Today on Real Life Radio. See if you want to nail everything down and everything's just picture-perfect programmed. Then you can get soap. Organize that you can organize God the Holy Spirit right out of the equation. Very careful.
Watch out.
Okay. This is real life. Welcome to Real Life Radio with Pastor Jack Hibbs. I'm David Jay, thanking you for joining us today as we listen, learn, and are challenged by God's Word, the Bible. Did you know there's an easy way to stay informed on the latest biblical events shaping our world today?
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Pastor Jack now continues his series called 1 Samuel and a message titled When God Comes Upon a Man, Part 2. Samuel of the Old Testament was the last judge of Israel and the first of its prophets.
So here as we continue in chapter 16, we'll learn more of how Saul really abused his office as king. You see, Samuel mourned for Saul, but God, knowing all things, is done with Saul and has a new king in mind. And his name is David, a simple shepherd that no one really considered because of his outside appearance. But God doesn't see as we see. God is interested in the heart.
So today Pastor Jack teaches that we often acquaint appearance with strength or weakness.
So when Samuel anoints David as king, it's God accomplishing his will not through David's human strength, but through the power of the Holy Spirit.
Now with his message called When God Comes Upon a Man, Part 2, here's Pastor and Bible teacher Jack Hibbs. Grab your Bibles then if you would and turn to 1 Samuel. Chapter 16, and we're picking up where we left off. This is really a continuance, and it's a good thing. It's a good thing that it is because I'm going to give.
uh a little bit of review of where we're at and then You're going to want to hear where we're going tonight. And um I really Cannot tell you any more than that because I want to be very open to the Holy Spirit this evening as we will be talking about Him. That is the person of the Holy Spirit.
So please allow me, if you would, to do somewhat of an overview of this chapter. But I'm going to do my best to hurry down to verse 13. In 1 Samuel chapter 16, verses 1 through 13, we last time saw together that there was the The rebuke that came from God to Samuel. Samuel was lamenting over the fact that God was now removing his. Oh Call as it were.
The authority as Saul so terribly abused his office as king. God now Having Rejected Saul because really what? Saul rejected God, didn't he? He really did.
So God now, after being rejected by Saul, God is stepping back out of the scene, so to speak. Of Saul being king, and he tells Samuel, Samuel, stop your crying. Verse one. What are you crying about? I'm moving on.
I'm continuing my work. Saul would not listen to me, Samuel, so I'm moving on. I've got another man waiting in the wings. And that's true. God will always replace us if we're not willing to do the will of God.
In our lives, does he love us? Yes, but if we're going to be obstinate and hard-nosed against God, If we're going to kick against him, there comes a time when God realizes, God knows. Even though we may not speculate and wonder about things, God knows. And he says, Samuel, don't weep any longer for Saul. I'm done with him.
Isn't that a horrible thought? I'm done with them.
Now, God is not saying that because God is just, I'm fed up, I can't take this guy anymore. It drives me crazy. God's not impatient. But there comes a point in time because he knows all things, Saul's not going to turn. He's not going to back away from this.
And so God begins to work a new work. And we warned And we were warned by the Spirit of God in our last study that we have to be careful that we don't enter into that place, as Saul did, of ministry by assumption.
Well, I'm the king. And this is owed to me.
Well, I'm a pastor. This is owed to me. What? Or servants.
Now, I can have fun with you tonight because you're Christians, you're going to heaven. Many of you serve. Most of you in this room tonight are our Sunday servants. You serve the body of Christ on Sundays and you come to church on Wednesdays. And you're here.
And you love to serve, you love to give, you love to do that because the Spirit of God has blessed you in your life. You want to give back. And so you're ministering with the right hearts. And that's great. But the last thing we ever want to do is minister.
based upon assumption.
Well, I'm just going to do this thing because I guess I'm supposed to. No, stay home. Don't do that. Come and minister to us because you get to, because you're excited, because you're filled with the Spirit of God. It's an excess, it's an overflow.
That's the best kind of ministry. Personally, I don't get turned on. with Christian ministers. Uh either Full time or lay People in the church that just grumble and gripe about serving God. They had him to a drunk.
Stay home. It's a great thing to serve the Lord. Saul was of a heart where the world revolved around Saul. Everything that Samuel warned about was coming to pass. Remember, when the people asked for Saul to be king, God warned through Samuel to the people, He's going to take your sons and your daughters.
Remember, He's going to use them for His own promotion. Your kids are going to run before Saul's chariots and announce that the king is coming. What is to be the announcement of the true servants of God? The announcement is Mera Natha. Remember that, Jim?
Remember you guys back in the good old days? No, not the 40s, the 70s. Usher sees that man. No, you know, listen, I got saved. In the seventies, the Jesus movement time.
And by the way, Everything was this back in those days. Can I just say it for our own time's sake? Put one way. Hey, wait a minute. Why are not some of you raising your hand?
Come on, put your finger up there. One way, Jesus.
Some of you are so rebellious, you are. You know what? This was, we'd walk into church back in those days and just, all right, praise the Lord, man. When you drove around Orange County. It was automatic.
People stick their hand out and they give you the finger, the one-way finger. For those of you who are listening in. It's the index finger on your hand. And it was one-way Jesus. Praise the Lord.
It was this everywhere. There were t-shirts, there were signs. One-way Jesus.
Now you do that these days, and people are looking at what is that? Not that that matters or means anything, but it's just a sweetness about it. And everything back then was Maranatha, man, Maranatha. The Lord's coming. Behold, the Lord cometh.
Maranatha. During the days of Enoch, what was the message of Enoch? Maranatha, the Lord cometh. Can you imagine? That guy lived back, way back in the time of the flood.
Maranatha, the guy walked around speaking Hebrew, because he was Hebrew, walking around saying, Maranatha, the Lord's coming, the Lord's coming. Isn't that great? What should be the cry Of the true servants of God, now the Lord's coming. And because He's coming, we want to be busy about our Father's work. It's exciting.
And we've got a great retirement package in Christ. You know that? It's a great thing. The older I get, The older I get, the more sweet that sounds. Man, we have the only win-win situation that there is in the whole world.
It's great. We live in this Uh half burned out sender planet. cruising through space as it is. And it's so good to know that this earth is not our home. And we're just passing through.
But God is going to remove. Uh Uh working and calling. And he's going to be working with a whole new man, and we're going to see what kind of man is qualified. to serve the Lord. You might be quite surprised and very much encouraged.
We saw last time in our study when God calls, or when God comes, excuse me, upon a man, it's because God knows everything. We saw that in verses 1, 2, and 3. God knows everything. Do you believe that tonight? God knows everything?
I was counseling a man this week, a dear man in this church. We've traveled with this brother together in Israel and his family. His son was killed this last weekend. Out uh Out in the wilderness somewhere, a train, it was a horrible accident. It's terrible.
Son was killed. And um What do you tell somebody at a time like that? I thank God we have the word of God to give them. I had a chance to just stand in a parking lot, out inside, so I could have a reception on my. Cell phone and try to get my head at the right angle just to get it dialed in there and get a signal and be able to tell them, you know what, let me tell you.
You're going to be with your son again. This hot tear is streaming down his cheeks. You can hear him. You're going to be with your son again based upon the word of God. Listen, God knows everything.
God knows everything. He knew what was going to happen to you this week. He knew that your son might perish. He knew. That your bills might be tight this month, he knows.
And he's working in our lives more than we give him credit. He knows everything. We saw again as we looked at that first point: it's because God knows everything. That we can rest. Samuel's heart, he was challenged by God.
That Samuel's heart was to be in line with what God was doing. We also saw in verse 2 that Samuel's ministry was weakened by a poor example that Saul spread throughout the people. Remember what Samuel said? God says, listen. Stop crying for him.
I'm done with him. And Samuel said, God, you know, he's going to kill me. If I go anoint some other man king, Saul's going to kill me. What a horrible thing to say regarding a man who's called by God, that he's got a temper, that there's enough flesh still living, there's enough of the man alive that God is not being manifested in his life, that people around him would be afraid of getting their heads cut off. I can't go do that, God.
Saul will kill me. If he hears about Me going to anoint some other man. And Samuel's ministry was influenced by Saul. Listen, that's true for all of us. You have been influenced by ministries in your life.
I as well. And I don't know, I'm assuming that you attend this church, but what if you don't? What if you're from some other church? Do you know what's scary? And every pastor should shudder at this thought.
A ministry will take on the personality, the feel, and God intended it that way, by the way, in Scripture, of the pastor and of the staff. How that pastor and staff really are in real life. will be translated into the lives of the body of that flock. That's a scary thought, isn't it? No man takes this unto himself.
You better be called. to do what God's asked you to do because God's got to be the one doing the doing. Because if he's not doing the doing, I love what Weersby says: if you can explain everything that's going on in your church, Warren Weersby says, God's not doing it. Think of it, huh? Did you get that?
Fast ones going through your glove, huh? Let me say it slowly. If you can explain everything that's going on in your church. God's probably not in it. You're listening to Real Life with Pastor Jack Hibbs.
You know, to hear more episodes and maybe catch up in the series, just go to jackhibbs.com. That's jackhibbs.com. And for now, let's get back to our teaching. Once again, here's Pastor Jack. If you can explain everything that's going on in your church.
God's probably not in it. When God's moving, listen, when God's moving, you may not have a clue, and I probably certainly don't have a clue. We're just like, what are we doing? I don't know. He's going this way.
Jesus says, the Spirit of God is like the wind. You can't tell where he's coming from, and you can't tell where he's going.
Now, for us, or for you, not me, for people who are organized and very documented type people, oh, you know, I got to wake up at 8:15 and I got to move this over at 9:39. That drives you nuts. The Spirit of God is moving. And you'll be influenced the more that the Spirit of God has control in a ministry. In a staff, in a church, in your life.
The more the Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit is at work and is in control of this church, listen. You and I included, we will not be able to define things quite exactly. Clear, we will not be able to tell you what our 10-year plan is because why? Because we're following Him. And listen, he refuses.
to be pegged. I know you don't want to hear this. And I'm just twisted enough to like it. And that is, our God, though He never changes, it's because He never changes that He's a God that implements in our lives constant what? Change and we hate it.
You know why he brings change into our lives? I get it all the time. From you. Pastor, how clock?
Okay, that's it. Why why the time change? Why this? Why that? Hey, you know what?
Some of those things we know why we changed them and it involves a lot of people.
Some of the things, it's just God working out. I'm scratching my head, and somebody comes up and says, Why are we doing this? I don't know why. Talk to him about it. Those things happen.
See, if you want to nail everything down and everything's just picture-perfect programmed. Then you can get so Organize that you can organize God the Holy Spirit right out of the equation. Very careful. Watch out.
Well, God told Samuel, go and grab your horn of oil and get moving. Noted in your study notes: oil in the Old and New Testament is always a symbol of the Holy Spirit. Always. Way back with Moses, it was Instituted back then concerning the oil. That was to be used for the Ministry to the saints.
And to the sacrifices Unto God. Oil. A symbol of the Holy Spirit of God. That's why when a king was anointed, listen, it's not like we do it today. We pull out our little oil vial and we put it on your forehead there.
And we do it very cosmetically conscious. Because you're going to go out and you don't want to leave the church with this. You know, this oil all over your forehead, if we anoint you to pray, because the Bible says to do that, it's a symbol, a type of the Holy Spirit. It's not magic oil. It's the symbol of the Holy Spirit.
The Bible says to anoint you with oil and to pray, lay hands and pray for you. But according to the Bible If you're going to anoint somebody with oil, You get about a 30-gallon bucket, honestly, and the guy stands there, and you get the bucket, and you pour it all over, and it just streams down, as it were, the scripture says, down the beard of Aaron. And it just runs all the way down to his feet. Anointed, bathed, filled, captured. Ensconced, covered.
With oil. The symbol of who? The Holy Spirit. Wow. And so God tells Samuel, go get your horn of oil and get moving.
God's got something to do.
Now, this is where we left off, verses four through seven. When God comes upon a man, it's based upon the will of God to be done.
Now listen. When the Holy Spirit, when the Spirit of God comes upon a man, and ladies, do you understand I'm talking about mankind? Jimmy, you just talking to men. This is for all of us. This is for all of us.
When the Spirit of God comes upon you, it is to accomplish His will. It's just not to give us a goosebump. Oh.
So What is that? That doesn't do nothing. Though the Spirit of God is to come upon us because God's got something for us to do concerning his will. If someone's going to sit around and say, Lord, fill me with your Holy Spirit, baptize me with your spirit, oh God, I want more of your spirit in my life, and you don't intend to do anything for him, I guarantee you. He's not going to move in your life.
It's kind of like you give bullets to the guys that are going to go out onto the front lines and go to war. You don't give bullets to the people who are practicing back at the camp. They'll get hurt. If in your heart you're going to say, you know what? I want to serve the Lord, the Lord says, all right, let's put bullets, as it were, let's put gas in this tank.
And that power is the Holy Spirit to do what? To accomplish the will of God. Verse 7: it says: But the Lord said to Samuel, As if Comes now to Jesse's home, and all of his sons are there, David's brothers, and David is out in the field. God says, Do not look at his appearance. Or for that matter, the parents of all of the Beautiful, strong, healthy sons that Jesse had.
Don't look at his appearance. See, we equate appearance with strength or weakness. Don't look at his appearance. Or at the height of his stature, because I have refused him. That's one of Jesse's sons, not Saul.
For the Lord does not see as man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart. And so it's based upon God's will being done. And it is this: His will is not biased. By earthly powers. Not at all.
Human judgment is flawed. Here's Samuel, the prophet of God, and he's making a mistake. He sees Jesse's son come in front, parade in front of Samuel. Samuel looks at this strepping, strong, good-looking guy, Jesse's son, and Just what's his name? Samuel.
Samuel says, well, to himself, this is truly, surely. the man whom God has selected. And God says, no. I'm not all wigged out, you know, Samuel, like you are, with how tall he is. You know, he may be taller than you, Samuel, but he's not as tall as me.
And I've not picked him.
So God says, Samuel, don't look at the outward appearance. God's interested in the hearts.
Now this is exciting. Because all of a sudden, now we're encouraged that every one of us in this sanctuary is now hearing encouraging words about being qualified to be used by God. What is the qualifications? Frankly, Me? You.
God, what do you want to do? And someone might say, well, you're not tall enough. You're not short enough. You're not thin enough and you're not white enough. Man's got his wisdom.
Man's got his critique. And God doesn't do things like that. He doesn't experience any kind of a sway about earthly things. But God looks upon the heart. In verses 8 to 13, and I'm trying to scurry down to verse 13.
When God comes upon a man, it will be by the power of the Holy Spirit. And so the Scripture teaches us here. That the Spirit of God was to come upon David. David was in the field. All of his sons.
of Jesse now have paraded by. And uh little David The youngest boy He's out in the field. And so God speaks. As the boys pass by, Samuel's thinking, well, surely this is the guy. And the Lord says no.
Next guy comes by, God says no again.
So then, Jesse. Here's Samuel asked this question. Jesse, don't you have any more boys? You gotta have more boys.
Well, yeah, I've got one more boy, but he's just a kid. and he's out on the field tending sheep. And he is nothing. And so Samuel now says, nobody sits down, nobody does anything, just stand here, go get them. This is going to be the man.
And so God's going to move. Pastor and Bible teacher Jack Hibbs, here on Real Life Radio, and his message called When God Comes Upon a Man, Part 2. You know, this message, by the way, is part of Pastor Jack's series called 1 Samuel. A series highlighting the prophet Samuel who was called by God during one of Israel's darkest times to bring the people back to a heart of true worship. And will continue on the next edition of Real Life Radio.
I've got Pastor Jack in the studio with me, which is always a thrill. Hey, Pastor Jack, you've got a new devotional out, and it's called Watching, Waiting. Give me a little rundown of what's going on with that. Yeah, we're very excited. It's the first time ever I've put out a devotional, to be honest with you.
It's just. Didn't think about it until you look around at the world that you and I are living in. And I think everybody needs a little bit of infusion, a little bit of a booster shot when it comes to getting excited and becoming really biblically focused again. On all of us are called to be watching. And to be waiting.
for the Lord's coming. And so yeah, it's a 40-day devotional. And we think people are going to like it because it's filled with hope. It's filled with encouragement. And by the way, you know what?
Think about it. The more we see the world coming undone, the more it's indicating that we're going to see Christ soon. How do we stay expectant, if you will, without getting discouraged or distracted in the meantime? You know what? I would argue with you, Davey, that that's one of the hardest things to do as a believer.
Because if you think about it, If you love someone, you can't wait to see them at the close of of Any given day, right? Or if you love someone, you can't wait to meet up with them again.
Well, if we love the Lord, we're looking for him and we are commanded to be looking for him daily. But we've got to keep that fire burning. And to do that, we've got to stay in the word and be encouraged with Bible verses that tell us about his near return. Why would you pick 40 days? Why wouldn't you pick 35 or 30 days?
Well, you know, listen, 40 days, Moses was on the Mount of Sinai with God for 40 days. Jesus was fasting in the wilderness, confronting Satan for 40 days. And the number 40, even though there's, you know, it's more than what days there are in a month, 40 days just seemed right. Watching, waiting. It is our featured resource for this month, and it's available for a gift of any amount at jackhibbs.com slash real radio.
Jackhibbs.com slash real radio. This program is made possible by the generous contributions of you, our listeners. Visit us at jackhibbs.com. That's jackhibbs.com. Until next time, Pastor Jack Hibbs and all of us here at Real Life Radio wish for you solid and steady growth in Christ and in His Word.
We'll see you next time here on Real Life Radio.
