Real People - Real Problems Part 8- "Going Along To Get Along" Series

Real People- Real Problems

A study of 1 Samuel

Part 8

“Going along to get along”

Two times in the movie lonesome dove we see very adverse reactions to rude behavior

The first is Gus whacking a surly bartender with his big walker colt

For disrespecting he and Capt Call

And for bad service

“I believe we will require a little respect.

I’m Capt. Augustus McCrae, and this is Capt. Woodrow F. Call.

Now if you look over there, you can see us in earlier days when the people around here wanted to make us senators.

Now the one thing we didn't put up with is doddling service. And as You can See, We still DON'T put Up With It.”

And then again by Captain Call

When the Old Army scout is trying to take Dishe’s horse and Newt tries to stop him

And is taking a beating from the old grizzled Scout

Call rides down the street on Gus’s horse

Knocks the old scout down and really gives him a beating

When he gathers himself back up

He turns to the crowd

And says

“I hate rude behavior in a man

I won’t tolerate it”

Now listen

I am in no way advocating violence of any type

But both of these scenes are a good visual illustration of

Not going along in order to get along

Gus could have just let the surliness pass

Call could have looked the other way on the rude behavior

But neither did

They drew a line and refused to cross that line

Jake Spoon on the other hand as we have seen in several other sermons

Went along with lots of things he did not agree with

In order to get along with the Suggs brothers

He crossed the line

Maybe he never drew a line

Or saw the line

But it cost him plenty

He ended up sitting on a horse with a noose around his neck

Being hung with the very type of men he had once rode to fight against

He lowered his guard

Went along to get along

And it did not turn out well for him

Call, Gus and Jake are good cowboy examples of going along to get along

Or

Not going along

In today’s sermon

We are going to look at an extreme example of wiliness to go along

And then take a hard look at how sometimes we as Christians

Ignore the line

Cross the line

Or sometimes how we never drew a line to begin with

Please open your bibles to chapter 10 and 11 of 1 Samuel

Today we are continuing our series titled real people – real problems

And today’s problem is making deals with the enemy

1 Samuel 10:27

[Nahash, king of the Ammonites, had been grievously oppressing the people of Gad and Reuben who lived east of the Jordan River. He gouged out the right eye of each of the Israelites living there, and he didn’t allow anyone to come and rescue them. In fact, of all the Israelites east of the Jordan, there wasn’t a single one whose right eye Nahash had not gouged out. But there were 7,000 men who had escaped from the Ammonites, and they had settled in Jabesh-gilead.]

If you are reading from the NLT bible you will notice that this verse is in parentheses

If you are reading from the King James or a few other versions

It may be missing completely

This information was found in manuscripts which predate the manuscripts that the King James Bible was translated into English from

It is important to clarify that the addition or omission of this verse does not change God’s word

Nor does it affect the events or even the outcome

It simply gives us a bit more background information about the verses that follow in chapter 11

The Ammonites were the descendants of Lot and his wicked daughters

So we are looking at this verse today as History

If you will remember from our study of Genesis some time back

Lots daughters after God’s wrath was poured out on Sodom and Gomorra

Got their father drunk and while he was passed out

Had sex with him and became pregnant

Their sons were Ben-am-mi father of the Ammonites and Moab father of the Moabites

And their descendants became mortal enemies of the Israelites

And had been waging war on them for years

Their current King- Nahash whose name means “The hiss of the snake”

Was an extremely wicked and brutal king

He had attacked the tribes of Israel that had remained on the east side “Gad and Ruben” of the Jordan when the rest of Israel moved into the Promised Land

And made them his slaves

He had gouged out the right eye of every person of those tribes