Who You Gonna Call?

Main Idea: Don’t go outside of God for answers, turn to Him.

Throughout this passage, an important phrase is that “God has departed” from Saul.

God is done talking to him. Saul consistently does whatever he wants, and then asks forgiveness. He doesn’t consult God until he absolutely needs Him, and so God stops listening to him.

1 Chronicles 10:13-14 “So Saul died for his trespass which he committed against the Lord, because of the word of the Lord which he did not keep; and also because he asked counsel of a medium, making inquiry of it, and did not inquire of the Lord. Therefore He killed him and turned the kingdom to David the son of Jesse.”

Saul didn’t even really inquire of God truly, he barely tried, and his life was a pattern of ignoring God and doing what he wanted.

We can also feel as though God isn’t listening.

What do you do when He’s quiet, and your life isn’t?

Don’t go outside of God

In the context of Saul, this meant going to a seance.

This was an interesting choice, because we see in vs. 3 that Saul had removed all of the spiritual mediums from Israel earlier on, which was a good thing.

Deuteronomy 18:10–12 NASB95

“There shall not be found among you anyone who makes his son or his daughter pass through the fire, one who uses divination, one who practices witchcraft, or one who interprets omens, or a sorcerer, or one who casts a spell, or a medium, or a spiritist, or one who calls up the dead. “For whoever does these things is detestable to the Lord; and because of these detestable things the Lord your God will drive them out before you.

Unfortunately, Saul’s servants were able to find a medium almost immediately, which is a bad sign for Saul’s faithfulness in allowing this to happen.

Saul turns to a medium because he doesn’t know how to have a relationship with God, but he did have a relationship with Samuel, and he’s looking for that.

Surprisingly, the seance works!

Samuel comes up, and Saul is reverent toward him.

Interesting considering the last time Saul saw Samuel was in ch. 15 when Saul tore Samuel’s robe

Samuel, however, tells Saul the same thing he told him before, “the kingdom is removed from you, you haven’t been faithful”

When you feel as though God isn’t talking to you, where do you turn?

Maybe you start meditating, or checking your horoscope, or believing in new age concepts.

Perhaps, you start trying to have something else answer your problems so that God doesn’t have to.

God answers your prayers about anxiety by pointing you to a political party or a new relationship.

Don’t let evil into your life.

Evil is something that shows up throughout our culture, but I think one that we go to as Christians can be entertainment.

Now, I’m not telling you to not read Harry Potter, or that anything that says the word sorcery is going to kill you, but I am saying to thoughtfully consider what you are putting in to your life, and the lives of your children.

If you are defined more by these things, then it’s a problem

If you can quote more Harry potter spells than you can verses, it’s an issue

If you play more DnD than you spend time in the Word of God, it’s a problem

What are you defined by, your love of Christ, or of evil?

We go outside of God when we don’t hear Him because we are terrified of what would happen if He spoke.

But, ultimately, those things are powerless, but they have serious consequences

Even the supernatural, like Saul experienced, didn’t have any real power, it could only tell Saul what he already knew, that he was broken and in need, and the same goes for you.

But, Romans 6:23 “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” , there is an eternal punishment when you aren’t defined primarily by your love of Christ.

Don’t try to make God listen

It’s easy to miss because of the shocking nature of vs. 7-19, but Saul thought that he had another trick up his sleeve to make God listen to him, and it’s found in vs. 20.

Saul hadn’t eaten.

Some might say that this is just because of his nerves, but I think that this is the same idea as in 1 Sam. 14:24-30, where Saul isn’t hearing from God, so he tells everyone to fast.

Saul believes that he can force God’s hand if he can do the right actions.

What do you do to make God listen?

Tithing 10% because then God will make you rich?

Serve because then God can love you more

Go to church because “that’s what Christians do”

God cannot be strong-armed into following your orders.

Rom. 3:23, we are all bankrupt! We can’t force God to do anything because we’re so messed up.

God expects action, not out of obligation, but out of love.

Surrender Completely

The one thing that Saul didn’t do in this section is surrender completely.

He tried so hard to force God to listen to him that he didn’t stop to think that maybe God was telling him something in the silence.

I don’t know what would have happened if Saul tried to turn his life around at this point. But I do know that you have that ability.

While you still draw breath, God is fighting for you, He wants to have a relationship with you.

Not a relationship that makes God a genie who answers you when you’re in trouble, but a real, right relationship with your heavenly Father.

Instead of going outside of God to bring the divine down, and instead of trying to force God to listen to you by doing things, surrender to Him completely.

I think you’d be surprised at how clearly you might hear Him when you do.

You have a finite amount of time before God does stop listening to you. He gives us grace to a point, and then accepts our request for Him to depart.

Gospel presentation.

Jesus is the better Saul, because He gave up connection with the Father on the cross for us.

Application: What boundaries do you need to place in your life to remove evil, and what do you need to surrender?