Real People - Real Problems- Part 6b- You Da Man- Hiding Or Shining Series

Real People – Real Problems

A study of 1 Samuel

Part 6b

“You da man are you hiding or shining?”

As we continue our study of 1 Samuel this morning

We come back to Kish’s son

Saul

Who we saw last week

God through Samuel

Dub

“Da man”

We saw how God orchestrates

Events

And

Moves people and things into position

Placing them at the right place

At the right time

In order to accomplish his plans

Sometimes his plans for us

Sometimes his plans for others

We also saw that in order to understand

And unleash God’s plans in our lives we have certain things we must do

First we must choose Jesus as savior

God’s plan as we discussed begins with salvation

And we have the ability to make a choice to accept or reject salvation

There are many misguided ideas about salvation

And just exactly what that means

Often when we ask someone if they would go to heaven when they die

The answer is

“I hope so”

Or

“I think so”

Or even sometimes a resounding –“Yes “

Only to be rattled a bit

By the next question that should always follow

“why ?” or “why do you think so?”

And there are many differing opinions on why

First off let me say

You don’t have to hope so

You don’t have to think so

God’s word gives us assurance

And if your answer to will you goes to heaven when you die is

“I hope so”

“Or think so”

Then your answer is no

Hang on

There is more

When your answer is yes

And the answer to the follow up question why

Is

I go to church

I was baptized ---

I’ve never done anything really bad

My mom-ma- daddy – was a Christian

I’ve always been a Christian

Etc...

Then your answer should also be

“No”

To the question

Do you know you will go to heaven when you die?

Listen to me

John 14:6 says

I am the way, the truth and the life

And no one comes to the Father except through me

Hoping will not save you

Thinking will not save you

Being a good person

Or going to church or being baptized will not save you

Only accepting Jesus Christ as savior and turning from your sins will save you

This is important

God loves you

And he sent Jesus to pay the price of your sins

And everyone who believes- that is places their faith and trust in Jesus

Will be saved

But

We must accept salvation

We must reach out and take it

And then

God can begin unfolding his glorious plans for your life

Samuel laid out God’s plan for Saul last week

In chapter 8

We saw God move Saul with a bunch of donkeys

And place Samuel right where he wanted him

And in verse 9:20b

Samuel gives Saul the first look at the plan

“And I am here to tell you that you and your family are the focus of all Israel’s hopes.”

We saw in verse 21 that Saul tried to get out of Dodge about then

Verse 21

21 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 of that tribe! Why are you talking like this to me?”

But to his credit

He stayed and listened to more of the plan

This brings us to Chapter 10 and the second part of “you da man – hiding or shining”

1 Samuel 10:1

Then Samuel took a flask of olive 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.

God had pointed out Saul as the future King

Samuel had embraced God’s choice

And now he was going to help unfold more of the plan for Saul

So he anoints him as King

In private

Key on this

God through Samuel dealt with Saul’s heart

To let him begin seeing the plan

Later the anointing would be public

But God always begins with the heart of the person

-----Back to salvation-----

No one can tell you that you are saved

God though the Holy Spirit convicts the heart of the one he is dealing with first

He may use people or things or circumstances

Or even donkeys to get the job done

But all change begins in the heart of the one who is being dealt with

So God deals with Saul’s heart privately

Then he uses Samuel to give Saul confirmation

Samuel then tells Saul what is going to happen

Verses 2-8

2 When you leave me today, you will see two men beside Rachel’s tomb at Zelzah, on the border of Benjamin. 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?’