http://www.unlockingthebible.org/davids-story/ Pastor Colin Smith preached this Christmas sermon "David's Story" on 1 Samuel 17 at The Orchard Evangelical Free Church, in Barrington, IL. http://theorchardefc.org/ To download the series or order these sermons on CD, see the link at the top of the description. David's Story 1 Samuel 17 December 17th / 18th 2011 by Pastor Colin S. Smith A record of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David... Matthew 1:1 Thank you for this invitation. It's a great pleasure to be able to speak with you today, and to have the opportunity of telling you the Christmas story. To all of you who are young people—grade school, middle school and high school—listen up! You never know what God will call you to do. I was the youngest in my family, and that isn't easy, as some of you know. Everyone picks on you, and there isn't much you can do about it. When I was young, I wanted to be like my brothers. They got to do all the fun stuff. I got the job of watching the sheep. If someone had told me one of my father's sons would become the King of Israel, I would never have guessed in a million years it would be me. But God had plans that were more wonderful than anything I could have dreamed, and if you are a follower of Jesus, that's true for you as well. Some of you will know the stories of what happened in my life. You know about my triumphs and you know about my failures. No one knew greater happiness than I did, the day they brought the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem. I was so happy, I danced before the Lord. But I also knew great sorrow, as some of you do. I went through a thousand agonies with my family. Some of you know what that is like—the rebellion of my son Absalom and his terrible death, that awful thing that happened to my daughter Tamar. I lived in an evil world, and I guess that you have found the same. The most important thing about me People have called me, down through the years, "Israel's greatest King." I wish they wouldn't do that, but here's why they do... When I was king, God gave us victory over our enemies, our borders were secure, we lived in peace and our economy was booming. Come to think of it, I might just stick around here and take a shot at running to be your president! But I'm not here to talk about myself. I'm here to talk about my greater Son, whose name is Jesus. The most important thing about me is not what I achieved in my life, but my relationship with Jesus. One day you will see that's true for you as well. Your pastor told me that some of you are big shots in business and in the city. That's not quite how he put it, but that's what he meant... Well, I'm here to tell you that whatever you may achieve in your life, the most important thing about you is your relationship with Jesus. Take that as the word of a king. God's Staggering Promise
[2Sa 7:12 KJV] 12 And when thy days be fulfilled, and thou shalt sleep with thy fathers, I will set up thy seed after thee, which shall proceed out of thy bowels, and I will establish his kingdom. [Act 2:30 KJV] 30 Therefore being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him, that of the fruit of his loins, according to the flesh, he would raise up Christ to sit on his throne;