The Legacy of a Man 6/21/2020
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The Legacy of a Man
The Legacy of a Man
Father’s day remarks.
7 But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look at his appearance or at his physical stature, because I have refused him. For the Lord does not see as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”
This scripture is often quoted by some who want to justify the outward appearance. This statement made by the Lord to Samuel was not given with that in mind. The only amount of Christ that anyone will ever see in us will be revealed in the outward appearance… It is why I do teach the principles of modesty and holiness. The church should not look like or act like the world. We should look like and act like we have been brought out of the world.
Jesus rebuked the pharisees for cleansing the outside of the cup, and leaving the inside full of extortion and excess.
25 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you cleanse the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of extortion and self-indulgence.
First cleanse that which is within, that the outside will be clean also.
The outward reveals the inward.
We can only judge according to appearances, but the Lord can see through the outward appearance into what is on the inside. He looks at the heart when He weighs a person.
Do we really want God, who alone knows the heart, to look on ours? What would he find there?
We could say that what is in the heart is of much more importance than what is outside. We spend a lot of our time in pursuit of satisfying our desires that have more to do with external things.
Possessions
Appearance
Success
Impression we leave with others, while in our homes can be chaos
What is inside the heart eventually makes its way to the outside.
Samuel has been dispatched to the home of Jesse. God has sent him with a mission. To anoint the King of Israel that would follow Saul. As Samuel surveys with his eye the men who stand before him he looks upon one named Eliab and says this...
6 So it was, when they came, that he looked at Eliab and said, “Surely the Lord’s anointed is before Him!”
Surely this man is anointed… He looks like King material.
But the Lord says, Samuel you are looking at the physical stature and his appearance, but I have refused him. I see something you cannot see. I see what a man cannot see. I can see his heart. There is something there with in the heart of Eliab that I cannot accept.
We are not sure what it was in Eliab that made him unacceptable to the Lord. But we do know that the Lord had already chosen one King for Israel based on what would be appealing to the people that King would lead.
Saul
Saul
Saul was chosen as King because of his outward appearance… A man who would be easy to follow because he stood out in the crowd.
1 There was a man of Benjamin whose name was Kish the son of Abiel, the son of Zeror, the son of Bechorath, the son of Aphiah, a Benjamite, a mighty man of power.
2 And he had a choice and handsome son whose name was Saul. There was not a more handsome person than he among the children of Israel. From his shoulders upward he was taller than any of the people.
Israel’s desire for a King had to do with their desire to look like every other nation around them. So when God gave them a king, he gave them one based on what were desirable qualities for men in a king.
Saul was handsome, more handsome than other men in Israel. Saul was tall, he was taller than any of the people, head and shoulders above them.
Outwardly Saul did everything right… He destroyed the wizards who operated in Israel. He destroyed the idols and idol worship that had become common in Israel.
But when the Lord looked at Saul’s heart He saw rebellion. The rebellion in Saul’s heart eventually came out.
God told Saul to destroy the Amalekites.
2 Thus says the Lord of hosts: ‘I will punish Amalek for what he did to Israel, how he ambushed him on the way when he came up from Egypt.
3 Now go and attack Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and do not spare them. But kill both man and woman, infant and nursing child, ox and sheep, camel and donkey.’ ”
The Lord wanted Saul to remove from the land every last piece of the Amalekites. Saul did just that…but when it came to the King of the Amalekites. King Agag he spared him. When it came to the best of the animals, Saul was unwilling to force the people to destroy them.
9 But Saul and the people spared Agag and the best of the sheep, the oxen, the fatlings, the lambs, and all that was good, and were unwilling to utterly destroy them. But everything despised and worthless, that they utterly destroyed.
Life offers some things that don’t look like they could be a threat to us. It looks benign, and we say is it really important that I remove it from my life?
It may not even be a sin, it may just be a weight on our lives… the Spirit of God is saying you should get that out of your heart, out of your life. But we press back against God. It’s really not that bad. It looks good…looks like the best opportunity.
We fail to fully obey God’s voice and direction. We become unwilling to destroy the things God has directed us to destroy.
When we reject the word of the Lord… it costs us.
23 For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, And stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, He also has rejected you from being king.”
In that moment God removed from Saul the anointing He had given him to be King of Israel and passed it to David.
28 So Samuel said to him, “The Lord has torn the kingdom of Israel from you today, and has given it to a neighbor of yours, who is better than you.
Saul lost his anointing, lost his kingdom, and the thing he was commanded to destroy took his life.
6 Then the young man who told him said, “As I happened by chance to be on Mount Gilboa, there was Saul, leaning on his spear; and indeed the chariots and horsemen followed hard after him.
7 Now when he looked behind him, he saw me and called to me. And I answered, ‘Here I am.’
8 And he said to me, ‘Who are you?’ So I answered him, ‘I am an Amalekite.’
9 He said to me again, ‘Please stand over me and kill me, for anguish has come upon me, but my life still remains in me.’
10 So I stood over him and killed him, because I was sure that he could not live after he had fallen. And I took the crown that was on his head and the bracelet that was on his arm, and have brought them here to my lord.”
If Saul had destroyed all of the Amalekites this man would not have been there in that moment to kill Saul.
Saul’s family was destroyed.
Saul’s position was taken from him.
Saul’s life was taken.
Saul’s anointing was gone.
Was as if he had never been anointed.
21 Ye mountains of Gilboa, let there be no dew, Neither let there be rain, upon you, nor fields of offerings: For there the shield of the mighty is vilely cast away, The shield of Saul, as though he had not been anointed with oil.
“as though he had not been anointed with oil.”
David said it right… Saul was mighty! He was a man familiar with battle. He had led Israel in some victories. In the end all of those victories were overshadowed.
The shield was a defensive weapon…it was used to deflect arrows, deflect blows with the sword, to push advancing troops off their feet.
In scripture the image of the shield is often used to represent the defense of God’s people. The Lord is our help and shield… Psalm 33:20
Our faith is a shield…Ephesians 6:16
During times of peace the shield would be taken care of and prepared just as much as the sword.
Soldiers would anoint their shields so that the arrows would slide off. An oiled shield would be hard for an enemy to grab and wrestle away from the shield bearer.
5 Prepare the table, Set a watchman in the tower, Eat and drink. Arise, you princes, Anoint the shield!
This is Saul’s legacy… As if he had not been anointed, as if his shield had not been anointed.
Saul’s greatest problem were not the enemies he faced, but what was behind the shield.
Challenges were not in front of him. It was what was allowed to live behind the line of his defence.
Saul had been anointed, but the thing he was willing to let live that God told him to destroy eventually killed him and made it as though he had never been anointed.
What God asks us to remove from our lives that we allow to live on could become the thing that eventually destroys our legacy, as if we had never been anointed.
What, in your heart has God been telling you to destroy that wants to rob you of the anointing?
What sin is being allowed to persist that will destroy your family? What issue of the heart will take the anointing from you?
14 But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed.
15 Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death.
Sin does not start full grown… starts with a small desire that is conceived then grows to sin, sin grows and gets out of control until it consumes and kills.
Repentance puts to death the things in our heart, and life that work against God and would destroy our lives...
1 Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,
God wants some things in our heart to die…if we do not destroy the works of flesh and sin in our life. What will be the legacy we leave behind?
9 Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites,
10 nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God.
11 And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God.
12 All things are lawful for me, but all things are not helpful. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any.
18 Flee sexual immorality. Every sin that a man does is outside the body, but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body.
19 Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own?
20 For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.
There are sins - but we have been washed, sanctified and justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God.
There are lawful things, but are they helpful things? Are they just going to exert power over you?
Your body is the temple, you are not your own. Bought at a price.
The answer is in repentance…kill and destroy the works of the flesh and sin in your life.
In baptism have those dead things washed away and seek to receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Which is power to overcome!
The legacy of a person who does not destroy and kill in their life what God says to kill and destroy…In the end, it is as if they had never been anointed.