Don’t put out the Spirit’s fire II

1 Thess. 5:19



THEY PUT OUT THE SPIRIT’S FIRE

A SERMON IN THREE PARTS

SAUL                1 Samuel 15 vv 7 – 29

DAVID              (Psalm 51)

AHAB               1 Kings 22 vv 6 – 30

This morning we considered the teaching of Paul in I Thess. 5:19 about the very real possibility of “Putting out the Spirit’s fire…”.

This evening I want to develop that theme in a slightly different way by reminding you of three Old Testament characters who did just that.

That they were all rulers of Israel is not significant – but they all lived within a fairly short period of time of each other – indeed Saul and David were contemporaries.

I want to look at these three very different men to see in what ways they fell into the temptation to extinguish God’s Spirit in their lives – how it happened, and what we must learn from it.

If you think about the three together for a moment you will realise that they represent a broad spectrum of spiritual life:

Saul – whom God anointed and then rejected                a religious man

David – the man after God’s own heart                 a spiritual man

Ahab – an example of an unbelieving King             a godless man

Each one of them heard the word of God very clearly – they experienced that through different prophets; in the case of Saul – by Samuel, in the case of David by Nathan, and in the case of Ahab by a lesser known prophet called Micaiah.

I am going to split the sermon into three parts.