Encounter with the King F.R.O.G

This was a time in history were people did what was right in their own eyes and they rejected God as their King because they wanted a physical leader like the other nations, but God was still faithful to provide leaders for them. We will see when the leaders focused on living for God, the people flourished, but when they focused on themselves, they failed. In all of this the Lord used leaders successes and failures to ultimately point people back to Him as the perfect, faithful, selfless King that does not fail or give up on His people.

Remember last week the encouragement and challenge was to Go to the King and not let anything keep you from going to the Lord. Hannah continued to go to God even when she had every reason to quit but she believed God would help.

AND

Hannah prayed for a child and she promised to give him to the priests to serve the Lord and Samuel is her child that she prayed for to God, and from an early age , just as she said, she gave Samuel over to the priests to serve the Lord and He did. The Lord spoke to him and he became the prophet of Israel. Samuel is a really cool dude and he was faithful to serve the Lord. God would speak to him and he would tell the people what God said, and Samuel tries to lead the people back to God, but just like in our background the people rejected God as their King and wanted an earthly king and so the Lord chooses Saul.

1 Samuel 10:1 ESV

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? 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 the sign to you that the Lord has anointed you to be prince over his heritage.

1 Samuel 10:9–11 ESV

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 prophesied with the prophets, the people said to one another, “What has come over the son of Kish? Is Saul also among the prophets?”

1 Samuel 10:17–24 ESV

Now Samuel called the people together to the Lord at Mizpah. And he said to the people of Israel, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, ‘I brought up Israel out of Egypt, and I delivered you from the hand of the Egyptians and from the hand of all the kingdoms that were oppressing you.’ But today you have rejected your God, who saves you from all your calamities and your distresses, and you have said to him, ‘Set a king over us.’ Now therefore present yourselves before the Lord by your tribes and by your thousands.” Then Samuel brought all the tribes of Israel near, and the tribe of Benjamin was taken by lot. He brought the tribe of Benjamin near by its clans, and the clan of the Matrites was taken by lot; and Saul the son of Kish was taken by lot. But when they sought him, he could not be found. So they inquired again of the Lord, “Is there a man still to come?” and the Lord said, “Behold, he has hidden himself among the baggage.” Then they ran and took him from there. And when he stood among the people, he was taller than any of the people from his shoulders upward. And Samuel said to all the people, “Do you see him whom the Lord has chosen? There is none like him among all the people.” And all the people shouted, “Long live the king!”

AND

Saul is anointed as King, and has an encounter with the Lord, but his insecurities led him to hide from God and his people.

SO some things to note about Saul thus far...

Saul couldn’t find the donkeys.

The bible describes him in this way, “There is no one like him among the entire population.” “There is no one more impressive among his people. He stood a head taller than anyone else.”

He did not think he could be the king of Israel. I believe he doubted that God wanted to use him or even chose him.

He encountered the Lord and the Lord changed his heart.

He was afraid of the responsibility and was insecure about his leadership and hid during his own ceremony.

Here are some things we learn about God from his choosing of Saul:

God wants to save His people.

God wants to speak to His people.

God can use anyone.

When God calls you to something - He will equip you and be with you.

God wants us to trust Him.

God knows where you are and knows what you need.

God wants to change your heart.

You see with out God, you may be impressive but you will still have insecurities and struggles that will cause you to live in fear and doubt God loves you, God cares for you and God can save you despite all you have done, and been through, but if you just call on the Lord and say rescue me, save me. He will save you and change you.

Saul being impressive had insecurities, and didn’t believe God could use him, but he had and encounter with the Lord that changed his heart, yes, there were times he still struggled with fear and letting his insecurities cause him to hide. We will see though when HE trusted in God with is life and leadership the Lord used Him, but when he got selfish and tried to do things his way, he got in the way and failed.

and maybe you have experienced a camp high like we’ve call it before, or maybe it wasn’t at camp, the moment you God saved and trusted in the Lord for the first time and you were excited, you told people about it, you were reading his word, and then as life got busy and hard times came, or maybe you feared what other people would think and so you ran from him, or got silent and stopped reading the word, and the enemies lies sounded really loud that you were a screw up and God can’t use you, so you stopped growing and hid from who God has created and called you to be and at the very core that is a witness for him, but can I tell you something.....

God wants and longs to meet with you every day.

AND

for those who believe in Christ, He has given us His Spirit to help us follow God not just in a moment here and there, but everyday.

The Holy Spirit in the old testament comes on people in particular situations, but in the New Testament the Holy Spirit lives inside people to be with them everyday.

It may not be in a super “spiritual” way, The Spirit of God came powerfully on him and he prophesied which meant he proclaimed the word of God. Then from the text he waited seven days where there was definitely some struggle because he didn’t share with his family what Samuel said about kingship and when it came to crowning him as king he was hiding and in the next chapter it says the Spirit of God came powerfully on him and he was angry about injustice and he led the people to fight the enemy. There may be times where you don’t feel anything, and this would be my encouragement to you:

Slow Down , take notes, read it again. Get a verse and sit on it all day, and do your best to live it out. Reading God’s word is God speaking to you!

Confess sin.

If you are full of pride and sin you will miss what He says, or if you are distracted, you will miss what He says, but if you humbly come to the word of God with the heart to listen and obey just like we learned from Hannah last week you will be positioned to hear the Lord.

Wait faithfully. If you feel like you don’t feel his presence continue to seek Him through his word, and get in community that will help encourage and pray for you.

- God wants to change your heart.

Again, all of us need Jesus, we all have insecurities, we all struggle. We need a God who will always be there for us!

Why do we struggle to follow a God who has no fear or insecurities, but we will readily follow a person who is flawed?

- God wants and longs to meet with you every day.

Reading God’s word is God speaking to you! Don’t discount his word. In the OT they didn’t have a copy of the bible like we had, and Jesus had not yet come, so God spoke audibly to them, then Jesus came and was God in the flesh and talked and walked around with them, and now he has given us his word as the way He speaks to us most often.