1 Samuel 16
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Transcript
Morning. Happy Father's Day to all my fellow dads. Yeah, I get to add that last part now because you know I'm a veteran two and a halfmonth old dad. So, I just got it figured out.
Uh but so, uh if this is your first time with us this morning, we're glad you're here. My name is Isaac. I'm one of the pastors here. And we have been working our way through the book of 1 Samuel. And to be honest with you, as of late, the story has kind of been a bit of a downer.
Uh but today things are getting exciting. And in the middle of this excitement, we see that the spirit of God is at work to accomplish his will. So let's pray and we're going to jump into the story. Father, we thank you very much for this time, this opportunity where we get to gather together as your people to make much of your name. We get to open up your word and we get to hear your truth.
So would your spirit be speaking to us the truth that you would have for us in Jesus name. Amen. So the specific place that we left off last week is that God rejects Saul as king over the people. And he sends Samuel to deliver that message. And unsurprisingly, it's a bit of a confrontation.
There's some tension between Samuel and Saul. And what we saw at the end of the chapter is that Samuel and Saul go their own ways. And this is where we pick up in the story in chapter 16 verse one. And I'll be honest with you, there's a lot in this passage that we could talk about. There's a lot of rabbit trails.
I'm going to do my best to stay on topic, but we're going to be moving quick. So, here we jump in in chapter 16, verse one. The Lord said to Samuel, "How long will you grieve over Saul since I have rejected him from being king over Israel?" So it appears that the Lord here has given Samuel some space to grieve over what would have been as devastating reality for Samuel. He would have been putting in a lot of effort and energy and care into Saul who inevitably we see this downfall in him and it's heartbreaking to Samuel and what kindness the Lord shows uh to Samuel to allow him to grieve. as well.
This question is trying to call Samuel on because as we're going to see, the Lord is moving on. The Lord is the one who rejected Saul and he's moving forward with his plan. Let's continue. So he says to Samuel, "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." So God tells Samuel that he's got a plan.
And this plan, oh, it's a brilliant plan. It's a genius plan as we're going to see today and in the coming chapters of First Samuel. And it starts by God sending Samuel to this little town Bethlehem. Now, Bethlehem at this time, it's not a town of great renown.
It's just a little place, maybe not even on a map. Of course, you and I. I mean, we even recognize this name today. Every Christmas, you're familiar with the tune, oh little town of Bethlehem. No.
Anybody? No. Some maybe. I don't know. I don't think Pentatonics has picked that up on their Christmas album yet.
But anyways, so Samuel is sent to this little town of Bethlehem. And this is a common theme for the Lord at work to take what is insignificant and use it in his mission. And Samuel responds to the Lord in verse two. And Samuel said, "How can I go?
If Saul hears it, he will kill me." So we saw this tension last week that remains here between Samuel and Saul. And more so than that, what the Lord just asked Samuel to do is in essence participate in a coup. He's asked him to be involved in the overthrowing of the existing king on the throne. This is dangerous stuff. And Samuel knows it.
So he's saying, "How can I go do this?" But the Lord responds to him. Continue on verse two. And the Lord said, "Take a heer with you and say, I have 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 who I declare to you." So the Lord understands the difficulty that Samuel is in. And he responds to him by saying, "Look, I haven't asked you to go to the rooftops and declare what you're doing. You just get to go and do your normal everyday stuff.
Go to Bethlehem, take an offering. This is what you usually do. Nobody's going to be taken by surprise that that you're going to show up to make a sacrifice." And uh so Samuel is responding to this. And this for me is the beginning of this genius, this creativity of the Lord on display to allow Samuel an opportunity to get in and accomplish this purpose. So continue on 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. So Samuel accepts the plan that the Lord gives him and he goes to Bethlehem and the Lord said, "You're going to find among Jesse, among his sons, the one whom I have chosen." And so when Samuel shows up, the elders greet him.
And apparently they're terrified that Samuel shows up. Now, in this text, it doesn't tell us why they're afraid, but I would venture to guess that it's related to the last time we saw Samuel. It says that he hacked a guy to pieces. And that's the exact language that showed up in the text in 15. Now, maybe the elders didn't witness that, but I don't know about you, but if I had heard about a guy who hacks other guys to pieces, if he came walking into the room, I'd be on the edge of my seat.
So, they're on the edge of their seats. They're concerned that do you come in peace? And Samuel says, 'Yes, I come in peace.' He's sticking to the plan. I've come to make an offering to the Lord. And he's making sure he says,"I want Jesse to be there.
I want Jesse and his sons to be there." So, this is what happens. They're all starting to to get ready for this offering. This word uh consecrate means that they're preparing themselves for the offering. It would involve washing themselves, making themselves clean uh to come and participate in this sacrifice. And they're ready to join Samuel.
And uh as a quick note for context here, what makes the most sense is that the type of offering that Samuel has come to make would be a peace offering or a fellowship offering. And what that would look like uh in short would be that they would take part of the animal and sacrifice it for the Lord. And then the rest of it they would cook and eat among themselves as a sign of peace and fellowship with one another and with God. So that's what Samuel has come to do. They're starting to get ready to participate in this together.
Verse six, when they came, he looked on Eliab and thought, "Surely the Lord's anointed is before him." So when Jesse and his son show up and Samuel's getting ready for this offering, Jesse uh Samuel sees Jesse's oldest son, Eliab, and he thinks that's got to be the one. Apparently Eliab looked like the stuff that kings are made out of. Now, we don't get a whole lot of description of him as we'll see in a second. It appears that he's tall. He's handsome.
Uh but I don't know. I don't know if he, you know, was built well. I don't know if he had a nice chiseled jaw, slick back hair. I think mullets have made their way back in. I don't know if that was a thing back in the day.
Whatever he looked like. I mean, when Samuel saw him, he was like, "Man, the Lord knows how to pick them." But verse seven, 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 outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart." So this is the difference between man's choosing and God's choosing. Both are making here an evaluation of this man Eliab.
Both are trying to discern whether or not this man would be fit for the position. Samuel's looking though at the physical, at the temporal aspects of this man trying to judge whether he could be a leader. But what God is looking at and what he is concerned with is what is in his heart. What is at the core of this man?
what's in his inner being. The language that uh was used a couple chapters ago is that God is interested in a man after his own heart. Does this man that God is going to choose to be king care about the things that the Lord cares about? And is that going to show up in the way that he leads and loves people?
So I think on one hand, as a quick aside, we don't have time to post up here for a bunch, but I think we understand this idea. I think when we read this, it doesn't jump off the page as super extraordinary. And I think there are plenty of ways in which it shows up in our life. And for the life of our Church, one of the ways that came to mind is that we have an elder and training process. Uh if you don't know, we have an elder and training process.
So for those that are interested in becoming elders and joining our pastor team here at uh Mil City, there's a process where these men will stay with us through the course of years so that we can evaluate if they're fit to be on the team. Now if we just showed up one day and uh Mike Goal, who is currently in the process of being an elder in training, if we just showed up next Sunday and said, "You know what? We have knited him as an elder because look at his luscious locks. you just you can't resist them. That would be your response.
You would laugh at us and then if you thought we were being serious, you'd start to be concerned that that was the reason because we understand that what matters, especially in the the positions of of leadership, is that it's the heart, it's the character at play here. But even though we do have uh a kind of an understanding of this, uh I think we would do well, and once again, this isn't the main point, so we're not going to be able to post up in here, but you can take this thought and meditate on it later. We would do well to reflect on do we evaluate as men evaluate or do we evaluate as God evaluates? Are we more concerned with the temporary aspects of people or the eternal aspects of people?
I just think that's something that's worth our time to consider and meditate and reflect on in our own hearts. But what's going on here is that Samuel sees Eliab and he thinks based on the way he looks that he's going to be a good king. But God says, "No, I haven't chosen him. I'm looking for a man that's after my own heart." So let's continue on.
Verse eight. 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 pass before Samuel. And Samuel said to Jesse, "The Lord has not chosen these." Now, in this passage, it never directly says that Samuel tells Jesse what's going on. Unlike in Saul, whenever Saul's anointed, Samuel directly says, "I'm anointing you as prince over the people." He doesn't say exactly what's going on, but it's clear that he's choosing. And Jesse here is parading essentially his children, his sons in front of Samuel so that they can be evaluated.
And one goes by, no. Another goes by, no. Another goes by, no. Seven of his sons come by and none of them are chosen. And that leaves us with a question.
at least at least more importantly leaves Samuel with a question because God told him he was going to go to Bethlehem to the house of Jesse and one of his sons was going to be chosen. So this is what he says. Then Samuel said to Jesse verse 11, "Are all your sons here?" And he said, "There remains yet the youngest, but behold, he is keeping the sheep." So apparently David, the youngest one, gets forgotten out taking care of the sheep. I I mean, in fairness to him, there's a lot of kids. There's seven sons before him.
He's the eighth. There's some daughters. There's a lot. It's Father's Day. We'll give him pass.
He says, "Yeah, there's there's the youngest one. He's out taking care of the sheep." And Samuel said to Jesse, "Send and get him, for we will not sit down till he comes here." So Samuel tells Jesse, "Go get the youngest one that's out in the field. We're not going to sit down." Or, in other words, we're not going to participate in this offering, this thing that I have come here to do until you go and get the youngest out in the field. Verse 12. And he sent and brought him in.
Now he was ready 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. So finally, the one that the Lord had chosen appears.
He shows up. And when David walks onto the scene, the Lord tells Samuel, "This is the one that I have chosen. Anoint him." Now, briefly, if I'm honest, I'm a little confused about the description of David because we just read a verse that said, "The Lord doesn't look on the outward appearance." And then we get an outward appearance description of David. Very quickly, what I've come to think and meditate on this is that number one, the description of David is not actually directly tied to the choosing of him. He just shows up and we get a description.
And I think that one of the big reasons why we get a description of what he looks like is, I don't know if you know this, David's basically going to become the main character of the story at this point. He's going to show up a lot. And now you and I kind of know a little bit what he looks like. He's ready. That would mean that he has reddish skin tone.
So, you can picture that as you will. And he's got beautiful eyes and he's handsome. And at this time, he's probably pretty young. We don't know exactly, maybe late teens, mid late teens. We don't know exactly, but he's this young, handsome, beautiful boy.
And he comes walking in and the Lord says, "This is the one that I have chosen." And Samuel anoints him as king. And this anointing that he does, it's this clear marker that he's being set apart for God's work. That's what anointing was for. So David here is being set apart for the work that God has for him. And when he's anointed, it says that the spirit of the Lord rushed upon him from that day forward.
God's personal presence comes to dwell upon David in a way that he hadn't known to empower and equip him for the work that the Lord had for him. And it's going this strenuous road ahead that David has to walk as we'll see in the chapters to come. And it says here that it was from that day forward. So it gives us a hint into surely this is going to look different than Saul. David's going to look different than Saul as king.
So we see that David here is anointed by God as king of the people. What an amazing event. But there's a king of the people. What about Saul?
We understand that God has rejected him from king over the people. I don't think the people have rejected him yet. As a matter of fact, I think the people probably like him fairly well. Militaristically speaking, Saul's done. I He's got a good record.
He's defeated enemies. He's kept them safe. And if he really kept up his peopleleasing acts, I guess some people are satisfied with Saul as king. So, I can imagine that it probably wouldn't go very well if Samuel just walted up with David and said, "Behold, message from the Lord.
Saul, you're not king anymore. This young pretty boy David, he's your king now." I I don't think people would buy it. Now, if God really said to do that, they should, but come on, we know how people work. So God needs a way to shift the masses of people to understand the direction that he is going with the anointing of David. And that's what we're going to see taking place in the rest of the book of First Samuel.
And right now we get to look at the first step of this master plan of the Lord to get David onto the throne. Because David one day will be on the throne. He's not. He goes back to sheep today, but he will be on the throne. The Lord has anointed him.
The spirit of the Lord has rushed upon him. And this sp the spirit, this mention of the spirit, it's the the link between the end of Saul's reign and the beginning of David's, as we'll see here in verse 14. So, let's continue on. Now the spirit of the Lord departed from Saul and a harmful spirit from the Lord tormented him. Now that's intense.
And not only is it intense, it also raises some questions. So we see that the spirit of the Lord rushes upon David. The spirit of the Lord departs from Saul and then a harmful spirit from the Lord torments him. Now, I think there are two primary questions that are worth asking before we continue on in this story.
The first being, if the spirit of the Lord left Saul, will he leave me? Now, that question, if you have that question in your head and that causes you to get held up before we move on, pause that at the end. We're going to come back. That's where we're going to spend most of our time at the end of this. So, we're not skirting the question.
We're just getting to it later. Second question that I think we ask is, are there harmful spirits that the Lord uses to torment people? Is that a thing? What's going on here?
Now, what I want to do is I want to offer two interpretive options to understand what is going on here. I'll tell you the one that I lean toward and then I'll also tell you I don't think however you interpret this actually matters to the difficulty we have in asking the question. So here's a couple interpretive options. Interpretive option number one that what's being described here as a harmful spirit that is tormenting Saul is that it is an evil spirit or in other words a spiritual being that is against the will of God that God allows to torment Saul by removing his protection from him. So you would come to that understanding probably from seeing that it says that the spirit of the Lord departed from Saul.
So surely that involves removing some of his protection from Saul and what's going on and that uh we don't see it in the ESV translation but some translations are going to uh say that it's an evil spirit not a harmful spirit. So that would be another way that you would come to that understanding is that this is a spiritual being against the will of God who comes in cause uh harm and uh torment Saul because God's protection has left. That's option number one. option number two that exists and this is the one that I lean towards. This is a spirit who submits to the will of God.
This is a spiritual being who submits to the will of God. And it is inside of God's will that harm would befall Saul. Last week, the last two weeks, we saw the disobedience of Saul on display and we saw the judgment of the Lord coming upon him because of it. So, we've already gotten to wrestle with some of this.
And that I think is actually at the core of the question that when we are concerned with what's going on here, we're primarily concerned with that God would be directly involved in harm befalling someone. And so, no matter how you interpret this, that's at play. And luckily for me in our time this morning, two weeks ago, Spencer spent a whole sermon just talking about God's wrath and judgment. And so if you get hung up on that question and you weren't here two weeks ago, I would encourage you as you continue to wrestle with this, go back and listen to that sermon.
You can find it on our website or on our YouTube page. And also, as a quick aside, all of our sermons are recorded. So, if you're looking for a database of all good information on the Bible, you can go to our uh website or our YouTube page and see all sorts of stuff. But if this question just you wrestle with it and it's difficult, my encouragement would be go back, listen to it. But unfortunately, for time sake, that's all we have to be able to discuss today.
But what's going on here is that the spirit of the Lord rushes upon David. The spirit of the Lord departs from Saul. Saul's been rejected as the one who's going to reign as king ultimately because call Saul has rejected God. And then there's this harmful spirit that comes upon Saul. And this is this is directly related to the plan.
This is directly related to the genius that is taking place as we're going to see to get David to the throne. So let's continue on. Verse 15. And Saul's servants said to him, "Behold now, a harmful spirit from God is tormenting you.
Let our Lord now command your servants who are before you to seek out a man who is skillful in playing the liar. And when the harmful spirit from God is upon you, he will play it and you will be well." So somehow Saul's servants know exactly what's going on. And more than that, they know that playing a liar, playing a stringed instrument is the exact fix that Saul needs for his problem. Whatever the way is that they know this, this is directly linked to God's plan of working to get David onto the throne, as we'll see. Verse 17.
So Saul said to his servants, "Provide for me a man who can play well, and bring him to me." One of the young men answered, "Behold, I have seen a son of Jesse the Bethleamite, who is skillful in playing, a man of valor, a man of war, prudent in speech, and a man of good presence, and the Lord is with him. Therefore, Saul sent his messengers to Jesse and said, "Send me David, your son, who is with the sheep." So, Saul likes the idea. Maybe he didn't have other options. He thinks, "That's a good one. I'll pursue that one." He says, "Go find me someone who can play." Lo and behold, one of the servants says, "I've heard a young guy happens to be David from Jesse.
He's great at playing the liar." And more than that, David's really getting talked up. I mean, he's brave. He's seen combat. He's a guy that's careful with his word. He's just got a good presence to him.
You know, he's got good vibes. The Lord is with him. These are good attributes. As we'll see, these characters, this character of David is going to be on display for us in the rest of Samuel as it plays out. But Saul, he really likes this idea.
And so, he sends to go get David and bring him in. Verse 20. And Jesse took a donkey laden with bread and a skin of wine and a young goat and sent them by David his son to Saul. And David came to Saul and entered his service. And Saul loved him greatly, and he became his armor bearer.
And Saul sent to Jesse, saying, "Let David remain in my service, for he has found favor in my sight." And whenever the harmful spirit from God was upon Saul, David took the liar and played it with his hand. So Saul was refreshed and was well and the harmful spirit departed from him. So Saul likes a plan. He sends to get David. David comes to be in Saul's service and the plan it works.
David plays the liar and it soothes Saul. Just imagine heart on the doulamer playing it. It's just beautiful melody that's coming out that just soothes you. That's what's happening here that Saul it works. the plan is working.
And not only that, Saul really likes David. Like, he really likes David. I mean, he even makes him his armor bearer. We saw a couple weeks ago Jonathan and his armor bearer when they went handinand into combat to defeat a Philistine garrison. The amount of trust that you have to have to make someone your armor bearer, to be the one that would fight alongside you, to be the one that would tend to that which protects you in war.
Man, Saul really likes what was this nobody little boy from this nobody town who's come to be with the king. David is now on the inside. David has inched closer and closer to the throne because of this masterful maneuvering of the Lord and this dicey political situation. David has been anointed as king. God has chosen him.
He has poured his spirit out upon David. I told you we'd come back to this idea of the spirit here because in this story it is the central connecting point between what we see happening with Saul and what's happening with David in that question that we asked earlier it's been left lingering which is if the spirit of God leaves Saul will it leave me now to answer this I think we have to have an understanding of what God is doing in the bigger narrative of the different covenantal periods or another way of saying that is through the different testaments. So in your Bible you have Old Testament, you have New Testament. There's a central figure as we'll see here that marks the difference. Now today our story is taking place in the Old Testament.
The narrative, the big narrative of the Old Testament is that there's going to be a promised one who would come to bring about redemption. That is the big picture of the Old Testament. That there is a promised one who will come, who will bring about redemption, who would bring about God's rule and reign here on earth. Saul was a king. Saul was king of God's people.
He was supposed to in part bring God's rule and reign, but he failed. He couldn't. David, as we'll see, he's renowned as the greatest king that Israel has ever known. He's seen as a man after God's own heart. I hate to spoil it for you if you don't know, but David fails.
We need something. We need someone better that can accomplish what God desires and coming to be and to dwell among his people. The Old Testament is screaming that out that we need someone to do this work. And the one who accomplishes that work shows up on the front pages of the New Testament. And his name is Jesus.
Jesus comes to be the better David. Jesus comes to be the better king, the one who is going to usher in the rule and the reign of God among his people in the way that he desires. And the message of Jesus is that he is God himself come to be among people like you and I so that he could rescue and save us by going to the cross by atoning for the sins of the world. In the Gospel of John, there's a popular set of chapters called the Upper Room Discourse. It's right at the end of Jesus's earthly ministry.
And he's it's this very intimate setting between him and his disciples. And what he says to them is,"I am going to have to leave so that I can accomplish my work because if I go and accomplish my work, I get to send to you the helper. I get to send to you the spirit, my spirit." that Jesus if he goes to suffer and die at the cross to atone for the sins of the world so that he can rise from the dead in resurrection power and ascend to the throne. If he can do that then he can send his spirit his helper to be among his people and that is where you and I live. We live in the finished work of Jesus.
He did go and accomplish that work and he did send his spirit to be in his people. So we come back to the question, if the spirit left Saul, will he leave me? Well, as we just saw, we're living in the finished work of Jesus. So my response to that question would be rooted in what Paul says in Ephesians 1. Ephesians 1:13, "In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the Gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it." This is language of finality.
We are sealed. The spirit is our guarantee. Guarantee is not a maybe. Guarantee isn't a if you can do well enough. Guarantee is final.
The spirit of the almighty creator. If you belong to Christ, he dwells in you. Just think about that for a second. You and I, the spirit of the living God, the very essence of who he is, dwells within you and I. What amazing love and grace that the father has for us that as sons and daughters he would give himself to us.
One of the beautiful things about the spirit that I want to focus on for the rest of our time here is that the spirit doesn't just show up at the beginning of your relationship with Christ and then show up at the end to give you your inheritance. It's not just a beginning and end thing. The spirit of God is in you in the everyday. He's with you when you rose this morning and when you brushed your teeth and when you came in and got coffee. As we sit here now, the spirit of God dwells within us.
He's in the everyday stuff of life. And surely that means something. Surely that shows up in some kind of way if the essence of our creator is within us in the everyday. So what I want to do is now we could spend a lot of time talking about all sorts of ways in which the spirit shows up in our everyday life, but what I want to do is just look at in the rest of Ephesians, Paul mentions several places how the spirit is at work in the life of a believer. So we're just going to go through there are five different ones that I want to point out this morning that Paul pointed out to the Church in Ephesus about the spirit that could be at work in them.
So, number one that we're going to look at, the spirit reveals. The spirit of God reveals. In Ephesians chapter 1, just a couple verses later from what we just read, Paul says this. I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the spirit of wisdom and of Revelation in the knowledge of him. that Paul says, "My prayer is that the spirit will be revealing in you the knowledge of Christ." Do you know that your knowledge of Christ has come to you by the Revelation of the spirit of God at work in your life?
I can remember when this first began to be real for me in the most potent, powerful way. freshman year of college, the pages of Scripture coming alive, the spirit beginning to actually reveal to me this man, Jesus, and who he is and what he's done. It's not always that potent in life. Sometimes you just have a day. But do you know that what you know about Jesus is revealed to you because of the spirit of God?
Shouldn't we long for the spirit of God to reveal to us the mysteries of Christ? Because I don't know if you know this, that's the news that has changed our world. That's the news that has changed your world. Don't we want to know him more?
That's the work of the spirit in our life. So the spirit reveals. Second thing, the spirit unifies. The spirit unifies. In Ephesians chapter 2, Paul says this, for through him, that's Christ, we both have access in one spirit to the father.
So then, you no longer you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God. There is one spirit that binds us in unity. Now maybe if you see our cultural moment, you see any of the Church, you might have a question. Really?
Does he really do that? One of the things that I was thinking about reflecting on was even in all the attempts of the spiritual forces of darkness and the ignorance of man, the Church is still here. Yes, we have muddied things up, but the spirit has been at work in God's people to bring about unity. What a beautiful thing. I don't know about you, but I might not know any of you if it weren't for the work of the spirit.
We surely wouldn't be in this room all sitting peaceibly together. We have something that is transcendent within us that binds us together. May we long that the spirit would bring us unity and cast out any opportunity for gossip, any opportunity for relational hurt that would keep us from being able to be at peace. The spirit unifies. Third thing, the spirit equips.
Paul in Ephesians 4 says this. There is one body and one spirit. Just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ's gift. And then he goes on to talk about gifts that he has given to the Church, members in the Church for the building up of the body of Christ.
The spirit of God dwells within us, equipping us, equipping you and I. The spirit of the living God lives within each one of us and you and I so that you and I can build one another up. What a beautiful and amazing thing. One of my great joys in life is being able to help others with building things and fixing things. And thank you, Phoebe.
And what I've come to understand is that that's a gift. as a gift the Spirit's given me to help build other people up. And I pray that he continues to allow me to use that gift for the building up of one another. I don't know how the spirit of God has equipped you. We'll get to talk in our community groups this week about that.
But in whatever way he has equipped you, it's for the purpose of building us up. If you look in the room, there are other people. It's for the building up of us in this room here. Ultimately, he says, so that we can attain to the unity of the faith. Comes back to this unified aspect.
They're all intermingled. It's one spirit. You can't really easily parse them all out. But the spirit equips. The spirit equips.
One last thing I want to say on this real quick. I got to move quick here. A lot of times I think we can think in a Church context that uh people like me, people like the ones who play instruments or watch kids, that's it. That's the extent of the service that we can give to each other and it's limited to what happens on a Sunday morning. That's not it's just like a tiny little sliver of what happens.
And what I love about our community groups is that you get to actually be connected to one another in life and that those are the places where the spirit really gets to move to build one another up because you're actually intimately connected to know what is the way in which I need to build this person up. So, just as a quick aside, if you feel like, man, I don't I can't speak in front of people, I can't play an instrument, I can't do this, I can't do that. It doesn't have to show up in the way that we do stuff here on Sunday, but the spirit does equip you to work in the life of our brothers and sisters who are here in this room in the everyday. Number four, the spirit convicts. Ephesians 6, Paul has a fairly popular passage uh about the armor of God.
Here's what he says. Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God. And he gives a list of different things. And one of them is this.
The sword of the spirit, which is the word of God. Now, you take this understanding with Hebrews chapter 4. The word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing through the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and marrow, discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. The spirit of God reveals in us the part of us that is weak, the part of us that is broken and hurting, the part of us that is bent away from the things of God. last week uh the other night uh was you know as I said at the beginning my wife and I we've got a newborn son and it's been a wonderful journey uh and we were setting him down at night.
Honestly, he's been doing great at night. It's wonderful that he sleeps longer. Uh but for some reason after I set him down I was going to bed like my mind just wouldn't turn off and I was awake and I was just frustrated. Why won't you just shut off so you can go to sleep?
He's asleep. just shut off so she can go to sleep. So, I'm getting angsty and then he starts crying. I'm getting I'm I'm frustrated. I'm tired.
I'm getting up. He's crying. He needs a diaper change. I'm putting him on the table. I'm trying to change his diaper.
He's crying. He's flanneling about. That's the most aggravating thing. It's like, I'm trying to help you, kid. Just stop moving your legs.
I'm trying to change him. My My anger my anger just starts to get the best of me. My wife comes in because, you know, maybe there's a ruckus at this point in the room. And in her in her grace and wisdom, she's trying to help. She's trying to say, "Ah, you should you should maybe step away.
I'll take this one." And I'm, you know, I just obviously handle that so well. Just such peace and gentleness. No. So, she does take them and in her love, she handles it way better than I.
And I go back to the bed. It takes me a little while longer, but eventually I fall asleep. I wake up the next morning. I'm just feeling this sense of conviction. I'm having to pray before my father, please forgive me.
I have to later that day when I see my wife. I'm sorry. The anger got the best of me. one day because I'm sure it won't be the last. I'll have to tell my son I'm sorry.
That's the work of the spirit within me to reveal that and then empower me to live in the truth of Jesus that I am forgiven. May we be like David in Psalm 139. Search me, oh God, and know my heart. Try me and know my thoughts. and see if there be any grievous way in me and lead me in the way everlasting.
Father, would you in your spirit reveal in us the ways in which we're grieving you? But then would you lead us in the way everlasting? Would you remind us? Would you reveal to us again the truth of Jesus, the love and forgiveness he has for us?
The spirit convicts. Lastly, the spirit sins. Right after this verse in Ephesians 6, talking about the armor of God, this is what Paul says. Praying at all times in the spirit with all prayer and supplication. To that end, keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints and also for me that words may be given to me and opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the Gospel.
Paul says, "Be in prayer always." And in that prayer, remember me that the spirit might equip me with the words to say to proclaim the mystery of Christ. The Church in Ephesus alone wouldn't have been there if the spirit had not sent Paul to proclaim the mystery of Christ. Mil City Church wouldn't be here if the spirit had not sent men to proclaim the message of Christ. And one thing I am being more and more convicted of and convinced of is that I am sent here. This isn't happen stance.
It's not coincidence that you find me here in this area. The spirit has sent me. Do you know that it's not a coincidence that you're here in this chair? The spirit has sent you wherever you are. in your home, at your work, in your neighborhood, with your family, your friends, wherever it is the spirit has sent you.
May our prayer be that of Paul's that the spirit would equip us to speak boldly of Christ. The spirit sins. What gift the father has given us that he would allow his personal powerful presence to dwell within you and I. What I want to do with the rest of our time, maybe you noticed earlier that we didn't have a time of prayer. It's been shifted to now.
In Ephesians chapter 3, the same book, this is what Paul says. For this reason, I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory, he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his spirit in your inner being. Paul longs for. He gets down on his knees before the father, praying that the Church in Ephesus would be filled with the power of spirit in their inner being to accomplish that which God has called them to. So what we're going to do right now as a Church is we're going to pray.
We're going to pray through each of these things that we just talked about that the spirit of God would be working in us in our inner being to reveal, to unify, to equip, to convict, and to send us. So, the way it'll work is I will say a quick prayer uh for each bullet point to start off that section. And so I'll pray that the spirit would reveal and that'll uh open up a time for all of us to pray together and then I'll say a short prayer about the spirit unifying and so forth and so on. That's what we're going to do with the rest of our time and then the band will come back up and we'll sing. Let me pray.
Almighty Father, what grace that you have given us that the very essence of who you are in your spirit would come to dwell within lowly people like us. And Father, we pray that you would be revealing the truth of Jesus in our life wherever we are at right now. Father, it's all too easy for us to be at odds with one another. Father, would you give us your spirit that unifies Father, you have equipped us and you will equip us as you see fit in your spirit to accomplish your desires in this Church. Would you make it known to us the ways in which you have equipped us for the building up of one another?
Father, you know our hearts. You know how we're twisted. Would you in your spirit and in your kindness reveal to us the ways in which we need to repent, turn to you, and give us the strength in your spirit to do so? Father, you have sent us. You've sent us into this community of the greater Colombia area to be ambassadors to be ministers of the Gospel to be those who would be empowered by your spirit like Paul to boldly proclaim the message of Jesus.
For this reason we bow our knees before the Father from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named that according to the riches of his glory he may grant us to be strengthened with power through his spirit in our inner being. So that Christ may dwell in our hearts through faith. That us being rooted and grounded in love may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge that we may be filled with all the fullness of God. Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all we ask or think according to the power at work within us. To him be glory in the Church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations forever and ever.
Amen. The band's going to come up. We're going to sing we're going to sing a song called Your Will Be Done. And that's at the core of this desire that the spirit would be at work with in us. That it would not be our wills that we would be seeking to accomplish, but it would be the spirit of God and work within us to reveal to us his will and what he's doing.
So, let's sing together as a Church.