The Story
FROM SHEPHERD TO KING
1Samuel 16-17
November 24, 2013
INTRODUCTION
a. Did you grow up hating pick-up games because you were afraid of being chosen last.
b. Do you have a younger brother or sister that is constantly pushing your buttons by saying
they are better than you.
c. Ever been promised something and then told you will have to wait to get it.
d. Ever been really successful and had your boss become jealous
e. Ever seen someone abuse their power just because they could
f. Ever been confronted with a wrongdoing and then had to confess and ask forgiveness
g. Welcome to the life of David, the shepherd boy who became king in Israel.
h. In the Story this week we come to the life of David and what his lower story teaches us
about the upper story of God.
I. DAVID’S STORY
a. King Saul was found unfaithful by God and was to be replaced. The Lord sent Samuel
to the house of Jesse to anoint one of his sons as King of Israel.
b. Jesse had eight sons and presented the oldest seven to Samuel one by one
beginning with the oldest – God tells Samuel to reject each of the first seven and then he asks
Jesse if he has another son, Yes, the runt
1. David was the youngest and not even around, He is in the fields shepherding the
sheep.
a. Most likely setting up clay pots and taking target practice with his sling and a
rock
c. Jesse sends for David and the Lord tells Samuel to anoint David as King
1. This would be a future thing because Saul was still alive and acting as King
2. Because he was anointed king did not mean he was immediately made king.
d. The scripture says that the Spirit of the Lord had left Saul and was powerful in David
e. Saul was troubled by an evil spirit and summoned David to come and soothe his
spirit by playing the harp. David found favor and was loved by Saul
f. David goes back and forth between watching his father’s sheep and serving the king
g. The Israelites are in battle with the Philistines and their champion has been challenging the
Israelites for forty days.
h. The Israelites have cowered in fear and then one day David’s father sends him to check on
his brothers on the battlefront.
i. You know the story well, David and Goliath.
1. David volunteers to fight Goliath – His brothers are irritated at his brashness
2. Saul sends David to fight and David kills Goliath
j. The people begin to sing – “Saul has killed his thousands but David his tens of
thousands”
1. Saul becomes insanely jealous and seeks to kill David
2. Saul knows that the Lord is with David and not with him
k. The rest of 1 Samuel reads like the chase scenes of a “spaghetti western” – Saul
chases David all over in order to capture and kill him
l. David has many opportunities to Kill Saul and take the throne that was promised him by
Samuel but he refuses to harm Saul, who he calls “the Lord’s Anointed”
m. Rushing ahead in the story – Saul kills himself in a battle and David is finally anointed as
King of Judah
n. David continues to have success in battle and expands the size of their country.
o. In an abuse of his power he sends for Bathsheba, Uriah’s wife, their adultery results in a
pregnancy and David’s solution is to have Uriah come home and then no one will know. Uriah refuses
to stay with his wife and so David gives orders to have him placed in the fiercest part of the battle.
p. Nathan comes to confront David with His sin and David then repents and asks for
forgiveness. (We will get to that when we return to the story in January)
q. God promises to establish David’s throne for eternity and David wants to build a temple but
God says that will be for one of David’s sons to do.
II. THE LORD AT WORK
a. God saw in David what others did not see
1. Jesse didn’t even think to have David come when he presented his sons to Samuel
2. His brothers saw him as a brat and scolded him when he came to the battlefield
3. Saul saw him only as a boy and not able to fight Goliath
4. Goliath saw him as a weak pushover
b. God saw in David all He wanted in a king
1. David’s faithfulness in watching his father’s sheep showed God David’s courage and
servant heart
2. David fought the bear and the lion to keep his father’s sheep safe
c. David did not immediately become king
1. For fourteen years Saul chased David and tried to kill him
2. God used that time to mold and shape David and to hone him into the person he
needed to be king
d. God’s power was with David
1. David conquered other nations and expanded the territory of Israel
2. Throughout his life David experienced God’s hand on him
e. From David’s linage would come the messiah
III. DAVID’S JOURNAL
a. David records for us his encounters with the Lord in a kind of journal that we call
Psalms
1. Not all the psalms are his but most are and they describe a day to day walk with the
Lord.
2. That day to day includes his highs and lows, victories and defeats, complaints and
praise
b. In the psalms we see every human emotion poured out before God.
c. David chronicles his understanding of God’s work and presence in his life, both at
times when he sensed God’s presence and when he wondered just where God was and why he felt
abandoned
IV. LESSONS FOR THE UPPER STORY
a. God is at work even when others try to convince us He is not.
1. Many did not see David as God did
2. David listened to God’s voice rather than his detractors
b. We are to look for God’s work in our lives
1. Too often we listen to those around us rather than to the Lord
2. There are some things that hinder us recognizing God’s work in our daily lives
a. Being out of fellowship with the Lord
1. Unconfessed sin forms a cloud that prevents us from seeing God’s work
clearly in our lives
2. If you feel that your heart is far from God it becomes harder to see God
at work in ordinary places
b. Secularism
1. Having a world view that is driven by the temporal rather than the
spiritual
2. It is characterized by living a compartmentalized life – Work, school, fun
and home separated from faith and church. You keep faith and real life apart
3. You will never see God in the ordinary places if your life is not unified.
c. Burnout
1. You do everything you are asked to do. You take every assignment.
One day you wake up to realize that you are physically, emotionally, and spiritually burned out.
2. It can happen in your vocation. It can happen in your relationships.
3. Burnout occurs when, over an extended period of time, there is more
output that input, more giving than receiving, no replenishment of that part of you that keeps you
going. When you are burned out, you may find it very hard to see God at work.
d. The fear of hypocrisy
1. Some people are so insecure that they need to put God’s name on
everything they say, so others will be more likely to believe them. They credit God with things I am
sure He wants no part of.
2. When we witness this we sometimes back off and say, “I don’t want to
be like that. I don’t want to be a fake. I don’t want to be throwing God’s name around this way and
that way, because I honor God. I don’t want to take God’s name in vain by attaching his name to
every little thing that I see happening and saying, ‘God is doing this and God is doing that.’”
3. We cannot though let the hypocrisy of others keep us from experiencing
the presence of God.
2. Where can we look to see God at work
a. An obvious answer to prayer
1. It may not be what we wanted but we know it is from God.
b. Unexpected evidence of God’s care
1. We still get sick and have accidents, but God often works miracles of
protection
2. As a sophomore in college Bethany had severe headaches and double
vision – She was visiting Sarah and we had just talked to them. I was sitting in the living room by
myself when the thought came about Dr. Jabour – a world renowned Ophthalmologist – friend of our
family, who practices in Morgantown – He cared for Bethany and in the first examination knew the
problem – It was a God thing
c. Unusual linkage or timing
1. You might discover that God stirred a person to pray for you at precisely
the moment you were in trouble.
d. Help to do God’s work in the world
1. Is it a coincidence that God has people in this church with gifts that
allow us to do incredible ministry in his name.
c. In the lower story many only saw a shepherd boy where God in the upper story saw a
king.
1. When David was anointed it was a clear reference to the One who would come as
the Anointed One, Jesus
God is at work in you
Take time to look for his presence and work
God sees in us what others do not see
Now that is a story worth knowing and telling
BOW WITH ME IN PRAYER
8:30
# 43
“GREAT IS THY FAITHFULNESS”
11:00 “GREAT IS THY FAITHFULNESS”