Today we are beginning our new summer message series. Like last summer’s message series which looked at some of the heroes of the Old Testament, but did not follow the Sunday’s readings all that closely, this summer’s series is also not going to be based on the Scripture readings for each Sunday, but rather on the message theme. Unlike last summer’s series which looked at several Old Testament persons, this summer we are only to look at one. We are calling this series, “David for King.”

This title might sound a little political, but don’t worry. I am not going to make David a Democrat nor Republican, Tory or Whig. Rather, in this series we are going to explore why King David was the guy you wanted leading you, despite his very human failures and mess-ups. From David we can learn some valuable lessons about Christian leadership.

Of course David was the guy who defeat Goliath the giant. He becomes the second King of Israel, and the one whose dynasty God established forever. In this series we will get a better understanding of the guy the Scriptures describe as “a man after God’s own heart.” Don’t we all want to be after God’s own heart?

This message series is going to help us know the Bible a bit better. So let’s begin with about 400 years of background. This will help us understand how David becomes king.

We will start with the Israelites being held in slavery in Egypt. After 400 years of being slaves, God calls Moses to lead the Chosen People out of Egypt. Naturally Pharaoh and the Egyptians tried to keep the Israelites as slaves, and if you want to see how they won their freedom, plan a family movie night and rent the movie, “The Ten Commandments,” with Charlton Heston – its a classic.

Because the Israelites grumbled a lot against Moses and God, what should have been about a two week trip across the desert, took 40 years, but they finally arrived at the Promise Land.

Under the leadership of Joshua, Moses’ successor, the Israelites conquer their enemies and settle into the Promise Land. Life is good. Everything got to be a little too good. The Israelites got a little too comfortable, and became a little self-centered and things quickly got out of control. In fact, in the last verse of the Book of Judges, we read this, "In those days, there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in their own sight." They stepped away from God. And because they stepped away from God, they stepped away from His protection, and their enemies picked up on this and took advantage of it and created a difficult scenario for the Israelites.

The Israelites are upset and feeling discouraged. They turn to Samuel, the prophet and last Judge of Israel, and tell him that they need a king just like the pagans around them have a king. Samuel resists this because he knows that God should be Israel’s king. God finally tells Samuel to give the people what they want. Following God’s guidance, Samuel meets Saul, whom Scripture describes this way, “There was no other Israelite more handsome than Saul. He stood head and shoulders above the people.” God tells Samuel to anoint Saul as king.

Saul is basically an OK guy, and he does lead the Israelites to defeat their enemies. Yet he has one major flaw. While God has given him this opportunity to lead, he continues to ignore God's guidance on how that should be done. And his decisions and actions are based off of what he thinks best, what will work for him, and how he can benefit from that situation. And like the Israelites, Saul is doing what he sees is right in his own eyes. So this is getting out of control. It's getting frustrating. God has finally reached his limit and He's like, "Enough." And so He...after this one particular battle, He calls Samuel to go to Saul and to confront him and call him out on the situation. And so this is what Samuel tells Saul. "You have acted foolishly. Had you kept the command the Lord your God gave you, the Lord would now establish your kingship in Israel forever, but now your kingship shall not endure. The Lord has sought out a man after his own heart to appoint as ruler over his people because you did not observe what the Lord commanded you."

God tells Samuel to fill his horn with oil for it is time to find a new king for Israel. God instructs Samuel to go to Bethlehem, to the house of Jesse. Samuel tells Jesse that they are going to plan a big celebration in honor of the Lord. Jesse starts introducing his eight sons to Samuel. Samuel thinks that each of the first seven look like they would make great kings, but God rejects all of them. Finally, realizing Jesse has only introduced him to seven sons, Samuel asks where is the youngest?

Jesse tells him that the youngest, David, is taking care of the sheep and goats. Samuel tells Jesse to send for him, that the feast will not begin until David arrives. Scripture tells us, “Jesse had the young man brought to them and he was ruddy, a youth with beautiful eyes and good looking. The Lord said, ‘There, anoint him, for this is the one.’” Samuel has now found the new king and immediately anoints him. And check out what happens. It's pretty interesting. It says, "And from that day on, the spirit of the Lord rushed upon David." And so begins our story of David.

Over the next few weeks we're going to dive a little bit deeper into it. But before we go further, I just want to drive home the point that like Saul, David had flaws. You know, even though David was a man after God's own heart, he made mistakes. He had flaws. He sinned against the Lord. The difference between Saul and David was their heart. Saul only cared about what was right in his own eyes. But David wanted to do everything to please God.

It's about what I do for God. If you are in a position to lead, to know whether or not you're worth following or a great leader, you have to be able to answer the question, are you going after what's right in your own eyes or are you going after God's heart?

How do we go after God's heart? It starts by spending time with him and having a conversation with him. It's going to God and asking him to bless everyone around you. A good place to start is the Book of Psalms. King David wrote most of the Book of Psalms, it is like reading his prayer journal. In the Psalms we discover a man who danced for joy before the Lord, and a man who often felt frustrated and depressed. A man who had enemies he hated, doubts that nagged at him. But though it all, David always sought God. He brought whatever he was facing, whatever he was feeling to God. For he was a man after God’s own heart, as all of us should be.