Sermon Tone Analysis

Stay in the Moment - You Were Made For It

Intro - Thank people, summarize series ideas, and then move into the main idea...

It’s hard to stay in the moment, isn’t it?

It is hard to experience life where you are when you are dreaming about what you will one day become.

It can be even harder to look backwards, and see all the ways in which had we just been fully present and invested where we were at that time, we would have been better prepared for those next moments that we are given.

That’s the funny thing about life.

When we are right in the middle of it, living it, we tend to want to be somewhere else, and when we are somewhere else, we would give anything to go back in time and get right back in the middle of things!

To put it bluntly, we give up today in hopes of securing tomorrow.

And for some of us, we put off today, and then procrastinate tomorrow and we keep putting things off, we keep looking ahead, we keep floating along through life, never really experiencing the moments we are in.

Never really devoting all of our energy to the place we are right here, right now.

We just go through the motions.

[pic here]

This series is intended to help us all deal with that in our own lives.

Those moments when we would rather look away, or look to the future, or look at something else we might want.

Those moments that God planned out for each and every one of us - moments that we all too often sweep away as unimportant.

Those are the moments we will be talking about, and church, those are the moments that we need to focus all our energy on.

We start that today, by being reminded that we are made for this moment.

You were made for this moment.

Not just this moment today, or this season in your life - but this moment in history, in this place, in this world!

You were made to be here at this exact moment!

You ever think about that?

You were!

And not only that, you were made to have a purpose in this moment!

And that purpose, that reason for being here, is that you were made to prepare for something, I don’t know what it is, buy you were made to prepare for it!

And the only way you can prepare for it, is to do what you have in front of you this day.

[pic of a shepherd]

That reminds me of a story that you all know very well.

It is a story that comes on the heels of God’s people calling out to be lead by a King.

They had been ruled by Judges, but they saw everyone else around them being ruled by Kings, and they just had to have one too.

So God gave them a king.

But that king turned from God and forgot his calling.

Now those of you who know the story of this King, Saul, know that he kept some of the spoils of war that God wanted him to destroy.

But his detachment from God’s plan would have been much bigger than that.

As with us, our outward sins, our refusal to follow God publically, is just a result of a deeper separation from God’s will.

And moreover, as a leader, whether at home, work, or those in charge of kingdoms and countries, your outward shortcomings, or transgressions, are a sign of a far deeper issue.

And those issues can reek havock on those being led.

So you can imagine there was probably a feeling of uncertainty to the kingdom.

There was probably a lot of plotting and posturing.

I imagine there were people, from the top to the bottom, who were looking at the future, and trying to force God’s will on their kingdom, whether for good or ill.

But still there was one who was listening.

One through whom God spoke.

And that one is who we will read about today.

Pray

[pic here]

Now when I think of staying in the moment - this idea that we are to fully invest ourselves right where and when we are - I think of this story.

I really do.

I think of it so much, that when I first thought of doing a brief summer series, I thought of doing some of the great old stories from the Old Testament that we all know, and when I thought about that, this story came to mind, and honestly this theme came with it!

You see, David, or all the great people of the Bible, knew how to stay in the moment.

How do I know that?

Well the Bible tells me!

You see sometimes the answers we seek are in the text because they aren’t there.

They are present in their omission.

Just like in our lives, our intentions show themselves both by what we do, and by what we don’t do.

As our story unfolds, we see this scene set.

Jesse has his sons, gathered in some semblance of order to be reviewed by Samuel.

They are all consecrated, and are ready for the sacrifice.

Now this is where the text reminds us, by the way, that Samuel coming over would have been a pretty big deal!

This isn’t your neighbor bringing brownies, church, this is THE prophet!

The one who anointed the King the Jewish people so longed for.

The one who speaks directly with God!

He’s kind of a big deal.

So everyone in the household, and probably the neighborhood, if not the entire town, knew about it.

It is about like the president coming to your house, really.

It really is! Listen the text even leads us to understand that so many people would know that Samuel was there that God helped him have an excuse!

So even Saul would know!

Everyone would hear about it.

This wasn’t a quiet thing.

This was a huge deal.

So even Saul would know!

Everyone would hear about it.

This wasn’t a quiet thing.

This was a huge deal.

But church, even so, when Jesse assembles his sons, there seems to be a glaring omission that tells us everything.

There are only seven.

But not only are there only seven sons there, that’s just part of it.

That isn’t the part that let’s me know anything at all about David.

No it is the fact that David, this young man who no doubt wondered about what was going on back at the house, wasn’t sitting in the window, or nosing around the door, or trying to sneak a look at what was going on.

[pic of david shepherd]

No, David wasn’t doing that.

David wasn’t wasting the moments he was given either jockeying for position or nosing around to see which brother was chosen.

No, David was tending his sheep.

He was tending the flock entrusted to him.

He was, for lack of a better phrase, doing his job!

He didn’t break the trust of the one who had entrusted him with the responsibility of the flock and the work that he was to complete that day!

And church, you need to take that point to heart this morning.

Every day, every single day, you are entrusted with some set of tasks.

Some responsibility.

Something that God really wants you to do that day.

And the more you mess around, the more you shirk jobs that you have been given, the further away from God’s will you will find yourself!

And not only that, church, but when you do that you are limiting God’s reach in your life, and you are acting as if what He has given you to do isn’t just as important, if not more, that what you think you want to do!

[pic here]

That is what David is showing us here.

He just kept doing his job.

He didn’t stress about something he would have wanted to have, because quite frankly, that would be far less than what God would want him to have in that moment!

And really, our lives are EXACTLY the same!

We have all these moments; moments that should prepare us for the moments that are to come, but all too often, the moments that we have are squandered on frivolous things that we think we want or need, but that when done, do nothing to prepare us for the future that God wants for us!

This message, and this story hits me as close to home as any I have preached.

You see I have been in David’s shoes.

I have been in a position where I had to fight the urges to insert myself into a discussion that had nothing to do with me.

I have been in situations where I kept reaching for more just knowing that it what God wanted me to do.