Mike Bickle emphasizes the significance of David's anointing as king in Bethlehem, highlighting that this event was not merely about the tasks David would perform but about establishing his identity as a beloved servant of God. David's success was rooted in his understanding of being loved by God and his commitment to humility and meekness, which defined his leadership. Bickle points out that God's choice of David, a seemingly insignificant shepherd, illustrates His preference for the humble and weak over the powerful and grandiose. The sermon underscores the importance of measuring success not by worldly standards but by one's relationship with God and the heart's posture towards others. Ultimately, Bickle calls for a revival of leaders who embody this heart of meekness and intimacy with God.

Father, we thank you for the Word of God. We thank you for this precious record of the man you call, the man after your own heart. We ask you for a spirit of inspiration in the name of Jesus. Amen. We're in session five on the life of David. For those in our Bible school, you have the notes and we have the question and answer time and afterwards, etc. For those that are taking the class, 1 Samuel chapter 16, I'm titling this David, anointed King of Israel in Bethlehem. This is the first of the three anointings that David had. David's about 17 years old at this time. He's anointed by the Holy Spirit. Then about 13 years later, when he's 30 at Hebron, he's anointed the second time. And then the third time, he's age 37 in Jerusalem. So it was three different times he was anointed with the Holy Spirit and each one of them had a different focus. But this one, David was anointed as king at Bethlehem and he was anointed by the Spirit to do special tasks by the anointing of the Holy Spirit described in verse 18 and 19. But foundational to this is not just the tasks. It's the fact that he was anointed to get his identity established right in the Lord in this first anointing and to develop meekness and a servant spirit. Now when some read this, what they see mostly is the tasks. A new operation of the Holy Spirit that David can play as instrument and demons go out of people. And they go, wow, that's the first anointing is about the ability to play the instrument and a demon to be driven away from a demonized king. And that is true. That was one of the tasks. There were seven different facets that are outlined in chapter 16, verse 14 to 19. But behind that, it's more than deeds. It's more than an event. It's more than an exploit in the anointing. But David's primary reality at this season of his life in the Bethlehem years that he carried into the second and the third anointing at Hebron and then in Jerusalem when he was 30 and then 37, was this by the grace of God to have his identity established in being loved by God and being a lover of God and feeling successful because he operated in the anointing of the spirit to feel loved and to feel loved back to God and then to relate to people in meekness or humility. And that's where David measured the success of his life. And that's what made him the man he was as the anointing increased in the later years. That's kind of a neat little point, but it's much more than a neat little point. It was the issue of David's whole life. And people read the life of David and they kind of go a little bit fast over that because they want to get to the kind of heroic deeds he did. The absolute profound secret of David's life is that he felt his primary identity was in the fact he was loved. And his primary identity, what I mean by a man or a woman's identity, it's the way he defined his value and success, the way he measured his value, the way he measured his success in life was the fact that he felt loved and he was a lover. Therefore, he saw himself in the ultimate sense as successful. And when a man or woman has that storm on the inside, that raging storm at peace, and they feel successful, and then the Lord anoints them for other things, but it doesn't move them from the core reality of their identity and intimacy in God and the core reality of his identity. He measured his life by his ability to operate in meekness. He didn't measure his life by how big his kingdom was, but by the measure of his heart to operate in meekness. And that's why he is uniquely called the man after God's own heart. He had a unique expression of Jesus's heart and life in these two things. I call these the two core realities of David's life, of which the exploits, apart from that foundation, you do not understand them right. And many people are so excited about being anointed to do exploits, rather than exploits flowing from this core foundation. And it takes the anointing of the Spirit for this foundation to be established in any of our lives. It's not a natural thing. It's something supernatural, something completely other than the natural mindset. It takes the anointing of the Holy Spirit. Well, I'll probably make that point almost every session, because it's the most important part of David's life, and it's the part that's most often ignored. Okay, 1st Samuel 16, verse 1, the Lord says to Samuel, how long will you mourn over Saul, saying that I have rejected him from reigning over Israel? Fill your horn with oil and go. I'm sending you to a man named Jesse. He's a Bethlehemite. He lives in Bethlehem. For I have provided a king for myself from his sons, from among his sons. One of his sons is going to be the replacement to Saul. Samuel said, how can I go? In verse 2, if Saul hears about it, he'll kill me. And the Lord said, take a heifer with you and say, I have come to sacrifice to the Lord. It's true. It's not the whole truth, but it was true. This is the Lord counseling him. He says, and then invite Jesse to the sacrifice, and I will show you what you shall do, and you shall anoint for me. And that's the key phrase, for me. But you shall anoint for me, the one that I named you. Well, what's happened is, in verse 1, there's a crisis in the land. Now, most of the people in the land don't know there's a crisis, because I don't think that God's rejection of King Saul was something that was known, that was made public. Something that God told Samuel, and Samuel told Saul. And as far as we know, they are the only ones that know this information. And Samuel the prophet is mourning in verse 1. He's sad over the crisis, because in chapter 10, verse 16, he was the one the Lord had used to anoint Saul. And Saul had this beautiful, powerful anointing of the Spirit on his life. In chapter 10, verse 16, and then chapter 13, and then again in chapter 15, we looked at it a little bit in the earlier classes, Saul compromised in a way that was not just weakness. It wasn't stumbling and then repenting. He had a defiance in his spirit. Chapter 15 called it witchcraft. It wasn't just a weakness. It wasn't that he stumbled. David had weakness and stumbled, but he never had defiance. And God called it the seeds of witchcraft operating in Saul's life. In chapter 15, I believe it's verse 28 or something like that. It says that your rebellion is witchcraft. Then we know in 1 Samuel 28, that seed of witchcraft grows into full scale witchcraft. In 1 Samuel 28, about 13 years later, that seed fully blossoms into witchcraft in a full sense. But the seeds of it are operating him now. And what Saul's, I mean, Samuel's mourning because the nation has lost its king, but he stayed in the position, but he has no grace on him anymore. I think Saul's, I mean, the prophet Samuel's mourning for the nation because he knows the crisis that's inevitable. I think he's, I think he really loved the king Saul. He's a number of years younger than him. He saw him as a son and he loved him and was grieved over the loss and King Saul's life. But I believe he was grieved for what's going to happen in the nation too. And we find out later on in verse 14 here in the same chapter, that when the Holy Spirit left King Saul, an evil spirit took its place and Saul was tormented. Saul had a spirit of insanity that would come off of him, come on him and off of him different seasons. He was paranoid. He had torment. He had fits of rage that would hit him that were energized by a demon. Beloved, when a nation is led by a demonized king, which has been happened many times in history, it's great, great distress for the nation. It's a great crisis in the land when the leaders of the nation are demonized. I have no doubt that we have some leaders in our nation that are demonized, that are way up at the top. I don't know who they are, but I look at some of the voting records and I could suspect. I'm not, I'm being absolutely serious. We, I have no doubt, I don't know who, but we have demonized leaders in Washington DC and it's trouble for the nation. It's worth mourning. Saul was, I mean, Samuel was an intercessor. He's mourning for the nation, but he's mourning for Saul as a person too. It's trouble when there's demonized leaders in the capital and, but he's mourning, I believe, for Saul as a man. It's a son and the Lord tells him, he says, don't mourn for him. I've rejected him. Trust my decision. He goes, Samuel, you're a prophet. Trust me. My decision is right. It's necessary and it's filled with mercy. I did not cut mercy short in any way. I have rejected him. So we see, I have A in the notes here. We see Samuel's humanity here. He's crying. He's mourning for the nation. He's mourning for a man that was perhaps a son to him. And then it's interesting that he says, go and anoint another man. And in verse two, Samuel said, if Saul hears it, he will kill me. I mean, this is, this is odd to me and not odd. This is remarkable because the prophet Samuel is in grief, legitimate grief, so much so God has to tell him to get a hold of himself over a man that he knows things don't go just his own way. He'll kill the prophet. This is, this is a remarkable statement about the prophet Samuel's character. So many prophets today in the land has been true for many years. They are so interested in their own profile and their own image as a prophet. And I would go as far to say that our nation is really in trouble on that point. I know about a hundred people who prophesy, a whole lot. I mean, in terms of it's their full-time ministry and they do conferences. I don't know if I could know quite a hundred, but I bet it's close to a hundred. And I'll say this, it's very, very common for there to be something other than this heart. And Samuel is so grieved by a man who's giving him nothing, but purely operating with a father spirit for this, this rejected king who would kill him. But he said, I still love him. It's not about what he's going to do for me. I'm in it for you, God. I'm in it for the nation. I'm in it for Saul. I'm not in it for me. I still love the man. And what an amazing reality. I believe God's going to raise up the kind of prophetic that has that kind of integrity and that kind of otherness in their mind than themselves. And there's men and women in the land that are like that, but we just need a revival. I believe we need a whole lot more and I believe God's going to send them. This is a real picture of selfless ministry. I have written B on the paragraph B that leadership lesson. This is really important one. When God transitions leadership, when God transitions leadership, there is crisis and danger when that happens. I remember the Lord spoke to me some years ago in September, 1982, in a very dramatic way and told me he was going to change the understanding and expression of Christianity to the earth in one generation. And I was so excited that God was going to change. And you know what the word change means? It means he's going to replace people. That means conflict. That's called civil war. And that's really, I've seen a few of those in 25 years. I've seen men in positions get replaced by other men and godly Christian. I mean, they preachers is what I'm talking about and they're real mean and they're real destructive and change the change we're believing God for. I just want to say this from the life of David. David's life is a testament. The change we're believing God for we're praying for called revival will bring many, many tensions and many dangerous, divisive, and even perilous situations. Sometimes we think of change and go, oh good, it's changing. Whenever there's change, there is bloodshed. There's always great pain on the backside because the people that are in the power positions don't typically like Saul. They don't just resign when the Lord says, I'm finished. They say, I'm staying here to the last breath. And David's life began, was a testament of the change and the violence. And a lot of folks are naive about the violence and the incredible amount of pain that will come as revival mounts up by the Spirit of God. It will bring great pain and turmoil. Not just people getting saved and this is that and everybody ends up happy. Well, maybe they all end up happy, but there's a big gap between now and then. When I see the change, when God put his Spirit on David, I go, yay David! There is so much trouble for David. There's trouble. David's family is in peril. The prophetic ministry, the prophet is in peril. The nation is in peril. And many, many calamities took place in this great change. And so I just always encourage people to be, let's go for the change. That's what IHOP's all about. We're praying and fasting for a breakthrough of God, but I know that when the breakthrough comes, there will be to many people very disappointing developments that will take place. And I just think it's better to be kind of open-eyed and realistic about it on the front end. There'll be a lot, a lot of messy things as revival is released. It's the same situation that happened when the Sanhedrin didn't really appreciate the apostolic youth group that emerged and took their place under God as the leadership of the nation and the Spirit. They didn't like it at all. And a lot of people were murdered and killed. I mean, they were thrown in jail and murdered. That's what happens when change comes at this level. And of course, it's happening all around the world in parts of the body of Christ. And it's going to, those things are going to happen in America. There's going to be a lot of conflict. It's not just going to be the glory of God and that's it. It's the life of David. Well, see, he says, go to Jesse, the Bethlehemite. Now it's interesting that we understand that Jesse is the Father's name. And the reason you need to know Jesse, particularly for tomorrow night, if you're here, I know a number of you will be, is that Jesus, one of his titles is he's called the shoot of Jesse. He comes from the, he comes from the shoot or the root of Jesse. It's the title of the Messiah or a description of the Messiah. He comes from Jesse's shoot or root. And, and so the people in the Bible are supposed to understand that means from King David's lineage. And so when we see the word Jesse, we're, we're, we're, there's a, his name appears in several of the prophecies. And so about Jesus, and so lock in the name Jesse in your mind, if that's a new name to you, the Bethlehemite. Of course, we all know that Jesus was born in Bethlehem. And that's because it, because David was, that was the city God chose. Now, the interesting thing about Bethlehem is the fact that it was such an insignificant, completely nothing city. And that's the one God chose to raise up the mighty King of Israel, David, and then yea, the greater son of David, Jesus himself, God chose a city with no power, no renowned whatsoever, a city of weakness. He did this on purpose. This is God's way. Now I know we know it, we know it in our heads, but I've asked the Lord, I said, Lord, I want to know more than your ways are not our ways, et cetera, et cetera. You choose weak. I want to be able to, I want to rejoice in it. I want to plan like it. I want to plan my future over around the idea that you are excited about weakness and smallness. Because though we know God chooses weakness, most people spend their whole life striving for bigness. They say, well, God chooses weakness. Isn't that great? And then they have a spirit of despair and hopelessness about their life because their life's so weak. But then they say God chooses the weak, but it doesn't connect with their heart. They choose the big and the grand and they have despair about their own life because they're weak. And God says, listen, I really do choose the weak. You're right in line and don't go there. You don't have to give up. You're the kind of person I choose for real. And get your mind out of the grandiose about your life and how rich and famous you're going to be under the anointing and get into being a servant and into meekness. And don't measure how big and grand you are. Just be into meekness and be into your identity and intimacy because I choose weakness. Again, a lot of believers know it, but emotionally they can't connect with it because they pursue other than that. And they're depressed when it's in their life, when smallness and weakness is in their life. I'm going to talk about sinfulness right now. I'm talking about weakness. I'm just talking about we labor hard and so little seems to happen. The Lord says, I'm a lot more in that than, you know, and I esteem it more than you'll ever know. And if we could buy into the fact that he's the God that chooses Bethlehem, it changes the way we view our life and even the hope we have about our future. Because we know that God chooses smallness, but at our core, we're Americans. We love big and grandiose and glitter and fame and fortune and sizzle. And that's we say we don't, but that's what we dream about and work hard and cry when it doesn't happen. Our minds, our testimony is Christian, but our minds and hearts are American. It's not, it's not of the kingdom of God. I'm not saying America, I'm not making a political statement, but I'm saying we're Western culture is what I'm trying to say. And when I see that God chose Bethlehem, that moves me. God's the kind of person that would just choose the out of the way, broken down, not a chance of a future and make it the revival center of the earth, like your little town. Just, just because that's what, not, not just a, because that's his value. That's what he values. He values the weak things in this world. He tells Samuel, he says, Samuel in verse one and verse three, the very important, I have it in paragraph D. He goes, I have provided, here's the key phrase for myself, a King. I want you to anoint that's verse one. I've presided it for myself in verse three. I want you to go and anoint for me. This isn't going to be a Saul deal. This man is going to belong to me and not just that I'm going to possess him. He's going to want to be possessed. His, his number one dream is to be lost in me. I know this man. He's only 17 years old. He might be 16. Nobody knows for sure his age right there, but you do the math of the rest of the details of his life. He's 17, 18 years old. It's his dream when no one's looking to be lost in me more than anything. He wants to be mine far more than he wants to be King. That's why I want him to be King. I mentioned this last week. The Lord says, I have provided verse one for myself, a King. One person reads that and says, a King, that's what I want. And another person says, for God, that's what I want. Two different hearts read the same verse. There's one part of the charismatic church. They just want to be King so bad. And there's another part of the charismatic church and more besides who they just want to be the Lords. And if they hadn't happened to be King, that's, that's the Lord's business. That's not something they're going to lose sleep over. They want to be their dream is to be lost in love in the heart level with God. That is their dream. And that's the kind of man God is looking for. That's the kind of woman. That's the kind of youth group. God's raising up across the earth because that was a little youth group that David had. And the book of acts was, it was a youth group. It was a bunch of 20 year olds that had the heart of David. The Lord says about David first, I have in the notes that he goes, I sought for my, I've sought the Lord has sought for himself. It's the same idea. And first Samuel 13, 14, it's the same language he fought. He sought for himself a man and the Lord commanded this man to be commander. What an interesting phrase, David, what is your dream? My dreams be lost in you. That's good. I want you to be lost in me. What is your second dream? My dream is to be anointed when I think about you. Well, David, that's the first thing. That's the same thing as the first dream. What's your third dream? My third dream is to fill your love for me. Well, that's the same as for the other two, David, come on, let's be realistic. David goes, that's really what I want. When no one's looking for real as well, I got bad news for you. God has commanded you to be commander of a nation, which means you're going to have a million staff meetings for the rest of your life. Oh, I'm absolutely serious. That's what that means. That's cute, but that is real. He goes, what do you mean? He says, he says, David, your heart stay with it, but it's going to be a fight to do both dimensions. And David says, I'm going to the other way. I'm going with the heart with God. He says, I know, but I'm commanding you to lead the nation. I want you to lead those staff meetings, David, and solve the problems in your nation. Oh, I believe, well, it's more than just, I believe in opinion. There are five or six verses about David. I have them there in the notes where David will be one of the rulers in the messianic kingdom, in the millennial kingdom. When the Lord says, I commanded you to be ruler, he meant far more than his 40 years in Jerusalem. When he says, I commanded you to be ruler, of course, David didn't know when he was a kid, when it was spoken over him. But as David became the first millennial theologian in the Bible, he began to understand the implications of what God meant when he said, I commanded you to be a ruler. He goes, oh, I'm getting it like for a long time. Uh-huh. Uh-huh. And it was part of that understanding that gave David even more zeal about meekness. Because it's in Psalm 37 where David says it five or eight times. I don't really know it's how many I can't remember, but Psalm 37 is the great Psalm where David declares by revelation, the meek will rule the earth. It's the one Jesus quotes. And David meant the messianic kingdom. Not only that, he meant the meek now a little bit, but he meant in the long-term sense, the meek and only the meek would have government when the Lord returns. And David was so into this, he understood it way ahead of his day. And Jesus would quote in the Sermon on the Mount when he says the meek shall inherit the earth, which is talking substantially about partnership in the millennial kingdom. Certainly meekness matters now, but the meek now don't rule. The meek now are thrown in prisons. The meek now are mocked. Every now and then a meek man rules, but mostly the evil men of the earth rule. And that's what Psalm 37 was the crisis about. David said, the bad guys are ruling. The Lord says for a minute, for a minute. And meekness wins the day occasionally on this side, but it's very rare. That's not what Jesus mostly meant. He meant that our life would have continuity between this age and the next age. It would be based on meekness. David really grasped that in Psalm 37. I'm really slipping over to tomorrow night, aren't I? That's for another, that's a couple of weeks from now actually. But David, the Lord said, I've commanded him to be commander. That really grabs my attention. I mean, how much did God mean when he said that about David? Okay, let's look at E. Then he tells David, he's, I mean, he tells, the Lord tells Samuel, the Lord tells Samuel in verse three, he goes, I will, he says, I want you to go to Bethlehem, invite Jesse to the sacrifice and the dinner, because the sacrifice, they, they, they would kill an animal, then they would eat the animal and have a big dinner. He says, then I will show you what to do when you get there. Now, how many of you know, that's the way the Lord does it. I call him the 5-12 God. He does it on purpose. The first thousand times he did it to me, I thought it was coincidence. Then there was somewhere back then I said, wait a second, you're doing this on purpose. Yes, I was slow. It took me years to figure it out. Happened the same way every time. I just kept thinking, man, because you know why the Lord does it? The Lord doesn't want us having security based on information. He wants us to have security based on relationship with his heart. Oh, I want more information because if I get more information, I get more peace. And the Lord says the very reason I don't want to give you more information. I don't want it to be the counterfeit. I don't want it to be not the counterfeit. I don't want it to be the, the prop you lean on where you don't need to connection with my heart because to live in peace is a supernatural reality. Peace, the Shalom of God is supernatural. And if people can get information, it brings them peace in a certain way. And the Lord says, I want you to have the fullness of peace based on connecting with me, encountering me. I don't want you to be, have peace based only on information. Peace is somewhat based on information and it's supposed to be faith comes by hearing. So does peace. But the Lord, what he does, he says, Samuel, you go there. And when you get there, I'll tell you what to do. I mean, he could have said his name's David. He's the little guy. He won't tell him he walks all the way there. It's a 25 mile walk, by the way, from Rama, his house. He's a North of, uh, of, uh, Bethlehem. It's a 25 mile walk for a guy in his eighties or whatever. He's a way up there. I mean, he's way up there and he walks 25 miles down to Bethlehem. I don't know how old he is, but he's up there. And all the time he's saying, who is it, Lord? He's thinking about the whole drama. And the Lord says, I'll tell you when you get there, beloved, that's on purpose. That's what happened with, uh, Saul of Tarsus or Paul, the apostle and Acts chapter nine, verse six, Acts chapter nine. It's a famous story. The Lord speaks to him. Ah, he falls on the ground. He's trembling. He's astonished. He says, Lord, what do you want me to do? The Lord says, go to the city of Damascus. And then I'll tell you what to do when you get there. It's like, Lord, we're talking. We're here. We're one-on-one the connect is made. Why don't you just go ahead and give me like one little phrase right now. What do you want me to do? We get there. I'll tell you when you get there, beloved, that is how the Lord does it. And he does it on purpose because he wants us not to use information as a prop. He wants us to use it to strengthen the peace we get by connecting with him. He doesn't want it to be the strength we get. So we don't have the same urgency to connect. And we say, well, Lord, tell you what you give me the information. I promise. I will want to connect just as much. And the Lord says, you know what? You're just like all the other guys. I hear that all the time. If your heart's at peace, you're all busy flitting around, doing all the other things. I want to connect with you. I like you. Jesus taught us to pray. Give us this day, our daily bread, a daily bread can be daily provision, money, bread. It can be daily direction. We need daily bread. We need direction. We need provision. We need protection. We need sustenance. We daily, we need energizing. I like monthly bread. Give us this month, our monthly bread. And I promise you, God, I'm at IHOP. I'm already committed. I'm going to worship you all the time. Anyway, just give me month downloads and you can just go take care of the other guys. And I won't even bother you for another month. Just give me monthly bread. I mean, I'm here anyway, Lord, don't worry about it. Trust me. No, no, no. I'll give you daily bread. Oh, man. How many of you prefer monthly bread? Well, there you see, we're all the same then. Okay. Roman numeral two. Let's look at the next one. God is correcting Samuel's wrong views of the new king. Top of page two, verse four to 11. God's correcting Samuel's views. Now, if God is correcting Samuel's views, the most senior prophet in the land, the most mature man in the spirit of the day. Beloved, these are the views that we need to be corrected on. I'm suspicious of if Samuel needed the correction, then these are important. These are important to the Lord. First Samuel 16 is a big chapter about having a right paradigm of leadership in the kingdom. I believe David, David is so unique in his understanding of God and his understanding of himself. David saw God so different than anybody before him. He, he was used of the Lord in the scripture to give more understanding about the emotions of God's heart, the emotions of God. And David saw himself as God's delight. And he saw people as God's delight in a way that no other person before him ever did in the Bible. And I believe the key beginning was first Samuel 16. I believe that Samuel sat down with David and says, David, let me tell you the story of your calling. You know, David's 17, then he's 18 and 19 and 20 and him and Samuel friends. Samuel, tell me the story again about when God talked about me. Okay, David, here goes. God says that he didn't choose your seven older brothers. You were the shortest, the skinniest, the weakest, the youngest. You're just a little guy. They were warriors because God doesn't look at people like they look at people. Tell me that one again. How does God look at people? And David's whole theology was set in a whole direction. So different than anything Moses had or anybody before him. And I am, it has all of the, it has the feeling and the formation that came out of this encounter. This was really personal to David. It was supposed to be, it formed the way he thought about God. He says, you really like the underdog. This is how you think, isn't it? I know because I'm King and I was the little guy. I know that's how you think. Let's read verse four to 11. Samuel did what the Lord said. He went to Bethlehem and the elders of the town trembled at his coming. And they said, do you come in peace? The elders are trembling. I mean, imagine what, and the reason they're trembling is because Samuel was the judge. He was like the, in our context, the president of the nation. He, he was the head of the Supreme court. He was the head of the, of the judicial system and the military. He was the main and the prophet. He was the main guy of the church, of the military and of the, of the court system. And when, and when he came in town, he spoke for God because he had this normal judicial circuit, he would go on these cities and then he would settle the disputes in the law cases of, of, and of, of the, of the, the rich and the famous, you know, the ones nobody could handle. He would go and settle them as judge. And when he came to Bethlehem, I mean, the little town out of nowhere, just completely off the circuit, they were afraid. They said, there's not a chance. Here you are. You haven't been here in 80 years and now you're here. Something bad is up. What is up? And the elders were trembling. They said, do you come peaceably? He goes, yeah. Verse five, peaceably. And it's like more than you can ever imagine. I mean, if Samuel didn't know this, I'm sure, but if Samuel would have, he would have had God's heart. He could have said, do I come in peace? Not only am I not coming in judgment, I am picking your city, one of your sons to give birth to the Messiah who will be born in your city. And the kingdom of God forever will flow out of what happens in the events that's going to take place in your city. Do I come in peace? Yes, I come in peace because Samuel didn't know all that, but I mean, what a massive thing. They're afraid the judgment of God's about to smash them. And God's not even thinking judgment. He's thinking messianic kingdom forever. And, you know, we're all the same, you know, when God draws, we all, we want God, we want God. And all of a sudden, God shows up and says, okay, I'm going to tell the secret things. Oh, I don't want God. God go, wait, not yet. Not yet. And we have this idea that if God really spoke at the heart level, deeply to us, it might be more negative than positive, but we wouldn't want to just say it. We'd just like to think it'd be positive. But if the hour of crisis, and this is, I'm going to say my thoughts about you openly like, oh my, here it is. And people just have this intrinsic fear like the elders here. And the Lord has plans for goodness for the people that will simply say yes to him, even in their weakness, his plans for goodness for him. Anyway, verse five, I'm getting a little off the subject. He said, peaceably, I've come to sacrifice to the Lord. It's what the Lord told him to say. Now, sanctify yourself. That meant the ritual, the, uh, the religious rituals that Moses taught because they had to do certain things in order to be ready, ritually clean for the sacrifice. Then he sanctified Jesse again, that's the mosaic rituals, the rituals of Moses and Leviticus, and he sanctified his sons. Then he invited them to eat the meal with them. Fantastic. So it was verse six, when they came, he looked at Eliab, the oldest one, head and shoulder taller than all the others. I'm making up that verse was not hers. I'm making up that phrase because that's what happened. Saul was head and shoulders taller. And I could just see Eliab, Eliab, the oldest of the eight sons, mighty soldier warrior. And I can hear the Lord whispering saying, we've gone that route before, remember, but I'm encouraged by Samuel. He blurts out. Surely the Lord's anointed is before me. Yay. The Lord's anointed Elijah's. I mean, Elijah Eliab's heart swells. Yes. Father, I didn't ever want to say, but I always knew something like this would happen. Samuel says it. Yay. The anointed and Eliab is so touched. Undoubtedly. I'm more talking Samuel. We're talking, we're talking in our culture, George Bush, Billy Graham, and throw a few others on top of it all rolled up in one. The president, the number one spokesperson, the main prophet, the Reinhardt Bonnke, throw them all in there. It's, it's the main guy coming to their house for dinner in Bethlehem. And Bethlehem was Hooterville. I mean, it was completely way out of the way of everything. There was no Jerusalem yet. Jerusalem was not, Jerusalem was a pagan city of the Jebusites. Jerusalem isn't going to get conquered for a while. It's just way out of the way and it's nothing but weak and little. He says, this is the great prophet in their town having dinner. Eliab, surely you are the Lord's anointed. His heart's chest goes out and the Lord speaks to Samuel, whispers in that definitive crystal clear way that the Old Testament prophets heard. No guesswork at all. It wasn't by faith. It wasn't an impression. It was the definitive clear word of the Lord. The Lord speaks that way now in the New Testament, but a lot of the New Testament prophecy is by faith with impressions and it's supposed to be, but there's those out, there's those direct communications. This is a direct one. The Lord said in verse seven, do not look at his appearance. That's why I think he's a head and shoulders taller. Don't look at the externals. Don't look at the externals, Samuel. See, that's what we do. We do it with each other. I look at your externals and then I look at my own. And when we see a good performance or we see an accomplishment, he's got the biggest ministry or the great anointing or the great this and the millions he's touching or the billions that he's sowing in and, and the this and the, and you know, he's so intelligent. He's so whatever, whatever anointed, whatever, whatever position of honor he taught, he, uh, him and the president are best friends and he wants to talk to you and and the Lord says, I'm not even into that. He goes, stop it again. We all know that the Lord's not into it, but we're so seduced. We're so impressed. We're so overcome by this. Even though we don't want to be, we are not everybody here, but I mean, it's, it's in our culture. We're we're sons and daughters of the Western culture so much more than of the kingdom of heaven. He says, don't look there. There is no deliverance in power from heaven based on that resume that you're looking at right now. Don't, I don't care if he knows the president, I don't care if he is the president that doesn't matter. You got to move angels and demons at the end of the day. If our words don't move angels and demons, it doesn't matter if we get the Pope and 28 presidents all signing together and telling us we're cool. It doesn't matter if when we talk angels and demons don't move, we get all the big guys and all the top bankers, Bill Gates, plus some, they're all there saying you're awesome. It does not matter if when we whisper our prayers or we pray for people, angels and demons don't move. None of that matters. Honestly, it doesn't. We can build a big network with it, but it doesn't actually produce power that moves things in the spirit. And he looks at him. He says, don't go there. You're so easily impressed. You're so easily seduced by that, which doesn't have power. It, it has the, you, we can all get all the coalition of natural strength and it's cool. But at the end of the day, demons don't move by it. Neither do angels. I'm not against that. I'm not against coalitions and networks. And the Lord uses those, but it is very secondary, but though we call it secondary in our emotions, it becomes primary because that's what we would seek in a heartbeat. Instead of seeking authority in the spirit by a lifestyle, Lord whispered in my heart. Sometimes it goes, why are you running after that? Nobody has the answer for what you're hungry for. No human being has it because it's spiritual authority and power to touch God's heart and to move things in the room of the spirit. Bottom line, that is what's going to change the planet, right? Right. He goes, I've refused this man. He says that don't, he said, Samuel, he goes, you ought to know by now you're 90 or 60 or 80, you know, the Lord doesn't look like that. I don't value things like you guys value them. I don't measure them the way you measure them. You measure the outward things, the bank accounts, the position you may, you measure how many top ministries are on there on their, uh, card or something on their website. You measure how many presidents they've hung out with. I don't measure anything by that. None of that will make it to the judgment seat. None of that will be remembered when you and I stand before the Lord, how many powerful people liked us and voted for us and helped us. None of that will matter. All that will matter when you and I stand before the Lord at the end will be meekness in our spirit. And that's called love or faith. You call it what you want. It's all, it comes down to the same thing. The Lord's not going to look at me and ask me how big I hop was or how cool the music was. He's going to ask me about the spirit servanthood of my heart. That's all that's going. It's the only thing I will bring with me is my intimacy and my meekness and how it affects people, not the size of anything. He says, get off of that, Samuel, get off of it. So then Jesse steps up. The dad goes, Oh no, the main son is out. So the dad jumps in, tries to control the situation. He calls a Benadad, the number two guy, a Benadad. Come here. I said, Oh, have you met a Benadad? Samuel's no, that's I'm am I leading this meeting or are you leading it? Oh, you got to meet a Benadad. He's such a good guy. Benadad come over here. This is Samuel. Wow. Samuel. Jesse's going Samuel prophesy quick, quick prophesy. Can you see it? Can you see it? You can't make that happen. Mom and dad can get everybody lined up. Just right. This doesn't work that way. Made him pass before Samuel. You know, maybe Sammy go, ah, you know, he's a charming kid. Maybe he's the King. Maybe he's God's choice. The Lord says, no, Samuel, it doesn't work that way. Verse 10, Jesse, the dad made seven of the sons pass. Jesse was a fiery guy. You know, we talk about Jewish mothers. Well, this is a Jewish father. He is not letting go of this thing. Oh, my other son, Shama, come on up here. Have you had my son? Oh, he's such a great kid. You know, he's just charming. Jesse, would you stop? This is not about that. The Lord doesn't need any extra advertisement. He knows what he's doing. He announces in verse 10, the Lord hasn't chosen any of them. This doesn't mean he doesn't love them. This is when God says he's chooses and doesn't choose. It's not about loving an individual. It's about choosing for leadership. Choosing for leadership is very different than loving an individual. When God says, I loved Jacob and hated Esau, it's talking about choosing for a role in salvation history. It's not talking about a man's salvation. It's like about the role in the plan of God. He says, I've rejected all of them. It doesn't mean I don't. The Lord said, I don't care about them as individuals. That's not what I'm talking about. There's only one I'm choosing. I'm not choosing any of them. Verse 11, as Samuel said to Jesse, the prophet says, are all the young men here? Are all of them here? He goes, something's not adding up because you got seven. That's a lot. Seven of your kids are here. Seven of your sons, because he had daughters as well. He goes, something's not right. And look at this answer. Then he, Jesse said, there remains yet the youngest. There's one more. And look at the phrase there. He is meaning he's within sight. He points over there down in the valley goes there. He is over there. Do you see him? The little guy with the sheep, David is within view. They're having the dinner and David is mowing the lawn. That's what's happening. Honestly, president Bush and Billy Graham combined come to their house one time in history. And he says, mow the lawn. He goes, really? Yes. It was the most menial task. The tending of sheep could easily had a neighbor do it for one hour. Easily a neighbor in the way those communities were, were, uh, organized. He goes, no, I want you to do it, David. Dad. I heard about Samuel. Like he really knows God. Like he knows the Bible. He's like, he's really awesome is what I hear. David mow the lawn. That's what it's really going on. It's completely unnecessary for this to happen in this one hour period. He's anybody could have done that for them. Any servant could have beloved. There's something powerful going on here. We're talking about a young man. We, we talk about value. I don't get value. David did not get value from his family or in the relational network or the power base completely written off, but it did not short circuit God's database at all. God's mailing list is completely up to date. He knows exactly where you are. And if all the power base writes you off, nobody can stop God from seeing David. Nobody can. And it's this reality that made David powerful in his spirit. In the decades that followed, he knew that he knew that God knew this phrase. It just, it just, it's something he goes, there he is. You mean he's that's your kid. What's he doing over there? Well, he's Davey's the little guy. It couldn't be him. And that's what God thinks very different than Jesse because it couldn't be him. He says, God thinks very different than you do. And here's what Samuel said. No, look at this. He's keeping the sheep. This keeping the sheep thing appears about five times in the life of David between Samuel and Psalms. He's keeping the sheep with a happy spirit. When the president's at the house for dinner. Now you tell me how many of us in this room would be doing that finds out when Saul falls in love with him few verses later, like in verse 21, 22, 23. And he says, I want you to move in to the white house. I want you to travel back and forth from Hooterville to the white house. I want you to go back and forth. When David went back, he went back and mowed the lawn. He went from serving the president to the sheep back and forth and did it with none. Didn't he didn't register to him. That was weird. He's in the King's court. He's in the white house next to the King. And he goes home and he takes care of the sheep. Then he goes back and he does the King's business and David never registered to him. That was odd. He's thought that was normal. David was going after meekness and it's so, so shouted his life. But anyway, here's what God says through Samuel. Samuel says it, but it was God's heart. Bring him here. I look at this. We will not sit down until he gets here. The whole drama is on hold until my David is in his place. Jesse should have said that one of the brothers should have said that Samuel, I hate to be rude. You're the prophet. I'm just one of the kids. We got a little brother out there. He like really likes you. He's got your poster in his room. Can we just call him for a minute? They're like pat him on the head or something. Somebody should have said this. Where's David's mother, anybody, but God says it because nobody else will say it. There is nothing to do till he is in his place. It's fantastic. Beloved, all of history, all of history is waiting for David. The end time church is a worthy bride to get in her place. And history will not go to its next level of glory until David, the corporate David is in their place. And right now, David serving the true heart of David is serving. Well, it's interesting that Eliab. Oh my goodness. Eliab does not like this. You know, the guy from verse six, when he says, you're the one in our lives that I knew that I knew we find out in chapter 17, verse 28, Eliab is the one who challenges. David says, David, you're a proud little arrogant little runt. He goes, go home in chapter 17, verse 28. When David wants to see the Goliath thing, he charges him with pride. Who had the pride? Eliab had the pride, but he charges his David. You know what I find very interesting is that they were there when Samuel anointed him and the power of God came on David's life. And we'll find out in the weeks to come. David had a dimension of power that began on him. Right then the spirit of the Lord came on him right then it says in verse 12 and 13, and it was with him. And I mean, it was with him till the end. The spirit of God was with him. His brothers saw it, but none of his brothers were with David in the wilderness years. They were all with Saul. Now, where are David's brothers when Saul was trying to murder David? They're in the army, not with David in the wilderness. Beloved, we have this thing in our heart that we all do. I do, you do, they do, everybody does. Let me see where it's at in my notes here, because I want you to follow along with it. It's in here, but forget it. I'm quitting in a second. We have this thing that we don't get valued. We don't get honored. David is the ultimate statement of his family and the nation, not honoring him, but he had this confidence that God honored him. And when God went out of his way, shut the whole party down till David was in place, he goes, nope, we're not even going forward till David's in his place. When we begin to know that our value comes from that, from another voice, not from the organization, or the institution, or the network. Beloved, if you're mowing the lawn in the grand hour, and you're left out in the hot sun, and everybody's with Samuel, I assure you this, God knows. And I assure you this, that God looked at David and said many times, David, you just keep mowing the lawn. It's not your day yet, but your day's coming, because I'm looking at your heart. You're moving my heart, David. We don't have to live in the toss to and fro by who said it, and who did it, and who gave it to you, and who forgot to give it to you. We don't have to live slaves tossed to and fro by the winds and waves of all the folks we relate to, and if they get who we are or not. Because beloved, I don't care how clear it is who you are, most of the people will never get who you are. Never. The vast majority of the people in your life will never get it, and you will never get who they are. It just doesn't work that way. We can try hard, and you may really lock into a couple of them, and then you'll get real busy, and forget it, the crisis that matters to them. You go, oh my gosh, how did I space that out? We cannot live mostly by how humans, even the ones in the system of David's family and network, we cannot live mostly by in that direction. And God's raising up a heart like David that's living in a very, very different sound of music than the one that they live. He's listening to a very different sound. He's living before an audience of one, and his heart is alive because he knows that God is measuring and watching with a complete different standard of measurement. It's what verse 7 and 8. God says, I don't see like man sees. I don't measure like man measures. I don't decide on the same basis that man does. I don't remember what man remembers. Man remembers grandeur. I remember meekness. God doesn't remember. He doesn't measure. He doesn't plan. He's not moved by what moves man, what man plans by, what man remembers. We need to literally get the sound of music that's coming from heaven, and not the sound that's coming from our culture. And we need to dance to that music because then our spirit is free. Not just do we get the benefit of a free spirit. I love a free spirit. That's a great benefit, but that's not even the biggest point. We actually are tapped into the river of reality. Do you know how much is going on in the body of Christ that is so delusional? How much of it is not even what God is interested in, and it's just propped up and, you know, just keeping the machine going, and none of it will be remembered by God. So much, I mean of what I'm talking about, so much of what's going on won't be remembered, or it's not esteemed by God now. And yet we can get some really cool people getting excited about us, but it doesn't matter at all at the end of the day, right? Anyway, I could go on and on, and so could you. Let's stand, let's just end with that.