Looking at the Heart

All right, thank you for that.

If you'll turn into your Bible, so let's go ahead

and get in our place, the First Samuel. If you'll

turn to chapter sixteen of First Samuel. And as you turn,

I'd like you to think back. I want you to

to consider and and remember, has there been a time

in your life where you where you've assumed something about

someone just by looking at them, Where you've looked at

somebody's appearance, their their clothing, or the way that they act,

maybe the car that they drive, and you've made assumptions

about them. You know, you've heard that we have a

church league basketball team. Uh, so many of you have

heard that we have a church league basketball team that

we're participating on. In Jonathan to share with you that

that he's on that team, and I'm on that team

as well. Uh, the Bethesda Bumblebees. There's several of us

out here repping. But you know, you may look at

us and with the as the Bonebees are our church

league basketball team, and you may have the assumption that

we are just a bunch of washed up former middle

school and high school basketball players.

You're right, you're right, and you may look.

At us and you know your assumption about us and

in the way that that we carry ourselves or who

we are, that you know, we maybe not are having

too much success on the court, but you know, I'm

here to.

Tell you today that we are in first place. Amen.

Amen, through nine games, we are in first place out

of eight teams.

We have the best record in the league. You know,

we may not look.

Like it, but we are basically the Baptist version of

the Dream Team, you know. And I think you know selfishly,

I'm Michael Jordan and then everybody else is all just

a bunch of Christian laighteners.

Uh. But just hang on to that, you know.

As we come to this passage today here in First

Samuel sixteen, if you hold your place there, we're gonna

see that there are those who look at David who

will eventually be king, who look at him and see

his appearance and they have no expectation that he is

a king, or they don't look at him and expect

him to be a king because he doesn't display the

attributes that the kings have displayed in the past. He

doesn't just display the attributes that they would expect from

somebody who were to be king. And we come to

this place, and Saul he has been rejected. Saul has

been king of Israel, and he's been rejected by the

Lord because Saul refused to destroy the entirety of the Amalekites.

He kept their king alive and kept some of their

plunder for himself, but he was commanded to and so

the Lord rejected Saul ultimately because Saul had rejected the Lord.

And now Samuel here in this passage we're going to read,

he has been sent by God to retrieve the person

who God has chosen to be the next king of Israel,

and that person is the unexpected shepherd boy David. And

so for us as we look at this passage today,

I think one of the things that we need to

consider and really focus on is that when we look

at at others when we evaluate people, are we looking

on their outer appearance and making judgments or are we

judging people based on their hearts like God does. So,

if you'll turn with me, let's look in first Samuel sixteen,

verse one. If you'll stand it says in verse one,

the Lord said to Samuel, how long will you grieve

over Saul?

Since I've rejected him from being king? Over Israel. Fill

your horn with oil, and go.

I will send you to Jesse, the Bethlehemite, for I

provided for myself a king among his sons. And Samuel said,

how can I go? If Saul here's it, he will

kill me. And the Lord said, take a heffer with

you and say, I've come to sacrifice to the Lord,

and invite Jesse to the sacrifice. And I will show

you what you shall do, and you shall anoint for

me him whom I declare to you Verse four. Samuel

did what the Lord commanded and came to Bethlehem. The

elders of the city came to meet him, trembling and said,

do you come peaceably? And he said, peaceably, I have

come to sacrifice to the Lord. Consecrate yourselves and come

with me to the sacrifice. And he consecrated Jesse and

his sons and invited them to the sacrifice. When they came,

he looked on Eliab and thought, surely the Lord's anointed

is before him. But the Lord said to Samuel, do

not look on his appearance or on the height of

his stature, because I have rejected him. For the Lord

sees not as man sees man looks on the houred appearance.

But the Lord looks on the heart.

Then Jesse called a Benedab and made him pass before Samuel,

and he said, neither has the Lord chosen this one.

Verse nine.

Then Jesse made Shama pass by, and he said, neither

has the Lord chosen this one. And Jesse made seven

of his sons passed before Samuel, and Samuel said to Jesse,

the Lord has not chosen these Verse eleven. Then Samuel

said to Jesse, are all your sons here? And he said,

there remains yet the youngest. But behold, he's keeping the sheep.

And Samuel said to Jesse, send and get him, for

we will not sit down till he comes here.

And he sent and brought him in.

Now he was ruddy and had beautiful eyes, and was handsome,

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 his brothers.

And the spirit of the Lord rushed upon David from

that day forward, and Samuel rose up and went to Rama,

Let's pray, Lord, we thank you for your faithfulness. Today God,

we thank you for this passage. And Lord, I pray

that what I have prepared, God, that you would remove

me from it. God, that ultimately that that you would

shine through through the scripture. Father, you would shine through

this message. Lord, I pray that we would take time

to evaluate. Lord, that we would not just hear the

word and and and learn and gain knowledge, but the Father,

that we would have applied knowledge. God, that we would

practice wisdom by by seeing what your words said as

God and living it out and evaluating our hearts and

seeing where we can grow today. And so Lord, we

praise you, We thank you for your faithfulness. We thank

you for this passage. Be with us as we read, Lord,

as we study in Jesus name.

Amen.

And so the first point you can be seated, The

first point that you'll see. The thing that I wanted

to focus on today, for number one is that man

is fearful and God is sovereign. And so we see

compare and contrast. You know, Samuel is fearful here, but

God is sovereign. You know, Saul has been rejected by

God as king, as I said before, and.

So Samuel grieves.

Samuel's grieving over possibly the loss of Saul's dynasty and kingship.

Maybe for Saul personally, maybe just because of Saul's disobedience.

But Samuel, he grieves, and he's struggling with this loss

of Saul's kingship. But nonetheless, the Lord he rebukes Samuel.

He rebukes him. He says, why why are you grieving?

How long will you grieve over Saul?

Go? For I have provided a new king. See the

Lord here.

He gives Samuel very clear instructions, instructions that I read

and I see, and I think that it should instill

confidence in Samuel.

When the Lord of hosts.

When God Almighty gives you instructions and tells you to

go and do something and says that he is you know,

I've provided for myself a king, is what he tells

Samuel to me, this should instill confidence. And why I

think the answer is that we find peace and knowing

that God is in control. Right, we find peace and

knowing that God is sovereign, that he has a plan, right,

that God is in control of all things, and so

even in our sorrow, he is in control. And so

God tells Samuel, we just read to go to take

his horn and to fill it with oil, and to

go because he has chosen this new king. And so

the sovereign God of creation, in control of all things,

tells this grieving prophet that this prophet who is struggling

to let go of what has been, he's struggling to

let go of Saul, right, because Saul has now been

rejected by the Lord. And he tells him to go.

There's a new king that I have provided, and it

should provide Samuel with confidence. But instead we see that

Samuel is paralyzed. He's paralyzed with grief, and he's paralyzed

with fear. He's fearful that if he follows the instructions

we just read, that Saul will kill him.

Right.

He fears that Saul will feel betrayal, and so Saul

will come after him and kill him if the Lord goes.

But the Lord commands him to go anyway, and he

sends Samuel with a partnering purpose to take a heifer

and to sacrifice it in Bethlehem with the elders and

with Jesse and his sons. And so we see that

finally Samuel, he is obedient, and he goes even in

the midst of his fear, because the Lord is sovereign

and he is in control and many of you know

Jonathan has mentioned just a minute ago, and Devin as well. Tonight,

I'll be ordained hopefully. You know, I know that God

he has called me to say as a pastor. You know,

I'm confident in this, that the God has placed his

call in my life for several years and it's been

building up to this point today where we'll make it official.

But honestly, you know, to be real with all of you,

this invokes in me a little bit of fear. I

think it's healthy for me to have some anxieties and

some fears about this call that God has placed on

my life. It's healthy for me to have some worries.

I trust that the Lord is sovereign, I trust that

he is in control. I trust that He has called

me to this. But in a way I am fearful.

You know, I have anxieties about the pressure of caring

for souls. You know that the Lord, as a pastor,

as an elder, he is going to entrust me with

the souls of people, and specifically here Bethesda, with the students,

and so to be responsible in part for that is

a great, great responsibility. And so there's there's fears and

there's anxieties that come with that.

Because I'm just a man and I'm a sinner.

I have anxieties and fears about the attack acts that

will clearly.

Come from the enemy. You know, in my time in ministry.

Unordained, I've been serving here Bethesa for a long time

and and the you know, the enemy has attacked. There's

been times where he has discouraged me. There's been times

where he has attacked us as a as a body.

There's been times where he has attacked me personally. And

at times I'm fearful of the attacks that are going

to come and continue to come as I step further

into ministry. There are times where I'm fearful, uh that

there's a little bit of a fright over the standard

that I will be held to as an elder. That

you know, I know that I'm a sinner, I know

that I have fallen short, but I'm called to be

above approach as an elder, and so there's fear. There's

healthy anxiety of or whether you know, Lord, will I

be preserved?

What will I do right? Will I follow your lead?

But where would I be if I allowed these fears

and these anxieties to hinder me from doing what the

world has called me to do.

You have a friend who.

He was called in the ministry, and he went through

a season where he was running from it, and he

was never never pleased, he was never happy. And so

when we run from God's call because of fear, anxieties,

or whatever it may be, we will never find true

peace and never find true joy if we are not

faithful to go to where the Lord has called us.

And so if I am not faithful to go where

the Lord has called me in this, despite my fears

and despite my anxieties, then I will never receive his

blessing in that. Now I believe that the Lord has

called me to this, and it's okay to have some

healthy fear and anxiety.

Over the Lord's call. But I've got to trust that

he has a plan.

I have to trust that the Lord is in control right,

that the Lord is sovereign, that though I may be anxious,

he is not, And though I may have some fears,

he does not. And for Samuel, he had fears, he

had anxieties that they're king, their first king right has fallen.

He's been rejected by God, and so what are we

gonna do. He's in a panic. What are we gonna do?

You know, he's grieving and he is upset over this loss.

But the Lord has a plan and he tells Samuel

to go. And what the Lord desires from Samuel here

is obedience to go. And so when the Lord calls

you to something, and this is very easily applied, will

you go when the Lord calls you to something, whatever

it is, will you go? Or will you remain paralyzed

in fear? Will you trust that the good Shepherd right,

the one who cares for us, right, who created you, right,

who holds you in the palm of his.

Hand, that he has a plan for.

You, you know, Just to give you a few examples,

the Lord maybe calling some of you in this room

to share the Gospel with an unbelieving family member.

I think everybody in this.

Room probably has some sort of family member or extended

friend who does not know the Lord.

And maybe the Lord is calling you to share the

gospel with them.

And so the question is will you refuse because you're fearful,

or will you share? He may be calling some of

you to begin giving generously. Will you refuse because of

the fear that it will the hit that will come

on your bank account, or will you be faithful to

give as the Lord has called you. There's some in

this room who maybe the Lord has called you to

serve on a mission trip and be as we've provided

many opportunities for us to go on mission, and we

see that this is very important, and maybe you feel called.

You see the announcements about the trip to Eastern Europe

to Whaka, all these trips that are coming up, and

in all the opportunities that we have for missions, and

you feel the Lord calling you to that. But there's

some fears about leaving the comfort of your bubble here

in America, and so in the midst of that fear,

will you go? Some in this room may feel the

Lord is calling you to abstain from drinking alcohol. So

the question is will you fear sorry, will you refuse

the Lord call because a fear of maybe judgment from

others if you were to quit and to leave maybe

a friend group or whatever it may be, or will

you abstain? You know, recently we went through Matthew six.

Jonathan was preaching through that and there were some spiritual

disciplines that we went over, you know, fasting and praying,

giving to the needy. So the question is that the

Lord is calling each and every single one of us

to those things. And so will we be paralyzed by

fear right to not do what the Lord has called us?

Or will we go, will we fast, will we pray?

Will we give?

Will we take steps to follow the Lord's leading wherever

he has called us? Or will we be paralyzed with fear?

You know, my encouragement to you today as we come

to this, is that we cannot allow our fears. We

cannot allow our anxieties to hinder us from being obedient

to where the Lord has called us. And many times

when we see this is the core of our disobedience.

The core of our fear is a fear of man versus,

a fear of go. Samuel was more fearful of Saul

than he was of the Lord. And so for you,

are you more fearful of the opinions of the thoughts

of others? Or do you fear the Lord more enough

that you would follow him and be obedient to where

he has called you? Church, we must be obedient to

where the Lord has called us, because we fear him.

He look with me in verse six let's read says.

When they came, he looked on eli Ab and thought,

surely the Lord's anointed is before him. But the Lord

said to Samuel, do not look on his appearance or

in the height of his stature, because I have rejected him.

For the Lord sees not as man sees. Man looks

on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.

Then Jesse called Abinadab and made him pass before Samuel,

and he said, neither has the Lord chosen this one.

Then Jesse made Shama pass by, and he said, neither

has the Lord.

Chosen this one.

And Jesse made seven of his sons passed before Samuel,

and Samuel said to Jesse, the Lord has not chosen these.

Then Samuel said to Jesse, are all your sons here?

And he said that remains yet the youngest. But behold,

he's keeping the sheep. And Samuel said to Jesse, send

and get him, for we will not sit down till

he comes here. So our second point for today. If

you look, you know man is fearful, like I said,

and we see that God is sovereign even in our fear.

But now man he looks on appearance, But God he

looks on the heart. Man looks on appearance, but God

looks on the heart.

You know.

In First Samuel, chapter nine, a few chapters prior to

where we're at today, there's a description of Saul. Saul's

a He's the son of a wealthy Benjamin night man

named Kish, and Saul was described as a handsome man,

actually the most handsome man in all of Israel. He

was a head taller than any of the people. He

had these attributes that many would respect of a king,

as I was talking earlier, and so Samuel has these presuppositions,

this idea of what is a king supposed to look like.

A king should be handsome like Saul.

Right, a king should be tall like Saul, or strong

like Saul, powerful like Saul.

And he has this idea in his head.

And so the first of Jesse's sons comes before him, Eliab,

and Samuel's first thought is that this must be the one.

He fits the criteria of a king. Right, he is strong,

he is tall, he is handsome. Surely he is the

Lord's anointed. But God rejected.

Eli Ab justice he had rejected Saul.

And one after another we just read that all of

David's brothers, handsome, tall and strong, come before Saul, and

each one is rejected. And the reason that they're rejected,

we see, we just read is in verse seven, which

is the believe, the focal point of this the focal

verse of this entire chapter. Do not look on his

appearance or of his stature, because I rejected him. For

the Lord sees not as man sees. Man looks on

the ouward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.

So Samuel, he's observing these men, these sons of Jesse,

and thinking, surely this is the one that the Lord

has anointed, Surely this is the king to come, just

based off of what they look like on the outside,

because of this idea that he has of what a

king is, because of what he has seen from Saul.

You know, anybody could have come forward, strong, mighty, iron man,

thor superman could have come before Samuel in that moment,

and he would have been rejected by the Lord because

he was not the one that God had chosen. Because

God looks at the heart, and he has not looked

at ourward appearance. And so Saul was like David's brothers, handsome,

strong and tall, but the Lord rejected him because the

Lord saw his heart. And ultimately, as I said, Saul

had rejected the Lord. And so what was it then?

What was it that made David so special? Why is

David the king? You know, he doesn't look at on

the outside.

Like his brothers.

He's shorter, he's not as strong, he's younger, he's just

a shepherd boy. What is it about David that makes

him so special that makes him the one that is

the Lord's anointed.

I think it's very clear.

That it has nothing to do with David's outward appearance,

but has everything to do with his heart.

And Scripture tells us prior to this that David was

what we know it.

He was a man after God's own heart, and so

it was David's heart that the Lord saw. He rejected

his brothers because their hearts were not right before him,

but David's heart was right before God. And so God

chose David not based on his outward appearance, but based

on his heart. You know, I'm gonna take a second

and I'm gonna pick He doesn't know I'm doing this.

I'm gonna pick on Pastor Jonathan. I love picking on

Pastor Jonathan any opportunity I get, I love to pick

on him. You know, I remember the first time that

I saw Pastor Jonathan, not met him yet, but just

observed him. And it's funny I mentioned before we were

playing church leagu basketball. It was actually in a church

league basketball game. He was a pastor at another church

up the road, and he was playing actually with Bethesda's

basketball team. And I was, you know, I was a fifteen,

sixteen year old kid, and I was a punk man,

I really was. But I saw Jonathan on the court

with his long hair almost to his shoulders, looking like Fabio,

as if I have any room to talk, because my

hair has always been long. And honestly, I was judging

pretty hard, you know, I joke, but in that moment,

I judged Jonathan playfully about about his looks, about his hair.

You know, I thought I had an idea of who

Jonathan was just by looking at his hours appearance, by

looking at his hair. But the truth is he was

growing out of his hair for a selfless a good reason,

a reason that I wasn't aware of.

But I couldn't see his heart. I could only see

his outward appearance.

You know, in this culture, we're so we're so fixated

and focused on the out appearance, the outward appearance, on

looking our best for those around us, on judging people

based on how they look. You know, many of us

we go to the gym to try to get our

bodies in shape. We dress up nice, we buy new cars,

we wear nice jewelry, students, we strive for straight a's,

we build our wealth. And these things are not inherently wrong,

hear me. But in the grand scheme of things, they

mean nothing. In the grand scheme of things, these things

are temporal, they're finite, and they mean nothing. They're outward

and these things, as we said, you know, we cannot

store treasures on earth because when we die, they will

not come with us, and so we should store our

treasures in heaven.

But we tend to do the opposite. See.

Salvation in a right heart before God is not achieved

by what we can make ourselves look like on the

outside to others. It is given to those salvation whose

hearts are made right before God by Christ. Salvation is

a free gift that is given to us, and it

is only by the work of Christ that we can

be saved. And this affects our hearts, and so it

matters not what we look like on the outside. It

matters not how holy we can make ourselves look to

the person sitting next to us. What matters is whether

our hearts are right before God, because God looks at

our hearts.

And so I encourage you.

Know, I think I would be in the wrong not

to ask you to evaluate yourself here? Are we focusing

on the wrong things? Are we grading others worth and

value based on the way that they.

Look little what we look like? He desires our hearts?

Do we spend time judging people based on the way

they appear to us?

Do we demean the homeless man that sits on the corner?

Do we hate the person that has a political sticker

on their car that's different than our stance in our opinions?

Do we treat wrongly the people that look different from us?

These are good questions to ask, and I think that

we should all evaluate this. Are we judging on outward appearance?

But I think that we can also spin this back

towards us. Are you trying to clean yourself up on

the outside to earn salvation? Have you tried to clean

yourself up to earn God's favor. Are you putting on

a show of holiness for the people in this room?

Are you practicing back to Matthew six, are you practicing

righteousness before other people to be seen by them? Our

temptation is to put on a show, to put on

a front. And I cannot look at you and your appearance.

I cannot look at the clothes that you wear. I

cannot look at the way that you walk. I cannot

look at your hair. There's nothing I can look at

and evaluate where your heart is before God.

And you can fool me. You can fool your pastures.

You can fool your wife, your husband, your children, your coworkers,

whatever it may be, But you cannot fool God. God

sees your heart, He knows your heart. Are we focusing

on the wrong things? Are we putting on a facade?

You know, recently I went to a conference. This is

well over a year ago, and it was a discipleship conference.

In these discipleship conferences that we go to every once

in a while that there are breakout sessions. There are

usually main sessions where somebody will preach to us or

speak to us, and then we go to different breakout

sessions that you get to learn on a more focused

topic or theme. And I went to one breakout session

where the topic in the theme was about the use

of phones for students and guarding their hearts against pornography

and things on their phones.

And you know, I want to share with you I think.

That And this is not me taking a shot at

the people that were leading this group, but I went

to this breakout session, and honestly, I was discouraged. I

was discouraged by the points that were made and the

focus of this time. You see, in this time, they

spent an hour telling us the kids are prone to

use their phones far more than they need to write

that the kids, like anybody, struggle with lust, and they

have great access to things that they should not be

looking at.

Right as we all do.

And so this breakout session spent an hour of telling us, well,

how can we stop kids from doing that? Practically, we

can set up boundaries their phones, you know, with screen time,

we can take their phones from them.

They're apps that.

We can use like coven in Eyes, where we can

monitor their use and make sure that they're refraining from

from looking at things that they should not.

And I think, again, those are good things and.

We should take practical steps to guard our hearts against lust,

against pornography, or any other sin. But the truth is

that I left that meeting, I left that breakout session,

and I was discouraged because I felt as if for

an hour we had talked about how can we change

the student's actions, and we never even talked about how

to change the student's heart. If we don't address the

root issue of sin, then it will never be fixed.

Practical boundaries can be set up, and these are good things.

But practical boundaries will eventually fade, and they will eventually fail.

We will fall short.

We will find a way, some other way to get

the thing that our heart desires sinfully, And so our

goal must be to affect the heart.

Cleaning up the outside is not a bad thing.

But if we clean up the outside while the inside

is dirty, then who cares what the outside looks like.

God looks not on the outward appearance, but he looks

on the heart. So it matters not how much we

can make ourselves look holy on the outside.

It matters not.

How much or how holy we can appear to the

person sitting next to us. What matters is whether our

hearts have been changed by Christ, and with a heart

changed by Christ, holiness will follow. And so we've seen

today that man is fearful. Samuel was fearful, but God

is still sovereign. Right, the man looks on the outer appearance,

but the Lord looks on the heart. And lastly, the

third point, man annoints with oil, but God annoints with

his spirit. If you read again with me, we'll pick

up in verse two twelve, and we'll read through verse thirteen.

Scripture says, and he sent and brought him in.

Now he was ruddy and had beautiful eyes, and was handsome,

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 his brothers. And the spirit of

the Lord rushed upon David from that day forward, and

Samuel rose up and went to Rama. You know, in

chapter eight of this this passage this book, Israel had

demanded a king from God. They had ultimately rejected that

the Lord was king over them. They rejected his leadership

as king over their nation. And they requested that the

Lord will provide them an earthly king, somebody to lead them.

Because Samuel's sons were in sin, and there was nobody

to follow him as judge. And the Lord he gave

them over to this desire. He granted them their wish

that they could have a king, an earthly king, a man.

But when he does this, you know I want you

to I'm gonna read for you know. I want you

to listen to the language that the Lord uses when

he grants their request. In chapter eight, verse twenty two,

you don't have to turn there, it says, and the

Lord said to Samuel, obey their voice and make them

a king.

Obey their voice and make them a king.

But if you look with me, how in chapter sixteen

does the language change.

The Lord says, make them a king.

But in verse one of chapter sixteen he says, fill

your horn with oil and go.

I will send you to Jesse, the beth of that might.

For I have provided for myself a king, and so

make them a king, versus I have provided for myself

a king. These contrasting expressions, they stress that while Saul

was the people's king, David was the Lord's king. David

was the Lord's king. He had not been rejected by.

God, but Saul had.

And we see confirmation in this passage that David was

the Lord's anointed, that David was the Lord's king. The

anointing of David here is linked with David's succession of

the Holy Spirit. He's anointed with oil and the Holy

Spirit rushes over him. And we know that the Holy

Spirit plays an active role in the life of believers today.

We believe that we have to believe that right, that

we are en dwelt by the Holy Spirit as believers,

and that he plays an active part in our every

single day life. He convicts us of our sin, he

leads us to repentance, right, he pushes us forward in

practicing the fruits of the Spirit and practicing righteousness.

And he's been that way ever since Pentecost.

And the Spirit's role was different in the Old Testament

compared to the New Testament. But the belief that the

work of the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament is

only external and that it is only temporary, I think

contradicts scripture. The Holy Spirit's role, yes, is different in

the Old Testament. But from that day forward, the scripture

said the Spirit of the Lord rushed upon David from

that day forward. And to believe that this Holy Spirit's

role is only external that he was only rushed over

David for a moment.

It was temporary. I think it disregards the.

Witness of Psalm fifty one, and it's a familiar passage

we know. I'll read a few verses out of it.

It says, create in me.

A clean heart, Oh God, and renew a right spirit

within me.

Cast me not away from your presence, and take not

your Holy Spirit from me. Restore me to the joy

of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit.

David's only hope as king, David's only hope for salvation

is in the continued presence of the Holy Spirit who

first rushed upon him when Samuel anointed him with oil.

You know, we look in the book of Zachariah and

we see a situation where Israel has exited captivity right

and for about twenty years, they've been exiled from Babylon,

and the Temple in Jerusalem had been destroyed prior, and

so that the desire of the people is to rebuild

the temple, and so they had made some progress to

re establish its foundation, but opposition had prevented them from

being able to build it up anymore. They were discouraged,

and they even considered it to be a day. Scripture

says a day of small things, and so even faithful

obedience to God at this point was viewed as useless

by many. But what were God's words to Zarubabil To

accomplish the work of God. To accomplish his plan and

his work, Israel must work not by might nor by power,

but by his spirit. Israel's only hope for restoration was

by the spirit of God. You know, many of us

in this room we genuinely seek to do good things

for the Lord. We have a desire to to please

the Lord.

Right.

We have a desire to live out our faith, to

allow others to see our faith, and to help others

because Christ has helped us. You know, you may seek

here to see Bethesda grow. I think we all have

that desire that but as it would grow. I mean,

every Thursday we pray that Bethesda would grow for the

purpose that we can go. You may seek, as I

said earlier, that your family members come to Christ, that

those in your family or your friends that do not

know Him and have been running and running and running,

that they would come to Christ in repentance and salvation.

You know, you may seek to grow your talents for

the purpose of edifying the church, right, to build your

talents and your skills and to harness them so that

you can build up this church and serve this church

and the Lord. Well, you know, we seek, and we seek,

and we seek to do great things for the Kingdom.

But apart from the Spirit, our efforts are in vain.

Apart from God and his Spirit within us, leading us

and guiding us, our efforts are in vain. You know,

I'm unable to be a catalyst for spiritual growth in

the life of these students who I'm with every week.

Apart from the spirit, I'm unable. You're unable to reach

the loved one that is lost and to really affect

their hearts apart from the spirit. But as we are

incapable of making disciples and of seeing growth in our

church apart from the spirit. See, without the spirit, the

oil annointed over David was just that.

It was oil.

And our efforts for the Kingdom are empty efforts if

we rely on our own strength, these efforts are just oil.

As we seek God and seek to expand His kingdom

on earth as it is in heaven, let us not

work by might, nor by power, but by the Spirit

of God, who alone is capable to save and produce growth.

It is good that we put forth effort. It is

good that we strive for holiness.

It is good that we strive to see Bethesda grow,

and to implement programs, and to do things for the

purpose of growing this church and growing our community and

sharing the Gospel and building up the kingdom. These are

good things and we should continue to do them. But

apart from the Spirit, they are all in vain and

they mean nothing. Without the Holy Spirit, we will see

no fruit. Any growth that we see Bethesda will fade.

It will be.

Ingenuine apart from the Spirit of God. And so hear

me this morning. Man annoyance with oil, but God annoyance

with his spirit.

You know.

As we close and the band, you guys can come forward. David,

as we said, was not the expected king. He was

not the one who people expected to be king based

on his outward appearance. Expected something more, someone that fit

more of the description of Saul. But David was the

Lord's chosen and he's the greatest earthly king that we've

ever seen. And can I share with you today, And

this is the most important thing that I'll say today,

Jesus is the greater David. Jesus was not the king

that people expected. He was only a carpenter's son. He

was a Nazarene. Jesus wasn't clothed in kingly robes, riding

into Jerusalem on a white stallion. But we see that

when Jesus rode into Jerusalem he was on a donkey's colt.

Jesus didn't come with a military and arsenal that was

ready to overthrow the Roman Empire as the people wanted,

the long awaited messiah, the long awaited king, long expected

king stood before his own people, and they rejected him

because on the outside he did not look like what

they expected and desired. And so hear me this morning, church,

God looks not on outward appearance.

He looks on the heart. And so when he looks

at your heart, what will you see When he looks

on your heart, what will you see?

Will he see a heart that has been made clean

by the blood of his son. And so today, don't

wait to come to Jesus until you clean your life up.

Come to Jesus today and watch him transform your life

and cleanse you from the inside out. Let's pray what

are we thank you for your faithfulness. We thank you

God that You've sent your son into this world to

die for sinners like us. God, that while we were

yet sinners, Christ died for us.

God.

And that salvation cannot be earned. God, we thank you

for that, because if salvation could be earned, none of

us would earn it. But God, by by your son,

today we can be saved. And Lord, we thank you

that you look not on our outward appearance, God, but

that you judge us by our hearts. And when I

pray that today, that we would evaluate our hearts God,

that we would desire to make our hearts right before you.

That we would stop.

Trying to fix ourselves up on the outside to look

nice for the people around us, to look holy for

the people around us.

But the Lord, we would focus solely on pleasing You.

Want to pray today that your people would respond God,

that as you have spoken, as you have moved, God,

that we would respond, that we would pursue you and

point our hearts in worship towards You. In Jesus name,

we pray Yes,