Forbidden Honey

Forbidden Honey

1 sam 14

Intro

In the beginning of this chapter Johnathan and his armour bearer go to the camp of the philistines at michmash and kill 20 of them and the Lord sends an earthquake in verse 15 and that sent the philistines to flight.

Saul hears about this from his scout and tries to find out what happened who did this so he mumbers his troops and finds Jonathan and his armour bearer are missing.

He is sitting under a pomegranate tree wondering what to do and asks the priest from the forsaken line of Elia to bring the ark to him and inquire of the Lord what to do and in the middle of that the noise of the retreating philistines gets louder and louder and he says forget about that we are going in we do not have time to hear from the Lord.

Since he did not hear from the Lord and get a word from him for the troops he gives his own word.

And here is what his word was.

1 sam 14:24 And the men of Israel were distressed that day: for Saul had adjured the people, saying, Cursed be the man that eateth any food until evening, that I may be avenged on mine enemies. So none of the people tasted any food.

This is an absurd command

Paul said eat up we got to swim

Whenever a leader is not hearing from God not listening from God the only orders he can give his own orders

And I find the orders I naturally give on my own authority are not the orders God would give or the ones I am supposed to give if I am under his authority

This Order lead to some pretty devastating consequences as we will see in a moment.

At this church we state that the King James Bible is the final authority for all matters of faith and practice.

And we govern ourselves within the confines of scripture.

So we do not have the authority to issue commands that are not within these confines and principles given here.

Saul did not have the authority to issue this command it was not from God. He turned this holy battle into a personal agenda and made it about himself. That I may be avenged of my enemies. They were the Lords enemies and the enemies of the people not sauls enemies personally.

I want you to turn to

And Balaam answered and said unto the servants of Balak, If Balak would give me his house full of silver and gold, I cannot go beyond the word of the Lord my God, to do less or more.

The world is full of pastors and churches that go beyond the word of God to either sanction what God has condemned Like a homoselxual life style or abortion.

Or they go beyond the word of God and forbid what he has not forbidden like pork or marriage or pants

:4For they bind heavy burdens and grievous to be borne, and lay them on men's shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers.

That is what saul did here

That is what happens when you go beyond the word of God they add to you burdens but they do not help you carry them and do not do it themselves

Amount of scripture ten pages a day

Amount of prayer

Amount of services you must go to.

A scriptural ministry works in this way.

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised,

Sin puts people in a terrible bondage and robs from them. The lord can deliver you from that slavery and that adiction

But he did not come to put you into a different kind of bondage.

I used to think Jesus came to set people free and it seems like when we try to get people saved we try to tie them up.

How is it the average fundamental church seems more oppressive than the catholic church?

Let us not mess up what God is doing like Saul is.

Here is what happens if we go beyond the word of God.

It Changes What It Means to Win 14:30

14:24-30

We redefine the battle to fasting instead of fighting

Saul called more fast than any other king and he was the most carnal because he wanted to redefine what it meant to be spiritual.

Your purpose for being here is to keep the oath not to defeat the philistines

They are pursuing the philistines they are on the run and trying to get away

And they have an opportunity to decimate them and take care of this problem once and for all

But now they are hungry and weak and not able to pursue them and win the battle decisively

The philistines went back and regrouped and came again to defy the armies of the living God the battle that David killed goliath in would not have had to happen if saul would not have redefined what success looked like.

He made success into something other than beating the philistines.

Success means fasting while the honey drips around you

Not eating this

Isn't that beautiful it comes from the most delicate and beautiful part of nature flowers. Pollen and the bees go get it and in the process they spread it to other flowers and fruit is produced.

And out of the miracle of nature reproducing and making fruit not only is the fruit there for you to eat but Honey is produced from the most miraculous part of it.

God would have been good enough to just give us the tree but he gave us the fruit and even more so he gave us honey.

It is as if God was saying Look how good I am and how great I am and I have little taste for you some sweetness i thought of you in all of this I did not leave you out.

I love honey.

And it enlightens your eyes

Sugar high

Energy to fight

Running and need energy it is in the right form of glucose hits your system fast.

We need it to continue the battle

We are tired in a hard spot the enemy is strong we are in the woods but God has not forgotten us here in the woods and to encourage us in the battle he gave us honey.

We eat that and it changes us energizes us

But he changed what victory ment

Honey is like the word Of God

And victory means to glorfy the Lord and enjoy his presence forever and honey helps you do that

But we have changed the definition of winning from looking up to heaven and recieving honey to what ?

Not wearing pants ?

Singing certain types of music ?

Winning is not no honey it is no philistines

No more world no more flesh.

Listen if we would not redefine victory to what we want

And clearly state what god wants

You know what would happen?

14:30 How much more, if haply the people had eaten freely to day of the spoil of their enemies which they found? for had there not been now a much greater slaughter among the Philistines?

What is success ?

Is it what saul was doing 14:2 or what Johnathan was doing 14:6

Is it how many services we go to ?

is it how much time we spend in the gym or is it what we do in the gym.

Is it how many pages we read

Is it how long we pray

Is it how many times we pray the rosary

Is it how long we fast

Or is it dead philistines ?

Is it singing certain songs ?

What is it ?

When you go beyond the word of God and redefine what it means to win you know what you can do

14:42 And Saul said, Cast lots between me and Jonathan my son. And Jonathan was taken.

43 Then Saul said to Jonathan, Tell me what thou hast done. And Jonathan told him, and said, I did but taste a little honey with the end of the rod that was in mine hand, and, lo, I must die.

44 And Saul answered, God do so and more also: for thou shalt surely die, Jonathan.

You can make yourself the hero

And make Jonathan the villain

Look av verse 14:45 wroght with God

Now our heroes are not ones that go out and kill philistines

But the ones that play by our made up rules

The winners are not the ones that get the job done but the winners are the ones that know the rules and keep them and keep up with them even if they are not there to hear them and they do not make sense.

It is a good thing a lot of our heroes died a hundred years ago because had they been alive today we would hate them because they did not play by our rules.

Hymn writters holy holy holy Communion

If luther was alive today every one would hate him but he has an advantage over the ones that are winning today because he died hundreds of years ago.

If he was alive today you would not take the peasant killing so lightly. Or the communion. Or his marriage views or just bout anything.

The victory would have been much greater .

The same is today

If we would teach people how to kill the philistines how to overcome

How to beat out lust

How to beat addiction.

How to overcome

How to win their family.

What is winning ?

The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican.

12 I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess.

13 And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner.

14 I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other: for every one that exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.

He changed the definition but God did not buy it because he has his own definition. And that is the only one that matters.

What is your definition of winning?

Can you get it from here?

why do you believe we're winning and they're not can you get your definition from here?

Can you get your definition from here?

It Changes Our Motive

24 And the men of Israel were distressed that day: for Saul had adjured the people, saying, Cursed be the man that eateth any food until evening, that I may be avenged on mine enemies. So none of the people tasted any food.

25 And all they of the land came to a wood; and there was honey upon the ground.

26 And when the people were come into the wood, behold, the honey dropped; but no man put his hand to his mouth: for the people feared the oath.

27 But Jonathan heard not when his father charged the people with the oath: wherefore he put forth the end of the rod that was in his hand, and dipped it in an honeycomb, and put his hand to his mouth; and his eyes were enlightened.

28 Then answered one of the people, and said, Thy father straitly charged the people with an oath, saying, Cursed be the man that eateth any food this day. And the people were faint.

He put the people into a situation were instead of knowing and doing what was best and operating by faith and being encouraged at the provision of the Lord

And being given greater faith for the battle they saw what was good

And instead of having faith they had fear

The motive for not eating the honey was fear

Listen if you are a bad leader or under a bad leader a bad leader intentionally uses fear to get you to do what he wants you to do. And not the good fear but the bad fear.

They saw what it did for Johnathan and wanted it and knew it was good

But their fear kept them from what was good

fear instead of faith

Look at verse 28 The leader instead of the Lord

When they saw the honey the first person they thought of was not the Lord but it was their leader Saul.

Not thank God but what would Saul think

What would saul think if you saw me wearing these pants. Singing this song talking to these people eating this honey.

Their motive had turned into pleasing man.

Because what they were doing was not pleasing to God it was not in the scripture

Not one verse and scripture that says look not upon the honey.

the Bible says thy statutes are sweeter also than honey it said the manna tasted like honey it says he'll give you in heaven of the hidden manna

Song of Solomon says the lips of the Bride drop like a honeycomb

Oh my friend there's honey in the bride book

God never asked them to do it.

We do not want to create and environment in which we are their motivation

If it is not from faith and desire to please the Lord

We have not helped them and we have not helped ourselves.

So much of my christian life I did things not because thier were right but because that is what my leaders told me I should do.

And my fear of being looked at like I was not a team player

or being used as an example was my motivation for much of what I did for a long time.

It dictated what I did what I wore and what I did not do

And while I may have not changed what I did I did it for the wrong reason and I have to take a certain amount of responsibility for doing that it was on me

But that was fostered in my environment

We do not want to foster that here

What we want to Foster here is it motivation that I must one day stand before God and answer to him.

We want to be viewed as someone here to help you with your face not to instill fear in you unless it is the fear of God.

It Changes Our Role

24 And the men of Israel were distressed that day: for Saul had adjured the people, saying, Cursed be the man that eateth any food until evening, that I may be avenged on mine enemies. So none of the people tasted any food.

Who distressed them ?

Was it the philistines ?

Was it the battle ?

Was it their health?

Was it their wounds?

Was it sin and the world ?

No it was the very person that should have been a source of encouragement

When we do that we become part of the problem

You know how many people we minister to on a weekly basis were the source of their greatest problems are the churches they have been to and the people that lead them?

That is what distresses them

Depression suiside

Counseling because those they trusted to lead them distressed them.

It might have been a perverted uncle or a perverted father

But one thing is for sure the role that God gave that person was changed and he became a source of distress.

God forbid they would start a community a refuge for people that have ben hurt by our ministry.

God forbid that one day your kids would have to band together to find refuge and understanding within each other because of their overbearing sinful father or mother

God forbid that the people that work under you would one day bump into each other at the grocery store and say man I sure was glad when I quit there he was the worst person on Earth

That is exactly what happens when you go beyond the word of God.

We become a source of anxiety

Because we give them burdens to carry they cant carry than make fun of them for not getting the philistines

Here is how the experience works in practice

Noah piano

Now we have become the source of distress

And what we want to do is not be a source of distress but we want to be a source of encouragement to you.

We want to be the ones that helps you with the distress the world causes

Distressed not from the philistines but from Saul

28 Then answered one of the people, and said, Thy father straitly charged the people with an oath, saying, Cursed be the man that eateth any food this day. And the people were faint.

He was the one that weakened them.

God forbid we are the ones that make them faint.

It Creates an Uncontrollable Appetite

31 And they smote the Philistines that day from Michmash to Aijalon: and the people were very faint.

32 And the people flew upon the spoil, and took sheep, and oxen, and calves, and slew them on the ground: and the people did eat them with the blood.

33 Then they told Saul, saying, Behold, the people sin against the Lord, in that they eat with the blood. And he said, Ye have transgressed: roll a great stone unto me this day.

34 And Saul said, Disperse yourselves among the people, and say unto them, Bring me hither every man his ox, and every man his sheep, and slay them here, and eat; and sin not against the Lord in eating with the blood. And all the people brought every man his ox with him that night, and slew them there.

You know what happened?

They got so hungry that everything started looking good and all they could think about was food.

And when the sun went down and they could do what ever they wanted when they were released from the oath and could do what they wanted they did what they wanted and they were so famished

they looked around for something to eat and guess what the honey want their no more

they killed the animals and ate them raw with the blood.

When you do that restrict people from the good joys god gave them when they find freedom it will be too late to go enjoy the honey they will go for the blood or whatever is available.

Parents that over restrict their children. And try to say god made those restrictions will one day find those same kids going buck wild.

If they are only doing it because of you the day will come one day when you are not there one day the sun will go down.

And they will be released from the oath what will they do than ?

By over restriction of what god gave us it will create an uncontrollable appetite and they willn ot be able to discern between good and bad because you taught them it was all bad.

And I don't care what you say honey is not bad honey.it is not even bad if it come from a southern baptist hive.

And while saul continued his reign of fear they listened till the sun went down.

But he created a group of people tat was more worried about obeying him than they were God

They were more willing to disobey God than the king.

They were painfully conscientious in keeping the king’s order for fear of the curse, but had no scruples in transgressing God’s command.

ate them all with the blood This was a violation of the law (; ; ).

Sin against God instead of saul

When they had the freedom they went crazy

Guess what guys the sun is going down and it ain't too much longer people are going to be free from all our oath and our leadership is what we're doing creating the right appetite inside of them ?

Conclusion

Maybe you are a leader

How are you leading ?

Is it God's word or your word?

Are you setting them free or putting them in bondage ?

Are you going beyond the word of God ?

The people under you are distressed or encouraged ?

Are you leading them to bigger victories or are your actions hurting them in the battle ?

Do you want to dispose of the winners that do not listen to your words but they work with God ?

What happens when your gone ?

will they gleefully fall on the spoil or will they be inspired by your leadership to remember the Lord?

Do they feel guilty eating the honey that God gave them?

Maybe you are a soldier God has called you to follow

What are your motives ?

Is it the Leader or the Lord?

What would you do if they were not watching?

Let me ask you do you allow them to make you feel guilty enjoying Gods honey?

Do you allow them to destroy Good men johnathan?

Or do you stand up for good men like Johnathan that are fighting a good battle?

What do you want to do ? fight philistines of not eat honey?

What is the solution ? If you are a leader give them Gods honey not your oath.

Do not go beyond the word of God to be a

Admit were you are wrong apologize to your followers and apply the word of God

What is the solution if you are a follower ?

Adjust your motive to please the Lord not the leader.

Walk by faith not by fear

Enjoy the honey god gives you.

Fight the philistines and the flesh instead of the bees

When you are in a tough spot and weak from the battle look up and receive the honey he gives you.

Live in such a way if they were not there you would do right any way

And stand up for what is right to your leaders stand up for Jonathan's God sends your way.