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[0:00] Now we're reading this morning, 1 Samuel 16. The Lord said to Samuel, How long will you grieve over Saul, since I have rejected him from being king over Israel?

[0:18] 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.

[0:30] 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.

[0:44] And invite Jesse to the sacrifice, and I will show you what you should do. And you shall anoint for me him whom I declare to you.

[0:55] 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?

[1:08] 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.

[1:22] When they came, he looked on Eliab and thought, Surely the Lord's anointed is before him. But the Lord said to Samuel, Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him.

[1:42] For the Lord sees not as man sees. Man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart. Then Jesse called Abinadab and made him pass before Samuel.

[1:57] 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. And Jesse made seven of his sons pass before Samuel.

[2:10] And Samuel said to Jesse, The Lord has not chosen these. Then Samuel said to Jesse, Are all your sons here? And he said, There remains yet the youngest.

[2:22] But behold, he is keeping the sheep. And Samuel said to Jesse, Send and get him, for we will not sit down until he comes here. And he sent and brought him in.

[2:36] Now he was ruddy and beautiful, had beautiful eyes and was handsome. And the Lord said, Arise, anoint him, for this is he. Then Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the midst of his brothers.

[2:52] And the Spirit of the Lord rushed upon David from that day forward. And Samuel rose up and went to Ramah. Now the Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul, and a harmful spirit from the Lord tormented him.

[3:08] And Saul's servants said to him, Behold now, a harmful spirit from God is tormenting you. Let our Lord now command his servants who are before you to seek out a man who is skillful in playing the liar.

[3:24] And when the harmful spirit from God is upon you, he will play it, and you will be well. So Saul said to his servants, Provide for me a man who can play well and bring him here to me.

[3:37] 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.

[3:52] And the Lord is with him. Therefore Saul sent messengers to Jesse and said, Send me David, your son, who is with the sheep. 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.

[4:11] And David came to Saul and entered his service. And Saul loved him greatly, and he became his armor bearer. And Saul sent to Jesse, saying, Let David remain in my service, for he has found favor in my sight.

[4:27] 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.

[4:44] Amen. That is God's word for us. As we set up this text and go through it, I'd like us to consider a couple things that are going on.

[5:01] And I want us to understand the difference between a point of view versus a perspective. Because a point of view is unique because it's a point of reference that you're looking upon something, and as far as your perception is how you respond to what you are seeing.

[5:31] It's emotional. It can be faith. It can be doubt. You know what I mean? So your point of view is different than your perception, but directly connected to our perception is the point of view.

[5:45] Now you see, mankind has a limited point of view in contrast to God's sovereign point of view. Therefore, our perspective will often be flawed and challenged to surrender all that we think and feel to God alone.

[6:10] because our point of view is limited, we have to go to great lengths to surrender that which we think and feel to God alone because our view is limited.

[6:24] I want us to understand that. Maybe you don't believe me, though. Well, when times of suffering come, when things are really heavy in life, when you get a diagnosis that you never imagined you would ever get a diagnosis of, when a family member would be suffering, loss of loved ones, children, spouses, don't we question?

[6:51] Because our point of view is causing our perception to question that. In our waiting, when God is telling us to wait, we live in the Amazon Prime, you know they have same-day delivery.

[7:03] Isn't that amazing? How do you do that? Well, they figured it out. And so our two-day Prime shipping has now made us even less inclined to wait. We want it now.

[7:16] And so in our waiting, we often doubt. Does God remember me? Hello, I'm here, God. Or, in our busyness, when God takes us through busy seasons in life, He's just telling you to do things and it just seems like it's never going to end.

[7:36] We sort of lose sight and we stress all of a sudden over these things knowing that it's not going to last. There will be an end to busyness. Spiritual warfare, we fear because of our point of view on the issue and we come to fear in those times.

[7:53] And it's not even with all these negative things, all these negative point of views, it's also the good stuff. Even in our blessings, even in our happiness, happiness, in our point of views of happiness, we lose sight of those points of views and we lose sight of the perception, the perspective of those situations.

[8:19] Knowing that our faith can't crumble at the end of those seasons of blessing when God wants to take us through a valley. Why?

[8:34] Why do we need to know this? Well, could it be that we forget, we forget to seek God's point of view in literally everything?

[8:45] We are very bad at this. And allow that, God's point of view, seeking out God's point of view to shape our perspectives in seasons of trial or triumph.

[8:57] Well, today's passage, specifically, turns our point of view towards God's. And in so doing, I do believe that it is the author's intention as inspired by the Holy Spirit to transform our perceptions, to transform how we respond to situations regarding God's sovereign election of Him guiding history, that all things are playing out exactly how God saw it to play out.

[9:35] Let's think for a moment. Let's be a little antagonist in this. If God is not actively guiding everything that happens, if He's not, how can we be confident that He will indeed accomplish the good that He intends for us?

[9:53] In other words, do we live by a world of chance? God's saying, oh, I didn't see that panning out that way. Well, we'll shift a couple things in the future here to make this all come back to plan.

[10:07] Or, there's other perceptions where some may have a heavy emphasis and consider God's foreknowledge in the matter as if He sees into the future and knows how people will respond and then sort of tailors and makes the tweaks along the way and that's how He does it.

[10:28] But if that were the case, how can we really give all the credit to God alone if He's adapting to how we're going to respond? How do we know and give credit to God that He is working all of things out for our good?

[10:41] No. The more prayer and study of Scripture that we seek out God's point of view, our perspectives change and so too our reverence for this sovereign God is bound to grow.

[11:00] And so starting out with one man back in Genesis named Adam, God has steered the course of human history. He's allotted territories, He's risen earthly powers, brought kingdoms down, all according to His good pleasure.

[11:18] That is a sovereign God. And though, within God's steering though, is an ordained construct where our choices do matter in that. We're not robotic, but our choices do matter.

[11:32] But if then, God allows our choices to matter and weigh into His guiding, similar to raising up of Saul, we saw some really bad choices in that. If He allows those choices to weigh into His guiding, these secondary clauses then, have a great impact in what happens to history.

[11:50] However, they do not operate outside of God's overarching decree and His sovereign governance. You see, a sovereign God and human following and human responsibility are truly neighbors.

[12:08] They're not enemies with one another. And with that, we drop into the context of this very theological reality that has just transpired in the life of Saul and his two- to three-year-long reign as king of Israel.

[12:25] From seeking out lost donkeys in chapter 9 to becoming the lost donkey in chapter 15 last week, God is indeed guiding human history according to His overarching decree and sovereign governance.

[12:42] And so, I have a sermon titled today that God sees, God knows, and God guides. Chapter 16 begins sort of like a turning point in this narrative.

[12:57] If you're wondering where this series is going, well, this is like a shifting gear for the author and the narrator of this book. It's an entirely new section to say the least.

[13:15] And God has allowed human choice to run its course and Saul's removal has begun. God exchanges His spirits that was upon Saul for an evil spirit and the process of His election begins to find someone better than Saul in chapter 15 last week and a man after his own heart.

[13:36] chapter 13. But I want us to pray as we get into this text because it might create some uncomfortable feelings and perceptions when somebody's talking about God's sovereignty depending on which church you were last coming from and maybe had a bad experience.

[13:57] But we will submit to the authority of God's word today regardless of how we feel about the matter. So let's pray as we do this together church and we will do this together.

[14:09] Let's pray. Father thank you for your word how it does instruct us it corrects us informs us convicts us encourages us is a marvelous beauty in the life of a Christian.

[14:29] Let this beauty also be found with those who are not believers believers within the church today. Let that beauty be found because there is a solution to all of this madness and it's found in Jesus Christ.

[14:42] Let us see Jesus Christ today. We pray this in Jesus name amen. Amen. You guys still with me? I know it was a long introduction I admit I did go a little bit long but I wanted to set a little bit of a stage for what we're diving into.

[15:01] So what we have is two points two sections in the narrative and the first section is fetching a shepherd fetching for a shepherd and we're going to see this fetching all the way to verse 13.

[15:22] So verse 1 says the Lord said to Samuel how long will you grieve over Saul since I have rejected him from being king over Israel. Hang on a second there.

[15:37] We're brought into this vivid scene church of Samuel grieving. This is vivid and God is essentially saying buddy it's time to move on.

[15:55] The word used here for grieving is the same word that people did in how they responded to the death of loved ones.

[16:09] Can you understand what's going on here with Samuel? Samuel is in pain. He's in deep emotional pain. Remorse his point of view is limited.

[16:26] He only sees what he's able to see and he's saying no redemption anywhere in sight. How is God going to work this one out?

[16:41] Samuel's a prophet. That should be vital for us to see. Church, here we receive maybe what should be considered, if you're a pastor, a deacon, or anybody in church leadership, we'll just call it for what it is.

[16:56] If you're a Christian in here, you see vividly what it looks like to have a concern for one another, a deep concern for one another. One who loves God and loves God's people will care deeply about the sin and not just say, suck it up buttercup, God's sovereign.

[17:19] Right? Taking time to grieve is good. And this applies not only to pastors, it is a wake-up call to pastors to get down and kneel, cry with the church.

[17:35] Regardless if our point of view may see a sovereign God when they can't see it, it's important for us as a church to remember what's going on here and the emotional condition of Samuel.

[17:47] And this comes to life and takes shape in our day when we see sin having a heyday, right, in other people's lives and they naturally suffer the consequences.

[17:59] Parents of children who have watched their kids make the terrible choices. Or maybe children watching their parents making terrible choices, going down a road they ought not to go.

[18:15] Or maybe seeing your friends that are very close to you see these consequences for their actions playing out. Yeah, it should grieve us and we should take time to grieve.

[18:28] However, what God advances to Samuel isn't the suck it up buttercup. This is amazing. Look, as the verse continues, what he advances is insight into his point of view.

[18:50] Don't believe me? Open your Bible. Seriously, church, don't take my word for it. Look at it. The Lord said to Samuel, how long will you grieve over Saul since I have rejected him from being king over Israel?

[19:06] Fill your horn with oil in expectation that something's coming and go. I will send you to Jesse, the Bethlehemite, for I have provided for myself a king among his sons.

[19:20] Samuel, look into my point of view. I'm doing something here. See what I see. You see, the time has come to recognize the justness of God's judgment.

[19:39] The promise keeper is guiding history. God alone is achieving his plan and his objective. Where I send you, Samuel, there your king will be.

[19:52] Guess what? He's not even your king. He's my king. He is my king. In verse 2, Samuel fears that Saul is going to be suspicious and his whereabouts are going to become known and that's going to be it for Samuel.

[20:12] And the Lord provides we will call it a little divine deception if you want to say to pave the way for Samuel. I mean, after all, is it really deception?

[20:23] Because I think Saul has kind of forfeited the right to know the truth about that. And so Samuel, he gives Samuel a plan to get past Saul's guards and let Saul just carry on with what he's carrying on with.

[20:39] We'll catch up on that later on. But in verse 4, Samuel did as God commanded. He was received by Jesse and his family was invited to the sacrifice.

[20:54] And we actually meet the entire family. What a wonderful set of siblings there. And all of them are fit to be king from Samuel's limited point of view.

[21:14] And so one by one, we meet all these sons. Samuel was really taken back by the first. He said, wow. I mean, Saul's got the height, but look at that jawline.

[21:27] Look at that. He's got to be the guy. It makes all the logical sense in my point of view. Right? You see, from Samuel's point of view, from his point of view, that which he's looking at, his perspective not only finds himself grieving over Saul, but also here, him being a prophet, he's struggling to perceive God's plan.

[22:03] God's God's purpose of all of this. Why? Why is Samuel struggling with this? We can't say it enough. His point of view is limited. And here we get into the very essence of knowing how to perceive all reality that we see in the world, how to perceive the news, the good news and the bad news that we see on our television sets, how to receive bad news of the death or struggle of a loved one.

[22:32] we see here God's point of view, God's point of view. And it has nothing to do with our limited sight.

[22:42] It has everything to do with God seeing the hearts, going where no eye has ever gone before. Never once has God ever needed the powerful, jawlines, tall guys, or the logical choice that we may perceive.

[23:05] It makes a lot of sense to us. And so we sort of baptize those perceptions. No, God does not see with what we would consider eyes in a metaphorical sense.

[23:26] He looks and he knows what the eye cannot see. He sees the heart. And church, verse 7 is a vital verse of understanding not only 1 and 2 Samuel, it is a vital verse to use as a lens of reading the entire Bible.

[23:54] God sees the heart. He's sovereign. God has seen, it's almost like he's seen the movie.

[24:10] If anybody has ever been victim, or I'm not looking for confession for you today, but you've seen a movie and you accidentally reveal that spoiler to somebody, well, God has all the spoilers.

[24:24] He's seen the movie. He's the director. He's the author. Us, we see a little piece of the puzzle and we try to define the whole, right?

[24:46] We have to view the scriptures through that lens and submit to that. verse 11, when Samuel said to Jesse, are all your sons here?

[25:00] I don't see any other people here. And Samuel said to Jesse, send and get him because there remained a youngest, one more.

[25:11] He's keeping sheep. Samuel sends for him and Samuel insists that we're not sitting down until he comes. right? And he sent and brought him in.

[25:25] And now, from perception, he was ruddy. I don't know exactly what that is supposed to mean. Could be a redhead.

[25:36] Could be blushed in the face. Regardless, he was ruddy. Deal with it. He was a ruddy guy. But he had beautiful eyes, and he was handsome.

[25:49] And the Lord said, Arise, anoint him, for he, this is he, this is the one that I saw when Israel was crying for a king, and they chose Saul.

[26:03] I saw this guy the whole time, but they chose that. You see, the mightiest one chosen by God pales in comparison to the weakest one chosen by God.

[26:20] Let me say that again. The mightiest one chosen by man. That's what I'm trying to say. You can have this massive figure who looks the part, it makes sense, it happens at a timely moment and occasion.

[26:36] Even the mightiest one chosen by man will pale in comparison to the weakest one chosen by God. Why is this, church? Why is this so?

[26:46] Because God's point of view is not limited, therefore his view will have absolute validity, and it beckons for our trust. Right?

[26:58] Verse 13, 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.

[27:12] And Samuel rose and went to Ramah. And there you have it. It is the doctrine of election. God working and guiding and seeing his plans through.

[27:26] for the same reason that Saul was appointed by God is the same reason David was appointed by God, because God willed it to happen. And here lays the foundation of all of our humility, because our choices do matter in light of his sovereignty.

[27:44] They do. This weak young boy is one perceivably unqualified and logically unfavored. He wouldn't be the first choice from your team captain for basketball.

[27:58] He'd be the last one. You'd probably say, why are you even playing basketball, dude? Right? But this weak young boy was the one who God set his heart upon.

[28:13] The one better than Saul. And the one who got empowered from this day forward. And church, we have to acknowledge that even after all of this, the point of view of everyone at this time period, probably like, what is going on?

[28:33] What's happening to this boy? We're anointing him with oil? And then there goes Samuel, he departs. I mean, imagine the confusion. What's God's point of view?

[28:45] What's God's point of view entailed with infinitely all knowing? Well, still Samuel trusted when his eyes could not see. And all who were gathered trusted when their eyes could not see.

[29:01] They certainly could not realize that just as he fetched a shepherd out of the same little town of Bethlehem, there would also be a location where God fetches the true shepherds.

[29:15] This little town of Bethlehem. God saw it. God wrote the movie. He knows the spoilers. He's the director of the film. God saw. God knew and God guided.

[29:32] And with that, we have to bring this to present tense because God sees today.

[29:43] God knows you. God and God guides today. And he is guiding you. God sees you, he knows you, and God is guiding you.

[29:56] And this is a great source of perspective shifts in all seasons of life of a Christian. Hardships, struggle, seasons of doubt.

[30:08] God. But how much more should this shift the perspective of a non-believer to? That's a powerful reality.

[30:20] Because for those who are not in Christ, how do you reconcile the fact that God sees you, still loves you, because while you were still sinners, Christ died for you?

[30:35] How do you reconcile that? That he wants a relationship with you. But all the while, you're disqualifying yourself because of your past struggles, your past sin, and you disqualify yourself from his grace.

[30:55] Well, if you're not a believer today, welcome to God's grace. Because grace is literally just that.

[31:07] Amazing grace it is. Because we don't deserve it. We don't deserve his grace. He's given us the exact opposite of what we deserve.

[31:20] And if you're not in Christ, this is good news today. And he sees you even in sin. And he's beckoning you to come. And so I give you that invite today.

[31:35] to come to his throne of grace. Trust in his sovereignty. Surrender to God today. And let us guide you and help you as a church through your life and the days ahead.

[31:51] So that's the first section. It's fetching a shepherd, but the next section in verse 14 is fetching for a savior. God's spirit would depart from Saul.

[32:04] Surely as sudden as the spirit of God rushed upon David, God's spirit would depart from Saul. And this is how God worked before the Holy Spirit fell at Pentecost and just created that sonic blast of expansion as the Holy Spirit spread.

[32:25] But the same spirit that equips believers and leaders in the church for service and councils during times of uncertainty and guides paths, so the spirit guides and equips these men back then.

[32:43] In church, it is important to know that God equips the church to meet the need of the hour. God will equip us. He will rush.

[32:54] He will consume us and equip us and counsel us in the direction that we should go. And so David, at this moment, in verse 13, just like we read, he is given this empowering.

[33:10] He's equipped, similar to Samson and Saul, to lead God's people. But upon David, this spirit would remain.

[33:21] It's not just this temporary moment of empowering. This would remain all of his days. And this is highly significant for us to see something, because there is no visible evidence of this empowering, of what this actually meant.

[33:46] It's not like this little ruddy kid, all of a sudden, got the power of flight, and started flying in the air and levitating, or speaking in tongues, or whatever might be a suitable evidence for you and your theology.

[34:01] But nothing. We're not entailed of any details. He didn't go find the nearest line and rip him to pieces like Samson. He didn't go and defeat the Amorites.

[34:13] Nothing. Instead, in verse 19, instead, there's more evidence that God's spirit departing than arriving.

[34:26] And it's an important detail of sin's consequence. It's almost like there's more details of what's going on with Saul than what's going on with David. Saul is found tormented by a harmful spirit.

[34:39] It's a harmful spirit of God, which is a consequence of God's judgment over Saul. And Saul's servants send for a young man that they knew was a pretty good guitarist.

[34:52] Maybe listening to guitar playing will help. You need somebody to help you. You need someone to save you out of this torment. Go find this little boy, David, shepherding.

[35:08] Did you hear that? Shepherding. God has rushed upon him, and what's he doing?

[35:18] shepherding. Isn't that interesting? We'll get to that in a moment. But on one side, it's kind of less obvious, right?

[35:30] You don't need to tear a line into pieces or defeat an army to attribute significance in God empowering you. God empowers pastors just like God empowers stay-at-home mothers.

[35:44] Or working the nine to five, working for the government or working as a teacher out in a school district. There's no distinction. You could be sitting there pushing paper, and God will empower you in that way.

[35:58] You don't just need to be a pastor or some place to find some sort of meaning in life. The fact that God empowers Christians should be of their utmost attention. There is certainly much to be said about God equipping us and empowering us in the perceivable mundane of this life.

[36:15] You see, God empowers his church to live ordinary lives. He does. While yielding our lives to an extraordinary God. And this makes each and every moment, even if they're boring, a complete blessing.

[36:32] Even the struggles, and the dirty diapers, and the crying and loss of sleep for mothers, or that nagging boss constantly leaning over your cubicle, wondering if you're being productive or playing Tetris on your phone.

[36:44] Don't play Tetris while you're on your clock. God doesn't empower his church. And certainly we can rest assured God will never leave us nor forsake us, like David pled to God in Psalm 51, take not your spirit away from me, because indeed God's spirit came and there God's spirit stayed.

[37:07] But on the other hand, and it's more obvious in the details of what's going on with Saul, and this is going to take a little bit of consideration in some hard realities.

[37:20] Because for those who reject God, it must be considered that the reason for such trouble, misery, may in fact be attributed to God's sovereign hand.

[37:35] That is a hard reality of this passage. Saul's tormented condition, he's still kind of king in like a job description sense, but God has rejected him.

[37:47] He's unable to do it. That would drive any of us mad. Right? For anybody who hates golfing, that's putting you into a golf cab, telling you to go out with irons and not to stop finishing until you shoot under par.

[38:04] I mean, that would drive anybody mad and irritate a lot of people. He is not given the ability to do what God called him to do at first. It would drive any of us mad.

[38:17] And so we do see, like the past weeks we've been talking about, Saul was judged, and sin, his sin has consequence. Those who reject God subject themselves to that sovereignty of God.

[38:31] And yes, even if God is responsible for sending the evil spirit. But we also know in the life of Christians that it's not only that.

[38:44] When things get difficult in life, it's not God necessarily judging you, but maybe it's testing you, because the life of Job is one of those passages. We know that God sends an evil spirit.

[38:57] He authorizes for an evil spirit to come and test his followers. And Job suffered an unauthorized assault, a gruesome one at that.

[39:13] And that was by God to test his faith. And here, at the sending of this evil spirit, not only is this a consequence of sin, but followership also has consequences as well.

[39:25] I don't know why you may have become a Christian, but I never became a Christian to make my life easy. it's not why you become a Christian.

[39:41] Because, in fact, those who follow God, God will test. Because his point of view, being sovereign, being the writer of this cinema, being the director of the film, he sees, he knows, and he guides, and he knows best how to order our lives better than we could ever do.

[40:04] And that is true. So, it's not a matter of if you are a believer or unbeliever, God has authorized to do what is best for us according to his divine point of view.

[40:17] That's how God is operating, in his grace or in his judgments. And for that, as it was for Saul and David, the chosen king began serving the rejected king in this passage.

[40:32] playing the guitar. And that's going to continue cyclically in this series. Except this young one that's serving this rejected king, his life will be grasping for his own life, at the madness, realizing that that is, in fact, the replacement God had in mind.

[40:58] But we'll leave that for another day. God's love for you. But regardless of the narrative, regardless of our perceptions, regardless of point of views, this chosen king was fetched as a savior for the rejected king.

[41:13] And while God's purposes were hidden from all who see, only what man sees, we have a fuller and comprehensive point of view, don't we? we have the tomb, we have the cross, we have a point of view that is a little bit more comprehensive, a fuller picture of what God is doing here, of what he's foreshadowing of then.

[41:38] And this is important, because we see the one chosen by God but rejected by man, Jesus Christ. And only when we realize that Jesus Christ is the savior of our souls and reigns king over our lives, absolutely for true of what their perception is, it is God's plan.

[41:58] We may not agree all at times in a world where sin runs rampant and horrendous acts of murder are actually not authored by God, they're executed by sinful man, but they are, every horrendous act of sin is in subject to the sovereign God, and that is important for us to know, because that's good news for us.

[42:21] because in the stretch of all history and the point of view of a divine, sovereign, holy God, he sees what man can never see at this moment, and that's for justice to be served expeditedly, to be judged and to put an end to all of this, and for evil to be no more.

[42:49] Church, in God's point of view, we receive a Savior. We receive a cross where our sins were dealt, and yoke and cling to this Savior, whom God has fetched, a shepherd, the true shepherd, who God has fetched as Savior.

[43:10] The God of this world, universe, and all that was created is indeed by a God of election. He sees, he knows, he guides.

[43:26] Reflecting on the death of Jesus Christ, we must recall Peter's words in Acts 2, where he says that the most evil act in history, the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, was planned by God, but carried out by men with evil in their hearts.

[43:46] Isn't that hard to grapple with? Use a moment to interact right now. Isn't that hard to grapple with? I think so.

[44:00] It can be hard at times to understand how God can be good and still ordain evil. It is hard. God can be good and because that's our perception.

[44:13] Regardless of our perception, we can see God's sovereign point of view and affirm this biblical truth, that he is God and we simply are not, and we will never be God and have all those answers.

[44:30] Church, this biblical truth is the fertile soil that our faith must root deeply in and grow from in his sovereignty.

[44:41] Our point of view? Fetching for a shepherd. But guess who we find when we fetch a shepherd? We find our Savior. And when we find our Savior, we find our peace.

[44:54] And everything that David was, we find in Jesus Christ. Christ. Because that was what God intended for us to see in this narrative and to see Christ.

[45:06] You see, it's not a weather of your, if your perception is right, but that your point of view is right. Amen? When our point of view is aligned properly to God's, our perceptions will naturally be shaped, realign, and be yoked to his.

[45:23] The God of the Bible is the God over all the Bible. He's the God over all evil and all the good. It's not whether we agree or disagree. We have to agree to that.

[45:33] God is sovereign in all of that. And so God, help us to root deeply and grow in knowing the God who sees, the God who knows, and the God who guides.