Playing the Fool - Part B

Disobedience is always the fruit of pride. When a person begins to inflate and think that they're really important, they start making their own rules up.

They start writing their own rule book. Pride bears its own fruit. And today on Connect with Skip Heitzig, Skip concludes his message and shares more about the consequences and fruit of a prideful heart. Now, here's Skip to tell you about a special resource we have for you this month. Present vision needs to be informed by God's past faithfulness, His actions in the present, and His promises for the future. That's why we have prepared a special vision package.

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That's 1-800-922-1888 or online at connectwithskip.com. Okay, now we're going to be in 1 Samuel 26 as we join Skip today. Same chapter, Saul builds an altar after the battle and sacrifices an animal on the altar. What's wrong with that? Only priests can do that job, but he decides, I'm the king.

I can do whatever I want. He sacrifices on it. Samuel shows up and said, what do you think you're doing? That's arrogance.

That's what he's doing. A couple chapters later, chapter 15, we're told Saul built himself a monument, a monument to himself in Carmel. So he thought he was so cool that he needed a statue so people could check it out as they're going back and forth on the road. Pride is the only disease known to man that makes everyone sick except the person who has it.

This boy was sick. He was running red lights. He was playing the fool by arrogance. Not only by arrogance.

Let me give you a second red light. Saul played the fool by indifference. To explain that, I need you now to look at chapter 14 of 1 Samuel.

And before you jump into it, let me tell you what is happening. In chapter 14, Jonathan, Saul's son, takes action. The enemies are the Philistines. Listen to what Jonathan does. He had a thousand men, but he's looking at his armor bear, just two dudes. He looks at one guy, his armor bear, and he goes, you know what? How about we do something crazy? Let's you and I go against the garrison of the Philistines, just you and I, because maybe the Lord will give us the victory.

And listen to his rationale. For what restrains the Lord from saving by many or by few? I mean, if it's the Lord, he can use a thousand or two or five thousand men, but he could also just use you and me.

Armor bear said, I'm game. They went in, and God miraculously gave them the victory. What Jonathan didn't know is that his dad, Saul, had given an order to his men saying, no one can eat anything until after the war is over and I've gained the victory on my enemies. And anyone who eats anything will be killed. Now, how stupid is that? How indifferent to the needs of a soldier is that?

Soldiers need fuel before the battle. I mean, you can't eat anything until after the battle. That's like me telling my staff, nobody gets paid till we see 25 salvations.

That's the quota. Well, Jonathan had not heard this curse his father put on. Look at chapter 14 verse 24. And the men of Israel were distressed that day, for Saul had placed the people under oath saying, cursed is the man who eats any food until evening, before I have taken vengeance on my enemies. So none of the people tasted food. Now all the people of Israel came to a forest, and there was honey on the ground. And when the people had come into the woods, there was the honey dripping. But no one put his hand to his mouth, for the people feared the oath.

But Jonathan had not heard his father's charge the people with the oath. Therefore, he stretched out the end of his rod that was in his hand, dipped it into the honeycomb, and put his hand to his mouth, and his countenance brightened. Sugar will always do that. Then one of the people said, your father strictly charged the people with an oath, saying cursed is the man who eats food this day. And the people were faint. See what indifference does?

It makes the army faint. But Jonathan said, my father has troubled the land. Now look how my countenance has brightened because I tasted a little of this honey. How much better if the people had eaten freely today of the spoil of their enemies which they found, for now there would not have been would there not have been a much greater slaughter among the Philistines. Not only does this happen, only does this happen, when Saul finds out that his son Jonathan has eaten something, you know what he says? Oh, well we have to kill my son then. Now again, Jonathan wasn't there to hear the order. It was a lame order anyway. But because this guy is so stubborn and indifferent to the needs of his soldiers, he goes, oh well even though my son brought us the victory, we got to kill him because I said it. That's what his men stepped in and said, not going to happen. And they started losing respect at that point for him.

Loyalty began to wane right then. Now here's here's what he could have done. Rather than intimidating his men, he could have inspired his men. You inspire people by things like Nehemiah. Nehemiah was building a wall and it says, for the people had a mind to work.

I love that phrase. The people had a mind to work and they got a mind to work because their leader Nehemiah fostered that, encouraged that, exemplified that. Saul just intimidated them and this is why Saul never really developed loyalty among Israel because he was indifferent. A fool will be indifferent, oblivious to the needs of others around him or her. So he plays the fool by arrogance, by indifference. There was a third red light that he ran.

He played the fool by disobedience. Now after chapter 14 is chapter 15. Thank you.

I hope you're there. Chapter 15. Again, I'm just sort of telling you the broad story and having you look at snippets of it. In chapter 15 there's a whole new enemy called the Amalekites, bad dudes.

They surface once again and the king, King Saul, was told by the prophet Samuel to eliminate them. He doesn't do that. Now his arrogance that has birthed his indifference now leads to disobedience. Disobedience is always the fruit of pride. Disobedience is always the fruit of pride. When a person begins to inflate and think that they're really important, they start making their own rules up.

They start writing their own rule book. So this king, King Saul, spares the enemy king, Agag, and spares some of the animals that were taken. Keeps them for himself. And when he does that, he even uses spiritual words to cover up his disobedience. God talk. Praise the Lord, brother.

But he doesn't really mean it. I want you to see it. This is chapter 15, verse 13. Then Samuel went to Saul, and Saul said to him, this is Saul coming fresh off the battlefield, blessed are you of the Lord. I have performed the commandment of the Lord. Doesn't that sound good? Praise God, Sam.

Good to see you. This is the guy who says, praise the Lord by putting the knife in your back. Just cover up talk, God talk. Samuel said, what then is this bleeding of the sheep in my ears and the lowing of the oxen which I hear? If you obey God, why do I hear animals still? And Saul said, they, he's pointing to the people now, they 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 have utterly destroyed. Well, you can make a lot of excuses when you pull up spiritual reasons to do so. And Samuel said to Saul, be quiet like this guy.

Be quiet. I will tell you what the Lord said to me last night. It goes on to say, God is taking the kingdom away from you. Now you've got a king, flatly disobeying and making excuses while he's doing it. Billy Sunday, the evangelist said, an excuse, listen to this, an excuse is the skin of a reason stuffed with a lie.

Isn't that a great description? It's the skin of a reason stuffed with a lie. Paul Eldredge wrote, we hate the hypocrite more keenly than the mere liar because hypocrites add to the lie with the lacquer of flattery. This is a lacquer of spirituality and he likes to blame lots of other people. In chapter 13, after he made that sacrifice that he shouldn't have made, he blamed Samuel for being late. In chapter 14, that oath that he made against his men, he blames Jonathan and now he blames the people. He's blame shifting. Never takes personal responsibility.

It's always somebody else's fault. He played the fool by disobedience. Let me show you a fourth and final way he did it. He played the fool by preeminence. He always wanted to be the guy that people looked up to as the best. That's where his pride leads. Now to preeminence.

He can't stand it if somebody gets the attention. Okay, now look at chapter 18 for just a moment. And as you're turning there, let me tell you what you are skipping. In between what we just read in chapter 15 and chapter 18, there's a notable battle. A little shepherd boy named David against a big dude named Goliath.

That happens. Chapter 17, David and Goliath. This little shepherd kid has guts.

Fate. Goes up against Goliath, beats him. Now let's look at chapter 18, verse 5. So David went out wherever Saul sent him and behaved wisely. And Saul set him over the men of war and he was accepted in the sight of all the people and also in the sight of Saul's servants. Now what happened is they were coming home when David was returning from the slaughter of the Philistine. And David was in the sight of Saul's servants. Now what happened is they were coming home when David was returning from the slaughter of the Philistine. That the women had come out of all the cities of Israel singing and dancing to meet King Saul.

With tambourines, with joy, and with musical instruments. And you got to know that Saul was super stoked when the chicks were coming out and singing about him. What he didn't count on were the lyrics to the song they were singing. It was a popular song. It was on the top 40 list. It was number one in the country. It says, verse 7, the women sang as they danced and said, Saul has slain his thousands and David his ten thousands.

Didn't like the lyrics of that song. David has now been launched because he defeated Goliath. He's launched into celebrity status higher than Saul.

Let's look at his reaction. Then Saul was very angry and the saying displeased him and he said, they have ascribed to David ten thousands and to me they've ascribed only thousands. I have to do it in that pouty voice because it's like pouty boy king. Now what more can he have but the kingdom? So Saul eyed David from that day forward. Now you have a king who's jealous of a shepherd boy and jealousy always blows everything out of proportion and will create irrational behavior. When you're jealous at a person you always look at the Instagram post or the Twitter feed and you read stuff into it and you're angry with what you see.

That's what jealousy does. It blows things out of proportion and it creates irrational behavior. Saul will ask for David later on to come and play his music before him because he's so distressed and so depressed and he needs David because David is skillful and he needs his personal iPod there to kind of give him a concert. So David plays for him and soothes Saul and he feels better but then he looks up at David and that jealousy monster starts creeping up and he decides I'm gonna place, pin the spear on the musician, grabs his spear and throws it at David.

Irrational behavior. Did you know that fishermen who fish for crabs will tell you that they never need a top to their crab basket. They'll go down and they'll get a whole basket full of crabs and crabs can crawl out of things but crab fishermen say I never need to put a lid on it. You know why? They say whenever one crab starts to crawl out of the basket another crab will grab it and bring it down.

Isn't that amazing? So here's a crab saying I gotta get out of here and the other guy goes no you don't. Then he goes I gotta get out of here the other guy goes no you don't. They always pull each other down. Some people are a lot like crabs. Crabby people. Jealous of others.

Let me pull you down to my low level because I always have to have the preeminence. That is foolish. He played the fool that way so those are the areas he did it in. That's how he began. That's what went wrong. Let me end on this note. What should have changed? Is there anything that Saul could have done to stop from ending up by saying I have played the fool and erred exceedingly?

Yes there is. Let me suggest a few things. Number one, he should have lived before his God. Now that's not just God talk.

Listen to that. He should have lived before his God. Saul mentions God. He acknowledges God. He even praises God but there's never evidence in his life that he allowed God to rule in his life.

He never lived in the conscious awareness of the presence of God. There's a phrase in the Bible used 27 times it's called the fear of the Lord. I wish it was brought back into more churches and talked about in more settings these days. The fear of the Lord is a good phrase. It doesn't mean I think God's going to zap me. It's the idea that I'm living in the ongoing reality that God is always listening, always looking, always seeing what I am doing and hearing what I'm doing and thinking and it's important to me and I fear that I might somehow displease God. That's a healthy reverence or fear of the Lord.

Saul didn't have that. The biggest blasphemy is not a person who shakes his fist at God and says I don't believe in God. The biggest blasphemy is a person who says I believe in God but then lives as though God didn't exist. That's called being a practical atheist. It's worse than a philosophical atheist. Some people just say I don't believe in God and they live like that.

Other people say I believe in God. He's important to me but they live their lives through the week as though God didn't exist. Saul should have lived before his God. Second thing he should have done, Saul should have learned from his past. Twice in this book he utters the sentence I have sinned but never does he do anything about it. Never is there a change in his behavior. There's never a real self-assessment that would enable him by God's grace to make it turn, a change.

You can't change your past but you can learn from it. He should have done that. A third thing he should have done, he should have leaned on his friends.

I mentioned this I think last week with Samson. It's a pattern we see with people who crash and burn. They neglect good friends. He should have leaned on his friends. Ever thought about who was available to be his friend? Samuel would have been a good start. Samuel was a prophet who got in his grill and would be honest with him. He was a man of God who pursued God and would have been a great benefit for Samuel to be a friend of Saul.

Wouldn't have anything to do with it. He could have cultivated a friendship with David. I know David was a shepherd boy, musician, maybe a little flighty but man after God's own heart and a great one to have as a close friend.

J. Oswald Sanders said you can tell the stature of a leader by the quality of his friends. So he should have done those things. Let me give you a fourth and final thing he should have done. Saul should have looked after his character. You know what Saul looked after? Not his character but his reputation. What was more important to Saul is how he looked to other people on the outside rather than who he really was on the inside.

Reputation was important, character should have been important. And so he said, indeed I have played the fool. Indeed you have. Didn't have to but you did and this is how you ended up.

I have played the fool and erred exceedingly. Once upon a time there was a king who loved to laugh and while being entertained by his court one day a jester was coming through town and decided to join the festivities and he put on a show for the king. It was the best show the king ever saw. The king never laughed so hard in his life and afterwards he said to the jester, I want you to be my personal court jester.

You made me laugh. You were the funniest guy in the world and then the king just laughing like a giddy child picked up a little stick and gave it to the jester and said I'm giving you this stick because you're the biggest fool I ever met. Hahaha gave him the stick and he said now if you ever meet a fool bigger than yourself give him this stick. Well years went by and at the end of the king's life he was on his deathbed and he called for the jester one last time needed one final laugh. The jester came put on a wonderful show for him the king laughed and laughed and the jester leaned in and said king where are you going? King said on a far journey and how will you get there king? King said I don't really know how I'll get there and what will you do when you get there? He goes I don't know and the jester pulled out of his pocket the little stick and handed it back to the king and he said I'm giving you the stick because you're the biggest fool I've ever met for king you see I have only trifled with the things of this life but you have trifled with the things of eternity.

You see the biggest fool is someone who provides for this life but makes no preparation for the next and if you are somebody who has provided only for this life and have made no preparations for the next then your line is indeed I have played the fool and erred exceedingly but it doesn't have to be that way. It should be different and it can be different and it can start right here right now before God and this place with God's people. That's Skip Hyten with a message from the series Crash and Burn.

Find the full message as well as books booklets and full teaching series at connectwithskip.com. Now here's Skip with an invitation for you to join he and Lenya Heitzig on a Holy Land tour next year. Hey our 2024 Israel tour is coming up.

This is Pastor Skip and we still have space on this trip that Lenya and I are hosting. We will be touring Israel from May 1st through May 12th. I hope that you'll join us firsthand to see some incredible sights like the Sea of Galilee.

I'm sure you've always wanted to see that. The Temple Mount in Jerusalem and the Garden Tomb the place many people believe is where Jesus rose from the dead. The final deadline for registration is December 31st so there's still time to take action and join Lenya and I for the trip of a lifetime. Find full Israel information at connectwithskip.com. We're glad you've tuned in today. Connect with Skip Heitzig is all about helping listeners like you strengthen your walk with Christ and we invite you to partner with us by giving a gift to help connect others like you to the life-changing power of the Gospel. Your generosity is vital to keep these teachings you love on the air all around the world and growing to reach many others as we expand into more major U.S. cities this year. Just call 800-922-8200 800-922-1888. That's 800-922-1888 or visit connectwithskip.com slash donate.

That's connectwithskip.com slash donate. Thank you and join us again tomorrow as Skip looks into the fall of Israel's greatest king, King David himself. We might say Humpty David sat on a wall. Humpty David had a great fall. Here is David looking over the walls of Jerusalem. The view from his pinnacle was of the kingdom that he ruled and reigned over. But he had a great fall and he would never be the same after this fall. Oh he'll be forgiven but he'll never be the same. Connect with Skip Hyten is a presentation of Connection Communications connecting you to God's never-changing truth in ever-changing times.