You remember last lesson we talked about David and how he defeated Goliath.
David helped us learn how to defeat our giants. You remember?
- Face them head on
- Get to the head of the problem
- Be brave no matter what the circumstances or situation looks like
- Do not be scared
- Keep your focus on Jesus, rather than your giants
- Talk up Jesus more than your problems
In today’s lesson I want to ask you a question.
Have you ever waited by the phone in expectations of a phone call?
Have you ever been waiting to hear back from a job application and you waited by the phone all day and never got a call back?
Have you ever waited to hear back on whether you got approved for the deal on a new house and the phone never rang?
- You know how we do, even though we have caller ID, you be like I cannot talk, I got to go, I am waiting on an “important” call.
Witness
- Or if we do answer, “Hello, no umm hmm, hey listen, I got to go, I am waiting on a call”
- Even though we have two-way calling we got to keep that line clear.
Then do you remember the pain you felt when the call never came?
Do you remember how you felt when the phone never rang?
Your mind starts running and saying what happen, Why didn’t they call, what did I do wrong? It seems as if our whole world is turned upside down.
But I want to let you know that when we do not get the call of the world we cannot be messed up.
- When the worldly job, house or position do not come for you do not get down,
dismayed, distressed and distraught
- When your new husband do not come beating your door down keep your head up
- When the kids not acting right keep your heads up
- When money is funny and money is not coming to you, do not give up
- When problems of the world always call, but the solutions do not come with them, it is ok
I am trying to hook this thing up with the text. Well let me try like this.
Here in our text today we find Samuel; Samuel is on his way to Jesse’s house.
Now let’s recall in Chapter 15 Samuel is the prophet that had been told by God to anoint a king, and the king he was told to anoint was Saul.
Go back with me and remember Israel had not had a king for over 3 centuries (since Joshua) that was 300 years that the people had been dry and without a king.
Anyone in here dry today? Anyone without a king?
So Saul is an anointed king and right off the bat he screws up, right off the bat he makes God upset. So upset that God regrets that he made him king.
(You might ask how did he do that)…well I’LL tell you.
Saul was supposed to go take out the Amalekites. He was told to kill and destroy everything, but instead of doing that, he saved the spoils of war and saved the king who was named Agag. In other words he kept the good stuff and basically did what he wanted to do.
So God let Samuel know what Saul had done and how he regret making him king and Samuel approached Saul and Saul tries to explain his actions, but realizes he was wrong.
- So over in chpt 15:22 Samuel tells Saul to obey is better than sacrifice.
So Saul has grieved the Lord and therefore he sends Samuel to appoint a new king.
Thus this is how we find Samuel enroute to Jesse’s house.
Now when he gets to Jesse’s house he was instructed to bring the oil and God will let him know which one of Jesse’s boys is to be the new king.
Now you would think with all this going on, that when Samuel gets to David’s house that God would have already dropped a little something on David’s heart and mind and would have him ready.
- I mean you know how we do; we want God to give us advance notice
- We want God to send a prophet a head of the prophet
- We want God to already have given us a dream; you know a little heads up
- We expect God to be like Little Caesars, Hot-N-Ready when we drive up.
Where does the prophet find David when he comes up? In the field working, doing what he supposed to be doing.
He was not waiting by the phone for it to ring, he was not standing around wondering if this is my time nor was he saying, am I the one. He was in his place, doing what he supposed to do. (Somebody needs to hear this word today)
- God needs you to be in your position before he can use you.
- He needs your needs to be in the right position.
- He needs to find you doing what you are supposed to be doing, your job.
- No matter how lowly that job may be, No matter how insignificant of a job it is.
- No matter where you think you should be in life (watch David)
- David was in his place doing his job, tending to the lowly sheep
- Because tending to the sheep was a lowly job as far as job status goes.
* It was an entry level position
* It was a temp service job
* It was minimum wage pay
* It was the bottom of the wrung on the step ladder
* It was the thankless position
But God still chose him!
The one who God choose to use was doing the thankless job. Sheep herding was a job that people was put in, to get them “out of the way”, “they cannot cause trouble out there”.
So here we see Samuel looking at Jesse’s boys parade through like a dog show.
1st comes Eliab – the oldest most logical choice – Casanova type fellow – naw not him
2nd Adinadab – GQ type guy – not the one either
3rd Shammah – the bookworm – not him either
On and on they go until he has seen seven boys
But then Samuel says Jesse, don’t you got 8 boys? He says yea, but he is taking care of the sheep in chapter 16 verse 11.
Isn’t that Ironic that David would be out tending sheep and not at the family meeting?
Recall
- The Bible has over 66 chapters dedicated to him
- The New Testament mentions him 59 times
- He establishes and inhabits the worlds most famous city, called Jerusalem
- The son of God will be called the son of Dave
- The greatest psalms were written from his pen
- He shall be called Warrior, he shall be called Giant Killer
But today, he is not even mentioned, today he was excluded from the meeting, today he is not even talked about, today he is nothing!
Thank God that he uses nothing people!
- Won’t God take a little bit of nothing and turn it into something
- Won’t God take what we call nothing and make it be something
- Won’t God take our little money and make it be a major blessing to some one
- Won’t God take a little meal and a little cake and keep your barrel overflowing
- Won’t God take a couple fish and a little bread and make it feed over 5000
- Won’t God take a few fishermen and a tax collector and make them famous
- Won’t God take a pretender and make them a prophet
How do I know?
Because he took a little county boy like me and another county boy named Michael and made us priests
So today we want to know. What causes God to use him? What causes God to ring our phone?
- After all, we have been just like David, we have been left out; excluded; forgotten about
- We been judged and graded according to our social class and our job status
- According to the color of our skin
- According to the kind of car we drive
- We been labeled by the type of clothes we wear
- We been judged by the degrees that we have or do not have on the wall
- We all have been in David’s shoes and been sick and tired of being sick and tired.
- Don’t fool me, we have all been tired of being excluded
- Tired of being overlooked for promotions
- Tired of our hard work being ignored
- Tired of our dedication being ignored
- Tired of our time and effort that has gone without recognition
Are you sick of that Giant in your life? Aren’t you sick of that Goliath? The Giant of EXLCUSION! (Somebody say exclusion)
But I come to let you know today that it does not matter what man thinks
- It does not matter what man say about you
- It does not matter what your family say about you
The only thing that matters is it what God says,
God does not look at the outside, but God looks at the heart.
1 Samuel 16:7 b clause says….for the Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart.
God allowed those words to be penned for the little people in life. God is no respecter of persons, he uses us all!
(Somebody say he uses us all)
- Moses ran from justice, God uses him
- Jonah ran from God, but he still used him
- Samson ran to the wrong woman
- Jacob ran in circles
- Elijah ran into the mountains
- Sarah ran out of hope
- Lot ran with the wrong crowd
But God still used them all! (Tell somebody, I know God can use me)
And so we find David, he is minding his own business, working like he supposed to do, slapping the sheep on the butt, “get on in there”, “simmer down now”.
Then he hears a voice, “David, come here boy”. Can’t you see him now?
“I wonder what they want”, “I am minding my own business”, “I am staying out of grown folks business like they told me, why are they calling me?”
Here he comes, skipping in the house, smelling like sheep, funky, stanking, lil teenage boy, fit for nothing but tending sheep and God says in vs. 12 “anoint him, this is the one”!
Good God oh mighty, that is it!
- Don’t know why y’all not shouting right here
God says here he is Saul
God says this is the one with a heart like me.
I still do not know why you just sitting there, because God done some of us the same way
- that is how we were and some of us still are
- we were stanking and ruddy looking
- we were minding our own business
- there were several more qualified people to do the job, but God chose us!
- there were qualified people even in your own house to do the job, but he chose you!
- the odds were against you
- everyone had counted you out
- no one paid you any attention
- no one even gave you a second thought
- you got tired of your phone not ringing
- you were the runt of the family
- you were the baby boy, like pastor
- you were the dumb one out the group
- you were the outcast
- you were the black sheep of the family
- you were the one they said would not amount to anything
- you was the one that dropped out of college
- you were the one that got pregnant
- you were the one that got hooked on drugs
- you were the one who liked to party
- you were the one who got married too soon
- you were the one who ran away from home
But God still chose you!
When everyone else says no, God comes calling and says yes, that is the one.
That is the one I can use
That is the one I want to be king
That is the one I am going to give the job to
That is the one I am going to bless
That is the one I am going to elevate
That is the one that can defeat the Giant. THAT IS THE ONE!
Why?
Because God looks at the inside, God searches the heart of men!
God does not look at what you are now, but looks at what you can be!
He knows your potential.
Kinetic energy (energy in motion) Potential energy (energy at rest)
God wants you to be Kinetic energy, but right now you may by Potential Energy.
Thank God he looks at the Potential side of us.
So if you are in the field, stay on out there God can find you
If you are working in the cubicle with everyone else, stay on out there God can find you
If it seems like you are in a nothing situation, stay on in there God knows how to send someone your way. God has your phone number!
If you do not get the call right away, do not worry. Jesus is still on the mainline! You can always call him up and tell him what you want.
