Sermon, 2009-10-11, Saul and Samuel
Pastor Tim appears to be searching for something before going on stage.
After searching the pew, he exits the front side door saying “Sorry. I’ll be right back.”
After 60 seconds he opens the door and says...
I was looking for ... impatience.
We don’t like to wait.
Cashiers make us wait.
Airlines make us wait.
Doctors make us wait.
Spouses make us wait
Pastors make us wait ...
“Honey. Doesn’t this service start at 9:30. Look it’s 9:32!”
Our world is growing more impatient all the time.
Advertisers are even promoting this among us.
Look at this, for example.
The first line is “They say we are impatient.”
Show video clip: <http://www.metacafe.com/watch/2658762/impatient_ones_airtel>
Impatience is the new life. Live with Alltel broadband.
I found another commercial for a Samsung cell phone that said,
“We’ll tell you this up front, we know you hate waiting.
Waiting drives us up the wall.
Waiting misses the flight
Waiting never gets around to it.
Waiting never gets the raise.
Waiting doesn’t get to the front.
Waiting never finishes first.
Then there’s impatience.
Impatience got us faster cars, the microwave, remote controls, and jets.
Impatience is in first, on top, at the front.
Impatience wants more and more and more.
Why wait for Friday night. What’s wrong with Tuesday morning.
If the meeting’s boring, walk out.
Read the last page of the book.
Watch the last 15 minutes first.
Get up early. Stay out late.
Patience is knowing you’re bored and doing nothing about it.
Impatience is a virtue.
Faster. Brighter. Better.
Jet. A super fast new phone from Samsung.
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That’s the modern wisdom.
Impatience is a virtue. It’s a good character quality.
Is that the truth?
Is impatience a virtue? Or is it a vice?
A flaw.
In classic literature a tragedy was a story of a heroic figure who always had one what?
One flaw. One character flaw.
Shakespeare’s Macbeth is an example of a tragic hero who couldn’t wait to be king,
so he murdered the then King Duncan.
And that led to more murders and more murders
and eventually to Macbeth’s own murder.
The Bible has a story of a king who had this tragic character flaw of impatience.
His name was King Saul.
I’d like to tell you part of his story today.
Turn with me in a Bible to the book of 1 Samuel, chapter 13. In the OT.
In the back of the seat in front of you, it’s the book in the middle.
And most of them have the story on page ___.
It is also on the small white sermon notes insert in the worship folder you may have
received from an usher when you came in today.
As we read.
Look for this character flaw of impatience.
Look for what motivates it.
And look for what it leads to.
1 Samuel 13:5-14
The Philistines assembled to fight Israel, with three thousand chariots, six thousand charioteers,
and soldiers as numerous as the sand on the seashore. They went up and camped at Micmash,
east of Beth Aven. When the men of Israel saw that their situation was critical and that their
army was hard pressed, they hid in caves and thickets, among the rocks, and in pits and cisterns.
Some Hebrews even crossed the Jordan to the land of Gad and Gilead.
Saul [the king] remained at Gilgal, and all the troops with him were quaking with fear. He
waited seven days, the time set by Samuel [the prophet]; but Samuel did not come to Gilgal, and
Saul’s men began to scatter. So he said, “Bring me the burnt offering and the fellowship
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offerings.” And Saul offered up the burnt offering. Just as he finished making the offering, Samuel
arrived, and Saul went out to greet him.
“What have you done?” asked Samuel. [Who most certainly could smell the offerings, even if
he couldn’t see them.]
Saul replied, “When I saw that the men were scattering, and that you did not come at the set
time, and that the Philistines were assembling at Micmash, I thought, ‘Now the Philistines will
come down against me at Gilgal, and I have not sought the LORD’s favor.’ So I felt compelled to
offer the burnt offering.”
“You acted foolishly,” Samuel said. “You have not kept the command the LORD your God
gave you; if you had, he would have established your kingdom over Israel for all time. But now
your kingdom will not endure.”
So, Saul is our tragic hero.
This is the beginning of his demise.
And something is his core motivation here. What is it?
What motivates the Israelites and Saul to do what he does here?
Fear.
Title slide
We are beginning a series today looking at some of the great stories from the Bible of those who
faced the choice and challenge of ... fear or faith.
To be fearful or faithful.
Do you see what the reflection in the water says?
To be faithful to God our Father and to His Son Jesus Christ is the goal of all Christ followers.
To have faith in God and to live by faith and to walk by faith, not by fear
is a recurring theme in some of the greatest stories in the Bible.
Today, Saul is the story of someone who misses the mark.
And we can learn from his example.
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I think what we are supposed to see in this event is how Saul is seeking a blessing.
He wants God to bless his army, right?
See it?
He wants to supplicate to God so God would turn his face-is the literal translation of the Hebrew.
Lord Bless me and keep me – make your face shine upon me.
But, Saul’s blessing turns into a curse.
Saul makes sacrifices to God that only a prophet or priest are supposed to do.
Samuel comes along right after and says
“Saul, what have you done. You are foolish. You broke God’s command. Your kingdom is gone.”
Do you see it?
So, what this is an example of “How a blessing can turn into a curse.”
Those are Old Testament concepts.
We’re gonna have to pull them forward into our world and lives as we unpack this.
But I think the message here is
A blessing can turn into a curse ...
When one of four things happen.
A blessing can turn into a curse ...
1. When you do the right thing, with the wrong timing.
Saul couldn’t wait.
Saul couldn’t wait.
In his impatience, Saul turns a wonderful thing of God’s blessing, into a train wreck.
A lot of things in life are like this.
Physical intimacy within a marriage is a good thing. Right?
It can be a great thing between a loving, committed husband and wife.
But sex before marriage, does God say that’s a good thing? No.
What’s the difference?
Wrong timing.
It’s impatience.
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Why does God say it’s wrong?
Because it can be a train wreck.
You give your heart and soul and body to someone and they use you and leave you.
Instead, you should trust God that someday, if it’s His will, you will be blessed to have the
wonderful experience of physical intimacy in marriage.
Using money can be like this too – right thing, wrong timing.
It’s a blessing to have good furnishings in our homes and all the things that make our lives safe
and comfortable.
But we live in a culture of impatience, we want what we haven’t earned enough to own,
So we go into debt.
And some of us end up getting in over our head.
And all God’s blessings turn into the curse of overwhelming debt.
The Bible calls it covetousness. Wanting things you have no right to have.
It’s one of the 10 commandments
Pastor Stevan and Jessica had a refrigerator go bad last week.
When I heard about it, I called Stevan and he told me what was going on.
I told him to email the people in the church to let God have a chance to provide a good used one.
And instead of a used one, he found a couple people from the church offering money to help
them buy one.
They got a new one. At a great price.
And they got a gift card for $200 to help refill it.
And they called it all a ... blessing.
That’s trusting God and waiting on his timing.
A blessing can turn into a curse ...
1. When you do the right thing, with the wrong timing.
2. When you do the right thing, with the wrong person.
Saul was not the one who was supposed to make the sacrifices.
God had given instructions to bring the sacrifices to a priest or a prophet.
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It was a good thing to make offerings to God,
but with the wrong person, it was unacceptable to God.
This is the same with a lot of things in our lives.
If you’re dating and you’re looking for the person God is going to give you to be with for the rest
of your lives, make sure they are a believer.
The Bible says a Christian should marry a Christian.
2 Corinthians 6:14-15
Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. ... What does a believer have in common with an
unbeliever?
I know it can be hard to find a Christian sometimes, and we don’t want to be lonely
And there is the marriage relationship too.
The right thing of physical intimacy in a marriage when given to the wrong person,
is a tragedy and a violation of God’s commandments.
Here’s the reason why I think this perspective on this story is so worthwhile to share with you
today.
I think this is the essence of so much of what God’s commandments are about,
what God calls sin, what God wants us to avoid for our own good.
Sin is not only when you do the wrong thing
Sin is when you do the right thing in the wrong timing.
Sin is when you do the right thing with the wrong person.
The 10 commandments are so much about the wrong things being done the wrong way.
Work is good.
But working every day and not giving God a day of worship is bad.
Calling on the Lord’s name is good.
But using the Lord’s name at the wrong time, is wrong.
Physical intimacy is good.
But with the wrong person adultery is wrong.
Killing to defend justice and protect innocent life is virtuous and admirable.
But taking a life in anger is murder, it’s wrong.
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So much of what is good, when it is twisted just a bit becomes wrong.
If you are a follower of Christ, beware when you protest that something is good,
But in reality, you know you’ve crossed that fine line.
A couple more quickly.
A blessing can turn into a curse ...
3. When you do the right thing, for the wrong reasons.
Saul’s motive is fear.
Saul couldn’t wait for Samuel to make the offerings because he and his men were afraid.
Saul’s missed the blessing, when he acted out of fear, instead of waiting for God to make a way.
Jesus said obedience is all about our motives
Jesus had a lot of problems with the Pharisees and their motives.
Just one example,
Matthew 6:1-4
“Be careful not to do your ‘acts of righteousness’ before men, to be seen by them. If you do, you will
have no reward from your Father in heaven. So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with
trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by men. I tell you
the truth, they have received their reward in full. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left
hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who
sees what is done in secret, will reward you.”
Is giving to the needy a good thing? Yes.
Is doing so that other people will think you’re really wonderful, a good thing? No.
The act is the same.
The only difference is your reason, your motive.
What do you call this motive? Pride.
If you’re facing a challenge in your life right now
or if you’re looking for guidance from God on some issue,
I encourage you take two steps back and check your motives.
Make sure you have the negative ones like fear, pride, and greed in check.
And make sure the good ones like love, and concern for others are leading you.
And then last one.
A blessing can turn into a curse ...
4. When you do the right thing, in the wrong way.
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It seems that ... a husband and wife are getting ready for bed. The wife is standing in front of a
full length mirror taking a hard look at herself.
“You know, dear,” she says, “I look in the mirror and I see an old woman. My face is all wrinkled.
I’m bloated. My legs are fat, and my arms are all flabby.”
She turns to her husband and says, “Tell me something positive to make me feel better about
myself.”
He studies hard for a moment thinking about it and then says in a soft, thoughtful voice, “Well,
there’s nothing wrong with your eyesight.”
Services for the husband will be held Saturday morning at 10:30 AM at Morris Memorial Chapel.
Female friends of the family are invited.
He did the right thing – he told her something good. But he did it in the wrong way.
This is a way to generalize what Saul did for all of our circumstances.
He did the right thing, he just did it in the wrong way.
One example of this I think of is the mistake many of us make when we have a serious
disagreement in our family or a work relationship.
We want to be right.
It’s right to be right.
But if we are in a conflict because someone disagrees or sees things differently,
We just want to get them to see that we’re right.
And so we don’t stop.
Or if they won’t stop, we might shut down and just give em the silent treatment.
We’ll flee.
Or if we’re pushed and pushed, we’ll escalate it,
because we are right and the goal is to get them to admit we are right.
We want the right thing, but we go about it in the wrong way.
Actually, maybe it’s right to have people know what is right in a situation.
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And some of us have been stuck in that cycle so long.
You want happiness.
You want peace.
You want a good relationship with a loving spouse, but you don’t have that right now.
You haven’t had that for a long time.
So, you do the right thing, you stay together, you don’t divorce.
There’s no back door to your marriage.
God says, I hate divorce
Malachi 2:16
“I hate divorce,” says the LORD God of Israel.
But you have checked out a side door of the marriage.
You don’t talk.
You aren’t working on the problems anymore.
You blame the other so much, that you’ve given yourself permission to behave in ways that
are wrong.
You’re doing the right thing, but in the wrong way.
Now, more quickly, let me show you the good example that what happens immediately after
Saul’s failure.
His son Jonathan does the exact opposite in the same situation.
These two differing responses are clearly put back to back for us to see the contrast.
Next chapter. First verse.
This is another cool story.
I’ll do this one very quickly.
Stay with me. Listen.
1 Samuel 14
One day Jonathan son of Saul said to the young man bearing his armor, “Come, let’s go over to
the Philistine outpost on the other side.” But he did not tell his father. ...
On each side of the pass that Jonathan intended to cross to reach the Philistine outpost was a
cliff. One cliff stood to the north toward Micmash, the other to the south toward Geba.
Jonathan said to his young armor-bearer, “Come, let’s go over to the outpost of those
fellows. Perhaps the LORD will act in our behalf. Nothing can hinder the LORD from saving,
whether by many or by few.”
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“Do all that you have in mind,” his armor-bearer said. “Go ahead; I am with you heart and
soul.”
Jonathan said, “Come, then; we will cross over toward the men and let them see us. If they
say to us, ‘Wait there until we come to you,’ we will stay where we are and not go up to them.
But if they say, ‘Come up to us,’ we will climb up, because that will be our sign that the LORD has
given them into our hands.”
So both of them showed themselves to the Philistine outpost. “Look!” said the Philistines.
“The Hebrews are crawling out of the holes they were hiding in.” The men of the outpost
shouted to Jonathan and his armor-bearer, “Come up to us and we’ll teach you a lesson.”
So Jonathan said to his armor-bearer, “Climb up after me; the LORD has given them into the
hand of Israel.”
Jonathan climbed up, using his hands and feet, with his armor-bearer right behind him. The
Philistines fell before Jonathan, and his armor-bearer followed and killed behind him. In that first
attack Jonathan and his armor-bearer killed some twenty men in an area of about half an acre.
Then panic struck the whole army—those in the camp and field, and those in the outposts
and raiding parties—and the ground shook. It was a panic sent by God. ...
Then Saul and all his men assembled and went to the battle. They found the Philistines in
total confusion, striking each other with their swords. Those Hebrews who had previously been
with the Philistines and had gone up with them to their camp went over to the Israelites who
were with Saul and Jonathan. When all the Israelites who had hidden in the hill country of
Ephraim heard that the Philistines were on the run, they joined the battle in hot pursuit. So the
LORD rescued Israel that day, and the battle moved on beyond Beth Aven.
1 Samuel 14:1, 4-15, 20-23
1 Samuel 14:6
Nothing can hinder the LORD from saving
What do you call that? Faith!
Jonathan has faith.
1 Samuel 14:15
Then panic struck the whole army—those in the camp and field, and those in the outposts and
raiding parties—and the ground shook. It was a panic sent by God.
Who’s afraid now?
So we’ll wrap up with a few quick ideas to see from Jonathan’s good story
1. Without faith, fear works in you. With faith, fear works for you.
Saul didn’t trust God’s timing.
He was fearful.
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Jonathan trusted that nothing could stop God from helping him.
And He was fearless.
And his enemies became the ones who were afraid.
2. Whether fear or faith, whichever way the man went, the people followed.
Saul was afraid.
His actions ultimately showed it.
And what happened with his men?
His men hid ad quaked with fear.
What happened when the same men saw Jonathan rising up in faith and courage?
All those who had been fearful come running to the battle –
the quaking soldiers,
those who had sold out and were among the Philistines,
and those hiding in caves.
The faith/courage of Jonathon actually set something in motion for the community.
The faith/courage of Jonathon actually set something in motion for the community.
Do you remember when the opposite happened in the book of Numbers?
Moses sent 12 guys out to spy out the promise land.
10 of them came back full of fear and said, the people here are giants.
They didn’t trust God, and fear spread throughout the camp!
Two of them said it’s a good land. God can give it to us.
Their names are? Joshua and Caleb.
Whether fear or faith, whichever way the man went, the people followed.
And then 3.
Whether it’s Jonathan and his armor bearer or Joshua and Caleb,
3. When a servant of God and a friend operate by faith, God shows up!
This is the worst case scenario for Jonathan to climb up to the enemy on the high ground.
And yet! the worse case military scenario means to Jonathon that God is on their side.
God will show up.
That is quite different than how we usually see things isn’t it
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Is there some area of your life where you need faith right now?
Is there some circumstance at work that seems like is way over your head
And you need to say, God if you are in this let me know. I’ll trust you to do anything
Is there a situation in your family with a child or with a parent or with a loved one that
seems like only God can save it.
You can trust Him. He will do it.
Be the servant of God and maybe God will give you a friend to operate by faith,
And expect to see God show up!
That’s what we need in our day!
We need one or two who will step out by faith!
We need men to rise up in courage and take on the battles of our culture.
Charles Spurgeon once said,
Give me twelve men, serious men, lovers of souls, who fear nothing but sin and love nothing but
God, and I will shake London from end to end.
We need men like that in our church
We need women like that in our church. Women of faith.
We need boys and girls like that who trust God and lead by faith.
And then one final spiritual point.
The contrast of the faith of these two men, the father and the son, are meant to show us a very
important spiritual truth.
Jonathan says, “There is nothing that can hinder God from saving.”
Saul say, “I will do it myself.”
Ultimately, the real reason this story is included in this book mayt simply be to show us that
We can’t do it ourselves.
We can’t make ourselves acceptable to God.
We need a mediator. A go between.
We are sinful. We break God’s commandments.
We cannot not make that relationship right with God in ourselves.
We need Jesus Christ.
Who gave a sacrifice for us all ....