Welcome to the InTouch podcast with Charles Stanley for Wednesday, May 27th. King Saul had a promising beginning, but made some very poor decisions that led to a disastrous ending. Today, you'll hear how to avoid Saul's mistakes and keep from getting out of step with God. What happens when a person gets out of step? We've been talking about walking in step with him, and we talked about what is required of that.
And second, what can you expect? And then, how do you walk through those difficult times and step with Him?
Well, the question now is, what about what happens when you get out of step? When you choose to walk Without him in your life, Are walking out of step, out of sync. Ignoring Him, doing it your own way. And I want to turn with you to 1 Samuel. And in 1 Samuel, here is a perfect example.
of a young man who had it all together. It couldn't have been better for him. He had everything going for him. And he chose to Walk not in step with God's plan and purpose for his life, but out of step. I'm not going to read you a passage of Scripture because I want to take you through these chapters.
and show you what happened in the life of Saul. and apply it to your life and my life because it is so applicable.
Now watch what happens. The scripture says that Samuel, the prophet, God told him he said, go to Jesse's house and choose one of his sons to take Saul's place because I've rejected Saul.
So he goes to his house. And he says, Jesse, they had a sort of a big dinner. He says, I want you to bring in all your sons and let me meet them.
So he brings them all in. And the first one that comes in is a tall, handsome guy. And so Samuel says, This must be the one. God said, He's not the one.
So he went through all of his brothers, and finally he said, Well, Jesse, is this all of them? He said, Well, sort of. He said, One of them, my youngest son's out there in the sheepfield, but he's just got a bunch of sheep out there. He said, Call him.
Well, his name was David.
Now you know the story. He calls David in and God says he's the man.
So he appoints David.
So David is still shepherding sheep, and then he goes down to meet his brothers, and there's this big warfare going on. The Philistines on one side of the valley, and the Israelites on the other side, and here's Saul, and he's scared to death, and he's the king, and he's the commander, and all of his soldiers are all afraid. And so young David, the shepherd boy, walks up, and the first thing that happens is his brother says, what are you doing here? Why don't you go back to your few sheep? Which is another cutting way to say, you know, you only have a few sheep out there.
Anyway, he says to Saul, I'll take the challenge. And Saul says, put on my armor, I don't need any armor. He knew what his armor was God, and his weapon was the slaying, but it was the Spirit of God in that stone.
So Now, are you saying that the Spirit of God and 12 stones? No, no, no, no, no, that's not what I meant by that. I'm saying it was going to hit his target. And so he goes out and he slays Goliath, makes him a big hero.
Well, then Saul says, Well, well, well, I want him to serve me.
So he brings him into his fold and he's serving Saul and he goes out and fights for Saul and plays on the harp for Saul and so forth. But Here's a big mistake. When he came back, for example, from fighting with uh Goliath, The scripture says in the 18th chapter that it so happened when he came back. That the women sang as they played and said, Saul has killed, his slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands. Can't you imagine how they put emphasis on the ten?
Saul has killed his thousands. David has killed his ten thousands. Then Saul became very angry, for this saying displeased him, and he said, They have ascribed to David ten thousand, but to me they have ascribed thousands.
Now what more can he have but the throne?
Now the scripture says in verse 10, it came about On the next day, that an evil spirit from God came mightily upon Saul and raved in the midst of the house with his hand, as usual. David was playing his harp, and a spear was in Saul's hand, and he hurled the spear toward David to pin him to the wall, and he missed.
Now let me say this about spears. In those days they were heavy. In those days they were long, and those days they were very sharp, and a man who could throw one could throw one a very long ways and hit a bullseye. And when it hit you, it'd just go right on through you. He intended to kill David.
And if you'll notice what the scripture says, the scripture says that An evil spirit from God.
Now, does that mean that God sent an evil spirit to kill David? No. What that really means is that God allowed what was going on inside of him to overcome him. And here we see when this comes on to Saul, which is not some disease, but listen, what's going on inside of him? His jealousy.
that you put pride and disobedience and guilt And then there is jealousy. Here's this young shepherd boy when he's been an honor to the king. And here's this young shepherd boy coming on the scene and he tries to kill him. Let me tell you something. Jealousy is a dangerous thing.
It can be jealousy over little things. Listen, jealousy wrecks marriages, it wrecks businesses, it wrecks friendships, it wrecks all kinds of things. And this is what's happening. He's very, very jealous of him. And so then, for example, the scripture says in the ninth verse of the 19th chapter: Now there was an evil spirit from the Lord on Saul as he was sitting in his house with his spirit in his hand, David, playing his harp.
and Saul tried to pin him to the wall again. with a spear, but he slipped away out of Saul's presence, so that he struck the spear into the wall, and David fled and escaped. Then Saul sent messengers to David's house, that is, he sent a group of to kill him. He tried to kill him himself twice, set him up in the war to kill him, and now he sent some of his soldiers to kill him. And so that doesn't work either.
Well, he and Jonathan are best friends. One of the things about companionship and friendship that you read in the Bible, that the friendship between Jonathan and David were awesome. Because what happened is their love for each other separated Jonathan from his own father Saul because he, and he asked him in the scripture, he said, why are you trying to kill him? He serves you. He's gone to battle.
He's fought for you. He's done all of these things for you. Why are you trying to kill David? And of course, he doesn't have a reason for that, but here's what happens: Jonathan answered Saul his father and said to him, Why should you put him to death? What's he done?
Then Saul hurled his spear at him to strike him down.
So Jonathan knew that his father had decided to kill him. Look what's happened. His pride And his disobedience, and now his jealousy is just eating him alive. It's tearing him up on the inside. He's not only jealous of David, but now, and trying to kill him, but it's reached the stage he's willing to kill his own son because his son loves David.
Jealousy will destroy you. Jealousy eats like is it's like termites. It's like acid to a person's soul and heart and mind and spirit. And yet it goes on day after day among people. For example, here's a wife who gets jealous of her husband.
Maybe she has a reason, if there's a reason of jealousy, she doesn't like the attention he gets, maybe, and she doesn't like where he is in life, and she doesn't like this, and she doesn't like that. Or the man who can be just as jealous of his wife, he brags about how beautiful she is, but then he hates every guy that looks at her.
So jealousy is a terrible thing. It's so insidious, and it's deep down inside, and it gnaws and eats and churns away.
Well, that's what's going on inside of him. When that's going on inside of a person, they can't think right. They don't make wise decisions. They don't think right. And they're certainly not thinking about God.
They're not spending time in the word, and they're not spending time in prayer. If they were, they'd be confessing their sin before Almighty God, but they're not. There's no sense of repentance in here. Even though he says, oh, I've sinned, but there's no evidence that he has changed. He started out being prideful.
Deliberate willful disobedience until His jealousy absolutely destroys him. He can't make a wise decision. And now he makes the fourth big mistake. And here's what he does. A person who seeks unwise counsel, ungodly counsel, steps out.
of the will of God. Here's what he does. He goes to a witch. to a fortune teller. the soothsayer.
And he says to his men, he says, find me somebody like that. Because here's what had happened. He tried to pray. God didn't answer his prayer in this 28th chapter. God didn't answer his prayer.
God didn't give him any dreams. The urim and thumim, which the priests would use to find the Lord's will, that wasn't working. And uh now Samuel died, the prophet died. David's gone and here he is and God's not answering his prayer.
Now what you think about this? There are a lot of people in that shape. who've decided They can live their lives the way they want to live them. Do what they want to do. And there comes a time in their life when They haven't prayed, don't know how to pray.
Not sure they even believe in God? Friends are gone, money is gone. are the reputation is gone, whatever it is, and the truth is they don't have anything. They may have a lot of something, stuff. They may have a lot of money, a lot of this, a lot of that.
But when you're empty in your heart and you don't have God and you can't pray to God and know that He's hearing and answering your prayer, you are in serious trouble. And this is where Saul is at this point.
So they find this woman. And so he goes into her and Uh naturally, she knows. That um It's against the law. In other words, three times in the Old Testament, you destroy soothsayers, fortune tellers, as we would say, those people, those witches. Those diviners, they're not to be left alive.
And so she knows this. And she says, you're jeopardizing my life. And he promises her that she's going to be okay and no problem. And finally, she discovers who he is. And so here's what he said.
He said, I want you to bring up somebody from the dead to speak to me. I'm going to explain this in a minute. And so somehow she brought up Samuel. And of course she was absolutely shocked herself. And uh when she saw this.
He says, What is the form? And so she said, It's an old man wrapped in a robe. Then Samuel said to Saul, why do you disturb me by bringing me up? Saul answered, I am greatly distressed, for the Philistines are waging war against me, and God has departed from me and no longer answers me. Listen.
When you feel like that God has departed from you and no longer answers you, That the last thing in the world you want to do is to live your life in such a way that you come to that place in life that you don't have God. Listen, you're going to die. You have a whole eternity out there. It's all gloom. It's all dark.
You have no assurance whatsoever because you have rejected the living God. You do not have to do that. If that's what you've been doing, you need to repent of your sins and turn to Christ and let Him forgive you of your sin and set you in the right path.
So what happens is Samuel speaks to him and tells him what's going on. He says to him, you didn't obey the Lord. You did not execute his fierce wrath on Amalek.
So the Lord has done this thing to you. And he tells him some other things are going to happen to him. And finally, the scripture says that Saul immediately fell full length upon the ground and was very afraid because of the words of Samuel. There was no strength in him. He ate no food, and this was it.
Now Did this woman bring up Samuel the prophet, and the answer is no. Because that means, first of all, the devil, because certainly God wouldn't do it, it was the devil. first of all, would never preach the message that Samuel preached to him.
So, what is this? This is God allowing a manifestation. of Samuel And God spoke to him the truth. It wasn't Samuel doing the speaking, it was God speaking through this manifestation. It was a miracle, no question.
Because Jesus spoke with Moses and Elijah. And so That was a miraculous moment in Jesus' life. No, think about this. If the devil could disturb us in heaven. then there's something wrong.
So there's no question that something happened here. There's no question that God spoke through all of this. but it wasn't because she brought up anybody out of the dead.
So Here's what you have. You have this man. who had everything going for him. And what happens? He decides he can handle it.
takes credit. Disobeys God. didn't acknowledge the authority of the prophet. chooses to deliberately disobey God with the Amalekites. And then jealousy sets in.
And then ultimately, because listen. He's so consumed by it at this point. He goes to the witch. And he gets this message. And she says to him, In one way or the other, it's all over.
And then the thirty-first chapter. of 1 Samuel, the last chapter says. The Philistines in verse 1 were fighting against Israel, and the men of Israel fled from before the Philistines and fell slain on Mount Gilboa. The Philistines overtook Saul and his sons, and the Philistines killed Jonathan and Abenadab and Malchashua, the sons of Saul. The battle went heavily against Saul.
The archers hit him. He was badly wounded by the archers.
So he said to his armor bearer, run the sword through me and he wouldn't do it. And so he fell upon his own sword, killed himself. And then the armor-bearer killed himself. and when they found them, cut off Saul's head and carried it through the Philistine army. as their victor.
What a horrible way to end life. And let me say this to you, and be careful how you listen. If you have never trusted Jesus Christ as your personal Savior, you're not a Christian. Do you realize that You're guilty of idolatry. You say I'm not guilty of adultery?
Well, let me ask you this. If God the Father through His Son Jesus Christ is not God in your life, You have decided to be God in your life. I will decide what I'll do. I will decide who I am. I will decide where I'll go.
I'll decide how I'm going to spend my money. I'll decide who I like. I'll decide who I relate to. It is idolatry. I know you don't like hearing that.
And I'm sorry I have to tell you, but I have to tell you. Because you see what happens. You have decided to live your life apart from God. You say, no, no, I pray to God, but you may pray to Him, but you know what? Saul prayed to Him, but it didn't work.
because he was living in absolute disobedience to God. And there are many people who think, well, no, I'm not a Christian, and I don't read the Bible and do those things, but I believe in God, and God's going to hear my prayer. There's not a single verse in the Scripture. to defend that kind of pray. I'm not being critical.
I want you to see that it's not going to work. Because God says it won't work. He hates the things that destroy those whom he's created. If you want life at its best, you acknowledge the living God. through His Son, Jesus Christ.
You see, you say, well, I believe in God, but not Jesus. Think about this. The resurrection of His Son was God's shout to the world. He's told you the truth. He is the way.
Now follow him. I want to encourage you, if you've never trusted Jesus as your Savior, To ask Him to forgive you of your sins, not on the basis of how good you're going to be, but on the basis of the cross. He died and shed his blood for you and me. In order that you and I could do what? that we can walk in step with him.
that we could experience life at its best. that we could have the kind of life That He intended for us to have. And I encourage you: look at your life. And likewise, if you are a believer, know that you are. Is there pride lurking in your heart?
Are there areas in which You know that you are absolutely disobeying God and rationalizing it?
Well, everybody does it. Nobody's perfect. all my friends. I mean, wh what do you expect? All the Christians aren't saints.
We agree that we are not perfect. We are saints, but not perfect. Rationalization doesn't work. You may think all these things, but the bottom line is this. When will you accept?
The truth of God's Word. and live an obedient life. And watch him do his best in your life. It's yours for the asking. But he won't force it.
It's a loving invitation, so strong. That he let his son die and be crucified for your sins and mine to say, This is how much I really love you. No matter who you are. And, Father, how grateful we are for your patience and love and forgiveness, and how we do pray today that the Holy Spirit will take this message and drive it deep into people's hearts. If there believest acknowledge, are these things to be found in my life?
If there are those who've never trusted Christ, To ask themselves the question, where is my present lifestyle leading me? There is an end. There are consequences. Enable them, Father, to be honest and make a wise decision to trust you. In Jesus' name.
Amen. Thank you for listening to part two of Getting Out of Step. If you'd like to know more about Charles Stanley or InTouch Ministries, stop by intouch.org. This podcast is a presentation of In Touch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia.
