The Journey From Shepherd to King - 1 Sam 16:1-13, 2 Sam 2:1-3, 5: 1-5

Jun 25, 2023

Summary of Sermon

When we meet David in this great story from the Bible, he is just 17yrs old, when he becomes king in Hebron, he is 30yrs old and it is another 7 years before he is king over all Israel.

His journey from shepherd to king took between 13-20 years. This is how most of us grow on the Lord. The Lord calls us to a place and He then has to prepare us for where He wants us to be. All too often we quit because the journey is hard and long; thankfully David did not quit. There are 7steps in this journey, we will look at 4 today.

Great Victory, not long after the call to be king, David kills Goliath. I Samuel 17: 45-51

Great Valleys, not long after the victories, there will be valleys, Saul conspires to have David killed, and in fact, tries to kill him twice, 1 Samuel 18: 22-28

Great Friendships, we need people in our lives that we can trust. Men in particular need other men to help them and befriend them. God gave David that in Jonathan, I Samuel 18: 1-4. This friendship would endure even the death of Jonathan, see the story of Miphiboseth in 2 Samuel 9.

Great Failures, most of us will go to the Bathsheba incident, but that was deliberate. The one I want to highlight was totally by accident and yet the cost of David’s actions was expensive, I Samuel 21-22. David is running from Saul and lies to the priest Abimelech in the city of Nob. The priest helps him and for that, he, the other 84 priests and their families are killed except for one. David took full responsibility for that catastrophe.

These are all part of the building blocks of becoming a great leader. We will explore the other three next time.