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Amen Amen, okay We're continuing this evening with the book of 1st Samuel in chapter number 11 tonight And let me just give you a little bit of a review before we get into chapter 11 Of course in chapter 10 we have Saul's selection. He's been selected by God to be the king the first king of Israel and of course, he's anointed by Samuel and we see his humility. We see the fact that he's very reserved We see that God is basically Exalting Saul and in a sense he's approved in the eyes of God to be Israel's leader Whereas in chapter 11, we're gonna see that now he's gonna be approved in the eyes of the people in the eyes of God He was approved in chapter 10 based upon what God saw in his heart, right? We see that Saul was humble We see that he was reserved. We see that even though he was head and shoulders above everyone else He did have a spirit of meekness Which is what God wanted in order to lead his people whereas in chapter 11, we're gonna see Saul's first victory We're gonna see a war that he gets involved in and really it's gonna put Or kind of give him some credentials so to speak some reputation Basically approve him in the eyes of the people that he is legitimately a leader that is chosen by God so this is so this particular chapter in 11 is Highlighting his first battle his first war his first Victory and I'm gonna break up this chapter into four parts that we're gonna go over this evening Part number one will be the conflict that arises part two will be a captain that steps up part three will be the conflict Or should I say the combat that ensues and lastly the crown that is established This is just highlighting from the time that a conflict arises all the way to the point where Saul legitimately is established as the king of Israel and so look at verse number one We're gonna look at first and foremost a conflict arising from verses one through three we're gonna look at an adversary that threatens Israel says then nayash the Ammonite came up and Encamped against Jabesh Gilead and all the men of Jabesh shut into nayash make a covenant with us and we will serve thee So if you were to look at a map of Israel Basically, what you have is obviously Saul is in Benjamin. That's where he's from He's in Gibeon and north of that is where you have Jabesh Gilead Jabesh Gilead is that region of Israel that really borders the Ammonites Okay, so obviously this is basically easy pickings for the Ammonites They want to start a war with Jabesh Gilead and ultimately all of Israel because they're trying to conquer the entire land So, you know Jabesh Gilead is low-hanging fruit. Obviously the men who dwell here are very passive They're not even trying to put up a fight You know, they're just like hey make a covenant we can make uh, you know There's peace between us and we will serve you so they don't want to fight as they would say today They don't want any smoke. Okay, you know, they don't want to fight. They don't want to they don't want any trouble All they want is peace And so obviously what the Ammonites are trying to do is is conquer Jabesh Gilead more specific Of course because Jabesh Gilead is in the region of Gad and if they were to conquer that portion of land It kind of gives them an entryway to the other tribes so they can ultimately just conquer all of Israel So, you know the men of Jabesh Gilead they say make a covenant with us and we will serve thee now Obviously, this is not a good attitude to have right this passive type of attitude where a battle comes to you And they're just kind of like throwing up their hands and say well, we don't want to fight We just want peace And in fact, if you just make a covenant with us you make an agreement with us we will serve you This is not what God wanted his people to be like understand just these passive people Who just allows anybody to come and conquer their land anybody to just come and destroy them and make them serve them That's not what God intended for the nation of Israel And may I say that's not what God intends for any believer even in the New Testament, right? God doesn't want us to take a fight lying down and just kind of give up our rights and give up our spiritual Inheritance and just say well, you know the world has won and you know The sodomites won Hollywood is one the culture is one. No, we're gonna fight to the bitter end and even if we are bordering the Ammonites even if there are just a You know a couple feet away from us or whatever may be It doesn't matter, you know, they can make whatever threats that they want. They can say whatever they want If if if God has selected for us to be here We're gonna fight to the bitter end and this is the attitude of the men of Jabesh Gilead should have had Okay, but instead I want to make a covenant, you know a lot of Christians today They're just trying to make a covenant with the world And just say well if we just make the church our church like the world and make it worldly And just kind of appeal to the unsaved and the natural man and appeal to the world You know, we can have peace with everyone They want to have this kind of political type of a church Where they talk out of both sides of their mouth and they're they're appealing to the Republicans as well as to the Democrats as well As to the libertarians they want to appeal to every doctrine Right to the one say they'll always say but also the ones who believe that maybe you can lose your salvation And also the ones who believe you you have to repent of your sins to be saved all this nonsense They're trying to make a covenant folks. We have a covenant with God Okay, and we have a responsibility as God as God's people to serve the Lord not serve some foreign godless nation You know these these unsaved wicked people who by the way are implacable apparently, right? Because they're like, you know, we'll make a covenant with you and they're like, all right, here's the condition Let me pluck out your right eyes to be a testimony against everyone else That doesn't sound good Well, you know this is what happens when you try to negotiate with wicked people This is what happens when you try to negotiate with sons of Belial You're not gonna get good anything good out of it So you might as well just fight to the bitter end man and and and you know say, you know You can drop dead Ammonites. You guys are late. You guys are lame. You're wicked We're not gonna submit to your authority and I'll keep my right eye. Thank you. Okay So we see that this conflict arises with Nash the Ammonite It's these this adversary that threatens them and of course Jabesh Gilead does not have a strong leader That's why they're trying to placate the Ammonites here and he gives them this so we see that an adversary is threatening them And then we look at it and we're gonna look at an awful condition which I've already mentioned verse 2 It says nayash the Ammonite verse 2 answer them on this condition. Well, I make a covenant with you Then I may thrust out all your right eyes and lay it for a reproach upon all Israel He's like as long as I get to maim you and gouge out your right eye so I can make you an example To the rest of Israel. This is what would lead me to believe that they're not just interested in taking over GAD Right Because it's not just like, you know, if it was only GAD that they wanted to say you guys serve us then You know, we'll tax you guys we were lower you but they weren't content with that They said no We want to gouge out all your eyes so that your gouged out eyes and your maimed face Can basically be a testimony to the rest of Israel that if they don't submit to us, this is what's gonna happen to them right because obviously they want to take over everyone else and So this this should show us here that from a spiritual perspective we never want to give the enemy any ground Right never want to give them any ground or compromise in any way Why because at the end of the day? They're gonna try to take out your right eye Spiritually speaking and it's only so they can instill fear in other Christians so so that they won't stand up for themselves folks, this is what's important that when we fight spiritual battles whether in your personal life or Corporately as a church, you don't just kind of capitulate to the desires of the enemy Okay, you give them help. Amen and you know you say well, can we just find like common ground? There is no there's no concord with Christ and Belial my friends There's no fellowship with light and darkness, you know, the temple of God has no fellowship with with an idol And so we should never look for common ground with this world. We're nothing like this world We're Christians. Amen. We're not of this world. I know that phrase has been thrown around on bumper stickers everywhere You know and it's been burned out by liberal Christians who are worldly But you know the truth still stands We're not of this world And so we're not we shouldn't give any ground to the enemy Because all they're gonna do is try to destroy you so that you can be a testimony against all of the Christians That's why when we have we ever have another spiritual battle like we've had in times past We need to make sure that we fight with everything Every fiber in our spiritual being because we want to be a testimony to other Christians That you should stand up for right and that God will protect you and he's with you and fear not You know be thou courageous be thou strong and of good courage for the Lord is with thee Okay, you know a Christian who just capitulates and just surrenders to the enemy weakens other Christians And So way to go Jabesh Gilead these lame Israelites Who just didn't want to put up a fight? You know and now it's worse for them. So this is an awful condition to be in. It's like my right eye. Why am I right? all of our right eyes So conflict arises we have an adversary threatening them we have this awful condition and Then we have an appeal for help in verse number three says in the elders of Jabesh Said unto him give us seven days respite in other words. Just give us some time to think about this Especially what they're saying like to consider this awful condition that we're in here. Okay Seven days respite that we may send messengers into all the coast of Israel And then if there be no man to save us we will come out to thee What about you elders? Is there not a man among you who's willing to stand in the get you know stand in the gap make up the hedge? So they're just kind of like, you know, give us seven days We're gonna see if anybody else is willing to stand up to you guys. And if not, they will submit to you This is another horrible attitude to have Well, this is kind of natural for Christians to do too, right? I'll stand up for right if other churches are standing for right, you know I'll I'll do that which is right if other Christians are doing it. Whereas what God is looking for is just for one man Just to stand up for right which will end up inspiring many others to stand up for right as well And at the end of the day, even if we don't inspire anybody we should just stand up for right cuz it's right to do Right, you know stand up for right for principle sake because of the fact that it's right to do You know But it reality reality is and biblically when a man of God or a church a family Does that which is right in the eyes of the Lord and emboldens other Christians to take the same stance? Okay, whereas these guys are like well Let's see if anybody else is bold enough to like help us out here. And if not, then we'll just submit to you. Okay? So this lame appeal is given this is a big problem now Obviously when you look at the grand scheme of this particular story with Saul being selected as the king being anointed We see what's taking place here. Okay There's a reason why God is allowing this battle or this war these people to try to come and conquer Israel Jabesh Gilead The reason for it is really to prove Saul Okay, because God believes in Saul. He knows who he is in his heart He knows he's a man who loves him. He's a man who's humble He's a man who's strong but God wants to prove it to the Israelites that he is fit for the job Now this is great because of the fact that obviously this is not God's primary will That's primary. Will was not for them to have an earthly king. This is kind of like a plan B so to speak Okay, the plan B is we'll have an earthly king, but you know, we want to have a great earthly king And so therefore he's gonna allow You know this conflict to arise in order to really approve King Saul and one thing that we can learn from this and I want to get ahead of myself here is that trials tribulations battles spiritual warfare God allows those those things in our lives to prove us Right to see what we're really made of So when God has selected you to be in this church, so to speak or or you know serve him So to speak when he's created you in Christ Jesus unto good works He allows these trials to come into your life in order to prove you my friend To see if you are who you think you are or who he says you are Understand so it's important that when you face a trial you don't just tuck your tail and run You don't tuck your tail and run to the world or one run to some vice or some sinful habit or out of the will Of God you have to face the Ammonites head-on Because God is the one who's placing you in that situation to begin with to see if you got what it takes you understand and So, you know, it's the whole teabag illustration where you don't really know the contents of what's inside of a teabag I'm sorry to use such a wicked illustration Just kidding hike such a weak illustration, but you know, sometimes it's the weak things of this world. I'm just kidding All the tea drinkers are just really mad Well, it's not my fault and I'm just kidding, you know, it's like, you know the contents of a teabag Contents of a teabag, you don't really know what's in the contents of a teabag until what until it's in hot water You really see what it's made of when it's placed into hot water Well you my friend unfortunately, no no illustration is perfect is like that teabag We don't really know what's really in you Spiritually speaking until you're placed into that hot water and we see you how you operate under pressure under fire in Tribulation in trial when your face up to go up against the Ammonites. Let's see how you really act during that time You failed Jabesh Gilead you failed elders of Jabesh So this is the conflict that arises but then what happens a captain steps up. Hey, man Verse number four It says then came the messengers to Gibeah of Saul And told the tidings and the ears of the people and all the people lifted up their voices and wept now Let me just point something out here. Okay, whoever these messengers are idiots They don't know how to deliver a message You just go to all the people. They're gonna kill always be that one Because you know that the Israelites literally are like sheep and Any little bad news that gets into the ears of just regular people it's gonna freak everyone out Go to the leader and the leader comes forth and bears the bad news so to speak, right? You don't come to people and just kind of tell them that the sky is falling You don't come and just bring evil tidings to everyone because you're gonna cause the hearts of the people to tremble What's needed is a strong leader to Hear the news, right? You hear the news you hear the evil tidings and that leader that Captain is to convey that message to God's people in a way that emboldens them and gives them the courage needed to face it head-on Okay Because they have not people could just freak out You know, they could just freak out and they don't know what to do and they start running around like a chicken with its head Okay, they start lifting up their voices and weeping So a captain steps up the affliction of the tidings comes upon them which is what we just read in verse 4 and Then we see the anger of Saul is kindled I like this it says in verse number 5 and behold Saul Came after the herd out of the field and said what a little people that they weep And they told him the tidings of the men of Jabesh the reason he stands ailing you think of a oh something that's making them Like an ailment is like a sickness. He's like what's the sickness that's upon this people? that's calling them to weep and wail because you know fear is like a sickness and You know sicknesses can be contagious right? Don't we all know that well contagious, right? Well, you know what fear is also contagious my friends That's What's important then when we go through a spiritual battle as a church or you know There's a spiritual battle in the church or whatever may be, you know You better watch how you convey if you are afraid you can do one of two things if you're afraid number one go home or number two Keeps the mouth shut Close your mouth Say whoa Yeah, because you can cause a lot of harm with your words you can discourage people you can cause you can instill fear in people Well, I just don't know what's gonna happen. I just got to express all my fears I just got to tell everyone. Well, you know then get with the ladies then Express your fears to the ladies if that's what you want to do, but if you're a man You better make sure that you control your fears And look fear is obviously a natural Response and natural reaction to things especially where we see evil tidings to me. It's natural and anybody who says they're not afraid They're they're not only afraid but they're also a liar Because everyone is fearful at one point Okay is what you do or how you respond to that fear? It's making sure that you act in spite of the fear understand and So saws like why what's up with these people? They're just kind of like they're wailing verse 6 and the Spirit of God came upon Saul when he heard those tidings and He he also wanted to make a covenant of peace with the people Is that what it says? Probably in the NIV or something Probably one of these lame Bibles the Spirit of God would come upon Saul. He just prances over to the Ammonites And tries to make a peace treaty with them or something right not here. It says his anger is Kindled greatly Kindled is the term used often to describe when something is on fire Kindle wood is basically it's just like the fires is consuming the wood Well, what's taking place here? Is that the fire of Saul's anger is being kindled within him Now look folks this this verse is not written this way by the Holy Ghost on accident There's a reason he said first That the Spirit of God came upon him and his spirit was kindled or that he was angry. Excuse me It's it's not giving you a dichotomy of his flesh and his spirit or something And the Spirit of God comes upon him and then he's in the flesh and he's angry or something like that No, his anger is a byproduct of being filled with spirit Now this isn't a very this is very important to know it's very important to learn It's very important to understand because we live in such a passive Such a feeble such an offended, you know culture of Christianity Or things such as anger things such as judgment is seen in a negative light in the eyes of Christians or just like if you're angry, you're just like a fleshly mean Christian or something like that And they'll often say things like well, you know You're just not you're not producing the fruit of the Spirit anger is not of the fruit of the Spirit Okay, because I've you know, they talk about Galatians 5 Love joy, peace long-suffering gentleness meekness, you know, these are great things But just because anger is not listed on there doesn't mean it's not a manifestation of the Spirit because here's another one boldness Boldness is a manifestation of the Spirit and you don't see boldness in Galatians 5 now, do you? It's because it's not only subject to those particular fruits There's other manifestations of the Spirit my friends that when the Spirit of God comes upon you you can be emboldened You can have courage and yes, you can have anger you say how is anger a? Manifestation of the Spirit well because of the fact that God is angry with the wicked every day my friend. It's an attribute of God and People need to learn Christians in particular Because who cares what unsafe people think? or Christians that think that they're saved We're talking about Christians who believe the Bible Christians who are saved can fall into this trap where oh, you know If you're angry, you're just not right with God Well, then you're just gonna have to you know, just remove Ephesians chapter 4 then where it says be angry and sin not Because apparently you can actually be angry and still extract the sin out of that specific or separate that from sin You can actually be upset and angry and Still be right with God and in fact it's a byproduct of being right with God because he that loved the Lord hate evil and I would even go as far as to say is that God is angry with his people when they when they're not angry at injustices abominations Sinfulness iniquity things of that nature You said why would he be angry at that because it shows that God's people have become apathetic towards righteousness That's why They become apathetic towards justice towards righteousness towards the things of God and it obviously shows that they don't really know true judgment Anger is a very much a natural attribute It's a spiritual attribute to have that we should have now obviously, you know There is an anger they can cross the line and become sinful You know the Bible tells us in James chapter 1 that the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God Obviously that's referring to a man who has so much anger or wrath built up in him that he actually becomes a violent person violence is never a Is never right for a Christian to do and obviously I would separate being a violent person from being a person who defends the innocent Okay, because sometimes people mix those two up as well We're talking about violating someone just being a short-fused type of a person someone who's not slow to anger slow to wrath, etc But here's the thing folks is that God wants us to be angry for the regarding evil things You know if you are here in 2022 and you're not angered by the abortions by the sodomy By the abominations of our land something wrong with you What's wrong with your heart? If you're not angered by false doctrine if you're not angered by false prophets, you know, there's something wrong there It should upset you that things are so contrary to God and his word and Christians are just blatantly blindly following these things and just allowing themselves to go with the current of the culture the current of Doctrine and just accepting everything under the Sun and not fighting against it God wants us to be angry over these things and be passionate and be upset and weep and wail over the Injustices of the land and I'm not talking about the injustice of who's the president either Yeah, I'm angry over the injustice of all the ballots and all the the lying. I don't care about that stuff. Who cares I'm not even angry about that. That doesn't upset me. I don't lose any sleep over that Why not because there's actual things that are wicked and sinful That I'm angry about I guarantee you God doesn't even care about those things I Can almost 99% guarantee that God does not care about that at all You know, I know I know your God the patriotic God The one who's in heaven wrapped in red white and blue. I Know he really cares about those things, but let's be honest. He doesn't Okay, I don't you don't see that in the Bible He's upset at sin wickedness perversion Perversion of doctrine He's upset of people sending others to hell These are the things that upset God and these are the things that should anger us, you know Why I saw why is his anger kindled because the people because of the fact that the Ammonites have the audacity to come and just Try to conquer and just destroy God's people You know, he might be a little angry at the elders of Jabesh kill you too. I Would be too Now here's the thing Saul notice this Saul's not like well, here's my chance Here's my chance to show who I really am before God's people somebody's doing Just naturally because of who he is Because of his convictions because the Spirit of God is upon him. This is his natural or should I say his supernatural response? He's not lying. Well, this is definitely gonna give me my stamp of approval to be the king of Israel Careless about that what he cares about is justice my friends And there's a reason why God sent his spirit to come upon Saul because he's the man for the job and So we see the conflict that arises the adversary threatens an awful condition is put forth this lame appeal is made for help and Then a captain steps up referring to Saul the affliction of the tidings comes to the people His anger is kindled and then we're gonna see the acute response. Look at verse number seven So his anger is king. He's upset. Okay, so the first seven he took a yoke of oxen and hew them in pieces and Sent them throughout all the coasts of Israel by the hands of messengers saying whosoever cometh not forth after Saul and after Samuel so shall it be done into his oxen and the fear of the Lord for love all the people yeah, you think and They came out with one consent What does it show it shows that Saul meant business? He's angry. He was like give me the bring those two yoke of oxen right now And I just want you to slice them all up now I was thinking about this on the way to church today is That Israel has this thing with hewing animals and sending forth sending their body parts forth as like or just hewing things period And sending them forth as messages to like all of Israel like in Judges 19 He's like chop up the body and just send you know, send it all to it's like honey. We got another package. Oh Is it a head Yes, but not from a person this time is just a yoke of oxen, oh great cool It's kind of weird instead of just like, you know writing a letter he's like I got a better way You don't have to write anything. Just chop up just chop up some oxen and they'll get the they'll get the message So this isn't a cute response this is a very extreme thing to do is it not Now what does this convey to God's people what does it convey to us that Saul means business it? Conveys strong leadership Okay, because what Israel does not need is some peacemaker at this time Well, let's go ahead and just send ambassadors and peacemakers And let's just see if we could just get along with the Ammonites. God is not interested in you Assimilating yourself to the Ammonites He wants to maintain a pure religion my friends he's not interested in Christianity becoming amalgamated with Islam Right, it's not interested in making it a Judeo-Christian religion either Well, you know, I know that they hate our Lord Jesus Christ and they crucified him in times past and they spit on the ground Every time they hear the name of Jesus You know, I know they say all men are of evil against Jesus Christ, but you know, what let's we should we're supposed to be a Judeo-Christian society There's nothing Judeo-Christian in the Bible my friends Judaism is not even in the world the word is not even And anything associated with Judaism that's in the Bible is completely rejected in the eyes of God In fact folks In fact folks the synagogue In the bible is not referred to a synagogue of God, I know it's it could rhyme a little bit synagogue of God But you know read revelation two and three he calls it a synagogue of satan and someone recently told me they're like, oh Bruce me. He is not saved and he revelation two is actually talking about him because he thinks he's a jew and i'm like Whoa My friend, excuse me Folks anybody who believes on Christ by the way, moses wanted you to the Lord today, right? Or did you bear false witness? This is a true story This is a true saying and worthy of all expectation. Okay, the Lord brought this this this trial into moses's life To see if he could respond correct and you know, he won him to the Lord. He even had a star of David on him But he believed on Jesus Christ And he got saved You know, that's a miraculous thing man and praise the Lord I think what's more miraculous is that moses is the one who like was selected to do it Man, the Lord works in mysterious ways my friends The Lord works in mysterious ways But look I don't we don't call this a synagogue So obviously it's referring to people who claim to go to a synagogue who call themselves jews or not But they are the synagogue of satan I'm getting off topic here. What i'm saying is god's not interested in amalgamating judaism and christianity He's not interested in getting the orthodox church in here or catholicism in here Or blending the beliefs of other religions hinduism buddhism Into christianity he wanted to keep it completely pure He's not interested in recruiting false gods to put on the shelf with the one true god He doesn't want day gone to be sitting on the same platform as the Lord He wants all those gods to be destroyed to be brought to not to be Uh destroyed to be put into the flames to be crushed into pieces. He has no desire to amalgamate the two Okay, and so saul understands that he's not trying to bring peace tidings or make peace with them What does he want what does god want to do just destroy them Now obviously in the new testament, this is we don't have the authority to do these things. Okay? To physically go out and destroy but we don't we can spiritually destroy it though The weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty through god through the pulling down of strongholds Casting down imaginations and every high theme that exalted itself against against the knowledge of god And bring into captivity every thought through the obedience of christ. We often use that To talk about our own imaginations, but really what it's talking about is just going out preaching the gospel or using doctrine To cast down the strongholds that satan has placed in this world through false religion false beliefs Anything that would exalt itself against the knowledge of god and basically you said what is that every religion in this world? Is a religion that exalts itself against the knowledge of god What we're to do is cast those things down and bring into captivity every thought of the individual the recipients that we're talking to To the obedience of christ. So when we go out and preach christ and him crucify We're not like but you can still be a catholic if you want All right You can still be a catholic or you can still be an orthodox You can still be a hindu and a buddhist and you can still believe these things if you want. No The bible says that we're to cast those down and bring their thoughts into captivity to the obedience of christ I haven't preached in a week. So i'm like we're excited about preaching tonight. I miss preaching So his anger is kindled and he chops up these animals By the way, you know peter would have they're like they'd be like what? Is god mad that he did he use these animals in pieces That he's just wasted, you know, the liver king would be upset here Because it's not being used notes to tell they're being used as care packages Which shows us that god is even more extreme than some of these notes to tell people Sometimes he just kills animals doesn't do anything with it Some people are like no well You got to use everything from the eyeballs and eat the brains and the everything you use the skulls as weapons sometimes god's like just Just use them as mail Use them as men So the fear of the lord came upon all the people and they came out with one consent It says in verse number seven What does that mean is like I I think we should all join this fight here. I agree Anybody with me say hi. Hi, you know Everyone was just on board with this particular message. What did you get? I got a leg You know, what did you get I I got you know a hip or something or I got the breasts or something, okay I think he means I think he means business then, right? So the afflictions of the tidings come and look the reason he has to take such extreme measures Is because apparently the israelites took extreme measures to panic So the more extreme the panicking becomes the more extreme the measures To go forth and actually fight should become as well Okay, so he's blown off his top because he's getting crazy. He has this acute response here Verse eight says and when he numbered them in bizek the children of israel were three 100 000 and the men of judah 30 000. So he has a good amount of people to to to fight with he says And they said unto the messengers that came Thus shall you say into the men of jaybesch gilead tomorrow by that time by the time the sun be hot Ye shall have help and the messengers came and showed it unto the men of jaybesch and they were glad Therefore the men of jaybesch said tomorrow we will come out unto you and he shall do with us as all that seemeth good unto you I really like the way saul is dealing with this here because his response is not only extreme. It's immediate He's not wasting any time He's like well, let's let's just pray about this Maybe we should maybe we should wait off about a week or so. Let everyone cool down a little bit Everyone's head's kind of hot right now. We need to cool down and relax. Everyone's kind of upset right now He's like no we're going tomorrow We're not going to wait for them to come to us. We'll just go to them This is great leadership and it's unfortunate because saws, you know The his beginning days are so awesome He's such an awesome leader when he's obviously in the spirit He's an awesome leader. He's assertive the man has vision The man can lead the man is is is filled with the spirit But then the crazy thing is is that when he begins to fall off when he goes awry He actually becomes the contrast The exact contrast of what we see in the beginning stages here and I don't want to spoil that But we see that he's very much assertive He is not wasting any time And you know, this is a great quality to have as well as christians is that we obey immediately You know The the verse is fleeing me right now I can't remember the verse ready to will ready to perform that which Sorry, I can't remember it what is it No, that's the pen of a ready writer You're close but very far though. That's psalms. I'm thinking like in second corinthians. It'll come to me after the service Anyways, let's keep reading here. So we see the acute response And then we see the affirmation of his assistance in verse 9 and 10. He's like we're going to come to you And they're willing to submit to his authority. They're saying look whatever seemeth good to you Will do you're going to lead us and let's go to battle So that is the captain who steps up. We saw the conflict that arises the captain that steps up and then a combat ensues verse number 11 It says and it was so on the morrow that saw put the people in three companies And they came into the midst midst of the host in the morning watch and slew the ammonites into the heat of the day And it came to pass that they which remained were scattered so that two of them were not left together So we see here that He cannot he not only talks to talk But he's able to walk the walk as well You know because you know, it's one thing to say you're going to do all these things It's one thing to say, you know to hue the the animals who are just helpless You know and and say we're going to do this. It's another thing to get up in the morning actually do it And so the principle that we can learn here is the fact that god is far more interested or impressed with action than just words Words are great words can convey a message But god is interested that we add works to our faith, right? You know, we were to be a people who actually put these things into action put them into work and actually go to battle And combat the enemy and fight with them And he does he goes there and he destroys the ammonites. So the the combat ensues and the ammonites are destroyed even to the point Where two of them couldn't even be found together. They were just so scattered and so destroyed It was just a complete victory. Okay, and then lastly we're going to see a crown is established A crown is established look at verse 12 We're going to see the aim to kill the usurpers Verse 12 says and the people said unto samuel Who who is he that said shall saul reign over us? Bring the men that we may put them to death Now, what is he talking about? Well, if you go to chapter 10 Chapter 10 the latter end of chapter 10 verse 26. It says and saul also went home to gibbia And there went with him a band of men whose hearts got a touch And the children of bilio said how shall this man save us and they despised him and brought him no presence But he held his peace. So these guys were just kind of like they didn't really like saul They didn't weren't really for his leadership They didn't want him reigning over over them and obviously the bible explicitly tells us that they're sons of bilio So why are they saying this? Well, because sons of bilio also known in the new testament as reprobates despise governments And i'm not talking about like to despise You know Governments as we think it to be government just simply means rulers any kind of leader of any position Whether it's a spiritual leader Just it's just a general statement for those who govern people you understand And so reprobates hate authority and so when there's an authority coming they're just like who's this guy? I don't know who he is I'm, not gonna bring him any presence well you know Now he just completely just destroyed the ammonites Everyone's for saul and somebody you know an instigator within israel They're like, hey, where are those you almost picture them that they're probably like right there You know, he's just like where's those guys that were saying like shall saul reign over us or something. We should kill those guys, huh? And they're probably sweating bullets or sweating shekels or whatever I don't know sweating arrows sweating stones Because it's talking about them So they have this aim to kill the usurpers now, here's the thing is that they should have just done that And obviously, you know You say why well because it's part of the law to destroy sons of belia Okay But you got to take into account that at this particular time in the history of israel They have strayed quite some from the laws of god We have to think because you know first samuel and even the book of judges It's right after joshua it's right after juderonomy and exodus That god's people should already know these things but there's a lot of time to pass this in between these particular events I mean enough time where god's people are not even familiar with just basic rules and basic laws So they're allowing I mean, obviously the sons of belia are among them Whereas, you know under the mosaic law under moses rule should I say? They weren't even allowed to live at all. I mean those those were the good old days Those are the good old days where they died two or three witnesses These are the days when the earth would just clave open and just swallow up Nadab and abihu and all these wicked people not native and abihu korodathan and abiro You know, these are the good old days where just people were put to death for being witches and and sodomites And for trying to get people to to serve other false gods like the sons of belial But now we're in a time where the sons of belial Have spiritual leadership Because remember prior to this what we have eli And his sons who were sons of belium So it's kind of showing you how? Far removed israel had become from what god originally intended when they were in the wilderness So it shows you know, they're better off kind of like, you know in the wilderness Then when they actually reach the promise land, it's very sad actually Because the promised land is what god intended for them. The promised land is what god wanted for them It was his will it was his plan to prosper It's like god wanted to give them all these blessings, but they just don't even know how to handle it And the good principle that we can learn there is you better know how to handle blessings my friends Handle blessings well Because blessings does not destroy an individual but it can often show you who you really are When everything goes good Understand because it's going good for israel. I mean they're getting a king they have lands Everything's already the the the lots have been distributed already Children of israel have this they're even getting a kings which is the earthly king, which is what they wanted But man, they have these sons of belial here who are obviously creating trouble In israel for the king so saw should have just been like yeah, who were those guys? you know and put him to death, but Obviously saw is caught up in the moment right now, right? He's caught up in the moment. He just had a victory Prior to this he's anointed king. So he's just like no one's gonna die. You know, this is a time of celebration And so they don't do that. So these these These prophets so to speak I guess you could call them They're the ones who said shall saw reign over us or they're repeating what these other men said Bring the men that we put him to death verse 13 And saul said there shall not a man be put to death this day for today the lord hath wrought salvation in israel He's like at the time of celebration No one should die Then said samuel to the people Come and let us go to gilgal and renew the kingdom there and all the people went to gilgal And there they made saul king before the lord in gilgal And there they sacrificed sacrifices of peace offerings before the lord and there saul and all the men of israel rejoiced greatly So we see a crown is established the aim to kill the usurpers and lastly israel affirms saul As king now, what can we learn from this particular chapter? Uh specifically and in the chapter of of saul's life Which shows us that you know, as I mentioned in the beginning That when god is is, you know, he's planned out our life He's planned out our successes, but in order for us to reach these successes these achievements. He's also planned out trials tribulations battles for us to face And let me just say this saul did not go out looking for a battle Right He didn't go out looking for a trial. He didn't go out looking for a tribulation. He didn't go out looking for the ammonites He wasn't looking for an opportunity to exalt himself Right You say what was he looking to do? Stay humble The conflict my friend came to him The conflict the ammonites came to him and this is a lesson for us all That you don't have to by the way, like when I said it's a stark contrast to what he was in the future He's going to force himself To offer sacrifices Here he's not forcing anything Here he's just kind of like serving god. And when the spirit of god comes upon him, he's angered. What is it? He's a prepared person for a prepared place God's not looking for self-willed people is what i'm saying. You know, he's looking for he's looking for people who are dying to self People who are just serving the lord People who are just filled with the spirit And if you're in the right place at the right time and you're reading your bible, you're praying You're just serving god. You're just enjoying the christian life The trials will come my friend I remember when I first got saved You know my father-in-law or someone in our church they preached about job And I was so impressed with job and i'm like man. I want to be like a job one day And I remember someone coming up to me and I told that to someone they said don't pray that Don't ever do that And they're basically telling me like don't seek after the trials because at the end of the day if if Even a quarter even a dime even ten percent of what happened to job would happen to me I would have just been wiped off the face of the earth Oh, babe in christ even one percent of what happened to job. What's I mean even less than that? I would have been just like I would have been done Right, but it's because I have the desire and the ambition to be someone and be something for god And I just wanted to face the world head on but the truth is I wasn't ready for that You understand what would I learn is that you just need to Strengthen yourself in the lord Read the bible be faithful learn virtue Learn character learn discipline learn how to develop your love for the lord Right learn how to develop a a deep love for for the bible Learn how to develop deep love for the doctrines of god's word Learn how to love to to to know the lord You understand learn how to have the right priorities in the sense of you know that as god told abraham I am thy shield and thy exceeding great reward Learn those things and then the trials and everything else will come later on Because god brings those things as you're ready for them Understand and obviously saul was ready Saul was ready my friends. He didn't have to go out looking for conflict. Conflict just came to him And we don't have to go out looking for conflict. I definitely don't have to go out looking for conflict All I have to do is just preach the bible Right, you don't have to go out looking for conflict. You just go to go out and win souls to christ You just have to have a godly family you just have to submit to your husband You just have to love your wife You know, you just have to be a good employee you just have to serve god and the conflict will come And obviously i'm speaking to people who who want a little bit of trials in their life They might think to themselves, you know, I just I just I feel like I need to get into a battle I feel like I need to fight for the lord. Okay. Well just serve the lord And and it will come Because you are not a good measure of how much you can handle You have no idea how much you can handle Either one you may overestimate yourself And think you can handle more than you think Or two you underestimate yourself and not understand that you could actually handle more than you can think So that decision is not up to you that decision is up to the lord Your responsibility is to make sure that you're walking with god and being strong in the lord and the power of his might Saul is on a good road here And it's almost sad that we know what's already going to happen Because I wish it would just continue like this. It would just be great It didn't david came in and just saw grows old and he just you know teaches david and david just takes over after him But obviously things don't have a happy ending. They don't live happily ever after Saul kills himself spoiler alert Okay But let's pretend we don't know that as of now and Rejoice in his first victory here and learn from this and look, you know Obviously this story is here for a reason because all of us to a certain extent can be like this But this should be an example to us that how things can just go south really fast for us If we do not learn from saul's example, amen Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer father We thank you so much for saul's example In the beginning, you know when he was right with you lord, and he loved you and he was filled with the spirit great leader It was a blessing And exerted great qualities of a leader as well. I pray that god you'd be with us as your people that we would um Mimic lord and emulate those those attributes and those characteristics in our personal life Help us to be assertive lord Help us to be captains help us to instill courage and not fear in the hearts of your people I pray that lord you would continue to to keep us humble lord when we think ourselves to be something Or more than what we ought to think lord and I pray father god that you continue to bless our church bless this weekend That many souls would be saved lord that many of god's people would be fed and Take us home safely as well. We love you. We thank you. Pray these things in jesus name. Amen Thank you There is a fountain