 Well, I hope you all are doing well this wonderful Saturday morning. Hope you all are ready to go. I wanna go over something that I think is kinda gonna be a little bit of an eye-opener and so do not go anywhere, make sure that you catch this. It's gonna be towards the middle, towards the end. When I show you something that I don't think that most people knew or recognized about what David did. Speaking about what David did, we're gonna be talking about how David became king. Why God chose him as king. And so, without further ado, let's go ahead and jump into it. We're gonna be in 1 Samuel 16. Remember those. Matter of fact, let me just remind everyone of something. We've talked about this before and we need to remember this rule. If you don't know anything else after becoming a Christian, becoming a believer, there is one important rule. Yes, we can say a lot of the things that are also important, such as there's only one God and you ain't him. That's an important rule to remember. But there's one thing to remember and I say this over and over again. I'll keep saying this. As a matter of fact, you're gonna hear it even more and more and more. And Catherine Lynn is already Johnny on the spot. Above all else, God is sovereign. God is sovereign. God is sovereign. That is a recurring theme from the beginning of the book to the end of the book. You're gonna hear this over and over again. But what about what we think? But what about what we feel? But what about what we want? I want this. I want that. I don't want this. I'll do it this way. How about we do it this way? God, I tell you what I think you should do. And all of those things, God is not interested in. Above all else, God is sovereign. You're not. What is a bare bones way of putting it? That means he can do what he wants to do when he wants to do it, to whom he wants to do it, just cause he wants to do it. Now, if there's more behind him doing things and because he either hasn't told us why or told us how or we don't understand it, doesn't mean it's not so. That part we need to get into our head. Why? Because he's God, the only sovereign being or only sovereign thing in the world. And I use the word of thing because there's nothing else on the planet, outside of the planet that is sovereign. That is self-sustaining. There's nothing else that needs no one else. There's nobody else that needs no one else. There's no nation that's sovereign. There's nobody that's sovereign. But God, amen. So the reason why I bring this up is cause we've seen God do things all throughout the history of man up to this point. Now recall, as we are reading this, remember here's our timeline, where we are at our timeline. In our timeline, we are at first Samuel. So we're around 1,100 years BC. Somewhere, probably, actually a little less than that, about 1,000 years BC. And notice we've gone over to Genesis, Exodus, Numbers, Joshua, Judge, we've gone through the complimentary books, Joe, Leviticus, Deuteronomy, Ruth. And notice how we have this set aside. We've got the complimentary books that go along with the chronological books. The chronological books are important. That kind of gives us our timeline. And then you have books that are complimentary to kind of give extra detail or added information that coincides with the chronological books. That's important. And all throughout that we've seen God do things, God move in such a way, God cause things. God does not guess. God is not Las Vegas. He does not set odds and then predict or set wagers. God does not predict. God is the one that initiates. God causes things to work. I know some people are gonna have a problem with that, but guys, the sooner you get over that, the better. God causes things according to His good counsel, according to His good pleasure. That's important. And there are gonna be those that, well, what about our own free will? And I don't mind you using the word free will. I really don't have a problem with you using free will. As long as you understand, as long as you wanna be fair and recognize that if you have free will, so too does God. What do you do with your free will? Well, mess up. What does God do with his free will? Fix up. And so, yes, you've got the ability to choose, but it's limited. You won't get into that. But what we'll deal with is God being sovereign. And that is here in the scripture. The Bible says when He spoke to Saul that if you had done so, God would have continued your reign or your kingdom forever, but you did not. And so, because of that, what does the Bible say? God tells Samuel to tell Saul that he has chosen a man after his own heart. We talked about last week that that does not mean that David, who we know he's going to choose, is chosen because he has a heart like God. That's not what that means. That means that it's now God's turn to choose someone. Did he choose Saul? Sure, he chose Saul for the people on behalf of the people, but it was because they wanted a king like other nations. And so God gave them somebody who was really the best of what they could hope for in any man. And this king is just like every other king, just like every other individual. He's insecure. He's impatient and he's ignorant. That describes all of us, the three eyes. Ignorant, impatient and insecure. Every last one of you that's listening, that will ever listen are insecure. It just is what it is. Now, some are more insecure than others. We all have some sort of insecurities. All of us are impatient to some degree. All of us are ignorant to a large degree. God is not. And so when he chooses David, he's not choosing someone who is, doesn't have any insecurities. He's not choosing someone who is not impatient. He's not choosing someone who is not ignorant. He's choosing someone that he wants to use. Why? Well, let's go back a little bit and recall, we wanna make all of this stuff has to fit together. All of this runs together and smoothly I might add. Remember, God tells Abraham in Genesis three, I'm sorry, Genesis 12, that he is going to make him a great nation though he has no offspring. And then we see his offspring through Isaac and through Jacob. And then Jacob has children. And then one of his children has a dream. Where did the dream come from? That being Joseph, that's God's doing. How does God bring this to pass? Well, because he's God. What brings Joseph to Egypt? Well, this dream that his brothers were jealous of. And then what brought his brothers in Israel to Egypt? A famine. Who causes the famine? That would be God. By the way, what caused Joseph to rise with the ranks? The Bible says we go back and read it in Genesis that the Lord was with him. And the Lord caused him to have favor, not amongst just the things that he touched, but also amongst the people even while he was in prison. He had favor with the captain of the guard. He had favor with whomever he was able to interpret dreams, that's God working in them. So we see God's hand on everything. Oh yes, the men and the women could think on their own and they can want on their own and they can move on their own, but God is causing these things to work out. How so? Sometimes by moving in a person internally, coming upon their heart, using his spirit to come upon someone, or bringing about obstacles or things that kind of move them around. For example, if I want to go straight and my will I'm bound and determined to drive straight, but someone has knocked the bridge down and put up a big wall and forced me to go right, my will wants to go forward, but they have put a barricade that's caused me to go right. And so we don't know how God is gonna always work, but we just know he always works. And so the reason why I bring it up is because in first Samuel 16, let's put on the screen. Now the Lord said to Samuel, how long will you grieve over solve since I have rejected him? I understand Samuel's a nice guy. And Samuel is grieved over all this, maybe not necessarily over solve, but just over the whole situation, I get that. But again, we're serving the Lord. And so at some point in time, you have to put your big boy, big girl pants on, those that the spirit feel pants and recognize that you are serving the Lord. It's his will, even though you might want to be a certain way or you're bothered by it, ultimately God's will is gonna be done. It's like, Saul, I mean, Samuel, why are you grieved? We got work to do. I have rejected him from being king over Israel. So feel your horn with oil and go. I will send you to Jesse, the Bethlehemite, for I have selected a king for myself. This is him choosing a man, not a man choosing himself or a man choosing a man. I have selected a king for myself among his sons. But Samuel said, how can I go? When Saul hears of it, he will kill me. I've never, I shouldn't say this. I was gonna say, I never understand, but I do understand. But even still, it never ceases to amaze me why people can see the hand and the move of God and still worry about what someone else thinks or someone else feels. We all do it to some degree. Even Elijah, when we get to him, we see how he was bold before the Lord, but then he was afraid of some woman. We see this here. He's afraid of Saul, no? So what does God say? He says, when 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. You shall invite Jesse to the sacrifice and I will show you what you shall do and you shall anoint me the one whom I designated you. Now by the way, in case you all don't remember if you have any questions about what we've covered thus far, go ahead and put a cure question in and we'll try to get to him as we go. So Samuel did what the Lord said and came to Bethlehem and the elder of the city came trembling to meet him. Why were they trembling? Because this is Samuel. Maybe Samuel didn't understand what they understand that God is working in him. And so I've said it before and this is not a biblical statement, but I think it flows with being biblical. That is, if you are in his will, the person that is doing God's will, the person that is fulfilling his purpose in the Lord, that person at that moment is, I don't wanna say invincible, but I will say immortal. Nothing is gonna kill him until God is ready to kill him. And God, if God is being used, or you're being used for God's purpose, well then you've got time. You don't have to, you literally don't have to worry when these, we're gonna get later on, we're gonna hear about a guy, a man, a person, a human being, a gentleman by the name of Jesus. We don't know who Jesus is yet, but I'm gonna prophesy to you now that there's a guy named, a man named Jesus coming. I'm gonna prophesy that to you. We haven't heard about him, we haven't read about him yet. He has, his name has not been introduced, but there's gonna be a man named Jesus. And he's gonna have 12 fellas, always gonna have some fellas in the boat with him. And the very same person that caused the waves, the winds, I see, it's gonna be in the boat with him and they're gonna be upset and bothered and afraid, not realizing he's literally with you. Samuel may have forgotten that, he's with you, but the people there, they don't. That's why they are trembling. And the other incident that came trembling said, do you come in peace? Cause it's a Samuel. Listen, when Samuel shows up, stuff happens. Shouldn't we be that way also, when we show up, there should be an expectation of something to happen. Either some peace, some love, something. But Samuel shows up, he says, I have come in peace to sacrifice to the Lord. Consecrate yourselves and come with me to sacrifice. He also consecrated Jesse and his sons and invited them to the sacrifice. This is just him setting those people apart. He's gonna do something special. When they entered, they looked at Eliab and he thought, surely the Lord's anointed him before him. Famous phrase, but the Lord said to Samuel, do not look at his appearance or at the height of his stature because I have rejected him. For God sees not as a man sees, for man looks on the outward appearance, but God looks at the heart. So anybody that's tall, don't get too excited. Anyone that's short, don't be too bothered. God isn't looking at the outward appearance. Matter of fact, oftentimes people go with what looks good on the outside and are bothered on the inside because they were looking on the outside. I know that there are some ladies in the chat or some ladies that will watch this later and say, amen, preach again, brother. So God does not look on the outside. He's concerned on the inside. And if you notice, I've got this word highlighted, the word heart. This word is the Hebrew word left or the vibe, which is, it doesn't necessarily mean the heart, but heart is kind of metaphorical for us. We're talking about the inner man. And that's what that means. It means the inner parts, the inward most, the inward being of a person. And so God looks on the inner part of a person. Then Jesse called, I've been a dad and made him pass before Samuel. And it's almost like this is a male version of the swimsuit edition back then. They're trying out for King. And so now we've got in our lovely evening gown, a benedict. He walks before Samuel and the Lord has not chosen this one either, says Samuel. Next Jesse chooses or makes a Shema pass by and he said, the Lord has not chosen this one either. Thus Jesse made seven of his sons pass before Samuel. But Samuel said to Jesse, the Lord has not chosen these. And Samuel said to Jesse, are all these your, this all you got? And Jesse, and he said to him, there remains yet the youngest and behold, he is tending the sheep. I told my brothers this story. I told my brothers this story, but again, my brothers, they're not the sharpest children that my parents have ever came up with. And yes, I take pot shots at my brothers all the time. Why? They're my brothers. But I told them, God chose the youngest. I'm the youngest of all the boys. And so I tell them, God chose the youngest. The oldest ones, they just weren't that bright. So they get mad at me. Anyway, there's a reason for them to get mad at me. But listen, if you can't get back at them for all the stuff they did when they were older, then I don't know what you're doing with yourself. You're wasting your time. Amen. There remains yet the youngest and behold, he is tending the sheep. Then Samuel said to Jesse, send and bring him for we will not sit down until he comes. So he sent and brought him in. Now he was ready with beautiful eyes and hands. What do beautiful eyes look like? I've just always wondered. I don't want to see a guy. Don't show me pictures of a man with beautiful eyes, but I'm just beautiful eyes, okay. And a handsome appearance. And the Lord said, arise, anoint him for this is he. Then Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the midst of the brothers and the spirit of the Lord. And I want to focus on this. And the spirit came mightily upon David from that day forward. And Samuel arose and went to Rama. Notice what just happened. This is important. He said, the spirit of the Lord came mightily upon David. What we've seen, by the way, we've seen this happen before. We've seen the spirit of the Lord come upon people. And I think it's important to see this, this particular word of the shoe, so let me move this up a little higher so you guys can see this. This word right here is salat, which is to come might know what it means is, it didn't really mean to come on, you use it in that way, but it means to kind of be successful or to prosper, to be attached to. And so here we have the spirit of the Lord coming upon. In other words, this person is going to have the spirit literally with them on them, moving in them. David is not the first person to have this happen to them. David is not the first person to have this happen to them. As a matter of fact, we see the same word where it happens in Judges 14. The spirit of the Lord came upon him mightily. The exact same word, the exact same Hebrew word, this is upon Samson. Was Samson all that godly? For the most part, no. Towards the end, he was used for a godly purpose and his faith was verified because obviously we see his name in Hebrews 11 and so the spirit came mightily upon him. Well, that's pretty cool. But what about someone who is also a rotten person? Not any good. No bueno, as if there were Spanish people back in the day would have said about this person. So no bueno. But the Bible says in 1 Samuel 10, 10, when they came to the hill, their beholder group of prophets met him and the spirit of God came upon him mightily so that he prophesied upon who? Upon Sam, upon Saul, I'm sorry. And so Saul had the exact same experience. Did God ever reject anyone in the New Testament? Well, it depends on what you mean. Even though, even though wisdom Jay, we haven't gotten to the New Testament. You don't even know if there's a such thing as a New Testament. But to your question, no one that's ever had the Holy Spirit in them has ever been rejected, that's for sure. But in terms of has God reject, there are a lot of people that God has rejected both in the old and new, simply because they have not followed him because they're not his people. So yes, what does the word ready in the Greek mean? Well, let's go and see. She asks, where is it ready, ready, ready? Where is that word at? Ready, there it is, ready. Okay, now I've got to go pull up the two agent. One, two, three, four, five. Where is ready? Where is ready? Where is it at? What verse was that? Okay. The word is parakeis, which is red. Oh, I'm sorry, I'm gonna put it on the screen so you guys can see. This word for ready is this word here, parakeis, which is red. I never knew that. But you know what, it comes from the word pour, which is fire, that means something, huh? That means something, but the word pour in the Greek is fire, so maybe it says something. David was red like fire. Anyway, let's go back to it. Okay, I thought it was a question, okay. Verse 14, now the spirit of the Lord, consequently though, departed from Saul. Now, notice, be clear, the spirit of the Lord was not in Saul, but came mildly upon Saul at different times to do what the Lord will was. We saw that with a lot of people in the old, right here in the step child, yeah, I guess it, a lot of people in the Old Testament, you would see, I would say a lot of people, but various people in the Old Testament would have the spirit of the Lord come upon them. But would not remain upon them. They was gonna make a prayer indicating that this was not a permanency of the spirit, can come and go as he chooses. And in this case, the spirit of the Lord came upon Saul for his doing, but then the spirit of the Lord left. Now, you would think that would just be enough, no. Keep reading, now the spirit of the Lord departed from Saul and an evil spirit from the Lord terrorized him, wait a second. This is the part that could be baffling to some people. It's one thing, God, to take your spirit from me. But then, not just leaving it there, but then replacing that spirit, sending a spirit, an evil spirit, to terrify me or to terrorize me. And this is an evil spirit. This ra is the Hebrew word for evil, bad, wicked. And so this evil spirit comes upon him. The problem is, the problem is, it's not so much that it's an evil spirit that came upon Saul, that's not the issue. By the way, thank you, child, young cat. Thank you for the super chat. It's not that that's the issue, that an evil spirit came upon him. The problem is this word right here, an evil spirit from the Lord. Does that bother you guys? I don't know, it should it? And by the way, it literally is in the Hebrew, I'm highlighting it from the Lord. So this spirit came, this evil spirit came from the Lord. What do we make of that? Because guess what? We don't see in the Bible, demons terrifying or terrorizing people in the Old Testament. We don't see that. We see this evil spirit or we see it as called an evil spirit. Is this a demonic spirit or not? Now right here, we don't have enough to go off of it. We don't have enough to go off of it, okay? I thought Corey said that God took his spirit away from Saul. God did, God took his spirit or the spirit departed from him. The spirit of the Lord departed. We don't know how old he was. Is it true at this time that David was about 15 years old? You would have to guess. You would have to guess as to how old he, the Bible didn't say. The Bible doesn't say and so if someone wants to say so, I don't know. I don't know, but again, I'm gonna show you something that I never knew about David. I didn't know about this and so I want you all to see this in a second, but that's troubling to think about the fact that the Lord sends this spirit. Is this a demonic spirit or is this a spirit that brings about bad or evil feelings and thoughts and so forth? It's hard to gauge because we're seeing this and there's not enough at this point, but wherever or whatever the spirit is, if this is an angelic spirit, if this is something else, if this is something demonic, it doesn't matter at least not yet. What matters or what's amazing is it came from the Lord. Did tongues exist in the Old Testament? No, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. Let me back up. Yes, in terms of languages, because remember when Paul makes a statement in Isaiah, I mean, he quotes Isaiah. So when Paul was talking in 1 Corinthians, he's speaking about the languages that is in the Old Testament, which are different languages. Is it the same spirit of God that God used to harden Pharaoh's heart? The one and the same because it says the spirit of the, well, you know what? I can't say that, I can't say that. Let me back up, I can't say that. Because again, we don't know what spirit this is. Is this some sort of demonic spirit? Is this just God just, you know, through the power of his spirit causing this or sending a spirit? It says an evil spirit from the Lord. Now, this word spirit is Ruach. I don't know that it's not the Holy Spirit, that's for sure. But would this be just a spirit? We don't know just yet, we don't know just yet. However, why would God do such a thing? An even bigger and even more important point. Why would the Lord do such a thing? The Lord takes his spirit away. Remember, he, the spirit of the Lord came mightily upon David from that day forward. And the spirit of the Lord departed from Saul. So I'm leaving you going to him. He's in, you're out. But also an evil spirit from the Lord was terrifying or terrorizing, keep saying terrifying, terrorizing him. Saul's servant said to him, behold, now an evil spirit, and they understood where the evil spirit was from though. That's the other interesting thing. They said, behold, now an evil spirit from God is terrorizing you. So when this happens, who did they say the spirit is coming from? They didn't say this is the devil. They didn't say this is some demon, some of the mind and force. They didn't say he was, no, they said an evil spirit from God is terrorizing you. Why? Why is this happening? Why is God doing this? That's a bigger question. Before we look at the tool, we need to look at why. God built this, what tool did he use? I built this dog house, what hammer did I use? What saw did I use? No, the fact that I built it is a more important thing. Then we can look at what tool. So in this case, what? Do you think the tormenting spirit would be Saul's own pride and insecurities? No, nope, it could not be. Here's why it couldn't be because he says it's from the Lord. So this is, now, does it deal with, does it kind of exacerbate Saul's own pride and insecurity? Oh, sure, sure. But this is from the Lord. And that point, we cannot miss that point. What we just saw in these three verses, so three, yeah, three verses, verses 13, 14, and 15. We cannot miss what was stated. Let's put it back on the screen again. And the spirit of the Lord, the spirit of the Lord, the spirit of the Lord came mightily upon David from that day forward. And Samuel arose and went to Ramah. Now the spirit of the Lord departed from Saul. The spirit of the Lord departed from Saul and an evil spirit, an evil spirit from the Lord, terrorized him. Now behold, an evil spirit from God is terrorizing you. So we cannot miss who's doing what. Saul didn't cause the spirit to come upon him. Saul is not pushing the spirit away. David's not making the spirit come upon him. This is all God is doing. And also, interestingly enough, the people recognize that this is God. God is doing this, amen. So why is this happening? My question to you guys, classroom. YouTube, world's greatest chat with the world's greatest set of moderators. Why is God doing this? Does anybody know? I wanna give you guys a minute because I wanna get you guys to, I wanna see where you guys are thinking. I wanna see where you guys are thinking. Why did God do this? Let's put it on the screen. Because, let's see, for punishment, Saul was disobedient. Could it be the inverse where the spirit of the Lord is, there, there is, oh, so you say, absent the spirit of the Lord, then all that's left are these tormenting spirits? No, no, because this is literally from, it's not, so it's not just the absence of, this is stated that this is the spirit that's coming from the Lord. He needed to be punished, to punish David for rebelling against him. No, that hadn't happened yet, spider monkey, to make him run back to him. Don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't. Dutch the Bible Thumper. To put the scepter in Judah. Remember guys, remember, we covered this last week and I wanted you guys to remember this because this, listen, when I said, you should tattoo some of these verses or get a sticky note or whatever, they are important. Because we see this is God doing it. God stated, remember, couple of things that God stated. Genesis 3, 15. He states what he's gonna do to the evil one. We don't know how all of us, we have no idea, we have no clue when he makes this statement in Genesis 3, 15, as they're being put out the garden and he's given the punishment towards all of mankind, towards man, that means males, towards females, towards the serpent, towards the world, towards the ground, towards season, the fact that people are gonna die. He makes a statement, we don't know all of this. As we read further, we get progressively, we get revelation progressively, we get to see what's happened. He comes to a man by the name of Abraham and says, I'm gonna bless you and make you a father of many nations, plural. And in you, all the families of the earth shall be blessed. Okay, further information, but it's not quite adding up, God. And then we have him stated, then we see him having a son named Isaac. He makes that same promise to Isaac, that same promise to Jacob. By the way, he appears to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. He appears to other people, Hagar as well. We see him showing up and we hear a little bit more about his plan. And then after these people are set free out of Egypt, we hear more while they're in Egypt. Though before then, as Dutch said, Jacob gives a promise and he says, the scepter shall not depart Judah. The scepter shall not depart Judah. This is what's happening. God is gonna cause this. God didn't tell them to choose a king, but God knew they would and God will take fine. If you wanna say man has free will, fine. God has free or earth will, free or est will. His will is supreme. And so whatever you wanna call your will, when he turns around and he enters the room, something happens. Now you bow down, your will becomes subservient. And so he can force his will on anybody. If you think God can't force his will on anyone, well, you're wrong. If you think he will not force his will on anyone, you're even more so wrong because we keep singing. Do you think that Saul wanted this terrorizing spirit upon him? No, but God is going to do something. I'll show you a thing or two. I will get my will to be done. And so I will cause Saul to have this terrorizing spirit. Well, who was Saul gonna send for? Saul is gonna send for the very person and by the way, he doesn't know that this person is the one that's going to replace him, but he sends for the very person, the very person that God has selected. Similarly, who does God have to lead his children out of Egypt? It's amazing how God works things. Remember, Moses was raised by who? Who raised Moses? Think about this for a second. Who, according to Exodus, who raised Moses? I don't want you to think about this. It's not a trick question. I don't think it's a trick question, but who raised Moses? No, not Pharaoh, not Pharaoh's daughter. Cephas Rott, Moses' mom. Well, my mother raised me. What's so special about that? Other than the fact that all the other boys are being killed, Pharaoh's daughter finds him and then Moses' sister says, I know somebody, I know of somebody that can raise him. And so she goes and says, yep, you know what? Go get her, she can raise him. Matter of fact, she can raise him and I'll pay her for it. How many of you ladies will sign up for someone to pay you to take care of your own child? Now listen, if the government got involved on that, we probably would have a problem with that. But Moses' mother, why? God is behind a whole lot of stuff, guys. That's the point. And so here we've got this terrorizing spirit coming upon Saul to cause him to bring in David. Why is that important? Well, we got some stuff that's gonna happen. So let's go back to this in Samuel. And verse 15, Samuel said to him, now behold, an evil spirit from God has terrorized you. Let our Lord now command your servants who are before you. Let them seek a man who is a skillful player on the harp and it shall come about when the evil spirit from God is on you that he shall play the harp with his hand and you will be well. So Saul said to his servants, provide for me now a man who can play well. Then one of the young men said, behold, I have seen a son of Jesse, the Bethelmite who was a skillful musician, a mighty man of valor, a warrior, one prudent in speech and a handsome man and the Lord is with him. Okay, stop the presses, hold up, stop. Did you see how this, we don't know who this person is. The Bible didn't tell us who this person is. But how does he say this about David? Let's look at what he says about David. He says, yeah, he's a skillful musician. Okay, so apparently people, when you're a musician, people tend to hear about you being a musician. They tend to hear, literally you being a musician. They can hear it. Maybe he's singing, playing, what have they hear you? But then he says, a mighty man of valor, a warrior. Couple of things. Now I can get the prudent in speech because maybe David didn't speak that much. But he says, a mighty man of valor, a warrior. How in the world does he make that statement? David has never been in a war. David has never fought anybody. David, now I say anybody, not anything. David hasn't been in battle. As a matter of fact, we're gonna find this out in just a little bit. So why would he call him a mighty man of valor? Unless my Bible is wrong. Does your Bible say the same thing? It's a mighty man of valor, a warrior. And a handsman, okay, fine. All right, enough with David's good looks. Fine, we get it. David was a good looking man. And the Lord is with him, huh? How do you know this? That is my question. My question is, how in the world do you know this, sir? We don't know. Maybe the Lord is speaking to this man or through this man. We don't know. Just one of the young men. Now, David's also young. We're not talking about New York City where there's millions and millions of people. So maybe they know each other, could be. But he's still never seen David in a battle. David's never fought anybody. David's not a warrior yet. But he makes this statement, huh? He knows something about David. He knows something about David that I did not quite understand. You're gonna see it as well. Because you would think who, and we know who David is getting ready to fight. Mugsy Bogue versus Shaq. David is getting ready to fight somebody. And David is thinking to himself, how in the world am I the underdog here? Why would you assume me to be the underdog? Cause I'm not. And anybody with any sense would have known this as well. We'll get to that. We're coming to this part. It's almost making me wanna become charismatic. You're gonna feel like a charismatic in a little bit. You might not be, but you're gonna feel like one in a second. So you have all these wonderful words heaped upon David. I see why best you've ever felt for me. Yeah, I mean, the Bible talks up, David is awesome, huh? Every man wants to be like David. Even the tall men wanna be like David. Isn't that something? So you're right, L.J. So Saul sent messages to Jesse and said, send me your son, David, who was with the flock. Jesse took a donkey, loaded it with bread and a jug of wine and a young goat and sent them to Saul by David his son. Then David came to Saul and attended him and Saul loved him greatly and he became his armor bearer. Saul sent to Jesse saying to let David now stand before me, for he has found favor in my sight. So it came about whenever the evil spirit from God, now this doesn't have the word evil here, but it is the spirit from God came to David. I mean, came to Saul. David would take his harp and play with his hand and Saul would be refreshed and well and the evil spirit would depart from him. Now, who is over or who controls this evil spirit? Well, it's from God. It's from God. We know that what would happen if, but we don't know who Jesus is yet. We don't know, we haven't been introduced to Jesus. But what would happen if Jesus saw hell? Well, I'll ask that question in the comments and I'll direct you to a video that covers that. How about that? But this spirit comes from God. So is it possible? Is it beyond the realm of expectation? Think that God is? So when David plays, when David whom God has chosen plays the evil spirit that God sent, it's almost like, yeah, the fix is in. The fix is in, but what about again? What about what about Saul's free will? What about it? What about it? Again, let me put it back on the screen. I should say this. And then before I put it on the screen, you guys would even have that your mouth before I said it. Above all else, what? Above all else, God is sovereign. Above all else, God is sovereign. And so that's it. Who cares what Saul's feeling with Saul? Matter of fact, who cares what David thinks or feels? Who cares what Paul thinks or says or feels? Who cares about Abraham? Who cares about Jacob? Who cares? The focus is God. Let that be your sole focus. What's you up to today, God? What's happening today, God? God, what's your God? What is on the menu today, God? God should be able to ask, why are you hanging around with me? Well, where else can I go as the disciples would say that person Jesus we're gonna find out about later, where else can I go? You have, you have life and death. You have everything. Where else could I go or would I even want to go? Are you guys with me? God, go where is Cameron? Are you with me? So David would play and the spirit would leave and Saul is refreshed. Chapter 70, verse one. Now the Philistines gathered their armies for battle and they were gathered at Sukkot, which belongs to Judah. And they camped between Salka and Asakai in Ephes-Dameem. These words again, they couldn't be in camp at Chicago, just south of St. Louis. No, these are all these hard to pronounce words. Saul and the men of Israel were gathered and encamped in the valley of Eilat and drew up in battle array and encamped the Philistines. The Philistines stood on the mountain on one side while Israel stood on the mountain on the other side with the battle between them. Then a champion came out from the armies of the Philistines named Goliath from Gath whose height was six cubits and a span. Six cubits and a span. So six approximately 18 inches. What is, let me take out my phone because on this phone, they've got all kinds of gizmos and gadgets and they have, there's a calculator. So 18 inches times six, right? Six of them, that equals what? 108. So 108, wait, 108 inches? All right, am I saying this right? 108 inches divided by 12? So he's nine feet tall. All right, cool. One, my calculator works. Two, I can pick this, I can do this for him. So I'm all right, I'm all right. That would have been really embarrassing if I could not have gotten it right. So somewhere around nine feet tall, give or take whatever, maybe a little bit taller. So maybe a little shorter. Cause let's be clear. If a guy's seven foot five and built like him comes up to you, you still got a problem, right? They used to always, always thought to myself, a lot of guys are tough, but they tend to be tough with somebody who's either equal or less than they are. A lot of tough people are tougher with people that they know that they can beat or think they can beat. You don't see, you don't see people picking on folks that are six, eight, 340 pounds. They play, they play defensive in NFL. You don't see that a lot of times, right? But there's something that would, that there's something that would make you, you know what, yeah, I got you. You have me and you buddy, me and you. There's, there's something, there's something. So let's go back to it. Then a champion came out, this Goliath from Gath who was give or take nine feet, maybe a little taller, maybe a little less, but let's just say they're about nine feet. Ancient times, Craig versus Debo, Rasha, hey man. He also had a, I'm sorry. He was clothed, he had, I'm sorry, he had a bronze helmet on his head. He was clothed with scale armor, which weighed 5,000 shekels of bronze. He also had bronze greaves on his legs and a bronze javelin slung between his shoulders. The shaft of his, the man was, was, was ready for fighting. All right. He looked like some half ninja, half, what do you call it? Navy seal, half a terminator. This is, this is Goliath. He looks tough. He, that big and with that battle array that he has on, I can see why, I can see why. But you know what this reminds me of? What it reminds me of, and we see this over and over again through scriptures, how the people of God can know they have God, but still be afraid. We see this when they, when they cross over into, or going across over into the, into the Promised Land. And they said, well, these tall people, these giants, we're like grasshoppers in their sights. By the way, those tall people, those Nephilim, those people of Anec that the Bible calls, that they say that they're in the Promised Land, who are their descendants? Who are their cousins? Ladies and gentlemen, their cousins, their descendants are the Philistines. The Philistines are the descendants of, of Anec. Okay. They're the cousins of them. And so some of them are tall, are big. Not all Philistines were giants, but some were. As a matter of fact, we're going to find out that there was some more. Child, young cat does math like me. That's a pretty good range, between six, nine and nine feet, nine inches. There we go. Somewhere, that's a pretty big space. But listen, even if you're six, nine, because let's be clear, if a guy, six, nine, dressed like that wants to fight, you know what, let's talk it out. Let's talk it out. Do you think that Saul was of their lineage? You mean of the Philistines lineage or of the Jewish lineage? I don't know. I think no, Saul was, was from Benjamin. So no, he was not of their lineage. Now they may have had some, back in the day, some, some Philistine, you know, some Philistine, Benjamin Knight, Hankie Pankie going on, where somebody didn't quite, you know, that's your, your real daddy is that kind of thing. We don't know the Bible, the Bible doesn't say the Bible just says that he's from this, from this tribe and who his fathers were. And so that was it. He wouldn't, he was tall, but he wasn't that tall. He was just tall compared. It's almost like the tallest ant versus versus the shortest elephant. So he was just tall, but tall for, for these people. Amen. But anyway, we've got this man who is standing tall and built, he was strong because he wasn't just tall. Okay. We're talking about the difference between Shaq versus Kareem. Kareem, I don't know if you all watched basketball, but Kareem was a tall person, but he was skinnier, skinny-ish, whereas Shaq was the same height, but a little bit bigger, a little bit wider, a little bit thicker. And so he, we know he's got some size to him because of what, what this stuff weighs, how big this stuff is. That's why. And so he comes and he stands and says, why do you come out and draw up against, in battle rate? Am I not the Philistine and you servants of Saul, choose a man for yourselves and let them come down to me. If he's able to fight with me and kill me, then I will become your servant. But if I prevail against him and kill you, kill him, then you shall become our servants and serve us. Again, the Philistine says, I defy the ranks of Israel this day. I don't care about you, Israel. Like I spit on you. Who are you? Now he's talking to them. He's talking trash. And they're afraid. They're buying what he's selling. When Saul and all Israel heard these words of the Philistines, they were dismayed and greatly afraid. They state these people are constantly afraid. Now, David was a son of the Ephraite of Benjamin, I'm sorry, Bethlehem, in Judah, whose name was Jesse. And he had eight sons and Jesse was old. By the way, I want you to notice this right here. You'll always do this rephrase. It's not introducing David or Jesse for the first time. It's just reintroducing you. And you'll see oftentimes this happens in the Bible. Matter of fact, Genesis one and Genesis two reintroduces or summarizes things in a different way. The same story just said differently. And we have the same thing that was told in chapter 16, now being told in chapter 17 at this point. And the reason I want to keep you on that, a reminder of that, because it happens all throughout the Scriptures, especially in the Hebrew Scriptures. And Jesse was old in the days of Saul, advanced in years among men. The three older sons of Jesse had gone after Saul to battle. And the names of the three were Eliab, firstborn and Abinadab, and the third, Samad. David was a youngness. Now the three oldest follow Saul, but David went back and forth from Saul to tend his father's flock. So we go back and forth, back and forth, which is odd when you think about it, since he is his what? His armor bearer. But at this time though, he's not there. And so the Philistine came four morning and evening, 40 days and took his stand. So 40 days he's talking a lot of trash to the Jews. Then Jesse said to David, his son, take now for your brothers and Nephi of this roasted grain and these 10 loaves and run to the camp for your brothers. Why? Why do they need to eat? They're not doing anything. There's all they're doing, these tough Jewish soldiers standing around, listening to somebody else taunt them. What do you need to eat for? But there's a reason why they take it there. Bring also these 10 cuts of cheese to the commander of their thousands and look into the welfare of your brothers and bring back news events. So daddy wants to know how his boys are doing. For Saul, and all the men of Israel are in the valley of Elah fighting with the Philistines. You weren't really fighting though. So David arose early in the morning and left the flock with the keeper and took the supplies and went as Jesse commanded them. Verse 21, Israel and the Philistines drew up in battle area army against the army. Then David left his baggage in the care of the baggage keeper and ran to the battle line and entered in order to greet his brothers. As he was talking with them, behold the champion of the Philistines from Gath, named Goliath, was coming up from the army of the Philistines and he spoke these words, these same words that David heard them. Now a man hears this. There were some males that were there previously, a bunch of guys with XY chromosomes, but now a man, a man actually gets a chance to hear it and it's different. Lyndon Clark, thank you so much for the super chat. I appreciate you so much. A man is hearing this and so what happens? When all the men of Israel saw the man, they fled from him and were greatly afraid. The men of Israel, the males, have you seen this man who was coming up? Surely he is coming up to defy Israel and it will be that the king will enrich the man who kills him with great riches and give him his daughter and make his father's house free in Israel. You don't owe anything. No more taxes. You get to marry the king's daughter. You get to live like a king. Well, under the king. Pretty good offer, right? David's like, hey, I'm game. Then David spoke to the men. What will be done for the man who kills the Philistine and takes away the reproach from Israel? For who is this uncircumcised Philistine? Notice what he says. It's uncircumcised Philistine. Understand the difference between the person who is of God and not of God, who's for God and who's against God. He calls this uncircumcised Philistine. This man, in the part of this covenant, like us, that he should taunt the armies of the living God. People answered him in accordance and with the courts with his words saying, thus will be done for the man who kills him. Now, Eliab, his oldest brother, heard when he spoke to the men and Eliab anger burned against David and said, why have you come down and with what have you left those few sheep in the wilderness? Why aren't you back home? And why are you here? You have no business here. And what, I'm sorry, with whom have you left those few sheep in the wilderness? I know your insolence and the wickedness of your heart, for you have come down in order to see the battle. What's wrong with you? Maybe big brother is jealous because he wasn't anointed, I don't know. But David said, what have I done now? Was it not just a question that he turned away from him to another and said the same thing and then people answered the same as a thing as before. So David was like, wait a second, wait a second, wait a second, wait a second, wait a second. What should be done and why? David's point is why is this guy even alive? Why is this guy even alive? What are you guys doing? When the words which David spoke were heard, they told them to solve and he sent for them. David said to solve, let no man's heart fail on account of him you're a servant, we'll go and fight with this Philistine. Then Saul said to David, you are not able to go against the Philistines to fight with him, for you are but a youth while he has been a warrior from his youth. But wait a second, Saul, weren't you told that David is a valued warrior? But David said to Saul, your servant was tending his father's sheep. When a lion or a bear came and took a lamb from the flock, I went out after him and attacked him and rescued it from his mouth. And when he rose up against me, I seized him by the beard and struck him and killed him. Your servant had killed both lion and the bear and the Uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them since he has taunted the armies of the living God. Notice how David puts this, David says, I went after him and attacked him and rescued it from the mouth, from his mouth. And when he rose up against me, I seized him. Now this word for I seized him, I became strong against him. It can be taken as seeds, but we're not given how this happened by his beard and struck him again. So the imagery that we would think because we know what David's gonna do to the Philistine is that, or I'm sorry, absolutely what he's gonna do with the Philistine is that he grabbed the lion and the bear and wrestled them with his bare hands. That's what we might think, but that's not necessarily what the Bible is telling us. Could that have happened? It's possible, but I don't think that's what happened. As a matter of fact, we're gonna see why David is so confident. We're gonna see why everyone else should have been confident. David did not show up to a knife fight with a knife. David showed up to a knife fight, a little knife fight with a gun. That will give you some confidence. Why would I say that? Well, I wanna show you guys a picture. We know what David showed up with. David showed up with some stones, or he grabbed some stones, but he put the stones in something. I wanna play you all a clip. I saw this clip and I was just fascinated and I thought, wow. If someone could have gotten some advice to Goliath, if someone could have showed Goliath a thing or two could just whisper to Goliath, Goliath, you might wanna shut up. Goliath, you might wanna just hush him out. It would be like fighting all of the Roman army, me versus all of the Roman army. At first glance, the Roman army looks to be, looks to have the advantage. They would look to have the advantage, right? There's a bunch of them and they've got swords and I don't have one. They've got chairs, they've got iron equipment. They got all this stuff and it's just me. But if I said, hey, wait a second. If I got, I don't know, a drone, you know, the drone. I've got the controllers to a drone and I just push the thing and fires up and goes offline. I don't care how many people are in that army or in the Roman army. I've got the advantage, don't I? How many of you have ever actually seen somebody with a sling? I'm not talking about a slingshot like this, you know, where you got the little thing with the little, with the little Y up front. That's not what David had. That is not the slingshot. I saw this video and I wanna show you this and you tell me, you tell me if Goliath ever stood a chance. Even throwing fruit, just it hitting the metal, putting holes in the metal. Goliath didn't stand a chance, did he? Goliath didn't have a shot. So a bear shows up. All right, bear, fine. I need, you know what, I need a new rug. Lion shows up, fine. I need a new coat, my little trusty sling. Maybe we can see the confidence in him now plus what he can do on top of the fact that what is now mightily upon David, the spirit of God. I think someone should have got word. Matter of fact, in hell, Goliath should find all those other people that didn't tell them about David. They didn't tell about David, this guy with a slingshot. Now, the young man tells Saul about David. He didn't say everything, but he says it's a valiant male, a warrior. Maybe he knew something. Maybe he's a young man like David. Maybe he knew what was going to happen. Again, we're talking about David, who's got this ability. Again, when I thought slingshot, I'm thinking, okay, he just swings around a little bit and throws it. Okay, like a rock hitting him. By the way, I want to cover something. I want to cover something because it needs to be stated because someone's going to ask this question and so I want to go ahead and deal with this. This is when he actually fights him. We'll go to verse 42. When the Philistine looked and saw David, he disdained him for he was but a youth and ready with the hands of appearance. And the Philistine said to David, am I a dog that you come to me with sticks? And the Philistine cursed David by his gods. The Philistine also said to David, come to me and I will give your flesh to the birds of the sky and the beasts of the fields. And David said to the Philistine, you come to me with a sword and a spirit and java. Look what he says, but I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of armies of Israel, whom you have taught. Now, quick question. If you come in the name of, if you come in the name of, what does that mean? That doesn't mean that you have to verbally say it, but I come in the power of according to, with a direction in leagues with God. That's what I'm here with. That's what I'm representing. Amen. And so he says, I come in the name of the Lord. You with all this tough talk and all this armor and so forth, it's not gonna do you good. This day, the Lord will deliver you into my hands and I will strike you down and remove your head from you and I will give the dead bodies of the armies of the Philistines this day to the birds of the sky and the wild beasts of the earth. That all the earth may know that what there is a God in Israel. The other men, not even Saul were making this statement. The whole point is I want people to know about this God of Israel. You're gonna know for a fact from today on that there is a guy, I think you forgot, but someone and someone has told you wrong, you're not know, you're gonna know after this that there is a God in Israel and that all his assembly may know that the Lord does not deliver by sword. The Lord does not deliver by spear for the battle is the Lord's and he will give you into our hands. The battle belongs to him. Now, I wanna go to this part. Then it happened when the Philistine rose and came and drew near to meet David that David ran quickly toward the battle line to meet the Philistine and David put his hand to his bag and took from it a stone and slung it and struck it in the Philistine on his forehead and the stone sank into his forehead so that he fell in the face of the ground. Thus, David prevailed over the Philistine with the sling and the stone and he struck the Philistine and killed him but there was no sword in David's hand. Then David ran and stood over the Philistine and took his sword and drew it out of his sheet and killed him and cut off his head with it. When the Philistine saw their champion was dead, they fled. Now, the question is, so I'm gonna ask what killed him? Was it the stone from the slingshot or was it the sword? Well, it's likely that the slingshot injured him and knocked him over. The final blow, because what it does is it kind of puts it all together. So we're not really totally sure. He could have been killed from the slingshot but it says that he takes the sword and kills him. Now, again, the way that you can write it is it could be taken as that he was dead and this is kind of finished off. It's all part of the same act. Are you with me? So it's not really true but I would take it though is that the sword was actually the final blow and the interesting thing is, the interesting thing is it was his sword, the sword that he wanted to kill somebody else with that was really what did it. And the reason why I bring this up is someone gonna say that is this a contradiction? Is this the scripture's all messed up? Was it killed by this or was it killed by that? Well, I think likely he was killed by the sword where he was not, but listen, he could have been killed by the stone, could have been. But what was evident was his head being taken off by that sword. I heard a person say that David believed God because that's how you get ahead. The bad little joke, but it's true though. That's how David was able to get ahead, got the head of the giant. And so I think what we're seeing here more than anything else is that God determines, and again, I know some people get, Cory, are you a determinist? That I think that God determines every little thing. No, I don't think God determines every issue. Does God determine how much sweetener to put in the coffee? No. Does God determine that no, but the things that bring about his purpose? Sure, again, who put the spirit upon David mightily? God did. Who put it previously on Saul? God did. Who took it away from Saul? God did. Who sent this evil spirit upon Saul? God did. Why? Because God has also promised some other things in the past. Again, guys, God is not sitting back, waiting, resting for something to happen. God is not reactionary. God starts it. God is the one that lights the fire. He's the one that lights it. He's the one that can put it out. It is God. Why? Because above all else, God is sovereign. Does God determine your days? Absolutely. As a matter of fact, let me say that it is he that's determined your days. He knows the beginning and he knows how it's gonna be. He even determines where you are going to be born. Think about this for a second. Because if we get in his habit of thinking that God is not as sovereign as we think he is, but he really is, he determines when you're gonna live, how long you're gonna live. He even determines where you're gonna live. The fact that you were born in Chicago or Iowa, that's God. The scriptures are clear on that. If you happen to be forced to be born in a part of the world, a country where things are, Dr. Flowers is wrong on that. God is in control. And you don't have to think he is for it to be so. We keep seeing God stating these things. God is not predicting things. And it's not that God steps back and let's, huh, I see how this is gonna happen. And because I see how it's gonna happen, let me step in. I see he's gonna do that. So let me go in and say that he's gonna do that. It's not that God has a cheat sheet, the cheat codes and sees what's gonna happen and then makes a statement. No, God does these things. And he does them to fulfill his purpose. If God states that a king is going to come out of Judah, he's not reading the tea leaves. He's not predicting. He didn't go to Vegas and get odds on this. No, he is the one that says it is going to be. That's why we trust in his words and no other words have the efforts at the same level as he is. God is God alone. God and God alone. God and God alone. And so everything thus far we're seeing line up with what he's predicted. By the way guys, Nelson, remember, and I wanna keep reminding you how we're reading this thing, where we've been reading it, all of us have been reading it the same way. I have noticed, you all have not noticed this. Maybe you have, maybe you haven't. But I have noticed from the beginning up to now, from the beginning up to now, many are the plans of the person's heart, but it is the Lord's purpose that prevails. Amen, amen. I have noticed that a lot of you thought this way, and a lot of you thought that way at the beginning, and even more and more, a lot of our thinking is coming together. And I'm not saying anything that's not, I've just simply being as plain Jane in the scriptures as possible. I haven't read in, I don't think I have, you all tell me, but I haven't, I don't think I've read into anything because the purpose of this Bible study is not to find an answer of something. The purpose is to see what God is doing, but to use the scriptures. And so when we see certain things, we can always run back and look at the scriptures. What I asked earlier, why did God send this evil spirit upon Saul? And what did Dutch do? Because to make sure that this separate does not depart Judah. Why? Because God said so. And if God says it, it's going to come to be. That's the important thing. Now, I'll end on this. We haven't gotten there yet. We have not gotten there yet, but I wanna make sure that we all understand this. When God makes a statement, should we trust it? Of course, that's obvious, yes Corey? That is an obvious yes. No, I didn't say what did Dutch do. No, I asked what did Dutch answer the question. But God made a statement. He says that I will put my spirit in you, cause you to walk in my teachings. You will never turn away from me. I will never turn away from you. God says that he's given or told us that all that he's gonna give to the son, they will come, all of them, all of the ones that he gives to the son. He didn't say how many of them, he didn't say their names, but all the ones that he has given, so whoever has come are the ones that he's given, and all of them will come. And he says he won't lose any of them. And he tells us that we shall never be cast out. This is the problem that I have with people who want to second guess the word of God. This is not a new thing. If God can't keep his promise in relation to his salvation, then he's not God. He's not a guy that we can't turn to, but we've seen throughout the scriptures that God says it's gonna be, and God is accurate. As accurate as that person was with that slingshot, as deadly accurate as that person was with that slingshot, God even more so. And so when we get to where he's making other promises about us, you can take it to the bank. Amen.