1 Sam 16:13 Now the LORD said to Samuel, "How long will you mourn for Saul, seeing I have rejected him from reigning over Israel? Fill your horn with oil, and go; I am sending you to Jesse the Bethlehemite. For I have provided Myself a king among his sons."
2 And Samuel said, "How can I go? If Saul hears it, he will kill me."
But the LORD said, "Take a heifer with you, and say,'I have come to sacrifice to the LORD.' 3 Then invite Jesse to the sacrifice, and I will show you what you shall do; you shall anoint for Me the one I name to you."
4 So Samuel did what the LORD said, and went to Bethlehem. And the elders of the town trembled at his coming, and said,"Do you come peaceably?"
5 And he said, "Peaceably; I have come to sacrifice to the LORD. Sanctify yourselves, and come with me to the sacrifice." Then he consecrated Jesse and his sons, and invited them to the sacrifice.
6 So it was, when they came, that he looked at Eliab and said, "Surely the LORD's anointed is before Him!"
7 But the LORD said to Samuel,"Do not look at his appearance or at his physical stature, because I have refused him. For the LORD does not see as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart."
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 till he comes here." 12 So he sent and brought him in. Now he was ruddy, with bright eyes, and good-looking. And the LORD said, "Arise, anoint him; for this is the one!" 13 Then Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the midst of his brothers; and the Spirit of the LORD came upon David from that day forward. So Samuel arose and went to Ramah.
1.) As human beings we have a tendency to size people up. It is a part of our nature. We want to know who you are, and what you are about. It is in a way how we protect ourselves. This is why we have this criteria that we keep in our minds. How you are supposed to look, dress, act.
2.) We also know that God has in the scriptures taught us not to judge. He has called us to the place of vulnerability that is very uncomfortable to the flesh. It is a place that we cannot really walk in our flesh – we can only truly love and live like that in the Spirit.
3.) You see God is not calling us to love based on their character, but His character. HE is not asking us to trust based on their trustworthiness, but our trust in Him. Paul says in Rom 8:31 “If God is for us, who can be against us?” Paul says that neither death, life, angels, principalities – things present or things to come can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus.
4.) In the Text we read, God challenges Samuel – he kind of messes with him a little. He commands Samuel to go anoint the next King of Israel, but He does not tell him who that will be. So Samuel heads to Jesse’s house doing what we would do – sizing up in his mind who he thinks the next King should be.
5.) When Eliab is presented Samuel says “now this is the guy”, but God says no and then drops the lesson “For the LORD does not see as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.”
6.) I want to preach to you tonight that God will chose people that we would never chose, God will do things that people say are impossible to do, and God will work in circumstances that He is not supposed to work in.
7.) You may be just a shepherd boy on the backside of the wilderness playing your harp and worshiping God, but God has a way of reaching into your improbability and shaping your destiny. Pouring the oil of anointing on your life and saying the prophet may have overlooked you and your daddy may have not seen it in you, but this is the one I have chosen.
8.) God likes to pick people that everyone else overlooks. Only God would call a teenage boy to be King of Israel. Only God would pick a murderer to deliver His people from Egypt. Only God would chose a man who had persecuted the Church in every city and call Him to be the greatest of the Apostles. And God is calling some of us tonight to reach our city for His with His life changing Gospel.
9.) God doesn’t need a good set of circumstances or perfect people. In fact God is looking for broken people in bad circumstances so that He can stretch forth His hand of healing and demonstrate His glory.
10.) In Ezekiel chapter 37 we read that God moves upon Ezekiel and places him in the midst of a valley of dry bones. Have you ever had God move upon you Sunday night, only to wake up Monday morning in a valley of dry bones?
11.) These bones represent defeat. An army had went into that valley determined to gain victory, but never left the valley. There are people like that today – they are never able to leave that valley. This valley was a monument to defeat. It was a constant reminder of failure.
12.) God asks Ezekiel “can these bones live?” God tells Ezekiel to prophecy to the bones. Now this is borderline crazy. The bones cannot hear him. When God asks you to do something that you cannot do, then you can believe that He is ready to invest in you His supernatural resources.
13.) There is resurrection in this Church. Lives that Satan and the world have pronounced dead. Ministries that have been declared in ruin. But God has stepped into the door of your cave and cried “come forth!”
14.) I know that some of you were supposed to be a lost cause. The doctors had given up hope, your family had given up, the church had given up … but God stepped into your dead situation and pronounced life.
15.) Ezekiel begins to prophecy to the bones … and one bone aligns with another. Pastor has been preaching that we need to change our thinking to change our destiny. This is why we come to this house, we are exposed to the Word or the Lord … and our lives begin to align. Perhaps not all at once, but here a little and there a little. That’s why it is important that we stay connected.
16.) Jesus Christ … born in an animal barn. Raised by a Carpenter, and died the death of a criminal. Not exactly the story you would have expected. A servant, an itinerant preacher – yet the Son of God. His disciples forsook Him, the religious world misunderstood Him and the government had Him put to death. He clothed Himself in utter defeat, and then got back up. He made brokenness His strength, and weakness His glory. And this is the Gospel that we preach! About a broken Savior who lives again! By His stripes we are healed, thank God for the miracles, but it was the stripes – the brokenness – that healed us.
