December 19, 2025 • 28 mins
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SPEAKER_00 (00:11):
All right, 1 Samuel 16 is where we're at.
Little combo series here.
We are starting uh second uhstudy into uh a series on the
life of David, right?
Life of David, but it's alsokind of a twofer.
It's uh if you listen, you'llcatch it, it's a Christmas study
(00:34):
as well.
It will be focused towardsChristmas as well.
Here in 1 Samuel 16.
Let's just jump into it ratherthan all of that.
Um last study was very dark.
If you were here last study, wewe had as a theme there the end
of the book of Judges.
It's the time that David cameinto, where everyone did what
(00:57):
was right in their own eyes, andthere was no king in Israel.
It was a dark time, a time ofanarchy.
It was a time there when thepeople uh asked Samuel for a
king.
We want a king, just like allthe other nations.
And God gave them really theirchoice, uh, their Saul.
(01:18):
He was what you'd expect, and aking.
Tall, dark, handsome.
Now, what we know is God had aplan to give them a king, but it
wasn't Saul, it was David, whowas ultimately the king, Jesus.
Um, but here in 1 Samuel 16, uhGod is gonna have Samuel go and
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anoint David as king.
Uh look at verse 1.
Now the Lord said to Samuel, Howlong will you mourn for Saul,
seeing I have rejected him fromreigning over Israel?
Fill your horns with oil and go.
I'm sending you to Jessen theBethlehem Bethlehemite, for I
(02:04):
have provided myself a kingamongst his sons.
So, chapter 15, if you turn thepage back, uh God is done with
Saul.
Saul has become more and morestubborn, he hasn't obeyed, he's
rebelled against God's command,and God essentially says in
(02:25):
chapter 15, I'm through withyou.
Samuel, go and find me a newking.
Now notice the end of verse onehere.
God says, I've provided myself aking among his sons.
Interesting passage to look at.
Uh, the literal translation ofthis is for I've seen among his
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sons for myself a king.
In other words, this one thatwould be chosen is God's king,
God's choice for king.
Uh, if the people were going tochoose a king, it would have
been Saul.
That's why he became king, tall,dark, handsome, head and
shoulders above it, everybodyelse, somebody to represent uh
(03:10):
the strength of Israel.
But if God were choosing a king,it would look like David.
We find out later that David isa man after God's own heart.
He's got a heart turned towardsGod.
Now, notice verse 2.
Samuel's got a problem here.
And he says, How can I go?
(03:32):
If Saul hears it, he will killme.
But the Lord said, Take a heiferwith you and say, I have come to
sacrifice to the Lord.
Then invite Jesse to thesacrifice, and I will show you
what you shall do.
You shall anoint for me the oneI named to you.
So Samuel did what the Lord saidand went to Bethlehem.
(03:53):
And the elders of town trembledat the coming and said, Do you
come peaceably?
And he said, Peaceably.
Now, stop there for a second.
Um, they're a little nervouswhen they see Samuel coming.
Now, if you read chapter 15, youunderstand maybe why they're a
little nervous.
In chapter 15, as Saul disobeysGod's word to kill Agat, king of
(04:19):
the Amalekites, wicked guy.
Saul doesn't do it.
Samuel comes and finds out, andwhat does he do?
He hacks Agon to pieces, one ofthe colorful portions of Old
Testament history.
This wicked king.
Samuel comes in and just ninjaon him.
You know what I mean?
Uh so the people of Bethlehemsee Samuel coming with all that
(04:41):
in mind, and they go, Whoa, whatare you doing here, Sam?
You okay?
You come in peace?
Ninja, you know, and uh and hesays, Yes, I come in peace.
I have come to sacrifice to theLord.
This is verse 5.
Sanctify yourselves and come outwith me to the sacrifice.
Then he consecrated Jesse andhis sons and invited them to the
(05:04):
sacrifice.
So it was when they came that helooked, Samuel looked at Eliad,
the oldest son, there, and said,Surely, the Lord's anointed is
before him.
But the Lord said to Samuel, Donot look at his appearance or at
his physical stature, because Ihave refused him.
(05:25):
For the Lord does not see as mansees.
For man looks at the outwardappearance, but the Lord looks
at the heart.
So here in the city ofBethlehem, um Samuel comes to
sacrifice and to choose thename.
Now, Bethlehem, just kind of alittle color here, it's about
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seven, six or seven miles fromJerusalem.
Jerusalem is in the hills, inthe mountains.
And so Bethlehem is really inthe foothills there of the area.
You can picture that.
Bethlehem, the name itself,means house of bread.
Um, and so they grow wheat andthey have agriculture.
(06:10):
Uh it's big on the agriculture.
So you can picture this smalltown, just a few hundred people
there in the population, and andthe elders are sacrificing was
Samuel.
Samuel's secretly coming tochoose the next king.
Now notice, and we'll come to ita little later there, but Eliab,
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the oldest son of Jesse, comesin.
He looks like a king.
He's the tallest, he's thebuffest, right?
He's got it all together.
And Samuel says, I'm just gonnaguess this is the next king,
Jesse's oldest son.
In verse 7, though, God sets himstraight.
And this is a great verse toconsider, um, a great verse to
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underline.
Um, God sets him straight andsays, Samuel, Samuel, don't look
at the outward appearance.
Man looks at the outwardappearance.
And honestly, what else couldman do, right?
What else do we have?
When we see a person, we see theoutside.
None of us, I don't think, anyof us, can look at a person and
see their thoughts and see theirheart.
(07:18):
We can make a lot of judgmentcalls on the way a person
dresses or or what whatever onthe outside, but it honestly is
the best that we have as people.
It's the best we can do.
But God says, you don'tunderstand.
I don't see people that way,Samuel.
I see the heart.
Before anything else, and aboveanything else, I see the heart.
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And so when God looks at us, hesees the heart.
That can be a scary thought,right?
God sees our thoughts, God seesour heart, he sees our
intentions behind the thingsthat we do and say, Oh, I'm
doing this for the people.
He's like, Yeah, right, you'redoing this for you.
And you know, these are wickedlittle hearts.
(08:01):
And and so here, this tellingverse, God says that what's
inside of this next king isimportant.
Man looks at the outwardappearance.
I look at the heart.
Um, and so God has this realconsideration of what's inside
(08:24):
David.
Um now, what we see in thispassage, and and as we move
along here, is really therejection of the king.
If last week was the time of theking, what it was like, the
world of the king, this is therejection of the king.
And we all have a tendency toreject God as king in our life
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and God's plan for our life.
Um, but but let's just look atthis.
Who the people had chosen.
Now, God gave them who theywanted, it was Saul, but they
choose it, they choose him forwhat he looked like, what was on
the outside.
He was the choice of the flesh,and that's important to notice.
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Saul was the choice of theflesh.
Um, and God tells Samuel in 1Samuel 8:7, hey, Sam, don't be
upset.
They're not rejecting you,they're rejecting me.
And that's the flesh, right?
The flesh is the opposition toGod.
And in here they choose Saul,the flesh.
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The flesh, everybody has it,right?
You can hold on to your armthere, that's your flesh.
The flesh is our simplestinstinct, but it is the polar
opposite of the spiritual planof God.
And check it out.
We always default to our flesh.
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What feels good, what feelsright, what we want, our
desires, we default to thosethings when left to ourselves.
We don't naturally go to thespirit.
None of us naturally go to thespirit.
We always go to the flesh.
Now, we see this because I loveGod's word.
(10:18):
I love to spend time in God'sword.
But when it's morning time, andI'm gonna spend time in God's
word, because that's what I'mdetermined, that's a discipline
I want in my life.
Man, I instinctively first checkmy mail.
I check my mail, just beinghonest, I check the news.
I check both sides of the news,right?
(10:40):
I check every bit of Facebookthat I can glance over, and then
I usually check my Amazondeliveries.
What's coming today?
I want to make sure that I don'tmiss anything.
I check all of that, and then Ifinally get into God's word,
right?
Because I'm that distracted.
I am, but none of us reallycrave the things of the spirit.
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When we do, it's a miracle,right?
If you're like, I'm just reallyinto God's word right now,
that's a miracle.
Ride that way.
You know what I mean?
Um, now the flesh, the choicesof the flesh, just that
magnetism of the flesh in ourlife, will always overpower the
spirit if we let it.
(11:24):
And it will ruin the things thatGod wants to do in our life.
There really is a warning here.
Beware of the flesh, the king ofthe flesh soul.
Beware of sin.
Sin, sort of the result of theflesh, right?
The end result of the flesh willalways keep us from what God
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wants to do in our life.
Be careful of it.
But next we see that it's notjust our fleshly little selves
that take us away from God'sking, it's this blind side.
Uh, notice it happens to twopeople here.
Um, it happens to Samuel and ithappens to Jesse.
(12:10):
Um, Samuel, we saw.
Um, but notice verse 8.
So Jesse called the Benadab andmade him pass before Samuel.
Samuel said, Neither has theLord chosen this one.
Then Jesse made Shema pass by,Nep's son in line.
And he said, Neither has theLord chosen this one.
(12:30):
Jesse and Jesse made seven ofhis sons pass before Samuel.
And Samuel said to Jesse, TheLord has not chosen.
Samuel said to Jesse, Are theseall the are all the young men
here?
Then he said, There remains yetthe youngest, and there he is
keeping the sheep.
And Samuel said to Jesse, sendand bring him, for we will not
(12:54):
sit down till he comes here.
So notice these guys, we couldsay maybe they're
spiritual-minded people, atleast Samuel should be, but
Samuel misses it initially.
He's like, Eliab's the guy,right?
Um, Jesse notice he doesn't eventhink to call David to come
(13:17):
along as this is all going down.
He doesn't even think that Davidcould be a part of it.
Now, David was the youngest,he's the youngest of eight sons,
and and yeah, wasn't seen asmuch.
Now, this you can't blame himtoo much.
This was the culture of the day,right?
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The firstborn had all therights.
Um, and and God even said thatin the law that the firstborn
would get uh twice the benefitfrom being the heir there, twice
the portion.
That's Deuteronomy 21, if youwant to read up on that.
Exodus 13 says that thefirstborn son would assume
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leadership in the family whenthe father died.
Uh, Exodus 13 also said therewas a special dedication of the
firstborn to the Lord.
And we remember Esau, right?
The example of Esau.
Jacob and Esau, they're twins,they're born so close together
that Jacob is holding on toEsau's ankle when he's born,
(14:27):
right?
Twins, and you'll find out someof you.
The interesting thing with twinsis uh even if one is only two
minutes younger, they're stillyour baby.
You know what I mean?
And and and Esau had the rightsas the firstborn above Jacob,
and that's just the way it was.
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So Jesse looking at his sonsgoes, Eliad is everything.
Everybody else is just it'sfurther down the road, you know,
and that wasn't anythingpersonal, that's just the way it
was seen.
And so these two well-leaningguys, Jesse and Samuel, they
nearly missed out on God'schoice for Cain.
(15:11):
Now, this is a practicaldecision that they're making.
This makes sense, even accordingto God's word.
This makes sense.
But listen, practicality cankeep us from God's plan.
That's not to say that Goddoesn't say use your brain when
you make decisions, right?
God gave us a brain, right?
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He expects us to use it in lifeto do the wise thing and the
thing that makes good sense.
But that's not always the way itgoes.
Sometimes God asks us to dothings that aren't practical,
but they're his will, right?
And we oftentimes miss this.
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God's desire we miss forpracticality.
When we're thinking the wisestchoice for our children's
future.
Um youth, uh, I would often, youknow, every so often I would see
kids that had heart at one pointfor just, you know, whatever
crazy thing God might call me todo, I want to do it.
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And, you know, we do need topray through those things for
sure.
But I've seen many parents shutdown those ideas.
Well, that's not practical.
You really ought to think aboutthis from a practical side.
And I honestly understand.
I understand now that I havekids that are growing up, makes
good sense.
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That's what you want for yourkids.
That's reasonable.
But so many times the practicalwill shut down God's rule in our
life.
Um, so many times we'll look ata desire in our heart to help
someone.
We'll say, Yeah, but that justdoesn't make sense right now.
If you understood my finances,you would understand that
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doesn't make sense.
Yeah, but God might be askingyou, might be telling you to do
it.
Uh, maybe it's an issue of time.
Well, I just don't have anytime.
But maybe God really is leadingyou to do something outside of
the practical.
He does that often, I think.
We want to be led and we want tobe listening.
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We want to do the things thatGod has for us.
And we want that for our kids aswell.
Um, it's not always what we see,it's what God leads to.
And you can remember thechildren of Israel when they got
to the promised land, right?
The practical was we can't go inthere because there's giants in
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the land.
But God said, No, I've given youthe land.
Go in.
Listen to what God says.
Um, now sometimes it's the fleshthat keeps us away from God's
gift.
Sometimes it's the practicalityof life that just kind of
blindsides us.
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But sometimes it's just theplain old clutter of life.
And for this, we're gonna travelthrough time, right?
Luke chapter two.
Let's move to Luke chapter two.
Traveling through time, that's asound, right?
Um traveling through time, butnot space.
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We're still in the city ofJerusalem, the village of
Jerusalem.
Luke chapter two, it's theChristmas story.
And now you've got a warm, cozyfeeling going on here.
It's the Christmas story.
We read this every year, about athousand years after David's
time.
You know the story, but let'sread it.
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Luke chapter 2, verse 1.
And it came to pass in thosedays that a decree went out from
Caesar Augustus that all theworld should be registered.
This census first took placewhile Corinius was governing
Syria.
So all went to be registered,everyone to his own city.
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Joseph also went up from Galileefrom the city of Nazareth into
Judea to the city of David,which is called Bethlehem,
because he was of the house andlineage of David, to be
registered with Mary, hisbetrothed wife, who was with
child.
So was while they were there,the days were completed for her
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to be delivered, and she broughtforth her firstborn son, wrapped
him in swaddling clothes, andlied him in a manger, laid him
in a manger, because there wasno room for them in the inn.
So it's the Christmas storyhere.
Uh, Caesar puts out that all theworld should be registered with
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attack.
They're to go back to theirhometown, the hometown of their
Family.
Well, Joseph is of the family ofDavid.
That's his genealogy.
He's from the family of David,and so he goes to Bethlehem.
And you know the story, ithappened while they're there,
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that Mary gives birth to Jesus.
Man, such a spectacular thing inhuman history that the Messiah
is born, God in flesh, andthat's all we get.
You know what I mean?
He was born, and that was that.
And we see here this famous linein verse 7 that she gives birth
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in a stable, likely a cavebehind the inn.
Notice because there was no roomin the inn.
And of course, this leads tolots of great Christmas pageants
and whatnot, but significant.
As Mary and Joseph enter townand they're going around, they
gotta find a place to stay, andthere's just no room.
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There's no room for Jesus.
And what wonderful application,right?
Because the place is justcluttered with people.
Every Airbnb is taken.
And if they get the opportunityto stay in a shed, you know, a
little shed where the animalsare kept.
And Jesus is born there, andhe's laid in a feeding trough.
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And and yet it's all for thesake of clutter.
Now we'll read in just a secondthat some shepherds they hear
about this through a divine uhannouncement.
But other than that, in thelittle town Bethlehem, nobody
else has a clue.
Because there's just too muchgoing on.
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There's too much clutter.
And this automatically, think ofa parable that Jesus told a
little later in life.
Matthew 13, the parable of thesowers, right?
Jesus tells a story about fourdifferent kinds of soil, three
bad, one good.
A seed goes into that soil, andit only grows in the good soil.
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The other soils, no growproduce, right?
That's the story in Matthew 13.
Well, Jesus gives theinterpretation.
You can check that out.
It's worth a read every day ofyour life.
But in Matthew 13, verse 22,Jesus talks about the seed and
the thorns.
Now listen to this.
The seed and the thorns.
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Now, he who received the seed,the seed is a picture of God's
word, by the way.
The soil is a picture of ourhearts.
He who receives a seed among thethorns is he who hears the word.
Now listen, and the cares ofthis world and the deceitfulness
of riches choke the word, and hebecomes unfruitful.
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So this says so much.
Jesus says, the word is alwaysgoing out, like right now, like
when you go home, like when youread in the mornings or in the
evenings, whenever it is.
God's word is always there andalways going out.
But our heart determines whatthe seed does, whether it grows
or it doesn't.
Now, this formy ground, you canpicture it and weeds and such
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bringing up, it is like acluttered heart.
There's just too much.
And the cares of the world andthe deceitfulness of riches
choke the world.
The cares of the world.
Um the distractions of the worldis another way you could uh put
that.
And we all have them, right?
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We have lots of stuff going onin our life.
Um, lots of different things onour to-do list.
Those cares can choke out whatGod wants to do.
I have this, it's Christmastime, I gotta buy this, I got a
few more gifts, a few morecards.
I got these things to do.
I just don't have time left now.
Clutter, right?
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The deceitfulness of riches, andyou can really think about that.
Riches are deceitful.
We think if we just had a littlemore, I wouldn't have a worry in
the world.
You'd have plenty of worry.
You might even have more worry,right?
Be careful.
All these different things.
You can just put things.
Things choke out what God wantsto do in our hearts, and we miss
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the most wonderful stuff becausewe're just cluttered with
thoughts, distractions.
Be aware of that this year.
Now, the heart that receives, Ithink we see a little picture of
it there in Luke chapter 2, uh,verse 8.
Now there were in the samecountry shepherds living out in
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the fields, keeping watch overtheir flocks by night.
And behold, an angel of the Lordstood before them, and the glory
of the Lord shone around them,and they were greatly afraid.
And the angel said to them, Donot be afraid, for behold, I
bring you good tidings of greatjoy, which will be to all
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people.
For there is born to you thisday, good blessing, in the city
of David, a Savior, who isChrist the Lord.
And this will be a sign to you.
You'll find the babe wrapped inswallowing claws and lying in a
manger, and suddenly there waswith the angel a multitude of
heavenly boats praising God andsaying, Glory to God in the
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highest, and on earth peace,good will toward men.
Let's look at this verse 15.
So it was when the angels hadgone way into heaven that the
shelter said to one another, Letus go to Bethlehem and see uh
this thing that has come topass, which the Lord has made
known to us.
And they came with haste andfound Mary and Joseph and the
babe who was lying in themanger.
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When they saw him, they why dothey know?
And the same, which was toldthem concerning this child.
Pretty amazing, right?
Nobody else catches it but someshepherds outside of town.
Now, I just love to think aboutthis.
It's a thousand-year gap, butthere's a strong possibility
that those are the same fieldsthat David wrote Psalm 23, the
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Lord is my shepherd.
Pretty cool to see.
But here they are outside of theclutter.
They're alone.
It's their job.
We can't give them too muchcredit.
They're alone, but they're intheir aloneness.
God shows them somethingamazing.
The Savior is born today.
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Nobody else knew it except forMary and Joseph and these
shepherds.
Nobody else had a clue.
And yet, I think it's just goodapplication for us.
There's a lot of things that cantake us away from what God wants
to do in our lives.
Our own flesh, so distracting.
Our own desires plus towardsthings that just don't even
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matter.
Even practicality can sometimesdrag us away from what God wants
to do.
But just the clutter of life, somany different voices, so many
different things going on in ourheart and in our life, so many
things to do.
Sometimes we just need to holdaway like this outside of the
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clutter of the town and justhear what God wants to say.
And and that's, I think, whenGod can really be Lord to us,
King to us, where we get to seejust the wonder of what he's
done for us.
Even the wonder of Christmas.
Yeah, we get so distracted.
I feel like Christmas is alreadyhere and gone this year.
(27:35):
I don't know.
It's weird.
But yeah, what a wonderful thingthat God would take on human
flesh and dwell among us.
Because he had to?
Absolutely not.
But because he wanted to, butbecause he loved us.
So that that baby would grow upand and live and teach and heal
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and love and die on the crossfor us.
What amazing love that is as weuh come to this Christmas
season.
So, God, um I'm just gonna saythat like everyone else, um, my
life is pretty cluttered, andthere's some things I just can't
help.
Guys, I just pray all the allthe different things that are
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going on in your life that youwould be able to take time and
just see you is to be able tohave the state as to how many
spend and of course we wouldactually know you in a in a real
and a personal way.
That would help us Christmasseason in the morning, just a
holiday of the time of the yearwith scratching, quite helpful
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to see the
All right, 1 Samuel 16 is where we're at.
Little combo series here.
We are starting uh second uhstudy into uh a series on the
life of David, right?
Life of David, but it's alsokind of a twofer.
It's uh if you listen, you'llcatch it, it's a Christmas study
(00:34):
as well.
It will be focused towardsChristmas as well.
Here in 1 Samuel 16.
Let's just jump into it ratherthan all of that.
Um last study was very dark.
If you were here last study, wewe had as a theme there the end
of the book of Judges.
It's the time that David cameinto, where everyone did what
(00:57):
was right in their own eyes, andthere was no king in Israel.
It was a dark time, a time ofanarchy.
It was a time there when thepeople uh asked Samuel for a
king.
We want a king, just like allthe other nations.
And God gave them really theirchoice, uh, their Saul.
(01:18):
He was what you'd expect, and aking.
Tall, dark, handsome.
Now, what we know is God had aplan to give them a king, but it
wasn't Saul, it was David, whowas ultimately the king, Jesus.
Um, but here in 1 Samuel 16, uhGod is gonna have Samuel go and
(01:41):
anoint David as king.
Uh look at verse 1.
Now the Lord said to Samuel, Howlong will you mourn for Saul,
seeing I have rejected him fromreigning over Israel?
Fill your horns with oil and go.
I'm sending you to Jessen theBethlehem Bethlehemite, for I
(02:04):
have provided myself a kingamongst his sons.
So, chapter 15, if you turn thepage back, uh God is done with
Saul.
Saul has become more and morestubborn, he hasn't obeyed, he's
rebelled against God's command,and God essentially says in
(02:25):
chapter 15, I'm through withyou.
Samuel, go and find me a newking.
Now notice the end of verse onehere.
God says, I've provided myself aking among his sons.
Interesting passage to look at.
Uh, the literal translation ofthis is for I've seen among his
(02:49):
sons for myself a king.
In other words, this one thatwould be chosen is God's king,
God's choice for king.
Uh, if the people were going tochoose a king, it would have
been Saul.
That's why he became king, tall,dark, handsome, head and
shoulders above it, everybodyelse, somebody to represent uh
(03:10):
the strength of Israel.
But if God were choosing a king,it would look like David.
We find out later that David isa man after God's own heart.
He's got a heart turned towardsGod.
Now, notice verse 2.
Samuel's got a problem here.
And he says, How can I go?
(03:32):
If Saul hears it, he will killme.
But the Lord said, Take a heiferwith you and say, I have come to
sacrifice to the Lord.
Then invite Jesse to thesacrifice, and I will show you
what you shall do.
You shall anoint for me the oneI named to you.
So Samuel did what the Lord saidand went to Bethlehem.
(03:53):
And the elders of town trembledat the coming and said, Do you
come peaceably?
And he said, Peaceably.
Now, stop there for a second.
Um, they're a little nervouswhen they see Samuel coming.
Now, if you read chapter 15, youunderstand maybe why they're a
little nervous.
In chapter 15, as Saul disobeysGod's word to kill Agat, king of
(04:19):
the Amalekites, wicked guy.
Saul doesn't do it.
Samuel comes and finds out, andwhat does he do?
He hacks Agon to pieces, one ofthe colorful portions of Old
Testament history.
This wicked king.
Samuel comes in and just ninjaon him.
You know what I mean?
Uh so the people of Bethlehemsee Samuel coming with all that
(04:41):
in mind, and they go, Whoa, whatare you doing here, Sam?
You okay?
You come in peace?
Ninja, you know, and uh and hesays, Yes, I come in peace.
I have come to sacrifice to theLord.
This is verse 5.
Sanctify yourselves and come outwith me to the sacrifice.
Then he consecrated Jesse andhis sons and invited them to the
(05:04):
sacrifice.
So it was when they came that helooked, Samuel looked at Eliad,
the oldest son, there, and said,Surely, the Lord's anointed is
before him.
But the Lord said to Samuel, Donot look at his appearance or at
his physical stature, because Ihave refused him.
(05:25):
For the Lord does not see as mansees.
For man looks at the outwardappearance, but the Lord looks
at the heart.
So here in the city ofBethlehem, um Samuel comes to
sacrifice and to choose thename.
Now, Bethlehem, just kind of alittle color here, it's about
(05:48):
seven, six or seven miles fromJerusalem.
Jerusalem is in the hills, inthe mountains.
And so Bethlehem is really inthe foothills there of the area.
You can picture that.
Bethlehem, the name itself,means house of bread.
Um, and so they grow wheat andthey have agriculture.
(06:10):
Uh it's big on the agriculture.
So you can picture this smalltown, just a few hundred people
there in the population, and andthe elders are sacrificing was
Samuel.
Samuel's secretly coming tochoose the next king.
Now notice, and we'll come to ita little later there, but Eliab,
(06:33):
the oldest son of Jesse, comesin.
He looks like a king.
He's the tallest, he's thebuffest, right?
He's got it all together.
And Samuel says, I'm just gonnaguess this is the next king,
Jesse's oldest son.
In verse 7, though, God sets himstraight.
And this is a great verse toconsider, um, a great verse to
(06:55):
underline.
Um, God sets him straight andsays, Samuel, Samuel, don't look
at the outward appearance.
Man looks at the outwardappearance.
And honestly, what else couldman do, right?
What else do we have?
When we see a person, we see theoutside.
None of us, I don't think, anyof us, can look at a person and
see their thoughts and see theirheart.
(07:18):
We can make a lot of judgmentcalls on the way a person
dresses or or what whatever onthe outside, but it honestly is
the best that we have as people.
It's the best we can do.
But God says, you don'tunderstand.
I don't see people that way,Samuel.
I see the heart.
Before anything else, and aboveanything else, I see the heart.
(07:40):
And so when God looks at us, hesees the heart.
That can be a scary thought,right?
God sees our thoughts, God seesour heart, he sees our
intentions behind the thingsthat we do and say, Oh, I'm
doing this for the people.
He's like, Yeah, right, you'redoing this for you.
And you know, these are wickedlittle hearts.
(08:01):
And and so here, this tellingverse, God says that what's
inside of this next king isimportant.
Man looks at the outwardappearance.
I look at the heart.
Um, and so God has this realconsideration of what's inside
(08:24):
David.
Um now, what we see in thispassage, and and as we move
along here, is really therejection of the king.
If last week was the time of theking, what it was like, the
world of the king, this is therejection of the king.
And we all have a tendency toreject God as king in our life
(08:48):
and God's plan for our life.
Um, but but let's just look atthis.
Who the people had chosen.
Now, God gave them who theywanted, it was Saul, but they
choose it, they choose him forwhat he looked like, what was on
the outside.
He was the choice of the flesh,and that's important to notice.
(09:08):
Saul was the choice of theflesh.
Um, and God tells Samuel in 1Samuel 8:7, hey, Sam, don't be
upset.
They're not rejecting you,they're rejecting me.
And that's the flesh, right?
The flesh is the opposition toGod.
And in here they choose Saul,the flesh.
(09:32):
The flesh, everybody has it,right?
You can hold on to your armthere, that's your flesh.
The flesh is our simplestinstinct, but it is the polar
opposite of the spiritual planof God.
And check it out.
We always default to our flesh.
(09:54):
What feels good, what feelsright, what we want, our
desires, we default to thosethings when left to ourselves.
We don't naturally go to thespirit.
None of us naturally go to thespirit.
We always go to the flesh.
Now, we see this because I loveGod's word.
(10:18):
I love to spend time in God'sword.
But when it's morning time, andI'm gonna spend time in God's
word, because that's what I'mdetermined, that's a discipline
I want in my life.
Man, I instinctively first checkmy mail.
I check my mail, just beinghonest, I check the news.
I check both sides of the news,right?
(10:40):
I check every bit of Facebookthat I can glance over, and then
I usually check my Amazondeliveries.
What's coming today?
I want to make sure that I don'tmiss anything.
I check all of that, and then Ifinally get into God's word,
right?
Because I'm that distracted.
I am, but none of us reallycrave the things of the spirit.
(11:03):
When we do, it's a miracle,right?
If you're like, I'm just reallyinto God's word right now,
that's a miracle.
Ride that way.
You know what I mean?
Um, now the flesh, the choicesof the flesh, just that
magnetism of the flesh in ourlife, will always overpower the
spirit if we let it.
(11:24):
And it will ruin the things thatGod wants to do in our life.
There really is a warning here.
Beware of the flesh, the king ofthe flesh soul.
Beware of sin.
Sin, sort of the result of theflesh, right?
The end result of the flesh willalways keep us from what God
(11:46):
wants to do in our life.
Be careful of it.
But next we see that it's notjust our fleshly little selves
that take us away from God'sking, it's this blind side.
Uh, notice it happens to twopeople here.
Um, it happens to Samuel and ithappens to Jesse.
(12:10):
Um, Samuel, we saw.
Um, but notice verse 8.
So Jesse called the Benadab andmade him pass before Samuel.
Samuel said, Neither has theLord chosen this one.
Then Jesse made Shema pass by,Nep's son in line.
And he said, Neither has theLord chosen this one.
(12:30):
Jesse and Jesse made seven ofhis sons pass before Samuel.
And Samuel said to Jesse, TheLord has not chosen.
Samuel said to Jesse, Are theseall the are all the young men
here?
Then he said, There remains yetthe youngest, and there he is
keeping the sheep.
And Samuel said to Jesse, sendand bring him, for we will not
(12:54):
sit down till he comes here.
So notice these guys, we couldsay maybe they're
spiritual-minded people, atleast Samuel should be, but
Samuel misses it initially.
He's like, Eliab's the guy,right?
Um, Jesse notice he doesn't eventhink to call David to come
(13:17):
along as this is all going down.
He doesn't even think that Davidcould be a part of it.
Now, David was the youngest,he's the youngest of eight sons,
and and yeah, wasn't seen asmuch.
Now, this you can't blame himtoo much.
This was the culture of the day,right?
(13:37):
The firstborn had all therights.
Um, and and God even said thatin the law that the firstborn
would get uh twice the benefitfrom being the heir there, twice
the portion.
That's Deuteronomy 21, if youwant to read up on that.
Exodus 13 says that thefirstborn son would assume
(14:01):
leadership in the family whenthe father died.
Uh, Exodus 13 also said therewas a special dedication of the
firstborn to the Lord.
And we remember Esau, right?
The example of Esau.
Jacob and Esau, they're twins,they're born so close together
that Jacob is holding on toEsau's ankle when he's born,
(14:27):
right?
Twins, and you'll find out someof you.
The interesting thing with twinsis uh even if one is only two
minutes younger, they're stillyour baby.
You know what I mean?
And and and Esau had the rightsas the firstborn above Jacob,
and that's just the way it was.
(14:48):
So Jesse looking at his sonsgoes, Eliad is everything.
Everybody else is just it'sfurther down the road, you know,
and that wasn't anythingpersonal, that's just the way it
was seen.
And so these two well-leaningguys, Jesse and Samuel, they
nearly missed out on God'schoice for Cain.
(15:11):
Now, this is a practicaldecision that they're making.
This makes sense, even accordingto God's word.
This makes sense.
But listen, practicality cankeep us from God's plan.
That's not to say that Goddoesn't say use your brain when
you make decisions, right?
God gave us a brain, right?
(15:33):
He expects us to use it in lifeto do the wise thing and the
thing that makes good sense.
But that's not always the way itgoes.
Sometimes God asks us to dothings that aren't practical,
but they're his will, right?
And we oftentimes miss this.
(15:54):
God's desire we miss forpracticality.
When we're thinking the wisestchoice for our children's
future.
Um youth, uh, I would often, youknow, every so often I would see
kids that had heart at one pointfor just, you know, whatever
crazy thing God might call me todo, I want to do it.
(16:16):
And, you know, we do need topray through those things for
sure.
But I've seen many parents shutdown those ideas.
Well, that's not practical.
You really ought to think aboutthis from a practical side.
And I honestly understand.
I understand now that I havekids that are growing up, makes
good sense.
(16:36):
That's what you want for yourkids.
That's reasonable.
But so many times the practicalwill shut down God's rule in our
life.
Um, so many times we'll look ata desire in our heart to help
someone.
We'll say, Yeah, but that justdoesn't make sense right now.
If you understood my finances,you would understand that
(16:58):
doesn't make sense.
Yeah, but God might be askingyou, might be telling you to do
it.
Uh, maybe it's an issue of time.
Well, I just don't have anytime.
But maybe God really is leadingyou to do something outside of
the practical.
He does that often, I think.
We want to be led and we want tobe listening.
(17:18):
We want to do the things thatGod has for us.
And we want that for our kids aswell.
Um, it's not always what we see,it's what God leads to.
And you can remember thechildren of Israel when they got
to the promised land, right?
The practical was we can't go inthere because there's giants in
(17:39):
the land.
But God said, No, I've given youthe land.
Go in.
Listen to what God says.
Um, now sometimes it's the fleshthat keeps us away from God's
gift.
Sometimes it's the practicalityof life that just kind of
blindsides us.
(18:00):
But sometimes it's just theplain old clutter of life.
And for this, we're gonna travelthrough time, right?
Luke chapter two.
Let's move to Luke chapter two.
Traveling through time, that's asound, right?
Um traveling through time, butnot space.
(18:22):
We're still in the city ofJerusalem, the village of
Jerusalem.
Luke chapter two, it's theChristmas story.
And now you've got a warm, cozyfeeling going on here.
It's the Christmas story.
We read this every year, about athousand years after David's
time.
You know the story, but let'sread it.
(18:45):
Luke chapter 2, verse 1.
And it came to pass in thosedays that a decree went out from
Caesar Augustus that all theworld should be registered.
This census first took placewhile Corinius was governing
Syria.
So all went to be registered,everyone to his own city.
(19:10):
Joseph also went up from Galileefrom the city of Nazareth into
Judea to the city of David,which is called Bethlehem,
because he was of the house andlineage of David, to be
registered with Mary, hisbetrothed wife, who was with
child.
So was while they were there,the days were completed for her
(19:32):
to be delivered, and she broughtforth her firstborn son, wrapped
him in swaddling clothes, andlied him in a manger, laid him
in a manger, because there wasno room for them in the inn.
So it's the Christmas storyhere.
Uh, Caesar puts out that all theworld should be registered with
(19:53):
attack.
They're to go back to theirhometown, the hometown of their
Family.
Well, Joseph is of the family ofDavid.
That's his genealogy.
He's from the family of David,and so he goes to Bethlehem.
And you know the story, ithappened while they're there,
(20:14):
that Mary gives birth to Jesus.
Man, such a spectacular thing inhuman history that the Messiah
is born, God in flesh, andthat's all we get.
You know what I mean?
He was born, and that was that.
And we see here this famous linein verse 7 that she gives birth
(20:35):
in a stable, likely a cavebehind the inn.
Notice because there was no roomin the inn.
And of course, this leads tolots of great Christmas pageants
and whatnot, but significant.
As Mary and Joseph enter townand they're going around, they
gotta find a place to stay, andthere's just no room.
(20:59):
There's no room for Jesus.
And what wonderful application,right?
Because the place is justcluttered with people.
Every Airbnb is taken.
And if they get the opportunityto stay in a shed, you know, a
little shed where the animalsare kept.
And Jesus is born there, andhe's laid in a feeding trough.
(21:23):
And and yet it's all for thesake of clutter.
Now we'll read in just a secondthat some shepherds they hear
about this through a divine uhannouncement.
But other than that, in thelittle town Bethlehem, nobody
else has a clue.
Because there's just too muchgoing on.
(21:43):
There's too much clutter.
And this automatically, think ofa parable that Jesus told a
little later in life.
Matthew 13, the parable of thesowers, right?
Jesus tells a story about fourdifferent kinds of soil, three
bad, one good.
A seed goes into that soil, andit only grows in the good soil.
(22:06):
The other soils, no growproduce, right?
That's the story in Matthew 13.
Well, Jesus gives theinterpretation.
You can check that out.
It's worth a read every day ofyour life.
But in Matthew 13, verse 22,Jesus talks about the seed and
the thorns.
Now listen to this.
The seed and the thorns.
(22:26):
Now, he who received the seed,the seed is a picture of God's
word, by the way.
The soil is a picture of ourhearts.
He who receives a seed among thethorns is he who hears the word.
Now listen, and the cares ofthis world and the deceitfulness
of riches choke the word, and hebecomes unfruitful.
(22:48):
So this says so much.
Jesus says, the word is alwaysgoing out, like right now, like
when you go home, like when youread in the mornings or in the
evenings, whenever it is.
God's word is always there andalways going out.
But our heart determines whatthe seed does, whether it grows
or it doesn't.
Now, this formy ground, you canpicture it and weeds and such
(23:12):
bringing up, it is like acluttered heart.
There's just too much.
And the cares of the world andthe deceitfulness of riches
choke the world.
The cares of the world.
Um the distractions of the worldis another way you could uh put
that.
And we all have them, right?
(23:32):
We have lots of stuff going onin our life.
Um, lots of different things onour to-do list.
Those cares can choke out whatGod wants to do.
I have this, it's Christmastime, I gotta buy this, I got a
few more gifts, a few morecards.
I got these things to do.
I just don't have time left now.
Clutter, right?
(23:53):
The deceitfulness of riches, andyou can really think about that.
Riches are deceitful.
We think if we just had a littlemore, I wouldn't have a worry in
the world.
You'd have plenty of worry.
You might even have more worry,right?
Be careful.
All these different things.
You can just put things.
Things choke out what God wantsto do in our hearts, and we miss
(24:17):
the most wonderful stuff becausewe're just cluttered with
thoughts, distractions.
Be aware of that this year.
Now, the heart that receives, Ithink we see a little picture of
it there in Luke chapter 2, uh,verse 8.
Now there were in the samecountry shepherds living out in
(24:42):
the fields, keeping watch overtheir flocks by night.
And behold, an angel of the Lordstood before them, and the glory
of the Lord shone around them,and they were greatly afraid.
And the angel said to them, Donot be afraid, for behold, I
bring you good tidings of greatjoy, which will be to all
(25:04):
people.
For there is born to you thisday, good blessing, in the city
of David, a Savior, who isChrist the Lord.
And this will be a sign to you.
You'll find the babe wrapped inswallowing claws and lying in a
manger, and suddenly there waswith the angel a multitude of
heavenly boats praising God andsaying, Glory to God in the
(25:26):
highest, and on earth peace,good will toward men.
Let's look at this verse 15.
So it was when the angels hadgone way into heaven that the
shelter said to one another, Letus go to Bethlehem and see uh
this thing that has come topass, which the Lord has made
known to us.
And they came with haste andfound Mary and Joseph and the
babe who was lying in themanger.
(25:49):
When they saw him, they why dothey know?
And the same, which was toldthem concerning this child.
Pretty amazing, right?
Nobody else catches it but someshepherds outside of town.
Now, I just love to think aboutthis.
It's a thousand-year gap, butthere's a strong possibility
that those are the same fieldsthat David wrote Psalm 23, the
(26:11):
Lord is my shepherd.
Pretty cool to see.
But here they are outside of theclutter.
They're alone.
It's their job.
We can't give them too muchcredit.
They're alone, but they're intheir aloneness.
God shows them somethingamazing.
The Savior is born today.
(26:32):
Nobody else knew it except forMary and Joseph and these
shepherds.
Nobody else had a clue.
And yet, I think it's just goodapplication for us.
There's a lot of things that cantake us away from what God wants
to do in our lives.
Our own flesh, so distracting.
Our own desires plus towardsthings that just don't even
(26:53):
matter.
Even practicality can sometimesdrag us away from what God wants
to do.
But just the clutter of life, somany different voices, so many
different things going on in ourheart and in our life, so many
things to do.
Sometimes we just need to holdaway like this outside of the
(27:14):
clutter of the town and justhear what God wants to say.
And and that's, I think, whenGod can really be Lord to us,
King to us, where we get to seejust the wonder of what he's
done for us.
Even the wonder of Christmas.
Yeah, we get so distracted.
I feel like Christmas is alreadyhere and gone this year.
(27:35):
I don't know.
It's weird.
But yeah, what a wonderful thingthat God would take on human
flesh and dwell among us.
Because he had to?
Absolutely not.
But because he wanted to, butbecause he loved us.
So that that baby would grow upand and live and teach and heal
(27:55):
and love and die on the crossfor us.
What amazing love that is as weuh come to this Christmas
season.
So, God, um I'm just gonna saythat like everyone else, um, my
life is pretty cluttered, andthere's some things I just can't
help.
Guys, I just pray all the allthe different things that are
(28:17):
going on in your life that youwould be able to take time and
just see you is to be able tohave the state as to how many
spend and of course we wouldactually know you in a in a real
and a personal way.
That would help us Christmasseason in the morning, just a
holiday of the time of the yearwith scratching, quite helpful
(28:41):
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