Here's Pastor Alan Wright with Today's Blessing: a Biblical Faith-Filled Vision. for your life. I bless you to be doubly fruitful. For 3,700 years, Jewish dads have blessed their kids with the words, God make you as Ephraim and Manasseh. Partly because Ephraim means twice fruitful.
Flourish, grow, bear much fruit. I bless you to find energy for your work. through your sense of destiny. God has woven unique gifts and aspirations into the fabric of your life. that position you for a role that No one else can fill.
You are God's workmanship. created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand. That's from Ephesians. Chapter 2, verse 10. Pastor, author, and Bible teacher Alan Wright.
When you try to take matters in your own hands and control things that only God can control, said that is like the occult. It's like witchcraft. It's like Ouija boards. It's like Tarot cards. It's like astrology.
It's like you trying to do some manipulation of the universe around you rather than trusting God. That's Pastor Alan Wright. Welcome to another message of good news that will help you see your life in a whole new light. I'm Daniel Britt. Excited for you to hear the teaching today in the series, The Untroubled Heart, as presented at Renola Church in North Carolina.
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More on this later in the program. But right now. Let's get started with today's teaching. Here is Pastor Alan Wright. At the end of verse 23, the prophet says, Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, he has also rejected you from being king.
I have in a sense relished this unusual moment of finality. from the Lord in this narrative. because of its figurative and symbolic meaning. And to never forget. God let Israel have Saul with all of his fear and fear-inducing tactics.
But he wasn't going to keep it that way. There's no clinging or grasping. That could spare Saul from his great loss. Verse 27, Samuel turned to go away. Saul seized the skirt of his robe and it tore.
And Samuel said to him, The Lord has torn the kingdom of Israel from you this day, and has given it to a neighbor of yours. Who's better than you? It's all pleated, but to no avail. And the text says at verse 35: Samuel did not see Saul again until the day of his death, but Samuel grieved over Saul. And this strange line: the Lord regretted that he made Saul king over Israel.
I don't know what it means. to say that A sovereign, all-knowing God can have a regret, but it's a powerful statement. It is a tragic statement, but it is also one of the most hopeful statements imaginable. If you see it this way. The Lord is saying, I will not allow ultimately the ruler of my people to be a fearful manipulator.
Anxiety and shame and religious self-righteousness will not be at the permanent headship of my people. I have a different man. I have a different plan. I have a different system. I have a whole new way of being.
And all of it was a shadow, a forerunner to the real king, the king of kings, the prince of priests, the son, prince of priests, the son of David himself, Jesus. Because an anxious man stirs up anxiety and God says that is not what is going to dwell on the throne of the kingdom of God. A prideful spirit who uses anointing to look impressive and thinks that sacrifice and self-righteousness, the answer to a troubled heart, will not reign in my kingdom. Instead, he had in mind the son of David who did not think of equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself and took on the form of a servant and would lay down his life for his people. You see it?
He's pointing us towards the rulership of Jesus. who makes an offer of peace not as Saul would give. But as David would give. The scene switches immediately. In chapter 16, verse 1, the Lord said to Samuel, How long will you grieve over Saul since I've rejected him from being king over Israel?
Fill your horn with oil and go. I'll send you to Jesse, the Bethlehemite. For I have provided for myself a king among his sons. I let the people have their king, he says, but I have provided for myself a king. I got my kind of man now.
The Lord of heaven and earth does not wallow in his grief, and he's not paralyzed by the way of sinners, and he's not too set back by the failings of his people. They will not spoil his high intentions. God moves on. deliberately. resolutely, hopefully, sovereignly.
Go. The Lord says. I've got a better plan in mind. I got a better man in mind. Anoint him the way you anointed Saul.
Jesse lined up all of his sons. And he brought out the m most kingly looking Eliab. Yeah. Samuel thought this must be him, but verse 7, the Lord said to Samuel, do not look on his appearance or the height of his stature. Because I've rejected him.
The Lord does not see as a man sees. Man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart. What God cared about was Putting someone who could have an untroubled heart in troubled times on the throne of Israel. And they brought by every one of the seven of these sons, and the Lord kept saying, that's not it. Finally, Samuel says, You got anybody else?
And they said, Well, we got the youngest. We got David, but I mean, he's just a youth, he's out in the field with the children. Sheep say well, bring him. And They brought him. Verse twelve.
He was ruddy, had beautiful eyes, was handsome. The Lord said, Arise, anoint him. For this is he. And Samuel took the horn of oil. I suppose it was the same one he'd use.
One had Anointed Saul. He took the horn of oil and anointed David in the midst of his brothers. And the same phrase that was used of Saul, and the Spirit of the Lord rushed upon David from that day forward. No sooner had the oil been poured upon David's head than Saul begins to be persecuted by a demonic spirit. And Saul's advisors tell him, say, you need to get somebody to come in here and play beautiful music and worshipful music that'll help bring some peace into the palace and it'll help soothe you.
And they said, we know of a young man named David, and he's a very gifted worshiper and he's a very gifted musician. They said, bring him here. And so in 1 Samuel 16, 23, David took the lyre and played it with his hand.
So Saul was refreshed and was well, and the harmful spirit departed from him. You can't miss this foil, can you? That the very first thing that Saul did with his anointing was to terrorize his own people. And the very first thing that David did with his anointing was to come and drive out the presence of evil. Saul's anointing harnessed the fear, and David's anointing drove out the fear.
And in the next scene that we're given, famously, Saul's in this big predicament because a Philistine giant. has been taunting the armies of God for 40 days. And saying, I'll challenge you to a battle of champions. One representative of Israel and one representative of the Philistines. I'll represent our army.
We need one man from you. Get your best fighter. to come out and fight me and whoever wins amongst these two champions will win for the whole army. And the army, therefore, represents the whole nation. Give us a representative and we'll fight and then it'll be for the whole people.
There'll be They'll be in a sense represented in their champion. But nobody's willing to fight. There's nobody brave enough to fight, including Saul himself. Until This youth shows up. That's Alan Wright, and we'll have more teaching in a moment from today's important series.
God's love. You've heard about it with your ears. You've believed it in your mind.
Now experience it in your heart with Alan Wright's beloved book, Lover of My Soul. The Bible is a love story from beginning to end. You are the spiritual bride of Christ, the perfect bridegroom. The Bible tells about a God who has gone to unimaginable lengths to woo you, to win you, and to walk with you hand in hand. For any man who has fallen in love with a woman, you've tasted the sweetness of what God's love for you is like.
for any woman who has searched for true love, what you long for can only be found fully in God. Gary Chapman, renowned author of The Five Love Languages, says, the incredible reality that God pursues us in love comes to life in Lover of My Soul. Ancient biblical accounts explode in the heart. Accept Christ's proposal, enjoy His embrace, revel in His love. After all, it's a match made in heaven.
It's Lover of My Soul by Alan Wright. The gospel is shared when you give to Allen Wright Ministries. This broadcast is only possible because of listener financial support. When you give today, we will send you today's special offer. We are happy to send this to you as our thanks from Allen Wright Ministries.
Call us at eight seven seven five four four forty eight sixty. That's eight seven seven five four four forty eight sixty. Or come to our website, pastorallen.org. Today's teaching now continues. Here once again.
is Alan Wright. Jesse sent his son David Though he'd been anointed in this prophetic moment, nothing's happened. It just like.
Okay, one day you'll be king. I don't know. But he sends them with food, takes bread. to his brothers at the battle line and they make fun of him and say, what are you doing, Coco? Who's watching your few little sheep?
They was like, what, can I not even talk? David started saying, why is this Philistine giant taunting the people of God? He goes into King Saul and says, I'll fight him. It takes a while for you to convince. Yeah, but he says in 1 Samuel 17, 32, David said to Saul, Let no man's heart fail.
For Let no man's heart fail because of him. Don't let anybody be afraid anymore. Let's not have any of this anxiety anymore. Your servant will go and fight with this Philistine. David was confident because his faith had been forged.
In obscurity? He's seen the Lord deliver. Him from the Paul of the Lion and the Paul of the Bear, while he would just. protecting his flocks in The fields? And if this foil of Saul and David couldn't be clear, Saul tried to dress David in Saul's armor, but of course it didn't fit him.
And plus, David didn't want it anyway. And And so you see this incredible scene of the defeat of Goliath. Saul was anointed, David was anointed, Saul had the Spirit rush upon him, David had the Spirit rush upon him.
So Had to interact in his early leadership with the people being very afraid. That's a common Of leadership, right? Afraid people, what's the leader going to do? David had the same thing. He had interacted with soldiers that were too afraid to fight.
They both had the same thing, but is where it diverged. Saul roused people By the threat of punishing them if they didn't buck up and fight for him. And David took a very different approach. David said, Let no one be afraid. I'll fight for you.
I'll fight for you. I'll fight the fight you can't fight. And I'll use my courage to put courage into you. And I'll represent you. And I'll face the giant that you can't face.
and I'll decapitate the headship of the enemy army so that your life will be different. And you will be changed. And when David killed Goliath, there are two things that we read about in verse 51. The Philistines saw that their champion was dead, they fled. They started scattering like cockroaches.
And the men of Israel and Judah They rose up with a shout and pursued the Philistines as far as Gath. I measured it on the map one time. It looks like 6.2 miles that they kept chasing them. They just chased him down. And you know those soldiers, they're just running next to you.
This group of people. These Hebrew-Iraeli soldiers were the most cowardly army on the face of the earth. until they saw Goliath go down. And then all of a sudden, they're just running next to each other, and they're the most excited, most courageous. I remember I first saw this in this text, I was like, I could just see them running, like, you know, they're saying to each other, I'm going to get me some Philistines now.
I'm on the run, they're on the run now. And I'm like, you know, I was going to fight Goliath myself. But then David came along, you know, and they're just like, now they're just so full of courage. What had changed? What had changed was their champion had done what they couldn't do.
This is the piece that comes not as the world gives. This is a peace that only the champion can give. And this is why Jesus must be known as the son of David, not the son of Saul. And this is why David had to be king. Everybody needed to see what God had always planned for his people.
They needed to see that the pathway to victory and courage and peace was not by heeding a tyrant telling you to try harder or else. What the people needed then, and what the people need now, when we're struggling with our anxious hearts in this Goliath-filled world, it is the same. We need grace. We need the gospel. We need power and love that goes before us.
We need this as love, not that we first love God, but that he first loved us. When we are in our sin, we needed a champion who could do for us what we couldn't do for ourselves. And as surely as the soldiers found courage in David's victory, here's where we find our courage. Here's where we find peace that passes understanding when we think of the Son of David, Jesus, and his cross and his resurrection and what he's done to dismantle the enemy army and decapitate the headship of evil so that we know that we are in him and therefore we're in the victory and we are encouraged and have peace. I just love how God has painted the gospel into every story of the Bible.
God doesn't change us by demanding more sacrifice from us. He changes us by sacrificing. For us. Wow The people loved David. And Saul became anxious about that.
1 Samuel 18, 28, when Saul saw and knew that the Lord was with David. Saul was even more afraid of David.
So Saul was David's enemy continually. Yeah. If you could go and read the stories, which is a wonderful story to read, you'll see Saul. continually trying to kill David. And David, instead of fighting back, goes on the run for a decade, hiding in caves, living in the wilderness, moving from place to place.
Twice during this narrative, David has an opportunity to easily kill Saul. But remarkably does not. And says, I would not dare lay a hand on the Lord's anointed. He's saying, until the Lord gets me on the throne, I am not going to try to control matters myself. I will not stand in the place of God.
I will not rebel against God's plan. I'll trust him. And when the day finally arrives that Saul has died by another's hand, 2 Samuel 1:11, David took hold of his clothes and tore them, and they mourned and wept and fasted. Until evening for Saul. And Jonathan.
I can hardly begin to fathom what sort of other-centered, glory-shifting lament. of another's enemy's demise is all about, except that it points us to the son of David. who we look at hanging on a cross. as his enemies Pierce him. And he says, Father, forgive them.
They don't know what they are doing. David, most scholars think, was about 15 years old. when he was anointed. He was 37. When he finally had the full throne.
of all of Israel. There was no shortcut to his glory. And there was no shortcut for Jesus. who clawed the ground underneath those gnarled olive trees. in ancient Gethsemane.
And wished there was a different way, but said, Not my will, yours be done, Father. and sweat blood for us. until he went and took the cross that he had resolutely determined in his heart that he would take. and sacrificed his all. If the contrast couldn't be more clear and more vivid and more powerful and more wonderful.
Then you see it at 2 Samuel 6, 13, when David finally, after all those years of being persecuted by Saul, when he finally is put on the throne of Israel, The number one thing he wanted to do was to bring in the Ark of the Covenant, which was the symbol of the presence of God. He wanted the presence of the Lord in the middle of Jerusalem. And so they brought the Ark in. We read about it, 2 Samuel 6, 13. When those who bore the Ark of the Lord had gone six steps, he sacrificed an ox and a fattened animal.
And David danced before the Lord with all his might. And David was wearing a lined ephid. David didn't carve up the animals to try to impress God. David didn't slice up and slaughter the sacrifices in order to try to manipulate God. David came in like a child whirling about with praise and worship and gratitude because he knew all of it had come only by the hand of God.
And he trusted God and seen God was faithful. And so he didn't have anything left to do but bring him a sacrifice of praise. Which is why we celebrate communion. Because it's the celebration of the champion who went before us and sacrificed. on our behalf and left us only with Eucharisteo, the Eucharist, the gratitude of our hearts.
When you feel like the Philistine armies have mustered their troops and life feels hard, you will feel a little bit of that temptation that Saul had. If you're human, you're going to feel it. And start looking around and say, what kind of animals could I carve up?
Well, how can I manipulate God? How can I get peace like the world? You'll feel it, but maybe you'll remember Saul. And you'll say, ah, I think there's a better way. I'm not in Saul, I'm in David.
I mean the son of David. And I can trust him. That's the peace that passes understanding. That's the peace, not as the world gives. And it is the offer of Jesus.
Still. And that's the gospel. Pastor Alan Wright, today's good news message: A Tale of Two Kings, the contrasting pathways to peace as seen in David. And Saul. And it's in our series, The Untroubled Heart.
I encourage you to stay with us. Pastor Alan is back here in the studio in just a few moments, sharing his parting good news thought for the day. Stick with us. Unlock the power of blessing your life. Discover God's grace-filled vision for your life by signing up for Alan Wright's free daily blessing.
If you want to fill your heart with grace and encouragement, get Alan Wright's Daily Blessing. It's free and just a click away at pastorallen.org. God's love. You've heard about it with your ears. You've believed it in your mind.
Now experience it in your heart with Alan Wright's beloved book, Lover of My Soul. The Bible is a love story from beginning to end. You are the spiritual bride of Christ, the perfect bridegroom. The Bible tells about a God who has gone to unimaginable lengths to woo you, to win you, and to walk with you hand in hand. For any man who has fallen in love with a woman, you've tasted the sweetness of what God's love for you is like.
For any woman who has searched for true love, What you long for can only be found fully in God. Gary Chapman, renowned author of The Five Love Languages, says, the incredible reality that God pursues us in love comes to life in Lover of My Soul. Ancient biblical accounts explode in the heart. Accept Christ's proposal, enjoy his embrace, revel in his love. After all, it's a match made in heaven.
It's Lover of My Soul by Alan Wright. The gospel is shared when you give to Allen Wright Ministries. This broadcast is only possible because of listener financial support. When you give today, we will send you today's special offer. We are happy to send this to you as our thanks from Allan Wright Ministries.
Call us at eight seven seven five four four forty eight sixty. That's eight seven seven five four four forty eight sixty. Or come to our website, pastorallen.org. Back here in the studio with Pastor Alan, right? And trust is on our lips a lot these days, I feel like.
And I like the way you close this message out. You can trust him. The Tale of Two Kings, the conclusion of this message, and yeah, we can trust Jesus. At every turn, I hope. Any of our listeners, if you missed the previous broadcasts on this message.
Go back and please get this whole message. Because what you're seeing, it's a foil, that's the literary term, saw, is like David. They were both kings, the first two kings of Israel. Saul also was anointed, but they were so different because at every turn, Saul thought, but I've got to do something. to get God on my side.
I've got to offer up a sacrifice. I've got to be this or that. David, on the other hand, had a place of security In the love of God, he He knew how to draw near to God in his times of trouble. wrote most of our Psalms, was a worshipper. And The point of all of this in the end when David brings The ark into Jerusalem and dances with all his might before the Lord.
He's like, What I care about most is the presence of God in my life.
So here is a great picture for two leaders. Who won who ends up being literally driven to insanity because of anxiety and jealousy? and the other who faces a long road and perseveres, has his flaws, but David takes the throne. with joy and worship in his heart. And that's our picture.
ultimately of the Savior Jesus, who wants to give us his heart as well, his own untroubled heart. Thanks for listening today. Visit us online at pastorallen.org or call 877-477. 544-4860. That's 877-544-4860.
If you only caught part of today's teaching, not only can you listen again online, but also get a daily email devotional that matches today's teaching delivered right to your email inbox free. Find out more about these and other resources at pastorallen.org. That's pastorallen.org. Today's good news message is a listener-supported production. of Alan Wright Ministries.
