How Not to Die

Today on Summit Life with J.D. Greer. God never promises us that if we follow him, we won't fail at anything. What he tells us is that in all things, if we follow him, whether success or failure, he will sustain us and he will be enough for us. Welcome to Summit Life with Pastor J.D.

Greer. I'm your host, Molly Vidovitch. If you've been with us for a while now, you know that we've been in a new teaching series on the life of King David. But before David, we know a man named Saul was actually Israel's first king. Today, Pastor J.D. walks through the tragic last chapter of Saul's life. King Saul held such promise in the beginning, but the longer he reigned, the more it became clear that he wanted God's blessing much more than he wanted God. And Saul isn't alone. In the church today, many people seem destined to miss heaven by 18 inches.

That's the distance between your head and your heart. So let's listen carefully and intently today as Pastor J.D. opens God's word now.

So 1 Samuel 28, if you have your Bibles, 1 Samuel 28. As you're turning there, I was on a panel with an older pastor the other day. This older pastor was probably in his 60s, I would guess. He said that his wife became a Christian about 10 years into their ministry.

When he said that, you could tell this room full of Christian leaders was confused, you know, and he kind of sensed that. He said, well, she was never resistant to faith. She wasn't some kind of blatant hypocrite. She wasn't secretly an atheist or anything like that. She'd grown up in a Christian home. She'd always gone along with everything. She wasn't rebellious. She signed off on the doctrine.

She participated in the activities. In college, she met and fell in love with this guy who was going to be a pastor, and she had no objections to that. She played her role as pastor's wife faithfully. But about 10 years into their ministry, in her early 30s, he said she realized that her faith had never truly been her own. She'd never personally surrendered her life to Christ or trusted him personally with her soul. She said, she said, faith was something I confessed with my mouth, but had never embraced with my heart. So this pastor said, 10 years into my ministry, my wife became a Christian. He said, she did start to enjoy ministry a lot more after that, I noticed, which is not surprising.

Now, maybe you hear that and you think that's a crazy fluke of a story. But Jesus said that there's a lot more people in the church like that than we realize. People who on that last day, thankfully for this lady, it was before the last day, but people on the last day, tragically, who were gonna hear Jesus say those awful words, though you were active in my church, I never actually knew you. Depart from me, you workers of iniquity. Billy Graham used to say that many people in our country, particularly here in the south, are gonna miss heaven by 18 inches, he would always say.

18 inches, which is the average distance between your head and your heart. 1 Samuel 28 gives us a picture of a man in just such a category. We've seen this man before, but today you're gonna hear the end of his story and it will function as a warning to those of us in the church to take account of ourselves, to take account of ourselves and consider what this means. This man's name is Saul. Just to remind you, the books of 1 Samuel are about the life of David. Saul was the king before David. And Saul started off great, but he refused to trust God and he refused to do things God's way at some key moments, so God rejected him. And then God had Samuel, who was Israel's premier prophet, anoint David to be the next king of Israel. That made Saul super jealous. And several times, Saul tried to murder David.

And from that point on, Saul's life basically unraveled. 1 Samuel 28, three, okay? 1 Samuel gives us a little background. Now Samuel had died. Obviously this is not Samuel writing himself, but someone now taking over for Samuel.

Samuel had died and all Israel had mourned for him and buried him in Ramah, his own city. Now Saul had put the mediums and the necromancers out of the land. The medium is somebody who attempts to communicate with spirits.

Think fortune teller or horoscope writer. A necromancer is somebody who attempts to talk with the dead. Saul had banished these people out of the land, which was a good thing. God had said in the book of Leviticus that these kinds of practices were not to be tolerated in Israel. So Saul, in obedience to God, had banished them all to Hogwarts or wherever he sent them. Verse four, the Philistines, all right, cassembled and came and encamped at Shunem. When Saul saw the army of the Philistines, he was afraid and his heart trembled greatly. Do you notice that fear and insecurity have become recurring themes in Saul's life? After Saul lost the assurance of God's protection, Saul was scared of everything.

Fear of the future, fear of death, fear of going bankrupt, fear of the Philistines, fear of somebody else, like David, succeeding and threatening his status, fear of what everybody else thought about him. Fear and jealousy are the first indicator lights that you are out of fellowship with God. You see, when you're surrendered to God, you can have confidence that God will provide all your needs. I will keep him in perfect peace, God says in Isaiah, to those whose minds are fixed upon me. And so when your life is fixed upon God and you're surrendered to him, you worry less about what everybody else thinks because you know that you have his approval. You're worried less about death or tragedy because you know not one hair falls from your head without his knowledge.

But when you strip yourself of those assurances by going out on your own, well, see, then you start to live with fear and jealousy because it all rests on you. And that's Saul now. Verse six, and when Saul inquired of the Lord, the Lord did not answer him either by dreams or by Urim or by prophets. Dreams and prophets in Urim, those were the three primary ways that God spoke to people back then. Now, dreams and prophets, that's pretty self-explanatory, but you may not know what Urim is. Think of Urim as the Old Testament equivalent of the magic eight ball, except in Exodus it was divinely ordained as a way of discerning God's will. The Urim was basically two rocks.

One was called Urim, the other was called Thummim. On one side of each rock was written yes, and on the other side of each rock was written no. And whenever the people needed direction, the priest would throw down the rocks. If you got yes, yes, that meant God was saying, get on with it. No, no meant, well, you better think twice. But if it was yes, no, or no, yes, then that meant that there was no clear direction from God. Now, some of you are sitting there thinking, where can I get me a set of those? I am selling them on our church's website right now, $20,000 a pair, okay?

Just kidding. This is an Old Testament provision that does not carry over to church life. It has no New Testament equivalent of any kind of magic eight ball.

And the reason for that is because we now have the Holy Spirit to guide us. Scholars say that probably what was happening in this passage, in Saul's case, is the priest is throwing down the rocks and he would get yes, no. He'd do it again and no, yes. Yes, no, no, yes, yes, no, yes, no, yes, and all this. And it would be like shaking this magic eight ball continuously and getting asked again later. Or, you know, reply, hazy. If that happens to you 300 times in a row, you might think something is up. God had shut out Saul from his direction.

That's what's happening. No answers from anywhere. And so verse seven, Saul says to his servants, find me a woman who is a medium, a witch, that I may go to her and inquire of her. And the servant said, behold, there's actually a secret one at Endor. You're like, Endor, isn't that where all the Ewoks and Star Wars are from?

Yes, but different Endor. Verse eight, so Saul disguised himself as a Jedi warrior, no doubt, and put on other garments and he went. He and the two men with him and they came to the woman by night. And he said, divine for me by a spirit and bring up for me whomever I shall name to you.

Can you do that? Verse nine, the woman not recognizing that the man in the costume in front of her is Saul, says to him, surely though you know what Saul has done, how he's cut off the medium, she says, and the necromancers from the land, why then are you laying a trap for my life to bring about my death? I mean, first y'all, what kind of medium is this? Supposedly she can see the future, but she can't see through the costume of the guy in front of her? I mean, listen, y'all, some sorcerers and some fortune tellers in our culture have genuine demonic power, and that's a scary thing. But you know, a lot of these people are just making stuff up. Y'all know that, right?

Have you ever noticed how general and non-contradictible a lot of their predictions are? I'm seeing something. Did you ever have a grandparent? Yes. Did they die?

I'm 49 years old. And I'm like, yes. Did they die of natural causes? No, actually they got ran over by a tractor trailer.

Well, then naturally they're dead, right? And you're like, that's not really, that's a little Brian Regan shout out for you. It's so obvious. This woman, like so many of these people, is probably like 95% snake oil salesman. So she didn't know this is Saul. She's afraid that he's a spy. Verse 10, verse 10, Saul swears to her by the Lord. As the Lord lives, no punishment shall come upon you for this thing. And the woman said, who shall I bring up for you? And he said, bring up Samuel for me. Now, honestly, y'all, I'm not sure what Saul is thinking here. If I were summoning up somebody through a satanic ritual in direct violation of God's word, I'm not sure fire and brimstone Sammy would have been my first choice. Verse 12, when the woman saw Samuel, she cried out with a loud voice. This strikes me as humorous also. Samuel appears and she's like, ah, what in the, I'm not used to this working.

I mean, usually I just blow some smoke and play a little Enya and then I make some stuff up. But this time Samuel is legitimately there and she totally freaks out. Then this woman has a true moment of clairvoyance. And she says, verse 12, you were Saul. Why have you deceived me?

There you go, Einstein. Now you're seeing stuff clearly. The King said to her, don't be afraid. And she's probably like, what? You think I'm afraid of you right now? I got a dead prophet standing in front of me. One who was known to hack the enemies of God into pieces.

And you think you're the one I'm concerned about. Saul presses in. What else do you see? And the woman said to Saul, I see a God coming up out of the earth. That's what Samuel looked like to her. Verse 14, he said to her, what is his appearance? And she said, an old man is coming up and he's wrapped in a robe. And Saul knew that it was Samuel.

And he bowed his face to the ground and he paid homage. Saul is one confused dude. Verse 15, then Samuel said to Saul, why have you disturbed me by bringing me up? Saul answered, because I'm in great distress. For the Philistines are worried against me and God has turned away from me and answers me no more, either by prophets or by dreams. Therefore, I have summoned you to tell me what I should do. I just want to pause here and say, I think there's a really important lesson for us here.

Listen to this. It is possible to seek God's will and not seek God. Saul is not interested in knowing God.

Saul is trying to use God for protection from the Philistines. The reason I point that out is I think a lot of Christians today, not picking on college students, but a lot of college students make an idol out of finding God's will. I say that because they put more energy into knowing God's will than they do knowing God. They're not really seeking God's will to know him or be pleasing to him. They're seeking God's will because they think that provides some kind of guarantee for them against failure in the future.

Y'all, here's the truth. God never promises us that if we follow him, we won't fail at anything. What he tells us is that in all things, if we follow him, whether success or failure, he will sustain us and he will be enough for us. Yes, I pray for guidance and I trust God to provide for me anywhere that he sends me. I want him to make my life and our church and my family.

I want him to make those things a success. But ultimately, my life is not about using God to guarantee success. It's about giving my life fully to him to be used for his purposes, whether that's in prosperity and pain and success or in failure. Thanks for joining us today on Summit Life with Pastor J.D.

Greer. Before we dive back into today's teaching, I wanted to take a moment and make sure that you knew about something. Every month, we talk about our featured resource that we send to our loyal supporters and gospel partners. But did you know that we have a whole library of free resources on our website? That includes our entire sermon library, daily email devotionals, a weekly newsletter, Pastor J.D. 's blog, the Ask the Pastor podcast, and so much more. All of these resources are available free of charge, and it's all because of our generous supporters and especially our gospel partners who give financially to this ministry each and every month.

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Just call us at 866-335-5220 or head to jdgreer.com to get involved today. We're grateful for your support that allows us to share the good news of the gospel each and every day. Now let's get back to today's teaching with Pastor J.D.

Greer here on Summit Life. So I will say it again. Some of you have made an idol out of God's will because you seek to know it more than you actually seek to know him. That's what's happened to Saul. And so Samuel responds, verse 17, the Lord has torn the kingdom out of your hands, Saul, and given it to your neighbor David, because you did not obey the voice of the Lord and did not carry out his fierce wrath against Amalek. Therefore the Lord has done this thing to you this day.

Y'all remember the story, right? God had told Saul to utterly destroy the Amalekites, 1 Samuel 15, and he told him to keep none of the spoils for himself. But Saul kept alive Agag the king as a trophy, and he retained a bunch of the spoils. And then he attempted some kind of compromise by saying, well, I'll sacrifice some of the best things to God. Through Samuel, God said, Saul, I would rather have your obedience than your sacrifice. And he rejected Saul as king.

Saul was sad about that. He wept over it, but he never repented of that defiance. And that's why he's not hearing from God. By the way, some of you wonder why you wonder why God doesn't hear your prayers. And maybe, maybe for some of you, you can go back to a time in your life where you started saying no to God. You started saying no to him about something and you've never repented of that.

I know this is a bold statement here, but God won't hear your prayers today because you're still in broken fellowship with him. You might've just rejected his counsel for your marriage and said, I'm doing it my way. You might've rejected his plan for your career. You might've rejected it with your money. You might've rejected it in some area and you start praying about this thing now. And he doesn't wanna talk about this thing now. He wants to talk about that there then. Some unconfessed sin, some known rebellion cut you off from fellowship with God. Now, y'all listen, I wanna be clear. What I don't mean is that you need to live in fear that there's some sin way back there in your past that you've forgotten about and God can never bless you until you remember it and make up for it.

I'm not saying that. I'm talking about some area of your life that you know is not surrendered to God. God doesn't wanna talk about your problems until you deal with that rejection. Verse 19, Samuel continues. Moreover, Saul the Lord is gonna give Israel also with you into the hand of the Philistines and tomorrow you and your sons will be with me. That's the last thing you wanna hear from a ghost.

Tomorrow you and your family gonna be with me. The Lord will give the army of Israel also into the hand of the Philistines. Then Saul fell at once full length to the ground filled with fear because of the words of Samuel.

And there was no strength in him for he had eaten nothing all day and all night. Now, I'm gonna take you over to first Samuel 31. So go ahead and flip over there and I'm gonna show you how Saul's life ends. But as you turn there, could I still retain your attention?

It's only two pages away. Let me retain your attention and point out something really, really important to you. Several weeks ago, I told you that rebellion was to God like witchcraft. Remember how Samuel said it?

Rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, first Samuel 15, 23. And I explained then when I was preaching through that passage that a lot of us have trouble seeing that. You think that's an exaggeration, it's over speak because you're like, my small area of disobedience doesn't seem that bad. And you're like, God, it's just a small thing. It's not really hurting anybody. But I explained to you that Samuel's statement was not an exaggeration because when you say no to God, that's the essence of the satanic spirit.

It doesn't matter what it's about. It's just the fact that you're saying, God, no. That is why deliberately saying no to God is like the sin of witchcraft.

Well, here in this story, you see the link completed, don't you? Saul's small compromises have grown into full orb dependence on the demonic. And this happens more than we probably realize. When we cut ourselves off from the presence and the protection of God, we look to other things to begin to fill the role of the divine.

And so God, Satan has all kinds of counterfeits he loves to put in there. For example, studies show that as participation in organized religion goes down, superstitious practices like the use of tarot cards, crystals, energy balancing, chakra work, whatever you want to put in there, those all have gone up. Ironically, the more irreligious a person describes themselves, the more likely they are to engage in those things. It probably will come as no surprise to you that the most superstitious place in America is Hollywood, also known as the least religious. When they're not just a little stitious there, they are super stitious and occult practices are crazy high.

Jason Storm, Dr. Jason Storm, a professor at Williams College up in New England, chronicled some of this in a book that came out last year that I was looking at. Listen to this, Cameron Diaz, Cameron Diaz wears a lucky necklace, the actress Cameron Diaz, because she believes that as a mystical anti-aging quality. Before Jennifer Aniston of Friends gets onto any airplane, she always taps the outside of the plane with her right foot and then will only step on the airplane with that foot first to guarantee safety. Rafael Nadal, the famed tennis player, only crosses lines on the court, tennis court, with his right foot. He always turns his tournament ID up so that it faces the sky. He always turns his water bottle label to face the exact same direction to help align energy. Megan Fox, the actress, said she copes with her fear of flying by only listening to Britney Spears as she flies.

I know for a fact, she says, it's not in my destiny to die listening to a Britney Spears album, so I always play that through my headphones when I'm in the air. That one actually might have some merit, okay, for whatever it's worth. The point is, we're created for a connection to the divine, and when God no longer plays that role in our lives, we search for the supernatural through some other kind of mysticism.

Horoscopes, mother nature, energy centering, karma, whatever. And hear me, those are all portals to the demonic. First Samuel 31, hear Saul's tragic end. Now the Philistines fought against Israel, and the men of Israel fled before the Philistines and fell slain on Mount Gilboa, just like Samuel had said. And the Philistines overtook Saul and his sons, and the Philistines struck down Jonathan and Abinadab and Mount Keshua, the sons of Saul.

Saul watches his army fall apart and then his sons die right before his eyes, including Jonathan. Parents, be careful. Our children might suffer for our mistakes. One of the biggest lies that our enemy tells us says it especially to men, my choices affect nobody but me. Be serious.

What you do affects the lives and eternities of many who are connected to you. Verse three, and the battle pressed hard against Saul, and the archers found him, and he was badly wounded by the archers. Then Saul said to his armor-bearer, draw your sword and thrust me through with it, lest these uncircumcised, the Philistines, come and thrust me through and mistreat me.

But his armor-bearer would not do it, for he feared greatly. Therefore Saul took his own sword and fell upon it. And when his armor-bearer saw that Saul was dead, he fell upon his sword and died with him.

Thus Saul died, and his three sons, and his armor-bearer, and all his men on the same day together. And the men of Israel abandoned their cities and fled, and the Philistines came and lived in those cities. You need to notice that at the end of Saul's reign, the Philistines are now occupying Israelite territory. Verse eight, the next day when the Philistines came to strip the slain, they found Saul and his three sons. So they cut off Saul's head, and they stripped off his armor, and they sent messengers all throughout the land of the Philistines to carry the good news to the house of their idols and all the people. They put Saul's armor in the temple of Ashtaroth, and they fastened his body to the wall of Bethshon. By the way, this all took place in the exact same place that Saul was crowned.

We talk about failure. The place where Saul was crowned, his body is now stripped and hung up on the wall as a Philistine trophy. And that is how the book of 1 Samuel ends. Israel sought a king because they didn't trust God to meet their needs.

That king turned out to be a self-seeking coward who consulted demons in a time of trouble. That king did not defeat the Philistines. His life ended with the Philistines on the offensive, taking up residence now in Israelite cities. Saul's last act is to watch his own sons die, and then he commits suicide. Then his armor is stripped from him and displayed in a pagan temple as a testimony to Philistine's strength, and his body is fastened up on the wall of the Philistine city to hang there in shame as a trophy until the birds eat away his flesh. Is it possible for the Bible to give a more devastating end to a book? And by the way, don't miss that we've cycled around in this book all the way back to the beginning. Remember at the beginning of 1 Samuel, Israel had a corrupt leader. His name was Eli, and because of Eli's corruption, both Eli and his sons die in a losing battle against the Philistines. We're not gonna say the same thing happening at the end. Could the message be any clearer, y'all?

All attempts to be your own king will leave you worse off than when you started. The life of King Saul should give all of us a reason to make sure that we're not missing it, that we're engaging God with our hearts each and every day. This is Summit Life with Pastor J.D.

Greer. You might be surprised to learn that while I'm your host every day here on Summit Life, my passion and main responsibility is helping to lead worship at the Summit Church. Pastor J.D., at Summit Life, there's no doubt that we love the local church. In fact, you consider shepherding the Summit Church your primary calling, right? Yeah, and I think that's one of the reasons I just love our team here at Summit Life, and I love working directly with you, Molly, just because I think at the core, yes, we love Jesus, we love the gospel, but we love the local church and feel like the best way we can love him and grow in him is to be a part of it. So we want to invite you as you were engaged in Summit Life to make sure that you are a part of a local church after you've supported your church.

That's when we invite you to give to Summit Life. It is such an incredible blessing to us for you to become what we call a gospel partner. It's a team, a gospel partner as somebody who gives $35 or more to our mission. It allows us to do what we do. When you give, it also makes your faith and your prayers a part of what God is, how God is blessing. That's probably the most important that you give to us is your prayers and your faith.

So we would invite you at any level to be a part of that team. Just go to jdgrier.com and reach out to us and we'd love to connect with you. To join us as a gospel partner today, give us a call at 866-335-5220 or head over to our website at jdgrier.com. I'm Molly Vitovich. Tomorrow we'll wrap up the final chapter of King Saul's life and reign, so don't miss it Wednesday on Summit Life with J.D. Greer. Today's program was produced and sponsored by J.D. Greer Ministries.