Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Because I was out this week we have a guest preacher. I'm excited to introduce you to him. This is my friend, Matt Swearingim. I've known Matt a long time.
He's the young adults pastor at waypoint Church in St. Charles, their sister church in our association. But I've known Matt since the young days. We actually went to seminary together at Midwestern and got to share a bunch of classes together. He is one of my trusted friends. I am excited for you guys to hear the word from him. Today, Matt, bravely, with zero context, volunteered to continue our first Samuel series.
And so he stepped in and wrote this out for us. Let me pray for Matt and then we're going to jump into the word.
Jesus, I want to thank you so much for the privilege of gathering together, Lord, even in summer when it's vacation time and we're all in and out week to week. Lord, we thank you for the gift of gathering in an air conditioned building to celebrate your goodness, to celebrate the gospel. Lord, we pray your blessing over our brother Matt. Holy Spirit, we pray that you would anoint him, that you would speak through the word, that you would encourage us, challenge us, disciple us today and Matt as well. May all of us leave here today having heard from your spirit what we need. We love you, Jesus. Pray this in your name. Amen.
[00:01:13] Speaker B: Amen. Thanks, brother. Love that guy. Man, I.
It is good to be with you. And I was gonna do this before he said all those nice things about me, but y', all, you know this because you're with him week to week and Kim as well. But Sam is one of the best pastors in the area, in my opinion.
Let's give it up for this guy.
He always has been, he's extremely faithful. He is and always has been to me a trusted confidant and one that I can look to and pray with. And he'll pray for me.
And ministry can be tough. And so here's my encouragement to you. Pray for him and his family. Even when you feel like they're doing okay, pray anyway.
Pray that the enemy would stay away. Pray that the Lord would continue to provide.
Because I love Sam. You are blessed by his leadership. And as I know other pastors and lay pastors and I'm meeting deacons in this room today. You are incredibly blessed by the leadership that God has brought to you in this place. And do not think that is a coincidence because God is good because he loves you and he's brought you qualified people to lead you. And so can we just give it up? One time for all leadership of this church in this place.
Come on.
Like Sam said, I'm going to continue in your series through First Samuel. So open your Bibles, if you would. I'm sure you know exactly where to go.
There's Bibles on the floor, and so grab one if you need it. If you don't have one, open your iPhones, whatever.
There's a lot of text to cover. There's a lot of points. And Sam said, I can have all the time in the world.
So get ready, buckle up. It's gonna be real good.
Here's what I love about this text. As we were discussing, you know, he said, hey, you can come in, and we're gonna go to the convention. It'd be great to have someone to come preach. And I said, I'm happy to help. He's like, you can preach whatever you want. And I said, man, where are you at? Like, what's your series? Maybe know it'll be an easy layup. He said, we're in the Old Testament in the middle of First Samuel.
I said, that's not. That's not easy. My God.
So. But I said, okay, Lord, let's do it. Here's what I love. Listen, here's what I love. I love that no matter where you open God's word, that God's word is alive, that it is active, and that is good for our souls, and it can be refreshing even when it's hard. And today we're going to talk through what it looks like when you have to really figure out the cost that control can have in your life.
If I were to poll this room Today, based on statistics, 70% of adults in this room would struggle with emotional regulation.
70. I saw that, and I thought, that's
[00:03:51] Speaker A: low
[00:03:54] Speaker B: because I'm one of them. Let's call it 80. All right, let's call it 80. Here's the thing. Control costs you something.
The emotional regulation tension is closely tied, based on this poll, to the sense of control. Control costs you something. This means that every time you choose control over trust, there is a price tag that is attached. And we see in 1st Samuel 14, we see that Saul desperately wants to maintain control.
He controls his soldiers with a foolish oath. He controls the situation that they're in with specific rules. He controls the narrative by making everything about this his victory, not the victory for the team, his victory.
It costs the army strength because they can't eat. And we'll see that it cost the nation momentum because the victory is limited. It cost his son Jonathan Because Saul is willing to sacrifice him.
It costs a sermon. Eventually later we'll see it actually costs Saul his kingdom.
Control always promises security, but often produces the opposite.
So I started thinking through this for me, because here's again, here's what's wild about the Word of God is that as I'm studying this and I've had a few weeks, so I've been sitting in this for two and a half, three weeks now and God's just been washing it over me and he continues to show me things about myself, which is just so much fun.
You got it. And here's what I understood for myself about control.
That for me, when I try to maintain control of situation, I sacrifice peace.
Often when I try to maintain control, I damage relationship, I exhaust myself. I miss what God is trying to do because I'm trying to maintain a narrative for myself. I carry burdens that I was never meant to carry. And ultimately there's a desire, a seek of control that can really just wreak havoc all around you.
And we see this in this text. And so as we dive in and we go chunk by chunk because there's like 764 verses Pastor Sam gave me today, here's what I want you to see.
I want you to see that this text today is a growing contrast between Jonathan's faith filled wisdom and Saul's prideful leadership.
It shows how self focused leadership can burden God's people and hinder God's purposes. Not God's progress, hear me, not his progress.
But it can help. It can hinder what God's trying to do within us because we're so self focused.
And so there's a lot here today I want to propose to you five points. Usually I just do three, but again, ot no rules, we're out here. Five points for you today, friends.
And there's one big takeaway. So the big idea is this.
When we step out in faith, God moves. But when we try to maintain control, we wreak havoc. That's what we see from this text today. So the first thing I want you to see, point number one, if you're taking notes and it's this, it's that control creates chaos.
And in 1st Samuel 14, 2430, I'm going to encourage you, here's what I'm going to do today. For the sake of time, I'm going to encourage you to go read this text again later. And I'm just going to kind of sub point it for you today.
Have mercy on me, Lord. Let's pray. Jesus thank you for your word, God, thank you that it's alive, that it's active, that it goes before us, God, that we can open it, God, thank you for the freedom in the land that we live, that we can preach it and proclaim it and read it and say it aloud. And freedom, God, thank you for these people today, God, I pray that you would go before me, God, that you would speak to all of us today through your word, God, we trust you, we love you, we thank you, we praise you. And all God's people said, come on. Amen. First Samuel 14, it starts off in verse 24 through 30, and we see this, it says, as the men of Israel, they were hard pressed, and so Saul laid an oath on the people, and he said, curse is the man who eats food until in the evening when I am avenged by my enemies.
So none of the people tasted the food.
No one. I'm skipping around. No one put his hand to his mouth because the people feared the oath, it says, But Jonathan, who had not heard his father's charge, he put his staff and dipped it in the honeycomb, put his hand to his mouth and it says, his eyes became bright.
And one of the people said, you, father strictly charged the people of the oath, saying, cursed is the man.
And Jonathan said, my father has troubled the land.
See now how my eyes have become bright because I tasted just a little bit of the honey.
The Israelites, they're seeing success from this battle that they're fighting.
Jonathan had just led them out into a victory. And they come forward and they're not fully, someone's at your house. They're not fully have avenged this battle. And so Saul, trying to maintain control, makes an oath to the people and said, no one can eat until I am avenged.
So imagine this. They're exhausted because they have fought. They come back, they're thinking it's time to grub. And they sit down and. And Saul says, no, we're not eating yet.
And so I dug into this because I'm thinking, there's gotta be a reason why he would do this to his people. And as I studied, here's what I found.
I found that there is seemingly no reason for him to make a vow like this.
No reason other than the fact that he could, other than the fact that he wanted to show the troops that he maintains control, that he's in charge. Look at what we see in verse 24. It says, Saul's vision of victory wasn't that he didn't have the team in mind. But it was all about him. It says, until I avenge my enemies.
This vow sounds real spiritual, but really it is not.
It was actually made and it drained the people of God as they were trying to continue to fight.
It made them weary, run down. Saul is instituting something really to just maintain control. I have five kids, eight and younger. Eight, three five year olds. Yes. They're triplets and a new baby, four months. And here's what I've learned about kids and pray for us. Here's what I put me on the missions wall. No, I'm kidding. Here's. This is life. Praise God.
Here's what I've learned about kids.
I've learned that if you don't feed your kids often, they get real hungry, they start to scream, and it's called hangry. Right? Imagine these men, these grown men who have just fought and they don't got like tanks. They're out here on their feet, they're exhausted and they're hungry and they're ready to fuel up again. And Saul says, no, no food. Imagine how hangry they can be. There is no reason for Saul to make a vow other to prove a prideful point. And here's the truth I want you to hear out of this. Let me ask you this.
Are you looking to and leaning into things that just sound spiritual but really are not?
Things that sound really good but are not God?
Because here's the thing. What sounds spiritual isn't always led by the spirit.
What sounds spiritual isn't always led by the spirit. Praise God for technology, Instagram. Praise God for people who are doing actual work and actual research to help us, us parents and us people, try to like train up kids in the way of the Lord. Right? But there are some people out here who just say things that sound good and they're not things from God.
And over time, it actually derails perspective of what God's people need to hear. Because we have God's word, we have his perspective. This is sound doctrine. But we're listening to so much noise of the world that we miss the sound.
What sounds spiritual isn't always led by the spirit. And so we see in this text that Jonathan unknowingly ignores the vow of Saul. And what happens?
He actually thrives.
The text says that his eyes become bright.
We can become so suppressed and put out by the things that sound spiritual that are not from God.
It reminds me of this song.
Old, old song. Maybe not too old. I don't actually know. We don't sing it anymore. So your name Is like honey on my lips.
Not going to sing it. Maybe I will.
I'm not going to sing it. No, no, no.
Your name. No, no, no.
It reminds me of The Psalmist in 119. He says, how sweet are the words unto my taste and sweeter than honey. Check it to my mouth.
We need to be so in line with the word of God that we can fully trust in what it says and believe that it has what is right for us. So that we are not controlling our own narrative, but leaning into the word of God and what he has for us. Listen, when we aim to maintain control of our situation, it just causes more chaos.
Instead of giving his people the food that they needed, Saul used fear to control them. If you do this, there's consequence.
Can we get personal? Let's make it practical. What are you letting control you out of fear today?
What is holding you back from what God has? What is wearing you down? What are you suppressing because you think it sounds spiritual, but it's not of God.
We have to be watchful, because here's what happens. We continue in the text. Point two is that weariness welcomes compromise when we get run down.
Just as they said, they. So then they struck down the Philistines, and they were faint because they were exhausted, hungry. And what did they do?
The people pounced on the spoil, took sheep and oxen and calves and slaughtered them to the ground. And then they ate them with the blood. Because, behold, the people were sinning.
And so Saul built an altar to the Lord. And it says it was the first altar that he built.
So we get this picture.
So he makes this oath. They continue to fight.
They then succeed in Paul's and Saul's eyes.
And the people are starving again, hangry. They're so hungry, they finally get to eat. They pounce and they eat recklessly because they were so restricted.
And here's what we know, here's what we see. When you're empty long enough, you'll fill up with the wrong things.
When you're empty long enough, you'll fill up with the wrong things. I love to play golf.
I try to play as often as I can, but again, five kids and so actually, my wife let me play yesterday. Praise God, if she's watching online. I love you. Thank you.
A few months ago, I got to play a round of golf. And it had been a while, so I went out and I had a Celsius energy drink and I went to play. That was my breakfast. And I went out and it was terrible. And So I get done and guess what? I'm hangry.
I'm exhausted, I'm very, very hungry. And so what I did then was I went to the best gas station on the planet. Quick trip, and I walked in and I just started grabbing everything. I was like, I'll take a Snickers and a Taquito and one of these cheese things. And of course a rooster booster. Praise God for rooster booster.
And here's the problem, though. Here's the problem.
I started to fill my body with things that sounded good, but what my body needed was fueled. It needed Whole Foods to fuel it.
And so don't miss this. Because I was weary, I compromised on what was healthy that would make me whole for something in the moment that I thought would just make me happy.
Uh oh, we're about to get real out here. Where are we? What is this? Baldwin or something? Wildwood somewhere. Wherever we are.
Listen, Ellisville somewhere.
Because I was weary, I compromised what was healthy and what would make me whole for something in the moment I thought would make me happy. We do this with our lives.
We need the word of God to make us whole. But listen, we fill our lives with junk that sounds good and there's no space left and it leaves us feeling spiritually empty.
When we become weary, we begin to compromise.
The way we fight this is we rest. Praise God that Sam can leave for a week and can rest and rejuvenate and take time away with his family so that he can come back and continue to fight the good fight.
We need rest. We rest in who God is and what God says. And I admit it's easier said than done. I am not the example in this.
But if we compromise when we're tired, then we need to rest to be rejuvenated. God's word says, come to me all who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you what?
Rest. Rest. True rest. Not just sleep, not just eight hours on the aura ring. You wake up and it's like, you did great last night. No rest.
Have you ever been invited on a work trip and they said, we're going to go to. Let's just pick Orlando for fun. Because you just went on a work trip to Orlando. You go to Orlando and your boss is like, hey, we're going to fly you down, we're going to put you in a resort. It's a three night stay. It's going to be great. And you're pumped because you think I'm about to get away on the company's dime on vacation. And then what happens is you get down there and you open the door, and on the bed is an agenda, an itinerary for the three days. And what you realize quickly is they have not sent you to rest. They have sent you to own every second of your time for the next three days because they thought they don't have the distractions from where they're coming from. So we can do whatever we want. Those trips are not restful, in contrast to trips at resorts where you go with someone you're in relationship with, maybe a friend, a family, a spouse, and you. You show up and you open up and you. You unpack, and then you realize, man, I got. I got a week just to do nothing but just be here. Those are trips of rest. And what we see here is that sometimes as Christians, we find ourselves in the relationship with God. And it really just becomes.
We begin to think that now that he owns my time, I just got to do all these things.
And we have this idea from what we see and what we hear, that here's my obligation to God, here's my religion to God. And we get so tied up with, like, handcuff ourselves to what God wants to do. But really he's calling us into relationship. He's calling us in to enjoy the journey with Jesus, learning and growing more into his likeness through sanctification.
But we hop around and we act like Christians.
We're not being transformed through a relationship with who God is Monday through Saturday, but we just act like who we think Christians should act like when we show up to the church on Sunday.
And here's the danger is that religion is not the answer. Jesus even speaks against it. He speaks against religious people who cared more about the rules than really knowing Jesus.
It's relationship that the Lord seeks, relationship with the Lord that rejuvenates our soul, that gives rest to the weary. So that's why he says, come to me, not the religion. Come to me in relationship, and I will give your soul rest.
And we see here in verse 33 and 35 that saw makes this mistake.
He replaces relationship with religion.
It says, then they told Saul, behold, after they had eaten, the people are sinning against the Lord and they're eating the blood.
He says, let every man bring his ox and sheep to slaughter.
And I love this last line. And Saul built an altar to the Lord. It was the first altar that he had built to the Lord. See, Saul's doing what he thinks he should.
He built an altar. Ah, you caught me. Let's build an altar. But Notice that it said, first.
See, this wasn't a practice of Saul's private life.
He did it because folks were watching. Folks had called him out. There was no real repentance. He was checking a box, going through motions. And so hear this. See, you can look spiritual, but still miss God.
Let me remind you, in the New Testament, it says that even the demons believe they have enough fear and reverence of for who God is, that it says that they even shudder. My question, and I'm asking myself is, do we.
Do we have fear and reverence for who God is, that we even shudder understanding the power that he holds?
Or do we just use religion as the card, the Christian card, or adding Jesus to what we really want to pursue and do? Do you have a personal relationship with this God of the universe? An actual relationship, not just a.
A rhythm of religion, but an actual relationship. The God of this story, the God of the Bible. Listen, for those who are in this room today, who are not yet believers, there was a man, and he came in the beginning of time. He created the world, and then he came.
Because sin introduced to the world, there was a break in relationship between man and between God.
And so Jesus came.
He was born of a virgin Mary. He lived the life that we could not live. He died the death that you deserved because of sin.
And then three days later, he rose again, showing that he has dominion over even death itself. And the Bible says that one day he's coming back.
Amen. Praise God. That's good news for the believer. But if you don't believe in Jesus, if you've been playing religion and you don't have a relationship with the God of the Bible, this is not good news for you.
But today can be the day that your life can change forever, that your eternal address can shift, that you can put your faith and your trust into Jesus.
One of our staff values at Waypoint is that we depend on desperately.
And here's why. It's important that we remind ourselves that. Because too often in our lives, too often in the Western world in which we live, it seems like we can just do what we do and add Jesus's name to it.
Honestly, if I'm just going to be real with you guys, there's a lot of things that the church, not this one, of course, but the church can do and look like, and mission movements, they can move forward with without God even involved.
We've just become so good at it. It can look good, feel good, sound good, must be good.
But like I said earlier, even good things Aren't God things sometimes?
And what we do is we begin to think more highly of ourselves than we ought. This is what Saul did. He said, I'm the king, so don't eat the food until I'm avenged.
This is me. This is my show.
And so as the priest came behind him and said, you'll read this later. As the priest came behind him and said, don't you think we should ask God first before we make a move? He said, sure, ask him.
His pride distorted his discernment.
Look at this. Verse 36 and 45. But the priest said, let us draw near to God.
And Saul inquired, shall I go down?
But he did not answer him that day.
Oh, and what happened? They continued onward. And as we continue to read through the text, it says, then Saul said, cast a lot between my son and Jonathan, because all the people left. And Saul and his son were captured. And he said, cast a lot.
Tell me what I have done.
Jonathan said, I tasted some honey. And Saul said, well, that must be the issue then, you sinner.
Pride distorted his discernment.
When Saul prayed, God was silent.
Sometimes.
Should I go here, Lord? Okay.
Sometimes we pray and we don't hear from the Lord in the time in which we think he should speak to us.
And so instead of waiting on God, we just decide to move forward without him and in his grace, maybe it works out okay. Lucky you.
But I'm just telling you, that's a dangerous path to start walking.
When we walk away from what God has and when we start to have conversation and relationship with the author of time, our clocks don't matter.
Now, hear me. I know there are things that we're praying about that we've been praying about for a long time.
And for us, it's difficult to reconcile why a loving God won't answer a prayer for our neighbor, who we've been praying for for years, for a family member who we've been praying for our entire life for, for a situation to change that hasn't changed yet. And we say, God, why God? Why? I'm just. I'm just cautioning you because I'm not actually one of your pastors. And so Sam can follow up on this for you. I'm cautioning you to say, be watchful and discern decisions that are made when you're not hearing or asking God for discernment. When we let our pride begin to go before our prayers. Oh, that was not on my notes. Hear this. When we let our pride go before our prayers, be careful, because the Bible Says that pride comes before what the fall.
And just next chapter, couple chapters, I think later we see guess who falls? Saul. Saul falls because his pride distorted his discernment.
He doesn't wait to hear from the Lord. He just takes the next step. And to continue the theme of chaos, they fight. And both Saul and Jonathan are captured. They cast lots.
And here's the gospel connection for you today.
And this point is that Saul gave up his son to save himself, but God gave up his son to save you.
Saul gave up his son to save him himself, but God gave his son to save us.
That's the new the good news of the gospel that Ephesians 2, 8 and 9 says, for by grace you have been saved through what?
Faith. And it's not of your own doing.
It is a gift of God, not a result of works so that you may not boast.
How often are you willing to wait on the Lord before moving forward with your own plans?
We have to remember today that while we seek control, faith always finds a way.
Because it's easier for me if I want to maintain control, to make my decisions, to pray and put Jesus name on it and just do what I want to do, hope it works out okay.
But remember this today, that as we seek control, faith finds a way. Our final point today is this. Faith finds a Way, verse 46, 52.
We see here a bunch of really hard names to say, but that's irrelevant.
The point is, is that the people rally to save Jonathan, that the people see through Saul's chaotic leadership, That it says there was hard fighting against the Philistines all the days of Saul. And when Saul saw any strong man or any violent man, he attached him to himself. He was out here just trying to be bigger, be stronger, be better, look good.
But God was moving in the background.
And what we see at the end of this chapter is that despite Saul's leadership, God still gives victory.
Despite your downfall, God can still move.
I don't know what you're facing. I don't know what you're dealing with.
I don't know if you're coming in today. And you're One of the eight out of 10 who just struggles to maintain control.
And you just have suppressed every emotion. You just have a hard time. You just snap at your kids because they're not doing what you want them to do. You snap at work because it's not going the way you want it to go. You leave a church because it's just not how you thought it would go. Listen, we have to Give those things to God and trust that he has a way, that he'll make a way, despite our downfalls, that he can still move. Even when we don't see it, he's moving. Even when we can't feel it, he's moving. Why? Because earlier, Jonathan trusted God.
It shows that God honors faith, even in flawed environments.
Imagine Jonathan's juxtaposition here. His father is making terrible decisions, but he's loyal. He wants to be loyal to his dad, he wants to be loyal to his leader, but he just knows he's not making the right calls.
God honors faith, even in flawed environments. It shows us that when faith leads, God moves. But when we let control lead, it shows us that people can suffer.
And so, as we close today, here's a couple questions for you to consider.
I just want you to sit with these in this moment. We're going to have the band come.
The first question is this.
What is your grip on control costing you?
What is the grip of control costing you?
And as you sit with this and as you think through this, I want. This is kind of an analogy. I feel like the Lord gave me just a. Just a picture. Maybe it's helpful.
But often when we want to control something, we just get so frustrated and so angry that it's not working out. We start to, like, just grip our fist and shake, right? And you're just mad.
You're trying to hold on too tight. You're trying to control the narrative, the situation. What if.
What if we opened our fist to God in worship and we just let it go?
Now I hear, listen, I. I know that's hard, but as I'm praying through this, and I'm like, lord, what are you trying to show me? This is what he's showing me, so I'm just going to share it with you. The things that I'm trying to hold on to, the things I'm trying to maintain in my life, the things I'm trying to control.
If I were just to let go. Look at the position change, right? Worship, surrender, give it to God. My hands are up. I can't do it. Instead of trying to hold on, I let go.
What would happen if you loosened your grip?
Saul made an oath to bring consequence for disobedience. But Jesus came look to take your consequence for your sin.
Saul almost sacrifices his own son to save himself, but God actually did sacrifice his son to save you.
Saul says, work harder. Jesus says, it's finished. The second question I want you to consider in this time is, what are you Trying to work harder in rather than letting what Christ did be enough for you?
What are you trying to work harder in rather than letting what Christ did be enough for you?
And here's the last thing, three questions. I don't know if I said two or three, but you're going to get three. My last question for you is this.
Are you living a life that. If this story that we looked at today was written about you, the reader would say he or she caused havoc.
Or would the overarching theme be one of humility, surrender, supplication and sanctification?
Would they look at how you respond in adversity when you start to evaluate the cost of control? And they say, man, the way that they lead out their lives just causes and wreaks havoc among everyone around them?
Or would they say, man, when they face adversity, their life really resembled one of humility of Jesus? Surrender, supplication and sanctification.
I just want you to sit in those questions. I hope that today you can leave, hopefully just thinking through the cost of trying to maintain control.
And there's.
Last thing I'll say.
There's.
There's a leadership guy and he says this. He's like, often when we think of change, we know what we want to get to, but it just is a, it's a. It seems like a hundred percent shift, like, and it just seems overwhelming. We just can't handle it. I just, you know, I can't go from what I want to or what I am to what I want. It's just too hard. And he says, I want to encourage you with this. It's just 1% better every day because a little over a long time is a lot of change.
And so the Lord and his care and his love for us, his grace with us, the God who created you, who knows how your wire. There's no excuse. Ah, I'm just not that way. No, no, no. He knows he made you. Don't play that game.
He's just asking, man, just a little bit in the right direction. Every day can have everlasting change.
Can I pray for you?
Father, we thank you for your word.
God, we thank you that you're with us, that you go before us, God, that your word is alive. God, we pray today, God, that you would help us evaluate these questions.
God, that you would help show us, God, what we are holding on to, what we're gripping on to that's costing us, whatever it may be. Relationship, happiness, peace, joy.
God show us these things that we can loosen our grip and return in worship. God, show us what it is that we're trying to work harder in rather than letting what you did on the cross be enough for us. God, we pray for our identities today and Jesus. Lastly, we pray that we would be a people that as others see us and how we process God, that our story would not be one that wreaks havoc, but it would be one that shows Jesus in his humility, his surrender and how he goes about.
God, we love you, we praise you, we thank you for your word.
And God, we worship now when we sit in this time and we think through these things. In Jesus name, Amen. Amen. Let's sit and let's think through those things.
