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October 28, 2026 | This podcast episode is a Bible study led by Ben Taylor focusing on 1 Samuel 16:1-19. The study explores God's sovereignty and human free will in the story of God's rejection of Saul and the anointing of David as king. It emphasizes studying Scripture by asking what it reveals about God, humanity, and obedience, encouraging believers to engage personally and communally with God's Word.
Join the men of Bellevue as we seek to learn how to be men of God in the world today.
All right So as we are walking through tonight it is going to be a little bit different In that I I want to give you at your tables Opportunities to answer and talk through the questions That we have been walking through each week Remember what the the pat the questions are they're all concerning the passage, right? We're asking questions like what does this passage teach us about God? What does this passage teach us about? Humanity or man and then we also answer the question. Is there something to obey? Now as we are walking through this These are skills that you can build into your quiet time and man I so want us to really begin to figure out and determine to move from reading God's Word to studying God's Word There's sometimes where we read God's Word to get through our daily reading plan Anybody ever been behind on their year in a Bible plan and I'm just like I got three days I got a truck through right anybody ever do that Anybody ever guilty? Yeah, I do it. Well as well to a Few years ago. I started walk Walking through I would do alternating years in my quiet time So one year I'll read the one year Bible through and I go through that reading in a year the next year I pick out two or three books of the Bible and Then I'm just kind of resting in those books and I'll read them multiple times over I go down deep I ask questions like we're trying to answer because what I want to do is I don't want to not only read God's Word and I do think reading God's Word is a spiritual discipline I'm gonna read God's Word to walk through it in a sequential way with a plan and a purpose in mind But I also think we want to step into that studying of God's Word and when you study something you would examine it with something in mind and that's Hopefully a skill that you are beginning to learn it I'm sure many of you already have it, but this is a unique way and I love this idea of asking questions of the text When I taught a few weeks ago I said that the genre of of Passages that we are reading in 1st Samuel. It's a part of a historical book But there's this word. It's it is a narrative Does anybody know what the word narrative means? Is it I heard somebody say the word story if you know, that's it's a it's a story all right, so when you are looking at the Historical books of the Bible think about them as you are reading a story now when you read a story you have events You have things that happen. You have characters. You have a plot. You have a rise and a fall You have dilemmas and things all of those things are happening And so many times reading a story For somebody who is reading to study God's Word is a little bit different than reading Say the book or saying the letter to the Philippian Church It's a lot easier to apply the teachings of Philippians because Paul says Do this and don't do that Or he says flee from this and so it's a lot easier to apply those to our lives When we're reading these narratives, it gives us an opportunity to really flex our mental muscles How many of us have mental muscles? I got one hand and it really wasn't even a hand. It was a finger So but what it does is it just helps us to look at God's Word because God is a God who speaks and we've said that over and over and over again He is writing his giving us his story and now we're reading it So when you read a narrative There may not be those drastic like hey do this and don't do that type of lessons But we learn principles from God's Word through what we learn about him what we learn about the characters and how they interact with others and how they interact with God and the circumstances in their lives and so tonight on your tables I Could given you I have broken up this passage into eight different Sections All right, I've broken it up into eight different sections. So if you're at your table right now and you have first Samuel 16 1 Raise your hand for me. I want to make sure every one of our passages are there So this is first Samuel 16 1. All right, so it should be two tables that have those All right, first Samuel 16 to who has that all right great first Samuel 16 3 through 5 All right. We got a table back there first Samuel 16 6 through 7 All right right here right here. Good. All right first Samuel 16 8 through 11 All right 8 through 11 Everybody good. All right. What about verses 12 through 13? All right All right. Now we have verses 14 through 15 All right, perfect. And then the last section is verses 16 through 19 Anybody have 16 through 19? Perfect. All right, so that's your passage That's what you're going to be responsible for and so think about it this way You are actually going to be the teachers for that section of Scripture how many people just got really excited I'm not I'm not feeling good so far guys. All right, but I Promise you this is going to be a good exercise now We are in this passage, but before we jump into this passage every time that I teach or every time that I'm preparing a lesson I Always ask this question what questions could somebody reading this have and I always try to do my best to answer those questions So as I was doing a little bit of study for this text I always go back to the chapter before and kind of look at what's happening in the chapter after To help me set the context and this verse stood out to me first Samuel 15 verse 35 Says Samuel did not see Saul again until the day after his death For Saul grieved over for Samuel grieved over Saul and the Lord regretted that he made Saul king over Israel So what's happened Samuel had a divine Saul had a divine order to wait on Samuel He was unwilling to wait for the man of God to do the work of God and he took matters into his own hands Have we ever done that? taking matters into our own hands and just acted and Because of that he did not do what the Lord had commanded and then there was punishment the Bible says that the kingdom was stripped away from him and it will be given to Another and what we're gonna read in chapter 16 is that it is given to David and then as I read this passage this last phrase stood out to me and The Lord regretted that he made Saul king over Israel How does the Lord regret Because isn't God sovereign Yes Doesn't he know what's going to happen? So when he made Saul king He knew what was going to happen or the potential he knew what was going to happen, right? So I just I wanted to just kind of rest in this because it's like man Lord what does it mean that you regretted and What we have to understand is that Saul had the potential to choose right to obey or disobey God Much like Adam and Eve had the potential To obey or disobey God in the garden, would y'all say that's correct You have the potential in your own personal life to do what? to obey God or disobey God God is sovereign and He knows the decisions that you're gonna make but that does not take away your choice to make those decisions Now this is this is key on our theology and that's why I was like God Do I even want to step into these waters as we talk into this idea of God regretting? This is key to what we believe as At Bellevue Baptist Church, we believe in the sovereignty
of God and we believe in the free will of humanity and how those two sovereignly and mysteriously work together to bring about the salvation of those who believe. So that you have the free will to choose God or to reject God. Anybody tracking with me? And you may be in this room and you're like, Ben, I don't agree with you on that definition of salvation. We're not going to tackle that tonight, but I'd be happy to talk to you a little bit more about that afterwards. But I want us to understand that when the Bible says that God regretted that he made Saul king over Israel, that does not mean that God changed his mind because God's mind does not change because God does not change. That does not mean that it took the Lord by surprise that Saul did what he did because God knew the choice that he was going to make. But that does not take away the reality that Saul had the freedom to choose. One scholar says it this way, when God reflects on the disobedience of Saul, he uses a word that makes sense to us, the word regret. But this doesn't mean that God was ignorant about Saul's sin or it caught or was caught off guard by his rebellion. God is quite capable of lamenting a state of affairs that he himself foreknew. And in other words, God's regret is not analogous in every way to our regret, but he is saying that I am grieved that Saul sinned and it's time to find another king while still maintaining the reality that God never changed his mind. So as we step into that, I think it's important for us to just understand this reality that God grieves over our sins. And when we choose to disobey him, it grieves him. Saul had what it took to be king. Otherwise, God would not have chosen him to be king. However, when put in the position to choose the way of God or to choose the way of the world, he chose the way of the world. And that sorrow that God felt was the sorrow that now the punishment that Saul is going to have to receive because he chose the way of the world and the impact and the influence that it was going to have on a nation. So that is just where I wanted to start out because when I, and these are hard things to think about, but you need to have a proper view of God. And that's why we ask good questions like, what does this passage teach us about God? What does this passage teach us about humanity and is there something to obey? So now what I'm going to do is I'm going to give you some time at your tables and I want you to lean into those verses that you are assigned. And then we're going to, we're going to sweet home Alabama. I love it. It's all right. I was like, I was just like, it's hard to hear that song and not just get ready to start singing. No, you're fine. You're fine. Um, so the, uh, the, so as you dive into these passages, fight the temptation to find something that is actually not in the text. And what I mean by that is that sometimes in order to find something that is actually in the text, we create something that is not in the text. It reminds us of another scripture and we grab into that other scripture and we bring that meaning into this text. And so what I want you to do is to, to really strive to make sure these observations, the three observations, what does this scripture teach us about God? What does this scripture teach us about man? And what is this? Is there something to obey? As you lean into that, make sure that your answers to those questions actually come from the text and you understand there is the freedom, this, there doesn't have to be an answer for every one of those questions in every text because we only want to see what is in that text. Y'all tracking with me guys. I know this is different and it's okay. How awesome is it that we can actually gather around the table and study God's word together where it's not just me speaking, but what we're going to get to experience tonight in a controlled way is the experience that you have, the knowledge that you bring to the table and then we get to share it with one another. It's almost like God wants us to commune together so that we can learn about him together. It doesn't always have to come from one single teacher. So prepare to be the teacher tonight. We're going to hear from you. Take some time at your tables and we're going to dive into this passage, answer those three questions. All right, go. Bring it back in. Where are, where are my tables that have verse one, verse one. All right, bring it on back down. I should have one or two tables that have chapter 16, verse one, chapter 16, verse one. Where are we at? Some, I know at least two tables should have 60, the only way this is, okay, thank you. All right. That table back there. Any other tables that have verse one? All right. All right. We're going to have to put our listening ears on. All right. We're going to get everybody's attention. All right. So this is the, this is the posture that I want us to walk in tonight. Every single one of us is a student of the Bible. All right. Everybody agree with that? All right. The reality is that sometimes as students, we get it wrong. All right. All right. Everybody, everybody walking with me on it. Even as I try to stand up here and be the expert, and I even fearfully use that word, I'm not the, I'm not an expert. I have to understand that I might have something wrong. And if somebody calls me out or lovingly says, hey, have you thought about it this way? My first reaction is to bow up and say, you better not think I'm wrong. That's called pride. A better posture is to understand that, hey, there is a good chance that I don't have everything right. And that this never became more real to me than when I'm teaching in my college life group some 12, 13 years ago. And I say this very short phrase, Lot is an unrighteous man. And then one of my students just happened to be studying the book of Jude that week, where it actually says that Lot was a righteous man. And his arm goes up and he says, but doesn't. And I was like, yes, you're exactly right. And I'm wrong. And in this setting, that is appropriate to do. Maybe on a Sunday morning, if Ben says something wrong, I'm not going to suggest you stand up and say, hey, I think you're wrong, right? That's going to be more of a one on one conversation. But in this setting, and this is why it's important. And this is after that, after that class, I went up to, I went up to that college student. I want to say, I want to say thank you for having, for correcting me. Because there is a good chance that I would have never had all of those college students in the same room again. And they could have walked out with a wrong understanding because I messed up. Does that make sense? And so even as we walk through this, I have observations and you're going to have observations. And I'm hoping that we're going to be close. But if I if I or somebody else says something, it's okay. Let's try to walk through this with a spirit of humility. Okay. Does that work? All right. So chapter 16, verse 1 says, Now the Lord said to Samuel, how long will you grieve over Saul, since I have rejected him from being king over Israel? Fill your horn with oil and go. I will send you to Jesse the Bethlehemite.
and I have selected a king for myself among his sons. All right. Which one of my tables wants to go first? Yes, sir. All right, so first off, we had some lively discussion. Okay, okay. Somebody kept their arms back on the topic, but what does this say about Bailey? It said that he tends to live in the past. He looks back and he's like, what about this? He's distracted by emotions. Okay. And we need God's direction. Amen. That's good. I love it. What does it say about God is God has a plan. He knew what was gonna happen. Right. And he had a plan all along. That's good. All right. What do y'all have back here? So we talked about God has his own timing. Uh-huh. Relative to God's timing, is we were waiting on him to do something for us, but in this passage, he's waiting on Samuel to stop grieving over Saul and to go his timing. So God has his own timing, but we learned about people that, I guess we're not on God's timing a lot. Yeah. And obey, he gives his clear instructions to us sometimes of what we can do. Yeah. And we have to obey. Yeah, what were the clear instructions in this passage? To anoint me. Go. Get up, take your horn of oil and go. So yeah, God gives us clear instructions. Great job. Here's what I put down. We tend to dwell in the past. Yeah, it's up there. So we tend to dwell in the past. And so, and just think about that. How much time, how many times do we live in regret over past actions or past events? And many times we miss the present and mess up the future because we're too busy looking in the past. God had a new king ready for Israel, but yet Samuel was not ready to go and anoint him because he was grieving over what was. Men, what might you be grieving for what was, that's keeping you from having what God has for you now? We have a tendency to live in the past just like Samuel. And I think I came with God chooses the king, right? God chooses the king. And I think this is so critical for us, especially in the middle of a mid-year election. We get all bent out of shape about what side is right, who's gonna be in charge, what are we gonna do if they get to Congress or what if they do, where they keep the Congress and all of those different things. And the reality is that no matter who wins the next election God is the one who allows that to happen and he's in control. I love that picture of Isaiah chapter six, when there was no one on the throne in Israel because in the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord high and lifted up. There was no one on the earthly throne, but yet God is still in his heavenly throne. God chooses the king. God is in control of those things. Now. I'd like to say one more thing. Sure. God also doesn't cry over spilled milk. Yeah. The same thing happened when Aaron's two sons were playing around with the infant. Right. Leviticus chapter 10. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And God's ready to move on. Yeah. All right. So now who's got verse two? All right. We got one right here and one right here. Who wants to go first? All right, go ahead. Oh, let me read it first. I'm so sorry. Let me read it. It says, but Samuel said, how can I go when Saul hears of it? He will kill me. And the Lord said, take a heifer with you and say, I have come to sacrifice to the Lord. All right, go ahead. Love it. All right. Anything else? Yeah. Man is fearful. He goes right back to what we just talked about. Yeah. And yeah, that's exactly right. All right. Anything else? Okay. Let them tell me. All right. What we got over here on this table, guys? If you look at this, this is Samuel's response to God. That's for a human response. Right. When literally in the chapter before, Samuel had literally killed King Agag and cut him to pieces. Yeah. He was the baddest man in the world. Yeah. He was bold, wasn't he? Yeah. Yeah. Yet, just like, you know, we see in Elijah later, you know, prophets bail and then he's afraid of women. Right. God loves and meets us individually where we are. You know, it's easy to read God's love of the world, and be like, oh yeah, yeah, yeah, God loves everyone. Right. God loves you, Victor, for exactly who you are. Right. God loves me, Patrick, for exactly who I am. He knows everything about me. He knew everything about Samuel. Yeah. And when Samuel brings this objection up to him, God doesn't just hammer him and say, come on, man, just go do it. Mm-hmm. He said, okay, here, this is all yours, but just take this heifer. Yeah. And don't let him know he's going to sacrifice to the Lord. Yeah. That's good, he gives him a point. So about God, he loves and meets us individually where we are in our weaknesses and failures. Yeah. And he, you know, about men, well, we're human. Yeah. We can literally be on the mountaintop one moment and then afraid of, oh, what's Saul gonna think? Right. Yeah. And I think that's so true. I looked at this, the one truth that I pulled from it is we tend to allow fear to rule over us. We have a tendency to allow to fear to rule over us. Fear will keep us from taking a step of faith. Fear will keep us from being obedient to the word. If the Lord said, go and anoint another king, do you think the Lord is gonna be the one that protects Samuel as he does that? Absolutely. But you have to understand that step of faith. And I like that idea that Patrick was talking about is that idea that God meets us where we're at. He didn't change the command because Samuel was fearful. He said, here's how you can go do this. What would have been awesome is if Samuel said, all right, Lord, if you're telling me to go, I'm gonna go. Right, but yet, even when he was fearful, God gave him a way to still accomplish what he did. That's good. All right. Yeah. If God says jump, we should say it. How high, amen, amen. And so, okay, and Noble, I love that thought. Man, we don't have enough time. This is, I gotta let y'all talk, not me. But how many times, guys, think about this. Do you feel the Holy Spirit prompting? We're talking about when God says jump, right? So how do we know when God is telling us to jump? Well, it's the Holy Spirit that lives inside you that he has given you. That's how, and through his word, he in you says, I want you to go talk to that person about their relationship with Jesus. I want you to invite that person to church. That person has this sad look on their face. What would it look like for you to go and just talk to them and make sure they're okay? Yes, sir. I have a testimony. I went to Home Depot this afternoon, and as I was going, I prayed. I said, Lord, would you have me give a track to somebody, one that you can know. And the Spirit of God said, yeah. So I get out of my truck, and I see one of the employees at Home Depot doing something about getting cars. And I went and talked to him. He said he's coming to church. Amen, amen. And I say, isn't that awesome? And that's it. The Holy Spirit isn't gonna tell you to do something that he's not already moving on. It's like, let's begin to not allow fear to rule over us, but the Lord does not give us a spirit of fear, right? So we can begin to walk in boldness. I love it. All right, so now we're looking at 1 Samuel, verses three through five. Let me read it for us. You shall invite Jesse to the sacrifice, and I will show you what you shall do, and you shall anoint for me the one whom I designate to you. So Samuel did what the Lord said and came to Bethlehem, and the elders of the city came trembling to meet him and said to him, maybe they were thinking about the Samuel that killed King Agag right here. They were trembling, saying, do you come in peace? He said, in peace I have come to sacrifice to the Lord. Consecrate yourselves and come with me to the sacrifice. He also consecrated Jesse and his sons and invited them to the sacrifice. Well, who had these verses, verses three through five? That table, any other table? All right, what do we got? So this is God moving. The people have rebelled. They chose a king, Saul, and Saul had failed, and now God comes in to basically save the day. He goes to Bethlehem, which I believe is symbolic of a true king to come, and they are fearful. We don't know why they're fearful, but it could be because of sin in their life, or it could be because they're worried about Samuel.
to say, but he says to them, he's come in peace. And he said, consecrate yourselves. So we have to consecrate ourselves to come to God. I believe that means we need to repent, we need to reflect, we need to do what we should do to come before the Holy Presence, because this is a sacrifice. They're going to make a sacrifice. He's consecrating Jesse and his sons. Of course, his sons, you know, the root of Jesse is pointing towards Jesus Christ again. So ultimately, the true king, it started out as a theocracy. God was the king of Israel, and then they chose Saul. It will go back to a true theocracy when Jesus Christ returns, because he is God, and he's the king. So that may not have answered your question. Yeah. Yeah, I think everything that you said is true, exactly true. And I think we could go to all those different scriptures to help us walk through that. Is there, when we talk about, is there anything that we can learn about God, anything that we can learn about man, anything that we can obey? Do we see anything from in these passages that we can answer those questions? Yes, sir. Yeah. Yeah, that's really good. And I think when we think about what the truth that I pulled from this, it was more about humanity. We must obey the Lord when he speaks. The Lord had given Samuel a command to go, and he went, and then he started that process, that selection process in the way that the Lord had told him to do it. And so he was willing to obey what the Lord had spoken to him to obey what the Lord had spoken. And men, we have to understand that the Lord has given us his word for us to hear and learn and to obey. What is it in God's word that you would say you are being disobedient in? Well, Ben, you don't know me. I'm not disobedient in anything from God's word. And I would call you a liar. And therefore, you're being disobedient to God. We all have areas. And I believe in the Holy Spirit enough that when I ask you what is it that you are disobedient to the Lord in, that maybe there's something in your heart that the Lord, the Holy Spirit says, this is where you're being disobedient. And we are called to be obedient. Samuel, in order to please the Lord, he had to obey God. God said go, and he went, he obeyed. God is telling you to love your wife as Christ loved the church. God is telling you to flee from youthful lust. God is telling you to be satisfied with the wife of your youth. God is telling you to love one another, to put others above yourself. Men of Bellevue Baptist Church, are we being obedient to God's word? Because if we're not, we're in trouble. Y'all are good preachers. Thank y'all. This is good. Verses six through seven. It says, when they entered, he looked at Eliab and thought, surely the Lord's anointed is before him. But the Lord said to Samuel, do not look at his appearance or at the height of his stature because I have rejected him. For God sees not as man sees, for the man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart. Which tables had those verses right there? We have this table and any other table? This one right here. All right, who wants to go first? All right, go ahead. I think Samuel did what most people do, they walk in the room and meet somebody and they look at their appearance and judge them. That's called, he was meant to be the first. Yeah. God does not judge our appearance. He judges the heart and character and faith. Yeah, absolutely. Right. Yeah. Don't do that, yeah. Yeah, that's good, that's good. All right, what about you guys? What'd y'all come up with? The only thing that we, as a man, can do is look at their appearance and their actions. I can't see what's in your heart. Right. I can't see what's in my heart. All we can see is the actions. So we have to ignore what we see and base our opinions of you with the Lord, and not what we see. Right, yeah, that's good. Yeah, I would agree with both of y'all. I think what I put on this, I put it this way. We tend to focus on the outward appearance, the Lord looks at the heart. We tend to look at the outward appearance and the Lord looks at the heart. Men, as we think about what it means for our church to be, to love Memphis and to be good neighbors in our community, we're gonna have to be okay with the community coming into our church. And even if they don't look like us, talk like us, or do like us, we are to still love them as God loves them. We can't make snap judgments. We have to be willing to look at the heart and understand that if somebody's heart is not with the Lord, let's give them some grace. Sometimes, church, we expect lost people to act like saved people. And we condemn them because a lost person is acting like a lost person. Let's walk in an attitude of grace and look at the heart, and if the heart is not right with God, let's see what we can do to help move them in that area. Well, Ben, how can I tell if somebody's heart is not right with God? And we can't tell the intent, exactly what you just said. You don't know my heart, I don't know your heart. One of my old seminary professors said it this way. I can't judge your heart, but I can inspect your fruit. And sometimes, we need to be willing to look at each other's fruit, and if somebody's fruit is not lining up, maybe they need a relationship with the Lord and we give them a little bit of grace and start working with them towards that. Or if you know that they profess to be a believer and their fruit's not lining up, maybe it's time to have a hard conversation with them. And that's okay, right? All right, so good stuff, we gotta go fast. All right, let's look at first, eight through 11. I'll read it real quick. Then Jesse's called Abinadab and made him to pass before Samuel, and he said, the Lord has not chosen this one either. Next, Jesse made Shammah pass by, and he said, the Lord has not chosen this one either. Thus Jesse made seven of his sons pass before Samuel, but Samuel said, Jesse, the Lord has not chosen these. And Samuel said to Jesse, are these all your children? And he said, there remains yet the youngest. Behold, he is sending sheep. And then Samuel said to Jesse, send and bring him, for we will not sit down until he comes here. All right, where's my tables that had these? Right here, another table? Any other tables? All right, go ahead. So what we came up with is not what's on your bullet point. Oh, gosh, man, it came in, y'all, that's cheating. So what we came up with, we talked about how in verse seven, God kind of gave Samuel answers to the test, you know, judged by the heart, not by the appearance. Right. So then I think when we look at verses eight through 10, we see two things as far as what God wants from us. God wants to be obedient. And I think we talked about that just a while ago. Samuel was being obedient, that I'm gonna look for the heart, but he also was looking at patience, too, he was showing patience. And God wants us to be patient. He tests us that way. And I think it would have been really easy for Samuel when the first time he met Ben-Ad-Dass, it was the oldest one, said, oh, that's the one, let's eat. Yeah, yeah. You know, let's move on. But he showed patience by looking at each one and examining their heart. But I believe the Lord gave him the heart of being patient and obedient. And then the other verse that really jumped out is in 11. You know, it's funny to see these little nuggets. Samuel said, send for him at once. We will not sit down to eat until he arrives. And to me, that's a picture that, okay, these other sons have come before me. I don't have the spirit of the heart to know that they're the one. One that's gonna leave is out there in the field somewhere. So I see a spirit of anticipation in Samuel. Sure. And we don't know how long he waited. They didn't eat. They were waiting. The picture I see is off of the Old Testament is waiting for the Messiah, waiting for the Savior. Yeah. And that's the picture that I see there. Then when you get to the New Testament, waiting for the Messiah again, we John the Baptist paved the way. And then drilling down to what does it say about man, we should be waiting again for the appearance again. So waiting, waiting for the Savior. Yeah. I love that. I think as we look at.
It says the Lord sees everyone. I like the idea of that. Yes, we have Samuel who looked at the sons and he was listening to the Lord. I want to point that out The Lord was speaking to him Speaking to Samuel and then Sam then he was listening to the Lord and he was like, okay It's none of these because the God got the Lord said it's none of these Where's another one and then they did not even bother to invite David and perhaps it was because he's the youngest He is out doing the work that the youngest is supposed to be doing But for whatever reason they did not even think to invite him when he said call your family here call your sons here And he was left out in the field and I love that reality that God saw the one that maybe had been forgotten and Yet that was the one that he had chosen God sees everyone and man. I don't know if you need to be reminded of this tonight, but God sees you and He saved you for a purpose and he wants to use you in his kingdom Just like he wanted to use David God sees everyone. All right, we got to hurry up Verse 12 and 13, so he went and brought him in now He was ruddy and beautiful eyes and a handsome appearance and the Lord said arise anoint him for this is he then Samuel took the horn of the oil and anointed him in the midst of his brothers and the Spirit of the Lord came mildly upon David in the day and that day forward and Samuel arose and went to Ramah Who had those verses? I got here. It's okay. It's not called got that. All right. What do you got? Okay Yeah, absolutely Mm-hmm Right, yeah, that's so good. Yeah, all that is so true read those three points a little bit louder Nathan Just so I want everybody to hear it Yes That's Good. All right, and this is what I came I came up with I Love this truth that the Lord uses the weak and ordinary things of this world. So he receives the glory the one that was considered the least of these among the sons was the one who God chose and You see that in the next chapter When he is the one that is facing the Giants out of all of the warriors This one who was full of the Spirit of God was the one that was willing to go out and God used it So that who won the battle? God won the battle. So God uses the weak and ordinary things of this world. So he receives the glory Right Yeah Yeah That's right. He knew what to do, right? You need the right tools look at verses 14 and 15. It says now the Spirit of the Lord departed Saul in An evil spirit from the Lord terrorized him Saul's servants then said to him behold now an evil spirit from God is terrorizing you Who had these verses? Right here and right there what y'all get Right We learned that with man, what we learned about human beings is that once the Holy Spirit of God departed from them God would send forth an evil spirit from the devil to do us in Once we didn't have the Spirit of God, we evolved to Satan who has no faith And so the thing that we have to learn to obey is to be obedient to the Lord So that as new believers in Christ, we don't have to worry about God taking the Spirit from us But we do have to realize that God can put a dog in us if we can grieve His Holy Spirit We can grieve His Holy Spirit, quench the Spirit, grieve the Spirit. Yeah. Yes. Uh-huh We can't be possessed by the devil, we can be oppressed by the devil If we don't abide in the Spirit Sure, it's good. Good. What about this table back here? Yeah Yeah Yeah, that's good Right. That's good Yeah Mm-hmm Yeah Yeah Sure, yeah, you're good Yep Yeah, that's good Yeah Yeah Yeah, yeah, kind of that picture. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah Yeah, that's good Yeah When I looked at these two verses, this simple phrase came to my mind There are consequences for sin And we do dive into a little bit of an understanding of the spiritual world When we look at this passage, it talks about a terrorizing spirit from God And then when we look at Job, we see that the hosts that are there You see the enemy walking and having conversations with God Go to 1 Kings 22, a deceiving spirit is sent to deceive King Ahab What I want you to see is in the midst of that, we have to recognize That the enemy and his demons are not operating on their own God is sovereign, and you said this, he can jerk that chain when he wants to God is sovereign and in control of even that And so we don't have an enemy that God is not over God is over the enemy, and he can allow that enemy to have his way with certain people in certain times And we see that a couple of times throughout Scripture All right, the last three verses are this, and then we're gonna finish up It says, let our Lord now command your servants who are before you Let them seek a man who is a skillful player on the harp And it shall come about when the evil spirit from God is on you That he may play the harp with his hand and you shall be well So Saul said to his servants, provide for me now a man who can play well and bring him to me And the one of the young men said, behold, I've seen the son of Jesse, the Bethlehemite Who is a skillful musician, a mighty man of valor, a warrior, one prudent in speech, and a handsome man And the Lord is with him And so Saul sent messengers to Jesse and said, send me your son David who is with the flock All right, who had those verses? All right, right here, what do y'all have? All right, so we took what we learned in chapter 15, the end of chapter 15 That God had regretted making Saul the king of Israel And what we just learned in the previous verse That it was he who sent the evil spirit And from that, in these verses, we learned about God that day
God is sovereign, and he is working behind the scenes, even though we don't see it. And what we learned, what that says about man, from these verses, is that the young man and Saul tried to find their own solution. They didn't go straight to God for any kind of solution. They used words like, seek and provide for me. And then, what it says about a man, we should let God do his will, and we should use our spiritual gift to serve God, as David did. That's good. Yeah, I love all of that. I came up with this phrase right here, the Lord prepares his people for the work he calls them to. And where do you get that? Okay, so where was David situated when he was ministering to Saul? He was around Saul all the time, right? Whenever that evil spirit came, he was in the throne room. He was watching how he reigned the kingdom. He had all of this opportunity to be right next to the person that was leading the country. And though he was there close, I believe that he was learning how to lead and how not to lead. And I just thought it was a unique thought that the Lord put him in this position with his skills as a musician. And I think sometimes, I love how they describe David here. It says that he is a skillful musician, a mighty man of value, a warrior when prudent in speech, and a handsome man, the Lord is with him. The Lord is with him. Take all of those other great things the Bible says, and all David need is that last phrase. The Lord is with him. Men, I wanna close with this, and we're gonna pray. The Lord is with his children. He is calling you to do his work, to build his kingdom, to bring him glory. When I see that phrase, the Lord is with him, my mind automatically goes to the Great Commission. Go therefore, and I have to say all of it in my mind. Go therefore, what's my next word? And make disciples of all the nations. I say it all the time, and I'm like, this brain fog. Go therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I've commanded you, and lo, what? I am with you always, even to the end of the age. Men, as we walk away, be encouraged that the Bible is God's word to you. And it is great to listen to great teachers, and we have them all over the world, and at the touch of a button, you can have some of the greatest preachers in history. But what is best is when you sit down, and you wrestle with God's word, and you look back and forth, and you begin to dig out every piece of treasure that God has for you. And my prayer is that tonight is just an encouragement to you that you can do this. And the Bible does not have to be a mysterious book that you don't understand, because God is a good father, and he brings good gifts to his children, and I believe his word and his spirit are two of the greatest gifts that we have. May we do the work to study ourself approved, to study to show ourselves approved. Let's pray. Father, we thank you. Lord, I just thank you for just, I know this is awkward a little bit, just getting around tables, talking, and having this time, but Lord, it was fun. And Lord, I thank you for the participation, and Lord, I pray now that even as we end, that these men will recognize that the Lord is with them to do the work that you have called them to do. And Lord, I pray, Lord God, that you will allow us to walk out of here encouraged, knowing a little bit more about you. And Lord, I pray that you will continually teach us and lead us in paths of righteousness for your name's sake. And if we ever have a wrong understanding of you, I pray that you will put people in our lives that will help correct us. And may we have a spirit of humility to be corrected. We thank you and we love you. In your name we pray, amen.