 today. First Samuel chapter 10 beginning at verse 1. Then Samuel took a flask of oil and poured it on his head and kissed him and said, Is it not because the Lord has anointed you commander over his inheritance? When you have departed from me today you will find two men by Rachel's tomb in the territory of Benjamin and Zalzah. They will say to you the donkeys which you went to look for have been found. And now your father has seized caring about the donkeys and is worrying about you, saying what shall I do about my son? Then you shall go on forward from there and come to the terribent tree of Tabor. There three men going up to God at Bethel will meet you, one carrying three young goats, another carrying three loaves of bread, and another carrying a skin of wine. And they will greet you and give you two loaves of bread which you shall receive from their hands. After that you shall come to the hill of God where the Philistine garrison is and it will happen when you have come there to the city that you will meet a group of prophets coming down from the high place with a stringed instrument, a tambourine, a flute, and a harp before them and they will be prophesying. Then the Spirit of the Lord will come upon you and you will prophesy with them and be turned into another man and let it be when these signs come to you that you do as the occasion demands for God is with you. You shall go down before me to Gilgall and surely I will come down to you to offer burnt offerings and make sacrifices of peace offerings. Seven days you shall wait till I come to you and show you what you should do. So it was when he had turned his back to go from Samuel that God gave him another heart and all those signs came to pass that day. When they came there to the hill there was a group of prophets to meet him. Then the Spirit of God came upon him and he prophesied and it happened when all who knew him formally saw that he indeed prophesied among the prophets that the people said to one another, what is this that has come upon the son of Kish? Is Saul also among the prophets? Then a man from there answered and said, but who is their father? Therefore it became a proverb. Is Saul also among the prophets? And when he had finished prophesying he went to the high place. Then Saul's uncle said to him and his servant, where did you go? So he said to look for the donkeys. When we saw that they were nowhere to be found we went to Samuel. Saul's uncle said, tell me please what Samuel said to you. So Saul said to his uncle, he told us plainly that the donkeys had been found but about the matter of the kingdom he did not tell him what Samuel had said. Now we need to get a little background here. I need to remind you of some things by way of a review. We know that Samuel is the last judge over the nation of Israel. We know that he has now grown old. Commentators approximate his age at this time to be somewhere around 60. So he's been leading the nation for quite some time and his time of leading the nation has come to an end. Naturally he would begin to think that the choice of those who would follow after him would be his own two sons. He had two sons. One's name was Joel. The other was Abiyah. But the Bible tells us that they did not walk in his ways and they did not honor God. The scripture says that they turned aside after dishonest gain. They took bribes. They perverted justice and in that kind of lifestyle it provoked the elders of Israel. And so the elders of Israel had approached Samuel and they had said to him, we reject your sons and we desire for you to anoint us a king. Now when that happened as we saw earlier, Samuel was greatly displeased with a request and he was hurt by their rejection. So what's he do? Well, he takes a request to God and God says, listen, I need to give you some heavenly perspective. They are not rejecting you. They are rejecting me. Their motives were disclosed in chapter 8 verse 20 when they said, we want a king that we might be like all the nations. And so the Lord tells Samuel, listen to the people. Samuel sends them to a king's home. Now, God said, listen, they're going to have their king, but forewarn them of what this king is going to do. And so in chapter 8, that's exactly what we saw take place. We saw that he let them know what the king would do. The king is going to dominate you. And even as he said that, in chapter 8 verse 19, nevertheless the people refused to obey the voice of Samuel. They said, no, we will have a king over us. And so enter Saul. Saul is a man by the son of a man by the name of Kish. He was from a tribe called the tribe of Benjamin. And as we looked at that last time we were together, we had seen that he would be the winner of the People's Choice Award because he had everything going for him. This was a man who was wealthy. This is a man who's influential. This is a man who has choice, meaning he's relatively young. This is a man who was handsome. And this is a man who was tall. He had the entire package going for him. I tried to point out, though, that not a single one of these qualities were the result of anything that he had done. He has no character, and you're going to see that. It was all outer appearance, and yet the combination of these qualities are exactly what people use to determine whom they like. You see, one of the things that I want to emphasize in my introduction, and it was the purpose of using that video, today, is I want to emphasize the fact that God doesn't use the same standards of judgment that the world uses. God doesn't do that. God doesn't look at the outer package, if you will. God looks deeper than that. Man has a tendency of looking only on the surface. We know that eventually as we get to chapter 16, we're going to see that Saul is going to be rejected, and Samuel is going to be commanded to anoint the next king. And so as he is there, ready to anoint the next king over Israel, who's going to replace King Saul, we know that David has brothers who come and stand before Samuel. The first brother is the oldest, and he's handsome in everything, and as Samuel is looking at him, Samuel says within himself, surely the Lord's anointed stands before me. But God immediately corrects him. It's found in chapter 16, verse 7, when God says, do not look at his appearance or his physical stature, because I've refused him. For the Lord does not see as man sees. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart. You see, we have to be careful that we don't use outward appearances as our standard of declaring who is right with God, who is serving God, who looks best before God, simply by outward standards. If we used outward standards, then we could be probably pretty much in that group that thought the Pharisees were righteous during the time of Christ. Because during the time of Christ, Jesus even went so far as to use Pharisees as an example of an outward standard of righteousness. In chapter 5 in verse 20 in the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus said, unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven. You see, Jesus used them as an outward standard. So he could point to them, because during that time, there were only three basic observable things that you would use to say this is a righteous person. One of those things would be that they were generous in their giving. A second thing is that they were praying frequently and habitually. And a third thing would be that they fasted. But Jesus, when he was speaking concerning these kinds of things as it related to hypocrisy, used the Pharisees as a great example. And he said, all of these things they do, but to be seen by men. And so outward standards is not the way that we should be making judgments on whether or not somebody has a right relationship with God. Because if we begin to run around looking at people and scrutinizing them in that fashion, we're going to be wonderful Pharisees ourselves. Because we're looking to see an outward kind of attribute that causes us to believe that they must have a right relationship with God. And then we begin to make petty judgments on people and unfairly make declarations that they can't possibly have a relationship with God because they haven't met my criteria or my standard. And that happens all the time. It happens in the church. It happens all the time. When I first got saved, I had the long hair. I had the granny glasses. I had the sideburns. I was barefooted. I only wore ripped up Levi's. I had the tie dye. I mean, this was back in 1970. When I got saved, if you'd have placed me next to somebody in college or somebody in even a cult who had that nice clean cut look and they wore the suits and the ties and all of that. And you would have said, which one of these two is a follower of Jesus Christ? I guarantee you, based on outward standards, I would have failed the test. I guarantee you that I wouldn't have made it. If you'd have been looking at me with the eyes of those back in that time, you would have definitely said a true Christian has a crew cut. Jesus must have worn a crew cut himself for real short hair. And this guy here is barefooted. He's got long hair. He's got those glasses on and he's obviously a hippie. There's no way this guy could have a relationship with God. That's the outward standard. And another thing I've discovered about those kinds of things is when God begins to work in somebody's life, he plants the seed, but it takes time. It takes time to be watered. It takes time for it to germinate. It takes time for it to begin to produce fruit. It does not necessarily happen overnight. Somebody can answer an invitation, but they don't become Billy Graham the next day. It takes time for them to grow. It takes time for them to mature. You go outside and you plant a seed that's going to be one day an apple or an orange tree. I guarantee you, you don't go out the next day with a basket expecting to pick some fruit off of it. It doesn't happen that way. What happens is it goes to a natural process where it matures and begins to produce fruit. And sometimes the fruit can be, it may take some time. And that's why we have to be very careful that we don't just look at people's outward appearance and say, this person is good. This person isn't. This person is talented. This person isn't. I think that's a great illustration through that video that we just saw a moment ago, where this person walks out by all outward appearances, doesn't have anything going for her, then she opens her mouth and everybody discovers that what's inside comes out as she sings. And they're standing at the end saying, I was wrong in my judgment. That happens all the time and it can happen in the spiritual realm. When we begin to use outward standards, like they used with Saul. He's young. He's handsome. He's tall. He comes from a wealthy and influential background. He undoubtedly would make a great king. We're making the mistake of not seeing the heart. God sees the heart. Man only sees the outer appearances. In Jeremiah, in chapter 9, verses 23 and 24, the Lord says, wise people should not boast that they are wise. Powerful people should not boast that they are powerful. Rich people should not boast that they are rich. If people want to boast, they should boast about this. They should boast that they understand and know me. They should boast that they know and understand that I, the Lord, act out of faithfulness, fairness, and justice in the earth. And that I desire people to do these things, says the Lord. Wisdom, power, and riches. The three attributes of those that we would probably pursue, maybe even elect into a position of authority, based on those things, very often are just human standards and not God's standards at all. What God looks for is the heart. He looks for the character of the individual. And so, in this particular case, we have an anointing of a man by the name of Saul, a man who is head and shoulders above everybody in the nation of Israel. A man that the people are going to clamor for, that they say, yes, this indeed should be our king. And that's what we're looking at here in chapter 10 of 1 Samuel. No, notice verse 1. That was your introduction. In verse 1, Samuel took a flask of oil and poured it on his head and kissed him and said, is it not because the Lord has anointed you commander over his inheritance? Samuel has come into contact with Saul. God had spoken to him and said, you're going to have a young man from the tribe of Benjamin approach you, instruct him and anoint him. And this is what's taking place. He's anointing him. Notice how it says he took a flask of oil and poured it on his head and kissed him. So what you see here is an act of affection, but you also see an act of what is called anointing. In the Old Testament, prophet, priest, and king are all anointed by oil. It's a symbol of the Holy Spirit. It's a picture of God bestowing his gifts and power on that person who's being anointed. A prophet would be anointed because no man can foretell future events unless inspired by the Spirit of God. Therefore, he'd be anointed to signify the communication of the Holy Spirit and the wisdom and knowledge that comes from God. A priest would be anointed that they might offer acceptable sacrifice to God, that they might minister in power and in grace, and a king was anointed because he was to rule righteously and could not without God's power. And that's why Samuel anointed Saul to indicate his need for God as he ruled. And so as he is anointing him and showing affection to him that he's going to be the commander, he gives to him three signs. The first one in verse two, when you've departed from me today, you will find two men by Rachel's tomb in the territory of Benjamin and Zalzah. And they will say to you, the donkeys which you went to look for have been found. And now your father has seized carrying out the donkeys and is worried about you, saying, what shall I do about my son? And so just northwest of Bethlehem, you're going to find the donkeys that were lost. This is intended to confirm the accuracy of Samuel. So from the very beginning he's going to be accurate. Secondly, he says in verses three and four, you shall go forward from there, come to the terribent tree of Tabor. There three men going up to God at Bethel will meet you, one carrying three young goats, another carrying three loaves of bread, another carrying a skin of wine. They will greet you, give you two loaves of bread which you shall receive from their hands. And so the second sign is occurring near Rachel's tomb and you're going to encounter men going to worship. They're bringing offerings to the Lord, but they're going to give you gifts that had been designated for God because in giving you those gifts, they're going to show you the respect that you're going to have as the king. And then he goes on with the third in verses five and six, after that you shall come to the hill of God where the Philistine garrison is. It will happen when you have come there to the city that you will meet a group of prophets coming down from the high place with a stringed instrument, a tambourine, a flute, and a harp before them. They will be prophesied. Then the spirit of the Lord will come upon you. You will prophesy with them and be turned into another man. This is the third sign that you're going to have. So a few miles northwest of Jerusalem, just outside of Jericho, you're going to encounter a group of prophets. These are prophets who are trained by Samuel. And these are going to be those who are praising God, they're singing, they're instructing the people as they walk. And this is going to happen in this area. Now I want you to see when it says here, you shall come to the hill of God, the hill of God where the Philistine garrison is. Let me make this a practical application for us. You're going to go to the place where your oppressors live. And there, where oppression occurs, God is going to empower you, God is going to strengthen you. He's going to move upon you. The spirit of God is going to enable you to speak as the prophets who are speaking. At your place of oppression, God is going to meet you. At your place where your enemies dwell, God is going to meet you. At a place where those who are pressing your people are, God is going to empower you. So how does that work for us? If we were to say, Lord, do you have anything that you'd want to give me? What can I learn from this? Well, one of the things I learned is that at the point where I have met with those who might be against the things of the Lord, God has a way of strengthening me at that time, wherever it may be. It may be in the home where nobody wants to hear about the Lord Jesus Christ and they're actually upset that you came to Christ and you have faith in Him. It may be in your neighborhood where people on your block really don't like the fact that you love the Lord. Maybe you've shared with them and they've been offended and they have a problem with the fact that you go to church and all and maybe you've shared with them and they just don't like it. I remember somebody in our church a few years ago who approached me and said, after a service, can you pray for me, pastor? I'm having problems with one of my neighbors. And I said, of course. And they said, you know what he's doing? He's got a big dog and he's been picking up after the dog and throwing what he's picking up over the fence into my backyard. He does that all the time and he's doing it because I shared with him the gospel and he didn't like hearing those things. People sometimes get really upset and they do the weirdest things and that's a place of oppression. That's a place where people are getting in your face for that. It could be in your home. It could be in your neighborhood. It could be on the job site where people have discovered that you follow the Lord and then they oppress. They mock you. They ridicule you. They try to make you look stupid in front of other people. It could be in class. It could be in your school class in college or in high school where people mock you and make fun of you because you're a believer in following the Lord Jesus Christ. The bottom line is when that happens that I need to look for the Lord to empower me. And God met him there in that special place. He said, you're going to be at the hill of the Pharisee where the rather the flistings are. A place where your oppressors have been oppressing you is where I'm going to meet you and I'm going to strengthen you. And you're going to see that I can do this. Notice what it says in verse 6. It says, you will be turned into another man. Now what's interesting, I hasten to say this so I'm going to develop this with you a little bit further. As I want you to notice, he says in verse 6, you'll be turned into another man. He didn't say you will be turned into a new man. He said, you're going to be turned into another man. You're going to begin to speak like a prophet. You're going to be acting differently. But speaking and acting differently temporarily doesn't mean that Saul is actually a genuine believer in the God of Israel. You're going to see later on that he's not. What he's going to be is somebody who on the outer appearance will give the impression. That's why people said is Saul among the prophets. Because there was such an outward transformation. There's such an outward thing by those who knew him best that they're going to begin to question and ask, is that true? You see when it says in verse 5, you shall come to the hill of God where the Philistine garrison is and it will happen when you have come there to the city that you will meet a group of prophets. That's basically a city that he was well known in. So these are people who know him and they're going to begin questioning has he come into a different relationship with the God of Israel. Just because somebody has the outer appearance doesn't mean it is genuinely happened. Because in his case he never comes to a saving knowledge of God. Even when it says in verse 9 that God gave him another heart. That speaks about the fact that he's going to be governing as a king, not that he's been born again. I got saved at the age of 20. I already mentioned I had the long hair, the granny glasses, bare feet, tie dyed, leave eyes. The age of 20. One of my friends, his name is Bill, was one of my if not my closest friend throughout elementary school junior high and into high school. Bill and I hung around constantly. He lived right across the street from me. I would take him to church when I was a little boy. On occasion I took him to church and he had no interest. But when he was around 19 he started going to a church called Calvary Chapel in Costa Mesa back in 1970. And as he was going there he began to invite me to come to that church. We would argue I'd say listen Bill I'm the one who used to take you to church and now you're trying to take me to church. I don't want to go to your church. And we would argue. It was Bill who insisted that I go with him to church. So the very first time in 1970, during the summer of 1970 when I was still 19 years of age, for the very first time I go to church with him. That's when I smoked some pot. That's when I drank some beer. That's when I went into the church service barefooted expecting to be kicked out. And that's when I discovered the grace and mercy of God was in that place. So I didn't get saved. I was impressed that these people had something that I didn't have. So a few months later once again he invites me to go with him to a service. It was in the Hollywood Palladium 1970, December of 1970. And he asked me to go with him. I don't want to go. I drove to his house and I pulled into his driveway and his Volkswagen van was pulled up behind my car. I go into the house and I say to him, I'm not going to go with you but I'll go with you some other time. And so as they're about to leave to this concert, a Christian concert, I remember starting my engine, looking in the rearview mirror and seeing several heads. There was a van full of young people. I saw the heads disappear. They came back up. Bill opens his driver side door, comes, knocks on my window. My car is on. I'm ready to pull out. I'm waiting for him just to pull out so I can leave. He hits my window. I roll it down. He says to me, we prayed, God said you have to go so turn your engine off. You're coming with us. True story. And so I roll the window back up, turn the engine off. I figure if God says I got to go, I better go. And I went with them. I don't even, you know, it was the Holy Spirit. We went. I listened to the message. I listened to the things that were being said. The Holy Spirit moved on me. I got saved December 27, 1970. From that day on until I went into the military for the next three months, it was almost every day, if not every day at Bill's house. We were in Bible studies. We'd go to Bible studies together. We would go to revivals together. After the church services that we had there at Calvary Co. Samesa, we would go back to their house and we would pray at Bill's house. We would sit there holding hands with one another. We would pray, we'd read the Bible. We discussed the things that we'd just been taught. And we did that every day for three months. Now I go into the military. I had been drafted, so I just selected the date that I was going to go in. We went into the military, March 15, 1971. Bill tells me, take a Bible, take some reading material that's Christian because we're going in and we don't want to walk away from God. So I bring my Bible, I bring a couple of books that I can read, and we go through basic training together. Well, in basic training there at Fort Ord, we led two people to Christ. One of them continued in his faith to the point where his wife gave a message to my mom to tell me that he's doing well in the Lord. His name is Larry. And so he continued on with the Lord. I don't know how what happened to the other one, but Bill and I were used by the Lord to bring these two guys to Christ. And so Bill went off to Germany. I went off to North Carolina. We stopped seeing each other, didn't have any communication. Then I sporadically would see him over the years after that. Then one day Bill calls me up. We connect again. He said, I've heard you on the radio. And I said, really? He said, yeah. He says, I listen to you. Bill had become a police officer serving with the Los Angeles Police Department. He rose to the rank of Lieutenant. He recently has resigned, not so much resigned. He retired from his position and is doing something else. But Bill rose up in the ranks, became one who trained new recruits in various things. He had a lot of responsibility. And he and I were in a wedding with one of our friends from high school a few years ago now. And Bill and I are talking and he says to me, you know, Dave, I've heard you on the radio mention my name and bring up things about us. He says, I want you to know I don't remember any of that. Not a thing. Is it possible? Is it possible to speak the truth? Is it possible to encourage somebody to get right with God to the point where he passes this church, me? Is it possible to disciple somebody for three months to encourage that person to bring your Bible and bring your books because we don't want a backslide? Is it possible for someone to be used by God to bring two people in Fort Ord to come to a saving faith of Christ and to not know Jesus yourself? Absolutely. Absolutely. There are numbers of people who can speak forth even through the influence that God may give them at that moment who do not have a relationship with God. Saul is a great example because he had every outward attribute going for him. That would make him the kind of leader people wanted even to the point where God had formalized that through signs saying it's going to begin this way, you're going to see these three things take place and I'm going to make you into a man who is capable of being a king to the point that when I move on you, you're even going to prophesy and they're going to wonder whether you're one of the prophets of Israel. Remember with me that in the Old Testament the Holy Spirit would be placed on somebody for a purpose but removed. Samson, a judge of Israel had the Holy Spirit removed from him and didn't even know the Spirit had departed. David said, take not thy Holy Spirit from me because in the Old Testament the Holy Spirit would be used to anoint God's Holy Spirit would anoint people but may be withdrawn. In the New Testament we are sealed by the Spirit of God until the day of redemption and so you have a different way the Spirit works in the Old than you have in the New. Saul was anointed for a purpose but Saul never was committed to God. You're going to see that in the life of Saul. His heart was not like David's at all. This is a man who didn't have a genuine relationship with God. He didn't have that and it's going to be shown. It's interesting and I want you to see this. Two things, verse seven and eight. Notice with me, he says, let it be when these signs come to you that you do as the occasion demands for God is with you. You shall go down before me to Gilgall. Surely I will come down to you to offer burnt offerings and make sacrifices of peace offerings. Seven days you shall wait till I come to you and show you what you should do. As the occasion demands wait for me seven days. You're going to see what takes place when the occasion made a demand on this man and he acted out of the impulse of his unregenerate heart because God doesn't tempt us with evil but he allows us to be in a position that will ultimately reveal what is really on the inside. I can look great on the outside and I can be like a Pharisee. I can pray and I can fast and I can give. I can serve. I can do all of those things but when the occasion occurs that really demonstrates what's inside that's what I'm going to demonstrate where my genuine faith actually is because under those conditions when I have the opportunity to make decisions to either honor or reject God to obey or disobey that's when my real spiritual life is demonstrated. It's as the occasion demands and for him the occasion was going to demand a certain thing but what in reality it is and you'll see this it was an act of disobedience because he had a simple thing wait for me seven days and then you'll see what God wants to do. Well it says in verses 10 through 16 that he now has a great opportunity by the Spirit to be used by God. All those people knew Saul well and they're amazed at what they're seeing and so as they see this they even begin to say is this man amongst the prophets I mean it's such an incredible transformation that they begin to think that maybe he is a prophet. Well according to verse 16 after his uncle is speaking to him he says to his uncle well he told us plainly that the donkeys had been found but about the matter of the kingdom he did not tell him what Samuel had said. He didn't want to tell him what had happened because I think that he found it unbelievable and therefore didn't speak. Verse 17 Samuel called the people together to the Lord at Mitzvah and said to the children of Israel thus says the Lord God of Israel I brought up Israel out of Egypt delivered you from the hand of the Egyptians from the hand of all kingdoms and from those who oppressed you but you have today rejected your God who himself saved you from all your adversities and your tribulations and you have said to him no said a king over us now therefore present yourselves before the Lord by your tribes by your clans when Samuel had caused all the tribes of Israel to come near the tribe of Benjamin was chosen when he had caused the tribe of Benjamin to come near by their families the family of Matri was chosen and Saul the son of Kish was chosen but when they saw him he could not be found therefore they inquired of the Lord further has the man come here yet the Lord answered there he is hidden among the equipment so they ran and brought him from there and when he stood among the people he was taller than any other people from his shoulders upward and Samuel said to all the people do you see him whom the Lord has chosen that there is no one like him among all the people so all the people shouted and said long live the king then Samuel explained to the people the behavior of royalty and wrote it in a book and laid it up before the Lord Samuel sent all the people away every man to his house Saul also went home to Gibya and valiant men went with him whose hearts God had touched but some rebels said how can this man save us so they despised him and brought him no presence but he held his peace so he takes them and he says Samuel says you rejected your God you have rejected your God I told you what he's going to do but you said we will have a king over us and so you're going to get what you asked for and this all takes place at Midspa a site that Samuel had earlier called them together to be delivered so there they are at Midspa and he openly begins to rebuke them as a nation notice what he's saying he's saying you don't want to be led by God you want to be led by a king you want a political official to be your deliverer and your reception of Saul is a rejection of God and so the tribes are assembled and all of the families appear and they're throwing a lot and as the lot is being cast it comes down to a man by the name of Saul and as this is taking place they can't find him anywhere and so notice verse 22 it says they inquired of the Lord further has a man come here yet the Lord answered there he is hidden among the equipment so they ran and brought him from there and when he stood among the people he was taller than any of the people from his shoulders upward it'd be like we're looking for Shaq Shaqil Anil where is he and he's hiding behind the drums and so they go and they bring him out and Shaqil Anil is seven foot plus and he's standing in front of everybody now as you see that there are those commentators who believe that this was an act of humility on the part of Saul that he saw the task before him as being so greater than he that there was no way that he wanted to be part of that so they would say this is an act of humility as for myself I don't think so I think this is one of those things that demonstrates his incompetence one of the things that you see in scripture and I teach this to our pastors classes is if any man desires the office of a bishop or an elder the scripture says he desires a good thing and when I'm speaking to the men in the pastors class I will say to them if you don't have an internal drive that comes from God this class isn't for you if you don't have this kind of desire I want to be used by God and equipped to do works of service and I know it's a heavenly calling this job is not for you this isn't your calling if there's anything else that you can do and be satisfied in doing that then by all means do that because you're not called by God to lead a church you're not called by God to be an elder you're not called by God because it's a desire of the heart a true man of God is going to have a desire to do what God calls him to do now when you compare this man Saul with King David you can see that you see God in 1 Samuel 3 1314 1 Samuel 1314 speaks concerning David and he says this is a man after my own heart this is a man who whose heart beats after the things that my heart beats for like the deer that is panting after the waterbrooks his heart pants after me he's the one who sits out and writes songs to me and he looks at the stars and he says when I think of what man is what is man that you are mindful of him nor the son of man that you should even consider him this is a man who has a heart after me and we see that later on when this young man King David who is already a warrior who has been seasoned and tried in various things when he has an opportunity to go to battle against Goliath we'll see that when we pursue our studies in 1 Samuel and you'll see that that King David as he's bringing some food to his brothers who are there camped out as the nation of Israel's warriors are about to go against the Philistines and here comes you see Goliath this enormous man whose scripture says was nine foot nine inches tall a huge huge giant of a man who comes out on a daily basis challenging the armies of the living God and all the men in the army are afraid because Goliath keeps coming out saying why should we as as armies battle when this is one of those things that can be settled with just your best warrior against me so let's have a one on one contest and Israel doesn't want to take part in that Israel is afraid Israel says who can war against this man here comes David and David's bringing some food food from his father to give to his brothers and all and as he shows up he hears what's being said he asks what's going on here they say well the champion from Gath Goliath by name has been challenging us and so David said well what's going to be done and something inside of David begins to rise to the occasion and as he sees this man coming out taunting and this is David's words taunting the armies of the living God he is outraged on behalf of God and so he says I'll fight him I have no problem I fought those those predators that have come after my father's sheep I've been out there and I've taken them both out this man shall be no different than any predator that I've ever handled I can do it I'll take care of it and so what happens is they bring him they bring David to Saul and he says I want to go out and do battle he says you're just a youth and Goliath has been a warrior from his youth so let me add them let me add them and here comes David the scripture said he's ready and good looking and he's young and he stands out there and he brings his five stones and and his sling with him five smooth stones quite five because Goliath had four brothers he was going to take the whole family out so he comes and there's Goliath David was probably the the height of the average Jewish man of his day which would have been around five foot six and he's standing up against a man who's nine foot nine imagine that picture for just a moment it'd be like me bringing my granddaughter Sophie here and putting her in front of me just to get an idea of the dimensional difference between the two you come to me with sword spear javelin and I come to you in the name of the living God whose armies you have defied this day and I say into you that this day God will give me your head and I will give your body to the vultures because you have defied the armies of the living God who are you you uncircumcised Philistine now that's a warrior that's a warrior's heart he's looking at it he's not looking at how big the man is he's thinking how big his God is and there's a difference in hearts when you only see the obstacle and not the God who says I will give you victory over it your heart's not right before God because you can do all things to Christ who strengthens you and when the Lord is moving you can do it in him you can have victory in him and that's the difference between a Saul who's hiding and a David who says let me Adam that's the difference between a man called by God and one who's just occupying a position and so where is where is Saul he's hiding amongst the equipment then they bring this guy out I don't know I look out here I don't see a lot of older people but we used to have a cartoon called baby Huey and it was just some big baby it's bigger than everybody else and it's called baby Huey I see Saul kind of like a baby Huey kind of guy comes walking out they're so big that oh yeah but what do they say long live the king long live the king where was he hiding in the equipment long live the king man has a tendency to judge you on the outer appearance but God says I the Lord look at the heart I look at the heart I look at what's inside that person not what's on the outside because beauty fades your strength saps you who at one time were strong and tall as you grow older you start shrinking and you're not strong anymore not like you used to be one day you wake up and you say I think I'll do what I used to do and your body says nah that's history you can't do that anymore you were never really able to do that you convinced yourself that you're good but you can't but you you're not going back you know when I hit 50 the Lord made that very clear to me he said son get ready you're dying you're going downhill from this point on and you know that's the way it is that's aging but the bottom line is you can grow older but more powerful because your walk with God grows every day even though your physical strength may not be what it used to be your spiritual strength increases day by day as you serve the Lord Jesus Christ and that's why older men and women of God are such a treasure in the body of Christ because they have such experience and knowledge of the ways of God to give to the younger ones who need to be equipped in that way Saul on the outer appearance had it all so some valiant men went with him but others were looking at him saying we will not follow this man it wasn't because they were noble it's because they just rejected him and as all this is taking place Saul sees it but he held his peace we'll see what takes place later on but we'll stop here at this point Father we ask that you would continue to move in our lives Lord we have choices to be made even today to pursue you and trust you and to let you work on the inside or to continue trying to do things on the outside to make ourselves look like we're holy I ask that you would work on our insights today may we have hearts more like David's and less like Saul's and even as our eyes are closed and our our heads are bowed for just a moment perhaps there are some in this room we need to get right with the Lord right now I want to pray for you if you know the Spirit of God is speaking to you you need to get right with the Lord I want to pray for you right now as our eyes are closed and our heads are bowed and if you need prayer would you raise your hand let me pray for you right now and just raise your hand so I can see you Father you see these hands and you know the reason why they're being raised to you I'm asking you in the name of Jesus Lord that whatever it is that is prompting them to say Lord I need you that Father you would be the one who answers that request that cry even now Lord it may be a sin it may be a need it may be anything only you know what's going on I just pray that you reach down and you touch these lives as their hands are raised to you thank you because we know you do thank you because we know you will and Lord in Jesus name as their hands are raised to you I pray that they would even now sense that you're working and Lord may they be leaving this place today relieved in you we bless you now and thank you and receive from you you can put your hands down and Lord Jesus I pray you continue to work in all of us to your glory in your name amen let's all stand we'll close with a word of prayer in a song and I do invite and encourage you two things one is to be with us tonight get your doctrine straight and two if you're 18 to 35 and want to be part of that song of Solomon's study on Monday nights beginning in May please let me know by signing up our Father we ask that you would work in us and through us today we leave this place into a mission field may we be empowered by you to be serving you Lord in Jesus name we pray amen God bless you