100% Maybe

Ep. 40 - The Life of David: The Anointing & Psalm 139

• CLC Gulf Breeze • Season 1 • Episode 40

Share episode

Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.

0:00 | 47:19

Send us Fan Mail

Before David was a king, a warrior, or a worship leader, he was a shepherd in a field, largely unseen by those around him, but fully known by God.

In this episode of 100% Maybe, we kick off our 'Life of David' series and explore 1 Samuel 16:1-13 and Psalm 139.  We reflect on what it means to be intimately known by God in both the beautiful and broken parts of our lives. We discuss God's ability to see beyond outward appearances and into the heart, David's remarkable prayer, "Search me, O God," and the reality that perhaps David's defining characteristic wasn't his accomplishments, but a continual willingness to repent and return to the Lord.

If you've ever felt overlooked, misunderstood, or uncertain about who you are, this conversation is a reminder that you are already seen, already known, and deeply loved by the God who formed you.


👇 Subscribe & Join Us on YouTube For More Encouraging Content: 
🔗    / @clcgulfbreeze    
✨ Follow for more conversations on faith, Scripture, and real life.
🌐  clc.life

SPEAKER_00

Hey guys, what's going on with y'all? Welcome back to 100% maybe. Hope y'all are doing well. Scott. I do too. Hope you're doing it. I'm good. Um, you're looking great. You look like you not only survived VBS, but possibly thrived during BBS. Did it was the baptism service that almost took me out. How was the water for that?

SPEAKER_01

Water was slimy, pretty slimy. It was beautiful, but man, the seaweed is rough. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00

It's that little slimy stuff. Yeah, you got that, plus the sargassum, the big thick. All over the place. It's kind of a rough, rough go of it out there. But uh, that was amazing. I heard just incredible things, incredible stories, people coming to recognize their faith, kids, teenagers, grownups, teenagers, they just kept coming.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. 60-ish. I don't know what the final number is. Vicky's got it, but it was about 60 people that we were we baptized. Yeah. And um there were, so usually in a baptism service, we got tons of people in the water helping because sometimes families will go down at the same time. So um, for the first 20 minutes, it's just Kristen and I. And they're children, but man, they're 50-pound sandbags, right? So it's like pick it up, put it down. And um eventually I look around like, where's everybody at? And there was some cool stuff that was going on. Everybody was helping trying to organize folks. But uh, we had this sweet lady from the church that um is was in a wheelchair, and so they had gotten a wheelchair from the fire department, and they were getting her down the beach because she was gonna be baptized. So Clint was in on all that. And I mean, we had guys coming out that were big guys that need to be baptized, and it was me. And I'm like, okay, listen, I'll I can get you down, but you're gonna have to help me get you.

SPEAKER_00

We're gonna need the Holy Spirit to intervene here.

SPEAKER_01

Fall into the water, I'll stick your head under, and then you know, stand up. It was kind of that. Didn't lose anybody.

SPEAKER_00

That's good.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, that's good. We can big celebration.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. I know those are those are so fun, so life-giving. It's just so so cool to get to celebrate.

SPEAKER_01

Super spiritual, beautiful moment. Yeah. The student or the kids just you know, the joy on their in their on their faces and the families cheering. Oh man, it's uh it's awesome. It's a great way to end vacation Bible school week with the with what God did in their hearts.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. Perfect. Yeah. Picture too of like the I don't know what what we picture heaven to be like when when uh when a when a uh person comes to faith like that. I mean, that's that's the visual we get from scripture, is like yeah, they're cheering you on, they are with you.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, and and I've I've been a part of faith systems that um we just had a conversation about this where um baptism sometimes is a somber event, very thought, very deep, rich. We've got all the elders around and it's done in that way, and nothing wrong with that, it's just a different approach to it. Um, you know, that's much of what was created about the theology of baptism was done after Jesus had ascended. So they took the understanding of ritual purity from the Jews, and then they morphed it into an initiation rite, and then everybody added their spin to it. Right. Um, so for anybody that gets upset about a way that it's done, we gotta check and go back and look and see you know where where those bases are. And I love celebrating it. I think it's celebrating it is such a powerful moment, but I but I recognize multiple ways to be able to connect.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, for sure. Yeah, well, that's not what this podcast is gonna be about today. It's not baptism. Although we could it almost was. Yeah. Uh it could be if you want. But we are here because we have a new series starting on Sunday. Tell us about what's happened. Tell me the name of the series. The Life of David.

SPEAKER_01

Okay, which is so important because we do these series and we'll come up with the ideas, and I'm excited about the idea. And I just start diving in, and then I'm like, what's the name of it? What's it called? So you'll hear me get on stage and go, we're in a series about David, and everybody's like, oh, just say the name, man. I don't know the name. What is it? The Life of David. The life of David. The life of David. Yeah. And and this is so vitally important for us because David was the not the front runner of the Messiah, that would be John the Baptist or the spirit of Elijah. But David was the archetype for the Messiah. Right. So when you're going through Old Testament and you see David as the second king of Israel, recognized for having a heart after God, um, whether you're reading in Chronicles or whether you're reading in Kings, or we're gonna be in Samuel, depends on how you're gonna get the story. Some of them whitewash his life, some of them tell the brutal story. So David, who has a heart after God, also was an adulterer, also was a murderer. So, but then also but continued to repent and find his heart right. So when Jesus comes along and Israel is looking for a king, they're looking for a David-like king. Warrior, warrior, conqueror, worshipper, yes, you know, um, established uh the the system of worship, uh, you know, brought the the uh ark back into Jerusalem. So we're only able to do part one because we could do this series forever. Yeah, but I've never I've seen a lot of people teach the psalms and then jump back into David's life. We're gonna take a story from David's life, and then we're gonna find a psalm, not not a direct connect to that moment, because I don't think anybody could be able to do that. There's a lot of theories on when these things are written, but a psalm that has that message point in it, and we're gonna connect the two and teach them as uh a way to reflect on the story of David, but also on the heart of God or the theology around God that's shown up in worship. So it this series can have all sorts of cool aspects to it.

SPEAKER_00

I'm excited. There's a lot of uh interesting theological depths in the Psalms that you wonder or I wonder, I don't want to speak for you, you might not wonder this at all. Like because it's poetic, it was song, poem, poetry, reflection. And as we're gonna see in Psalm 139, it's very, very, very theological. So I wonder about how that connects. Like, were those psalm writers, did they even realize what they were digging into theologically? Or are they just expressing some insight, some understanding that they'd been given by the Holy Spirit, prompting by the Lord? You know what I'm saying? Like it's an interesting cause there's a lot of like theological truths about how we understand God that are taken from Psalms. I don't know if people realize that as much, because even in this psalm, you're talking about some of the most clear and defined theological attributes about God's omniscience and omnipresence that you find in all of scripture. It may be the most theological.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, I I think uh uh just like a s a song is written for a different reason these days, the psalms were written, so some are celebratory, so praise, some are worship. Um were built around seem acts of worship, so some were reflective. Some were lamenting. Yeah, some were lamenting, yeah. Um so I think it i they they probably fall into different buckets for what they were, but we hold them all as theological, but some of them are theologically troubling, right? We're gonna read today about m you know David wanting to whatever that we're gonna look at it after a little while, but um I like it. And you're a songwriter. Yeah. I am not, but I'm married to a songwriter, and I know I there is uh so how do I get so for me, I get my uh uh the Spirit of God out and preaching. You and Tammy in such a beautiful way are able to put that to music. So I think it's an expression that's gonna reach different people in different ways, except the power of music. I mean, I can preach a sermon and people get in their car and they're gonna forget it, but you have a good hook. Right. I mean, it's something I'll be singing Christmas songs in July because somebody because I heard one. But what what's anyways, I don't know why I'm throwing that out there. It's what we're doing here is difficult to say the least, because it's two big chunks of scripture in 35 to 40 minutes, and it's theologically rich beyond measure, but uh we're taking a song which is gonna hit a different emotion, maybe and the story that maybe is a parallel.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. The psalm's so highly personal too. Yeah. And when people struggle maybe with how to approach God, the psalms have always been kind of a teaching thing to say, well, you can tell God what's on your heart. Like he's he can handle it. David read some of these psalms and pull punches, you know. So there is something deeply personal and maybe relatable about I don't always feel reverence and all this stuff. Sometimes I'm really wrestling. And you know, I think the Psalms are a beautiful picture of that's that is the life of a human.

SPEAKER_01

For David smash the teeth of my enemies.

SPEAKER_00

I'm like, hell, okay. Yeah, I want to talk about that. Yeah, next week. We'll talk about that next week. All right, so you mentioned Samuel, which is where we're gonna pick up uh the story. I love that this story of David doesn't really start on a battlefield, it doesn't start in this uh giant hall, kingdom hall. Doesn't even start with David. Not really, not even invited. Not really. Tell me a little bit about just who Samuel is, how we get to this moment briefly.

SPEAKER_01

We could we could set this thing up for two hours. So let me give you the the 30 seconds and then you can go find out if you want to. Yeah, read the whole first Samuel, the first 15 chapters. So awesome. Yeah. So Samuel is a prophet of the Lord, he is the mouthpiece of God for Israel. And Israel cried out for a king. Samuel said, You don't want one. God doesn't want you to have one. They said, No, we want one. They're looking around at the surrounding nations. To be fair, at the time they're ruled by judges, and it and I've I often refer to the period of the judges for Israel as the toilet bowl because it started bad and it just went down and it was out. So Samuel is uh is he the last of the judges, I guess? Probably one of the last of the judges.

SPEAKER_00

And in that era, too, very dysfunctional, very disunified. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Uh you know, every there were the twelve tribes and they were ruled by the tribes. There was no figurehead, no king. So they cried out for a king, and God said, They want a king, go give them a king. And then God, God allows him to anoint Saul. And the thing you need to know as we move into this story is that Saul is referenced as head and shoulders of everybody else, um, uh the stature of a warrior. Um, so in your head, you have to realize that Saul looks like a king. He's a Benjamite, so he comes from the tribe of Benjamin, which is a problematic tribe at the end of Judges. I mean, it's a tribe that has to be redeemed because it just don't just read the last section of Judges, and you can't, it's it's not even R-rated, it's worst. But he comes from that tribe, and even in the beginning of Saul's story, he's running from God, he's hiding from this anointing. But but he's anointed as king. And so in his kingship, he does some good things, does some bad things, and then does some terrible things, and God says, I'm done with that dude, and he takes his anointing. There's a there's a point of clarification where as we believe in Jesus, we have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit because of the because of the sacrifice of Jesus and us receiving Jesus, we are cleansed, and then the Holy Spirit comes and lives in our in our hearts, in our lives. In Old Testament, the Spirit of God would settle on somebody for a period of time or for a purpose. And so the anointing or spirit, the anointing of God was on Saul's life until God decided, I'm removing my anointing from you. So he does something, God removes the anointing from Saul, and Samuel makes a declaration, I'm ripping this kingdom away from you, and Samuel leaves. When we pick up in the beginning of chapter 16, you have this really interesting moment where Samuel is clearly bummed out that Saul didn't work out. Yeah. Remember, Samuel's the prophet. Right. And God says, How long are you gonna mourn Saul? Which is a very important point for us. We think the world's over, and God's like, What? No, come on, let's go. We gotta keep going. We got other stuff to do.

SPEAKER_00

The failure of man will not define God's plan. It will not make and break with that. Is that a t-shirt? Could be. That's good. That's a 100% Navy merch. There it is.

SPEAKER_01

The failure of man will not define God's plan. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Write that down.

SPEAKER_01

Write that down quick. Well, what's it's recorded?

SPEAKER_00

Um can I ask you how should we understand like anointing in this way? If if David's going to be anointed, the king's chosen, Saul's anointed, like how how do we hold that?

SPEAKER_01

Twice that's come up. There is a natural anointing, and then there's God's anointing, and the two are usually uh one is probably symbolic of the other. So I heard this this week, so I'm not some brilliant guy that knows this, but Messiah comes from Mashiach, which means to be smeared or to be anointed. So it is a literal transliteration of what happens, the anointing. Okay. So they would they used oil or olive oil to anoint um, but they use olive oil for everything. Right. Medicinal, olive oil. But they would dump olive oil on somebody that was anointed. It was a ceremony to say this person's anointed for king, or there might be a cleansing, or there might be whatever. So when Saul and when Solomon, not Solomon, Samuel, man, I might, I might mess those two up. A lot of S's. Yeah. Samuel is the prophet. When Samuel anoints Saul, he pours the oil on his head and he anoints him as king. And he's about to go do the same thing for David. The problem is, oh, back to your question. Sorry. So anointing in the natural is the pouring of oil over, or we would just probably anoint somebody in this way. Yeah. But it would be the same in picture form with God anointing somebody with the Holy Spirit or with his presence, allowing the Spirit of God to settle on them. I don't know how that works out in the natural, but except for empowering them for a period of time. When you when you read in the story of Judges, um uh strong man. Samson. Samson was anointed to do another S. There's another S. Uh was anointed, was the the Spirit of God settled on him and allowed him to do some pretty miraculous things, but he was also a scoundrel.

SPEAKER_00

Right.

SPEAKER_01

Right. So like he wasn't, you got my point.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, okay. Thank you. Yeah. I had early on, like when I started serving, I had this guy. I love this dude. You probably had this too. But it's just funny. I didn't understand it. I would he'd come up to me, he'd be like, brother, you're anointed. And I'm like, Thank you. What does that mean? What does that mean? What does that mean? Yeah. Um, so that's I I don't know if I hear it as much like in some circles, but you hear it a lot in some theological circles about understanding the recognition, maybe more of that being a more ex exhortation or or encouraging thing about recognizing someone's anointing. So is it just like, hey, I recognize in you like the gifts of the Lord, like the spirit within you?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. It's probably a vernacular that falls into a particular denomination. Let's bring it back. Our church, yeah. Let's bring it back. Our church might say, Man, that was a really good song. It really ministered to me. Yeah. Right. But that there's there was an anointing that was there. Right. We probably use it too. There was a 80s and the 90s, probably the 90s, used it way too much. Everybody was anointed. Can get over, yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, I mean, that's like you're kind of missing the point on some of that, but right. Okay. That's good. I just wanted to ask, since we're going to be going this road, and I know it might be you know newer in the faith. Like, what is that? What does that mean?

SPEAKER_01

So but we the question that was asked in the Bible study this morning, he's asked to fill his horn with oil and set out. Yeah, that would have been part of the the the uniform of the prophet. He had a horn, Ram's horn, and he would have filled that thing with anointing oil and would have set out. The challenge for Sam Samuel, I gotta make sure I got the right ass, is Saul is still alive. Yeah. So the idea that he's gonna go anoint another king while Saul is still alive is a problem. Yeah. So this whole starts off with him nervous. What am I supposed to do? God, this guy's gonna kill me.

SPEAKER_00

Is that interesting to you? Or of note? And then you have the Lord's guy. Samuel is the guy. And even he is bummed out about the whole Saul thing, and he's fearful.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

So you might think, oh, that's the Lord's anointing, you know, that's the Lord's prophet. Where are we going? Let's go, let's go. He's like, um, I don't know about that. Yeah. Yeah. Interesting.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, I don't know what you do with that.

SPEAKER_00

I don't either. But I bet he's excited to fill the fill the horn back up and go out with it. I mean, so he got excited.

SPEAKER_01

What was brought up this morning that I think was really cool, and this might be a little deviation from yours and my conversation, but um, when he mentions Jesse, Samuel would have known that to be um the family of Ruth and Boaz. Right. Grandson of Ruth and Boaz. Yeah, grandson of Ruth and Boaz. So Jericho, Ruth, is that the right road? No, no, no, I'm sorry. No, Ruth is the no, good, good God. I jumped way ahead. I went way back to Rahab. Yeah. So uh the one that was redeemed and the and her redeemer, Kinsman, um uh um when when they went into the the field. So to be able to come back and have that story to realize the lineage that carries on through. So he would have he would have known this family to some degree, right? He's like, it's king.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Family. This is beautiful. This is a story of redemption. Yeah. Right?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, heck yeah. Yeah.

unknown

All right.

SPEAKER_00

So where do you want to go in the story? Well, what stands out? So we gotta get to the psalm. So let's get through the story. Okay, so go through the story. So he goes out, he says, Okay, Lord tells him, take a sacrifice with you, take a heifer. That did not the way that the story reads, we understand there were different offerings for different things. Uh, since there was a celebration and a feast, it probably meant it was a peace and fellowship offering because it was a communal meal. Sin offerings were not uh ever eaten, they were burned and not consumed. So we get this picture of this fellowship, this communion, this coming together, a sacrifice happens, significant maybe. Um and he gets to Jesse and he thinks, well, there's a strong strapping young man, Jesse's oldest son. That's gotta be the king.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. Yeah. So why the sacrifice? So back back to your I'm I'm belaboring the point. He I was trying to move us forward. I don't know, you moved us forward. He was worried about the sacrifice because he didn't want Saul to know. Right. Because it would have been treason. Yeah, I just want to make sure that they make the bridge to why you explained that sacrifice. That sacrifice would not have stood out as, hey, he's going to anoint a king. It was a goodwill sacrifice, it's just a family thing. So this would not have stood out on Saul's radar as Samuel is anoint Samuel's anointing a king. Yeah. So then he has Jesse bring all of consecrate and bring all of his sons forward. And that's what he does. And he sees his oldest son, which is Eliab Eliab. Yep. And he comes out and Samuel says, Woo, this one. Look at this guy. He must be the one. And God says, Nope. Right. I reject him. That reject doesn't mean reject, it means he's not the one. Yeah. Um, he's not the one that's gonna be king. And so Samuel's like, okay. He goes the next one. He goes down this whole thing, but the but the line in there that's most important is that God says, Man looks at the outward appearance, but God looks at the heart. And then they get through all of his sons. Almost get through all the sons that are present. And then he goes, Is that it? Are these all your sons? Yeah, these all your sons. And he goes, Well, there's another, but he's out watching the sheep. Yeah. Wasn't invited to the anointing party. Overlooked. Overlooked. Wasn't invited. Not invited to the party. Yep. Interesting. Now I've I've always I've struggled with that because I was always like, Well, I was, you know, what was it about him that didn't invite him? Great conversation in my last study. To be consecrated, you had to be a certain age. To be invited to that level of ceremony, David was probably not old enough. So that tells you something again, right? Like they were basing this. All of them were trying to filter who day who the anointed one to be would based off their idea of consecration. Right. Or birth or age or look. Yeah. Right? And God's like, and and Samuel's like, where's this kid at? And he's like, well, there's there's one out there, he's ready. And then pops David. Hey guys.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

You know, so they go and they get him. He said, We're not going to sit down until you bring him in.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Brings him in and he anoints him. Then it ends. And oh, it actually says that God's um uh the last part of that section, it says, Then Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the presence of his brothers. That's a problem for David later. And the spirit of the Lord came mightily upon David from that day forward. Samuel then set out and went to Ramah. So now the Spirit of God is settled on David. And everything's perfectly fine from that point forward for his life. Never a problem. Up and to the right. Never a problem. Cannot miss the fact that it would be two decades later before he would become king. He took a long path there. So that's an important truth for people who feel called to do something. Don't read the story of David. Because you may, you may know, you may be called and anointed and never walk in that anointing for 20 years. David was on the run. He was constantly under the being attempted. murder, all of the stuff. Yeah. Until God finally moved him into that role. That's a hard lesson to learn.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Anything you want to say about that?

SPEAKER_00

Well that's good, man.

SPEAKER_01

Well, but it's it's just the truth. You in ministry singing, me in pastoral ministry pastoring, I had not that I had to sit the bench. That's I don't mean that. I had to learn for years and years and years before I could even understand or comprehend how scripture would go together. Not not because I couldn't preach, but just the flow. How do you how do you talk to a person? How do you carry and and honor text? All those things.

SPEAKER_00

It takes years to be able to do that. There was a moment early on where I started serving pretty regularly and then just the opportunity to for kind of a step up more into like vocational ministry came about. And I remember and I'd only been a Christian about a year, year and a half. And understanding the the weight of what it is that I was doing. And I remember the conversation came like uh and I said I don't think I'm ready. And they said great. We don't think you're ready either. I'm glad you agree. Love where you're at keep going you're but you're not ready. So there there's a weightiness to it. I think people do get thrown into stuff too early. Yeah many times it causes way more problems. It's bad for them. It's bad for the people that are in front of them. Yeah. So there's a there is an understanding yeah that you have this calling or this push or this gifting that the Lord is totally in control of but as much as we say okay I know that's the thing I'm ready for it and there is so much work God does to the heart so much understanding so much reflection and correcting and pruning like we could go a million different ways with that scripturally to to show you what God does the refining work. But it that's a great point. Like it takes years and years and years to maybe step into what God has for you.

SPEAKER_01

Well one of the um and I'm I'm by no means perfect in any of this stuff. So I'm not I'm not coaching anybody or saying but one of the one of the best lessons I learned early on was if I don't know say I don't know. Right? Like there's per there's areas of ministry I'd get into and I'm like I don't even feel safe sharing my opinion on that because it is only that because the office of of pastor sometimes comes with the weight of when you say something people are going to take it as gospel. So it's just as important and and not even in non-pastoral roles it's just as important to say I'm not going to give you my opinion on that because I don't even know how I feel about it. So early on I I try I tried to stay in my box and and so it's been a beautiful journey to figure that out and things are opening up and there's still things today I won't comment on. Right. Or or I'll say no everybody's making that up. Nobody knows which is a lot more than people like to think.

SPEAKER_00

Right. So for someone who's not considering like vocational ministry or anything, but we know that hey you have influence in people's life like you can be a light. So what what is the takeaway for for that person who's kind of wrestling through that thought maybe of like God's calling me to do this. We had a great conversation in my group last night about someone prompted to they want to they want to share their faith more. They're you know excited about it and want to want to now do something with it very you know much of in a practical way like what's the you know what's the guidance for that or the takeaway in your mind for for someone who's got this on their heart but doesn't quite know what to do with it.

SPEAKER_01

I I that's a that is an an awesome question. I'm going to make up an answer. Right? Come back to that on my but I but I think this makes sense. I think we are called to share our testimony. So what you can be proficient in is your life and what God has done in your life. And there might be lessons that God has taught you feel free to teach from those lessons what God has shown you. It's when you then all of a sudden become the professional in all of the things that's a problem. Well man I I accepted Christ in my life let's talk about you know predestination let's get you know because that's to be about creation. Yeah or about creation. I read three I've listened to three reels on that and now I can go be a professional on that. Yeah. You know how about um this is what I've learned is what God is showing me and hey I saw this thing. What do you think about that? The questions of Jesus we just came out of prod you know questions are so important in how we learn. So it's the seat that you get in that I think is important. But you know the idea of sharing testimonies and sharing your faith what God has done you will never go wrong in that it doesn't mean that even the lesson you learned in that is correct but if you're if you're coming from that place, you know, God will mold and shape that but if you don't know the nature of God don't try to teach the nature of God. Right. Like be careful on how that works. Um yeah that's I'm not trying to poo poo on anybody I've just sat in churches where I'm going that's that's patently wrong.

SPEAKER_00

Right.

SPEAKER_01

Like what are we doing here? Everybody's like yeah let's go you know I'm like that is absolutely not even scriptural. Right. What?

SPEAKER_00

I know.

SPEAKER_01

You know but um and and I'm sure I've and I know I've done the same thing myself. I there there was early early early in youth ministry and I I had no formal theological training since then have gone back and gone through training and done that stuff. But I remember there was a time I was sitting with a guy who was asking me questions about the Holy Spirit and I was convinced that the Holy Spirit showed up on the day of Pentecost like God created the Holy Spirit that is that is wrong. That is so wrong. But I like and I've never seen that guy again and I thought man I I pray for that guy. Like I hope I did not screw that guy in the city if you're watching this and you're that guy.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah yeah sorry about that you just I'm I apologize.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah I don't even know we know your last name to even track you down. So um Holy Spirit's been here the whole time he's probably out he hovered over the the deep back in the very beginning.

SPEAKER_00

That guy's probably been teaching that same thing is another denomination that I helped create that's right. Well let's jump to Psalm 139 because there's there's a lot here. Yeah we got a long way to go but tell me why this one connected to you with this particular moment because we do not know exactly when in David's life this was written. Yeah this is a big one.

SPEAKER_01

So if you don't know Psalm 139 is maybe the most theologically rich Psalm of all the Psalms now there's a lot of good ones. Psalm 139 it deals with the presence at the the nature and the attributes of God the presence of God the power of God the holiness of God the knowledge the knowledge of God the all-knowing God so those four things are in this Psalm which is a song that David wrote that you scholars are gonna make up hopefully an educated guess when David wrote this there is no way David wrote this early in his ministry. It is so deep and so rich it's probably a reflection of the story of his life and what he's learned about God. And you can connect it to a bunch of different stories of what he's walked through we connected it to this story because the phrase God looks uh man looks at the outward appearance but God looks at the heart David reflects in this psalm about um right in the very beginning you have searched me and you know me the maybe one of the most profound thoughts to me for this sermon I don't even know if it'll come out on Sunday is David doesn't say oh oh Lord you you search the world and you know the world it's a very personal very personal relationship that David has with God. Yeah. If you go into um the Old Testament text people always seem to keep God at arm's length because they're afraid to get smoked? Yeah what's the word there? Yeah how about smoked?

SPEAKER_00

I don't know that's a word good smitten smitten. Yeah they're afraid no that's something good if you get smitten.

SPEAKER_01

Smitten yeah yeah I smitten smote smoke that's bad. But David says you have searched me and you know me. Um now that doesn't mean God's happy with you it just means that there is a personal nature of God that or is there's a nature of God that searches and plods and looks at so in this anointing when David is out watching sheep he's not invited to the consecration party God knows the heart of David and God and God invites him.

SPEAKER_00

No one else put him on the list God said we're not gonna God said uh there's another one how about this thought come on man so God knows all of the things he knows David's life what it's gonna be if you study David's life it is a wild ride. It is a hot mess and God still chooses David. Interesting knowing all the things that are going to happen to and the blood that's gonna be on David's hands David's hands even so much so it's just interesting because he is this is God's uh chosen king this is the precursor to Christ who's gonna do this perfectly and in a way that nobody would have thought coming. And even him telling him at the end of David's life like hey you got you're not gonna be the one to build the the temple because of the blood on your hands it's just too much. Yeah yeah you're a mess. So it's just such a interesting juxtaposition of like a man after God's own heart had such a messy and sinful life in many ways but always found his way back to God. Is that is that the thing? It's gotta be the thing that makes him a man after God's own heart we had that conversation like what is it about David that reflects that in his life because you can't look at the events of his life to say no it's not it's not always the actions.

SPEAKER_01

And and we also don't believe that the actions are what earn you or or bring you into a favored place but the actions can be the outflow of the heart. Right. But there is something about David and it shows up in the very last verses of of 139 where he was always open and available for God to search him. Yeah. Now I don't not but not I can't even say always there were times in his life where he was always shut off. Yeah very well but like when he um uh has adult he he commits adultery with Sheba and then murders her husband um Uriah Uriah and then he's just continuing to live life and then Nathaniel the prophet comes out and tells him a story and then David about a a guy taking a sheep from from a poor guy and David's like let's go kill that guy and Nathaniel says you are that guy and it's a great wonderful moment where David went oh I am that guy so even in his life he had moments where in it was blocked off and wasn't even aware of of where it was at yeah but when he realized it man put on the sack cloth the ashes and started mourning and get his heart right back into place.

SPEAKER_00

Right. And he had to deal with the consequences of those decisions and deal with the sin took care of that in that way. To you because you could either you could read this and say okay the Lord knows me in and out he made me I there's nowhere I can run I can go up down east to west he's there to you is that a comforting thought because that could be I don't want to say terrifying but it could be a uh a thought to depending on your view or how you see God that that could be a good thing or a not so good thing.

SPEAKER_01

That is a deeply personal question Jeff Yes it is it is a comforting thought at times it is a joyous thought at times it is also um a a gut check at times I I can remember um when I was 12, 13 years of age my buddy Craig stayed the night at my house one night and there was in town there was we lived in Destin at the time and there were a bunch of guys that were older than us 15, 16 years of age that had built a half pipe and it was about a quarter mile maybe a mile from our house and these guys are all just a bunch of punks uh not good for us to be around and I I asked my dad I said Dad can Craig and I go after dinner go over and and ride the half pipe with these guys really awesome dad's like absolutely not you're not gonna do that. Like seriously no so but Craig was staying the night that night so um so that night mom and dad they're gonna go out uh to dinner and so he's like okay you guys um get get the dishes cleaned up put away and then y'all can you know do whatever you're gonna you know hang out of the house you know whatever so mom and dad they got in the car they drove off and we got the dishes done in 13 seconds flat and uh I had a um we had we lived in Destin so I have one of these big bikes that have the big fat tires and the big handlebars so Craig jumps on the handlebars and we pedal over to this thing get to the top of the half pipe turn around ready to drop into the half pipe and my father is standing in the at the bottom of the ramp looking up at me that was not a comforting thought right so in the same way as I am in the moment of disobedience so is it can I say that for God and it's the most comforting thought to know that he's everywhere at all time no I think the realization that God is sovereign and my father knew me better than I knew myself drove straight to where he knew you were and and so in my my dad at the he says get on your bike and get home now that was the longest bike ride ever Craig's like I'm sorry I'm sorry is he gonna kill you are we gonna die what's gonna Craig Craig might have miscalculated that a little bit oh man anyways um my dad let me think about that we got in the room he said I'm I'm not going to spank that was his big thing but I was 13 it was would have he would have still done that spank you because Craig's here but you guys can just sit in this room and think about this all night long. And it was worst punishment of my life man yeah woo but that's so when you ask the question is it comforting to know that God is everywhere all the time I think it's a realization that we need to hold on to because it causes you to really be aware and to and to understand that there's a greater purpose a greater design. Our human nature fails us and so we're what are we dialed into? What are we doing today? When we're doing that baptism service and a part of it, man, the the presence of God there celebrating those moments those are the most joyous moments. And then sitting with at other times listening to someone that's maybe judgmental and closed off that may be preaching to a bunch of people and just crushing their souls that's that's when I'm like oh man you know just like uh so but knowing that the presence of God is there allows you to really process and think about maybe every moment.

SPEAKER_00

Right. That's a long answer sorry no I I like your long answers. Um I think too like we spend as we as people general we we spend so much time and energy to to be known to people but also we're hiding parts of us. Oh yeah right yeah I mean and you only want to be known by the things that you choose yeah to be out there. But I think the comfort in that is is if you to 17, how precious are your thoughts about me they cannot be numbered um I can't even count them when I wake up you are still with me. So that idea that God knows you maybe better than you know yourself and he knows your your heart and your intentions and even like what makes you do what you do. And in all of that and all the messiness and we can look at David or we can look at ourselves or we can look at whatever God still has such affection and love for us. That's amazing.

SPEAKER_01

It's a it's yeah that's the life changing that's why this has to be late in his life this is a reflection where David through probably looking back at the landscape is one of my favorite phrases of all of the things and it but you know his life was pretty problematic at the end too with Absalom and and how everything kind of came to a close so this reflection moment would have been bittersweet to him thinking about what's next and knowing that God is in control and knowing all of the things you know one of the big takeaways has to be regardless of where you find yourself and you can get it from Samuel's perspective or you can get it from this perspective. God doesn't what would what did you say at the very beginning um about the t-shirt? God the failure of man doesn't determine yes yeah I mean God is not God is God is like David yeah I would love to have a person that can kind of came back we can look at this last verse that he has there that comes back and would bring his heart back in because what we do see from David is that God used him to model imperfectly for Jesus. I mean absolutely imperfectly but because he had a heart after God at least it was a an there was a nation that was looking for something that kind of looked like that. When Jesus showed up they didn't see it. Yeah because they were more excited about the warrior side they were more excited about that other side right um they missed that heart after God that God piece.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah or the understanding that they could be what they thought was so right and what they were doing was so wrong. Oh you know but it's like what you were saying earlier like people can get up and say things that sound great and you can get a whole crowd to rally around behind you. It could be really really wrong. Really really wrong yeah it so the fact that there's a crowd or you can get people or find people that agree with you does not make that a right thing. Nope. And so yeah they missed they miss this heart of God this which is it hard to see is it harder to see sometimes maybe Old Testament too before Jesus we see some harsh truths of like how God was dealing and judging with people. It's and then we read this and we think God you love me you know me like you search me and you still love me.

SPEAKER_01

Is is that hard to reconcile sometimes a thousand percent it absolutely is that uh people cannot stand when we jump back into the old testament they they rail against it but you have to do the work I mean the nature of God has always been the same but but but the but God's nature has been revealed over time. The life of David revealed attributes of God that comes out in the Psalms ultimately Jesus was the revealing of the Father to the world or of God the nature of God to the world yeah so we when you go back into the Old Testament you have to realize the same nature of God but he's being revealed in in through the through Israel imperfectly through David imperfectly through the exile them coming back all of those different things you know and still I would say in our lives even though we have the the image of God in Jesus you still see the nature of God being revealed all around us in in in different ways. So yeah it's hard because man it it it just seems so uncultured because I'm so cultured seems so uncultured and so much murder just remember there was probably large spans of time where nothing happened. It's just all the stories are condensed and jammed into one narrative. Yeah that's a good point.

SPEAKER_00

You know there was probably a lot of things that didn't merit being written about yeah and there's probably a lot of people out tending fields that you would never know about you never will that had a really beautiful understanding relationship with God. You know of of understanding his creation and our stewardship of that and our place in that yeah that's a good point. We we kind of get these highlights and anchor on a few things but we really know very little about yeah but but so here here's um here's your I don't know and it's not gonna we're not gonna resolve it.

SPEAKER_01

Okay. So verse verse uh twenty-one David says do I hate those who hate you O Lord and do I not loathe those who rise up against you I hate them with a perfect hatred. I count them my enemies and then you get this verse 23 Search me O God and know my heart test me and know my thoughts see if there is any wicked way in me and lead me in the way everlasting right like hate, hate hate but God I invite you to search my heart and see if you know that's that's in a few verses is the problematic nature of how we struggle through the Old Testament. But the marker of David is I hate that guy. But God if I'm not supposed to hate that guy I want you to search my heart and tell me right like shape me mold me get me to this spot because if if they hate you then I oh I hate them. Right. You know and we'd have to do some work on what that means the perfect hatred.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah a righteous hatred yeah righteous hatred. But it's interesting because you can see through other psalms David literally saying hey God would you please kill all my enemies here's people chasing me literally says bust their teeth out instead of it. Once you take them out yeah um but yeah then then that's an interesting flip too about um yeah searching your heart which that's a that's a great prayer I mean how often do we do we pray that I think that prayer has to be the benchmark of David because he he shows such emotion and such sometimes vitriol I don't know what you'd call that's a good word for it but but yet still is available and open.

SPEAKER_01

It's a dangerous prayer to say God search me and let me know if there's anything in there that's not righteous. Right. I love this series but it's gonna be really really challenging and I don't know how people will hold it. So is this more of a hey we want you to know about David so you can understand the picture of the Messiah hey do we want you to know about the Psalm and the nature of God and it could be all of the above I think maybe the big takeaway for Sunday for me as I look at it is don't discount yourself because you either don't look the part or because you don't people think you're old enough or because maybe they think you're too old or because whatever the anointing of God back to that phrase um the purpose and the design of God what he's done in your life there I I do believe that God gives us life with purpose and on purpose just be willing to ask the question like God what what is the what is the reason for today? And it may be rest and nothing like there may be the today might be for you to restore and to just love and to worship and find find peace. It might also be get your butt in the car and go to a place and sit on a bench because there's going to be some a divine of divine appointment right there might be something that's there for a reason for you to be present to but if we don't ask the question if we don't ask to get this back to the last week if we don't ask to get out of the boat in the middle of the storm then then we miss an opportunity yeah yep God was just always looking for somebody that would be connected to him. Right. All and he and he's willing to take a train wreck.

SPEAKER_00

So welcome to the party which is great news because 100% maybe might be all he has to choose from he has to choose from it's gotta be I think it's gotta be the the the heart posture of David right because it's not it's not the actions and events it's it's that art yeah that that has to be the the thing. Yeah yeah that's good. I love I love it. I'm glad we're gonna get to dive into it I think the takeaway for people will be God just meeting them right maybe with the thing they're struggling with or understanding um maybe even just that time reflection. I mean like you mentioned 20 plus years to to step into what God had already planned from the start and um in that time being shaped and being molded imperfectly but uh I'm grateful for this podcast because it allowed that that's we just talked about 30 different points that may not even make Sunday.

SPEAKER_01

They're and they're all good takeaways from the scripture. Yeah. Seriously like I don't I mean I gotta pick a couple and go with them. But like all of those things you just talked about it. It could be the waiting for your moment to be able to step into that purpose. It could be I mean whatever. Yeah. It could be feeling like you've been left out and haven't been recognized. It could be how God views you versus how the world has viewed you. All of those things are wonderful points that could come out of this message and I have no idea.

SPEAKER_00

Dude I just got a great idea. What's that? So we turn our YouTube channel into interactive sermons. Choose your own adventure. So you preach like 10 different sermons let's do that. And then we at home just choose choose your own adventure what point do you want I want to say choose your own adventure I don't see those anymore. I guess that's outdated. It's totally outdated but actually I don't know I feel like some TV shows are doing I would have like you could choose I would have all four options in the my fingers in the books.

SPEAKER_01

Oh can't go that way you read you're all dead oh no you can't do that I would I would do all of them those books were awesome read them all anyway yeah anyway just a thought just putting it up there yeah okay tune in Sunday come see us Sunday to find out what two three four points this creature gonna make. Sure do you love you guys ready for these podcasts? Yeah hope you are too see you guys