Consequences

I'm not just talking eternal consequences. Those are real. We're talking here and now. The way that we choose to orient ourselves in this world, the things that we choose to aim ourselves at, the things that we choose to invest our time and our energy and our passion into, those shape us. And they bring consequences with them. So He says, 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. I love that phrase. I have provided for myself a king. It's not asking Samuel, go find me a king. Where would Samuel even start, right? God says, I have provided for myself a king, because that's what God does. He is the ultimate provider, right? There's so much beauty in this. Now, literally, in the Hebrew, what it says is, I have seen for myself a king. And that's the first usage of seeing in this chapter of dozens. It's the primary theme of this chapter. Over and over and over again, we're going to have words of seeing and looking and appearing. And that's central to what is this. I have seen for myself a king. A king that's going to be better than Saul. A king that's going to be different than Saul.

² 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.’ ³ 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.”

It's one of these rare moments where we see some fear in Samuel's life. The separation between Samuel and Saul has become intense, as you would expect. God has withdrawn his favor from Saul. But Saul is still the king. He's still commanding the armies. He's still in charge. And with a snap of his fingers, he could order Samuel's death. And Samuel's grieving what's going on with Saul, but he's also in this place where he's feeling a little bit afraid. How can I go? If Saul hears of it, he'll kill me. If I go and anoint somebody else's king, the current king, generally not going to be too happy about it, right? So the Lord said, well, take a heifer with you and say, I've come to sacrifice to Yahweh. Invite Jesse to the sacrifice, and I will show you what you shall do. I'll show you what you shall do. Again, this emphasis on seeing. He says, and you shall anoint for me him whom I declare to you. This is God's choice of the one that he has that he is going to empower and enable to serve him as his anointed king.

⁴ 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?” ⁵ 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.

Now, Samuel did what the Lord commanded and came to Bethlehem, and the elders of the city came to meet him trembling. Everybody knows the beef between Saul and Samuel. Everybody knows what's going on. And everybody's wondering what's going to happen next. And so Samuel shows up and the elders hear about it and they come and they're scared and they say to him, do you come peaceably? Are you here to blow things up? What's going on? And he said, peaceably, I have come to sacrifice to Yahweh. So consecrate yourselves and come with me to the sacrifice. And he consecrated Jesse and his sons and invited them to the sacrifice. So there's some echoes and some themes that are being woven through this text that remind us of past stories and past texts. This idea of fear and trembling and consecration as preparation to come in the presence of the Lord. That's something that's happened over and over and over again. And so we're being set up to recognize that what's going to happen here is a big deal. That they're going to come into the presence of God and God is going to choose and anoint for himself a king to rule over his people. And so they make themselves ready.

⁶ When they came, he looked on Eliab and thought, “Surely the Lord's anointed is before him.”

It says, when they came, he looked at Eliab and thought, surely Yahweh's anointed is before him. So when Jesse and his sons get there, the first, the oldest, Eliab, comes and stands before Samuel. Now, culturally, the firstborn is the primary heir. He has a place and position of privilege. The assumption, culturally, would probably be, oh, it's going to be one of Jesse's sons? Probably going to be the oldest, the firstborn, the heir. Eliab comes, and Samuel looks at him. And Samuel's a prophet. Samuel's a good, godly man. And he looks at him and he things, this must be it. Surely God's anointed is standing before him. Let me just touch for a minute on that word anointed. The Hebrew word here is Mashiach. It's the word that becomes the root for Messiah. The Redeemer, the Rescuer, the Deliverer. So he takes one look at Jesse's oldest firstborn son and says, surely this must be the one that God is going to empower and equip to deliver his people.

⁷ 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.”

And the Lord said to Samuel, do not look at his appearance or the height of his stature. We've been there. We've done that. You remember when Saul was first chosen, when he was first introduced? What did we learn about him? He was really good looking and he was taller than everybody else. And, listen, we understand when you want a leader, you want a king, you want somebody with some charisma, you want somebody that's attractive, you want somebody that's powerful. And Saul was all those things. On paper, Saul was a really, really good king. But in reality, he wasn't. So God says to Samuel, don't look at his appearance or the height of his stature, because I've rejected him. For the Lord does not see as man sees.

I want you to take that in this morning. This is something I think we're all aware of, but I don't think we reflect or remember the reality of that enough. We have a propensity to think God is like us rather than we're like God. And that's not just semantics. It's like we look at the world a certain way and that's all that we know. And then when we think about how God looks at the world, we think, well, he must look at it the way that I look at it. And that's like a normal and natural way to think. It's just completely and horribly wrong. Because His ways are not our ways. And you should say amen to that. It's a really good deal that God does not look at things the way that we do. Because we are easily manipulated. We are incredibly easily deceived. We think we know so much more than we actually know. I am so grateful that God does not look at things the way that we look at things. That God sees things better and greater than we could ever hope or imagine to do. There is great hope and confidence in the reality that God does not see as man sees. For man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.

So I can fool you, and you can fool me, maybe for a little bit, maybe for a long time. Eventually our sins will find us out. But you'll never fool God for a second. God is not distracted or impressed by the outward appearances like we so often are. But God looks at the heart. He looks at the core. He looks at the entirety. It's not that God doesn't look at the outside. Of course he sees. He sees it all. Man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart. So often the thing is not the thing. There's more going on. Always. There's more going on than what you can see, what you can perceive. There's more going on than what our physical senses can understand or appreciate. Always. There's always more going on. And God sees it all.

⁸ Then Jesse called Abinadab and made him pass before Samuel. And he said, “Neither has the Lord chosen this one.” ⁹ Then Jesse made Shammah pass by. And he said, “Neither has the Lord chosen this one.” ¹⁰ And Jesse made seven of his sons pass before Samuel. And Samuel said to Jesse, “The Lord has not chosen these.”

So it continues. Then Jesse called the second son, Abinadab, and made him pass before Samuel. And he said, Neither has the Lord chosen this one. Then Jesse made Shammah pass by. And he said, Neither has the Lord chosen this one. It's like a really bad game show. Right? Then Jesse made seven of his sons pass before Samuel. And I just like, I try to picture this in my mind. I try to think about what's going through their heads. So I imagine the oldest one coming up first. I'm like, yeah, I got this. And then Samuel's like, no, it's not you. And I just hear Pac-Man. And so he walks away, and the next one comes up, and he's got that second-born little brother syndrome. He's like, get out of the way, big bro. I got this. No, it's not you. Seven of them. No, no, no, no, no. The Lord has not chosen these.

¹¹ 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 till he comes here.”

Then Samuel said to Jesse, is that it? Are all your sons here? And Jesse said, “Well, there remains yet the youngest, but behold, he is keeping the sheep.” Now, as we read Scripture, there are verses that you really need to slow down and ask yourself some questions. This is one of them. When Samuel told Jesse that he wanted him to bring his sons. Did he say, bring all of your sons except the youngest? He said, bring all of your sons. So when you're reading this, the first question that you should ask is, why is the youngest out in the field? Why did Jesse not bring all of his sons? I think there's some clues in the text.

He's keeping the sheep. Samuel said to Jesse, well, send him, get him, for we will not sit down till he comes here, which I find impressive because Samuel's old, right? He probably wanted to sit down, but you get what's going on here. We're not stopping because God has sent me here. Get your youngest son here. Now, if you're paying attention to the biblical narrative that we started years ago through Genesis, one of the patterns that we've seen over and over again is God choosing the younger son. Going against expectations, going against cultural norms and what's expected, God delights in taking weaker things and making them show his glory. And so once again, we're going to see this pattern of the younger brother being chosen by God. Not sit down until he comes here.

¹² 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.”

And he sent and brought him in. Still haven't named him yet. But now this is the description of this youngest son of Jesse. Now he was ruddy and had beautiful eyes and was handsome. He was ruddy, had beautiful eyes, and was handsome. Ruddy is an interesting word in the Hebrew. It's only used a couple of times. It means red. He was a ginger. He was a redhead. This is going to get interesting. I want you to stick with me. This is not anti-ginger, by the way. We love you. But it's an interesting detail. We had another redhead back in the early story, Jacob and Esau. Esau was a hairy redhead and had had the temperament and all the stuff that went with that. This is very, very rare in ethnic Israelites. Very rare. So this is not a throwaway little detail that he had red hair. He stood out. He was different than the rest of his family. If you could get a family portrait of Jesse and his sons, and you'd line them up all the way down to David at the end, one of these things is not like the other. There's something going on here. David looks different. He stands out. He's unique and different from his brothers. When he was called by Samuel, Jesse chose not to bring David. David's left out in the fields. Jesse's a wealthy man. He has plenty of servants that could be out in the fields watching over the flock. He chose not to bring his youngest. So we're starting to unpack. Why would he not bring his youngest, David? Why?

Now, when you do a little bit of digging, and I'm not going to nerd out too much with y'all on theology, but when you start digging into the genealogy of Jesse and his family, not only were there seven sons and then David, he also had two daughters. But the daughters he had with a different wife. This is where it gets interesting. The mother of the two daughters was a former wife or concubine of Nahash. Now, if you remember Nahash, he's the serpent king of the Ammonites that Saul had a battle with right at the beginning of his kingship. We don't get a lot of details. This is one of those dark family secrets that nobody wants to talk about. But you start digging into it a little bit, and you go, okay, something strange and interesting is going on in Jesse's family. He's got all these kids, but he's got a couple of daughters with this other wife, and he's got this other son, and he doesn't look like the others, and he's not treated like the others, and there's some sort of, like, put aside. And so, now, the text says, nowhere in the text does it say that David was illegitimate or that he was even born of this other mother, but the clues are all there. And the ancient Jewish rabbis picked up on this very, very clearly. There's a very strong possibility that David was the son of Jesse and this Ammonite former concubine or wife of the king. And, of course, that's a problem because the Torah said that marrying an Ammonite was sinful (Deuteronomy 23:3).

This is a fascinating thing. And this might change how you think about and read one of the most well-known psalms of David. Psalm 51. A Psalm of Confession. There's this incredible line in there.

⁵ Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.

Generally, you think that's just a reference to universal sin, and of course that applies. But I think he's literally describing, like from the very beginning, this didn't start out well. And see, God has this unbelievable delight in taking what looks like to the world as useless and broken and to be despised and turning it into something beautiful. Right? This is amazing. So he was ruddy. He was a redhead.

And then secondly, he had beautiful eyes, which seems like a random thing to say until you really look at the context of this chapter. Over and over again, it's about looking and appearance and seeing. So when it says he had beautiful eyes, I don't think the author's going, well, he had really pretty eyes, you know. He might have. It was he's talking about David's ability to see and his ability to perceive and how he looked at the world and how he looked at people and how he looked at himself and most importantly, how he looked at God. Eyes are this incredible symbol throughout the scriptures about our aim and our direction and our affections and about who we are. The eyes reveal what is on the inside. David had beautiful eyes. This is why later he'll be described, and we all know this, as a man after God's own heart (1 Samuel 13:14).

David had beautiful eyes, not an insignificant detail. I can't help but think about Jesus' teaching about eyes in the Sermon on the Mount. You remember this, right? Jesus says:

“The eye is the lamp of the body. (It's like what you look at, what you focus on, what you bring in, because the eyes actually bring in our information to us, right? So the eye is the lamp of the body.) If your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!”

David was a man that had beautiful eyes, a man that eyes were full of light. And because of this, God chooses him. And so the Lord said, Arise, anoint him, for this is he.

¹³ 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.

Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the midst of his brothers. And the spirit of Yahweh rushed upon David. I love that phrase. It's such an active verb in the Hebrew. Rushed. The spirit just moves and falls and comes upon him. And from that day forward. Of course, this is what the spirit does. We've seen it over and over and over again. Think back just in the book of Judges when Gideon and the spirit rushed upon Gideon. Even going back to the beginning of 1 Samuel, when Saul was first anointed, the Spirit rushed upon him and he actually prophesied. It's like he started out so well. Saul had it all laid out before him. But he chose to go the other direction. The Spirit of the Lord rushed upon David from that day forward and Samuel rose up and went to Ramah. So now it's interesting. We've got a newly anointed king by God while there's still Saul, the human king, ruling over the kingdom. So there's going to be some tension here. And it's not going to be resolved quickly. In fact, it's going to take 18 years from this moment until David is actually installed as king over Israel. 18 years. For some of you, that's a lifetime. For some of you, that's a nap. But, you know, whatever. 18 years. Samuel rose up and went to Ramah. So what's going to happen?

¹⁴ Now the Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul, and a harmful spirit from the Lord tormented him.

So in chapter 16, we get this stark contrast now. The Spirit of the Lord rushed upon David and was with him from that day forward. Now the Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul. And this is where it gets weird. And remember one of my first rules of theology, if it's weird, it's important. If we look at it and go, that doesn't seem right, that's when you're supposed to dig in. That's when you're supposed to pay attention because that's when you're coming up against some cultural distance or some things like that that you've got to really dig into. The Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul and a harmful spirit from Yahweh began to torment him. And that should seem a little strange to you. The spirit that anointed Saul is withdrawn. He's given another spirit, a harmful spirit that tormented him. It's very clear that there's a spiritual reality at play here. This is not just an accident of nature. It's not simpley a medical condition. It's not merely a psychological issue per se. There is a spiritual cause being acted upon Saul to torment him, to grieve him. And it was brought about by Saul's disobedience. Basically what's happening is Saul is receiving judgment in real time for the choices that he has made.

Now, I don't want you to think that God is sending some demon. This is not the idea, that would just seem really strange, wouldn't it? God just summons up some demon and like go have at it. This is a spiritual being, a non-material created being by God who is in service to God. And his service to God is to come in judgment against Saul and grieve him. I think, the text doesn't say this, but this is the way God works consistently throughout Scripture, to grieve him that he might repent. Right? Paul says to turn the fallen brother over to Satan, that they might be tested and tormented and that they might repent (1 Corinthians 5:5). God sends this spiritual being to come at Saul and torment him and you've got to understand our choices have consequences. Saul has brought this upon himself. God's not being mean. God's not being cruel. God is being just. And God is being righteous. He's giving Saul what he asked for.

Now, there's an interesting little play on words in this text. One of the Hebrew words for seeing is ra'ah. And it shows up over and over again in this text. The word here used to describe this wicked or evil spirit is ruach ra'ah. And what we have here is two words that sound the same with different meanings. It's like bark, right? If I say the word “bark”, am I talking about tree bark, or am I talking about what my dog does when it's hungry? Same word, same spelling, different word, different meaning. In Hebrew, we have this word ra'ah, which means to see, and a word ra'ah, which means wicked or evil. They come from different roots. They're different words, but they sound identical. And the author had lots of choices for words that described evil. He chose ra'ah because it sounds like ra'ah, and the whole chapter is about seeing, right? Do you see the irony in this? Saul refused to see rightly. Saul refused to orient and direct himself to God. Saul refused to walk in covenant faithfulness with God. And so now he's being plagued with this unseen wicked spirit.

The Torah was a path of life. And obedience to the Torah resulted in life and blessing for the Israelites. To disobey the Torah requirements was to leave the path of life and enter into the realm of judgment and death. That's the road Saul walked on. It's the road Jesus talks about. Narrow is the road that walks to life. Broad and wide is the path that leads to destruction (Matthew 7:13-14). Where we aim, where we walk, the choices that we make matter. They have consequences. Saul's learning in real time. There are real consequences to disobedience.

¹⁵ And Saul's servants said to him, “Behold now, a harmful spirit from God is tormenting you. ¹⁶ Let our lord now command your servants who are before you to seek out a man who is skillful in playing the lyre, and when the harmful spirit from God is upon you, he will play it with his hand, and you will be well.”

Saul's servants said to him, behold, now a harmful spirit from God is tormenting you. I find this interesting that his servants recognize what's going on. There's no sense that he recognizes what's going on. And I wonder, how did they recognize this? Regardless, the servants recognize something's up with Saul. And there's this spirit that's tormenting you. So they say, let our Lord now command your servants who are before you to seek out a man in skillful playing of the lyre. And when the harmful spirit from God is upon you, he will play it and you will be well. So there's this understanding in ancient Israel that when you come up against harmful spirits, that worship is one of the ways to deal with that. Because it ushers into the presence of God. So you've got this evil spirit afflicting you. You need to get into the presence of God so that God's spirit will bring relief. So his servants say to him, go and find somebody that can do this. Go and find the musician. Go and find somebody that can bring you some relief.

¹⁷ So Saul said to his servants, “Provide for me a man who can play well and bring him to me.” ¹⁸ One of the young men answered, “Behold, I have seen a son of Jesse the Bethlehemite, who is skillful in playing, a man of valor, a man of war, prudent in speech, and a man of good presence, and the Lord is with him.”

And Saul said to his servants, provide for me a man who can play well and bring him to me. And one of the young men answered, behold, I've seen a son of Jesse, the Bethlehemite. He is skillful in playing. He's a man of valor, a man of war, prudent in speech, a man of good presence, and Yahweh is with him. Here's our first real description of David. Sometimes we might be tempted to think, and like VeggieTales and some of the other stuff does this for us, we think David's some little kid out playing with the sheep and all that stuff. Listen to how he's described. Which makes his father Jesse's treatment of him stand out in stark contrast. David's not some little boy. David is a man. He's described here as a man of valor. We've seen this over and over again. This is a big deal. He's a mighty warrior, and he's a man of God, and dude can play the lyre, right? And the Lord's with him.

¹⁹ Therefore Saul sent messengers to Jesse and said, “Send me David your son, who is with the sheep.” ²⁰ And Jesse took a donkey laden with bread and a skin of wine and a young goat and sent them by David his son to Saul.

So therefore Saul sent messengers to Jesse and said, Send me David your son who is with the sheep. He's a shepherd. Jesse took a donkey laden with bread and a skin of wine and a young goat, and sent them by David his son to Saul. Okay, guys, this, I love the Bible so much. This is one of those verses that's just really easy to pass over because you think like, okay, so yeah, he called David and David like loaded up and brought some lunch and came with him. Oh, you guys, God is playing chess. And we're playing pick-up sticks. We're not even playing checkers. God's sovereignty is so amazing. This is so masterful.

I want you to try to remember, if you're here with us, when we looked at how Saul was called and anointed by God. Samuel came to him and he said, Hey, you've been chosen by God. I want you to go up here. And on your way, you're going to be given three signs. Remember what the signs were? First, you're going to meet a guy with some goats. And second, you're going to meet a guy with some bread. And third, you're going to meet a guy with some wine. And they're all going to give you something, and you're going to go on your way. And oh, by the way, what was Saul doing that whole time? He was looking for his father's donkeys. So think about this. The sign of Saul's ascension to kingship. He was given a goat. He was given a bread. He was given wine. And God rescued the donkeys without him. As David, who has just recently been anointed as king to replace Saul, and Saul is being tormented by an evil spirit, and he calls David to come to him. How does David come? He comes riding on a donkey with a goat and some bread and some wine. God's not messing around. The same signs that announced and anointed Saul are the same signs that announce and anoint David and rebuke and reprove Saul. That's so cool.

²¹ And David came to Saul and entered his service. And Saul loved him greatly, and he became his armor-bearer. ²² And Saul sent to Jesse, saying, “Let David remain in my service, for he has found favor in my sight.” ²³ And whenever the harmful spirit from God was upon Saul, David took the lyre and played it with his hand. So Saul was refreshed and was well, and the harmful spirit departed from him.

David came to Saul and entered his service. And Saul loved him greatly. Well, of course he did. Because David's an awesome dude. David's got beautiful eyes. And David brought him relief. Listen, like, when you're in pain, and you show up at the ER, and they do something, no matter who it is that's doing something, you love them. You know what I mean? Like, we're besties at this point.

And he became his armor bearer. He's given this incredible position of trust and importance. The armor bearer is always at the side and in the presence of the king because Saul never knows when he's going to need him. And in a fianl, painful irony, Saul sent to Jesse saying, let David remain in my service for he has found favor in my sight. And whenever the harmful spirit from God was upon Saul, David took the lyre and played it with his hand. And Saul was refreshed and was well. And the harmful spirit departed from him.

The fall of Saul was great and mighty. He could have had it all. A lasting legacy. The favor and grace of God upon him. He chose over and over and over again. Not faithfulness, but faithlessness. Not to fear God, but to fear man. Not to go God's way, but to go His own way. And this chapter is such a gift to us because it shows us just the profound reality that our choices have consequences, that our sin will find us out, and that we don't get to play God. Saul sows disobedience, and he reaps torment. Harmful spirit, isolation, the slow unraveling of his family, his kingdom, and even his sanity. David, the overlooked redhead with beautiful eyes, sows humility, steps into God's anointing, and will begin reaping the Spirit's power and favor.

Church, this isn't just a history lesson. It's not a story about what happened long ago alone. This is for us. It's a shadow pointing to the ultimate anointed one. It's a pattern revealing how God is going to bring about ultimate delivery and ultimate redemption. Anointed in Hebrew, remember, is Messiah. David is a preview. Jesus is the real deal. Jesus, the son of David, son of Abraham. Jesus is the truly anointed one with beautiful eyes. David's a preview. Jesus is the real deal. Like David, Jesus comes from Bethlehem. He is the unexpected king who is the good shepherd and takes care of his sheep (John 10:11).

In the New Testament, we see this pattern perfected in Christ. He's the true Messiah, and he is anointed by God. One of my favorite scenes in the Gospels, I come back to over and over and over again, is when Jesus goes back to his hometown and enters into the synagogue on the Sabbath, and he's given a place of honor, and he's given the scroll of the Torah to read. You might remember the story from Luke chapter 4. Jesus opens the scroll.

¹⁶ And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up. And as was his custom, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and he stood up to read. ¹⁷ And the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written, ¹⁸ “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, ¹⁹ to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.” ²⁰ And he rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. ²¹ And he began to say to them, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”

Jesus is the ultimate anointed one. The one chosen by God to rescue, not just Israel, but everyone, everywhere. Not just one part, not just one people, but the whole deal. Jesus is the one who will make all things right. New Jesus is the one who makes for himself a new family of God of men and women from every tribe tongue and nation. Jesus does what Saul failed to do. Jesus does what, listen, what even David fails to do. Is David better than Saul? Oh yeah but he makes his share of mistakes along the way too. In fact from our perspective, David's sins seem a lot worse than Saul's sins. But God does not see the way that we see. He judges the heart. This is so profound.

Jesus is the true anointed one. And notice who he calls. He calls the poor. He calls the prisoner. He calls those who are suffering. He calls those who are suffering the consequences of others' choices and of their own choices. This is the beauty. Jesus comes to rescue us from ourselves. And oh, do we need to be rescued from ourselves. He calls those who are suffering and he offers them freedom. I wonder if somebody here this morning is sitting here and you are in prison to your sin. Just can't seem to break it. Jesus is the one that breaks the chains. I wonder if somebody here is listening this morning and you're depressed and you're hurting and you're grieving. Jesus has been anointed by God to take your spirit of mourning and to give you a spirit of joy (Isaiah 61:3). This is what Jesus does. This is who Jesus is. He is the Messiah, the Christ, the anointed one who sets his people free.

You know, I love that there's this great line in one of Peter's sermons in the Acts of the Apostles, in Acts chapter 10. It just summarizes it so perfectly. Just a one-liner.

³⁸ how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power. He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him.

Church, that's who Jesus is. He's the anointed one. The one that's been empowered and equipped. The one who's been absolutely faithful. The one who only did what the Father asked him to do. The one who only said what the Father asked him to say. The one who perfected obedience. So we're back to that principle that we started with in Galatians chapter 6, right?

Do not be deceived. God is not mocked. Whatever one sows, that he will reap. For the one who sows to his flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life

What did Jesus sow to? He only and always sowed to the Spirit and to life. And what did he reap? Everlasting life, not just for himself, but for us. That's the beauty of the gospel. He takes our sin upon himself, dies our death, raises to newness of life, and then freely distributes it to those who claim allegiance and faith in him. Jesus is the ultimate sower and the ultimate reaper. And so, of course, we don't just sit back. That should change then how we live. Paul continues:

⁹ And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.

Do you ever felt like that? Grow weary in doing good? You feel it's not making a difference? That nobody sees it? Oh, church, God sees. God knows. He doesn't see the way that we see. He doesn't see the way the world sees. Thank God that God doesn't see that way. See, those little things that you do over and over again, those things that are sometimes misunderstood, those things that sometimes are rejected, those things that you're not appreciated for, those things that nobody else even sees, God sees. So church, don't grow weary in doing good. What you do matters. Your choices have consequences. Listen, don't be like Saul. Be like Jesus. Don't be like Saul. Be like Jesus. Sow to the Spirit. And from that Spirit, reap life. So cliche. Garbage in, what are you going to get? Garbage out. If you've got the courage, just track how you spend your time this week. How much time you spend scrolling on your phone, how much time you spend listening to crazy media, how much time you spend doing all that, and then how much time you spend listening to God. Probably safe in assuming that many of us would feel a great deal of sorrow if we actually looked at what we're spending our time on, on what we're investing in, what we're ingesting, what we're fixing our eyes on. Church, let's fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith (Hebrews 12:2). In due season, we will reap if we do not give up. Don't give up. Don't give up. Keep doing good. God sees. God knows. The harvest is coming.