Watch Out For The Wrong Turns

Bunbury

Sun am

30/01/2011

“Watch out for the wrong turns”

Intro: Saul was a man who had great potential ………. Not only this but God had made great promises to him.

But when we look at the end of Saul’s life we see that somewhere he went tragically wrong.

As a young man the prophet Samuel is sent to anoint him as leader & king of God’s people.

But as we read the end of his story we see him backslidden, away from God, his life ending in a way God never intended.

Saul’s life stands as a warning to us!

IF IT HAPPENED TO A MAN OF GREAT PROMISE LIKE SAUL ……. IT CAN HAPPEN TO YOU!

His life offers us some valuable lessons!

When we look at the life of Saul what we see is a series of wrong turns that he never corrected / made right.

Making a wrong turn / bad decision is something any one of us can / does do but the real failure is the failure to correct them.

So t/m we want to consider how the life of a man like Saul ended up in such a dark & hopeless alley.

T/m I want to preach a sermon called ‘Watch out for the wrong turns’.

Text: (1 Sam 31:1-6 NKJV) Now the Philistines fought against Israel; and the men of Israel fled from before the Philistines, and fell slain on Mount Gilboa. {2} Then the Philistines followed hard after Saul and his sons. And the Philistines killed Jonathan, Abinadab, and Malchishua, Saul's sons. {3} The battle became fierce against Saul. The archers hit him, and he was severely wounded by the archers. {4} Then Saul said to his armorbearer, "Draw your sword, and thrust me through with it, lest these uncircumcised men come and thrust me through and abuse me." But his armorbearer would not, for he was greatly afraid. Therefore Saul took a sword and fell on it. {5} And when his armorbearer saw that Saul was dead, he also fell on his sword, and died with him. {6} So Saul, his three sons, his armorbearer, and all his men died together that same day.

This was not the way God intended for Saul & his sons to end their lives!

We learn some lessons from this man & the series of wrong turns he took throughout his life.

# 1. Wrong turns.

*** One day after picking my dad up from Sydney airport – took a wrong turn. We got lost in Sydney for about 3 hours! A lot of time spent driving round in circles in frustration …. All b/c of a wrong turn!

A. We need to firstly establish the fact that we all make wrong turns in life.

1. Saul’s crime was not simply the fact that he made some wrong turns in his life.

a.) We all do this ……… we’ve all made some bad decisions from time to time.

b.) We can all look back & see things in our past that we regret – wish we could go back & change.

c.) If you’re expecting to make it through life w/o making some wrong turns you are going to be disappointed.

2. In fact when we think about it the Bible full of accounts of people who made wrong turns.

a.) It almost immediately begins w/ a wrong turn in the garden of Eden.

Genesis 3:6 (NKJV) 6So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate.

b.) From here the wrong turns kept coming …….

c.) If you ever want to read a book about human mistakes then you only have to go as far as the Bible!

d.) Be prepared to make some wrong turns …….. you won’t get through life w/o making a few.

B. The real problem w/ a wrong turn in life is – not correcting it!

1. You can expect to make some wrong turns in life but the question is … are you ready to correct them?

a.) It’s not the wrong turns of our lives that destroy us ………. It’s our unwillingness to correct those wrong turns!

b.) B/c that always requires us to humble ourselves.

c.) The question is when you make them are you willing to confess them & do something about them?

# 2. Saul’s wrong turns.

A. Wrong turn No 1. – not being patient w/ God’s way.

1. God has his own way ……… & his own time in which he does things.

a.) We’ve all heard that scripture in Isaiah that says ……

(Isa 55:8-9 NKJV) "For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways," says the LORD. {9} "For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts.