Song: (Shepherd boy song)
++1Sam 16:10 (NIV) "Jesse had seven of his sons pass before Samuel, but Samuel said to him, "The LORD has not chosen these." 11 So he asked Jesse, "Are these all the sons you have?" "There is still the youngest," Jesse answered, "but he is tending the sheep."
+Samuel said, "Send for him; we will not sit down until he arrives." 12 So he sent and had him brought in. He was ruddy, with a fine appearance and handsome features.
Then the LORD said, "Rise and anoint him; he is the one." +13 So Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the presence of his brothers, and from that day on the Spirit of the LORD came upon David in power."
+Characteristics of David:
• +David was a shepherd boy, that God made into a King."
• +David was a fearless warrior - That slew Goliath.
• +David was a skilled musician – Who calmed the king of Israel.
• +David was God’s man. - Because David’s heart was like God’s heart.
+1Sam 13:14 (NIV) But now your kingdom will not endure; the LORD has sought out a man after his own heart and appointed him leader of his people, because you have not kept the LORD’s command."
What was important to God, was important to David.
What was on God’s heart for Israel, was on David’s heart for Israel.
David had a heart for God. Is it any wonder that Jesus would cherish the title "Son of David" and that God would choose David to be the ancestor for the coming Messiah.
+What made David "a man after God’s own heart"? +I believe it was David’s unique understanding of forgiveness.
+Old Testament history tells us that David worked under King Saul for over 10 years, yet much of the time Saul sought David’s life. Saul knew that David was chosen by God as the next king, and Saul was jealous.
David spent many years just running from Saul, yet David showed forgiveness, over and over again. David had so many opportunities to take Saul’s life, yet He didn’t. He showed mercy and forgiveness.
+David’s eldest son Absalom was so angry with his father, that He sought David’s life. David fled the city while Absalom took the crown. Through all of this David chose to forgive. Because, David was a man who understood the importance of forgiveness.
+At another point in the life of David, His position as king went to his head and he committed sin after sin in a short period of time. David slept with another man’s wife, she became pregnant, to cover it up, he had her husband killed. +David wasn’t perfect, but this would put David’s ability to forgive to the ultimate test…could David forgive himself? Psalm 51 captures the heart of David as he is confronted by the prophet Nathan.
Psalms 51:1-4 +"Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions. 2 Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. 3 For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me. 4 Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight,"
+Here, David points out what He knows about God.
+God shows mercy; +God’s love never fails; +God’s compassion is capable of removing all evidence of our mistakes, our mess-ups, our errors, our sins. Like a crime scene swept clean!
David could have refused to forgive himself. He could have held tightly to the feelings of guilt and shame… but if he had, he would have never become the man after God’s own heart.
Let me tell you a Story to illustrate my point:
+On a cruise you fall overboard, and you’re not a good swimmer. Two things are tossed your direction. One is a life preserver attached by a sturdy rope to the ship. The other is a lead anchor on a heavy chain that will drag you to the bottom of the sea in a matter of seconds. Which do you grab? It’s a simple choice. But make the situation a bit more symbolic, the life preserver symbolizes forgiveness and the anchor represents guilt. Would you give the same answer? Thousands of people are drowning in guilt because they simply will not forgive themselves. C.S. Lewis once said...
+"I think that if God forgives us we must forgive ourselves. Otherwise it is almost like setting up ourselves as a higher authority than Him."
David’s psalms express his understanding of God’s forgiveness. But there is one Psalm in particular that is a masterpiece on the subject of Forgiveness. That is Psalm 130.
+Psalm 130:1 (NIV) Out of the depths I cry to you, O LORD;
2 O Lord, hear my voice. Let your ears be attentive to my cry for mercy.
Commentary:
+Notice David’s attitude - (where he’s coming from)
David’s communication with God is not surface level but gut level. "out of the depths"
And that Hebrew word for +"mercy" in vs. 2, presupposes a servant/master relationship.
Though David was king, He recognized that before God he was dust. God was the Master, he was the servant, David was willing to do whatever God told him. So here...
He’s asking the Master for mercy.
+3 If you, O LORD, kept a record of sins, O Lord, who could stand?
Commentary:
+David’s Position - David understood he had blown it. But, that all men blow it. He didn’t minimize his sin, or allow for self pity.
Everyone’s in the same boat. Along those lines, scripture says:
+Psal 143:2 Do not bring your servant into judgment, for no one living is righteous before you.
+Isai 53:6 We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way;
and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
+John 8:7 Jesus before the adulteress’ accusers: When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, "If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her."
The Biblical writers understood that "if God gave any of us what we deserve, we’d be like Jim Carey in the movie The Mask…"Smokin’" forever!
+ (cont. psalm 130) 4 But with you there is forgiveness; therefore you are feared.
+David’s Knowledge of God: David knew he could come before God and be forgiven.
Commentary on God’s forgiveness:
+Psal 86:5 You are forgiving and good, O Lord, abounding in love to all who call to you.
+Psal 103:2 Praise the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits-- 3 who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases,
+Isai 1:18 "Come now, let us reason together," says the LORD. "Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool.
+Jere 31:34 No longer will a man teach his neighbor, or a man his brother, saying, `Know the LORD,’ because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest,"
declares the LORD. "For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more."
+Roma 8:1 Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus,
+2Cor 5:19 that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them.
+David’s Resolution. Here he gives us a key to feeling forgiven:
+5 I wait for the LORD, my soul waits, and in his word I put my hope.
6 My soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen wait for the morning, more than watchmen wait for the morning. (wait 5x)
We’re a culture that hates to wait for anything.
We don’t wait in the scriptures, but want to be inspired. We don’t wait in prayer, but expect to be led by the H.S.
Illustration:
When her husband, Edmund Gravely, died at the controls of his small plane, his wife Janice kept the plane up in the air for two hours until it ran out of fuel. As the plane crossed the South Carolina-North Carolina border, she radioed for help: "Help, help, won’t someone help me? My pilot is unconscious. Won’t somebody help me?" Authorities who picked up her distress signal were not able to reach her by radio during the flight because she kept changing channels. Mrs. Gravely finally made a rough landing and crawled for 45 minutes to a farmhouse for help.
How often we cry out for help to God, but in our impatience we switch channels before God’s message comes through. Maybe this is why we struggle so much. We have a tough time being preoccupied with just God.
+David’s Message:
+7 O Israel, put your hope in the LORD, for with the LORD is unfailing love and with him is full redemption.
8 He himself will redeem Israel from all their sins.
First of all, David says we come before a God who’s love will never let us down.
Then, notice the term +"to redeem or redemption" is mentioned 2x in this text, along this line Paul said this to Titus 2:14, +"Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good."
To redeem someone meant to pay whatever was required to set them free... usually from slavery. It also meant that there was a transfer of ownership. You no longer belong to this person, you belong to the one who redeemed you. And when God redeemed you, by paying the price with the blood of his son, you became His.
+David was a man who understood forgiveness, therefore He understood God.
David understood that He was in need of God in his life. For God to cleanse him, love him and forgive him. To wipe away the past, so that He could hope in the future.
But, David never forgot his roots, where God had found Him, and what God made him to be. Psalm 23 is a reminder of David’s meager beginnings. (The Lord is my Shepherd I shall not want...)
Where did God find you? Or, where were you when you found God?
Can you see the purpose that God has for you life? Do you understand that God created you to forgive you. The single thought in the mind of God toward you was that you would come to recognize Him, know Him, and love Him. The single act that brings a person into the loving arms of God, is Forgiveness. Being forgiven allows wounds to be healed…David talked about that. It allows old mistakes to be covered, and it allows you to forgive yourself.
If David had always considered himself, nothing more than a shepherd boy, he never would have become king. David left herding sheep and became the greatest king of all Israel and fulfilled God’s purposes.
God has called you as well… for His purposes.
Some of us have come from poor backgrounds, families who abuse, Parents who don’t show love…
God has called us from the gutters to become holy.
God has called us from the alleys to become princes.
God has called us from the herds to become kings.
God has called us from the world, to become His own.
Look at what the Bible says about us. (who we are)
+Ephe 1:4 (NIV) For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love 5 he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will-- 6 to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. 7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace
+8 that he lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding. 9 And he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ,
10 to be put into effect when the times will have reached their fulfillment--to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ. +11 In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will, 12 in order that we, who were the first to hope in Christ, might be for the praise of his glory. +13 And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit,
+14 who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession--to the praise of his glory.
My Commentary on this passage:
• +You were hand-picked by God.
• You are no longer a commoner, but uncommonly holy and without blame.
• You have an appointed purpose for your life.
• You have a Savior who loves you so much he has petitioned the heavenly court system and has legally adopted you.
• Everything He gives you is free, He’s already picked up the tab.
• You have been purchased by God Himself, God saw you on the slave auctioning block and He raised His hand, wrote out a check in blood and paid for your soul.
• You have been so completely forgiven that God doesn’t even remember what it is that you did in the past.
• You are the focus of His mercy, His grace, His love and His forgiveness. To the praise of His glory.
(Christian, God loves you more than you’ll probably ever know.. and He has forgiven you.)
As I finish this morning...
The Spanish have a story about a father and son who became estranged. The son left home and the father later set out to find him. He searched for months with no success. Finally, in desperation, the father turned +to the newspaper for help. His ad simply read, +"Dear Paco, meet me in front of this newspaper office at noon on Saturday. All is forgiven. I love you. Your father." On Saturday, 800 young men named Paco showed up looking for love and forgiveness from their fathers.
There has never been +a generation more in need of forgiveness than ours. In this day and age people feel so guilt-ridden that they can’t even bear to take on the responsibilities that are theirs, let alone responsibilities that are imposed by others. We seek relationships, drugs, money, careers, applause, yet we still don’t feel acceptable. Nothing cures the pain or eases the heartache we feel… except forgiveness. +From Genesis through Revelation; from the tree in the garden to the tree on Calvary, God’s central message has been about forgiveness… a person’s stains being washed clean. The slate being permanently erased.
+I John 1:9 says "if we confess our sins He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."
David understood God’s heart, David was the greatest king of Israel, why?
because David understood forgiveness.
Altar Call.
