WEBVTT 00:00:00.320 --> 00:00:04.290 If you got a Bible with you, I'm going to invite you to turn to the book of First Samuel. 00:00:04.400 --> 00:00:06.640 We're going to be in chapter 15, which is a pretty big leap. 00:00:07.020 --> 00:00:09.520 I don't know that I've made that large of a leap in scripture before. 00:00:10.120 --> 00:00:16.900 But as I told you last week, that we're going to look at really the highlights of the book First Samuel and Second Samuel. 00:00:17.060 --> 00:00:22.520 A lot of it has to do with the parallels of this book to our circumstance today. 00:00:22.600 --> 00:00:29.740 Now, I want to be clear in saying this, when we read the Old Testament, reading how God identifies himself through a particular people group through Israel, 00:00:30.220 --> 00:00:34.680 and I'm not trying to make the equation of America is the second coming of Israel, okay? 00:00:34.760 --> 00:00:36.240 I don't want to go down that road at all. 00:00:36.460 --> 00:00:38.180 I don't think that that's a healthy road to walk down. 00:00:38.460 --> 00:00:45.090 But I do want to draw some similarities to the circumstance related to the book of First Samuel and Second Samuel, as it relates to us where we are today. 00:00:46.060 --> 00:00:53.520 When we dive in this message, this section of scripture, what I want us to approach this as understanding what here is going on, and 00:00:53.520 --> 00:01:00.660 we're going to learn from the failures of an individual named Saul, who becomes king of Israel and make some application to 00:01:00.660 --> 00:01:03.420 our lives so we don't end up following that same pattern. 00:01:04.000 --> 00:01:06.530 We're going to look at a particular story that relates to King Saul. 00:01:06.680 --> 00:01:13.800 I think this narrative story is here, related to the king not to say, "Okay, now, here's how you apply this politically to where 00:01:13.800 --> 00:01:20.860 you are as a people," but rather, I think the narrative is in this passage of scripture, so that we can personally connect to God in 00:01:20.860 --> 00:01:24.090 a way different than what Saul did, in a way that's really obedient. 00:01:25.420 --> 00:01:28.540 What is happening in 1 Samuel 15? 00:01:28.660 --> 00:01:32.060 Well, let me remind us, if you were with us last week, we talked a little bit about the book of Judges. 00:01:32.440 --> 00:01:34.990 If you've ever read Judges, the Book of Judges is about judges. 00:01:35.220 --> 00:01:39.580 When you hear the word judges, don't think in terms of an American judge like today. 00:01:39.900 --> 00:01:43.320 When judges were raised up in Israel, they're usually raised up in regions. 00:01:43.440 --> 00:01:47.800 These might not have been the only judges in Israel, but it's the one that scriptures record for us. 00:01:48.420 --> 00:01:55.860 They were raised up in particular regions, really among individual clans in Israel, to help them thwart against attacks that are happening. 00:01:55.860 --> 00:02:03.060 God would raise up a judge and he would work as a deliverer for God's people, who were facing persecution from a people, group around them 00:02:03.060 --> 00:02:04.380 for some reason. 00:02:05.080 --> 00:02:08.060 They were really facing it because of disobedience to God. 00:02:08.120 --> 00:02:09.199 They get into this Promised Land. 00:02:09.639 --> 00:02:16.140 They walk in as one people, and they separate as clans and they really live in separate clan identities. 00:02:16.280 --> 00:02:21.300 It's under the book of Samuel that you find that God unifies this people through a king named David. 00:02:21.640 --> 00:02:28.800 In the book of Judges, Israel's very divided, and these judges are raised up, and they help Israel to 00:02:28.800 --> 00:02:30.680 thwart off enemies around them. 00:02:30.680 --> 00:02:37.940 They walk in disobedience, God brings excuse me, a people, group up against Israel, and 00:02:37.940 --> 00:02:43.120 Israel in that oppression turns back to God and the cry out to God, and so God raises up a judge and delivers them. 00:02:43.860 --> 00:02:49.480 By the time you get to the end of the book of Judges, Israel's enemies are no longer on the outside; Israel's enemies are on the inside. 00:02:49.760 --> 00:02:51.440 They're actually warring against one another. 00:02:51.560 --> 00:02:53.820 When you read that book, you get to the end, it just gets depressing. 00:02:54.080 --> 00:03:00.320 It's like God's people sent to this Promised Land with all the hope in the world, and they live in disobedience rather than follow after God. 00:03:00.360 --> 00:03:01.340 They're judged because of it. 00:03:01.400 --> 00:03:04.940 First, they're oppressed by outside people then they're oppressed by their own people. 00:03:04.940 --> 00:03:10.560 The theme that is stated in the book of Judges a few times is that everyone does what's right in their own eyes. 00:03:11.840 --> 00:03:18.940 This idea of individuality of declaration that I am God rather than God himself, and people choose to live life as if they were 00:03:18.940 --> 00:03:19.260 God. 00:03:19.860 --> 00:03:24.720 What happens in the book of Judges, is that really, Israel just starts to fall apart. 00:03:24.780 --> 00:03:30.000 When you get to the book of Samuel, you see this last judge who's raised up who is Samuel. 00:03:30.540 --> 00:03:37.660 We saw this last week that the story of Samuel, when God brings the kingdom of Israel together under one king who really becomes a picture 00:03:37.680 --> 00:03:44.720 of Jesus in many ways, but when God does that, it starts on the back of a prayer of a godly woman named Hannah. 00:03:45.720 --> 00:03:52.720 Hannah in chapter one, she's experiencing adversity in her own family and pressure from her own culture and she 00:03:52.720 --> 00:03:59.900 chooses to rise up by bowing down not to her culture, not to her family, not to people around her, but to the Lord and 00:03:59.900 --> 00:04:05.160 she offers up a prayer to God and really offers up her child to the Lord, which is Samuel. 00:04:06.160 --> 00:04:09.320 Samuel rises up as the last judge in Israel. 00:04:09.700 --> 00:04:16.820 When you read the book of Judges, you'll see that Eli is a priest during this time, and he's allowing his lineage to follow an 00:04:16.820 --> 00:04:23.980 ungodly line, and so God does away with Eli and raises up Samuel, and Samuel acts in chapter seven as 00:04:23.980 --> 00:04:25.240 a judge over Israel. 00:04:25.520 --> 00:04:28.630 In chapter eight, Israel rejects him and they want a king for themselves. 00:04:29.260 --> 00:04:33.000 When you get to chapter nine, chapter 10, they find that king in Saul. 00:04:33.720 --> 00:04:40.720 Now what's ironic about Saul is when they go to anoint him, Samuel gathers all the people of Israel around like, "Okay, let's have this big celebration of anointing our 00:04:40.720 --> 00:04:43.760 first king," and they can't even find Saul, he's hiding. 00:04:43.760 --> 00:04:44.700 They have to drag him out. 00:04:45.260 --> 00:04:49.990 He was that kind of a character just shy, and they bring him out and they anoint him as king. 00:04:50.320 --> 00:04:52.920 By the time you get to chapter 13, Saul is full of himself. 00:04:54.340 --> 00:05:01.420 He offers up a sacrifice in a way that God tells him not to do, and that's when you get to the famous verse in 1 00:05:01.420 --> 00:05:03.520 Samuel 13, we'll talk about this next week. 00:05:03.820 --> 00:05:10.960 But in verse 14, he says, "God is seeking after a man after his own heart." He looks at Saul, who walks in disobedience 00:05:11.040 --> 00:05:13.300 and says, "Saul, this is not what God wants. 00:05:13.620 --> 00:05:20.720 God is now pursuing after a man who's seeking after his own heart." Then when you get to chapter 15, Saul does something again, where he 00:05:20.720 --> 00:05:23.980 displays his own arrogance and chooses to walk in disobedience. 00:05:24.500 --> 00:05:27.940 Because Saul does what everyone did in the book of Judges, he makes life about him. 00:05:29.000 --> 00:05:32.890 He masks this in some of the way that he conducts himself, which we're going to look at. 00:05:33.520 --> 00:05:40.780 But he walks in disobedience because when you get to chapter 15, what God tells Saul is, "I want to go to the Amalekites and I want you to destroy 00:05:40.780 --> 00:05:47.420 them." Now, we're going to talk a little bit about why God would say that in a minute, but he says, "I want you go to the Amalekites and destroy them. 00:05:47.780 --> 00:05:49.680 I don't want you to take anything for yourself. 00:05:49.740 --> 00:05:56.860 Go and utterly destroy them and take nothing for yourself." Saul leads an army in to destroy and 00:05:57.140 --> 00:05:58.640 they win the battle. 00:05:58.640 --> 00:05:59.470 They win the victory. 00:06:00.040 --> 00:06:02.440 But Saul brings some stuff back. 00:06:03.880 --> 00:06:07.900 Then God comes to Samuel and says, "Saul was disobedient. 00:06:07.940 --> 00:06:09.800 He did what I told him not to do. 00:06:11.000 --> 00:06:18.060 I'm going to tear the kingdom away from him." He tells Samuel to go tell Saul, "Go talk to Saul." He gives Samuel 00:06:18.060 --> 00:06:18.740 a message. 00:06:19.760 --> 00:06:23.800 In verse 10 of chapter 15, it says that Samuel was really tossing all night about this. 00:06:24.300 --> 00:06:31.460 Finally in verse 12 where we're going to pick up, I'm going to read verse 12 to verse 19, so you can hear how this story unfolds, where Samuel comes looking 00:06:31.480 --> 00:06:32.080 for Saul. 00:06:32.180 --> 00:06:39.560 It says, "Samuel rose early in the morning to meet Saul." It was told Samuel saying, "Saul came to Carmel, and 00:06:39.560 --> 00:06:46.560 behold, he set up a monument for himself, then turned and proceeded on down to Gilgal." I should just tell you guys 00:06:46.560 --> 00:06:48.030 the word Carmel is pronounced Carmel. 00:06:48.100 --> 00:06:50.200 If you don't pronounce it that way, you pronounce it wrong, right? 00:06:50.260 --> 00:06:50.960 I'm kidding. 00:06:50.960 --> 00:06:58.180 But he goes down to Gilgal and Samuel came to Saul and Saul said to him, "Blessed are you of the Lord. 00:06:58.680 --> 00:07:05.800 I carried out the command of the Lord." But Samuel said, "What is this bleating of the 00:07:05.800 --> 00:07:12.780 sheep in my ears and the lowing of oxen, which I hear?" Remember, Saul's told go fight in a battle and don't take anything. 00:07:13.410 --> 00:07:20.080 I can imagine off in the distance Saul sees Samuel coming down the hill, he's like, "Ah, we've got some animals here we're not supposed to have. 00:07:20.400 --> 00:07:20.880 Cover them with blankets. 00:07:21.260 --> 00:07:28.260 We'll tell him that they're just tables." Samuel shows up and he's like, Saul's like, "We did what God said," and he's like, 00:07:28.380 --> 00:07:29.000 "Oh, really? 00:07:29.340 --> 00:07:31.780 What is this talking table over here that I hear? 00:07:32.060 --> 00:07:33.330 Where are these sheep that are bleating? 00:07:33.480 --> 00:07:40.560 What is going on here?" Saul said, "They have brought them from the Amalekites," in verse 15, "for the people spare the best of the sheep 00:07:40.560 --> 00:07:47.720 and oxen, to sacrifice to the Lord your God, but the rest we have utterly destroyed." Then Samuel said to Saul, 00:07:47.900 --> 00:07:55.280 "Wait, and let me tell you what the Lord said to me last night." He said to him, "Speak," and Samuel said, "Is it not true, though 00:07:55.280 --> 00:08:02.520 you were a little in your own eyes, you were made the head of the tribes of Israel and the Lord anointed you king over Israel, and the Lord sent 00:08:02.520 --> 00:08:09.580 you on a mission and said, 'Go and utterly destroy the sinners, the Amalekites and fight against them until they are 00:08:09.580 --> 00:08:19.060 exterminated.' Why then did you not obey the voice of the Lord, but rushed upon the spoil and did what was evil in the sight of God?" When 00:08:19.060 --> 00:08:24.640 you get to this section of scripture, the narrative here is not about the Amalekites. 00:08:26.580 --> 00:08:31.280 The narrative in the story is to share about Saul and his disobedience. 00:08:31.740 --> 00:08:38.840 I find that in our culture today, when we see the justice of God, sometimes we can't hear the narrative, story and the 00:08:38.840 --> 00:08:45.810 significance of what this narrative is about, because we've got something else to deal with, and that is the destruction of the Amalekites. 00:08:46.240 --> 00:08:51.520 I want to talk about this just for a minute so we can look past that to the point of what this whole passage is. 00:08:52.120 --> 00:08:59.460 But I remember in our middle class, suburban areas of life when we see the justice of God, sometimes we kick 00:08:59.460 --> 00:09:00.480 against that. 00:09:00.600 --> 00:09:03.420 We'll say things like, "I don't like the God of the Old Testament. 00:09:04.120 --> 00:09:05.040 I like the God of the New Testament. 00:09:05.940 --> 00:09:13.300 God is love." We forget sometimes in our life, in order for God to be that great, loving God that we look for there needs to be justice. 00:09:14.420 --> 00:09:21.800 In our society where things may go a little bit easier than other places in this world, we like to emphasize the love 00:09:21.800 --> 00:09:23.460 of God and not the justice of God. 00:09:23.980 --> 00:09:31.140 But when you're living in a place in the world that's full of destruction and crime or even you're being persecuted as a Christian, you find the 00:09:31.140 --> 00:09:33.800 justice of God as a very loving thing, right? 00:09:34.520 --> 00:09:41.560 But nonetheless, we look at passages like this and we're like, "Gods talking about the destruction of the Amalekites."- "Go down and utterly destroy 00:09:41.560 --> 00:09:43.860 them." How do you deal with that? 00:09:45.210 --> 00:09:46.640 Maybe you don't ask that question. 00:09:46.660 --> 00:09:47.840 Maybe you're okay with that. 00:09:47.840 --> 00:09:54.940 But if you're not asking the question, if you talk about the Lord with anyone else, especially to a nonbeliever, they're going to look at a passage like this and say, "How can you love a god like 00:09:54.940 --> 00:09:59.510 this?" What do you do with this? 00:09:59.840 --> 00:10:03.750 I think we've got to answer the question to be able to deal with the significance of Saul. 00:10:04.660 --> 00:10:09.600 But why would God order this destruction of the Amalekites? 00:10:09.600 --> 00:10:16.600 Well, when you look at the significance of scripture, and I put this in your notes, if you got the sermon notes here 00:10:16.600 --> 00:10:22.560 in written format, I put a bunch of references here, if you download our app, and you click on the sermon notes, you'll see a bunch of references here. 00:10:22.880 --> 00:10:23.980 You can look these up later. 00:10:24.020 --> 00:10:25.240 I don't have time to go through them all. 00:10:25.600 --> 00:10:27.980 But I'm going to give you a little highlight to what these are saying. 00:10:29.260 --> 00:10:31.880 All the way back in Genesis 15:13-16. 00:10:32.960 --> 00:10:39.960 God calls a man named Abraham and says, "Through him, I will bless all nations." God is the God who is very much in favor of all people, 00:10:40.280 --> 00:10:40.560 groups. 00:10:40.620 --> 00:10:41.860 God created them all in his image. 00:10:42.260 --> 00:10:43.620 God thinks life is important. 00:10:44.000 --> 00:10:47.680 There is no person that is born that is an accident, right. 00:10:47.920 --> 00:10:49.100 God foresees all of it. 00:10:49.100 --> 00:10:50.140 God permits all of it. 00:10:50.580 --> 00:10:52.000 God created everyone in his image. 00:10:52.040 --> 00:10:52.530 It is sacred. 00:10:53.160 --> 00:10:58.620 To hurt someone and to kill someone, to do anything violent against the person... 00:10:58.920 --> 00:11:06.080 It can harm another individual, it can harm a people by harming someone else or a family by harming someone else, but it's always a violation 00:11:06.080 --> 00:11:13.120 against God first, because God created everyone in his image, which is why I will say as a church, "Look, if you want to love God, the 00:11:13.120 --> 00:11:20.180 way that you love God is by loving others because God made people in his image, and he wants you to reflect his glory to people." In 1 John 4:20 00:11:20.180 --> 00:11:27.240 says that, "If we say that we love God and do not love other people, the love of God is not in us." But here you have in this passage of scripture where God tells 00:11:27.240 --> 00:11:31.940 Abraham he wants to bless all nations through him, that God is now ordering the destruction the Amalekites. 00:11:33.240 --> 00:11:39.080 Well, in that same reference of Genesis 15:13-16, God tells Abraham, he's given him... 00:11:39.160 --> 00:11:46.220 He's in this land, the Promised Land and God says, "Look, I'm going to send you away for 400 years, and I'm actually going to bring you back." He says, "The 00:11:46.220 --> 00:11:53.260 reason I'm doing that is because the sins of the people in this land hasn't reached its height yet." What he's saying is, 00:11:53.360 --> 00:12:01.640 "Look, there's a people in this Promised Land that are walking in direct opposition to God, in a very negative way." 00:12:01.640 --> 00:12:09.040 In fact Deuteronomy 12:31 says, they're doing several abominable things, one of which they're sacrificing 00:12:09.040 --> 00:12:11.540 their children by burning them alive to false gods. 00:12:13.580 --> 00:12:18.700 God has for hundreds of years according to Genesis 15 is going to be patient with them. 00:12:19.520 --> 00:12:29.720 Finally, God's going to say enough and he brings Israel into this land and in Deuteronomy chapter seven, one 00:12:29.720 --> 00:12:36.740 of the interesting things that happens here in verse two and three, when God brings them into this land, Deuteronomy 7:2 and three, 00:12:36.780 --> 00:12:42.620 it says, "I want you to go in and destroy." He's talking about defeating people in this Promised Land, utterly destroy them. 00:12:42.660 --> 00:12:47.550 Then in verse three an interesting thing, says, he talks about not intermarrying with them. 00:12:48.160 --> 00:12:48.710 Well, it seems contradictory. 00:12:50.240 --> 00:12:55.680 In chapter seven verse two go in and utterly destroy them and don't intermarry with them. 00:12:56.000 --> 00:13:01.800 If God's talking about going in and utterly destroying a people, but then talking about not marrying within them, how can that be? 00:13:02.000 --> 00:13:08.240 Why would they even worry about marriage if they're going to utterly destroy them, these people, wipe them off the face of the earth, right? 00:13:09.980 --> 00:13:17.320 What I think is important when you read this in the Old Testament context is recognized that, this language is speaking in hyperbole, meaning, this 00:13:17.320 --> 00:13:23.530 week The Jazz are going to take on the Denver Nuggets and I hope we utterly destroy them. 00:13:23.730 --> 00:13:26.560 I don't want The Jazz to literally kill the other team. 00:13:26.820 --> 00:13:31.280 But what we're saying is, we want them to decimate that team, to move on, right? 00:13:31.800 --> 00:13:38.880 I think the same thing is true in the Old Testament language; they speak in this warfare language to intimidate the people around them. 00:13:40.360 --> 00:13:47.360 In fact, you'll see this in Saul and Samuel's interaction in this story where Saul is told by God, "Go destroy the Amalekites," and 00:13:47.400 --> 00:13:49.580 Saul comes back and says, I totally destroyed the Amalekites. 00:13:49.620 --> 00:13:57.380 I took their king and I took some animals, but I totally destroyed them." Then we find out shortly after 00:13:57.380 --> 00:14:02.260 this in the book of First Samuel, that king David has to fight the Amalekites again. 00:14:02.340 --> 00:14:09.360 We can look at and be like, "Wait, wait, wait a minute, I thought Saul killed them all except for the king, and except for their animals?" The truth is, well, this 00:14:09.360 --> 00:14:11.620 utter destruction is really war language. 00:14:11.640 --> 00:14:14.350 It's not, you're just decimating all of the people. 00:14:14.460 --> 00:14:19.880 What it's saying is, he wants them to end their way of life because it's perverse against God. 00:14:20.060 --> 00:14:26.580 When God sends Israel into the Promised Land, it says in Deuteronomy 9:5 that he's not sending them because Israel's so great. 00:14:26.720 --> 00:14:29.040 The reason he's sending them is because the people are so bad. 00:14:29.780 --> 00:14:33.050 God's using this not as a genocide, but as a judgment. 00:14:34.100 --> 00:14:40.840 God's working through people, especially the tribe of Israel, to highlight the goodness of who his God is. 00:14:42.440 --> 00:14:49.500 He sends Israel into this land and when you read the story of Israel, when they first go into the Promised Land, in Deuteronomy chapter 25, starting 00:14:49.520 --> 00:14:54.740 in verse 17, it says when they're going in as a people the Amalekites are actually the first group to attack them. 00:14:55.580 --> 00:15:02.740 The Amalekites come from behind and attack them and what that saying and recognizing, "Look, the Amalekites attacked you from behind when you were on this 00:15:02.940 --> 00:15:05.110 journey from Egypt into the Promised Land. 00:15:06.120 --> 00:15:13.240 When a group of people would travel, usually the back end of the group were considered the weak, the people 00:15:13.240 --> 00:15:17.360 that weren't able to keep up, the young and the elderly. 00:15:18.460 --> 00:15:25.600 These Amalekites come in and they just attack really the weak of the tribes of Israel and Israel didn't forget that and 00:15:25.600 --> 00:15:26.580 the Lord didn't forget that. 00:15:27.640 --> 00:15:33.400 We study even beyond this, if you ever read the book of Esther, you'll know one of the primary characters in the book of Esther is a man named Haman. 00:15:34.660 --> 00:15:41.720 Haman tries to enact a law that would kill all of Israel, and Esther is raised up to rescue Israel for such 00:15:41.720 --> 00:15:46.520 a time as this is the famous phrase in the book of Esther, but Haman came from the Amalekites. 00:15:48.160 --> 00:15:56.140 The Amalekites are wicked people and God is bringing the judgment, but it's important to recognize that when God brings this judgment, he's 00:15:56.140 --> 00:15:58.100 not talking about killing everyone. 00:15:58.100 --> 00:16:05.300 In fact, in Joshua chapter 10, if you want another reference verses 34 to 43, when Joshua leads the conquest for Israel into the Promised 00:16:05.300 --> 00:16:09.040 Land, it says he conquers all the people and then he goes back to his land. 00:16:10.060 --> 00:16:11.780 I think it says he actually destroys all the people. 00:16:12.620 --> 00:16:19.680 But by the time you get to Judges 1:10, it starts talking about all the people, groups that are still in the Promised Land, so which 00:16:19.680 --> 00:16:19.940 is it? 00:16:20.560 --> 00:16:21.620 Did he utterly destroy them? 00:16:21.640 --> 00:16:23.020 Or is that simply warfare language? 00:16:23.880 --> 00:16:30.960 In fact, the Book of Leviticus chapter 19, gives Israel laws in how to treat other people, groups that don't 00:16:30.960 --> 00:16:35.240 belong to the tribe of Israel, how to care for them, love them, welcome them. 00:16:35.800 --> 00:16:43.380 When you look at a story like this, I think it's important to recognize, look, this is a time period where God is working through a particular people, 00:16:43.680 --> 00:16:46.090 group to bring about his Promised Messiah. 00:16:47.200 --> 00:16:54.430 Now, I don't think that means we then do this again today, because this is working through a certain group of people for a specific reason. 00:16:55.260 --> 00:17:02.560 When we look at how God is communicating this language, it's important to recognize, well, God was patient for hundreds of years here, and 00:17:02.560 --> 00:17:09.619 these people were doing despicable things, they're killing children and God finally says, 00:17:09.859 --> 00:17:17.020 "Enough is enough." When I think about our time period today, if we were to read about something like that, we would want to rise up and do something 00:17:17.040 --> 00:17:17.420 about it. 00:17:18.500 --> 00:17:20.390 What's the problem when God does it? 00:17:20.680 --> 00:17:27.880 When you think about World War Two and the atrocity of all that was, and we think about, was it godly to stand up to preserve the life that was being executed 00:17:27.880 --> 00:17:28.800 in those chambers? 00:17:30.280 --> 00:17:31.740 I don't know anyone that would say no. 00:17:33.420 --> 00:17:36.840 It was a very godly thing to do, I think honoring because it was honoring of life. 00:17:38.560 --> 00:17:45.640 I think the same thing is true in a section like this that God's ways are better than ours and God has certainly been 00:17:45.640 --> 00:17:46.140 patient. 00:17:46.440 --> 00:17:48.300 This is what's happening in the life of the Amalekites. 00:17:49.880 --> 00:17:56.940 But the question in this, the real question in this passage, when you look at starting in verse 19, is just to ask, "But Saul, why 00:17:56.940 --> 00:17:57.620 did you disobey? 00:17:59.160 --> 00:18:06.280 If you know this what God said for you to do and you're the king of Israel, why would you disobey?" In fact, that is the exact question Samuel 00:18:06.280 --> 00:18:06.880 asked. 00:18:06.880 --> 00:18:12.880 If you look at it in verse 19, that's exactly what he says, "Why then did you not obey the voice of the Lord? 00:18:14.580 --> 00:18:19.400 Why did you do that Saul?" Then Saul gives his response. 00:18:19.560 --> 00:18:26.740 He's like, "I obeyed, sort of kind of." That's really what he says in verse 20, look at this, he says, "Then 00:18:26.740 --> 00:18:29.120 Saul said to Samuel..." Here's his response. 00:18:29.220 --> 00:18:35.900 "Why did you disobey?" Here's his response, "I did obey the voice of the Lord and I went on the mission of which the Lord sent me. 00:18:37.000 --> 00:18:42.260 I've brought back Agag the king of Amalekites, and I've utterly destroyed the Amalekites. 00:18:42.320 --> 00:18:43.540 Look at me, I've destroyed them all. 00:18:43.800 --> 00:18:51.580 I even brought back the king as the trophy to let everyone see," and then look at this verse 21, here comes, "But I obeyed 00:18:51.680 --> 00:18:58.940 sort of, kind of, but the people took some of the spoil, sheep and oxen, the choices of the things devoted 00:18:58.940 --> 00:19:06.620 to destruction to sacrifice the Lord your God in Gilgal." "Saul why did you disobey?" 00:19:06.740 --> 00:19:12.380 Saul at first, he wants to paint this good picture of himself and finally in verse 21, he tells us why he disobeyed. 00:19:12.840 --> 00:19:19.420 The first excuse he gives, "It wasn't my fault." "It's not my fault. 00:19:20.080 --> 00:19:22.100 It's the people, the people. 00:19:22.240 --> 00:19:28.210 I need to blame the people." This is as old as the Garden of Eden when Adam and Eve sinned, do you remember that? 00:19:28.400 --> 00:19:35.020 God shows up in the garden's like, "Adam, why did you do this?" He's like, "It's the wife that you gave me." It's always everyone else's fault. 00:19:35.100 --> 00:19:36.700 I'm never taking responsibility. 00:19:37.240 --> 00:19:39.230 It's the people in the circumstance. 00:19:40.780 --> 00:19:48.720 It's funny for us as people; we try to make excuses by our own behavior. 00:19:49.560 --> 00:19:51.990 Our tendency sometimes is to blame people. 00:19:52.260 --> 00:19:56.770 It's like, if God had known better and he just gave me the right environment, I could have thrived. 00:19:57.920 --> 00:20:00.950 It's the environments fault and the people around, it's their fault. 00:20:01.600 --> 00:20:04.700 It has nothing to do with me God, it's everyone else. 00:20:04.780 --> 00:20:07.980 If everyone would just do what I want them to do, then life would be perfect. 00:20:09.620 --> 00:20:18.640 But, I think it's important to remind ourselves, our first parents Adam and Eve had paradise and 00:20:18.640 --> 00:20:25.740 even in the perfect circumstance and the perfect environment, they still don't walk 00:20:25.740 --> 00:20:28.320 with God. 00:20:29.380 --> 00:20:32.020 Is it really the people? 00:20:35.240 --> 00:20:42.900 I think Saul is using this as an excuse to blind his own failures in his character. 00:20:44.140 --> 00:20:46.350 I think yes, environments aren't always easy. 00:20:46.440 --> 00:20:52.520 Yes, making the right friends can help certainly us make wiser decisions as people. 00:20:55.540 --> 00:21:01.900 But I think blaming others really stops us from addressing our own faults and living the life that God calls us to live. 00:21:03.580 --> 00:21:06.600 Could you imagine making that excuse before God face-to-face one day? 00:21:06.600 --> 00:21:08.080 I know Saul's doing it here before people. 00:21:08.460 --> 00:21:10.030 It's not my fault, it's the people's fault. 00:21:11.280 --> 00:21:13.840 But can you imagine meeting God face-to-face one day and saying that to him? 00:21:15.260 --> 00:21:22.300 God, the reason I didn't live for the purpose for which you created me and the reason for my design in this 00:21:22.300 --> 00:21:24.740 world, it was just too hard. 00:21:26.140 --> 00:21:29.800 The people around me, they were just difficult. 00:21:30.180 --> 00:21:34.480 I can imagine, if you just think about that for a minute, people are going to be people, no matter where you go in life. 00:21:34.600 --> 00:21:41.150 Just because you decide, I'm not going to follow God because people make it hard, does that automatically mean that people are just going to make it easy for you, wherever you go? 00:21:41.440 --> 00:21:44.140 People are going to be people no matter what, wherever you go. 00:21:44.140 --> 00:21:46.660 Could you imagine God's response to that? 00:21:47.060 --> 00:21:52.800 If we were to say, "God, I wanted to live for you, but it was the people God, people just made it too hard. 00:21:52.860 --> 00:21:53.380 I just didn't... 00:21:53.400 --> 00:21:57.600 I couldn't do it anymore because of the people," and Jesus is saying, "Are you kidding me? 00:21:58.080 --> 00:22:04.920 Did you read my word?" Jesus gave his entire life into the point of death at the hands of people so that we could find life in him. 00:22:05.240 --> 00:22:07.860 He's like, "Of course, I knew that that's how people are. 00:22:07.860 --> 00:22:08.900 That's the reason I came. 00:22:08.900 --> 00:22:11.760 I came to rescue people, because people are still important. 00:22:11.760 --> 00:22:18.860 They're made in my image." Have you ever read Philippians chapter two, "Though being in the form of God, he makes himself a servant and willingly 00:22:18.860 --> 00:22:24.820 dies on the cross." Of course, he knows life isn't easy. 00:22:24.920 --> 00:22:30.480 Of course, he knows people can be difficult, but that isn't the reason that we do or don't follow God. 00:22:32.960 --> 00:22:34.320 Circumstances always change. 00:22:34.320 --> 00:22:38.720 Sometimes life is easy and sometimes life is hard, but we don't follow Jesus because life is easy or life is hard. 00:22:39.000 --> 00:22:41.430 We follow Jesus because it's true and its life transforming. 00:22:43.320 --> 00:22:47.540 Saul gives this first excuse, "God, it's not my fault. 00:22:47.560 --> 00:22:55.060 It's the people." Then it he gives reason two, he 00:22:55.060 --> 00:22:55.720 disobeyed. 00:22:55.740 --> 00:23:02.780 Ready, he says this, "But the people took some of the spoil." Then he says, "The sheep and the oxen, the choice of 00:23:02.780 --> 00:23:07.500 the things devoted to destruction, look God to sacrifice to the Lord your God at Gilgal. 00:23:10.060 --> 00:23:11.440 It's not like we're totally bad. 00:23:13.320 --> 00:23:17.140 We're still a good person." That's what he's saying, right? 00:23:18.500 --> 00:23:23.300 "I mean God, yeah, of course, I didn't give you everything that you wanted, but I gave you something. 00:23:24.720 --> 00:23:25.560 Be happy with something God. 00:23:27.200 --> 00:23:35.120 Yeah, we took the animals but doesn't God know that we're going to give it all back to him?" I 00:23:35.120 --> 00:23:36.440 didn't tell you this. 00:23:36.440 --> 00:23:43.960 But one of the reasons I think God says this about the Amalekites when he says to Saul, "Saul, go 00:23:43.960 --> 00:23:51.060 into the land and destroy the Amalekites and take nothing." The reason God says this 00:23:51.060 --> 00:23:58.010 is because I think God wants to use this moment as to set himself apart from all the other gods and people in this area. 00:23:58.640 --> 00:24:05.880 What I mean is, during this time period and really any time period after this, when people go to war, there's some profiteering 00:24:05.880 --> 00:24:06.650 from war. 00:24:07.920 --> 00:24:12.300 You go to war and you calculate the cost and also the reward, right? 00:24:13.680 --> 00:24:15.920 You can go to war and you can make profit from this. 00:24:17.120 --> 00:24:24.220 During Saul's day, people would go into battle, and they would go into battle sometimes simply because they could conquer another groups food resources or 00:24:24.220 --> 00:24:30.100 land or they can make people slaves, and so they would go in war against people in order to get those things. 00:24:30.540 --> 00:24:34.370 They would even entice their own people, their army that way, "Look, we're a stronger army. 00:24:34.440 --> 00:24:35.140 We can dominate them. 00:24:35.340 --> 00:24:39.130 Think about how rich you're going to get." And so groups would go into battle. 00:24:40.120 --> 00:24:47.360 But could you imagine if Israel went into the battle and this gets spread among the land, "Israel came in and destroyed the Amalekites, 'Oh man 00:24:47.360 --> 00:24:48.600 Amalekites had a lot of stuff. 00:24:48.900 --> 00:24:50.020 They're always attacking people. 00:24:50.220 --> 00:24:52.140 How much did Israel get?' 'Nothing. 00:24:54.960 --> 00:25:00.640 Israel didn't take anything.'" Could you imagine the people around, the would say, "What are you talking about? 00:25:01.520 --> 00:25:02.560 Then why'd they even go to war? 00:25:03.380 --> 00:25:09.760 What do they want?" They just simply wanted to declare the goodness of God and his holiness in this world. 00:25:11.640 --> 00:25:14.040 They took nothing. 00:25:16.280 --> 00:25:23.360 All that they said is, "They just want to walk with the Lord." That would have been an incredible message. 00:25:26.200 --> 00:25:32.810 But Saul takes stuff and he tries to cover up that sin by talking about how good he is. 00:25:33.700 --> 00:25:35.730 I'm still a religious person. 00:25:36.940 --> 00:25:43.940 Doesn't God know that we're going to still use this and we're going to honor him and we're going to make 00:25:44.000 --> 00:25:45.680 God happy by doing these things. 00:25:46.020 --> 00:25:46.720 I'm good, right? 00:25:48.820 --> 00:25:55.880 The problem with talking about our goodness in comparison to other people is, as long as you're comparing yourself to other people, you're always going to look good in some 00:25:55.880 --> 00:25:56.280 way. 00:25:57.020 --> 00:26:00.880 I heard a story once of a mob boss who's brother had died. 00:26:01.900 --> 00:26:09.020 His brother was his right man, right-hand man and a lot of the things that went on as he led as a mob boss, and 00:26:09.460 --> 00:26:16.720 when his brother passed, he went to a minister and he said, "Look, you're going to do my brother's funeral and you're going to tell people my brother 00:26:16.720 --> 00:26:23.860 was a saint, and if you don't, I'm going to kill you." The minister, not wanting to be killed, but to still 00:26:23.940 --> 00:26:31.320 be honest, he does the funeral and he gets up and he says, "This guy that we're burying today was 00:26:31.440 --> 00:26:36.930 the worst person I have known in this world, the worst person I've ever done a funeral for. 00:26:37.620 --> 00:26:40.000 He was despicable in things he did. 00:26:40.140 --> 00:26:41.940 He took advantage of people. 00:26:42.060 --> 00:26:43.160 He even killed people. 00:26:43.300 --> 00:26:44.130 He was an awful individual. 00:26:45.560 --> 00:26:52.980 But compared to his brother, he's a saint." As long as we're comparing ourselves to 00:26:53.060 --> 00:26:55.560 each other, we can always find someone else that we think that we're better than. 00:26:57.860 --> 00:27:02.560 But the problem with this religious thinking is that, our comparison is not to other people. 00:27:04.480 --> 00:27:07.860 Our comparison is to a holy God. 00:27:08.160 --> 00:27:13.660 Saul's using this moment to pacify as if he's helping God out, right? 00:27:15.840 --> 00:27:17.140 Doesn't God know... 00:27:17.140 --> 00:27:20.590 He's saying, "Doesn't God know that we're going to offer this as a sacrifice? 00:27:21.100 --> 00:27:25.640 "Can't God be happy?" It's like God needs him to give him these things. 00:27:26.100 --> 00:27:33.200 It's like, God this morning as we gathered the church, if we're to think like Saul in this religious 'I'm a good boy mentality,' or 'I'm a good girl 00:27:33.200 --> 00:27:40.340 mentality,' as if to think we're doing God a favor to show up, like God was sitting in heaven today, like, "Man, I really need someone to tell me how important I 00:27:40.340 --> 00:27:40.640 am. 00:27:41.680 --> 00:27:48.740 If that person doesn't get to church, I don't know what I'm going to do with myself." Or God's saying, "There's something I really want 00:27:48.740 --> 00:27:49.120 to do. 00:27:49.260 --> 00:27:49.930 I'm a little bit short. 00:27:50.180 --> 00:27:51.780 If someone, just one more dollar. 00:27:52.220 --> 00:27:59.380 Can somebody help me out, just one more dollar and I can get..." This is how Saul's treating this moment is if, "Doesn't God know we're going to tip 00:27:59.380 --> 00:27:59.680 him. 00:28:00.760 --> 00:28:01.880 God will get his little bit. 00:28:02.980 --> 00:28:04.280 We're still good people we're... 00:28:04.560 --> 00:28:11.640 I mean we didn't follow God completely." Religious way of thinking has 00:28:11.640 --> 00:28:20.100 us often consider this as people, where we think the whole point of Christianity is, "I 00:28:20.100 --> 00:28:20.980 did good things. 00:28:21.360 --> 00:28:24.260 Isn't God happy?" Or, "I avoided bad things? 00:28:24.800 --> 00:28:33.220 I didn't do bad things that other people do, doesn't that satisfy God?" But that's not the point of Christianity. 00:28:33.990 --> 00:28:36.340 It's not about living your life about doing good or not... 00:28:36.460 --> 00:28:41.120 Do you realize an atheist can do that every day without acknowledging God. 00:28:41.220 --> 00:28:43.320 They could do the same thing that a Christian does in behavior. 00:28:44.620 --> 00:28:46.120 They can do good and not do bad. 00:28:46.500 --> 00:28:48.920 Sometimes they can even do it better than some people that call themselves Christians. 00:28:52.720 --> 00:28:59.940 Samuel helps Saul see, "Look, this isn't the point." In verse 22, if you look at this is how Samuel responds 00:28:59.940 --> 00:29:01.700 to Saul in this. 00:29:01.760 --> 00:29:08.920 Samuel said, "Has the Lord as much delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice 00:29:08.920 --> 00:29:09.360 of the Lord? 00:29:10.540 --> 00:29:18.240 Behold, I told to obey is better than sacrifice and to heed than the fat of the rams." Here's 00:29:18.240 --> 00:29:23.000 what Samuel is saying in Israel's day, what you do is connected to what you believe. 00:29:24.160 --> 00:29:30.520 Now, I think that's true for us today but I think sometimes we deceive ourselves today but very much in Israel's day, what you do is connected to what you believe. 00:29:31.080 --> 00:29:36.760 I always say for us like this guys, how you behave demonstrates what you really believe. 00:29:37.840 --> 00:29:44.960 People can give lip service to God all day long, but the demonstration of whether or not you're really pursuing Christ or you know Christ is seeing 00:29:44.960 --> 00:29:45.920 how you behave. 00:29:46.820 --> 00:29:50.180 1 John 4:20, I quoted that to us a little bit ago. 00:29:50.980 --> 00:29:53.160 If you say you love God and hate your brothers, the love of God is not in you. 00:29:56.480 --> 00:29:59.140 Meaning, what you truly believe you obey. 00:30:01.340 --> 00:30:08.460 This is what Samuel's saying to Saul's, if you really think that you care about the Lord in your life, then you would follow the Lord. 00:30:10.220 --> 00:30:13.560 Samuel's saying the same thing to Saul in 1 Samuel 13. 00:30:14.660 --> 00:30:16.420 God is pursuing someone after his own heart. 00:30:18.220 --> 00:30:18.780 What he's saying? 00:30:19.100 --> 00:30:19.760 What is he saying? 00:30:21.620 --> 00:30:25.070 That what God is primarily interested in is your relationship to him. 00:30:26.780 --> 00:30:32.860 If you truly cared about the Lord, you wouldn't simply look at your relationship to God as if you were just tipping him to satisfy God. 00:30:35.300 --> 00:30:37.960 What you're really saying in that is that you ultimately care more about yourself. 00:30:40.600 --> 00:30:44.450 But what God is more interested in isn't simply an empty act of burnt sacrifices. 00:30:46.580 --> 00:30:47.940 What God is interested in is you. 00:30:50.460 --> 00:31:00.440 When God gets your heart, he changes your life and we walk in obedience to that, but what God wants more than anything this morning Saul, it's 00:31:00.440 --> 00:31:02.660 you. 00:31:04.300 --> 00:31:09.720 Saul tries to do this blame game of pointing to people. 00:31:10.460 --> 00:31:17.700 He tries to show that look, he's still a good person but in comparison to the Lord, no, he's not holy and what God is interested in is 00:31:17.700 --> 00:31:17.920 his heart. 00:31:18.240 --> 00:31:20.560 This is what Samuel's trying to wake us all up to. 00:31:20.980 --> 00:31:27.170 When you get to verse 24, you can say, "Oh, look, Saul repented." Look, then Saul said to Samuel, "I have sinned. 00:31:27.520 --> 00:31:33.120 I have indeed transgressed the commandment of the Lord in your words, because I fear the people and listen to their voice. 00:31:33.440 --> 00:31:41.440 Now, therefore, please pardon my sin and return with me that I may worship the Lord." We can look at and be like, "Oh, yeah, Saul's 00:31:41.500 --> 00:31:42.940 doing what God would want. 00:31:42.960 --> 00:31:46.960 He's turning his heart to the Lord." Here's what I don't want us to fall into the trap of. 00:31:47.880 --> 00:31:53.150 I realized this is a narrative story and it's saying Saul is begging for forgiveness here. 00:31:53.640 --> 00:31:57.440 But just because it's a narrative story it doesn't mean everything that's happening in the story is godly. 00:31:58.360 --> 00:32:04.840 What I mean is this; there is a difference in what scripture talks about in being worldly sorrow and genuine repentance. 00:32:06.980 --> 00:32:11.700 In 2 Corinthians 7:10, it talks about this idea of worldly sorrow and genuine repentance. 00:32:12.520 --> 00:32:13.160 Let me tell you the difference. 00:32:14.460 --> 00:32:21.460 Worldly sorrow tends to be one where you feel bad, not because you're agreeing with God, but you feel bad 00:32:21.460 --> 00:32:24.820 because you got caught and you don't like what you're going to lose. 00:32:25.640 --> 00:32:27.840 This is exactly what Saul demonstrates here. 00:32:27.860 --> 00:32:30.500 Remember in verse 12, Samuel goes looking for Saul. 00:32:30.560 --> 00:32:37.040 He's like, "Where is he?" "He's on Mount Carmel." "What's he doing?" "Oh, he's building a statue to himself." How conceited is that? 00:32:37.440 --> 00:32:40.860 You just show up to my house, and on my front lawn, I'm like, "Look, how great I am guys. 00:32:40.900 --> 00:32:42.280 Look at this statue I have built of myself. 00:32:43.020 --> 00:32:46.530 Tell me how wonderful I am." This is what Saul does. 00:32:46.660 --> 00:32:54.240 Then when you look further in scripture, you see in verse 17, Saul says about Samuel that he thought he was 00:32:54.240 --> 00:32:55.500 humble in his own eyes. 00:32:55.640 --> 00:32:59.350 He thinks he's less than his own eyes, not necessarily in the eyes of the Lord but in himself. 00:32:59.860 --> 00:33:02.200 Back before he was king, he was humble in his own eyes. 00:33:02.540 --> 00:33:09.640 Then when you're look in the same passage of scripture, verse 26, and 27, you see Saul's response to what 00:33:09.640 --> 00:33:10.360 Samuel says. 00:33:10.820 --> 00:33:17.920 Samuel said to Saul, "I will not return with you for you have rejected the word of the Lord, and the Lord has rejected you from being king of Israel." 00:33:18.540 --> 00:33:22.420 As Samuel turned to go, Saul seized him by the edge of his robe and tore it. 00:33:23.220 --> 00:33:25.710 What Saul is showing here is what he's really interested in. 00:33:25.880 --> 00:33:30.680 He grabs Samuel's robe and he tears it because what Saul primarily wants is the fame of being king. 00:33:30.720 --> 00:33:34.280 He's not going to just accept what God says, because he's not pursuing God with his life. 00:33:34.720 --> 00:33:36.860 This is not genuine repentance, it's worldly guilt. 00:33:36.920 --> 00:33:44.620 It's like this, for us as people when things happen to us that we don't like we feel bad for we get caught over, we feel guilty, not 00:33:44.620 --> 00:33:49.450 because it violates against God, because we're embarrassed we got found out. 00:33:50.960 --> 00:33:52.680 What the Bible's teaching us is genuine repentance. 00:33:55.260 --> 00:33:58.930 Genuine repentance is about agreeing with God more than anything else. 00:34:00.440 --> 00:34:00.780 "You're right God. 00:34:03.600 --> 00:34:03.860 You're right. 00:34:04.340 --> 00:34:08.600 I've been walking a path that's not about you. 00:34:09.060 --> 00:34:13.969 It's masked in you to look a certain way, but God, really it's about me. 00:34:16.909 --> 00:34:23.920 God, I want to let it go and just pursue you." What inevitably happens for Samuel 00:34:23.920 --> 00:34:24.980 is he dies. 00:34:26.389 --> 00:34:33.659 Go on and continue reading the story all the way into First Samuel, he claims to the idea of being a king so much, even though God told him he didn't want to be king anymore, that it 00:34:33.659 --> 00:34:34.820 leads him to his death. 00:34:36.820 --> 00:34:40.100 Now, I realize we're probably not going to be kings and queens here, maybe of your own home. 00:34:41.159 --> 00:34:47.080 But the same thing is true with us guys, that there are certain things we know that God says to us, "Look, partial obedience is not what I'm interested in. 00:34:47.219 --> 00:34:55.920 I'm interested in your heart and your heart would be fully dedicated to me." Then we say to God, "God, at least I'm giving you the ram, at least I'm making the sacrifice." Then 00:34:55.920 --> 00:35:02.060 we cling to the things that lead to death, rather than trusting the one who has life. 00:35:04.040 --> 00:35:04.780 How do we avoid this? 00:35:07.680 --> 00:35:14.120 How do we avoid this story being our story, but rather we see the beauty of Jesus being made known in our lives? 00:35:15.260 --> 00:35:17.020 Well, verse 17, actually gave you the answer. 00:35:19.020 --> 00:35:22.000 Verse 17, 18 and 19 really is the faithful response. 00:35:22.420 --> 00:35:29.200 This section is when Samuel came to Saul and he says, "Saul, why do I hear these sheep bleating? 00:35:30.560 --> 00:35:37.780 Why do I hear this noise of animals in the background if God told you not to bring any of them with you?" He says, "Do you want to know what God 00:35:37.780 --> 00:35:44.960 says about this?" Samuel makes his excuses starting in verse 20, 21, 22 or excuse me, 00:35:44.960 --> 00:35:50.740 Saul makes excuses but it gives us the answer to the healthy relationship with the Lord here in verse 17. 00:35:50.780 --> 00:35:51.380 Samuel said... 00:35:51.800 --> 00:35:56.560 This is what God told to Saul, "Is it not true though you were little in your own eyes? 00:35:57.580 --> 00:36:01.520 You were made the head of the tribes of Israel. 00:36:03.500 --> 00:36:10.620 The Lord sent you on a mission to go and the Lord anointed you, excuse me and the Lord anointed you king of Israel and the Lord sent you on a mission and 00:36:10.620 --> 00:36:13.260 said, go." What's he saying? 00:36:14.600 --> 00:36:21.680 Well, what he's saying is, it's important if you want to walk with the Lord, the healthy way one is to recognize who you 00:36:21.680 --> 00:36:24.240 were before you came to know the Lord. 00:36:27.840 --> 00:36:28.900 Without God, who are you? 00:36:31.680 --> 00:36:34.680 How could you possibly find worth in this world apart from your creator? 00:36:36.420 --> 00:36:43.480 You could make it up I guess for a little while, but at some point in your life, living that way, you're going to get depressed over the lack of value 00:36:43.480 --> 00:36:50.500 that you find in yourself and Samuel reminded Saul saying, "Look, do you remember 00:36:50.500 --> 00:36:57.600 who you were apart from God?" All of us in sin and we can try 00:36:57.600 --> 00:36:58.870 to mask ourselves in religion. 00:36:59.060 --> 00:37:00.320 We can try to blame others for it. 00:37:00.320 --> 00:37:03.460 We can build idols to ourselves to try to make ourselves feel great. 00:37:04.560 --> 00:37:06.420 But at the end of the day, who are you without the Lord? 00:37:08.180 --> 00:37:09.660 He's the one that made you and gives you value. 00:37:09.920 --> 00:37:11.240 Who are you without the Lord? 00:37:11.620 --> 00:37:20.180 Then he goes and says to him this, "Wasn't it the Lord that anointed you king over Israel." Meaning, why 00:37:20.180 --> 00:37:22.970 did you not just walk in the identity that God gave you? 00:37:24.420 --> 00:37:26.100 He anointed you king over Israel. 00:37:26.100 --> 00:37:33.260 This word anointing is very important because I said to us last week, it's in First Samuel that the word anointing is used for the first 00:37:33.260 --> 00:37:34.580 time related to a king. 00:37:35.820 --> 00:37:42.640 Hannah's prayer was the first time it was used in chapter two and talking about a king that a king would be anointed, and now Saul's anointed as a king. 00:37:42.700 --> 00:37:49.840 But here's what's important guys, when you look at this word anointing, this word anointing comes from sheep and shepherds. 00:37:51.500 --> 00:37:52.780 That's where Israel gets it from. 00:37:52.860 --> 00:37:57.810 You see them practicing anointing on people throughout their history, but it starts with the sheep and shepherds. 00:37:58.660 --> 00:38:02.980 Shepherds would anoint the heads of sheep in order to protect their sheep. 00:38:03.440 --> 00:38:05.320 What happened where the shepherd is... 00:38:05.940 --> 00:38:12.980 Sheep would oftentimes find bugs that would jump on them and they would burrow in the wool and sometimes they would land on their face when they would burrow in, sometimes they could go in their 00:38:12.980 --> 00:38:17.460 ear, and when they would go in their ear, it would drive the sheep mad and eventually kill the sheep. 00:38:18.840 --> 00:38:24.640 A shepherd would anoint the sheep to bless the sheep, to protect the sheep, and to empower the sheep. 00:38:25.740 --> 00:38:29.340 It gave the sheep a position of importance. 00:38:31.220 --> 00:38:36.380 Israel started practicing this anointing on their leaders, to demonstrate the same thing with God. 00:38:36.440 --> 00:38:43.460 They would anoint their prophets and their priests and their kings to show God's blessing and God's protection and God's empowerment. 00:38:43.660 --> 00:38:51.040 When you get to the New Testament, here's what you find in 1 John 2:20 and 27, in 2 Corinthians 1:21 00:38:51.040 --> 00:38:54.980 and 22, that God describes all of his people as anointed. 00:38:59.500 --> 00:39:03.580 If you belong to Jesus, you've been anointed by the power of God's Spirit. 00:39:03.840 --> 00:39:10.060 What that means is God's blessing, God's protection, God's empowerment on you to do what he called you to. 00:39:10.200 --> 00:39:11.000 That's what he says in verse 18. 00:39:11.220 --> 00:39:12.990 Now go on the mission, God's called you to. 00:39:13.740 --> 00:39:14.380 Live for that glory. 00:39:16.000 --> 00:39:16.740 God has loved you. 00:39:16.860 --> 00:39:23.400 Let me ask you the question then, the question when you look at a passage like this is just to simply ask, I hope Saul would have done the same thing in reflection here. 00:39:23.660 --> 00:39:24.280 I don't think he did. 00:39:24.460 --> 00:39:26.360 But to ask the question, why would God love you? 00:39:29.240 --> 00:39:30.660 Why would God love you? 00:39:31.920 --> 00:39:37.600 You can respond and say, "Look, God loves me because of the things I do. 00:39:37.620 --> 00:39:38.460 I've given him sheep. 00:39:39.500 --> 00:39:46.780 Or God loves me, because I'm better than other people." But 00:39:46.780 --> 00:39:48.120 what happens on the days or not? 00:39:51.160 --> 00:39:54.050 Or what happens when you don't have the kind of things to give to the Lord? 00:39:55.120 --> 00:39:59.900 Sometimes in your life, you might have this happen in a relationship where someone comes to you, maybe your spouse and say, "Why do you love me? 00:40:00.560 --> 00:40:05.240 Why do you love me?" Now you're put on the spot, you're like, "Oh no." You start to make the list? 00:40:05.500 --> 00:40:07.050 I love you because you're a good provider. 00:40:07.480 --> 00:40:09.880 I love you because the way that you take care of our family. 00:40:09.900 --> 00:40:11.300 I love you because, and you give these reasons. 00:40:11.940 --> 00:40:15.460 But what happens when that person is no longer able to do those things? 00:40:17.020 --> 00:40:20.820 Here's what you communicate by saying to someone, I love you because of what you do for me. 00:40:21.900 --> 00:40:28.940 On the day that they are not able to do that anymore, are you now communicating to them that your love stops because the only reason that you were loving them is because 00:40:28.940 --> 00:40:30.130 they did that in the first place? 00:40:34.600 --> 00:40:37.360 I love what scripture says about the Lord in 1 John 4:8. 00:40:40.660 --> 00:40:41.320 God is love. 00:40:43.080 --> 00:40:43.460 God is love. 00:40:43.500 --> 00:40:48.200 It's sort of to answer the question this way, "God why do you love me?" His response is not because of what you do. 00:40:50.260 --> 00:40:51.900 His response is better than that. 00:40:52.820 --> 00:40:54.440 His response is because of who he is. 00:40:57.600 --> 00:41:00.280 He loves because his being is love. 00:41:03.440 --> 00:41:05.080 It's not about what you do or don't do. 00:41:05.160 --> 00:41:09.080 It's about what he's done for you, and that invitation to belong to him. 00:41:11.240 --> 00:41:18.240 You ask the question, "God, why would you love me?" Or, "God why would you love Saul?" The answer 00:41:18.240 --> 00:41:19.820 has nothing to do with Saul. 00:41:22.800 --> 00:41:26.200 The answer has to do with the grace and mercy of God. 00:41:28.460 --> 00:41:30.850 The question then for us is why would we ever leave that? 00:41:33.600 --> 00:41:34.920 Why would we ever leave that? 00:41:36.960 --> 00:41:44.080 Why would we not embrace the forgiveness and goodness of Jesus in the way that he has given his life for us and pursue that, rather than the things of this world? 00:41:44.080 --> 00:41:47.500 The answer is, because of the deception we believe in our own lives. 00:41:48.960 --> 00:41:53.680 We buy into the lie that the things around us make us significant. 00:41:55.720 --> 00:41:58.360 The reality is, it always belongs to Christ. 00:42:00.100 --> 00:42:02.640 If we let go of those things, what we find is life. 00:42:04.440 --> 00:42:07.180 But if we cling to those things, what we find is death. 00:42:08.520 --> 00:42:12.320 The question then becomes in verse 19, then why not obey the Lord? 00:42:14.120 --> 00:42:15.390 Why not obey the Lord? 00:42:16.540 --> 00:42:23.560 Because if you're here today and you understand the goodness and grace of Christ that's been made known in your life, let me just say this, we all start our journey with God 00:42:23.560 --> 00:42:26.700 like Saul where apart from the Lord, we are nothing. 00:42:28.120 --> 00:42:32.720 The reason we have anything is because of him and we need him. 00:42:34.760 --> 00:42:36.740 We need to lay down the facade of blaming people. 00:42:38.560 --> 00:42:41.560 We need to lay down the facade of religion to make us look good. 00:42:42.900 --> 00:42:50.280 We need to lay down the idols of life and just simply say, "Jesus, give me the value in you." Jesus 00:42:50.280 --> 00:42:51.040 is enough. 00:42:52.880 --> 00:42:53.680 He covers our sin. 00:42:54.920 --> 00:43:00.450 He forgives us at the cross and he provides us his grace if we would by faith trust in him. 00:43:01.420 --> 00:43:03.950 All the Bible says, "Whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved."