Here's Pastor Alan Wright with Today's Blessing: a Biblical Faith-Filled Vision. for your life. Be empowered in these trying times with today's blessing, which is taken from Nehemiah 8, verse 10. You might feel weary from the strain of trying times. You might feel weak under the weight of difficult days.
but in Christ. you have a secret pathway to power. You've been given, in your inheritance, a hidden weapon. Joy. The joy of the Lord.
is your strength.
So I bless you to walk in the joy of the Lord, His own joy in you. With God's joy. You become a Moses in the face of every Pharaoh. With God's joy, you become a Samson. in the face of all your Philistines.
With God's joy, you become a David in the face of all your giants.
So may you be strengthened today. and the joy of the Lord. It's the fruit of the Spirit. and it's the fuel for your journey. That's today's blessing, and that is the gospel.
Pastor, author, and Bible teacher Alan Wright. Garden. doesn't help us. Because we've sacrificed for him. God helps us.
Because he loves us. And He has sacrificed for us. 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 Ronilda Church in North Carolina. If you're not able to stay with us throughout the entire program, I want to make sure you know how to get our special resource right now. It can be yours for your donation this month to Allen Wright Ministries.
So as you listen to today's teaching, today's message, go deeper as we send you today's special offer. Just contact us at pastorallen.org. That's pastoralen.org. or call 877-544-4860. That's 877-544-4860.
More on this later in the program. But right now. Let's get started with today's teaching. Here is Pastor Alan Wright. He was anxious.
He was anointed, but he was anxious. He was a head taller than everyone else, but he felt small. He looked like a warrior, but he felt like a coward. He looked like the right man to face all of Israel's troubles. But he had no idea what to do with his own troubled heart.
So, you get to watch in this drama of the real history of Israel. You get to watch what happens when the anointing power of God comes upon a man who's impressive on the outside and insecure on the inside. And I want to show you a few scenes. Again, we're We're not going to lose sight of why we're looking at Saul because he's a foil who will show you who David is. And if you can really see who David is.
Then you can see who the son of David is. Saul learns, first scene, he learns that the people and the soldiers are discouraged and afraid because the Ammonites have threatened them. Saul becomes furious at the level of fear and despair. Nothing wrong with being discouraged or being upset that the people are afraid and not wanting to be afraid. Nothing even wrong with a little righteous anger.
But look what Saul did. Verse 7, 1 Samuel 11, verse 7. He took a yoke of oxen and cut them in pieces and sent them throughout the territory of Israel by the hand of the messenger, saying, Whoever does not come out after Saul and Samuel, so shall it be done to his oxen. Carved up a bunch of animals and sent around the bloody carcass fragments everywhere to scare everybody and say, I'll do this to all your livestock unless you start. Getting in line and coming out and fighting.
And it said the dread of the Lord came upon the people, and they came out as one man.
So it just didn't take more than a few days for Saul to show his stripes. He was going to terrorize the people. I think Saul was just doing what was familiar to him. Right. I think Saul understood that internal engine of shame.
I think he understood performance-based living, where. Only unless you're impressive, only unless you're doing something impressive, only unless you can measure up, only then could you ever be accepted by anybody. And so he knew what it felt like to have that adrenaline of the fear of rejection coursing through his veins that energized him. I'm just saying, Saul understood all that is anti-gospel. He understood what was Antichrist.
That spirit that always says, if you don't do more, then you will be rejected. And you need to measure up in order to be accepted.
So Saul took his spirit-induced. Audacity And he carved up the animals and he sent them around to terrorize his own people. And they were afraid and they got in line because shame works at least for a little while. But you say this. This fearful leader was breeding fear and his people.
He was saying The way that we're going to be a strong nation. is let's all get more afraid. Jack Shaitama in his book Ancious Church, Ancious People, makes the case that excellent spiritual leadership is accomplished by what we call in the counseling world self-differentiation. The self-differentiated leader is not so much trying to just convince others. is he or she is defining him or herself.
I've been on the mountaintop and this is what I've seen. And I see a green pasture here and I think we need to go there. And this is what I believe. And this is what I think God's called me to. boldly asserting a self-definition of one's vision.
But at the same time connecting with the people in authentic empathy, love.
So Shaitama says, the leader has to have both self-definition and emotional connection. And if all you've got is self-definition and no connection, then that's just narcissism. But if all you've got is connection, but you're not defining yourself, then you've just. become a chameleon adapting to the crowd around you and you're not really leading anything. And so Saul is just Insecure with no idea what to do with the power of God.
And he just is misunderstood. And thought that all this boldness that he felt when the Holy Spirit came upon him. Was he was just supposed to do what he always does, and that is live in fear and instill fear, but now do so in an even more bold way with his new position and his new power, and he slaughtered a bunch of animals and terrified his own people. Anxious people stir up anxiety.
Well before long Saul gets a victory, a small victory over the Philistines at Giba. And everybody likes that because any victory against the Philistines is a good one. But that aroused the Philistine fury. And the Bible says that the Philistines mustered 30,000 chariots and 6,000 horsemen and as many soldiers as were the sands of the beaches. It was just a massive fury.
The fury of the Philistines now that's gathered against them. And the Hebrew soldiers started getting really scared. They were hiding in caves and cisterns. And Saul was given by Samuel, the prophet, instructions: wait seven days, don't do anything. And I will come and I'll lead you in worship and offer sacrifices, and we'll seek the Lord together.
And seven days goes by, and Samuel has not yet come. And this is what happens 1 Samuel 13, 8. He waited, Saul waited seven days, the time appointed by Samuel, but Samuel did not come to Gilgal, and the people were scattering from him. I'm sorry. Scholars say the Probably they would be offering worship and sacrifices twice a day.
And it was probably the middle of the day, and Samuel might have been referencing I won't be there for the evening sacrifice. We don't know, but Saul gets really antsy about this. The people were scattering. And so He wants to take matters in his own hand. This is at the root of so much of our anxiety, is it not?
It's the parents' anxiety. I feel like my teenage son's not really talking to me anymore, and I'm afraid I'm losing him. It's the store manager's anxiety. I feel like we're not, the customers, we're losing them to the new store down the street. It's a wife's anxiety.
I feel like my husband's becoming too distant. He's working all the time. It's what we're anxious about. We're afraid of losing our people. And then the question was, when you feel that, what do you do with that anxiety?
That's what this contrast is about between Saul and David. What do you do with that anxiety? when the Philistines have mustered, When the problems of life had reared in front of you, and you feel like you can't seem to hold on to everything. At all. Saul doesn't know what to do.
So Verse 9: Here's what happened. Saul said, Bring the burnt offering here to me and the peace offerings. And he though not a priest, offered the burnt offering. It was, in God's perspective, an unlawful, unauthorized... sacrifice It wasn't the right time.
He wasn't the right person. But what Saul only knew to do was to ramp up his attempts to control and to try to garner the favor of God. Prove to God that I'm faithful and do something in front of these people so they'll think that I'm doing something for them. With Saul the always, always, always, it seemed like the answer is carve up more animals, offer more sacrifices, spill some more blood, ramp up the spirit of control. He thought peace was like a commodity to be gained by transaction.
I do this for God, and then God will give me peace. He used his whole life, even as worship, therefore. to try to make himself feel more secure. 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 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. That day's teaching now continues. Here once again.
is Alan Wright. And then, once he does it and he offers these sacrifices, almost immediately Samuel arrived, 1 Samuel 13:10. Saul went out to meet him and greet him. And Samuel said, what have you done? And Saul said, when I saw the people were scattering from me, you did not come within the days appointed, and the Philistines had mustered, I said, Now the Philistines will come down against me at Gilgal.
And look at this, I've not sought the favor of the Lord.
So I forced myself and offered the burnt offering. I've got to do something to get God's favor, and I hadn't done it yet, and the battle seems imminent.
So I didn't want to. I just forced myself, even though it was not lawful, and you told me not to, and I went ahead and made this sacrifice. See, what the people needed right here in their king was a non-anxious presence. They needed someone who could say, I don't know why Samuel's not here yet, but I believe he'll come. And even if he doesn't, And though I don't know how we could win this battle, I do trust in God.
Let's take our anxiety and just Bring it before God and let's trust him. And let's accept what we can't control, and that is whether or not Samuel arrives in time. But I'm not authorized to make these sacrifices. And we're not going to start doing that. We're going to trust God.
What they needed was that kind of presence, but Saul had no idea how to take his anxious soul to God. This is what I'm wanting us to learn how to do: when you're anxious, bring your whole wearied and worried self to God. And let Your heart falls into his loving heart, where his perfect love can cast out your fear. Because as soon as we try to take matters in our own hands, that's what the Bible calls living by the flesh. That's what's called a spirit of control, and that's at the heart of the spirit of religion, and all of hell operates in this way.
God doesn't help us. Because we've sacrificed for him. God helps us. Because he loves us. And he has sacrificed for us.
Wow.
So, if you read the narrative, there's constant battles against the Philistines. And then in 1 Samuel 15, the Lord sends Samuel to give Saul instructions to strike down Amalek and all the Amalekites. And this is one of those scenes, we don't have time to go into it, but it's one of those scenes where if you're new to your Bible or new to Christianity, you read these Old Testament scenes of great carnage like that, you go, Well, what is all this makes God look like he's bloodthirsty? No, it's not about that, it's about there really is right and wrong, there really is good and evil, and the Amalekites were extremely evil, and there had been a prophecy from God that the Amalekites would be wiped from the face of the earth. And so now Saul is, in a sense, given the privilege of being the one to be the fulfillment of this great prophecy.
So Saul does, he takes 200,000 of his men, they trounce the Amalekite army, but. He doesn't do as the Lord said and wipe them all out. Instead, Saul took Agag the king alive. Which there were some ulterior motives in that. And the people spared the best of the sheep and the oxen.
and the fattened calves and the lambs. They spared the best of them. They slaughtered all of the blemished animals, but they kept the really good ones. Yeah. When The Lord tells Samuel, Saul has disobeyed.
And he has not wiped out the Amalekite animals. Samuel goes to confront King Saul. And Saul comes out and tells Samuel and says, I did it. We defeated them, and I've obeyed the Lord, and we wiped out the Amalekites. And 1 Samuel 15, 14 is...
both haunting And sorta hilarious. Mm-hmm. Samuel said, what then is this bleating of sheep in my ears and the lowing of oxen that I hear. He was supposed to have killed all those animals, but they saved the good ones. And while he's saying, I have been obedient, and I am righteous.
Samuel puts his hand to his ear and goes, What is this I hear? Meow I mean, like, while Saul is saying, I did it, in the background is. I thought, maybe that's the way our accountability should be to each other when we start getting that prideful, self-righteous, smug attitude. I did it. I'm better.
Mr. Mmm. All of us have fallen short of the glories of God. Fine. Yeah.
Saul said verse 15, they Here's why we got these animals. They, the people, not me, brought them from the Amalekites. For the people spared the best of the sheep and the oxen to sacrifice to the Lord your God. and the rest we devoted to destruction. You might have thought he was saving them for some good lamb chops or to sell for a profit.
He wasn't. He's saying we save the good animals to use as sacrifices. This is the pivotal failure of Saul's life right here. In this scene. He hoarded The good animals.
So that at the right time He would have a sacrifice that he thought would impress God. He thought he could manipulate God. And it reaches this climactic moment. with these words from Samuel. Verse 22, has the Lord His great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices.
as in obeying the voice of the Lord. Just hearing God and being with God. Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen better than the fat of rams. And then these stark words: for rebellion is as the sin of divination. And presumption is as iniquity and idolatry.
It was as if. Samuel is speaking on behalf of the Lord saying, With grief in his voice, you have it all wrong, Saul. Your thoughts. Of your life with God as a transaction. You thought the way to manage your anxiety was to prove yourself by all your sacrifices.
You're always carving up the animals, aren't you? You thought God cared about the lambs and the oxen on the altar. You thought. That because you looked impressive to the people that you need to look impressive to God. Saul, God never wanted you to be impressive to him.
God never wanted you to prove yourself to him. God just wanted a king who would be a son. He wanted to walk with you and talk with you. Teach you and hold you, and have you listen to Him and learn His ways and know His love. Saul, you've always thought that you're going to bring the favor of God By all your performances and impressive sacrifices, but saw that you would have known you already had the favor of God.
You could only see what was in front of you. Every battle was an occasion to stir your fear, and every fear an occasion to ramp up your effort of self-control. Righteousness and self-righteousness, thinking it was going to be the solution. Saul, would that you had understood. The grace of God.
Would that you could have savored the steadfast love of the Lord. Would that you had had that knowing that life is about more than winning and looking good in the eyes of the people? Saul, God wanted you to be his heir, and you've been acting like a hireling instead. You who could never rest in his love, you who measured everything by earthly wins or losses, you who valued success more than relationship, you, Saul. Have missed it all, and now.
It is over. Rebellion is like divination. God despises divination. Pastor Alan Wright, today's good news message: A Tale of Two Kings: The Contrasting Pathways to Peace as Seen in David. and soul.
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 now in the studio with Pastor Alan, sharing a parting good news thought for the day. And, well, the teaching, a tale of two kings, this really can change our way of thinking once we understand it.
In a lot of ways, as I think you'll see by the end of this, tomorrow's broadcast, by the end of it all in this message, is that the whole of the Bible could almost be seen as a tale of two kings. How Saul and David. really end up pointing to the whole big story of the Bible. And ultimately to the King of Kings, to Jesus.
So I love this. I love this. It is endlessly deep. And part of Daniel, what I love about this is just like for especially if you happen to be with us and you're relatively new to your Bible, This is what is amazing about the Word of God. Endlessly deep, that's such a powerful story conveying so many truths could be on display.
before us. We are the people who are in David. We're in the son of David. We're in Christ. We're not in King Saul.
And so we have our model in David. but we also have the son of David. who is the victorious one for us. What a story. Thanks for listening today.
Visit us online at pastorallen.org or call 877-577-1. 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.
