The King is Calling

to share the Word of God. We are in the series called Stories of the Faith. Who was here last week in hearing Pastor Phil preaching the Word of God. I am still here. Have you heard it? If you haven't heard it, go online and go ahead and listen to that message. Today I have the honor to preach about King David. Has anybody ever heard about King David? Can I see with the raise of hands? King David killing Goliath. Have I, let me see your hands. Okay, see more hands one up. I have the task today to preach the Word of God about David. Look at your neighbor really quick. Just look at him. Give him a little attitude today. Listen, I know you were out late watching fireworks and on. You didn't get enough sleep. So look, go ahead and shrug your shoulders back. Look at your neighbor. Probably don't do it to your spouse. Do it to somebody else. Shrug your shoulders. Give him a little attitude. It's sad. What you looking at? Oh wait, that was really weak, y'all. Look at your neighbor and tell him, ask him. What you looking at? I'll get somewhere. King David from Bethlehem. His daddy was Jesse. David was a young man that was overlooked, overseen, overshadowed. Didn't seem like he was good enough, like some people feel in the room right now. He was a shepherd boy under the law or the kingship of King Saul. Has anybody heard of King Saul? Okay, King Saul was a mad man and he was under his leadership. King Saul in 1 Samuel, if we look at it, 1 Samuel, King Saul was disobedient. King Saul was asked to repent. Come back to the Lord. Come back how you first started. You were a humble man and now you are a prideful man. Prophet Samuel told them to repent and here was King Saul's response. I am a sinner. I have sinned but please do not tell the others. Do you hear repentance anywhere in that? I hear hiding. I hear prideful and Prophet Samuel says to Saul, God rejects you today and it was the beginning of the end for King Saul and God tells Prophet Samuel, I just got to give you context. I'm going slow so you could understand. He tells Prophet Samuel to go to Jesse's house for I will you will anoint the next king and so Samuel goes to Jesse's house in Bethlehem and David had seven brothers and Jesse brought the brothers unto him and each man. I'm going to pause. You ready to go in the Scripture? Ooh, I don't hear anything. Are you ready to get in the Scripture? So we're going to go to 1 Samuel 16 verse 7 and it says this, but the Lord said to Samuel, do not consider his appearance or their appearance, the brothers, or his height for I have rejected him. The Lord does not look at things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, But the Lord looks at the heart.

For the singles in the house, fair view? What you looking at? Are you looking at the wrong thing when you're looking for your man? Are you looking at the wrong thing when you're looking for your helpmate? Are you looking at the heart? Did you forget to check off that box about the heart? Or are we just looking at the outward appearance? See, King saw the people nominated him in and they anointed him in because he looked the part. He was handsome, he was built not like me, he was tall, not like me. I'm in the six foot and under club. Right? But they nominated him on looks because he looked the parts, but because they nominated him to be the king of a looks and didn't check his heart. Now they had to deal with his heart and they didn't care about his appearance because his heart was corrupt. And oftentimes we hire people off of they sound really good. They look really good, they'll look good on my team but they don't check their heart and five years later they gotta deal with their heart and that was King saw. King saw didn't have a hair of repentance in him. He didn't want to repent, so he was rejected. And here's where we pick it up in Samuel 16, seven

where David is anointed that he will be the next king. He's anointed to be the next king at the age between the age at 10 and 12. We don't know exactly what age, but the age of 10 to 12, he is anointed to be king. He anoints him and David goes back to do what? 10 to the sheep, just because you have been anointed doesn't mean that he appointed you in this season to fulfill what he has called you to do. I'm gonna let you sit on that. Just because you have been anointed and chosen to be king doesn't mean David was taking the throne at that time. Do you know how long he had to wait? 20 years, two decades to become king. And here they are, David was anointed to be king. His brothers are fighting the army, he wants to fight, and daddy won't let him fight. He has to stay tending to the sheep. Will you be faithful? When you're anointed and you're called, will you be faithful in the small? That's a hard thing to do when you've been anointed to be king, but you have to go back to the sheep. It's a hard thing when you've been anointed to be in the palace, but you gotta go back to the field. (mumbling) He had to go back to the field to tend to sheep. And here we're gonna fast forward to the story when Samuel saw, I'm sorry, saw takes the Philistines and he's gonna fight against them.

He takes the Israelites to the hills, and he's gonna fight, and for 40 days, they're standing in between hills. You gotta understand when they're about to get in the fight, the valley in the middle. And for 40 days, the Philistines and the Israelites are in a standoff. And for 40 days, this name Goliath, anybody here know about Goliath? He was 9 foot 9, a big mouth, yelling and defying our God. 10,000 troops on the Israelites heard this for 40 days, and they did nothing at all. For 40 days, this big guy that they called King Saul heard, heard, he heard it, he heard Goliath talking, he heard Goliath defying, he heard, it's like that noise you're hearing right now, that buzzing you're hearing right now, we all hear it, it's like the Israelites being on the hill distracted, you hear it, Goliath is speaking the whole time, and defying their God. And meanwhile, look at God orchestrating this whole scenario of this little shepherd boy that is 4 foot 10 to go over and take care of their brothers. What does he tell David to do, I want you to take this lunch, I want you to take this insignificant thing and take it to your brothers because they've been in battle for 40 days. So please, can you tend to your brothers? And so here comes this little insignificant things, go Browns, go Browns, come on. Look at this, he said, I want you to go take something, take something to your brothers, take some Miss Vicki's sea salt to your brothers, so y'all hungry aren't you? Some Bobo's apple pie, take it to your brothers because they're hungry, look, look, look, this hot dog, take this hot dog, I was going to take a bite, no, I'm not going to take a bite man, take this chomps to your brothers, look at what they put in my bag, take a Swiss Miss K cup over to your brothers where there's no electricity, who's going to use a K cup? Take some orbit gum to your brothers, it's insignificant but this little thing is your next big thing, this little thing right here is going to propel you and catapult you to your next big thing. Little did David know that taking this little lunchbox that God was really the one orchestrating

him taking the lunchbox because it was going to catapult him in Israel's eyes that he was the man. Where is King Saul in the midst of all of this? He's hiding like a little coward, but here for 40 days they're in this standoff Goliath verse David now. We hear this, we see this whole thing in scripture that Israelites don't want to fight and it's actually says that they're timid and they're scared, let's read the scripture. It's in 1 Samuel 17, I'll read it verse 33, and Saul replies, you are not able to go against the Philistine and fight him, you are only a young man and he has been a warrior from his youth. But David said to Saul, your servant has been keeping his father's sheep when a lion or a bear came and carried off a sheep from the fly. I went after it, I'm going to have to talk to Pastor Phil, I got to talk to Bearman because like he killed a bear with his bare hands, what happened to Bearman? He struck it and rescued the sheep from its mouth and when it turned on me I seized it by its hair, struck it and killed it. Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear, this uncircumcised The Lord who rescued me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will rescue me from the hand of the Philistine. Saul said to David, "Go and the Lord will be with you." Three over giants starts with faithfulness in the small things. God chooses what people overlook. The small thing. We see this big thing. Anybody have an apple phone? Apple watch. You know where that started? In a garage in 1976. And I bet you people start laughing at apple. What are you doing?

You're starting in a garage and look at apple now. Do not despise the small beginnings. When you're serving and you're asked to do this small thing, maybe it's your next big thing. And they were going at it. And it says that David heard, he didn't see, but he heard. He heard him defying his God. And he said, "Man, what do I get for killing this dude? What do I get for taking this guy out?" Isn't it like our lives that we have this standoff with life? Stand off with the enemy. And he's in one hill and I'm on the other hill and Goliath, your Goliath, steps down into the valley and wants you to step down with him. What is your Goliath today? What is your Goliath today? And it says that the Israelites were trembling and they were scared and they were terrified. King Saul was hiding. They had fear within them. And somebody sitting in the room today is filled with fear and they're scared to make their next move, scared that they're going to lose their marriage, scared that they're going to miss their promotion, scared that their sons, they're going to lose their son or daughter, scared. In the room, here is King David, four foot ten insignificant, pushed over David. The smallest dude in his family looks like nothing, tending sheep. The one that decided I'm going to take care of him because he is talking about my God. You hear it in your ear? You hear the Goliath talking to you? You hear the Goliath speaking to you? You ain't nothing. You're too small.

You go to church and you see how you talk at home, scared and fearful. If somebody finds out, what am I going to do? And we walk in this fear and you know what the word says about fear? He has not given you a spirit of fear, but of power, love and sound mind. It's good. I love it nice and quiet. He has not given you a spirit of fear. He has not called you to walk in fear. He got off the hill and ran after Goliath. He was not a coward and God is telling you today to face your fear and run right after it. He is not giving us a spirit of fear, it is time that the Church of Jesus Christ stopped walking in fear and started heading towards victory. Who is your Goliath? What is your Goliath? We know the ending. The ending is sweet. I mean the ending is awesome. Cut his head off. Showed everybody his big old head. I wish he would have turned towards the end of life. What are you looking at? What are you looking at? I know he's big. I know he's big. He's 9'9". I'm 4'10". But what God do you serve and I'm going to ask the same question today. I know fear and depression and anxiety and suicide and all of these things that we call our Goliath's are very big in our minds but your God is bigger.

He kills Goliath, it was the beginning of the end for Saul because he took this insignificant bag and he said I'm going to be faithful with this small thing. Not knowing that it's going to lead him to the palace. This whole story, this whole thing, we can look at it and it's an awesome story but what's even more awesome is seeing the heart of David. It's not about cutting this big man's head off and showing everybody and doing these awesome things. It's actually showing you his purity of hearts. How awesome David is. I would ask myself, I was asking myself this week studying, I'm like, he killed a bear, he killed Goliath and he killed Goliath. I wonder if he lived in our society and our culture right now, would he have, take talk to that, would he have taken Goliath's head and let me say, let me show you what great thing I did today, click click. Because we're in a culture that is called self idolatry, ouch, that we just want to show and post our faces on the gram and we want to get the likes and we want to get the clicks and we want to get everybody's, oh my God, you did awesome. Your good thing is like filthy rags, the word says, I won't go into exactly what that means but it is not a good thing. It is like filthy rags. I wonder if David lived in a culture that we did right now. Would he be clicking to get likes? Check your heart, right? Because it's all about the heart. I'm not here to tickle people's ears and I love that, we're quiet, I don't preach to get in applause. I preach so you get closer to Jesus and you become more like him. My preaching is not to get, because if it was for an applause, I wouldn't do it. I am not the greatest speaker but I come with a pure heart. And David's heart is absolutely pure.

He had chances to kill Saul over and over again and he did not circumvent the process And look at his heart of him further. When Saul died and Saul's son Jonathan died, he had a chance, this is his chance to become king. Instead, they nominated Saul's other son to become king. He could have complained and he could have griped and I'm not going to go to church because you know while I was the next one that I should have been on the serve lead team and I should have been called to the prayer team and I should have been asked to be in the production team and said they asked somebody else why am I being overlooked and they should have promoted me out work but they're promoting this alcoholic that doesn't even show up. Sometimes our attitude delays our calling. Do you know how I know that? Because my attitude stunk. My stunk started preaching at the age of 15 but I thought I was entitled to the microphone because I was preaching in New York and Pennsylvania and all these other places and how come I'm being overlooked for certain situations. I'm a better preacher than that sit on boy. That's what the Lord told me. Your attitude stinks like filthy rags before me the Lord says. But here's King David, man. He could have killed all of Saul's people, all of them and instead he had a pure heart even with that and here's what he says in 2 Samuel. 2 Samuel 9. At this point he is King. And David asks is there anyone still left at the of the house of Saul to whom I can show kindness for Jonathan's sake. Not for my house but for Saul's house. Can I show them kindness? I wonder when your enemy is standing before you. Do you show them kindness? David asks how can I show my enemy's household kindness? Now there was a servant of Saul's household named Ziba. They summoned him to appear before David and the king said to him are you Ziba? At your service he replied the king asked is there no one still alive from the house of Saul to whom I can show God's kindness to. When was the last time we showed some kindness? Ziba answered the king there is still a son of Jonathan. He is lame in both of his feet. Where is he the king asked? Ziba answered he is at the house of Mecir, son of Emil in Lóderbar. Ziba knew exactly where Mephiboshev was. Can I tell you that God knows exactly where you're at? And some of you are in the wrong place. I'll unpack that in a minute. Some of you today need to pack your bags

because you're going back to Jerusalem. Where is he? So King David had him brought from Lóderbar. Somebody say Lóderbar from the house of Mecir, son of Emil. When Mephiboshev, somebody (audience murmuring) No, it's not easy. When Mafiboshaf's son of Jonathan, the son of Saul, came to David, he didn't ask him what he wanted. He asked him one thing, or he said one thing to him. He bowed down to pay him honor. Before he said anything, he bowed before him. Can you think about Mafiboshaf at this time? Saul was after David to kill him. Time and time and time again. And now David is asking for me to go to the palace. Mafiboshaf was probably like, "I am smoked, "he's gonna kill me." And he bows down before David and says at your service. King David said, "Don't be afraid." David said to him, "For I will surely show you kindness "for the sake of your father, Jonathan. "I will restore to you all the land "that belonged to your grandfather, Saul. "And you will always eat at my table." Mafiboshaf bowed down and said, "What is your servant "that you should notice a dead dog like me?" Insignificance. Mafiboshaf was crippled since the age of five because his nurse was trying to flee

and dropped him. She was supposed to be loving and caring for him, but she dropped him in the midst of thinking about herself and running away. I want you to think about this. He's the only one left. Mafiboshaf, yeah, I have a hard time saying it too. Mafiboshaf had the rights to the throne. But he was in the wrong place. Mafiboshaf was next in line to become king, but because he was dropped and crippled, he was embarrassed to pack his bags and went to Lodabar. I wonder how many people in the room have been embarrassed about their divorce and have packed their bags emotionally and have left to Lodabar. How many people have been embarrassed because I had to go through a bankruptcy and I'm embarrassed to show it. I'm packing my bags and going to a place where there's no communication because that's what Lodabar means is no communication is sometimes that when you've been dropped so many times or you've been dropped so hard and you're walking funny now and people are actually watching you and you've been dropped. You don't want to ever want to talk about it anymore.

(mumbling) Somebody in the room right now is in Lodabar. Stuck in a situation that happened when you were five years old. Stuck because you trusted your mom and you trusted your dad and you trusted your cousin. You trusted your best friend and your aunt and uncle and something happened and you're stuck in Lodabar. Stuck in your trauma. Stuck in the emotional distress. You're in the room. Stuck feeling over looked. I'm not good enough for the position. (mumbling) I'm not good looking enough. I don't have enough money. I don't drive that Benz. I don't drive the Tesla. I got to take the bus here and there. And I'm embarrassed to show anybody how I walk around. And here is Mephibosheff. It ain't pretty but he's getting somewhere. He was called by the king. The king is calling somebody in the room. Embarrassed of our past. Mafiboshev, the king is calling you today.

Mafiboshev showed up at the palace. David could have easily said, "I got some bathrooms, I need you to clean." That's why I need you to start. He said, "I need you to cook some food for everybody because you just showed up." King David could have had him do whatever he wanted. I want you to scrub these floors on your hands and knees. Because you are from the king of songs. My household is more powerful than yours. He could have said and done anything he wanted to. But instead, the king David looked at him and looked at his crippled legs and said, "I want you to sit at my table." Sit with me. And the person that looked very different looks like everybody else now because he's sitting at the king's table. The guy in the beginning of the story, King David, felt insignificant. He felt overshadowed. He felt unwanted. His confidence was restored in the midst of killing David. I mean, killing Goliath. He was restored and he became king. And he asked the question, "Is there anybody left that I could show kindness to?" Would it be something that God would orchestrate that he would meet somebody that is absolutely crippled? He felt insignificant, unwanted, unloved, pushed aside, laughed at. Today, you sit at my table. For the rest of your life, you sit at the king's table. Today, many of us sitting in this room right now. The king has called for you and is telling you today, telling you today, you're sitting at my table today.

Today, you will no longer be overlooked. Today, you will no longer be overshadowed. King Jesus is calling your name. In spite of how you see your circumstance, he's calling for you. You're in low to bar. Scared about going back to your addiction. You're in low to bar. Scared because you lost your job. You're in low to bar. And the king is calling for you today. King Jesus. Yeah. Just like that rain is coming down so hard. Come on. He wants to pour his grace and mercy. Just think about that. Close your eyes for a minute. Listen to that rain, the mercy, and the grace that he wants to pour out on you. Today, the king is calling. Fairview, Twinsburg, the king is calling.