This message was preached By: Pastor Tunde Bakare.
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Text: 1 Samuel 15:22-23.
Nuggets From Past Two Sundays Messages
** None of us can afford to be rebellious or stubborn.
** Stubbornness kills, destroys, humiliates, and hangs its victims.
** Partial obedience to God is outright disobedience to Him.
** King Saul’s example of rebellion and stubbornness was likened by Samuel the prophet to the sin of witchcraft and as iniquity and idolatry.
** King Saul died a shameful death because of his unfaithfulness towards God 1 Chronicles 10: 13-14.
Message Focus
The focus of the message was on consequences of rebellion and stubbornness.
* Saul the son of Kish, the first king of Israel started well but ended poorly to his own detriment.
*It could be you.
* Many are born again and filled with the Holy Spirit. Saul had the same experience too, yet he did not end well 1 Samuel 10: 9-10.
* To be born again is not enough there is much more after been born again. If your spirit is regenerated and your mind is not renewed, then you are in trouble.
* You are just not to grow or mature you must experience transformation in order to have the grace to transform nations of people.
* An understanding of what God said to Samuel when the children of Israel demanded for a king will make us appreciate the fact that this war against rebellion, stubbornness and idolatry practices is about all of us not just. King Saul.
* The little foxes that destroy the vine do not climb the tree to eat the fruit but go downtown the ground to eat the root.
*Once you are rootless you become fruitless 1 Samuel 8: 1-10.
* Verse 8 of 1 Samuel 8 is at variance with the first commandment Exodus 20:2.
* When the children of Israel rejected God, they made Saul their Idol. *Saul was personification of Idol and God gave them that Idol in order to destroy that idol
* Their demand was to replace God who reigned over them with Saul.
* God will have no competition Hosea 13:9-11.
Prayer
God do not give me what I want but what you desire for my life. Let your will be done in my life.
*To start with, God rejected Saul as king because he intruded into the Priest’s office.
*That was the beginning of the trouble.
* The seven days wait at Gilgal 1 Samuel 10: 8 as instructed by prophet Samuel was the main issue.
* Saul waited but because the people were moving away from him, he had to offer the offering which was the exclusive preserve of the Priest 1 Samuel 13: 8. *The waiting period was to test the heart of Saul.
* When you are full of yourself you will not follow instructions, you will reinvent the wheel and try to prove the point that you are the one in charge.
* Saul blamed his intrusion into the office of the Priest on the influence of the people on him.
* Note that the moment your attention is about the people God will no longer count to you.
* The moment Saul placed value on people more than he did on God marked the beginning of his trouble.
* His rebellion led him to a shameful death 1 Samuel 13:8-14, 1 Samuel 15: 22-24.
* There was nothing to write home about the 40 years reign of King Saul in terms of good governance and style of leadership Acts13: 16-23.
* God raised David in order to raise Jesus and removed Saul in order to do that.
* Abuse of power is inevitable when the purpose of power is not understood.
* Saul spent 40 years chasing the wind, reigned as if he did not reign and evil spirit from the Lord tormented him day and night as a result of his rebellion and stubbornness.
* He spent those years running from pillar to pole chasing after David and tried fruitlessly to kill him.
* No son of Saul survived him they all died in the same battle 1 Samuel 31.
* He was not given a befitting burial Ecclesiastes 6:3. David had to do a second burial for him.
* The following texts of the scriptures from the book of Proverbs describe how Saul lived: Proverbs 9: 9-12, Proverbs 14:14, Proverbs 15: 19, Proverbs 15:12, Proverbs 15: 31-32, Proverbs 16: 25.
10 Major Consequences of Saul’s Rebellion Towards God
1. As soon as the Lord replaced Saul with David, Saul who was once anointed by prophet Samuel and upon whom the Holy Spirit came, was subsequently tormented off and on by the evil spirit from the Lord.
*The evil spirit did not come upon him until he was replaced.
*The moment Saul was replaced the Spirit of God came upon David from that day on 1 Samuel 16: 10-14
*Since there is no vacuum in nature something must take place in the life of Saul and that was evident and confirmed by the servant of King Saul in 1 Samuel 16: 15.
2. The evil spirit tormented Saul and pushed him to be envious of David.
*God will not fix the nation without first fixing the church because judgment will start in His house.
* David became the carrier of God’s presence and the anointing of the Holy Spirit.
* David had been anointed king over Israel but the time to reign had not come.
* The state of King Saul mental health brought David to his presence to assuage him with music.
* The appearance of David at the battle ground between Israel and Philistine was one occasions to prove the unpredictable nature of God and His sense of humor.
* When Saul was to be made king and was presented before the people, he was the tallest man in Israel.
* Conversely when Saul became the ex- anointed God brought out an intimidating man – Goliath who was not anointed and was taller than Saul.
*The presence of David at the battle ground was the game changer.
(To be continued)