“Where the Lord Looks” – FBC Morning Light (4/2/2024)

What a good Tuesday morning to you. I hope your week got off to a good start yesterday, and today in our

Bible reading we're reading in 1st Samuel chapters 14 through 16, the end of chapter 14, then on into chapters 15 and 16, and then also a few verses in 1st

Chronicles chapter 9. But I want to zero in on a section in 1st

Samuel 16, and it reminded me of something that happened several years ago.

We had at our church a guest speaker come, and the speaker was just a few years younger than I am, and he recounted a time when he was a college age, well he was in between years, it was the summertime in his college years, and he went out on an evangelistic ministry with a group of guys, and there was one man who was kind of over this group, and he was always, the man who was over the group, was always looking for other young men who could be effective communicators preaching the gospel.

So my friend who was talking to me about this, he said he recommended a particular guy,

I knew who he was talking about, and the guy did end up becoming a very effective pastor and preacher of the

Word, but he recommended this guy to the leader of the

Citiner and evangelistic ministry, and the guy said, well tell me about him, show me, give me a little profile on him, let me show me his picture, and so forth.

And so he did, and as soon as the guy, the leader, saw the picture of the would -be evangelist, the guy said, absolutely not, no way, there's no way, and my friend was startled.

He said, why, what do you mean, he's an excellent preacher. He said, look at the size of that guy's nose, there is no way, you put this guy up in front of kids and they're just gonna do nothing but make fun of him and laugh at him because of the size of his nose, and he dismissed it.

My friend was incredulous that this leader would make a decision on such superficial basis.

So that's what sends me to 1st Samuel chapter 16 in this passage. Samuel has been charged by the

Lord to find Saul's replacement as king, and he has, the Lord has sent

Samuel to the house of Jesse, and he's told, the Lord has told Samuel, one of Jesse's sons,

I'm gonna have you anoint as Saul's replacement as king. So Saul gets to Jesse's house, and he summons the house together, and Jesse summons all of his sons together, well, almost all, all but one, and then he's gonna have the sons,

Jesse's gonna have the sons pass through, pass by Samuel, and Samuel is going to anoint

Saul's replacement as king. His firstborn,

Eliab, is presented to Samuel, and here's what we read in verse 6 of chapter 16.

It says, so it was when they came that Samuel looked at Eliab and said, surely the

Lord's anointed is before him. In other words, looked at him and said, this is the guy, this is the guy, it's gotta be, look at him.

But the Lord said to Samuel, do not look at his appearance or at his physical stature, because I have refused him.

For the Lord does not see as man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but the

Lord looks at the heart. In other words, what the Lord's communicating to Samuel is, look,

I'm not interested in a beauty contest, this isn't a beauty pageant, I'm looking at the heart, and I'm going to choose the man that I want to choose based on what

I see in his heart, and not what people are going to see on the outward appearance.

And so all the rest of the sons pass by, nope, not that one, nope, not that one, nope, not that one, and finally

Samuel's exasperated, he says, do you have any other sons? Well yeah, we got this guy, he's out taking care of the sheep, you know,

David, you know. So they said, Samuel says, call him. Calls him, brings him, the

Lord says, here's the one, here's the one. Now, there's an interesting twist here, an ironic twist, because in verse 12 it says that he,

Jesse, sent and brought David in, and David was ruddy, with bright eyes, and good -looking.

And the Lord said to him, Arise, anoint him, for this is the one. The one that had the right heart, he ended up being a pretty good -looking guy as well, but that was not the basis upon which the

Lord chose to use him. Those whom the Lord chooses to use often surprise us, because we tend to evaluate usefulness or effectiveness and so forth on external matters, what we can see, how attractive the features of an individual might happen to be.

But the Lord, the Lord's choosing is based on more substantive factors. The Lord chooses based on what's in the heart of the individual.

What's the heart condition? Well, what's your heart condition today? Our Father in Heaven, we thank you for this insight, and helping us to make better decisions, and look at those whom you choose to use in a more enlightened way, that you look at the heart and the heart condition.

Thank you for this instruction today, we pray in Jesus' name, amen. All right, well listen, have a good rest of your