The Blank Spaces, Part 2

Today on Summit Life with JD Greer. Thanks for joining us today on Summit Life with JD Greer, pastor of the Summit Church in Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina.

I'm your host, Molly Vidovich. Let me ask you a question that I'm sure many of us have wrestled with. Do you ever feel like you're just biding your time doing mundane tasks that aren't really leading anywhere? Like you're kind of just spinning your wheels? Today, Pastor JD continues our look at David's ordinary years in the pasture before he became king and explains how those blank spaces, the sections in the Bible where all the activity seems to stop, are where our hearts are most shaped by God to be faithful in the big and small things. Does that alone bring you encouragement? Let's join Pastor JD in 1 Samuel chapter 16 as we consider today how God might be shaping our hearts even now. Here's Pastor JD. Prioritize character in your evaluation of people.

The flip side of that is this question. If that's the best way to evaluate people, how much time do you spend preparing your character? If that's what God is looking for and it's what you should be looking for, how much time do you spend working on it in yourself? If you're going to prioritize character in the dating process, are you developing character right now? Or think of it this way, are you the person that the person you're looking for is looking for? Like, I want somebody full of character. Fine. Are you a person full of character?

Are you the person that the person you were looking for is looking for? Because if you're going to focus on building something, it ought to be on developing that character. The New York Times journalist David Brooks talks about the difference between what he calls resume virtues and eulogy virtues. What are resume virtues? She accomplished this. She graduated with this honor.

She oversaw this many people and this amount of money. Resume virtues, those are awesome. Have you ever noticed that none of those things make it into the funeral eulogy? What do they talk about at your funeral? They talk about what a loyal friend you were.

They talk about what a sacrificial mother you were, how she always put others first, how she always gave you the benefit of the doubt, how she always made time for you, how she was always so gracious and forgiving, how dad always put us before his career. If they say anything good about you at your funeral, that's what it's going to be about. They're not going to stand up there and read your resume virtues. They're going to celebrate your eulogy virtues. I'll point that out because we all spend so much time obsessing and building our resume virtues, but how much time do you spend building eulogy virtues since in the end, even to us, that's what matters most. You want to know what makes you truly beautiful, both in God's eyes and in the eyes of others? It's not your resume. By the way, it's not your uniqueness.

In our day, we've developed this absurd idea that we establish our beauty just by letting out the inner me, right? Oh, I'm unique. I'm one of a kind. I'm a snowflake.

I'm a Skittle. Because I'm so unique, life is just figuring out who the true me is and showing it to the world. Discover your inner truth and just let it out. The Christian philosopher John Lennox talks about this. He points out that being unique does not in and of itself make something beautiful. Every pile of dog poop, he says, is unique.

They all come out completely different patterns, but you know what? That doesn't make them beautiful. What makes you beautiful in God's eyes is character. So if you're going to focus on anything, focus on developing character, which is our third lesson.

Character is best formed in the blank spaces. Again, verse 13 ends with Samuel, the great prophet, his hand on David's head, the oil of anointing running down his neck, the Holy Spirit rushing upon him, and then blank space. The narrative ends, and then in verse 14, the narrative shifts to Saul, and David heads back to the pasture for months, probably even years.

In fact, I'll prove it. Look down at verse 19. It says that when they come to look for David the next time, a few years later, they're looking for David, who's been anointed to be king.

They have to get him from, see it, the sheep. After being anointed king, he's still chasing sheep around in the desert. Here's what's more, even after things really start happening in David's life, Saul gets jealous of him and hunts him like a criminal for over a decade.

I mean, you have to imagine David during that time, right? But I was anointed king. I sinned. I felt the Holy Spirit rushing upon me. I know my destiny. I know what God has called me to.

Where did you go? Where did God go? Has there been some kind of mistake?

No. No, David, no mistake. You see, God uses the pasture. God uses the wilderness to prepare his leaders.

That's where God produces in you the character to lead. Chuck Swindoll, the Bible teacher, says that there are three words that characterize David's time in the pasture. Write these three words out. The first word is obscurity. Nobody paid any attention to David during that time.

Second word, monotony. David, what'd you do today? I watched the sheep.

They walked from here to there and then back to here. What else did you do? I worked a little with my slingshot, practiced on my harp. I even wrote a couple of songs. You want to hear one?

The Lord is my shepherd. No, David, that sounds lame. David is telling you what he's doing in his day and your eyes are glazing over. It just seems so insignificant and boring. It's obscurity, monotony.

Here's your third word, reality. In that pasture, God was developing David's skill with the slingshot. That would come in handy later. He was also developing his skill with the harp. David would become the world's most famous songwriter. In the pasture, God developed courage in him. One day, David would look at Goliath and he would say, you know what? I experienced God's power enabling me to defeat a lion and a bear. The point is not how much bigger Goliath you are than me. The point is how much smaller you are than God.

If God could empower me to kill a lion and a bear, he can empower me to take you out. In the pasture, he learns humility, cleaning up sheep poop so that unlike Saul, he wouldn't ever forget where he came from. Because of that, he would always stay dependent on God. Because of his time in the pasture, he learned to be patient. He learned how to care for people. He learned how to take care of a flock and he learned that God always keeps his promises. Psalm 78, 72 says, with upright heart, David shepherded them and guided them with his skillful hand. Those things, upright heart, skillful hand, those were things he learned not in the palace, he learned them in the pasture. Hey church, that's still what God does.

Do you know that? Hey mom, hey mom, what'd you do today? I changed some diapers.

Were they appreciative? No. What a terrible monotonous day and wasted my talents.

No, no, no. God was building character in you. Your work, of course, has value in and of itself. You're serving another human made in the image of God. In fact, some of the most honorable work you can do, but God was also at work in you shaping you for eternal service. Hey, businessman, businesswoman, what'd you do today?

Work the dead end job? No. God is building character in and through you. Who knows what God is doing in and through your faithfulness. Hey student, what did you do today?

I studied some lame stuff about history and calculus that I'll never use again. No, God is building character in and through you. God is using this time to prepare you for a much more important time. Friend, here's the rule of pastor time. Faithfulness in the small produces power in the big. When God wants to prepare a leader, he always sends them to the pasture.

Y'all, this is so consistent a theme in the Bible, I would almost say it is axiomatic. When God chooses somebody, he sends them through a time of monotonous faithfulness where they have to show whether they're gonna be faithful in the small things. He lets them experience boredom and monotony and sometimes pain.

It's like A.W. Tozer said, I shared this with you a few months ago, when God wants to use somebody greatly, he first hurts them very deeply. The point is expect this, it's your blank space. Blank spaces are how God prepares his leaders. I had a friend of mine in seminary, both of us were, I don't know, we said this like complex, we were trying to be out and save the world.

We're gonna preach to everybody and we're in seminary trying to do our studies and we were both bad at it, but my friend was especially bad at it. And so the president of our seminary pulled him into his office. And when my friend goes in there, because his grades, he was a really smart, very bright guy, but his grades were suffering a little bit, pulls him into the office. And on top of his desk is a little plastic pail filled with sand and a little kid's sand shovel. And he said to my friend, he said, I want you to carry this pail around everywhere for the next week. He said, God is my witness. If I see you one time over the next seven days and this pail is not next to you filled with sand, I promise you son, I will flunk you out of the seminary.

Now the obvious question is why? And so this guy, the president said to my friend, he said, this is to remind you over the next seven days that when God wanted to call David, he sent him first to the pastor. When God wanted to call Moses, he sent him for 40 years into the wilderness, into the desert. When God wanted to call Paul and God called Paul to be the apostle of the Gentiles, it's 17 years between the call and when Paul actually gets to it.

God always takes time to prepare his people and he does so in the desert. And if it's not too good for David and it's not too good for Moses and it's not too good for Paul, it's not too good for you. Don't waste your pasture, which leads me this morning, finally, the two takeaways from this passage I want you to write down. Number one, don't despise your blank spaces.

Don't despise your blank spaces. That pasture, that wilderness, that is God's laboratory for forming in you, the heart and the character that he wants. You want to be like David was, you want to be a man or a woman after God's own heart, then God has got to prepare you like he prepared David. You want to do what David does, are you willing to did what he did? You want to be the Goliath slayer, are you willing to go through your pasture?

Don't waste your pasture, don't waste your suffering, be faithful in it. It was something I learned this time studying this passage and I'd never seen before. Y'all remember when we first met Saul, do you remember the circumstance that Saul was in?

You might have to go back and actually read this later. The first time we meet Saul, he lost his father's donkeys. In other words, he's a failed shepherd, a shepherd has one job, keep up with the animals. When we first meet Saul, he's lost the animals, he's a failed shepherd. But when we first meet David, he is tending the sheep.

Even when there's a celebrity at his house, he's still out there tending the sheep. In other words, he is a faithful shepherd. Faithfulness in the small things predicted faithfulness in the big things. God took David from the pasture and he made David king. David's job, being a shepherd in one sense did not change.

It was just his flock that changed. Faithfulness in the small sets the patterns for faithfulness in the big. So don't despise the day of small things. Learn to be faithful in them.

Students, like I said, your schoolwork is not meaningless. God is using it to teach you how to do your best for the glory of God, how to persevere through difficulty and failure. Students, your personal purity now is crucially important because it's determining whether or not you're going to be faithful to obey God in the face of future temptations. A young man or young woman who brings their sexual passions under Jesus's control now is somebody that God can trust with great responsibility later. How faithfully you spend time with God now is significant. Whether you get up in the morning and spend time in his word and in prayer because that shows whether you're going to be somebody who walks with God consistently or if you're going to be somebody who only runs to God when you need something. Your faithfulness to your friends right now, that's a big deal because it shows whether or not you're going to be faithful to the people that God assigns to you later. Your obedience to your parents right now is important because it shows whether or not you're going to submit to God later. Be faithful during this time. You're in the laboratory.

You're being tested. By the way, adults, I'm applying this to young people because David was young, but for us adults, God continues to use seasons of waiting to prepare us. The point is, regardless of how old you are, be faithful in the blank spaces.

One more thing on this, be intentional during them. God cultivated David's heart in the pasture through long periods of silence. Not a lot to do in the pasture, is there?

Not a lot of activity. So he had long periods of silence, solitude, reflection, and prayer. I'll just go on record right now and say I am 100% confident that David would have never become David the giant slayer and David the psalmist of Israel. He would never have become those things had he had the TV on the whole time or spent all his time in the pasture scrolling through TikTok and posting stupid videos of himself. So I would just say get rid of TikTok, limit yourself to one show a night, and make time for God.

Better yet, get up a little earlier and meet him in the mornings. Don't waste your pasture. Are you in a character building season? If so, consider it God's opportunity to make you more like him. You're listening to Summit Life with Pastor J.D.

Greer. Before we get back to today's teaching, I wanted to let you know about a great new featured resource that we've created just for you. It's an eight-week Bible study focusing on key passages and events from the life of David, which will make an excellent supplement to this new teaching series that we're in here on the program. King David is one of the most beloved and influential people in the entire Bible.

However, for us, his story is more than just an interesting biographical account. David's story lays down for us the pattern of salvation, creating a picture of the man who would one day come to earth to be our Messiah. We'd love to send you a copy of this study as a thank you for your gift of $35 or more to this ministry.

And you can give now by calling us at 866-335-5220, or you can give online at jdgreer.com. Now let's get back to today's teaching in 1 Samuel here on Summit Life. Number two, don't miss Jesus. I say this because people always make the mistake of reading these Old Testament stories as if they're all about us. Like, well, you know, the moral of this story is don't judge a book by its cover.

Be like David, a man of character. Yes, yes, those are, as I've shown you, those are very good lessons for you to draw. But y'all, listen, these stories are not primarily about us.

They're not even primarily about David. You need me to prove that to you? I told you that God looks at character. He looks at the heart. Who among us could really say right now, I have the heart God is looking for. I am a man or I'm a woman after God's own heart.

I'll be totally honest with you. When I read that phrase, God looks on the heart, I don't find that altogether encouraging. Usually what I'm doing on the outside is actually looking better than what's going on in the inside.

Anybody else right there? Even on my best days, I am fearful, judgmental, unkind, selfish, unforgiving, willing to bend the truth, get out of a jam. When I'm doing some good act of service, I'm almost always in the background thinking like, I wonder how this makes me look. I wonder if I'm gonna get credit for this. Imagine if on the side of your head, there was a little LED monitor displaying what you were thinking at all times.

How horrible and embarrassing would that be? That's what God looks at. I want to have a good heart, but I know my heart is not good enough for God's fellowship or his presence. And y'all, if God is looking at the heart, I'm in trouble. By the way, ultimately David's heart was not that good either. You're going to see that later, which is why you got to read these stories, because they're not first and foremost about us. They're not first and foremost about David. They're first and foremost about Jesus.

Y'all think about it. Don't you see in David's story a silhouette that one day Jesus is just going to kind of step into? David was an unlikely choice. He was a runt shepherd boy. Jesus was an even more unlikely choice. He wasn't a rising ruler.

He wasn't born to awesome parents. He wasn't a rabbi. He wasn't on the dean's list. He wasn't an all county athlete. He was not on the 40 Israeli leaders under 40 to watch. He was a blue collar worker. He had no external form or beauty that we should desire him, Isaiah said, which means that if Jesus were in here right now, if he were in your class at school, if he were on your staff where you work, you'd never notice him.

He'd be playing in every single way. He didn't make the dean's list. He was not somebody that was extraordinary.

He was just ordinary. Other than that, he was fully dependent on God. He was unlikely and ordinary like David and like David, God anointed him. In fact, the word in Hebrew for anointing is the word. And out of that word comes the word Messiah.

Messiah means anointed one. Jesus was the truly anointed one. And like David, when Jesus was anointed, the Holy Spirit rushed upon him in the form of a dove at his baptism. God said, this is my beloved son.

He's anointed. The Holy Spirit comes on him. And like David, when that happened, great power came upon him. When the Spirit rushed on David, he could defeat the lion and the bear and knock down Goliath. When the Spirit came on Jesus, he gained the power to heal diseases and walk on water and raise the dead. After David was anointed and filled with the Spirit, what happened? He went back to the pasture and then was driven into the wilderness. What happened after Jesus was anointed? What happened after the Spirit of God descended on him? Matthew 4, 1, he was driven into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil for 40 days.

You see the parallels? Jesus was the man of perfect character. Jesus was the one truly after God's own heart. But unlike David, Jesus never ended up in the palace. He ended up on the cross.

The man after God's own heart who really was fit to be king didn't end up in the palace. He ended up on the cross. And that's because he was going there to die for the fact that I was not a man after God's own heart. You see, I was his sheep.

I was in that pasture. Unlike Jesus, I'm not a man after God's own heart, but because Jesus was a man after God's own heart and died in my place, he saved me. He laid down his life for the sheep. And now because of that, because of his sacrificial death, because he died in my place, I can be received like a man after God's own heart.

Because it's no longer my righteousness, it's Christ's righteousness that has been given to me. And in Jesus, I hear those same words Jesus heard. You are my beloved son in whom I am well pleased.

You are a man after my own heart. And when I trust in Jesus, God's spirit rushes upon me and begins to go to work in my heart, reshaping my heart into a heart like Jesus's heart, into somebody after God's own heart. And because Jesus died in my place, I know that even when I don't have the heart that God desires, he still will never leave me or forsake me because Jesus paid it all.

Left a crimson stain, he washed it white as snow. And you all see that's really important to understand when I go through my pasture time, when I go through my wilderness, my blank spaces, because the worst part about those blank spaces is that feeling that you've been abandoned by God. But because of the cross, I know I'm not abandoned.

Even when I feel alone, I know I'm not. And I know that in all things, my life is being directed by a great and gracious hand, just like David's was. Just like God worked in David's pastures and his wilderness, he's working in mine. Even when I can't feel it, he's working. Even when I can't see it, he's working. He never stops, never stops working, even in the blank spaces.

Y'all think about it. David was anointed, filled with the Spirit, and then went back to the pasture and was hunted down by Saul. Jesus was anointed, filled with the Spirit, was driven into the wilderness, and then to the cross. 2 Corinthians 1 22 says that you, believer, you are anointed. You're filled with the Spirit. Guess what that means?

You're headed. See, just like God brought his greatest works out of David's pasture and his wildernesses, so he's bringing his greatest works out of yours. In the wilderness, you'll learn to trust him. In the wilderness, you'll experience the healing that's going to make you a great healer one day.

Those who have been powerfully healed, those are the ones who become powerful healers. That's what God is doing in your blank spaces. So, friend, worship Jesus. Keep your eyes on him and hang in, hang on in your blank spaces. God's at work. Are you in one of life's blank spaces? Don't despair. Keep your eyes on Jesus and keep focusing on the goodness of the gospel.

He hasn't forgotten you, and most importantly, he loves you. If you missed any part of today's powerful teaching, you can always catch up free of charge at JDGrier.com. Pastor JD, we are thrilled to have a companion Bible study to go along with your Life of David teaching series. So what can we expect from the format of this study? Is it daily, weekly?

How long will it take us to work through it? Yeah, great questions, Molly. Let me answer this really quickly, but then I actually want to ask you a question.

Okay. The Life of David study has eight parts. It's organized weekly, but you can work through the eight sessions really at any pace you would like. It's good for anybody, and I think it's just a tool that you can use, whether you're a small group, personal quiet time, or you're teaching other people.

I think it's a good tool that you can use based on your needs. So now the question I have for you, tell me about your... How would you handle a resource like this? I remember when I got saved, my youth pastor would always say, when you're reading the Bible, you have to ask yourself three questions. What does it say? What does it mean?

How does it apply to my life? Before I read any book of the Bible, I actually go watch... It's not Bible Recap. Bible Project. Bible Project, yes. When he gives a recap of the little animation of the whole book. To help you see how it fits into the whole thing.

Yes. So going chapter by chapter, this would be a great daily thing for me because I need to have the word, but I didn't go to seminary. And so it helps to have either some kind of commentary after I've thought through those three questions on my own, because I definitely don't want to take it out of context or misdirect my application, if that makes sense. So what I love about that, Molly, is when I look at somebody like you, and I think here's somebody who knows the Bible, is teaching it to her children, teaching it to her neighbors, and then just leads out of it. That's everything that we hope for here at Summit Life, is people who... And maybe one day you will go to seminary, but you can become an expert in the word, but it takes effort. And that's our goal here at Summit Life, is to give you the tools that you can use to do that.

So this is one such tool. Just go to jdgrier.com and you can get a hold of this. Like Pastor JD just mentioned, we would be delighted to send you a copy of our brand new Life of David study guide. It's yours with your gift of $35 or more to this ministry. To give, call us now at 866-335-5220. That's 866-335-5220. Or you can give online at jdgrier.com. I'm Molly Vitevich, reminding you to join us tomorrow as Pastor JD teaches on one of the Bible's most famous stories. Can you guess? See you Thursday on Summit Life with JD Greer. Today's program was produced and sponsored by JD Greer Ministries.