MK040 Sermons
Looking For Answers (Audio)
I was in my college years in a relationship that was really important to me, ended and I was devastated and I didn't know what to do about that. I went to some family members and they offered some platitudes but they really didn't help. A few years later after Christine and I had been married for several years, we had had our daughter Alicia and we're hoping to have some additional children and we're told by the doctor you're not going to have any more children and I don't know how you had her. I remember the room spinning, my wife was devastated. I didn't know what to say or do, that moment I said to her is there someone that you'd like to talk to. She mentioned someone that was a good friend who knew what our experience had been like. I remember we went and sat conference room in her office, just cried. Recently I was wrestling with God about some decisions that God had allowed in my life that just didn't understand. It didn't make sense and if I was really honest I thought God made a mistake. I internally raged against God in my heart and soul for three days, feeling completely surrounded by darkness. I didn't know where to go or who to turn to. You face that darkness in your life. It's a phone call that you were hoping wouldn't come from the doctor telling you it's come or come back. It's a conversation with someone that you loved but they decided they don't love you anymore and they're done. Maybe it's watching a loved one waste away from an awful disease before their time or a boss saying can you come into my office we need to talk and finding out that's your last day and it's time to move on. The truth is for all of us it doesn't take much for us to enter a time in our lives when just like yesterday the sun is shining and it's a beautiful day and it's warm and comfortable and then quickly that cold the clouds cover the clouds move in and the wind starts to build and the cold front pushes forward and the rain comes and darkness surrounds our soul. When this happens to you where do you go what do you do who do you run to? This morning we're going to look at an event in the life of David a story that happened to him a story about not real about David but about his arch enemy Saul in which he faced his darkest hour and we're going to look at where Saul went and as we look at where Saul went I don't think it matters where you are on your faith journey what you've experienced because regardless of if you're someone that maybe got invited to church this morning and hasn't been a part of your life for a long time or you're just taking a step forward to follow Jesus and figuring out or you've been trying to follow him and learn what that looks like for years we all face these moments of darkness we all face these windows when it life doesn't make any sense we all face these things when we just are doubled over and felt like someone hit us in the God. And so I think the story this morning there's a place for all of us in it. If you have your Bibles if you would turn to 1 Samuel 28 where you can follow on your phones or tablet wireless device our guys also have some Bibles they have them to pass out you don't have one we encourage you to grab one from them and the page numbers on the screen and follow along with us this morning first Samuel 28 and as you're turning there let me just tell you what's happening in the life of David in this story David has been running for his life he's been told he's going to become king one day doesn't know when that's going to happen but as he's told he's going to become king he as a hero often is drafted into service by the king of the land to defeat Goliath to go out and fight battles and he's celebrated as a hero but in being celebrated as a hero he's on his running for his life from Saul because Saul is realized the hero status that David has received means Saul has gone down in the eyes of the people so David's trying to find a place to hide and he finds a very unlikely place as we saw last week he finds a place to hide in the middle of the Israelites arch enemy and that's the Philistines in their territory in their region a city by the name of ziklag and so while David is hiding in this city he goes to the southern part of the land of Israel and he goes out on these raids with his men he's a warrior he's a desert warriors what David is with six hundred men and so they would go out on these raids and they would wipe out some of these enemies of the people of Israel down in the southern part of the land and when he would come back and report to Acus she was the king of the city that he was living near he would say to him no I was over he would say what were you doing he said I was over in the Israelite area down the desert regions we were just fighting some battles down there and basically he was playing the role of a double agent and so as a story ended last week we found ourselves with this question of how long will David be able to continue the charade how long will he be able to continue as a double agent how long can he make this work and as we're wondering what how long that's going to happen looking for Samuel 28 verse 3 it says this now Samuel was dead and always erode mourned for him and buried him in his own town of Brahma it's kind of odd that this is we're told this here you say why is it odd because if you would just look back a few pages to first Samuel 25 you would read the story of Samuel's death so why does he bring it up again seems a little odd so Samuel was a prophet and he spoke for God to the people when the people wanted to know what God wanted them to do in those days they would go to the prophet goes on to say in the second half of verse 3 Saul had expelled the mediums and the spiritists from the land Saul had banished witchcraft in every form of that from the land of Israel he had actually followed the Old Testament law you see in the book of Deuteronomy when God said this is how you're supposed to live when you enter the land this is what it says in Deuteronomy 18 verses 10 to 12 let no one be found among you practices divination or sorcery interprets omens engages in witchcraft or cast spells or who's a medium or spiritist or who consults the dead anyone who does this is detestable to the Lord because of the same detestable practices of the nations before you God said this is the way everybody else lives but you're to be a unique and distinct people you're to be a people who choose to follow only one God not every other God in the pantheon just one God and if you choose to follow this one God there's some ways I want to invite you to live that are for your good and one of the ways for you to live is to set all of this aside today we would call this practice channeling using a medium to try to consult with the dead you say why was this ban why were they banned well is it just because all the other nations didn't well I think the reason it was banned is because what this practice involved you see this practice with something that was practice all throughout the ancient Near East in which they would use chance and they would use imaginative imitative arts to manipulate deities you say how would they manipulate deities well what they would do is they would use these spirits to try to give them a sense of power and that power would help them tell their gods what to do it was an illusion it was an illusion that's what magic is it's an illusion right if I was a magician which I am not I would try to show you a magic trick and that purpose of that magic trick would give you a sense that I know how to do something that doesn't seem doable right you know pull a dove out of my there's none in there none in there pull a dove out of my pocket you know that's what a magician does it's an illusion of control and so what these individuals would do is they would connect to these spirits who they thought they were manipulating throwing what they did not know and understand is these spirits were real these were spirits of Satan and his demons that's who is manipulating controlling these activities and it would give them a sense of power over their deities and God said I don't want you to make an attempt to control and manipulate me because I want you to worship the one true God not manipulate and seek to have an illusion of control over him so the story begins in kind of a very odd way the story begins with a reminder about Samuel's death and a statement about the spiritus and the mediums being kicked out of the land very odd way to begin a story because the story up to this point had been Saul chasing David Saul chasing David David hiding here Saul comes here David runs here Saul's here wet so we've been looking at for the last and the time that we've been in for Samuel that's where the story goes in verse four the Philistines assembled and came and set up camp at Shunam while Saul gathered all of Israel and set up camp at Gilboa they were preparing for a pretty big conflict so what was the conflict about well the conflict as you're going to see on the map that's come up on the screen is that the Philistines were in the southern part of the land you can see the Kingdom of Sargos all right through the middle of the land of Israel that's the Kingdom of Saul and what the Philistines were doing is they were trying to merge they were trying to team up with the Canaanites and trying to cut the land of Israel on half if they could cut them in half and cut off the northern parts of the the northern tribes from access to the power and resources then they would have the potential for them to expand their control of influence this is how armies would fight in those days you divide and what conquer right that's what they were doing and so they're setting up for a battle there and as they set up for this battle in verse five saw saw the Philistine army it says he was afraid and terror filled his heart literally tear gripped his heart is what the text says so why was Saul afraid we don't really know why he was afraid it could have been the size of the Philistine army it could have been the fact that his best warrior the guy that never lost his ace had just switched sides and was now on the Philistines team maybe that's why he was afraid maybe is the absence of God in his life but he knew he needed to turn to God and so looking verse five that's what he does he inquired of the Lord but the Lord did not answer him it says by dreams or urum or prophets so he called out to God but God wasn't there and he lists the normal ways that God would communicate with people in those days the first is by dreams God would communicate through dreams all throughout the Old Testament you can read examples of God communicating to his people via dreams the dreams are something that especially for us in our Western culture and our scientific rational based minds we don't really know what to do with dreams if you live in other parts of the world dreams are a normal part of the way you live life because when you're when you are asleep and you're subconscious is aware there's things that you think about that guide and direct you and we don't really know what to do with that but I believe that God can still even do that in our lives today there was no dream no dream telling him what to do the second thing there it says the the orum the orum the priest would have in the pouch in the front of his in the front of his garments he would have a pouch in that pouch would be two rocks a black rock and a white rock and one was called the orum and the other was the fumum and when the priest would be asked to make a decision the priest would reach in the pouch pull that out it was like his magic eight ball he was either black one in the white one yes or no well there was a problem because earlier in the story of Saul and David Saul got upset because David went to one of the priests to him like and you remember what Saul did he ordered dough egg that Edomite to kill eighty five priests just slaughtered them and so the priests were all gone there were no priests for him to turn to him and the last one is the prophets and Samuel was the prophet and he was gone and so Saul went to turn to God and there was no place to turn when his fear was the greatest God was absent when his fear was the greatest God was absent until he decides to turn to some of their source for God that the ones that God had provided he looks for a replacement for God Saul had been in spite of Saul's missteps. Saul was quite a remarkable leader because Saul had taken this twelve tribes of the land of Israel that had moved into this land and he had taken them and formed them actually into a nation the people of Israel with influence and with authority and now he's stuck he doesn't know what to do and so look in verse 7 Saul said to his attendants find me a woman who's a medium so I may go and inquire of her and they said there is one in Endor and you say wait a minute John I thought Saul got rid of them all I thought he chased them all out of the land well he did but he didn't if you read throughout the Old Testament the story of the people of Israel is that God would say to them get rid of all the idols and they would get rid of all of the idols except for a few and then God would say get rid of all the place where you can offer children to sacrifice and they would get rid of all of them except for a few and the story of the people of Israel is over and over again they would get rid of all of them but for a few you think why is that is that because the kings weren't good enough kings no there were some very godly kings and even they couldn't clear everything out I wonder and this is just a speculation on my part I wonder if it's because kings and people in authority can only legislate heart transformation so much let me say that again kings and people in authority can only force change so much if their hearts don't change and the people of Israel for centuries their hearts didn't change and God would say if you turn back if you turn back if you turn back and it was true here and so he sends them out to find some find a medium and they find one and so saw disguised himself in verse eight putting on other clothes and at night he and two men went to the woman and he says consult a spirit for me and bring it up for me the one that I name why the disguise well remember she wasn't supposed to be in the land she wasn't supposed to be there she was supposed to be gone and she was still there maybe the the clothing was simply part of the the event happening at night usually don't hear of a seance in the middle of the daytime they happen kind of at night or when it's dark maybe it was picturesque just to show that the king the most powerful ruler of the land had to hide when he went about his own kingdom but Saul gives her an order he says consult call up a spirit for me and the woman is very suspicious she says to him you know that what Saul is done she doesn't recognize Saul he's cut off the mediums and the spirit is from the land why have you set a trap for me to bring about my death Saul said in verse 10 he swore to her as surely as the Lord lives you will not be punished she's very suspicious but then Saul offers her safety and then she says whom shall I bring up for you bring up Samuel now what would often happen in those days is the the medium or the spiritist what they would do is they would see some kind of a cloud and then they would hear some kind of noises and as they would see this cloud and hear these noises they would interpret these things and say to the individual this is what the spirit that you ask me to bring up is saying he say was it really that person I don't believe that it actually was but it was a spirit and what was the medium doing it was an illusion they were trying to give the other individual a sense that this is what was taking place to exercise control and to make a living of course and so that's what she was anticipating she was anticipating she would see some kind of a shadow some kind of a spirit and she would hear something because this is how these things happened and then she would interpret that and tell this man what he wanted to hear that's what she's expecting will take place but what happens he says she says to him who shall I bring up and she says bring up Samuel when the woman saw Samuel she cried out to the top of her voice and said to Saul why have you deceived me you are Saul I don't think she was expecting to see a real person because that's not what happened it was usually some type of a spirit I don't think that's what she was expecting and when she saw that it was Saul and she realized to it Samuel and she realized who it was she said who would call Samuel except for the king Saul himself and she realized what was taking place the king said to her don't be afraid what do you see she said I see a ghostly figure what does he look like an old man wearing a robe Saul knew it was Samuel and he bowed down and prostrated himself with his face to the ground he knew right away he knew right away but then what goes on to happen is somewhat surprising but somewhat not so surprising because Saul has an audience with this former mentor Samuel Samuel says why have you disturbed me literally why did you wake me up Saul says I'm in great distress the Philistines are fighting against me God has departed from me no longer answers me either by prophets or dreams so I've called on you to tell me what to do now there's a part of us when we hear this story that kind of has a shake in our heads thinking Saul what were you thinking what were you thinking why did you even do this it's as if Saul wanted to roll back the clock and say now forget about the fact that I went and sought a medium and we're not supposed to have them in the land forget about the fact that I killed 85 priests and I know I'm not supposed to do that forget about the fact that I've been chasing David all over the countryside and I should be protecting the nation from the Philistines and the Canaanites and everybody else but can you help me you know it's a little bit like your kids who don't do their jobs fight with their siblings argue with you and then say oh by the way can I have some ice cream and you're like are you out of your mind do you not realize what just took place here and you're like no no of course not you're not getting that why you know like flabbergasted about it but that's literally what Saul's doing he's saying I know all this stuff has happened but can I negotiate a little bit with you right here and before we point the finger too harshly at Saul or say yeah of course that's what my kids do you know when was the last time you negotiated with God when was the last time something difficult hard or painful came into your life and you said come on God I've walked with you I've served you I've given generously I've sacrificed can't you come you a little break on this I doubt you use those words didn't take me too long to look at my own experience and see a time recently where I had done just that where I needed something that I didn't have and I didn't know how I was going to get it and I found myself saying God can you just kind of cut me a break on this one and if I'm really honest and say what I was thinking during that time I thought about some of the things I had done for God believing that that would give me credibility with God to negotiate my way out of this when was the last time you wanted a relationship just to get a little bit better than it was when was the last time you needed some finances to get you out of a pinch when was the last time you just wanted God to cut you a break on this health issue that you're struggling with when was the last time it's always in a dark place saw was all alone and he had nowhere to turn look what Samuel says in verse 16 he says why do you consult me not the Lord has departed from you and become your enemy the Lord has done what he predicted through me the Lord has torn the kingdom out of your hands given it to your neighbors to David and here's the reason in verse 18 because you did not obey the Lord or carry out a sphere wrath against the Amalekites and we're not going to go back there in the story today but if you want to go back and read in chapter 13 14 and 15 you can go back and read the story where God said I want you to do this and Saul didn't choose to do that it's all to obey God you say why didn't he obey God because what was more important to Saul was pleasing people was people being happy with him relationships being okay with him then obeying God for some of you that's a real struggle it's one of your core struggles it's like dying to you if people in your life are not happy with you and everybody's not okay you always check in the temperature the pulse how's everybody doing and that's what Saul did he took a poll every time he made a decision he said they're not going to be okay I'm not going to do it and God said because of your failure to obey me in this issue and put the pleasing of people above the pleasing of God you will face great consequence gets even worse and not worse in verse 19 says the Lord will deliver Israel and you into the hands of the Philistines and tomorrow you and your sons will be with them last thing you want to hear today's your last day today's your last day the Lord will also give the army of Israel into the hands of the Philistines for a guy who didn't have anywhere to turn in his darkest hour he turned to a source that wasn't one that God had established one that God said should be removed and he found out news that his life was going to come to an end and the story comes to a very strange bizarre twist because Saul is exhausted he falls in the ground it says there in the text that he hasn't eaten for a day and a night that's no surprise with a stress he was under looking verse 21 it says the woman came to Saul it's all that he was greatly shaped and she said look your servant has obeyed you how ironic that the king of the land didn't obey the God of the heavens but this woman obeyed Saul knowing that if she did what he asked he could have her removed from her home maybe even loose her life she did exactly what she was asked at great risk she says there I took my life into my hands and did what you told me now please listen to your servant and let me give you some food and he refused and the men said yes let her give you some food and she had a fatted calf butchered in one took some flour needed a baked bread and set it before him and his men ate what a picture of contrast that the writer paints for us Saul the king of the land this woman who's not even supposed to be there he doesn't obey the voice of God she obeys the voice of the king and in the end she's the one serving him with what he needs the most someone who he came to to try to get spiritual help met his physical need that he most needed at that point in time what dominates this story because you begin this story it's kind of has this creepy eerie Friday the 13 kind of feel to it you know mediums and spiritists and calling up the spirits and what's going to happen and at the end this story ends with a tragic tale of a man who rejected the voice of God in his life and it cost him everything it cost him everything Saul had nowhere else to turn in contrast the David who went to Samuel who went to his good friend Jonathan who went to the priest to him elect saw in his darkest hour pursues a witch in the magic of the day and attempt to negotiate away from God what he wanted I think for most of you when you think about that dark hour and you think of calling out to God and crying out to God and we're gonna sing a song in just a few minutes to close our service that reminds us of that but there are times as we talked about last week that we cry out to God and we look to him as our rock but we don't hear anything and we still don't know exactly what to do where do we go then where do we go then well some of you solve it kind of solve it yourself some of you read more you watch more YouTube videos you know you go online to find a solution you know and you're all about finding solutions maybe that's where you go maybe you don't go there maybe your your response is a different one yours is what we would call an escape maybe for you it's immersing yourself in another marathon of Netflix reruns you know or maybe it's all day in front of ESPN or maybe it's in front of the computer at night when no one's watching and porn's on it or maybe it's gorging yourself with food or maybe it's some other addictive behavior and response you see we've got lots of options in front of us to solve things without God being in the mix and that's exactly what Saul did say what John what should Saul have done what should he have done I think one of the things that saw was looking for is he's looking for someone to talk to about what was going on inside of him you think about who saw saw couldn't find a priest to talk to he couldn't find a prophet to talk to and he actually ended up finding this woman who was a witch to try to get him to talk to a spirit he's looking for someone to interact with him about this fear this trauma this thing that had happened in his life to give him some kind of guidance some kind of direction in what was right in front of him and so I want to ask you this question when you face these dark nights who do you go and talk to about it who do you go and talk to about it do you ask input from other people in your life about these situations you say John I don't really want to ask people because if I ask people then I get their opinions and I have to do what they say I'm not suggesting you have to do what they say there might be a seat of truth in a whole bunch of stuff that is totally irrelevant this past week I was I had a an individual that I know who asked me a question and I asked a group of people that they know the same question and so I had a chance to watch the responses kind of filter back to this individual and some of the individuals like me said I don't my gut tells me that's not a good eye decision but that's outside of my realm of authority so you probably should ask somebody who knows a little bit more and so a few of us just kind of gave a by the gut response but go ask somebody who's an expert one of the individuals who is an expert said this is the questions I would ask about this situation there were individuals who were experts in another part with finance said this is what I would do in this situation and so I had a chance to see a follow up email that came the end of the week about this is what I've decided as a result of the feedback that's been given to me and this is the direction I'm going I thought to myself I wonder how often that happens as I'm looking at Saul trying to find somebody to talk to about what's going on in his life I wonder how many of us have a circle of peers a circle of trusted friends a circle of people that that no one love us and when we're facing difficulties when we're facing uncertainty they say what do you think about this and they give us input you know I thought about this I thought what would happen if we did this more often because my perception and this is just John's perception no scientific data on this but my perception is we don't do that very often we just don't some of you maybe a little bit more others hardly at all I thought what would happen if we did this a little bit more if we had a circle of people maybe it's our small group maybe it's just people that know us that we turn to in difficult in challenging seasons of our lives. What do you think you think we might make less bad decisions I think so do you think that we might feel less alone in difficult times I think so do you think we might receive encouragement and support from others I think so so what do we have to lose what do you have to lose you know as I think about my kids is there entering there as they're in their teen years and young adult years I hope my kids don't try to make tough decisions all by themselves I hope they turn to wise people and I hope I'm considered one of them but if they've never seen me do that or heard me talk about doing that guess what they're going to do they're going to try to make those decisions on their own and so do the moms and dads in this room you play a big part in whether or not your student will choose to do this you say but they don't want to hear what I have to say well join the club that's just life as a parent at that season in life you know but there's a day you hope that they will but I think they will only do that they see you doing this now and so as you think about these challenges that are in your life look at the question that's on the screen what if God has designed relationships put people in your life to walk with you guide you during these dark and uncertain days what would happen if you worried less tried to solve the problems ourselves less and turn to others more for help and support during these times the reality is you have to decide where you're going to turn when you face that dark hour I'm going to take a moment and just invite you to bow your heads and as we close this morning some of you are facing that and I want to give you a moment to talk to God and maybe you have to say God I'm not sure where to turn right now and I want to try to do this on my own but I don't know where to go maybe you have had some of you have had people enter your lives in this season and you just want to say a big thank you to God for them because they have spared you big time and maybe you have been trying to fix things on your own maybe you have been trying to escape it's time to stop it's time to walk away from that say God it's hard as it is I know I need people in my life I know I need people that can just be there with me and I don't want to end up like Saul go in some place that I will come to regret Lord you know each of our stories you know where each one of us is right now you know what's around the bend what's coming next week and God we know that you are our rock is we're going to sing in just a moment and we know that you will be there with us but there are times we need someone in the flesh to sit and listen to just be physically present to sometimes give advice and God help us to set our pride aside set our ego aside set our stubbornness aside and say Lord just help me to be open to people you bring into my life thank you God for those that you have and we thank you in advance for those that you will one of the important takeaways I'm I've gotten from this message is that God is steadfast even if there are times we feel alone he has given us the resources and the foundations we need to walk this life of faith and if we can kind kind of always remember in the back of our mind that we aren't alone he has hasn't left us here by ourselves because he is our rock we know that his foundation is strong and we need to just trust in him so I invite you to stand and sing with us as we worship our rock our Savior the foundation of our faith. 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