Brother Stuckey, come on up.
Thank you.
OK.
All right, turn your Bible to 1 Samuel chapter 18.
And almost the entire sermon is going
to be in 1 Samuel 16, 17, and 18.
So when I go to another verse in the Bible,
you don't have to jump around.
I'll just quote it.
So just stay around there.
1 Samuel chapter 18, the Bible reads,
And it came to pass, when he had made
an end of speaking unto Saul, that the soul of Jonathan
was knit with the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him
as his own soul.
And Saul took him that day, and would let him go no more home
to his father's house.
Then Jonathan and David made a covenant,
because he loved him as his own soul.
And Jonathan stripped himself of the robe that was upon him,
and gave it to David, and his garments, even to his sword,
and to his bow, and to his girdle.
And David went out whithersoever Saul sent him,
and behaved himself wisely.
And Saul set him over the men of war,
and he was accepted in the sight of all the people,
and also in the sight of Saul's servants.
And it came to pass, as they came,
when David was returned from the slaughter of the Philistine,
that the women came out of all cities of Israel,
singing and dancing, to meet King Saul with tabrets,
with joy, and with instruments of music.
And the women answered one another as they played, and said,
Saul hath slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands.
And Saul was very wroth, and the saying displeased him.
And he said, they have ascribed unto David ten thousands,
and to me they have ascribed but thousands.
And what can ye have more but the kingdom?
And Saul eyed David from that day and forward.
And it came to pass on the morrow
that the evil spirit from God came upon Saul,
and he prophesied in the midst of the house.
And David played with his hand, as at other times,
and there was a javelin in Saul's hand.
And Saul cast the javelin, for he said,
I will smite David even to the wall with it.
And David avoided out of his presence twice.
And Saul was afraid of David, because the Lord was with him,
and was departed from Saul.
Therefore, Saul removed him from him,
and made him his captain over a thousand.
And he went out and came in before the people.
And David behaved himself wisely in all his ways,
and the Lord was with him.
Wherefore, when Saul saw that he behaved himself very wisely,
he was afraid of him.
But all Israel and Judah loved David,
because he went out and came in before them.
And Saul said to David, behold, my elder daughter, Mirab,
her will I give thee to wife.
Only be thou valiant for me, and fight the Lord's battles.
For Saul said, let not mine hand be upon him,
but let the hand of the Philistines be upon him.
And David said unto Saul, who am I?
And what is my life for my father's family in Israel,
that I should be son in law to the king?
But it came to pass at the time when Mirab, Saul's daughter,
should have been given to David, that she was given unto Adriel
the meholothite to wife.
And Michael, Saul's daughter, loved David,
and they told Saul, and the thing pleased him.
And Saul said, I will give him her
that she may be a snare to him, that the hand of the Philistines
may be against him.
Wherefore, Saul said to David, thou shalt this day
be my son-in-law, and the one of the twain.
And Saul commanded his servants, saying,
commune with David secretly, and say, behold,
the king hath delight in thee, and all his servants love thee.
Now, therefore, be the king's son-in-law.
And Saul's servants spake those words in the ears of David.
And David said, seem it to you a light thing
to be a king's son-in-law, seeing that I am a poor man,
and lightly esteemed.
And the servants of Saul told him, saying, on this manner
spake David.
And Saul said, thus shall you say to David,
the king desireth not any dowry, but an hundred foreskins
of the Philistines to be avenged of the king's enemies.
But Saul thought to make David fall
by the hand of the Philistines.
And when his servants told David these words,
it pleased David well to be the king's son-in-law,
and the days were not expired.
Wherefore, David arose and went, he and his men,
and slew of the Philistines two hundred men,
and David brought their foreskins.
And they gave them in full tale to the king
that he might be the king's son-in-law.
And Saul gave him Michael, his daughter, to wife.
And Saul saw and knew that the Lord was with David,
and that Michael, Saul's daughter, loved him.
And Saul was yet the more afraid of David,
and Saul became David's enemy continually.
Then the princes of the Philistines went forth,
and it came to pass after they went forth
that David behaved himself more wisely
than all the servants of Saul, so that his name was
much set by.
Let's open a word of prayer.
Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for allowing us to be here
today, and just all the souls that were saved,
even today out soul winning, and for all the great things
this church is doing here in Sacramento, God.
I ask you specifically now to bless me with your spirit.
Give me boldness and clarity to preach your words.
We pray this all in Jesus' name, amen.
Now, just as an introduction here, we're in this chapter.
I want you to look back at verse number three.
Verses three and four, the Bible reads,
then Jonathan and David made a covenant
because he loved him as his own soul.
And Jonathan stripped himself of the robe that was upon him
and gave it to David and his garments,
even to his sword, into his bow, into his girdle.
Now, Jonathan was the son of King Saul.
King Saul intended for Jonathan to be the next king.
And Jonathan basically steps aside and gives it to David.
Jonathan knew the spirit of God was upon David,
and David was the Lord's anointed.
David was the one to be the king.
And Jonathan willingly stepped aside for King David.
Jonathan loved David, the Bible says.
I believe that's probably the greatest example of friendship
in the entire Bible.
In verse number six, the Bible reads,
and it came to pass as they came when
David was returned from the slaughter of the Philistine,
that the women came out of all cities of Israel,
singing and dancing to meet King Saul
with tablets, with joy, and with instruments of music.
And the women answered one another as they played and said,
Saul hath slain his thousands and David his ten thousands.
Now, they liked King Saul,
and they gave him credit for thousands,
but for David, they said his ten thousands,
which he didn't kill ten thousands of people here,
but they sing this song because the people loved
and respected and looked up to David.
In verse number 16 of the same chapter, the Bible reads,
but all Israel and Judah loved David
because he went out and came in before them.
So the Bible says, all Israel and Judah loved David.
In 1 Samuel chapter 22, I'm just gonna read this,
you don't have to turn there.
In 1 Samuel 22, the first two verses, the Bible reads,
David therefore departed thence
and escaped to the cave Adullam,
and when his brethren and all his father's house heard it,
they went down there to him.
And everyone that was in distress
and everyone that was in debt
and everyone that was discontented
gathered themselves onto him,
and he became a captain over them,
and there were with him about 400 men.
So there's a bunch of people that are kind of castaways.
Nobody wants these 400 people,
but they came to David and David accepted them.
And at a church, we ought to be able to accept everybody.
We ought to be able to,
someone might not have as much money as you,
maybe someone's made mistakes in the past,
but hey, come to Verity Baptist Church
where you can learn and grow.
It doesn't matter how much money you have,
we went out soul winning today,
it doesn't matter how much money you have.
It's the same Gospel.
Anybody can preach the Gospel.
And so these people come to David.
They were inspired by David.
David led these people.
You see this throughout the Bible.
David was an inspirational person.
One more verse for introduction.
In 2 Samuel 3, verse 36, the Bible reads this,
and this is referring to King David, it reads,
and all the people took notice of it and it pleased them,
as whatsoever the king did pleased all the people.
You see, the people were inspired by King David.
They loved King David.
King David was truly a mighty leader.
You say, well, how do you know for sure
that King David was a great leader?
Well, in King Saul's day,
the man who was head and shoulders above anyone,
very tall man, on the outside,
he looked like the perfect candidate to be king,
and yet nobody took on Goliath.
Everybody was afraid to take on Goliath.
Now in King David's day,
there's a whole chapter about the mighty men of David.
I mean, they did great victories.
I mean, lots of people took on giants.
Lots of people did great accomplishments
under the leadership of David.
David was a great leader.
Why was he such a great leader?
Well, I have five different points
I want to show you tonight,
five attributes that made David a great leader.
And truly, you could find more points than this.
These are five points that specifically stood out to me,
and a lot of these points go along with being humble.
Actually, all five of them, you can look at that
as David was not a man full of pride,
but my first point is this.
First, David was a great follower.
To be a great leader, you have to be a great follower first.
Now this probably sounds very, very obvious
that you have to be a great follower.
And truly, it is obvious,
but oftentimes people go wrong on the very first point.
And honestly, if you think that you have
one of these five attributes under control,
like, oh yeah, I've already kicked that, I'm fine,
then you're never gonna be a great leader.
You have to realize all five of these things
we have to take throughout our entire lives.
Because first of all, even if you do become a leader,
if you become a pastor, God is still above you, right?
You still have to follow God first and foremost.
Jesus Christ said when he was on this earth,
he said, and he saith unto them,
follow me and I will make you fishers of men.
He promised if you follow me, you will get people saved.
We have to follow Jesus Christ.
We have to follow God,
or we're never gonna accomplish anything
in the Christian life.
None of us have that much talent.
None of us have that much ability.
I mean, all of us were pretty much average looking.
There's nothing special about us.
But with God, it doesn't matter
what your natural ability is.
You can do great things if you truly follow God.
So first and foremost, everybody's gotta follow God.
In Matthew 16, verse 24, the Bible reads,
then said Jesus unto his disciples,
if any man will come after me, let him deny himself
and take up his cross and follow me.
Now, this is a daily thing.
This isn't referring to salvation
because nobody completely follows God.
But we oughta be following God every day,
daily taking up our cross.
Every day, it's a new day.
Regardless of what you've done in the past,
it's a new start, daily follow after God.
And we see this from David.
David was a man who followed after God.
In Acts chapter 13, verse 22, the Bible reads this,
and when he had removed them,
he raised up unto them David to be their king,
to whom also he gave testimony and said,
I have found David, the son of Jesse,
a man after mine own heart,
which shall fulfill all my will.
So David was a man who followed after God.
And see, God saw David,
and he knew David was doing great things,
and he was following after God, and David was nothing.
He wasn't really special,
he wasn't really famous or anything,
but God saw David's heart,
and God knew that David was the man
to be the Lord's anointing,
that he was gonna be a great king.
And so first and foremost, we have to follow God,
but not just following God.
You see, if you're at this church,
the pastor of this church is Pastor Roger Jimenez.
He's the person, you've decided,
I'm gonna be a part of Verity Baptist Church.
If you've decided this,
then he's set here by God to lead you.
If you can't follow him,
then you should be going somewhere else.
You know, and honestly, at most churches,
you know, the pastor, people will criticize the pastor,
and the truth is, if you can't follow the pastor,
go to a church where you can follow them.
And so we see this in 1 Samuel 18, verses 10 and 11
with David.
We see that David, when he became known,
he was underneath King Saul.
Now it says in 1 Samuel 18, verse 10 and 11,
And it came to pass on the morrow
that the evil spirit from God came upon Saul.
And he prophesied in the midst of the house,
and David played with his hand as at other times,
and there was a javelin in Saul's hand.
And Saul cast the javelin, for he said,
I will smite David even to the wall with it,
and David avoided it out of his presence twice.
We see that King Saul tries to kill David.
Now let me ask you a question.
Who here has had Pastor Roger Jimenez
try to kill you before?
Anybody?
Nobody?
Okay.
So I mean, David here, has King Saul tried to kill him?
Now that would sound like a good reason not to follow him.
I probably would be like, you know, I'm done with King Saul.
I'm fleeing the country or whatever.
But David still followed King Saul.
We see later on in the chapter at verse number 25,
the Bible reads,
And Saul said, thus shall you say to David,
the king desireth not any dowry,
but in hundred four skins of the Philistines
to be avenged of the king's enemies.
But Saul thought to make David fall
by the hand of the Philistines.
And when his servants told David these words,
it pleased David well to be the king's son-in-law,
and the days were not expired.
Wherefore David arose and went,
he and his men, and slew of the Philistines two hundred men.
And David brought their four skins,
and they gave them in full tale to the king
that he might be the king's son-in-law.
And Saul gave them Michael, his daughter, and a wife.
So he's here.
David has already had King Saul try to kill him,
and yet David is still going out there
and fighting the battle for King Saul.
And you notice he didn't bring back 100 like King Saul said.
No, he brought back 200.
He went above and beyond,
because you're going to see this
with great leaders in the Bible,
they go above and beyond.
They don't just say, well, this is the bare minimum.
They say, no, I want to do something more for God.
And so David here is following King Saul,
even though King Saul tried to kill him.
You know, what's amazing about this point here
of being a follower,
you know, usually when people get mad
at a church or the pastor,
it's usually not even something that's regarding his sin.
It's usually something that's just a matter of preference.
For example, you know, you might have the church here
starts, you might say, well,
the church should start 30 minutes earlier,
30 minutes later, and they'll gossip around the church
and say, I think Pastor Roger Jimenez is wrong about this.
You know, if it's something so serious
that you have to gossip,
then you know you're probably at the wrong church.
I mean, if it's a doctrinal issue
that you don't agree with,
then you can go somewhere else.
But if it's something like I don't agree with the time
or something small like that,
then it's something you ought to set aside.
It's not that serious to make a big issue of it.
You know, I mean, I don't think anybody can say
that every single thing they do 100% the exact same way.
But is it really that serious of an issue
where you're going to make a big church split
or gossip or complain or say,
you know, oh, you know, the pastor's wrong about this?
You know, if you've decided to be here,
then he's the person who's in charge
that you're supposed to follow after.
He is the leader.
And this sounds like a very simple point,
but it's a lot more difficult than you realize
because once you start learning more about the Bible,
there might be even something kind of small
like who are the two witnesses during the end times?
That's really not that big of an issue.
You know, whether you believe it's Moses and Elijah
or two other people, whoever you believe it is.
But, you know, once you start learning more,
you might start thinking, oh, you know,
I've got to tell people the pastor's wrong about this.
You know, it's not that big of an issue.
If it's a big doctrinal issue,
then you can go elsewhere if you don't agree.
But, you know, if it's something
that's a matter of preference or something small,
it's not a big issue.
First, just be a follower.
You don't see David complaining.
And I think, David, if anybody had a right to complain
when King Saul tried to kill him,
I think David probably had a pretty good reason.
But he did not complain.
He still followed King Saul.
He trusted in God and said, you know,
this is the person that God has given me
and authority, I'm gonna follow him.
And we also see this with David with his father.
He followed everything that his father
was telling him to do.
So the first point is this.
First, we have to be a great follower.
And even if you do become a leader, like I said,
you still have to follow after God.
Nobody is above that.
God is so far above us, above our desires or our wants.
We have to follow God.
So the first point is this, to be a great leader,
first you have to be a great follower.
Go back to 1 Samuel 16.
The second point is this, to be a great leader,
you need to make sure you don't promote yourself
to a position of leadership.
Okay, and I'll explain that here in a second.
But the Bible says in 1 Samuel 16, seven,
but the Lord said unto Samuel,
look not on his countenance or on the height of his stature,
because I've refused him.
For the Lord seeth not as man seeth,
for man looketh on the outward appearance,
but the Lord looketh on the heart.
And we see here that Samuel is here to promote the next king
and on the outside, we can often be fooled.
Even out soloing, somebody might tell us something
and on the outside, it might look to us.
God knows the heart and God knows what they believe.
And oftentimes we're wrong from the outward appearance.
I mean, how many times have you given the gospel to someone
and you're thinking, this person is never gonna get saved.
It's pretty much a waste of time.
And then they're like, oh sure, I'd love to hear the gospel.
And then you explain the gospel
and they get saved really easily, right?
I mean, the outward appearance can fool us quite often.
And see, the Lord looks on the heart.
We look on the outward appearance.
Now David was not the person on the outside
who looked like he would be the next king.
King Saul was this tall and powerful figure
and King David, he didn't look like that.
But see, it doesn't matter what's on the outside.
The Lord looks on the heart
and he knew that David was the right person.
But we notice that David does not promote himself.
If you go back to verse number one,
where Samuel's going there to get a king,
this is what the Lord says to Samuel.
And the Lord said unto Samuel,
how long wilt thou mourn for Saul,
seeing I've rejected him from reigning over Israel?
Fill thine horn with oil and go.
I will send thee to Jesse the Bethlehemite,
for I have provided me a king among his sons.
So Samuel's given this mission to go get a king.
He's gone to get Jesse's sons.
Now what you're gonna notice here in verse number 11
of the same chapter, 1 Samuel 16 and 11.
And Samuel said unto Jesse, are here all thy children?
You see, David was not there
when they were there to select a king.
David wasn't worried about I need to be there
to promote myself to become the next king.
David wasn't there, okay?
His brothers were there, but David wasn't there.
And there's a reason for that.
In that verse it says, and he said,
there remaineth yet the youngest,
and behold, he keepeth the sheep.
And Samuel said unto Jesse, send and fetch him,
for we will not sit down till he come hither.
So David is there keeping his responsibility
of keeping the sheep.
He decided that is what's important.
This is the task I've been given.
I'm gonna follow what my dad said,
and he didn't worry about promoting himself to power.
I mean, you don't really see David ever try to just say,
I deserve to be king or anything like that.
He doesn't try to promote himself to a position of power.
You say, why is this such an important point?
Because if you're given a responsibility to do,
you're gonna start maybe getting nervous
and think you can't do it.
A guy was telling brother Jeff
when I was sitting in the chair,
I was like, my heart is really starting to beat fast.
You start thinking in your head like,
can I really do this?
But see, here's the thing.
When I came here, I didn't say,
Pastor Jimenez, please let me preach the sermon.
If I did that, then I could be up here in my own power,
and it could be very difficult.
But see, I believe that God is the one
who's making these choices.
If you get a chance to preach behind this pulpit,
even though Pastor Jimenez selected you,
I believe God is giving you that opportunity
for any opportunities that you get.
And so I think it's very important
we don't promote ourselves
because then you can get very nervous.
And maybe you're not the right person
even for the job to do it.
We ought to wait on God to be willing to promote ourself.
And I don't want anyone to get the wrong idea.
I mean, everybody ought to be willing to serve God
and get involved with this church as much as they can.
I remember hearing a sermon just from a few months ago
about how we were handing out cards
and what activity do you think you'd be involved in.
But here's the thing.
If you're not selected for that activity,
it's because God decided that you weren't the right person.
Yeah, and sometimes you might be the right person,
but it might be too early.
Maybe a year from now, you'll be the right person.
Maybe you wouldn't be dedicated enough.
You know, God knows the timing.
We aren't that smart.
Okay, I don't care like how well you did in college.
None of us are really that smart.
God is so far above us.
We need to wait on God to make those decisions.
In 1 Samuel 17, a very famous chapter in the Bible
if you want to turn there.
1 Samuel 17, the famous story of David and Goliath
starting at verse 17.
And Jesse said unto David his son,
take now for thy brethren an ephah of this parched corn
and these 10 loaves and run to the camp of thy brethren
and carry these 10 cheeses
onto the captain of their thousand
and look how thy brethren fare and take their pledge.
So Jesse tells his son David to go to the battle
and look how they fare.
He doesn't tell him to get involved in the battle,
but he tells him to run to the battle.
Verse number 20, it says,
and David rose up early in the morning
and left the sheep with a keeper.
I think that's really important there
that David leaves the sheep with a keeper.
He realized, hey, this is my responsibility.
I'm not going to set this aside to do something else.
He made sure that the sheep had a keeper
and took and went as Jesse had commanded him.
Now going down to verse number 28,
it says in Eliab his eldest brother heard
when he spake unto the men
and Eliab's anger was kindled against David.
And he said, why cameest thou down hither
and with whom hast thou left those few sheep
in the wilderness?
I've got to scratch my head when Eliab says this
because when they're selecting a king,
Eliab isn't too concerned about worrying about the sheep.
I mean, David's got it.
I'll worry about him.
And David did leave somebody to keep the sheep.
Eliab never seems to even worry about that,
yet he criticizes David
when he doesn't even seem to care about the sheep.
Now going on to the rest of this verse, it says,
I know thy pride in the naughtiness of thine heart,
for thou art come down that thou mightest see the battle.
It's interesting with Eliab.
Eliab was a person who wanted to be
in a position of leadership.
And he seems very jealous of his brother David.
Now I don't remember Eliab fighting Goliath.
Does anybody remember reading that?
Maybe if you have an NIV, maybe it says that.
I don't know, okay?
But we don't see Eliab try to take on Goliath
the Gitai, do we?
I mean, David was the man who had the guts to do it
and he encouraged, inspired other people.
But Eliab wanted to be in a position of leadership.
Now I believe Eliab was probably saved,
but I don't think he made a very good leader.
And what's very interesting is when you look
at various characters in the Bible
that try to promote themselves or lift themselves up,
they don't make very good leaders, okay?
Now King Saul did a lot of good things,
but he also did a lot of bad things.
And King Saul, after he sinned,
he didn't really get right with God,
but he still wanted to be lifted up.
He didn't want to be rejected from being king,
but he made a lot of mistakes.
He was someone who wanted the position,
but didn't really do that great of a job.
Another character in the Bible
that I think was actually a great character,
and you never really hear this, is Aaron.
The reason why I say he was a great character is this.
He had two of his sons struck down dead by God
and he still served God.
Now the thing is, whenever you talk about Aaron,
you always think Moses is better than Aaron,
and Moses did accomplish more.
That doesn't mean Aaron didn't accomplish anything.
Now Aaron was a pretty good,
you know, he did a lot of great things,
but was Aaron a good leader?
I mean, when you see the story of the golden calf,
did he make a very good,
was he very good when he was in charge?
He didn't do very well at all.
Now he thought that he was a good person to be in charge,
but he didn't do very well when he was in charge.
He said, this golden calf just kind of came out, you know?
Which is one of the most ridiculous statements
in the Bible.
But I mean, he was not a very good leader.
You know, and he still made excuses afterwards,
like, oh, you know, the people kind of forced me
and everything, this golden calf kind of came out.
He wanted to promote himself to leadership,
but he was not a very good leader.
And so you see that with people
that try to lift themselves up.
You know, it's great if you want to be a leader
and do great things,
but when you try to force your way in that position
and you're not humble and you have a lot of pride,
that means you're not a very good leader.
You won't make a very good leader.
All five of these points are very important.
Later on in the chapter at verse 55, the Bible reads,
And when Saul saw David go forth against the Philistine,
he said unto Abner, the captain of the host,
Abner, whose son is this youth?
And Abner said, as thy soul liveth, O king, I cannot tell.
And the king said, inquire thou whose son the stripling is.
And as David returned from the slaughter of the Philistine,
Abner took him and brought him before Saul
with the head of the Philistine in his hand.
And Saul said to him, whose son art thou, thou young man?
And David answered, I am the son of thy servant,
Jesse the Bethlehemite.
Now David is in a pretty good position
to promote himself to power, right?
I mean, he's just done something really great.
He could have easily said to King Saul,
hey, you know what, I would be a great military leader.
Promote me, I'll do all these great victories for you.
But does David do that?
He doesn't.
And not only that, if you remember back in 1 Samuel 16,
David was actually already playing the harp for King Saul.
King Saul didn't remember him,
but he was already doing that.
So he could have used that as leverage as well
to push himself into a position of leadership.
But going back to verse 13 of this chapter, 1 Samuel 17,
and it reads, and the three eldest sons of Jesse
went and followed Saul to the battle.
And the names of his three sons that went to the battle
were Eliab the firstborn,
and Nexondam Abinadab and the third Shema.
And David was the youngest,
and the three eldest followed Saul.
But David went and returned from Saul
to feed his father's sheep at Bethlehem.
You see, David said, this is my responsibility.
I will do a good job at this responsibility.
He never tried to lift himself up,
but God said, you know what, this is a man,
after my own heart, I will lift him into a position
of prestige where he can be a great leader.
David didn't have to do it.
And it works the same way on our jobs.
We don't have to push ourselves into a position.
God's the one who can promote us.
God's the one who can do great things
and put you in a position where you can be a great leader.
You know, I'm very thankful at my church
that I get to teach Sunday school,
and the church is set up a little bit differently,
but I get to preach every week at junior church
to the younger kids.
And you know, I never tried to push myself
into that position.
I'm very thankful to get a chance to preach every week,
but you know, I didn't have to promote myself.
You know, we can rely on God to do that,
to determine who is the right person, okay?
I mean, someone who wants to be a preacher here one day,
you might make a great preacher one day,
but you might not be ready now.
The opportunity will come.
If you're serving God, you don't have to worry about
is the opportunity gonna come.
It will come if you're serving God,
because there's not that many people
enlisted for the fight.
I mean, there's not many people out there soul winning.
There aren't that many people doing great things for God.
If you are falling after God, God will use you.
That is a guarantee it's gonna happen.
So the second point is this,
that we don't have to promote ourselves.
God can promote us to that position.
Now the third point is this,
go to 1 Samuel chapter 17,
I guess we're already there, at verse 51.
It reads,
Therefore David ran and stood upon the Philistine
and took his sword and drew it out of the sheath therewith,
and slew him and cut off his head therewith.
And when the Philistines saw their champion was dead,
they fled, and the men of Israel and of Judah
rose and shouted and pursued the Philistines
until thou come to the valley and to the gates of Ekron,
and the wounded of the Philistines fell down
by the way to Sherem, even unto Gath and unto Ekron.
Turn to 1 Samuel chapter 18.
So we saw here in 1 Samuel 17 what I just read.
Once David kills Goliath, it inspires people to follow.
And see, here's the thing,
when you do something great for God,
you will inspire other people.
And what's interesting about this is
oftentimes you're gonna inspire people
that you didn't even know were looking at you
to be a leader.
If you've been at this church for a few months,
I guarantee you there are people that are looking up to you.
And even outside this church,
people in your personal lives, they will look to you.
Anybody can be a leader.
And God needs everybody to be a leader.
It doesn't mean that you're the pastor of the church,
but you still need to be a leader.
You know, this church is growing quite a bit.
You know, and as the church grows,
there needs to be more leaders
to step up and do something great.
There needs to be more people say,
you know what, I'm gonna be that person
that's going out sowing.
I'm gonna be that person who's gonna get involved
in the ministries at Verity Baptist.
There needs to be more leaders
if this church is gonna grow and flourish.
In 1 Samuel chapter 18, verse six, the Bible reads,
and it came to pass as they came,
when David was returned from the slaughter of the Philistine
that the women came out of all cities of Israel,
singing and dancing to meet King Saul,
with tablets, with joy, and with instruments and music.
And the women answered one another as they played and said,
Saul hath slain his thousands and David his 10,000s.
You see, by winning this battle,
David had inspired other people to follow him.
You know, the third point is this,
it's basically soul winning.
But going out and accomplishing and doing something great,
because that's why we're here really,
is to get people saved.
You know, we got five people saved today, praise God.
There were 10 people out there knocking the doors,
getting people saved.
And here's the thing, we need people to be doing this.
And the truth is this,
if someone starts going soul winning once a week,
in your mind, your natural thought is this,
everybody should be going once a week.
But here's the thing,
if you want everybody to go once a week,
how many times do you need to go a week?
Just once or more?
More.
You see, if you want people to reach level five,
you can't be at level five.
If you want to reach people to reach level five,
you've got to be at level 10, okay?
If you want to get people to go out two hours a week,
you need to go out four hours a week.
If you want to inspire the people,
you've got to lift up your level.
Instead of looking at them and say,
man, these people need to reach this level,
why don't you worry about yourself
and reach the next level in your Christian life?
We read the story earlier in 1 Samuel 18,
where King Saul sent David out
to get 100 foreskins of the Philistines, right?
But he came back with twice as many.
He came back with 200.
He went above and beyond.
See, if David was here,
he wouldn't just be someone who says,
well, I'll go soul winning two hours a week.
I'll do the bare minimum.
He said, no, I'm going to do more for God
than just two hours a week.
I'm going to do something great for God.
Turn to 1 Samuel chapter 23.
And honestly, I believe all of these points
apply not just to your spiritual life,
but just great leaders in general.
I mean, you look at the presidents of our country,
because the Bible talks about
at the time kings go forth to battle,
the kings were supposed to be leading the charge, okay?
David was out there leading the charge.
Our leaders today, they don't lead the charge.
They're not very good leaders, okay?
They're not leading the charge.
They're terrible leaders.
I mean, how many wars do you think we would fight in
if Barack Obama had to be the first person
at the front of battle?
Or if George Bush had to be at the front of battle?
I don't think we would be fighting too many wars, okay?
But the kings do not go forth to battle
in today's world, okay?
And the sad thing is this.
I don't really care that much about the politics, whatever,
but there's too many pastors that don't lead the charge.
And there's too many independent Baptist pastors who say,
we'll let them come here.
We'll have this big fancy altar call.
And I did my part.
My hands are clean of this,
because they raised their hand
and they said they're not saved,
but they didn't come down to the altar.
So, you know, I don't have to worry about talking to them.
Where is that in the Bible?
I mean, it's ridiculous that,
and pastors today, they are not leading the charge, okay?
It's one thing if the world doesn't follow this principle,
but we need pastors to lead the charge.
I mean, I personally, I desire the office of a bishop.
I hope to be a pastor one day.
But you know what?
If I'm not gonna be on the front of battle,
I don't belong being a pastor.
I should just stay in the church
and be another church member.
You know, we need pastors leading the charge.
We need other people in the church leading the charge
and inspiring other people to follow.
In 1 Samuel 23, starting at verse one, the Bible reads,
Then they told David, saying,
Behold, the Philistines fight against Calah,
and they robbed the threshing floors.
Therefore David inquired of the Lord, saying,
Shall I go and smite these Philistines?
And the Lord said unto David,
Go and smite the Philistines and save Calah.
And David's men said unto him,
Behold, we be afraid here in Judah.
How much more than if we come to Calah
against the armies of the Philistines?
Then David inquired of the Lord yet again,
and the Lord answered him and said,
Arise, go down to Calah,
for I will deliver the Philistines into thine hand.
So David and his men went to Calah
and fought with the Philistines
and brought away their cattle
and smote them with a great slaughter.
So David saved the inhabitants of Calah.
You see, David here gets the outcasts of the world
and they destroy the Philistines.
They win that battle.
David was out there leading the charge, okay?
Now, I mean, when you think about soul winning,
if you honestly just sit there and think about it,
if you're not a Christian,
it's gonna sound a little bit crazy.
I mean, if I try to tell people my work,
what I do, go door to door and explain,
and God has given us such a great responsibility,
but what he needs is people leading the charge
and inspiring other people, okay?
David was that man.
And that is why David was a great leader.
See, I don't know about you,
but I don't just wanna get to heaven one day
and God say, well done, you got a lot of people saved.
I would like to do more than just be a soul winner.
I wanna be a great leader one day.
You know, I got saved about 11 and a half years ago,
and I started going soul winning
about 10 or 11 years ago.
And honestly, I was telling people today,
I kinda wish I had a recorder to hear what I said
because I think I was like all over the place.
You know, I hadn't really been trained, okay?
But I eventually learned I was trained
on how to go soul winning and get people saved.
And I think I reached a point where I was like,
well, you know, I'm a decent soul winner.
I can get people saved, you know,
if I go out for a few hours.
But you know, I don't think I was a great leader though, okay?
I wasn't just accepting, you know,
I'm getting people saved.
I don't just wanna get people saved.
I wanna be a great leader.
I hope that's your goal tonight,
that you wanna inspire other people to be like you.
Think of the things God has done in your life.
Wouldn't you like your friends and family
and other people in this church to reach your level
and to change their lives
and to go out and get people saved?
You know, that's my goal.
I wanna be a great leader.
I don't wanna just be someone who gets people saved.
I wanna do more for God than just that.
And here's the great thing about this.
Anybody in this room has that ability, okay?
We have the same Holy Spirit if you're saved.
We have the same King James Bible.
Anybody can be a great leader.
Anybody in this room could end up becoming
the greatest Christian in this room.
The most dedicated person could end up,
will become the greatest person,
will become the greatest Christian
and do great things for God.
Anybody has that ability,
but we have to choose to do it, okay?
We've gotta choose to follow these steps.
We've gotta follow God.
We've gotta do these steps in order to be a great leader.
In 1 Samuel chapter 18 at verse 13,
the Bible reads this,
referring to David,
and he went out and came in before the people.
And then verse 16,
but all Israel and Judah loved David
because he went out and came in before them.
So we see these two things together.
He went out and he came in, okay?
He wasn't just going soul winning and that's it.
You know, the application to us,
but he was also involved in church as well, okay?
And I don't think just the church services,
because when you look at this phrase in the Bible,
they're meeting for various different things.
We ought to try to be as involved as we can
with the ministries of this church.
You know, whether it's church services
or whether even it's just fellowship time,
those things are very, very important.
And there's someone at the church that I go to
and he had been going for a while.
We started to try to ask people at the church
to come soul winning with us.
And oftentimes we kind of look at people and just assume,
hey, they know when the soul winning time is.
If they wanna come, they'll come.
And I remember talking to someone and asking,
hey, do you wanna come soul winning one time?
And he's like, yeah, I've been wanting to go
for a really long time.
He's like, I was just kind of nervous about it.
I mean, do you realize that going soul winning
is intimidating for people who have never gone before?
Okay, and you've gotta come and you've gotta be accessible
and be around them.
You can't just be sitting up in your ivory tower.
You go soul winning, you show up right before church,
you leave right after church, you're the big hero,
you're getting lots of people saved and that's it.
You're not gonna be a great leader if that's how you are.
Okay, you've gotta come in, you've gotta be around.
You need to do that if you're gonna inspire
other people to follow you.
In 1 Samuel 18, going back to verse number six,
it says, and it came to pass as they came
when David was returned from the slaughter of the Philistine
that the women came out of all cities of Israel
singing and dancing to meet King Saul with tabards,
with joy and with instruments of music.
And the women answered one another as they played and said,
Saul hath slain his thousands and David his 10,000s.
The point I wanna make here is in verse number six,
when did they start singing that song?
When David was returned, okay?
Not just when he got the people saved,
but when he was returned, okay?
We need to be in here in church, okay?
It is important to be involved and be at church.
You can't just say, well, I'll just show up
on Sunday morning, I'll skip Sunday night service
to go soul winning, no.
For one, I don't think anybody's ever gonna continue that.
If you say, I'm just gonna skip church services
to go soul winning.
First, I probably don't believe you,
that's probably not even true.
But if you have that attitude, it's gonna end
and you've gotta be amongst the people.
You need to have all these things.
We need to have balance in our areas
of our Christian life, okay?
Yes, we need to be going soul winning,
but we also need to be here in church
and be involved as well.
I'm gonna read a lot of verses here,
you don't have to turn to them.
But I'm gonna read some verses here
that show the various things where it talks about
people coming in in the midst of people.
In Joshua 14, verse 11, as yet I am as strong this day
as I was in the day that Moses sent me.
As my strength was then even so is my strength now
for war both to go out and to come in.
We see these phrases linked together all the time.
To go out and to come in.
Numbers chapter 27, verse 21.
And he shall stand before Eliezer the priest
who shall ask counsel for him
after the judgment of Urim before the Lord.
At his word shall they go out
and at his word they shall come in.
Both he and all the children of Israel with him,
even all the congregation.
Luke 14, verse 23, very famous verse.
And the Lord said unto the servant,
go out into the highways and hedges
and compel them to come in that my house may be filled.
I mean, it would be a little bit foolish, wouldn't it,
if you're going out soul winning
and you get them saved and they're like,
oh, that's great, you're gonna be at church.
It's like, no, probably not.
Okay, we need to be here amongst the people, okay?
In Acts chapter one, verses 13 and 14, it says,
and when they were come in,
they went up into an upper room
to abode both Peter and James and John and Andrew,
Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew,
James the son of Alphaeus and Simon, Zelotes,
and Judas the brother of James.
These all continue with one accord in prayer
and supplication with the women
and Mary the mother of Jesus and with his brethren.
So we see here they're meeting
basically for like a prayer meeting, okay?
I think it was said like on the New Year's service,
we're gonna ring in the New Year with prayer,
which is great.
And we see this in the Bible.
You know, those are events that you say,
well, it's not really a church service.
You know, it's still important.
If you wanna be a great leader,
if you wanna inspire other people,
I mean, you need to get to know
the people at your church, right?
And if you're never here,
you're never gonna get to know people, okay?
So it's important for things like that,
that you're involved as much as you can
with the activities of this church.
Turn to 2 Samuel chapter two,
2 Samuel chapter 12, I should say.
So the first point was this.
First, we have to be a great follower
before we're gonna be a great leader.
Second, we don't promote ourselves to leadership.
We can trust God's gonna promote ourselves
into the positions.
Third, we have to go out,
which is soul winning basically,
and fourth, we gotta come in.
We gotta be involved in the activities of church.
And it's interesting when I was preparing this sermon
that when you notice David's life,
these things kind of go in order, okay?
First, David was a great follower
all the way back in 1 Samuel chapter 16.
And you notice then he's promoted to leadership
later on in that chapter.
He doesn't promote himself.
And then we see once David's in that position,
he's lifted up to a position where he can have influence,
and then he goes out and he comes in.
We see these things in order.
But we also see the fifth point in 2 Samuel.
Two times, we're gonna read two different chapters,
two sections.
2 Samuel chapter 12 at verse one,
we know the famous story
how David committed adultery with Bathsheba.
Look at verse number one.
And the Lord sent Nathan on to David,
and he came on to him and said unto him,
there were two men in one city,
the one rich and the other poor.
So Nathan comes to David,
and he's gonna tell him basically this parable.
He's gonna tell him this story.
And David gets very angry at the man who's guilty of this,
but he doesn't realize it's referring to him.
Going down to verse seven,
this is what Nathan says to David.
And Nathan said to David,
thou art the man.
Thus saith the Lord God of Israel,
I anointed thee king over Israel,
and I delivered thee out of the hand of Saul.
And I gave thee thy master's house
and thy master's wives into thy bosom,
and gave thee the house of Israel and of Judah.
And if that had been too little,
I would moreover have given unto thee such and such things.
Wherefore hast thou despised the commandment of the Lord
to do evil in his sight?
Thou hast killed Uriah the Hittite with the sword
and hast taken his wife to be thy wife,
and hast slain him with the sword
of the children of Ammon.
Now therefore the sword shall never depart from thine house
because thou hast despised me
and hast taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite
to be thy wife.
Thus saith the Lord, behold,
I will raise up evil against thee out of thine own house,
and I will take thy wives before thine eyes
and give them unto thy neighbor,
and he shall lie with thy wives in the sight of this son.
For thou didst it secretly,
but I will do this thing before all Israel
and before the sun.
Now remember when King Saul messed up,
if you know your Bible,
did King Saul immediately admit he was wrong?
He did not.
He said no, he made excuses for it,
and he even like over and over just,
and finally he admitted he was wrong.
He was sorry, but it wasn't godly sorrow.
There was no change in his heart.
It was worldly sorrow.
It wasn't really godly sorrow.
Aaron as well, did Aaron admit he was wrong?
No, he made excuses.
He said, well, you know, basically the people,
it was their fault.
He didn't want to admit that he was wrong.
But what about David?
What did David do?
Well, this is what it says in verse number 13.
And David said unto Nathan,
I have sinned against the Lord.
And Nathan said unto David,
the Lord also hath put away thy sin,
thou shalt not die.
Howbeit because by this deed thou hast given
great occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme,
the child also that is born unto thee shall surely die.
And Nathan departed onto his house,
and the Lord struck the child that Uriah's wife
bare unto David, and it was very sick.
There was still a punishment for David.
There was gonna be a punishment.
You're gonna reap what you sow.
But you know what, David admitted he was wrong.
He had true godly sorrow.
He said, I messed up.
And here's the thing, no matter who you are,
you're gonna make mistakes.
And I hope you don't make a mistake as big as this,
but this shows you that if you do make a huge mistake
in your life, if you are truly sorry,
admit that you're wrong, God can still use you
to do great things, okay?
And as a leader, it is very important
that you're willing to admit when you're wrong,
that you're willing to humble yourself if you messed up.
You see that with Aaron, he didn't make a great leader.
When he messed up, he wouldn't admit he was wrong.
But like I said at the beginning,
David was a man who you saw that was a humble man.
He didn't have a lot of pride.
He never tried to promote himself.
And when he messed up, he admitted, I screwed up.
Go to 2 Samuel chapter 24.
2 Samuel chapter 24, starting at the beginning
of the chapter, verse one.
Going down to verse number 10.
For I have done very foolishly.
And then it says in verse number 11.
And then it says in verse 11.
We see here David messes up
and he immediately admits that he's wrong.
We see this in David's life.
He made a lot of mistakes.
He was by no means perfect, okay?
But you know what he was, was someone who was willing
to admit when he messed up.
And that is why he made such a great leader.
You know, if you mess up and you make excuses
and you're in a position of leadership
and people see that, you're gonna look like a hypocrite.
You know, you're telling people to do things
and you're not willing to do it yourself
or you're not willing to admit when you mess up.
See, David, when he messed up,
he was willing to admit his mistake
and get right with God.
Now, he doesn't dwell on a sin that's in the past.
And we shouldn't dwell on it.
If we've confessed the sin to God,
then God has forgiven us.
We can go on.
We don't have to dwell on it our entire lives.
But if we mess up, we do need to be willing
to humble ourselves.
So the five points we have here is this.
First, you have to be a great follower.
Second, you don't have to worry about promoting yourself.
God can promote you.
We need to make sure we're going out,
getting people saved and also coming
and being involved to this church.
And when we mess up, we need to admit we're wrong.
You see, I wanted to preach this sermon
because I don't just wanna be someone
who's at church and getting people saved.
I wanna be a great leader.
I hope that is what your goal is.
Let's close in a word of prayer.
Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for allowing us
to be here today.
Let's ask you to help us remember these words
and take them with us.
And we pray this all in Jesus' name, amen.
Amen.
Good job, buddy.
Thanks.