The Price of Disobedience
Notes
Transcript
The Price of Disobedience
And Samuel said to Saul, “You have done foolishly. You have not kept the commandment of the Lord your God, which He commanded you. For now the Lord would have established your kingdom over Israel forever. But now your kingdom shall not continue. The Lord has sought for Himself a man after His own heart, and the Lord has commanded him to be commander over His people, because you have not kept what the Lord commanded you.”
I. SAUL, THE MAN GOD REJECTED.
A. Saul was a disappointment.
1. He possessed many excellent natural qualities for leadership.
a. He came from a good family.
b. He was humble.
c. He was tall and good-looking.
2. He could not handle power.
a. There are people like that, sweet and gentle until placed in authority.
b. The position seems to go to their head and they become tyrants.
c. Put a badge on some men and you create a monster.
B. Why was Saul rejected?
1. He did not keep the commandment of God.
a. No man can rightly rule who is not ruled.
b. The centurion said to Jesus, "I also am a man under authority, having under me men."
c. If the man at the top of the chain of command does not recognize his responsibility to the authority of God, corruption, tyranny, slavery ensues.
2. Saul failed as a ruler because he failed to submit to God.
II. THE MAN GOD SEEKS. "A MAN AFTER HIS OWN HEART."
A. A man who is submitted to the authority of God in his own life.
1. Israel had been a theocracy.
2. Sort of an oddity among the nations, no visible king.
3. The people began to clamor for a king.
4. God sought for a man among them that would be so submitted to Him that in reality God would still be ruling.
a. This is where Saul so completely failed.
B. God was not seeking a perfect man.
1. He, as all wives know, doesn't exist.
2. So often we disqualify ourselves because of our imperfections.
a. God can't use me-
1. I'm too short - too tall.
2. I'm too young - too old.
3. The man God found (David. far from perfect.
C. God seeks men willing to confess their mistakes.
1. Notice how Saul was always ready with an excuse.
a. A man who is good at making excuses is seldom good for anything else.
b. Ready to justify his actions.
c. "He who seeks to cover his sins shall not prosper, but he who confesses..."
2. A lot of dumb things have been forced and perpetuated upon the public, because some heady ruler would not admit to a mistake. When God finds the man who will totally submit his life to God, He will lift him from the sheepcote and set him on the throne.