The Transformation of Saul: From Ordinary to Extraordinary

Hello and welcome to the Middletown Baptist Church Podcast, where we are proclaiming the truth to the world.

My name is Pastor Josh, and I want to thank you for listening to this podcast.

I hope that this podcast can be a blessing to you and strengthen you in the word of God.

Now, come along.

Let's look into the Bible and see what God has for us here today.

All right, well, we're going to go ahead and continue our study here in First Samuel, and I hope that this study has been a blessing for you.

And if this is your first time with us or you've missed a little while, certainly you probably know somewhat of the story.

Israel desired that king that they wanted, not that the king that God wanted at the time.

God obviously was ruling and reigning in the lives of the people of Israel.

But Israel looks out into the world and they see the.

The different kings that the pagans had, and they wanted that.

They wanted the.

The king like everybody else.

And obviously that rationale, that motivation can get us in a lot of trouble in our life if we want what everyone else wants, if we desire the things of the world.

But that's what they desired.

And so out of a bad choice from the people of Israel, God still blesses them with an opportunity to have a king.

And, and God allows for Saul to become king.

And actually God selects Saul in this case.

And I think that's a testament to the fact that we can have the freedom to make decisions in our life, but ultimately God is in control.

We can't take him off guard.

And God gives the opportunity, even in this bad decision, to see some type of blessing.

And Saul could have obeyed the Lord.

And we know that in certain cases, in the early part of Saul's life, he does.

But then obviously we see later on that Saul's bad decisions lead him to a place of separation and punishment and destruction.

And.

And we'll get into that as we study the life of Saul here.

So we're in chapter 10, if you have your Bibles, you can look there with me.

Samuel, first Samuel, chapter 10.

We saw last week on the.

At the end of the last chapter, chapter nine, that Saul has chosen to be king.

And Samuel tells Saul, hey, you're going to be king.

And obviously, Saul is a little bit confused because he came to Samuel looking to find his donkeys.

He just was looking for his donkeys.

And then he finds out that he's going to be king.

And so that's sometimes what happens with us in our life.

We're.

We're so focused on the material on our own personal lives that we miss out on the call that God has for us.

But nonetheless, Saul is anointed.

In this chapter, we're going to study what that means, and we're going to see how we as Christians to some degree, can identify with Saul and the fact that we can have the guidance of the Holy Spirit in our lives.

And that's what we're going to be seeing here in chapter 10.

So says in verse one, Then Samuel took a vial of oil and poured it upon his head.

And so this speaks to his anointing.

Now, God had already selected Saul to be king, but this is the picture of what is happening not only physically for Saul, but spiritually for him.

And so this is a literal anointing of Saul with oil.

And.

And the word anoint itself means to.

To rub over or to sprinkle on.

And so literally, yes, Samuel is pouring oil out upon Saul.

But what does this mean?

Well, this speaks of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, or at least the Holy Spirit coming in his presence to the life of Saul for this particular cause for him to be king.

So the.

The Holy Spirit shows God's guidance in the life of Saul if he obeys.

And so he says here that he pours it upon his head and kissed him and said, it is not because the Lord hath anointed thee to be captain over his inheritance.

And so this is interesting.

What he does here is he anoints Saul.

And the picture of the oil going on Saul's head and his body was a picture of what God was already doing with him spiritually.

And that was that the Holy Spirit was being poured out upon him to equip him for the job that God was calling him to do.

And I think that this is important to note that from the very beginning, God was very clear to Saul that the only way that he could be the king that God wanted him to be was through having God's presence in his life, having God's power in his life, having God's provision in his life.

And I think that's a lesson for all of us to understand that if we want to do something for the Lord, if we want to have success, if we want to follow him, if we want to impact others, if we want to obey him, it has to be through his strength, it has to be through his guidance, it has to be ultimately through a submission to him and through.

That's what really God is telling Saul here, is that you need this for your.

Your kingdom, for.

For your.

Your Opportunity for your authority.

And so we, that Christians in the New Testament are under the new covenant.

And so we have something more than an anointing.

We have something called the indwelling of the Spirit.

So for, for this time frame, there was the pouring out of the Spirit upon certain individuals for certain times, and there was that challenge to be obedient in all cases.

But we as Christians today, even though we're challenged to be obedient, we get a blessing in the fact that we have the indwelling of the Spirit.

And the Bible tells us that we, we have it.

In First John, chapter 2, verse 20, it says, but ye have an unction from the Holy One.

And you know, all things, meaning we get a chance to have the indwelling of the Spirit on us.

And it's not like it comes and goes.

We have that opportunity at all points in our life.

But that's a little bit unique for Saul in this case, because Saul is getting this specific anointing as being the king of Israel.

But then it says that not only did he annoy him, but it says that he kissed him.

Now, that's a weird thing for some cultures.

I mean, for, for me in my culture, if another person in general, other than my wife or my children comes up to try to kiss me, I'm going to be a little bit uncomfortable, okay?

But in this case, you have to understand that culture, and we even know that in the New Testament, it says for people to greet each other with a holy kiss.

Now, I don't know if that means we should literally do that every single time we come into church.

I, I would have a struggle with that.

But I do believe that means to have the greeting, that, to have that type of cordiality, that type of compassion.

Now, certain other cultures, that's a completely normal thing to do.

And I, I completely understand that.

But what we see here is that this is not only.

This is not only a sign of greeting, as we would understand in that culture, but it was also, I believe, a.

A sign or a stamp upon Saul's life that, hey, Samuel is agreeing with this.

Samuel is basically endorsing Saul.

Now.

Now, why would Samuel endorse Saul?

Because God told him to.

And so Samuel is being obedient by saying, lord, okay, if this is your man, if this is who you are allowing to be the king, I support that.

And so by kissing him as he was anointing him, it was identifying personal support of the leader that God had selected.

And so it was important that the king of Israel would understand that not only did God support him, but also who would be considered the man of God, and Israel supported him.

So, so Samuel was the prophet, Samuel was the judge, Samuel was the spiritual leader.

And so for Saul to see that God is supporting him and lifting him up and providing for him also through the prophet, there was support in a personal way.

And I think that's important for all of us to understand.

I know that all of us can take great solace and peace and comfort in the fact that God is with us.

And that's a biblical truth that we should all rest in.

But I think we would all agree that with God being with us, it also helps us to have other Christians supporting us, other people praying for other other people, loving on us and encouraging us and edifying us.

And so I think that's a beautiful picture of, of God's provision through the life of Samuel.

And so he asked them there, he says, is it not because the Lord has anointed you?

So, so God anoints Saul.

And there were obviously a lot of aspects to this anointing.

But, but we.

What we see here is that it was.

This is in secret.

Now, eventually God's going to reveal this publicly.

But, but this is a very secret, a very private anointing only between God, Saul and Samuel.

And, and so essentially what we see here is that God is making a personal covenant with Samuel, basically saying, hey, I'm going to be with you.

And he's also saying to Saul, I'm going to be with you.

And so Samuel reminded Saul that Israel belonged to the Lord.

And that's what he says there.

He says, is it not because the Lord hath anointed thee to be captain over his inheritance?

And so there's a reminder here in a.

In a very personal, private way, but I, I believe a very impactful way that Saul, it's still the Lord's.

Even though you're the king, you.

You are not above the Lord.

No one's above the Lord.

And I think that that's again, another lesson for us to understand in our own life.

Because sometimes, whether we articulate it or not by what we say, but sometimes by what we do, we indicate that we're above God or that our authority is higher than God.

And we've seen people throughout history that have become so powerful in the eyes of man that maybe they were even deceived to believe that they were higher than God or maybe that they were some sort of God.

And so the reminder here is that, hey, the Lord's anointed you to be a leader, but he has not called you God.

He is still the Lord.

He is still in control.

And so really, the challenge for Saul was that he should be the best king that he could be through submitting himself to the Lord by belonging to the Lord.

And we could say it this way, to be a good steward over what God has blessed him with, to lead.

And that's really all of leadership when it comes to spiritual leadership.

And, and by the way, there is even today, an aspect of spiritual leadership even within the church.

God has ordained certain aspects of authority within the church.

But really what we see in New Testament passages, it's not about lording over the flock, but it's about shepherding the flock.

It's about being with the flock and understanding that we don't own the people that were overseeing.

We don't own those that we're leading.

We certainly get a blessing by overseeing what God has entrusted us with.

And so I believe it's a challenge here, just in verse number one, that Saul needed to see that he was a steward over the people of Israel, not a Lord over them.

There's only one Lord, and that's the Lord our Savior.

And that's ultimately what the reminder here was.

And so we know that later on in Saul's life, he doesn't heed this challenge.

He doesn't remember this, this teaching from Samuel that, hey, you are over the people of Israel, but you're not over God.

And I think that's something that all of us, to some capacity, need to understand within our homes, within our marriages, within our ministry, within our workplace, within our country, that there's nobody above the Lord.

And if we live that way, we certainly would, I believe, be a lot more Christ.

Like, as we see even in Philippians chapter two, the challenge is for us to humble ourselves even as Christ humbled himself.

And so I think one of the things that a Christian should be characterized by is a steward, a faithful steward, and a humbled steward.

So we see all that happening there in verse one.

So Samuel's going to tell Saul of a sign, basically a confirmation, if you will.

And this is oftentimes what happens even with our.

In our own life.

We.

We will receive a promise of God from His Word, but then there will be confirmation in our life, which I would say this way, basically, God proves himself in his promises.

And so verse two, he says, when thou art departed from me today, then thou shalt find two men.

By Rachel Sepulcher in the border of Benjamin at Zelza 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, and sorrow with for you saying, what shall I do for my son?

So what is Samuel doing here?

Samuel's essentially prophesying to Saul, Go to this place, you'll find these men and they will tell you where your donkeys are.

They will tell you what you were looking for.

Now why is this so important?

Because if Samuel would have told Saul this and Saul went to this place and it didn't come to pass, essentially Samuel would be a false prophet.

And by the way, that's the test to every prophet.

You know, there's people today that say they're prophets and they can predict the future and they can tell what's happening.

The Bible very clearly gives us a test on that.

If they're wrong at any point, that means they're a false prophet.

So, so what we have to see is that there's like if someone like, if I told you, hey, tomorrow you're going to come across somebody at 9 o' clock and they're going to ask you this question, and maybe I could be right, but if I am a true prophet of God, I have to be right every single time.

And that's what we see today.

We see a lot of people, they're like, well, the Lord's gonna come back at this time, you know, the moment they do that and it doesn't happen, they have discredited everything that they say.

So here in this case, if Samuel would have said, hey, Saul, go to this place and you'll find these people and they weren't there.

Samuel will be a false prophet.

And what just got told to of Saul and what just got demonstrated through the anointing would just be discredited.

And so here we see this confirmation.

He makes a prediction, he makes a prophecy.

And so Samuel gave Saul a specific word by which Saul could see, by proof that he could have confidence not only in what Samuel said, but also on what God has said.

And so that's why we believe today.

That's why I believe today.

When we hear about prophets, prophets are those who speak forth the word of God from the Bible.

So I can get up a hundred times out of a hundred and tell you what the word of God says is true and it will be true.

And so for me, when I'm going to give a prophetic word, it's speaking forth the truth of God.

But if I got up and told you my opinion about something I might not be right.

Actually, I'm probably wrong more often than not.

And so the reality is here is that this is God showing Saul through Samuel that his word is true.

So he says, God, and find these people, and he gives them a specific place, a specific time, and a specific way.

He says, go to Rachel's tomb.

And.

And so there is this important proclamation, and we'll see what happens.

We'll see if this comes to pass.

And so if the men by Rachel's tomb didn't tell Saul about finding the donkeys, Saul would see that Samuel's not a true prophet.

So let's see what happens.

We'll see if God's word is confirmed here.

By the way, God's word is always confirmed.

Verse 3.

Then shalt thou go on forward from thence, and thou shalt come to the plain.

So he's giving more details.

Come to the plane of Tabor, and there shall meet the 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.

And so again, we see that there are more signs.

He gives specific predictions.

And by the way, I believe that the word of God is always specific.

I mean, I could give you a vague prophecy, you know, like, I believe that God is going to give you an opportunity tomorrow to, you know, see someone that you know.

Well, that's not like a real good prophecy.

That's not a specific prophecy.

Most of us will see someone that we know.

So when we're dealing with the word of God, a lot of times people speak vague things over our lives or make vague predictions or even speak vaguely about the Bible.

The word of God and the Spirit of God move in very specific manners.

And actually, sometimes we can get confused with Holy Spirit conviction and what we would consider false guilt from the enemy.

So, for example, I know this is not exactly the same, but I think we need to see how God speaks and how the enemy speaks.

God speaks specifically and clearly and directs us to a specific place of either confirmation, conviction or comfort.

I want you guys to think about that here.

God's always going to lead us to a place of certainty, whether it be certainty of my conviction or certainty of my comfort or certainty to my confidence in God or.

Or whatever it might be.

God's going to lead clearly to a place of specificity and clarity where the enemy always leads us to a place of vagueness or to a place where we can't understand the truth.

And we know that Satan is the father of lies.

He's the accuser of the brethren.

And so oftentimes in our life, if we begin to come to a place where there isn't clarity, or we come to a place where there's just this false guilt over my head, that's not conviction, his conviction.

And the word of God is always going to cut right to the bone.

It's going to cut right to the heart.

And it's going to tell us how I get this right, what I need to do, how I need to clarify.

And, and that's actually second Timothy three, 16 for the, for the Word of God.

It's, it's, it's profitable for doctrine, for proof, for correction, for instruction, righteousness.

Now, what happens sometimes within our own walk, and we're going to see Saul even fall into this to some degree, Saul falls into great times of darkness and depression and doubt and uncertainty.

And the reality is, is that sometimes as, as Christians, Satan will come in and want to make us think that it's God telling us something, but really it's him telling us something.

Vague cloudiness, basically, like, it comes like this.

Maybe you're, you know, you're a terrible person.

You've done too much wrong.

You can't be used here.

You're not smart enough, you're not, you're not skilled enough.

And really, that's not the way that God talks.

God, God's always going to speak to a place in which we can fix or that we can.

That we can change or that we can adjust.

And so here, in this case, the, the point I'm trying to make is that God is speaking through Samuel in a very specific, clear way about what is going to happen.

And so I want us to see this a little bit further.

He says that.

That not only are you going to see certain people, but they are going to be carrying three kids and another carrying three loaves of bread and another carrying a bottle of wine and verse four, and they will salute thee and give thee two loaves of bread which thou shalt receive of their hands.

And so this would have been.

This is not only specific, but it would be unusual.

It would be unusual for random men to just give a stranger food.

Even though there, there would have been a lot of generosity at that time, specifically on the road, there wouldn't have been this type of transaction.

So obviously, Saul is going to get used to receiving a lot of things throughout his life as the king.

But at this time they don't know he's king.

And so these strangers were going to give him some type of food.

So verse five, Samuel's going to tell Saul of another sign to confirm this and that thou shalt come to the hill of God where is the garrison of the Philistines.

And it 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 sal tree, with a tabor and from the pipe and a heart before them.

And they shall prophesy.

And the Spirit of the Lord will come upon thee, and thou shalt prophesy with them and shall be turned into another man.

Find that really, really interesting.

He says that you will be turned into another man.

Now does.

What does that mean?

Is that mean that Saul will look different?

I don't think he's talking about being a shape shifter at this moment.

I think what this is talking about obviously is.

And I think it's important to understand the context here.

It says.

It says verse six.

And the Spirit of the Lord will come upon thee.

So this speaks of the Holy Spirit directing Saul.

And so for.

For Paul, for.

For.

Excuse me, for Saul to.

To be a certain person that.

That God wants him to be, he has to change, and he has to adjust himself to what God's plan is for him.

So a man.

Saul was not a spiritual guy leading up to this.

And so for him to prophesy, for him to be spiritually focused, it would be that he's a completely different man.

I think all of us could be honest in the fact that, you know, we are different people than we were prior to knowing Christ, prior to having the Holy Spirit in our life.

And so in this case, what we're seeing is that Saul would need to change.

He would need to be a new man in the spirit of the Lord.

And so for God to use Saul in the ministry that he intends him to have as the king, he had to be turned into a different man.

He had to have a different heart.

And the way that we can have a different heart is not by just becoming a better person or by being stronger or being smarter.

The way that we can become a different person is through the transformation of the Holy Spirit.

And so I think that it's a good thing that God changes us because who we are before we're saved and who we are after we're saved should be completely different.

And that's what he's saying here.

He says, this is what's going to happen.

The Spirit of God is going to come upon you, you're going to start prophesying.

You're going to be a completely different person.

And.

And so that's the.

Really, we see the initiation of God coming upon Saul and guiding him in these decisions.

Verse 7.

And let it be when these signs are come unto thee, that thou do as occasion serve thee, for God is with thee.

So again, what we see here is he says basically these are all happening from God.

And, and so God arranged for each one of these events to happen.

For what he says very clearly here in verse number seven, what it's for, it's there to be a sign for Saul that God is with him.

It's a reminder that God is directing him, that God is working in his life.

And so verse seven tells us exactly what these signs are for.

It's not just so that Saul can know that God exists, even though that would be nice.

But it's more than that.

It's that God would remind him and to serve him, to know that God's presence is with him.

And I think that's.

Again, it's so vital for me as a believer to go back to the fact that God is with me, that his presence is with me, because there's times in my life where I feel alone.

There's times in my life where I feel empty.

There's times in my life where I feel scared.

There's times in my life where I feel dark, where I feel confused.

There's many different feelings that we can have, and we're going to experience that with Saul.

Saul is a man of.

Of vastly different emotions.

There's a lot of ups in Saul's life.

There's a lot of down in his life.

There's a lot of times of joy.

There's a lot of times of anger.

And.

And again, emotions aren't necessarily wrong in and of themselves.

God gave us emotions.

But if we are the type of people that allow our theology to be clipped to our emotions, a lot of times our emotions can drive our theology all over the place about who God is.

So, for example, if I'm feeling the warm and fuzzies today, everything's going my way.

I can feel, you know what?

God is good.

God is powerful.

God is a provider.

But are we able to say those same theological statements in the midst of emptiness?

Because there's days where my emotions aren't full of.

Of peace and comfort and happiness.

And so the true test for us as believers is to not tie our theology to our Feelings, but tie our theology to the presence of God and the truth of who he is.

And that's what God is reminding Saul of here.

He says, saul, these signs are not to show you that there's just amazing things that are going to happen in your life.

Even though that's going to happen, what is it there for?

It's there to show you that God is with you.

And God always confirms his calling in our life.

I can tell you, time after time in my life, I.

It's.

It's almost like I believe sometimes.

It's almost like I can't learn my lesson because I'm like.

Every time I'm like, lord, why this time?

Just don't think I can get out of this one.

I don't know if you're here with me.

And every time God shows himself in a different way, in a clear way, that, no, I'm here with you through this.

I. I've gotten you to this place and I'm going to get you through this.

And that's the reminder that Saul needed to hear here.

And really, he needs to hear throughout his life, but yet he closes off to the Lord multiple times.

So I challenge you tonight to think about that.

What is God giving you in your life to remind you that he's there with you?

You say, well, things are going really well in my life right now.

Well, praise God for that.

But what if things aren't going so well?

Are you going to be able to see God and His presence and his power and his provisions, no matter what might be the case around you?

And that's really the challenge that we see here in this passage.

And so he says, God is with thee.

Then we get the verse number eight.

So Saul is commanded to wait here.

And sometimes it's hard.

It's the hardest thing to do, but that's what he calls them to do.

And he says, and thou shalt go down before me to Gilgal, which, if you've been studying with us in the book of Joshua, Gilgal is a very important place.

Gilgal is always a symbol of coming back to faith, coming back to the strength of God, coming back to.

To his rest and to his.

His peace.

And so I think that's an important thing to note here.

He says, go down 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.

So he says, after you receive the sign of God, don't go anywhere.

Go to Gilgal, rest and wait in Gilgal for seven days.

And I will come and we will deal with this and we will go through those next steps.

And so this was a very important command because oftentimes we like the fact that God is working in our life, but sometimes the challenge is obedience.

We love to see God working, but are we willing to work as God has called us to work?

Are we willing to restore as God has called us to rest?

Are we willing to wait as God has called us to wait?

And, and so Saul is not.

If you look at the life of Saul as his testimony, he's not a patient man.

He's not a man who wants to wait on the Lord.

And, and so this is a challenge for Saul in his character.

And, and so, but Saul, Saul is commanded by Samuel, ultimately by the Lord to wait.

Why?

Because I believe this is an opportunity for Saul to see the true authority of God over him, that God is still dict.

Steps.

He's.

He should not be the one dictating his own steps.

And so God is working to show Saul early on that he is still in control.

And so Saul had to basically humble himself like, oh, I'm king now, but now I have to wait on somebody.

No, he, he is going to be reminded that God is still in control.

And so failing to wait for Samuel will ultimately get him in trouble later on in his life.

You guys know, ahead of the game that he tells, hey, wait on me here.

But we know that there's another time in the story that Saul is told to wait on Samuel and he does it.

And there's a great consequences there.

And so we're going to get to that later on in the study.

So let's, let's look at verse number nine because all the prophecies have been laid out.

So does it come true?

Let's look at verse nine, verse nine.

And it was so that when he had turned back his back to go from Samuel, God gave him another heart.

So, so it's true.

He becomes a new man.

His heart is changed.

And all those signs came to pass that day.

So that's an amazing thing.

Even verse nine itself is just like, well, everything that Samuel just told me, everything that God just told me through Samuel came to pass.

So it's confirmation, it's proof God is proving himself, proving himself to, to Saul.

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.

So Again, that's exactly what, what Samuel said.

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 came upon the son of Kish?

Is Saul also among the prophets?

I don't know if you caught what verse 11 is basically saying, but the people that knew Saul see him doing something that's not like him.

Like, he's different.

And that's, again, that's how it should be when, when God is working in our life, people should see a complete difference.

You know, I think a lot of times people think of faith in God as a religious thing that, like, well, I'm just going to go clean myself up.

I'm going to try to like, become more disciplined.

I'm going to, I'm going to try to become more religious.

That word you'll hear religious, religious.

And again, I, I understand what we mean by that, but really the true change does not come through our hard work.

It doesn't come through our personal discipline.

It doesn't come from just like avoiding other people in our life, even though that's a good principle to have.

I'm not saying that we shouldn't avoid sinful people, but what I am saying in our life is just doing human work on, on the, the framework of our mindset does not create a different person.

What creates a different person is the Holy Spirit of God.

And that's, and that's how we can have.

Because I've heard people say, well, people never change.

I've heard that really, I've heard people say there is no way a person can ever change.

Well, that's undermining and really, I would say disobeying what the Bible says, that the Holy Spirit can change our heart.

Now I understand what we mean by some people can't change in the fact that like, someone might be introverted.

And it doesn't mean that they have to change from being introverted, extrovert.

I'm not talking about that, but I'm talking about we do before we're saved, have a heart of sin, have a heart of darkness, have a heart of, of rebellion.

And in the moment of salvation, yes, we still have the flesh.

But really what the Bible says is that our heart has changed from stone to flesh and that it's a complete transformation.

And so, yes, we can change.

We, we can be different, we can speak differently, we can respond differently.

And that's what we see here, is that it's so different that people Are like, basically, I don't know if any of you guys have had children and your children go with somebody else.

And they go, oh, your children were just so respectful.

They were the best kids.

And I'm like, well, who is.

What'd you do with my kid?

Like, where'd they go?

And so like.

Or they were, you know, a certain way.

And, and.

And that's exactly what they're seeing here, is they're like, basically, what did you guys do with Saul?

He's a different person.

And we know what happened.

We know behind the scenes what happened.

It's a Holy Spirit transformation.

It's a completely different thing.

And so he begins to prophesy and.

And the heart is changed.

And Samuel didn't give him that heart.

Saul didn't do it for himself.

It was God who changed his heart.

And that's how we should always think about things if we want to see people change.

And no doubt you do want to see people change for the good.

Maybe it's a friend, maybe it's a family member, maybe it's a child, maybe it's fellow church member.

Maybe it's somebody.

I don't know.

The way that we can truly see change happen in their life is not by creating more rules, even though sometimes that's the temptation to do like.

And I'm not saying rules are bad, but.

But rules are only rules to.

To show us what's right and wrong.

It's not there to change your heart.

You.

You can't force a person.

You sometimes try to.

I mean, I'm just using examples.

Sometimes we try to scare people into being good people.

Sometimes we try to guilt people into being good people.

Whatever tactic that people have used over the years really doesn't create a true change.

So what do we pray for?

We pray for a heart to be changed.

We pray that the Holy Spirit changes someone's heart.

Now we can show as an example what it means to be different.

And Paul talks about that in the New Testament.

Follow me as I follow Christ.

That's certainly a biblical thing.

But if I'm wanting to see someone change, I don't want to change them from the outside and hope that that changes their heart.

Really, what we should see is a heart change that then eventually does change on the outside.

And so our prayer should be that they find that true relationship with the Lord and that they submit themselves to the Lord and that the Holy Spirit changes.

They're like, I don't know if some of you in your life, maybe you were one of these People that someone might say, there's no chance that person could be saved.

There's no chance that person could follow or serve or to teach.

But yet, let's look at some examples of scripture.

I'm sure that's what people said about the New Testament, Saul.

I mean, Saul was going around killing people that were Christians, and then he becomes a great apostle.

Peter was a fisherman and probably had a lot of issues.

And people would have never guessed that he would have been the one that preached the message of Pentecost, but yet he did because of the power of God in his life.

And so God can change people.

God is still changing people.

And it's something that we should pray for and that we should look to in our lives.

And so Saul has changed here, though we know that at this time frame, Saul does follow to some degree the Lord, but he does, he does slip.

And later on.

We're going to talk more about that later on in the study.

Verse 12.

We'll go a few more verses and then we'll wrap it up here.

Verse 12.

And one of the same place answered and said, but who is their father?

Therefore it became a proverb.

It's Saul, also his soul, also among the prophets.

And so like, the question would be, is like, how could he be a prophet?

You know, the question is basically ask, who's the source of this change?

We, I thought we knew Saul's father.

And his, his father can't change him like this.

And, and so if, if God is our change, then it's true change.

And I think that's the note that, that we see here.

And so Saul continues on in verse 14 or 13, sorry.

And it says, and when he had made an end of prophesying, he came to the high place.

And Saul's uncle said unto him, and to a servant, whither went ye?

And he said, to seek the asses.

And when they saw that they were nowhere, where we came to Samuel.

So he's basically recounting the story.

And Saul's uncle said, tell me, I pray thee, what Samuel said unto you.

And he 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 so essentially what we see here is that Saul doesn't tell his family, his uncle, what happened, which is interesting.

He hides this whole experience from his uncle.

And we don't know exactly why Some, some different people have some different philosophical reasons why he didn't divulge the information.

Basically, Saul Wanted to know what.

What happened.

I don't know if he still had the remnants of the anointing on him, but he probably had that.

And so there's probably some questions.

And so it does seem strange that.

That Saul didn't tell anybody of his experience.

And maybe, maybe Saul is using discretion, saying, well, I want to wait till this becomes public before I tell anybody.

But nonetheless, he's.

We could see, maybe, that he's humble and waiting for God to reveal it and not to be prideful and reveal it himself.

Maybe he's fearful of what people might say.

Maybe he's concerned that there could be judgment upon him.

Maybe it's an act of cowardice, maybe it's humility.

We're not entirely sure.

But he does not.

Does not tell them about what just happened.

And so we're going to go to verse number 17.

Samuel's going to give a speech to the nation before the public announcement.

So, so Saul keeps it quiet.

Samuel's going to profess it.

And Samuel called the people together unto the Lord to Mizpah and said unto the children of Israel, thus saith the Lord God of Israel.

So this is a proclamation of God.

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.

So what is.

What is Samuel doing here?

Samuel is reminding the people of God's power and presence.

So he's like, God's in control.

God's saved you.

God's provided for you.

God has sustained you.

God has guided throughout all these different things that you remember verse 19.

And ye have this day rejected your God.

So there is a call to action here.

There is a challenge here.

He says, God's the one that got you through all of this.

You've rejected your God, who himself saved you out of all your adversities and your tribulations.

And you have said unto him, nay, but set a king over us.

And so he's reminding the people of their decision.

He says, you had a choice to have God as your king.

You didn't want that, even though he's the one that got you.

Him alone, got you out of the adversities, out of tribulations, out of.

Out of all these issues that that were there.

He says, now therefore, present yourselves before the Lord by your tribes and by your thousand.

So he says, okay, this is going to be an opportunity for you to come together here.

And essentially they're going to.

They're going to cast lots for their king, and it's going to fall on Saul.

And for the people, it's going to look like they essentially pick the king.

But ultimately we know that God is still in control.

And so let's just finish it.

Let's just finish it.

We can make it.

All right.

We'll.

We'll skim through this really quickly.

And when Samuel had caused all the tribes of Israel to come near, tribe of Benjamin was taken.

So, okay, tribe of Benjamin, remember Saul's tribe of Benjamin when he had caused the tribe of Benjamin to come nearby, the families.

The family of matry was taken, and Saul the son of Kish was taken.

And when they saw him, he could not be found.

Therefore, they inquired of the Lord further if the man should yet come thither.

And the Lord answered, behold, he hath hid himself among the stuff.

Now, there's.

There's a lot of things that you could talk about with that, but he just.

Basically, God has recognized that Saul is not present.

Verse 23.

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 upward.

So this is again another reminder of his physical appearance.

Taller than the others, stronger than the others, probably better looking.

As we were reminded earlier on verse 24 in Samuel said unto all the people, see ye whom the Lord hath chosen?

So they might think that there's that human element of them choosing.

But ultimately he reminds them that God is still in control, that there is none like him among all the people.

And all the people shouted and said, God save the king.

And so they make a recognition to put their allegiance to Saul.

Verse 25.

Then Samuel told the people the manner of the kingdom and wrote it in a book and laid it before the Lord.

And the.

And Samuel sent all the people away, every man to his house.

And Saul went home to Gibeah, and there went with him the band of men whose hearts had hearts God had touched.

And then we get to the very end, because this is actually interesting, but the children of Belial, which.

The children of Belial is a phrase for like sons of worthlessness.

So it would be that there were individuals who were naysayers essentially to this.

They didn't trust in the leadership of Saul.

Even though we think that everyone's behind Saul at the early part, it doesn't mean that they say, how shall this man save us?

And they despised him and brought him no presence, but he held his peace.

And so here in this point, we do see that Saul has some naysayers Saul has some of those that doubt and that's any leader, specifically any young leader, any new leader, there's going to always be some questions.

And Saul could have responded in a lot of different ways.

But it says here that he held his peace, which probably was a wise decision at that point.

Probably was only the power of God that he could hold that back because obviously he just got off of this anointing.

He was probably feeling God's presence in his life.

And then there was people that questioned.

But the Bible says that he held his peace.

And so even though there were people calling out long live the king, there were some that were still naysayers.

And even though the monarchy is established, there were still some that despised him.

And, and yet, you know, he's going to, that's going to cause him a problem later because, you know, any, any good leader should recognize people that are, are against the Lord are going to, there's going to always be naysayers.

And the Bible speaks of them being emptiness, empty, empty hearted sons of belial, sons of worthlessness.

And so Saul could have later on in his life dealt with them in the same way.

But we know that Saul gets to hearing what the other people are saying and eventually controls him.

And really any good leader we're going to see throughout this study, I think in other studies that any good leader can be led by really two different motivations, maybe more than two different motivations.

But typically you see people either led by comfort or conviction.

Comfort would be what makes me feel good, what people want the easiest route.

And other people are led by conviction.

I don't care what people say.

This is what God has called me to do.

I'm going to do this regardless of the people's response.

Now there, there is some, what people might understand as a middle ground there.

Certainly we can move with conviction to also have the people's concerns in mind.

But at the same time, if our first priority is the approval of the people as a leader, we ultimately might be putting that as a priority over the Lord and therefore not following what the Lord has for us.

And so eventually we're going to see Saul's heart.

He doesn't just ignore and hold his peace with people.

Eventually Saul gets really bothered when people start praising David over him.

If you guys remember that story, he's like, well, I want to have that praise.

And it became a heart of covetousness.

And then he was, he was driven by covetousness, which essentially was him trying to find some kind of comfort by the people's praise.

And so we're going to see that over and over again as a, as a repetition in Saul's life.

And so this point in time, I think we can take a few lessons away at the end of this chapter, then we'll be done.

God chose Saul regardless of, you know, whether or not it was the people's decision or God's decision.

We know that God allowed for this to happen.

And therefore God chose and anointed Saul.

God filled Saul with the Holy Spirit.

God supported him by giving him Samuel.

God gave him opportunity to have the vast majority of people supporting him at this point.

He even gave him wisdom not to respond in an evil way back to those naysayers.

But all these advantages that God gives him are predicated upon Saul obeying the Lord and following the Lord.

But we're going to see that even I, I, I believe that Saul's the way that you could characterize Saul, I think, is many different words, but the one that I always think about when I think about Saul's life is potential.

And potential can be such a scary word because Saul had so much potential.

He had so much opportunity, he had so much gift, gifts from God.

But then at the time of his passing, we see him basically turned away from the Lord.

And so he wastes a lot of potential that God allowed for in his life.

And so despite all these advantages, despite all of these potentially blessings that he has been given in his life, we see that it still can end badly for an individual if they turn their hearts and their minds against the Lord.

And that's really the story of Saul.

But this is the very beginning.

And so we're going to get into it and we're going to see, basically it starts in a very good place.

It begins to spiral, and it begins to get out of control.

And ultimately by the end of his story, it's completely out of control.

And so the rest of the book of 1st Samuel shows Saul dealing with the choice of whether or not he's going to obey God or he's going to obey basically himself and disobey God.

And that's, that's the rest of the story of First Samuel.

Well, I'll go ahead and close there.

I know that was a long study, but I did want to end there at a very awkward place and then not be able to pick up in the next chapter next time.

So we won't be back next week in First Samuel.

Actually, we have a guest speaker next Wednesday night.

Our, our candidate for assistant pastor is going to be preaching on Wednesday night, he's going to be preaching on Sunday morning and he's going to be preaching on Wednesday night.

So you get an opportunity to hear from him twice if you come to both.

And so unless he's preaching in 1st Samuel chapter 11 about the Ammonites covenant conditions, I doubt he will be.

But if he is, then you get then you'll get one Samuel chapter 11.

But but nonetheless, if he doesn't, then we'll be back in two weeks looking at 1st Samuel chapter 11.

Thank you again for listening to the Middletown Baptist Church podcast.

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Thank you so much.

God Bless.

Have a wonderful day.