1 SAMUEL 13:1-15 YOU PURSUE GODS HEART WHEN YOU OBEY2017 Teaching by Jerry B Simmons

Teaching Transcript: 1 Samuel 13:1-15 You Pursue Gods Heart When You 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 2017. All right, well, this evening we're going to be in 1 Samuel chapter 13 and looking at verses 1 through 15. And so let's take a few moments here to kick it off by reading through these verses. 1 Samuel chapter 13, verses 1 through 15. Here's what it says in verse 1.

Saul reigned one year. And when he had reigned two years over Israel, Saul chose for himself 3,000 men of Israel. 2,000 were with Saul in Michmash and in the mountains of Bethel. And 1,000 were with Jonathan in Gibeah of Benjamin. The rest of the people he sent away, every man to his tent. And Jonathan attacked the garrison of the Philistines that was in Gibeah.

Verse 5. Verse 6.

30,000 chariots and 6,000 horsemen and people as the sand which is on the seashore in multitude. And they came up and encamped in Michmash to the east of Beth-Avon. When the men of Israel saw that they were in danger, for the people were distressed, then the people hid in caves, in thickets, in rocks, in holes, and in pits. And some of the Hebrews crossed over the Jordan to the land of Gad and Gilead.

As for Saul, he was still in Gilgal, and all the people followed him, trembling. Then he waited seven days, according to the time set by Samuel. But Samuel did not come to Gilgal, and the people were scattered from him. So Saul said, Bring a burnt offering and peace offerings here to me.

And he offered the burnt offering. Verse 10. 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. And Samuel said, what have you done? And Saul said, when I saw that the people were scattered from me and that you did not come within the days appointed and that the Philistines gathered together at Michmash, then I said, the Philistines will now come down on me at Gilgal.

And I have not made supplication to the Lord. Therefore, I felt compelled and offered a burnt offering. And Samuel said to Saul, you have done foolishly. You have not kept the commandment of the Lord your God, which he commanded you. For now the Lord would have established your kingdom over Israel forever. But now your kingdom shall not continue. The Lord has sought for himself a man after his own heart.

And the Lord has commanded him to be commander over his people, because you have not kept what the Lord commanded you. Verse 15. Then Samuel arose and went up from Gilgal to Gibeah of Benjamin, and Saul numbered the people present with him, about 600 men. Here as we look at 1 Samuel chapter 13, we now come to the point where we are looking at the passage where we get the theme verse for this whole study.

As we've been talking about pursuing God's heart, we see that in verse 14, as Samuel is addressing Saul and his, well, his lack of pursuit of God's heart, he says, the Lord has sought for himself a man after his own heart. And the Lord has chosen this one who will pursue his heart, and he is going to be the commander over the people of Israel.

And so we've been talking about this subject as we've been working our way to this point. And the idea and the understanding of pursuing God's heart and what does that mean? And we've boiled it down to the idea of, well, it really comes down to obedience to God.

And we see here in this passage that Saul was disobedient, but it's not limited to this passage. Saul was continually disobedient, and we'll see that as we continue to study his life in the coming chapters. And so God said, I'm going to find a man who is obedient in contrast to you, Saul, who are continually disobedient. And as we look at this continuing this evening, I would ask you to consider, are you a man or a woman after God's own heart?

That is, are you more like Saul or more like David? Are you one who is seeking after and pursuing the heart of God to be pleasing to God? As we look at 1 Samuel chapter 13 this evening, I've titled the message, You Pursue God's Heart When You Obey. And that's what we see here as we look at this passage and the life of Saul. And it's early into his reign, but he is making a huge mistake here in this chapter.

Now, many times as we've been studying through Samuel, we've been looking at Samuel the prophet, and he's been such a great example for us of what it looks like to be a man after God's own heart. And now in Saul, we have the contrast of what it looks like to not be a man after God's own heart. And so from this passage and from Saul, many times we're learning what not to do by his bad example. Saul explains himself.

Here in verse 12, explaining why he offered the burnt offering. And that was really the issue. That's the core of what took place here in 1 Samuel chapter 13. It was not his place as king to offer a burnt offering. That was reserved for the priests. And yet Saul went beyond what God had called him to do and offered this burnt offering and makes a big mistake here. And it's an issue that God addresses very quickly here.

But Saul explains why he did it in verse 12. He says, I felt compelled for all these reasons. And he had a list of reasons why he felt compelled. But it came down to this reality that he felt like he had to. He felt like he had no choice. And this is something interesting for us to consider because I think that in a lot of ways we can relate to Saul.

We can look at Saul's situation and really have compassion on Saul and understand, well, it makes sense to me. I understand why Saul did what he did. It makes sense to me. And I can relate because I could see the pressure that he was under. And we could relate to that. But I would remind you as we relate to that of what we're told here in Proverbs 6.

It tells us in verse 30, people do not despise a thief if he steals to satisfy himself when he is starving. Yet when he is found, he must restore sevenfold. He may have to give up all the substance of his house.

Here, the author of the Proverbs is calling to attention, look, if someone is starving and they steal, you know, if you watch the beginning of Aladdin and you see him stealing bread because he's starving, he has no other option, you know, you don't hate him immediately for that, right? You don't despise him for that. Now, someone who's stealing just to, you know, get what they want, then it's like, oh, there's a disgust there. There's a despising there. But there's this compassion. There's kind of like this exception, like,

I know it's wrong to steal, but, you know, oh, man, it's hard to be starving. And so there's this compassion that we feel, and yet the author of Proverbs goes on to say, but, you know, when that person is caught, well, they have to...

pay back. They have to restore according to what is right, and justice needs to be served. And that's appropriate, too, and we can understand that, too. But there's this compassion. There's a distinction that's made as someone is stealing for their livelihood. We can kind of understand. And I think as we look at Saul, we can kind of have that same kind of compassion. That as he feels compelled, and we look at his situation, we could kind of relate to that. But that doesn't negate

and the issue of his disobedience. And we need to be careful about that because, well, we could easily have so much compassion upon Saul that we, well, we relate to him too much. And we also excuse ourselves from,

from obedience to God as we have really good reasons and we feel compelled that I had no choice. I had to do this that God said not to do or not do what God told me to do. And it's not right. And so what we see here in Saul is an example of what not to do. And I would like to remind you this evening that the way to pursue God's heart is through obedience.

And so there's five points that we'll walk through here in these verses. The first one is found in verses one through five, and that is obey God even when threats mount.

We begin the chapter with early in Saul's reign. He just began to reign one year, it said, when he'd reigned two years over Israel. So we're just early in his reign, just starting out. And then now he chooses 3,000 men of Israel, it says in verse 2. 2,000 were with him in Michmash and the mountains of Bethel. And 1,000 were with Jonathan, his son, in Gibeah of Benjamin. And then everybody else he sent away.

Now, as we head into chapter 13, Saul is finally the king for real. He's the king of the nation of Israel. He was anointed king back in chapter 10, but he was anointed king. He just went home and went back to farming.

But then in chapter 11, when there was a threat from the Ammonites, then he rose up and called Israel to battle and went, and there was a great victory. And so he really kind of began to lead the people at that time. And they came back to 1 Samuel chapter 12, where now he's declared openly and publicly as king again, accepted by the people. And so now as we head into chapter 13, it's now taking another step further. He's established now an army.

He's got 2,000 men with him, 1,000 men with his son. Everybody else after that battle, he sent home, but he kept 3,000 guys. This is now the army of the nation of Israel. They're devoted to their full-time, you know, working in that capacity. And so here is Saul, brand new king, brand new army, you know, just barely establishing the monarchy and beginning to accomplish whatever it is that's upon his heart for the kingdom.

But here we're also introduced in verse 3 to Jonathan. In verse 3, it tells us that Jonathan attacked the garrison of the Philistines that was in Geba. Now, Jonathan is the son of Saul, and he's going to be an important figure that we'll get to consider over the next few chapters as well, as we see the interaction between Jonathan and David and see that friendship develop. And there's some really awesome things that Jonathan shows us. So even though his dad...

really is a bad example. Jonathan is a great example for us. And you see his courage here as he attacks the garrison of the Philistines. He's not, you know, a warrior with thousands of soldiers. He's got a thousand soldiers. And he decides, you know what, I'm going to stir up some trouble. I'm going to start resisting these guys who have been oppressing us. And Jonathan really is the instigator for this revolt against the Philistines. And

And I would say that it's probably done well and in a step of faith, even as we'll see in chapter 14, Jonathan step out in faith and fight against the Philistines. And so it seems that he was a man of great character and he trusted God. And so he's fighting against the Philistines. Now, during this time, Israel was subject to the Philistines. In fact, if you read on to the rest of 1 Samuel chapter 13,

you'll see that Israel was not even allowed to have weapons because the Philistines forbid it. They said, we don't want them to have weapons. In fact, you're not even allowed to have blacksmiths. The Philistines rolled over Israel in such a way that they said, you're not allowed to have blacksmiths because you might make weapons. So if you need some type of metalwork, you come to us.

and we'll do your metal work for you, but you're not allowed to. And so there was a real oppression and subduing of Israel by the Philistines. And Jonathan now begins to push back against this enemy of Israel. And so he attacks the garrison. Now, verse four. Now, all Israel heard it said that Saul had attacked the garrison of the Philistines and that Israel had become an abomination to the Philistines. And the people were called together to Saul at Gilgal.

And so the word spreads now. Jonathan started a revolt. Well, actually, it took on the name of Saul. Saul has started a revolt. And so the word spread, and all Israel heard about it. What's interesting, as you go forward in the next few verses, you'll see not a lot of people respond, though. In the previous chapter, whenever the battle was taking place, and Saul called Israel together, they all gathered together as they were, you know, moved by the Holy Spirit. But

This time the call goes out and nobody really responds. And so the word is spreading though. And people are hearing about this revolt that is taking place. And even the Philistines hear about it.

And so it tells us in verse 15 that the Philistines respond in force. They gathered together, it says, to fight with Israel. 30,000 chariots, 6,000 horsemen, and people as the sand which is on the seashore in multitude. And they came up and encamped in Michmash to the east of Beth-Avon.

So the Philistines now move in and they're beginning to show their strength to put things back in order and shut down this revolt that is taking place.

Now, the Philistines lived on the coast of the Mediterranean. Originally, Israel's territory went all the way to the coast, but the Philistines, they came by sea, they landed there on the coast, and they set up camp there, and so their primary territory was the area that circled there with Gaza and Ashkelon and Ashdod and those areas, and so those were their areas, but they were pushing back and taking more of Israel's territory, and now they

move in right to the center of Israel's territory and they camp at Michmash. Now it tells us, you know, earlier in the verses that that's where Saul was camped out was at Michmash. And so they come right up in his face. They come toe to toe with Saul and he actually retreats back to Gilgal. Okay, I got to step back and, you know, gather my troops and gather myself and prepare for this battle.

But so here is this threat, the Philistines, with this massive army. They come in and they're right in Saul's face. They're like, don't think, picture, you know, sometimes because of how wars and battles are fought in our day, you know, at least for us here in this room probably, they're fought far away. You know, we hear about them. We see pictures and images on the news or on Facebook or whatever. And, you know, we see about it.

But for the most part, we're not face to face with it. But that's not the case. It wasn't some distant thing. They heard about rumors of, you know, some battles taking place. This was right in their face. Here is this enemy, this massive force. It tells us here in verse 5 that there was 30,000 chariots and 6,000 horsemen.

Now, there's some scholars who wrestle with that number, 30,000 chariots, and it's possible that it was more likely 3,000 chariots and that there was a mistake made by one of the copyists who was copying the text from the Bible.

from the original and so that happens particularly with numbers and so we see that from time to time. So 3,000 chariots perhaps or 30,000 chariots, it was a massive army in other words. And having a chariot in those days was like having a tank today. I mean it was unstoppable for a foot soldier. It was something that would be very formidable.

And then you had 6,000 horsemen. And so there's this massive group of horsemen that are there gathered as well. And then it describes a multitude of foot soldiers like the sands of the sea. So this is a serious force. This is a massive army. This is something that is going to be a huge threat to

to the nation of Israel. And let me remind you, I shared just a few moments ago, Israel at this point has no weapons. If you jump down to verse 22 here in 1 Samuel chapter 13, you'll see it says, so it came about on the day of battle, there was neither sword nor spear found in the hand of any of the people who were with Saul and Jonathan, but they were found with Saul and Jonathan, his son.

Because the people weren't allowed to have weapons. It was forbidden by the Philistines. So here they are coming to battle against this massive army that has not just swords and spears, but tanks, you know, and chariots and horsemen. And they have all the weapons that they need. And so they're coming ill-equipped to this fully equipped army with a great deficit. They have far less soldiers than the Philistines have.

And so you can understand, as you look at Saul, you can understand the threat is mounting. And you can understand a little bit about the pressure that Saul is under. Can you kind of picture, you know, him as king responsible for the nation. Now his son has stirred up trouble. And now this huge threat is right there in his face. He is going to be extremely tempted.

to take matters into his own hands and to disobey because of this threat that is right in front of his face. Now, it's interesting that this was provoked, that it's Jonathan who kind of stirred this up. And I think Dave Guzik makes a great point on this passage as he talks about our enemies. You know, sometimes our enemy, talking about spiritual enemies, not flesh and blood, but the principalities and powers, our enemy is,

is content many times to just kind of live side by side with us until we begin to seek deliverance, until we begin to progress and take steps of faith and respond to the work of God. And then there comes this massive show of force. And that's what it was like. They were living side by side in harmony a little bit. You know, they were subjected, but the Philistines weren't out to destroy them. They just wanted them to be their servants. And so,

But now that there's a little bit of resistance, and the same is true in our lives, and we've all experienced that. You sign up for a retreat, and then boom, there's this resistance. There's this attack. There's this show of force to intimidate and to get you to back off and not do what God has stirred up within you and called you to do. Dave Guzik goes on to make this point. I think it's a really good one. If peace with the devil is more important to you than victory in the Lord, then

you will often be defeated and subjected. The enemy works hard to intimidate us, to freak us out, to mount the threats and to bring these things against us that we would be disobedient to the Lord. But listen, if we're gonna pursue God's heart, it's gonna have to be a pursuit that is persistent even through threats.

Even through great dangers that are right in front of our face, even through great pressure that comes from this intimidation. And if peace with the devil is the most important thing to you, well, you're going to be subjected to that kind of servitude for the rest of your life.

We're going to have to resist the devil and he will flee. That's what the Lord told us, right? We do have to fight. We do have to take steps of faith and trust God. And I don't mean that we, you know, chase after the devil or yell at the devil, but we chase after God and we seek God and we take steps of faith and respond as God speaks to us. And the enemy will come against us in that way and mount threats. But we have to be faithful to God.

Even in the midst of those threats, even when it gets scary, even when those dangers are right in front of our face, we must obey God. That's how you pursue God's heart. When you obey, even when there's threats right in your face. Well, moving on to point number two, we find it in verse six and seven. Point number two is obey God even when resources dwindle.

Verse 6 says, Can you see the pressure mounting for Saul? Here's this massive army right in his face. Huge threat.

And now, all of a sudden, his guys, his crew, those guys are supposed to back him up and help him face this threat. They've split. They're running for the hills, man. They're like hiding. And I think it's funny, like,

They're hiding in verse six in caves. Okay, it makes sense. It's a good place to hide, right? In thickets. I'm gonna hide behind the shrub, right? You know, I kind of picture those cartoons, you know, like there's this little pole and you know, this big guy hiding behind it. Like it's kind of like, they're just wherever they can hide in thickets, in rocks, in holes. Like, hey, good, there's a hole. Let me hide in that, you know, in pits and whatever. They're just scrambling, hiding wherever they can. It's sheer panic. Absolute terror is taking place here.

And I picture Saul being very shaken as well. I would call your attention back to 1 Samuel 11 and think about the last time Saul called all Israel together, he had a great response. There was 300,000 men of Israel and 30,000 men of Judah who responded. So just two chapters earlier, within the last couple of years, he called out to all Israel and 330,000 people responded.

Now he calls out to Israel. Nobody comes. And the people he had with him, the 3,000 soldiers that were his now professional army, the majority of them have split and taken off and have just been freaked out by this threat. And so you can understand Saul is, he's standing alone in many ways because his men saw they were in danger.

And it says they're distressed. They're really freaked out by this, hiding any place they can behind curtains and rocks and hills and wherever they can. And it tells us in verse seven, some even crossed over the Jordan. So if you're looking at the thing again, okay, so here's the Philistines. They come to Michmash, that yellow arrow, that's the people crossing the Jordan. They're like, let's put a boundary between us and the Philistines and help protect ourselves. They are in full retreat mode. Let's get out of here.

And so Saul is left behind with just a few people. At the end of our passage this evening in verse 15, it tells us that there's only 600 guys who are left with him. So he started out in verse two with 3,000 men. He called out to all Israel. They didn't respond. And now his 3,000 has been reduced to 600. There's only a handful left of his paid professional soldiers who were supposed to help him.

His resources have dwindled down to virtually nothing. Now, it's a little bit callous to call people resources, but from Saul's perspective, you can understand why I'm using that word resources. That this was his army. Suddenly they're gone. But I also use the word resources to help us relate to it because we probably don't have armies that we're leading, but we do have resources that we are relying upon.

And we have to rely upon those resources, and yet God wants us to trust in him more than our resources. And so whether you want to think about, you know, those resources as your finances or whatever it may be, we have those things that, well, we need to face the things that we face each day. And this evening, I would encourage you to consider if low resources cause you to disobey God,

it really reveals that you were trusting your resources more than you were trusting God. If, all right, God's told me to do this and I'm going to do it, and then suddenly you don't have the money to do it, well, okay, God, I'm not going to obey you because I don't have the money, or I'm not going to obey you because, you know, I don't have the resources. And now the heart is being revealed that those resources really were what you were trusting in and not the Lord.

And of course, as we look at Saul, we can see that clearly, that he was trusting in his own strength. He wasn't trusting in the Lord. And so here's Saul stressing out because all of his soldiers have run away. The others are still trembling. They're still freaked out. They're on the verge of running away as well. So you can see the stress building in him.

bringing him to the point where he's going to overstep his bounds and disregard what God has said to do what he thinks is the best thing to do. Moving on to point number three, it's found in verses eight through 10. Point number three is obey God even when time runs out. Verse eight tells us, then he waited seven days according to the time set by Samuel. But Samuel did not come to Gilgal and the people were scattered from him.

So Saul said, bring a burnt offering and peace offerings here to me. And he offered the burnt offering. So now we find that Samuel waited or Saul waited for seven days, according to the time set by Samuel. Now, again, I think we can look at this and pretty easily have a little bit of compassion upon Saul, right? We can relate that. Wow. I mean, the rest of his guys have fled and

We can kind of commend Saul, good job Saul for not just running away. You know, like I'd be tempted to run away sometimes.

There's this massive army that, you know, 2,400 of my 3,000 army have, you know, split and run for the hills and hiding in holes. And I'd be like, yeah, I'm going to join you. You know, I'll be leading the retreat. And yet Saul's here. He's sticking it out. And so in some ways we can kind of commend Saul and all right, you know, we can understand like, wow, you're feeling all kinds of pressure as all the people are scattered from you. And yet still Saul, you waited for seven days. I mean, that's...

That's pretty incredible that you stuck it out that long. Seven days you waited and put up with that pain and that difficulty of being abandoned and having this huge threat. I mean, that's a pretty commendable thing in some ways. But he didn't really wait the full seven days. He got to the end of it almost and he decided,

That's it. I can't wait any longer. And now he's going to take matters into his own hands and offer this burnt offering. It's often been noted and commented throughout the years that God's timing is not our timing. And that is usually the case. And I think we could all probably have, you know, experiences and stories about that, that we wanted something, we needed something, and it was not happening when we thought it should happen.

Now God's timing is usually not our timing, listen, because our timing is wrong. But that's so hard for us to accept. From Saul's perspective, I mean, time's running out. He could be attacked by the Philistines any moment, and moment by moment, more people are leaving. He's getting weaker by the moment, while the Philistines are getting organized and stronger and prepared. I mean, time is of the essence.

And so he has to act. He can't wait any longer. He must start and set things in motion. So the people are scattered from him. And again, you can see Saul stressing out as he's dealing with this abandonment and this issue of the people leaving and the threat that is mounted. And he's waited for as long as he can. And when he can't take it anymore, he says, okay, bring the burnt offering to me and bring the peace offerings.

And it says that he offered the burnt offering. Now, notice what happens here. I mean, there's some specific details here. The plan is to offer a burnt offering as well as, so a single burnt offering and then multiple peace offerings. So there's going to be several sacrifices that's going to be happening here. A burnt offering first and then some peace offerings. He got through the first one, the burnt offering.

Now again, the burnt offering, this was a special, God gave very specific instructions in the book of Leviticus. This was how the priest was to handle this burnt offering. And it was clear from the Lord, this is reserved for the priest. But Saul takes it into his own hands. He offers the burnt offering. And it says, as soon as he had finished presenting the burnt offering...

So he didn't even get to the other offerings that he was planning to offer. But he just finished the first one, the burnt offering. And that is when Samuel showed up. When Saul thought he can't wait any longer and the time's up, he missed it. He missed that, the full waiting period. He missed it by just a few minutes. Samuel didn't come on time. That's what Saul was saying, except that he did. And that was proven as he shows up right at the end of that burnt offering.

The commentator F.B. Meyer says, apparently he had done this within half an hour of Samuel's arrival because the offering would hardly have taken longer. F.B. Meyer says, yeah, maybe about a half an hour to offer that sacrifice. Samuel shows up right at the end. He missed the full waiting period by 30 minutes. And that is something, again, we can relate to Saul here. I understand that. So many times we're right on the verge of what God wants to do.

But we just can't hold out for a little bit longer. We give up just a little bit too soon. We give in to that pressure, to that weight that we're experiencing just a little bit early.

And of course, it makes sense because, well, the pressure mounts, right? And so as we get close to the end of that time, the pressure is getting greater and greater as the threat is mounting, as the people are leaving. We see that happen in Saul. Pastor David Guzik says, the last moments of waiting are usually the most difficult and tempt us to take matters into our own hands. Now listen, if you're going to pursue God's heart,

You need to understand that means obeying God even when time runs out. As far as you're concerned, you feel like the time is up. It's over. It's too late. God is still able at that time to come in and accomplish what he wants to accomplish. God's timing is not our timing because our timing is wrong. And so we feel like time has run out. But many times when we feel like time has run out, there's still another 30 minutes on the clock that God says, I can come in right there and take care of everything. I can handle it.

But we give up so quick. We give up too soon. And we don't obey God to the very last moment. We take matters into our own hands so easily. And it's so tempting because that pressure mounts. It's the most difficult time period. And yet, it's the time period that God calls us to continue, to persist, to wait on Him and obey Him in what He's called us to do.

The point in all of this is there is no excuse for disobeying God, even if there's a great threat against you, even if all of your resources, you know, have dwindled away, even if time has run out. And so, you know, now it's too late. And so therefore I had to disregard what God said and do what God told me not to do or not do what God told me to do. I had to. That's how Saul felt.

And that's why he described it. I was compelled to offer this sacrifice. I had to. I had no other choice. But that's not obedience to God. And it's not an excuse. Although we can relate and we can have compassion on Saul, it's not an excuse. It's not a good reason. It's still a disobedience that results in some serious consequences.

Moving on now to verses 11 and 12, here we have point number four, and that is repent when you disobey. And again, we're looking at Saul and learning from his bad example. There's no repentance in Saul, but as we look at his response to Samuel, we are reminded of the need to repent. Verse 11, and Samuel said, what have you done? And Saul said, when I saw that the people were scattered from me,

So Samuel shows up. He can smell the sacrifice. It's a burnt offering. You know, you can smell that barbecue all the way down the street, several blocks down. He knows what happened. But Saul comes to greet him and he says, what have you done? And Saul begins to explain.

And this is the issue with Saul. Every time he's asked about his disobedience, we'll see this again in the life of Saul. He's asked about his disobedience. And as he's asked about his disobedience, instead of repentance comes an explanation. Well, let me tell you why I disobeyed. Instead of confession, instead of an acknowledgement of sin, he essentially says, I know that I did wrong.

But I have really good reasons for doing wrong. And so let me tell you about those reasons. And he lists them out pretty articulately, right? Here in verse 11, he says, I saw the people were scattered from me.

And then you haven't been here for the seven days. You know, you didn't come at the time that you said. And so I waited that whole time and you weren't here. And then here's this threat. The Philistines are there. They're going to come upon me anytime. And so there's this urgency and there's this massive threat. And the people are running away from this battle and running away from me.

And so Saul explains his reasons. Again, you can see him stressing over all of these issues as he's analyzing each one and thinking about this and that and this and that. And he concludes, he comes to the decision, I have to do this offer, this sacrifice, this offering. I have to take matters into my own hands because I'm losing the people. And time has expired and they're going to attack any moment. There's this threat that is gathering.

And notice the audacity of Saul. He even blamed Samuel. You did not come within the days appointed. Samuel, this is really your fault. If you would have been here when you were supposed to be here, then I would not have had to offer this sacrifice. I wouldn't have had to disobey God if you had been here when you were supposed to be here. So what we have from Saul is excuses that are not valid.

God doesn't accept. None of these are good enough reason to disregard what God has said. Secondly, we see Saul blaming Samuel. He's not taking responsibility. He's not saying, you're right. I let these pressures get to me and I overstepped my bounds. If he would have responded differently, the Lord would have responded differently. You can know that for sure. But instead, he's blaming Samuel and saying, it's your fault.

You didn't come when you said you were going to come. But then on top of all of that, offering his excuses and blaming Samuel, then he also made it sound spiritual. In verse 12, he says, the Philistines will now come upon me at Gilgal, and I have not made supplication to the Lord. Samuel, what you got to understand is the Lord is so important to me. I really love the Lord, and I have to

ask the Lord for help. I really trust in the Lord, and so I have to ask God for help before I go into this battle, and so I had to. I mean, it's a spiritual thing. It's a, because I love God so much and trust God so much, that's why I had to do this sacrifice. You see, Saul, that he is just completely mixed up, convinced that his disobedience, it's disobedience, but it's for a good reason, and it's good enough reason that it's okay that, that

I shouldn't have to be bothered by, you know, this accusation, you know, that it's okay because I have really good reasons for my disobedience. Again, going back to Proverbs, hey, we can understand when someone steals because they're starving. But at the same time, if they get caught, well, there still has to be justice. There still has to be some retribution and consequences. And that is the reality, right?

And so as much as we could relate to Saul's reasons, as much as we could understand them, we need to be careful to recognize they're not valid and make sure that we don't try to use those same kinds of excuses in our own lives and think, hey, I'm okay because, well, I know I was supposed to do this, but here's my reasons. And they're really good reasons. And it doesn't work. God does not accept that. I know I'm supposed to do this. I know I'm not supposed to do that, but...

And we have our reasons. And God says, no, that doesn't work. Listen, when you're confronted with disobedience, the appropriate response is repentance and confession, acknowledging your sin, not explaining here's why. And we are really good at explaining here's why. Here's why I did what I did. And here's why it's a good reason and why I'm justified in disobeying God. And many times like

Saul, we take it a step further and then we don't just explain why we did what we did, but then we blame others. Well, the reason why I did that, the reason why I behaved that way, the reason why I cheated on you is because of you. And that is not acceptable. That is not accepted by God. That's not a valid excuse. You can't blame others and say, if you had been where you were supposed to be, if you had done what you were supposed to do, then I wouldn't have had to disobey God.

God doesn't look at that and say, oh, okay, I see, I see, yeah. Ronnie showed up late, so that, you know, means you can just do whatever you want. No, that's not obedience. See, the real test of obedience is in the face of all of these pressures. The real test of obedience, obedience is about faith. It's about trusting God above your own opinion, above your own reasonings, above your own thoughts and opinions, that it's your trusting God thing

And giving him the highest priority so that you don't override what God says because you think you've got a really good reason. You can override what God says if God tells you to override what God says. And if you feel like God's telling you to override what God says, I would say get a second opinion. Because God does offer exceptions. He does unusual things from time to time. He's able to do that. But that's not normal.

And don't think that you have a license to just do what you want because you have good reasons. That's not what God says. And like Saul, we have a tendency to make it sound spiritual. We're really good at convincing ourselves it's the right thing to do. It's the godly thing to do. It's the spiritual thing to do.

And Saul adds all this up in verse 12 and says, therefore, I felt compelled and offered a burnt offering. I felt compelled. I had no choice. I had no choice. I had to worship God. This battle is imminent. It's going to happen any moment. I had to worship God. So I had to offer this sacrifice. And I had this pressure and these people were leaving and, you know,

All of this stuff was happening, and so I had to. He was in a situation where he felt he had no other choice. And again, this is what the enemy does many times. He brings things against us in a way that, while he's attempting to convince us we have no other choice, the only option is to disobey God. But that's not the only option. Pursue God's heart. When you pursue God's heart, that's called obedience, even obedience.

when you have really good reasons not to obey, even when there's lots of pressure against you to not obey. Now, the point that I wanted to highlight here is that when you're caught in disobedience, when you're confronted with disobedience, because the reality is we face the pressure of these threats in our lives and we buckle, we give in and we fall short because of the pressure that we're experiencing. Listen, when you're confronted with that reality,

Don't respond like Saul. The problem really with Saul was not even so much that he failed. The problem with Saul was that he had no remorse at all. There was no repentance. There was no confession. We are going to fail and we're going to disobey as we respond poorly to threats. But then as that is brought to our attention, we need to turn from that, to acknowledge that sin, to confess that sin and ask God to forgive us.

We are going to fail. We're going to trust in our resources and it's going to cause us to disobey God. And when we do, we must repent. We're going to feel the pressure of time.

and feel like there's no more time left, and we have to take matters into our own hands, and it's going to bring us to the point where we disobey. That's going to happen. We are still human, and we are still going to fall in all of these areas. Again, that's why we can have compassion on Saul. We know what that's like, but the main thing is that when we fail, that we need to come to the place of repentance, and God can change everything. God can

can work greatly in our lives, even through failure, when we have a heart of repentance, a heart of confession, and we turn to God and ask for his forgiveness, he's able to work. But when we're there trying to justify ourselves and explain ourselves away and blame somebody else, and we have all of this reason why it's not our fault, we're not guilty, we don't deserve to be judged because of our disobedience, well, God doesn't put up with that. You wanna receive forgiveness

what God has for you and God's best for you, then even though you fail, and again, we'll see now, he's gonna talk about the next guy who's gonna be the man after God's own heart, David, right? But David wasn't perfect either. But David responded to his failures in a way that was in accordance with what God expects of us.

Saul responded to his failures with excuse, with blame, with, no, it's not my fault. It's wrong. I did wrong, but it's not my fault. I shouldn't be held accountable for that. We need to repent when we disobey. We're going to disobey. That's inevitable. That's going to happen every day. And then we need to turn and ask God for forgiveness and go the other direction and stop living in that.

Well, moving on to the final point, point number five found in verses 13 through 15. The point is obey God when you want his best plans. When you want God's best for your life, obey him. You want to experience all that God has for you? Obey him. Check out verse 13. Samuel said to Saul, you have done foolishly and have not kept the commandment of the Lord your God, which he commanded you. For now the Lord would have established your kingdom over Israel forever.

Notice what Samuel tells him. First of all, he says, you've done foolishly. Saul, you are a fool. As much as it makes sense in your mind, this act that you did, the sacrifice, you felt like you had to, and you have all these reasons for it, and it makes sense to you, you're a fool. Faith, again, it's about trusting God above our own thoughts and feelings and opinions. Saul, you're not doing that. You're not trusting God. You're a fool. Now, foolish, as far as the Bible is concerned, is not

It's not as light of a word as the way that we might use it in our language today, you know, to be thought of as foolish, you know, it's kind of silly, or, you know, it's an error, or it's, you know, frivolous, but it's not like, you know, something horrible, right?

But in the Hebrew, it's a little bit stronger. In the Bible, as you work your way through the Proverbs, right? You have the wise in contrast with the fool. The fool is taught biblically as one who is against God, one who is without morality, one who is without a relationship to God. And so,

As Samuel calls Saul a fool, it's more serious than just, oh, that was a silly thing to do. Or, you know, even more serious than that was a dumb thing to do. It was, Saul, you're really lacking some significant character and integrity that you need to have, especially as king. You're far from God because you have disobeyed God's command. And you would have, in verse 13, he says, the Lord would have established your kingdom over Israel forever.

Even though this threat against you was great, and even though all of your army fled, even though you have no weapons, Samuel tells Saul, listen, God had some great deliverance ready for you. He was going to do a miraculous work. He was going to bring deliverance, even though all of these things that you listed. In spite of all of these things, God wasn't out of options. He still had great opportunity. Not only that, but he would have established your kingdom well beyond just today.

forever. You would have been the dynasty for the nation of Israel. Saul, it would have been you and your family that would have been the rulers of Israel for the ages to come. Now we know that to be David, right? But Saul had this opportunity first. And as he has this opportunity first, he blows it because of his disobedience to God. God had some incredible things, but he missed out on those things because he refused to do anything

what God asked him to do. He refused to obey God when he disagreed, when he thought differently. And that's, you know, it's easy to obey God when we agree with God. But again, if you only obey God when you agree with him, you're doing it wrong. That's not how it works.

The real test of faith and trusting God is to obey him even when you disagree, even when you can't see what he sees, even when you don't see the results that he says is there, that you would trust him and obey him even when it doesn't make sense to you. And if you want God's best for you, then you need to obey. That's how you're going to experience God's best. And if you disobey, you're going to miss out on God's best. Verse 14, but now your kingdom shall not continue.

The Lord has sought for himself a man after his own heart, and the Lord has commanded him to be commander over his people, because you have not kept what the Lord commanded you. So now he begins to speak of David. The Lord's found a man who will obey him, a man after God's own heart. And what is the key characteristic of being a man after God's own heart? Again, it comes down to this idea of obedience.

Notice the primary issue. He states it clearly in verse 14. He says, because you have not kept what the Lord commanded you. God's issue with Saul was that he disobeyed. No matter what reasons he had, no matter how good those reasons were, no matter, you know, how pressing the time was, no matter how spiritual he made it sound, the issue that God had with Saul was that he disobeyed. He would not do what the Lord commanded him. In contrast to that, you have David.

And Paul, talking about David in Acts chapter 13, verse 22, it says, when he had removed him, that's talking about Saul, he raised up for them David as king, to whom he also gave testimony and said, I have found David, the son of Jesse, a man after my own heart, notice, who will do all my will. In other words, God says, I found David who will obey me. That's the difference between Saul and David.

Saul, you have not kept what the Lord commanded. David will do all my will. Again, not perfectly. David wasn't flawless and that's not what God was saying, but that he would be obedient to God. And when he failed in that, he would be repentant and respond appropriately. But Saul, in contrast, disobeyed God. And when he disobeyed, there was no repentance. There was excuse. There was explanation. There was blame. There was a lot of blame.

There was everything else but repentance. You pursue God's heart when you obey him. That's what God's looking for. That's what God is desiring from each one of us. Finishing up in verse 15, Samuel arose, went up from Gilgal to Gibeah of Benjamin, and Saul numbered the people present with him about 600 men. Now consider the contrast. Samuel just tells him, the Lord would have established your kingdom forever.

You could have had great deliverance. You could have had an established kingdom. And what is he left with? A huge threat and 600 men. This is what we get when we disobey God. We get basically nothing. We get no strength, no resources. When we are insistent in our rebellion, we miss out on God's best and we are then left to face the consequences of that.

Because we won't respond to what God is saying. Listen, if you want God's best in your life, obey him. There's going to be great pressure. It's not going to be easy. It's going to be difficult. In fact, it's going to be the most difficult thing you've ever done in your life over and over and over again. But it's worth it. Obey God, even when threats mount, even when your resources are dwindling away, even when time is running out and all the options are gone. Obey God.

obey God. And if you fall short in any of those things, repent and come back in repentance, in remorse, and ask God for forgiveness, and turn from those things, and trust God once again. Because if you want God's best for you, this is how you experience it, by running to Him, by trusting Him, by obeying Him, even when you think otherwise. And so here in Saul, we have a good example of what it looks like to not pursue God's heart.

what it looks like to do what I think is best, what it looks like to do what I think I had to do. I felt compelled. I had to. And in disobedience to God, there's great consequences. But in pursuing God's heart, lived out in obedience, there's great blessing and protection and provision. And God would have fought that battle for Saul. He would have taken care of the Philistines. He would have dealt with them. No problem.

He's done it many times. We saw the Lord do that through Samuel a few chapters earlier. We saw it, you know, through Gideon. Remember, you know, with just a couple hundred men against this huge army. And God's able to do that. God's able to work beyond all of what we might think, you know. And he has resources beyond all the resources that we can imagine and ways of doing things that we can't figure out. And we need to trust God and obey God even more.

When we can't see what God sees, because God knows what he's doing and he wants what's best for us. And so he says, pursue my heart because that's what's best for you. And obey me because that's what's best for you. I want you to experience all that I have for you and all the great things in my provision and protection and restoration. And so pursue my heart. Obey me even when you think otherwise. There's great pressure to not obey God.

But don't let what your eyes see, don't let what your head tells you convince you that you must disobey. Don't let it happen. If it does happen, you can come back and there's grace and there's forgiveness, but come in repentance. But hold fast against those pressures. Hold fast against the lies and intimidation of the enemy. To pursue God's heart is to obey God and trust him through the midst of all those threats.

Ronnie's going to come up and close us in a song. And as he does, I just want to encourage you to be allowing the Lord to minister to your heart in this time. And I would encourage you as you seek the Lord to be just committing yourself to him once again this evening. And maybe there is some areas where you're facing some threats or facing some situations or time is running out and you're wrestling with the decision of what you need to do. And

Let's just use this opportunity to call out to God. And if we've fallen short, if we've failed in one of these areas, let's use the opportunity to come back and come back in repentance and ask God for forgiveness and look to live in obedience to God and just be able to serve him and trust him through all of the situations that we face. And so let's take some time to close out the evening in pursuing God's heart, hearing from him and what he has to say.

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.