sermonette: David Was Ready

Richard T. Ritenbaugh
Given 27-Nov-93; Sermon #103s; 22 minutes

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Supposedly, ideally designed to prepare us for a career in whatever field we chose or desired. And ideally, it was designed also to prepare us for life in general. I'd like to turn to, Revelation 19 7 to start up here. And it's a verse that talks about what has been a major topic of, of sermons and sermons in the past few months in Church of Great God. Revelation 19 verse seven, let us be glad and rejoice and give him glory for the marriage of the lamb has come and his wife has made herself ready. Now, it's this verse where we got the idea for the booklet, preparing the bride that we thought it was part of the work of God to help prepare the bride of Christ. But for his return, and I know that personally, I've been speaking about preparing ourselves for the Kingdom of God. Uh, quite frequently. As a matter of fact, I think my last several sermons have been on this topic in one way or another because it's such an important part of our responsibility as Christians at any time. It is our duty to prepare ourselves for whatever place God has in store for us in the kingdom. And this is not only preparing for an office, but being prepared in character and knowledge and understanding and all those things that go with, with being Christians and being sons of God. And I've tried to hit it from as many different angles as I can so that it will hit a chord with you and maybe your particular way of thinking or your particular experience because I want to be able to reach as many of you as I can with this really urgent message that we do need to get ourselves prepared for the kingdom. But there is one thing in this verse that I'd really like to emphasize and that is the last few words of that, that verse verse seven, his wife has made herself ready. I had an instructor at an ambassador college. I can't even remember who it was now, but I just remember, I heard it while I was at ac that the bride will be ready with or without you try to make it personal that the church will be ready. There will be a group of people that compose the bride of Christ. But I think the minister that, that told us that was trying to get across that we have our own personal responsibility to prepare ourselves for the Kingdom of God and the bride will be ready with or without you. And that's kind of serious when you take it like that, it starts to get very urgent when you know that it's up to you as well. It's up to you in a large part. It's up to God in a, in a greater part probably. But it's up to us to make sure that we prepare for that. And like I said, God does a great part. But how does he do it? How does he go about preparing us? What sort of educational system does he use to put it? Simply God educates us through whatever situation we find ourselves in. It's a very simple little principle if you will. His workshop is our everyday lives. What we do, how we, how we do the, the, the little things that we do every day, what our careers are the people that we, we happen to run across. He doesn't take you out of your normal everyday duties and schedule, but he teaches you within it and he helps you to learn things from just your everyday activities. He teaches us through the events, the decisions, the experiences, the troubles, everything that we go through in our work a day lives. Take me for an example rather than taking one of you. Let's take me, I've wanted to be a writer or an editor all my life, at least since I was about 1112, when I started reading a lot of fiction and, and all that. And I decided that I wanted to be able to write like they did. So I did whatever I could to increase my skills as I was growing up. And now many of the lessons that I learned when I was growing up in becoming a writer, becoming an editor, I'm using in helping other people now. And I'm still learning a lot of these lessons. I learned them in. Well, I should say I'm still learning many of these lessons as I go through my job in making good decisions in dealing with people in living a godly life before the world. But they all spring from my experience and my work as an editor, that's where I seem to learn some of my greatest lessons outside of my home. Of course, and my family, for example, when a person puts words in a particular order on a piece of paper, what he's doing when he hands that over to me is that he's giving a part of himself. A man's words are a man's property. That's why we have copyright laws in this nation because people feel a sense of possession over what they write. Now in walks me the editor with my wicked red pen and I slashed this article to pieces and I say now it's good. Now it's printable if I say something like that to somebody that can destroy an ego, telling something, telling somebody that what he has written is no good. And then saying, well, what I can add to it makes it good. That can deflate an ego pretty quickly, can be a real blow. And the editor may not have made just a few little red marks on a piece of paper, but he may have deeply scourged the writer and something that will last for a long time, made him feel unworthy, kind of dashed his pride. And there is a certain amount of pride that I guess is ok to have, but it's not my job to cut them down to size. So I've had to learn how to edit a person's writing so that it will not hurt them so that it still sounds like him yet. I've improved it somewhat so I can hear his voice when I read it and he'll hear his own voice when he reads it and not feel like I've slashed it. That's one of the nicknames my mom calls me now. She calls me slash and I try not to slash and I'm trying to learn how to do it more gently. But those are the type of lessons I've had to learn as an editor. And another thing that I've got to do is I've got to make sure that he gets all the credit, not me because really the editor is supposed to be in the background. That's another thing I can learn how to be humble and how to give somebody else credit for the job that they are doing.

So as we have a few minutes here. We're going to take a quick look at a man who was prepared when God needed him, needed to use them and all the while he was being prepared by God for this and many other things, he was just simply doing his job going about his life as he had had it given to him more than that. He was not only doing his job, but he was doing it well and he kept squarely, he kept God squarely in the picture all the time. Let's go to first Samuel 17. This is during the life of Saul, but David has come on the scene for Samuel 17. We'll start in verse one. This is the story of David and Goliath very common set of scriptures for Samuel 17 1.

Now the Philistines gathered their armies together to battle and were gathered together at Soko which belongs to Judah. They encamped between Soko and AAA in E is Dame and Saul and the men of Israel were gathered together and they encamped in the valley of Elah and drew up in battle array against the Philistines. The Philistines stood on a mountain on one side and Israel stood on a mountain on the other side with a valley between them and a champion went out from the camp of the Philistines named Goliath from Gath, whose height was six cubits and a span. OK. Let's go down to verse eight. Then he Goliath stood and cried out to the armies of Israel and said to them, why have you come out to line up for battle? Am I not a Philistine? And you the servants of Saul, choose a man for yourselves and let him come down to me. If he is able to fight with me and kill me, then we will be your servants. But if I prevail against him and kill him, then you shall be our servants and serve us. And the Philistines said, I defy the armies of Israel this day, give me a man that we may fight together. And when Saul and all Israel heard these words of the Philistines, they were just made and greatly afraid.

Now this sets the scene for what comes up later, the battle line between the Israelites and the Philistines had been drawn and a challenge made. There was not one that they could really back down from Goliath had not only defied Israel's army, but he was also defying God by doing so. And what's so amazing is that no one in Saul's army was prepared to stand up for Goliath and for God's name, not even Saul, who was supposedly the champion of Israel. Ok, let's go on now,

David was the son of that Ephra of Bethlehem Judah, whose name was Jesse and who had eight sons and the man was old advanced in years in the days of Saul, three oldest sons of Jesse had gone to follow Saul to the battle. The names of his three sons who went to the battle were Eli the first born next to him, Abi Adab and the third, Shama David was the youngest and the three oldest followed Saul. But David occasionally went and returned from Saul to feed his father's sheep at Bethlehem. And the Philistine drew near and presented himself 40 days morning and evening. Then Jesse said to his son David, take now for yourself an aha of this dried grain and these 10 loaves and run to your brothers at the camp and carry these 10 cheeses to the captain of their 1000 see how your brothers fare and bring back news from them or of them. Now, Saul and they and all the men of Israel were in the Phil in the valley of Ella fighting with the Philistines.

Ok. Now the unlikely hero comes into the scene. He was the youngest of eight sons in the literature. David would have been called the antihero. He was not likely to be a hero, but he ends up standing up and being the hero. He was probably the runs of the family. I do not know. Just a thought. Here were his big tall brothers out fighting for Israel and here comes this little kid. There is no, we have no idea really how old he was here, but he was probably 17 or 18 or 19. He still was not old enough to go out to fight. But he was, he was old enough that he had sort of, he had grown up a little bit, but he still was not considered an adult and he was the forgotten son. Remember when he was anointed Samuel had all the sons of Jesse brought before him and he said, he said none of these are the ones that God has chosen. And they said, oh, yeah, we've got the youngest out in this, in this, in the pasture there. You want us to get him. And you know, of course they had forgotten all about him up to that point. So he kept his father's sheep. And from what we see here, he had no military experience whatsoever. He was not even old enough to be with the army as I said, but was he prepared to do what God wanted him to do? Ok, let's skip down all the way to verse 31.

And when the words which David spoke were heard, he had said that he was going to go fight this Philistine, they reported them to Saul and he sent for him. Then David said to Saul, let no man's heart fail because of him. Your servant will go and fight with this Philistine. And Saul said to David, you are not able to go out against this Philistine to fight with him for you are but a youth and he a man of war from his youth. Look, David, this guy has been in military service since before you were born. There is no way you could match him. But David said to Saul, your servant used to keep his father's sheep. And when a lion or a bear came and took a lamb out of the flock, I went out after it and struck it and delivered the lamb from its mouth. And when it arose against me, I caught it by its beard and struck and killed it. Your servant has killed both lion and bear. And this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them. Seeing he has defied the armies of the living God. Moreover, David said, the Lord who delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear, he will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine. And Saul said to David go and the Lord be with you.

Now, David surely thought he was ready. He had a resume there to present to all of the things that he had done that prepared him for this. And here Saul was the one that should have been standing up and putting on his armor and going out into the valley to fight this Philistine. But here he was being shown up by this little kid who I guess in his own eyes who had been keeping sheep all his life. Remember, Saul was said, described as standing head and shoulders above all of Israel. There was anybody in, in Israel that should have been able to go out against Goliath. It was saul but no either the runt of the family, the youngest of eight sons, the shepherd, the one that was forgotten by his own family said confidently that he would kill the Phil. He felt he was ready.

Now, how had God prepared him for this climactic battle? Well, he had prepared him while he was shepherding his father's sheep. He had been doing the normal everyday things of his life and he took the lessons that he had learned in his daily experience and applied them to this new situation. He might have thought this Philistine is no more dangerous than a lion or a bear. I've already killed lions and bears. So why can't I kill this Thursday? And beyond that, he's cursed God. He's defied the armies of Israel. How can I let him go on like this? He's already been doing it for 40 days. God will surely give me the victory because he'll be with me because of this.

So he combined his spirit, his experience as a shepherd with faith in God. And God used that mightily. Ok, let's go on in the story, verse 38.

So Saul clothed David with his armor and he put a bronze helmet on his head. He also clothed him with a coat of mail and David fastened his sword to his armor and he tried to walk for, he had not tested them and David said to Saul, I cannot walk with these for, I have not tested them. So David took them off. Then he took his staff in his hand and he chose for himself five smooth stones from the brook and put them in a shepherd's bag in a pouch which he had. And the sling was in his hand and he drew near to the Philistine. Now, here is another interesting point that we have to think about. David used the tools that God had trained him with. Think about that God did not suddenly make him an expert sword. He was not used to working with the sword. He had no experience with the sword as far as we know, he may have been doing a little playing with his brothers, but he was no match for the lion with the sword. He was no hand to hand fighter, but he used the tools that he had experienced with that he had trained with that he had proven work and that's what they used out on the pasturesWhen he was shepherding, the only defense the sheep had for David's staff is Rod and his slingshot, which was probably should describe this. It was a long piece of piece of leather, probably about 6 ft long, maybe even a little longer with a leather thong in the middle of it to hold a stone, you put the stone in the thong and start twirling it like this around your head. And then you let go of one end of that leather strap and the rock sailed out of that th at the target. And I was telling somebody here the other day, I can't remember who it was, but I've seen one of these slings demonstrated on, I think they used a pumpkinhead or something like that and it exploded it like a bullet. So he used the tools that he knew would work. He had confidence in them faith if you will, because he had had experience with them and used them successfully many, many times. And I'm sure you probably practice them every day because it, like I said, it was the only protection that is she has. And what tools have we been given? We have our daily prayer and Bible study and those types of tools that we can use that we can prepare with. Ok down verse 45.

Then David said to the Philistine, you come to me with a sword with a spear and with a javelin. But I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts the God of the armies of Israel whom you have defied this day. The Lord will deliver you into my hands and I will strike you and take your head from you. And this day, I will give the carcasses of the camp of the Philistines to the birds of the air and the wild beasts of the earth that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel. Then all the assembly shall know that the Lord does not save with sword and spear for the battle is the Lord's and he will give it into our hands. So what David really was prepared most with was faith. He allowed God to use him for God's own honor and glory because He knew God took his name seriously. He did not like it dishonored or defied. And when, as he said here, he gave God all the credit for whatever victory that He would give. Ok, let's quickly go to Philippians 16. These are, this is a very common scripture. As a matter of fact, the next two scriptures we are going to read are very, you probably know them right now. Philippians 16, being confident of this very thing that He who has begun a good work in, you will complete it until the day of Christ, day of Jesus Christ. So God promises to keep working with us in our everyday lives until we attain salvation. He's so very confident that you will be in his kingdom that He put it right here in his book as a promise that He'll keep on working with you. But that does not mean that you have no responsibilities in this regard. Let's go to chapter two verses 12 and 13. Paul says, what our responsibilities are therefore my beloved as you have always obeyed. Not as in my presence only but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for his good pleasure. See, we do have a large part to play in our own preparation for the Kingdom of God. Our job is applying the understanding of God's way that we have gained through our walk with Him, applying it in the situations that arise in our everyday lives in the careers that we have in the things that come up. Remember that God says in first Corinthians 1013, that He will not give us a trial that we cannot overcome. That's a promise that we can rely on. We can have faith in that really faith in God. He will grant you victory over your trials just as he did with David. He had a huge trial 9.5 ft tall, but he was able to defeat it and overcome it with the training and with the tools that he already had in his possession. And we know that He knew that God would not have put him into that situation unless he was able to overcome it. That's why he was so confident. God will give me the victory. It will be ours as you have defied the armies of the living God. So he used the tools and the experience that He had and we can do the same thing combining that with faith. So as we face some of the awesome problems that arise up in our lives from time to time. Remember that God is using us to teach us and prepare us for His kingdom. And remember this is the most important point. You have the tools and the experience to overcome it already as you've been living because otherwise he would not have let you have that trial in the first place. He would have had you avoid it somehow. But if he gives it to you, you already have what it takes to overcome it. We can be very confident in that going out and slay those giants because you'll be ready for it.