I Choose God, Not Gifts — Lessons from Saul and David

Well, let's turn in our Bibles tonight to First Samuel, First Samuel, Chapter 13.

Say wait a minute Ethan, we're doing that on Wednesday night.

Well guess what?

If you haven't been here for Wednesday night, now you're going to get the Denises.

No, that's not exactly what we are going to do.

But this message is supposed to do something and that is a reminder as we go forward with our Wednesday night to try to connect some connections that may have forgotten.

But I, I just want us to be reminded of the parts that we're going to go through over the next chapters on Wednesday night because we're, we're, we're at chapter 21, the climax of the story of Saul and David and uncertainties are over and David is going to be on the run as a fugitive and we are going to be from here on out.

If you haven't already been on David's side, you're going to be on David's side because he's running away.

This is a man called of God, man after God's own heart.

And we're following David to the end.

No different than some of his most loyal soldiers will be doing.

But David being a man after God's own heart is going to make some horrible horrendous mistakes starting in this next chapter 21.

And we are going to watch David's life over the next weeks and on Wednesday nights as we go through first Samuel to second Samuel and he becomes king and then he goes through that horrible episode with David and Bathsheba and hit the fell and his son Absalom.

And there are going to be a lot of questions to ask and that main question that we would probably focus on is how can this guy be a man after God's own heart?

And there are a few different things that we can point to of why in the world did date did God consider David to be a man after God's own heart and the reasons of why God thought this is a man after my own heart because that is how how God refers to David.

No different than he refers to Abraham as my friend, the friend of God.

And as, as I had a few different lessons actually I could have chosen for this as far as a reason of why David was God was a man after God's own heart.

But the one that I thought I would settle on is is this one principle what makes a person a person after God's own heart?

The big question that we should ask ourselves as we approach this introspection, if you will, this pondering of our own feet.

The one question that we should ask is this desiring God.

And in that desire for God, do we desire truly God and his person rather than his gift and what he can do for you?

Because there is a difference that we are going to look at here in First Samuel.

And Saul is.

He's our big guinea pig here for what not to do in many situations.

And Saul is going to serve that purpose at all.

So let's pray and we'll dive in.

We'll explain exactly what we mean here.

Our heavenly Father will be asked that you would help us to understand your word.

But Lord, I pray that you give us your grace to understand that your gifts are wonderful, your blessings are desirable, they're needed, Lord, and we should desire those things.

But God, you don't give us those things so that we would just desire the gift.

You give us these things because you are a good God and we should desire you.

So, Lord, I pray that you would guide us tonight in your scripture.

And we ask these things in Jesus name.

Amen.

So you're there.

In First Samuel, chapter 13, we get the story of Saul.

But let me read to you a few other things.

First, in Acts, chapter 13, verse 22, Stephen talking about David and talking about the history of Israel and the kings and the people who would reject God.

Ultimately, he speaks about David and he says, and when he had removed him being Saul, he raised up unto them David to be their king, to whom also he gave their testimony and said, I found David, the son of Jesse, a man after mine own heart, which shall fulfill all my will.

Now my first thought whenever I read that is, all of your will.

Surely there was something in there.

And then we're going to face something.

In chapter 21 of First Samuel, whenever David lies to Ahin and I and the priests and gets them all killed because of this lie, was that part of God's will?

And it really starts me to think, what in the world did God see in David?

And by the same note, what in the world does God see in us?

What does God see in us in our deep desires?

Psalm 104 is an interesting psalm that David wrote.

And I'm not going to read all of it because it is a little lengthy.

But I do want to read some of the verses about David's thoughts about who he was.

This lets us into a window.

I apologize.

You might as well just turn it there right now.

Psalm 104.

Don't say first Samuels.

Turn to Psalm 104.

This gives us a window into how David thought about God.

And it is a window of seeing the innermost desires of David and what he was wanting from God.

It says in Psalm 104, Blessed, bless the Lord.

O my soul, O Lord, my God.

Thou art very great.

Thou art clothed with honor and majesty.

Who covers thyself with light as with a garment, who stretches out the heavens like a curtain, who layeth the beams of his chambers in the wet waters, who maketh the clouds his chariot, who walketh upon the wings of the wind, who maketh his angels, spirits his ministers, a flaming fire.

You laid the foundations of the earth that it should not be removed forever.

Skip to verse 10.

He sendeth the springs into the valleys which run among the hills.

Verse number 13.

He waters the hills from his chambers.

The earth is satisfied with the fruit of thy works.

He causes the grass to grow for the cattle, herb for the service of man, that he may bring forth food out of the earth, and wine that maketh glad the heart of man, and oil to make his face to shine, and bread which strengtheneth man's heart.

You can see the adoration that David is just pouring out here.

Verse 31.

The glory of the Lord shall endure forever.

The Lord rejoice, shall rejoice in his works.

He looketh on the earth and it tremble, Toucheth the hills, and they smoke.

I will sing unto the Lord as long as I live.

I will sing praise to my God while I have my being.

My meditation of him shall be sweet.

I will be glad in the Lord.

Let the sinners be consumed out of the earth.

Let the wicked be no more.

Bless thou the Lord, O my soul.

Praise ye the Lord.

So there it is.

In Psalm 104, we see a picture of David's heart as he cries out to his God.

And his desire is to God.

That desire is to his person.

And for all the mighty things that God does.

Yes, but the adoration is not just on the gifts and the things that God was doing for David.

Because at this time in David's Life, in Psalm 104, he's doing a lot.

David is adoring the character of his God.

Now we come to First Samuel, chapter 13 says, Saul reigned one year, and when he rained two years over Israel, Saul chose him.

Three thousand men of Israel, whereof two thousand were Saul with Saul McMashon and Mount Bethel, and a thousand with Jonathan and Gibbon and Benjamin and the rest of the people.

He sent every man to his 10 intent.

And so in this story, Saul is starting off in his reign.

Random year number One, Saul is going out to do battle on behalf of the Israelites.

That's what they wanted.

We wanted a champion, they said.

We wanted a king that would fight our battles for us.

They are in a.

A tight spot.

You could say they weren't really an equipped army, but they were a willing army.

They were trying to go out and they were trying to do things somewhat right at this point.

They were trying to rely on God and for his provision.

And it says here that what they were doing is that Saul called all the people to Gilgal and at Gilgal, Gilgal, that was the place where all of the people were supposed to meet in order to meet a certain Samuel, who was their priest at this point, their prophet, who was allowed to sacrifice.

He was part of their.

Their leadership, but more importantly, he was part of the spiritual leadership of the land.

And this is who God had appointed for this position.

This is what God wanted.

This was God's direction.

This was God's will that Samuel would do that.

It says in verse number eight, he tarried seven days according to the set time that Samuel had appointed.

Samuel came not to Gilgal, and the people were scattered from him.

And then Saul says, bring hither burnt offering to me and peace offerings.

And he offered the burnt offering.

So that is the mistake.

The question that Christians get caught up on is often some of the same questions that Saul was getting caught up on in his service to the people of Israel, but to God while serving God, they get caught up on prospering while serving God.

What happens whenever we see that being a Christian doesn't really benefit us anymore?

What happens whenever you personally see that being a Christian is no longer beneficial?

I'm sure that day is going to come.

Saul was a man of God in the eyes of the people.

He's chosen by God.

He was leader of all of Israel.

And this was a great benefit to be part of God's choosing.

Because look where it got Saul.

It got him into be a king.

But now they're at Gilgal, they're waiting God, God's way.

He's supposed to be there for seven days, and then God's going to show up and fulfill his end of the bargain.

And God doesn't show up, Samuel doesn't come.

The benefits of following God are looking less and less.

And in our Christian lives, this happens to us.

We go out strong at times and we have moments of spiritual awakening, spiritual insight, spiritual strength.

We show it.

And at the moment of failing, we begin to falter.

You see, one can seek God only Because of what he can do for them rather than seek God for who he is.

How much do you love him and desire him as fellowship?

What if the gifts ultimately stopped?

David and Saul both sought God's help in their life.

Saul is clearly seeking God's help here.

He's not going to battle.

We're supposed to seek God's help before we go into battle.

That's the rule.

We sacrifice, we give to God, and then God blesses us.

David also sought God's help.

All the psalms testify to that.

Please, Lord, deliver me from my enemies.

Deliver me from my captives.

God, look what they're doing to me.

I need help.

God, help me.

Avenge me of my enemies.

We see him going before the Urim and Thummim in the next few chapters of chapter 22 and 21, all the way through the end of First Samuel.

He's asking God, God, do I go to the city and help these people?

God, are these people going to give me up?

He's going to God.

He's asking for help.

That is not the problem.

Asking God for help is not the problem.

They both sought God's help, both sought God's blessings, both enjoyed God's gifts.

But Saul cared more for the gifts rather than what condition his relationship with God was in.

David's heart was one that sung to God because of his overwhelming love for him.

David knew the blessings and the gifts of God were real, but that just wasn't his primary concern.

His primary concern was having a right relationship with God.

And we see that even as he resists God in the conviction of Uriah and the death of Uriah and Bathsheba.

We read about that in Psalm 51.

We understand that in the time that David spent away from God on the run in his heart, he was in utter torment.

And he desired to have that right.

Once that sin was completely known him, he desired to have that right not necessarily so that things would be restored, but so that he would be restored to his God.

We as Christians get caught up on prospering while serving God.

The question that we need to ask ourselves is, are we just happy with being God's child and having him as our friend?

The world's lowliest beggar can be happy and have peace in their heart if they are at peace with God and if they are in the presence of God.

But, you know, it's hard for us to think like that at.

It's hard for us to say, oh, I would be happy with less.

It's hard, okay.

We get caught up on what can God do for us?

And then there's another principle that we bring into the migs.

We try to bring scripture into the mix to help our case out.

You have not because you ask not.

I'm just asking for stuff.

You know, God says you gotta ask.

The next verse says you don't have because you ask amiss.

You want to consume it with your own lust.

There is a balance here.

Our joy is from the permanent, eternal and never breaking, never ending connection that our relationship with Jesus brings us with the Father.

It is the present salvation from sin today and the joy that comes to our hearts when we remember the upcoming future of being able to spend all of eternity with him.

The hope to come will.

That is why we should desire God.

It's about intimate relationship with God, is about a close relationship with God.

That is where the desire.

It's about our relationship with him.

Jesus is our best friend, our brother, the bridegroom, the advocate that stands between us and the Father.

And he is the reason why we can cry out, out ab.

Father, we desire our God.

That is the crux.

That is what we should be focused in.

Saul in this chapter does not follow God's lead because of his view of God.

And I have found that whenever my view of God is skewed, so to speak, everything else begins to follow suit with that.

You know, if my view of God is God doesn't care about this.

Right?

God doesn't care about me personally right now.

Everything else begins to follow suit for that.

Number one, probably angers.

One of the biggest emotions that would come up.

A lack of understanding of how much God loves you brings anger into a person's life when things don't go right.

Especially if you have a knowledge of God's sovereignty.

Yeah, I know God did this.

I know exactly that he did this.

Why did he do this?

Anger.

The wrong view brings us down a certain path.

It was his view of God.

And this is the view that I want to hone in tonight.

What this main principle is, and that is the totem principle.

How many of you know what a totem is?

Totem.

Totem pole.

Okay.

Totem pole.

Yeah.

That's probably the biggest thing that I would think of.

Bill standing.

Totem pole.

A totem is.

And on so many words, it's an idol.

Okay.

Totem would be something that you'd keep around your neck on a keychain.

You keep it with you at all times.

It is a special sacred religious relic that is powerful.

It would be your protector, your protection.

It would be Your give, your blesser.

You would do things to satisfy the totem.

You would do things to satisfy your totem.

You pray to your totem, you would kiss your totem.

You would in a way worship your totem.

Whenever something good happened, you would take off your totem.

Totems be praise.

Why?

The totem helped me.

The totem gave me my protection.

You know, you think something evil coming and you're holding up a totem.

Now the totem principle is unfortunately the way that some Christians treat their Christian life.

Now, you don't hold up a little totem and you know, a little weird thing, but we still treat God as a totem and a gift giver, not as king and intimate friend.

And that's what Saul is doing.

God is the totem and the gift giver.

And that's where we come in.

Sometimes we treat doing religious things as a totem that is supposed to protect us and give us what we want because we waived the totem.

We trust in the object that God has given as all encompassing and the reason for our success.

You know the story of Moses and making the bronze circle, I never thought about this until I saw it from a different perspective.

But the bronze serpent was a pagan idol.

To the people that would have recognized that, they would have questioned, why in the world are we looking at a pagan idol for our salvation?

And yet this was something that God used.

God uses things in our life.

He uses the word of God.

Okay, Number one, he uses the word of God.

Is, and I would be careful with this question, but is the word of God what we are necessarily doing?

Reading.

Because reading automatically gives us this pleasing relationship with God.

Well, we understand that the only way to have a pleasing relationship with God is if we are in his word and spending time with him.

But does reading the Bible automatically equate to spending time with God?

Well, no, it doesn't.

Many people read the Bible.

That doesn't necessarily mean that they have a relationship with God.

So therefore, we can conclude that as Christians, we can read the Bible and spend no time at all with God, even though we read the very words of God.

Now, if you've read your Bible, what's supposed to happen today?

Supposed to be a good day.

Okay, that's what's supposed to happen.

I read my Bible.

There's the totem.

If we didn't read our Bible and we have a bad day, I didn't please the totem today.

I didn't read my Bible.

Or maybe I didn't read my Bible enough.

And as I said this morning, we live our lives for the acceptance of God because we're trying to be accepted.

We're trying to please the totem.

We are trying to live for him to say, okay, I accept you and be pleased with you.

We are not living from the perspective of we're already accepted.

We're not living from the perspective that Jesus has already said, you are mine and I have redeemed.

You see, living for that acceptance is completely different than living from the acceptance.

The acceptance is already there.

It would be as if a little child, one morning on a Saturday after he woke up, he immediately started working and doing chores.

And I mean, this little kid is cleaning.

The parents are highly impressed.

He's.

He's out there washing the car.

He's trying to organize his dad's garage.

He's cutting a lot, all out of his own volition.

And the parents come to the little child and they say, what's going on?

Why are you doing all this work?

We're happy that you're cleaning and, you know, doing chores, but why?

And the little boy says, well, I'm trying to make sure that I'm your son now.

I'm in this family.

How would you respond to that?

What?

What?

You don't have to do any of this to.

To make.

To make your.

You our son.

You are our son already.

You are our child.

Why would you think that you have to work to be in this family?

You are in this family.

It's the same thing with our relationship with God.

Whenever we work for that acceptance, we are doing what that little child is doing whenever we work from it.

It is the aspect of saying, wow, I'm a child of God.

I get to spend time with God.

I am going to miss out if I don't spend time with God.

It is the benefits of Christ is the gifts of Christ because of your desire toward God.

And its direction is centered on God Himself.

Psalm 19, verses 9 says, the fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever.

The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.

More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold, sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb.

Moreover, by them is thy servant warned.

And in keeping them there is great reward.

There's great reward by serving God.

We understand there is great joy that follows because a person is devoted in their desires towards God.

But the gold, the blessings, the reward is not the end goal.

What did Saul do?

Look back there at verse number 14 of 1st Samuel, he said, Bring the.

In verse number 10, Saul says, Bring hither the burnt offering and the peace offering.

He offers the burnt offering.

And as soon as it came to pass, made end of the offering.

And Samuel came at the end of that offering.

Verse 11, Samuel said, what has thou done?

Now, you'll notice there in verse number 10, it says, Behold, Samuel came and Saul went out to meet him, that he might salute him.

It's an interesting thing that he says there.

Saul was thinking in terms of, we are about to go out and fight this Philistine armory army.

We need God's blessing.

We need to do this burnt offering.

And when he does this burnt offering act, this is the sinful and shameful act that first commit it is plainly sinful.

First, Saul completely plainly disobeys Samuel.

Second, Saul was a king, not a priest, and only priests were to offer sacrifices.

Saul had no business doing what Samuel was supposed to do.

History has shown us how dangerous it is to combine religious and civic authority.

We have all the massacres of the Roman Catholicism in the Church.

We have the religious wars that persisted on for years that were fought in the name of God.

King Uzziah is another person who tried to do the work of the priest, and God struck him with leprosy.

There are very precise ways that God wants us to work.

And this is a very.

This is a very good principle for all of us to base our lives off of.

You see, whenever we think about how God would have us act as Christians, how would God have us to move and walk and talk and have our conversation in this life?

Number one, we would reject following a list of rules, correct?

Absolutely.

We would say the best thing to do is to live by the Spirit.

Okay, how then do we live as Christian?

We live off of the principle of what God has revealed in his word.

We understand that some things in God's word are walls for different people.

And we also understand that some of those things have been done away with.

But one of the things that is not done away with, whenever we look at, say, the book of Leviticus, is we see principles that God has showed us and put on display.

There are principles behind why God did what what he did.

And it'd be very good of us if we as Christians in today's modern world looked at those principles to see, why did God command them to do that?

Okay, I understand that I don't have to do that particular thing.

But what was God's importance behind that principle?

And in this principle that we see, there was a precise method of who was supposed to make a sacrifice.

God had a Precise method.

It wasn't random, it wasn't chaotic.

It was done decently, in order.

It was done the way God wanted it to be done.

So here Saul does what he's not supposed to do.

Clearly out of fear, out of panic, out of not knowing what else to do, Saul does something sinful.

How many of us have done that?

We panicked.

We thought, there's no way God's going to come through on this one.

I've got to take this into my own hands and I got to do something right now, man, we get ourselves in trouble real fast.

Saul does something, and for Saul, this, there's a much heavier consequence.

Not all consequences are equal.

Saul, this was a heavy consequence.

And you know, this is the question that one commentator said, if Saul was among the prophets before, will he now be among the priests?

Can there be any devotion to God in disobedience?

O vain man?

What can it avail to sacrifice to God against God?

And that was what St. Saul did.

Said we, we have to do this sacrifice thing now to get the victory, we gotta do the sacrifice thing.

He was serving God, trying to serve God by disobeying what God had said.

And it's very important that we don't trample underfoot scripture because we're trying to obey scripture.

We don't.

We are great.

Our words are seasons with grace.

We don't go off and tell someone, you know, you're a horrible person and list out all the slew of things that they're doing wrong and completely negate the love aspect.

So obeying scripture, do we disobey scripture?

That's what Saul did.

Here again, how many.

How many of us are, though their hearts are not right before God, yet have some sort of religiousness?

Well, you could do that easy.

You could come to church because you're a bad Christian if you don't go to church.

Everyone knows that, right?

You didn't come to church.

You're a bad Christian.

That's what everyone knows.

I've went to church many times because it was religious activity that was required.

Did I want to be there?

Absolutely not.

I performed a religious act.

And that's about as much as it was worth.

It was vain.

It was empty.

Saul, in his way, was a religious man.

I say in this, his way, but not in God's way.

There is a difference.

His very disobedience that he did might be considered though an act of religion.

He said he made a sacrifice.

He offered the sacrifice.

Rather than to go into battle without a sacrifice, that was needed.

One Commentary said, an open, irreligious man would have drawn up his army and fallen on the Philistines without any religious service at all.

Saul didn't do this.

He desired to have God's blessing upon him.

And while he felt that blessing to be necessary, he did not feel that the only way of gaining it was seeking it in the way that God had appointed it.

He tried to circumvent.

It's almost as if the man that Jesus talks about, any man that climbs up another way and doesn't go in by the sheepfold, he's a thief and a robber.

That's what Saul was.

He was a thief and a robber.

He was going outside of God's direction.

No matter that it's against God, Saul said, I'm going to do why?

Because victory was given because of the total victory was given because of works performed in Saul's mind.

Not relationship.

Not a relationship to be had.

You get.

You do this to get that.

Who cares about the relationship of the matter?

Did I do what was right?

That was Saul's motivation.

You know, you think about that.

Who cares if I did it out of order?

Did I do what was right?

Yes, I did what was right.

Who cares if it wasn't done just the way that it was supposed to be done?

Didn't I do what was right?

These are some of the justifications that you can see coming and rising out of Saul.

There was a complete lack of relationship completely in Saul's life.

There isn't a trust for the specifics that God had laid down in his instructions.

There is a disregard for.

For the pureness of his relationship.

Then we go to Psalm 63.

Oh, God, thou art my God.

Early will I seek thee.

My soul thirsteth for Thee.

My flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is to see thy power and thy glory.

So as I have seen thee in the sanctuary, because thy loving kindness is better than life.

My lips shall praise thee thus while I bless thee.

While I live, I will lift up my hands in thy name.

My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness, and my mouth shall praise thee with joyful lips when I remember thee upon my bed and meditate on thee in the night watches, because thou has been my help.

Therefore in the shadow of thy wings will I rejoice.

My soul falleth hard after thee, Thy right hand upholdeth.

There is a seeking to David's heart, not desiring what God could do for him, but desiring the person of God.

A man after God's heart enthrones God as king.

For Saul, Saul was king.

For David, the Lord God was king.

Both David and Saul would have thought sacrifice important before battle.

But David thought it was important because it pleased and honored God.

Saul thought it was important because it might help him win a battle.

For Saul, God would help him achieve his goal.

For David, God himself was the goal.

Now just think about that.

Is our goal to get to God so he will help us achieve all our goal?

Or is God himself the goal?

No matter if our goal fail, flop?

Is that the will of God?

And so be it.

That's what God wants.

Because my desire is towards God, not to the end.

So is God your goal tonight?

If we are to be Christians after God's own heart, we have to be walkers of that, not just talk.

And often we get shown what is truly on the inside and we are squeezed Whenever situations come out that don't go our way.

It is situations that come into our life that go completely opposite of what we want them to be.

Saul tried to offer that sacrifice.

And it's interesting, Saul here in this verse number 10, when Saul goes out to meet Sam.

The lack of awareness that Saul shows it says that he went out to salute him.

He went out to meet him, that he might greet him.

Saul is literally this.

This word salute him actually is a little bit stronger than just saying hello.

He actually went out to bless Samuel as a priest would bless.

He literally oversteps his bounds completely.

I've already made a sacrifice.

Perhaps this is exactly what God wants me to do.

I can bless people now.

And wanting to bless Samuel.

Saul also maybe trying to show Samuel how spiritually he is.

Look, Samuel, I didn't need your help with us.

I made the sacrifice.

He's like a child who gets caught with his hand in the cookie jar and then says to mom, mom, can we pray now?

So tonight, what I want us to leave with is this thought.

If we are Christians after God's own heart, that is our goal.

That is the one question that we must answer.

Is God a goal?

Is God our goal?

Saul wanted the victory.

Saul wanted protection.

Saul wanted God's blessing on what he was doing.

But David wanted God.

That's what we have to ask ourselves.

Maybe you're going through something right now where you're not getting your way and things are not going according to plan.

Is God you're still your goal?

Do these things matter?

Does, does.

Does the relationship between you and I and our God matter more than our success?

The danger for us is that we can be very religious in today's world, still fall into Saul's way of thinking.

We can pray because we need something.

We can read our Bible because we want God to fix something.

We can come to church because we need help.

We can serve because we want his blessing.

And none of those things are wrong.

But what happens when God doesn't get that, that you've asked for, that you have wagered for?

That is the question.

Would you still want him?

David said In Psalm chapter 63, O God, thou art my God, early will I see thee, my soul thirsted for thee.

He didn't say, my soul thirsteth for what you can give me.

It was for God and for God alone.

So that is the question that I want to ask us tonight.

Do we want our God truly?

Where's our heart at?

Pray.

Father, thank you so much that you are a loving God and that you know our hearts, Lord.

And I believe that you call out to us to help us to see where our hearts are going wrong, Lord, and you draw us closer to you.

I pray that you would do that tonight, Lord, if we in our hearts are desiring what you can do for us rather than you yourself or help us to see that.

Show us that, Lord, your word.

Show us that throughout our life, Lord, I just pray and ask for your mercy and grace, Lord Jesus name we pray.

Amen.