SERMON STRUCTURE: Not An Obvious Choice!

1 Samuel 16:1-13

CIT (Central Idea of the Text): God chose the youngest and least experienced son of Jesse as King of Israel. (14 words)

SERMON FOCUS: God often chooses unlikely persons to serve Him.

MO: Consecrative

SO: Be confident that God has chosen you for a special task!

TITLE: Not An Obvious Choice!

Then … the completed sermon should be evaluated in terms of how well it adheres to the CIT and SF, and accomplishes its SO.

INVOCATION

OUTLINE OF 1 Samuel 16:1-13

1. God’s instructions to Samuel (16:1).

“Fill your horn with oil and set out, I will send you to Jesse the Bethlehemite, for I have provided for myself a king among his sons.” (16:1)

2. Samuel’s objection (16:2-3).

“Samuel said, ‘How can I go? If Saul hears of it, he will kill me.’”

“And the Lord said, ‘Take a heifer with you, and say, “I have come to sacrifice to the Lord.” ’ ” (16:2)

3. Samuel’s obedience (16:4-5).

“Samuel did what the Lord commanded, and came to Bethlehem.” (16:4).

4. God directs Samuel’s choice of a king from among Jesse’s sons (16:6-12).

“But the Lord said to Samuel, ‘Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him; for the Lord does not see as mortals see; they look on the outward appearance, but he Lord looks on the heart.” (16:7).

5. God declares His choice (16:12).

“… The Lord said, ‘Arise and anoint him, for this is the one.’” (16:12).

6. God gives the Holy Spirit to David (16:13).

“… and the spirit of the Lord came mightily upon David from that day forward.” (16:13).

SERMON DEVELOPMENT

Not An Obvious Choice!

1 Samuel 16:1-13

Introduction

1. Well, you can’t judge a book by its cover — or so the old adage goes.

1. And most of us would give assent to that — at least in principle.

2. But the fact is, we do judge people — especially by their appearance.

   1. It has not been that long ago in our history that where you could eat, or go to the movies, or swim, or sit on the bus, was determined by the color of your skin.

   2. Some of that blatant discrimination is behind us, but I think this nation still has a long way to go before full equality under the law is a reality.

   3. In these days, it is people of Hispanic or Arab descent who are more likely to provoke our suspicions, although almost always without any real cause.

2. Even large corporations — and even national governments — are sometimes deceived by outward appearances.

1. In the New York Times (a few years ago), Barnaby J. Feder reported that in 1994 The Quaker Oats Company, which had posted strong financial earnings for several years, purchased the Snapple beverage business. Although in 1994 Snapple had been the leader in single-serve beverages like fruit drinks and iced teas, the purchase turned out to be a disaster for Quaker Oats and for numerous executives in the company.

   1. In late 1994 Quaker paid $1.7 billion to buy Snapple. A few years later they found that they could sell the company for only $300 million — a loss of $1.4 billion! In the first quarter of 1997 Quaker announced an overall loss of $1.1 billion owing to its sale of Snapple.

   2. In April 1977 the chairman and chief executive of Quaker, who had promoted the purchase of Snapple, resigned.¹

2. And the history of this nation, as well as many other nations, is filled with examples of misunderstandings and blunders that arose from failure to perceive — or to acknowledge — international circumstances for what they really were.

Scripture

1. Today’s Scripture is a story about God’s choice of someone to be Israel’s new king.

2. This story is appropriate for the season of Lent, because it points out that God finds possibilities for grace in the most unexpected places and through the most unexpected persons.

3. It is a story that you all know: the selection of David to replace Saul as king.

4. Our Scripture comes from 1 Samuel 16:1-13. I am reading from the New Revised Standard Version.

[Read here 1 Samuel 16:1-33 (NRSV).]

5. These verses describe how God chose the youngest and least experienced son of Jesse as King of Israel.

6. What is plain from this account is that David was Not An Obvious Choice to be the next king.

7. But what I’d like for us to focus on today is that God often chooses unlikely persons to serve Him.

Exposition

1. Our story is told in a very straightforward fashion:

1. God instructed Samuel to go to Bethlehem and anoint for Him a person that God had already chosen as the next king of Israel (16:10).

2. Saul objected to these instructions because he was afraid of Saul’s anger (16:2).

3. But God gave Samuel a convenient excuse to go to Bethlehem — he was to take with him a heifer and sacrifice it there.

4. The townspeople of Bethlehem were perhaps understandably disturbed to see the prophet coming to town — because then, as now, bigwigs don’t usually come to town unless they want something!

5. Without telling Jesse exactly what he had come for, Samuel asks Jesse to present his sons one by one.

6. And one by one, God tells Samuel that none of Jesse’s sons are God’s choice to become king.

7. Finally, Jesse indicates he has one more son, the youngest, who is out tending the sheep — because apparently all the rest of the family are with Jesse and Samuel!

8. When Jesse’s youngest son, who is named David, is brought in, God says to Samuel, “…‘Arise and anoint him, for this is the one.’” (16:12).

2. This story is a powerful account of the unlikely vessels of God’s grace. God’s choice for a new king is by all reckoning Not An Obvious Choice (TITLE) —a young boy, a shepherd, the eighth and last son from a family of no obvious distinction, a family from the smallest tribe in the nation. ²

3. One of the most basic themes of the entire biblical message is that God finds possibilities for grace in the most unexpected places and through the most unexpected persons. To choose the youngest son, who labors as a shepherd, to be Israel’s future king is to go completely against the usual arrangements for power and influence in the ancient world.

4. David’s family tree was not especially distinguished. Jesse’s grandmother was Ruth, an immigrant Moabite woman (Ruth 4:17), who would have been excluded from citizenship. Jesse’s grandfather was Boaz, whose ancestors included Tamar, a woman who was almost executed for adultery. In order to have a child of her own, she dressed herself as a temple prostitute and seduced her own father-in-law. You can read that story in Genesis 38. Another of Jesse’s ancestors was the Canaanite prostitute Rahab from Jericho; you can read about the protection she gave to the Israelite scouting party in Joshua 2.

5. And David himself was not an ideal leader.

1. You remember David’s adulterous affair with Uriah’s wife Bathsheeba. (2 Samuel 11).

2. And you remember that the child born as a result of that affair died. (2 Samuel 12:15-23).

3. You may also remember that David failed to discipline is son Amnon for raping his sister Tamar. (2 Samuel 13).

4. As a result of that problem, David’s son Absalom murdered his brother Amnon and was subsequently banished from David’s presence — but only for a little while. (2 Samuel 14).

5. And eventually, Absalom rose in open rebellion against his father, and was eventually killed by David’s men. (2 Samuel 15 and 18).

6. So if you think the soap operas “As The World Turns” and “The Young And The Restless” are bad, you should read the Old Testament! It is full of stories of very real people with very real problems, and some of those folks turned out OK, but some of them did not.

7. And this unlikely journey of grace through David’s ancestry leads eventually to Jesus, born in a stable, seemingly the illegitimate son of young Hebrew girl, a child who grew up as a carpenter’s son, and who was eventually put to death as a convicted criminal.

8. And all of this in the name of the grace of God!

Reflections and Conclusions

1. But truly does the Scripture say, “…the Lord does not see as mortals see; they look on the outward appearance, but he Lord looks on the heart.” (16:7).

2. David was certainly Not An Obvious Choice (TITLE) to become Israel’s new king.

3. And we often feel that we are Not An Obvious Choice (TITLE) for an opportunity that someone places before us.

4. To say that “…the Lord does not see as mortals see; they look on the outward appearance, but he Lord looks on the heart” (16:7) has two important implications for us.

1. First, in a culture that is so concerned with appearances, as Christians, and as a Church, we must be careful to try to see others in the way that God sees them — to look into their hearts, to see them as very real human beings with very real needs.

   1. A hymn that we sometimes sing says God “looked beyond my faults and saw my needs.”

   2. And truly that is the way in which God has dealt with me.

   3. And so truly that must be the way in which I need to relate to others.

2. But it is also important to turn this truth inside-out, as it were: what God sees in me is more important than what others see in me.

   1. And the problem with that is that too often we see ourselves as we think others see us, rather than as God sees us.

   2. And sometimes we turn down, or turn away from, opportunities to serve God in new and unexpected ways because of the way we see ourselves rather than the way that God sees us.

3. God saw the heart of David — a young heart, perhaps in some ways a boyish heart, and an imperfect heart, but nevertheless, a ready heart.

5. And our Scripture passage today tells us that when David gave his heart to obey God, “the Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon David from that day forward.” (16:13).

1. God saw David’s heart.

2. And when David gave his heart to follow God, God poured out God’s spirit upon David.

6. What does God see in your heart today?

1. Is it a willingness to serve God in whatever role He offers to you?

2. Or is it a heart of fear for what others may think, a heart based only on outward appearances?

3. Are you telling yourself that you are Not An Obvious Choice as God’s servant?

7. God has something God is calling each one of us to do today.

8. Can you be confident that God sees your heart and wants to give you His spirit today to follow?

9. Be confident today that God has chosen you for a special task!