The title of my sermon this morning is Respect for Authority.
Respect for Authority.
And we're going to use this story about Jonathan to drive home this point.
In this case, we're talking about respect for one's own father.
Jonathan was very disrespectful in this story to his father Saul and also Saul was the king
of Israel whom God had specifically chosen and anointed.
Now at the beginning of this story, Jonathan starts out as a great hero.
He starts out as someone who's doing great things for God but by the end of the story
we see where things go bad and things go wrong and as a result a lot of the Philistines end
up getting off the hook because God is no longer going to bless them for what they're
doing.
Now let me just give you the background of the story a little bit so you can understand
the context.
We're first introduced to the character Jonathan in chapter 13.
King Saul has only been a king for a short amount of time, one year at that point and
when we get into the events at the beginning of 1 Samuel chapter 13 and in the course of
the chapter we see where the Philistines are oppressing the children of Israel and they've
taken away their weapons.
They don't want them to be armed.
The only ones who have swords are Saul and Jonathan and the rest of the Israelites are
literally fighting with farming tools and farming implements, just whatever they can
sharpen up and use as a weapon but Saul and Jonathan have swords.
So Jonathan ends up fighting against the Philistines.
He ends up taking it upon himself to basically start actual fighting between the Israelites
and the Philistines.
He attacks the garrison of the Philistines and then Saul sounds the trumpet and says
let the Hebrews hear, alright we're going to war with the Philistines.
You know Jonathan has started this battle and most of the Hebrews are afraid.
They don't want to fight the Philistines.
They feel like the Philistines are just a much more powerful enemy.
So there's just a small force of troops with Saul and there's a small force of troops with
Jonathan.
So there's the two bands of Israel's armies with the two leaders, Saul and his son Jonathan.
Well at the beginning of chapter 14 here, what we just read, Jonathan just decides to
go in as a lone commando and take on one of these garrisons of the Philistines with just
his armor bearer only, just him and one other guy.
So they go there and they're going to rely on the Lord and they're going to rely on his
power so they pray about it.
They go up there and they say okay this is going to be a sign from God.
You know when we go up against this garrison, if they tell us to come up unto them then
we know God wants us to do this and he's delivered them into our hand and if they say well wait
we'll come down to you then maybe this isn't such a good idea after all, you know for the
two of us to take on this whole garrison.
So anyway the sign is in the favor of them doing it.
They go uphill, running uphill giving them the tactical disadvantage but Jonathan and
his armor bearer run uphill, take on this garrison of the Philistines and Jonathan is
just slaying one Philistine after another and his armor bearer is behind him just finishing
these guys off and they end up single-handedly wiping out 20 of the enemy's troops.
Now when this happens it has a great effect on the Philistines.
They're just kind of shocked and awed by this one guy with his armor bearer who just
comes up and just starts slaughtering their garrison and so they're trembling, they're
shaking in their boots and so you know they end up rallying, the Israelites I'm sorry,
they end up rallying when they hear about how you know Jonathan's winning and then Saul
comes with his 600 troops and you know everything just turns around and all of a sudden the
Hebrews that were afraid in the past now all of a sudden they jump into the fight and
they're coming from everywhere and things end up turning around and Israel ends up defeating
the armies of the Philistines here and God wrought a great victory through Jonathan you
know because Jonathan was the one who had the guts to go up there and do this and God's
blessing him and God's helping him.
So he starts out the story as a real hero having this great act of courage and bravery
and valiance here but as we go forward here we're going to see that he ends up making
a big mistake that ends up you know really messing up the whole rest of his life if you
think about it.
So let's look at the story here.
The Bible says in verse 14 now that we kind of have the context and we know what's going
on verse 14 it says and that first slaughter which Jonathan and his armor bearer made was
about 20 men within as it were a half acre of land which a yoke of oxen might plow.
Jump down to verse 23 so the Lord saved Israel that day and the battle passed over unto Beth
Avon.
Look at verse 24 and the men of Israel were distressed that day for Saul had adjured the
people saying cursed be the man that eateth any food until evening that I may be avenged
on mine enemies so none of the people tasted any food and all they of the land came to
a wood where there was honey upon the ground and when the people were coming to the wood
behold the honey drop but no man put his hand to his mouth for the people feared the oath.
So what happened here Saul made this pronouncement that they all need to fast that day and he
said cursed be the man that eateth any food until evening.
Now this was not a wise thing to do for several reasons.
Number one is that when you're out fighting a war and battling you're going to need calories
coming in you know so this is not really the best day to be fasting when you're out doing
this strenuous activity and fighting this battle and even we should use today common
sense and not be fasting on days where it's a hundred and fifteen degrees outside and
we're out soul winning for three hours you know that's not a good time for for fasting
you know there's a time to fast a time not to fast and so these guys are doing some pretty
strenuous activity and not eating so the Bible says as a result the people are distressed
I mean they're they're pretty stressed out they're they're feeling the effect of not
eating and all this strenuous marching and fighting and so forth.
So Saul had made this curse and you know you don't just blow your mouth off and make all
these oaths and cursing and all this stuff you know he'd done rashly here okay but he's
the boss you know he's the king he's God's man he you know is he being too strict here
yes has he gone overboard here yes but you know what that's the way life is sometimes
well Jonathan the Bible says in verse 27 heard not when his father charged the people with
the oath now what are the people doing the people are respecting King Saul he's their
leader King Saul has wrought victory after victory he saved them out of the hands of
their enemies so even though they don't understand why he made this vow and they don't agree
with what he did they're distressed by it they still feared God and they still feared
the king and they feared the oath and they're obeying even though it's hard to obey they're
obeying they're doing what they're supposed to do right now Jonathan didn't hear the oath
so the Bible says in verse 27 Jonathan heard not when his father charged the people with
the oath wherefore he put the end of the rod that was in his hand and dipped it in a honeycomb
and put his hand to his mouth and his eyes were enlightened then answered one of the
people and said thy father straightly charged the people with an oath saying cursed be the
man that eateth any food this day and the people were faint now at this point you can't
really say that Jonathan's done anything wrong because of the fact that he didn't hear the
oath so he had no way of knowing that he's not supposed to be eating anything so he in
his innocence dips the staff into the honey and eats so at this point he hasn't really
done anything wrong and then one of the people tells him after the fact you know it would
have been nice if they would have told him this a little sooner but they tell him after
the fact that his father had made this oath cursing anyone who would eat any food that
day now at that point what Jonathan should have done is said oh I didn't know that I'm
sorry I shouldn't have done that but instead he lashes out and begins to attack his father
be disrespectful to his father and look what he says in verse number 29 then said Jonathan
my father hath troubled the land that isn't true that's a lie King Saul has been blessing
the land King Saul has saved them out of the hands of their enemies repeatedly but instead
of being humble and just saying oh my bad my mistake I shouldn't have done that instead
he just lashes out at his own dad lashes out at the king of Israel God's anointed and says
well my father had troubled the land see I pray you how mine eyes have been enlightened
because I tasted a little of this honey how much more if happily the people had eaten
freely today of the spoil of their enemies which they found for had there not been now
a much greater slaughter among the Philistines so he's just using his own logic to say well
I think that things would have gone better had my dad not made that decision he troubled
the land and he shouldn't have done that we would have fought even better we would have
won even more victories and slaughtered even more photos this is stupid because they won
they won everything went great it couldn't have really gone much better than it did but
he's just blowing off his mouth attacking his own father criticizing him being disrespectful
disobeying instead of just acknowledging his error that was just an innocent error you
know what we're all gonna make mistakes and especially when we make a mistake just out
of ignorance or innocence just admit it and even if you knowingly make a mistake admit
it move on but instead he turns it around and criticizes his father now is there some
merit to his criticism yeah I mean you know it was a bad idea but that doesn't make him
make it right for him to disrespect and attack his father and the king of Israel and let
me show you just how horrible the results of Jonathan's actions are here before I do
let me just explain to you what he means by his eyes being enlightened see if you don't
eat or if you don't drink enough your vision starts getting blurry that's one of the effects
of dehydration or the effects of just not getting enough to eat it's so funny I because I was
thinking about preaching a sermon but last night I was reading my Bible last night and it wasn't
that late but it was it was around my bedtime and I'm reading my Bible and I couldn't even read the
words on the page because my vision just started getting blurry and I was literally sitting there
going like this I was like I like couldn't get it to focus and it took it took me like one minute
and I'm rubbing my eyes and I'm drinking water and kind of like you know and then finally you
know my eyes came into focus and I was able to read I was thinking man am I becoming an old man
here or what you know finally got my eyes to focus and I was able to read for a while but you know
that's what this is talking about the fact that you know that's one of the main effects when you
start getting tired and I know in the summer when it's 110 115 out you know sometimes I'll be in the
evening service and and my vision will start getting a little blurry and so you got to make
sure that you eat and drink right so I think that's what he's saying when he says you know I
ate a little bit of this honey he's not he's not talking like Buddha enlightenment here okay when
he says you know I ate the honey and I was enlightened he's basically just talking about
the fact that his eyes are open he can see clearly he's thinking more clearly he's fresh
he's got some calories coming in because honey is going to be instantaneous you know it's it's a
simple carbohydrate where you're gonna feel the effects of that pretty fast so he's blown off his
mouth and disrespectful here what's the result the Bible says in verse 31 they smote the Philistines
that day from Micmash to Eijalon and the people were very faint and the people flew upon the spoil
and took sheep and oxen and calves and slew them on the ground and the people did eat them with
the blood so what we see here is that as a result of Jonathan blowing off his mouth about his dad
disrespecting his dad and not respecting his decision now all of a sudden he has led people
into serious sin and I'll tell you what this pictures this pictures you know you dabbling
in saying a little bit saying well who cares what mom and dad said you know dad's too strict dad's
an old fuddy-duddy dad doesn't know we're smarter than dad you know and they blow off their mouth
about their parents and then they dabble a little bit in sin but you know what they could do lead
the other children around them whether in their family or outside their family into very serious
sin you see if somebody saw the pastor's son just mouthing off nuts to what dad said nuts to what
you know pastor Anderson says you know not only are they going to be emboldened to do that which
he does but I guarantee you they'll take it further you know and when you and your family
let's say you're one of the older siblings in your family let's say you're one of the big
brothers and sisters when your younger brothers and sisters see you breaking mom and dad's rules
blowing off their rules saying all these rules don't matter you know this is just their opinion
this is just their preference who are they to tell me what to do you know what they'll do even worse
than you did because you know Jonathan all he did was eat some honey right he wasn't the one
gorging on blood which the Bible teaches is of the devil it's satanic to be eating blood it's
something that God doesn't want us to do and Jonathan didn't do that but it was Jonathan who
emboldened the people to do that you know until Jonathan blew off his mouth the people respected
the oath the people were following the rules they respected King Saul they feared God they
feared the oath they feared the Lord but now all of a sudden they're just emboldened to commit huge
sins so when we commit little sin it emboldens people to commit a bigger sin and when we blow
off our mouth in disrespect toward the legitimate authorities in our life and tear them down you're
emboldening others to do even worse now let me prove to you as we go through this story that
there were even more bad repercussions this and that God weighs in on this in this story because
a lot of times when we're reading the stories of the Bible we have to interpret them based on other
scripture because God doesn't always tell us who's right and who's wrong in a certain story so as we
look at a story we wonder like is what this guy did here right was this wrong is God blessing that
so we got a study to see you know where God weighs in on this who was right who's wrong in the in the
story here we'll look at verse 33 of chapter 14 then they told Saul saying behold the people sin
against the Lord and that they eat with the blood and he said you have transgressed roll a great
stone unto me this day and Saul said disperse yourselves among the people and say unto them
bring me hither every man is ox and every man is sheep and slay them here and eat and sin not
against the Lord in eating with the blood and all the people brought every man is ox with them that
night and slew them there so Saul's horrified by them eating blood and so he sets about to fix the
problem right away by the way I'll just give you one verse on this you don't have to turn there but
Leviticus 19 26 says you shall not eat anything with the blood neither shall you use enchantment
nor observe times so eating with the blood is in the same breath with with doing a cultic or
satanic practices says in verse 35 and Saul built an altar unto the Lord the same was the first
altar that he built under the Lord and Saul said let us go down after the Philistines by night and
spoil them until the morning light and let us not leave a man of them and they said do whatsoever
seem with good unto thee then said the priest let us draw near hither unto God and Saul asked
counsel of God shall I go after the Philistines wilt thou deliver them into the hand of Israel
but he answered him not that day and Saul said draw ye near hither and all the chief of the
people and know and see wherein this sin hath been this day so what we see here is that Saul
has a plan to finish off the Philistines right after everybody eats the way that they're supposed
to eat you know they're supposed to eat in the evening after the day's over and they're supposed
to obviously cook the food and not just be gorging on it raw with the blood after they eat he says
okay here's what we're gonna do we're gonna go down there in the middle of the night we're
gonna ambush the Philistines by night and we're gonna wipe them out so that there's not a man of
them left we're gonna you know get these people out of our hair once and for all we're gonna wipe
out this army but when they go to ask counsel at the Lord they go to the priest they want to talk
to the Lord about it there's no answer from God God's not answering and so Saul says you know we
got to figure out what is our sin why God won't talk to us why won't God answer us there must be
some major sin here we got to figure out what this is verse 39 for as the Lord liveth which
saith Israel though it be in Jonathan my son he shall surely die for there was not a man among
all the people that answered him so when he said we got to figure out who sinned here nobody said
like sir it was Jonathan nobody tells on Jonathan they don't say anything and he even says well even
if it's Jonathan my son he's gonna die now again this is Saul blowing off his mouth making a rash
oath again just swearing to kill his own son if necessary then said he unto all Israel verse 40
be on one side and I and Jonathan my son will be on the other side and the people said unto Saul
do what seemeth good unto thee therefore Saul said unto the Lord God of Israel give a perfect
lot and Saul and Jonathan were taken but the people escaped and Saul said cast lots between
me and Jonathan my son and Jonathan was taken now this right here shows you that in God's opinion
the sin was with Jonathan not Saul because they cast lots between Saul and Jonathan versus the
people and God revealed that the sin was in Saul and Jonathan and then when it was between
Saul and Jonathan the sin was revealed to be in Jonathan so we don't have to wonder did Jonathan
do anything wrong we know that Jonathan did wrong why are they not able to defeat the Philistines
why can't they go on this night raid and finish off the enemy it's because there is sin with
Jonathan okay then Saul said to Jonathan because the Bible says the lot falls into the lap but the
whole disposing thereof is of the Lord verse 43 then Saul said to Jonathan tell me what thou
has done and Jonathan told him and said I did but taste a little honey with the end of the rod that
was in my hand and lo I must die that's not all that he did he also rebuked his own father talked
bad about his father disrespected his father told everybody dad's wrong his rules are too strict and
emboldened them to just eat a bunch of blood and led them into major sin that's actually what he
did but of course he's downplaying what he did and just say well you know all I did was just taste a
little honey with the staff that was in my hand verse 44 and Saul answered God do so and more
also this guy needs to just lay off the oaths for a while right God do so and more also for
thou shall surely die Jonathan and the people said unto Saul shall shall Jonathan die who hath
wrought this great salvation in Israel God forbid as the Lord liveth there shall not one hair of his
head fall to the ground for he hath wrought with God this day so the people rescued Jonathan they
died they don't want Jonathan die he's the hero he's the one who started the whole war he's the
one who started the victory he was greatly used by God so they don't want to see him die but Saul
is saying here well he's got to die you know because I made this oath and he has to be killed
so the people rescued Jonathan that he died not then Saul went up from following the Philistines
and the Philistines went to their own place now we don't want to walk away from the story and say
well in the end Jonathan got off the hook all's well that ends well well let's see if that's
really true did Jonathan end up living out a blessed life by God no okay yeah he survived
that day he got off the hook at that time but that doesn't mean that what he did was right
because God clearly was against what he did now let me just give you some other lessons from this
story and then we'll kind of get into the aftermath of this story look if you would
it Ecclesiastes chapter 5 we'll come back to 1st Samuel but if you would go to Ecclesiastes
chapter 5 so the some of the things I want to point out about the story is that first of all
Saul made some mistakes as a leader in this story didn't he Saul definitely made some mistakes I'm
not saying that Saul is without error here what are some of the mistakes that Saul made well first
of all proclaiming a fast on the day of the great battle although it was well-intentioned because he
wants to do what get God on their side get God blessing them rely on God's power imposing a fast
on other people during a time of strenuous activity though is overboard so I don't believe
that Saul should have done that you know he's his hearts in the right place and God still blessed
in spite of it they still won in spite of it you know they just had some hunger pains and were faint
and tired and distressed but you know what that's life but they made it through so one mistake that
Saul made was this idea of fasting on the battle day and imposing that on everyone and putting
this curse on them you know that was a bad idea okay secondly Saul made the mistake of all these
oaths of saying you know cursed be he who doesn't do it and God do so to me and more also and you
know even if it's in Jonathan my son he's got to die and everything he's making these rash oaths
repeatedly in the chapter that was another mistake that he made look at Ecclesiastes chapter 5 verse
2 the Bible says be not rash with thy mouth and let not that heart be hasty to utter anything
before God for God is in heaven and now upon earth therefore let thy words be few for a dream
cometh through the multitude of business and a fool's voice is known by multitude of words
when thou vow is to vow unto God defer not to pay it for yet no pleasure and fools pay that which
thou hast vowed better is it that thou shouldest not vow then that thou shouldest vow and not pay
suffer not thy mouth to cause thy flesh to sin neither say thou before the angel that it was
an error wherefore should God be angry at that at thy voice and destroyed the work of thine hands
so the Bible is telling us here don't be rash with your mouth don't be hasty to utter anything
before God and it's better that you shouldn't vow than to vow and not pay if you bow you paint
of course Jesus Christ told us swear not at all neither by heaven neither by the earth neither
by any other oath and then this is reiterated in the book of James telling us don't swear at all
don't swear by Jerusalem don't swear by heaven don't swear by earth don't swear by anything don't
swear by your head you can't make one hair white or black he says let your yay be yay and let your
nay be nay for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil so we just need to say yes or say no but
not all of these oh I promise you on everything on everything and you know I remember when I was
a kid people would say this blasphemous thing when I was growing up in California they would
you know make all these oaths on the playground and you probably heard this I swear to God they
would say right or they would say just sometimes they would just abbreviate it you know instead
of swearing on this and swearing on that I remember sometimes they would just abbreviate
it and they would just say on God who's heard that before where people would say that now look
that is super blasphemous it's the Lord's name in vain you know and it violates the command not to
swear by the Lord not to swear by his throne not to swear by his footstool okay but they say on God
and I would always just cringe when I heard that oh you know especially when people lie and say on
God I mean they're sitting there swearing on their mother's grave and they're lying swearing
on God or on everything that's a pretty scary one too on on everything I mean what's not included
that's your mom your dad God everything so you know first of all we shouldn't be swearing oaths
but if you make any kind of a vow or a promise or even if you just say you're gonna do something
you're supposed to do it you let your yay be yay you let your nay be nay so Saul is definitely
being rash or hasty with these oaths because we see him just throwing out three oaths in this
chapter and all three of them come back to bite him don't they so that's a good lesson right there
in not making those kind of oaths but what we need to understand and if you want to flip back to first
Samuel go to chapter 23 what we need to understand though is that authority figures in our life are
never going to be perfect authority figures in our life are never gonna be perfect if you only
are gonna obey authority when they're always right or perfect or just dead-on then that's
not submitting to authority and if you only obey the authority in your life when you think that
they're right that's not submission at all you know if you obey things that you were gonna do
anyway or you obey things that you thought were right anyway or that you agree with the decision
every time that's not submission submission is when the authority gives you a command that you
don't agree with but you say I'm gonna do it anyway cuz you're the boss and you know some of
you guys would stop getting fired from every job or stop being stuck at the bottom rung at your job
or at the entry level of your job if you quit thinking that you always know better than the
boss some of you need to learn that the boss is the boss the foreman is the foreman the supervisor
the supervisor and you need to get in there and do what you're told right and not always be
second-guessing everything you know better you have a better idea some people need to learn to
just submit to the authorities in their life and not be a know-it-all and not be one who thinks
that they always know better and so that's one thing that we can learn here is that authority
is not always gonna be perfect they're gonna make mistakes and you may even know for a fact that you
have a better idea or a better way you may know for a fact that you're right and if you say to
your boss hey how about we do it this way he says nope not doing it that way we're gonna do it the
other way it needs to be yes sir we'll do it the other way oh he's so stupid ah we did we make so
much more money if we did it my way if I were running things about and you know the the sad
thing is most people who think that way anyway it wouldn't be better if they were running things
that's only in their own mind now sometimes maybe it's true but it still doesn't make it right even
if you are such a great leader and you know what here's my question if Jonathan was such a great
leader and a great King why did God never allow him to become King why did God never allow him
to have that position of authority then if that's where he belonged because you know when God went
out and found a better leader than Saul it wasn't Jonathan it was David and if we compare David with
Jonathan they're very different from one another because David did not disrespect Saul and I mean
David is not even his son this isn't even his dad and yet David still had great respect for Saul he
submitted to Saul's authority and then when Saul's trying to kill him okay he runs away he escapes
he does his own thing but he still was afraid to lift up his hand against the Lord's anointed he
still wouldn't smite the Lord's anointed even when he just trimmed part of Saul's clothing to
demonstrate to Saul I had the chance to kill you and I didn't he felt bad about it he his heart
smote him for doing that so notice how different David and Jonathan are Jonathan's ready to throw
Saul under the bus at the drop of a hat and blow off his mouth whereas David is much more respectful
well you know what maybe that's why David becomes the king and not only was David anointed King all
of his descendants got to be King and that lineage would continue and then it would continue eternally
in the person of Jesus Christ the son of David you know Jesus isn't the son of Jonathan Jesus is
the son of David and what we can learn from this is that great leaders are first great followers
you start out by being a great follower and that's how you become a great leader and those followers
who are rebellious against their authority rebellious against their parents rebellious
against their boss at work you know that's not gonna make a great leader one day and while we're
on the subject let me just drive in this point that seems to have been forgotten today in the
year 2018 is that husbands have authority over their wives this is a Bible doctrine the Bible
couldn't be any clearer about this he says it six different ways to Sunday he says that the husband's
the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church the Bible says the man is the head of the
woman in 1st Corinthians chapter 11 he says the wives are to be obedient to their husbands in
everything to submit themselves under their own husbands I mean even as Sarah also obeyed Abraham
calling him Lord whose daughters you are as long as you do well and are not afraid with any
amazement I mean listen you doubt me ladies well get out of pen and paper 1st Peter chapter 3
Titus chapter 2 Ephesians chapter 5 Colossians chapter 3 1st Corinthians 11 that's your reading
assignment and it's so crystal clear any born-again child of God can give that a casual reading and
see that wives are supposed to obey their husbands and that husbands have a great deal of authority
over their wives it's not just a figurehead head of household it's not just the Queen of England or
something no that husband is the boss you say well I don't have to obey my husband it's not
like I'm a kid or he's not my parent or whatever you know what you're right your husband has more
authority over you than parents have over their children there I said it you know the Bible is
crystal clear how much authority the husband has over his wife and I'm sick of these bunch of
watered-down preachers giving in to the feminism of our day and the modernism of our day I'm not
buying it I'm gonna go with what the Bible says I'm gonna keep on preaching it now look are there
husbands that are jerk husbands or abusive or abusing their authority yeah well you know what
don't marry that guy then because nobody forced you to marry the jerk that you're married to you
chose him you made your bed you land it's for better for worse for richer for poorer and sickness
isn't health and poverty isn't wealth and forsaking all others you keep yourself only unto him so long
as you both shall live that's the vow that's the oath that's what you said you would do do it do
it say well you don't know what my husband well you know what you chose him you married him and
you know what we have today is a bunch of young ladies who want to date their bad boy and then all
of a sudden they're shocked when he's a bad boy it's like oh yeah they want to date this bad boy
they think he's so cool you know and he's a rebel and he's a punk and they think it's so cool when
he mouths off to his dad and mouths off to his mom and he mouths off he gets fired from the job
thrown out of class detention failing his classes oh he's so cool he's such a rebel right and then
they're shocked when he's committing adultery oh yeah guess what the guy who hates his parents
it's probably gonna commit adultery the guy who hates his parents is probably gonna get drunk or
get high the guy who hates his mother and his father is probably gonna do all sorts of wicked
things that are gonna mess up your life so why don't you marry a godly young man why don't you
marry a Christian young man who loves his parents loves the Lord loves the Bible and then that's
what you're gonna get a godly husband and you know the same thing you know you young men seek out
that virtuous woman not the one who looks like a hoochie mama and a hooker and a whore and then
you say oh well you know I can't believe my wife cheated on me look at the way she is when you were
dating think about that you know you what you see is what you get in many cases so you know people
the point being you think about that before you get married and you take marriage a little more
seriously when you start thinking it's for life it's till death do us part well now you're gonna
take that seriously now you're gonna not just rashly marry that bad boy or that sleazy girl
you're gonna stop and think is this who I want to spend the rest of my life with is this who I
want raising my kids and especially for the women I mean you're trusting your whole future with this
guy you're trusting him to be your leader your provider I mean good night and and and you know
yeah if let's say you're married to the wrong guy well tough and that can be a hard life that could
be a long life for you and I'm not saying it's not gonna be hard but you know what you need to
do it say well I don't have to obey him cuz he's XY and Z no you have to obey him period well he
smoked pot obey him well he drinks obey him he doesn't go to church obey him he's not safe obey
him it doesn't say obey your good husband obey your Christian husband obey your righteous husband
obey your law-abiding husband it says obey your husband and you know the only time that you don't
obey your husband is if your husband is explicitly commanding you to sin against God you should not
sin against God because obviously God is the higher authority but anything short of telling
you to sin against God you obey your husband it's what the Bible says and you know what we have too
many Jonathan style wife's going out and mouthing off oh my husband's so strict oh my husband's such
a jerk no you know you know what you're doing you're emboldening those women that you say that
too and even though you think you're such a great Christian and you're so spiritual and you're so
wonderful because you killed 20 Philistines or whatever and then you start getting all high and
mighty and blowing off your mouth well you know what maybe you're not gonna leave your husband
maybe you're not gonna commit adultery but what about the women that you're talking to and putting
all these stupid ideas in their head you know when you talk bad about your husband and and and
say bad things disrespectful things about him to other people you're emboldening them to eat the
blood spiritually even if you're just tasting a little honey on your tongue they're gonna go
they're gonna have blood dripping from their mouths I mean that's what you're that's what
you're doing that's what Jonathan was responsible for so we need to understand that we have
authorities in our life there are that God-given authorities in our life we need to be respectful
of that and and you know obviously our parents are a major authority in our life when we're
children right that's a big one and that's what we see in the story here you know we see Jonathan
disrespecting his own dad his own father it's wicked we're to love our parents were to fear our
parents were to obey our parents were to honor our father and mother which is the first commandment
with promise that it may be well with us and that our days may be long on the earth so you know our
parents are obviously a major authority and a wife's husband is another major authority those
are two of the biggest possible authorities that we have on this earth as far as really telling us
what to do those are the two people that are gonna tell you what to do the most it's pretty
much your parents and your husband's gonna tell you what to do his wife okay and then work is a
big one I mean you go to work and I mean you better submit master the Bible says servants be
obedient to them that are your masters according to the flesh that's the New Testament tells us
that so you know when you're working at a job you better submit yourself under the boss and don't
talk bad about him don't mouth off don't say oh that's a stupid rule because then your buddy at
work he's gonna start breaking the big rules because you taught him that breaking the rules
is fine even if you're a Christian you know we don't have to we only have to obey the boss when
it makes sense to us Jonathan looks at Saul's rules and say well this rule about not eating
doesn't make sense right it doesn't have to make sense there's no sin in skipping food for one day
it's gonna be hard it might be a bad idea it might cause the battle to go poorly but you know what
God's gonna it what if they would have just done it if they would have done it Saul would have fed
him a big dinner it would have tasted even better since they hadn't eaten all day and they would
have gone at night and finished the job and wiped out the Philistines but as a result they end up
not wiping out the Philistines the night battle never happens because Saul realizes hey if God's
not gonna bless this we need to just call it a day we need to just pack up and go home I mean
we you know Saul knew that without the Lord on his side he can't win so he's gonna go home John
yeah all right Jonathan let's go home so who blew it really Jonathan blew it for everybody and it's
not just that he tasted a little honey in ignorance it's that he got them all just gorging on blood
because of the fact that he blew off his mouth you know other authorities in our life obviously
we have human civil authorities now let me stop and say this there are certain authorities in our
life that have authority over us that that's a pretty total authority as far as our parents
meaning that anything our parents tell us to do as long as it's not disobeying God we're supposed
to obey him right I mean if our parents tell us to do something and it doesn't go against God's
word we have to obey them everybody agree with that I mean it's pretty basic right same thing
with wives you know if their husband tells them if your husband tells you to do something and it's
not against God it's not against the Bible then you're to do it okay now those are some really
supreme authorities in our life now there are other authorities in our life that are more
compartmentalized meaning that they don't have authority over our whole life they have authority
over certain aspects of our life right like for example your job I mean your job has a
certain authority over you but it's not like they're your parent or your husband because
for example they can't dictate what you do off the clock can they you know they can't sit there
and say hey listen you got to go to church on Sunday and you got to go to the Mormon Church
on Sunday and you know I've talked to people whose job forced them to attend a Mormon Church
on Sunday people who lived in rural areas of Arizona and they said yeah well they said I went
to church for years not because I wanted to but because my boss made everybody go to the Mormon
Church on Sunday otherwise you lose your job now that's an abuse of power there right and so if our
boss is telling us and look we we even have today bosses firing people because of something they
tweeted or something you know they're trying to kind of run their personal life and and you know
obviously we realize that the boss has authority over our work life right he dictates our work to
us and we do what he says as far as work but obviously he can't tell us who to be as a person
or you know the rules for our personal life or whatever right okay now the same thing with civil
government civil government has authority God has given us civil government to be a revenger to
execute wrath upon him that doeth evil meaning that the purpose of government is to punish crime
to punish crime you know I am NOT an anarchist we must have government in place to punish crime so
that people can't just steal and get away with it murder and get away with it rape and pillage and
get away with it right we need civil governments to protect the weak to protect the innocent to
protect our liberties to protect our rights but does the government have absolute power over us
as if we were their child or their wife no absolutely not they can't just tell us what to do
in the church house they can't tell us how to raise our kids and stuff like that you know I'm
gonna raise my kids according to the Bible I'm gonna preach whatever I want behind the pulpit
I'm gonna go soul-winning because God told me to go soul-winning and I'm not gonna let the
government tell me no and that's what we see in the book of Daniel right standing up and saying
hey we're not gonna do this stuff that's wrong but even if the if the if you know if if some
government official just came to my house and said sign my shine my shoes boy I don't have to
do that well the Bible says you got to obey the government sorry shine my shoes slave you know
obviously we don't have to do that okay so you know that there are certain authorities in our
life that have total power and then there are other authorities in our and of course everything's in
subjection to God's laws but there are other authorities in our life that are more
compartmentalized like for example at our job there's an authority the boss at school there's
an authority there you know at it's at the civil government level there's an authority now look
at church there's an authority we do not believe in a free-for-all Church we don't believe in
democracy Church where we vote on what Bible we're gonna use and we vote on the music and we
vote on the soul-winning program and we vote on the doctrine the doctrine the soul-winning the
preaching none of its up for debate none of its up for a vote it doesn't matter we believe in a
pastor-led Church period the Bible says let the elders that rule well be counted worthy of double
honor especially they who labor in the word of doctrine Hebrews 13 three times talks about those
who have the rule over you in the house of God and now the pastor has authority in the church but
does the pastor have the authority to run your personal life no does the pastor have the authority
to run your home life your work life no you see it's only within the sphere of the church the
pastor is a leader or a ruler in the church in the assembly with what goes on here you know somebody
has to call the shots and say hey this is the direction the church is going this is the preaching
this is the program and so we don't we don't rule by committee here and vote on it or have democracy
and give people what they want you know I'm gonna preach what people need to hear not what they want
to hear okay and churches that are run that way where the the the people are running the church
and where the pastor is like a lame duck and a figurehead and doesn't have any real authority
these churches don't get things done for God and false doctrine comes in and the pastor just gets
steamrolled over with this stuff now but then there are other pastors who take this too far
where they'll start saying things like hey before you paint your house you come talk to me and ask
me if it's a good idea to paint your house it's like man I wouldn't even want people asking me
so many questions leave me alone you know what do I do you know before you make any decision in your
life before you switch jobs but you know come talk to me that you know that's overboard because the
pastor's authority is in the church it's not authority over your home it's not the pastor's
job to come into your home be all right this has got to go get rid of this change this do
this fix this you know right and you know I have to respect boundaries and say hey look your home
the man of that house is the king of that castle it's not my place to go in there and start
dictating to him it's not my place to go into jobs and start dictating to people or telling
people what to do in their personal lives outside of church now look are there certain lines that
people cross sure you know the Bible tells us if someone is is in drunkenness or fornication or
these certain specific major sins then yeah we have to discipline them out of the church for
that we have to enforce that but you know as far as 99% of things it's not our place so we have to
keep authorities in their proper place but we need to give authorities their proper respect and not
just when they're right not just when they do things that make sense to us but just in general
we just respect authority in our lives and not only because we agree if we respected authority
every time we agreed that's not submission right submitting yourselves under your husband your
parents whatever involves a situation like with Jonathan where he looks at it and says hey this
doesn't make sense to me but you know what he's the anointed man of God king of Israel my own dad
I better just listen to him and obey him go to first Sam at 23 I got to hurry up and finish I'm
running out of time here let's talk about the aftermath here I'm going to show you the second
to last time that we see Jonathan in the Bible and then I'm going to show you the last time that we
see him as far as in the chronology of the story here let's see how Jonathan ended up now look what
Jonathan says here in 1st Samuel 23 verse 15 and David saw that Saul was come out to seek his life
and David was in the wilderness of Ziph in a wood and Jonathan Saul's son arose and went to David
into the wood and strengthened his hand in God and he said unto him fear not for the hand of Saul my
father shall not find thee and thou shalt be king over Israel and I shall be next unto thee and that
also saw my father knoweth and they too made a covenant before the Lord and David abode in the
wood and Jonathan went to his house now what I want to point out about this scripture about
Jonathan is that Jonathan was willing to be the second-in-command wasn't he he didn't have to be
king Jonathan was willing to be the second-in-command he said you know what David you're the one who God
has chosen you're the one who God has anointed you're the one who's going to be the next king
of Israel I just want to be next unto you man I just want to be your right-hand man I want to be
your second-in-command David now you look at that and you say what that's pretty noble of him right
I mean sounds great right I mean this is like a dream team you know David is the king and Jonathan's
is right-hand man everybody can be happy live happily ever after but look at the next time
Jonathan's mentioned first Samuel chapter 31 first Samuel chapter 31 verse 1 now the Philistines
fought against Israel and the men of Israel fled from before the Philistines and fell down slain
in Mount Gilboa and the Philistines followed hard upon Saul and upon his sons and the Philistines
slew Jonathan and Abinadab and Mount Kishua Saul's sons Jonathan ends up getting killed as a direct
result of the judgment of God this is the hand of God that is stretched out and kills Saul and his
sons because it was prophesied unto him by Samuel you and your sons will all die on one day so this
is the hand of God look you don't think God could have spared Jonathan other of Saul's descendants
ended up being spared even of Jonathan's descendants ended up being spared but Jonathan got wiped out
you know what God decided that he was not going to go into that kingdom that Davidic Kingdom that
he's not going to be a second-in-command he's not going to rule with David you know God was
displeased with him you know and and I and and and we see where he went wrong we see where he's
doing great where he's a powerful warrior where he's serving God but we see when he starts blowing
off his mouth against Saul leading people into sin and mainly because he was disrespectful to that
authority in his life of his dad God did not see fit to put him as a second-in-command why because
how do we know that he really would have been submissive as a second-in-command of course he
says oh yeah you know you're gonna be the king I'm just gonna be next unto you kind of like you
were next unto Saul where you just go out and attack all the battles without even asking his
permission without even getting his opinion and then afterward you you sit there Monday morning
quarterback and and critique Saul's leadership publicly talk about I mean is that what he's
gonna do to David oh man if David would have done this differently you know well God must have
thought so because God said no this guy's done you know when Saul's done he's done too so what's
the moral of the story don't be Jonathan be David you know realize that your parents are human
realize that your dad is gonna make mistakes your mom is going to make mistakes but that does not
give you the right to disobey them and it certainly does not give you the right to be
disrespectful to them and it really really really doesn't give you the right to then go to a third
party and say oh man my dad is this and my mom they're too strict because then you know what
those little kids are you think it's just an innocent conversation and maybe for you it's
not it's just a little honey on your tongue to you but how do you know that that kids not thinking
you know what screw this right yeah why do we why do we have to do any of this why do I have to obey
my parents at all right they'll take it to a whole nother level yeah they'll just start eating the
blood and you know the wives that get together and oh well my husband X Y & Z you know what are you
I wonder what you're emboldening those women to do oh you'd never do anything like that but what
are you emboldening them to do when you publicly do that and I don't care if you try to hide it as
a prayer request oh please pray for my husband he's a drunk he smokes pot he looks at porno you know
it's like oh yeah that's a prayer request why don't you make that an unspoken you know I remember
when I was growing up in church he would raise their hand for a prayer question just say unspoken
remember who remembers that back in the old days and you know and you just pray God whatever that
person needs you know just take care of it for him right now this oh please pray for me my husband's
real unreasonable he you know he has a bunch of stupid rules that I have to follow it's really
hard but yeah you know you're wicked and you're boldening people to do even worse so let's have
respect for the authorities in our lives let's not be a Jonathan let's be a David who realizes
that authority makes mistakes they're human nobody's perfect no pastor is gonna be perfect
no job supervisors gonna be perfect but he is the job supervisor all right he's still the boss
let's buy rides never word of prayer Lord we thank you so much for this great story Lord it's a it's
kind of a complicated story Lord and and there's so many layers of interesting things that are going
on in the story Lord but I just pray that that the story would would resonate with the people that
are here today Lord and that it would sink in and that people would walk away saying you know
Jonathan was such a promising young man he could have been such a great hero in the Word of God
but he just ended up blowing it because he blew off his mouth and was disrespectful to dad Lord
help us not to make that same mistake help us to honor father and mother and every legitimate
authority in our lives