Keith Battle - It Can Happen to Any of Us

All right, here we go. Turn to Acts chapter 13. If you have a Bible app or a Bible, Acts chapter 13. Woo! Mm-hmm. I want to thank our AV team for making the sound right, the lights right, and the smoke. Now you see too much smoke today; we are smoke-free, amen? Amen! Our team is just amazing. Amen, amen, amen! Are y’all good? Oh, do me a favor: get in groups of three and talk to two other people. Here’s a tribal moment! We do this tribal moment to discuss something. I’m going to ask you a question, and when I ask it, you just answer it amongst yourselves. I want you to tell the people around you: who’s in your circle? Whatever that means to you, who’s in your circle? Just tell them the three people who are in your circle and what role they play. All right, that’s it. Let’s do this real quick—three people to tell the others who’s in your circle. All right, I’m ready when y’all are! Woo! It’s always the preacher in the group who talks the whole time. Yeah, well, it depends on what you mean by a circle! You have a circle, and then you have the hemispheric stuff. Father, please speak to us through your word now. Challenge us, change us, transform us, inspire us, inform us—whatever you do, don’t let us be the same. May we grow even from this time here today. May we grow up in you; may we mature; may we move closer to you. Even if we’re doing well, help us to do better, and if we’re doing poorly, help us to move up to a place where we’re doing well. Thank you in advance, in Jesus' name, for the privilege of serving. In Jesus' name, amen.

In Acts chapter 13, verse 22, it says, «But God removed Saul and replaced him with David, a man about whom God said, 'I have found David, son of Jesse, a man after my own heart. He will do everything I want him to do.'» Every time I read that, I’m impressed by what God says about David. Here’s God’s biographical introduction: if God were going to introduce David, He would say, «Let me tell you about him. I have never said this about anybody else. He is a man after my own heart.» He has never said this about anyone else in all of Scripture, and He will do everything I want him to do. That’s what God said about David! If God were to do a biographical introduction of you and me, would it be anywhere close to that? Could He say, «That’s a man; that’s a woman after my own heart. They will do everything I want them to do, no matter how uncomfortable or nervous it makes them. They will put aside their own agenda to serve and honor me.»

David is so close to God and so obedient that God is about to fire the king and replace him with David. That’s not how it usually goes when kings are removed from the throne; it’s usually because they are killed. When a king dies, his eldest son takes over—that’s how it works. But David isn’t even a nephew or a cousin. He’s not even part of that family! Nobody in David’s family has royal lineage. There is no royal ancestry; he is from an agricultural family. Yet, God is about to remove Saul from the throne and not even put Jonathan, Saul’s son, in his place. He’s putting David up because he’s a man after my own heart, and he will do everything I ask him to do. That’s another level right there! What kind of man is that, with no background for the position? God says, «Because you are so tight with me, because you love me so much, and because you’ll do whatever I tell you, I’m going to elevate you to places where you don’t even belong.»

David was Israel’s second king. He followed Saul. In fact, during Saul’s leadership as king, Israel was having difficulty with a nation called the Philistines. The conflict escalated when a Philistine named Goliath challenged the armies of Israel to a one-on-one duel. Goliath, who was from Gath and was quite formidable, said, «I’ll fight one-on-one against any of your soldiers, and whoever wins, their nation wins.» Saul had 300,000 soldiers, and guess how many were willing to fight? None! They were all hiding in the bushes. Every day Goliath would come out and say, «Who wants some of this?» Meanwhile, the soldiers were like, «Hold your ground, man; don’t fall for that!» Nobody was trying to engage him.

David came out one day to bring his brother some food and check on him, and he saw this happening. So he went to the king and said, «I’ll fight him!» Saul responded, «You can’t fight him; he’s a real warrior! You’re just a kid!» David said, «I’ve killed a bear before, I’ve killed a lion before, and I’ll kill him. He’ll go down because I’m coming to him in the name of the Lord!» So Saul said, «Okay, let him fight.»