1-8-23 Sermon

Israel had been led by a succession of 20 individuals that were a mixed lot of strengths, weaknesses, introverts, extroverts, humble and narcissistic, to name just a few areas of characteristics and personalities. They were called the Judges of Israel. Some notable were Gideon, Sampson, Deb (the line female), and the last in the line Samuel.

They ruled mostly through turbulent times of captivity and triumphant times of freedom.

That all who were under the spiritual authority of Jehovah. Whether they liked it or not.

Sampson especially!

A day came when the tribal Elders came to Samuel and insisted that they no longer be led by the Judges, but by a king like everyone in all the nations around them.

Samuel and God alike shot that request down like immediately. In essence “Why is an earthly king ruling over so important?” “Your spiritual King led you from bondage in Egypt, he gave you his law to follow, in your times of bondage in Canaan you left God, he never left you. You don’t need an earthly king; it would lead to idolatry and failure!”

They insisted relentlessly. Finally, the lord relented and told them through Samuel. If you want a king on earth, you can have one, but the day will come when he is going to regret it, be careful what you ask for!

Choose among you who would be your king. The people chose the most physical specimen in the nation. Scholar’s peg

sail at about 6’5 and approximately 350 lbs.

His name was Saul and he hailed from the smallest of the tribes, the Benjamites.

He balked at this, but God permitted Samuel to anoint him as the new and first earthly king of Israel.

The people chose Saul completely on his physical attributes. They did not look upon his heart. And that was a great error on their part. God did and he saw and he knew the potential evil that lurked within it, but he let the people have their way who couldn’t or wouldn’t.

God was going to let his people find out the hard way that they should have been more careful about what they asked for!

Saul's ego and his narcissistic tendencies began to rise up and he pushed God's mercy until the day that he disobeyed the Lord and took the role of prophet and priest upon himself and that moment God turned his back on Saul.

He called for his Prophet Samuel to go to Bethlehem and seek out a man named Jesse because his house would hold the next king. This time God would make the decision of whom, not the people as he permitted them to do with Saul. To be incognito as to his purpose Saul, he made it seem as if he was there to perform a sacrifice to the Lord.

When he showed up the town Elders were freaked out. A prophet popping up unannounced in a town generally was to bring bad news or pronounce it. Did they query the legitimate for them if are you here to bring bad news or are you here for peaceable reasons?

Samuel replied “peaceably” in fact I’m here to offer a blood sacrifice to the Lord” Go and ready yourselves for it” he met Jesse and invited him and his sons to the offering and feast. They accepted.

As they arrive one by one, I can imagine Jesse introducing the sons to Samuel. Oldest to the youngest.

First Eliab:

Right off the bat, Samuel fell into the same trap the Israelites had decades before. His inward thoughts are that he was impressed with Eliab’s physical looks.

He thought surely this is the new king!

They said the classic words. “Don’t look at his physical good looks of how tall he is and strong he is. He’s not who I have chosen ya see Samuel I don’t do as man does, because they look at the physical aspects, but I look not on what they look like I look directly upon a person’s heart.

Next Jesse sent the next oldest Abinadab. Nope.

Then Shammah. Nope.

Then the next 5. No, no, no, no, and once again no!

Finally, I think the prophet was perplexed. Ok Jesse, are these all your sons?

“Well, my youngest David is in the field watching and tending my herds.”

Please get him.

David arrives and I kinda think Samuel may have smiled, what stood there was a young teenage boy, likely dirty and grimy from being in the fields, red-haired with freckles.

Bingo. God said ok tada here is anoint him and he did. He was sure not what Samuel expected by his appearance. But he would become exactly what Israel would need.

God used David even through all of his failures, all of his bad decisions, all of his sins, because even through them all David’s heart always remained the reason why God chose him as King to begin with. and he was reconciled and restored not because he was an impressive physical specimen but because of the quality and character of his heart.

Ultimately the difference between Saul and David is that people judged Saul on his superior physicality and should have judged him on his heart as God tried to warn the people to do as well.  People judged David on his lesser physicality and it was God who judged the heart of the man.

Lessons learned? Can we learn anything from this ancient story? I hope so.

We still live in a world that is terribly judgmental in regard to another person’s worth based on their outward appearance.

We still live in a world that qualifies another person on looks and doesn’t take the time to discover the quality of their hearts.

Do we favor a person who is handsome or beautiful? Do we make quick judgments on a person’s worth on this?

Some of the most handsome men and beautiful women I have ever known or seen have the worst selfish hearts. Now, being fair some have had hearts to match their outward countenance as well.

I have been guilty of judging people on their looks without also taking time to see their hearts too.

See I should know better, because I have so many times been negatively judged and my worth was questioned because of my outward appearance, so many had never taken the time to get to know the real me my heart.

I bet there are many of us here or watching live feeds that have been on both sides of the coin on this.

There have been surveys done with businesses and you would be surprised how many make hiring decisions based of course on one’s work abilities, but also on the individual’s outward appearance, especially on how good-looking they were or how their body type was.

I read a survey that people not really particularly blessed in their outward looks or who are maybe not in the greatest physical condition are interviewed once or not at all.

That’s wrong but it’s real. Thank God that our value and worth by God are based on the heart how about it?

Churches are guilty of this too as unfortunate as that is.

How many times have you judged a person coming to worship wherever you were or are based on their outward appearance? I bet we’ve all done it along the way. Shame on us when we do.

Maybe someone comes and their clothes don’t meet your standards. So, what, there in God's house? Do you want to be judged because your clothes don’t meet someone’s standards?

How many times have you perhaps judged a person because they have a tattoo or an arm sleeve? If you do stop it! Maybe you don’t have a tattoo, but maybe your makeup is too heavy in someone else’s mind!

Do you think that a person being bald is a physical thing for you to judge someone’s worth and value upon?

Well, let me tell ya this. Bald is a beautiful baby and remember he only made so many perfect heads and the rest he leaves hair on them!

Seriously tho, we are wrong to judge anyone on their outward appearance and we are wrong if we judge anything about another person other than their heart. That is the Godly thing to do.

James wrote in James 2:1-10

At this church, our long-time motto has been and will continue to be “Where everyone is someone.”

One's looks are not judged.

One’s heart will always reveal the real you.

“For where your treasures are there our hearts will be also”

Luke 6:45

“Out of the abundance of the heart your mouth speaketh.”

Matthew 7:1

“Judge not that ye be not judged.”

We are permitted to judge another’s spiritual condition, but we are never permitted to judge another physically or their heart without first figuring out where their heart resides.

Are you a person that has a habit of judging others negatively and then talking to others about what you don’t like about another person? If you are, stop it because you’re revealing that your heart is not in the right place and likely your being a hypocrite in the midst of sinning by your gossiping lips.

God's calling to you was and is not based on your physical looks and makeup after all he created you just as you are, so if you judge a person on their worth remember God created you and your looks too! How do you want others to view that?

Jesus also created our hearts physically and he also created them to come to salvation through him. Have a good godly heart and you’ll never have to worry about others judging it.