WHAT DIFFERENCE DOES GIVING OUR DEEPEST ALLEGIANCE TO GOD MAKE IN OUR LIFE? 1 SAMUEL 16:1-17:58 MAY 21, 2006

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1 WHAT DIFFERENCE DOES GIVING OUR DEEPEST ALLEGIANCE TO GOD MAKE IN OUR LIFE? 1 SAMUEL 16:1-17:58 MAY 21, 2006 Imagine you are a sales person with a product that though it is expensive, produces superior results. For the sake of our example, it really doesn t matter what the product is. The important details are that your product is much more expensive than your competitors product but it produces superior results. Because of the high price, your challenge as the sale s person would be to demonstrate the superior results for your customer. If they could see the difference in results, they would be much more willing to pay the higher price. Now, in our little scenario, imagine God is the salesman and He is trying to sell us on turning our life over to Him. Imagine that He is trying to convince us to give our heart completely to Him. You have to admit, the cost of God s offer is high. We give up our freedom. We give up control of our life to another. That is a pretty high price. Most of us would want to know what we were going to get in return for paying such a cost. Well, like the sales person in our original example, God is going to demonstrate the superior results of a life given to Him. And God is going to demonstrate the superior results of His product by contrasting two people one, Saul, whose deepest allegiance is to himself, with the other, David, whose deepest allegiance is to God. If you have a Bible would you open it to 1 Samuel, chapters 16 and 17, for we will look at this passage of Scripture and try and answer the question, What difference does giving our deepest allegiance to God make in our life? As we pick up our story, at the beginning of chapter 16, we see the Lord sending Samuel to anoint a new king. We remember that because Saul s ultimate allegiance was to himself instead of God, God has decided to find another person to lead his people. This transition will play out over a number of years, but the beginning of this transition of power starts now in our passage. God sends Samuel to a man named Jesse to anoint one of his sons as the new king. Naturally Samuel is concerned about Saul s reaction, so in verse 2, the Lord gives Samuel direction on how to deal with his concern. I want us to focus on the actual anointing of the new king, because the process demonstrates the stark contrast between God s values and human values. Let s read verse 6. when they entered, he (Samuel) looked at Eliab and thought, Surely the Lord s anointed is before Him. Samuel takes one look at Eliab and thinks, This is it. This is God s man. He looks like a king! But God has to remind Samuel that He looks at people differently. Let s read verse 7. but the Lord said to Samuel, Do not look at his appearance or at he height of his stature, because I have rejected him; for God sees not as a man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart. The difference is clear. We as humans, particularly in our culture, look at the physical appearance and stature of a person. God isn t concerned about those things. God is concerned about the heart. When God evaluates a potential leader and servant, he asks, Where is this person s heart? Where is this person s deepest allegiance? In verses 8 through 10, all of Jesse s sons pass before Samuel but the Lord doesn t chose any of them to be the next king. So Samuel is confused. He has been sent to anoint the next king, but it appears Jesse is out of sons. So in verse 11, he says to Jesse, Are these all the children? And Jesse responds, There remains yet, the youngest and behold he is tending sheep. God certainly isn t going to anoint the youngest son, is He? Not a

2 shepherd boy, he doesn t fit the bill as king. Samuel said to Jesse, Send and bring him; for we will not sit down until he comes here. We continue in verses 12 and 13. So he sent and brought him in. Now he was ruddy, with beautiful eyes and a handsome appearance. And the Lord said, Arise, anoint him; for this is he. Then Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the midst of his brothers; and the Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon David from that day forward. And Samuel arose and went to Ramah. What was it about David that led God to choose him as His servant to lead His people? It wasn t his physical appearance. He had brothers who looked more like kings. It wasn t his position. He was the youngest in the family. It was David s heart. David is described in 1 Samuel 13:14 as the one who is after God s own heart. That means David s deepest desire, his deepest allegiance, is to do the will of God. This is quite a contrast to the man that David will replace as king. Sadly, as we found out in chapters 13 through 15, Saul s deepest allegiance was to fulfill his own desires and wishes. And we catch up with Saul, here in verse 14. Now the Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the Lord terrorized him. This is quite a contrast. In verse 13 we read the Spirit of God comes mightily upon David, while in verse 14 we read that the Sprit of God departs form Saul. We are left to wonder about this evil spirit from the Lord that terrorizes Saul. The author goes to great lengths to distinguish this evil spirit from the Lord and the Spirit of God. Commentators are unsure how to understand this ruinous spirit that comes from God that comes upon Saul. However, we know that this evil spirit is upon Saul because of his continued defiance toward God. He will not change direction. He continues to live for self instead of God. As a result, Saul is plagued by a terribly depressive mood in which he senses that he is moving inescapably toward self-destruction. As a result Saul goes through periods of very erratic behavior. In verses 15 and 16, Saul s servants recognize this behavior, so they decide to seek someone who is skillful on the harp to provide relief for his severe mood swings. In verse 17, Saul agrees and commands his servants to find someone who plays the harp skillfully. In verses 18 through 23, we find out that the skillful harp player that comes to play for Saul is none other than David. Verse 23 says, So it came about whenever the evil spirit from God came to Saul, David would take the harp and play it with his hand; and Saul would be refreshed and be well, and the evil spirit would depart from him. So, we see that God has brought together the lives of David and Saul. And now we will be able to contrast the lives of one whose deepest allegiance is to God, David and the other whose deepest allegiance is to himself, Saul. We will be able to contrast them to get an answer to our question, What difference does giving our deepest allegiance to God make in our life? We are going to see a major difference in the way David and Saul handle a crisis. And chapter 17 gives us our crisis. As the army of Israel draws up to face the Philistines, they are confronted by a giant named Goliath. We read of his challenge in verses 8 through 10. He stood and shouted to the ranks of Israel and said to them, Why do you come out to draw up in battle array? Am I not the Philistine and you servants of Saul? Choose a man for yourselves and let him come down to me. If he is able to fight with me and kill me, then we will become your servants; but if I prevail against him and kill him, then you shall become our servants and serve us. Again the Philistine said, I defy the ranks of Israel this day; give me a man that we may fight together. This is the

3 classic story so many of us know as a conflict between David and Goliath. Yet, I see it more as a conflict between David and Saul. They are faced with the same crisis. And as we will see they will respond very differently to this crisis. Let s start by looking at how Saul responds. Verse 11 says, When Saul and all Israel heard these words of the Philistine, they were dismayed and greatly afraid. Saul is dismayed and greatly afraid. Likewise verse 24 tells us that all of Israel, including Saul, is greatly afraid and flees from Goliath. Look what happens in verse 25. The men of Israel said, Have you seen this man who is coming up? Surely he is coming up to defy Israel. And it will be that the king will enrich the man who kills him with great riches and will give him his daughter and make his father s house free in Israel. Saul is the king. He should be out in front leading the charge. He ought to be the one fighting Goliath. Instead he offers to pay off the one who will fight Goliath with great wealth and his daughter s hand in marriage. Moreover, Saul will make this soldier s family free from taxes and public service. How is Saul responding to the crisis? In fear, which leads him to try and bribe someone else to do his duty. But then Saul s deepest allegiance is to himself. So it shouldn t surprise us that his motive is self-preservation. The only problem is if our deepest allegiance is to self, than we are always going to be motivated by self-preservation. And every crisis will be a cause of great fear. And we are always going to be looking for some way to buy off our fear. Maybe it is a bribe, maybe it is an addiction, maybe it is an escape in movies or television or our job, but we spend our life trying to buy off our fear. Life is full of challenges, problems, and crisis. If we are living for ourselves, these problems will always control us. As we read through chapter 17, we find out that David s three brothers are part of Israel s army. In verses 17 through 19, Jesse, David s father, instructs him to take food to his brother. So in verse 22, David runs to the battle line and as a result in verse 23 he hears the taunts of Goliath. In verse 26 listen to David s reaction, Then David spoke to the men who were standing by him, saying, What will be done for the man who kills this Philistine and takes away the reproach from Israel? For who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should taunt the armies of the living God? David hears the God of Israel being mocked. Even though they hear the same words, Saul hears a personal threat, while David hears God being denigrated. Thus while Saul responds in fear, David responds in faith. Listen to how David reacts in verse 37. And David said, The LORD who delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear, He will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine. And Saul said to David, Go, and may the LORD be with you. While Saul is trembling trying to pay off someone to do this job, David says, I will go. Even when he goes out to face this giant, David s faith does not waver. In verses 43 and 44, Goliath mocks David, but listen to what David says to him in verses 45 through 47. Then David said to the Philistine, You come to me with a sword, a spear, and a javelin, but I come to you in the name of the LORD of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have taunted. This day the LORD will deliver you up into my hands, and I will strike you down and remove your head from you. And I will give the dead bodies of the army of the Philistines this day to the birds of the sky and the wild beasts of the earth, that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel, and that all this assembly may know that the LORD does not deliver by sword or by spear; for the battle is the LORD S and He will give you into our hands. You probably know the rest of the story. David kills Goliath with a wellplaced stone from his sling shot. Israel then routs the Philistine army.

4 We have a contrast of two men, Saul and David, facing the same crisis. Yet, they respond and react very differently. Saul responds in fear and, therefore, tries to buy his way out of the crisis. David on the other hand, responds in faith and, therefore, steps forward to face the crisis. Remember we started with a question, What difference does giving our deepest allegiance to God make in our life? I think the contrast of David and Saul gives us our answer. A heart for God allows us to face a crisis with a different perspective and a different source of strength than those whose deepest allegiance is to themselves. A heart for God allows us to face a crisis with a different perspective and a different source of strength than those whose deepest allegiance is to themselves. All of us are going to face crisis poor health, loss of a job, broken relationships. It is not a question of if, it is simply a question of when. The question is how are we going to handle those crises? If we are living for ourselves, like Saul, we are going to respond in fear and we are going to look for a way to buy our way out of those crises. Many people live their lives trying to buy their way out of crises. However, there is another way to live. If we are living for God, like David, we face crises with a different perspective. Selfpreservation isn t the ultimate goal, honoring God is the ultimate goal. So, in faith, we can face life s crises, knowing that God can and will work in all circumstances to honor himself. Thus, when we face a crisis, we don t face it in our own strength. We face it in God s strength. The question is how you want to live life like Saul ravaged by fear and insecurity or like David, confident in God s strength and working. The answer to that question is a matter of the heart. Is your deepest allegiance to God or to yourself? In December of 2003, while serving as a missionary in Russia, our whole team received a written death threat. The very next night, I was supposed to go to a birthday party of a Russian friend. To miss this party would have been a huge cultural faux pas. Yet, my path to the party took me right through a birch forest. The person who wrote the note claimed to have a gun. It would be an easy shot. The next day, I worried and wrestled with what to do. I wanted to protect my life. But, I came to the conclusion that if I let this threat control me I might as well go home. Because if I chose to skip the party, what about the next day, and the day after that? If the person wanted to kill me, there was nothing I could do to stop him. If I was going to live to protect my life, I was going to give up a lot of freedom. I decided that I had come to Russia specifically to glorify God. If God would be most glorified in my death, so be it. I went to the party and nothing ever came of the threat. The choice to live for God over myself brought me a lot of freedom. Today, I will confess to you that I give in to worry way too much. When I get consumed by a particular circumstance, I think back on that situation in Russia. As an act of the will I check my heart with questions like, Who am I living for? Where is my deepest allegiance, to God or to Andy? With my heart and my allegiance in the right place, I can face my problem with a different perspective and a different source of strength. What difference does giving our deepest allegiance to God make in our life? A heart for God allows us to face a crisis with a different perspective and a different source of strength than those whose deepest allegiance is to themselves.

5 *Scripture taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE Copyright 1960, 1962, 1963, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1987, 1988, The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. North Pointe Community Church, PO Box 29,555 Lincoln, NE Copyright 2005 Andrew A. MacFarlane. All rights reserved.

This is Life Lesson 2 Handout for David

This is Life Lesson 2 Handout for David 1 Samuel 17:1 58 (NASB95) 1 Now the Philistines gathered their armies for battle; and they were gathered at Socoh which belongs to Judah, and they camped between