Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Good morning, church.
[00:00:05] It's good to see you guys this morning. For those of you that may not know who I am, my name is Craig McAlevy and I'm one of the pastors here. We have a lot of new faces that have been showing up lately, and so I haven't had a chance to meet some of you. And so I just want to officially introduce myself as one of your pastors. And it is good to be here this morning.
[00:00:23] Open up your Bibles or turn them on to First Samuel, Chapter nine. We have new chairs, but we still have our old Bibles underneath those chairs. So if you need the word of God in your hands, if you would like it in your hands, grab one of those Bibles and use it this morning. And feel free to take that with you if you need a Bible. Or let us know and we'll get you a nicer one. As Sam likes to say.
[00:00:45] We are continuing our series this morning in First Samuel, and it's titled New Days. Sam started this series a few weeks ago.
[00:00:55] We're unpacking the truth that we hear that we worship a God who is on the move.
[00:01:01] We worship a God who is on the move in this broken and sinful world even when we don't see it. And that's a really important point this morning. Even when we don't see it, even when we cannot see it, even when we refuse to see it, God is on the move. God is moving steadily and faithfully towards a new day in his kingdom. There's a Latin phrase that some of you may have heard. It's the phrase coram Deo, Corum Deo. It simply means before the face of God. I love that phrase because what it means is all of us, believers or non believers, all of us live before the face of a holy God. Corom Deo. Every moment, every action, whether it's secular or sacred, is lived under the watchful gaze of a holy God.
[00:01:56] But he doesn't simply watch us. He is an active God.
[00:02:02] He is intimately involved in his creation. He is moving us forward for his kingdom purposes. And we will see that in our passage this morning, which is a lengthy one. It's, I think, the second longest that we have so far. And so we're not able to spend a great deal of time doing a recap this morning. We're going to need to get right back right into it. But I do want to touch on just a couple of things that Jesse and Sam said the last couple of weeks in this new day's section over the last couple of weeks, succinctly, what we talked about is the smashing of our abstract idols and the choosing of holiness.
[00:02:38] That's kind of what we've talked about the last couple of weeks. Remember, our idols are no longer physical. They can be, but typically they're more, more abstract than physical. They're, they're more insidious. And we have to do the hard work. And it is hard work. If you've engaged in any type of attempt to find out what your idols are, it is difficult work to root them out of our heart. Sam encouraged us in that to remember, if you recall, our Ebenezers or our markers, these markers of our faith that help our forgetful hearts to reconnect to the gospel that we say, that we believe things like the Lord's Supper, our baptism worship community and others that are uniquely a part of your story. Those are Ebenezers to hang on to remember the gospel. Jesse told us last week that we as human beings have a passion for idolatry and seeking God's substitutes.
[00:03:37] Isn't it nice to know you're passionate about something? If you ever wondered, if you ever thought you were passionless, you have a passion to seek idols in your life. That's always good to know, isn't it? Thank you, Jesse for that.
[00:03:48] But that's the connecting piece, or there is a connecting piece this morning for us from Jesse's sermon last week. He said this. He said God is merciful enough to let us choose and suffer the consequences of our own choices and does so to draw us to repentance, to help us to see our desperate need for a Savior and to exhort us to pursue holiness.
[00:04:12] Church we are to be because we are the set apart people of God.
[00:04:19] And all of this points to what's going on in the story of Isaiah this morning. Excuse me, in the story of Israel this morning in First Samuel. But more importantly, it speaks to what's going on in our hearts this morning. And so today we're going to begin to see the unfolding of this profound impact of Israel's, the nation, of Israel's idolatry and its consequences.
[00:04:40] And as we see how God handles their rejection of him, he begins, this morning we will read in a very unassuming and indeed a very mundane way, even when we don't see it in the ordinariness of our day, God is moving among us for his kingdom purposes.
[00:05:00] It's hard, as I said, to root out abstract idols to be holy.
[00:05:06] It's hard to hold on to Our Ebenezers, because we are so easily distracted, God in His mercy and his grace, interrupts us. He brings us to repentance for the purpose of living a holy and a set apart life.
[00:05:24] And that brings us to our main point this morning. The main point of this sermon is quite simply God interrupts.
[00:05:32] God interrupts. His desire is to interrupt your little kingdom of one for his great kingdom.
[00:05:42] When our children were toddler age, my wife Kim taught them to put their hand on our shoulder or our arm if we were engaged in conversation with somebody at the moment. So that that would be a signal for them to interrupt us, that they needed to tell us something. And there were two very simple reasons that we did this. One was to teach them manners. We wanted to teach our kids manners. But the second was a little more selfish. The second reason we taught them to do that is because I don't like to be interrupted.
[00:06:13] I still don't like to be interrupted.
[00:06:15] And to show you how effective this is and how ineffective this is, also my daughter Hannah, who is now 22 and in college. Hi, Hannah. I think she's watching.
[00:06:25] She's in college. She recently did this to my wife. She came up, she put her hand on her arm while Kim was talking to someone else. And Kim knew that Hannah wanted to interrupt her. And so she paused the conversation and she talked to Hannah. And Kim reminded me this week, as I was relaying this wonderful illustration I thought was just dynamite, she goes, you know, I did that to you last week during our gospel community. I'm like, you did? She goes, yeah, and you ignored me.
[00:06:54] Which proves my point. I don't like to be interrupted, but I wasn't in tune to what Kim wanted. I just thought she was being affectionate.
[00:07:03] I wasn't in tune to what was going on. I wasn't in tune to this signal that we have in our family that was taught to our kids. And I just kind of didn't really adopt it in my own life. And I probably need to, to begin to do that. But God puts His hand on your shoulder sometimes to get your attention.
[00:07:20] But if you are not attuned to him, he will find ways to interrupt you.
[00:07:24] He will find ways to interrupt you. We're going to look at our text this morning. I said it's lengthy in four sections. We're going to read a section of the text, we're going to pause, we're going to unpack it a little bit, talk about a couple of things in that there might be some salient points. Hopefully they are to you have an application and then we're going to move on. So if you're used to the application coming at the end and you're about to doze off and to go into dark mode, you're going to miss it.
[00:07:48] So you need to pay attention while we go through this thing, because we're going to be applying as we go, and hopefully this will be a blessing to us all. One last thing. There's a lot in this text. I've said this three times now. We cannot possibly unpack everything that is in the Word this morning, but we do need to know this.
[00:08:05] Every detail matters in God's Word because our God is in the details of our lives.
[00:08:13] Remember, we live corundeo. We live before the face of God. So I'm going to pray and we're going to get into this. Lord, thank you for today. Simple prayer this morning, Lord, because we have already sung it. Open our hearts and our minds to see Jesus Christ, and we pray this in his name. Amen.
[00:08:35] So let's get into this church. Chapter nine, verse one through 14. We're going to go through the very first part of 14, verse 14. So we begin. It says here in verse one, there was a prominent man of Benjamin named Kish, son of Abiel, son of zeror, son of Becor, son of Ephiah, son of a Benjamite.
[00:08:55] He had a son named Saul, an impressive young man. There was no one more impressive among the Israelites than he. He stood a head taller than anyone else.
[00:09:05] One day, the donkeys of Saul's father Kish wandered off. Kish said to his son, Saul, take one of the servants with you. Go look for the donkeys.
[00:09:14] Saul and his servant went through the hill country of Ephraim and then through the region of Salachia. But they didn't find them. They went through the region of Shilim. Nothing.
[00:09:25] Then they went through the Benjamite region, but they still didn't find them.
[00:09:29] When they came to the land of Zuph, Saul said to the servant who was with him, come on, let's go back. My father will stop worrying about the donkeys and start worrying about us.
[00:09:39] Look, the servant said, there's a man of God in this city who is highly respected. Everything he says is sure to come true. Let's go there now. Maybe he'll tell us which way we should go.
[00:09:51] Suppose we do go, Saul said to a servant, what do we take the man? The food from our packs is gone, and there's no gift to take the man of God, what do we have?
[00:10:01] The servant answered Saul, here I have a little silver. I'll give it to the man of God, and he will tell us which way we should go.
[00:10:09] Formerly in Israel, a man who was going to inquire of God would say, come, let's go see the Seer. Let's go to the seer, for the prophet of today was formerly called the Seer.
[00:10:19] Good Saul replied to his servant, come on, let's go. So they went to the city where the man of God was. And as they were climbing the hill to the city, they found some young women coming to draw water. And they asked, is the seer there? Here? The women answered, yes, he is ahead of you. Hurry.
[00:10:35] He just now entered the city because there's a sacrifice for the people at the high place today. As soon as you enter the city, you will find him before he goes to the high place to eat. The people won't eat until he comes before he must bless the sacrifice.
[00:10:49] After that, the guests can eat. Go up immediately. You can find him now.
[00:10:54] So they went up toward the city.
[00:10:57] So we have an undisclosed amount of time again that occurs between the end of last week and the beginning of this week. We have a scene change. We're introduced to some new people. Saul, the son of Kish. We're introduced to this sermon. The servants, we don't know his name.
[00:11:12] Saul, many of us probably know, will play a prominent role in the future chapters. For, in fact, for the rest of the first Samuel, Saul will play a prominent role. Saul and his servant are sent out on a mission to find some donkeys. Later, it says that they're gone for three days. Now, there's two things I want us to see in this first part of this sermon. The first is the text goes out of its way to tell us that Saul is an impressive young man and that he's very tall, a fact that's repeated later, not in our text, but in a later chapter. Here's a man who apparently has all of the outward appearances of a leader, someone who would fulfill Israel's demand for a king. If you recall, that's where we left off. They are demanding a king.
[00:11:57] He'd be a casting director's ideal pick right out of central casting to fit the part.
[00:12:03] At least outwardly, he fit the part.
[00:12:07] The second thing I want to see is the disconnect. The disconnect we see between this impressive and physically striking young Saul with his ability and his desire to lead a simple expedition to find his father's donkeys.
[00:12:22] Saul wants to give up.
[00:12:24] Saul wants to go home.
[00:12:27] Surely Daddy's going to start worrying about us.
[00:12:30] Stop worrying about the donkeys. The servant says, no, let's go up to the city where there's a prophet and he will tell us where to go.
[00:12:39] Saul isn't even the one that has the money or the offering. He's like, what do we give him? The servant says, I've got the money.
[00:12:46] It begs the question, who's leading this expedition here?
[00:12:50] Saul may look the part, but he doesn't act the part of a leader.
[00:12:55] He appears kind of passive. He doesn't really follow instructions well from his father, and he's apparently oblivious to the fact that there's a prophet of God that lives in this city, which I'm pretty sure that's probably a pretty well known fact. Even the servant knows this.
[00:13:09] Now, in the upcoming chapters, we'll see just how Saul's passivity, his rebelliousness and his foolishness will lead him to ruin. But for now, today, I think what this shows us is where Saul's heart is not.
[00:13:25] It's not attuned to the things of God.
[00:13:29] When Samuel informs Saul in later chapters that the Lord's going to replace him as King Saul tells him, Samuel tells Saul the Lord has found a man what after God's own heart, intimating that Saul was not a man after God's own heart, he was not in tune with with the Lord. You see, Saul may be the people's choice, but he is not really God's choice.
[00:13:54] And this disconnect we see between this outward appearance of Saul that would be king and his inner man or his integrity is problematic. After all, are not all idols problematic?
[00:14:07] Idols, be they wood or stone or clay or abstract in nature, can be carved, can be shaped, can be honed to outward perfection, but they will always remain empty and impotent on the inside. And they always lead us to frustration and ultimate destruction.
[00:14:27] So in answering their request for a king to be like all the other nations, God gives them exactly what they've carved up in their mind's eye.
[00:14:36] He gives them an impressive young man who's tall, kingly looking, just like all the other nations, but at the end of the day, who is wholly insufficient for the task?
[00:14:49] Our challenge in this is, in what areas of your walk with Jesus are you passive and unattuned to God as you live out your faith?
[00:14:59] You'll hear it every Sunday.
[00:15:01] I don't think we've said it yet, but we'll say it now.
[00:15:04] As the love of Christ pours into you, the love of Christ will pour out of you. Implicit in that statement is a rejection of passivity.
[00:15:14] Active faith, which I would argue is true faith, is the heartfelt engagement of God's word. Active faith is the surrendering to God in your prayer. Active faith is your willingness to joyfully engage in the things of the local church. To be all in. Active faith engages in community. Active faith engages in the consistent gathering of God's people. In our instance, in this space on Sunday mornings. Active faith entails a lifestyle given over to the regular repentance of faith. Faith in Jesus and faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. This is active faith. We can't do this passively.
[00:15:54] These are just some of the ways that the love of Christ pours into you and it is a tragic consequence church to be disengaged from them.
[00:16:07] Perhaps it is possible to be engaged but still be passive or half hearted, but that's very dangerous.
[00:16:16] And the reason that it's tragic is because God's desire is for his love that he pours into you. And that we say pours out of you. You're like, what does that look like? Being nice and happy.
[00:16:29] Yeah, but 2 Corinthians 5 says that we are ambassadors for Christ. God is making his appeal through you.
[00:16:39] Let that sit for a while.
[00:16:41] Go home and read over that in 2 Corinthians 5:20 and understand God, the sovereign God of the universe, is making his appeal through you. That's what he desires to do for you. You cannot do that passively.
[00:16:56] His desire is to work through you and me, frail human beings, to show the dying world around us the love of Jesus Christ.
[00:17:05] We are the set apart people of God, but we are called to gently and lovingly engage a world that is not the set apart people that are not holy. And we invite them into God's kingdom, into kingdom living, which is the only way to really experience the abundant life that Jesus came to give us.
[00:17:25] I believe that a hallmark of that kind of faith, a hallmark of living that kind of set apart, distinct holy Christian life, is humility.
[00:17:37] And the world is in desperate need of humble Christianity these days.
[00:17:44] So that's the first thing. The disconnect between Saul's physical impressiveness and his impassivity in leading and the challenge to examine your heart, asks God to reveal areas of passivity and pride which is intertwined with idolatry. To be sure, we may think passivity and pride are opposites, polar opposites, but they're not. Being passive in your faith is akin to saying I don't need a savior, and that's very dangerous.
[00:18:12] There's pride in that statement. In fact, that's the kind of pride that led to the fall that had deadly consequences, that you and I struggle with every day.
[00:18:23] So let's move on to verse 14, the second half of verse 14. We're going to go through. 27.
[00:18:31] Saul and his servant were entering the city when they saw Samuel coming towards them on his way to the high place.
[00:18:37] Now, the day before Saul's arrival, the Lord had informed Samuel, at this time tomorrow, I will send you a man from the land of Benjamin, anoint him ruler over my people Israel. He will save them from the Philistines, because I have seen the affliction of my people, for their cry has come to me.
[00:18:56] When Samuel saw Saul, the Lord told him, here is the man I told you about. He will govern my people.
[00:19:03] Saul approached Samuel in the city gate and asked, would you please tell me where the seer's house is?
[00:19:09] I am the seer. Samuel answered, go up ahead of me to the high place and eat with me today. When I send you off in the morning, I will tell you everything that's in your heart.
[00:19:19] As for the donkeys that wandered away from you three days ago, don't worry about them, because they've been found. And who does all Israel desire but you? You and all your father's family.
[00:19:30] Saul responded, am I not a Benjamite from the smallest of Israel's tribes? And isn't my clan the least important of all the clans of the Benjamite tribe?
[00:19:40] So why have you said something like this to me?
[00:19:44] Samuel took Saul and his servant, brought them to the banquet hall, and gave them a place at the head of the 30 or so men who had been invited. And then Samuel said to the cook, get a portion of meat that I gave you and told you to set aside. The cook picked up the thigh that was attached, attached to it, and set it before Saul. And then Samuel said, notice that the reserved piece is set before you eat it because it was saved for you for this solemn event at this time, I said, I have invited the people.
[00:20:15] So Saul ate with Samuel that day.
[00:20:18] Afterward, they went down from the high place to the city, and Samuel spoke with Saul on the roof.
[00:20:24] They got up early. Just before dawn, Samuel called to Saul on the roof, get up, and I'll send you on your way.
[00:20:31] Saul got up, and both he and Samuel went outside. And as they were going down to the edge of the city, Samuel said to Saul, tell the servant to Go on ahead of us, but you stay for a while and I'll reveal the word of God to you.
[00:20:44] So the servant went on.
[00:20:47] So Saul takes the advice of the servant and they hurriedly head up to the city to the prophet before he goes to the high place to eat. And we read the prophet Samuel sees them coming and it is in this passage that we see God interrupts. And here's what I want to do. I want you to find verse 14 again. We're going to have this on the screen as well to make this perhaps a little easier. Find verse 14 again. We're going to read this again. I'm going to reread it starting in the first part of 14, but I'm going to skip down to 18 and we're going to see something here, verse 14. So they went up toward the city. Verse 18, Saul approached Samuel in the city gate and asked, would you please tell me where the seer's house is? Verse 19. I'm the seer. Samuel answered, go up ahead of me to the high place and eat with me today.
[00:21:33] It just flows. We don't really need verse 14B, if you call it that, to 17 to maintain the flow of this passage. We can leave that out and we can just see what the flow is. They came towards the city, they approached Samuel at the city gate and they asked, show us where the seer's house is. And Samuel reveals himself as Samuel.
[00:21:53] We don't need that section in there, 14B through 17. It just flows. We don't need to understand it for, for how it flows, but we do need to understand, read it to understand the meaning in the original Hebrew text. I'm not a Hebrew scholar, so I just read this in a commentary, so I'll just take their word for it. But in the original Hebrew text, the very first word in verse 15 is Yahweh.
[00:22:17] That's the very first word in that verse. The personal and covenantal name of the God of Israel, Yahweh. It expresses God's self existence and God's faithfulness as revealed to Moses when he said, I am who I am.
[00:22:35] And here in this passage is where we see God interrupting. It is God who interrupts this ordinary, mundane search for lost donkeys by Saul and his servant.
[00:22:47] Verse 15:17 would be a flashback scene if it was a movie, right? The day before God tells Samuel, tomorrow I'm sending you a man. Anoint him ruler over my people Israel. He will save them from the Philistines, because I have seen their affliction of My people for their cry has come to me.
[00:23:11] We need to see in this area that God interrupts.
[00:23:16] And this interrupting God is a sovereign God. We've sung about this and has compassion and listen. He has every right to interrupt our lives, every right to interrupt our lives.
[00:23:32] The doctrine of God's sovereignty refers to his absolute and unrivaled rule over all his creatures and their circumstances.
[00:23:41] This is a big truth that points to the essential nature of who the God is we worship.
[00:23:48] And I admit it's not a doctrine that I or any of us really fully understand or understand the consequences of.
[00:23:57] There's a quote by pastor and theologian Abraham Kuyper that says there is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is sovereign over all, does not cry mine.
[00:24:13] God's sovereignty is a fundamental aspect of his character and his nature, but it must always be coupled with another fundamental aspect of his character and nature, and that is his compassion.
[00:24:28] Verse 16 I have seen the affliction of my people, for their cry has come up to me. It's the very same idea that we get in Exodus where God speaks to Moses at the burning bush.
[00:24:41] The Lord said to Moses, I have observed the misery of my people in Egypt, and I have heard them crying out because of their oppressors.
[00:24:51] I know about their sufferings, and I have come down to rescue them.
[00:24:57] Church the sovereign God interrupts individual lives for his kingdom purposes, and his purposes always flow. We may not understand it, but they always flow from a heart of divine compassion and mercy. And we just can't lose sight of that.
[00:25:16] Even though Saul is not the man that God would ideally choose to be ruler, he still uses him for his purposes, to save his people.
[00:25:26] And God would do this over and over and over again through the various kings of Israel, both the good ones and the bad ones.
[00:25:35] It's not Saul who is saving the people. It is decidedly God. But what is God saving them from?
[00:25:43] They think, and it's true, that it's from the Philistines on the outward that is what they're doing, that is what they experience. But primarily what God is doing and what he does to us is he is saving us from our own sin.
[00:25:57] These foolish and stubborn people do not cease to be the objects of God's compassion, and neither do you.
[00:26:07] You foolish and rebellious people never cease to be the object of a sovereign and holy God's compassion. Never.
[00:26:19] Regardless of whatever you're going through today, know that it's not insignificant, it's not mundane to God.
[00:26:28] He cares and he is realizing it or not, Believe it or not, he is leading you towards his kingdom purposes that have been fulfilled in Christ Jesus. We may not fully understand God's sovereignty, but never doubt his compassion.
[00:26:45] Hear the words of Jesus when he saw the crowds and he felt compassion for them because they were distressed and dejected like sheep without a shepherd. That's Jesus. He sees the crowds.
[00:26:57] The disciples see them as annoyances and want them to go away. But our Savior feels compassion as he looks on them because they were distressed and dejected.
[00:27:08] How like sheep without a shepherd.
[00:27:11] And the good shepherd has compassion on his people.
[00:27:16] Do you ever wonder what God's up to?
[00:27:19] You ever look at the world? You ever read the news? You ever pay attention to what's going on and say I don't know what God's up to?
[00:27:27] Our lives are often lived among rhythms of mundane and chaotic. Rarely does there seem to be a middle ground. It seems to be one extreme or to the other or the other. And regardless of what part of life's rhythms you are weaving in and out of of God's compassionate heart is for us to have a clearer vision of the new days to come in his kingdom. And the way he does this is to create dependence on Him.
[00:27:53] God often interrupts our mundane lives with the chaotic to get our attention because we are so hard hearted, hard hearted, we are so hard headed, we are so stubborn.
[00:28:09] Do you have eyes to see this?
[00:28:12] Are you paying attention to this?
[00:28:15] The alternative is just to live your life with clenched fists.
[00:28:19] Frustrated, angry, angry at the world, mad at God, Short with your co workers, with your friends, with your family.
[00:28:30] Do you have eyes to see this? If not, do you have the humility to bow before a holy God and repent that you don't see it, that you don't understand it, that your way of controlling your kingdom of one is not working and you desperately need clarity that only the gospel of Jesus Christ can bring.
[00:28:49] Or are you prideful?
[00:28:52] How is the sovereign and compassionate God interrupting your life this morning?
[00:28:59] Your next step is always repentance, turning back to him.
[00:29:05] God's kingdom purposes, which is kind of another way of saying God's will can be a mystery to us.
[00:29:12] Even in Jesus's parable when he explains the kingdom of God, he always says the kingdom of God is like this and then gives a parable which is often not necessarily clear. He doesn't just say here's what the kingdom of God is. He said it's like it's not really a mystery.
[00:29:31] But hang on to that for a second, because we're going to come back to that at the end, that the kingdom of God and his will is not really a mystery. Let's move on to the anointing in verse, chapter 10, verse 1.
[00:29:44] Samuel took a flask of oil. He poured it out on Saul's head. He kissed him and he said, hasn't the Lord anointed you ruler over his inheritance?
[00:29:53] Today, when you leave me, you will find two men at Rachel's grave at Zelza in the territory of Benjamin. They will say to you, the donkeys you went looking for have been found. And now your father has stopped being concerned about the donkeys and is worried about you. Saul was actually right, as it turns out, asking, what should I do about my son?
[00:30:12] You will proceed from there until you come to the oak of Tabor. Three men going up to God at Bethel will meet you there. One bringing three goats, one bringing three loaves of bread, and one bringing a clay jar of wine.
[00:30:23] They will ask how you are and give you two loaves of bread, which you will accept from them.
[00:30:29] After that, you will come to Gibeah of God, where there are Philistine garrisons. When you arrive at the city, you will meet a group of prophets coming down from the high place, prophesying. They will be preceded by harps, tambourines, flutes, and liars.
[00:30:43] The Spirit of the Lord will come powerfully upon you.
[00:30:47] You will prophesy with them, and you will be transformed.
[00:30:51] When these signs have appeared, when these signs have happened to you, do whatever your circumstances require, because God is with you.
[00:31:01] Afterward, go ahead of me to Gilgal. I will come to you to offer burnt offerings and to sacrifice fellowship offerings. Wait seven days until I come to you and show you what to do. Goodness gracious. There's a lot there, isn't there? A lot of details there.
[00:31:19] Here we see Samuel anointing Saul. It's a private ceremony, a public ceremony. And public affirmation will come later on by the people.
[00:31:29] But this one is intimate. It's private.
[00:31:31] And after Samuel anoints Saul with the oil, he tells them about these three detailed things that are going to happen to him later that day. After the anointing, he's going to encounter two men at Rachel's grave. He's going to encounter three men at Bethel, and he's going to encounter a group of prophets at Gibeah. Why the details?
[00:31:53] Well, as Samuel anoints Saul with the oil, he tells him this. He says, hasn't the Lord anointed you ruler over his inheritance. Now, this is a clarifying statement from what Samuel told Saul earlier when he first met him in chapter nine, when he invited him to eat with him and told him the donkeys had been found. He said to him at that time, and who does all of Israel desire but you and all your father's family?
[00:32:19] Which had to confuse Saul. It had to confuse Saul. He had to be unbelieving. In fact, he even said, he goes, I'm just from an unimportant clan from a tiny tribe. How is this going to work? But now, in this meeting with Samuel, now he's anointed and he's told what's happening to him, that it's been ordained by the Lord. Saul's life has dramatically been interrupted by God.
[00:32:44] The Lord has anointed you ruler over my inheritance.
[00:32:50] Saul may not have now understood what was happening to him, or may now have understood a little more clearly what was happening to him. But he had to be skeptical at this point, for sure.
[00:33:02] This man Saul wasn't looking to be king. He was looking for donkeys. And he wasn't even doing a very good job at that.
[00:33:09] You can only imagine his disbelief. Israel had never had a king.
[00:33:14] How in the world was this going to work out? Saul, a king?
[00:33:18] His mind had to be blown.
[00:33:21] He needed assurance for the task that was before him. Was this really true, what the prophet was saying? There would have been validity. There would have been some semblance of respect that would have been given the prophet and validity to what he was saying. But he still needed assurance. And so, as only God can do, he provides assurance to Saul not in some broad, vague, general way, but through Samuel's detailed insights of the days ahead.
[00:33:51] Saul would see God's hand in these details, these three uncannily detailed events that are meant to signify to Saul that Yahweh has authorized his kingship.
[00:34:03] The Lord Samuel has anointed you ruler over his inheritance.
[00:34:10] And so our point in all of this, in this incredibly detailed passage, our point this morning is this, that our God is a God of assurance.
[00:34:20] When he transforms you, he will see it through to its completion. And he will use you in spite of yourself, in spite of your faults and failures, for his kingdom purposes, sometimes church, he will shower you with his kindness and he will show you how you are being used in his grand tapestry. But most of the times, it remains a mystery.
[00:34:45] Most of the times, we have no clue what God is doing in our lives. We have no clue how he is using us or if he is Even using us in other people's lives. I think heaven is going to be a part of understanding that more clearly. That will not point to us. It will point to the glory of God.
[00:35:02] Your part, church, is to trust in God's promises and to live with your eyes and your heart wide open, understanding there are no coincidences in God's economy. There is nothing left to chance.
[00:35:17] What accompanies our assurance is confidence because God is a promise maker and God is a promise keeper. That is the ark of your Bible that you hold in your hands, whether it's a device or a paper copy. God is a promise maker in the Old Testament. And the New Testament points to the fact that he is a promise keeper in Christ Jesus.
[00:35:38] Samuel tells Saul here in verse seven, when these signs have happened to you and you have this assurance, go and do whatever your circumstances require, because God is with you.
[00:35:51] Our assurance as believers in Jesus is of course the promised Holy Spirit.
[00:35:57] It was a down payment for our inheritance. The Holy Spirit clarifies and illuminates. The Holy Spirit convicts and comforts the Holy Spirit leads us and guides us into these divine appointments.
[00:36:10] And so, just as Saul is to go about his life knowing that God is with him, we too hear the words of Paul the Apostle telling us in Colossians 3, whatever you do, do it with all of your heart as something done for the Lord and not man. It is the Lord Jesus you are serving.
[00:36:30] God is with you, church.
[00:36:33] He has plans for you. He has good works planned for you.
[00:36:38] Are you looking for them? Are you engaging them?
[00:36:41] Let's move on to the last section here in chapter 10, verse 9 through 16.
[00:36:47] When Saul turned to leave Samuel, God changed his heart.
[00:36:52] And all the signs came about that day and Saul. And it could be paused for just a second. What what that must have been like for Saul to experience that the changing of his heart. The signs come about. What it doesn't tell us what he must have experienced in that moment. Perhaps an eye opening, a heart opening. Clearly a heart opening. God changed his heart. Verse 10. When Saul and his servant arrived at Gibeah, a group of prophets met him. Then the Spirit of God came powerfully on him and he prophesied along with them.
[00:37:26] Everyone who knew him previously saw him prophesy with the prophets, asking each other, what has happened to the son of Kish?
[00:37:35] Is Saul also among the prophets?
[00:37:38] Then a man who was from here there asked, then who is their father?
[00:37:43] As a result, is Saul also among the prophets? Became a popular saying.
[00:37:48] And then Saul finished prophesying and went to the high place.
[00:37:52] Saul's uncle asked him and his servant, where did you go to look for the donkey? Saul answered, when we saw that they weren't there, we went to Samuel. Tell me, Saul's uncle asked, what'd Samuel say to you? Saul told him. He assured us the donkeys had been found.
[00:38:08] However, Saul did not tell him that Samuel had said about the matter of kingship.
[00:38:13] And that's the end of our text.
[00:38:17] Here we have the only detailed description of one of those signs of assurance that Samuel told Paul about what occurred. Right. The whole thing about the group of prophets. We have more detail. It's unpacked in this passage, as if to put a finer point on the assurance of his kingship. There's, as I said, more that could be said there. But we're going to have to leave some things on the table. We first read that God changed Saul's heart.
[00:38:40] It wasn't magic anointing oil. It was simply symbolic. It wasn't Samuel's kiss. I love Sam's kisses. He doesn't kiss me that often. But when. When I get a kiss from Sam. Figuratively, right. Doesn't change me, doesn't transform me.
[00:38:55] Only God can transform dead, disobedient and disinterested heart, disinterested hearts and make us useful.
[00:39:03] God equips and empowers Saul for the upcoming work. But no one seems to believe this.
[00:39:10] It's almost like the Saul of the New Testament who would be Paul when God knocked him off his horse and saved him. And the people who used to be afraid of Saul are now that, wait a minute. He's doing what he wants to do. Well with us now. They were in disbelief.
[00:39:25] Really. The only one that knows what's happening is Samuel.
[00:39:29] Clearly a saying begins to go around and becomes kind of a proverb of sorts in the day. Is Saul among the prophets?
[00:39:36] We may say today? Will wonders never cease when we see things happen that are plausibly believable but kind of unbelievable?
[00:39:44] The people are confused by it all. There is disbelief and there's wonder. And then the scene ends. The story ends here with Saul's uncle asking, what happened?
[00:39:54] Where'd you go? And Saul said, we went to look for the lost donkeys. Couldn't find him. So we went to the prophet Samuel for help.
[00:40:01] His uncle said, what'd he tell you?
[00:40:04] He said, the donkeys were found.
[00:40:06] That was it.
[00:40:08] He didn't say anything about being anointed. He didn't say anything about God changing his heart.
[00:40:14] He didn't say anything about encountering eating with the prophet Samuel, which must have been amazing.
[00:40:21] He said nothing.
[00:40:23] What do we learn as we close out this morning?
[00:40:26] One simple truth is that only God can change hearts.
[00:40:30] Only God can change hearts. You cannot change your own heart.
[00:40:35] You cannot change the heart of that person. You've been praying to come to know Jesus either. Only God can change that heart.
[00:40:42] There's a word in Christian living that accompanies humility and it's the word surrender.
[00:40:48] And we don't often like that word.
[00:40:50] There are things about ourselves that we can change.
[00:40:53] But the one thing that we cannot change is the fatal flaw of sin. That is only God's work.
[00:41:00] The second thing, and I asked you to hold on to this further conversation of mystery, but the second thing here is that we must embrace the mystery.
[00:41:09] The mystery that has been made known to us.
[00:41:13] Right? Saul's uncle may be in the dark here, but we are not in the dark as to what God's mystery is.
[00:41:19] If you were sitting there wondering, how can I articulate what God is up to? What is this mystery?
[00:41:26] Ephesians 1 tells us he made known to us the mystery of his will.
[00:41:30] It's plain words. Ephesians 1:9, 10 he made God made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure. His good pleasure church that he purposed in Christ as a plan for the right time to bring everything together in Christ.
[00:41:49] Everything together in Christ. Both things in heaven and things on the earth in Him. What God is up to is he is unifying all things.
[00:41:58] God is in the unity business.
[00:42:01] We don't fully understand how God is doing this. We know that it's in Christ Jesus.
[00:42:06] We look at the landscape of Christianity today and it looks anything but united, let alone the world at large.
[00:42:13] It looks like confusion reigns. It rarely looks like unity. I thank God that this church is a unified church. I thank God that we can come here for refuge and peace and be among like minded people who love the Lord and who do exhibit humility and surrender to the Lord imperfectly. Yes, I thank God for that.
[00:42:35] But we are not meant to cloister in this world as a unified group. We are meant to go out and spread among the people who are not unified and show them the peace and the unity that we have through Christ that God is doing the work in the world. We need to show them that that is our charge to go. That is our mission by God.
[00:42:56] So we must embrace the mystery that only God changes hearts, but that is somehow through us that he is making his appeal. We often feel left in the dark, useless or left out.
[00:43:09] You see, sometimes, sometimes God's interruptions are loud and clear and we can say, I see what he's doing there. Sometimes.
[00:43:18] But more often than not, God's interruptions are found as we search for donkeys, as we're just looking for the donkeys of our lives. I'll leave the joke to you guys.
[00:43:30] But that's where God is found. He's found in the mundaneness of life. It is possible, church, for God to unite all things in Christ while simultaneously keeping keeping you in the dark. Because he wants to cultivate dependence and humility in you.
[00:43:46] And he wants to remind you that above all else, he's with you.
[00:43:53] Our job is to embrace this mystery and live these wild lives before the face of God.
[00:44:00] As we close out Ben, you can come back up.
[00:44:03] This business of kingship is a fulfillment of the rebellious heart of God's people.
[00:44:09] But earthly kings will not. Earthly kings cannot satisfy or rule sufficiently bewounded.
[00:44:19] One day God interrupted this worn out, broken world with a baby wrapped in swaddling clothes.
[00:44:28] It was a hand on the shoulder interruption. It was gentle, it was hardly noticed, it was ignored by most.
[00:44:37] But that unassuming baby would one day be wrapped in purple garments.
[00:44:42] He would have a crown of thorns jammed on his head.
[00:44:45] He would be mocked as king of the Jews.
[00:44:48] He would be whipped. He would be spit on. He would be beaten beyond recognition. And if that wasn't enough, he'd be crucified on a Roman cross.
[00:44:58] This was no hand on the shoulder interruption.
[00:45:01] This one turned heads.
[00:45:03] This one changed hearts.
[00:45:06] An earthquake. Darkness in the middle of the day, a torn curtain would usher in redemption.
[00:45:12] And three days later, three days later, this worn out, broken, sinful, rebellious, prideful and idol worshiping world was once again interrupted by an empty tomb.
[00:45:25] Is God putting his hand on your shoulder this morning?
[00:45:29] Is he interrupting your kingdom of one with the good news of Jesus Christ and His eternal kingdom, perhaps giving you an uneasiness in your heart?
[00:45:41] Or maybe God's turning your life upside down right now.
[00:45:45] Maybe God's trying to get your attention.
[00:45:48] The invitation is there.
[00:45:51] Don't push him away.
[00:45:55] Lord, thank you for this word.
[00:45:58] Thank you for big long passages of scripture that we can dig into and glean a little bit from. We know there's so much more there, Lord, but we thank you for, for the clarity that you do bring. And I pray that it, that it does resonate in our hearts this morning as we pause for a few minutes church. As you pause for a few minutes and consider this message this morning and listen to what God is doing to you, we're going to take communion here in just a minute.
[00:46:28] Taking the Lord's Supper. The bread and the wine, the bread and the juice that represents Christ's body and blood is a representation of our hearts that tell us that we tell the world that we love the Lord, that we have submitted to Him. He is our Lord and Savior. Paul says that we proclaim the gospel when we take the Lord's Supper.
[00:46:56] If you can say that about yourself, that you can proclaim the gospel with your heart, that Jesus is Lord. If you've surrendered to him, and maybe you're still. Are you still living an imperfect life? You weave in and out of active and passive faith. We all do church.
[00:47:16] We ask God to nourish us and refresh us this morning through the taking of his communion. And so pause for a few minutes, pray, consider, and when the time is right, come, take break bread, take the juice.
[00:47:31] Thank the Lord for the work that he has done in your, your heart and perhaps for some of us, what he is doing right now.
