposes. Sometimes it makes sense, sometimes it doesn't make sense until a long time later, but our job is to learn to listen for the still small voice of the Holy Spirit. So the Holy Spirit gives us the big picture, the Holy Spirit gives us the strategy, and then the Holy Spirit gives David the faith and ability to exercise faith and courage. Faith to believe that what God has said He's going to do, courage to step into whatever it is that God has called Him to do knowing that He will survive on the other end. A lot of people think that once you get called by God to a particular task and then anointed by His Holy Spirit for that particular task, that life ought to be a cinch. You just roll ahead, "I mean, after all, God's with me and what command do to me, right?" Well, nothing could be further from the truth. If you're sitting here this morning thinking, "Oh, if I surrender my life to Jesus, everything will go really well because now God's on my side and I'm on His side and all is well with the world," you're going to have a rude wake up call because the reality is that when you align yourself with God to follow His purposes, everything that stands against God is going to become part of your experience in as much as God allows you. So the devil, the world, and the flesh will all gang up on you to try to drag you down or to dissuade you from pursuing the goal that God has placed before you. And so what happens is that we need faith and we need courage to continue on the journey because if you look at David's life, life behind the sheep was an incredibly easy life. I mean, he probably had time to write all kinds of poetry and strum his harp and fight off the occasional lion and the bear maybe, compare that to when he goes into service with Saul and then these seven years or so when he is being pursued and his life is in danger every step of the way. And you and I, we read those Psalms and we read those stories and we know how it ends and so we miss out on the dynamics of the terror of knowing that, you know, I'm going to lose my life here. I mean, he ends up going to, what is it, the Philistines because pretending that he is mad because he's scared to death of King Saul. His life is in danger all of the time. And faith means believing that God is true to his word, that he will protect me even though it doesn't look like I am being protected and he gives me courage to step into whatever it is that he calls me to step into because I am his. That is a function of the Holy Spirit's anointing. Scripture puts it this way, "Praise be to the Lord my rock," Psalm 144, "who trains my hands for war, my fingers for battle. He is my loving God and my fortress, my stronghold and my deliverer, my shield in whom I take refuge, who subdues people under me." God's Holy Spirit helps David to keep on believing for these 15 years that God is true to his word and God's Holy Spirit gives him courage not only to take on Goliath but all the other enemies and most of all the Holy Spirit gives David courage not to take advantage of his power to destroy Saul but to wait for God's timing for God to bring him into the kingdom. And how many times don't you and I need both faith and courage to follow the Lord when otherwise we would give up. That brings me to a fourth element of this anointing that is very closely tied into what I was just talking about and that is the fact that the Holy Spirit gives me and you and David an ability, an ability to persevere. The Apostle Paul writing about his own apostolic ministry again in 1 Corinthians 12, 12 has this very interesting thing to say, he says, "The things that mark an apostle, signs, wonders and miracles were done among you with great perseverance." The things that mark an apostle, signs, wonders and miracles were done among you with great perseverance. Two things that are really worthy of note here and the first is that an apostle is characterized by signs, wonders and miracles. An apostle in scripture is one who steps into new territory, proclaims the gospel, establishes churches and calls people to faith in Christ. And in order to bring about conversion, God backs up the word of apostles with signs and wonders and miracles and the principle there is this, whatever God calls you to and equips you for, it will be demonstrated by the presence and the power of God's Holy Spirit demonstrating that he is with you. And so for David, for David to be anointed by God's Holy Spirit and to be called to be a king to protect the people of Israel, what happens every time David goes into battle? Well, he wins all the time, why? Because God is with him. So if God calls you to the utterance of wisdom or God calls you to a ministry of healing or God calls you to doing business or God calls you to teaching, how do you know God is with you? It will bear fruit, won't always be easy, doesn't mean you won't have a lot of trouble, that goes without saying. But it means God's power will be there to demonstrate that he is there to push through the darkness and to establish his kingdom. But there's a second thing in that verse that's really quite intriguing and that is the word perseverance, the things that mark an apostle, signs, wonders and miracles were done among you with great perseverance. Let me tell you something. The world is full of people who are great sprinters but they cannot run a marathon. The world is full of people who get filled with zeal, filled with enthusiasm, throw themselves into something and then when it gets hard, they peter out. The church is filled with people who make a great beginning but who never see it through. It's like in the parable of the sower, some seed falls on the path, birds come, it's gone. Some seed falls into rocky soil, it sprouts, it grows, it looks good but then it gets dry and the seed withers. Some seed is like it gets thrown among the thorns and it comes forth and it looks beautiful and it looks gorgeous and then the weeds come up and Jesus says the weeds are the cares of this life and this world and before you know it, the life of Christ withers away because it is strangled by the weeds. And then says Jesus, there's the seed that falls in good soil that bears forth fruit. I've been in this business long enough to know and I can tell you this categorically that what God is looking for is people who will take the long range of year. People who will not be weary in well-doing because life is tough, who love God more than they love their own comfort, more than their own security and who are willing to put their all on the altar, die if need be to see the kingdom of God come and his will done on earth as it is in heaven. And one of the functions of God's Holy Spirit is to inspire in you and in me an ability to persevere in our calling and in our task whatever that might be in the kingdom. Not because it makes us feel good, not because you know it gives us a pat on the back or because other people take note. All of those things may happen and they're wonderful if they do but what the Lord is looking for is a people who will just walk it out because the kingdom belongs to those who persevere. People who are faithful, who put their hope in God, they are the ones who bring down Satan's power and Satan's kingdom and who start establishing the kingdom of God. And one of the calls in your life and in my life individually and collectively is to be that kind of people. Like David, God calls you and me to be instrumental in seeking his kingdom to come about. He is calling us to lead people to faith, to help people grow up in faith, to help people grow up in community, to help us live in community in such a way that the glory of God is seen in us and among us and through us so that his purposes will be accomplished, that as the world gets darker and darker, you and I individually and collectively we can shine with the light of his glory so that people can see what it looks like to hold on to the testimony of God, so people can see what it looks like to model life in the kingdom, so people can see that we love God and he loves us and life lived his way will bear fruit. And as we pursue that, as we have in years gone by, individually and corporately, it's not always going to be easy because the devil, the world and the flesh don't like that. And there are times when you and I are ready to throw in the towel and to say, "This is too hard." And it's precisely there that we need the anointing of God's Holy Spirit because apart from his life and his light and his fire, our own enthusiasm, our own energy runs out long before we get to the finish line. But with Christ, we can be faithful to the very end. I love the way the book of Hebrews puts it. It says, "So do not throw away your confidence. It will be richly rewarded. You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what was promised." We stand together, as you know, at the start of a new season, church-wise, school-wise, and there will be great opportunities to serve the Lord. And there will be wonderful moments when we see his hand that will encourage us and that will stir us and that will help us to go forward. There will also be moments when we get tired and weary and wonder, "What in the world am I doing here?" And what we need to know is that the anointing that came on David, and we'll talk more about that Lord ruling next week, the anointing that came on David came to its ultimate expression in the person of Jesus. And when you and I, by faith, are joined to Jesus, what God gave to Jesus, he gives to you and to me. And just as Jesus ultimately becomes prophet, priest, and king, so through faith in the Lord Jesus, you and I are prophet, priests, and kings, we are dished out a measure of spiritual gifts to enable us to run the race. And as we embrace those spiritual gifts, we will do greater works than we have ever seen before because God said, "I'll be with you always, even to the end of the age." And so as we bring the service to a close this morning, I'm going to ask you to stand. Please stand. I want you to do something. If you feel comfortable in doing this, I want you to stand there and put your hands out like this. And I'm going to pray that the Lord in his own unique way will fill us to overflowing so that whatever it is that he calls us to individually and collectively, we'll be able to do that with a power that is the mighty power of God. So Lord, here we stand. And like David of old, there are many obstacles to us stepping into the inheritance that you have for us individually and collectively. Lord, some of us are too young and we don't think that we count for much. Some of us, we feel we're too old and we think our good times are past. And Lord, some of us are right in the middle and we're so busy coming and going, doing whatever there is to be done, that we don't ever think that we have time to put you first. And Lord, some of us, we're just weary in spirit and we've been through the mill and we just, our hearts just can't rise back up. And Lord, some of us were just so preoccupied with all the things all around us that our hearts are filled to overflowing with the things of this world and we really don't have time or space for you. And yet your word says there's only one thing that is needful and that is that we love you the Lord our God with all of our hearts, soul, strength and mind and our neighbor as we love ourselves. And Lord, some of us, we're here, we know the call that you place upon our lives and we look at our own resources and we say, this can't be done. And it's true, we can't in ourselves, but in you, we can. So here's our prayer this morning, Lord, that you would come by your word and by your spirit and that you would just flood us now with the vision of who you are, the incredible love that you have for your people, the gift of life that you gave us in Jesus, your power that raised Christ from the dead that you promised would raise us from the dead. Come Lord Jesus with your spirit and flood our souls to overflowing so that we cannot but speak of the things that we have seen and then stir our souls. Give us a sober measure of judgment as to what it is that you call us to and what it is that you gift us to for. And Lord, as we put a wheel to the shoulder in whatever place of service you call us, whether in business or in family or in school or in the church, may we know your heart, your mind, may we know the specific strategies that need to be stepped into to solve the problems that we face and the difficulties that we experience. May we have a faith that bubbles forth and a courage that defies the frailty of the human flesh that helps us to believe that you are who you say that you are and that your word is true. And then Lord, in good times and in bad times help us to persevere knowing that in the Lord our labor is not in vain because when history ends you will have your bride. You will have your church without spot or wrinkle or blemish or any such thing and we will sit together with you at the wedding feast of the Lamb and we will celebrate your goodness forever and ever and ever and we will completely forget whatever price we've had to pay because it will have been more than worthwhile for the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus our Lord. [CUT] [PROPOSED CUT 1 START at 00:39:24.480; remove through 00:39:31.000] [ [CUT]BLANK_AUDIO] [PROPOSED CUT 1 END at 00:39:31.000; resume after this marked segment]