I pray that we will be filled with a deep sense of commitment, ready to make that leap
of faith for kind Denefis that rocks solid promise and faithfulness of God, and help
us to go as we study about David's life, to learn from him about how you are in control
and directing the circumstances that affect us. And I pray this in Jesus' name, Amen.
The Bible says that we are all fearfully and wonderfully made. We might also say that we
are a bit oddly made. I say oddly because all of us have some strange things about our
bodies. Things that we might wish were a little different. I, for example, have two feet like
most of you, but one foot is 5'12", medium, and the other is 5'12", medium press. They're
not quite 5'12", wide. And the result of that is that one pair, one piece, fits very well,
while the other ones are a little tight. And I found out things about Grace DePenney, they
don't like you switching up your salaries when you buy food in those stores. Because
of this dilemma, and I'm not the only one made this way, a new business has taken off
from all of America, the custom-built food. Apparently you walk in and there is a machine,
a computer that measures the size of both of your feet. They take the measurements, mail
them off to Italy, and within a few weeks you have a custom-made pair of shoes in your
hands that fit your feet exactly. And we think this is something new. But that's actually
what cobblers did for hundreds and hundreds of years. They made custom-designed shoes.
The only thing we're adding to it is the computer measurements. Did you know that you're a
custom-designed person? Did you know that the way you are is no accident? Before you
were born, God designed you and built your life purpose. Part of his design is your choice
of life occupation or your line of work. As the photo call about your vocation, another
old-fashioned word these days, is the word that comes from the Latin verb to call. The
word comes from your calling in life. I believe that God's plan for his children's lives
includes a calling for kinds of work or fields of work. And that plan incorporates all that
he has designed into us by our gifts, personalities, interests, and experiences. To order your
life within God's design means coming to understand how he has welled you, how he, your designer,
has prepared you for the experiences of life as well as your unique being for his calling.
And then you live by that design, it results in a fulfilling, well-designed life. I can't
imagine a worse scenario than the past of your life. Never will you come into understanding
why you're here and what God's calling might have been. It is a powerful thing, I believe,
to have a sense of destiny. But that needs life satisfying and meaningful. And when it
comes time to close life, you can go out of this world with an assurance that you've lived
out what God intended. God means for us to enjoy the days of our lives and to complete
them with contentment. The coming to experience God's design for you does not mean walking
the straight line from O to Z. Not indeed. There will be unexpected times, unplanned
stops, surprising twists in the narrative of each chapter. These will involve times
of disappointment and confusion. They will involve times of celebration and success.
But through them all, God will fulfill his design and unfold it for you step by step.
And this morning we're going to talk about David, who has seen life change in a particular
way that we're looking at, and that is a change of life location. I'm talking to some
who are here from this congregation who are in the midst of career choice, or a job team
to help implement this. Some of you are facing new opportunities or potential promotions.
Others are approaching retirement. And as you are anticipating this change of location,
you may find yourself dealing with some uncertainty or confusion, perhaps anxiety, or anger or
anticipation. And so as we talk this morning in this message about God involved in our
life change, I hope that this message will somehow encourage you in the midst of your
life transition, particularly the change of personal transition. David is our example
for this and I invite you to open your Bible to 1 Samuel chapter 16. For David is introduced
to us. The first in verse 1, the Lord said to Samuel, how long have you mourned for Saul
since I have rejected him as king over Israel? Pray your heinous aura and be on your way.
I'm sending you to Jesse of Bethlehem. I have chosen one of his sons to be king.
But Samuel said, how can I go if Saul will hear about it and kill me? The Lord said,
take a hustle with you and say, I have come to sacrifice to the Lord. Invite Jesse to
the sacrifice and I will show you what to do. You are to admit for me the one I indicate.
Samuel did what the Lord said. When he arrived in Bethlehem, the elders of the town
assembled when they met him. Do you come in peace? Samuel replied, yes, in peace. I have
come to sacrifice to the Lord. Consecrate yourselves and come to the sacrifice with me.
Then he consecrated Jesse and his sons and invited them to the sacrifice. When they arrived,
Samuel thought aloud and thought clearly the Lord's anointed sons here before the Lord.
But the Lord said to Samuel, do not consider his appearance as hope. For I have rejected
him. The Lord does not look on things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance,
but the Lord looks at the heart. Then Jesse called Abinadab and led him past to Samuel.
The family said the Lord has not chosen this one either. Jesse then had Samuel pass this
one past by, but Samuel said, nor has the Lord chosen this one. Then they had seven
of his sons pass before Samuel. The family said to him, the Lord has not chosen thee.
For once Jesse had evolved the sons in health. For this was the youngest, Jesse answered,
but he had tending the sheep. Samuel said, fear from him. They will not sit down until
he arrives. And so they went and had him brought in. He was ready with a foul appearance and
handsome features. Then the Lord said, wows and anoints him. He was the one. Oh Samuel
took the hand of the Lord and anointed him in the presence of his brothers and from that
go on the spirit of the Lord came upon David in power. You see the transition David's
life, it is going to be from a shepherd to a father. From a man who works on his father's
sheep ranch to being the king over a nation. From a shepherd to a politician, some do not
think of a very big step, but in fact in many of those thoughts, it's a big step. But it's
one thing to care for the lives of faith, but it is another thing to do when a position
of public flesh, for you are saying to the lives of people. As you consider the transition
and vocation for David, I hope you feel some things that you and I might learn. Before
God had formed David and God had formed you as well. W
ent the day was at work in the current of David's mouth. So God is directing the current
of him that may be sleeping around you this morning. My basic point is this, that God
was at work. So hold his hand tightly. God, God is at work as first of all a mother of
us. He's the unceasing God who is at work in our lives of pain. To bring us to task,
to design and focus for us. God's design in you includes your basic makeup. Let me say
first of all that he formed your person. All of the basic things about you, God created.
He formed your own person. He did David. David is no accident that David was born in
the time of Joseph, who was a grand son, great grand son many times over of Judah. The son
of Jacob, the son of Isaac, the son of Abraham. Down through the lungs of the genealogy, God
preserved the food, causing it to pass through David and through him, down through the fire.
David James was no accident and the actual rose is not either. There are some people
who don't even know who their fathers or their mothers were. And they feel that their
fathers were accidents or mistakes. How do you even feel if they were the result of a crime that was committed?
But let me tell you, you are no mistake. You may not even know your ancestry or your heritage,
but God formed who you are. That's part of his design in you. God not only formed David's
own for food and yours, but he formed David's appearance. The genetics all came together
to make David the man that he was. He was wealthy, which probably means he was red-haired,
a fair complexion, but a fine appearance and handsome and beautiful. And although God does
not look on the outward appearance, but on the heart, God designed David's outward appearance
and gave him the presence of a king. God likewise has designed your appearance.
Maybe old genetic makeup like mine has led you to do a little avid in some of this stuff.
But even though avidly, our God's much.
He's been able to accept ourselves for who God has made us to be.
God has formed us in our own process, in our appearance, and fortunately with our abilities.
David had the ability to know me today. It was an ability that was first defined with
the shape of me, and then came to be gradually defined as he led the nation. He had the ability
to strategically think of a warrior. He was a mighty military man. He just came to David.
He was a brave man by nature. As a youth, he was not afraid to take on a bear or a lion
to protect his sheep. He was not afraid to stand as a king even before the dynasty had
offended the whole army of Israel. He was not afraid to face that giant lion on the plain
as we'll see in a moment. So that when he grew up, he could be a military leader, a mighty
warrior, king of Israel. And God has given you the abilities that you have.
They may be abilities that are little seen by people, but they're few in view immensely.
Perhaps he's given you the ability to reach with your hand. Perhaps he's given you the
ability to stand up before others and speak. Maybe he's given you the ability to speak
very well and clearly and calmly. Maybe he can manage others. But what I'm trying to
say to you is that God has found you, the person, the speaker, and the one and only
God of the world has just like you. Isn't that amazing? And think how willing God has
to work with. If he's given you so loud, so rude, and no, and no, and that fills in around
it. Suppose you have those pieces to work with and the first creativity you're going
to make people look different. How many hundreds could you create before you run out of ideas?
Or if you're unique, how many thousand people could you design that would all be unique?
You see, God has designed billions of people and none of us work with them in the light.
We're all different. God is marvelous in his creativity. And that's the way we're made,
the way God has designed each day, even if you pulled out a little mistake, he has.
David understood this. In one of his great psalms that he wrote, Psalm 139, he writes
these words for you are recognized. For you created my own life, you put me together in
my mother's womb. I praise you because I am fearful and wonderfully known. Your work
so wonderful, I know that so well. My fame is now given from you when I was made in the
secret place. Talking about in the womb. When I was woven together in the depths of the
earth, the language that he uses here is the picture of fondly woven embroidery. What a
picture of the chromosomes coming together. The genetic cones all coming together to form
you. Your loud sound, my unfurmed body. All the days are being formed and working in your
work before none of them came to be. You would understand that God has made him and God has
made you. By the way, these words speak with enormous significance because it was true
to kiss you as our cultural life took off. There's nothing less than a God-beyond person
with life. Not only has God formed your person, but like David, God sets you apart. David
says, you wrote out the chapters of my life before I even began to live them. God, you
knew the days of my life before I was ever born. And God knows your days as well. Isaiah
puts these words into the mouth of the Messiah, chapter 49. Before I was born, the Lord called
me by my name. And from my birth, he has made mention of my name. He has formed me on the
room to be his servant. The figure of Messiah, Jesus Christ, Mary, even from the finger room,
according to the words of Isaiah, God's puppet. Jeremiah says regarding himself, before I
found you in the room, I knew you. Before you were born, I set you apart. Our place of
birth will prosper for the meeting. Before Jeremiah was even born, God had his life ordered
for us. He was not alive until he was born. He was not alive until he was born. He was
not alive until he was born. He was not alive until he was born. He was not alive until
he was born. He was not alive until he was born. He was not alive until he was born.
He was not alive until he was born. He was not alive until he was born. He was not alive
until he was born. He was not alive until he was born. He was not alive until he was
born. He was not alive until he was born. He was not alive until he was born. He was not
alive until he was born. He was not alive until he was born. He was not alive until he was
born. He was not alive until he was born. He was not alive until he was born. He was not
alive until he was born. He was not alive until he was born. He was not alive until he was
born. He was not alive until he was born. He was not alive until he was born. He was not
alive until he was born. He was not alive until he was born. He was not alive until he was
Whatever reason you've left this particular kind of work,
and you're about to begin another kind of work.
God has fitted this for both,
and this is going to be a new challenge.
Look who's managing the particulars.
They don't have to be afraid.
In the midst of all the things of your life,
God has at work,
who has made you, who has sent you to us,
and who is now managing your team.
You see, look, I know all of that.
But that's why I began by saying it's a matter of fact.
Because a lot of us know what I've said.
But what is a matter of fact is also a matter of faith.
A matter of faith.
You see, I believed,
over the years ago when we went with my son
out to that place where he jumped out of the airplane,
I believed that that parachute would open
and would carry him to the earth.
I believed that that instructor who was trapped too,
was able to do all the things necessary
to make it all happen safely.
I knew all of that, but I didn't really have faith in it
because I didn't get up there and do it.
I didn't take the big leap.
And I'll tell you something else,
I'm not about to tomorrow.
But what we're talking about here
is far more important than to jump out of an airplane.
We're talking about a God
who is utterly faithful and dependable.
That we know in our theology now
that we've got into the practice of our lives.
It's not only a matter of fact that God has sent you,
he sent the two of you out to the earth
and it's a matter of faith.
That you will really believe that
and impress your life here.
I want to illustrate to you
how God was doing all of this in David's life
and he didn't do it very quickly
and did not take much time.
But go back to 16, we'll talk to 16 again
because after set off to Samuel,
had anointed David, things began to happen in David's life.
Things began to happen.
The first thing that happened was that
the spirit of the Lord departed from Saul.
And if there was an evil spirit from the Lord,
tormenting him.
Not an evil verse to deal with,
but it seems to me that the resigning of the Holy Spirit
from Saul left him vulnerable to the attractive evil spirit
which the Lord allowed to go to Saul to pain him
because it was disobedient.
And Saul ended up in his depression.
He could borrow words that got worse and worse
and those around him said,
no, this one needs some music.
They didn't have TV of course in those days
and bean boxes, thank God.
And so they said, we've got to find a musician
and play over the church.
And Saul said to him, you can't find someone
who plays well and brings in them.
One of the servants answered and said,
I've seen a son of God who is not in the house.
He knows how to play the house.
Who do you think caused this servant of Saul
to see or hear David?
And who was it that he needs for that servant
to be there anyway when Saul made this request?
And so God is at work and from this time on,
on occasion, David will be brought to Saul
to play for him.
And so Saul began to get acquainted with David
and David was able to witness Saul
and to see what being the king of a nation entails.
So one time when he was playing Saul,
his brothers were all fighting in the Battle of Elias
after 17 months.
The Philistines went across and saw him in his army
and were camped down in the Valley of Elias.
And just around this time, some food was brought to the army
and quickly to his friends, David's brothers,
who were fighting and so they sent David with some food.
David arrived there in the camp and began talking
to his brothers and he heard this Philistine champion,
Philistine champion, which was the first funny thing.
He stepped out of his lines and he started his usual defiance
and David heard it.
He was defying the armies of Israel.
Somebody, somebody out here to fight me.
For God had a way for David the Beaver,
that is what moment, David heard it.
While the Israelites were fleeing and they were
fleeing in great fear, David found them.
In 26, he asked the men standing here,
what have you done to the man who killed you, Philistine?
He knew this was very familiar.
He was this un-concerned fellow Philistine
who used to defy the armies of the living God.
But you know the story, how the Davidians stepped forward.
He became that man that the God knew.
He took a swing and a stone to kill the Israelites.
God arranged all of this so that David would begin
to be known through the communists in Israel.
People began to notice David.
They saw who he was.
So after 18, verse 1,
says, after David had finished talking with God,
Jonathan became one with David.
He loved him as himself and from that day,
God kept David with him and did not let him
return to his father's house.
Jonathan made a covenant with David
because he loved him as himself.
Jonathan took off his robe and his robe
and gave it to David while lying in his tomb
and could even assure him his bond as well.
So you see what happened here,
David now is living in Saul's household.
And Jonathan, he might well be the next king,
recognizes David's superiority
and a few of him bind a friendship
that is remarkable and a great example
to all of us men as the kind of friendship
that God wants us to have.
And Jonathan goes to David,
the fingers of his room,
hoping something will happen here.
He says in the next verse,
whatever God sent him to do,
David did so successfully
that David, your father, they gave him
a high rank in the army.
And this proves all the people
in Saul's actions as well.
So now David is not only the man
for his father in Galilee,
he's actually one of the generals of the army,
one of the leaders in the days
that he served for the army.
And all the people love David.
You see what God has done?
God has worked in all of the details
and David came in his vocation,
saving him, preparing him, healing him
for what God needs him to be.
Did David realize this?
I don't know, maybe David, like you and me,
was able to see it later,
but didn't see it at the time.
Hindsight was always 20-20, I think.
David had some sight that way
and I invite you to turn again to the book of Psalms
that we're going to close,
in the 23rd Psalm.
Now please, there is no funeral this morning,
even though we're looking at the 23rd Psalm.
We have to identify this psalm as funeral
because the language here is very lovely.
It's poetic and has some wonderful props for females.
But this is a psalm for living.
This is a psalm about life.
This is a psalm about dreams.
This is a psalm about God and the energy in our lives.
And David some time later looked back upon his transition.
He was a shepherd and now he's the king.
And he sees that no longer he sees a sheep
who was a shepherd, but he was the sheep.
And he says, your road is my shepherd.
He is shepherd in my life, says David.
I've been like a sheep.
But I've been like a shepherd. He's the rest of me.
Because now, before, I shall not be a God.
What is the language here, the transitional, the process,
the movement kind of language?
He makes me lie down in the pastures.
He leaves me behind for water.
He restores my thoughts.
He guides me in the path of righteousness for his name.
So even though I'm wrapped in the barrel of a sweater,
David keeps his life on the move from here to there.
Not a straight line from A to Z,
but life of twists and turns and different experiences.
That in them our God is doing something.
Even when it comes to what he calls the valley of the sweaterless grass.
It's a place where there would not be.
And I've been thinking about a deeper vein that runs
near the whole length of the Judean mountains
from Jerusalem down to the Jordan Valley.
In the early season there was a bush,
a small river that runs down straight out of the ravine.
It was extremely steep.
The hot Judean sun crossed both channels down inside this deep sheet.
The crust of the rocks in it.
Today there's so much to do.
And that maybe is what David is talking about.
He speaks of the valley of the sweaterless grass.
It's a frighten, a fearful thing.
This is some of you are going through a painful time in transition in your life.
I don't know if there's a more painful time for a man or woman than when you retire.
When you make that transition from being a silly and spoiled, to being...
and you don't know how to make it.
Some of you have been laid off from work.
And you're in transition but you don't know how to hit it straight.
For others of you, the position at work for you has been that you have been diminished.
Or your benefit has been changed.
And it's a frightening time. It's the valley of the sweaterless grass.
What did David say about that?
He said, I will fear no evil.
For some of you are able to see the moon, the cleft of the moon.
You don't know what's in our homes for you in terms of your vocation.
It's because of the things that I'm seeing.
And there are times when I have walked to the valley of the shadow of death because I fear no evil.
Why? For you are with me.
For Rob, for Scott, for Comfort me.
For how few of you today are walking to the valley of the shadow of death on the earth.
To recognize that the Lord is there with you.
He has overseen your superimpending the particulars of being first, second, and third.
And you don't have to fear because you're full of it.
God is at work.
Hold his hand.
But then David changes his mind.
He says, you could tell a table before me the presence of my enemies.
The house now filled with festivities.
The enemies are around and the table has been spread.
He says, you are not my head with oil.
You can put the house always good to the unadorned.
My cup overflows with wine.
Goodness and mercy follow me.
And he's real thoughtful in this transition.
Good things are happening to you.
God will until remember, there's the one behind it.
There's the one who's filling the oil.
There's the one who's filling the cup.
There's the one who has spread the table.
Remember him.
Hold his hand.
Because it's God who is at work.
It's God who is at work in your transition.
Through all of this, God changed David's calling from shepherd to politician.
Is God wise enough and powerful enough to manipulate the circumstances of your life to bring the bodies of your enemies?
You need an answer to that.
But I want to know if you would believe it.
I want to know if you would come to the place where you really inspect yourself today.
And you say, I know that the Lord is the shepherd.
But today I'm saying, I don't know if he's the shepherd, but he's my shepherd.
And he's in the middle of my transition today.
There's a barrel of a bottle of beer and a table of paper.
God is in the midst of my transition.
And I will test him.
Some of us thrive on things.
Some of us learn from things.
Happy is the mode for the husband and wife of different.
Because it brings a real balance to life.
And because you also learn through the kinsmen that it brings a lot of important lessons to.
But today you need to understand that change is part of this world.
You're not going to escape it.
But the eternal God, whose change is not, abides with you.
And here is your shepherd in the midst of your change.
Some of you are married to a spouse who's about to go through a transition.
And you're fearful because of what?
You're thinking, first of all, this is his spousal.
My point today is very simple.
God is at work in your transition.
Yours may not be a transition of vocation.
It may be some other kind.
I've measured on the vocational thing.
But whatever the change, God is at work to hold his hand.
Not only know it, believe it.
Let's pray.
Father, I pray that all of us will be able to make this leap of faith
to put into practice in our lives what we know in our theology.
We want to trust you in our life's change, including the change of life's vocation.
I pray that what we've learned from David's example today will assure us that you've found it.
You've already parted out the course of our lives before we were born.
And you're managing the details.
And so may we entrust ourselves to you.
I want to ask you, sitting there with your head bowed and your eyes closed,
if today there was something that came to threaten you,
and if you would believe that God is at work,
we would ask you just to close your hands as though God's hand was right there
and was taking a hold of God's hand.
And by that physical act, O God, this symbolizes that I am believing what I know.
Lord, you see the close hands. We hold on tight, believing.
Believing with all of our hearts those wonderful words that you've shown me for many years.
He leads me. O blessed God, O word, with heavenly comfort, God.
What will I do? What will I do? Who will God's hand that leads me?