Am I Enough for God?: 1 Samuel 9:15 - 10:8

You're listening to The Bible Guys, a podcast where a

couple of friends talk about the Bible in fun in

practical ways. Well, hey, good morning everyone. We are the

Bible Guys today. This is Wesley. Wesley is joining us

because Jeff is out of pocket, and so we are

very excited to have you back as always.

Yeah, it's going to be an awesome week this week.

Yeah, you do you enjoy being on the Bible Guys.

I do enjoy it because I feel like when I

come on the Bible Guys, Yeah, I'm coming into a

very regal environment.

Oh yeah, sure, it's regal fancy. That's so funny. So

Wesley works at our church, the same church at Jeff

and I work out together, just outside of Detroit in Michigan.

And yeah, so he's been on staff.

Forever yeah, twenty thirteen.

Yeah, yeah, yeah maybe for me, I was twenty twenty. Wow,

So I can't believe it's been that long for me.

Yeah.

So, anyway, we have a segment together, which will be

interesting because I don't know you like I know Jeff.

So this segment that Desiree put together is who's most likely?

Okay, so how.

About if I read the first one, and then we'll

just take a shot at who is most likely to

do these things? You ready, yeah, I'm ready? All right,

So we go Wesley, who's most likely to try cooking

a gourmet meal with only ingredients from a vending machine? Ooh,

I'll take my stab at it, I'll say you because

of how much this does not even come close to

who I am.

Oh man, Okay, I gotta tell a really quick story.

Oh yeah, for sure. So I went to Whole Foods

and I was going to make some vegetarian chili once.

Well, then I already know it, you because I don't

cook it all.

So I bought all of these You know how much

Whole Foods is, all these high priced ingredients. Sixty dollars

worth of ingredients. I got the garlic. Everything. I get

home and I'm chopping up the garlic, and I'm feeling

so nauseous. I couldn't even finish cutting it. I had

to take all of the ingredients, put them in a

garbage bag, take the garbage bag outside, and put it

in the garbage can. I was so nauseous. So I

got to work, and there's a lady who was Italian,

and she said yeah, so what could have gone wrong?

And she said, name the ingredients. So I said, yeah,

I put you know this in I got the tomatoes,

I got the garlic. She said, well, how much garlic

did you put in it? I said four? She said

four clothes or four bulbs? I don't know. Four. She's like,

you put four whole garlics in there. That's what the

issue was. It was, and I was just dumping tons

of garlic in there. It was bad. The smell didn't

leave our house for like a week. It was bad. Yeah,

so maybe that first one is me.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, well I don't. I don't cook at all. Liz.

Liz does everything, even the grilling. Oh man, yeah, she

does the grilling. She loves it. I know. That's pretty wild.

All the all the men are like boom, all right,

you want to give a shot at the next.

Time, who's most likely to adopt a pet rock and

name it something ridiculously elaborate. I'm going to say that

might be you.

That's definitely me. That is definitely my personality. In fact,

in fact, if you rewind all the way back to

when pet rocks were actually a thing, I might have

actually done that. Oh wow, yeah, I think I've actually

done that.

Yeah, that is funny.

Rocks were actually we used to collect rocks, mess around

with rocks, all these kind of things. It was a thing.

All right, Here you go. Who's most likely to use

a ridiculous accent during a serious conversation just to lighten

the mood.

I'm going to say, that's a you' this.

I've done this. Yeah, that's a sitcom movie. Right, you

expect like Michael Scott to do it in a really

really awkward situation like this is that's I would definitely

do that.

That's pretty good. Who's most likely to spend an entire

week in binge watching a TV series? Well? Dress it's

their favorite character, does are I don't know where she

comes up with these?

I don't know, I don't know, but these are all goofy. Yeah,

I gotta be honest. I don't think I would ever

stay an entire weekend dressed as a character.

You're dressed as the character. The question is what about

binge watching?

Oh, definitely binge watching.

So here's the thing with me. I'm not a big

TV series person. No, no, so so yeah I don't

I wouldn't binge watch too unless it was history. I'm

a boring person. I love history.

Okay, well yeah that is kind of boring.

Yeah yeah, but so yeah, I guess it'd be me.

Although I have dressed up as a character watching a

movie before. Okay, yeah, I've done that, and.

I mean I get it when it's like, you know,

how the new Star Wars would come out and everyone

dresses as you know, whatever the the battle peep. I'm

not a star person. Yeah.

We actually had a marathon of watching Marvel movies. Okay, yeah,

and we all dressed up as our favorite Marvel characters.

I've seen that in theaters where the new movie comes out.

People have done that.

This was at a party, okay, binge watching party, and

so I've done that before. So let's kind that I've

sort of done this. So that's hilarious.

Okay. Last one.

Last one is who's most likely to accidentally join the

wrong Zoom meeting and give an impromptu presentation on why

ducks are underrated.

I don't even know what to say for that one.

Yeah, So would you ever do this? That's the question.

Yeah. I have gone into the wrong Zoom meeting before, Okay,

but I've never given impromptu presentation of why ducks are underrated?

But would you ever do something like that? Would you

ever do like like, oh, this would be hilarious. I'm

just gonna I'm just going to try to be serious.

Have you done that?

I don't know. I don't think so.

Yeah, I don't think I've ever done it on a

Zoom meeting. But I have done stuff like this all

the time, Like I've I've done just crazy stuff in public.

You know what's strangers you know? In fact, let me

tell you real quick. I think I've said this on

the Bible guys a long time ago, but recently within

like the last like five years. That's recently for me.

That's by the way, that's old people talk, right. But

my buddy and I and my brother and my friend

we all went down to Clearwater, Florida, and just for fun.

Have you ever been at a restaurant where you're eating

and you're almost like halfway through your meal or more so,

and then somebody comes up who's not your server, who

walks up and goes, so, how is everything in your

meal today? And you assume it's the manager, right, So

we just did that for fun.

So we literally we literally walked yes.

We were just in a restaurant, like we're like, I

dare you to do this? And so I'd walk up

and I would just walk up to a table that

they were three quarters of the way done. I would

I put my finger I'd put my fingers together like

a manager would do. I'd walk over and I'd say, so,

how was everything in your meal today? And that would

pretend like I was.

The owner or they were like, oh, it's great, yes.

And listen I did this like fifteen times. Not a

single person question who I was. They would say, oh,

it was absolutely great.

I would say, can we get compliments to the chef?

Yes? And then then a couple of guys would say

I would say can I get anything else for you?

And I'd say, okay, refill on the coke and I'd say,

we'll get your server right out here to get that.

And then I walk away.

And my brother I'm like, go ahead, go do it.

Oh no, So your brother would refill no, no, no, no no.

My brother would just go to another table, Oh gotcha

and try the.

Same thing to say. That's next level. If you wouldn't

actually got the drinks.

That's that's like, that's like you're going to jail kind

of right? Yeah? Maybe so, but yeah, we would do

stuff like that all the time.

Yeah.

So, I mean I just hilariously I did this in

my laid forties, right, yeah, just being a pastor just

a few years ago.

That is funny because you know, what.

Are they going to do? Right? Are they gonna throw

you in restaurant jail? I don't think so.

I wondered, did a waiter or waitress ever see you

doing it? And like, is do they work for us? Yeah?

Well, they probably assume I just knew the couple. Ye right,

Hey does this guy know every couple of a lot

of people? So yeah, I guess the last one would

have to be me. I guess that is. Although I've

never done anything quite like.

This, comes up with some great questions.

Well most of these were me. I was four out

of five, but probably just because they're all silly. Yeah right,

and I'm sort of that way. Yeah. So yeah, that's

that's pretty good funny. Yeah. Hey, well, hey listen, we're

gonna jump right into First Samuel chapter nine, and today

we're going to see that Saul gets annointed as king,

the first king of Israel. And if you were with

us on Friday, actually on Thursday, we ended really because

Friday was a special five hundredth episode. Yeah, so this

is the five hundred and first episode.

Yeah. Uh.

And so anyway, Saul was chosen as king because it

was a good idea, but because God was It literally

says the scripture says that God was tired of Israel's

complaining and uh. And so God told Samuel, the prophet,

the last judge actually of Israel. And God told Samuel

and said, I'm tired of Israel always wanting a king.

They don't want me as king, so we're just going

to let them do everything they want because I'm tired

of them continuing to ask. But I want you to

tell the people what's going to happen to them. So

Samuel then says, hey, if you get a king and

you're ruled by king like other nations, these are the

things that are going to happen to you, And he

gives them all these warnings, which, by the way, all

of them come into fruition, you know, more than once,

I'm sure, and the Israelites, the leaders in the in

the town or in the nation, I guess would would

would still say, yes, we understand those things, but we

still want to be like everybody else. And so Saul

is about to get chosen by God, and and and

and that's where we pick up today.

And we're going to extend this a little Chris. We're

going to go first Samuel nine fifteen through twenty seven,

and Jess for context. Yep, we're going to do first

Samuel chapter ten one through eight in conjunction with that,

just so everyone gets a clear picture of what's happening here.

So first Samuel nine fifteen says, now, the Lord had

told Samuel the previous day about this time tomorrow, I

will send you a man from the land of Benjamin,

anoint him to be the leader of my people Israel.

He will rescue them from the Philistines, for I have

looked down on my people in mercy and have hurt

their cry. When Samuel saw Saul, the Lord said, that's

the man I told you about. He will rule my people.

Just then, Saul approached Samuel at the gateway and asked,

can you please tell me where the Seer's house is

verse nineteen. I am the seer, Samuel said, go up

to the place of worship ahead of me. We will

eat there together, and in the morning, I will tell

you what you want to know and send you on

your way. And don't worry about those donkeys that were

lost three days ago, for they have been found. And

I am here to tell you that you and your

family are the focus of all israel hopes of Israel's

hopes Verse twenty one. Saul replied, but I'm only from

the tribe of Benjamin, the smallest tribe in Israel, and

my family is the least important of all the families

in that tribe. Why are you talking like this to me?

Verse twenty two. Then Samuel brought Saul and his servant

into the hall and placed them at the head of

the table, honoring them above the thirty special guests. Samuel

then instructed the cook to bring us Saul the finest

cut of meat, the piece that had been set aside

for the guest of honor. So the cook brought in

the meat and placed it before Saul. Go ahead and

eat it, Samuel said, I was saving it for you

even before I invited these others. So Saul ate with

Samuel that day when they came down from the place

of worship and returned to town. Samuel took Saul up

to the roof of the house and prepared a bed

for him there. At daybreak the next morning, Samuel called

to Saul, get up, it's time for you. It's time

you were on your way. So Saul got ready and

he and Samuel left the house together. When they reached

the edge of town, Samuel told Saul to send his

servant on ahead. After the servant was gone, Samuel said,

stay here, for I have received a special message for

you from God. Now we pick up here for Samuel

ten one through eight, it says. Then Samuel took a

flask of oil and poured it over Saul's head. He

kissed Saul and said, I am doing this because the

Lord has appointed you to be the ruler over Israel,

his special possession. When you leave me today, you will

see two men beside Rachel's tomb at Zelza on the

border of Benja. They will tell you that the donkeys

have been found and that your father has stopped worrying

about them and is now worried about you. He is

asking have you seen my son? When you get to

the oak of Tabor, you will see three men coming

toward you who are on their way to worship God

at Bethel. One will be bringing three young goats, another

will have three loaves of bread, and the third will

be carrying a wine skin full of wine. They will

greet you and offer you two of the loaves, which

you are to accept. When you arride at Gibea of God,

where the garrison of the Philistines is located, you will

meet a band of prophets coming down from the place

of worship. They will be playing a harp, a tambourine,

a flute, and a leer, and they will be prophesying

verse six. At that time, the spirit of the Lord

will come powerfully upon you, and you will prophesy with them.

You will be changed into a different person after these

signs take place. Do so what must be done for

God is with you. Then go down to Gilgal ahead

of me. I would join you there to sacrifice burnt

offerings and peace offerings. You must wait for seven days

until I arrive and give you further instructions.

Wow. So there it is the story of Saul getting annoyed,

the very first king of all of Israel. I love

how it says he describes Israel and says it's God's

prize possession. Yeah, and back then, of course we know

that Israel are, you know, God's chosen people. And what's

so great about that is is that we know that

when Jesus Christ, you know, since then, of course Jesus

Christ has come, he died on the cross for all

of our sins. And then Jesus then says that, you know,

his sacrifice is not just for the Jewish people, but

for everybody. Right, and then the New Testament calls us

his prize possessions. Right, Ephesians calls us God's masterpiece. Right,

So we now are the prize possessions. Yeah, which is

pretty cool.

Yeah, that's awesome. Yeah. Another point that I see in

here in verse twenty one. And I love this because

a lot of people deal with this personally. Verse twenty one,

says Saul replied, but I'm only from the tribe of Benjamin,

the smallest tribe in Israel, and my family is the

least important of all the families in that tribe. And

this is funny to me. Why are you talking like

this to me? So I think that's so funny, how

he's looking down upon himself and looking down upon his

humble beginnings. But God can use you with your humble

beginnings to do amazing things. Yeah, that's what I think

a lot of times people like to discount where they are,

or discount their experiences, or discount where they come from.

But God can use all of those things to do

amazing things.

Yeah. And I think that people feel that way not

only based on things out of their control, yeah, but

also things that were in their control, like, for instance,

like past mistakes. Yeah. Right, So we sometimes disqualify ourselves

and deem our ourselves as unworthy. And yes, there there

are consequences of sin uh you know, and mistakes in

our lives. We wreak havoc, we destroy relationships, right, we

gain bad reputations. Right, we have to you know, serve

our way back in and prove our faithfulness in some

areas to either family members or you know, maybe leadership positions.

And you know, those things are definitely true. But in

terms of worthiness, in terms of you know, being worthy

to you know, minister, being worthy to bless others, being

worthy to you know, teach the word you know, or

deliver the word of God or share the word of God.

You know.

I think that oftentimes we disqualify ourselves because of our sin,

you know, and I and I and I get we

have to be faithful in order to hold a spiritual

leadership position. That's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking

about every Christian is blessed with you know, the New

Testament calls us we're the priesthood of believers, right. You know,

it's so funny. Didn't you grow up in the church

and you've probably even a part of a church where

the pastor was expected to do everything.

Yeah, that's how it was. The pastor. You were expected

to be the counselor. You were expected to do the weddings,

the funerals, to the do the hospital visits, to like everything.

You were like the one man show.

Right right. And yet it's pretty clear and Ephesians as

well that that it says that, you know, he God

gifts those different types of people to fulfill those leadership roles. Right.

So he says to some, he gave the gift to

be the apostles, to some, he gave the gift of profits,

to some, he gave the gift of evangelists, and some

pastors and some teachers, and everybody is a different role

to play. And all that all that to say, you know, uh,

kind of, I'm kind of getting off on a little

bit of a tangent here.

That's a good, good angle.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, Well, you know, there's not one pastor

that can fulfill all those things, which is why number

one pastors get burnt out.

And I was just going to say that that's why

a lot of pastors are burnt out because you're trying

to be super man and in God. According to the

New Testament, when you look at the early Church and

like the job responsibility of a pastor, it was not

to be superman and do everything. And we see that

in different areas in the New Testament.

Yeah, and it's in the reality is that nobody's gifted

at all those things, which is why you know, right

now you are as a listener, you know a pastor

who's incredibly gifted at counseling, but he's a horrible speaker, right,

and you're like, get that guy off the platform, get

him out of the pulpe. But man, is he a

great guy, And man does he have a lot of

wisdom counseling because that's his gift. Yes, he has the

pastor gift, right. And then there's some guys who they're

great at teaching, but they're actually really really poor at leadership, right,

because you can't find somebody. So whatever you're gifted at

as a leader, you have to surround yourself with others. Now,

that's the flip side of really the heart of the scripture.

The heart of the scripture is is that what I'm

trying to say is that don't disqualify yourself from me

a minister, because you are gifted as a minister, and

God never intended you know, the pastor or the leader,

or the chosen one to lead in every capacity. You

do not disqualify yourself because in the New Testament, we

are the priesthood of every believer. And so here's the reality.

My title is pastor, but actually I would say a

third of my church are actually better pastors than me, right,

because the gift of pastor is counseling, it is one

on one, It is shepherding, it is carrying, And that's

actually my least of all five of those gifts, that's

the least gift. So Saul is disqualifying himself. But actually,

you know you've been gifted by the not because you're

you know, you're great in and of yourself because God

has gifted you, which is why it says the spirit

came upon him and you will become a different person right.

Now, even from a slightly different angle. Chris, what about

the because of their past sins they feel that they

have to try to get right before coming back to God.

Because I've heard that before where there's someone and I'll

give you analogy. They're kind of saying, like, I know

my car is dirty, so before I go to the

car wash, I'm going to try to wash my car

at home then take it to the car wash so

it can get clean. You have a lot of people

who feel like that they won't step foot in a

church right because they feel like, I've got to get

my life right first. No, you don't try to get

your life right first then go to Jesus. You come

in conjunction with Jesus to get your life right.

A church is both I've heard this analogy. Church is

both a hospital and it's also a health club. Yeah, right,

So it's a hospital for those who are in desperate

need of er and surgeries and everything else, heart transplants,

the whole works. But it's also a health club for

those people who want to continue to work on their

spiritual health, right, So it could be for the Christian

who's working on their faith journey. But it's definitely, definitely, definitely.

You know, it's very clear in the scriptures it's a hospital.

So if you're in desperate need, you have to understand

it's not just for Christians. It's for those who need Christ, which,

by the way, are both non Christians and Christians. Yeah, right,

we all need Christ. So it's just different parts of

our journey. So yeah, it's crazy to think that if

I walk through the doors of a church, it'll cave in,

lightning will strike me, right, because that's not true at all,

is it.

We did a message series kind of related to that

at the church that we both go to years ago,

where we did a playoff of that, and it started

off very serious. It was a bumper video like the

roll in. Yeah, it was very serious. You had someone

sitting on the couch at home and saying, you know

what today is going to be my day. I'm going

back to church and it's very somber music and you

see the person getting in the car. They drive up

to the church. The camera is following them as they

walk into the church and right when they got into

the center of the lobby. A lightning bolt we edited

it it in that struck them, and then there was

a pile of dust on the floor and we started

playing another one bites the Dust.

Oh, that's great.

And we were just playing with the idea that that's

what people think is going to happen, and really God

is waiting with open arms, waiting for you to run

back to him. He's not angry. He's like the father

with the prodigal son. He's waiting with open arms to

welcome you back and take you as his own. So, yeah,

we just kind of played around with that a little bit. Yeah,

God is an amry at you, He's just waiting for

you to come back.

Yeah, that's great. Yeah, so you know, we definitely covered

that aspect. Saul annoyance excuse me, Samuel annoyance. Saul not

only does he learn the lesson that hey, it doesn't

matter your background, it doesn't matter what you've done, I've

God has chosen you. Of course, he gets empowered by

the whole spirit, he does miraculous things, he begins to prophesy.

At least that's what same as suff is going to happen.

And of course it does happen. And then you know,

we have to realize today when we except Christ, we're

filled with Holy spirit. So we're gifted beyond our means

that God has placed within us the spiritual gift to

serve him and the further the Kingdom, and He's chosen

us for great things to be a part of it.

And then I would just say, just the other sermon

that's probably hidden in this passages is that don't ever

underestimate how God wants to use you. Right, So little

did Saul know that his entire future was destined to

do great things. And of course Saul does struggle, right,

He often disobeys God, he often strays. He's not definitely

not a perfect person like us, like us, right, but

he definitely is used in a way that was well

beyond his imagination, right, well beyond anything he could have

asked or dream or even dared hope for. And which

is a great sermon for us because because don't ever

feel like God has done with you yet, regardless of

your age, and don't ever underestimate how God can use

you to make a difference in his kingdom.

Awesome, all right, Yeah, we could keep going with this

all day this is.

It is a good section, but that is definitely our time.

So hey, we'll hopefully see you next time as we

continue the story on the Bible. Guys,