David Making The Man

now David as you will recall is known in
Scripture as the man after God's own
heart and the reason he is called I mean
after God's own heart is not because he
was so perfect or that his life was
without sin quite the contrary his sins
were blatant his imperfections obvious
they are described for us in Scripture
in graphic detail but he was known as a
min after God's own heart because he
understood the heart of God as it
related to the promises that God had
made to Abraham many years ago you will
recall when God entered into covenant
with Abram God said to Abram I'm going
to give you a land I'm going to make out
of you a mighty nation I'm going to
bless that nation and through that
nation my blessings are going to reach
to the ends of the earth this was God's
purpose for his people they've had not
only understood that but he gave himself
to it wholeheartedly and so he delivered
the nation from the enemy he caused his
people to prosper he created
administrative structures he made sure
that the worship of God was central and
under his rule and under the rule of his
son Solomon the nation of Israel became
a light to the surrounding nations he
was committed to the purposes of God so
much so that when the Apostle Paul in
his one of his missionary journeys in
the book of Acts Acts chapter 13
summarizes David's life like this when
David had served gods
purposes in his own generation he fell
asleep he was buried with his father's
and his body decayed now the context is
a quotation from Psalm 16 which David
wrote but which applied beyond David
because David's body stayed in the grave
Jesus did not and so it is proof that
David was not the Messiah but Jesus was
but apart from all of that pause
description and interesting he says
David had served God's purpose in his
own generation that's what made him a
man after God's own heart and I don't
know about you but I can't imagine
anything more special or important than
to come to the end of my life knowing
that I have fulfilled God's purpose for
my life wouldn't you say the same I mean
what was the difference between Saul and
David you know when I was younger I used
to have a lot of sympathy for Saul
because I felt the poor soul couldn't
get it right no matter how hard he tried
step out of line and you get wall up
David he can commit adultery and he can
commit murder and yeah he gets punished
but somehow he's still okay what's the
difference between the two of them well
if you look at it closely Saul was
selfish to the core for Saul who was
very insecure it was all about me and
what my needs are David who was much
more deeply rooted in God's love it
wasn't about David it was about God and
God's purposes that's what he was
committed to and that's what made him
special in the eyes of God so question
we want to try to consider together this
morning then is what elements made David
the kind of man that he was what are the
factors that we can identify
why that may David a man committed to
the purposes of God and in the time that
we have we're going to try to cover
three of them don't know if we can
manage it but let's try number one what
are the outstanding factors in David's
life that made him a man after God's own
heart is that he was faithful over
little he was faithful in the little we
first beat David you may remember in the
book of Samuel in 1 Samuel chapter 16
when the prophet Samuel comes to
Bethlehem to the home of Jesse to anoint
one of his sons king over Israel God's
been fed up with Saul has taken his
presence away from Saul Samuel has been
very upset about that because he had
hopes for Sol despite it all but God
sends him to Bethlehem and there is the
story progresses and you know it well
seven sons of Jesse are paraded past
Samuel in the hope and expectation that
one of these will be the future king
over is wrong each time God says no
until all seven sons have passed by and
Samuel has a bit of a problem because
now what and so he turns to Jesse and he
says do you still have another son and
sure enough of course he does his name
is David but he's out in the field
looking after the Sheep while everybody
else is part of this party with Samuel
and so they fetch him he gets anointed
with oil and that is where the Spirit of
the Lord truly comes upon diva to equip
him for the kind of job that God has for
him now there are two elements in that
part of the story that I think are
really important for us to understand
and the first is this in the kingdom of
God many of the last shall be first even
as many of the first our last many of
the last shall be first I mean think
this through with me a little bit here's
Samuel they're having this grand feast
and celebration to find out who's going
to be keying seven sons are there but
nobody's bothered to invite David now
maybe it's because he's too far away and
they can't get a message to him it's a
possibility i suppose but i suspect the
real reason is he's only a young lad and
in that kind of culture young lads don't
really matter a lot because what matters
is when you're big and brawny which is
why Samuel when when when the first son
of Jesse comes marching by Samuel you
will recall sis to himself surely this
is the me an whom God has chosen and God
responds with these very familiar words
in 1 Samuel 16 verse 7 the Lord does not
look at the things man looks at man
looks at the outward appearance but the
Lord looks at the heart the Lord looks
at the heart and so from God's
perspective what matters is not the
natural gifts and talents that you bring
to the table first and foremost what
matters from God's perspective is is
your heart committed to him does it beat
for what he beats for and if it does
then it doesn't matter if you're young
doesn't matter if you're uneducated it
doesn't matter if you're not very smart
or very rich God can use
you for his kingdom purposes in fact
that's the pattern throughout all of
Scripture isn't it Paul writes about
that in 1 Corinthians chapter 1 and you
often heard me caught these words
brothers he says think of what you were
when you were called not many of you are
wise by human standards not many were
influential not many were of noble birth
but God chose the foolish things of the
world to shame the wise God chose the
weak things of the world to shame the
strong he chose the lowly things of this
world and the despised things and the
things that are not to nullify the
things that are so that no one may boast
before he M because it is in the Lord
and the Lord alone that we are called to
do our boasting don't underestimate what
God can do with you regardless of your
background because what matters is your
heart before God many of the last will
be first the other thing in this story
that I think really stands out is that
many of the skills that David learns in
his youth are the skilled or let me
reverse that many of the skills that
David would need later on in life he in
fact learns in his youth and again the
language here is very interesting in his
conversation with Samuel Sam you asked
Jesse are these all the sons you have
and Jesse says there is still the
youngest but he is doing WOD tending the
sheep I think about that what does it
mean to tend the Sheep well it means to
look after them it means to make sure
they are fed and
it means you make sure that they are
protected from wild animals there treat
it if they are ill and you expend an
enormous amount of time and energy to
make sure that your sheep prosper and so
all of these are skills that later on
David needs to become Shepherd over the
people of Israel but he has learned them
in his youth without having any idea
that one day these qualifications would
serve him well because here it is that
he learns the gifts of courage at
administration and out of wage war and
how to stand up and to protect his
people listen to how he describes it in
conversation with Saul when Saul
challenges him and says listen you're
only a young boy you cannot possibly
take on Goliath he's a man that's been
fighting all his life and David's
responses this year servant has been
keeping his father sheep when a lion or
a bear came and carried off a sheep from
the flock I went after it struck it and
rescued the sheep from its mouth when it
turned on me I seized it by its hair
take a little d'oeuvre I tell you I
seized it by its hair struck it and
killed it your servant has killed both
the lion and the bear this uncircumcised
Philistine will be like one of them
because he has defied the armies of the
Living God and the Lord who delivered me
from the paw of the lion and the paw of
the bear will deliver me from the hand
of this Philistine Saul said to David
gull and the Lord be with you how do you
argue
with a young lad who was so convinced
that he can do it two lessons there that
I think are really important for us to
understand and the first is that we must
teach our children to be faithful over
little we must teach our children to be
faithful over little as I said a moment
ago David had no idea when he was
tending those sheep that the skills that
he would learn in shepherding would be
skills that he would need one day to
Shepherd God's people and likewise your
kids and my kids have no idea what
awaits them later on in life and there
is this huge temptation on everybody's
part to say well you know I'll just
automatically make the leap into
greatness as the years go by that
happens to some but it happens only to
fear for most of us life is more like
one step at a time until you get to the
place where you're going because you
have been faithful in little faithful in
little in the kingdom of God qualifies
you to be faithful overmuch don't think
you're going to run the world if you
don't know how to clean up your bedroom
don't think you're going to manage
corporate finance if you can't stop your
own spending don't think you can be
entrusted with significant
responsibility if you're always late for
work those are qualities that our kids
need to learn in youth and you and I is
parents have an obligation to try to
help them to do that as much as possible
the second lesson here that flows out of
this little bit of this story is that we
must teach our children to develop an
active faith
in God did you notice how David put it
the God who who saved me from the paw of
the bear and the lion is also the God
who is going to save me from this
uncircumcised Philistine he learned in
his youth what it was to trust and
depend on the Living God of Israel
thought of talk these days and
evangelical church circles about the
number of youth the drift away from
churches they've gone to church all
their youth they've gone to Christian
schools they've gone to catechism or
sunday school or youth classes and yet
by the time they hit college multitudes
of them disappear and so a lot of people
are scratching their heads and they're
saying why is this happening and what is
it that we can do about it and obviously
it's a very complicated issue we live in
a very secular world it has a powerful
impact on our own children too but you
know what is the best protection the
best protection is to have youth for
whom God is real and who have
experienced the presence and the power
of God in their own lives and so you and
I as parents we need to take teachable
moments not just teach them great old
Bible stories of things that happened
years ago but incorporated into their
lives the same God who did what he did
for David can do it for you and
identifying teachable moments we need to
take our children by the hand and we
need to teach them how to trust God in
the very specific issues of the
challenges and the pains of their
lawyers what are the reasons we're
launching fast-track next week and
you've heard about it last week and
there's an insert about it in the
bulletin this week
is because we want families to gather
around scripture and talk about the God
of the Bible not as some ancient deity
way out they are but a God who can help
me in my struggles with my girlfriend
who cares about being bullied in school
who cares about whether or not i can get
my head around the studies you know that
colleges now have so many students
coming who are emotionally unprepared
and intellectually incapable of
concentrating that they have to start
developing whole departments just to
look after the mental health being of
students we need to be out of that
ballgame and as Christians we need to be
part of the solution as opposed to be
part of that problem it's one thing to
lament in to wring our hands it's
another to say that in Christ we are the
children of Abraham remember in Christ
God has entered into covenant with us in
Christ we are heirs to the promises that
God has made so let's take our children
by the hand and help them to walk by
faith and to experience the power of God
that's where it started for David do you
understand what I'm saying little
enthusiasm would be all right it didn't
start with Goliath it started with a
lion and the bear and you better bet
your bottom dollar though the first time
that he stepped into it with a lion and
the bear that was scary business and the
first stone that he threw he probably
missed but he got better at it and he
was able to slay the Giant because he
grew in faith so what's the first factor
that goes into David's life
he that is faithful over little God will
put over much he learned in his youth to
live out the practices in the principles
of being one of God's children second
thing than we know in the story the
second factor that goes into the making
of a man of God is that he hones or he
sharpens or he cultivates that he
develops his skills part of me for a
moment David hones his skills the next
time we meet David in the biblical story
is in the latter part of chapter 16 he
has just been anointed his King the
spirit of the lord is departed from Saul
the Spirit of the Lord now rests on
David and Saul begins to have these
attacks of an evil spirit so much so
that he doesn't know what to do with
himself and to try to remedy his
situation they bring David Ian to play
the harp so he's introduced to Saul's
court not as a soldier but as a harpist
and he stays there for a little while in
the Bible doesn't explain how long he
was there we do know that in the next
chapter when Goliath shows up david has
gone back home and now Jesse sends him
to the front to where the soldiers are
to inquire about his three eldest sons
who are all part of Saul's army and so
David goes there and when he gets there
of course he hears he hears this
situation where this giant of a Goliath
comes out every day for what 40 days to
challenge Israel to send a champion to
fight him why should the
armies fight and kill each other he says
we will fight each other and that will
determine the battle and all israel is
shaking in its boots and david here's
this blaspheming against the lord and he
is absolutely furious and he offers his
services and as you know he steps into
the battle the young lad with his
slingshot over against the giant and
hits him square in the forehead knocks
him to the ground grabs his sword and
Cora cuts off his head and that settles
the battle because now the Philistines
are in panic mode Israel goes after them
and great is the victory that God gives
to the people of Israel now you know
that story well every Sunday school
child knows that story and a lot of
servants have been preached a lot of
books have been written about this
battle and it almost always gets
pictured in the context of there is
little David taking on the big giant and
you can draw all kinds of morals about
how the little people shouldn't be
afraid to take on the Giants in the land
and there's legitimacy to that that's
the thesis by the way of a book by
Malcolm Gladwell is a Canadian
journalist now working for the New York
Times I believe he is best-selling
author of books like blink outliers the
tipping point and so on that one of his
more recent books is called David and
Goliath underdogs misfits and the act of
battling giants and he argues that far
from being disadvantaged the underdog
often in fact has the advantage his
argument about Goliath by the ways that
Goliath was very nearsighted then he
couldn't see David and
how David got him I think he's pushing
the story more than just a little bit
but valid as those points are they miss
the real thrust of the passage because
the issue is not here's little David
taken on a big giant and shall we all
learn how to fight those kind of battles
no the issue is Goliath is a threat to
the Covenant promises that God has made
to Abram and his offspring remember God
promised the land God promised they'd be
a nation God promised they would be
blessed God promised they would be a
blessing now Goliath and the Philistines
and all their surrounding enemies who
wanted to dominate them were always at
odds with God's kingdom purposes for the
nation of Israel David as a man after
God's own heart understood that and he
put his foot down that he says it's not
going to happen on my watch and that's
why he says what he does to Goliath as
they engage the battle you come against
me with sword and spear and javelin but
I come against you in the name of the
Lord Almighty the God of the armies of
Israel whom you have defied this day the
Lord will hand you over to me and I'll
strike you down and cut off your head to
dead i will give the today i will give
the carcasses of the Philistine army to
the birds of the air of the beasts of
the earth and the whole earth will know
that there is a God in Israel David got
it and he wasn't afraid to take on
Goliath because he knew that Goliath
stood against the purposes of God
and David having learned some of these
skills as a youth now is not afraid to
go out on a limb and he steps out and he
makes it happen and the result of course
is that not only is there a great big
celebration in Israel but David now is
too valuable for Psaltis and back home
he takes him into his army gives him
responsibility and now David Rises
through the ranks very very rapidly 1
Samuel 18-5 puts it this way whatever
Saul sent him to do David did it so
successfully thats all gave him a high
rank in the army this pleased all the
people and Saul's officers as well two
lessons two lessons that I want to draw
from that this morning and the first is
this success is a combination of our
skills in God's anointing success is a
combination of your natural skills and
the anointing of God that releases and
empowers those skills you see both of
that in David's encounter with Goliath
on the one hand he draws on the skills
that he learned as a youth how many
times would he have practiced that sling
slingshot how many times has he brazenly
taken on the lion or the bear how many
times has he learned to trust God in the
middle of the conflict those are the
skills that he is building on and now
with a presence of God in His life in a
unique
an anointed way there is a new
determination and a new ability to step
into the battle and take on the giant I
mean this was a dude nobody in Israel
dared to touch and here is a little boy
and he marches up and in the name of the
Lord he conquers the giant as powerful
lessons there because success in life a
lot of people don't realize this doesn't
just happen yes there are certain
individuals they experience what's known
as luck they win the lottery or whatever
else although most don't live long and
happily ever after even when they do
just for the record but that's a whole
other subject the best thing that you
and I can bring to the table and this is
true for young and old alike is a life
yielded to the Lord filled with his
spirit because let me put it this way
the more uncertain life gets the less
you can prepare for the future have you
ever noticed that people love to be able
to control the future they love to plan
out their lives and they have it all
figured out and then the oil price
bottoms out and their savings disappear
and there is no way that never has been
but there certainly is no way today that
you can prepare for the future other
than to walk closely with your God and
to be alive in your spirit so that you
can step into the situations that are
needed if you're a young person and
you're looking for job and you're
looking for work opportunities the most
valuable thing you can bring to the
table today is a heart that is fully
alive and filled with the Holy Spirit
and I'll tell
you I by the time you finish your
training in school and enter the job
market the job market will have so
changed that most of your training will
have been useless and what employers
need today is not just people with some
experience but people with the native
ability to go with the flow and the
character qualities that they can step
into these situations and make a
difference there will always be room for
people who are good at what they do you
know it's one of the reasons why some of
these big corporations build their
plants around small towns cities in
Ontario in the past because that's where
they find their best workforce because
that's where there have been the most
traditional families with the most solid
people to whom they can entrust the
responsibility of the corporation that's
really true so success in life is a
function of the gifts that you bring to
the table and when those are filled and
anointed with the Holy Spirit disguise
the Li mad because he could make us
aware of challenges and opportunities
that other people do not know even exist
close three relying related to that I
would say is that typically and I say
typically success opens the door to
promotion success opens the door to
promotion how does David rise in the
ranks because it is now recognized how
good he is at what he does and if you're
part of a corporation or if you're part
of a business or you're trying to get
somewhere in life the best way to get
there is not to hope that somehow or
another somebody will think that you are
valuable enough
to belong to the company and valuable
enough to get well-paid the best way to
get there is you demonstrate who you are
and what you're worth because bosses are
looking for people who are committed to
the well-being of the corporation who
who yes have proper boundaries and all
that but who don't whine over every
little thing that goes there what
doesn't go their way because they're
more of a drag than a help and you see
that so wonderfully in David's life
because he just rises to the top because
God is with him and there will always be
room even in the secular world let alone
in the church world there will always be
room for people with servant hearts
those gifts are surrendered to the
purposes of God and who can rise to the
top because they're dependable they're
honest and they're hard-working and they
don't complain all the time that's fair
to say alright we're going to stop here
I'm going to just introduce one more
point that I want to leave with you and
then at some point we'll have to come
back to it lord knows when that'll be
maybe next sunday night i don't know but
third point that i want to point out and
i don't want to spend time on it now is
the david has to trust God to establish
his throne how many years pass between
promise and fulfillment of that promise
let's say he was 15 years old when Saul
comes to the home of Jesse to anoint him
how old was he when he became king over
Judah do you remember 30 years of age
that's 15 e
years of waiting not only that but
another seven years pass before he gets
to be king over all Israel now if my
math is correct that's 22 years and a
lot of us are impatient with God when
our prayer is an insert in three weeks
so part of our whole mindset needs to be
what does it look like to trust God why
does it take so long and what are the
temptations that we experience when we
you