And Lord, as we now prepare ourselves to come to your word, we thank you for your word, and we know that it is sufficient. We know that it tells us everything that we need to know about ourselves, about you, about our purpose in life, about the importance of walking with you. We ask, Lord, that we would hear the voice of our Good Shepherd as we study your Word today, calling us by name, feeding us, and nourishing us with the preaching of your Word. O God, please bless the preaching of your Word. May it instill faith in us, and for those of us who are struggling, we pray that it would supply comfort for those of us who are comfortable We pray that you would stir us to action and do not let us be a people who are apathetic about spiritual matters. Oh God, our desire is not only to be hearers, but to be doers by your grace. And so we pray, Lord, that you would now use the preaching of your word to accomplish your purposes in our lives. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Well if you have your Bible with you please turn to the book of 1st Samuel. We're going to be in 1st Samuel chapter 16 today as we continue in our study of 1st Samuel. We'll be looking at 1st Samuel chapter 16 verses 1 to 13. And some of you know that next month is actually going to mark 13 years since I was initially extended an invitation to be the pastor here at New Beginnings Church of Linwood. And you know, over the years, as I've looked back on my life, I think, you know, who would have thought that this is where I would end up? You might not think that being a pastor would be my calling in life if you looked at my background, where I came from. As a teenager, I was just a complete non-conformist. I was a punk, but I didn't even exactly fit in with the other punks. And as a young adult, most of you know that I spent several years as a table games dealer in the casinos of Las Vegas. I'm obviously very fortunate that the qualifications for a pastor don't include having a spotless past. But the funny thing is that as I look back on those times in my life, and those what I consider to be kind of blemishes in my past, I can clearly, nevertheless, I can clearly see the hand of the Lord as He was preparing me for pastoral ministry, even in those things. Now that isn't to say that I would recommend that somebody become a punk or work in the casino business if they want to be a pastor. No, don't get me wrong, I don't recommend those things at all. All I'm saying is that the Lord can take a person's past and use them in the present despite what their past may be. And so the Lord used all these things in my past to make me who I am today. And the same is true of you. The things that are in your past, the Lord has used even those things to make you who you are today. You know, as a punk, I learned to be very comfortable being a nonconformist, doing what most people are not doing, if I was convinced that that was the right thing to do. And let me tell you, in this day and age, in the day and age now where everything is pragmatism in the church, let me tell you, that might be one of the most important qualities a pastor can have, being a nonconformist, being comfortable doing what nobody else seems to be doing. And oddly enough, I actually know several other pastors who were also punks back in the 1980s. Strangely enough, As a table games dealer, I learned how to weather very difficult days, very difficult circumstances, all with a smile on my face. And as a pastor, let me tell you, I have weathered seasons of discouragement, which all pastors must. And I've had to push through and study anyway, even when I didn't feel like doing it. I had to prepare sermons even when I didn't feel like doing it, which is again a struggle that all pastors are going to have to face in one way or another eventually. I mean, if you look at the statistics for pastors, the statistics tell us that most pastors don't make it to 13 years. Most pastors don't make it to 10. Most pastors are really kind of rare if they make it to five years. So the casino industry actually gave me this grinding work ethic that has helped me to keep going even when I don't feel like I want to keep going. And again, all I'm saying is that the Lord used my past to make me who I am today. And the truth is, the same is true of all Christians. The Scriptures tell us, Ephesians 2, verse 10, that we are His workmanship created in Christ for good works. But I don't believe for one second that God waited until I was converted to actually start preparing me, start working on me, start instilling various qualities within me. And the same goes for you. God knows all things. God ordains all things. See, this isn't about me. This is about the fact that God can use a person despite the fact that they might come from an unlikely background. And in fact what you find when you study the scriptures is that God actually loves to do this. You look at Moses, really the first mouthpiece of God, and he had a stuttering problem. Right? You look at that. You look at 1st Corinthians chapter 1, you see that the foolishness of God is greater than the wisdom of man. And that He loves to call unlikely people because He's glorified in that. And the same is true of me, and the same is true of you. We're created for good works, for good works. Now, as we continue in our study of 1 Samuel today, we're going to be introduced to a new character whose past did not look like it was going to lead him to the place that he would eventually end up. And not only did his past not seem to fit the bill, but neither did his appearance. In fact, he didn't seem to fit the bill at all for where he was about to end up. even in the eyes of those who knew him best, and even in the eyes of those who not only knew him, but who loved and served the Lord faithfully. The character that I'm referring to, of course, is none other than David. At this point in the text, Saul has been the king of Israel for a number of years. When Samuel was first introduced to him several chapters back, he saw that Samuel, he was just the perfect candidate as far as Samuel could tell. He was tall, he was handsome. Israel had rejected God as their king, and they wanted a king that was like the kings of the nations surrounding them. And Saul, well, man, Saul fit the bill. Again, he was tall, he was handsome. His height would make him a great and mighty warrior out on the battlefield. His good looks and his charm would endear him to the people of Israel. And yet, There was a problem. The problem was that Saul did not have a heart after God. He continually disobeyed God and his kingship was marked by his commitment to the establishment and the pursuit of his own glory and his own purposes rather than the pursuit of God's glory and God's purposes. Saul was what psychologists in our day and age would refer to as just a classical narcissist. He is a narcissist. He was so obsessed with himself he couldn't see past himself. He thought way too highly of himself. And from a worldly perspective, I mean, okay, Saul was, even though he was a narcissist, he was an okay king. He was a decent king. He did what kings are supposed to do, right? He defended Israel's borders. He defended Israel against her enemies. But that's only from a worldly perspective. From a biblical perspective his kingship was nothing short of an abysmal failure in every regard because Saul had no regard for God. Saul would not obey God. The final straw came when Saul was instructed to carry out justice on God's behalf against the Amalekites and all their livestock and yet Saul in his foolishness spared the king of the Amalekites, and he spared all of their sheep and oxen. And so when Samuel confronts him about this, Saul turns to the people and blames the people of Israel. He says it was their fault. They were the ones who wanted to offer the sheep and oxen as sacrifices unto the Lord. And Samuel's response ultimately was, to obey is better than sacrifice. In other words, it would have been better for you to have done what the Lord was asking you to do, than it was for you to get these sheep and these oxen in order to make a sacrifice. To obey is better than sacrifice. And in the end, this led to God rejecting Saul as Israel's king, which actually created a void, created an empty throne, which created an opportunity for God to once again faithfully provide a king for Israel. So all of this just sets the stage for our introduction to David. who won't be a perfect man, we know that, we know that he's not going to be a perfect king by any means, but he will nevertheless be a man after God's own heart, and whom God has been preparing all throughout his life, even before he's been introduced to us. So the point of the passage that we'll be looking at today is that if you are in Christ, God's calling on your life is what qualifies you to serve Him and to be His. You are His workmanship, created in Christ for good works, which He has prepared beforehand for you to walk in. And so the 15th chapter of 1 Samuel ended by telling us that Samuel grieved over Saul's rejection of God and by God until the day he died. Samuel, if you think about it, Samuel has been very emotionally, heavily invested in Saul's life. He has tried to help guide and direct Saul. He has undoubtedly prayed for Saul. He has pleaded with Saul. He has rebuked Saul. And so for him to have watched Saul reach the point where Saul was no longer able to repent because he was so hardened in his heart by sin, that was clearly, clearly very painful, emotionally heavy for Samuel. And so at this point, I think Samuel, who, remember, he's an old man at this point, he probably was looking back on his life, feeling like all the work that he had done in his life was really pointless. It all ended up leading to nothing. Sin had nevertheless, despite all of Samuel's ministry, sin had gotten the best of God's people, despite all the work. And their king had ended up becoming just a madman. All Samuel could do in his mind was grieve as he looked back on all these things. Now how long did Samuel grieve? Apparently for quite a while, as we'll see as the 16th chapter of 1st Samuel begins. Let's start with verses 1 to 3. It says, Now the Lord said to Samuel, How long will you grieve over Saul, since I have rejected him from being king over Israel? Fill your horn with oil and go. I will send you to Jesse the Bethlehemite, for I have selected a king for myself among his sons. But Samuel said, How can I go? When Saul hears of it, he'll kill me. and the Lord said take a heifer with you and say I have come to sacrifice to the Lord you shall invite Jesse to the sacrifice and I will show you what you shall do and you shall anoint for me the one whom I designate to you. So Samuel we know is a prophet of God. And you might be tempted to think that that gave him an advantage over ordinary people like us. After all, whenever he was feeling afraid, he could actually hear the voice of God speaking words of peace and reassurance to him. When he felt grieved and discouraged, he could hear the voice of God encouraging him to press on, to get up and press on. In this instance, that's exactly what we see happening. That's exactly what we're told of. God says to Samuel, how long will you grieve over Saul, since I have rejected him from being king over Israel. And he instructs him, fill your horn with oil and go, I will send you to Jesse the Bethlehemite, for I have selected a king for myself among his sons. So on the surface, yes, it looks like Samuel has this advantage where he can actually hear the voice of God. But I want to remind you this morning that you too have been granted the privilege of hearing God's voice. Didn't Jesus say, my sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me? In John 10, verse 27. If you have followed Jesus, if you are a Christian, if you have believed on Him, it's because you heard His voice when His voice called you by name. And He speaks to your every need, even to this day. in His Word and through His Spirit. If we need light in the darkness, we find His voice in His Word, which lights our path. If we need wisdom, we find it in His Word. Whatever we need, it's in His Word. Our confession, we're a Reformed Baptist Church. We adhere to the 1689 Confession, the second London Baptist Confession of 1689. And the confession starts with this in the first chapter. First chapter, first paragraph. It says, the Holy Scripture is the only sufficient, certain, and infallible rule of all saving knowledge, faith, and obedience. Although the light of nature, and the works of creation and providence do so far manifest the goodness, wisdom, and power of God as to leave men inexcusable, yet they are not sufficient to give that knowledge of God and His will which is necessary unto salvation. Therefore it pleased the Lord at sundry times and in diverse manners to reveal Himself and to declare that His will unto the church. afterward for the better preserving and propagating of the truth and for the more established more sure establishment and comfort of the church against the corruption of the flesh and the malice of Satan and of the world to commit the same holy unto writing which maketh the holy scriptures to be the most necessary those former ways of God's revealing his will unto his people now being ceased In other words, in a nutshell, we need to hear God's voice. And God's voice is found in His Word. His Word is sufficient. It is inerrant. It is inspired. It gives us all saving knowledge that is necessary for salvation. And in the darkness of Samuel's grief, God speaks to him. And He brings him good news. He says, I have selected a king for myself. That would be good news for Samuel. After all, he's grieving over the fact that Israel has no king and that the king has rejected God and been rejected by God. So this is good news. Man isn't going to select this king. God did. He wouldn't be selected and screened over by a church committee. No, he was chosen actually just simply by God's sovereign decree. What's interesting is that the Hebrew word for selected, when God says I have selected a king for myself, the word selected in Hebrew actually means to see. In fact that's how it's translated almost 900 times in the Old Testament. It's only translated selected or provided four times in comparison. So the primary meaning of this term is to see. And what that reminds us of is the fact that God is able to see what His people are unable to see in all the dimness and all the shadows and all the darkness of this world. We can only look upon someone outwardly. But God, we should remember, sees the heart of a man. God sees the man who is after his own heart, because God looks upon the heart of man. God prepares a person to be in his service, and since God does that, and since God is never wrong, and since God never fails, God provides the type of person He desires for service. God comforts His people in their holy distress, just like He does with Samuel here. and He does it through His Word. Samuel wasn't grieving, by the way, over any kind of personal issues. He was grieved over things that have eternal significance for his countrymen. He was grieving over the way that sin was affecting God's people. He was grieving over the misery that their sin was inviting into their lives. That's what sin does, by the way. It invites misery into your life. And he was grieving over the apathy that God's people had about spiritual matters and about all these other things, about how sin was entering into their lives and dominating them and enslaving them. He was grieving over their apathy. You know what that's like, don't you? Do you know what it's like to grieve over somebody else's apathy over spiritual matters? I mean, don't you grieve when you consider the spiritual apathy of so many who claim to be Christian in our time? And yet their life betrays their lips because they're not adding up. We're seeing a complete spiritual collapse in the West in our day and age. Here in the West the gospel once flourished, it once spread far and wide and freely. How can we not feel grieved over an end of this blessing? If you have a spiritual pulse, I have to think that you have felt a very heavy burden over these things, and that you long for God to pour out His Spirit in revival in our country, in our culture, in the world. God's words, however, speak peace to us. They assure us that God is capable of preserving a remnant for His glory, which He has always done. And they assure us that He will build His church. Nothing's going to interfere with that. Nothing's going to get in the way of that. Not even all of hell will be able to get together and stop Him thwarting His plans. It's not going to happen. His promises are sure, even when it feels like the world around us is just headed straight for hell. Even when there's a moral collapse in the culture around us. It's what Samuel's seeing too, in his day and age. God's Word, therefore, not only comforts us in our distress over the spiritual collapse in our culture, but it also challenges us to press on, to walk by faith and to not be afraid. Samuel is afraid, isn't he? You see that here. He's afraid. He's afraid for his life. He says to God, you know, God, I understand what you're calling me to do, but I can't do what you're asking me to do because I will be killed if I even try. Samuel's at a point where It appears he had probably indulged in his grief a little bit too much. It is absolutely possible to indulge too much in grief. In this situation, he's at the point where he's at least on the verge, if he's not already there, he's at least on the verge of having way too much fear of man and not enough fear of God at this point. Just in a moment of sin in his life. He's forgetting that our lives are not our own. Samuel's life is not his own, and yet, that's what he seems to be the most interested in protecting here. He's worried that if he is obedient to God, He'll be killed and so he's pleading with God, I can't do this. But God tells Samuel how to proceed in obedience to God and in a way that will also protect him from physical harm. We're told that the Lord said, take a heifer with you and say, I have come to sacrifice to the Lord. You shall invite Jesse to the sacrifice and I will show you what you shall do and you shall anoint for me the one whom I designate to you. So Samuel's been kind of stuck in this cycle of grief. And don't get me wrong, grief isn't necessarily a bad thing. I mean, we are told to grieve with those who grieve, but grief can be taken too far. If it gets to the point where it hinders our walk with the Lord, where it gets in the way of our obedience to the Lord, if it hinders our work for the Lord, it's time to leave our grief behind and press on. God always has a way of bringing His people from a position of grief or from a position of fear, Samuel's feeling both of these things, to a position in which they are emboldened to walk in obedience by faith with the Lord. And that's what God does for Samuel here. The plan is for Samuel to go to Bethlehem to bring a cow and summon Jesse and his family to join him. And God will take care of the rest. God will reveal this new king that He has selected. Let's continue, verses 4-10. So Samuel did what the Lord said and came to Bethlehem. And the elders of the city came trembling to meet him and said, do you come in peace? He said, in peace, I have come to sacrifice to the Lord. Consecrate yourselves and come with me to sacrifice. He also consecrated Jesse and his sons and invited them to the sacrifice. When they entered, he looked at Eliab and thought, surely the Lord's anointed is before him. But the Lord said to Samuel, do not look at his appearance or at the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For God sees not as man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart. Then Jesse called Abinadab and made him pass before Samuel. And he said, the Lord has not chosen this one either. Next, Jesse made Shammah pass by. And he said, the Lord has not chosen this one either. Thus Jesse made seven of his sons pass before Samuel, but Samuel said to Jesse, the Lord has not chosen these. Samuel had to leave his grieving and his fearing behind because God was not done with Israel. That might've been Samuel's fear. That might have been what he was grieving over. But God is clearly not done with Israel, and there was work to be done. And so Samuel obeys the Lord. He leaves these things behind, and he gets up and he goes to Bethlehem. Remember how afraid for his life Samuel was? Well, it turns out that the men of Bethlehem, they start trembling when he comes near. They're afraid for their lives when they see Samuel come to their city. We aren't exactly told why they are afraid, but I guess they figured that if Samuel, if this prophet of God was making a visit, it couldn't have been for anything good. After all, they may have gotten word that God had, perhaps they were afraid that He was coming with a message similar to what Jonah brought to the Ninevites. It's time to repent or you're going to be destroyed. But whatever the case, they're trembling. They're wrong. He's not coming for any ill intention. He comes in peace. And he tells them that he has only come to make a sacrifice to the Lord. And he invites the men to be consecrated and to join him. And then we're told that he also consecrated Jesse and his sons and invited them to come and worship the Lord with him. The fact that the men of the city don't show up for this ceremony, don't show up for this worship, speaks volumes about where they're at spiritually, doesn't it? No wonder they were afraid for their lives when they saw Samuel. An awareness of a person's guilt results in them feeling a great sense of fear and trepidation whenever they even see a police officer drive by, right? It's the same kind of concept here. Guilt causes fear. But Jesse and his sons do show up, which I think speaks very well of their family. It speaks well of Jesse as a father, I would have to think. Matthew Henry notes that, quote, it appears that it was a devout religious family, end quote. And so I would agree. I think this speaks very well of Jesse and his family. It's a good reminder that even when the world appears to be spiritually collapsing, spiritually crumbling beneath our feet, God always preserves a remnant. That is a people who don't conform to the ways of the world, but who instead march to the beat of God's drum and not to the beat of the world's drum. To this day, that's true. And so as Jesse and his sons arrive for the worship ceremony, Eliab, who I think we can presume was either Jesse's oldest or his most physically fit, his biggest son, he catches Samuel's eye. And Samuel apparently thinks to himself, now this guy looks like he could be a king. Eliab had stature, he had physique, he looked the part. But God says to Samuel here in verse seven, do not look at his appearance or at the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For God sees not as man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart. So here is this young man who looked like if Saul was going to pose a threat to anybody, if he was going to seek revenge or vengeance, looks like this guy could probably take him. Looks like this guy could probably win on the battlefield. He was a man that Israel could surely get behind, or so Samuel thought. So where did Samuel go wrong here? We're told that he looked at Eliab and thought, period. Just stop there. He looked at Eliab and thought. That's where he went wrong. That's the problem right there. See Saul, if you remember, Saul fit the same description back when we were first introduced to him, didn't he? You would think that Samuel would have known better this time around, but the fact is that he was looking at candidates the same way that people naturally look at candidates for a position like king. Commentator Kenneth Chafin says this in his commentary. He says, like Samuel, we are too impressed by the things that can be seen with the physical eyes. Consequently, we live in a world where physical beauty outranks spiritual depth, where success in business and in church tends to be defined in materialistic terms, and where charisma is prized above character, end quote. Wow, that's quite an accusation, isn't it? The question isn't, though, that's quite an accusation, right? No, the question is, is he right? Is he accurate in his assessment? And I would say he absolutely is correct. And it isn't difficult to substantiate his claim with just an abundance of evidence, especially now that we have the internet. All you need to do is look at the profile of your typical megachurch pastor. You see young, physically fit, attractive men who are wearing the most fashionable clothing, giving what really boils down to a TED Talk with a Bible verse. A few years ago, somebody started an Instagram page called Preachers and Sneakers. Any of you guys ever seen that page? It's funny, but it's not. It's one of those things. It's funny, but it's not. They highlight well-known pastors, pastors, using that term kind of loosely here, wearing just ridiculously expensive sneakers while they preach. I'm not talking about a $100 pair of Nikes. I'm talking about shoes that cost up to several thousand dollars. Why wear such expensive shoes? It's because it's true that man looks at the outward appearance and style and beauty are more important to the average church-going person in our country than spiritual depth or maturity. But it's not even in these, you know, evangelical type of megachurches. There are some very well-known pastors, again I'm going to use that term a little bit lightly, even in reformed circles, who have done a great job of making a name for themselves simply because they're very good at marketing themselves. and yet they don't fit the qualifications for pastors that are laid out in Scripture. One of them completely disqualified himself for pastoral ministry a few years ago by swearing in the pulpit. Yes, by the way, swearing is a sin, and yes, intentionally sinning from the pulpit without repenting is 100% disqualifying. Another one teaches things like he doesn't allow his wife to read and learn anything that he doesn't know about, which again, that's not an instruction that we find anywhere in Scripture. That is just legalism. In fact, I've seen a couple dozen clips by this guy, and every clip I've seen has some degree of legalism in it. There's another one of these guys who has lied for years and years about his credentials. He has things that say, I completed my studies at such and such seminary. The fact is he only took two or three classes there. And he says, well, that's completing my seminary education there. No, when you use that kind of terminology, you're saying that you completed the program. And even when somebody finally caught him lying about this, he tried to just, you know, cover up some of his tracks, but he never repented of this deception and these lies. There's yet another pastor who used to be in Reformed Circle, but who's again really great at marketing himself. That would be the pastor who blew up the biggest church here in Seattle about 10 years ago. He's another pastor who should have been deemed disqualified for preaching ministry years prior for cursing in the pulpit. But when his church finally blew up, He just relocated to the southwest and started all over again with the same kind of marketing that he was so good at up here, posting video clips of himself saying things that we would all mostly agree with, and saying it in a very bold, outspoken manner. And then of course, you've got the big one, who teaches federal vision. If you don't know what federal vision is, federal vision is a denial of the gospel. It is another gospel altogether. And people love this guy because he speaks so boldly to the issues of our day. I get it. He does. And he's got a great marketing team behind him. But the fact is he teaches a false gospel of faith plus works. I hope you get the point. The internet has taken advantage of the fact that we look at appearances. And if somebody's really good at marketing themselves, we look at these guys as pastors to be followed. The internet has just made it really easy for men who aren't qualified for pastoral ministry to make an enormous name for themselves as pastors. Richard Phillips says this in his commentary. He says, quote, This is why we so often suffer from bad leadership today, because we consider only how someone appears in the cultivation of an image, the practice of clever sayings, the pandering to baser motives, all of which the souls of this world are easily able to master. End quote. And this is the way people have, this is something that people have always been prone to do. But here in our text, Samuel gets rebuked by God for judging based on outward appearances. But through this rebuke to Samuel, God is actually rebuking all of us for judging based on appearances. It's because God looks at the heart and because God is infinitely wise that God tells us how to identify and how to raise up leaders for the church. today. He lays forth all the criteria for us to judge a man by in the pastoral epistles. The pastoral epistles, of course, are 1st and 2nd Timothy and Titus. But because we're so prone, because we are so naturally inclined to judge based on appearances, we need to, number one, be aware of that, and number two, we need to therefore make doubly sure that we are yielding ourselves to God's wisdom as revealed in God's word about this. Not only do we see the complete failure of so many churches doing this based on the men that we see leading so many megachurches deeper and deeper into just spiritual apathy, But if you ever look through the ads of churches seeking a pastor, it's incredibly evident there. They almost all say that they want a man who is seminary trained with five years of experience in a church of 2,000 that experienced a yearly growth rate of at least 50%. Where do you find all these kinds of qualifications outlined in Scripture? You just don't. And this is not an exaggeration, by the way. The fact is, even as Christians, we are so prone to judge based on criteria that is just foreign to Scripture. I get it, you know, it's difficult. It's really difficult to follow the biblical guidelines for selecting leaders. Believe me, I understand. It's difficult to follow biblical guidelines for just about anything. But we must seek God's wisdom on these things, knowing, as James instructs us, that if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him. That's James 1.5. So having been rebuked by God, Samuel moves from Eliab to the next son, Abinadab. Samuel is now listening to God instead of looking at outward appearances, but it's because he's listening to God that he immediately knows that Abinadab isn't the man. He's not the man that God has called. He's not the man to anoint in this setting. The next son for consideration was Shammah. It's apparent that Jesse thought that Eliab, Abinadab, and Shammah were probably the most physically impressive, I think. The Lord has not chosen this one either, Samuel tells Jesse. And when it wasn't him either, Samuel brings seven sons before Samuel. And all Samuel can say is, the Lord has not chosen these. So what has Samuel done wrong here? He hasn't done anything wrong here. Since being rebuked for judging by outward appearances, he's actually done everything right. The only way this could happen, the only way that the sons of Jesse could be laid out before him and that none of them would be the one to anoint would be One, if God changes his mind, but we were reminded in the last chapter that he doesn't, or two, if Jesse hasn't brought in all of his sons. He's got an eighth, which we read about in the verses that follow. Let's continue, verses 11 to 13. It says, And Samuel said to Jesse, Are these all the children? And he said, There remains yet the youngest, and behold, he is tending the sheep. Then Samuel said to Jesse, Send and bring him, for we will not sit down until he comes here. So he sent and brought him in. Now he was ruddy, with beautiful eyes and a handsome appearance. And the Lord said, Arise, anoint him, for this is he. Then Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the midst of his brothers. And the Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon David from that day forward. And Samuel arose and went to Ramah. Now I don't think it was malicious or an attempt at being deceptive in any way, but Jesse was kind of holding back here, it turns out. He had an eighth son, another son, but it was a son who was dirty and well he was useful for menial tasks like shepherding but notice that Jesse is even a bit he appears to be a bit apprehensive about even bringing him in he says there remains the youngest and behold he's tending sheep The Hebrew word for youngest, by the way, can also mean smallest. Perhaps he was both. Perhaps David was both, the youngest and the smallest. But either way, Jesse figured that David would be the least presentable of all the brothers and the least qualified for the job. We don't want to bring him in. After all, he's going to smell like a bunch of sheep. He's going to smell like a flock of sheep. And so Samuel instructs Jesse to bring David in anyway, immediately. And he's got to be thinking, hurry up. You know, this horn of oil is getting heavy here. So Jesse sends for him, and before long in walks David. And David, of course, is just fresh from the field. He's unbathed, probably wearing cheap and tattered garments, smelling like fresh sheep. And despite being young and probably pretty smelly, we're told in verse 12, he was ruddy with beautiful eyes and a handsome appearance. But no sooner does he stand before Samuel, and despite his appearance, despite anything that you might look at him and say, this isn't the guy that we need, Samuel announces, arise, anoint him, for this is he. God has identified his man. But he hasn't done it based on outward appearances or based on his past. And so in this private, humble, very unlikely setting, this unlikely candidate is anointed with oil as the next king of Israel in the midst of his fathers and brothers. Here we see that this principle of judging by appearance actually cuts more than one way. Often the men who have the most charm and the best marketing are the least qualified, But it's also true that sometimes the men who have the least charm, no marketing to speak of, no following to speak of, are actually the most qualified based on God's criteria. Now don't get me wrong, this isn't to say that there's anything wrong with, you know, having a good appearance, or having a great seminary education, or with, you know, experience in leading a mediocre sized church to a huge mega church, whatever. That's not necessarily a bad thing. The issue simply is that it is ultimately the heart that matters. That's the point. It's the heart that matters. And God is the one who sees the heart. The other stuff is great, don't get me wrong, but it's not important. It's not what matters to God. And we need to be concerned with the things that matter to God. The things that matter to God should be what matter to us the most also. Now, it's particularly important in our culture that we be mindful of the insignificance of outward appearances. I mean, after all, we live in a society in which there are actually people out there who make six figures a year and they're living paycheck to paycheck. And if you're like me and you're wondering how that's even possible, it's because people love to spend their money. What do they spend their money on? They spend their money on creating an appearance of affluence or prosperity. They just throw it away. Instead of buying, you know, a good used car, for example, they'll buy, you know, just the highest-end new car, which is worth, you know, loses a quarter of its value as soon as they drive off the lot. They don't care. It's about creating an image. we need to be on guard against that. But we gain so much hope here as we look at David's anointing. We're reminded that appearances are great, after all he was handsome, but that they aren't the thing that really matters on this issue. How does that relate to your life? It reminds us that God is able to use you despite your impressive credentials or lack thereof. You might not look like the most knowledgeable evangelist in the world, or maybe you do. Either way, God doesn't care about the externals. He cares about your heart. The point is that if you are in Christ, God has made you who you are. Right now, at this very point, He has ordained where you would live so that you may serve Him where you are and be used as you are for His glory. You are his workmanship created for good works in Christ. Now, that doesn't mean that you don't have room for improvement. I hate to burst any bubbles here, but you probably do. I do too. I know I do. And I think that this is seen in the way that David is anointed as Israel's next king, even though he's not going to take the throne for several years. He's anointed at a young age, It's going to be a long time before he actually wears a crown. He actually has years and years of preparation ahead of him. Years in which God would continue shaping and molding David's character. But David has already had, actually if you think about it, he's already had years of preparation even before this point. After all, he was a shepherd. Shepherding was a menial task, a lowly task. It wasn't for somebody who desired to be influential or affluent. And yet, as William Blakey notes in his commentary, quote, the duties of the shepherd correspond to those which the faithful and godly ruler owed to the people committed to his scepter. So it instilled, shepherding instilled in young David things like a desire to protect those who are entrusted to his care. It instilled in him things like a desire to drive away predators that might threaten the well-being of his flock. He had a lot of time to look up at the heavens at nighttime as he's watching over his flock and to consider how the heavens testify of the glory of God. I have to think that when he wrote the Psalms that say things like that, those are things that go back to when he was just a little boy. He would have learned how to do all these things by shepherding, by being a physical shepherd, feeding sheep, attending to their needs, protecting them, providing for them. And so we see that David's background actually prepared him to be the kind of man that God could use to serve in this capacity. Instead of being ineligible for use in God's economy, God had used David's lowly, humble circumstances to prepare him for great use. And this reminds us of a second principle that gives us a lot of hope in this passage, and that is that God loves to raise up people from unlikely and lowly places, and to use them for His glory. This brings us actually back to the prayer, the song of Samuel's mother, Hannah, back in chapter 2. In chapter 2, verse 8, she's saying of God, she said, He raises the poor from the dust. He lifts the needy from the ash heap to make them sit with nobles and inherit a seat of honor. For the pillars of the earth are the Lord's, and He set the world on them. How many of you know that's true even to this very day? God loves to call the lowly, the humble. James says in James 4.10, humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord and He will exalt you. That promise is for you. That promise is good, even to this very day, if you have believed in Christ. When we think about David, we know that he's one of the most important characters in all of Scripture. But we should also see him as the greatest and clearest type and foreshadow of Christ in all of the Old Testament Scriptures. Just as David didn't look the part, so too the Scriptures tell us that Jesus wasn't outwardly attractive. There was nothing about Him physically that we should follow after Him. Those who believed on Him and have followed Him didn't do so because He was a good-looking guy. There was nothing physically that drew us to him. And just like David would be a man after God's own heart, you got to believe that Jesus was a man who had God's heart. Jesus came to do the will of the Father. David would be king, just like Jesus would be king, but David as a king, his time as king would end while Jesus' reign as king is everlasting. One day Jesus will return to judge the living and the dead, to separate the sheep and the goats. He tells us that on that day, Matthew 7, 21, not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven will enter. I hope you see the importance of obedience there, doing the will of the Father. What is the will of the Father? Above all, the will of the Father is that you personally believe on His only Son. Above all, that is His will. But beyond that, He wills that you love Christ, that you follow Christ, that you obey Christ, and that you serve Him. Now, don't get me wrong, you won't be saved by loving, obeying, and serving Him. No, you have been saved for that purpose. If you are in Christ, God has a calling on your life to serve Him. And God's calling on your life is what qualifies you to serve Him and to be used where you are and as you are for His glory. You are His workmanship created for good works in Christ. And that's not to say that you can't improve. We all can. But God has a way for you to serve Him just as you are even today. In fact, that's our purpose in life, to glorify Him in our lives. If you've believed in Jesus and yet you're still like Samuel in the fact that you're discouraged and you're grieved by sin and the effects of all the sin and darkness around us. If you're grieved by the moral collapse of our culture, feeling like everything at this point is just a lost cause, God has some good news for you. He has saved you, and He has created you where you are and as you are to shine the light of Christ into the darkness of the world around us. God will always be faithful to preserve a remnant, and He will build His church. And it happens by sharing the gospel. It happens by preaching His word. There's a way for all of us to serve. If you're not sure what it is, what that way is, start with the most basic. Talk to people about Jesus. Talk to people about Jesus. Talk to people about what the Bible says. but God has plans to use you. If you are in Christ, God has purposed to use you right now for His glory. Let's pray. Our Father, we thank You for Your Word once again. And the way that it educates us, the way that it awakens us from spiritual apathy, the way that it calls us to your service, to walking by faith despite grief that we may have in this life and despite fear that we may have of consequences of being obedient to you. We are reminded that our lives are not our own. And to that end, we remember that Christ has purchased us with his own blood. And we thank you for these things. We can see ourselves as only the lowliest of sinners. And yet, by your grace, you have called us not only to be your children, but to serve you as well. And we pray, Lord, that you would cause much fruit to be born in our lives as we commit ourselves to your service. Use us, O Lord, as unlikely servants, use us for Your glory. Use us to do Your work. Use us to advance Your kingdom, which is everlasting, for the glory of Christ. In His name we pray. Amen.