Rev. Roland J. Wells, Jr. - Pastor

The Fourth Sunday In Lent - March 10, 2002

Lessons:1 Samuel 16:1-13; Ephes. 5:8-14; John 9:1-41

"God's Surprising Choice"

Ever ask your parents what they saw in each other when they first met? It might have been a smile, or a haircut, or a dress or suit. It might have been a dashing uniform, maybe it was a certain laugh or expression. Maybe it was admiration of character, or maybe admiration of ability or the kind of job they had. Maybe it was a romance begun as pen pals during the war. Most of the people I've asked decided on their spouse because of two or three key 'ah-ha' moments, when suddenly it clicked- "this one!"

In that selection choices are made, hopefully good choices, that change every decision you'll ever make. Twenty-five or fifty years later we may chuckle at why we made those choices, made on such slim data. We decide because of the way somebody looks, on how bright their prospects are, or if they're a good kisser! But the choices are made. And history is made. Your parents made those choices, and that's how you got here!

I) God's Choice

Our OT lesson today has just 13 verses, but, like our story in Genesis 12 a couple weeks back, this story also changed the course of human history. David went on to become the first of the line of kings God promised him, 'will continue forever.' From that line came Jesus, Messiah and King of Kings, King for ever.

But it began on an ordinary day. Saul had been king for awhile. The people had chosen him for his greatness, even though God had told them not to choose a king. Saul he had turned out to be a bad king, and worse, about half crazy. God had had enough, the people had had enough. God intervened by telling the prophet Samuel to go find another king. That's where our story begins, as God sends Samuel to the house of Jesse, to anoint one of his sons king.

The oldest son comes first, and Samuel says to himself, 'Just look at this guy. Grade-A king material here. A regular Joe Mauer for the king farm club. Sign him up!

This is hockey tournament week in Minnesota. Scouts from colleges, semi-pro and professional teams fill those arena seats all day long. They sit there and take detailed notes, watching the strengths and weaknesses of dozens of players who they have been watching all year long in reports from coaches. They've been calling coaches all year. They've been asking those coaches about the best players on their team, as well as the best players they've played against. Parents even hire agents or scouting services to make sure coaches hear about the talent of their son or daughter. Sports means big business, big scholarships, and possibly a great future. These scouts look over the talent for months in advance, looking for the best players they can find.

Samuel was scouting for the best king he could find for Israel. When Samuel saw the eldest son, Eliab, he thought he had his number one draft choice!

As he thought this, God said, 'No!' Then comes the key to this text, verse 7: [7] But the LORD said to Samuel, "Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. [:The LORD does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.":]

God didn't judge by David's might and stature like the people of Israel had just done with Saul; he judged according to David's heart.

God didn't judge according to outside pressures, like the French figure skating judge; he judged according to David's heart.

God didn't judge according to the wants of the powerful, like those who wrestled over 'hanging chads' 14 months ago. He judged according to David's heart.

God didn't judge according to appearance, power, tradition, favoritism, religiosity family name nor any other human strength. "The LORD looks at the heart."

And so God chose David, the little teen-aged shepherd boy to be the greatest king of Israel, and the beginning of a line of kings that ended and continues with Jesus.

II) God is Screening for a Heart Condition

Ever see a vans from the Lung Association or the Heart Association or the Diabetes Association in the parking lot of a shopping center? They're doing health screening, looking to find small problems before they become big ones. If someone has a bad heart, we say they have a 'heart condition.' In the spiritual sense, that's what God is looking at, too. As he looks at David, and as he looks at us, he's looking for a heart condition.

But he's not looking for blocked arteries or funny beats. He wants to know the condition of the center-most part of you. He judges on the 'heart,' the center of a person's being. Your attitudes, your character, your actions, your desires, your hidden thoughts, all that makes you you.

Samuel didn't know about how David had battled lions and bears when keeping his father's sheep. David would show his bravery several times- in fighting Goliath, in not killing Saul when he had the chance and in securing the borders of Israel against her enemies. Most of all, he loved the LORD with all his heart. God said of David, 'A man after God's own heart.' Samuel couldn't see that; God could; Samuel obeyed and anointed him king.

But at this point, only God knew his heart. Samuel did as he was told, and anointed the young man to be king. He anointed him with oil, poured out the oil on his head to show the presence and power of God's Spirit, and to show God's promise to David in a physical way.

Now, if God told you to choose a 14-year-old to follow George Bush as president, would you have the faith to do that? God did, because he knew David's heart.

III) Your Heart Condition

But God's call didn't end with David. God continued to call kings and prophets. He called John the Baptist, and even Jesus responded to God's call on his life when he was baptized and later was tempted by the Devil. Jesus called his disciples, Jesus called Paul, and he's calling you.

After the coming of the Holy Spirit at the day of Pentecost, we believe that God poured out his Holy Spirit on all who trust in him. He anoints you with power, with the presence of that same Holy Spirit who filled David and gave him the power to serve.

God is not going to anoint you to be king of Israel. Jesus has been anointed King of Israel forever, so you won't be getting that job. But God has chosen you to fulfil the precise role you were created for.

God has poured out his Holy Spirit upon you to give you a gift, an office. By office I mean that you, like a king or prophet, have been anointed by God's Spirit for the same reason- to get the job done. Throughout the Bible, God's Spirit is poured out on individuals for a reason. When you trusted in Christ, God's Sprit began his work in you to confirm your call to serve him. Only you can fulfil the place you were created to fit. Like the story of the jig saw puzzle I told a couple weeks ago, only you fit where you were created to fit. No one else will do. And you will not find your purpose until you're there.

Worse yet, if you don't fulfil your role, the puzzle will be incomplete. Worse yet, the rest of the work of the Body of Christ will not get done the way God wills it until you are obedient and in the place God has created you for. And only in the place where God wants you to be will you have the peace and sense of being in God's will that God created you to experience. You were created to be a round peg in a round hole. Anything else won't fit right or get the job done. You will suffer and others will suffer.

The consequences of our disobedience are devastating. Hudson Taylor was a famous English missionary to China in the first part of the 1800's. One day when he was preaching, a new believer was listening, who asked, 'Mr. Taylor, have the people of your country had this Gospel for just a little while?' 'No,' Mister Taylor replied; 'We've had the Gospel for many generations.' The Chinese man was filled with sadness. 'Mr. Taylor, my father died last week, and no one had told him the glorious message of the Gospel. Why didn't your forebears come here to tell us?' Hudson Taylor said that question haunted him for many years. Why hadn't Christians cared enough to hear God's call for 1800 years? Who had not responded with 'Here am I, send me?' Who had missed the blessing? Who had missed the call of God on their lives? Our Bible says God wills for all to be saved. Who had not gone? We'll learn on the Judgement Day.

This is not to say that our obedience is of fear; it is of joy. It's the joy of discipleship that we hear the call and know that the call of God is the best, most meaningful, challenging, interesting, exhilarating way we can spend our life. We can hear that call and follow that call at any stage of life. It's just as important to continue to hear God's call at 80 as it was at 20. Moses didn't even start his ministry until he was 80!

What God cares about is your heart condition; on how open you are; how willing and how available. From there, God can accomplish anything.

Invitation; Amen.

Fourth Sunday in Lent- March 10, 2002

1 Samuel 16:1-13

The LORD said to Samuel, "How long will you mourn for Saul, since I have rejected him as king over Israel? Fill your horn with oil and be on your way; I am sending you to Jesse of Bethlehem. I have chosen one of his sons to be king."

[2] But Samuel said, "How can I go? Saul will hear about it and kill me."

The LORD said, "Take a heifer with you and say, 'I have come to sacrifice to the LORD.' [3] Invite Jesse to the sacrifice, and I will show you what to do. You are to anoint for me the one I indicate."

[4] Samuel did what the LORD said. When he arrived at Bethlehem, the elders of the town trembled when they met him. They asked, "Do you come in peace?" [5] Samuel replied, "Yes, in peace; I have come to sacrifice to the LORD. Consecrate yourselves and come to the sacrifice with me." Then he consecrated Jesse and his sons and invited them to the sacrifice.

[6] When they arrived, Samuel saw Eliab and thought, "Surely the LORD'S anointed stands here before the LORD."

[7] But the LORD said to Samuel, "Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The LORD does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart."

[8] Then Jesse called Abinadab and had him pass in front of Samuel. But Samuel said, "The LORD has not chosen this one either." [9] Jesse then had Shammah pass by, but Samuel said, "Nor has the LORD chosen this one." [10] Jesse had seven of his sons pass before Samuel, but Samuel said to him, "The LORD has not chosen these." [11] So he asked Jesse, "Are these all the sons you have?"

"There is still the youngest," Jesse answered, "but he is tending the sheep."

Samuel said, "Send for him; we will not sit down until he arrives."

[12] So he sent and had him brought in. He was ruddy, with a fine appearance and handsome features.

Then the LORD said, "Rise and anoint him; he is the one."

[13] So Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the presence of his brothers, and from that day on the Spirit of the LORD came upon David in power. Samuel then went to Ramah.

Ephes. 5:8-14

For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light [9] (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth) [10] and find out what pleases the Lord. [11] Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. [12] For it is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret. [13] But everything exposed by the light becomes visible, [14] for it is light that makes everything visible. This is why it is said:

"Wake up, O sleeper, rise from the dead,

and Christ will shine on you."

John 9:1-41

As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth. [2] His disciples asked him, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?"

[3] "Neither this man nor his parents sinned," said Jesus, "but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life. [4] As long as it is day, we must do the work of him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work. [5] While I am in the world, I am the light of the world."

[6] Having said this, he spit on the ground, made some mud with the saliva, and put it on the man's eyes. [7] "Go," he told him, "wash in the Pool of Siloam" (this word means Sent). So the man went and washed, and came home seeing.

[8] His neighbors and those who had formerly seen him begging asked, "Isn't this the same man who used to sit and beg?" [9] Some claimed that he was.

Others said, "No, he only looks like him."

But he himself insisted, "I am the man."

[10] "How then were your eyes opened?" they demanded.

[11] He replied, "The man they call Jesus made some mud and put it on my eyes. He told me to go to Siloam and wash. So I went and washed, and then I could see."

[12] "Where is this man?" they asked him.

"I don't know," he said.

[13] They brought to the Pharisees the man who had been blind. [14] Now the day on which Jesus had made the mud and opened the man's eyes was a Sabbath. [15] Therefore the Pharisees also asked him how he had received his sight. "He put mud on my eyes," the man replied, "and I washed, and now I see."

[16] Some of the Pharisees said, "This man is not from God, for he does not keep the Sabbath."

But others asked, "How can a sinner do such miraculous signs?" So they were divided.

[17] Finally they turned again to the blind man, "What have you to say about him? It was your eyes he opened."

The man replied, "He is a prophet."

[18] The Jews still did not believe that he had been blind and had received his sight until they sent for the man's parents. [19] "Is this your son?" they asked. "Is this the one you say was born blind? How is it that now he can see?"

[20] "We know he is our son," the parents answered, "and we know he was born blind. [21] But how he can see now, or who opened his eyes, we don't know. Ask him. He is of age; he will speak for himself." [22] His parents said this because they were afraid of the Jews, for already the Jews had decided that anyone who acknowledged that Jesus was the Christ would be put out of the synagogue. [23] That was why his parents said, "He is of age; ask him."

[24] A second time they summoned the man who had been blind. "Give glory to God," they said. "We know this man is a sinner."

[25] He replied, "Whether he is a sinner or not, I don't know. One thing I do know. I was blind but now I see!"

[26] Then they asked him, "What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?"

[27] He answered, "I have told you already and you did not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you want to become his disciples, too?"

[28] Then they hurled insults at him and said, "You are this fellow's disciple! We are disciples of Moses! [29] We know that God spoke to Moses, but as for this fellow, we don't even know where he comes from."

[30] The man answered, "Now that is remarkable! You don't know where he comes from, yet he opened my eyes. [31] We know that God does not listen to sinners. He listens to the godly man who does his will. [32] Nobody has ever heard of opening the eyes of a man born blind. [33] If this man were not from God, he could do nothing."

[34] To this they replied, "You were steeped in sin at birth; how dare you lecture us!" And they threw him out.

[35] Jesus heard that they had thrown him out, and when he found him, he said, "Do you believe in the Son of Man?"

[36] "Who is he, sir?" the man asked. "Tell me so that I may believe in him."

[37] Jesus said, "You have now seen him; in fact, he is the one speaking with you."

[38] Then the man said, "Lord, I believe," and he worshiped him.

[39] Jesus said, "For judgment I have come into this world, so that the blind will see and those who see will become blind."

[40] Some Pharisees who were with him heard him say this and asked, "What? Are we blind too?"

[41] Jesus said, "If you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin; but now that you claim you can see, your guilt remains.