you
you you
you
and the records clear today
for he washed my sins away
when the old account
was settled long ago
when in that
happy home
my savior's home above
I'll sing redemption's story
and praise him for his love
I'll not forget that book
with pages white as snow
because I came and settled
and settled long ago
long ago
yes the old account
was settled long ago
and the records
clear today for he washed
my sins away when the old
account was settled long ago
oh
sinner trust the lord
be cleansed of all your sin
for thus he hath provided
for you to enter in
and then if I should
live a hundred years
below up there you'll not
regret it you settled
long ago long ago
long ago
yes the old
account was settled long ago
and the
records clear today for
he washed my sins away
when the old account was settled
long ago
ok great singing thank you so much for being here
this evening just a few announcements before we
sing our next song which will be song number
28 alas and did my
savior bleed song number 28
if you want to get that ready in your song books if you did not
get a bulletin go ahead and raise your hand
and one of the ushers can get one for you
some important information on there
our Sunday morning service is at 10 30
Sunday evening is at 5 p.m. and
then we have a Thursday night bible study at 7 o'clock
we are currently going through the book of
1 Samuel and we will be in chapter 9
this evening you see there the so many
times in the teams the list of expecting
mothers we need to remove
Miss Olivia Lee from the list
by the way but please
continue to pray for the remainder of the ladies on the
list and then you see the important reminders
there at the bottom some of the upcoming church
events we do have the San Diego zoning marathon
coming up this Saturday at
8 30 and you see the location there in Chula
Vista if you need a ride
you can see brother Ulises Hernandez
he can fit approximately 5 people
comfortably 6 people comfortably
and so just keep that in mind and he will be
here he would need you to be here at 5 a.m.
because they are starting bright and early
in Chula Vista right I think it starts at
8 30 and so breakfast is at 8 30
and then they will give you the itinerary
thereafter if you have any questions
you can see brother Ulises Miss Ariel's
baby shower is coming up this
Sunday March 13th
and that will be after the service
so just keep that in mind that will be in the fellowship hall
and typically when we have a baby shower
something of that nature or bridal shower
we do not meet for
soloing and so team leaders just make sure you get with
your teams and dismissed
thereafter the
music training is coming up next Saturday on March
19th so if you're involved in the music ministry in any
way whether that's the orchestra
you're part of the the
CD that we're putting together your song
leader it's mandatory for you to be
there you're going to receive some some just some pointers
regarding our direction as a church
regarding the music and then we
will have lunch and that will begin at 11 a.m.
and then we'll have the training thereafter
men's prayer night is coming up on Friday March
24th men keep that in mind you can
bring your sons to come pray with you and
dinner will be provided and then we have
a samaria missions trip to national city
on Saturday April 11th
so we're doing a lot of work down
south in San Diego
and so we will give you more information
about that as we approach that date
and then something that's not on the bulletin
that I do want to mention is that Easter is coming up
and I love Easter
I love Christmas of course but I do love
Easter I think it's just a wonderful time
to invite family and friends to church
and I
preach a sermon but I try to gear
towards you know obviously kind of all
across the spectrum teach someone
regarding the resurrection but also just
kind of preach the gospel as well and so
if you want to invite your family and friends do
so we typically have a really big day
on Easter and so invite
as many people as you can I think last year we had
159 people and
now we have more chairs to fit more people
and so um
and then along with that I'm just going to
by faith announce this the
Friday before Easter we're
actually putting out a church
music CD okay
and it's not like congregationals
or anything of that nature it's actually
specials okay quartets
and duets and quintets
I think if I'm not mistaken
and all the ets no quintets okay no quintets
it sounds cool though um all of
those groups together and so it's approximately
about 10 songs and we're going to release
that on that Friday on
first works radio and so
and then thereafter we're going to continue to record more
music so every week brother Eric
and a lot of the people in the church are putting in a lot
of work to record these songs and
so Lord willing it'll be out it will be out
the Lord does will for it to be
out and I'm just kidding well we want to get out
on Friday so Lord willing it'll that'll happen
and then um and then we're
going to have Easter and so we'll have some
invitations for Easter uh in the
coming weeks and so make sure you hand
those out no food to drink
allowed in the main auditorium except for water and coffee
no loitering in the foyer and
fellowship hall during the preaching service
and then make sure you silence your phones during
the preaching so it should not be a distraction
during the service go ahead and pull out your prayer
sheet there we'll go over that
briefly please continue to pray for the
church corporately for God's favor in our church
for the soloing and the teams the
missions of course we're getting a lot of work
done in regards to the soloing in our in our immediate
area and we want to do our part
to go a little further out uh
to get more people saved and so pray that God will
prosper us in that area that he would lead us to people
uh who are ready to receive the
gospel and then uh protection
of our church a church van spiritual
numerical growth of our church we've had
a lot of new families join our church
and so pray that they would continue to grow
and they would get integrated
into the assembly and
uh make friends here of course and
and and just um and grow as a Christian
pray for the leadership and the pastors
in training we got two weeks left for the
pastoral institute it's been going really well
and so uh looking forward to
to kind of finishing that up there and
then if you continue if you can pray for the church
families you see the different needs there
and uh I do want to mention again
the church of the month steadfast baptist church
please continue to pray for pastor Shelley
and the church there as far as I
know they haven't found the building but they're kind of like
meeting in the wilderness kind of like the way we were doing it
uh the difference is they have a conference room
we met out we met under a
tabernacle amen but it's just as good
amen and so um they're still
prospering and and it's to them it looks
like it's just business as usual too
they're still preaching and they're still doing
their that that one podcast I don't know what it's called
or you know something about baptists
and the bias or something like that um
but they have that going on and so
business is continuing as usual for them
pray for them pray for pastor
Shelley that God will give them wisdom
and and be with the soul winning there
protection and success of the new building
of course and um just
just pray for him and I know it's a difficult time
for him and it can be very stressful
but we know that God is with him we know
that God's hand is on him and
the proof of that is the fact that he's suffering this persecution
and so please keep him in your prayers
and pray for him daily um
that God will continue to bless him if you have
any additional prayer requests you'd like to be mentioned
please put that at the bottom there and we'll put that
on the prayer sheet for the following week
and that is it for the more he's going to come on up and pray over these needs
um
uh bow your heads in a word of prayer
dear Lord heavenly father thank you for allowing us to be able to come
to church and Lord just thank you for the
church that you've given us and
thank you for salvation and the King James
Bible where we can learn and grow
closer to you every day Lord and Lord I pray
that we have your favor on our church and
as we continue to do the first works
and serve you with all of our hearts Lord
allow us to be um better Christians
and let us be edified
by the preaching that is being taught here
Lord and but I also want to pray for the
new people that come to our church that they
get acclimated to the church and
um in the lines of soul winning Lord I
pray that the soul winning uh marathon
in San Diego goes well and that we
have a great turnout and Lord we just pray that we're able
to uh plant seeds and get people saved
as we're out there Lord
Lord I pray for families to continue to grow and
and family salvations here Lord
and um Lord I also just want to pray
for um all the unspoken
or general requests that we have on here
Lord and Lord I also want to pray for
Aria Sanchez's father um
for healing after the surgery
Mrs. Stevie's father
um after um
the procedure that he had
Mrs. Susan's father and Ria's dad
um as they recover and
Lord please meet the needs and have a hand of healing
and protection over them and be with their families
uh Lord I just pray for the sick
people that are um that are in our church
pray that they can get better and get
back to church Lord and um
Lord I also want to pray for steadfast Baptist Church
um Lord I pray that uh
that the church continues to
thrive and um and Lord just pray
that um
whatever happens in the future Lord that
that they just keep being the center of their thoughts and actions
Lord and continue to bless
them as a church pray for Pastor Jonathan
Shelley that he continues doing a great work over
there and uh Lord pray that you bless
his congregants and his family and
and we pray for overall success for his church
and Lord pray that we're be- we're able to be attentive
to the sermon and leave greater
uh leave better than when we came Lord
I pray this out in the name of Amen
Alright please turn your hymnals to song number
28, Alas and Did
My Savior Bled
Song number 28
Alas and Did My Savior Bled
Song 28
Everyone nice
and strong all together
Alas
and did
my Savior
bleed
and did my
sovereign
die
would he
devote
that sacred
head
for such a
worm as
I
was it
for crimes
that I
had done
he groaned
upon the
tree
amazing
pity
grace
unknown
and love
beyond
degree
while might
the sun
in darkness
hide
and shut
his glories
in
when Christ
the mighty
Maker
died
for man the
creature
sin
but drops
of grief
can ne'er
repay
the debt
of love I
owe
here Lord
I give
myself
away
tis all
that I
can do
At this time the ushers
will collect the offering. Tonight will be in 1 Samuel
chapter number 9.
2
Tonight we're in 1 Samuel chapter 9
and the Bible reads
Now there was a man of Benjamin
whose name was Kish, the son of
Abiel, the son of Zeror, the son
of Becherath, the son of
Ophiah, a Benjamite, a mighty man
of power. And yet a son whose name
was Saul, a choice young man
and a goodly. And there was not among
the children of Israel a goodlier person than he.
From his shoulders and upward
he was higher than any of the people.
The asses of Kish, Saul's father
were lost. And Kish said to Saul
his son, take now one of the servants
with thee and arise, go seek the
asses. And he passed through
Mount Ephraim and passed through the land of
Shelisha, but they
found them not. Then they passed through the land
of Shelim
and there they were not
and he passed through the land of the Benjamites
but they found them not. And when they were
come to the land of Zoph, Saul said to his
servant that was with him, come, let us
return. Lest my father leave
caring for the asses and take thought for us.
And he said unto him, behold now
there is in this city a man
of God and he is an honorable man.
All that he saith cometh surely to
pass. Now let us go thither
for adventure he can show us our way that we
should go. Then said Saul
to his servant, but behold if we
go, what shall we bring the man?
For the bread is spent in our vessels
and there is not a present to bring to the man
of God. What have we? The
servant answered Saul again and said, behold
I have here at hand the fourth part of a
shekel of silver that I will give to the man
of God to tell us our way.
Before time in Israel when a man went to inquire
of God, thus he spake, come
and let us go to the seer. For
he that is now
called a prophet was before time called a
seer. Then said Saul to his
servant, well said, come let us go.
So they went unto the city
where the man of God was and as they went
up to the hill of the city they
found young maidens going out to draw water
and said unto them, is the seer here?
And they answered them and said,
he is. Behold he is before
you. Make haste now for
he came today to the city
for there is a sacrifice of the people today in the
high place. As soon as you
be come into the city
you shall straightway find him. Before
you go up to the high place to eat, for
the people will not eat until they come
because he doth bless the sacrifice.
And afterwards they eat that be bidden.
Now therefore get you up
for about this time you shall find him.
And they went up into the city
and when they were come into the city behold Samuel
came out against them for to go up to
the high place. Now the Lord had told
Samuel in his ear a day before Saul
came saying, tomorrow about this time
I will send thee a man out of the land of Benjamin
and thou shalt anoint him to be
captain over my people Israel
that he may save my people out
of the hand of the Philistines. For I have looked
upon my people because their cry is
coming to me. And when Samuel saw
Saul the Lord said into him
behold the man whom I spake to thee
of this same shall reign over
my people. And Saul drew near to
Samuel in the gate and said tell me I pray
thee where is the seers house
where the seers house is. And Samuel
answered Saul and said I am the
seer go up before me under the high
place for you shall eat
with me today and tomorrow I
will let thee go and will tell thee all
that is in thine heart. For as for
thine asses that were lost three
days ago set not thy mind upon
on them for they are found
and on whom is all the desire of Israel
is it not on thee and on all
thy father's house? And Saul answered
and said am I not a Benjamite
of the smallest of the tribes of Israel
and my family the least of all the families
of the tribe of Benjamin? Wherefore
then speakest thou so to me?
And Samuel took Saul and his servant
and brought them into the parlor and made them
sit in the chiefest place among
them that were bidden which were about thirty
persons. Samuel said unto the cook
bring the portion which I gave thee
of which I said unto thee set it
by thee and the cook took up
the shoulder and that which was upon
it and set it before Saul
and Samuel said behold that
which is left set it before thee
and eat for unto this time
hath it been kept for thee since
I said I have invited the people
so Saul did eat with Samuel that day
and when they were come down from
the high place into the city
Samuel communed with Saul upon
the top of the house and they arose
early and it came to pass about the spring
of the day that Samuel called Saul
to the top of the house saying up
that I may send thee away and Saul
rose and they went out both of them
he and Samuel abroad
and as they were going down to the end of the city
Samuel said to Saul bid the servant pass
on before us and he passed on
but stand thou still awhile
that I may show thee the word of God
Let's pray. Dear Lord we thank you for this
church Lord we thank you for everyone here and we thank you for pastor
Lord we pray that you bless him fill in with your Holy Spirit
as he preaches your word and pray that we're edified
by the preaching Lord we pray this all in Jesus name
Amen
Amen. Okay we'll continue
this evening with our study of the
book of 1 Samuel we're in chapter number 9 this evening
and let me just bring you up to speed on what's
going on here in the current story
of course in chapter 8 we
have the children of Israel basically asking
Samuel
asking God to give
them an earthly king God had just delivered
them by a mighty hand out of the hand of the Philistines
and provided this great miracle
and in light of that
the children of Israel basically
wanted an earthly king
to be like all the other nations now this is
obviously a grievous thing in the eyes
of Samuel it's obviously grievous in the eyes of God
because God was their king
they were under what we would refer to as a
theocracy okay where you know
their divine king was over
them it was God who was over them
he's the one ruling for them he's the one that's going
out to battle for them but they wanted to be
like all the other nations and so they wanted
an earthly king and
you can basically view this as
God's plan A and plan B
right because God's
plan A for their lives was basically
for him to rule over them
ultimately until the Lord Jesus Christ came
as the earthly king
during the millennial reign but of course they decided
to go after plan B instead
which is they wanted an earthly king
and God permitted that okay he permitted
them he allowed them to have them
and he basically in a sense modified
Israel's history
so to speak in order to fit the
biblical prophecy of Jesus Christ
becoming that earthly king so he would allow
certain kings in the Old Testament
such as David of course to exemplify
have those
characteristics and qualities that Jesus
Christ has okay
in order to picture him and so he worked
that all together for good but
obviously when you have an earthly
king you know no one's perfect
and so a lot of these kings made a lot of
mistakes they did a lot of sinful
things even David himself and so
they weren't a perfect picture
now in chapter number nine we have
the story of Saul who is
going to be the first king of Israel
it's given us basically a bit of a background
of where he comes from and how he
started off and really why is it that
God chose him to be the first king
of Israel look at verse number one
we're going to look at first of all Saul's predicament
then we'll get into God's providence
and then Samuel's prophecy
a little alliterated outline for you okay
so Saul's predicament is first
look at verse number one it says now there was a man
of Benjamin whose name was Kish
the son of Abbeo the son of Zeror
the son of Becherath the son
of Ephiah a Benjamin
a mighty man of power
so it starts off by really bragging
a little bit about Kish who's Saul's
father and it says and he had a
son whose name was Saul a choice
young man and
a goodly and there was not among the children
of Israel a goodlier person than he
from his shoulders and upward
he was higher than
any of the people so the first thing we're going to
look at is Kish's pedigree because
the chapter begins off with just
kind of bragging about Kish
and Saul and their house
and how really to the eye
these were some pretty godly
goodly men okay
it says there that Saul was a goodly
young man he was a choice young man
and really it says that he was head and
shoulders above everyone else
now what we can
what we can get from this particular passage
is the fact that Saul
basically stood out you understand
he stands out to the people
he's someone who people would obviously say
who's most likely to succeed it would be like
Saul okay he's like he's taller than
all the Israelites he's goodly
seems to be a man of reputation
he comes from a good family a wealthy family
at that his dad is a mighty
man of power and so
god wants to utilize someone like this
because of the fact that obviously god is the
one who gave him those qualities
now another thing that we can learn is the fact that
you know obviously god can use
anybody right he can use someone who's
not head and shoulders above everyone else
someone who is waist below everyone
else kind of thing okay he can use a
short person he can use a tall
person he can use a skinny person
he can use a fat person
he can use a beautiful person
he can use an ugly person it doesn't matter who you are
god can use you
and I think he's starting off with showing us
this example of Saul because
you know at the end of the day it doesn't matter
what your physical attributes or qualities
are is where your heart is right
it's whether you
actually possess the inner
qualities to serve god okay
which obviously we're looking at his outward
qualities the fact that he stands out but we're
also going to see that he has some very good inward
qualities as well we're going to see later on that
he's humble which is an attribute
that is essential
for god to use you and to
exalt you and to bless you
and for you to be a vessel
meet for the master's use so to speak
and so he's a goodly person
he's head and shoulders above everyone else
he has a great pedigree here
and you know
from a spiritual standpoint obviously it doesn't
matter how tall or how short we are
but we do want to be tall spiritually
right we don't want to be no short
stuff spiritually we
want to be head and shoulders
above anybody else in this world from
a spiritual perspective okay
and we obviously understand that
we can't add one cubit to
our stature by taking thought
but we can add a cubit to our
spiritual stature by reading god's
word by meditating upon
god's word by serving god and in fact
the bible says but grow
in grace and in the knowledge of our lord
and savior jesus christ so that growth
there is a spiritual growth of the inward man
though the outward man perish yet the
inward man is being renewed day by day
we can grow in the knowledge of god
and grow in that spiritual stature so to
speak so that we stand out to this
world okay
and the more we walk with god the more we read
the bible the more we pray the more we serve god
the more alienated we
become to this world the more the world
begins to look at us and we begin to stand
out to them you know you're walking with
your family out in the world you know
you're going to stand out a little bit especially if you act
different from the world right you're going to dress
different talk different
conduct yourself in a different manner
you're going to be like Saul who just kind of
stands out you know
before everyone else and so we see
that pedigree there to show
us that you know
Saul is obviously from an outward perspective
someone who is
basically fit to be
king now go to Philippians chapter 3 if
you would go to Philippians chapter number 3
Philippians chapter
number 3 and we're just
going to look at a quick example
of another Saul in the Bible
right and this Saul is not
actually his name is Paul
but his Hebrew name is Saul
and it's interesting because Paul
in the New Testament the Apostle Paul
is of the tribe of Benjamin as well
and we see that he also gives
his pedigree here in
Philippians chapter 3 but
when it comes to his physical attributes he
wasn't necessarily head and shoulders above everyone
else right in fact we see throughout the
epistles that he has some physical ailments
you know he's given a thorn in the flesh
the messenger of Satan
was sent to buffet him so he's not exalted
above everyone else or
think that he's more better
than anybody else because obviously God is
revealing all these divine
revelations to him to write the word of God
but we see here in Philippians chapter 3
look down at your Bibles at verse number 3
it says for we are the circumcision
which worship God in the spirit and
rejoice in Christ Jesus and have no confidence
in the flesh
though I might also
have confidence in the flesh
if any other man thinketh that he hath whereof
he might trust in the flesh
I more circumcise the
eighth day of the stock of Israel
of the tribe of Benjamin
you know like Saul
in Hebrew of the Hebrews
as touching the law of Pharisee
concerning zeal persecuting the church
touching the righteousness which is in the law
blameless but what things were
gain to me those I counted loss for
Christ so he's saying look
I have a good quote unquote
spiritual pedigree you know I come from
I am a Hebrew
my tribe is Benjamin I was a
Pharisee of the Pharisee I have some
pretty awesome credentials
from a religious perspective but
I count those things but dung
which is what he's going to say in the next verse
he says yea doubtless and I count all
things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge
of Christ Jesus I'm sorry
verse number
verse number 7 but what things were gain to me
those I counted loss for Christ
yea doubtless and I count all things but loss
for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus
my Lord for whom I have suffered
the loss of all things and do count them
but dung that I may win
Christ so the Apostle Paul is saying
you know I have this pedigree
I have these credentials but at the end of the day
it's dung to me
because the greatest thing
the greatest accomplishment that I can have
is the fact that I can know Jesus Christ
that I can know the word of God
that I can preach Christ and him crucified
that's the most important thing
so this is a great lesson for us to learn
in regards to Saul
that don't worry about your physical
attributes
don't worry if you don't meet up to the world
standards of what beauty may be
or what it may be to be handsome
or you know I don't like the
tone of my skin
it's too light it's too dark it's too in between
or I don't like this mole
I don't like this freckle
who cares?
because at the end of the day you should be seeking
to please God and God alone
and the Bible talks about the
inward man and the beauty
of the inward man and the fact
that we as God's people should
seek to exercise the spirit
exercise the spirit
renew the spirit, know the word of God
and to have
stature from a spiritual perspective
now that's not to say that if you are
a good looking person that somehow
oh that's bad or something like that
oh man it just sucks to be so
good looking or something
no just don't let it get to your head
if you are
or if you consider yourself to be a good looking person
don't let it get to your head
don't become prideful and arrogant
don't be a person who
thinks more highly of himself as he ought to
think the Bible says, you should be a humble person
and thank God for those physical
qualities that you have and seek to
instead exercise the inward man
and be beautiful on the
inside, I know that's cliche
but that is biblical though
we should seek to be
head and shoulders spiritually speaking
more than any of the people of
this world, go back to 1 Samuel 9
1 Samuel 9
so we are going to look at Saul's predicament
first and foremost we saw Kish's pedigree
he produced a really good son
and we are going to see that he
not only has these
outward physical qualities
but he actually has some very good
inward qualities as well
one of them being obedience to his father
we are going to look at the pursuit of
the lost asses, it says in verse 3
and the asses of Kish
Saul's father were lost
and Kish said to Saul his son
take now one of the servants with thee
and arise, go
and seek the asses
he says and he passed through Mount Ephraim
and passed through the land of Shalisha
but they found them not
then they passed through the land of Shalim
and there they were not
and he passed through the
land of the Benjamites but they found them
not and when they were come to the land
of Zaph, Saul said to his servant
that was with him, come and let us
return, let my father leave
caring for the asses and take thought for us
and he said to him, behold now
well we'll stop there, so we see here
that he not only has these outward
qualities but he's actually an obedient son
which is a wonderful
quality to have, right?
He obeys the law of his mother
and the commandment of his
father, we see that he's not a rebellious
son, you know
the livestock is lost
and so he sends Saul his
son along with one of the servants
to go and seek out
the animals, okay
and he's not like, well let me go play
video games first, obviously they didn't have video games back then
you know, let me go cast lots first
I don't know what they did back then, let me go throw rocks
or something before I go do that
No, he was, what was he doing?
He went immediately and obeyed his
father and made seeking
the asses his priority
which shows you that he has a
great inward quality of obedience
Now what we have seen
or what the Bible seems to
allude to and this is obviously there's a
there is an exception to the rule
is that when someone obeys
their parents, when they obey
their mom, they obey their father
that likely will transfer over to
their obedience unto the Lord
which is possibly why God chose
Saul, he saw that he was an obedient son
so a good prerequisite
to be used of God is
that you are a faithful and obedient
son and or daughter
Not a rebellious
kid, not a rebellious teenager
not a rebellious child
obviously no one is perfect
but for the most part you fall in line
what your mom is telling you to do
you fall in line with what your dad tells you to do
and this is exactly what we see
Saul doing here, he makes it his priority
to go and seek after the animals
and this isn't like, you know, you tell your kid
to go throw the trash and then like
he gets sidetracked and
does something else, you know
no this is actually something where he went
out for three days
because you see later it took about three days
he's going from city to city
looking for these
animals, he can't find them but he's putting in
a considerable amount of effort
to find his father's
asses which says a lot about him
and so
what else do we see that Saul
possesses, we see that he possesses
consistency, faithfulness
effort, okay
you know, he's not lazy
he's actually taking the bull by the horn
so to speak, because it's not like
he went to one city and was like, oh they're not here
I guess I'll just go back home
which is something he could have easily done but instead
what did he do, he went to different cities
seeking the asses, okay
and this says a lot about
Saul, the fact that he's willing to get the
job done, now unfortunately
you know, we see here that he's very
thorough in his
obedience to his father, right
but later on when he becomes king
unfortunately
he deviates from that specific quality
that he once had because
now, you know, later on we'll see in the
coming chapters, when God
commands him, hey, you know, make
sure you destroy all the Amalekites
all the sheep, all the livestock
make sure you don't save anything
do as I tell you
he kind of haphazardly obeys that, right
and then of course he's
confronted with that and then, you know
the kingdom of God is taken from him and given
to someone who is better than him, referring to David
a man after God's own heart
but this also shows you that just because
you possess a quality in your younger years
it doesn't mean it's always going to be that way
okay, you can't expect yourself
to have a certain
quality today and just
kind of, it's always going to be there tomorrow
it's always going to be there the following year, you know
being a Christian and exerting Christian qualities
requires maintenance
requires a lot of maintenance
just because you know the Bible today
doesn't mean you'll know it a year from now
why, because Bible reading requires maintenance
it requires for you
to study the word of God
over and over, to remind yourself
of the truths of God's
word, it requires exercise
right, it requires for you to exercise
your soul and your brain
to do those things that are pleasing unto the Lord
because if not, you can easily lose those things
you know, I speak Spanish
and I'm fluent in Spanish
but I find that when I stop speaking Spanish for quite some time
and I pick it up again, I struggle
there's certain words that I just don't remember
how to say, okay
and I find myself when I'm preaching the gospel in Spanish
I'm like, I know there's a word for this
and I completely forgot what it is
and then I throw in some Spanglish in there
you know
and then the person is like, oh you mean this
I'm like, yeah, I was testing you, no I'm just kidding
you know, but if you don't use it
you lose it, well you know that's also true
it's true with inward qualities as well
if you don't exercise
the inward quality of honesty
you're going to end up losing it
if you don't exercise the inward quality
of virtue and obedience
and holiness
and righteousness, you can lose those things
and here's a great example of this
because Saul started off as being an obedient
son, which is one of the reasons why
God chose him, because he wants
he wanted a king, an earthly king
who was obedient, but then what happened
he strayed from that, he got away
from those qualities, became proud
etcetera, and therefore
you know, the kingdom was stripped from him
and given to David
and so, look at verse number
let's see here, we see verse number
five, verse number six
excuse me
he says, and he said unto him, behold now there is
in this city a man of God, and he is
an honorable man, all that he saith
cometh surely to pass, now let us
go thither, prayer adventure
he can show us our way
that we should go, so now
they're talking about Samuel, they know about
Samuel, he's a prophet, he's
a seer, and here's
another good quality about Saul
and his servant is the fact that when
they're posed with a problem
they don't go to the world
they don't go to their buddies
who do they go to? The man of God
they go to
the man who is speaking on God's
behalf for a solution
to their problem
and this is another great quality
because after three days of seeking
after the asses, they can't find
them, instead of throwing them in the
towel, calling it quits
I'm just going to leave church, I'm just
going to stop reading my Bible, I'm just going to
move away, I'm just going to do x
y and z, what does he do instead? He goes to the
man of God
and this shows you that
Saul is determined
he has persistence
and you know what, it requires persistence
to stay right with God sometimes
don't be this
Christian where when the slightest
problem comes, the slightest
little tribulation comes
the slightest difficulty
relational issue that comes into your life
oh I need to take a break from God
I need to take a break from, well first of all
there's no such thing as taking a break from God
I don't know who told you that, you can't compartmentalize
God, like hey God
this relationship is just getting kind of serious
I think we need our space
you know
I'm just going to go out there
maybe we'll touch bases later on in the future
or something like that
no it doesn't work that way
if I make my bed in hell, they aren't there
you can't hide from God
and
if you are a Christian, meaning if you're a
believer, you've trusted Christ as your
savior, you're a son of God
you're a child of God and you will not be able
to escape the chastening hand of the Lord
and so
by the way, it requires more effort
to getting right with God
than to staying right with God
you know
it obviously requires effort to maintain
your walk with God, but it requires
much more effort to get right with God
after your life has just been completely
destroyed by God
in order to get your attention to bring you back
okay
but we see here that he's not a quitter
and you know what we need today, we need Christians who are not
quitters
then when the going gets tough, tough
tough luck, you just stay in church
you just keep reading the Bible
oh but I got my feelings hurt
well join the club
you have feelings so they can get hurt
hey the fact that you have feelings
should be a reminder to you
or cause you to be thankful that you can feel
things
it's a reminder to you that you have emotions
okay, hey at least you're not a
cold person, okay
at least you're not a hardened person who doesn't get hurt
you know obviously pain is a good reminder
that we're still alive
pain is a good reminder that we still feel
hurt, we can feel love, we can feel
all these emotions and all these things
but you know just because it gets tough
it doesn't make it an excuse to just quit
oh I can't find the acid so I'm just going to quit
well why don't you just go to the house
of God, hear the preaching of God's
word or go on YouTube
and look up any one of my friends and hear some preaching
throughout the week
or why don't you just go and read the Bible
say you know what, I'm in the flesh
I think I just need to spend about an hour
just reading the Bible
and just you know getting my heart in tune
with God's word so I can just stay right
with God instead of just calling it quits
that's not what Saul did
and so you know we need to raise
a generation of young men and
young ladies who don't know what it means to quit
it's just like well I can't quit
well why not? Well because
I mean there is no other option
you know there is no other option
and so I'm just going to stay right with God
and you know what I may not be
at 100% in my Christian life today
I might be putting in 80%
but that's better than putting in 15%
okay so put in
whatever percentage you can put into the Christian life
today even though you might not be at
100% do what you can
today but don't throw in the towel
so Saul and his servant
they go to the man of God they're not going to
the psychologist of this world
they're not going to you know
some unsafe person for advice
they're going to the mouthpiece of God
which is the prophet to figure out
what should I do and you know
when you're going through an issue when you're going through a problem
a tribulation in your life sometimes you're
emotionally unstable right?
and when you're emotionally unstable
you just kind of you can come up with some
wacky solutions
like maybe I'm just going to move
to Australia
or maybe I'm just going to move to England
maybe I'll just
but when you talk to someone who's actually
level headed
right? someone who's level headed
they'll be like that's a really bad idea
Australia's really bad
don't go to Australia
you know maybe I'll move to Canada
like woah
woah just kidding Adam
but you know when you're
emotional you're emotionally unstable
you can't really come up with a good solution
and that's the same with
everyone we're all like that right?
so what do we do in those times?
well we go to someone who is
emotionally stable
we go to someone who has their
head on their shoulders they're thinking clearly
see when we can't think clearly we need
to go to someone who can think clearly for
us like hey this is my issue
this is what I think I should do you know
can you give me some advice and just like yeah
don't do that
I don't even have any other advice for you
but for sure don't do that
or you know don't do that but do this
okay? and so
go to the man of God go to church go to your
Bible what I'm saying is you should
seek the Lord's face
for a solution okay?
before and by the way don't make hasty
decisions either
anytime there's a major decision that you
feel you have to make tonight
it's like I gotta do this tonight
it typically means you don't have
to do it tonight
why don't you sleep on it for like two weeks or so
okay it's like whoa wait wait
I'm not gonna have any peace unless I make a decision
right now well then go have an in and out burger
go
fellowship go hear some preaching
go calm down
go take a walk around
the block go lift some weights
go exercise go get your mind off of things
and then you'll come back and you say well that was
really dumb what I thought
I really wanted to do I shouldn't have done that
I'm glad I didn't do that
and so we see here
that he's not calling it quits I'm looking for the
asses you know he's finding
a way and this is
another quality that I really admire about
Saul during this time is the fact that
you know when he's presented with a road
block for him it's just like
this doesn't mean stop this
this just means I gotta find a different way
he doesn't come up with excuses
you know
anytime we run into some technological
problem at our church
with the media or something like that
this is what I always tell brother Ulysses
cause he tells me hey we can't I tell him this
I said this this is 2022
okay
we can do that
I don't know how
but this is 2022
okay
we should have flying cars by now
and I'm sure it's out there somewhere
okay
it's like there should be no reason
why we can't do a specific task
why cause this is 2022
we're not out there looking for asses
anymore we can have
a phone that will locate it for us
just put an apple tag on there
boom right there and there
okay
what I'm saying is like he didn't come up with excuses why he
couldn't do something he looked for reasons
as to why he could
he said well let's go to the man of God instead
if we physically can't find these asses
well let's go find someone who is a seer
who can locate them because God's gonna
tell them where
they're at so we can go and discover them
okay
and so this is his predicament but obviously he finds
a solution
we see Kish's pedigree, the pursuit of the lost
asses and then the search for the prophet
so he stops looking for the asses
and he starts looking for the prophet
okay
he says in verse uh let's see here
let's start at verse 7 he says
then said Saul to his servant
but behold if we go what shall we bring
the man for the bread is spent
in our vessels and there is not a present to bring
to the man of God what have we
and the servant answered Saul again and said behold
I have here a hand the fourth part
of a shekel of silver that will I
give to the man of God to tell us our way
before time in Israel when a man
went to inquire of God
thus he spake come let us go to the
seer for he that is now called the prophet
was before called before time excuse me
called the seer
then said Saul to his servant well said
come let us go so they
went into the city where the man of God was
and as they went up to the hill to the city
they found young
maidens going out to draw water and
said unto them is the seer here
they answered them and said
he is behold he is
before you make haste now
for he came today to the city
for there is a sacrifice
of the people today in the high place
and as soon as you be coming to the city
you shall straightway find him before he go up to the
high place to eat for the people will not
eat until he come because he does bless
the sacrifice and afterwards they eat
that are bidden so basically they're just telling
them look this is where he's at go look
for him and this is where you're going to
find this man of God so aside
from the fact that they were putting all this effort into looking
for the asses now they're going to redirect that
same effort into looking for the prophet
which is Samuel
now again they're seeking God's face
now we're going to look at God's providence
so this turned from a predicament
to actually a plan that's unfolding
for Saul which is another
thing that we can learn
anytime there's a predicament in your life
don't throw in the towel because maybe
God's working something out for you
in the background that you don't
particularly see at this moment
you think Saul is thinking
oh I'm for sure going to be king after
I find these asses
or the reason I'm looking for these animals
is because I'm going to be king no
he's just doing what he's supposed to do
and in light of that
God led him to the man of God
who would eventually make him and anoint
him to be king which
shows us that hey if you just keep
doing what you're supposed to be doing
God will reveal his specific
will for your life there's a lot of people
out there like what's God's specific will for my life
it's right here it's the Bible
do what the Bible says first and
as you're looking for the asses
as you're looking for the sheep as you're soul winning
as you're reading the Bible as you're seeking just to
live a life that's pleasing unto God
then God will begin to reveal
what his plan is
now my father-in-law used to use this illustration
and for a while
it became obsolete because
no one knew what it was but now these are coming
back these Polaroid pictures
you know they have those now right
Polaroids now and now people like take
Polaroid pictures and then they take a picture of the
Polaroid and then they pose and it's like
how does this work you know
but the Polaroid pictures
you take it and then you wait for a little
bit and then little by little begins to
reveal the picture and my father-in-law
used to say that's how God's will is
you know you take a photo and that photo
you taking that photo can be you know
figurative of you just doing God's will
but when you take that photo you
start waiting you gotta wait a little bit
you know and then you start seeing a face
you start seeing a body you start seeing all these
images and then God's will becomes
clear as to what he wants you to do
ok but it requires a little bit of time
and it requires for you
to be in the right place at the
right time now where is the right
place in your Bible
where is the right place serving
God where is the right place
in church oh are you just
trying to say that you gotta be in your church well
my church or a church like this church
you know what I mean but
if you're here then yeah obviously it's this church
ok now if you move away
you go somewhere else go find a church that's like this one
that's preaching God's word you know
our church is not the only
godly church out there
this is a great church but there's plenty of other good churches out there as well
just find somewhere
where you can go and flourish and grow
and your knowledge but
Saul here his predicament
basically ended up leading
him to God's plan
which is why we see
God's providence in his life
and so you know God's basically
kind of directing him
throughout these things so we're going to see the
declaration of God's plan
he says in verse 15
Now the Lord, listen to this
Now the Lord had told Samuel in
his ear a day before Saul came
saying tomorrow about
this time I will send
thee a man out of the land of Benjamin
so according to the Bible
God is sending
Saul to Samuel
whereas Samuel
doesn't even know this I mean excuse me Saul
doesn't even know this Saul's just doing
whatever his dad told him to do
but because he's doing
what his dad told him to do
God translates that as I'm
sending Saul to you
which is pretty amazing if you think about it
so this is basically I being in
the way the Lord
led me
don't stress about
who you're going to marry
don't stress about
when are we going to have kids
don't stress about
when is everything going to fall into place
just keep doing what you're supposed to be doing
and when you are continuously
fulfilling God's will
basically the Lord
can say of you I'm going to send you
to this place
he's going to lead you
by his hand
and this isn't a physical feeling either
I just feel like God's
leading me somewhere you know
nonsense
we're talking about spiritual leading
where as you obey
God you're doing
God's will he begins
to formulate your life in such a way
where things are being
coming into place
and sometimes you don't see the big picture
sometimes it's like
I feel like I'm not being led right now
I'm like in debt
or I'm just in distress
or I'm diseased, I got coronavirus
I don't know
I got all these things working against me
how do I know that this is going to help me
well all things work together for good
to them who love God
to them who are the called according to his purpose
and so God's providence is on
Saul he's leading him
and he's even telling Samuel
I'm going to send you a man by this time
I will send thee a man out of the land of Benjamin
and thou shall anoint him to be captain
over my people Israel
that he may save my people out of the hand
of the Philistines for I have looked upon my people
because their cries come unto me
now notice he didn't say you know
I have chosen me a man because
I just want to make him the man
I want him
because he's head and shoulders above everyone else
I want him to just you know
be the man and be in charge
there's a purpose behind him exalting
Saul
and the purpose is what?
to save his people out of the hand of the Philistines
we are his workmanship
created in Christ Jesus unto good works
which God hath before ordained
that we should walk in them
so Saul's destiny was predestined by God
in Christ obviously
he wanted him to be king
he wanted to use him to
deliver his people out of the hand of the Philistines
and he's doing it with a purpose
so this is not just you know
exalting me just for exalting reasons
magnify me just to magnify me no there's a purpose behind it
the purpose is
to benefit someone else's life
to give someone the gospel to lead a group of people
to get people saved to turn them into righteousness
there's always a bigger picture involved
and of course ultimately
God magnifies people
he exalts people so that
his name may be exalted
so that he may be magnified
he's putting Saul in a
position of leadership because he knows Saul
at least initially would exalt God
okay
verse 17
and when Samuel saw Saul
the Lord said unto him
behold the man whom I speak to thee of
speak to thee of
this same shall reign over
my people
so he gives him the declaration of God's plan
he's saying this is the guy who I'm gonna use
to be the king of Israel
verse 18
then Saul drew near to Samuel in the gate
and said tell me I pray thee
where the seers house is
and Samuel answered Saul and said
I am the seer go up
before me into the high place for
ye shall eat with me today and tomorrow
I will let thee go and I will tell thee
all that is in thine heart
as for thine asses that
were lost three days ago
set not thy mind on them for they are found
and on whom
is all the desire of Israel
is it not on thee and on all
thy father's house so this is pretty interesting
because
Saul doesn't even know that he's gonna be king
even during this time not even until the end
of the chapter because it's at the end
of the chapter that Samuel
tells Saul all the word of the Lord
referring to the prophecy concerning
him becoming king
Saul's just thinking you know oh he's just
gonna preach to me he's gonna teach me some stuff
I'm being honored just
to kind of be with him and spend time
with the prophet this is great and
but then he reveals to him like hey your
your father's asses are found so don't even worry
about that okay
but I want you to notice
what he says at the latter end of verse 20
and on whom is all
the desire of
Israel now this is a
very interesting statement here
and the reason he
words it that way it's for a couple reasons
number one is because
Israel
wants an earthly king
that's their desire
now that's pretty sad because what it should
say is that the desire
of Israel should be God
that should the desire of Israel be
it should be that they
desire the Lord
right but who is
Israel desiring a physical king
okay now
this is very interesting because of the fact that
Saul is the
desire of Israel
whereas Jesus Christ
who David pictures by the way
is the desire of all nations
according to the book of Haggai
okay you know we've seen that during the
Christmas season
come desire
of nations come you know he's the desire of the
nations whereas
King Saul is the desire of Israel
okay now
there's a lot of symbolic meaning
in this particular statement
because we're going to see throughout
Saul's reign that
because he made so many mistakes
because he did a lot of stupid things
he's unfortunately going to be a byword
and a proverb
now in the most literal sense
there's a lot to learn from him
because he's a byword and a proverb
but he's also going to picture one of the most
wicked people
in all of history which is the
Antichrist
you know because
obviously Saul
comes before the real king which is David
just as the Antichrist comes before
Jesus Christ you know this
fake king rises up first
and you know what the Antichrist
is the desire of Israel
right?
because they're looking for that
earthly ruler they don't want a
divine ruler
they don't want someone to be divine
their messiah is like a
physical king, a ruler
okay who has no
divine abilities
he's just a political leader
who can basically carry out
their agenda and what they want
okay which is why I personally
believe and I think I can prove it by scripture is that
you know the Antichrist will be a Jew
because they're
still waiting for that messiah
and he is the desire of
Israel, he will be the desire of Israel
now another interesting thing that we can take
from this is that Saul is the
desire of Israel
which means that Israel rejected
God as their king
you know he came into his own
and his own received him not
and therefore Jesus Christ
became the desire of all nations
because Israel did not want him
you know the Gentiles
did you understand?
and so that's why Saul who pictures
you know New Testament Jews
the kingdom is taken from him
and given to someone who is better than him
just as the New Testament says the kingdom of God
shall be taken from you and given to a nation bringing
forth the fruits thereof and the nation is
referring to is believers
okay and of course David
not only pictures Jesus
Christ but he also pictures New Testament believers
and so
we see here that yeah he's the desire
of Israel, Israel desires
a physical king they want to
reject the divine king
just as Jews want a
physical ruler who's gonna
be the Antichrist okay
who by the way Saul persecutes
David just
as the Jews in the New Testament persecute
believers and
obviously they're rejecting the Lord
and so he says there on whom is all
the desire of Israel is it not
on thee and on all thy
father's house now at this point he still really
doesn't know what they're talking about
he's just kind of like what
because it says in verse 21
and Saul answered and said am not I a Benjamite
of the smallest
of the tribes of Israel and my family
the least of all the families of the tribe of Benjamin
wherefore then speakest thou so to me
now I believe this is a sincere
reaction
response to
Samuel's prophecy
because he's like but I'm a
Benjamin now
we saw in the very beginning that he actually
comes from a good pedigree he's wealthy
his dad has servants
he's a mighty man of power but yet
in Saul's eyes he's still like
nothing which what
that shows us that he has a great quality
of humility
he's obviously not a prideful
arrogant person and he has
he has not allowed the
wealth of his father the reputation
of his father to go to his
head
because even when the man of God comes to him
and says Israel's desires
on thee he's like but I'm a Benjamin
he's like
I'm of the smallest of the tribes of Israel
he's like my family's the least of the families of the tribes
of Benjamin what is he he's small in his
own sight
and this is a great quality to have to
be exalted by the Lord okay
and in fact go to 1 Peter
if you would 1 Peter chapter 5
this is a
fantastic quality to have
and in fact it's essential
if God's going to use you
in a big way
now why is it essential for
someone to be humble in order
to be used by God well because if someone
is prideful they're going to magnify
themselves they want all the attention
they're going to want to glorify themselves
whereas someone who is
humble will basically
seek to divert the attention
to the Lord
and recognize you know what
if I do any accomplishment
if I do anything if I win
anybody if I preach anything
if anything prospers from my hand
it's because of God and others
who have influenced my life
and just remember this you and I
if we're successful in the Christian life
we're simply a byproduct of
someone else's investment as well as
God just remember
that before you think yourself to be all
high and mighty and you're so
wonderful and you have so many great qualities
and you're this and you're that and you're all
the bag of chips and all that you know before
you allow yourself to get so high
minded and prideful
just remember you are a compilation
of someone else's investment
Look what the Bible
says in 1 Peter chapter 5
in verse number
verse number 5 it says
Likewise ye younger submit yourselves unto the elder
yea all of you be subject one to another
and be clothed with
humility
Why? Because God resisted the
proud and giveth grace
to the humble. If you're prideful
He will resist you
He will stop you dead in your tracks
He says humble yourselves therefore
under the mighty hand of God
Why? That He may exalt you
in due time
If you want to remain in an exulted
state as a Christian you got to
keep being humble
Say that's hard well you know
yea because we're sinners and our
natural propensity is to become prideful
and arrogant when we accomplish
something significant
So what do we have to do? We have to remind ourselves
where we came from
We have to remind ourselves
were it not for the grace of God
I wouldn't be here
I couldn't save myself from hell
and even thereafter any good
qualities that I had I learned them from other men of God
The Bible that I learned
obviously I put
in the work for it but at the end of the day God gave me
this brain to be able to read it
Whatever talents I have come from God
and at any time God can remove these
qualities from me and I can just become worthless
So
humble yourself and here's another way
that you can humble yourself hey why don't you thank people
around you for their investment
Well I'm a self made man
No no one is a self made man
There's no such thing as
a self made man
You are a compilation
of other people's investment in your life
Yea but I taught myself
Yea but you taught yourself
from some YouTube channel
from some tutorial or something
or you taught yourself
looking at other people do it
Someone
else taught you you may not have asked
them for help or asked them to teach you but you learned
from somebody there's no such
thing as a self made man
Be thankful and by the way
learn to say thank you
learn to just hey
how about this learn to say thank you
just flippantly to just random people
you know not random people but I'm saying like
I'm not saying out on the street like hey you
thanks I'm saying like in church
you know it's not bad to go to someone who's invested
in your life and say hey I just want to thank you for what you've done
in my life I really appreciate you
or thank you for that advice that you
gave me or you know
just thank you just
have a heart of gratitude
say why because that's an expression of humility
that's recognizing that
you didn't get where you're at because of your own
effort or because you're just a
great person or so talented
or you just have so many great qualities
someone instilled those
qualities in you not
just the Lord but even people around you
well who how about your parents
hey kids you should go to
your parents tonight and say thank you for bringing me
to church
why are you laughing Miss Kelly?
I guess she wants you to say thank you
hey for a while Miss Kelly
would bring Gio to church
kind of drag him in
but now Gio just comes up by himself
but you know what
Gio's not a self made man he has his mom to
think because of that
you know where his mom got him to a point where he
basically decided and Gio
you're 17 right
Gio's a very young man but yet
he puts it upon himself to be
in church when he needs
to be in church right
like he's taking on responsibility but obviously
Gio can't say well it's because of me
well
Gio is gonna say
after the sermon
you know it's because of my mom
it's because of brother Maury it's because of different people
who encouraged me it's because of brother John
you know who encouraged me in these ways
and discipled me and that's why
and by the way you know we
I poke fun at brother Gio
but at the end of the day there's rarely a
17 year old like brother Gio out there
I don't meet 17 year olds like brother Gio
don't let that go to your head my friend
we know your head and shoulders
above everyone here okay
but according to this story that doesn't end
very well alright I'm just kidding
don't make
the same mistakes as Saul Gio
hey Gio has his mom
to thank and you know he's not the only one you know
other kids in this church you have your parents
to thank
yeah but you know I'm going through so many problems
yeah but what about the good things that you've experienced
in your life thank your parents for that
say mom thank you
for bringing me to church thank you for teaching me the bible
thank you for bringing me to a
baptist church thank you
for bringing me to a new IFB church
I mean good night in the morning
that's a great thing
and then some of you adults
why don't you thank your parents
I know you're already you got your
stuff together and you're already older
and you're an adult but you know what
thank your parents
for being who you are today
and so we see that
that he has an attitude
of humility even though he's
the desire of Israel
he's still thinking to himself
but who am I
who am I
and he doesn't even know what he's being chosen for
that's just his response
to what Samuel is saying about him
he's just like why would they desire me
who am I I'm looking for asses
I'm looking for my father's livestock
I'm just trying to obey the Lord
like how is this
how did I go from looking for my father's
livestock to being
the desire of all Israel
well I'll tell you why because you're just in the way
Saul you're doing what your dad told
you to do you're putting
the priorities of your parents first
you are humble
you're a man of character you're a man of virtue
this is why you're here
and so
he's the desire of Israel we see
Saul's distinct humility in verse 21
and then we see that he
begins to dine with Samuel
he says in verse number
22
and Samuel said
behold that which is left
send it before thee and eat
for unto this time hath it been
kept for thee since I said
I have invited the people
so Saul did eat with
Samuel that day so he sets
this spread this food before
him and it's like a
really good meal it's the shoulder I mean
and he's saying look this was
prepared for thee he says
this has been kept for thee since I
said I have invited the people
Saul didn't know anything about this
but this meal was prepared
for him even
when before Samuel had
called this assembly of people together
now what is the principle we can learn there
there's a prepared place
for prepared people
there is a prepared spread
for prepared servants
so if you just
prepare yourself to
do God's will keep
working there is a prepared
place for you in the future
there is a shoulder waiting
for you there is a meal
spiritually speaking waiting
for you but you have to prepare
okay now you
can apply this in many different ways okay
obviously if you're going to be a pastor you know there's a prepared
place for prepared people
and you say well when can I
be a pastor I can't give you a timeline
I'm not going to do that
you know that's up to you and that's
up to the Lord
but I will say this there's a prepared
place for prepared people
and look
here's the thing is that this
church is an example of that
because I prepared
for years on end not even knowing
that something like this was going to happen
I put in
hours and hours of work into the Bible
studying the Bible hours
of work into working on my
preaching just hours of work
learning the ministry for it just all
to be taken away in one instant
and it's like what because I'm not going to be a pastor
like I kind of wanted to say like
it was kind of all a waste but I know it wasn't because I learned
the Bible I'm an effective servant of the Lord I
think you know I learned from my father-in-law
I learned from my church members how to serve God
and you know what I guess I'm not going to be a pastor
but you know there's a prepared place for a prepared
person and I literally
remember the last day that we were at our church
I think I told brother Ulysses
well I guess I'm
never going to preach God's word ever again
there goes that that was a
cool run you know at least I know the Bible
and you know what the
very next Sunday I had
to preach two sermons because the very
next Sunday is when we started the church and
I didn't even know like I had no idea
and people were even saying like you planned
this with Stephen Anderson
you guys plotted together it's just like
I had no idea
I went to the prophet
for a different issue
you know
I went to the man of God for a complete
separate issue and then
this church began a week later
well it just seems like
you know this is kind of being construed together
yeah it's called God's providence
where God is just
kind of boop
have you two meet and then
the church has started
right well here's the thing
what if I didn't study the Bible throughout those years
what if I was just a lazy
student of the word of God
what if I just didn't read my
Bible just skipped a couple days
just did not read it
didn't memorize it didn't think upon it
there was times in my Christian
life where
you know I didn't really have
a whole lot of friends or even family members
and you know what I would just
no one really thought about me or thought to
check up on me so I would just go to the coffee shop
and just go read my Bible for a couple hours
catch up on studying God's word
not knowing that something like this was going to happen
in the future but you know it was important
because there's a prepared place
for prepared people
so I don't know what God has prepared for you
but you better prepare now
because whatever it is
you better prepare for it like it's the biggest
thing that's going to happen to you in your whole entire life
because there's a prepared
place for prepared people and you know what
these little qualities that he had that he exerted
made a huge difference when he actually
became king
so a prepared place for prepared people
we see that there
and of course you know he's being
bidden to a feast like it says in Luke chapter 14
he's being exalted
he's not inviting himself to the feast
Samuel invites him
to the feast of 30 people
and gives him the best of the meal
ok now look at verse
number 25 we're going to see
so we looked at Saul's predicament
we see God's providence
and ultimately we see Samuel's prophecy
in verse 25 it says
and when they were come down from the high place
into the city Samuel communed
with Saul upon the top of the house
and they arose early and it came to pass
about the spring of the day that Samuel called Saul
to the top of the house saying up
that I may send thee away
and Saul arose and they went out both of them
he and Samuel abroad so still
remember keep in mind to this point
he still doesn't know what's going on
he just thinks he's feasting with the prophet
so Samuel's about to relieve Saul
and then ultimately he reveals
Saul's destiny it says in verse
27 and as they were going
down to the end of the city
Samuel said to Saul bid the
servant pass on before us
and he passed on but
stand out still awhile
that I may show thee the word of God
so as he's about
to leave he tells his servant tell your servant
to just kind of separate from you a little
bit because I need to tell you the word
of God now this is a great
principle that through desire
a man having separated
himself seeketh an intermeddleth
with all wisdom
and let me just say this is that
in order for you to be used of God greatly
or at any capacity
there has to come a time where you separate
yourself from the multitudes
to go pray where you
separate yourself from the multitudes to
go read God's word
to go hear the word
of God okay
there has to come a time when you don't have
you know your friends and your family
it's just like you're in your prayer closet alone
or wherever you read your Bible and you sit there
and you hear the word of God yourself
you say
how do I seek an intermeddleth with all wisdom
well first of all desire
you better desire to get close to God
you better desire to read God's
word but number two you gotta separate yourself
sometimes and just be alone
you and the Lord
reading the Bible studying the word of God
not because you're going to preach some great sermon one day
not because you just want to
debunk some doctrine
not because you're even trying to refine your soul
just because you want to read
God's word
how about that
how about just reading the Bible just because
it's like honey to your mouth
because you just want to love
the word of God you want to stand in awe
of his word you just want to hear what God
has to say
well yeah but I gotta prepare a sermon though
I need a good sermon or I need to
refute this false doctrine
or I need to do this
well those are all great but more than that
how about just sitting at the feet of Jesus
hearing his word
you know the most important thing is for you just to
hear the Lord speak through his word
and just learn the word of God because you
love God's word
and by the way through that
that's where he discovers
that he's going to be anointed king
and so it's a great story here now unfortunately
a little after this it's just all downhill for Saul
you know
but you know
ultimately what we can learn from this chapter
is that God believes in people
even though God
knows he had the foreknowledge that
Saul was going to mess up
he was going to screw everything up
he still invested a lot into him in spite of that
because he
believed that Saul would do the right thing
or that at least he would try to do the right thing
and he treated him as such
he never said like
oh yeah by the way Samuel
I just want to let you know a couple years from now
he's going to blow it big time
no he's like I want him to reign over my people
I want him to serve me
so it shows you that even God
in his foreknowledge
and providential mind
understanding all things
still invest in people in spite of that
in hopes that they would make the right decision
which by the way proves
that he has given to us free will
you know he
went through all this
to make him the first king of Israel
think about that
knowing full well what was going to happen in the future
and you know he does the same with us
ok
he knows the mistakes that we're going to make
he knows the successes we're going to have
he knows the right decisions we're going to make
he knows the bad decisions we're going to make
let's just hope and pray and try our best
to stay on track
because if God has invested this much into us
if he's given us this much
it must mean that he believes in us
quite a bit to make the right decision
you know let's not disappoint that
and let's keep making the right decisions
being humble, loving the Lord
hearing his word, serving God
and that's it
let's pray, Father we thank you so much for your word
we're so thankful for Saul's beginnings
and unfortunately
his ending is not well
but I pray you help us to learn from his beginning
all of us can have that same beginning
and maintain that
as long as we don't make the mistakes that Saul made
Lord help us to be humble
to give credit where credit is due
to let another man praise us
and not our own lips
and not only that but help us to divert the praise
Lord and be thankful
for the accomplishments that we have
and recognize that they're a compilation
of your investment in us as well as others
and I pray that Lord
you bless us as we go on our way
give us a great weekend
I pray that a lot of souls will be saved on Saturday
and on Sunday
that you'd give us a great day at church
and take us home safely
and bring us back here safely as well
in Jesus' name we pray, Amen
song number 15
lead me to Calvary
our last song, song number 15
lead me to Calvary
everyone nice
and strong all together on that first
verse
king of my life
I crown thee now
thine child
have glory be
lest I
forget thy
thorn-crowned brow
lead me to Calvary
lest I forget
Gethsemane
lest I forget
thine agony
lest I forget
thy love for
me
lead me to Calvary
show me the
tomb where thou
was laid
tenderly morn
and well
angels and
robes of light
the rain
guarded he wilt now
slip
lest I forget
Gethsemane
lest I
forget thy
agony
lest I forget
thy love for me
lead me to
Calvary
let
me like Mary
through the bloom
come with a gift
to thee
show to
me now the
empty tomb
lead me to Calvary
lest I
forget Gethsemane
lest I
forget thy
agony
lest I forget
thy love for
me
lead me to Calvary
may I be willing
Lord to bear
daily
my cross for thee
even thy cup
of grief to share
thou has
borne all for me
lest I
forget
Gethsemane
lest I
forget thy
agony
lest I forget
thy love for me
lead me to
Calvary
Amen
you are dismissed
you