Many of you, no one knows about you yet. You're not known. You're a king in hiding. You're one that God has said: this is one of My kings; but you've got the responsibility, in that place of obscurity, to be developing a heart that worships God, and loves God, and begin to discover what He likes.
He says: I am the Lord, who delights in loving kindness, and justice, and mercy. God loves mercy! He's not harsh on us. David, if you look at his life, was a man who knew the mercy of God, even though he did outrageous things at times. He not only committed adultery, and murdered a man, but he also made a foolish mistake that cost 70,000 men their lives! And still, he was a man who could sing about the mercy of God!
You've got to learn how to connect with God yourself, personally. The first key, in the place of obscurity, is to develop a heart and a passion for God, and to be happy with Him, content in Him, secure in Him. This is the first lesson. The second lesson that he learnt, was the area of faithfulness.
1 Samuel 17:28 – (David goes down to the battle…) “Eliab, his oldest brother, heard when he spoke to the men, and Eliab's anger was aroused against David, and he said: why have you come down here? And with whom have you left those few sheep in the wilderness? I know your pride, and the insolence of your heart. You've come to see the battle!
But actually, David was faithful. The second thing that he had learnt was: faithfulness in small things. In the menial task, where he was unrecognized, and despised, he just learned to be faithful. That’s something that we can choose to learn. You can be unlimited in faithfulness. Faithfulness in small tasks means that when you give your word, you keep it. When you do a job, you do it well. When you have a commitment, you fulfil your commitment.
You can't just learn that from the Bible! You learn that by taking on a responsibility, and this is one of the reasons that we call people, and unashamedly challenge them, to become connected, committed, and involved in some area of the church life and ministry - because somewhere, you have to learn what it means to be faithful.
If there's a little task, you do the little task. If you're given a little job, you turn up on time and do it - no excuses; you make sure it happens. David learnt to be faithful with the few that he had, and God was preparing him.
Psalm 78:70-72 – “God took him from the flocks, and made him shepherd over a nation; and he led them with integrity of heart, and with skillfulness of hands.”
While he was a young man, he developed integrity - giving his word, and keeping his word. He developed skill - that means understanding, knowing what to do. While no one was looking, he was learning some things. The Lord spoke to me when I was working in a Christian school with only 25-plus kids; the Lord said to me: this is where you're going to learn the things that will be a part of the ministry for all the rest of your life.
How did David qualify himself to be a king? One of the ways he qualified was - he passionately pursued the heart of God; and God was so impressed, He said: I like that boy! I'm going to do something great with his life. He knows Me, he knows what I like, he knows what I want, and he's willing to do it. The second thing is - he was faithful. There was a faithfulness in his life, given a small task. I wonder what you're like, in your faithfulness?
Luke 16:10 – “A man who is faithful in small things will be faithful in great things”.