Show Notes
1 Samuel 9:1 - 10:16
Pastor Christopher Chelpka
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Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] Our Heavenly Father, we thank you for the work that you have done in us. Your children before you. We were by nature children of wrath and condemned to your wrath for fair punishment for our sins.
[00:00:16] But, O Lord, we come to you not at all in fear of those things, because we know that in Christ all has been taken care of. We know that his blood was perfectly given to atone for our sins, that he gave his life up willingly for us, that he has done everything for us, achieves everything for us, that we might receive all of these things freely from your hands. O Lord, we ask that you would help us to trust in you for those things. Help us to trust in you, in your Messiah, in your words, in your King.
[00:00:54] We ask that in all of the particulars of our lives, the things that are on our hearts even today, whether they're relationship issues or health issues, job issues, various things that are going on that disturb us and trouble us, that make us concerned, help us to put our faith in you and do that now, Lord, as we hear your word, a particular moment in history when you were at work.
[00:01:25] Help us to see you and hear your voice as you speak to us this morning, to apply your word to our lives, that we might be transformed according to the promises that you have made, the things that you reveal, and the hope that we have in Jesus. We pray this in his name. Amen.
[00:01:47] You may be seated. I have a little bit of a longer passage to read this morning.
[00:01:53] Let's turn our attention to 1st Samuel chapter 9. I'll read 1st 9 and the beginning of chapter 10 through verse 16. So the thing you're looking for is 1 Samuel 9:1. If you are going to read along. Otherwise you can listen whatever is most helpful to you.
[00:02:40] In the previous chapter, you remember that Israel asked for king and God told Samuel that he should help make this happen. We see the results of that in 1st Samuel chapter 9. In the beginning of chapter 10, when a king is appointed by the Lord and then through his servant Samuel, as we read, ask this question to yourself. What does this reveal to you? What does this reveal to us about God and his plans?
[00:03:15] And we'll have to think carefully about it as we think about God's work in this moment in time and how that prepares for future events and even the course of our own lives. So let's give our attention to God's word. 1st Samuel 9.
[00:03:33] There was a man of Benjamin, whose name was Kish, the son of Abiel, the son of Zeror, the son of Barokath, the son of Apphiah, and a Benjamite, a man of wealth. And he had a son whose name was Saul, a handsome young man. There was not a man among the people of Israel more handsome than he. From his shoulders upward, he was taller than any of the people.
[00:03:59] Now the donkeys of Kish, Saul's father, were lost. So Kish said to Saul his son, take one of the young men with you and arise. Go and look for the donkeys. And he passed through the hill country of Ephraim and passed through the land of Shalasha, but they did not find them. And they passed through the land of Sha'alim, but they were not there. Then they passed through the land of Benjamin, but did not find them. When they came to the land of Zuph, Saul said to his servant who was with him, come, let us go back, lest my father cease to care about the donkeys and become anxious about us.
[00:04:36] But he said to him, behold, there is a man of God in this city, and he is a man who is held in honor. All that he says comes true. So now let us go there. Perhaps he can tell us the way we should go.
[00:04:49] Then Saul said to his servant, but if we go, what can we bring the man? For the bread in our sacks is gone, and there is no present to bring to the man of God. What do we have? The servant answered Saul again, here I have a quarter of a shekel of silver, and I will give it to the man of God to tell us our way.
[00:05:08] Formerly in Israel, when a man went to inquire of God, he said, come, let us go to the seer, for today's prophet was formerly called a seer.
[00:05:17] And Saul said to his servant, well said, come, let us go. So they went to the city where the man of God was.
[00:05:25] As they went up to the hill of the city, they met young women coming to draw water and said to them, is the seer here? They answered, he is. Behold, he is just ahead of you. Hurry. He has come just now to the city because the people have a sacrifice today on the high place. As soon as you enter the city, you will find him before he goes up to the high place to eat. For the people will not eat until he comes, since he must bless the sacrifice afterward.
[00:05:54] Those who are invited will eat now. Go up, for you will meet him immediately.
[00:06:00] So they went up to the city. As they were entering the city, they saw Samuel coming out toward them on his way up to the high place.
[00:06:08] Now, the day before Saul came, the Lord had revealed to Samuel, tomorrow about this Time I will send to you a man from the land of Benjamin and you shall anoint him to be prince over my people Israel. He shall save my people from the hand of the Philistines. For I have seen my people because their cry has come to me.
[00:06:31] When Samuel saw Saul, the Lord told him, here is the man of whom I spoke to you. He it is who shall restrain my people.
[00:06:40] Then Saul approached Samuel in the gate and said, tell me, where is the house of the seer?
[00:06:46] Samuel answered, saul, I am the seer. Go up before me to the high place, for today you shall eat with me. And in the morning I will let you go and will tell you all that is on your mind. As for your donkeys that were lost three days ago, do not set your mind on them, for they have been found. And for whom is all that is desirable in Israel? Is it not for you and for your father's house? Saul answered, am I not a Benjaminite from the least of the tribes of Israel? And is not my clan the humblest of all the clans of the tribe of Benjamin? Why then have you spoken to me in this way?
[00:07:24] Then Samuel took Saul and his young man and brought them into the hall and gave them a place at the head of those who had been invited, who were about 30 persons. And Samuel said to the cook, bring the portion I gave to you, of which I said to you, put it aside. So the cook took up the leg and what was on it and set them before Saul. And Saul said, see or. And Samuel said, see, what was kept is set before you eat, because it was kept for you until the hour appointed that you might eat with the guests.
[00:07:55] So Saul ate with Samuel that day. And when they had come down from the high place into the city, a bed was prepared for Saul on the roof, and he lay down to sleep. Then at the break of dawn, Samuel called to Saul on the roof up, that I may send you on your way. Saul arose, and both he and Samuel went out into the street. And as they were going down to the outskirts of the city, Samuel said to Saul, tell the servant to pass on before us. And when he's passed on, stop here yourself for a while that I may make known to you the word of God.
[00:08:29] Then Samuel took a flask of oil and poured it on his head and kissed him and said, has not the Lord anointed you to be prince over his people Israel?
[00:08:39] And you shall reign over the people of the Lord. And you will save them from the hand of their surrounding enemies. And this shall be A sign to you that the Lord has anointed you prince over his heritage.
[00:08:50] When you depart from me today, you will meet two men by Rachel's tomb in the territory of Benjamin at Zelzah. And they will say to you, the donkeys that you went to seek are found. And now your father has ceased to care about the donkeys and is anxious about you saying, what shall I do about my son? Then you shall go on from there farther and come to the oak of Tabor. Three men going up to God at Bethel will meet you there. One carrying three goats, another carrying three loaves of bread, and another carrying a skin of wine. And they will greet you and give you two loaves of bread. And you shall accept from their hand, which you shall accept from their hand.
[00:09:30] After that, you shall come to Gibeath Elohim, where there is a garrison of Philistines. And there, as soon as you come into the city, you will meet a group of prophets coming down from the high place with harp, tambourine, flute and lyre before them, prophesying. Then the spirit of the Lord will rush upon you and you will prophesy with them and be turned into another man. Now, when these signs meet you, do what your hands find to find. Do what your hand finds to do, for God is with you. Then go down before me to Gilgal. And behold, I am coming down to. I am coming down to you to offer burnt offerings and to sacrifice peace offerings. Seven days you shall wait until I come to you and show you what you shall do. When he turned his back to leave Samuel, God gave him another heart. And all these signs came to pass. That day when they came to Gibeah, behold, a group of prophets met him. And the Spirit of God rushed upon him, and he prophesied among them. And when all who knew him previously saw how he had prophesied with the prophets, the people said to one another, what has come over the son of Kish? Is Saul also among the prophets? And a man of the place answered, and who is their father? Therefore it became a proverb, is Saul also among the prophets?
[00:10:48] When he had finished prophesying, he came to the high place. Saul's uncle said to him, and to his servant, where did you go? And he said to him, and he said, to see the donkeys. And when we saw they were not found, we went to Samuel. And Saul's uncle said, please tell me what Samuel said to you. And Saul said to his uncle, he told us plainly that the donkeys had been found. But about the matter of the kingdom of which Samuel had spoken, he did not tell him anything.
[00:11:16] May God bless his word to us.
[00:11:26] So it's an interesting story, donkeys all over the place. It starts with the search for donkeys. They pop up throughout, over and over again. And it's an interesting story about the beginning of a king and a kingdom under the king of God, this chosen servant of the Lord. And it's not like other stories of kings rising to power.
[00:11:56] It's a pretty humble story, isn't it? Right? We don't hear about Saul's great adventures and all the amazing things that he did. We don't hear about his exercise of leadership. We have a note that he's handsome. In fact, the most handsome in all of Israel, a head taller than all the rest.
[00:12:18] But other than that, we don't see a lot else that's going for him. In fact, he himself says, when Samuel announces him and says, you're going to be prince over God's people, over his heritage, he says, am I not from the tribe of Benjamin? Least of all the tribes and even my clan, right? The clan within the tribe, even that is not very important. It's the least of the clans.
[00:12:43] Paul's looking at his family history, he's looking at all of these things and it doesn't really add up what God is doing as people would typically expect, right? So no military victories, no wise judgments. We don't see Samuel, or, I'm sorry, Saul making these super wise decisions and leading his people. We don't see any remarkable acts of godliness where we are astounded by his moral clarity and zeal for the Lord.
[00:13:20] Instead, we have this Benjaminite looking for donkeys and he can't find them.
[00:13:30] And there are a number of other things that make us curious, I think, about who Saul is and why the Lord has chosen him.
[00:13:42] This story really isn't about Saul as the main person of the story. It's of course about God, right? In many ways, throughout this story, Saul is just sort of bumping into things, right? Things are happening to him. His father tells him to go out and look for the donkeys and he can't find them and he can't find them and he can't find him. It talks about all these ways in which they pass through this land and they pass through this land and they pass through that land.
[00:14:11] Then another way we see the passiveness of Saul is when he, when they get to the land. This is verse five. When they come to the land of Zoo, Saul says to his servant, Come, let's go back. Unless my father becomes anxious about it. And then Saul's servant tells him what to do next. He gives him various ideas, various commands, right? He says, hey, there's a man of God right here. Why does Samuel, or why does Saul not know about Samuel?
[00:14:41] Famous Samuel, who's in all of the land. Famous Samuel, who's making regular circuits around Israel. Israel, who's judging. Who's this prophet of the Lord. Famous Samuel, who was just involved with all the things regarding the Ark and the Philistines and won victory for Israel. Famous Samuel, who lives basically next door to Saul in the same place that he's from. And it's his servant who has to say, hey, there's a man of God here. We could ask him. And he knows and tells all things.
[00:15:13] Saul seems a little bit clueless. And why, we're not sure.
[00:15:18] But the servant says, let's go, we can ask this man. Saul says, well, we don't have anything to give. Again, the servant solves the problem. He says, I've got this shekel of silver.
[00:15:32] And then they go on the way, they meet these women who again give Saul instructions on what to do. And then he rightly and well, it's good that he follows them.
[00:15:45] Well, that takes us up to verse 15. What happens in verse 15? As we continue to learn about Saul, we realize who is really the actor going on here. It's the Lord, right?
[00:15:58] At this point, it seems like just kind of a normal, maybe even a boring story about a guy looking for donkeys and not being able to find them. But now we learn and are reminded of what's always true, is that God is at work.
[00:16:13] God is at work even when we don't see it, even in the most mundane things. God said he would provide a king for his people, and he's doing it even in the search for some donkeys.
[00:16:27] I love these words. Verse 15. Now, the day before Saul came, the Lord had revealed to Samuel.
[00:16:35] Before Saul ever got there, before any of these things were happening, the Lord had already set things in motion. We see his sovereignty and his providence over these things. And he says these very, very specific things to Samuel, doesn't he?
[00:16:51] About this time, someone from the land of Benjamin will come and he will be the prince over his people, or over my people, the people of Israel. And these two commands, which we'll keep in mind as we go forward in hearing this history of the Kings, one is that he is to deal with the Philistines.
[00:17:15] He shall save my people from the hand of the Philistines. The other is that he shall restrain my people or govern my people.
[00:17:24] And there's a sense in which the king is both to protect them from the outsiders, but also protect Israel from itself.
[00:17:34] So these things are sent in motion. The Lord has already set this to Samuel. And then when Saul appears, the Lord speaks again. Here's the man. Here's the man.
[00:17:45] And as we go on, we read that there are also other things that have already been set in motion.
[00:17:51] Samuel has already told the cook to set aside the certain meat for the guest who will come the feast. And the sacrifice is already in place. There's this way in which Saul, all of a sudden, you know, one moment looking for donkeys, next moment he's seated at this honored place with the great prophet, priest, judge, Samuel as an honored guest, eating this choice, a cut of meat.
[00:18:21] All of these things are happening not by accident, as it might seem or feel or be surprising to Saul or to Israel, but not to the Lord, because the Lord is at work.
[00:18:36] This reminds us of the point that I want to make this morning, is that we need to put our faith in God's plans, in God's provision.
[00:18:45] We can put our faith in him because of who he is.
[00:18:49] And there are certain things that. Certain ways that we can demonstrate that faith, certain ways that we act in light of that faith. But let's continue on.
[00:19:01] Next. We see the Lord's sovereignty in all of this, in the anointing of Saul. God has called Saul to be prince over the people. An interesting choice of words. He doesn't quite use king. I think perhaps there's a reminder here that although Saul will be king, it is the Lord who is ultimately king over his people.
[00:19:23] Samuel anoints him, but it's a private anointing. There's going to be coming. There's coming a public recognition of Saul, but right now, it's private. Do you remember what happened? Samuel tells his servant, go on, let him go ahead, tell your servant to go on before us. And then he has this moment with Saul, a moment in which he says, has not the Lord anointed you to be prince over his people, Israel?
[00:19:55] Samuel's not really asking a question that he intends for Saul to answer, but to think about for sure. He's making a statement. He's saying, this is what has happened, and you shall reign over the people of Israel and you will save them from the hand of the surrounding enemies. Again, we have instructions and definition about what the king is supposed to do. These instructions are going to be very important for us as we evaluate the work of Saul and future kings. And even as we think about the work of our Lord, eventually the final resting place of the kingship.
[00:20:38] How does the Lord, you can ask yourself, restrain us? How does he govern us? How does he protect us from our enemies? How does he save us from them? This is the work of the king.
[00:20:50] Well, Samuel anoints Saul and then what happens? He tells Saul that there's going to be a number of signs that give confirmation to what the prophet has said.
[00:21:03] Now, this is very important.
[00:21:05] In the same way that God has given definition and instructions around kingship, God also does the same around the prophets. We're not supposed to believe anyone who just says they're a prophet. I'm a man of God. I'm a man of God, Believe me, listen to what I say.
[00:21:22] There's tests for prophets, and one of them is that the things that they say are supposed to happen are supposed to happen. And Samuel does that. And the Lord does it through him in confirming these signs.
[00:21:36] Now, if you got a little lost in this section about the two men and the three men and loaves of bread and all this sort of thing, that's okay.
[00:21:44] Let this point rest on you.
[00:21:48] The fact that it's so complicated is one of the ways in which God is bringing confirmation.
[00:21:56] In other words, there's all of these very, very specific things that are supposed to happen that couldn't really happen in any way except God's sovereign control over those events.
[00:22:09] So, for example, we'll skip the first two men and go to verse three.
[00:22:15] This next sign, he says, three men going up to God at Bethel will meet you there at the oak of Tabor. So we've got a specific place with a specific number of people, and each one is carrying a specific thing. One carrying three young goats, another carrying three loaves of bread, another carrying a wineskin, right? That's a pretty specific thing to say, especially when. I mean, if you've ever gone on a long journey or a hike, people tend to trade things around, right? Would you carry my thing? And I've done this for a while, right? It would be difficult to anticipate exactly what each man was carrying at this specific point in time.
[00:22:58] They will greet you, and then something. Next, they will give you two loaves of bread, right? So a specific number of bread given from these men, and then you will accept them from your hand. When you arrive, there will be a garrison of Philistines. Again, all of these things that nobody, no one person could Control.
[00:23:18] Sometimes fortune tellers and magicians and people like this, sometimes they'll use these ways of speaking that are so vague it could possibly apply to anyone.
[00:23:31] I perceive that you are having struggles in your life, deep and trying things that are really weighing on you, right? You're like, that's me. You're talking right to me, right?
[00:23:44] This is not what's happening here, Right? The Lord is. And this. I know. You just read one of them, right? The Lord is giving these very specific things which do happen, and some which are easily confirmed by others. And that's the same with this third sign with the prophets.
[00:24:03] And the Spirit of the Lord rushes upon him and he prophesies.
[00:24:09] And when it says he will become another man, it doesn't mean that he will lose his name and he'll lose a foot in height and his hair color will change. It's talking about his inner self here in the same way that you might say to your friend, you're not the person I know anymore. Right? That kind of sense of a person changing so fundamentally that you would be surprised.
[00:24:39] The prophets seem to be engaging these really external and musical and emotional kind of ways. And Saul joins in. As the spirit of the Lord rushes upon him, something happens to him in a way that other people see it from the outside and go, what's going on? This is not the Saul that we know.
[00:25:07] And so this happens in another way.
[00:25:12] Well, all of this is somewhat confusing to Saul. At least it's maybe not confusing. I guess we can say he. He seems hesitant to be public about it. That's probably the most precise way to put it. His uncle asks him, what did Samuel say?
[00:25:28] What did Samuel say? Sort of reminiscent of when Eli asked Samuel, what did God say?
[00:25:35] And Saul tells him a partial truth. He says he told us plainly that the donkeys had been found. And then the narrator, the Holy Spirit here, tells us specifically about the matter of the kingdom, which helps us to know how to understand all of this. Right? This is about the kingdom, about the matter of kingdom of which Samuel spoke. And he did not say anything, did not tell him anything.
[00:26:01] So as we reflect on these events and as we think about our introduction to King Saul, as I said at the beginning, it's not very impressive when it comes to Saul himself as a man.
[00:26:15] Sure, he's handsome, sure he's tall, but there's no great deeds here, no great acts of wisdom, no great moral clarity. In fact, we see moral ambiguity. We see a lack of leadership. We see a lot of no particularly heroic acts. Things Seem to be just kind of happening to Samuel or, I'm sorry, to Saul. And if I've switched those two names a bunch of other times in this sermon, I'm sorry, I will trust that you know what I'm talking about.
[00:26:51] Trying not to, but. So when Saul goes through all of these things, there's a couple things that I think we can take from this and we can see. One is a very important lesson of Scripture, and that's that the Lord often chooses to use what is weak to glorify himself, to show Himself to be strong.
[00:27:22] The Lord often undermines our own confidence in ourself, our own strength and our own wisdom and our own thinking by choosing that which is unusual.
[00:27:36] It doesn't always happen that way. But we see that happening at significant moments in Israel's history, particularly around the establishment of Kings.
[00:27:49] We could go through a history, and we'll go through another one when we get to David, right? When David's chosen, he's basically forgotten at the beginning as his brothers are brought in. And there's this question, do you have any more sons? Well, I guess there's David, right?
[00:28:06] But ultimately, let's just jump a few centuries and think about the Lord Jesus, right? The final king of God's people when he comes. We see a lot of similarities, a lot of humbleness, being born in a manger, right? Being born into a world that on the one hand, there are people that recognize him and act very strongly, right?
[00:28:32] The Magi and Herod and, you know, positively and negatively. But there's a lot of other people who really know him. Even his brothers and sisters later on. And other people from Nazareth were like, we know Joseph. We know there's nothing special about this particular man, but there, of course, was. God was at work in him. God chooses what is weak and foolish in this world to shame the wise. That's how Paul puts it. And that's so good for us if we're honest with ourselves, because we are so tempted to put our confidence in the things of this world that we deem as wise and strong and powerful. We look and. But God reminds us that though he uses strength, good decision making, moral clarity, these are not bad things of themselves.
[00:29:23] He's the one who's doing the work. That's the thing that's being underlined. That's the thing that's being underlined. He's wanting us to put our faith not in Saul, great, great Saul, but in the Lord who establishes Saul.
[00:29:40] We need to put our faith in God and in his Plans, even when they don't make sense, even when they don't seem to be exactly like we would decide them to be.
[00:29:53] Another thing that we can see here, in addition to God using weak things and in some ways foolish things to establish his great works, is God's great power in all of this. Which leads to our response when we see God. When you see God sovereignly acting over all of these events, what does that tell you about the Lord?
[00:30:21] When you think about Jesus and you think about all of the prophecies and all of the things that were put in place, that he would be born in Bethlehem, that He would be born of a virgin, that he all. That he would be a light to the nations, that he would die for our sins. When you think about all those things and the way that the Gospel writers say, and this prophecy was fulfilled, and this prophecy was fulfilled, and this sign, and this sign and this sign, what does that tell you about God?
[00:30:50] What does it tell you about his ability to command and rule?
[00:30:56] What does it tell you about him as king over heaven and earth?
[00:31:02] I think it tells us that he is competent, to put it mildly, that he is able and powerful. That indeed he holds all things in his hands and is able to execute his will perfectly, unlike human governors who struggle to restrain and struggle to protect. God does not struggle. He does not try. He just does.
[00:31:29] He acts and he does his perfect and holy will.
[00:31:35] It also tells us about God, not only his great power to do these things, but his wisdom in them, orchestrating all of these means in their perfect way.
[00:31:45] It also reveals to us a certain mystery about God. Each one of the people in this moment in history only know part of the picture. The women, the prophets, the guests at the meal, the two men, the three men, Samuel, Samuel, Saul, Saul's servant, all of these people, they only are seeing just a tiny little portion of what God's doing.
[00:32:09] We have the great benefit of standing up above all of this with the perspective of the Holy Spirit and seeing how all of this is fitting together, how God is working.
[00:32:21] The same thing happened not only in this moment, but in the next chapter and the next chapter and the next chapter, even in the chapter of your lives today.
[00:32:32] Now, you may only be able to see a small sliver of things right now, how exactly this thing is working towards that thing and all of this. And maybe there's some things in this life that you just will never know. But one thing that you can know is this, is that God is sovereign over it all. And he's able and he's working it all towards these good ends that he has promised. And if you're in him, if you belong to his kingdom, if you are a citizen of the kingdom of heaven, if your faith is in Jesus Christ, if he's your king and you're one of his subjects, then you are under the sovereign glorious power of the God King.
[00:33:19] You are under the one who can and does perfectly save you from all of your enemies and restrain you from yourself.
[00:33:29] That's really good news from people who have a lot of enemies and a lot of inward struggles, who have fleshly natures inside of us that are warring against the Spirit and constantly bringing us into situations that are not good.
[00:33:50] We can put our faith in God when we consider the work of Christ on the cross, the ultimate act of putting to a shame of the wisdom of this world. As the Son of God dies, and in that death ascends to the throne, conquers death, conquers the devil atones for all of our sin. He takes care of our enemies. He gives to us eternal life.
[00:34:25] When we think about him, what does that lead us to?
[00:34:32] What kind of faith, what kind of actions, when we put our faith in him come from that?
[00:34:39] Let's think about it from the perspective of Saul for a moment. We'll get out of our own heads for a second. Think about being in Saul's shoes. If you were seeing, or maybe we're seeing from the outside, these things happening, what would you recommend to Saul based on the God who is installing him? The God who has brought him to Samuel? The God who has anointed him? The God who has commanded. Commanded him.
[00:35:05] What recommendations would you give to Saul about his next action? As Samuel says, do what seems good.
[00:35:14] What's the right thing to do? I think there's a few things we can say. One is obedience.
[00:35:20] One is obedience. Right? The Lord has commanded and called. He's installed. He's anointed you. He's given you a spirit.
[00:35:30] We should obey.
[00:35:31] Saul should obey. When the Lord anoints us with his Holy Spirit, when the Lord calls us to this great and high calling us, I mean us. Us, even as he did with Saul in this moment in history, we ought to say, well, what's next, Lord? What should I do? How can I serve? What sins do I need to put to death? What things do I need to change? How can I work towards that which you have equipped me for, that which you have called me to do?
[00:36:06] Here's another thing we could think about, another appropriate response to God's work in Our lives and the anointing that we have in Christ as the Holy Spirit causes us to be born again.
[00:36:18] How about thankfulness?
[00:36:21] You know, Paul says. Or Paul, Saul. Now I'm getting everyone confused. Saul, in our story here, Saul says, I'm from the tribe of Benjamin and from a clan of the tribe that is the least of these tribes.
[00:36:35] What might you say?
[00:36:38] Which of you. Which of you came from a great and mighty clan and a great and mighty tribe? Maybe. Maybe some of you, maybe one or two of you can point back at your family history and say, yes, indeed, we were kings and queens.
[00:36:55] I'm guessing not most of us.
[00:36:58] And even if we think apart from our own family history and these stations of life, that God puts us in this place or that place, let's just think about ourselves.
[00:37:10] I'm not that special, and you're not that special.
[00:37:15] We've got all kinds of messes going on, all kinds of problems and confusions, the ways in which we've sinned against God. We're not these great glorious beings which earn God's favor to bestow upon us the great to inherit the kingdom of heaven.
[00:37:37] Paul, the Apostle Paul, who was at one time called Saul, actually did have something of a pedigree. He had good education. He seems to come from a fairly wealthy family. He was trained by the best people. He studied the law of God and he says he'd trade it all away.
[00:37:57] In fact, he says this a little stronger. He says, I consider it like excrement. We could maybe even use a swear word there.
[00:38:05] For the sake of knowing Christ.
[00:38:08] It's like it's worthless. For the sake of knowing Christ for being counted in him, for being found in him, I think.
[00:38:16] And the Scriptures tell us that should make us grateful.
[00:38:21] To know that we were once children of wrath and now we're children of God. To know that we've been appointed to inherit a kingdom that can never fail and are ruled by a king who is more lovely and wonderful and powerful and good than anything we can imagine.
[00:38:39] Not what my hands have done.
[00:38:42] Thank you, Lord.
[00:38:44] Thank you.
[00:38:47] When we consider God and his work and his plans and the work of history and his bringing us into that story, we ought to be obedient. We ought to be thankful.
[00:39:01] We ought to daily trust him for everything that we have and everything that we need.
[00:39:08] And finally I'll say we ought to seek the wisdom of God.
[00:39:14] God has promised in our lives to rule for us and over us and help us, he promises to give us wisdom to rule. We could say in the various callings and ways he's given, the things that he's given to us, our families, our jobs, among our friends.
[00:39:33] I don't always mean a kind of top down sort of authority, but just though that's included. But I mean the various ways in which he calls us to live our lives well, to be responsible for the things that he's called us to be responsible for. Given all that he is, given all that he has promised. Why in the world would you just go off and do your own thing?
[00:39:56] Trust him, ask for him, seek wisdom from Him. He says he'll give it to you and you can count on him for that because He's a good father.
[00:40:07] The scriptures say even bad fathers know how to give good gifts to their children. But He's a good father. You can trust him for that.
[00:40:16] We can trust God because He powerfully orchestrates events in this life and he does it perfectly and he does it wisely.
[00:40:23] We can trust God because He can use even weak and foolish things like me and you to do amazing things and to bring him glory and to serve Him.
[00:40:34] And we can trust him because he has accomplished all of these things in Christ, who right now is ruling and reigning over us and will forever protecting us, keeping us, governing us, and ultimately bringing us into eternal life.
[00:40:56] Israel is called in this moment to trust the Lord. Saul is called in this moment to trust in the Lord. And you are called in this moment to trust in the Lord.
[00:41:07] Let's pray.
[00:41:10] Our Heavenly Father, we ask that you would give us your grace, that our hearts would be changed, that you would give us your spirit, that we would be anointed, that we would be no longer those who we once were when we were separated from you, when we were lost and confused and bound up by our own selfishness and our own covetousness and our own desires.
[00:41:36] Lord, we give you thanks as we see the changes that you have worked in us, the ways that you've opened our eyes, the ways that you've humbled us, the ways that you've helped us to see. We confess that there have been times that these have been very difficult moments, that we have been far more confused and ungodly than Saul is here.
[00:41:58] And yet you called us, and yet you saved us.
[00:42:05] And so, Lord, we say this morning, thank you.
[00:42:09] We say thank you and we give you our gratitude. And we ask that you would also help us to give you our obedience in every aspect of life and the little things and in the big things. Help us to daily trust in you not only for our eternal salvation, but for our daily bread and our daily obedience.
[00:42:31] Give us wisdom that we might exercise, that we might fulfill the callings that you have called us to as mothers and fathers, as sisters and brothers, as teachers and students, as bosses and workers, as citizens and governors. And as we fill all these various parts of life that you call us into, we ask that you would help us to see you in them, ruling and reigning, glorifying yourself and being so gracious.
[00:43:08] Let us not turn away from you as we seek your help, and as we need your help in our lives.
[00:43:17] Whether we are looking for donkeys, or health, or jobs, or peace or knowledge, help us to look to you and trust that you will help us to find what we need to find, be where we need to be, go where we need to go.
[00:43:36] We pray this all in Jesus name. Amen.
