Choices of the Chosen

CHAPTER ONE

DAVID’S ANOINTING: POSITIONING THE HEART FOR GOD’S CALL

1 Samuel 16:1–13

Pastor Marty Berglund

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.

1 Samuel 16:7

God has placed a calling on each of our lives. Sometimes we may wonder whether or not we’ve heard His call, because we don’t understand how He speaks. The term call in this context can often be confusing. We’re not talking about a phone call or a bird call. We are talking about the leading of the Lord.

God reveals His plan for us by speaking to our hearts. That being said, it’s important to position our hearts—to tune our ears, if you will—to recognize His voice. This means listening for Him to speak in sometimes unexpected ways. Beyond being unexpected, the call of God may not even be what we think we want. Yet if we listen and obey, God will bless the results.

David’s Call

King David heard the call of God on his life, and he followed it. He is described twice in Scripture as a man after God’s own heart. In First Samuel 16, God says that He picked David because of his heart. The heart’s position seems to be a common theme and one we will examine as we look at David’s life. Let’s explore the different parts of David’s heart that pleased and displeased the Lord so that we can better understand how to follow God’s desires for our own lives.

We too can become people after God’s own heart—knowing His plans and following His will. The first requisite for knowing God’s will is having an open heart. Before David’s reign Saul was the king of Israel. But Saul angered the Lord by blatantly disobeying God’s instructions. (Saul saved the best livestock and plunder after defeating the Amalekites, when he had been told to destroy everything. You can read the story for yourself in First Samuel 15.) Because Saul violated God’s will and closed his heart to the things of God, he lost his favor with God and his kingship rights.

God didn’t audibly talk to David when he called him. He used someone else, a prophet, to speak His word into David’s life. In First Samuel 16 God sent Samuel to Bethlehem to identify and anoint the next king—one with a heart to follow Him. When Samuel entered the town, he obeyed God’s command to sacrifice a heifer and to call the family of Jesse before him. As soon as Samuel saw Jesse’s oldest son, Eliab, the prophet decided Eliab had to be the right guy. In Samuel’s time, as in most cultures throughout history, three things were highly esteemed: beauty, brains and brawn. In that respect the culture was similar to America’s entertainment-saturated culture that’s all about who’s the prettiest, the coolest, the wealthiest, the most talented and so on. So when Samuel looked at Eliab, he thought, Look at him! He’s got it all. Surely he’s the one the Lord will choose for the job.

I can relate to Samuel. When I look at a young person, I often find myself thinking, Wow, that kid’s got potential. I hope he gets his life together and follows the Lord, because he could really do something great. But look back at First Samuel: 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’ (16:7). Samuel might have thought that Eliab was the total package—personable, goodlooking, strong—but God was judging by a different scale and had someone else in mind.

Seven of Jesse’s sons passed before Samuel, yet Samuel said, The LORD has not chosen these (16:10). Finally Samuel asked, "Are all your sons here? Jesse mentioned that his youngest was out watching the sheep, and Samuel said, Send and get him, for we will not sit down till he comes here (16:11). So Jesse sent for David, and when David came in, the Lord said, Arise, anoint him, for this is he" (16:12).

It’s clear from this passage that Eliab and his brothers were not rejected because of their appearance but because of their hearts. And it’s equally clear that David was anointed not because of his appearance (even though Samuel recognized that he was handsome) but because of his heart. This reminds me of Second Chronicles 16:9: For the eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to give strong support to those whose heart is blameless toward him. Notice that the eyes of the Lord go to and fro, just looking for an open heart that He can move into—a heart like David’s.

Later in this book we’ll investigate the famous story of David and Goliath. The secret to David’s victory over Goliath wasn’t his strength. It wasn’t his brains. It wasn’t his beauty. It was his heart that was open to God. The secret to his success in everything he did—winning battle after battle and being followed and trusted by so many—was his heart. In fact, the reason the Bible makes such a big deal about David is because he had a heart for God. It was the secret to his success, and it’s the secret to ours as well.

David was far from perfect. But God was not, nor is He now, looking for angels in the flesh. He is searching for people He can use; for hearts that are open to His ways. The biggest question is this: are our hearts open or closed to God’s call?

How Do We Open Our Hearts to God?

My friend Cedric played in the NFL for the Philadelphia Eagles in the 1980s. During this time, God said to him, Cedric, now that you’re a Christian, I’m choosing you. I’m anointing you to start a church in Lindenwold, New Jersey. That was a huge change and commitment for Cedric! But he listened to God and chose some great players to help him execute the vision God had given him, and now he’s the pastor of a thriving church in New Jersey. I’m sure Cedric never expected to be playing on this kind of field. He went from being a defensive back to preaching behind the pulpit, yet one thing is clear: God had big plans for him!

I have another friend named Ed who worked as an engineer for many years. Ed accepted Christ in his forties and started attending church with his wife and their three boys soon after. Before long, God revealed to Ed that He’d chosen and anointed him to help me and others start a new church, the Fellowship Alliance Church in Medford, New Jersey. Ed had great organizational and managerial skills—gifts I don’t possess. Our church, I believe, wouldn’t be here today if it weren’t for Ed.

I think people like Cedric and Ed clearly understand who they are. They heard God calling them, and they opened their heart to that call. That’s why God is so greatly using them.

God doesn’t just call big-name athletes or preachers. As He did with David, He can call a young shepherd roaming around the back side of a mountain. God calls everyone who is a Christian, and He equips all His people to live up to their special purposes in Him. When we follow Him, we find that being in the right place is far superior to being in what we thought was the best place.

I’m amazed by how many Christians don’t seem to know who they are, what they’re supposed to be doing or where they’re going. Gary Benedict, the president of the Christian and Missionary Alliance, has called the American church a sleeping giant. I agree. If churchgoers would recognize who God has called them to be and would open their hearts in a step of faith to say, Okay, Lord, use me, it would be phenomenal. God would move in a mighty way.

So what does it mean exactly to open our hearts to God? The Bible uses the word heart to mean our inner, private world—the things that we think and feel every day that maybe even our best friend or our spouse doesn’t know about.

The unfortunate thing is that we’re predisposed to have closed-off hearts. As sinful beings, we’re naturally concerned with our agenda and our happiness and how things work out for us. No one is naturally open-hearted toward God. Even my little grandkids, cute as they are, can be pretty selfish and deceitful. David wrote, Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me (Ps. 51:5).

David understood his fallen human nature, but he also recognized that God could renew him from the inside out. For our hearts to be open, we first have to repent. We have to bend our knees and ask for and accept God’s forgiveness. Jesus Christ and His sacrifice is our only hope—and the only key to eternal life. Being open and available for God to work starts with falling before Him and admitting that we have sinned and that He alone can save us.

Recognizing God’s Call

When our heart is open to God, we’re able to hear His call, but we also need to recognize His voice. To do so, we have to actively seek to discern how the Lord is speaking.

The process of recognizing and obeying God’s leading is threefold. First, we have to recognize that we have been chosen by God. Look at First Samuel 16:8–10: Then Jesse called Abinadab and made him pass before Samuel. And he said, ‘Neither has the LORD chosen this one.’ Then Jesse then made Shammah 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.’ Through the prophet Samuel, the Lord repeatedly uses the word chosen to indicate whom He had selected. The second a person prays to accept Christ, God claims that person as one of His own—He chooses him or her.

First Samuel 16 continues, And the LORD said, ‘Arise, anoint [David]; 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 (16:12– 13). Once God has called, or chosen, us, we need secondly to be anointed. I’m not saying that we all have to be doused in oil poured from a horn, but we do need to realize that God has set us apart for a purpose. Samuel anointed David to help him recognize who he was—one chosen by the Lord.

The third step is an incredibly exciting one. Scripture tells us that the Holy Spirit—the very Spirit of God—came upon David. Wow! The Spirit quickly and fully filled David. He had the power of the Holy Spirit—teaching him, speaking to him, directing him—working in his life in powerful ways. When we as believers are filled with the Holy Spirit, we will recognize the leading of God in our lives and be able to obey His will.

Before Christ died and rose again, He told His disciples to obey the commands He had given them and to lead lives worthy of their calling. And He encouraged them by promising, Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father…. I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth (John 14:12, 16–17). The Spirit enables us to remember Christ’s teachings and to live out God’s commands.

What happened to David happens to every person who comes to believe in Jesus Christ. When we receive Jesus, we are chosen by God, anointed for service and filled with the Holy Spirit. As believers, we can now recognize God’s call on our lives and begin to follow His leading.

Opening Our Hearts and Living According to Our Calling

As important as it is to take that first step and to accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, there’s more for us to do as we seek to follow God’s call on our lives. Accepting Christ is not a once-and-done event; the Lord wants to continually refresh and grow us. I’ve been a Christian for more than thirty years, and I’ve learned that opening my heart to God involves daily effort. The pressures of the world, the flesh and the devil all conspire to close our hearts to God’s call, and we have to be dedicated to listening. Luke 11:28 tells us, Blessed … are those who hear the word of God and keep it.

Keeping an open heart requires dedication and discipline. My wife and I both spend time in the Word. It’s part of our daily life. We’re targeting our hearts and aligning them with God’s call.

I also pray every day. I have a time of meditation on God’s Word every day. Why? In addition to loving spending time with my Father, I recognize that my heart is, as the hymn Come Thou Fount says, prone to wander. In order to keep my heart centered on God, I listen to other preachers’ messages, and I talk about spiritual things and pray with my friends. All Christians need to practice these disciplines.

The Lord is reaching down, going through all the earth, asking, Whose heart can I grab hold of? Who is open to being used? Most hearts aren’t readily given. Jesus clarified this when He said that the pathway to heaven is narrow. The majority of people are going to take the broad path of selfish motives and closed hearts. But God will use the heart that’s open to Him. When we feel helpless and don’t know what to do next in our search for God’s plan, He’ll