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🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You My soul led me to thy Fly while the near waters roll while the tempest still is high Hide me. Oh my Save your heart They've been to the haven guide Oh receive my soul Mother refuge have I done. Thanks my helpless soul Oh Leave I'll leave me not alone still support and come All my help from me I bring My defenseless head with the shadow of Thy way Now Oh Christ are all I want more than all in me I find Raise the fallen Sick and Just and holy I am Righteousness Thou art full of truth and grace Plant his grace with me is found grace to cover all my sin Let the healing streams abound make and keep me pure Thou Freely Spring now within my heart rise to all eternity All right, let's open our service with the word of prayer father Thank you God Lord for allowing us Lord to be here tonight Lord and sing praises unto you God I pray Lord that you would bless the service Lord bless every aspect of it God feel pastor with your Holy Spirit Lord as he Preaches to us Lord pray God also father that you would be with us in the congregation Lord and help us to apply that Which we hear tonight Lord to our lives. We love you God. It's in Jesus name. We pray. Amen. You may be seated song number 167 all hail the power of Jesus name Song number 167 all hail the power of Jesus name Everyone nice and strong all together All hail the power of Jesus name Let angels prostrate fall Bring forth the royal Diadem And crown him Lord of all Bring forth the royal Diadem And crown him Lord of all Bring forth the royal Diadem And crown him Lord of all Ye chosen seed of Israel's Grace Ye ransomed from the fall Hail him Who saves you By his grace And crown him Lord of all Hail him Who saves you By his grace And crown him Lord of all Let every kindred Every tribe On this terrestrial Ball To him all Majesty Ascribe and crown Him Lord of all To him all Majesty Ascribe and crown Him Lord of all Oh That with yonder Sacred From we at his feet May fall We'll join the Everlasting Song and crown Him Lord of all We'll join The everlasting Song and Crown him Lord of all Lord of all Alright Great singing, thank you for being here this evening Just a few announcements here before we sing our next song Which will be song number 29 If you want to get that ready in your song books At the cross, song number 29 If you did not get a bulletin, go ahead and raise your hand and one of the ushers can get one For you, there's some important information on there As well as the prayer bulletin for tonight Our services are as follows, Sunday morning is at 10 30 Sunday evening at 5 pm And then we have our Thursday night Bible study at 7 o'clock You see the sowing times and teams The list of expecting mothers And the important reminders there at the bottom Some of the upcoming church events, we do have The music training coming up this Saturday March 19th and that will be at 11 am We will have lunch for everyone who attends And then we'll teach Just a short lesson On just some of the principles and protocols of our church Regarding the music And so if you're involved in any way in the music ministry In our church, we want you to be there for that Pastor Aaron Thompson Will not be preaching for us tonight How many of you Thought he was going to be here tonight? I thought so too, that's what he told me And I called him yesterday and I was like, hey you want me to pick you up at the airport? He's like, no it's next week I'm like, you said tomorrow bro You said tomorrow And then he's like There's some miscommunication And so he's going to be here next week So you're stuck with me tonight Sorry, but that will be next Thursday March 24th But I was thinking, maybe I should just randomly announce Preachers who are not going to be here More people would cut me Pastor Andrew is going to be here next week I'm just kidding April 25th is the men's prayer night And then we have birthday breakfast and Judea soul winning On Sunday April 3rd And the National City Soul Winning Marathon is going to be on Saturday April 9th And so if you have any questions about that You can see brother Ulysses And then you see there no food or drink allowed In the main auditorium except for water and coffee And then make sure you silence your phones During the preaching so as to not be a distraction During the service And that is it for our announcements Go ahead and pull out your prayer sheet there Please continue to pray for our church corporately For God's favor in our church The soul winning The soul winning has been really good at our church A lot of people getting saved A lot of people getting baptized over the last year Please continue to pray that we see more people saved And more people baptized and integrated into the church You see there the spiritual numerical growth Laborers and pastors in training And then you see the church families there If you can continue to keep These folks right here in your prayers And just let us know If a prayer has been answered and it's on this sheet Go ahead and write that at the bottom And put that in the offering place So we can remove that Or just let us know so we can let everyone know that That prayer particularly has been answered And so just keep that in mind Please pray for all those needs there And please continue to pray for Steadfast Baptist Church Pastor Jonathan Shelley And I know they've been meeting I think in conference rooms Over the last couple of weeks And so um But they still got, they're in good spirits Everything's going well, but pray that they find a building soon So they can meet in And consistently And not be in the wilderness, but please pray for him And then if you have an additional prayer request You'd like to be mentioned, please put that at the bottom And we'll make sure that it gets into the prayer bulletin For the following week, alright Brother Maury, why don't you come on up and pray over these needs Alright, please bow your heads in a word of prayer Dear Lord, Heavenly Father Heavenly Father, thank you for our salvation And obviously the King James Bible, Lord And thank you for all that you give us And the blessings that we have in our life here, Lord And Lord, I just pray that you That you give us your favor on our church here As we continue serving you And going soul winning, reading our Bible Bible memorization as well, Lord And Lord, I just pray for the soul winning And more specifically the soul winning teams, Lord I pray that you bless the team leaders And bless the team so that People get, learn how to give the gospel And they have someone That can come to their team And grow closer to them And invest in them, Lord, as well And Lord, I pray that the teams Continue to be a blessing On the members of the church, Lord And Lord, I also want to pray for spiritual numerical growth I pray that our church continues to Spiritually grow Allowing us to be able to Just grow closer to you And Bible memorization And just being better Christians overall, Lord And Lord, I also want to pray for the leadership I pray that you are guiding Pastor Mejia and the team leaders As they're serving you And guiding the church In a manner that Is pleasing and honoring to you, Lord Lord, I pray for the pastors in training And the pastoral institute is about to end And Lord, I just pray that that time Is fruitful for the men And Lord, we just pray that you're getting them ready Getting the families ready to be able to Potentially get into the ministry, Lord And Lord, I also want to pray for family salvation For family members that Potentially haven't been able to hear the gospel Or that you soften their hearts So that they can receive the gospel And get the free gift of eternal life, Lord And Lord, I also want to pray for the expecting mothers And the new moms and the newborns I pray that you bless them And that they have healthy deliveries And that ultimately We're raising the next generation Of Baptist, Lord And I pray that we do a great job with The blessings that you do give us here, Lord Lord, I pray for the unspoken requests And the general requests that we have here as well And any health issues I pray that you have a hand of healing And protection over them Lord, I pray that you're With any grieving members Of our church here, Lord And you console their heart, Lord Lord, I also want to pray for Just soul winning that's been going on More specifically, soul winning in San Diego I pray that you For the people that have been getting saved And our efforts to go to San Diego And Lord, I pray that you bless us And ultimately make the heart Of the people who live in San Diego Open their hearts so that they can receive the gospel, Lord And then finally, Lord, I want to pray for Steadfast Baptist Church I pray that you bless Pastor Jonathan Shelley And his ministry And pray for overall success For him, his family, his church members And Lord, I also just pray That they also get a new building, a better building But ultimately, it doesn't really matter What building they meet in Because the word of God is being preached Lord, thank you for all that you give us And Lord, we pray that our hearts are attentive To the message that Pastor Mihi has prepared for us And Lord, I pray that we go closer To you thereby I pray this in the name of Amen Alright, please turn your hymn notes To song number 29 at the cross Song number 29 At the cross Alright, song number 29 At the cross Everyone nice and strong altogether At the cross Where I first saw the light And the burden of my heart Rolled away It was there by faith I received my sight And now I am happy All the day Was it for crimes That I had done He groaned upon The tree Amazing Pity Face unknown And love beyond Degree At the cross At the cross Where I first saw the light And the burden of my heart Rolled away It was there by faith I received my sight And now I am happy All the day While might The sun in darkness Shut his glories in When Christ the mighty Maker died For man the Creature sin At the cross At the cross Where I first saw the light And the burden of my heart Rolled away It was there by faith I received my sight And now I am happy All the day But drops of grief Can ne'er repay The debt of love I owe Dear Lord I give myself Away Tis all that I can do At the cross At the cross Where I first saw the light And the burden of my heart Rolled away It was there by faith I received my sight And now I am happy All the day And at this time The ushers will collect the offering Tonight will be in 1 Samuel chapter number 10 1 Samuel 10 2 Samuel 10 1 Samuel 10 1 Samuel 10 1 Samuel 10 1 Samuel 10 1 Samuel 10 1 Samuel 10 1 Samuel 10 1 Samuel 10 1 Samuel 10 1 Samuel 10 1 Samuel 10 1 Samuel 10 1 Samuel 10 1 Samuel 10 1 Samuel 10 1 Samuel 10 1 Samuel 10 1 Samuel 10 1 Samuel 10 1 Samuel 10 1 Samuel 10 1 Samuel 10 1 Samuel 10 1 Samuel 10 1 Samuel 10 Good evening. We are in the 1 Samuel chapter 10 colon Humanities chapter 10 And the chapter reads Then Samuel took a vie of oil and put it upon his head and kiss them and said Is it not because the Lord had appointed he to be captain over his inheritance? When thou art departed from me today, then thou shalt find two men by Rachel's sepulchre in the border of Benjamin at Zelzah, and they will say unto thee, The asses which thou wentest to seek are found, and lo, thy father hath left care of the asses, and sorrow for you, saying, What shall I do for my son? Then shalt I go on forward from thence, and thou shalt come to the plain of Tabor, and there shalt meet thee three men going up to God to Bethel, one carrying three kids, another carrying three loaves of bread, and another carrying a bottle of wine, and they will salute thee and give thee two loaves of bread, which thou shalt receive of their hands. After that thou shalt come to the hill of God, where is the garrison of the Philistines, and I shall come to pass when thou art come thither to the city, that thou shalt meet a company of prophets coming down from the high place with a saw tree and a tabernet pipe and a harp before them, and they shall prophesy, and the Spirit of the Lord will come upon thee, and thou shalt prophesy with them, and thou shalt be turned into another man. And let it be, when these signs are come unto thee, that thou doest occasion serve thee, for God is with thee, and thou shalt go down before me to Gilgal, and behold, I will come down unto thee and offer burnt offerings, and to sacrifice sacrifices of peace offerings. Seven days shalt thou tarry till I come to thee, and show thee what thou shalt do. And it was so, that when he had turned his back to go from Samuel, God gave him another heart, and all these signs came to pass that day. And when they came thither to the hill, behold, a company of prophets met him, and the Spirit of God came upon him, and he prophesied among them. And it came to pass, when all that knew him before time saw that, behold, he prophesied among the prophets. And the people said one to another, What is this that is come unto the son of Kish? Is Saul also among the prophets? And one of the same place answered and said, But who is their father? Therefore it became a proverb, Is Saul also among the prophets? And when he had made an end of prophesying, he came to the high place. And Saul's uncle said unto his servant, Whither went ye? And he said, To seek the asses. And when we saw that they were nowhere, we came to Samuel. And Saul's uncle said, Tell me, I pray thee, what Samuel said unto you. And Saul said unto his uncle, He told us plainly that the asses were found, but of the matter of the kingdom whereof Samuel spake, he told him not. And Samuel called the people together unto the Lord to miss thee, and said unto the children of Israel, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, I brought up Israel out of Egypt, and delivered you out of the hands of the Egyptians, and out of the hand of all kingdoms, and of them that oppress you. And ye have this day rejected your God, who himself saved you out of all your adversities and your tribulations. And ye have said unto him, Nay, but said a king over us. Now therefore, present yourselves before the Lord by your tribes, and by your thousands. And when Samuel had caused all the tribes of Israel to come near, the tribe of Benjamin was taken. And when he had caused the tribe of Benjamin to come near by their families, the family of Matri was taken, and Saul the son of Kish was taken, and when they sought him he could not be found. Therefore they inquired the Lord further, if the man should yet come thither. And the Lord answered, Behold, he hath hid himself among the stuff. And they ran and fetched him of thence. And when he stood among the people, he was higher than any of the people from his shoulders and upward. And Samuel said to all the people, See him whom the Lord hath chosen, that there is none like him among all the people. And all the people shouted and said, God save the king. Then Samuel told the people the manner of the kingdom, and wrote it in a book, and laid it up before the Lord. And Samuel sent all the people away, every man to his house. And Saul also went home to Gibeah, and there went with him a band of men whose hearts God had touched. But the children of Belial said, How shall this man save us? And they despised him, and brought him no presents. But he held his peace. Let's pray. We thank you, Heavenly Father, for the King James Bible, dear God, we thank you for every precious soul in this church. And we ask that you please bless our pastor with your Holy Spirit tonight as he preaches your word in Jesus name, we pray, Amen. Okay, we're in First Samuel chapter number 10. This evening, we continue our study here with the book of First Samuel. And tonight we're going to go, he would anoint his head with that oil, and it was to signify that God's hand was on him more specifically, that he had God's Spirit. Now in the Bible, oil is symbolically representing the Holy Spirit. And throughout the Word of God, we see that in the book of Psalms, we see that it represents the Holy Spirit, but especially in the New Testament. And in fact, you know, you look at the Old Testament, obviously, we understand that believers in the Old Testament were not indwelt by the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit would come upon them and empower them, or even indwell them for a select period of time for them to write the Word of God, holy men of God spake as they're removed by the Holy Ghost, the Bible tells us. But in the New Testament, that's changed. In the New Testament, when someone believes on the Lord Jesus Christ, the Bible tells us that they're sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance unto the redemption of the purchased possession. And it specifically says in chapter four of Ephesians, that they're sealed unto the day of redemption with that Holy Spirit, but the Bible also refers to that as being anointed with oil, having that anointing of the Holy Spirit. Turn with me, if you would, to First John, chapter number two, if you would, First John chapter number two. So this is signifying that the Holy Spirit is on Saul. And more specifically, that he has been chosen by God for this particular task. Okay, he's been elected, he's been selected for this particular task of being the king of Israel, okay. And that definition still sticks. The difference is this, is that today, we don't have God anointing kings of literal physical nations, but rather the Bible says that we're kings and priests unto the Lord, Revelation chapter number one. So when we get saved, we're a part of the priesthood of the believers, First Peter chapter two, but the Bible also says that he makes us kings as well, okay, spiritually speaking. The reason for that, I don't want to get into that as much deeply tonight, is because of the fact that in the millennial reign, for example, we're going to be ruling and reigning with Christ, okay. And so that basically signifies the fact that believers are going to have a level of authority here in this world, over the affairs of this world. And so that's why that title will be given to us as priests and kings unto the Lord. You understand? So the reason it's said that though, is because of the fact that we are anointed with that Holy Spirit. Now look at first John chapter number two, first John chapter number two. And look what it says here in verse number, verse 26 says, these things have I written unto you concerning them that seduce you. He's referring to the previous verses addressing the Antichrist of this world. And he says in verse number 27, but the anointing which he have received of him abideth in you, And ye need not that any man teach you, but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him. What he's basically saying here is this, I'm warning you of the Antichrist to come. But the truth of the matter is, is that because you're saved, because you have the Holy Spirit of God living within you, you could actually learn these things on your own with the Word of God right in front of you, okay. Now don't take this teaching too far, okay. We got to have a balanced view of this, right. Because of the fact that some people can use this and say, well, I have the anointing of the Holy Spirit, I don't need pastors, I don't need churches, I don't need, you know, any of that. Well, then you're just gonna have to throw out chunks of the Bible out there too. That tells you that you need pastors and teachers for the perfecting of the saints for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, that we henceforth be no more children tossed to and fro, carried about with every wind of doctrine. So obviously, there is a necessity of an earthly teacher and earthly pastor to give you the Word of God, to perfect you, because of the fact that you just need a balance of both, you understand. You know, you could only go so far in your own Bible study, you need someone to teach you, someone who's been in the faith far longer than you, who knows the Bible more than you. You say, why? Why should I need that? Well, so you don't get into heresy. Because the Bible tells us that people who are unlearned and unstable will rest the scriptures. This meaning you think of the word wrestle, something that's twisted or perverted. Someone who is new in the faith and doesn't know the Bible cover to cover can easily pervert scripture if they're not careful, you know, and you know, they're babes in Christ. As the Bible says in Hebrews chapter five, they're unskillful in the word of righteousness. They haven't exercised themselves to discern both good and evil. They don't really understand the Word of God, they're babes in Christ, and therefore they need someone to teach them. However, you don't want to go to the other extreme either. Where it's just like, well, the only time I learn the Bible is when I come to church. You know, that's the only time I want to learn the Bible and hear about the Bible. No, you should be reading the Bible every single day, right? You should be reading it on your own, asking God to open your eyes that you may behold wondrous things out of his law. You should be allowing the anointing that dwells within you to teach you the Word of God. And in fact, the Bible tells us this, I have not seen neither ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man the things that God has prepared for them that love him, but he hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit. And it says that the Spirit searcheth all things, listen to this, yea, the deep things of God. Okay, so yeah, you can learn deep things in church, but at the end of the day, you should be learning deep things on your own in the Bible and coming to church would simply confirm that what you're learning, you understand? And so the anointing is what King Saul had prior to being king, obviously, but it simply means to be selected, it means to be chosen by God. And if you think about it, because we have the anointing of the Holy Spirit, the Bible says in First Peter chapter two, that ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood and holy nation, that you should show forth the praises of him who have called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. So the Bible tells us that we are God's chosen people, right? There's a false doctrine out there called Zionism, okay? He said Zionism, I thought that was a political movement, yeah, but now it's become like a doctrine where people believe that the physical nation of Israel, the Jews, are God's chosen people, but the Bible doesn't teach that. The Bible says in Romans chapter two verse 28, for he is not a Jew which is one outwardly, neither is that circumcision outward in the flesh made of hands, but he is a Jew which is one inwardly, and circumcision is that of the heart and of the spirit whose praise is not of men but of God. So according to the Bible, people who are circumcised in heart, which means that they believed on the Lord Jesus Christ with their heart, they're God's chosen people. And to further validate that, we have the anointing of the Holy Spirit, which means that we're elected, you understand? Don't let that word election scare you, you know, obviously the Calvinists have hijacked that term to say that, well, you're saying that you're elected for salvation and some are not elected, some are, you know, predisposed to be damned to hell, no election just means that we become the chosen people of God once we believe on Jesus Christ, okay? Once you believe on Jesus Christ, you are now a child of God, you now become the elect. It's not this physical nation of Christ rejecting Jews in the Middle East who are God's elect, you know, in fact, they're God's rejects, they're not God's election, they're God's rejection. You say, how can you say such a thing? Well, read Jeremiah chapter 6, reprobate silver, shall men call them for the Lord hath rejected them. And let me just say, he's not talking about India there, he's not talking about, you know, the Mongolians or something like that, he's talking about Israel, according to the flesh. Now obviously, there's plenty of Jews in the Bible who actually believed on Jesus Christ and they got saved and they actually remained the people of God, they were grandfathered into the New Testament, remaining the people of God because of the fact that they chose to believe on Jesus Christ, you know, but the Bible also says that he came into his own, listen to this, and his own received him not. And what is he, he's referring to the physical nation of Israel, okay? And so we have the anointing, we are the elect of God, according to the Bible, and the anointing is simply that Holy Spirit that dwells within us, okay? Go back to 1 Samuel chapter number 10. So he's being chosen for a particular task here, okay? He's being elected, he's being anointed by the prophet as a symbol to show that now he is the chosen king of Israel, okay? And here's the thing is that, you know, with anything, you know, we see that God is appointing him for a specific task. And you know, Saul obviously deviates from that task later on in his life, right? But we'll see in this particular chapter, it doesn't mean that he's not saved, okay? Because here's the thing is that even when he's in his most backslidden state, the Bible still says that the Spirit would come upon him and he would begin to prophesy, okay? And so, you know, obviously, he disqualified himself as a king because he chose to disobey God and do some pretty bad stuff towards the latter end of his life. But we see here that he's starting off right, he has the anointing of God, he has God's confirmation upon his life to be the king. I mean, everything's going pretty good so far, right? Unfortunately, you've all probably read the story, though, and you know how it ends, okay? But let's just act like we don't know what's going to come next and just be happy that Saul's doing good so far, okay? So we see the anointing here and verse number two, the anointing of Saul, the second thing we see is the asses were found, it says in verse number two, when thou art departed from me today, then thou shall find two men by Rachel's sepulcher in the border of Benjamin at Zelzah and they will say unto thee, the asses which thou wentest to seek are found and lo thy father hath left the care of the asses and sorroweth for you saying, what shall I do for my son? Of course, at this point, Saul has been gone for a couple days looking for his father's animals here and so now he's like, I don't even care about the asses, I want to know where my son is, make sure that he's fine, that nothing has happened to him and so but we see there that he's basically telling them, don't worry about the asses, they've been found, God's taking care of that. You know, the principle that we can learn there is simply this, but seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and these things shall be added unto you. Sometimes we put too much care upon the temporal things of this world, even though they are important but the reality is this is that God wants us to seek, to have our priorities correct right? To put more thought in that which is spiritual, your walk with God, making sure you're keeping God's commandments, you're pleasing him and then you'll take care of the rest, okay? The asses will be found, you understand, it's like I don't know how I'm going to pay rent, you know? Well, you know, keep working, keep praying, keep serving God, you know, I've not seen the righteous forsaken nor received begging bread, the Bible says. You say, but haven't you seen the gas prices though? Yeah, I've seen them, but you know so has God, he's seen them as well and you know what, God's people have gone through worse famines, okay? Gone through worse situations, worse famines, where God still provided for them and you know, God owns a cattle on a thousand hill, he owns all the silver and gold in the world and so it's to your and my best interest that we just stay right with God because as long as we're right with God, he will continue to provide for us, everything that we need will be there and the asses will be found, amen? Next so we see the anointing of Saul, we see the asses are found and then we see this abnormal meeting here in verse number three, it says, Then thou shalt go on forward from thence and thou shalt come into the plant of Tabor and there shall meet thee three men going up to God to Bethel, one carrying three kids and another carrying three loaves of bread and another carrying a bottle of wine and they will salute thee and give thee two loaves of bread which thou shalt receive of their hands. I was trying to kind of scratch my head figuring out what's the symbolic meaning behind this, but I don't think there is. I think what's going on here is just Samuel, excuse me, is simply trying to be as specific as possible to predict these particular things that Saul is going to experience in order to confirm, hey, this is legitimately happening to you, you're going to be the king. He's making these predictions about the asses, he's making these specific predictions about the men that he's going to run into, what they possess, what they're going to give to him, etcetera, is simply confirming, okay, what's going to happen to Saul and this is a form of prophesying because we think of prophesying, we think of what? Preaching, right? But prophesying is also foretelling the future based upon information that God has given to a particular individual. Now that does not exist today because everything that we need to know of God is right here. God spent a lot of time prophesying through prophets to give us the word of God. We don't need extra biblical revelation, you know, we don't need to see a 50 foot Jesus or something like that or a vision of an angel, you know, to get any extra biblical revelation. You know, people who say that, I kind of wonder, like, well, have you read this verse? Have you been a good steward of this verse? Can you name the books of the Bible? Do you know where everything is in the Bible, like, can you tell me about the stories in the Bible, all the revelation that God, you know, there's a book called the Book of Revelation. That's a pretty heavy book, 22 chapters of God revealing just some deep stuff about the end times. Have you perfected that? Okay, so if you haven't, then your revelation just goes out the window, because I'd rather read God's revelation rather than your revelation. Your revelation is like something was ordered off of wish. It's like a revelation that was ordered off of wish, okay? So this is abnormal meeting, but it's for the purpose of just confirming to Saul that God had sent Samuel to anoint him as king. The anointing of Saul, the asses are found, the abnormal meeting, and then we see the becoming, Saul becoming another man. And it says in verse number five, He says in verse number seven, So again, what are we looking at here? The predictions confirming Saul's election. And one of the predictions is that he's going to come to a company of prophets who are skillful musicians, but they're also preachers, okay? And he says, look, the Spirit of God is going to come upon you, and you're also going to prophesy as well. That's another confirmation. So this is basically showing us that prior to this, Saul wasn't preaching God's word. You know what I mean? He's serving his dad, but he's not necessarily proclaiming God's word. He's not preaching God's word. This is obviously a new thing that's happening in Saul's life, right? Which we're going to see later on. People are going to be like, is Saul also among the prophets? Like I've never heard him preach before. How is it that he's among the prophets now, okay? But we see there in verse number six, So he becomes a new man when the Spirit of God comes upon him. That's an amazing statement right there if you think about it. And really, it ties into everything that's happening with Saul because of the fact that in order for Saul to really take on this responsibility of being a king, he needs to be a new man. He needs to be a new man with new priorities, new leadership skills. He needs to renew himself and be that new man. But in order to be that new man, you need the Spirit of God to do that, right? I mean the Bible says, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things have passed away. Behold, all things have become new. Now people want to use that all day long and say, well, old things are passed away. That's why you should never sin. You can't never sin. Batteries come included. And no, passed away simply means that they died. You know, when we say that someone died, we say that they passed away, right? Well, biblically speaking, when we get saved, our old man passes away, so to speak. It's crucified with Christ, nevertheless, I live, right? And so when we get saved, old things, yes, this old man passes away, but unfortunately, it's still like attached to me. You know what I'm saying? So I'm carrying this carcass around everywhere I go. So I can't get rid of this carcass, I'm just carrying, I'm the walking corpse here with the new man living within though. I know it sounds kind of morbid, but that's like the best way I can put it. That's what the old man and the new man is. And a lot of these people who, you know, the Sinless Perfection crowd, they just completely negate the fact that they still have the old man, in fact, those guys only have the old man. They don't even have the new man. But they completely negate the fact that the Bible teaches that we have both. We are two natures, folks. We're the old nature, the old Bruce Mejia, and the new Bruce Mejia. You say, well, how do we reconcile these natures? We got to walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, the Spirit against the flesh. These are contrary to the ones of the others, so that you cannot do the things that you would. You say, well, what's the answer then? Well, the answer is this, that the Spirit of God should come upon you so that you can become another man. Here's your 12-step program to getting sober. It's not even 12, it's just one. Spirit of God has to come upon you. And look, you know, here's the thing is that if there's a particular vice that you struggle with, a particular sin that you struggle with, obviously there's practical things that you can do to, you know, overcome those things from a practical perspective. Because there's plenty of people out there who are not saved who overcome being an alcoholic or something, right? You know, I have family members who are former alcoholics and they used to drink, but they don't anymore because of some certain barriers and standards that they placed in their life. And it's not necessarily having anything to do with God. It's just they did some practical things. But I will say this is that the Spirit of God does help with that, though. Because when you are walking in the Spirit, you desire the things of the Spirit, you understand? Now the problem is this is people will think, well, I've overcome this particular sin, I will never struggle with that sin ever again. Well, if you died at that moment, then I would agree with you, right? Like if you if you just had victory over a particular sin, and then you just drop dead right then and there, you're right. You'll never struggle with that ever again because you're dead. But if you're still alive, then that temptation will always be there. It'll always be there. You say, are you saying that I haven't overcome my sin? No, you've overcome your sin today. But there's always tomorrow. And you might overcome it tomorrow, but then there's always the next day. This is why the Apostle Paul said this, listen to me, I die daily. I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto God, which is a reasonable service. He says you have to be a living sacrifice. You have to constantly sacrifice yourself, die daily, crucify the flesh daily in order to have that victory. I'm all for having victory over sin. Obviously there's another crowd who has hijacked that same phrase, right? And obviously they're not being very victorious. The formula to victory over sin or vices is that you just have to die daily. You have to walk in the Spirit daily. You have to think about these things and wake up in the morning and say, you know what, I'm going to walk in the Spirit and here's a practical way that I can do it. First and foremost, read my Bible, pray, sing songs, right? And obey God's commandments. And look, I've said this before and I'll say it again. Every Christian, myself included, we're in and out of the Spirit throughout the day, all day, every day. It's just how it is. You try to tell me when someone cuts you off on the freeway and tells you you're number one. You're just all in the Spirit during that time? No. That's going to make you mad. It's going to get you upset, it's going to cause wrath. And then you have to kind of like die to self and be like, no, I can't, I can't hit that car from behind, you know. That's not right to do. I can't run that person off the road, you know, it's not right, old man, you know. And so, you know, we see here that he becomes another man. And, you know, the Bible says this, But ye have not so learned Christ, it so be that ye have heard him, and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus. And he says this, that ye put off the old man, the former conversation, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lust, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind. And then ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. So the way the Bible puts it is like you have to take off the old man, kind of like a cloak, and put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, you know. So it's not like, well, you know, I just got to fight demons every day, no, you just put on the new man, that's it. You know, there's like this thing at the gym where people are like, you know, they go to the gym to fight off their demons. It's like, I just go to the gym to make gains, and you don't have to go to the gym to fight off your demons. You say, what do I do, just put on the new man. Put on the new man. And typically, a lot of these so-called demons that torment people, or Christians, it's because they're around the wrong kind of people. They're in a bad environment, they're around bad family members, they keep their old buddies around, they constantly bring temptation to them, they're watching the wrong things, they're listening to the wrong things, so they're constantly being put before temptation. So it's just like, they got to go to the gym to get to exercise those demons or something, like to fight those demons off. Not me, I'm just, I'm trying to fight off my fat. I'm trying to fight off weakness. You understand what I'm saying? I'm trying to fight off the laziness to not lift up or gain weight. And so, you know, it's just as easy as putting off and putting on the new man, that's what the Bible tells us, okay. And here's the thing, Romans 7 tells us this, you know, that we delight in the law of God after the inward man, but we find in our members something else that's worn against the inward man, I'm paraphrasing here. But what the Apostle Paul is simply saying is that, you know, we delight after the laws of God, we delight in preaching and reading the Bible, the inward man delights in those things. But our members don't delight in those things. So there's this constant war that's going on between us. And so, Saul here becomes another man, hey, do you want to be a new man today? Do you want to be a new person? Well, you just got to walk in the Spirit. And it's not like you need a brand new man, you just need to be the new, fill in the blank yourself. Understand? You got to be, you just got to be, you know, walk in the Spirit. That's the new man there, okay. And it happens day to day, okay. But I will say this, you know, the more you walk in the Spirit, the more you're consistent in walking in the Spirit, the more easier, the easier it gets, should I say, okay. And vice versa, the more you allow yourself to be in the flesh, the easier it is to be in the flesh. You got to constantly check yourself. You're like, man, I'm in the flesh, I'm in the flesh. Okay, get yourself out of the flesh. Don't just tell yourself you're in the flesh, and you're in the flesh, you don't do anything about it. You know, don't have a pity party. The worst thing the Christians could ever do is have a pity party, folks. Okay. Oh, woe is me and I have this and I have all these problems and stuff. Yeah, but you got to like the anointing, though. Okay, you still have the anointing of the Holy Spirit, you still have the Word of God, you have all the resources necessary to succeed as a Christian, you can do it. And here's the thing, I'm not getting on people if they just feel like, you know, just the Christian life is overwhelming. It can be overwhelming. It is overwhelming. You've got a bunch of elements to your life, new elements you've never you're in new territory. You know, I preached a sermon a while ago called the transitions of life, the seasons of life. You know that that's a thing, obviously. But you know what, if you're going through something, just know that God has fit, you know, counted you worthy to go through it. And you still have the anointing of the Holy Spirit to make it through. And look, sometimes we got to go through trials without a smile. You know, that's just how it is. That's understandable. We don't have to fake a smile every single time and act like everything's hunky dory. I understand that. But you should push through though, as best as you can. Okay. And and continue to walk in the Spirit. And so here are the predictions. He's like, he's anointed. And then he's like, hey, don't worry about the asses. Those are found. He says, you're going to have this abnormal meeting with these people, they're going to give you some bread. And then lastly, you're just going to become another man, you're going to start preaching God's Word. Now, I believe this group of people that he runs into, I don't think they're just like walking around like preaching like sermons to each other, like overlapping each other or something like that. I think they're either just preaching God's Word, preaching the gospel. They're probably like some soul winners, because soul winning is preaching, you understand? Or they're just going around preaching righteousness to people. They're just talking to people about God's Word, you understand? And you say, what's with the instruments? Well, you know, they're musicians. They're just doubly, you know, talented. They're able to preach God's Word, but they're also playing instruments as well. And so that's kind of coupled together there. But the great thing is, is that once Saul has the Spirit of God, he becomes another person and it's confirmed by the fact that he's able to preach God's Word, you understand? And everyone in here is designated to preach God's Word. Just not here, you understand? Some of you are. But you know, pretty much everyone is designated to preach God's Word. You are given that responsibility by God to preach God's Word to the lost, to preach God's Word to the people in our church. You say, what do you mean like preach God's Word, like I'm just supposed to be preaching to someone? No, you're teaching someone the Word of God. You know, moms are supposed to be teaching their children, amen? Husbands are supposed to be teaching their wives. We all have the responsibility to preach God's Word, to prophesy. And when that happens, obviously when we're filled with the Spirit, you know, God enables us to do so. And so be that other man, okay? Be the new man, become the other man, become that new man in Christ when you're filled with the Spirit. So this is just your daily reminder to be filled with the Spirit. Sometimes you just need a reminder, right? You just need a reminder, hey, you know, I know this week was rough. I know you had a tough week. I know it was difficult. I know it was difficult at home. I know it was difficult with your children. I know it was difficult at your job. I know you're struggling a lot. Maybe you have some inward conflict within yourself. I know you're probably going through some things. This is just your daily reminder. Be filled with the Spirit. You'll make it through, okay? And you need to struggle, okay? You need to have these problems. You need to have these conflicts in your life. You need new elements to be introduced into your life to make life difficult for you, okay? We need these things. If everything was just easy, we'd just be some softy Christians who can't handle nothing. You know, we need hard times. We need stress. We need sorrow. We need difficulty. We need transition because that helps us to be better Christians, okay? It helps us to pray, to read God's Word, to mind the things that are the most important thing of all, okay? But it happens when we are filled with the Spirit and He leads us, amen? And so letter E, we see here, the appointment to meet Saul. So anointing, the ashes are found, the abnormal meeting there, he becomes another man. And then the appointment to meet Saul, he says in verse number 8, And thou shalt go down before me to Gilgal, and behold, I will come down unto thee to offer burnt offerings and to sacrifice sacrifices of peace offerings. Seven days shalt thou tarry till I come to thee and show thee what thou shalt do. Now this is pretty interesting. You say, why is that? Well, because here, Saul actually waits for Samuel for seven days. But later on, when he's already king, there's another instance where Samuel tells him the same exact thing, and he doesn't wait for Samuel to come. He decides to offer the offerings himself, and then he makes this excuse, I force myself. He basically disobeys the Lord, he disobeys the commandment of Samuel. So we see here two different people, right? Saul, who is filled with the Spirit, and Saul, who is just a fleshly Saul. Hey, the Saul who is filled with the Spirit is patient. And what's the fruit of the Spirit? Patience. Saul, who is fleshly, who cannot wait for Samuel to come, is impatient, and he's prideful, he's arrogant, he's just full of excuses. And so he actually waits for Samuel here, doesn't complain about it, just waits for him. Verse number nine. So the first part we looked at is the predictions confirming Saul's election. I mean, we need Samuel to say any more. It's like, I hope by this time Saul knows, like, okay, this is of God, obviously. Predictions confirming Saul's election. And then secondly, we're going to look at the promptness of its fulfillment. So he basically reiterates, everything takes place as he says it, verse nine says, it was so that when he had turned his back to go from Samuel, God gave him another heart. And all those signs came to pass that day. So the first thing we see is he has a change of heart, okay, which I think is a pretty awesome statement there. And here's another thing when it comes to being filled with the Spirit is just, you know, sometimes you can be double hearted, you know what I mean, double minded, or you know, you have one heart that inclines to the things of God, and then you have a heart that inclines to the things of this world, you understand? So what's the answer? Well, the answer is that we need to renew our hearts, okay? You know, we need to ask God, clean our hearts, renew our hearts, you know, fill my heart with the things that please you. And part of that is our responsibility, obviously, by reading God's Word. And let me just say this, you know, read God's Word. Here's another thing that can help you, is you got to talk about God's Word. Is there like an earthquake on the ceiling or something, I keep hearing like a, I'm rattling just by my preaching here, I don't know what's going on here, um, what was I saying? Talk about God's Word, I was just testing you guys, you know, you got to talk about God's Word. So here's a great way to get the Word of God into your heart. You read it, yes. But you got to talk about it. You say, where am I going to find all this time to talk about God's Word? Uh, church? There you go. Why don't you stay after church for a little bit and go talk about the Bible to someone? I don't know, that's kind of embarrassing. You're embarrassing if you don't talk about God's Word. You're an embarrassment if you don't want to talk about it. The Bible says, if any man speak, listen to this, let him speak as the oracles of God. It's in the Bible. You know, uh, this book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth, but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein. For then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success. It's saying, you know, it should never, the Word of God should never leave your mouth permanently, you should constantly be talking, there should constantly be a flow of the Word of God coming from your mouth, right? Talking about the Word of God to your church family, to your wife, to your kids, talk about the Bible to someone in your life. And that's the best way to learn the Bible, folks. The best way to learn the Bible, aside from actually reading it, is talking about the Bible. You know, sometimes if I'm going to preach a sermon on Sunday, I have to preach it to my wife first. And I go to my wife, Saturday night, Sunday morning possibly, I'm not going to tell you when exactly. And I'm like, I've got to share this with you, I've got to talk, I've got to let this come out of my mouth first, you know? And then, you know, and then she's like, that's not accurate, you know, you've got to say it this way and I'm just joking. I just, I tell her these ideas, and the reason I do this is because, you know, by teaching her the Bible, I actually, you know, kind of internalize the information myself. And then it kind of helps me to know how to communicate it better, too. Because, you know, my wife makes facial expressions. So if I say something and she's just not amazed by what I'm saying, I'm like, well, are you not filled with the Spirit or something, like, you're supposed to be liking what I say here, you know, this is God's Word. Are you not delighting after the law of God, after the inward man I see, you know? No, it's just like maybe I'm not communicating it correctly. So I'm just like, I practice ways to say, you know, communicate certain principles of God's Word, doctrines, or whatever it may be. But what I'm saying is this, is you've got to talk about God's Word. And so a good way to change your heart is by what you say. Because out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth, speaking, a good man and a good treasure of the heart, the Bible talks about, you understand? So it's like, you know, talk about the Word of God, you know, make sure that you have a clean heart by confessing your sins on a daily basis. And so he has a change of heart. I think that's a great phrase right there. And obviously, a change of heart begins with getting saved, right? Because we quoted Romans 2.28, you know, we had that circumcised heart, because God has given us a new heart of flesh that is in Christ, okay? We've confessed with our mouths and we believe with our hearts. So that's the promptness of its fulfillment. He talks about the change of heart there. And then in verse number 10, once you, Brother Albert, you can turn that off. You can turn the AC on. I'll suffer for the next hour or so. The rattling is kind of getting to me now and everyone keeps making faces. I thought it was because you guys like what I'm saying, but it's apparently, you know. So we see the change of heart, letter B, we see the company of the prophets fulfilled as well. Verse number 10 says, and when they came thither to the hill, behold, the company of prophets met him, and the Spirit of God came upon him, and he prophesied among them. Verse 11, we're going to look at the confusion regarding Saul. He says, and it came to pass when all that knew him before time saw that, behold, he prophesied among the prophets. Then the people said one to another, what is this that has come unto the son of Kish? Is Saul also among the prophets? And one of the same place answered and said, but who is their father? Therefore it became a proverb, is Saul also among the prophets? And when he had made it into prophesying, he came to the high place. Now this is funny. So he's preaching and it's not like they come in and they're like, hey, this is pretty good preaching. They're like, is this, is Saul among the prophets? Like what's gotten into this guy? Isn't this the son of Kish? You know what I mean? So we can kind of see a little bit of a correlation there with Jesus, right? Like a picture of Jesus, because it's like, is it not, is not he the carpenter son? You know what I mean? So all of a sudden you start serving God, you live for the Lord, you're doing good things, and it's like, well, what's wrong with you? Why aren't you drinking anymore? Why aren't you partying anymore? Why aren't you fornicating? Where's your girlfriend? Where's your boyfriend? Why aren't you doing this? Why are you serving God or something? You know, are you also a Christian now? Are you among the Christians now? And it's, it's, it's crazy to me to think that you can clean up your life and get right with God and go to church and live just an honest, godly life. And people don't like that. I was like, I'm sorry, maybe I should, you know, go and snort cocaine or something. Will that make you happy? Do you want me to be out there with prostitutes and, and, and just living a godless life? Will that make you happier if I do that? Is that more normal to you? You understand? It's just like, what in the world? But you know, you just live a consistent godly life. And what I mean by that, just go to church, go soul winning, read your Bible, you know, you start talking appropriately, you start behaving appropriately, and there's a change and all of a sudden it's just like, oh, what's up with this guy? Oh, what, she's wearing dresses now? Why are you wearing dresses now? You know, it's just like, oh, you want her to look like a hoochie mama or something? I mean, so you, what you're saying is you preferred the hoochie mama over the modest dress. It's crazy. You know, the Bible literally says they think it's strange. You don't walk in the same excess as they do. It's insane, folks. You know, they should be happy for Saul, because, and by the way, they still don't know that he's the king yet. They don't know that. All they've seen is the fact that he's preaching God's Word. And that like bothers, even to the point where he actually becomes a proverb now. So like, everyone else who begins to preach after that is like, oh, what, is Saul also among the prophets? Because now it became like a byword in a proverb to say that, because I guess Saul was so far removed from becoming a prophet, that for him to do so, so out of the ordinary, anybody who else who would take on that responsibility or whatever, they just kind of say that proverb. But you know, there should be no confusion, okay? You know, what to God that all of God's people would be prophets, amen? It'd be good if everyone would preach God's Word and preach righteousness and do these things. You know, we want to normalize, you know, being a Christian in a church. I know that sounds radical. But it should be normal that Christians behave like Christians, right? You know, it should be normal that Christians, listen to this, can talk about the Bible in church after the preaching. Get that. I've never had someone complain to me after service, if we're talking about the Bible, it's like, hey guys, other than myself, I complain sometimes. That's because I'm like teaching it over and over again. But it's just like, you know, I've never had someone come to me and say, oh man, we're talking about the Bible again. We're going to talk about the book of Revelation again. Oh man, we're going to talk about this stuff again. I've never had that in our church, but you know what, that is common in other churches. Or it's just like, if you ask any question about the book of Revelation, which is God's Word, it's like, oh, whoa, I mean, well, didn't you get enough during the preaching or, you know, why are you trying to be spiritual or something or, you know, what's, oh man, this guy, you know, hey, don't go in too deep to the Bible. Oh yeah, God forbid if we would want to read the last book of the Bible and talk about a book that's in the New Testament, something that's revealed by Jesus Christ, right? What I'm saying here is that, you know, it can be confusing to people. And sometimes it's confusing to people because of the fact that, you know, you're being salt is what it is. A lot of times people get upset at you, not because you're making strides spiritually, but because you're making them look bad. That's often what it is, even with family members. Family members are some of our worst critics. They're the ones, you know, they're sometimes the worst critics, but it's often because they have a problem with God blessing your life sometimes. Because they, you know, you're cut out of the same, you know, what's the word I'm looking for? What? Cloth. Is that right? You know, you're cut from the same cloth as they were. You grew up like they did. You know, you're in the same household or the same whatever, same background, but you know, now you're saved and now you're living for God. And it's just like, oh, wait, you're forgetting where you came from? Well, yeah, I'd like to forget where I came from. Yeah. Because where I came from is like I was on my way to hell. You know? Oh, don't forget all the stuff you used to do. Well, I don't want to be reminded of those things because I'm ashamed. What fruit had he then in those things wherever you are now ashamed, the Bible says. For the end of those things is death, Romans chapter six, verse 22, I believe. So why do we want to remember those things? You know? Oh, man, look, now you think you're just so up there and you know, you got a family and stuff and now you got kids and now you got a job and oh, man, that's so crazy. Do you want me to be like a lazy bum like you or something? Do you want me to just be a loser the rest of my life? Would it make you happy if I was just a loser for the rest of my life? Is that okay with you? It's not okay with me. It's not okay with God. And look, folks, obviously, if you've had some spiritual success in your life, it's obviously because of God and because of others. You know, we're not better than anybody else. Listen to me, we're better off because we're saved, because we have the Bible, because we have a church where people can help us. We have people who love us. I mean, isn't it great to be a part of a church where you have a group of people who just love you? A lot of people don't have that. You know, you have a place where you can come to and be exhorted to serve the Lord, to live a righteous life, and you know, you don't have to be worried about being overly Christian. Now, obviously, we don't want to know what holier than thou's, but you know what? It's okay to be spiritual and to walk in the spirit, talk about the Bible, go so when you preach the gospel, just live a godly life. That's okay. Okay. So, yeah, Saul is among the prophets and hallelujah for that. So I don't know what's the confusion there. Verse 14, it says here, And Saul's uncle said unto him and to his servants, Whither went ye? And he said, To seek the asses, and when we saw that they were nowhere, we came to Samuel. And Saul's uncle said, Tell me, I pray thee, what Samuel said unto you? And Saul said unto his uncle, He told us plainly that the asses were found, but of the matter of the kingdom whereof Samuel spake, he told him not. So we're looking at the promptness of the fulfillment. We see the change of heart, the company of the prophets, the confusion regarding Saul, and a coy explanation by Saul, in other words, this shy explanation from Saul. This is showing that Saul is still what? He's humble. He's not bragging about the fact that God has chosen him to be the king of Israel. He's like, Oh, he just told us where the asses were. But he didn't tell him like, Oh, and I'm also the king of Israel, apparently, you know, he decided to withhold that information. Why? Well, I believe it's just because he's just a humble person. And it might be, you know, there's a little fear in him, or you know, he's just, you know, whatever. But I think he's just a humble individual, who is not necessarily and he's not reluctantly taking the responsibility, so to speak. I think he's just humble, he doesn't want the spotlight on him. So it's just like, Oh, he told me where the asses were, you know, and that's it. He didn't tell him about the kingdom. And again, he's filled with the Spirit. And to be filled with the Spirit means to be humble. Right? Whereas when he's not right with God, towards his letter N, after Samuel tells Saul that the kingdom of God shall be taken from him and given to someone who's better than him, he gives us fake repentance. And he said, and then he says, like, you know, I'm paraphrasing here, but he's just like, you know, come worship the Lord with me before the people. He basically wants, he's like, I know I'm in trouble, but just make it look like everything's okay before everyone else. You know, it's just like, you're just prideful, you're arrogant, he's like, you've just been removed. You're fired. You've been replaced. You are now a proverb of replacement theology. You will go down in history as being a picture of the Jews who've been replaced. It's true. He's actually a picture of that. But yet in the beginning stages, in the beginning of his life, he's just like, I don't want anybody to know. I'll just speak of that which pertained to my father's asses, and that's it, okay? So the promptness of the fulfillment. And lastly, we're going to look at the public selection of Saul as king. So we looked at the prediction confirming Saul's election, the promptness of the fulfillment, and now the public selection of Saul as king. Look at verse number 17. We're going to look at Samuel rebuking Israel in verse 17, it says, and Samuel called the people together unto the Lord, and said unto the children of Israel, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, I brought up Israel out of Egypt, and delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians, and out of the hand of all kingdoms, and of them that oppressed you. He says, and ye have this day rejected your God, who himself saved you out of all your adversaries and your tribulations, and ye have said unto him, Nay, but said a king over us. Now therefore, present yourselves before the Lord by your tribes and by your thousands. So you know, he's supposed to just go and just kind of tell everyone who's the king, right? But instead, he's just like, hey, you know, God saved you out of all these things, and you just, he's a rebellious nation, he just wanted an earthly king, so he's just giving them this strong rebuke before he names the king. Now what I like about this is that, you know, Samuel is a great prophet, because he tells things that aren't necessary, he tells the people things that they don't want to hear, that are necessary for them to hear. He's like, it's not appropriate, but it's necessary. You know, sometimes as a pastor, that's my job. I gotta tell you things, even if it's not appropriate, but it's necessary, okay? And that's what he's telling you, he's just like, this is just your final reminder, that the reason you're getting a king is because you rejected God. So although this is a joyous time for you to get this king, and this king is great, God chose him, it's only because you rejected God. I just want to throw that out there, okay? So then in verse number 20, he tells them, you know, in verse 19, present yourselves before the Lord by your tribes and by your thousands. And then in verse 20, he says, and when Samuel had caused all the tribes of Israel to come near the tribe of Benjamin was taken, and when he had caused the tribe of Benjamin to come near by their families, the family of Matri was taken, and Saul the son of Kish was taken, and when they sought him, he could not be found. So again, what do we see? Saul being humble. Because we're looking at Samuel rebuking Israel, but now it's Saul's reserved behavior. So aside from the fact that he didn't want to tell his uncle, like, hey, the kingdom, you know, is, you know, being given to me, I'm going to be the king. When they're calling all the tribes, he's trying to call him out, you know what I mean, to present him before all Israel, and they can't find Saul. You know, he's just like, do we really have to have this ceremony, you know, kind of thing. This is his attitude, humility. Verse 22, therefore, they inquired of the Lord further, if the man should yet come thither, and the Lord answered, behold, he has hid himself among the stuff. So God reveres Saul as the king. He sees it, he's like, he's hiding, is what he's doing. And I don't think he's hiding again, because he's afraid, I think he's just a humble person. It shows you how, I mean, how far he's come along, right, where he's hiding by the stuff. And he's just kind of like not wanting to be in the limelight, doesn't want the spotlight. He's just happy, content where he was, but he's still obeying the Lord, okay. Verse 23 says, and they ran and fetched him thence, and when he stood among the people, he was higher than any of the people from his shoulders and upward. Now this is reiterating what we saw in the previous chapter, right, he's head and shoulders above the rest. But I think there's a spiritual truth to this. And here's the spiritual application, because he's hiding himself among the stuff, but when God calls him forth, he's head and shoulders above everyone else. What is this teaching us? When you humble yourself, God will exalt you above the people sometimes, understand? So if you humble yourself, you abase yourself, those are the people that God chooses to exalt. Those are the people he chooses to make higher than any of the people, because he knows this person is not going to be lifted up with pride, because I already saw his heart. He's hiding among the stuff, even though physically he's taller than anyone else, you know, he stands up and he's just like huge, he just towers over everyone. But he's still humble of heart. So even though physically he's massive, in here he's still like this, in his own eyes. He has the same attitude as who? John the Baptist. I must decrease that he may increase. But this is the formula to that, or this is the sum of that. When you decrease and he increases, he causes you to increase as well. He magnifies you in the sight of all the people, which is what he did to Joshua. So who cares what stature you are? Who cares what size you are? It's the size of your heart that God is concerned about. Because folks, I'm sure there's people out there who are really short, but they got short man syndrome. And even though they're this big, their heart is like this big, you understand? And I don't mean it a good way. I mean they're prideful, they're arrogant. God doesn't matter what size you physically are, he's looking at the humility of the heart in order to exalt you in due time. So he reveres Saul by showing the fact that he is head and shoulders above everyone else. Letter D, Samuel reviews God's stipulations for a king in verse 25. Let's read verse 24. And Samuel said to all the people, See him whom the Lord hath chosen, that there is none like him among all the people. And all the people shouted and said, God save the king. Then Samuel told all the people, told the people the manner of the kingdom, and wrote it in the book and laid it up before the Lord. And Samuel sent all the people away, every man to his house. So what I believe he's doing here is showing what Deuteronomy says. He's like, look, this is what God requires of a king, I'll write it in the book. This is for reference. And of course, Saul is supposed to review that as well and write his own copy, etc. Look at verse 26. And Saul also went home to Gibeah, and there went with him a band of men whose hearts God hath touched. Samuel rebuked in Israel, Saul reserved his reserved behavior. God reveres Saul as king, Samuel reviews God's stipulations for a king, and then God recruits men to be under Saul. And I really like this verse, because it shows you that even though there is one king in Israel, God decides to recruit men whose hearts God has touched to follow that man in order to establish a kingdom. And you know what, all of us could say that as saved people and as Jesus Christ our king, you know, there's a particular band of men whose hearts God has touched to follow the Lord Jesus Christ. Everyone's commanded to do so, but sometimes there's a heart that God touches to say, you know what, I'm just gonna, I'm willing to lose it all for the king, you know. And so he does that, he puts that into the heart of the men there in Israel. And I'm sorry to end on a bad note, but verse 27, But the children of Belial, referring to the devil, said, How shall this man save us? And they despised him and brought him no presents. But he held his peace. So we see what, the reprobates despise Saul. And mark it down, any time God exalts someone, there's always going to be some little punk who just, he's just trouble, who just wants to just despise. And what, what is it about Saul? So it's the fact that he's the authority now. And what did the Bible say about reprobates and authority that they despise governments? The Bible says. And look, even when I, when we started this church, and I became the evangelist, there's people that despise my authority. You know, and some of them became, ended up becoming really bad people in the long run. I'm not saying that they're like reprobates, but some of them are really bad. I mean, on day one, my friends, we didn't even have our first church service. There was a meeting at the park for soul winning. When we all met, Jason, you were there, right? Yeah. On day one, you know, after we have the meeting, I preach this sermon trying to get everyone, you know, you know, excited about soul winning. This guy comes up to me, he's like, so, uh, I see you're still a staff member at the other church. You know, and I'm just like, yeah, they just haven't updated it yet, like, I'm not there anymore, you know? And he thought like I was some like infiltrator or something. And this is the reason why a lot of people thought I was like an infiltrator, because Tyler Baker had just been found out. Okay. They had just been found out. So what were they doing? Throwing out the baby with the bathwater. Oh, because Tyler Baker's throwing out, that means everyone who comes up in leadership is automatically just a bad person or something like that. That's a stupid way of thinking, isn't it? Just like, oh, you know, just because this person is bad, that means everyone bad, you know, wrong, wrong. You know, it's typically people who are like this, which obviously these people will, you know, they're going to cause more trouble and more problems as we go on through the chapter here. But, you know, they despise him, they bring him no presence, you know, but it's a joyous occasion. So he's just like, I'm going to hold my peace until later. And then he'll get them later or something. So what do we see here? We're looking at the prequel to Saul becoming king and some of the qualities that he had and really why God chose him to begin with. And I think the major thing that we can learn from this is that however you started off in the Christian life, that's how you should just remain and keep that humility. You know, if you started off in the Christian life humble, work hard to maintain that humility. If God begins to exalt you, don't think you're so high and mighty, remain humble. Maintain a fear of God throughout your life. Don't be like Saul who started off good and then ends up, you know, he started off with the company of the prophets, but then he ended up with the witch at Endor. Let's pray, Father, we thank you so much for your word, Lord, and what some wonderful stories here that we can learn from. Help us Lord to be humble of heart and that you may exalt us in due season with the purpose of influencing more people for you and I pray, Lord, that you'd help us to be reminded of that and to put on the new man as well. Bless us as we go home, bless this weekend, pray many would be saved and that we'd have a great service in church on Sunday and may you be honored and glorified in Jesus' name. Amen. Alright, last song, song number 19, there is a fountain. Song number 19, there is a fountain. Song 19, there is a fountain. Everyone nice and strong all together. There is a fountain filled with blood, drawn from Emmanuel's veins, and sinners plunged beneath that flood lose all their guilty stains. Lose all their guilty stains, lose all their guilty stains. And sinners plunged beneath that flood lose all their guilty stains. The dying thief rejoiced to see that fountain in his day. And there may I, though vile as he, wash all my sins away. Wash all my sins away. Wash all my sins away. Amen. And there may I, though vile as he, wash all my sins away. Dear dying lamb, thy precious blood shall never lose its power. Till all the ransomed church of God be saved to sin no more. Be saved to sin no more. Be saved to sin no more. Till all the ransomed church of God be saved to sin no more. Ere sins by faith I saw the stream, thy flowing wounds supply. Redeeming love has been my theme and shall be till I die. And shall be till I die. And shall be till I die. Redeeming love has been my theme and shall be till I die. Then in a nobler, sweeter song I'll sing thy power to sin. When this poor lisping, stammering tongue lies silent in the grave. Lies silent in the grave. Lies silent in the grave. When this poor lisping, stammering tongue lies silent in the grave. Amen, alright we have a baptism. Let's sing another song here. While we prepare for the baptism. Let's go and sing song number one. Jesus I my cross have taken. Song number one. Jesus I my cross have taken. Everyone all together nice and strong. Jesus I my cross have taken. All to leave and follow thee. Destitute, despised, forsaken. Thou from ends my all shall be. Perish every fond ambition. All I've sought and hoped and known. Yet how rich is my condition. God and heaven are still my own. Let the world despise and leave me. They have left my savior too. Human hearts and looks deceive me. Thou art not like men untrue. And while thou shalt smile upon me. God of wisdom, love and might. Bulls may hate and friends may shun me. Show thy face and all is bright. Man may trouble and distress me. Twill but drive me to thy breast. Life with trials hard may press me. Heaven will bring me sweeter rest. Olds is not in grief to harm me. While thy love is left to me. Olds were not in joy to charm me. Were that joy unmixed with thee. Hasty on from grace to glory. Armed by faith and winged by prayer. Hence eternal days before thee. God's own hand shall guide me there. Soon shall close thy earthly mission. Swift the past like fruitless days. Hope shall change to glad fruition. Faith to sight and prayer to praise. Congratulations. All right, let's pray. We'll be dismissed. Father, we thank you again for this day. Thank you for Abigail and the fact that she got saved and she was baptized tonight. I pray that you bless us as we go on our way home, Lord. Help us to meditate upon the things that we've heard and prepare us for a great weekend to follow. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen, you are dismissed. Thank you for being here.