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Collierville First Baptist Church
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we're gonna begin tonight,
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a series on the life of David, on the life of David.
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If you had to pick out one hero in the Bible,
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other than Jesus, okay, he's the ultimate hero, but if you had to pick out one hero in the Bible, who would it be?
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Well, I tell you, David's always been one of my heroes.
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In fact, in your notes,
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I've got a little verse here from,
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let me get my notes in order.
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For some reason, my printer prints it out backwards.
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I don't understand that.
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No, no, it's not that.
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I'm talking about in order.
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Oh, that's a good one.
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Hey, I didn't fall off the turnip truck yesterday now, I'm telling you.
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In Hebrews chapter 11,
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there's a list of the heroes of the faith, the hall of faith.
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You got men like Abel, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Rahab, and then there's these three verses
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in Hebrews chapter 11, verse 32, 34. And what more shall I say?
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For time will fail me if I tell of Gideon,
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Barak, Samson,
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Jephthah of David,
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and Samuel and the prophets,
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who by faith conquered kingdoms, performed acts of righteousness,
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obtained promises, shut the mouths of lions,
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quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, from weakness were made strong, and became mighty in war, and put foreign armies to flight.
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Now out of all these heroes of faith, I've chosen to focus our Wednesdays in the word on the life of David, the life of David. Now, when you think of David,
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what's the first thing you think about?
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Man after God's own heart? How many of you, well, don't raise your hand. How many of you thought Bathsheba?
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Yeah?
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That comes to mind a lot when we think of David, but I'm telling you, David, he did a lot of stuff right.
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He was, as Bob said, he was a man after God's own heart, and that's not something David said of himself,
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that's something God said about David. You know, I'm not, I wrapped my brain today trying to figure out, is there anybody else in the Bible that God says they were a man after God's own heart?
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I can't think of anybody else that the Bible says that about, except David.
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Now, was David perfect? No, David had flaws just like everybody in this room. You do have a flaw, don't you?
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Just ask your spouse, she'll help you out if you're wondering about that.
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But David had some flaws,
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and at the end of our time tonight, we're gonna talk about some lessons
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we can learn from the life of David.
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Now, tonight is just an introduction.
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Now, notice these two bullet points here. David was Israel's greatest king, bar none,
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greater than Solomon, greater than Hezekiah, greater than Jehoshaphat, greater than any other king of Israel.
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He was the greatest. He reigned from about 1005 BC to 965 BC, about 40 years, that's right here in the Bible, the 40 year reign of David.
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Now, what's interesting, if you look at a timeline,
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Abraham was around, ballpark figure, around 2000 BC.
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Moses was around 1500 BC,
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and David was around 1000 BC. Pretty interesting in how they're spread out sort of equally there.
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Now, maybe you're wondering, why should we study about the life of David?
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Well, there are several good reasons, and I wanna present to you three good reasons that we should study about the life of David.
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First, David is one of the most important reasons and the history of redemption.
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He points to Jesus and Messiah more clearly than anyone else in the Old Testament.
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Now, look at Matthew chapter one, verse one.
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The first verse of the New Testament.
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The record of the genealogy of Jesus and Messiah, the son of David, the son of Jesus, Messiah, the son of David, the son of Abraham. Jesus was called the son of David. Now, this title, "Son of David" appears several times in the gospel of Matthew.
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It appeared, take your Bible and just look with me at Matthew chapter 20, Matthew chapter 20.
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Verses 30 and 31.
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So Jesus was leaving Jericho.
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A large crowd followed him.
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And two blind men sitting by the road hearing that Jesus was passing by cried out, "Lord, have mercy on us, son of David."
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Now, that's pretty important when Jesus is called the son of David.
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Now, look at verse...
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Chapter 21, yeah, chapter 21, verses nine and 15. Now, this is the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem for the last time before he's crucified.
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Notice this, verse nine.
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Chapter 21, verse nine. The crowds going ahead of him and those who followed were shouting, "Hosanna to the son of David."
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Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest. Now, look at verse 15. Verse 15. But when the cheap priests and scribes saw the wonderful things that he had done and the children who were shouting in the temple, "Hosanna to the son of David." They became indignant.
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They were indignant.
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Now, when we say that one reason we need to study
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the life of David is because he's such an important Old Testament figure that points us to the Lord Jesus Christ, the coming Messiah.
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Now, (Congregation Applauding)
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it's like Matthew is deliberately emphasizing Jesus' Davidic identity.
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Now, David descended from Jesse,
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as did the Lord Jesus Christ.
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Both Jesus and David emerged from humble, obscure roots.
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And listen to this. This is so important about the idea of David pointing to the coming Messiah.
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God made a perpetual covenant with David.
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I've got to hear 2 Samuel 7, verse 8-16.
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Now therefore, thus you shall say to my servant, David.
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This is God talking. He said, "David is a man after my own heart."
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And here he calls him my servant, David.
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This is God speaking. Thus says the Lord of hosts,
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"I took you from the pastor from following the sheep "to be ruler over my people Israel." If you remember, if you studied the life of David at all, you know that early in his life, he was a shepherd. He took care of the sheep.
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Verse 9, "I've been with you wherever you've gone.
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"I've cut off all your enemies from before you. "And I will make you a great name,
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"like the names of the great men who are on the earth.
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"I will also appoint a place for my people Israel "and will plant them that they may live in their own place." That's the land of Israel today, by the way. God gave them that land.
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That's the land of Israel.
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That they may live in their own place and not be disturbed again, nor will the wicked afflict them anymore as formerly.
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Even from the day that I commanded judges to be over my people Israel, I will give you rest from all your enemies. The Lord also declares to you
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that the Lord will make a house for you. That's God saying, David, I want you to know, I'm gonna make a house for you.
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When your days are complete
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and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your descendant after you who will come forth from you and I will establish his kingdom.
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He shall build a house for my name
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and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be a father to him and he will be a son to me. When he commits iniquity, I will correct him. Now he's talking about Solomon there.
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When he commits iniquity, I will correct him with the rod of men and the strokes of the sons of men, but my loving kindness shall not depart from him as I took it away from Saul, whom I removed from before you. Look at verse 16.
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Your house, and this is God speaking to David, your house and your kingdom shall endure before me forever.
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Your throne shall be established forever.
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That's a perpetual covenant, the Davidic covenant that the God of heaven made with King David. Now, I want you to take your Bible.
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I know we finished Daniel, but let's look back at Daniel for just a minute.
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Daniel chapter seven.
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Daniel seven.
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Daniel had a vision. You know, he had four visions. We talked about those when we went through the study of Daniel.
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Look at verse 13. "I kept looking in the night visions
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and behold with the clouds of heaven, one like a son of man was coming." That's Jesus. "And he came up to the ancient of days," that's God the father, "and was presented before him." And look at this now, don't miss it. And to him, Jesus, the reigning Christ was given dominion, glory, and a kingdom that all the people's nations and men of every language might serve him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion. What does that sound like to you? That sounds just like the Davidic covenant, right? Let me tell you this, when God makes a covenant, he keeps his covenants.
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God made a covenant with Israel.
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And the Bible says, I found it in several different places in my quiet time, God made a promise to Israel
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that as long as the stars are in the heaven, as long as we have day and night, as long as all that occurs, then Israel will always be a nation. They will always be a nation.
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Nobody's going to completely wipe out Israel. They can march in the streets and they can say from the river to the sea, all they want to.
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And the enemies that surround Israel today can talk about exterminating them. They will never be exterminated because God made a covenant with them.
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Let me tell you, God made a covenant with us.
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It's a new covenant. It was with Israel, but it applies to us. And I'm so glad that God keeps his covenant. I'm so glad that he keeps his old covenant. I'm so glad he keeps his new covenant with children of God,
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that we never have to fear of God turning us away. We never have to fear. If we repent of our sin, we place our faith in Jesus as our savior and Lord. We are eternally secure in Christ under the new covenant that God made with those who will believe in his son.
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His kingdom, look at verse 14 again. His dominion is an everlasting dominion which will not pass away. His kingdom is one which will not be destroyed.
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I like that.
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All right.
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Now, there's a second reason to study the life of David.
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The first one is that he points to the coming of Messiah, the coming of Jesus, the kingdom of Christ.
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The second reason to study the life of David is that he is the primary author of the longest book in the Bible.
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Now, Brother Bob was talking to me this week and he said, "What is the longest valley in the Bible?
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What's the longest valley?"
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And he said, "It's the valley of the shadow of death." It begins in Genesis chapter three and it doesn't come to an end until Revelation 21. He said, "It's the longest valley in the world in the Bible."
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So a second reason to study the life of David is that he is a primary author of the longest book in the Bible, the book that uniquely reveals how believers can and should worship and relate to God. We're talking about Psalms. David wrote about half of the 150 Psalms.
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Many of them were written in response to his own experiences,
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experiences that are recorded in 1 and 2 Samuel and Kings.
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Interesting experiences.
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Take Psalm 23, one through six as an example. You know who wrote that? David wrote it.
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David wrote it.
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He said, "The Lord is my shepherd.
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I shall not want.
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He makes me lie down in green pastures.
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He leaves me beside still waters.
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He restores my soul. He guides me in the paths of righteousness for his namesake.
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Even though I walked through that valley, that brother Bob talked about, the valley of the shadow of death.
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I will fear no evil for you are with me. You're rod and your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.
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You've anointed my head with oil and my cup overflows. Surely goodness and loving kindness will follow me all the days of my life and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever." That's one of the most beautiful Psalms in all the Bible,
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in all the book of Psalms. It was written about 3,000 years ago.
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I bet you there's not a handful of funerals I've ever preached that at some point in that funeral, I don't read or quote Psalm 23.
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It brings such comfort to people who are standing by a freshly dug grave of a spouse, a child, an uncle, an aunt. It's so comforting and God uses this in our lives and David wrote it. There's about 114 words in this Psalm, in the English language, out of the new American Standard Version of the Bible, about 114 words.
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And for the life of me,
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I'm just blown away that David
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could sit down and write stuff like this. I mean, think about it, y'all. He's a warrior.
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He is a warrior. He is a king.
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He is a leader.
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He's a man's man.
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And he writes poetry like this.
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It's amazing.
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And then Psalm 56, one through four, David wrote this too. "Be gracious to me, O God,
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for man has trampled upon me.
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Fighting all day long, he oppresses me." I'm just wondering right there if David, we talked about these Psalms came out of his life experiences.
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I'm wondering here in Psalm 56, if he's not referring to all those times that Saul tried to kill him, King Saul tried to kill him.
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Listen, after David slew Goliath,
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and the women started singing,
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"Saul has slain his thousands and David his 10,000s. Saul got so jealous, so envious."
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And he brought David. Saul was tortured by a demonic spirit.
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And he brought David, who was a musician also. He's a musician.
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And every time that demonic spirit came upon him, he had David play the harp and it soothed him. But one day David was playing the harp
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and Saul had a spear by his side. And he threw the spear and tried to impale David and to kill him right there in Saul's own home.
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And I'm wondering if maybe Psalm 56 doesn't come out of all these times that Saul tried to kill David.
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"Be gracious to me, O God, for man has trampled upon me. Fighting all day long, he oppresses me. My foes have trampled upon me all day long, for they are many who fight proudly against me. When I am afraid, I will put my trust in you." I like that.
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"When I'm afraid, I will put my trust in you.
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In God, whose word I praise.
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In God, I put my trust.
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I shall not be afraid.
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What can mere man do to me?"
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Now, Charles Haddon Spurgeon made this statement here and it's an amazing statement.
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I have learned, here's what Spurgeon said. "I've learned to kiss the wave
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that throws me against the rock of ages."
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I like that.
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"I've learned to kiss the wave that throws me against the rock of ages." Like David, Spurgeon understood that our struggles and hardships, do you ever have struggles and hardships?
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Do you ever feel like you're being afflicted? Do you ever feel like everything's going wrong in your life?
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This Psalm is for you. And David wrote this out of his own experience.
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Hardships, struggles can draw us closer to God, making us more reliant on his guidance and more aware of his presence in our lives.
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Now, there's a final reason to study the life of David.
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I believe it helps us to understand and interpret the Bible.
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The story of David is called a narrative, it's a story.
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And it may be one of the best examples of Hebrew narratives in all the Bible.
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As we study these stories or narratives about David,
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we can sharpen our skills about how to understand and interpret and apply the Bible.
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In these stories, these stories of David, we learn who God is. Let me say this, I think sometimes people approach their Bible as a psychological self-help book. That's not what it is.
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The Bible was written so that we can know who God is,
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we can know how God relates to us, and we can know what God expects out of us.
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We know God.
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Hey, look, turn to John's gospel.
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Gospel of John, chapter one.
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Look at verse 18.
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No one has seen God at any time.
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The only begotten God, that's Jesus,
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who is in the bosom of the Father, he has explained him.
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That's why we read the stories of David.
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So we can understand God, so we can interpret the principles that God wants us to interpret,
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so that we can know how God wants us to live, and how, like David said in Psalm 56, how we can trust God, how we can kiss the wave
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that throws us against the rock of ages.
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Man, what a beautiful concept.
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Now, I wanna close tonight by looking at seven powerful lessons we can learn from David.
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This is just a general overview, okay?
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Number one, here's first lesson.
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God looks at the heart, not outward appearance.
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Do you remember the story in the Bible where Samuel comes to Jesse's house,
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and he wants to see Jesse's sons, because God has sent him there to anoint the next king of Israel, the one that would succeed King Saul, because King Saul had lost his mind.
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King, look, if David was a man after God's own heart, King Saul was a man not after God's own heart, okay? I don't know the opposite of the other one, but he was not a man after God's own heart.
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He was very, very envious. He was very godless.
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Look at this.
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So Samuel goes to Jesse's house. He has to see the sons of Jesse.
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And the first one comes in, and man, he's tall and handsome, strong.
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And Samuel thinks to himself, surely this is the guy. Surely this is the next king of Israel.
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No.
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God said, he's not the one.
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And then another one comes in, another son comes in, tall, handsome, strong, and they just keep coming in
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from the oldest down to the youngest.
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And then when Jesse had presented the last son,
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Samuel said, "Do you have any more sons?"
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And he said, "I've got a young son,
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"and he's out there in the fields, "and he's keeping the sheep, he's watching the sheep."
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And Samuel says, "Go get him."
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And when David came in, it was like the Spirit of God said to Samuel, "That's the one."
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He was ready in appearance.
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He was younger than the other guys. He was the youngest son. Now, if you know, understand the way Judaism works, the oldest son is the most important one in the family.
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And yet David's the youngest, and God says, look, here's what God said to Samuel. He said, "I don't look at the outward stuff."
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I look at the heart.
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And David had a heart for God.
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And I tell you what, you become a lot better king of Israel if you have a heart for God, amen?
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So the first lesson, God looks at the heart, not outward appearance. Number two, face your giants with faith, not fear.
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You remember now,
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David, young David,
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is gonna be sent by Jesse his dad
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to the war, war front with the Philistines.
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And there's a Philistine giant by the name of Goliath.
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And he comes out every day, begging for somebody in this Israeli army
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to come down into the Valley of Elah and fight him. And he says, whoever wins, whoever wins, the other nation has to surrender to them.
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And he comes out every day, and he blasphemes the name of God.
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And David arrives with the cheese and stuff that he brought to his brothers and some for King Saul.
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And he heard Goliath.
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And he says, who is this uncircumcised Philistine who is blaspheming the name of our God?
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And David went down into that Valley with a slingshot.
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Now, remember, Goliath is about nine foot tall. No, no, I'm not stretching it. He's about nine foot tall.
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And here David is maybe a young teenager.
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And he goes down to the Valley. He's got a slingshot. He stops at a little brook and he picks up a few smooth stones. He puts them in his pouch
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and he runs toward Goliath.
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And he takes a stone and he puts it in his slingshot. Not this kind of slingshot, this kind of slingshot.
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And he lets it fly.
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And it hits Goliath right between eyes.
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I don't know if he killed him instantly or knocked him out.
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But I know he died because David went and took Goliath's own sword and cut his head off.
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And Israel rallied and they beat the Philistines. They defeated the Philistines.
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Now, let me tell you, the only giant in David's life was God.
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I believe that a lot of the guys who were in the Jewish army were standing up there and said, man, he's too big to hit.
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And David thought to himself, he's too big to miss.
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Because let me tell you, the giant in David's life was God.
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You know what, everybody in this room,
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at some time in your life, you're gonna face opposition.
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You're gonna face difficulties and struggles.
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It could be an addiction.
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It could be finances. It could be a lot of different stuff. It could be a marriage problem.
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And you got a problem.
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And it looks so big.
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You don't know how in the world you're ever gonna get victory over it.
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But as we look at the life of David,
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we're going to discover that you can face your giants with faith, not fear.
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But you gotta believe in your heart
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that the only giant in your life is God, that nothing is impossible with God. We're gonna learn that. Number three, wait patiently for God's timing.
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Now when Samuel anointed David, King David, as a teenage boy, when he anointed him, it was many years. In fact, David didn't become king until he was 30 years old. Isn't it interesting that Jesus began his ministry when he was 30 and that King David became the king of Judah when he was 30 and he ruled seven years in Hebron. And then they brought him to Jerusalem and he ruled over all Israel for another 33 years. And that's 40 years of his reign over the nation of Israel.
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But David didn't become a king immediately.
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There was a big time gap from the time that he was anointed king until he became king.
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Hey, can I ask you a question?
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Have you ever struggled with God's timing?
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You feel like that God has led you a certain way.
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And yet it hasn't worked out yet.
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Can I tell you this, God's timing is always perfect.
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It's always perfect. If we learn anything from David, we learn that his timing is perfect, okay?
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He's never late, he's never early. He's always right on time.
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All right, number four, true repentance brings restoration.
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You know, I thought about saying this here instead of the true repentance brings restoration.
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I started to say failure is never final.
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Never final.
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I believe there are a lot of Christians
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who are beating themselves to a pulp
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because of failures that they've had in the past.
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Now we're in Romans chapter eight on Sunday morning.
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And Romans chapter eight verse one, Paul wrote, "There is therefore now no condemnation "for those who are in Christ Jesus." I'm gonna tell you, when I memorized that verse when I was in college at Mississippi State, it set me free.
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Because I was beating myself to a pulp relentlessly because of all the dumb stuff I had done.
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I'm so glad that failure, if we handle it right, is not final.
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We know about David's sin with Bathsheba, right?
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We know about the fact that David orchestrated the murder of her husband Uriah the Hittite.
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And yet the God of heaven,
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the God of heaven forgave David. The God of heaven didn't strike him dead with a lightning strike.
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He forgave him.
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He restored him.
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And he'll do the same for you.
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In Proverbs 28, 13, it says, "If we conceal our sins, we will not prosper.
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"But if we confess and forsake them, "we will find compassion."
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There's a way to handle our failures.
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And the way to handle your failure is to confess it to God,
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repent of it, and forsake it.
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Admit it and quit it, in other words.
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So true repentance brings restorations. By the way, David wrote two Psalms.
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About his repentance.
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Psalm 32 and Psalm 51.
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You ought to look at that when you get home. Psalm 32 and Psalm 51.
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All right, now, number five.
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Maintain humility regardless of success.
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Now let me tell you.
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It's like David.
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David, about half of the book of 2 Samuel is David's trials and failures, and about half of it is his triumphs and his successes.
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None of us are perfect.
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We're not gonna bat a thousand.
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The best hitters in Major League Baseball do not bat a thousand, I assure you.
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But I can tell you this.
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If we will maintain our humility
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and not get the big head.
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Now, I believe David had the big head with this thing with Bathsheba.
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In fact, he should have been with his army. The Bible says at a time when kings go to war,
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and here's David back at his palace.
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Here's David on the roof of his palace or the patio of his palace, and he looks down and he sees beautiful Bathsheba.
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And he came over at that point. Temptation got him. But I want you to know, the Bible says, "Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God "that he may exalt you at the proper time."
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I wanna encourage everybody in this room.
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Maintain your humility.
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Don't read your press clippings.
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Maintain your humility.
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Maintain your humility. Know that everything you are is a result of the handiwork of God.
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Everything you have is a result of the handiwork of God. You know, you think about the children of Israel when they came out of Egyptian bondage.
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I feel so sorry for Moses.
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Man, that guy had a mountain of patience.
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These are the grippiness, complainness people I've ever read about in my life.
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And I read something in Jeremiah
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the other day in my quiet time.
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It's right around the point where he's talking about the new covenant.
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And here's what God says.
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"I want them to be satisfied with my goodness."
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Can I ask you, are you satisfied with the goodness of God? Are you always more satisfied with the goodness of God? I've been meditating on that for days. I still haven't squeezed all the stuff out of that statement. I want to satisfied with the goodness. Can I tell you how to be satisfied with the goodness of God?
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Always have a heart of gratitude. (Congregation Murmurs)
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I was in my shower this morning. I had to buy a new hot water heater
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about three, four weeks ago, right before the snow hit. The ice hit right before.
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And I was taking a hot shower and I just paused. I said, "Lord, thank you
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for letting us buy a hot water heater."
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I think that's a great way to maintain your humility.
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A heart of gratitude. David writes about that in the Psalms all the time.
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Okay.
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Number six, cultivate deep friendships and loyalty.
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David's best friend with Jonathan. Guess who Jonathan was? The son of Saul, King Saul who was trying to kill David.
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And Jonathan saved David's bacon several times.
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They were great friends. You know what absolutely drives me nuts is these liberal scholars and people that write, commentaries and stuff. And they talk about, they believe that David was a homosexual. That he and Jonathan were homosexuals.
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I tell you what, that drives me nuts.
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You know what they were?
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They were best friends.
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Best friends. You know what Jonathan told David?
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He said, "David, when you become a man, when you become king, I wanna serve at your side."
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Jonathan was a warrior too now. Let me tell you, he was a warrior
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and they were great friends.
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So develop good, healthy friendships and loyalty.
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Let me tell you, those two guys were loyal to each other. Have you ever had a friend that was not loyal to you?
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That stings, doesn't it?
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So these are lessons that we're gonna learn as we go through the life of David. I mean, we're just brushing a surface tonight.
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By the way, I need to tell you,
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next week we will not be meeting because it's spring break and all the kids and teachers
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or half of them are gone. So we're not meeting next week. We have no Wednesday activities next week, but the next week we're gonna pick up with the life of David, okay?
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All right, the last lesson we're gonna learn from David
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is worship the Lord and draw near to him regularly.
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Man, take your Bible just a minute.
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Look at Psalm 63.
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Look at this.
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Oh God, you are my God.
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I shall seek you earnestly.
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My soul thirsts for you.
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My flesh yearns for you in a dry and weary land where there's no water.
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Thus I have seen you in the sanctuary to see your power and your glory because your loving kindness is better than life.
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My lips shall will praise you, so I will bless you as long as I live. I will lift up my hands in your name. My soul is satisfied as with marrow and fatness and my mouth offers praises with joyful lips.
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Let me tell you, worship is such an important part of the life of a believer. Now let me tell you this.
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Worship is not just on Sunday at 10 45.
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Worship is something that should take place in our lives on a regular basis. I would encourage everybody in this room
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to have what we call a quiet time.
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A time when you get up and you read your Bible and you pray and you spend time with the Lord. The Bible says in James chapter four that if we draw near to God, he'll draw near to us. That's a wonderful promise, isn't it?
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And so worship was such an important part of David's life.
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And if we're gonna be the Christians
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that God wants us to be,
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we've got to worship the Lord on a regular basis, not just on Sunday.
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So I hope and pray that this little introductory lesson tonight has whet your appetite to study the life of David. Study the life of David. It's gonna be a great study.
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I don't know how long we'll go, but we're gonna go until the Lord says do something else, okay? I mean, there's enough. We can go for a long time in the life of David, trust me.
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Hey, thank you for coming tonight.
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I remember now we're not meeting next Wednesday, but the next Wednesday, okay? Let's pray.
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Hey, could I ask you to join me in praying for Dr. Steve Gaines and his wife, Donna?
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Pray for them. He's not doing well at all.
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Let's pray.
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Heavenly Father, I do pray for Steve and Donna.
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I pray for the kids and their grandkids.
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And I pray in the name of Jesus, Father, that you would be with them.
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I pray that you would meet every physical, spiritual,
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and emotional need that they have according to your riches and glory in Christ Jesus.
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Lord, I thank you for the life that Steve has lived. I thank you for his ministry.
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I thank you for his prayer life.
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I thank you for his love for the word of God.
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And I pray, Heavenly Father,
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that these last days of his life would be some of the sweetest days ever. I pray that you would just help he and Donna to squeeze every moment together they possibly can
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and be with them and help them. Lord, we love you and thank you for your grace and your mercy.
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In Jesus' name, amen. Thank you.