In the Name of the King

I was to 1 Samuel, chapter 9, we'll be looking at beginning in verse 22 through chapter 10, verse 7, verse 9, 22, to 10, 7. Last time we looked at how God's hidden hand of providence was at work in the everyday lives of ordinary Israelites, like Saul and his servant and others in order to bring his holy purposes to pass. That in Saul, as in every Israelite, the most important thing was to be faithful today, rightly living for God right now, today, where you are today. Don't think about tomorrow. Where are you today? That's what every believing Israelite was supposed to do and they were to look to and believe in God's Word that they had through the prophets. And as they did these things, God's good purposes would surely come to pass in each one of their lives. And we saw that these same simple principles, we tried to see it, apply to us today, right, that if you want to be in the center of God's will for your life, to say it that way, if you want to see His good purposes coming to pass in your life, then you need to be faithful right now with whatever God is put in your life right now, not trying to figure everything out, but just the next thing. What is next before you? Be faithful with that. Walk according to God's Word with that thing, your responsibilities, your opportunities that you have, and as they come, each one, one at a time, looking to His Word, believing in His Word, trusting in His Word, and then boldly doing what God has clearly called you to do. I believe it's really that simple. Well, today we're going to look at God's calling from more of a divine perspective. How does God see each one of us as He has called us? What has He given to us that we can walk in that calling? Well, I think we see that in our text this morning, so let's turn to God in prayer as we turn to His Word. Father, we thank you that you've given to us your Word. Now, give us your Spirit, not just that we would understand and rightly discern, but Father, that we could apply, and that we could love your Word and believe in it and do what it says for this is life, and this is pleasing to you and a blessing to one another. Father, help us now by your Spirit to be changed by your Word. We ask in Jesus' name, amen. Here now the Word of the Lord, from 1 Samuel chapter 9, beginning in verse 22, this is God's holy Word. Now, Samuel took Saul and his servant and brought them into the hall and had them sit in the place of honor among those who were invited. There were about 30 persons. And Samuel said to the cook, bring the portion which I gave you of which I said to you, said it apart. So the cook took up the thigh with its upper part and it set it before Saul. And Samuel said, here it is, what was kept back, it was set apart for you, eat, for until this time, it has been kept for you. Since I said, I invited the people. So Saul ate with Samuel that day. When they had come down from the high place into the city, Samuel spoke with Saul on the top of the house. They arose early and it was about the dawning of the day that Samuel called to Saul on the top of the house saying, get up that I may send you on your way. And Saul arose and both of them went outside, he and Samuel. As they were going down to the outskirts of the city, Samuel said to Saul, tell the servant to go on ahead of us and he went on. But you stand here a while that I may announce to you the Word of God. Then Samuel took a flask of oil poured it on his head and kissed him and said, is it not because the Lord has anointed you commander over his inheritance? When you have departed from me today, you will find two men by Rachel's tomb in the territory of Benjamin at Zellza. And they will say to you, the donkeys which you went to look for have been found. And now your father has ceased caring about the donkeys and is worrying about you saying, what shall I do about my son? Then you shall go on forward from there and come to the terribinth tree of table. There three men going up to God at Bethel will meet you, one carrying three young goats, another carrying three loaves of bread, and another carrying a skin of wine. And they will greet you and give you two loaves of bread which you shall receive from their hands. After that you shall come to the hill of God where the Philistine garrison is and it will happen when you have come there to the city that you will meet a group of prophets coming down from the high place with a stringed instrument, a tambourine, a flute and a heart before them and they will be prophesying. Then the spirit of the Lord will come upon you and you will prophesy with them and be turned into another man. And let it be when these signs come to you that you do as the occasion demands. For God is with you. May the Lord establish this word in our hearts and pray. Well I think in this text as I said there's a lot of things to see but I want us to notice the call of Saul and therefore really the call you're calling from God, from God's perspective as it were, from a divine perspective. And I want you to notice first of all that God is a place of honor for you at the table. A place, notice a place of honor for you at the table. Look at verse 22 and Samuel took Saul and his servant and brought them into the hall and had them sit in the place of honor among those who were invited. There were about 30 persons. If you look back at verses 12 and 13 of the text you'll see in chapter 9 that is you'll see that this meal had been planned for some time. It was a worship event with a feast. The 30 men who are 30 people who are present are probably elders, local leaders of the region. And the worship service is centered around a meal. You see that all the time in scripture that there is meals and feasts that are celebrated throughout Israel's worship. In fact the great times of worship, the three great times of worship in Israel were all called feasts. There's the feast of unleavened bread in which Passover is the center. There's the feast of Pentecost and there's the feast of tabernacles or the feast of booths. And in each one of these feasts there are different practices. There are different readings of scripture. There are different sacrifices and things that they are to do but in everyone there's a great meal. There's several meals where they are to eat together and feast together. And as we looked at in Sunday school this morning where God would command his people right and you shall rejoice. You shall have a good time. I like to do that when we go to wedding sometimes if I'm asked to pray I always try to say in my prayer the Lord has commanded us to rejoice. God commands his people to rejoice, to enjoy life, to celebrate and to celebrate around him. Israel's culture was celebrated and in these great times of feasting we're always around the worship of God. That's the way in which God had commanded and God had built up their culture. We still have some of that today. We still have in our gatherings and our social events and even traditional events almost all of them there'll be an invocation where they'll have a minister come and typically it's a Protestant minister still to this day and we can be thankful that still it's a Christian minister that they bring in to give an invocation to call upon God to bless the event, to recognize that even these social events are to honor God. While Israel had those things in fact the covenant itself was celebrated when God formed his people on Mount Sinai and he had the covenant ceremony in Exodus 24. There was a meal and Moses and Aaron and Nadav and Abihu were called by God to come up on the mountain with 70 elders if you remember the story and it says and they saw God and they ate and they drank. They had a feast in the presence of God. Here Saul is called to this particular meal. That was for him. It was particularly for him and he has given the seat of honor at the table. Do you know that God's call on every one of you who believe in him begins in God's perspective. Really the culmination of it is a seat of honor at God's table. I mean that's what we celebrate when we have the Lord's Supper. We have a foretaste of the marriage supper of the Lamb in which we are celebrating that time we're anticipating. We're looking forward to that time when we will all sit at the table of God that the marriage supper of the Lamb if you think of it Jesus and the church is the bride and we are the church. We are the bride. So where are we going to be sitting at that table? Where does the bride sit? The seat of honor. That's what God has for every one of us who are Christians. A place in this table you know only a few people ever got to sit at David's table or at Saul's table. Here Saul is a king and yes he's the only one being honored here but for all of us who are Christians we have a place right now. Your name tag sitting in front of that chair. A place of honor at the table of God. That's going to happen someday. That's real. That's important. Saul needed to know this. That he had a place of honor. Why? Because God had called him to be the king and if he's going to be the king he's got to believe that God has called him to this. That this isn't just Samuel's idea. That this isn't just you know maybe a bunch of people thinking it's a good idea. No God had called him and that's the purpose of verses 23 and 24. Think of Saul sitting there at the table wondering wow look how this all just seemed to happen. I mean I just happened to walk into the city at the right day. Just happened to be a feast today. Just happened that Samuel meets me coming out. Wow how lucky I am that all this just happened. And Samuel points out to him that it didn't just happen. Verse 23 Samuel said to the cook bring the portion of which I gave you you know sometime before of which I said to you keep it back hold it back set it apart and then verse 24 the cook goes and brings the the thigh the upper part the leg really in Hebrew the portion that was kept for the person of honor and he said uh Samuel said here it is listen to this he's talking to Saul here it is Saul what was kept back it was set apart for you Saul eat I like it when God's word commands eat eat for until this time it has been kept for you win until what time since I said I invited the people Samuel now just reveals to Saul this whole feast this festival this time of on the high place where they worshiped and they sacrificed and then they had a blessing and they ate and all the thirty nobles all of that was done for Saul. God had told Samuel to do it we're not given that account but Samuel is told by God to do these things and he does them all for Saul. None of it was an accident there are no accidents as the great philosophical movie Kung Fu Panda reminds us right there are no accidents not in the weird Eastern mystical religious sense but because God is sovereign because he's sovereign I mean the Bible says not a sparrow can fall to the ground apart from your father's will there are no accidents it's no accident that you are where you are right now in your life that you've been placed in the family that you've been placed in that you've had the education and the experiences that you've had or that you've missed out on ones that you've missed out that's not an accident either that's not a loss either God has you where you are right now your natural abilities your interests and they all have a God-exalting purpose that you can pursue if you would trust him and you would follow him in your life and you say well pastor that's all well and good you don't know me you don't know all the things that have happened to me the injustices I've suffered the evils that I've done and I can tell you yes I you're right I don't know all those things about you and you don't know them about me but I do know this that God has brought you through them because here you are he's brought you through them to this point in your life and there may be many things that you've suffered and you've lost out on and yes maybe things could have been better if you'd made different choices or if other people wouldn't have been wrong to you those things happen you know God does not give Christians a pass it doesn't you know Christians don't get a pass on the hardships of life or that we'll never have pain or we'll never suffer loss but I know this whatever has happened I do know that if you seek God today and walk forward today just in the next decision the next thing that you can glorify God it really doesn't matter we can't change the past we can't recover a lot of things maybe there are things that we can fix that we should try to that might be the thing that you should do next but I know that you can just begin to follow God today because it's not an accident it's not a mistake that's the great lie I think sometimes people want to say well you know what God he didn't want that to happen well I understand in the sense how that can be true God hates sin and never wants to see sin and yet when God if we trust that God has brought us even using our mistakes and sins to where we are within there can be a redemptive solution there can be a purpose even in the bad things that have happened to me you know it's hard to believe that and I'm not trying and I'm not going to try to justify all the things that happened but again if God really is God then it wasn't a mistake then it wasn't an accident that even if it was an injustice even that God can turn to your good but we have to trust him we have to believe that he really is our God that he really does have a place right at the table for us and he's preparing us for that and that's the way God sees that he's preparing us for that day secondly I want you to notice God's certain word to believe and obey God's certain word to believe in obey God looks at us and I mean we struggle and you know we looked at this last week when we were talking about how to discern God's will you know we we fill ourselves tossed about sometimes we have no idea what we should do next but God sees that he's given us his perfect and certain and sure word and we have it to know what we are to do look at verse 25 when they had come down from the high place into the city Samuel spoke with Saul on top of the house if you have an ESV it says that that he made a bed and Saul slept that's the the Septuagint's version the Greek of the ancient Greek translation of the Hebrew and the Septuagint authors almost certainly changed that because of verse 26 says they arose early and sometimes there is a weakness to the Septuagint remember that's the Greek translation done in like the second and third century BC and these guys were scholars and a lot of times they altered things when they thought things might work out or sound a little bit better or if they could sort of attack the Egyptian gods they would do that sometimes too but that is the weakness of the Septuagint and unfortunately the ESV translators go with that but all the Hebrew manuscripts say Saul Samuel spoke with Saul on top of the house the Caldee the Syriac the Arabic the Targums all of them say that he spoke with them you know we don't need I think sometimes movie producers will do this or television producers or you know I worked in that field for 10 years and sometimes you'll be doing a production and they'll want to say well we need to get the person from this scene to this scene so we'll shoot a you know a scene of the airplane flying overhead or we'll shoot a scene of them getting into the car and going down the road and a lot of times you just don't need to do that you know the audience can keep up and that's I think what the Hebrew clearly is showing that Samuel and Saul speak on top of the house obviously we were to assume they went to bed that night and then verse 26 they arose early but you know I say all that to say that Samuel is preparing Saul he's giving him God's word he's preparing him for this calling he's already planted the seed back in verse 20 look at verse 20 of chapter 9 it's two verses before we started our text where Samuel says second half of the verse your donkeys have been found and then he says this and but on whom is all the desire of Israel remember I said I believe that's a messianic title it occurs several places on whom is all the desire of Israel is it not on you and on all your father's house what is what is Samuel telling Saul there he's telling him that you're to be the king and Saul got it so understood it that's why Saul's answer is why do you you know in effect why do you tell me this am I not a Benjamin the smallest of the tribes of Israel is my family not the least of the families of the tribe of Benjamin why then do you speak to me like this do you see what Saul is saying I saw a saying I hear what you're saying Sam you're saying I'm supposed to be king here and I'm just nobody in the smallest tribe the smallest family why are you telling me this well he plants that seed and then he shows him how all of this had been done God had orchestrated this before with the meal all of those nobles sitting there seeing Saul in the place of honor what is that doing God is preparing the local leaders to acknowledge Saul and then these commands I you know if we could walk through it but from the about verse 19 on when Samuel and Saul begin their conversation from 19 through 27 there are at least seven distinct commands that Samuel gives to Saul and Saul obeys commands like eat as we looked at commands like stand go tell your servant to go come up with me to the high place just little things right but what what is he doing he's preparing Saul for his calling he's he's calling upon Saul to obey God obey God's word and just little things and that's always what we're to do in our calling just little acts of obedience little things that God has called you to do what is God called you to do and what way can God's word apply right now to you that you are supposed to obey and that's the that's the reason why I think we see verses two to seven I just want to unpack those verses for a moment here and we'll skip verse one for now notice how Samuel gives Saul these amazingly specific detailed foretelling of the future do you see it all of these things first two when you have departed from me today you will find two men by Rachel's tomb in the territory of Benjamin and Zelza and they will say the following to you right and then what then you will go forward from there and you'll come to the terrible the oak tree of table and three men going up to God at Bethel you will meet and one will be carrying three young goats another three lives of bread another carrying a skin of wine I mean what do you think happens to Saul when he leaves Samuel and he goes and all of these things happen what's he what's he have to conclude this is no accident this is not fortuitous this isn't happening by chance this wasn't Samuel's idea God's hand is really in this because God is taking Saul and preparing him to be the king so Saul has to believe this word from God the only way you and I are ever going to obey God is if we believe his word you're never going to risk your life for God's word you're never going to risk your life and obedience you never going to risk persecution or ridicule if you don't really believe I mean that's the thing you know what Christians we believe is oh I believe the Bible it's the word of God well you know I don't about you but I struggle to believe isn't that that isn't that why we we struggle well I know God says this but you know in this situation and we don't do what God says because we don't believe bottom line so God is giving Samuel all of theirs I'm sorry God is giving Saul through Samuel the prophet all of these specific detailed prophecies of one after another after another after another so that Saul will know for certain that it's God that God is making him the king one after another after another notice the Philistine Garrison you'll see a group of prophets coming down and out before them he'd get in the order of the group there's going to be any names each one of the instruments that he's going to see and then the spirit of God will come on you and you'll be prophesied and turned into another man now again at this point I just want to notice at that point we have a supernatural sign where the spirit of God is going to do something I'm whether or not that's what that is we'll leave for a second but what would happen to Saul is when that happened you know that's sort of the crowning achievement isn't it it's like all these natural signs well okay maybe Samuel is just the most incredibly lucky person maybe he planted all that well he can't plant God's spirit coming upon Saul and changing him into another man do you see that and that's the purpose and that's why Samuel says in verse 7 and let it be when these signs come to you beloved God gives his people these signs God gives Saul these signs so that Saul can know for certain that it's God and that's what God has done for us you say well pastor he doesn't give me these signs I don't have somebody telling me what's going to happen today tomorrow the next thing well yeah that's right you don't but you still have all these signs right here you have Saul signs why because you read about them and then they come to pass so you do get signs that have come to pass in this book and you can go to the next page and you can see more and more and all through the new testament sign after sign we don't just get Saul's we get all of them right here all of the signs they're predicted and they come to pass it's been said that Jesus fulfilled over 300 specific prophecies of the Old Testament many things like about his birth or his death or what his enemies would do things that he couldn't control or orchestrate over and over again God has proven to us this is my word look at all the signs you know that's why God gives them to us we should just believe but we're weak and God condescends and he gives us these signs so that we can know that it's his word he's giving us his short and certain word and all of these signs point to that shows Saul over and over again that it's God who made him king so that what so that he will be willing to do what God says that's what you have to be assured of when you read scripture and apply it to your life you've got to be assured that it's God that it's God who is telling you these things and when you believe that's when you'll be empowered you'll be able to obey because you won't fear the world because you'll know that God's promises are true thirdly I want you to notice then a specific calling and the grace to do it a specific calling and the grace to do it this is again God's call on your life from his perspective he's given you a specific calling and he's given you the grace to do it and that's the way he sees you we get stuck and we look at things and we look at the difficulties in our lives right where we struggle and we see like Peter you know trying to walk on the water we see the wind in the waves and we take our eyes off of Jesus and we take our eyes off of the grace that he's given to us and so we struggle we flay all about we don't know what to do but God sees he's given us a specific calling and he's given us the grace to do it that is what I want us to look at in verse one then Samuel took a flask of oil and he poured it on his head poured it on Saul's head obviously and he kissed him and said is it not because the Lord has anointed you commander over his inheritance Saul has just been called by God to be the king there's no doubt now he knows it I mean he's been prepared for it up until this point Samuel's talked to him before hand afterwards the feast the original part about being the desire of Israel on him and his father's house seeing the nobles honor him and now he's been anointed the king by the prophet by the word of God and in all of those things what was God teaching Saul that Saul is king under God that God is still the king and Saul is king under him remember Israel wanted a king because they were rejecting God as king that's what the Bible said but God hadn't rejected Israel God hadn't given up Israel God wasn't giving up the throne over Israel God is still the king that's why he says he's anointed you over gods inheritance it's still gods inheritance God is still the king okay they don't want God as king they want a human king fine God will give him a human king but he's the king under God and everything he is to do he's to do in the name of the king and that's true for you and I that we are to do everything that we are to do in the name of the king because he is over us his word is over us his word is what calls us and our duty and our calling and our purpose is always for God and it's always from God so it's always in obedience to God it can never be it can never be against the word of God whatever your calling is and this is this is helpful in situations right where we struggle or you know we have a temptation or we have a place where wow if I do this maybe something is going to happen to me someone's going to persecute me I may be in trouble but know this right since your calling is is under the word of God then nobody can possibly be called to live a life of sexual sin nobody can be called to do that because it's against the word of God nobody can be can possibly be called to live a life of lawlessness of disobedience to our rulers you can't be called to live a life like that because that's against the word of God nobody can be called to live by lying nobody can be called to live by being a thief nobody can be called to doing all of those things or even to further where we're at by doing those kinds of things God's calling is to serve God as king Saul is king but he's under God it's gods and heritans you and I are called to serve gods and heritans it's still all of God's stuff in this world right I mean we are to make use of it and enjoy it but it's all of God's stuff and we are to serve God's people and we can do it because God never calls anyone to a place where he doesn't give them the ability to obey that's that's clearly a principle in scripture God always enables us to walk in our calling he's never going to call you to something that you can't do you know here it's important to distinguish between moral and natural ability you know Jonathan Edwards would say God would never call you to fly like a bird because you can't but God does call you to live like a man live like a woman live like a human being in wherever you are this is what Paul meant when he wrote in Philippians 413 I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me so I can fly like Superman right all things I can jump over a building I can you know I can steal I can rob I can no obviously not what what does it mean it means all the things that you're supposed to do that's what it means all the things that you're supposed to do you can do whatever you're supposed to do whatever is the right thing you can do it in whatever situation you're in remember Paul is writing that letter Philippians from prison so obviously when he says I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me doesn't mean I can walk around free outside because he wasn't able to do that he was in the jail cell but he could still serve God in the jail cell you see he could serve God in whatever ways God called him to serve him in the jail cell and he's hung you know he talks about being in hunger and being in thirst and having needs and not having his needs met and yet even when he was hungry even when he didn't have his needs met he's saying I can still do all things that I'm that I'm supposed to do I can always serve Jesus Christ because Christ strengthens me and that's the point of this that's the point of this really of this anointing look at it again in verse 10 saw what or Samuel took a flask of oil and poured it on his head and he kissed him and he said is it not because the Lord hasn't the Lord has anointed you commander over his inheritance you know this a lot of stuff and you've probably seen and in the Christian bookstore and the radio television and maybe even heard lots of teachers talk and say all kind of crazy things about anointing right an ointing is one of those favorite words people like to throw out there you know and it's really not that difficult to understand the first place we see anointing is in Genesis when Jacob remember he has the vision of God's what we call Jacob's ladder right he has the vision of the angels going up and down on that ladder from earth to heaven and he says after that vision this is the house of God and he had that rock that he had for a pillow not really the best pillow in the world but he sets it up as a pillar and he pours oil on it he says this is God's house do you see what he's doing he's setting it apart he's setting it apart for the presence of God for the service of God that's exactly what he's doing and then later on in the book of Exodus and in the the rest of the pen to took we see Aaron and his sons they get anointed why because they're being set apart for the service and presence of God and they serve God in the tabernacle and everything in the tabernacle gets anointed everything even though the dishes the menorah the altar the tabernacle itself they're sprinkling oil all over the place why because they're setting it apart for the service of God for the presence of God we still have these kind of things today on February 9th I read this dispatch in the news the US Department of Defense issued a press release the navy will christen okay it's newest independence variant literal combat ship the USS Tulsa during a 10 o'clock AM CST I guess at Central Standard Standard time ceremony Saturday February 11th happened last Saturday in Mobile, Alabama the ceremony was to be highlighted with the traditional breaking of a bottle of sparkling wine across the bow they were sprinkling the boat why they were setting it apart they were setting this ship apart to serve the United States and that's what this anointing is it's symboling symbolizing what God is doing that's that that's the reality in verse 6 the spirit of the Lord will come upon you see I'm anointing you as a symbol of God's presence and service and then it will happen God's spirit will come upon you Saul and you'll be able to do now what you're supposed to do because of God's spirit Saul would be given the maybe the ability to understand and address natural concerns I mean we're not really specifically told how it was that God enabled Saul to be king but he does he organizes the the nation into a kingdom and I told you in Jewish tradition he's looked at as a very noble person and Jewish families would name their kids Saul that wasn't like we would see Saul as a bad guy they didn't see it that way and so you and I just like Saul we have the ability to serve God we have an anointing scripture says it first John chapter 2 verse 20 but you have an anointing you plural youngs and good Pittsburgh English which you better get used to because that's what we'll be speaking in heaven Pittsburgh English but Jins have an anointing from the Holy One and you plural know all things again we know higher forms of calculus maybe some of you do I don't I don't know the lower forms or even you know algebra at this point no it doesn't mean you know all things but what what's the context there who the context is anti-Christ and and false deceivers were going out and John saying you're not going to be deceived because you know all things you know God's word you have an anointing you have an anointing from the spirit you have God's spirit and so you as Christians should know these things you should know when someone speaking words that are not or that are twisting and that are false to the word of God and this is what we have we we can succeed we can walk in the calling that we have because we have an anointing because we have the Holy Spirit we have the Holy Spirit within us which brings me to my fourth and final point I want you to notice a new nature and the presence of God a new nature in the presence of God again when God calls you what does he see he sees somebody with a new nature and he sees somebody on whom his spirit dwells in fact Jesus said how the spirit would would come and make his home in you that my father and I will be with you we will be in you by our by the spirit until we have a new nature in the presence of God well I want to look at verses six and seven and maybe not answer all the questions that you might have about this but let's just notice a few things here then the spirit of the Lord will come upon you and you will prophesy with them and you'll be turned into another man it's probably not talking about regeneration okay normally regeneration isn't talked about that way turned into another man but it means that he'll be changed that he'll do something that he would not have normally done and that's why the saying goes out later is Saul also among the prophets because Saul was not the kind of guy that you would think there would be going around prophesying you're gonna be turned into another man you're going to be given what the ability to do things that you couldn't do before you'll be able to serve as king and I think this initial changing into another man here's what that's about and what that's talking about we'll look at that a little bit more next next week because that'll be in our passage again but but I want you to notice when the spirit of the Lord will come upon you that word that's used there is means to rush upon or to give success or to prosper the spirit of the Lord is going to come upon you in such a way that you'll succeed is what he's saying it's used multiple times of Samson and it's always said the spirit of the Lord came mightily upon well we could say it here it's the same word the spirit of the Lord will come mightily upon you and you will prophesy but listen to the verses about Samson where we read this over and over again judges 146 the spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him and he tore the line apart as one would have torn apart a young goat though he had nothing in his hands can you imagine verse 19 then the spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him and he went down to Ashkelon and killed 30 Philistine men and took their apparel and then the judges 1514 when he came to Lehigh the Philistines came shouting against him then the spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him in the ropes that were on his arms became like flax that is burned with the fire I love that image and then he found a jawbone of an ass and he killed a thousand men with it the Bible says because the spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him and so the Lord would come mightily upon so that Saul would be enabled to serve God that he would be gifted to serve God and this is what I mean whatever God has called you and you have his spirit you are able to serve him now it's true that the spirit of the Lord leaves Saul and the spirit of the Lord left Samuel in fact remember sorry you don't see Emil Samson when Samson wakes up after Delilah tricks him it says in judges 1620 he woke from his sleep and said I will go out as before at other times and shake myself free but he did not know that the Lord had departed from him he didn't know it wasn't something that he felt but God's spirit that had been mightily upon him left him and he was no longer able to serve God you know it's true and it does happen and we read about it in the New Testament Paul goes around and he points different ministers and sometimes he has to remove them because they become false teachers it's true as Christians we can in our callings whether it's in our job whether it's in ministry we can forfeit our callings we can lose our callings right we can do things that are wrong and lose our callings we can make a mess of our lives we can end up failing in our calling as a husband or as a wife we can fail as our call in our jobs we can fail in the ministry we can fail as in many ways and we do fail in many ways right but the difference here and I want to move beyond where we're at and Saul because with Saul we're talking about enable to serve God we're not looking necessarily at a converted person we know Samson was converted because he's in Hebrews 11 Saul is difficult to tell and I'm not going to try to figure it out here but the calling and the change was just for serving God and again what I'm trying to say is that you may be called to serve God and you may lose that call and that happens but then you go on from there right you go on from there what is God it's not like God is done with you if you're still breathing he's not done with you where where you call to serve then and that's the point of verse 7 let it be when these signs come to you when when you're convinced again of the word of God and you repent from whatever you've done do as the occasion demands for God is with you and that's true wherever you are whatever calling that you're in whether you've messed up the last one or not you're okay where you at now God is with you if you turn from sin and believe in his word but I want to again I want to go beyond that sort of thing to notice what God does promise us as converted people as Christian people not just necessarily in some Christian service but as Christians you know as I said you may fail in many ways in your life but what the scripture promises us here I mean we can grieve the Holy Spirit we can quench the Holy Spirit we can lose I think callings but you can never fail as a Christian you can never fail as a Christian you can never lose that calling if you truly believe in Jesus you can't fail in that and that's the point I think and that's the way I want us to look beyond really what's happening here with Saul I want us to look at how God looks at you are you a believer in Jesus Christ have you repented of your sins are you walking in repentance are you seeking serve God doesn't matter how bad you've butchered it we've all butchered it and we will butcher it again and mess up things again but the Bible here I think promises of something that as we believe in God as we get up and and and ask Jesus to forgive us confess our sins and acknowledge it then we have the promise of verse 7 and a set in another way right whatever comes to you these signs when they come to you that you do as the occasion demands for God is with you if you're a Christian today God is with you and you are able to serve him because of that presence let's pray Father we thank you that you are with us that you never leave or forsake us though we may sometimes bring us ourselves difficulties and we all have Father we have all failed in many ways that's why you tell us to confess our sins because we have them but Lord how we want to be assured again of your presence that's the only way we can go forward is when we know that you're with us and you promise us that you are Lord help us to believe today that if we trust in Jesus Christ at all your spirit is with us you never leave us or forsake us no matter what happens in our lives we can continue to serve you where we are help those who are troubled and hard to know that this morning that they can still serve you that you are with them and therefore they will succeed we thank you for this promise help us to believe it in Jesus name amen