Are you living up to your full potential? Raise your hand and stand up if you think you’re living up to your full potential because I want to make sure you are a good target. I have snipers in the sound booth!—Just kidding!
It’s a nasty question isn’t it? I mean if you say that you are living up to your potential and we all look at you and go, “that’s your full potential?!” things are going to get a little uncomfortable. But if you say that you aren’t living up to your full potential, then the question becomes, why not?
Maybe we should back up a bit and ask: How do you even know what your full potential is? After all, what do I mean by full potential? Am I talking in academic terms? Am I talking in financial terms? Am I talking about gifts and talents? Am I talking about faith?
Actually, when you think about it, as a Christian you can never say that you are living up to your full potential because your full potential isn’t self-contained. You also have to factor in the power of God at work in you. God extends our natural potentials. Our potentials are tied to God’s potential so how can we ever say that we are living up to our full potential? We can’t! So perhaps a better question would be: Are you growing in your potential? Where there is life there is growth. Where there is faith there is growth.
The question that gets to the heart of the matter is: Are you wasting your potential? This is a far more important question to ask ourselves and the answer is found in how open and honest we are with God.
Please turn with me to 1 Samuel 31
As you turn there let me give you a bit of background. 1 Samuel records the beginning of the monarchy in Israel. Samuel was the last judge of Israel, as well as being a prophet and a priest. Samuel was the full-meal- deal but, as he got older and his kids showed themselves to be less than trustworthy to follow in their father’s footsteps, the people decide that they want to be like the nations around them and have their own king. Samuel doesn’t like the idea but God tells Samuel that since the Israelites didn’t like having Him as their king, Samuel should go ahead and give the people what they want.
Shortly after this, God hand-picked the very first king of Israel. His name was Saul. In 1 Samuel 10:24, the Prophet Samuel said to all the people about Saul, “This is the man that God has chosen as your king. No one in all Israel is his equal!” (NLT) According to God, Saul was THE man, the cream of the crop, the top of the heap. No one was his equal.
If you read chapter 10 of 1 Samuel, you’ll get a wonderful picture of Saul. He stood head and shoulders above everyone else, and he was good looking to boot! He was the Brad Pit of kings. But, more than that, you will see that he was humble and shy. He didn’t feel up to God’s calling and even hid when it was time for God to reveal him as king. And, beginning in verse 9 we read: “As Saul turned to leave Samuel, God changed Saul's heart . . . 10 When they arrived at Gibeah, a procession of prophets met him; the Spirit of God came upon him in power, and he joined in their prophesying.” (1 Samuel 10:9-10)
These verses tell us that God’s Spirit came upon Saul and God changed his heart. So, Saul had a personal, life-changing experience with God. Saul prophesied, he spoke the very Words of God and knew in a compellingly powerful way that God was real, and that God had chosen him. And, after Saul makes his first public appearance as king, we read in verse 26 that “When Saul returned to his home at Gibeah, a band of men whose hearts God had touched became his constant companions.”
So Saul had the looks and the stature of a king. He had the humility and teachaibility of a servant. He was anointed and changed by God and given God’s council. And finally, he was given a group of friends, who were also equally full of God’s wisdom. Saul, the first king, also had the first small accountability group! He didn’t have to make all the decision on his own. He had the help of Godly friends to keep him in line and give him support. Sounds like the perfect king and the perfect setup for success doesn’t it?
As Saul began his career as King, he was an immediate success. When God’s people were threatened by King Nahash of Ammon, Saul shows able strength and faith and the Israelites win the war. Everything was off to a good start. But now, let’s skip ahead to chapter 31.
Beginning with verse 1 we read: “Now the Philistines fought against Israel; the Israelites fled before them, and many fell slain on Mount Gilboa. 2 The Philistines pressed hard after Saul and his sons, and they killed his sons Jonathan, Abinadab and Malki-Shua 3 The fighting grew fierce around Saul, and when the archers overtook him, they wounded him critically.4 Saul said to his armor-bearer, "Draw your sword and run me through, or these uncircumcised fellows will come and run me through and abuse me." But his armor-bearer was terrified and would not do it; so Saul took his own sword and fell on it. 5 When the armor-bearer saw that Saul was dead, he too fell on his sword and died with him. 6 So Saul and his three sons and his armor-bearer and all his men died together that same day. (1 Samuel 31:1-6)
After this Saul is decapitated and his body is desecrated by being impaled on a wall in the Philistine city of Beth-shan. What a tragic end to a wasted life! Even at the end of his life, Saul died in rebellion to God. He fell on his sword and in so doing he thumbed his nose at God and took his own life. Even in death he refused to submit to God. What a picture of defeat. Saul not only lost the battle to the Philistines—he lost the battle of life. Could there be a bigger contrast between how Saul begins and ends? What accounts for the transformation?
Well, the scene we have before us today was only the self-destructive finale in a life that had been self-destructing for years.
It all began in 1 Samuel 13. Saul was faced with a continuing fight against the Philistines. The Philistines had the upper hand in technology and numbers. They had chariots, Israel didn’t. They had iron, Israel didn’t. Saul was in Gilgal. He had amassed a large army to fight against the Philistines but before they went to war, they needed to acknowledge God and seek His protection and strength by making a sacrifice to Him.
Now, Samuel told Saul to wait for him to come and perform the sacrifice. But Saul grew impatient, and his army was starting to leave and hide, so he took the bull by the horn so to speak, and did something that God had clearly commanded was never to be done. He himself sacrificed the animals before the Lord. This was an action allowed only to the priesthood! But Saul didn’t seem to care about that. All he wanted was to do what he thought was good enough. In actual fact he was treating God like a good luck charm: offer the sacrifice for good luck before we get into the battle. He wasn’t really honouring God or submitting to God or offering God praise and worship. He was just covering the god-thing before going into battle.
In verse 10 we read: “Just as he finished making the offering, Samuel arrived, and Saul went out to greet him.” (1 Samuel 13:10)
Samuel shows up and Saul finds out and he goes to greet him. It is kind of like your kids greeting you at the door. When you kids run up to you at the door, you know it isn’t an expression of love—it’s a cover up! They’re hiding something. They’re trying to distract you or soften you up before you find out what happened. Saul knew he should have waited. He knew what he did was wrong, so he greets Samuel at the door.
Listen to what Samuel tells Saul when he arrives and finds out about Saul’s actions. Beginning in verse 13 we read, "You acted foolishly," Samuel said. "You have not kept the command the LORD your God gave you; if you had, he would have established your kingdom over Israel for all time. 14 But now your kingdom will not endure; the LORD has sought out a man after his own heart and appointed him leader of his people, because you have not kept the Lord's command."
Severe words aren’t they? The kingship of Israel would not continue in Saul’s family. Another man, another family had already been chosen. Wow! God was playing hardball! The punishment almost seems too severe from our perspective, but it’s not! Don’t forget Saul was the first king and a precedent had to be established. Israel might now have a human king like the nations around them, but in reality God was still their real King and everyone had to realize that, especially Saul! But, to me the reason for the severity of God’s reaction has more to do with Saul’s reaction.
Beginning in verse 11 we read: "What have you done?" asked Samuel. Saul replied, "When I saw that the men were scattering, and that you did not come at the set time, and that the Philistines were assembling at Micmash, 12 I thought, 'Now the Philistines will come down against me at Gilgal, and I have not sought the LORD's favor.' So I felt compelled to offer the burnt offering." (1 Samuel 13:11-12)
Saul justified his actions and blamed Samuel. There was no sense of remorse or repentance. There wasn’t even an admission of guilt. In fact he says that he felt compelled to offer the sacrifice. What is he saying there? In the very least he was saying, “I had no choice, so it wasn’t my fault.” But, the other option could also be that he was saying, “I felt this was God’s will. This is what God wanted.”
How could Saul think this was something God wanted? He didn’t really, we already knew by his reaction to Samuel showing up that Saul knew he was caught with his hand in the cookie jar. He knew he had done something wrong, but he felt justified in doing it. He is one of those people that expect that God would make an exception. It’s like many Christians today who think something along these lines: “I know what the Bible says, but God wants me to be happy so, I am sure that God is good with me doing whatever it is that I think will make me happy.” There are all kinds of Christians who live their lives like Saul. They feel compelled and then they justify their actions and blame others for the consequences their actions bring.
So here is the point I want you to underline in your mind: Saul never allowed God’s Word to have an impact on his heart. He refused to listen. Saul hadn’t learned a thing from Samuel’s rebuke. Saul felt justified. Saul felt well within his rights. Saul blamed the situation. He blamed Samuel, he even blamed God, but he never entertained the possibility that he himself had sinned against God. He never, ever allowed God’s word from Samuel to have any impact on his heart.
Later on when Saul is commanded to destroy the Amalekites he is given some very specific orders. He is told in chapter 15:2 3 “This is what the LORD Almighty says: 'I will punish the Amalekites for what they did to Israel when they waylaid them as they came up from Egypt. 3 Now go, attack the Amalekites and totally destroy everything that belongs to them. Do not spare them; put to death men and women, children and infants, cattle and sheep, camels and donkeys.'"
I don’t know about you, but the instructions seem rather straight forward, don’t they? No grey areas there! Yet Saul again disregards them. He keeps all the best of the livestock and spares Agag, the King of the Amalekites’. The upshot is that God declares "I am grieved that I have made Saul king, because he has turned away from me and has not carried out my instructions." (1 Samuel 15:11)
Meanwhile Saul is oblivious to what he has done. When Samuel catches up with him we read that Saul said to him, "The LORD bless you! I have carried out the Lord's instructions." It’s hard to believe that someone so blessed by God, someone so intimately touched by God, could be so dead to the will and Spirit of God as to feel that in his sin, he was in fact pleasing God. Samuel calls Saul’s actions rebellious and stubborn and in verse 23 he makes a starting declaration that we need to grasp and take to heart. Samuel tells Saul, “Rebellion is as bad as the sin of witchcraft and stubbornness is as bad as worshipping idols. So because you have rejected the word of the Lord, he has rejected you from being king.” Stubbornness is as bad as worshipping idols? Why would that be? Well it’s simple, whenever we make a decision to do what we want, or what we think is best, even if it’s contrary to the will of God, we set ourselves up as our own God and worship our will, over that of God’s. You see more than anything else Saul has a perception problem. He believes in God, but He didn’t respect or honour or fear God. He figured God chose him to be king, so whatever he does must be good enough. But He was wrong. And whenever we rationalize and trivialize sin, whenever we disregard, or ignore God’s Word, we are wrong as well. Whenever we think that God is happy with us because we show up for church and we do the worship thing, and we take a moment to wave at God, but never allow ourselves to be moved by God, we are in deep, deep trouble. Whenever we say, “Oh well, we’re only human, or, oh well, God’s a forgiving God.” We’re wrong as well because even though, yes we are sinners and yes God will forgive, this kind of caviller attitude towards sin and our relationship with God will harden our hearts to the point where we can’t even sense when our actions are grieving the Holy Spirit. That’s the place Saul’s in at this moment in his life.
After Samuel tells him that God had taken away his kingship, we finally read that Saul admits some wrong doing, but it seems more like he is sorry for losing his kingship, not sorry for sinning. And he is more interested in saving face then publicly repenting before God and His people.
God had left Saul and Saul didn’t even know it. How sad. From this point on, Saul’s life goes downhill fast. Saul becomes unstable, depressed and irrational. But instead of seeking God, he hires a musician to sooth his nerves and David becomes a part of his life. In other words, Saul refuses to even consider that his emotional problems might be the result of his estrangement from God. Even in the midst of his pain, he refuses to turn to God for help.
And with David’s defeat of Goliath and David’s rise to a place of popularity above that of even Saul himself, Saul becomes obsessed and he becomes history’s first celebrity stocker! And when the people’s song about David, which said, “Saul has slain his thousands, and David his tens of thousands!!” became the most downloaded track on itunes, Saul become consumed with killing David! Why? Well he tells us in verse 8 of chapter 18, “Saul was very angry; this refrain galled him. "They have credited David with tens of thousands," he thought, "but me with only thousands. What more can he get but the kingdom?"
Remember that Samuel had already told him in chapter 15 that the kingdom would be taken away from him (15:28) and given to a neighbour. So Saul was already on the lookout for whom that might be and in Saul’s mind there was no other possibility than David, and of course, he was right.
So from chapters 18 -31 of 1 Samuel, Saul’s obsession with David and his resulting self-destructiveness takes over his life. Oh there are a few moments when David was in a position to kill Saul, but didn’t and Saul seemed to have a glimpse of remorse about his actions. But immediately after these times, he goes right back to doing everything in his power to kill David.
Think about that for a moment: Saul knew that God had anointed David to be the next king, and yet he made it his life’s purpose to kill the one God had chosen. In other words, Saul spent the rest of his life in open opposition to all that God wanted to do. His open opposition to the purpose and calling of God climaxes in chapter 22 when he has 85 innocent priests and their wives and children killed simply because they fed David and his men as they fled from Saul.
Imagine killing 85 servants of God and their entire families just because they helped David! Such was Saul’s contempt for David. Such was Saul’s contempt for God. Not a pretty picture is it? Why was he so obsessed? It all goes back to Saul’s refusal to hear and accept the word of God. It all goes back to Saul refusing to take responsibility for his actions. It all goes back to Saul refusing to admit his sin and repent. It all goes back to refusing to receive God’s correction.
In the book of Proverbs God gives us this insight.
"Then they will call to me but I will not answer; they will look for me but will not find me. 29 Since they hated knowledge and did not choose to fear the LORD, 30 since they would not accept my advice and spurned my rebuke, 31 they will eat the fruit of their ways and be filled with the fruit of their schemes. (Proverbs 1:28-31)
This is such an insightful passage when you consider Saul’s life because leading up to his death, Saul knew he was in trouble. In chapter 28 we read: “When Saul saw the Philistine army, he was afraid; terror filled his heart. 6 He inquired of the LORD, but the LORD did not answer him.” (1 Samuel 28:5-6a)
Saul then approaches a medium to call up Samuel from the dead to get some answers. Obviously Saul senses this is the end. The Philistines are amassing their armies and Saul has wasted so much time obsessing over David that he has neglected every other aspect of his reign. Israel’s army isn’t ready. Saul isn’t ready and God isn’t talking.
"Then they will call to me but I will not answer; they will look for me but will not find me. 29 Since they hated knowledge and did not choose to fear the LORD, 30 since they would not accept my advice and spurned my rebuke, 31 they will eat the fruit of their ways and be filled with the fruit of their schemes. (Proverbs 1:28-31)
God tells us that if we are not willing to respect and acknowledge Him and seek His advice, and worst yet, reject His rebukes, God won’t waste His breath. He will allow us to deal with the consequences of a life lived on our own terms. That is exactly what happens to Saul. Saul spends years refusing to listen to God. Saul refuses to claim any responsibility for his actions. When he is confronted with his sins, he makes excuses and blames everyone else. And when he does acknowledge God, it is only in a way that is self-serving. What we see in Saul is a life lived in self-delusion and denial. Saul says, “It isn’t my fault. I am doing the right thing. Others are to blame. God is against me.” And worst of all, Saul says: “I refuse to accept God’s rebuke. I refused His correction. I have done nothing wrong.”
In the book of Hebrews we are given this advice: ‘"My son, do not make light of the Lord's discipline, and do not lose heart when he rebukes you, 6 because the Lord disciplines those he loves, and he punishes everyone he accepts as a son." 7 Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father?’ (Hebrews 12:5b-7)
Saul made light of the Lord’s discipline. He refused to accept it and in so doing he was, in all actuality, refusing God’s love. God corrects us because He loves us.
The writer of Hebrews tells us that we should endure hardship as discipline. We are to expect that if God loves us, He will help us grow by correcting the attitudes and actions that are destructive and heart-numbing. But correction isn’t going to happen if we refuse his discipline. It won’t happen if we are the type of person who makes excuses and blames others.
You know, we can make a mistake when we look at Saul. We might be tempted to think that Saul lost everything because of his sin, but that isn’t true. Saul doesn’t lose everything because of his sin. He loses everything because of his refusal to honour God by accepting God’s discipline. He refuses God’s determination that what he had done was indeed sin and there was no acceptance of God’s right and authority to discipline those He loves.
Let me illustrate this to you with David’s life. David had just as much of a problem with sin as Saul did, did he not? When David wanted the Ark of the Covenant brought to Jerusalem, there he was dancing and celebrating and having a good time in the procession, but he didn’t ensure that the Ark was carried in the way that God had clearly defined. As a result Uzzah died (1 Chronicles 13:10) and we are told that David was angry because of what had happened (v.11). So He stopped the procession and he parked the Ark and he went back to Jerusalem to sulk. But instead of making excuses and blaming everyone else, David learned his lesson. He accepted the Lord’s rebuke and in 1 Chronicles the Ark is finally moved to Jerusalem with the specific order that only the Levites would carry it in the way that God had prescribed.
So here we have two kings offending God in the manner they worshiped. Both sinned in similar ways, but Saul made excuses and David learned from what happened. He accepted God’s actions and grew.
Then we have David’s sin with Bathsheba. Not a good time in David’s life. But when Nathan confronts him with his sin, David accepts God’s correction. Nathan tells David that he will be forgiven, but his child will be taken. Of course David prays and fasts until he hears of his son’s death.
You’ll remember that the servant were worried about him because he was so distraught with his son’s illness. They thought he would fall apart with the news that his son had died. But, to their surprise he got up and cleaned himself up and ate and then he went to worship God. David accepted the Lord’s rebuke. David was open to God’s correction. More than that, David understood that God was in control. David had surrendered to God’s will. Of course he was able to do that because of His faith. He knew that even though his son had gone, he knew that God would reunite them one day. (2 Samuel 12:23).
Near the end of David’s life he wrote these words: Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. 24 See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. (Psalm 139:23-24) What is David saying near the end of his life? He is saying, “Lord, You are my God, so search me. Examine me. Test me. Look for what offends you and then go ahead, bring it on, discipline me, correct me, lead me in the way everlasting.”
Both Saul and David were sinners, both were flawed human beings, but Saul wasted his life and David becomes the seed from which God chooses to bring forth the Messiah. Talk about living up to your potential! Sin was not the issue, how they dealt with their sin was the issue. Saul refused God’s correction--David embraced it. In fact, he even got to point where he welcomed and invited God’s correction.
David understood what it means to follow God. It is more than believing in Him. It is more than worshipping Him. It is more than admiring Him. It is more than asking Him for stuff. It is more than giving him a few hours a week. Ultimately following Christ is surrendering our lives to Him, even when it costs us, even when it is painful. It is inviting God into our lives and saying, “Search me. I know there are offensive things in my life. I know there are things that dishonour you. I know I am selfish and self-centered. I know I am sinful. So search me and discipline me. Help me to see what offends and then help me to change. I am yours.”
When we have that kind of a relationship with God, our potential will never be wasted.
