The Heart Of Saul: Lessons From A People-Pleaser - 1 Samuel 15:24 Series

For free audio or video download of this message, visit https://www.treasuringgod.com/sermons-by-scripture or my YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/@DarrellFerguson.

1 Samuel 15:24 Then Saul said to Samuel, "I have sinned. I violated the LORD's command and your instructions. I was afraid of the people and so I gave in to them.

Review

We have been studying the life of David. And in the book of 1 Samuel David’s life is displayed against the backdrop of the train wreck of Saul’s life – especially in chapter 18. If you were to divide chapter 18 into an outline you would very quickly notice a clear pattern. Here is how the chapter divides up. It has nine sections:

David’s popularity (1-7)

Saul’s Jealousy (8-12)

David’s Successes (13-16)

Saul offers his first daughter (17)

David humbly declines (18-19)

Saul offers his second daughter (20-22)

David doubles the price (23-27)

Saul realizes the Lord is with David (28-29)

David keeps having more success (30)

The outline is very clear - David, Saul, David, Saul, David, Saul, David, Saul, David. The writer is going back and forth between these two men and showing us a stark contrast. So it is necessary for us to understand what is going on in the heart of Saul if we want to study the life of David. That is why we are spending so much time on Saul.

Remember, any time you study Scripture you take your cues about which things are especially important from the text itself, not from your own preconceptions. And the Lord spends a lot of time in these chapters giving us insight into Saul’s heart. Read chapter 18 especially and you will see a whole lot about Saul’s thoughts, motives and feelings, but nothing about David’s thoughts, motives and feelings. God wants us to learn from the error of Saul. And when you look inside the heart of Saul one of the things that stands out is fear of man. His fear of David is mentioned repeatedly in chapter 18, and his fear of man in general has been a theme ever since chapter 15.

And I told you last time that we see at least three different kinds of fear of man in the heart of Saul. In chapter 15 it is fear of human disapproval. In chapter 17 it is fear of harm. And in chapter 18 it is fear of loss. So we are taking those one at a time. We spent a lot of time last week thinking through why it is that fear of human disapproval is presented in Scripture as such a wicked thing. We found that it is a trap, it is idolatry of self, it is idolatry of others, it is dishonesty, it destroys fellowship, and it destroys love.

Man-pleasing

Man fearing is the attitude behind the behavior of man pleasing

This morning I would like to devote the whole time to just giving you some background from Scripture on the concept of people-pleasing. Remember the connection between man-fearing and man-pleasing - fear of man is the attitude of the heart, and people-pleasing is the behavior that results from that attitude.

Good man-pleasing

There are some contexts, however, in which people-pleasing is a good thing. In fact, we are commanded in Scripture to please people.

Commands to please people

For example, children should seek to please their parents (Pr.23:24-25, Ex.20:12). And all of us should seek to please those in authority in general. You should seek to please your boss or husband or teacher or whoever the Lord has placed in authority over you (Ro.13:1-7).

Tit.2:9 Teach slaves to be subject to their masters in everything, to try to please them, 10 … so that in every way they will make the teaching about God our Savior attractive.

The norm in marriage is for a married person to try to please his or her spouse (1 Cor.7:32-34). We should seek to please our neighbor rather than ourselves in areas of Christian freedom that could cause someone to stumble.

Ro.15:1-2 We who are strong ought to bear with the failings of the weak and not to please ourselves. 2 Each of us should please his neighbor for his good, to build him up.

And Paul taught us to become all things to all men in order to win them. (1 Cor.9:19-22). And so in that sense we even try to please unbelievers. So the only people you should be trying to please are those in authority over you, your spouse, Christian brothers and sisters, and non-Christians. We are commanded to please everybody!

Bad man-pleasing

But on the other hand you have passages that strongly condemn people-pleasing.

Commands to Please God, not man

Gal.1:10 Am I now trying to win the approval of men, or of God? Or am I trying to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ.