You are listening to a message from Southwood Presbyterian Church in Huntsville, Alabama.
! Our passion is to experience and express grace. Join us.
All right, we're in a series, right? The old, old story.
It's on how God rescues and restores.
And here's the thing to really keep in mind, right?
Is that all the stories of the Old Testament, they're about Jesus.
It's all about Him.
In Luke 24, Jesus told two of His disciples that all of Scripture,
He was referring to the Old Testament, is about Him.
And so as we approach these older texts in the Old Testament,
we have the benefit of looking through the cross at them.
And we know all the stories are about Jesus, that He is the hero in every story.
And here's what we know, too, as we read these stories.
As followers of Jesus, we live in a world that's broken, and we do need rescue.
But here's the thing that we know.
We know the name of the man who's going to fix,
and is fixing what is wrong with the world.
And He is working on what's wrong with the world.
And it's usually us, right?
It's what's wrong with us.
He's rescuing us.
He's the hero in all of these stories.
This is His story.
Every time we open God's Word, it's about Jesus.
And so that's how we want to approach our text this morning,
is to know that we're going to see Jesus in this text.
And so we are in 1 Samuel 16.
It's the story of David, how David is anointed as king.
And in the storyline of everything that we're in currently,
we have been seeing sort of one after another,
a judge, a leader that God raises up to lead Israel.
And the final one that God raises up is Samuel.
But in the history of Israel,
this is at a point where the people of Israel,
God's people have said, well, we want a king.
We want a king like the other nations.
And God says, okay.
And so Samuel goes and picks a king through God's leading.
And he picks Saul.
And Saul, it turns out, at least three times recorded,
he dishonors God.
And so we are at a point where we're going to see
where God is going to pick another king to replace Saul.
And this is the story of how that happens.
So this is from 1 Samuel 16.
This is God's written word.
So take a deep breath.
You know, put your cell phones away.
Let your heart slow down.
Let God take care of the world.
Receive God's word.
The Lord said to Samuel,
how long will you grieve over Saul
since I have rejected him from being king over Israel?
Fill your horn with oil and go.
I will send you to Jesse, the Bethlehemite.
For I have provided for myself a king among his sons.
And Samuel said, how can I go?
If Saul hears it, he will kill me.
And the Lord said, take a heifer with you and say,
I have come to sacrifice to the Lord.
And invite Jesse to the sacrifice.
And I will show you what you shall do.
And you shall anoint for me him whom I declare to you.
Samuel did what the Lord commanded and came to Bethlehem.
The elders of the city came to meet him, trembling, and said,
Do you come peaceably?
And he said, peaceably, I have come to sacrifice to the Lord.
Consecrate yourselves and come with me to the sacrifice.
And he consecrated Jesse and his sons and invited them to the sacrifice.
When they came, he looked on Eliab and thought,
surely the Lord's anointed is before him.
But the Lord said to Samuel, do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature,
because I have rejected him.
For the Lord sees not as man sees.
Man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.
Then Jesse called Abinadab and made him pass before Samuel.
And he said, neither has the Lord chosen this one.
Then Jesse made Shema pass by, and he said, neither has the Lord chosen this one.
And Jesse made seven of his sons pass before Samuel.
And Samuel said to Jesse, the Lord has not chosen these.
Then Samuel said to Jesse, are all your sons here?
And he said, there remains yet the youngest, but behold, he is keeping the sheep.
And Samuel said to Jesse, send and get him, for we will not sit down until he comes here.
And he sent and brought him in.
Now he was ruddy and had beautiful eyes and was handsome.
And the Lord said, arise, anoint him, for this is he.
Then Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the midst of his brothers.
And the spirit of the Lord rushed upon David from that day forward.
And Samuel rose up and went to Ramah.
This is the written word of God.
Thanks be to God.
Father, go before us now.
We know we want to see Jesus.
We want to see Jesus high and lifted up.
Show us how these stories, these true stories, how it is we can see how you have chosen to rescue us,
to rescue your people in these stories.
And how we can end at the foot of the cross and to look into the face of Jesus.
And find our joy and find our peace and find the true forgiveness and the true king that we long for.
We ask this in Jesus' name.
Amen.
So let me ask you this question.
Because it's hard as you read Old Testament texts, right?
How do they apply today?
How do they apply to you right now?
So let me start this way.
In your life, as you go about your day, do you ever feel behind?
Like I'm not necessarily talking about feeling behind like in, you know, your bills or just, you know, things you need to do,
the stuff that are left undone around the house.
Man, that's just like me all the time.
But what about something a little bit bigger?
Do you feel behind in who you should be by now?
Do you feel behind in where you should be in life by now?
Oh, man, about three or four weeks ago, Derek and I were out in an afternoon.
And we ended up talking to one of the servers at this place that we were at.
And she was telling us that her 10th year high school reunion was coming up.
And so, you know, I have a thing about high school reunions, and I'll tell you in a second.
But she said, I asked her, I said, are you going to go to your 10th high school reunion?
And she said, no, I don't, that's not my thing.
I don't want to do that.
And I thought, man, this is somebody I get.
I understand that.
Because how I feel about high school reunions, I think maybe the best example I can give is from the Simpsons.
Homer Simpson.
All right, so here's an episode.
Homer goes back to his high school reunion.
And you know how they give awards?
So he's back at his reunion, and he gets an award.
He gets three of them.
And the first of them is the one who gained the most weight since he was away from school.
And they asked him, they said, Homer, Homer, how did you do it?
And Homer said that he had discovered a meal between breakfast and brunch.
The second thing, award that he won, he got an award for the most improved odor.
Third thing he got, he got an award for the person who traveled the least distance to be here.
Now, I love his response.
They said, you know, Homer, tell us.
And he said, what can I say?
It hasn't been easy staying in my rut.
Now, I don't like class reunions.
And this typifies exactly why I don't.
I've never been to any of my class reunions, and there have been a bunch of them.
I don't like to go to class reunions for the same reason like Homer here, right?
Because guess what?
People are going to look at your appearance.
It's superficial.
They're going to wonder how you smell, right?
And it's about accomplishments or the lack of accomplishments.
It's exhausting.
Since I knew this young lady, she was going to her 10th anniversary.
I knew her age, right?
I had an idea.
And she lived in Huntsville all her life.
She went to Lee High School.
And she was currently living in her parents' house that she and her husband had bought from her dad.
And she told me something that was really sad.
She said that she would love to have kids, but really can't afford it.
And see, she's the age of my kids.
And I know for a fact that that generation feels behind.
They feel behind.
They feel behind that they can't have the life that their parents had.
In fact, this is a woman who's like living in her home that she grew up in, right?
She's going to get the award for the least traveled for her reunion.
And I could feel it.
I feel that.
And I'm going to tell you why I feel it.
Because that morning, I was at a coffee shop.
I said I needed about an hour to kind of regroup and do a few things.
And I sat next to two older men.
They're not much older than me, but they were at retirement age, you know, baby boomers.
And they, I promise you, the whole time.
And I couldn't get any work done because I sat there sort of listening.
Because they were right behind me.
And they're like me.
I'm losing my hearing, so I talk loud.
They were talking really loud, too.
And they were talking, I promise you, the whole time.
It was about their 401k, how it's doing, you know, where they were drawing on it.
Their social security, health insurance.
You know, where to invest.
All the things that are going on in government stuff.
Where are they going to get their money?
How it's going to affect them.
And as I listened to them, I realized, man, I am really far behind on anything to do with retirement.
So I immediately started to feel like, yeah, just like my kids at the time.
And so I thought, you know, I'm a baby boomer, but I'm from the tail end.
And I try to figure out, how could I feel better about this?
I'm behind, but I got to figure out, how can I feel better?
And I remembered hearing that there's a generation that is at the tail end of the boomers.
And they've re-designated them.
They call them the Generation Jones.
And I thought, that's me.
I'm in part of that generation.
So maybe I can go see that generation.
Maybe I can feel better about myself for a moment, right?
So I look it up.
And there it is.
Generation Jones.
And they had pictures of people who were in that generation.
Well, the first one I saw, the first one I saw was Tom Cruise was in that generation.
And Brad Pitt.
I thought, well, I'm still really behind.
I said, because they're rich.
Strike one.
They're highly successful in their field.
Strike two.
And strike three.
Now, I know what you're thinking.
You're going to think, and they're handsome.
Shame on you.
I feel like I'm back in my 10th high school reunion.
You know, like, oh, my.
No, the third thing was, yeah, handsome too, but they're, you know, famous.
So I'm behind.
I'm not even a good Generation Jones person.
And see, the whole thing is, the deal is that if you look at other people's situations, you know, like at reunions, they can be really tough.
Because all of that is about appearance, right?
And it's what's emphasized in our culture.
It's made to be so important.
And it used to be that every 10 years you could feel bad about yourself.
Now there's a class reunion every day on social media.
It's just this constant thing.
We really have been ratcheted up.
And we fall for it so often about appearance and accomplishments and how we look.
All of that.
It's a mess.
And so I got to thinking, too, as that day was sort of ending, I thought, you know, this just feels like a game.
That the life that we're in just feels like a game so often.
And the other game I thought of immediately was chess.
It feels like chess.
Because we're playing a game.
And in chess, you have to protect your king.
And so often the things that we protect are appearance and accomplishment and all that stuff.
And we're about it all the time.
And we have to protect it.
And I looked it up because I thought, I guess if you're a master chess player, how many moves ahead do you calculate?
And a master chessman can calculate 10 to 15 moves ahead.
And I thought, man, that's terrible.
I can't.
But it gets even worse.
A grandmaster can do 20 moves ahead.
And I thought, that's why I feel so far behind.
Because part of our culture is you have to calculate all of your moves.
Everything has to be thought through.
All of it.
And so we feel behind.
We feel behind.
Not only appearance and accomplishments and success.
But we feel like it's a chess game.
And we're in check.
And checkmate's just around the corner.
And we're supposed to be in charge of protecting whatever is king in our lives.
Whatever is king in our lives.
Appearance, money, success.
And we better know 20 moves ahead.
Or you're behind.
And it always feels like we're in check or checkmate, right?
That's how it feels.
And so one last little thing.
I had been about that time.
Had run across a meme.
Now, I'm not a baby boomer.
I'm a Generation Jones.
I know what a meme is.
Are you impressed?
I mean, I do know what a meme is.
And take a look at it.
Is it up there?
There we go.
It's a meme, right?
That has as it.
It looks like it's a dad.
And he's sitting on the park bench.
And when you look at it, he's got it in his thought bubble.
It's probably about, you know, maybe the car he wants.
Or maybe his car payments.
It's about travel.
Or the lack thereof.
It's about money.
Or the lack of money, right?
He's just preoccupied.
I mean, the look on his face.
He's just not really there.
He's thinking of his thought bubble.
Is full of everything else.
And next to him, I'm assuming it's his child.
What's in their thought bubble?
That child is just happy to be there.
In that child's thought bubble.
Is that moment.
He's with his dad.
I'm right there.
So let me ask, what's in your thought bubble?
What fills your thoughts?
What's king in your life?
Or who is king in your life?
Is it how you look?
Accomplishments?
How you smell?
Right?
How far away you've moved.
And what you've accomplished.
And all of that.
Or is it just the very lack of those things?
Is it your ability to think 20 moves ahead?
Your king.
Of your life.
And the thing that you will protect.
Just like a chess game.
Is whatever is in your thought bubble.
When you have downtime.
And you're sitting there.
What fills your thought bubble?
Your king is whatever rules your heart.
It's whatever are your deepest trusts.
Your deepest commitments.
Your deepest loves.
And you know what?
Here's a little secret.
It's always you.
You ultimately are your own king.
And that's part of the problem.
Because it's fueling whatever's in your thought bubble.
And so when we talk about needing rescue from God.
We need rescue from ourselves.
Because we are in a current.
In a world.
Where sin reigns.
And sin is making something other than God.
Your ultimate value and worth.
Sin is filling your thought bubble.
With anything else but God.
God.
Who is your ultimate value and worth.
In your king.
That's why the first commandment is.
You shall have no other thought bubbles.
Other than God.
If you are king.
In your defining thought bubble.
You and everyone around you suffers.
That's a picture.
That's what that is.
That child does not have his dad's full attention.
Okay.
So.
In our text.
In our storyline.
Trouble began for Israel.
When they wanted to be like the rest of the world.
First Samuel 8.
Four through nine.
So.
We see in this passage.
That they forget who their king is.
So.
Then all the elders of Israel gathered together.
And came to Samuel at Ramah.
And said to him.
Behold.
You are old.
And your sons do not walk in your ways.
We don't want another judge.
We want another king.
Just like the other nations.
That's what's being said in this passage.
And then in verse seven.
And the Lord said to Samuel.
Obey the voice of the people.
And all that they say to you.
For they have not rejected you.
But they have rejected me.
From being king over them.
So God is saying.
Okay.
Give him a king.
It's almost like your parents.
Catch you smoking cigarettes.
And they go.
You're going to smoke the whole pack.
I'm going to watch you do it.
It's kind of like God saying.
Oh you want a king?
You can have a king.
Maybe Israel felt behind.
Maybe success for them.
Started to look like other nations.
Look what they have.
Look over there.
Look at that.
They took their eyes off of God.
And the irony of all ironies.
Is they asked their king.
To give them a king.
And God said.
Okay.
And so Samuel goes looking for a king.
And he picked one.
On appearance.
It's almost like he's the.
You know the party committee.
At the reunion.
It's all about appearance.
So he picked Saul.
Because Saul was tall.
Right.
And the name Saul.
Can translate to.
Asked for.
Meaning that.
And he's the king.
The people asked for.
The people's choice.
And so the people chose.
Who is king.
God said.
Okay.
There you go.
And it doesn't go well.
If you go back and read the stories.
You're going to see it.
Just doesn't go well.
Saul dishonors God.
At least.
Three times.
It's recorded.
Three times.
Now here's a point.
Here's something to take.
A little bit here.
I want you to think about it.
Because this is an ancient story.
We're looking through the cross of Christ.
We're trying to apply it today.
We're trying to say.
Well.
Okay.
What do we do?
So we're kind of like Samuel.
We have been tasked.
Daily.
To choose a king.
Every day.
We're going to choose a king.
What will reign in our thought bubble?
What will.
What will we look to.
For hope.
And peace.
And strength.
And contentment.
Every day.
You can choose a king.
First step.
Here's the first thing I want you to do.
As you're choosing your king.
Every day.
The first step to choosing a king.
For your thought bubble.
Is to daily resign.
As king.
You need to resign.
As king.
In your life.
Another way of saying it.
Is you need to surrender all.
I'm going to say.
May I start singing it.
No.
That would be a bad idea.
But surrender all.
You resign as king.
Every day.
Jesus said it this way.
If anyone would come after me.
He must deny himself.
Pick up his cross.
And follow me.
For whoever wants to save.
Lose his life.
Whoever wants to save his life.
Will lose it.
I think I got it backward.
But whoever loses life for me.
And for my sake.
Will find your life.
You will find your life.
By laying down your life.
And so.
This is how we can discover.
What is controlling you.
If you ever wonder.
Why?
What's controlling me?
What is my king?
Whatever you have a hard time giving up.
Is your king.
It's controlling you.
And so.
It is a battle that takes place in our hearts.
For what you trust in.
What you hope in.
Who is your king?
Who fills your thought bubble?
So.
We lay down our lives.
In order to find it in God.
Now.
The next thing that you do.
After you resign as king.
Daily.
Choose wisely.
Who will be king.
In your life.
Now.
What does that mean?
Before I can explain that.
Let's set this up.
When it was becoming.
Clear.
That the people's choice for king.
Who was Saul.
Was not going to work.
Because Saul.
Was like the kings.
Of other nations.
He was not living to please the Lord.
But himself.
You can go back and read the stories.
His life demonstrated what is missing.
Now get this point too.
Saul is demonstrating.
What is missing in the king.
That we need.
And the king that Israel needs.
What was missing in his life.
Was exactly the opposite of what was needed.
Right?
So what we need a king.
That's the opposite of Saul.
And here it is.
We need a king who obeys.
And lives for Yahweh.
Who lives for the Lord.
In all circumstances.
That there's not some sort of circumstance.
Where it will be compromised.
Or a circumstance where the king will be tempted.
And sort of give in to it.
If that king is under enormous pressure.
He will never waver.
And never take his eyes off of his king.
Yahweh.
That's the kind of king we need.
And we need a king who will rescue us.
From our enemies.
And the primary enemy in your life.
And in my life.
Is me.
It's you.
You're the primary enemy in your life.
Because you want to be king.
Right?
You want to figure out how to be 20 moves ahead in your life.
And you will do anything to accomplish that.
I can only say that because I've lived long enough.
And I go, man, that's what I've done far too often in my life.
That's one thing we definitely have in common.
And so.
And we read this.
What kind of king?
How do we find this king?
1 Samuel 13.
Three chapters before.
Talks about the Lord had sought out a man after his own heart.
So if you look at verse 13.
And Samuel said to Saul.
You have done foolishly.
You have not kept the command of the Lord your God.
In which he commanded you.
For then the Lord would have established your kingdom over Israel forever.
So Saul, you've blown it.
Verse 14.
But now your kingdom shall not continue.
The Lord has sought out a man after his own heart.
And the Lord has commanded him to be prince over his people.
Because you have not kept what the Lord commanded you.
And so.
When we hear that phrase about.
That God sought out a man after his own heart.
It's sort of not exactly what I've always thought it was.
John Woodhouse.
Australian theologian said.
A man of God's own choosing.
Is what that means.
It says.
A man God has set his heart on.
Is what that phrase means.
It is talking about the place the man has in God's heart.
Rather than the place God has in the man's heart.
Do you see that?
What that verse is saying is that God has set his heart on someone.
And that's what matters.
And so when we get to our passage.
First Samuel 16.
We're going to notice three things.
That'll help us live today.
And fill our thought bubble.
With God.
Okay.
First thing we need to notice.
Is that God provides a king.
The Lord said to Samuel.
How long will you grieve over Saul?
Since I have rejected him from being king over Israel.
Fill your horn with oil and go.
I will send you to Jesse.
The Bethlehemite.
For I have provided for myself a king among his sons.
So the big takeaway point for that would be that God provides our king.
It is God who gives our king.
We resign.
And then choosing really is about receiving.
I'm going to receive who God has given.
Because God has set his heart on that king.
And that's the king for me.
Now the next thing to note.
Is that God sees rightly to the heart.
It's midway through the passage.
In verse 7.
But the Lord said to Samuel.
Do not look on his appearance.
Now this isn't a high school reunion.
Don't look on his appearance.
Or on the height of his stature.
Because I have rejected him.
For the Lord sees.
Not as man sees.
Man looks on the outward appearance.
But the Lord looks on the heart.
And do you know this whole idea of looking on the outward appearance?
This goes all the way back to the garden.
What was Eve doing?
Right?
She saw that the fruit was good for food and pleasing to the eyes.
And so we as humanity have been cursed with walking by sight.
And not by faith ever since.
We have been cursed with walking by sight.
And not by faith ever since.
And so the point would be.
Life is more than meets the eye.
In a very famous passage.
2 Corinthians 4.16.
So we don't.
So we do not lose heart.
Though our outward self is wasting away.
Right?
We're not going to look good at the high school reunion.
Things are falling apart.
Our circumstances don't.
They go up and down.
We're in hard times and good times or medium times.
There's just, you know.
I've accomplished something.
I can't accomplish something.
There's this whole outward thing that goes on.
And on and on and on.
But the passage is saying.
And I love it.
And but our inner self is being renewed.
There's something going on in our hearts.
There's something incredible that's happening that God is doing.
And again, this whole mention of heart.
Right?
There's something happening.
God looks at the heart.
There's a heart thing here.
And then famously says that for our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory.
That far outweighs them all.
So we fix our eyes.
Not on what is seen.
But on what is unseen.
For what is seen is temporary.
And what is unseen is eternal.
That's the beauty of how God approaches our problem of sin.
He looks at the heart.
And then we see that.
Oh, yeah.
Let's go to 1 Samuel.
Let's go to look at.
Oh, yeah.
Okay.
I got a little lost.
But let me see if I can recapture this.
This whole notion that there's something that more than meets the eye.
This is really important.
Dallas Willard.
He's known for his spiritual formation.
The books he's written about how our hearts are transformed and become more like Christ.
He was a philosopher of a high caliber.
He taught at the University of Southern California.
He was well respected in his field.
And about eight months before he died, he was in the hospital.
And he was pretty sure this was going to be it.
And so he had called someone in, one of his students and colleagues, a guy named J.P.
Moreland.
And he gave to him his four concerns that relate to how to follow Jesus.
And these were four things that guided his ministry through the years.
I'm only going to give you one.
He said this, that he championed a robust metaphysical realism.
Now, you can tell he's a philosopher, right?
Metaphysical realism.
We would talk about it's the spiritual realm.
That there is a spiritual realm that is, in the words of Dallas Willard, that are as real as this podium.
As real as what you're sitting on right now.
There's a metaphysical world, a spiritual world, that we are in constant battle with.
Ephesians 6, 10 through 12.
Verse 12.
For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers,
over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.
We are continually under attack to make something other than God your ultimate value and worth.
You are under attack, you know, spiritually to make everything about appearance and not feeling behind and being 20 moves ahead.
To make it in this world and to push and to push and to push.
We are under attack to make something other than God to fill our thought bubble.
It's a real spiritual warfare.
And so finally, you know, we see that God sees rightly, but God anoints his king.
Verse 13.
Then Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the midst of his brothers.
And in the spirit of the Lord rushed upon David from that day forward.
And Samuel rose up and went to Ramah.
Israel's kings don't receive a crown.
They are anointed.
They're anointed with oil.
And that word anointing is the word that gets, the Hebrew word gets translated Messiah.
And the Greek word is Christos.
And so we get the word, you know, we say Jesus the Messiah or Jesus the Christ or Jesus Christ.
And so we know the kings of Israel are anointed.
That's how they're chosen.
And God looks at their hearts and he anoints them.
But he looks at his heart.
It's who he has set his heart on.
Now, after the death of David, so if we were to keep reading on, as Israel's kings sort of proved to be false shepherds, you know, David failed, Solomon failed.
All the kings that follow have failed.
The expectation grew that a new king would come, a new anointed one.
So they're looking for a Messiah.
There's no place better to see what the Lord has in mind than in God's covenant with David.
And it's in 2 Samuel 7.
And so what we see in this, and especially in verse, let me just read it.
Let me start in verse 14.
This is God speaking to David.
This is this idea that there is a coming promised Messiah.
And so here we are.
How then do we live?
Let's go back to what we do know.
Because we do know it's Jesus.
We know the name of the man that God is referring to.
Who is this line of David?
Who is the king?
Who is that?
And so it's Jesus.
What we do every day, we daily resign as king.
We lay down our lives in order to find it.
We daily choose wisely who will be your king.
And so what does that mean?
Let me show you this slide.
We're getting close to wrapping up.
Ah, yeah, you can see it.
Okay, good.
I write this in.
Every time I get a new journal, I write this in the front of it.
It's a quote from Martin Luther.
So this whole idea of resigning as king daily and then choosing wisely who is going to be your king.
It can be like this.
Always begin again every day.
Every day embrace the love and kindness of God.
And daily exercise your faith therein.
Entertaining no doubt of God's love and his kindness.
See, the king that we get, we choose that king, but it's even more amazing than that.
God has given us that king.
In the famous passage in Isaiah 9, right?
Especially 6 and 7.
For to us a child is born.
To us a son is given.
We're given this son.
And you go down to 7.
Of the increase of his government and of the peace there will be no end.
On the throne of David and over his kingdom.
This is the idea.
The son, a king, is given to us.
What do we know about this king?
Well, we know 2 Samuel 7.21.
Because of your promise and according to your own heart.
He's talking about God.
Because of God's promise.
Because of God's heart.
You have brought about all this greatness.
It's David speaking to God.
Because of God's heart.
Because of his heart.
Is what's key.
And then 1 Samuel 13.14.
But now your kingdom shall not continue.
The Lord has sought out a man after his own heart.
This is a person God has set his heart on.
That's who he gives.
Who has God set his heart on?
There's no better passage, I suppose, than Matthew 11.
Right?
Where Jesus says, come to me.
Come to me.
All you who feel behind.
Come to me who have gotten caught in the, about appearance.
And about accomplishing.
Come to me.
All you who feel beat down.
By you're not where you thought you should be by now.
Come to me.
All you who labor underneath that pressure.
And who are just, who are weary.
And I will give you rest.
He said, take my yoke upon.
Take my yoke upon you.
And learn from me.
It's this idea then that our lives, we're learning.
We're going through and we're experiencing this.
And he's teaching us.
He wants our thought bubble to be filled with him.
And we're learning.
Take my yoke upon you and learn from me.
For I am gentle and lowly in heart.
Oh, that's beautiful.
Jesus is gentle.
And he's lowly in heart.
You know, he's the, like, I mean, I don't know.
This might be stretching it.
But think of it this way.
Jesus is the overachiever at your high school reunion that is so glad to see you.
He loves, he doesn't want to know anything about your accomplishments.
He has his heart set upon you.
And he just wants you to come to him.
See, you're in his thought bubble.
He has set his heart upon you.
And the most amazing thing, too, is Jesus as our king, he's been anointed.
And we read about his anointing when he was baptized.
He is being anointed as the Messiah.
And the Holy Spirit comes upon Jesus and fills him to enable him to be the king that we need.
And his father is there to say, man, look at my son.
I love my son.
My heart is set upon him.
And I love him.
And the thing about anointing, and we see it in David's life, when you're anointed as that kind of king, you go and you suffer.
Jesus was the king that we need because he didn't come, he didn't give in to pressure.
He didn't give in to temptations.
His circumstances, he didn't go, well, he fully followed through and lived the life you and I should have lived.
Right?
And he suffered and died the death you and I should have died.
And I want you to think about it this way.
When Jesus was on the cross, it's as if he is looking across the room, maybe.
But I know this is true.
He looked at your life and my life.
He saw every thought bubble you ever had and everything you've ever done and anything that you've made your ultimate value and worth other than him.
He saw all of it.
He saw the mess and the shame of you that happens when you're trying to stay 20 moves ahead.
He saw what you did.
Your whole life was before him on the cross.
He could see it all.
And you know what?
He stayed.
He stayed on the cross.
Because his heart was set on you.
The anointed one, king over God's people, has set his heart on you.
And he rescued you as a good king does from your enemies.
You.
He wants to rescue you from yourself.
When I feel like I'm 20 moves behind, when I feel like by now I should have fill in the blank, first thing I do is I resign as king.
I surrender.
And then I fight to sit quietly, to sit quietly, open God's word, read it, sometimes just being still,
sometimes praying back.
I fight to delight in knowing that the king who has every move figured out wants to know me because his heart is set upon me.
I have to get my mind thinking right.
I have to take what's in my thought bubble and put Jesus there.
And I fight to do that.
And I fight to be grateful.
And I fight to remember for even and to be grateful for even the heart to want to put God in my thought bubble.
I fight to realize what has been lavished upon me.
A heart like Jesus.
That delights, that Jesus delights to sit with me on the park bench while my mind is racing about all the things I haven't done.
And he delights to sit with me and he wants to fill that thought bubble with himself.
In my best moments, I delight in him in that time.
And everything finally feels right.
Because I'm with the king that loves me.
I find life there.
So daily resign as king.
And daily choose wisely who is your king.
It's King Jesus.
Receive Jesus as your king.
Let's pray.
Father, thank you for this time.
I pray, Lord, that I've taken all of us to the cross.
I'm following under conviction, Lord.
And I want that to be true.
That if I'm having a hard time giving up something, that's controlling me.
And I want to fight to resign as king.
I want to fight to be in your presence.
I want to fight to thank your thoughts after you.
I want you to fill my thought bubble.
I want you to fill all of our thought bubbles all day long.
Be king.
Be my king, Lord.
We resign as king.
Amen.
For more information, visit us online at southwood.org.