FEB 17 2019 | The Crown: David as King S1E5 | David, The Shepherd King

Sea Change Church · The Crown: David as King · "David, The Shepherd King" Pastor Adam Stadtmiller · February 17, 2019
Automated transcript. Not reviewed for accuracy.

Good morning. My name is Sean. I'm your head elder. And for today's scripture reading, we have 2 Samuel 5, 1 through 5 in verse 10. Then all the tribes of Israel came to David at Hebron and said, Behold, we are your flesh and bone. In times past, when Saul was king over us, it was you who led out and brought in Israel. And the Lord said to you, You shall be shepherd of my people Israel, and you shall be prince over Israel.

So all the elders of Israel came to the king at Hebron, and King David made a covenant with them at Hebron before the Lord, and they anointed David king over Israel. David was 30 years old when he began to reign, and he reigned for 40 years. At Hebron, he reigned over Judah seven years and six months. And at Jerusalem, he reigned over all Israel and Judea for 33 years. Verse 10, And David became greater and greater. For the Lord, the God of hosts, was with him.

Word of the Lord. Well, good morning, church. Good to see you all here this morning. Looks like this side is more popular than that side. What happened? That's kind of like, it's interesting how it flows back and forth. So, well, good to see you all here, 9 a.m. crowd, and welcome to all of you. How do you live in the reality of who you know God has told you via scripture or just personally who you are? How do you live in your identity of who you are when the circumstances and the perceived reality around you doesn't suggest it?

When things don't look like they're going the way they should. Like when I got up here and gave announcements and felt like I was owning it and somebody looks at me and says, You have a little cream cheese in your beard. That was a moment where reality didn't match. I appreciated it, too, because you helped me out, Cody. But there's oftentimes moments in our life, right, where the perceived reality, which means what you can see.

And one of the things we love about God, right, is that He always sees beyond what we can see. He looks beyond the things that man looks at. When he picked David, he said, You know, hey, I don't look at outward appearances. I look at the heart. And the heart is this invisible component where God, He, not only oftentimes, He sees reality behind the veil of what is perceived reality in front of us. And so David now is finally becoming king.

In this scripture right here, we have reached a really important point of the story. We came into David's life when he was about 13 years old. And he had a really powerful journey. And he was called to be king when he was 13. We'll talk about that in a moment. And now he's 30 years old. And he's been on the run. He's been the servant of a king. He's been everywhere. And every place he went never looked like who God had called him to be.

When he was living in caves, when he was working as a mercenary for the Philistines, the enemy, when, you know, all these different times when Saul was on the throne, when he was being hated, when he was being called a dog, the perceived reality of what he saw around him did not match who God had told him that he was when he was 13 years old. I have to say, this is one of the most important lessons that we can learn, to not live according to the headlines.

And I don't mean the news headlines, but to not live according to the headlines in our life. I don't know about you, but I had one of those weeks where the headlines that kept showing up in my own personal mind or my own personal soul didn't match who I knew God has told me that I am according to scripture. And not just that, what I think that God has told me about my own personal life, who he's called me to be. And the headlines, and whether they're from the enemy, whether they're from my own, you know, mental, emotional inability to live according to the truth of God's word, it kept shouting out to me, that's not who you are.

And this question of identity is something that the enemy, Satan, is really good at. As a matter of fact, it's one of his primary ways to tempt you to either strive for a purpose beyond what God has called you, to strive to prove yourself to someone, or perhaps to yourself, or to walk outside what God has called you to do. So just look at Jesus when he was tempted by Satan. Now, if you have Jesus for a time of tempting, right, and you're going to tempt him, and you're Satan, you're going to bring your A game, right?

You're going to bring your best stuff. And if you look at all of the temptations, every one of the temptations in the wilderness, and we're not in that portion of scripture today, but whether it be throw yourself off the tower, become the king that you're supposed to be, you know, all these things that actually he was tempting Jesus with being himself. Does that make sense? But he was asking Jesus to prove himself outside of God's plan, because God had said he was supposed to, according to Philippians, lower himself to become an identity with us, and not grab that moment.

And so Satan, bringing his A game, attacks Christ's identity. And he actually attacks him, and this is so interesting. He actually tells him to prove whom he already knows that he is. He asks him, he doesn't ask him, he doesn't come up to a, let's just use a really bad analogy. He doesn't come up to a soccer player and say, prove that you're a tennis player. He doesn't take him to a completely different realm. What he says to him is, it would be like coming up to a soccer player and say, prove you're a soccer player.

Well, of course I can prove that to you. I will prove it to you. But this is the interesting thing. For some reason, Jesus chooses not to prove himself. To not have to reach for an identity, because he already had a heart's understanding of whom he was. And the same is true for David. David never reached for the crown. David never reached out to be the king that he was told he was supposed to be, because he knew in his heart who God had called him to be.

And so there's three points from this particular scripture that I really want to focus on today. And I think that is one of them. The first one is this. You'll see in your notes. When you know who you are, you don't have to prove it. When you know who you are, you don't need to prove it. You can just walk in it. What is so interesting is that Satan will regularly try to get you to prove who you are. Isn't that an interesting way to attack someone?

You usually attack them with their weaknesses. You're not this. You'll never be that. You'll never be that. But what he does is he finds the truth within you. He's so good. This is his A game. He's so good. He goes to beautiful women. And he says, you're not beautiful enough. And so they strive in whatever it is to leverage sexual power or whatever it is. You'll see it with men. He'll come to a man that God has made strong and say, you don't have enough power.

You need to be stronger. He goes to people all the time. He finds the truth and says, it's not quite enough. Reach a little further. Strive a little harder. And so it's so interesting to see this attack that he has. And so the first thing is if you know who you are, you don't have to prove it. I say, if you look around our social media culture, the majority, not the majority, a fair amount of it that I see is people trying to prove a lot of times what they already are.

Rich people letting you know they're rich, right? Good looking people letting you know how good looking they are. Like, you know what I mean? It's like you constantly look, you know, you know, you know, and some, sometimes you can just feel that there's this sense of like who you are is not enough. And I've got to reach a little further. It's a really key point. How do you become comfortable in your own skin that you no longer are trying to prove anything to anyone else?

I want to say when you're trying to prove something to somebody else, you are, you are negotiating with life from a position of weakness, complete position of weakness. We'll talk about that in a second. The second thing is David was a king with a shepherd's heart. I love that. The idea that David was a shepherd king, I don't want to pre-preach the point because I have a tendency to do that. But it is antithetical to find the king tending sheep.

It's completely antithetical. Point three is this. God wants to relate to you as less than God. And this is a conflict. This is a contrary terms. And I want to explain what I mean by that in a moment. But let me just give you a little bit of a spoiler. That we will never have the ability to relate to God fully as God. Even when you're in heaven, you will be eternal in that God will give you eternal life. But you will never be all knowing.

We will not become God when we go to heaven. You will continue to learn. You will continue to grow. You will continue to expand for eternity with an ever increasing ability to get more and more of who God is. But we will never be all knowing. We will never be God when we get to heaven. We will be eternal like him. And this is what Satan once again knew at the first temptation. Do you want to be like God? Well, we were already like God created in his image.

But he says, don't you want to be more? Prove yourself. And so if God is going to relate to us, because you will never be able to understand God fully, even when you get to heaven, he has to limit himself into bite-sized bits, basically, that we can get. He doesn't want to relate to you as God. He can't relate to you as God because you can never comprehend God. So he breaks his character down into affordable images, basically, of a father and of a shepherd.

And he wants you to dive into these areas. He doesn't want to be as much God because he knows that he can't. Obviously, he wants you to know he's God. But no matter how much you know it, you'll never fully know it. He wants you to know that. But he doesn't come and say, come give God a hug. He says, I'm your father. Come, let me embrace you. Do you see the difference there? It says in Philippians that he has lowered himself.

He has made himself. The fact that lower for a reason that we might understand, and we'll get into that in a second. Let's go to the first point. So when you know who you are, you don't need to prove it. When I was 18 years old, I moved out. Some of you have heard this story. Moved out three days after I was 18 and moved to PB. Within three months, I bought myself a Honda Hurricane 600. That's a motorcycle. It is what they would call in the world a crutch rocket is what it was called back in the day.

And perhaps you've seen those. And if you've ever seen the annoying guy on the motorcycle, that was me. Matter of fact, I bought... This is true story. Thank you, Bill. I bought... Bill's just mocking me right now. I bought rainbow spandex, right? So I had... Now, this was really cool back in the 80s, I think. I had these rainbow spandex, and I had Velcro high top Reeboks. Anybody know those? No leg warmers. Trust me.

Okay? And then I had a white cut-off shirt that said boy on it. Okay? So big letters. Some of you guys are like, I don't know what you're talking about. I had vanilla ice hair, mirrored glasses, and I would... All over La Jolla. Some of you might have seen me. And there was this gal one time, like in an MR2... Were those called MR2s or something? I don't know. There was this car. Yeah, MR2. It's a Toyota. And they were really popular.

And this gal, she's in her 20s. She pulls up next to me, and I'm revving. Wah, wah, wah, wah, wah. Obviously, I'm going to... My thing goes 180 miles an hour, 200 miles an hour. Whoa! I just take off. I leave her in the dust, right? And I'm just thinking, awesome. And then, you know, I'm sitting there, and she finally pulls up. But before she pulls up, a guy in a Ferrari, okay, pulls up beside me. Right down at the Starbucks at the bottom of Torrey Pines.

I didn't even live... I did live in La Jolla at that point. And I was sitting there, and he pulls up, and he was all dapper, and he was like 65 years old. And he looked at me, and he goes, hey, kid. I said, what's up? He goes, you'll live a lot longer if you don't try to prove something everybody already knows. Like, somebody says something to you at a stoplight when you're 18, and you don't forget it. You know what I'm saying?

It's like, hey, you're an idiot. You're racing a guy on an MR2 with a Honda 600, you know? You're going to live a lot longer if you don't try to prove something everybody already knows. It wasn't long. I ditched the spandex pants, and I'm out of it now, out of that era. David was the same way. And the question, I guess, to you is, is it enough? And it says, I think it's in the notes. Is it enough that you and God know it?

Like, is it enough for you that you and God know that what everyone thinks you did, you know you're innocent and you didn't do it? Or your heart doesn't reflect what people think about you. Or whatever the headlines are, perhaps in your workplace, or, you know, you don't feel like you match up, or you're not the soccer mom with the best SUV, or whatever the deal is, that is it enough if you know what God thinks about you, you know who he's called you to be, and God knows.

Is it enough? And you know what's so interesting is for many of us, that's just not enough. We have got to continually prove ourself. And I have to say, one of the enemy's lies is to continue to have you prove yourself over and over again, to prove the things that are already true about you, as opposed to just be those things. You know, David, it's interesting, as we go into the scripture here, in verse three, we come to this crucial point in this text.

David's finally king. After all those years, after all those caves, after all those days on the run, or after all the times where he thought he was going to die of thirst, all the being chased by giants and armies, all over, you know, the Near East, David finds, this is the moment, if you look at all, you know, all through 1 Samuel, all to 2 Samuel, this is the moment he finally gets what God had promised to him. It says in verse three, so all the elders of Israel came to the king at Hebron.

And King David made a covenant with them at Hebron before the Lord. And they anointed David king over Israel. Now remember, he was king of the lower portion for seven years, but now he unified the kingdom. He became the king that he was always supposed to be, unifying the kingdom of Israel and Judah and to all of Israel. And he became, as it said, who he'd already called to be. Now this is so interesting because David always lived like the king that wasn't wearing a crown.

If you look at David over and over again, he didn't have to prove himself. And we know because in 1 Samuel 16, this is way back when he was 13, here's the story that happened. The Lord said to Samuel, This is, you know, let's say he's 13 years old, you know. This is 20 something or more years before that would ever happen. But as soon as David was anointed as king, he was king. And he knew he was king. And I think it's such a great point of knowing who you are and having to ask yourself, do I continue to have to prove myself?

When I walk into a room, when I go into a business meeting, do I have to prove myself over and over again? That is Satan's number one A-game plan, is to get you not to believe who God says you are and have to prove it to everyone else. And when you can get to the place in your life, when you care about people deeply, because David was a shepherd king, and we'll get into that in a moment, he cared deeply about people.

He really did. He had some issues with anger. He had some issues with rage and revenge. And he had a dark side. But he cared deeply about people. When you can care deeply about people, but not care what people think, then you start living from a position of strength. Then you start plotting a course for your life that doesn't lose its cadence as soon as somebody says something negative to you. That doesn't lose sleep if somebody says something that you don't agree with about you or your character.

That all of a sudden you find yourself being able to walk into a strength, into a total purpose. It's interesting. Jesus, it says in the New Testament, when people came up to him and they wanted to make him king at one point. I don't think I put this scripture in there, but they wanted to make him king. And it said that he slipped out from the crowd. Jesus was already king, and they wanted to make him king. But he didn't care about their opinion.

Actually, there's another scripture where it says, but Jesus did not take their opinion, and this is a paraphrase, into account, for he knew what is in the hearts of mankind. Have you ever seen the shifting opinions of people? You know how shifting people's opinions are? You can be at the top of the mountain one moment, and the next minute, you're not on the A-list anymore. You know, it's interesting. Celebrity is so fickle.

I gotta say, God's love is not. Celebrity is so fickle. People's opinions of you is so fickle. If you look at just the A-listers from the years of the 1970s to 80s in Hollywood, or whatever it is, you see that all of a sudden, they can't get jobs anymore. But at one moment, they got out of the car, and everyone snapped the picture. Is that what you're going for? Is that what you're going for? What are you going for in your life?

They were going, David was going for something more than a crown. David was going for an eternal kingdom, and he knew completely who he was. Jesus knew who he was. And my question to you is, do you know who you are? And are you allowing what people think about you to move you off the purpose and the path that God has you on? It says in John 6.15, just that scripture is there, Jesus, knowing they intended to come make him king, by force withdrew again to a mountain by himself.

That is a powerful scripture. How many of you would need to be made king by force? Really? Hey, Adam, we want to make you king. You're going to be king. No, no, no, no, don't take me. I'm coming, I'm coming. How many of you would have to be made king by force? Every open door is not from God. Every open door we see, and we have to think through the open doors that happen to the things that we are offered. If Satan can't steal to you, sometimes he'll give to you.

Let me say that again. If Satan can't steal from you, then sometimes he'll give to you. He will give to you things that are not supposed to be yours in time, and to have the wisdom and the ability to say no, to turn down the job, to turn down the engagement proposal, to turn down whatever that thing is, because you know in your heart it's not the way you're supposed to go. Moving on now to the second point. Saul was a king, but David was a shepherd.

David was always more of a shepherd than he was a king. David had a shepherd's heart, and shepherds are awesome. David had said he killed bears with his hands, killed lions. He protected the sheep. One of the things we really want to do here, we were talking with, I have three of the elders and myself, or we're having a conference call tomorrow, we've been talking about, how do we become more of a shepherding church?

It's easy to create churches that become kingly dominions, that everyone looks at because they're popular, and they do it all right, and the stage is beautiful, and everybody that comes out is beautiful, and the music is perfect, and you can build a really big church, because people are attracted to shiny things. But how do you become a church that actually shepherds people? And to shepherd somebody means to protect people, it means to care for people, it means to encourage, and it means to lead people.

How do you do that? And the question is, how do you do it? Because all of us are called to emulate Jesus, who also said is a good what? Shepherd. Verse two, it says, in times past when Saul was king over us, and this is so interesting, because David was doing what Saul was supposed to do, but Saul was so terrified that he basically abdicated the power of the throne. That's a whole different sermon, because sometimes God has given you that thing, that you're called to be, but we're too terrified to actually take it.

God has put you into a kingship, but we're too terrified to act, and that's a whole different story than not taking before it's time, but some of you have things, but you're terrified to live in it, and to step out. Some of you are writers, and God has told you to write, and you've had opportunity, but you haven't written, because you're terrified of people saying that what you write is not good, and you're so terrified of what people say about you, you won't step out.

Some people have an opportunity to move into relationships, and into marriages, but they haven't, because they're petrified by fear of a commitment, by what it might cost, and they won't move in, and so they don't step in, and this is what we see Saul doing. And so David was king over Israel long before he ever wore the crown, and in times past, they said, the people of Israel, when Saul was king over us, it was you who led us and brought out, who led out and brought us in Israel.

And the Lord said to you, you shall be shepherd over my people Israel, and prince over Israel. So interesting that they didn't say king. They made him king, but the prophecy didn't say that you will be king. It said you'll be a shepherd, but by being a shepherd, David became king. Do you see how culturally contrary the ways of God are to the world? We want to bypass shepherd to become king. One of the things I loved about the chart house, besides their mud pie, back in the day, is if you ever worked at chart house, the rumor was, I never worked there, but everybody, no matter who you are, had to start as a busboy, or a dishwasher.

Everyone had to do every single job, even if you were hired to be an executive. Now that was the rumor, and I believe it's true. They were not willing to have you understand what it means to be an executive if you don't understand the plight of the busboy. And let me tell you what, personally, being an associate pastor for 10 years, who thought he should have been head pastor, thank God I wasn't for 10 years, means I learned a little bit about what it means to be on staff, and have no power, and oftentimes, you know what, if we want your opinion, we will definitely summon you.

And being summoned on occasion, but thinking I had a lot more to offer, and realizing that, you know, what it feels like to be in a position when you feel like you should be in a different position. I gotta say, those 10 years forged my understanding of how to work with people, at least with staff, because I have a more sensitive ear than if I would've become king, so to speak, when I was 22 years old. Because I was a busboy for a long time.

And one of the things I tell my staff all the time is, we need to be willing to clean the toilets. And if you're not willing to clean the toilets, then you shouldn't be on stage. And so we all want to have the ability to do that. David was king. Don't enter it, and then so, but it says, you let my, you shall be shepherd of my people Israel, and you shall be prince over Israel. It was David who led people out into victory.

And this is powerful because shepherds help people take victory in their lives. If you're a shepherd, if you could have a chance to be king or shepherd, I would say choose shepherd. Because in this story, the shepherd becomes king. And in the story of Jesus, Jesus gets a kingship later on in eternity, but he denies one on earth. Don't underestimate, you'll see this in your notes, the influence that comes with helping people win their battles.

I gotta say that one thing about David was he helped people win their battles. I gotta say my, my life verse is that you will lead, out of Joshua, you will lead people into their inheritance. I love seeing people win. I love being on a team, and I love seeing people know who they are. God gives me a sense of who they are. They affirm it, and I help them get to that place. When a guy like Bryce Maurer, who was here working with our men's ministry, and he was working on floors and laying floors, said, I've always wanted to be a pastor.

For 15 years, he told me he wanted to be a pastor. But it was a long road getting there, and now he's a pastor in Montana. He's been there a year and a half. And when I saw him get that job, finally, to be a lead pastor, from being a guy that laid floors his whole life, in construction, thinking he'll never be there, how am I ever gonna get there, and then God just gives it to him, it made my heart swell. I gotta say, people will forgive you an awful lot of your idiosyncrasies, let's say, if they know you'll help them win their battles.

That's not saying you just, you know, run over people, that you're rude to people, or whatever, but I have found, that if people know that you'll take a bullet for them, they know that you're loyal to them, and that you want their best, and that you will give them, you know, everything you can to help them succeed, people will give a lot of grace. And I need a lot of grace. I absolutely need a lot of grace. But let me just say, one thing to you, sometimes other people's battles are more important than yours.

And we live in a world where all we want to do is win our battle. I gotta say, don't underestimate the power of helping people win their battles. Find somebody, and lock shields. Many people want to be king, but few want to be a shepherd. In Psalm 23, David says, the Lord is what my shepherd, I shall not want. And here's what's really interesting. Why would God call himself a shepherd? Like, in Egypt, shepherds were the lowest group of people on the social totem pole.

As a matter of fact, in almost all of the Near East in that day, the shepherd were like the garbage men. you know, Egyptians would not even allow themselves to eat with shepherds. They were considered unclean. They were dirty. They were nasty. Supposedly, they live with stinky sheep out in the middle of nowhere. Like, in the social culture, the last thing you would want to be is a shepherd. It was the lowest, dirtiest job, and even the Egyptians wouldn't eat with just shepherds.

And when you look at the scripture over and over again, it says, Jesus is a shepherd. David, it says, that you will be a shepherd. And the people of Israel lifted that up. I love that God wants to be a shepherd. I really love that God wants to be a shepherd in my life. That he wants to lead and embrace me. If you've ever read a book called The Way of the Shepherd, or you look into the stories of David's Psalms, Psalm 23, read about the sheep.

The end of Psalm 23, you know, remember, the shepherd takes him, he lies down by green pastures. We always think of that as the destination. And most people don't even know the end of Psalm 23. They can quote the first few lines. But if you read the end of Psalm 23, the shepherd keeps leading the sheep around. And there was a destination at the end. And at the end of Psalm 23, it says, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

Sheep. Where do the sheep live? Outside in a cage? No. Where does God want to lead you? He wants to lead the sheep to live in the house of God. It says, and I will dwell, David, as he's saying, the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. Makes me lie down in green pastures. These are besides quiet waters. You go on, everyone knows that part. But we forget that the shepherd eventually leads the sheep to live in his house forever.

That is so powerful. See, God wants to relate to you as much less than God. Because if you were to look at God, there is no way you could comprehend him. But he wants to relate to you as a shepherd. He wants to relate to you as a father. And I got to say, the more we're striving to become something that we think we should be, the less ability we have to understand God as something more than God. The more you're striving, the more your focus is on something else.

We don't allow God to be our father because we're striving for that shiny thing. We don't allow God to be our shepherd because we're so discontent with where we are and where we should be and who we want to be that we never settle down and let God just comfort you and say, I want to be your father. And I want you to dwell in my house forever. To slow your life down and to move into the comfort of God is such a blessing.

But most of us don't want that blessing. We want to be king. And we want to see God as this huge force that is backing our act. But very few of us want to be shepherded. The human heart does not often want to be shepherded. And very few of us want a true father with intimacy. It takes work to move into that. Referring to God, as you'll see in the notes, as a shepherd in many Near Eastern cultures would have been an insult.

And one of the greatest acts of God's love is intentionally minimizing his divine nature that we might know him in an intimate way. Ultimately, God wants to be your father. This is a story. David had a dad issue. He had a dad that left him out in the field when Samuel came and asked the kids to line up. And who's Samuel going to anoint his king? They didn't even invite David to the party. How would that feel? Well, you know what?

He's the runt. He's the shepherd. We got him out in the field. And Samuel shows up. And Samuel's like, oh, this kid looks good in God's life. Not him. Not him. Not him. All the way down the line. And he says, Samuel, I don't look at things the way you look. I look at the hearts of people. Don't you have another son? He's like, yeah, but you wouldn't want him. Bring him. David comes out that ruddy appearance, you know, stinking like a shepherd.

And God says to Samuel, boom. That's my boy. I want to say God looks at you and he says, that's my girl. That's my boy. I want intimacy with you. Would you please give up your striving and run into my arms? Amen? Amen. Let's stand. I'm going to bless you. The band. The kids band is moved on. They'll be back in the next service. So we won't have extended worship afterwards. If we have anybody for prayer today, I know that there's a prayer team set up.

Sean, our elder, and some others. If you need prayer after the service, we want you to come forward and get some prayer. We want to pray with you. We want to help you win your battles. If you're in a battle, find somebody and ask them to help you win that battle. Win it in prayer. Find intimacy. If you extend your hands, let me just bless you. Lord Jesus, in a world full of cursing, we want to extend blessing to this people today.

We want to let them, God, live in their knowledge of who they are, that they're beloved, and to accept who they are, to no longer strive. God, would you bless them with a shepherd's heart, Lord God, to help people win battles, to protect others, Lord God. And Lord Jesus, would you also give them rest in knowing that you are their father. I bless you with rest, I bless you with worship, with praise, with the experience of knowing your God, and to be comfortable in your own soul, and the knowledge of who God says you are.

And we send you out today to lock shields to change the world. In Jesus' name, amen.