WisconsinChristianNews.com Volume 25, Issue 10 Lessons From the Life of David... (Continued From Page 14)
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(Verse 4) — “So Samuel did as the Lord said.” That’s a great statement. After receiving instruction from God, Samuel car- ried those instructions out. The elders of the city of Bethlehem were concerned because “the” prophet of God, the judge of Israel, the King’s closest ad- visor had come to their Podunk village unannounced. That caused a near panic. We’re not told why exactly. They rightly thought he was there for a specific reason. In Verse 5, Samuel calms their fears and invites them to the sacrifice. What he doesn’t tell them is this is a sacrifice of con- secration. Someone is about to be “set apart” for service to the Lord. This awareness was mysteriously lost upon them. • Point – God will always consecrate or set apart a man for service. God has His own qualifications that look nothing like what the world thinks is important. • I’ve seen a few men over the years that have claimed God told them to become a pastor. Time has demonstrated that their calling was not from God. (Verses 6-10) — We see in these verses that God looks at the heart of a man not the outward appearance. Outward ap- pearance means the total package of externals including our words and our actions. When the internals are not right then the externals don’t matter to God. In America we teach young people to aggressively “sell themselves.” We tell them that “first impressions” are the most important. The result has been what we see today – inflated egos and inflated resumes. God sees through all the “veneer.” He doesn’t need our tal- ents, abilities, or experiences in order to accomplish His plans through us. All He needs is a man with a right heart. Alan Redpath said, “Jesse’s seven sons represented the per- fection of the flesh. Outwardly, they fit the criteria, but God is not interested in refining the flesh. When God chooses to build a man He looks for different timber.” So the man of God understands that the basis for God’s choice is contrary to human reasoning. This, in turn, will de- liver us from the tyranny of judging people without knowing the heart. I have shared my testimony before and a part of that testimony is that I can’t believe that God chose me to be one of His. Perhaps that is your testimony too. God’s grace toward us is not an occasion for boasting or haughtiness. Instead, ex- periencing God’s love toward us should cause us to be hum- ble.
God’s own heart. I think this means David longed to be near God and to hear from Him.
Paul, in writing to the Corinthian believers, said: “What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as if you had not received it?” (1 Corinthians 4:7). We should remember that when it comes to sharing our faith and living for Christ. We don’t know who God is going to call into His Kingdom, nor should we care. God will call whom He will call. Our job is be ready “in season and out of season” to share a word of encouragement when the opportunity presents itself. I see those points being made next in verses 11-13. I think God delights in choosing those the world least expects. Paul said exactly that in 1 Corinthians 1: “Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. For consider your call- ing, brethren, that there were not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble; but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong, and the base things of the world and the despised God has chosen, the things that are not, so that He may nullify the things that are, so that no man may boast before God.” (1 Corinthians 1: 25-29). Why does God do that? Well, I don’t pretend to know the mind of God, but I will say that I believe one reason God chooses the least expected option is because that way He gets all the glory. It’s easy to give God the glory when great things are accomplished through ordinary people. We can look to our own heritage as Calvary Chapel and know this is true. Pastor Chuck, in obedience, agreed to pas- tor a little church called “Calvary Chapel” that boasted a con- gregation of 25 people. Most people don’t know that Bob Coy was the “go to” guy for making sure rock stars in Detroit had a good time. Most people don’t know that Greg Laurie was a drug dealer and user or that Mike Macintosh was so strung out on drugs at one point he didn’t think he would survive mentally. I look at an uneducated shoe salesman like DL Moody and think “wow!” Who had ever heard of Billy Graham? He didn’t come up through the right seminary and church group. All of these men have one thing in common – they had a right heart before God.
“As the deer pants for the water brooks, so my soul pants for You, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God; When shall I come and appear before God?” (Psalm 42:1-2). “One thing I have asked from the LORD, that I shall seek: That I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the LORD and to meditate in His temple.” (Psalm 27:4). One of the things that I want you to take away from this pas- sage is that David is not the exception. I don’t want you to look at his life and say “yea but . . .” David’s life is presented to us in Scripture as a model of what can be for every man of God. “For the eyes of the LORD move to and fro throughout the earth that He may strongly support those whose heart is com- pletely His.” (2 Chronicles 16:9). God is looking for men whose hearts are completely His. There’s nothing hidden or being held onto; nothing being swept under the rug, nothing being ignored. So God is holding up David as an example to us and says “learn from this picture. Be a man whose supreme desire is to know Me and to be known by Me.” David’s heart was in tune with God and because of that, he could cry even in the most burdensome times “create in me a clean heart, oh God.” Oh for a walk like that.
What will that take on our part? At least two things.
1) We must learn to see as God sees. This will require us to spend much more time on the preparation of our hearts for God than it does on the preparation of our outward appear- ance. This will require us to work on the “issues” of the heart continually, to bring our thoughts and our wills into conformity to His. 2) We must learn to constantly check our priorities. What am I spending the most time on? What do I spend the least time on? Are there things that I should move up the list or down the list? We will continue with Part 3 in the next edition. Dr. Mike Spaulding P. O. Box 3007 • Lima, OH 45807
This was God’s testimony about David. He was a man “after”
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