1 SAMUEL 9-13 CHOSEN TO OBEY2015 Teaching by Jerry B Simmons

Teaching Transcript: 1 Samuel 9-13 Chosen To Obey

You are listening to FerventWord, an online Bible study ministry with teachings and tools to help you grow deeper in your relationship with God. The following message was taught by Jerry Simmons in 2015. Well, this morning we're beginning here in 1 Samuel chapter 9, and we are looking at verses 15 through 17 to start off, and we're looking at the beginning of the reign of King Saul.

Now, I think the reign of King Saul is interesting to consider because, well, I would ask for you to consider it this way. If you were God, who would you choose to be king? If you were God and you had all knowledge and you were sovereign and you were able to, you know, work all things together according to your will and your plan, if you were God and you had the opportunity to choose, who would you choose to be king?

You see, it's very interesting to me that God's first king for the nation of Israel was Saul. And Saul was a man who was chosen by God to be king, and yet he was not very successful in his reign. In fact, he failed very early in his reign as king. And it causes me to consider, why did God choose someone who would fail as

so early in the reign to be king first. There was no king before Saul. God led his people and he spoke to his people and led them through different prophets and leaders that he raised up. But they're at the point now where they've demanded a king. And so God gives them, God selects Saul. But why did he select Saul and not someone perhaps like David, who God selects and reigns after Saul?

I think King Saul is a good illustration for us and brings us some balance understanding the sovereignty of God and the responsibility of man. Here as we look at God selecting Saul, and clearly God is selecting Saul here in 1 Samuel 9, we understand that God's calling and his working in Saul's life is not a guarantee of his success as king.

God's calling and working is not a guarantee of success or victory. But instead, with that calling, with that choosing, there comes this responsibility. And so Saul has to do his part and obey God. And this morning, I want to encourage you to learn from the example of Saul, to understand that God has chosen you

But that also means that you need to be obedient to God and to keep your heart with all diligence. Again, it's clear that God initiated this. Look again at verse 15 here in 1 Samuel 9. It tells us, And he goes on in the next verse to say, God is going to choose this man to be king, that he would be able to defeat the Philistines.

that he would be able to lead his people. And this wasn't a spontaneous thing. Samuel didn't see Saul and say, hey, I think that guy looks pretty good. Let's make him king. No, but God prepared it in advance. And the day before Samuel ever met Saul, God says, I'm going to show you tomorrow the guy who's going to be king. And then the next day when Saul shows up in verse 17, it says, so when Samuel saw Saul, it's kind of hard to say, Samuel saw Saul,

The Lord said to him, there he is, the man of whom I spoke to you. This one shall reign over my people. And so God told him the day before. Then when he shows up, then God says, all right, here's the guy. He makes sure it's clear. Again, God is initiating this. The Lord is selecting Saul. God says, that is the man. He shall reign. Anoint him as commander over my people so that he can save them from the Philistines.

Saul was chosen by God. But the reason why he failed in his reign is because he failed to obey God. This morning, I want to encourage you that you are chosen, but don't think, and don't be mistaken to think that you're chosen, that God has chose you. You're a believer in Jesus Christ, and so that means wherever you go, whatever you do, everything is going to be blessed because you believe in Jesus, because you prayed about it. You are chosen by God because

But like Saul, you have a responsibility to obey. You have a responsibility. Now, you are chosen. That's definitely made clear from the scriptures. Let me give you an example. 1 Peter 2, verse 9, Peter says, "'You are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, his own special people.'" And then he says, "'That you may proclaim the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.'"

Very similar, you and Saul. Saul was chosen by God for a specific purpose, and you have been chosen by God for a specific purpose. You are chosen to be a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's special people, so that you may proclaim the praises of God, Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.

So that you may glorify God with your life, with your words, with all that you do. You have been chosen by God to bring glory to his name. You are chosen. But that means then, there comes a responsibility with that choosing that you must obey. And so we're going to look at four points from the life of Saul this morning.

Four points to help us obey so that we can fulfill and live the life that God has called us to live. And so for point number one, would you turn with me now to 1 Samuel chapter 10? We're going to look at verses 1 through 7. And here we see point number one, walk in God's will. You are chosen by God. And so, well, you have the opportunity and responsibility to walk in the will of God. In verse 1,

It tells us that Samuel took a flask of oil and poured it on his head and kissed him and said, is it not because the Lord has anointed you commander over his inheritance? Here Samuel anoints Saul and declares to him that he has been called by God to be king.

Now, this is taking place in a private setting. It's just Samuel and Saul, just the two of them. And Samuel is bringing forth this revelation, this understanding of what God is calling Saul to do.

And so he anoints him. This was the common practice, the way that God would use his leaders, his prophets, to recognize the one who would lead, the one who would be king. And so he's anointed as king. It's symbolic of the Holy Spirit coming upon him to enable him to lead and to reign the way that God has called him to. Now, if you would put yourself in Saul's shoes for a moment, you would understand that this would be quite a surprise, right?

Right? Saul was not, you know, one of the forerunners, you know, leaders of the nation already. He was just some guy who showed up. He was just looking for his donkeys. And he came to the prophet Samuel to get some help in trying to find his donkeys. That's all he was trying to do. And so this is quite a surprise to him. He is not expecting this. This is out of the blue, out of left field. And so Saul

With it being such a surprise, with it being unplanned and out of the blue for him, you can imagine that there would probably be a little bit of curiosity, maybe skepticism. Like, I don't know. This sounds pretty crazy, Samuel. Like, you know, I think you got the wrong guy. Well, Samuel goes on then to give him signs to confirm that this is indeed what God has called him to do.

The first sign is that there will be messengers that deliver a message about the donkeys that he was searching for. Here in verse 2, it says, And now your father has ceased caring about the donkeys and is worrying about you, saying, what shall I do about my son?

And so the first sign Samuel gives to Saul is that as you're going back your way, you're going to encounter some messengers and they're going to talk to you about the donkeys that you lost. And so when you arrive there and hear that message, then you'll know this really is of God and God really has ordained you to be king. Well, then he gives him a second sign though, in case that's not enough.

Just want it to be clear that you know that this is what God has called you to. And so he gives him the second sign in verse 3 and 4. He says,

So here's the second sign that you'll encounter, Saul. Now, notice the detail here. And this is clearly set up so that Saul would know only God has this level of detail in advance. You're going to go there. You're going to come by this specific tree in this specific place. Then three men are going to come to you. One of them is going to have three goats. Another is going to have three loaves of bread. And another is going to be carrying a skin of wine.

And then they're going to greet you and they're going to give you two loaves of bread, not one, not three. They're going to give you two loaves of bread and you shall receive it from their hand. So all these details, so that as Saul encounters these men, then all of these things, he'll look around, hey, I'm at the place God told me I was going to be. And that's the tree and there's the people and there's all these things coming together. And so the second sign, again, would be the confirmation that Saul indeed was called to be the king of Israel.

But then Samuel goes on to give Saul a third sign that would take place. In verse 5 it says, And they shall be prophesying.

Then the Spirit of the Lord will come upon you and you will prophesy with them and be turned into another man. So sign number three, Saul, you're going to come in contact with a group of prophets. And they're going to have these kind of instruments. They're going to be arranged in this way. And when you encounter this group of prophets, the Holy Spirit's going to come upon you and you're going to join them and prophesy as well.

Now it goes on to tell us in the passage that Saul goes forward from Samuel and all of these things unfold. And so these signs are fulfilled. And now Saul knows for sure that he is called to be king, that this is really from God. But then notice what verse seven says. He says, and let it be when these signs come to you that you do as the occasion demands for God is with you.

And this is something I'd like us to consider for a little bit here as we consider this point, walking in God's will. Samuel says, let it be. When you see all these signs come together, you have this confirmation, you have this clarity, who you are called to be and what you're called to do. When that's confirmed, when that's established, then let it be that you do as the occasion demands for God is with you.

As Samuel says, let it be, it indicates a responsibility that Saul has. Saul has to let it be, or he has to make it so. He has to act and engage and respond in light of his calling and who God has anointed him to be. It means that he must obey. He must make a choice. As God has made his will clear, Saul now has to choose to walk in

And to walk in it means that he will do as the occasion demands. And I really like that phrase, do as the occasion demands. It basically means do what must be done or do whatever needs to be done. The New Living Translation puts it this way. After these signs have taken place, do what must be done for God is with you.

Do what must be done. Do whatever needs to be done. Once you know that you are called to this task, you're called to this mission, you're called to this kingdom, then do what must be done. I think it's interesting because many times you and I as believers are waiting for some clear sign that God wants us to do something.

We're waiting for some clear sign, you know, before we act, before we do something, we're waiting for a sign from God. And God may give us that kind of clarity and he may give us instruction in that way. But I would suggest to you that many times God works with us the way that he worked with Saul. God wasn't going to give Saul a sign every occasion that something needed to be done.

Saul, you need to fight this battle. Let me give you a sign to show you and to prove to you you need to go to this, fight this battle. Saul, you need to make a decision as king. So let me give you a sign to show you that you need to make a decision as king. God wasn't saying, I'm going to give you a sign every time there's a need for you to make a decision or do something as king of Israel. God gave him the signs that he needed to know. He's called to be king. Now you know that. Okay, now go be king.

And go make decisions and go fight battles and go do what needs to be done because you've been called to be the king. God gave Saul the signs that he needed to know that he would be king. It wasn't going to be always like this, that there was all these signs that he was, you know, supposed to do this. Okay, here's a sign, supposed to do that. Here's a sign. But for us today, as we consider this, a lot of times we're waiting for a sign to know if we should do something when perhaps God is...

saying, you know, I've already made it clear who I've called you to be and what I've called you to do. And my desire for you is to go do that. For example, Jesus gave to his disciples the great commission there in Matthew 28, right? Jesus says, all authority in heaven and earth has been given to me. Therefore, go make disciples.

And so it's been made clear. I have all authority. I've resurrected from the dead. You know who you are. You're my disciples. Now, here's your task. Here's your mission. Go make disciples. That's your mission. Go into all the world and make disciples. And so they didn't need a sign every time God wanted them to make disciples. They needed to go and make disciples. They needed to go and to reach. They didn't need another sign. Okay, well,

Do I go or do I not go? They already had the instruction. They already knew who they were. They already knew the mission that was set before them. And that mission extends for us today as well. Go and make disciples. But many times we're waiting for some type of overriding sign when it's already been made clear, this is who you are. I think for some, they also need this exhortation. You've been called by God to be a parent. And that's been made clear because you have children. Amen.

Doesn't get much more clear than that, right? So be a parent and do as the occasion demands and do what needs to be done because God's chosen you to be the parent in that child's life. And you need to fulfill that. You need to obey that. You don't need a sign to know whether or not you need to discipline your children. You need to discipline your children.

You don't need to sign to know whether you need to guide them or counsel them or teach them how to walk with the Lord. You don't need some extra evidence like what needs to be done. You're the parent. God's called you to be the parent. So do what needs to be done as the occasion demands. Fulfill the need. Fulfill the calling that God has placed in your life. Another example that you might be able to consider is I was thinking about my own life and my calling to be a pastor. Now,

When Pastor Tom was preparing to move his family to Okinawa, of course, he didn't share it with the whole congregation right away, but he did share it with me pretty early. And he shared it with me to say, you know, I'm moving my family to Okinawa, and I believe God's called you to pastor the church in my place. And the Lord had been working similarly in my heart, and so I was moved.

prepared in the sense that I wasn't, you know, completely surprised or caught off guard. I understood God was doing something, and so it works together. It fit together what God was speaking to him and what God was speaking to me. But at the same time, this was huge, right? I mean, I was young. I was not even married yet when all this is happening, and so I was really overwhelmed by it. And one of the first things that I had to do as a pastor, even before Pastor Tom left,

Before I myself was married, one of the first things I had to do as a pastor was to perform a wedding for someone else. It was my first wedding. And man, I was freaked out about doing a wedding. I mean, it was like incredibly stressful. And oh, I was so stressed and everything about it. And I remember having to work through these thoughts in my head. I remember, you know, because I'm very analytical. So I have this logical process. And so I had to make this decision.

Okay, if I work hard enough, I can get out of this wedding. There's other people. Pastor Dylan could do the wedding. You know, other people could do the wedding. I don't have to do this. I could get out of it if I, you know, manipulated a little bit. But next thing on the agenda and my process of thinking through this, okay, but what about the next wedding? How am I going to get out of that one? And then the next one, how am I going to get out of that one? And realize, okay,

This is what I'm called to. I mean, this is what I've accepted. I'm going forward as a pastor. Now, I can't run. I don't need a sign every time I'm supposed to do a wedding. No, the occasion demands. And I remember having to make a decision. Either I'm going to run from my calling or I'm going to turn around and do what needs to be done. And not that I always do that perfectly, but I remember that logical procession that I had to make that decision. And it was so clear that

This is my calling, so I must do what needs to be done. This was Saul's position as well. It has been made clear what he has been called to do. And so the instruction is do as the occasion demands. And the same is true for you. God has a place for you in his kingdom, in his work. He has a plan for your life. He has things that he wants you to do. He has roles that he wants you to fulfill. And as he calls you to those roles,

He will make clear his calling in your life, but then he expects you to do as the occasion demands. Do what needs to be done. Is it always easy to do what needs to be done? No, I think you would understand and we could all testify. It's not always easy to do what needs to be done. Sometimes there's things that need to be done that are unpleasant, that are scary, that are difficult, but we need to do what needs to be done. How many times have you been fearful of

about something that God has asked you to do? I would say many times, if you're walking with the Lord, you're going to have many times where you're fearful about doing what God's asked you to do. How many times have you been fearful about something you know needs to be done? You know, and you're just dreading it. I know I got to deal with the situation, but you're just dreading it. You know, it's just like, oh, I don't want to deal with this. But listen, God has called you to a certain thing. He's called you to fulfill a role. And now the expectation is that you would do something

as the occasion demands. And I would encourage you to determine now, Lord, whatever you want me to do, I will do. And if you set before me an open door to share the gospel, then I'm going to share the gospel, even if I'm scared, even if I don't want to. Lord, if you're going to show me a need and ask me to give, then I'm going to do that. If you're going to help me or ask me to get involved in a situation, if you're going to ask me to go here or go there, that I'm going to set

I'm going to do the things that you set before me. And then notice what he says there after that in verse 7. He says, for God is with you. God is with you, Saul. You can know right now as you see these signs fulfilled that you're right where God wants you to be. You're right in the center of God's will. Now, the key is to stay there. And that's why I made the point to walk in God's will.

The same is necessary for us as well, for us to know that we're right where God wants us to be. But when you're right where God wants you to be, well, then in order to stay there in the center of God's will, you need to do as the occasion demands. And if you don't do what God sets before you, then now you're moving away from God's will.

You need to walk in the will of God and to do so with boldness and faith, knowing that God is with you. When you're where God wants you to be, you can know and you can trust and you can rest and say, God is with me. And so I can tackle these difficult things. I can enter into these difficult things. I can engage in these ways because I know that God is with me. When you are where God wants you to be,

Don't worry about your inadequacies. Don't worry about your frailties. Don't worry about your weaknesses and where you fall short. God is with you. Remember Moses? He's like, I can't speak to Pharaoh. I stutter. I'm slow. Right? Same thing we do, right? But don't worry about those things. When you are where God wants you to be, God is with you and he's going to help you. So let me exhort you. Whatever God's called you to, we all have different callings and roles in our lives, but

If the occasion demands that you speak, then speak. If the occasion demands that you preach, then preach. If the occasion demands that you worship, then worship. Pray if that's what the occasion demands or pick up a hammer if that's what the occasion demands. Share the gospel, lead a Bible study, whatever the case may be, whatever the need may be. As the occasion demands, walk in God's will. Do what God's called you to do because God is with you.

Consider Paul's words to the Ephesians in Ephesians chapter 2 verse 10. He says, Paul says, look, you are created by God. You're his workmanship and you're created, notice, for good works. You're created for a purpose in Christ Jesus in order to do good works.

And these good works, he says, God prepared them beforehand that you should walk in them. And so the picture is he's laid out this path before you with opportunities for good works, for things that he's called you to do. And so he says that we should walk in them. You have been chosen by God, a royal priesthood, a holy nation. As a believer in Jesus Christ, you have this incredible privilege. You have this incredible position.

But with that comes the need to obey. It doesn't mean that you can then do whatever you want to do and experience the blessings of God. If you want to experience the victories of God and the life that God has for you, you need to walk in God's will because you're his workmanship. And you need to do as the occasion demands, fulfill those good works that he has prepared for you. And you might think, well, that's not for me. You know, I'm not really qualified for that.

But if it's there before you and the occasion demands in order to fulfill the role that God has given to you, this must be done, then you need to do as the occasion demands. And if you don't, if you avoid those good works that God has set before you, well, now you're straying from the path that he set before you. You're straying from the will of God. Walk in God's will because you've been chosen by God to obey him.

Well, going on to point number two, we'll stay here in 1 Samuel chapter 10, but jump down to the end of the passage in verse 21 and 22. And here we see point number two is to own your calling. Own your calling. Verse 21 says, "'When he had caused the tribe of Benjamin to come near by their families, the family of Matri was chosen, and Saul, the son of Kish, was chosen. But when they sought him, he could not be found.'"

Now, what's happening here is now Saul has gathered together the nation of Israel. When Samuel anointed Saul, that was in private. That was just Samuel and Saul together by themselves. But now Samuel has called the nation together, and it's time for the king to be announced and presented to the nation. And so as they're all gathered together, they go through this process of, well, the Lord is selecting a tribe.

And then the tribe of Benjamin is selected. And then the Lord is selecting the families from that tribe. And the family of Matri is chosen. And then, so the Lord's just narrowing it down to bring it to the end where the final person is revealed. This one is going to be the king of Israel. And so it came down to Saul. He's selected. He is the one who's been chosen to be king. But then it says when they sought him, he could not be found.

And so verse 22,

Now, it's a little bit of a humorous picture for us, right? First of all, we know that Saul was extra tall. And a couple of verses after this, it tells us he was like heads and shoulders above everybody. So, you know, someone really tall who can't hide, but he's trying to hide and he's hiding behind the equipment. So if you would just picture for a moment, you come to service this morning and you're like, hey, where's the worship leader? Yeah, where's Jonathan? Oh, there he is hiding behind the pulpit. Right?

That's not his place, to be hiding behind the pulpit, to be hiding amongst the equipment. Samuel encouraged Saul, do as the occasion demands. Now here was kind of the first opportunity for him to exercise that. The occasion demanded that he be there to be presented as king, because that's what God had called him to be. But instead of doing as the occasion demands...

He's hiding among the equipment. Have you ever hidden among the equipment? Have you ever hidden? You know, you know God has called you to something, and perhaps you're nervous about it. You're freaked out about it. And so when the occasion comes where, well, now you can fulfill that role, or you can do what God's called you to do, of course, it's very tempting. It would be easy for us, and probably most of us have done what Saul did here, and withdraw ourself from

from the situation so that we don't have to fulfill what God has called us to do. And sometimes we look at the example of Saul here and think, you know, oh wow, this is really good quality of Saul. You know, he's hidden among the equipment. You know, he's not power hungry. He's not, you know, really, you know, like trying to take control. He's not trying to take the reins. He's not, you know, it's kind of a, sometimes we look at as an admiral quality. But

I would suggest to you that this really isn't the case here. This is an evidence of Saul's weakness because it's been made clear what he's called to be. God has confirmed it. He's made it clear. And he's hiding. He's hiding from what God has called him to do. Listen, hiding is not humility. Hiding is not humility. It's not humility to pull back from what God has called you to do.

It's not humility to restrain yourself or to hide yourself from something that God wants you to be involved in or wants you to engage in. That's not humility. And we can put on the charade of humility and say, oh, you know, no, not me. I'm not good enough or whatever the case might be. But hiding is not humility. Instead, I would encourage you to own your calling. This is what Saul should have done. He should have owned up to, this is what God has called me to do.

And I'm not proclaiming myself to be the best. I'm not proclaiming myself, you know, to be the most wonderful and the answer to all the problems. But I am proclaiming this is what God has called me to do. He's not trusting in God. He's not doing as the occasion demands for God is with him. Instead, he's hiding amongst the equipment. And sometimes we do the same. We hide. We hide.

And maybe we say, well, you know, I just, I don't want to be prideful. I don't want to be arrogant, you know. But don't try to cover up your hiding from God's will with some type of false humility, some type of fake humility. Sometimes we hide and we would share, you know, well, I'm kind of fearful of error. Maybe I didn't hear from God. Because of course, we know there's people who've been convinced that God called them to do things that clearly God did not call them to do.

So, you know, I don't want to be in that position. I don't want to be in that situation. And so there I would say, okay, yeah, I understand that. You know, so go back like Saul and get confirmation from God of who you're called to be and what you're called to do. God will give you that clarity. He wants you to be involved in his work. He has a plan for your life. He wants you to be part of the kingdom of God. But once he's shown that, once he's made that clear, once he's spoken that to you,

Now, any attempt to hide from that, to hold yourself back, is not humility. It's disobedience. And so maybe you need this exhortation this morning. Stop hiding from what God's called you to do. Stop requiring that people drag you to the place that God's called you to be. We're like, man, we wish we had a worship leader this morning. Lord, why haven't you provided a worship leader this morning? Oh, there's Jonathan hiding in the sound booth. Okay, everybody get him. Let's go drag him up here to lead worship for us.

Literally, that happened. No, I'm just kidding. I'm just joking. But sometimes we do that. We're hiding. We're requiring that, you know, okay, God, you got to send people to search me out and force me into this position. When God has called you to something, when God has given you instruction, own the calling and be there when there is a need. Be there when the need is there. Do what needs to be done as the occasion demands because God is with you.

Paul encouraged Timothy along these same lines in 2 Timothy 1, verse 6. Paul says, It seems that Timothy had this desire, this temptation to hide amongst the equipment. He had a calling. There was occasions that demanded temptation.

that his giftings be exercised, but he needed this reminder. He says, I remind you to stir up the gift of God. Stir up those things that God has given to you and do what God's called you to do. Timothy, God hasn't given us a spirit of fear, and fear is not a good excuse to not do what God's called you to do. Own your calling. Be faithful to what God's called you to do.

God's given you the spirit of power and love and of sound mind. So stir up those gifts. Hiding is not humility. This past Wednesday, as we usually do, we ended the service time with the opportunity to minister to one another. But this week, the Lord put it on my heart for us to minister to one another corporately.

And so in between the worship songs, there was opportunity for the body here to share out loud and exhort and encourage and pray for one another as the Lord led. Now, I'm sure you've been in those types of services. You've been in those types of situations. And if you've been in those situations, I'm sure you've also had the experience of where you think maybe there is something that God wants you to share.

So your heart starts to pound, and your mouth gets all dry, and you're wrestling in your mind of, am I supposed to share this or not? Because of course, if you share that verse that's on your heart, you know, and it's not of the Lord, it's just going to be like, you know, terrible. No, of course not. But we have this wrestling match as if it's like, if I share this and it's not of the Lord, now we could share kooky things, and that's a different story. But so many times, it's clearly, this is something that's of God.

But we're wrestling with it. I don't know. I don't know. Listen, in those situations, it's so easy to hide amongst the equipment, isn't it? And by that, I mean, we just kind of wait. We kind of delay. And the next thing we know, oh, service is over. I missed my opportunity. I guess God didn't want me to share. It's easy for us to step back, to hold ourselves back, to hide amongst the equipment. But listen, Paul would say to you, stir up the gift of God.

Fan it into flame. Own your calling and engage in the work and take steps of faith and be bold and do what God has called you to do. Do as the occasion demands because God is with you. And I would suggest that we need to take on the heart and the attitude of Isaiah the prophet. There is he was in the presence of God and God presented a need to him. He said, here I am, send me. And man, do we need that kind of heart. Man, do we need that kind of attitude where we will own the calling of

Not in an attempt to do it in our strength or anything like that, but just to not run from it, to not hesitate, to not hold back, but to give ourselves wholeheartedly to what God has called us to do. Well, let's jump now to chapter 11 of 1 Samuel and see point number three.

Let the spirit move you. And we'll see that here in verses 5 through 7. What's happening here in 1 Samuel chapter 11 is Saul has gone back to his home. He's farming. He's not really, you know, in a castle leading the nation or anything like that yet. He's just at home farming. And as he's there farming, there's an enemy that comes and attacks one of the cities of the nation of Israel. And he's

Now this attack comes and the city asks for terms of surrender. They say, hey, we can't fight you. We don't have the manpower. And so would you let us just surrender and be your servants? And so the Ammonite king who was attacking them said, okay, we'll let you surrender, but you have to let us poke out all of your right eyes. So everybody has to have their right eye poked out. And the idea was that it would be a disgrace to them and to the nation of Israel.

And so they say, well, that doesn't sound very good. Give us a chance to send out a messenger and see if someone will come and help us. And so they send out messengers. And so the word goes out. And then in verse 5, it tells us, Now there was Saul coming behind the herd from the field. And Saul said, What troubles the people that they weep? And they told him the words of the men of Jabesh. Then the Spirit of God came upon Saul when he heard the news, and his anger was greatly aroused. Verse 7 says,

So he took a yoke of oxen and cut them in pieces and sent them throughout all the territory of Israel by the hands of messengers saying, whoever does not go out with Saul and Samuel to battle, so it shall be done to his oxen. And the fear of the Lord fell on the people and they came out with one consent. Here in 1 Samuel chapter 11, we have what I would describe as Saul's finest moment ever.

This is the peak and the best of Saul as king of Israel. It's early in his reign, but it's the best that he has. Here he is filled with the Holy Spirit. He calls all Israel together. He leads them to battle and he achieves victory on behalf of this city. And it began as the Spirit came upon Saul. The Holy Spirit came upon Saul. Now,

I would ask you to consider that the work of the Holy Spirit is something that happens in a way where the individual must allow for the Holy Spirit to do the work. And so this is why I say it's Saul's finest moment. The Holy Spirit came upon him and he let the Holy Spirit move him. And so he's angry, it tells us here. His anger was greatly aroused. And that was...

a movement of the Holy Spirit. Now, a lot of times anger is not a movement of the Holy Spirit. James tells us that man's wrath does not accomplish God's purposes, but there is a righteous indignation. And so the Holy Spirit moves within Saul this anger, this righteous indignation, and he goes forward empowered by the Spirit to achieve victory that God has set before him.

Now, as we consider these things today, I would encourage you along the same lines that the Holy Spirit comes upon you, but you need to let the Spirit move you. When the scripture tells us to be filled with the Holy Spirit, the word is passive. That means it's something that's done to you. It's not something you do for yourself. You don't fill yourself. You receive. You receive.

You accept, you allow the Holy Spirit, or another good word to describe it is you yield to the Holy Spirit. That is, you set aside your wills, desires, preferences, and everything, and you let the Holy Spirit stir up what He desires within you. The Holy Spirit does not take over your life so that you don't have control. He will empower you. He will fill you. He will be with you

but he doesn't remove your control. Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 14, 32, the spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets. And what he means by that is, well, again, like I talked about for the Wednesday night service, when there's an opportunity to prophesy, to share forth the word of God,

The Holy Spirit does not come upon you and go, boom, and suddenly you have no control. You're like, you know, stiff, and then your mouth is moving, and it's kind of like an out-of-body experience. You're watching yourself go, wow, I can't believe, you know, I don't have any control right now, but the Holy Spirit is just like saying all these, oh, that's pretty amazing. It's not like that at all. The Holy Spirit gives you the word of prophecy. He speaks to you, and He'll speak through you,

But you have to be involved. You have to be engaged. You're along the way with that. You have to let the Spirit move you. And the Holy Spirit can be resisted. The Holy Spirit can be grieved. The Holy Spirit doesn't force himself and force his way. Here, Saul does something good. He lets the Holy Spirit move him. The Holy Spirit may move you in a variety of ways. He may stir up within you a righteous indignation like he did in Saul.

And you know what? Sometimes that is absolutely appropriate. And you need to let the Holy Spirit stir that up in you when He desires. Because there are occasions to be angry. There are occasions to go into action with a righteous indignation to accomplish justice and righteousness for God's sake. Let the Holy Spirit move you when He wants to do that.

Let the Holy Spirit move you when He desires to use you to bring forth a word of prophecy or word of knowledge or some type of ministry in that way. Let the Holy Spirit stir up within you compassion. Now, maybe you're not a real compassionate person. Maybe you don't like the feelings of compassion.

you know, personally for me, I absolutely hate to cry. If I cry, it's like the worst thing in the world. My whole day's ruined. And so, no, seriously, like my head hurts. I feel terrible. Like it's just, it's not good feelings, right? So I will avoid certain movies or previews or commercials or things that stir up those emotions within me because I don't like, I don't want to feel that. But listen,

Even if you don't like it, you know, sometimes God wants to stir up compassion. And it may be something like, ah, I don't want to feel that. I don't want to experience that. But when the Holy Spirit wants to stir up compassion in you, you need to let the Holy Spirit do that. Let the Holy Spirit move in you to stir up love. Sometimes the Holy Spirit will move in you to rejoice, to celebrate, to have great joy.

Whatever he desires. You've been chosen by God, but it comes with this need to obey him and to allow the Holy Spirit to work in you what the Holy Spirit knows that you need and what the Holy Spirit knows is best. Well, we'll finish it up now in 1 Samuel chapter 13 for point number four. 1 Samuel chapter 13. And point number four is to wait on the Lord. Wait on the Lord. Now, many times, as we've been talking about, God gives a call to action.

He told Saul, do as the occasion demands. Go, move, own your calling, do what you need to do, make decisions, go to battle. It was a call to action. But many times, God will call you to wait. Wait.

And here in 1 Samuel chapter 13, Saul was called to wait. And when God calls you to wait, there's still going to be a battle, but the battle is against your own self. You're going to fight to not take matters into your own hands. You're going to want to take matters into your own hands, but you're going to have to fight to hold back and not take things into your control. I would suggest to you oftentimes waiting is more difficult than moving.

It's more difficult than, you know, doing what you want to do. To wait on the Lord can be very challenging. Well, we'll see Saul's example starting in verse 8. It says, So here Saul is out on the battlefield again.

He's got his army with him. The Philistines are invading. And Saul and his men are preparing to fight. The soldiers are gathered together. They have everything they need, except they have not yet offered a sacrifice to the Lord. And they needed to offer a sacrifice to the Lord before they went to battle. And so they had everything they needed except for that.

And he waits seven days in that condition. Now, it probably felt like much longer than seven days. If you've ever had to wait for something, you understand, right? It feels a lot longer than seven days when you have to wait seven days. Especially for Saul, as he sees here in verse 8, it tells us the people were scattered from him. So day one passes, and people are starting to go, hmm, here comes the enemy, and we're not doing anything. We're just sitting here. We're like sitting ducks, like waiting to be attacked. And

There's no sand that we're not offering to the Lord. And so the people begin to disperse. And so each day Saul's waking up and he's like, oh, there's less tents today. There's less people today. People are leaving. And so you can see the pressure begin to mount for him. Like he's getting more and more urgent as the days pass, as the hours pass. The pressure is building. The longer he waits, the more people he's losing.

The longer he waits, the closer the enemy gets. And so he comes to the point where I need to act now in order to have victory. I need to act now in order to accomplish what needs to be accomplished. And so in verse 9, he says, bring a burnt offering and peace offerings here to me. And he offered the burnt offering. So he couldn't take it anymore. The pressure was too much. He decided, we got to do this right now. He takes matters into his own hands, and he offers this burnt offering to the Lord.

And then check out verse 10. Now it happened. As soon as he had finished. You see that? Let me read that again. Now it happened. As soon as he had finished presenting the burnt offering, that Samuel came and Saul went out to meet him that he might greet him. Notice the timing here. When did Samuel arrive? As soon as Saul finished offering that burnt offering. Saul waited seven days.

And he thought, that's it. Samuel's not coming. I've got to take matters into my own hands. I've got to do it. But Samuel wasn't late. This isn't day eight. This is still day seven. Saul waited seven days. He said, it's been seven days. And he came to his own conclusion. He said, well, it's God give me this time. I'm supposed to wait seven days. Now seven days are up. Samuel's not here. I got to do it myself. But he didn't wait the full seven days. It's still day seven. In fact, it's

Saul was preparing to offer more than one sacrifice. Notice again in verse 9, he says, bring a burnt offering and peace offerings to me. And so the first thing he's offering to the Lord is the burnt offering. Then he's intending to offer peace offerings to the Lord as well. But before he could offer the peace offerings, Samuel shows up. Not late, right on time, exactly according to God's timing. As soon as he had finished presenting the burnt offering,

Then Samuel shows up. Saul thought he waited. And he thought he was in the situation where he couldn't wait any longer. He should have. He should have waited. And if he would have just waited a little bit longer, he would have not received the consequences that he's about to receive. So many times it seems like God waits to that last minute for us as well, right? We often talk about that. God's timing is not our timing. Why do we have that saying? Because so many times it's like,

God doesn't do things in the time frame that we think he should do them. And so there's a great temptation for us many times to do like Saul and take things into our own hands. I like what John Corson has to say about this. He says, so often the Lord waits until the last moment to step in. Why? It's not to tease us, but to test us. He takes us right down to the wire, not to taunt, but to train us in order that we might have endurance. God works in his timing. Now,

God's timing is not our timing. We know that. We say that. But here's why it's different. It's because God works on a right and perfect schedule, and we don't. But in our perspective, that's not the way we see it, right? God doesn't work at the right time. He's not working at the right schedule because, well, what we think is the right schedule.

It doesn't happen the way that we think and the timing that we want. And so God's late. And God looks at us and says, why are you doing that right now? You're early. It's not time for that yet. There's many times that God wants you to wait on the Lord. He's not trying to tease you. He's not just messing with you. He's teaching you. He's training you. He's working out for you what is best in your life. Well, Samuel challenges Saul and he says, hey, what have you done?

And Saul immediately begins to offer excuses. He's like, hey, you see what happened was, you know, this and then that and then this and then that. And he has all these reasons, these justifications for why he did and the seven days and you weren't here. And so I had to. In verse 12, he says, therefore, I felt compelled and offered a burnt offering. I felt compelled. I had to. I had no other choice.

Now, the idea here, when he says he felt compelled, I think a little bit better translation is he said, I forced myself. I forced myself. I restrained myself. And I made myself do what I didn't want to do. Here, Saul is really admitting that he knew what he did was wrong, that it wasn't an innocent or ignorant mistake. Those definitely the Lord handles differently. We do make mistakes. And many times they're innocent and they're ignorant. But in this case...

He knew it was wrong. He knew what God said, but he just could not wait any longer. And so he says, I forced myself to offer the burnt offering. I had no other choice. I didn't want to do it, but I had to do it. And you could maybe look at it this way, too. He's kind of blaming Samuel. He's blaming God. You guys put me in this situation. I wasn't supposed to do it. I didn't want to do it, but I had to do it because you put me here. Such a good, relatable guy, right? So we can all relate to that.

Being in that tight spot, feeling like, you put me here, God. So I had to do what I didn't want to do. But in verse 13, Samuel says to Saul, you have done foolishly. You have not kept the commandment of the Lord. It's always foolish to disobey, no matter how late you think it is, no matter how much pressure there is, no matter how much you see is stacked against you. And if we don't do this right now, we're going to lose it. We're going to miss out. Wait on the Lord.

What has God commanded you? Sometimes he calls you to action, and as he calls you to action, walk in God's will. Do as the occasion demands, and do what God has called you to do. Step up and own your calling. Don't run from it. Don't hide from it. That's not humility. Go forward knowing that God is with you as you walk in obedience to God. But then when God calls you to wait, then you wait.

And you fight just as hard as when you're called to fight, but you fight to not take matters into your own hands. Now, how do you know which is which? How do you know when God wants you to go and when God wants you to wait? Very simple answer. You need to spend time with God and hear from him. You need to walk with God. You need to have relationship with God. He needs to be the priority of your life. And he will tell you, Saul knew he was supposed to wait. He had heard from God.

Saul knew he was called to be king. He had heard from God in the same way. God desires to speak to you about your life, and he has instruction for you. And when he tells you to go, you need to go. And you need to own what God has called you to do and go wholeheartedly and not hold back. But then when God tells you to wait, then you need to wait. Wait according to what God has said. Wait for God's provision. Wait for God's promises. Wait for God's promises.

Some things are, you know, you got to hear from the Lord specifically about your life as far as waiting or going. Some things you can know right away. In Romans chapter 12, verse 19, God tells us, do not avenge yourselves. So you never have to worry about or never have to pray about, well, do you think God wants me to wait before I avenge myself? Or do you think he just wants me to go avenge myself? Paul says, give place for God's wrath. In other words, you wait.

And let God take care of vengeance. Let God take care of paying people back for wrong that they did. Sometimes we're anxious to go forward and to make happen what we believe God has told us that he wants to do, to fulfill God's promises. And we can rush in like Abraham did, right? He took Hagar and had Ishmael to provide the son that God had promised them. And God says, that's not the son I promised you.

That doesn't count. Instead, I'm going to bless him, but still there's going to be lots of problems as a result of that. When God calls you to wait, you need to wait. You're chosen. You're anointed. You're called by the Lord. You're filled with the Holy Spirit. You're a believer in Jesus Christ. And that means you need to obey. Submit yourself to God. Walk in his will. Own your calling. Don't run from it. Don't hide from it. Let the Holy Spirit move in you and stir up within you what needs to be stirred up. Yield yourself.

Just surrender to God and let God do the work in you that he wants to do and wait on the Lord. As he instructed away, when you know things are not to be in your control, but they're to be in God's control, wait on the Lord and don't take matters into your own hands. Let's pray. Lord, as we consider the example of Saul, Lord, we can relate so many areas, God, where we're tempted in the same ways that he was. And Lord, as we

are provided these scriptures as examples for us that we would not follow their pattern and follow their errors. I pray that you would instruct each and every one of us this morning, Lord, that you would help us as your chosen people to be obedient to you, to walk in your will, to own up and live out with boldness your calling in our lives. Lord, I pray that you would move upon us by your Holy Spirit to work in us what you desire.

And God, for those areas that you've called us to wait. The pressure's mounting. Stress is building. Things are looking worse and worse. And we think we have to act. But Lord, help us to really trust you, to work in your timing, to work your plan for our good. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

We pray you have been blessed by this Bible teaching. The power of God to change a life is found in the daily reading of His Word. Visit ferventword.com to find more teachings and Bible study resources.