My friends, I've got a hope for you today that I've been praying over, that you would draw close to the heart of God.

There's many things that a pastor can want for their congregation to take away. Sometimes it's a call to action, a call to serve others, a call to do any number of things. But the. The one thing that I want for you today that you would draw near to the heart of God. I'll be honest, there's a few folks that I was hoping would be here today that aren't.

But I'm glad that you guys are here. And I don't mean that in a way like. Like you guys aren't good enough. What I mean is there's some people that God has put on my heart this week that I've been praying for, and I've been praying that they would hear this, and perhaps they still will online. I know we've got people that watch online, some of them from around the country that maybe have been part of this church, and they're physically, geographically not here, but they still are present with us.

So I thank you guys for being online with us. But my friends, today, what my hope for you is that you would know God, that you would be like Job in the Bible. Many of you have never even read the book of Job because you can't get past the first chapter or two. It kind of gets a little depressing. It's a man who lost everything, and yet he maintains his righteousness.

He says, I'm righteous. I haven't sinned. And so Job, he loses everything except for his wife. She sticks around and nags him and tells him to curse God and die. I think that was part of Satan's plan, you know, like, just leave the woman there that was trying to steer him off the path.

But at the end of all of this, after Job is argued back and forth, my daughter was reading Job. It's amazing to me. She's almost nine. And so I'm laying there at night in her room explaining things in the Bible to her. And I'm talking about the life of Job.

And I said, he has these three friends that they sit down with him for a week, and they just. They mourn with him. I had the opportunity to do that, like, for not seven days, just for a few minutes. Earlier this week, I sat down with someone who's going through a particularly difficult time, and I pulled up, and he's sitting on a sidewalk at a parking lot. And I just sat there with him, and I didn't say anything.

Job's friends did that for seven days. But then they tormented him for a lot longer. They wouldn't shut up, and they accused him of doing everything wrong. And then after that, there's this one young guy that just won't shut up. And he doesn't even give Job a chance to respond.

He just keeps talking and talking and talking. I've been that guy before, okay? I'm sorry for it. But anyway, Job, after all of this, they all shut up. They said everything they know to say, and they're tired of talking.

Then God says, all right, my turn now. And God asked Job. I think it's 77 questions. He breaks it into, like, part A and part B. He gives him an intermission to catch his breath, for Job to catch his breath.

I think he catches Job off guard with all these questions that Job can't answer because he's not God. And God says to Job, he says, like, seriously, man. Like, do you know all these different things? You don't, do you? Okay, then you need to.

You need to answer me. And Job's like, I've got nothing to say. And God keeps talking. And he asks the rest of the second group of questions. He says, what's your answer, Job?

And Job says, surely I talked about things that I had no understanding, things that I didn't know. He says, I'm humbled. I repent in sackcloth and ashes. And God. God doesn't say much else.

He restores Job's fortunes. But what Job says, after all this ordeal, to me, the whole point of the book, that Job says this. He says, God, up until this point, I had heard of you. I'd heard of you as people hear, like, stories on the news or in a book. But now, God, I know you.

I've seen you through all this. I know you, God. And so my prayer for you is that maybe if you're going through some struggles, probably not near as strong as Job's, but if you're going through some struggles, some trials, some pressing of circumstances, that you would see God through all this, not just see him as a passerby, but that you would see him closely, deeply, that you would know God and that you would know him deep within your soul. You see, when we begin to know God more is when we begin to love God more. If you don't love God, don't worry about that just yet.

Because I went a lot of years not understanding what it meant to love God. I went a long time not understanding how. How I could possibly love The God that I've never actually physically seen, although I see his effects and his work all over the place. I hadn't seen him. And so I didn't know how to love him.

But I started working on that. I started saying, God, I want to love you more. God starts revealing Himself to me as my Father in heaven. And as I realize that, as I recognize that, I know that he has good things in store for me. And so I trust him more.

And the more I begin to trust him, then I start to understand how it is that I can love God. And so here we are, we're sitting here looking at this, and I recognize that deep faith is forged in the pressing circumstances of trials and of things that we don't want to go through. They press in on us. And as they press in on us, it's like God is forging something in us. He's making something out of us.

But we can't get through to this deep faith, to this deep love if we're not led by God through these pain and struggles. It's like a crucible. A crucible is that thing where the metal is melted to the point where all of the impurities run off and what's left is pure metal that can be formed into something.

Do you trust God to make something strong and beautiful out of you? Something that is useful doesn't come easily. Some of you have lived through that. Some of you have experienced that in your life, maybe at a younger age. And you know what that looks like.

I tell you, there's some young men and women in this room right now. They're going through that crucible at this moment. They're going through that forging process at this moment. And it's painful. They need to hear your voice.

They need to hear your word of testimony. The saying, son, daughter, I've been there. You trust God in this process. We're going to look today at 1st Samuel 16. And I just want to read four verses to you.

1st Samuel 16, verses 6 and 7 says this when they arrived. This is at a man named Jesse, Jesse's home. When they arrived, Samuel noticed Eliab, the son of Jesse, and said to himself, surely here before the Lord stands his chosen king. But the Lord said to Samuel, don't be impressed by his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. God does not view things the way men do.

People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart. And then down to verses 12 and 13. So Jesse brought David in. Now, he was ruddy, with attractive eyes And a handsome appearance. The Lord said, go and anoint him.

This is the one. So Samuel took the horn full of olive oil and anointed him in the presence of his brothers. And the spirit of the Lord rushed upon David from that day onward. Then Samuel got up and went to Rhema. I want to pray with you guys.

Lord, I just thank you that you send us through the crucible at times, that you send us through the refining process, the refiner's fire. That's painful at the time, but you forge out of us something beautiful and useful to you, useful to others on the journey. Lord, may we connect with you, recognizing your love, recognizing that you treat us as sons and daughters, and that no son and daughter escapes life without discipline. And that is through discipline that we are made into something beautiful, something useful. Lord, I pray for those that are here today, those that are online, those that might come in the next few days and watch this or listen to this online, whatever it might be.

However we're hearing this word right now from your scriptures, from. From my heart, that you've put on my heart. God, I just pray that people, as they hear this, as they. As they're watching, as they're participating here in this room, pray that you might draw us close to you, show us your will and show us your ways. In Christ's name, we ask.

Amen.

There was this guy. We heard a little bit about him last week, but some of you weren't here. I'm going to just briefly share it. There was this guy named Saul. He had been made to be the king of Israel.

He was their first king. And Israel before this, they hadn't had a king. They went through. When they came out of Egypt, Moses was leading them. And he had the role of kind of like a prophet and not exactly a priest, but he ministered before the Lord.

And he would be the intermediary that would take the words from God and. And pass them to the people. His brother Aaron was a Levite. He was a priest. And so Aaron and his sons were the priests of God that ministered at the altar of the Lord and took the sacrifices and burnt offerings and offered them to God.

Moses would speak between God and the people, and he would rule over them, not as a king, but as the one that was in charge. And as Moses did this, he raised up his successor, his disciple, his servant, named Joshua. Joshua. And we saw this, I think it was on October 12, a few weeks ago. Joshua had this moment where, as Moses has died, he's taking over leadership.

And one of the things that I didn't mention was that there was three times Joshua was told to be strong and courageous. Now, you don't have to tell a strong and courageous man to be strong and courageous, right? But somebody that's struggling in that area, you've got to encourage him. Three different people did. Moses did.

As he's ready to hand over the reigns to Joshua. God told him this. And the elders of the people told him this. Everybody's telling Joshua, man up, it's time to lead. Your time is now.

You have to lead these people. You've been training for this. Even Moses would take Joshua with him as he would go to the tent of meeting, and the presence of God would be there. That God would come down and meet with Moses, the Bible tells us. And he would speak to him face to face as a man speaks with his friend.

And Moses would stay there for a while, and he would hear from God. He would speak to God, and then Moses would go out and he would lead the people. But it says that Joshua would stay there with God. He stayed in the presence of God. Guys, I'm guilty of this.

I get too busy. I say, there's too much work to be done. There's too many things on the calendar, too many appointments to go meet with somebody, have a. Have a meal with somebody, whatever it might be. And sometimes I neglect.

So many times I neglect to just stay in the presence of God. I'm not alone in that, am I? And so Joshua, he was raised up in this. And now it's time for him to be strong and courageous, to go forth in the power that God has given him and to lead the people. And he leads them.

They go in this battle, although they don't have to raise a weapon to have victory. But they go in this battle. They surround the city of Jericho. They march around it, according to the word of God. The walls fall in.

They go in, they take and they capture the city. They put everyone to death. They take the stuff and they devote it to God. Except one man decides that he wants some of it for himself. He takes some of the plunder.

He takes a fancy robe, some gold, some silver, and he takes it and he buries it under his tent back at the camp. And as he does that, he incurs the wrath of God not just on him, but on the camp of Israel. Because Israel had taken part in his sin. This was allowed to happen in some way. And so they go into the next battle.

It's a small town. They send some men to check it Out. They say, this will be easy. We, we can capture this town with just a few thousand troops, no big deal. They go in there, and that town starts to kill the Israelites.

36 of their brethren die on the battlefield. And they're not ready for this. So they flee. They go home, and they say, what has happened? Joshua and the leaders, they get down, their face on the ground before God.

They get down on the ground before God and they say, what do we have to do? What is happening? Why are we losing men? Why didn't we win victory over this God? You told us we would have victory.

And God said to Joshua, are you ready for this? Not a shouting preacher, but I got to do it. I think this is how God said it. Get up. Israel has sinned.

Clean the sin out of the camp. And so they clean the sin out of the camp. They get it. They brought the men there. They had judgment on them.

They cast their stones on them as their vote of judgment against them. They stoned the men to death. They're burned. They're buried. There's a mound of stones over them.

We can move on from that now. But the problem is now Joshua, he leads him through all this years past. Joshua dies, and he did not raise up a leader himself like Moses had in Joshua. And so for years and years, they go through this period called the Judges, where Israel will sin. They'll leave God, they'll fall away, they'll forget to worship him, they'll worship other gods.

They'll turn to all these idols and they'll give their lives over to them, and they'll do all these things, and then they'll get taken, taken captive by someone else who will impose a tax or a tribute on them. Somebody that will take the blacksmiths out of the area. So they can't even make weapons out of metal. They totally incapacitate them. And all they have left is a little bit of ability to raise crops and animals and give tribute to this conquering nation that's nearby them.

And then the people, after sometimes 20, 30, or 40 years, will cry out to God and they'll say, God, enough. We're sorry. Come to our rescue. We'll turn back to you folks, I got to tell you, there's a turning back to God that's happening in our land these days. There's a turning back to God that's been happening all over the place.

I see it, I sense it, I feel it, I know it. And we're taking part in that. Share your faith boldly with others. So the people would return to God. He would raise up a leader, call a judge.

This judge would gather some troops together. They would fight to overtake the army that had invaded them, and they would have victory, and then they would live free for a number of decades. Folks, I got to tell you, our country does the same thing. Sure, we don't get overtaken by another land. We get overtaken from culture, within things that drive us away from God.

And they take apart everything that we've stood on. And we fall to that. We allow that to happen. We, the Christians, we the church, just stand back and say, okay, it is what it is. That's the world out there.

Let's just make sure to tighten up our doors a little bit. Make sure to keep all the evil out and just let good people in. Folks, the world never changes for the better when only the good people come to see God. We've got to go reach the lost. And so what, what happens with the judges is over and over and over again, this cycle goes on.

And God will raise somebody up and that somebody will take, take charge, and they'll. They'll lead a battle and they'll bring freedom to them, and they'll also return to the people to the worship of God Almighty. But then after a while, this man named Samuel, he becomes a prophet. He was actually born. His mom wasn't able to conceive and have children, but she was praying that she could.

And God answered that prayer. She said, God, if you give me a son, I'll turn him over to you. I don't even have to raise him. I just want to be able to have a son. So God gives her that.

She raises a son. When he's old enough to be turned over, she takes him to the house of the Lord. A man named Eli is the priest at the time. And Eli takes over raising Samuel and teaches him the ways of God. And he prepares him to be the next priest, the next guy.

But Samuel does even better than that. He leads the people so faithfully that he brings them into the spirit and presence of the Lord. He doesn't just carry out the responsibilities of the office of priest. He ministers before the Lord and with the people, and he brings them to God. So Samuel's been leading, but he's getting older, and they know his days are numbered.

And the people decide that his sons aren't doing very well. His sons won't take the role very responsibly after Samuel dies. They don't trust them to lead them before God. So they said, what we need is a king. Pastor Rob was here last week, or Brother Rob was here last week preaching to us.

And he shared that. What they ended up deciding they wanted was they wanted a really tall guy. Why? They're fighting giants. They have giants nearby them and the people of the Philistines and other areas, and they need a giant themselves.

And the closest they can come up with is this guy named Saul. So Saul's anointed to be king, and things start out pretty well for a while. But Saul's heart goes far away from God. He decides that he wants to take over the role of priest, and not only king, that he wants to be a priest as well. And he begins to offer the sacrifice.

And Samuel shows up and condemns that action. And he says, because you have done this and you have rejected God, God has rejected you as king. Because Saul had rejected God as the authority in Saul's life. God said, you can no longer be the king. Your family line won't continue.

You won't have a son on the throne as king over Israel. God says, I'm going to select somebody that's a man after my own heart.

Samuel finished the job that Saul refused to do. He was supposed to completely destroy a nation in battle. But instead, he let some of the people survive, spared the life of the king, and brought some of the animals back as plunder. And he lied and said that they were to be an offering to God, which still no matter what, if God has demanded something of you, you might say, well, you know what, that sounds great, God, but you know, I know you want this money of mine. You told me to give it in an offering.

But you know what? I could do so much better if I could just invest that. If I invest that, you know, that $100, that thousand dollars with a $10,000, whatever it might be, God, if. If I invest that, I can make such a return. And then in a few years, I can give so much more.

I know more than you, God. I can just do this right. What a foolish thing we do. Sometimes when God says, give it to me, he wants it. And Saul refused to do that.

And so Samuel finishes the job. He puts the king to death. He says, we don't need those animals for sacrifices before God. And Samuel finishes the job that Saul had refused to do. But then Samuel goes home and he begins mourning and weeping over King Saul.

I don't think we spend enough time doing that over our leaders that have fallen astray, do we? We just say, oh, well, in two years, in four years, in six years, we'll just vote for somebody else. Folks, that's not good enough. Every morning, if I'm awake early enough, I hear my wife praying for the salvation of some relatives, some friends and certain leaders all the way up to the president of our country. That they would know God, they would follow God, that they would worship him and serve Him.

She's been committed to that. I don't think enough of us are. I know I'm not. And so Samuel's on his face crying out to God for King Saul. And God finally says to Samuel, enough, enough weeping, enough crying about this.

I've decided what's going to happen. You're fighting me on it.

Some of you guys are mourning a loss in your life of some kind. It might be a person that's died. It might be a relationship that has just been totally trashed and that relationship is lost. Maybe it's a career or a job that you had. Maybe it's a status that you held in some way or another and some life circumstances changed that, or somebody stabbed you in the back or whatever it might be.

Maybe it was a home that you had, or a car that you had, or whatever it might be something that you held onto dearly, a possession and it was stolen or you had to sell it, or whatever. You're mourning the loss of something in your life and God is trying to speak to you and say, it's time to move, it's time to get up. God speaks to Samuel and he says, you've been crying about Saul. You've been aching, worrying, obsessing over this man, which is good and noble to do over our leaders. But Samuel, he was doing this after God had said to get up.

Some of you guys are still living that way over something that might have happened a long time ago. You're obsessing over. You've shut in yourself on. You've closed yourself off to everyone else. You're depressed or you're angry or you're somehow demotivated to move forward from this point because you haven't listened to God who's been telling you it's time to get up and it's time to be a person, a man or a woman of action.

You're in this certain circumstance because God, God told you what to do, but you didn't like it. You didn't like his answer, so you decided to stay here instead of moving on. And you're still stuck in that situation because of that.

Weeping and praying before the Lord is good. But if he tells you to move on. It's time to get going.

So Samuel got up and he obeyed God. Now, the verses that I didn't read that are in that passage and in the book that we were reading in 1st Samuel 16, what God tells Samuel to do is to go anoint the next guy to be king, which is a dangerous mission if somebody else is already king and the guy you're anointing isn't his son. If you're the priest of God, you're the man who is given the task of taking a little horn filled with olive oil and uncapping it and pouring it over the head, anointing someone with oil and saying, God, God has anointed you, called you to be the one that is the leader of this nation. See, the nation of Israel in our scriptures was to be the people that were led by God. And so if God had his king over them, it's kind of like his viceroy or vice regent.

It's God's man that is leading the people on earth. God is still supposed to be their king, but he has a human king that is leading them. And we don't expect this king to be perfect, but we do want them to follow God. And so Samuel, he's told by God to show up and anoint somebody to be king. And Samuel argues with God a little bit.

When was the last time you argued with God? Like, was it this week or a little longer ago? Anyone? You've argued with him more than you realize, probably. But anyway, I'll let it go.

So Samuel, he says, God, you don't understand. Have you ever told that to God? But God, you don't get it. I'm a human living here on this earth. You're wherever you are, and you don't know what it's like.

He's like, Jesus chimes in. He's like, I do remember when I was walking on earth as a human. I know everything, you know, I lived all the stuff you did. I just didn't sin, you know. Anyway, he keeps throwing that out there.

Like. So anyway, the Samuel, he's telling God, like, seriously, like, I'll get killed if I try to go anoint somebody to be king. And God says, well, worship me. I know you read the text and you didn't see that. He.

He says, bring a sacrifice. Bring an animal with you that we're going to offer up as a sacrifice. You're going to go to this town and you're going to say, I'm here to worship God. In fact, he shows up and the People see Samuel coming. Now, remember, he's like the religious leader of the nation.

And they look at him and they're like, is everything okay? Why are you here? He's like, relax. I'm having a sacrifice. It's all good.

And they're like, oh, okay. You know what that means, guys? Barbecue. That was my wife, wasn't it? You're a cheater.

She knew where my head was. Yeah. When you sacrifice a heifer, a cow, a bull, whatever it is, you don't just burn it up. You roast it. You serve it to the people that take part in the sacrifice.

It's a celebration of what God has done. When you bring this animal for a sacrifice, this wasn't one. That was the atonement for sin. That's a different thing. This is a fellowship sacrifice and offering.

You bring it to God, the thing is slaughtered. It's the freshest beef there. Is it? You throw it over the fire, rotisserie, it around, however they did it. And like, everybody, come on in.

I hope somebody made some bread. You know, like, we're gonna have steak is great. Brisket, fantastic. And so Samuel says, no, it's an offering day. We're gonna worship God.

How do we worship God? Barbecue. You never realize you worship God by barbecue. But it's legit. That's why all these guys are doing it.

They just set up a pagan shrine in their backyard. Cause they didn't realize they were supposed to be offering it to God. They. They're just offering it to their grill. You know, it's like, come on, guys.

Offer your barbecue to God. It's a celebration. I don't know how that fits in theologically, but whatever. Anyway, so they're worshiping God with barbecue, right? And so they have this here.

And Samuel says, well, we've got to have somebody's household. Like, somebody needs the grill, you know, like the pit to put the coals in and everything. He's like, where are you going? To Jesse's house. Now, Jesse's this guy that has eight sons.

And Samuel says, hey, let me see your sons. Now, Jesse doesn't understand the reason why yet. So he's like, here. Here's my first son. Like, he literally has him.

Like, they're on the Runway, you know, like the. Like, models with the clothing. He brings his first one out. I don't know if he came up the aisle. Like, hey, I don't know.

I have no idea how he did it. Okay. But anyway, he just comes walking up however they do. And Samuel's like, He's tall. He's like, no homo, but he's a good looking guy, you know, if you don't know what that means, don't worry about it.

Anyway, he's a good looking dude. And I say that as straight as I can. He looks good. Like, this looks like king material here, you know? And God says to Samuel, like they're having this whole conversation.

They're not speaking out loud. God's just talking to Samuel back and forth. And Samuel says, this must be the Lord's anointed. This is the king that God would want for us, right? And God says, no, not him.

What? What's wrong with him? Fine, you know what? You got another one. So he sends the next one out.

However he walks, he's like, maybe I got to change my step a little bit, you know? So he comes up the Runway a little different than his brother. He's like, I want to get picked. I don't know what for, but I want to get picked. And same deal.

He's like, not bad. Like, this guy's got good genes. Like, who's his wife? You know, like, they. They produce some good kids.

You ever seen people like that? Like, all their kids are just really good looking and successful. And you're like, what happened to my family? You know? Anyway, thanks, mom.

You know, thanks, dad. Anyway, and so here's these guys, you know, and all seven of the oldest sons come through. And Samuel says, God's given me a no on all of them. Do you have any more sons? He says, well, yeah, but I mean, he's the runt of the litter.

He's kind of short, I guess. He's decent looking. But like, we keep him with the sheep, you know, like. Like we don't really show him very much, you know what I'm saying? Like, he.

He's never been on a Runway before, you know, he's never been a model. So he says, we won't even sit down to eat. Like, no barbecue for you until this guy shows up. So somebody runs out and, like, they find where the sheep are. How do you find sheep?

You know, whether a shepherd. I mean, they just keep wandering around to find food. I guess you just follow the fresh droppings. And then you're like, there's the sheep, you know, like, here's the guy. And they bring David in, and Samuel pours the oil over his head and says, you're the next king of Israel.

Now, David was a man after God's own heart. God tells Samuel he looked at those first guys and he says, see, you're looking at their outward appearance. You're looking at how attractive they are, how king like they look. But your only idea of what a king looks like was Saul. They had one king and then the other nations around them, the pagans that worshiped idols, that sacrificed their kids in the fire to false gods, that gave up everything they had, that committed sexual immorality and promiscuity to somehow appease these gods or get them to work on their behalf.

And those people have kings, and those are the only kings that you know of. And God says, I choose my king differently. I'm not looking at his outward appearance. That didn't go so well with Saul. He was a tall, handsome disappointment of a man.

Like, you thought he was going to be your salvation, and he wasn't. He didn't save you from anything. In fact, he disobeyed me as often as he could, and I rejected him as king. So now the man that I'm choosing right now, this is a guy that's a man whose heart is patterned after my own heart.

So Samuel, as he went there, he had had two main objectives. The first one was to worship God, and the second was to anoint a king. I want to tell you that so many of us, we're good with barbecue, but we're not so good with worshiping God. Like, how much of your week, how much of your time do you set aside purposefully to spend time worshiping God? And before you go and try to tell me this.

This thing about I don't really worship is not a big thing in my life. Like, I don't really worship anything. Don't make me call you out on it. First of all, you can get your cell phone. I know iPhones have this.

I bet Androids do, too. You can go on there and look at your screen time and it'll tell you how much you've used. That thing, that idol in your pocket, this thing right here that tells you everything you ever needed to know and then some, you know, that keeps bothering you all the time. This little thing, we can look at that and it can tell us just how much worship time we've had on that little device. I can tell you that perhaps your television tells a story.

Maybe there's a certain show or series that you just have to watch every episode as soon as they come out. Maybe it's sports, maybe it's an activity you partake in that was meant to be something good and relaxing and getting just, you know, energy and activity. But you turn it into something that you devote your life to. Maybe it's just rest, sleep, quiet time, solitude, all things that can be good, all things that can be beneficial. But you turn that into like the one thing that you have your eyes set on.

You're at work all day and you're like, I can't wait till I get home, put my feet up and just tell everybody to leave me alone for like two hours. You're like, that's not going to happen, is it? Okay. And so that's my Sunday afternoons. By the way, I love you guys.

I love being with you. And as long as you guys are here, I'm here. Except for a couple times where I'm just like, will you people ever leave? Bye. I'm leaving.

Somebody else locked the doors and I just walked out, you know? But anyway, I wanted my nap so bad. And that's like, my goal is like, I don't even care so much about lunch anymore on Sunday. I just want to go to my La Z boy that I haven't sat in all week and kick that thing up. I'll put my AirPods in on noise canceling mode.

I'll play some music and I'll be like, family, leave me alone until I wake up. And then Emma invariably comes in and she's like, dad, how did I hear the whisper of her, you know, like all these loud trucks going past on 12th Street. I don't hear them, but I hear her whisper to me, okay, whatever. And so, but like I'm. I'm like idolizing that nap time on Sunday afternoons.

I'm looking forward to it. I'm not, like, I'm not looking forward to it right now, but give me about 10 minutes. When I'm done talking, like, if you see me like I'm talking to you in the lobby, but then I'm just kind of like glancing away. I might be thinking about my nap. I'm not promising that, but it's not out of the realm of possibilities, you know.

See, you do worship something. And you might say, well, I'm going to come to church and worship God there on Sunday. Oh, good for you. What if we get it wrong? What if.

What if I say something stupid to the first two minutes of the service and you're like, oh, I can't believe he said that. You should know me by now. You should know that I'm gonna say something stupid at least once a week. Once a Sunday. You know, like multiple times a week, but once a Sunday.

The songs, they might be songs that you Hate. I mean, seriously, like, there's a lot of songs where I'm like, oh, why are we doing this one? I hate this one. Like, I'll be honest. I'm a pastor.

I'm supposed to love all the songs. I don't think so. You know, like, how many of you guys like country music? A few. How many of you hate it?

Okay, almost as many. Tom just walked in, back in the door. But you ate country music, right? So much. He told me that earlier this week.

Like, oh, that hurt my heart a little. I used to hate country music with a passion. And then one night I was working on my car literally all night until about 4 in the morning. And yeah, I got tired of the rock station. It was literally playing the same songs every hour.

So at about 11pm I turned it to a country station because at least it would be unfamiliar to me. It'd be something different. And I was like, oh, this isn't that bad. And now I like it anyway, that it's like been since 2003, you know, I can pinpoint the moment that it happened. And so, yeah, you're going to come in on a Sunday morning intending to worship God and there might be some songs that are picked, and you're like, I hate those songs.

You might hate all the songs. I don't know. You might say, you know what? I was wanting to pray, but we only prayed for like a minute or two, and I wanted like 15 minutes of prayer time. I was really going through some stuff.

You might have come in intending to worship God, and you're like, man, Pastor Nick's going to. He's going to open up the word of God today. And then I asked a guest preacher to come. And it wasn't what you were used to. You know, who knows what it is?

You might come to church thinking, I'm going to worship today. And then something doesn't go right, and you're like, I don't feel like that was much of a worship service for me. I didn't spend much time worshiping God today, folks. I got to tell you, it's great if you plan to come to church to worship. In fact, you should start planning that on Saturday.

Maybe from the time you wake up on Saturday. I don't care how busy your Saturday schedule is. If you say, you know what, tomorrow I'm going to be in the presence of the people of God and of the spirit of God in the house of God. I'm getting ready for that right now. As I'm waking up on Saturday, as I'm making breakfast or going to breakfast or whatever it might be, I'm getting ready to worship God tomorrow.

That in and of itself is a mode of worship. The way that you carry yourself throughout the week and look forward to spending time with God throughout the day is the way that we worship. Samuel's primary goal when he went to the house of Jesse was to worship God. He went there to anoint a man to be the king, but he went there because it was a form of worship. So many of you, your lives, you worship the wrong things.

I know this because I do as well. And God's been checking me on that a lot lately. He's, you know, I'll lay my head on my pillow and I'll be like, hey, God. And he's like, oh, now you're gonna talk to me? Where were you all day?

I was here. I was waiting. You know, I'm like, ah. He's always sarcastic with me. And that's how I get, like.

I get it, you know? So they bring this guy David in. They bring him in from the wilderness. And the thing that amazes me about David is this. David was a shepherd.

It's not the top pick job, you know what I'm saying? Like, shepherds weren't very highly thought of. They smelled like they're sheep. They had to carry them sometimes they had to clean them up. Sheep are really dumb, by the way.

They'll like. They'll like, fall into, like, a hole in the ground. You got to pull them out and you turn your back and your back and you're like, come on back out again, you know? And it's. Whatever it is, they keep doing all kinds of crazy, dumb stuff, and you do all this stuff and you care for them, and you end up kind of smelling like him because you just around them so much, and everybody else in town is like, I don't want to be around the shepherds.

You know what I'm saying? Like, no, thanks. Isn't it interesting that the people that showed up at the birth of Jesus Christ, the first visitors were the shepherds, And Jesus is later called the good shepherd. Interesting. King David, who the family line of Jesus comes from.

David was a shepherd. He was known as a shepherd even as he was a king. He was still known as a shepherd because he never left that shepherding mentality or the heart of a shepherd behind. And Jesus, the eventual son of David down the family line, is known as our good shepherd. But David is there.

He's the. He's the Runt of the litter. He's the guy, he's the son that they didn't even bring to the, to the barbecue worship ceremony thing. He's the last one that they ever thought of. They just left him out there while everybody else is going to celebrate.

He's doing the most menial task that they have. And you know what he's spending his time doing in these years in the wilderness? Taking care of the sheep. Well, for one thing, he's practicing with a sling. The sling is like this thing has got like two leather straps and just kind of a little satchel in it.

And you put a rock in it and you swing it around and then you release one of the strings so that the whole thing opens up and you send the rock flying. Now, I'm not very good at like hitting a baseball when it's pitched at me. I'm a little better if it's on a tee. But anyway, sometimes I still hit the tee, you know what I'm saying? I honestly don't know.

I was swinging at a tee somewhere, is at a children's museum somewhere that we were at within the last couple years. And I'm like, this is embarrassing, you know. Anyway, so it's like in a little batting cage thing with like a screen that tells you how you did. And they're like, you're a really good 8 year old. I'm like, I'm a grown man.

Anyway, oh boy. It's a good thing that God called me to preach, not to play ball. You know what I'm saying? So anyway, so there we are. But, but David, he's.

He's. He's got to swing this thing. He's got to release it just at the right moment to send the stone in the right direction. And so he practices. Not on the sheet, but while he's taking care of the sheep.

He practices. He. He sets something up, you know, and launches stones at it. And he gets good. Not just good, but perfect.

He can hit the bullseye every time. But not only that, David is practicing not just for that, because the next thing he's going to do, if you turn to the next page in your Bible, he goes and he fights Goliath the giant. Remember, they had King Saul the giant that was supposed to be a giant slayer. And he fails at that. Now here's David, the run to the litter that's anointed to be king, but not yet becoming the king.

And he's like, he just shows up with some food and stuff for his brothers that are Supposed to be fighting, but instead they're just hanging out in their tents because they're scared of the giants. And he sees this guy coming up, and his problem isn't that this guy is saying, I'm stronger than you. He obviously is. His problem is that the giant defies the name of the God that David serves. And he says, what's this guy doing?

How long has he been doing this? They're like, oh, that's been going on for a few weeks. He's like, are you serious? Let me take care of it. Can I just take care of that problem right now?

They're like, are you serious? He's like, yeah. While I was tending the sheep, some wild animals came after them. They're like, oh, really? Like what?

He's like, how about a lion and a bear? I killed them with my bare hands. No pun intended. Like, seriously, bare hands. Anyway, okay, that just came to me.

And so it's like, seriously. He's like, this guy, this Philistine, this uncircumcised fellow that doesn't follow our God that's defying the living God. I'm not going to let that stand. If I'm killing a lion and a bear, this guy's no problem for me. He's like, here, I'll just get some stones out of the brook.

Now, why did he get them out of the brook? The waters run over them. They're smooth. They're aerodynamic. He's like, these are better than desert stones.

I can hit him real good with one of these. I've been practicing for this moment. See, David, he's there in the wilderness. He's there in this unwanted place, this place where he's like, I'd rather be somewhere else. But he doesn't look at it that way.

What does he do? He kind of mans up. He practices. And he doesn't know why, but when God puts him face to face with this evil giant, he's like, I can slay him. He slings that stone, hits the guy where he doesn't have any armor, right between the eyes.

And then. I love this part. You guys forget this. It wasn't in the kid's Bible storybook. He takes Goliath's own sword and cuts his head off with it and then carries it around as a trophy while he goes and kills other Philistines.

Okay? Then he shows up, back to King Saul, and he's like, hey, I got this guy here, and I don't know a whole bunch of others. You can DNA test the sword if you want. I don't know how many guys I killed. It was a lot, okay?

And they're like, whoa, who is this guy? He's like, he's a shepherd. And Saul doesn't even know that David is anointed to be the next king. But anyway, the whole time David's in the wilderness, he's doing that. But you know what else he's doing?

He's practicing. He's killing wild animals. He's taking care of the sheep. He's also worshiping God. David's writing Psalms, the book of Psalms that's in your Bible.

He wrote a bunch of them and. And he wrote so many of them as a shepherd. In between killing lions and bears and pulling sheep out of holes in the ground that they fell into and finding them green grass. You read Psalm 23. It's a shepherding psalm.

The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. He leads me to green pastures. He leads me to fresh water. He makes me lie down.

Makes me lie down. Yeah. Sometimes you're too stupid to take a rest. And he's like, no, it's time to rest. Just sit down.

You know, like, I'm telling you, sheep are stupid.

David didn't live a perfect life either. See, there was a lot of stuff David was known for.

There's a lot of stuff David was known for. Getting wrong, most obviously.

There was a day when he just decided to kind of take the passive role. Instead of being the man that God had raised him up to be. The warrior, the one with strength, the one with conviction. He decides to just send his army off. It's the springtime.

It's a time normally when kings go fight each other. Why? I don't know. Maybe. Maybe that's what they mean when they say toxic.

Toxic masculinity these days. Oh, sorry I even said the word. I apologize. But anyway, he goes. He doesn't go off to war.

He just sends the troops out. And then you know what he does? He looks out over his roof. My take on this is different than all the commentaries most preachers say, but I believe that David 100% knew what he was looking for. I think he knew.

It's like, he's home. There's nobody else home. All the men are gone fighting. And he knows there's going to be some women that are at home. He knows there's going to be some women that are a little bit lonely, and he's looking for him.

He's kind of. He's up on the roof of his little place. There, his palace. And he's like, looking out, and he's like, look at her. Hey, guys, who's that woman?

They're like, hey, that's the wife of Uriah the Hittite. Now, Uriah is one of David's mighty men of valor. He had like 30, 33 of them. And he's got all these strong men that are his warriors. I mean, these guys are awesome.

There's chapters in your Bible that tell about their strong exploits. And David's servants are like, yeah, you know, the wife of Uriah the Hittite, one of your awesome guys, like one of your best dudes. He says, well, bring her here. So she shows up, David sleeps with her, gets her pregnant, finds out she's pregnant, sends for Uriah, brings him home from the battlefield while he's been out doing, like, man stuff, fighting battles. And he's like, hey, why don't you go home, be with your wife, get drunk, have a good time.

Uriah's like, well, I won't do that, though. And he sleeps like a dog at the door of the palace. He does this for a couple nights. And David realizes he can't get him to go home to his wife. And to make it look as if he had gotten his wife pregnant.

So David sends this letter to him. He puts it. What a cowardly thing to do. He seals the letter, hands it to the man. It's his own death sentence.

And says, here, carry this to Joab, the commander of the army. And Joab reads it and like, okay, the king wants it done. I don't know what happened. I don't know what their falling out was, but this guy's dead. They put him on the front lines and then everybody retreats.

Except they forgot to tell him. Well, I mean, that was the plan. And he's like, hey, what? You know, and that's it. That's.

He's done. And David's like, oh, good, that's. That's fine. And we look at that story and we're like, how can that be a man after God's own heart? Here's the deal.

David was later confronted of his sin. You can read his response to that. I believe it's Psalm 51, where he responds to what happened. But when David is confronted of his sin, and that's not the only time, there's others. When he's confronted with his sin, he repents.

He goes back to following after God. And as he does that, as he puts his sin away, he repents of his sin before God. He begins following God wholeheartedly. Again, David was a man that was seeking to follow God. Even when he gets it wrong, his heart was still wanting to get back on that path of following God.

Truly, he's a good example for you and I today. Ultimately, he's a bad example in so many ways. And we remember some of those, not just that time. There was a time where he's ready to kill a whole bunch of guys because they disrespected him. I think he was a little bit hangry.

Like, he literally wanted food. And the guy's like, I'm not feeding you and your men. And he's like, I'll kill all of you by tomorrow. I mean, literally, he says that. And then the guy's wife hears about it and she's like, really smart.

Smart and probably a little good looking. And she goes up and she's like, hey, David, here's a bunch of food for you and your guys. I heard you might be hungry. And he's like, hey, yeah, you know what? I was gonna murder your husband and all of his men, but I guess I won't do that now.

Thanks. So if somebody's hungry, you never know. Murder might not be in their future, but it might. A sandwich doesn't hurt, you know. So anyway, so she takes care of them.

And then later the guy hears about it and here's what his wife had done. And he's still not happy with David and his heart. He has a heart attack and dies. And David's like a bummer about that, bummer about that guy, you know, that's too bad. Hey, do you want to be my new wife, Abigail?

And then I can take all your husband's wealth and I don't even have to ask anybody for it now. It's a pretty smart move on David's part at that point. David does some other things that he allows to happen in his life, though. He takes several wives God had never taken, told him to do that. He, of course, has the thing with Bathsheba and killing her husband.

And then there's this sad part where one of David's sons kind of takes a shine to one of his stepsisters or half sisters from another mother and decides he wants to get with her. And David kind of looks the other way while that happens, and he takes advantage of her and rapes her. And David doesn't do anything about it. So Absalom, the brother of that sister, decides to avenge it, and he kills the other son. And then David decides to get emotional about it.

David has These failures. There's another time where he decides that he's going to have a loss of faith in God. And he's going to decide to say, how many troops do I have? Go and take a census of the army. And they do that.

And the commander of the army says, please don't do this. He's not a good guy either. He's a terrible murderer. The commander of the army is. But he even recognizes this as a lack of faith on David's part.

David fails at that. A lot of people die because of it. And then David ends up repenting. Every time David does these things, he listened to God and he repented of his sin. Too many times when somebody talks to us about something we've done, they try to guide us.

Even a close friend tries to guide us back to God. We don't want to hear it, we don't want to listen to it. And we end up saying, you know what? You just keep that to yourself. Don't judge me.

Only God can judge me. And it's like he will judge you. And I'm trying to get to you before that day, like God has put it on my heart to care so much about you that I'm going to speak to you about your sin today.

David's this man after God's own heart. But ultimately Jesus from the line of David is the son of God who was both the good shepherd and the King of Kings. He lived a perfect life. And all the things that David got wrong, Jesus didn't. In all the ways that David was far from God at times, Christ both stayed close to God and left leads us to the heart of God.

So many times we like to just continue in our sin and wallow in it and struggle through it rather than realizing that in those moments when we're in that crucible that God is heating us up to clean off those impurities, to get rid of the sin in our lives, to perfect us into something useful for him.

Too many times we're just on our face. We're. We're crying out to God and he's saying, hello, I've already given you the answer. Now get up, repent of your sin. Worship me and do what I said.

If you're joining us online but you have never attended in person, let us know that you're watching by leaving a comment. And please give us a thumbs up on the video if there's any way we can pray for you or if you would like to know a little bit more about this church or a relationship with Jesus. Text us at 833-339-7926 and be sure to check out our website at cfnfamily.org thanks for watching and we pray that God blesses you this week.