Powerpoint Pictures: Yellow Bananas; Brown Bananas; Banana Bread

Imagine you’re gone shopping at the supermarket and you want to buy some bananas. On the shelf you see some bananas like these (yellow) and also some bananas like these (brown). Which ones would you choose to buy?

Generally we’d go for the yellow bananas. The brown bananas are overripe, mushy and don’t taste nice when you eat them.

But if you wanted to make banana bread, you’d want to use the brown bananas, because they are the best ones to use when making banana bread.

In the next part of the Big Bible Adventure, we find someone who like the brown bananas didn’t look great on the outside, but inside he was perfect for the job.

Saul was the first king of Israel. He was told that to be a good king he needed to love God and obey His Word, and to start with, King Saul did just that. But then something went horribly wrong and Saul disobeyed God’s Word and made excuses for his disobedience.

As a result, God rejected Saul as king and told Samuel that Israel would need a new one. This king would be one of Jesse’s sons – Jesse was the grandson of Ruth and Boaz.

Now Jesse had some impressive looking sons. They were strong and powerful, handsome and successful soldiers in King Saul’s army. They looked like they would be great kings. Samuel certainly thought one of them would be ideal for the job.

But God said to Samuel: “The LORD does not look at things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.” (1 Samuel 16:7)

It was not what they looked like that was important to God – Saul looked like the ideal king, but he wasn’t. No, it was their heart that was important. Samuel asked Jesse if he had any other sons. Jesse told Samuel that his youngest, David, was off looking after the sheep.

When Jesse brought David to Samuel, he didn’t look much like a king, but he had a heart that loved God. God told Samuel to anoint him because one day he was going to be king.

But does David really have a heart that loves God?