M.Kasperson Sermon “David 1” 12/3/16

(Speaker’s Notes)

Good morning. We hear of important people in our lives but rarely really get to know them. Take our President-Elect Mr.Trump. Before people voted for him did you really know him? Did you know that he would be doing the things he is doing now? I am sure we will know what he is about in years to come. How about Mr. Obama? Did you know what he was all about? Now we do.

What about the famous actors? They do charitable deeds and espouse their viewpoints. Do we really understand them?

Well today I want to take us on the first part of a journey to really understand one famous person in the Bible who was very important but started out as a nobody, I mean no human knew he had great potential then and for our eternal future he will be a great King in the Kingdom.

His name is David. This will be part one of a couple of sermons on David.

Much of my material comes from Charles R. Swindoll’s Bible study: “David, a man after God’s own heart”

David had many challenges in life and some we didn’t even know, as we will find out . This shepard boy who became king was prepared for his role of king by God himself. Let’s start with a look at the 3 main phases of his life.

1. Shephard Boy – We all know about his giant slayer ability. Did you know he also slayed a bear and a lion to protect his sheep? I don’t think any of us are that brave – except maybe human Mama bears protecting their children.
2. Persecution Period - this is where a lot of things happened that helped test and shape David for his coming kingship.
3. King of Israel – David had his challenges here too and suffered as he was caught using his position to secure for himself yet another wife – he already had 7 wives or more and at least 10 concubines. He paid a price through losing his kingdom for a short period, losing the life of his first child with Bathsheba and his son Absalom and having family issues as well as other issues.

Let’s start with the Shephard boy period and gain some perspective.

Of David’s 7 brothers at the time he was the one out tending the sheep when Samuel showed up to review them at God’s request looking for the one. Jesse had to call David in but only after showing his 7 brothers first – let’s pick up this account.

1Sam 16:8-11  8 So Jesse called Abinadab, and made him pass before Samuel. And he said, “Neither has the Lord chosen this one.” 9 Then Jesse made Shammah pass by. And he said, “Neither has the Lord chosen this one.”10 Thus Jesse made seven of his sons pass before Samuel. And Samuel said to Jesse, “The Lord has not chosen these.” 11 And Samuel said to Jesse, “Are all the young men here?” Then he said, “There remains yet the youngest, and there he is, keeping the sheep.”

And Samuel said to Jesse, “Send and bring him. For we will not sit down[a] till he comes here.”

And Samuel said to Jesse, “Send and bring him. For we will not sit down[a] till he comes here.” There are a few potential conclusions we can make about this instance to understand the family relationship here.

1. It could be that Jesse never intended to call his son David in.
2. Jesses may also have never cultivated a close relationship between all his sons – Somewhat dissing the youngest son saying – “he is keeping the sheep”.

It is good to point out a few other characteristics of David’s life that can be a model or method used by God for training leaders. As I go through these, please look back on your life and see if you each had periods of time where you shared these feelings.

1. Solitude- think about a Shephard in a predominately farming community and if you are out “tending the sheep” you are most likely completely alone and isolated form other people. There are no cars, highways, buses, trains and planes or the just plan bustle of many people. You are isolated and alone on your own with no-one to talk to but God. Did you ever seek Solitude? Try to get away from it all? I did, when I was young. I grew up on a sparsely populated hill that had a number of farms which I worked on to make some money as a child. One of my favorite things to do was to go down an isolated street with woods on one side and apple orchards on another, especially at night to look at the stars or on foggy nights to walk in the orchards with absolutely no one around completely silent and alone. The peace and quiet was comforting. Remember periods when you were completely alone in the silence? this is what David experienced. You can identify with Him and his childhood. We can use solitude to talk with our chief love in life, our creator, just as David did.  Here, David talked with God and developed his relationship with the God of solitude. Think about Jesus for when he went to pray he left the others and found a place to be alone with God in solitude! When we pray we are to go into our rooms alone and close the door behind us to be alone with God in solitude!

Now for the next part of God’s training method:

2. Obscurity – Webster’s Definition is the state of being unknown or forgotten. I think David was unknown and forgotten when tending the sheep, out of site out of mind. You can tell Jesse forgot him because Samuel had to ask him again if it was all his sons.

When you are forgotten you feel like the world has passed you by and NO-ONE even knows who you are, or where you are, or what you care about. What does that do to you? Aren’t we social creatures and don’t we like others to notice us, accept us and talk with us? Here, David’s sense of acceptance and belonging is bankrupt we can’t underestimate that kind of impact. We are to look to God for acceptance, not others! Acceptance from others is many times influenced by Satan and can drive the wrong character in us.

We are not to be looking for identity from others or are we relying on their input to formulate our ideas and confidence. Because we are accepted by God, he gives us our Identity and our value. This is what David was doing. He lived in obscurity but lived for the living God every minute, every hour, every day and there were few people around. He learned to see God’s blessing in his life even though there were no big changes and he learned to love God. Can we find a way to do the same as David did?

Obscurity also means:

• Something that is difficult to understand
• The quality of being difficult to understand

Because of David’s obscure life and also for us when we lived in obscurity, did you find that few people understood you? When we draw close to a God that the world has rejected, our relationships with others is also impacted. Everyone in this room knows what I’m talking about - our day to day walk is alone with few to none truly understanding us! God does! Maybe that is why David had the understanding that Goliath can be defeated but everybody including his brother who should have understood David, didn’t and tried to discourage him.

1Sam 17:24-2824 And all the men of Israel, when they saw the man, fled from him and were dreadfully afraid. 25 So the men of Israel said, “Have you seen this man who has come up? Surely he has come up to defy Israel; and it shall be that the man who kills him the king will enrich with great riches, will give him his daughter, and give his father’s house exemption from taxes in Israel.”

26 Then David spoke to the men who stood by him, saying, “What shall be done for the man who kills this Philistine and takes away the reproach from Israel? For who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should defy the armies of the living God?”

27 And the people answered him in this manner, saying, “So shall it be done for the man who kills him.”

28 Now Eliab his oldest brother heard when he spoke to the men; and Eliab’s anger was aroused against David, and he said, “Why did you come down here? And with whom have you left those few sheep in the wilderness? I know your pride and the insolence of your heart, for you have come down to see the battle.”

So we can see from this that David lived in obscurity even in his own family but also David was very low minded, driven by obscurity, not valuing his position in life.

1Sam18:1817 Then Saul said to David, “Here is my older daughter Merab; I will give her to you as a wife. Only be valiant for me, and fight the Lord’s battles.” For Saul thought, “Let my hand not be against him, but let the hand of the Philistines be against him.”

18 So David said to Saul, “Who am I, and what is my life or my father’s family in Israel, that I should be son-in-law to the king?”

Here David is showing humility and a recognition of his low station in life.

We can see here that even though he is living a life of solitude and obscurity we can see that his mind and character are where God wants them to be. We are in the same position many times. The world does not know us and we can demonstrate God’s character and let our light shine as David did.

Here is another example,

1Sam 18: 5 +145 So David went out wherever Saul sent him, and behaved wisely. And Saul set him over the men of war, and he was accepted in the sight of all the people and also in the sight of Saul’s servants.

14: 14 And David behaved wisely in all his ways, and the Lord was with him.

Here we see that a close relationship with God that David had allowing God to work within him and grow him delivers the fruit of Wisdom

You know, in our daily walk with God we follow God’s precepts as David did and we then are wiser than those all around us.  We avoid many of the pitfalls that many around us fall into and we watch ourselves and our words. Then we let God work through us.

So far we covered solitude and obscurity and now we will look at:

3. Monotony- David tended sheep day and night, day after day. How exciting is that? Can we picture it? Staring at the same rocks every day?

Webster’s Definition of Monotony        - Tedious sameness 

                                                            - Sameness of tone or sound

Same pasture, same tree, same rocks, same-same. Even the bleating of sheep - same sounds continually with no future of something different, continued insignificance and the same routine.

But still David continued to be faithful!

Today’s world drives change but many of us get stuck in the same routine everyday… Same-Same

But we are to be like David, no matter how boring, how insignificant. Something or some task may seem insignificant. We have to be faithful and seek God. Look for Him and let His light and path shine in your life. When things are stuck in a time warp then you get stuck on God!

I use to live in New Hampshire when I was young in a small town called Greenville. Well, it was green during the summer but the location was nestled in the hills in southern New Hampshire with no cities or activity around it. The town itself was like in a time warp, frozen in time. I know that when I moved out that I could return in 5 or 10 years and every single building would have exactly the same color same siding, same-same everything: lawns, driveways number of houses etc.

We have to keep the flame of God burning inside us even when faced with the continued monotony life can bring sometimes. God is building His relationship in you during these periods and is testing you too to see that you are faithful.

We covered some major impacts on young David’s life: Solitude, Obscurity and Monotony

Now for the last portion of David’s early days and God’s King preparation process:

4. Reality – David in his early years faced death which he met with courage, bravery and Godly faith. Here are just 3 examples. There would be many more to come for David. We also find death defying or very challenging events in our lives and can meet them very much like David.

1Sam 17:31-3431 Now when the words which David spoke were heard, they reported them to Saul; and he sent for him. 32 Then David said to Saul, “Let no man’s heart fail because of him; your servant will go and fight with this Philistine.”

Let’s pause here for a moment because the word “servant” shows David’s attitude and again how he acted wisely in all situations. We need to act wisely no matter what the challenge and be faithful to God.

Continuing

33 And Saul said to David, “You are not able to go against this Philistine to fight with him; for you are a youth, and he a man of war from his youth.”

34 But David said to Saul, “Your servant used to keep his father’s sheep, and when a lion or a bear came and took a lamb out of the flock, 35 I went out after it and struck it, and delivered the lamb from its mouth; and when it arose against me, I caught it by its beard, and struck and killed it. 36 Your servant has killed both lion and bear; and this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, seeing he has defied the armies of the living God.”

Here we see that David learned from the reality that found him and built the faith in God and USED it to accomplish mighty things.

God expects us to use the faith He has given us. We can see here that David did not shy away in fear but used courage and faith even when facing a giant.

What a lesson for us when reality strikes. We are to do the same.

We can see that with these 4 training methods that David was exposed to, he developed Godly traits we will talk about below.

Also, I want to tell you that each of us has been through each of these 4 different experiences in our lives. We are experiencing the same issues and training process the God used on David. We are more like David than we think.

So let’s see what God crafted in David’s life through these tools.

First, obviously Spirituality: it is clear that through his youth that David’s life was in complete harmony with God, being a man after God’s own Heart.

Acts 13:22 22 And when He had removed him, He raised up for them David as king, to whom also He gave testimony and said, ‘I have found David[a] the sonof Jesse, a man after My own heart, who will do all My will.’[b]

As a youth David was pursuing the Heart of God! We can learn from his experience and pursue it as well.

Second, Humility

Psalms 78:70 He also chose David His servant,
And took him from the sheepfolds;

Psalms 89:19-21 Then You spoke in a vision to Your holy one,[a]
And said: “I have given help to one who is mighty;
I have exalted one chosen from the people.
20 I have found My servant David;
With My holy oil I have anointed him,
21 With whom My hand shall be established;
Also My arm shall strengthen him.

David was completely dependent on God and we saw he is completely unaware of himself and a dedicated servant. We are learning to do the same everyday.

Third Integrity – David continued to execute his faith no matter how challenging the circumstances got.

Psalms 78:72 So he shepherded them according to the integrity of his heart,
And guided them by the skillfulness of his hands.

And with the Wisdom of God as we learned, God gives us the abilities if we humble ourselves and follow his precepts and paths as David did.

David’s heart was purely committed to God through the whole process we just covered:

Solitude

Obscurity

Monotony

Reality

We go through these in our lives too, and let’s pray to God that they will have the same effect on us as they did on David. And the result we pray for is a man or woman after God’s own Heart!