David in Bethlehem — A.J. Higgins

Again, let me add my appreciation for all who have come. I know there's a lot of panic, a lot of fear that's tragically out there concerning the days in which we live, but I do believe that we have to rise above some of those things with wisdom, not foolhardily, but nevertheless, do need to move forward.

I'm going to just mention one or two things that hopefully will help to focus us. We signed the bill that will be long and dreary. Hopefully the afternoon will not be long and dreary. And to try to combat that, if I could just impress on you, when you're looking at so much material that we'll be looking at today, if you can just leave each session with one or two things in your mind, one or two lessons that you have learned from the particular meeting that we're engaged in, that would be tremendously valuable.

To learn principles of the Word of God is invaluable in your life. It's nice to have the stories, nice to be able to preach the sermons and all, but to be able to glean from the Word of God, divine principles that never change, will be what will enable you to stand as a believer and to grow as a child of God.

So just keep that in mind as we go through these different stories of Bethlehem. If I can just impress one or two things on you from each particular story, I think it will be very, very profitable. And to help with that, we've tried to limit the time to about 45 minutes or so per session, so you're not overwhelmed by all of the material.

Those of you who are familiar with Winnie the Pooh know that we're bears of very little brain. And try to take that into account. All of us, unless you have the mind of a David Bowens or someone, it's hard to grasp everything that's given in a particular session.

David Is Chosen and Anointed in Bethlehem

So with that in mind, I'm going to ask you to turn, first of all, 1 Samuel 16. 1 Samuel 16. And our first visit to Bethlehem will, of course, be a visit with David the shepherd boy. And what we're going to be looking at, the thrust of everything we'll be saying, will be all concentrated on this one truth.

And that is the maturing of a servant. How does God make a servant? How does God make a shepherd? But mainly, how does God make a servant? Someone who's going to serve him in his kingdom and his usefulness in days to come.

So, 1 Samuel 16, verse number 1. And the Lord said unto Samuel, How long wilt thou mourn for Saul, seeing I have rejected him from raiding over Israel? Though I mourn with loyalty, though I pray thee, though I will send thee to Jesse the Bethlehemite, I have provided thee a king among his sons.

Verse 4, And Samuel did that which the Lord spake, and came to Bethlehem. Now, you all know this story so well, we're just going to be skipping over verses for the sake of time. Look down at verse number 8.

He calls the different sons, and he called Abinadab, and made him pass before Samuel, and said, Neither hath the Lord chosen this. Then Jesse made Shammah to pass by, and said, Neither hath the Lord chosen this.

Again, Jesse made seven of his sons to pass before Samuel, and Samuel said unto Jesse, The Lord hath not chosen these. And Samuel said unto Jesse, Are here all thy children? And he said, There remaineth yet the youngest.

Now, if you have a Newberry Bible, you'll notice the margin. There remaineth yet the least. Now, I'll point out why that is significant. He is the least in his father's house. And so he said, There remaineth yet the least.

And behold, he keepeth the sheep. And Samuel said unto Jesse, Send Bethlehem. We will not sit down till he come thither. And he sent and brought him in. Now he was running with all a beautiful countenance and goodly to look to.

And the Lord said, Arise and anoint him, for this is he. And Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the midst of his brothers. And so on. Look down the chapter. Verse number 17. Saul had been troubled with an evil spirit.

And one of the servants said, Suggest finding someone who can play. And verse number 17. Saul said unto his servants, Provide me now a man that can play well and bring him to me. Then answered one of the servants and said, Behold, I have seen the son of Jesse, the Bethlehemite, that is cunning and playing, and a mighty, valiant man, a man of war, prudent in matters, and a comely person.

And the Lord is with him. And down verse number 22. And Saul sent unto Jesse, saying, Let David, I pray thee, stand before me. He hath found favor in my sight that came to pass. When the evil spirit from God was upon Saul, that David took a harp and played with his hand.

And Saul was refreshed and was well. And the evil spirit departed from him. Course chapter 17 is the chapter of Goliath. Look at verse number 15. But David went and returned from Saul to feed his father's sheep at Bethlehem.

And then we have the challenge being made by Goliath. Look at verse number 20. David rose up in the morning and left the sheep with a keeper, and took and went as Jesse had commanded him. And he came to the trench as the host was going forth to fight and shout for the battle.

Look at verse number 26. And David spake to the men that stood by him, saying, What shall be done to the man that killeth this Philistine, that taketh away her approach from Israel? Who is this uncircumcised Philistine?

He should defy the armies of the living God. And the people answered him after this matter, saying, So shall it be done to the man that killeth him. And Goliath and his eldest brother heard what he spake unto the men.

And Goliath's anger was kindled against David, and said, Why camest thou down hither? With whom hast thou left those few sheep in the wilderness? I knew that I cried, nor did I set my heart. Nor had I come down that thou mightest see the battle.

Someone as well said there was no battle till David got there. Thou hast come down to see the battle. David said, What have I done? Is there not a cause? Look at verse number 32. And David said to Saul, Let no man's heart fail him.

I certainly will go and fight with this Philistine. And Saul said to David, Thou art not able to go against this Philistine and fight with him. Thou art but a youth, and he a man of war from his youth.

And David said unto Saul, I certainly kept this father's sheep. There came a lion and a bear, and took a lamb out of the flock. And I went after him, and smote him. And there out of his mouth, and when he arose against me, I caught him by his beard, and smote him, and slew him.

I certainly slew both the lion and the bear. This uncircumcised Philistine shall be as one of them, seeing he hath defied the armies of the living God. David said, I am the Son of the Lord. The Lord doth deliver me out of the paw of the lion, out of the paw of the bear.

He will deliver me out of the hand of this Philistine. Maybe verse 57. And as David returned from the slaughter of the Philistines, Abner took him, and brought him unto Saul, with the head of the Philistine in his hand.

And Saul said unto him, Whose son art thou, thou young man? And David said, I am the son of Silver Jesse, the Bethlehemite. Now just bear with me. In 2 Samuel, chapter number 23, this is the recounting of David's mighty men.

Verse number 13. And three of the thirty went down, and came to David at the harvest time, into the cave of Adalom. And the troop of the Philistines pitched in the valley of Rephiam. And David was then in Holm, and the garrison of the Philistines was then in Bethlehem.

And David longed, and said, O that one would give me a drink of the water of the well of Bethlehem, which is by the gate. And finally, the book of the Psalms. Psalm number 78. I appreciate your patience.

Psalm number 78 and verse number 70. The end of the chapter. He chose David, also his servant, took him from the sheepfolds, and followed the ewes great with young, brought him to feed Jacob his people, Israel his inheritance.

So he fed them according to the integrity of his heart, and guided them by the skillfulness of his hands. And we do know that God will add blessing to the public reading of his word. Bethlehem. About six miles south of Jerusalem, on the Jerusalem-Hebron road, there is a second Bethlehem, that you only read of on one occasion, way up in the north, only, strangely enough, about six miles north of Nazareth.

Bethlehem in Zebulun. Only mentioned in the book of Joshua on one occasion. But Bethlehem of Judea, Judea as it's referred to in scripture, is the city, the village, the town where we will be making some visits to look at significant events that occurred in Bethlehem.

And I think when we come to the life of David, the life of David is always a very moving and very impressive life. He's mentioned over a thousand times in the word of God. It's the last name mentioned other than the Lord Jesus Christ in the book of Revelation, the first name mentioned in the book of Matthew other than the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

So he has the first place, the last place in the New Testament. A man of tremendous significance in the word of God. So, David at Bethlehem. The maturing, the making, the molding of a servant for God.

Faithfulness in Ordinary Responsibilities

Bethlehem was first of all a place where responsibility was learned. He learned responsibility in Bethlehem. We read together in chapter 16, verse number 11, he was keeping the sheep. Keeping the sheep.

Just going about the simple, routine, everyday responsibilities of life. So, point number one that I want to just stress. God is going to mold you, not in the spectacular necessarily, not in the public, but in the very routine, everyday events of life.

Your time at school, your time at work, your time at home, your time in the family, your time in society, wherever it may be, in the everyday routine things of life is where God molds his servants for the future.

He was keeping the sheep. His brother would mock him. With whom hast thou left those few sheep? So, to a lot of it was, he just dismissed the work that David was doing. But to David it was a tremendous work, as we'll see as we go further on.

We learn that David was faithful in what was least. What was the least? David was referred to as the least. You recall that Micah speaks of Bethlehem Judah being the least among the thousands of Judah.

So the least, in the least, is keeping the least. And you know what? God is going to make him the greatest. Now there's a lesson now. A man who was thought of as being the least, doing the least, in the place that was the least, became the greatest king Israel ever had.

So, again, in the routine, everyday things of life, is where God is going to mold and develop people who will be useful for him. If I lapse into speaking of men, you'll forgive me. I mean men and women.

God is looking for men and women to be servants, to be useful for God in his assembly, in society in general, to represent him. So he kept the sheep. Interesting to look at men in the Word of God who came from rather obscure, insignificant, seemingly minor roles that God brought to great usefulness.

Where do you see Samuel, first of all, serving God? Just opening doors. Just opening the doors of the tabernacle for God. And making sure everything was as it ought to be. Where do you see others like Joseph and others?

Just doing routine things. He's doing what is the least. Always remember that God only wants you to do what he has instructed into your hands to do. We all would like to do great things. And there's nothing wrong with having great aspirations.

Nothing wrong with having dreams of what you might be able one day to do for God. But remember that what God has put into your hand today is what he wants you to be faithful in doing. I'm always encouraged by what I read in 1 Peter chapter 4.

We're reminded there that we are stewards of the manifold grace of God. And we are to minister the same as every man hath received the gift. Even so, minister the same one to another. I am not responsible to minister someone else's gift.

I am to minister the same. Whatever God has given me to do, that's my responsibility. That's what I'm called to do. So David was called here. David was given the responsibility of keeping the sheep. And he kept the sheep.

He fed the sheep. That's what we have in chapter 17, verse 15. We're reminded there that he went back and turned from salt to feed his father's sheep. Just routine, everyday chores. Things that were minor in the eyes of men, but something that was very, very important to him.

We read in Psalm 78 that he followed the sheep. He was among them and he followed them. He cared for them. He had an interest in them. He took seriously the current responsibility God had placed into his hands.

So whether it's a Sunday school class, whether it's the physical needs of the hall, whether it's some other seemingly minor role that you're playing right now in God's assembly, here is a young man who did it faithfully.

Who did it to the very best of his ability. I've often wondered, reading there at the end of Psalm 78, and I still don't know really, to be very honest, what the answer to it is. We read there that he fed them according to the integrity of his heart and he led them according to the skillfulness of his hands.

Now if you have Mr. Newberry's Bible, you'll notice that he has, in capitals, he fed them, he led them, meaning God. But I often wonder, was it David? Was it David's skillfulness, David's integrity? I think the answer is it really doesn't matter.

What was happening was David was reflecting something of the skillfulness of God's hand and the integrity of God's heart. So if I can do whatever God has given me to do, as God himself would do it, you may say that's a big statement to make.

Yes it is. But you know, when you come to the New Testament and you read a word such as walking worthy of the Lord, or what John writes to Gaius in 3rd John, that what he was doing, he was doing literally, literal translation, he was doing worthy of God.

That word worthy carries the idea, well, probably only a few people here my age would know what I'm talking about, but I used to go to the market with my grandmother and she would ask the butcher for a pound of sausage.

And he had this scale, and on one side he would put a pound weight, hopefully it was a true pound weight, and on the other side he would begin putting the sausage. And when the balance was level, you knew you had a pound.

That's the idea of the word worthy, something that balances something else. So John tells Gaius, Gaius, what you're doing, you're doing just the way God himself would do it. And I think that's what's true about David.

He was doing it just the way God would do it. So let me ask you, that Sunday school class that you're taking care of, are you doing it worthy of God? The Bible reading that you open, are you doing it worthy of God?

The little group that you try to visit and try to be a help to, are you doing it worthy of God? The vacuuming you do of the hall, are you doing it worthy of God? Are you doing it the way God would do it?

That's the idea. He was a man and he was doing things worthy of God. And so we see David here in his activity. He didn't forsake the sheep, he was with the sheep and all. So God took a man from very obscure regions and we see responsibility that was learned in Bethlehem.

Ability and Character Are Developed in Private

Secondly, ability was honed in Bethlehem. His ability was honed there, away from the public eye. His care was tested. David, what do you think of a sheep? One sheep. Well, he said, I risked my life with a bear and with a lion for one sheep.

What does divine truth mean to you? We all have preferences. Preferences we argue about. Convictions we should die for. You recall those two who returned from the land of Moab. They began to return. Orpah and Ruth.

Orpah wept. She had lots of sentiment, lots of feeling. Ruth had conviction. Convictions were homes where no public eye saw what was happening. Convictions as to what was of value for God were developed where no one else saw what was happening in David's life.

Time alone with God is vital. His care was tested. His capability was developed. I may sound like I'm being redundant and there's something wrong with that, just impressing you with truth from different angles.

David was doing the very best he could as a shepherd. Now I don't know if at this point in time David had any idea. I've got some suspicions that David had an exercise about the ark and the ark having its place among the people of God.

I don't know if he had any idea what God had in store for him in the coming day, but he was determined to be the very best shepherd he could be. Whatever God has given you to do, be determined to be the very best at it.

God may have some bigger thing for you and that will be the jumping board, if you will. But if he doesn't, at least you have done whatever God has committed to your hand and you've done it to the very best of your ability.

We have the tragic idea that public men such as me standing up here, that we are going to get bigger rewards than you sitting down there. Away with such thinking. God does not reward gift. He doesn't reward success.

God rewards faithfulness. So if you're faithful with a few sheep, metaphorically, if you're faithful with your children as you're raising them for God, if you are faithful, you will have as much of a reward at the judgment seat of Christ as someone who has a much more public role and who has seemingly been blessed by greater success in terms of evident fruit.

Faithfulness is what God... David was determined to be faithfulness, to be faithful. So his care was tested, his values were tested, his capability was developed there, doing what he could do. His confidence in God was formed.

What was it that led to David being able to go out and face the big test? It was the test he knew in private, in public, in private, away from the public eye. Thy servants saw a bear and a lion. What is this Philistine?

He had known God in a private place where he was not seen by the public eye. And as a result, having learned God in private, he could now, if I can use it reverently, put God to the test in public and own God there publicly.

God being learned in the routine of everyday life, his ability was honed. His humility was displayed. Tremendous for me to think. I marvel at David sometimes. We read there in chapter 17 and verse 15.

First of all, follow this in a couple of stages. David is anointed king. Samuel comes and in the midst of his brothers he's anointed king. What does David do? Where was it that Saul had to find David?

David was out keeping the sheep. He was anointed king, and he's out there taking care of sheep. And then, step two, David is brought to the palace. He's praying before Saul, and you come to chapter 17, and Jesse says to David, go see how your brothers are doing.

So David leaves the sheep. He's back caring for sheep. I mean, David, you've been anointed king. David, God has kind of introduced you to the palace. Don't you think this is a big breakthrough? I'm willing to wait God's time.

Just goes back to take care of the sheep. We would have thought, this is my big chance. God is opening the door, and I've got to make a way of manipulating myself into the court. It's not David. David's willing just to go back, take care of the sheep.

He's willing to wait God's time. He's not power hungry. He's not struggling to get to the top. You'll forget a few references to American history. George III was the king of England when we declared our independence and won our independence from Britain.

George III and many of the other kings of Europe were convinced that once America won its independence, George Washington would declare himself emperor of the new world. And when George III heard that George Washington was going back after the end of the war to farm back in Mount Vernon, Virginia, George III said, if he does that, he will be the greatest man in history.

Someone who would willingly give up power and place. Just willing to wait his country's time. David is willing to give up power, place, prestige, prominence, just go back and take care of sheep. It is remarkable that men that God used in Scripture never had to push themselves.

Never had to somehow manipulate their way into power. Manipulate their way into useful. No. Here was a man willing to wait God's time. Content to leave the court and go back to Bethlehem. Willing to leave the place of prominence and go back to Bethlehem.

David's Humility and Willingness to Wait

How does David refer to himself? When Saul, after the battle, when David comes back with the head of Goliath in his hands and so on, and Saul says, whose son are thou? Now I know some people question.

He had been in the court of Saul, but why is it that Saul didn't know who he was? Well, technically, Saul didn't ask him what his name was. He asked him who his father's name was. Because Saul had promised that his father's house would be free in Israel.

So he really wanted to know the name of his father. But Nicholas did it still. So, humbly, I am the son of thy servant Jesse. That's all I am. I'm just the son of your servant. Don't you remember me? I'm the boy that played Andrew.

I'm just the son of your servant Jesse. What tremendous grace and humility on the part of David as we see him confessing who he was. So let me come back to what David never lost a sense of. David never lost the sense that he was the least who took care of the least who came from the least.

Never lost sight of that. Now you can look at this later. We read from the end of 2 Samuel 22. You can read from the beginning of it. You can read from the end of Psalm 72. When David is signing off, these be the last words of David.

David, the great king of Israel. No. David, the sweet psalmist of Israel. How does he end Psalm 72? The prayers of David, the son of Jesse, are ended. He never boasts of his kingship. Never boasts of his place of prominence and glory and the great warrior in battle.

He's just David, the son of Jesse. A man marked by deep humility, a deep sense of his position before God and his privilege of having served God. He is David, the son of Jesse. I find it significant as well.

That's why I read from 2 Samuel 23. David is in the hole in the cave. Oh, that one would give me a drink from the well of the water of Bethlehem. David never lost a sense of his roots. Of his roots. He never got so big that he forgot that he came from a very, very lowly place.

Now, I'm not suggesting that we have to remember, you know, how little we had once. But I am suggesting that it's so consistent with the humble character of this servant of God that he recognizes I'm from Bethlehem.

That's where my roots are. That's where I began. That's where God developed me and God taught me and God owned me and God's mentioned me. It's all in Bethlehem. And so we're reminded there, oh yeah, of the sense of his humility.

Godliness Must Accompany Spiritual Gift

It's a place where a capability was known as well. I find this significant that when Saul is looking for someone who will be able to soothe his evil spirit, that there's a servant there and he knows, and he testifies to David.

I wonder if David had any idea of his reputation. I don't think he did. He's cunning and blaming. His gift is obvious to everyone. He's a mighty man. He's valued. He's courageous. And then he's a man of war.

He's just a youth, but he's a man of war. He's a commonly person of war. And you go through that long list, that CV, if you will, of David. And you see, here's a man that his capability is known to everyone and yet he's moving with utmost humility.

Everyone else thought highly of David, but David himself thinks very, very sound lot. Thoughts about himself. And so we find, first of all, his gift was obvious. He's a man who is cunning and playing.

Saul, he is just the man you need for what you're faced with. He's a mighty, valued man. His courage was known. He's a man of war. A boy caring for sheep, he's called a man of war. Just a youth and yet a man.

Keeping sheep yet a man of war. Now I don't know whether it was the lion, the bear, and the reputation of that that spread that somehow got him this title, but here was a man that everyone else realized.

God is developing this man for his own usefulness. He's prudent in matters. The idea there is a man who could hold his tongue. A man who knew how to control what he had to say. He's prudent, he's wise.

He's a commonly person. Now I'm going to just stop there for a moment. The import of that is he was a man of moral character. Now I know I've been stressing perhaps gift, and God knows we need all the gift we can possibly get in God's assembly.

But something else is being stressed here along with gift, and it's godliness. Assemblies, somehow, will survive without gift. But they cannot survive without godliness. The most gifted assembly that ever existed on the face of planet Earth was the assembly of Corinth.

Paul said, you come behind in no gift. That means there was nothing lacking. In fact, they had it in, there was so much gift and they were competing with each other to be able to use it. And yet, it was an assembly that was imploding on itself because they lacked character, they lacked godliness.

So, if I could stress something that is so vital, and that is the development of godliness, of Christian character, of moral virtues, people who are consistent, people who are marked by spiritual character as well as spiritual capability, is vital.

But then, the last thing, the last piece that the servant said is, and the Lord is with him, a man who was known, a man who was known for someone who carried with him the presence of God. Now, your mind is probably already going back to Joseph.

And the multiple times that we're told the Lord was with him, the Lord was with him, the Lord was with him. People who so lived and so moved that they seemed to carry with them the very presence of God wherever they went.

Confession to make. There are many men whose gifts I envy. Maybe that's a strong word. Men whose gifts I would love to have, I don't have. Tragically, there are not too many men whose character I envy.

Do you ever envy anyone for their godliness, not their dignity? Actually, sit back and say, I wish, I wish I knew the presence of God the way that person does. I wish I had the experience of God that that person has had.

We're more concerned with what is visible and what is spectacular and what is going to be eternal and lasting. The Lord is with him, a man who carried with him the sense of the very fellowship, the character of God in his life.

God was able to bring a man. God was able to take a man and bring him from relative obscurity to a place of international prominence. Wonderful to see how God was able to do that, how God can work in such a way.

God is able to bring people who are willing to take a place of lowly humble service to be useful for him. Back in 1878, it's a long time ago, the Salvation Army. Now I know the Salvation Army has morphed into something other than what it once was.

It once was a very evangelical, zealous group. Some places in the world it still is, but here in America, of course, primarily a social organization. Back in 1878 when the Salvation Army was initially beginning, it was making great headlines.

And a young man from America who was in the denomination and rising in its ranks as a very prominent preacher, his name was Samuel Bringle. And he came in anger with the idea of the Salvation Army. He left America, sailed across the Atlantic to present himself to William Booth as a volunteer in the Salvation Army.

William Booth took a look at him and thought, you've been your own boss too long. Yes, we'll take you in. You can join us. But your job is to blacken the boots, basically shoe shine, clean boots. Blacken the boots of the other soldiers.

That's your responsibility and so on. And so here's Samuel Bringle, a relatively prominent individual rising in a Protestant denomination in the U .S. And here he is cleaning boots in England. As he's cleaning boots, frustrated, thinking, I left America, I left a promising pastorate for this.

But then one day as he's doing it, he thinks to himself, my savior washed feet. I can clean boots. And eventually God took him to become the leader of the Salvation Army in the U .S. God took him from that place of lowliness to a place of usefulness in a bigger sphere eventually.

Likewise with David, God took him from a place of relative obscurity, relative insignificance, to a place of tremendous usefulness as we'll see as we look at this further. As I said, a man never needs to push, rush, do anything at all to make himself prominent.

God's Timing in Bringing David to Prominence

How does God go about handling all of this? How is God going to take a lowly shepherd boy from the fields of Bethlehem and bring him not only to the court but to the crown one day? God has his own ways of working.

The exquisite timing of the spirit of God and what he does. Exquisite. I mean, it's fine-tuned. We have our hourglasses that we put next to our prayers and we expect God to answer by the time that the sand goes from the top down to the bottom, that three-minute, you know, Coach Diggs idea.

And we think God has to answer with the last grain of sand. No. God doesn't work by our timetable. He doesn't work by our calendars. God has his own timetable. And God is going to handle everything here in exquisite fashion.

So, first of all, God precipitates a crisis. And David just happens to come. Just happens to come at that moment when Goliath is coming out. Just happens to come then. A man appearing on the scene at the right place at the right time in the right condition.

Interesting that as you go through Scripture, it's amazing to look at God's perfect timing and how we would take what the world would call coincidences. You know, Ruth perhaps was to light. Really? Perhaps was to light.

And, of course, you think about Haman coming in at the very moment that the king is reading the record of Mordecai. The timing is so ironic at times and so incredible. God's timing is perfect for everything.

Some of us are marked by such tremendous impatience. Those of you who are type A personalities know what I mean. It's just you're always in a rush. Even when you're early, you're still rushing. It's almost like an addiction.

You can't stop it. And we're so impatient. And we're rushing God and pushing God. No. God's timetable is perfect. He brings his man to the scene at the very moment he's needed. At the very moment that he's going to catapult him into national prominence.

And so David comes to the scene at the very moment that God wants him around. You need not worry about your life and your usefulness for God. If God is at work in your life, if you're allowing God, maybe it's a better way of putting it, if you are allowing God to mold your life, if you are allowing God free reigning in your preparation for whatever service he has in mind, God will bring you to the place he has for you.

He will bring you there at the right time, in the right way, and in light of the right need, just as he does here with David. Here is a man prepared by God and a situation that was controlled by God. Everything is according to God's timetable.

And so I want you just to think with me then again as we look over this. Think about how God is at work. How God is at work in your life, the same way he was at work in David's life. He prepared David quietly, away from the noisy crowds.

Now there's nothing wrong with conferences, nothing wrong with social gatherings of young people, it's all necessary, but the majority of your preparation for God is known in the quiet of life. I was going to mention this later, but let me just bring it in here because it's so apropos.

We live in a world where there are weapons of mass destruction. That little thing that's attached to your hip, called cell phone, is one of the greatest weapons of mass destruction ever invented. Ever down praying and you hear your phone ring?

Down praying and you hear a text message come in? What do you do? Oh, you keep praying. God bless you. Now I know there are emergencies, mothers worrying about their children coming home from school and husbands worrying about their lives out somewhere on the highway.