Give you your assignment for next week for Samuel 17. For Samuel 17, 31 to 36. We'll be covering a short amount next week, but you'll wanna see that. So I wanna start with a couple questions. What would you, excuse me, how would you like to be remembered? How would you like to be remembered? When others think about your life, what do you think God would want them to think? when others think about your life, what do you think he would want them to think? Well, today we're gonna just begin this look into this man, David, King David, as many of us know, poet, warrior, songwriter, national political leader, servant of God, a man whose life was marked by a passion a passion, a deep passion for God. Those words really are descriptive of his life and the one we'll be looking at in the days ahead. His significance in part is in Christian circles and in God's plan. In the scripture itself, he's quoted more in the New Testament than any other Old Testament writer. His name appears 1,080 times in the scripture. If you have a New American Standard Bible, that's translation, 1,080 times. He's the only one God twice described as a man after his own heart. Twice David is described that way by the Spirit of God. The book of Psalms, if you are into the Psalms and you read Psalms, you will note his great significance there and the many Psalms he's written. 73 of them, 73 of them are attributed to him in the New Testament. New Testament writers identify two others. It is through his lineage, David's, that Messiah, Jesus Christ, would come. It is his throne in Jerusalem that Jesus will ultimately rule one day from in his thousand-year reign in the millennial kingdom. Chuck Swindoll said something I think is very significant, and I identify that with this. My soul is stirred, he said, and my heart inspired as those saints of old, people of whom the world is not worthy, play out their lives, make their mistakes, accomplish incredible feats, and finally pass into glory. My heart is stirred. as well when I look at the lives of these Old Testament saints, and I'm praying God will do that for you, and that through the study of his life, you will grow in your passion for God and your walk with Christ. I've read you from 1 Samuel 8, one through three. I have it before us as well. This really sets for us kind of what was going on in David's day. Again, I'll read it. It came about when Samuel was old. He appointed his sons judges over Israel. The name of the first born was Joel. The name of the second, Abijah. They were judging in Beersheba. His sons, however, did not walk in his ways, but turned aside after a dishonest gain, took bribes, and perverted justice. These were the sons of the great prophet Samuel. Samuel's older in life at this point. You might be saying, well, why Samuel? Why are you bringing this up? He'll eventually anoint David as king. But his sons, Samuel's sons, didn't follow in his footsteps. Samuel had appointed them as judges, but Samuel's sons did their own thing. They had no regard or fear for God. They didn't walk with the Lord. They were everything a judge should not be, perverting justice, taking bribes. painfully obvious that there could be no justice of those who sought it. The one with the largest purse would be granted their desires. The nation is in a quandary." In other words, they were not men of God. They were self-centered, ungodly, and they have a part in the nation and the lives of their people. What a contrast. What a contrast to their dad. Now, I've given you this, and I want you to know these sons were ungodly to the core Their dad was a great man of God. Something I think we need to note. Something we need to note. Just because a parent is godly in their walk with God, the children, grandchildren must still make their own decisions. They must make their own choices as to whether they themselves will come to faith in Christ and walk with God. You may have a parent or grandparent who knows Christ, I just want to say this, don't think for a minute that that grants you justification before God. You may know a great spiritual leader. You may have a pastor in your family, and you're very close to him. That doesn't grant you justification before God. You need to make a decision to trust Christ as Savior, follow him, and grow in him. That's where you begin. As you pursue the Lord, yield to his word, and the Spirit speaks to you, you can grow in godliness. This again isn't up to someone else, it's up to you. It isn't up to your parents or grandparents. Connection to somebody that really knows the Lord. It's between you and God, you must choose. But this is the spiritual climate in which David is living as a young man. And in that climate, God's people have been ruled by judges, but they wanted to be like the other nations. And they sought after after a king. They said to him, to Samuel, behold, you have grown old. Your sons do not walk in your ways. Now appoint a king for us to judge us like all the nations. God allowed the nation to have a king, but the reason they wanted a king wasn't because they believed this was God's best for them. It was because they wanted to be like the other nations around them. For years, they were a theocracy where priests and judges ruled them. That's what God allowed. And by the way, if you want to see that, you look at the the book of Judges and you'll see God's people there. They look to God and he raises up a judge and speaks to them and they follow God and then they become complacent and cold and walk away from him and God disciplines them, brings them back and that's the whole story of the book of Judges. That's where this is at. David is in this type of setting. But they chose the people. They wanted a king, and the king would be what God would give them. And as I read that this week, it just reminds me of something called the People's Choice Awards. It's an American award show recognizing people in entertainment, voted online by the general public and fans. The show has been held annually since 1975, and the winners originally determined using Gallup polls until a switch to online voting in 2005. And who gets the prize? The one with the most votes. It's a people's choice. This was the people's choice. God allowed this nation to make their choice, but God was not regarded by them in it. And I just think there's something here to say. Do you realize that God will often let us have our own way if we persist in it? He doesn't make us do what is best, what is right in our lives. He may allow you to buy something extravagant and let you wallow in those monthly payments for the next six, seven, 30 years. He had a better way. We didn't look for it. He may allow you to get in a relationship that is not his best because your desire has overridden his best. And we all can struggle with this. Just because it can happen doesn't mean it necessarily should happen. And God allowed them to have a king. And if you know the history of Israel well, you'll know that often, most often, didn't go well. And their first king, King Saul, started well, became a madman in his later days. We'll see that as we go along in this study. He led the nation astray. And yet God used his decisions and behavior to shape the incoming king into the man God would eventually use, and this man would need every lesson that he learned under King Saul. King Saul reigned for 42 years according to 1 Samuel 13. That is a bit about David's days, his culture, the spiritual climate, if you would, that he is about to step into. I want you to notice his calling as well, and I'm gonna have all these scriptures on the PowerPoint, but I would invite you to turn to them as well. 1 Samuel 13, 13 and 14 really leads up to David's calling. You have Samuel here. and he's going to interact with King Saul. Samuel prophesied, Samuel said to Saul, you've acted foolishly, Saul's the first king of Israel. You've not kept the commandment of the Lord your God, which he commanded you, commanded your God, which he commanded you for, now the Lord would have established your kingdom over Israel forever. But now your kingdom shall not endure. The Lord has sought out for himself a man after his own heart. And the Lord has appointed him as a ruler over his people because you have not kept what the Lord commanded you. King Saul, later in life, was commanded to go take a city, to destroy everything. He did not do that, made excuses for it, flat out disobeyed God, and Samuel confronts him and says, this is what's going on. Again, Saul was, was man's choice, but David was God's choice. For Samuel 16, 11, this is something that is said to David. Whoa. Did you guys get all that? Because I don't know what just happened here. I need some help in the back. I have just gone through my sermon in three seconds here. I'm at 1 Samuel 16, and I want you to see that. Saul, again, had disobeyed God, and the consequences were there, and it was gonna cost him as king. Thank you. So, God goes about and he's gonna find somebody to be his choice and his king. 1 Samuel 16, 11, Samuel said to Jesse, now Samuel has gone to Jesse, who has, I believe, eight sons. God has sent him there. So he's gotta make a choice. One of his sons is gonna be the next king. Samuel said to Jesse, are these all the children? He'd walked all those sons through. He looked at the oldest. No, that's not him. The Spirit of God says, no. He said, there remains yet the youngest. Behold, he is tending the sheep. Samuel said to Jesse, send and bring him, for we will not sit down until he comes here. The Lord said, arise, anoint him, for it is he. So he sent and brought him in, and now he is rudy and beautiful eyes, handsome appearance. The Lord said, arise, anoint him, for this is he. Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him. In the midst of his brothers and the spirit of the Lord, it came mightily upon David from that day forward. And Samuel rose and went to Ramah. Samuel anoints David as king. Saul was handsome, he stood head and shoulders above all others if you read of his life, but here's David, a sheep herder from nowhere. When Samuel approaches Jesse, I think Jesse doesn't even think, okay, David's out with the sheep. He certainly wouldn't be one that would be anointed king. He doesn't even call him. David's just sort of that kind of guy that, or that kind of son that he's faithful, but it didn't cross Jesse's mind that he might be the one, but he is. He's a shepherder from nowhere, but one who walked with God. God selected him. Look at here, Psalm 78, 78, 71. He also chose David his servant, took him from the sheepfolds. And God addresses David as his servant there and also notes his background. He took him from the care of the ewes, the suckling lambs. He brought him to shepherd Jacob, his people in Israel, his inheritance. That's amazing that God would call this man. Up to this point, David is an unknown from nowhere. That's how God often does things. Some of the great men and women of the Bible, unknown to the world, but known to heaven, and God says, I have a purpose and a plan, I want you to step into it. Now, there's more to be said here, but I wanna say this, God seeks individuals today. God is seeking individuals today, not to shepherd the nation Israel, but he seeks individuals today. He calls them to a relationship with himself through faith in Christ. The Apostle Paul notes that in 1 Corinthians 1.26, consider your calling, brethren, not many wise according to flesh, not many mighty, not many noble. We can identify with that, right? Not many mighty, not many noble, not many wise. These are the kind of people that God seeks out, that God looks for. In the second chapter, verse three of 1 Corinthians, Paul says this about himself. I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling. Paul says, that's the kind of guy I was when I came to you, when I preached to you, when I declared the gospel to you. How's that for a resume, huh? You're gonna hire that guy for your next pastor. Weak, fearful, trembling. But here's a man that's humble. And Paul's point here is we're kind of nobodies from nowhere. And God seeks out those kind of people. God is writing the history of his interaction with man by choosing certain individuals to specific assignments in their day in order to bring about his good pleasure. Let me say that again. God is writing the history of his interaction with man by choosing certain individuals to specific assignments in their day in order to bring about his good pleasure. Do you realize that you are absolutely unique in the people that surround you? Typically you'll have four, five, six, maybe up to 15 or so individuals that you're pretty tight to. And God places you and I there as believers to shine the glory of Christ, to interact with him, to point them to a saving relationship with him that they might know the God of heaven. He's looking for a man. in David's day, and he found him. He's still looking for men and women who will step on the stage of history to be willing to be used of him as he pleases. As you go about your day, I want you to keep this in mind. We need to be all about influencing others to a relationship with God, and it's not just luck or good luck. whatever, that you are surrounded by the people you're surrounded by. They need to see someone who has a passion for Jesus Christ, a passion for God. They need someone that will speak into their lives. You have, if you're in Christ, you have a powerful testimony, whatever it is. And David's, you know, and you might think, well, my job is so menial, it's just, you know, whatever it is, well, I, God uses people in places like that. In David's case, watching over sheep, a shepherd. In doing so, he joins some of the great men who have had similar backgrounds. You might know this one, Moses. I think you know Moses, Joseph, others. You may recall that God spoke the good news of great joy to shepherds. So who is God looking for today? Well, I'll just give you a couple. He's looking for those who understand, I don't have it all together. I am a sinner. and I know there's a holy God in heaven who sees me, and my sin has separated me from him, and I need a relationship to him through faith in Christ who bore my sins, who died for me. John 1.12, but as many as received him, to them he gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in his name. It's by faith. Make a decision to trust Christ. God is looking. He's looking, He's searching. Jesus came seeking, looking, searching for those who would come. He's looking to save people. Jesus came to seek and to save the lost. That's me. He came for me, He came for you. God is looking for those kind of people. He's calling to you and I to come. to believe, to trust, to be forgiven. Not to clean yourself up, but to come just as you are. He's looking for those, he's calling. Oh, there's something else here. Jesus, with the woman at the well, he's dealing with her. This is what he says, an hour is coming, now is. When the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for such people the Father seeks. to be His worshipers. He's seeking those who would worship Him, those who would say, you know what? You are worthy. It's worth my time to get before you. and to express my adoration, my thanks to you. It's worth my time to get up on a Sunday morning to get these kids ready to go and to be in a place where we can corporately worship together and acknowledge your greatness. He's looking for those kind of people. Jesus said the Father seeks those, he seeks worshipers. There's someone else that Jesus seeks, that God seeks, that he wants to call to Romans 12, one through two. Therefore, I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. He's seeking those kind of people who will say, you know what, here I am. Take me, use me, here's my body, here's my life, I want to give it to you, it's the right thing for me to do. Do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect. He is calling people to this, a transformed life by the word of God lived out before the world. Every person who is in Christ, these are the kind of people God is looking for. There's one other one I wanna put before you. Words of our Lord, Acts 1.8. Just before his ascension, after his resurrection, before he ascends into heaven, he says this, you'll receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you. You shall be my witnesses, both in Jerusalem and Judea, Samaria, remotest part of the earth. So often we say, you and I, we need to witness Christ. And we press people to do that. The fact is, this is who we are. In one way or another, we witness Christ. This is important. God says, these are the people that I'm calling. This is their assignment. And brothers and sisters, this is you and I, a transformed life, a life of witness, worshipers, and that first call to become his children. These are the kind of people he's calling. I wanna spend the last part of this sermon just on the character of this man, King David. He was deeply, deeply spiritual. Psalm 86.3, and I love this Psalm, it's one worth tucking into your memory and spending some time on. Notice what David says, here's part of his prayer. Be gracious to me, O Lord, for to you I cry all day long. You just have this picture of this man walking moment by moment with God. Here I am, Lord, in this place. I need to ask this of you. I'm looking to you. I'm walking with you. I'm aware of you and your presence with me. For to you I cry all day long. God was first and foremost on his mind as he went through his day. There's another key here. It's in verse 11. I have this verse marked in my Bible. Teach me your way, O Lord, Psalm 86 11. Let's just cry, teach me. God, I wanna be teachable, teach me. That's where my heart's at, teach me. I need to hear from you, I don't know it all. Teach me your way, O Lord. And then notice what he says. You teach me, I will walk in your truth. I don't wanna just hear it. If you teach me, I'm gonna live it. That's where I'm at. I'm telling you, here's a deeply spiritual man, and then he says this, unite my heart to fear your name or reverence you. I wanna honor you. That's a pretty spiritual man. David spent many days alone with God in the field, tending sheep. alone with God. He was unknown to the world, to others, but well-known in heaven, well-known to God. As shepherd, he would have been hour after monotonous hour in the solitude of the fields, nobody to talk to but God. Days of blazing heat, bitter cold, Starlight Knights were his training to shepherd a much bigger flock, the nation of Israel. Before he fought Goliath, his God gave him courage and ability to fight bears and lions. It's part of the training that David incurred and he could see God do powerful things through him. that prepared him to face a giant of an enemy. He was deeply spiritual. David was, he was amazing in his life, but he was deeply humble as well. It's a key component. A key component, if I'm gonna walk with God as I should, that there's gonna be a sense of humility about me. In 2 Samuel 7, Again, I'm just touching on some things in his life. God has made some promises to David. He says, you're always gonna have someone on your throne is gonna endure forever. God's been dealing with him. David, 2 Samuel 17, excuse me, 718, David the king went in and sat before the Lord. He just gets before him alone. And he said, who am I? Oh Lord God, what is my house that you have brought me this far? David looks at the grace of God on his life and his family. He gets before God and he's just like, I don't deserve this. You are so good. Who am I that you would bring such grace into my life? There's a man of humility. There's something else that sticks out in his life to me. There's just a number of these. 2 Samuel 16, five through six. When David came to Baram, behold, there came out from there a man of the family of the house of Saul, whose name was Shemai, the son of Gerah. He came out cursing continually as he came. I'm gonna give you some background. Just prior to this, and David is later in his rule, his 40-year rule as king, just prior to this, his son Absalom has been behind his back, stirring the people toward himself. He sets in the city gate and he listens to the complaints and things that are going on. He said, you know what, if I was king, You'd have a hearing. If I was king, I would deal with this. And Absalom, the scripture says, stole the hearts of the people. His son, Absalom. There comes a point when word comes that Absalom is now gained power. David is on, he's running for his life. He's leaving Jerusalem. He has people with him. But Absalom is forming this revolt. and he wants to see his dad dead. There's a lot going on here. And as he's leaving Jerusalem, he's on his way, Shemai, the son of Gerah, he came out cursing continually as he came, he sees David. and he just lets it go and he moves toward him and he's cursing him. He threw stones at David and all the servants of King David and all the people and all the mighty men were his right hand and his left. Then Abishai, the son of Zeruiah said to the king, why should this dead dog curse the Lord the king? Let me go over and cut off his head. Here you got this guy. throwing dust and stones and cursing the king. And one of his guys says, enough of this. David, just give the word. I'll take care of it. And if I'm David, I don't know. I think I might have said, yeah, go ahead. Enough of this. But you know what David's doing here? He's deferring to God. He's saying, well perhaps, if you read all the texts, perhaps God has sent him, I don't know, maybe I'll be dealt with this way, maybe there's a different way, I don't know. And you see this humility that is striking to me, it's a deeply spiritual man. Perhaps the Lord will look on my affliction, return good to me instead of his cursing this day. So David and his men went on the way, and Shemai went along on the hillside parallel with him. As he went, he cursed and cast stones and threw dust at him. And David just defers to God. 1 Peter 5, 6 says, humble yourself therefore unto the mighty hand of God that he may exalt you in due time. Deeply humble man, deferring to God. And lastly, he was a servant Psalm 78, 70, he also chose David, his servant, and took him from his sheepfolds. Acts 13, 22, he had removed him, he raised up David to be their king, concerning whom he also testified and said, I found David, the son of Jesse, a man after my heart, who will do all my will. What a servant, what a servant. God speaks that of him. And let's not forget that David spent a great deal of time shepherding for his father, for his father. When Samuel's looking for a king, David's out shepherding. Jesse didn't say, hey, don't forget to bring him in. No, that's what he's doing. And after being anointed king by Samuel, he continued in this role. He's anointed king, and what does he continue to do? Wait on the Lord, I'm just gonna shepherd, that's what I'm called to do right now. When he finally meets King Saul, we'll look at this a bit next week, he tells the king that he's just come in from his shepherding assignment, having left the sheep to the care of a keeper. Here's a servant, a man who's faithfully carrying out the humble assignment that God has given him. He takes a servant role before King Saul, even though God has said, you're the next. Here's a bit of it for Samuel 17, 34 to 35. We'll spend more time here next week. And this is where Goliath is on the hillside and all of Israel's men is fighting warriors, are scared to death. And David goes to find out what's going on, bring them some food and so forth that his father had sent with him. David said to Saul, your servant was tending his father's sheep when a lion or bear came and took a lamb from the flock. I went out after him and attacked him and rescued from his mouth. And when he arose up against me, I seized him by the beard and struck him and killed him. David is there simply to serve. What a servant. Faithful in the little things before God calls him to big things. There'd be a day, you know, when others serve David as king while he served the nation, but first, we see him as a humble servant. I've given you a brief introduction into the life of a man who we will see in greater detail in days to come. Why are we looking at his life? We're looking at his life to see the God whom he served and to learn from his life of a passionate pursuit of God and what that looks like. Pretty simple today. What I want to leave you with, live a life of legacy. excuse me, live a legacy of a passionate pursuit of God. I don't know what you want out of life these days, or what you're hoping to accomplish. I don't know what you're pursuing. But I will tell you this, you won't do any better than to pursue the Lord Jesus Christ. To pursue God, to live that kind of life, Whereas your legacy says that man, that woman, they served the Lord. They loved the Lord. They stood for Christ in their generation. Live a legacy of passionate pursuit of God. Let's pray. Loving Father, thank you for this word. Thank you for the blessing of having it before us. And Father, thank you for putting it into someone's life where we can look at someone's life and learn from them and see what that looks like to pursue you, to serve you, to be humble before you. And Father, I pray that if there's anyone in this congregation today, in this building, or anyone online who they're kind of wondering what this is all about, allow them to know that you love them. That is expressed in the sending of your son. And you sent your son to pay their sin debt. That sin has separated them from you. But Father, it's covered by the blood and that through faith in the finished work of Christ, they can have life, have life more abundant, they can be forgiven and today be a child of God. For those that know you, Father, I pray in this coming year that we would be seeking you, that we would be looking to you, that we would live our life every day in such a way as to leave a legacy that speaks to a passionate pursuit of God. We pray in Jesus' name, amen. Now, I told you your assignment for next week is 1 Samuel 17. That's actually for two weeks. Pastor Wes is preaching next week. Two weeks, 1 Samuel 17, you're dismissed.