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Desperation

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It goes back to what the apostle said one time, named Paul, “The things I don’t want to do, I do. And the things I want to do, I don’t find myself doing.” You see, we are just like Saul. While we may not enter down to a dark pathway of witches and spiritists and divination, we must understand that we all enter various pathways away from the will of God.

Now in Saul’s day the laws of God, just like they do today, they absolutely forbid anyone to consult mediums, or what some would say practice necromancy, which is a practice of trying to speak to the dead, because this is a dark, dark world in which no one should ever enter. And yet what you find in this story today that we’re going to read from 1 Samuel chapter 28 is that this mighty, mighty man named Saul became so paralyzed by his chronic fear of others, overwhelming consumed by his jealousy of David, and paralyzed by his continual disobedience to God, that he fell.

You see while it was pride that led Solomon to his fall, and while it was invincibility that led David to fall, it was desperation that led King Saul to fall. In fact, if you look at the life of Saul, which this entire 3-week series could have been done on Saul’s life, he epitomizes all of them. And that’s why we’re talking about today our final message on, “How the Might Fall And You Do Not Have To.” Because today we’re going to talk about “Desperation.”

We all get desperate. Desperation’s a part of life. Circumstances, situations, transitions in life, we all move into moments of desperation. And just as a business would look for that one last silver bullet to shoot in their gun that tries to save their business, to prohibit them from falling into irrelevancy, or into death, that’s exactly what Saul did. I mean Saul a foolish choice, and in his greatest moment of desperation, he did that which would lead him to his death. And it wasn’t that Paul didn’t know it ladies and gentlemen. He knew it. He understood it. And he knew that it was not the right choice.

The Bible gives us a great story, and I want to read from the Bible. We’re a Bible church, so I want to encourage you to always bring your Bible when you come to church. But 1 Samuel chapter 28. And if you don’t have a Bible, you come to us, and we’ll get you a Bible. But in 1 Samuel chapter 28 I want you to look with me to the scripture. And I want to begin reading in verse 3, if you have a copy, read along with me, if you don’t, then I want you to look at the screen, and I want you to really zero in on the reading of the Word.

The Bible says, beginning in verse 3, “By this time Samuel had died, and all Israel had mourned for him and buried him in Ramah, his city and,” listen to what happened after Samuel died, “Paul,” excuse me, “Saul had removed the mediums and the spiritists from the dead.” Now remember, here’s the king, he knew it was wrong, he removed all the spiritists and the mediums from the dead, from, from the land, not from the dead, but from the land. “The Philistines came together and camped at Shunem. So Saul gathered all Israel, and they camped at Gilboa. When Saul saw the Philistine camp,” notice this scripture, very important, “he was afraid and trembled violently. He inquired of the LORD, but the LORD did not answer him in dreams or by the Urim or by the prophets. Saul then said to his servants, “Find me a woman who is a medium, so I can go and consult her.”  His servants replied, “There is a woman at Endor who is a medium.” Saul disguised himself,” now imagine this, here is King Saul, [Pastor laughs] and he’s disguising himself, “by putting on different clothes and set out with two of his men. They came to the woman at night, and Saul said, “Consult a spirit for me. Bring up for me the one I tell you.”    But the woman said to him, “You surely know what Saul has done, how he has killed the mediums and spiritists in the land. Why are you setting a trap for me to get me killed?” Then Saul swore to her by the LORD: “As surely as the LORD lives, nothing bad will happen to you because of this.” “Who is it that you want me to bring up for you?” the woman asked. “Bring up Samuel for me,” he answered. When the woman saw Samuel, she screamed, and then she asked Saul, “Why did you deceive me? You are Saul!” But the king said to her, “Don’t be afraid. What do you see?” I see a spirit form coming up out of the earth,” the woman answered. Then Saul asked her, “What does he look like?” “An old man is coming up,” she replied. “He’s wearing a robe.” Then Saul knew that it was Samuel, and he bowed his face to the ground and paid homage. “Why have you disturbed me by bringing me up?” Samuel asked Saul. “I’m in serious trouble,” replied Saul. “The Philistines are fighting against me and God has turned away from me. He doesn’t answer me any more, either through the prophets or in dreams. So I’ve called on you to tell me what I should do.” Samuel answered, “Since the LORD has turned away from you and has become your enemy, why are you asking me? The LORD has done exactly what He said through me: The LORD has torn the kingship out of your hand and given it to your neighbor David. You did not obey the LORD and did not carry out His wrath against Amalek; therefore the LORD has done this to you today. The LORD will also hand Israel over to the Philistines along with you. Tomorrow you and your sons will be with me, and the LORD will hand Israel’s army over to the Philistines.” Immediately, Saul fell flat on the ground. He was terrified by Samuel’s words and was also weak because he hadn’t had any food all day and all night.”

Each one of us get desperate in life. Circumstances, situations, personal transitions, personal crises, personal losses or adjustments in life move us into moments of desperation. On top of that I personally believe that God many times permits us to have that desperate spirit in our heart for Him to walk and to work in our lives, and so God creates that desperation many times in life as well.

You see the question for all of us today is not will I get desperate? But the question is what will you do when you get desperate? Because you will get desperate. How will I respond when I get desperate in my life? What will that desperation lead me to in my life? Let’s open the Bible today, and let’s study it. Let’s take it apart, and let’s see some of the following biblical principles and truths.

First of all,

1. Desperation leads you to fear or to faith. When you get desperate, you

will get fearful, or you will become more faithful. Saul got fearful. In verse 5 he feared the Philistines and his impending death. And think about that, Saul was present when he tried to put his armor on David to fight against Goliath, the big guy. And do you remember what happened? David said man I don’t need this, just give me what I need and I’m rolling in the name of God, and I’m going to fight this, this giant. Well Saul had literally seen God take a boy and slay the biggest man in that day and time. But yet, Saul had spiritual amnesia just like many of us do. We forget the great things that God has done before.

Well verse 6 he talks about how God did not answer his prayer. He said you know I prayed to God and he said God’s not speaking to me anymore. There are no visions. There are no dreams. There was no Urim that was used, which was a lot that they would cast to determine the will of God. There are no prophets seeing the future. Why is that? Because Saul had rejected God. And sooner or later when a person rejects God again and again, God rejects them. And it was determined that God was not going to speak to Saul any longer, therefore, in verse 7 he consulted a medium.

Think about how foolish this was. Here was the king who had banned people like this, that lived and operated in the underworld, he had banned them as king, but now as a desperate king, he was seeking their, their, their counsel. He was, he was trying to get them to, to speak to him about the future. And knowing the laws of God, knowing what God wanted him to do, he went out and he did the one thing that would bring ultimately his final destruction.

You see, he knew God would not be pleased. I know that when we talk about Saul we can be real hard on Saul, but I want to tell you today that all of us need to understand that there’s a lot of Saul in us. there’s a lot of that element where we know what is right, and we do not do it. There’s an element of us knowing what we should not do, and yet, we end up doing it.

Someone might ask, “Well why did Saul get himself in real trouble?” Well the Bible speaks to that over in 1 Chronicles. Let me read a couple of verses for you in chapter 10, verse 13 and 14. “Saul died for his unfaithfulness to the Lord.” My goodness what a statement. Why is that? Because, “He did not keep the Lord’s Word.” What an incredible verse. And then notice what it says, “He even consulted a medium for guidance, someone from the underworld to guide him. But he did not inquire of the Lord, so the Lord put him to death, and he turned the kingdom over to David, the son of Jesse.”

You see Saul was desperate for guidance, yet, when Saul became desperate for guidance, he resorted to his fear rather than run to his faith. Let me ask you today, where do you go when you get desperate? When circumstances and situations and transitions squeeze you, where do you go? Are you desperate for guidance in your life today by the Lord? Where will you go? Will you resort to fear? “Oh no I don’t know what’s going to happen!” Or will you move towards faith? Are you desperate for the Lord to lead you in your life? Remember, you get led by the Lord when you operate by the Book, and you operate under the Holy Spirit’s leadership. Are you desperate for God’s provision in your life? We have people here today who need God’s provision, you’re desperate for it. Well either you can let your situation literally paralyze you with fear, or you can get a hold of this Book, and claim the truthfulness of the Word of God, and obey personal elements in that regarding your own faith, and you will trust the Lord to get you through where you are today.

There are many of you here today, you’re desperate for companionship. I want to say this to all of our teenagers and our single adults today, do not get so desperate for companionship that you compromise your core values all in the name of companionship, or because you desire a romantic relationship. None of that leads to real life, all of it leads to extreme guilt, and eventually even death.

What are you desperate for today? What are you truly desperate for and how you are handling it? In the name of Jesus today I challenge you choose faith over fear. In the name of Jesus understand that fear is an enemy to you. And that faith is a friend to you. Today put away the doubt and put away the hopelessness, and put away the fear, and run to God with complete abandonment of yourself, and casting yourself with complete faith upon Him.

Desperation leads you to fear or faith.

2. Desperation also leads you to a lie or to truth. This what happened in Saul’s life. It led him to a lie or a truth. You see, he had a fork in the road, ladies and gentlemen, and that’s what problems do. Problems give us a fork in the road. We call them the crisis of our faith if you may, but also it’s those moments when you are literally choosing between that which looks like truth, but is not truth, versus that which is truth.

As Saul did this evil practice, can you imagine it? How humorous, a king a dressing up and disguising himself in an attempt to cover himself up, and quite honestly to cover up his sin. He even consulted the medium at night. My soul, he’s the king, can’t he go where he wants to go? But the shame and the guilt was already on him. And then he got into the presence of the woman, and what did he do? He lied to the woman. And his desperation led him to practice something that God condemned.

You know, Saul what he does, he reveals who he really is. Now listen friends, and I want you to really catch it today, when your circumstances and your situations squeeze you, what’s in you comes out of you. And we must understand that when the transitions of life come, and they will come, nothing stays the same. Nothing stays the same including you. and when that happens, who you are will come out of you. Not what you want to be, but who you are. And so it’s important to work on who you are in the good times so that when the bad times come, the real you comes out.

C.S. Lewis spoke about this in his book Mere Christianity, and I quote, “Surely what a man does when he is taken off his guard is the best evidence for what sort of man he is?” In other words, when a man can’t hide behind it, there’s nothing to hide behind it, surely you know what sort of man he really is?

You see, Saul was disguising who he was. But in reality he was revealing who he was in even a greater way. I mean can you imagine it? May I remind everybody today the reason Saul got chosen as king, people wanted a king, they voted on it, and said man this guy looks good, looks the part. He’s tall, handsome, big, great looking, I mean all the women liked him, I assume. All the guys, they applauded him because he was great in his stature. He was a man’s man, obviously. I mean a gifted leader, obviously. But here’s a guy who had it all together on the outside, but when he got in the pressures of life, what he looked like on the outside did not mean one thing at all.

It ought to remind all of us today we can work on our appearance, and we all ought to work on it, but I want to tell you something, it doesn’t matter how pretty you are, how much in shape you are, when you get under the pressures of life, there’s one thing that comes out, and that’s what’s in you. So when pressures come this week, and when circumstances come, when the transitions come, what is coming out of you in your life?

You realize in pop culture there is a terminology used called jumping the shark? Now jumping the shark is what they say happens when a televisions series begins to lose its ratings. In other words a television series does great and all of a sudden it begins to lose it’s ratings, and it all of a sudden, out of nowhere, takes this whole weird approach to try to grab its audience back. And you know as a viewer you say wow man that’s so stupid, why do they do that? It makes no sense cause they left the core values of what made it great. Well that in pop culture is called jumping the shark.

Now why is that? Well, years ago, there was a popular series called Happy Days. Some of ya’ll remember Happy Days? I was just in junior high when it came out, but Jeana told me about it, and [LAUGHTER] I just wanted Buster and Martha to know nothing’s changed. You know what I mean? But years ago when the popular series Happy Days came out, which was really during my collegiate years, when it was entering it’s fifth year, they for the first time began to face falling, a fall in their ratings. So you know what they did? They opened their fifth season with a 3 episodes of Happy Days where the Fonz would overcome his fear of sharks. So they had him skiing as he was in Hollywood visiting, and uh, they were skiing, or he was skiing on the water, and he was skiing over sharks! Well, when that series is evaluated now they really believe that is when the series began to really lose its punch and its power, and even its ratings fell further.

Why? Because they pulled out the nonsensical, the ridiculous, skiing over a shark? I mean give me a break, he was cool, but I mean he wasn’t that cool. You see when we get desperate, that same thing happens to us in our lives. We jump the shark. When we get desperate sometime we move into the world of the ridiculous. Here we are born-again, saved, we know Christ as Lord and Savior, and the next thing we knew, we know is that we’re doing something that is totally un-Christian! And we resort back to that old, that old life that we had before we got saved! That life that, that, that maybe we, we, we had been freed of at one time in the Christian life, but now it shows itself up. That’s what we call jumping the shark. We move into the nonsensical or the ridiculous.

Well I want to challenge you today to understand when you get desperate do not run into error, or to error, but you run to truth. Do not believe a lie. You’ve got to believe the truth. Ladies and gentlemen when you get desperate you run to God! When you get desperate you run to the Book! This Book is your hope and your promise! You run to Jesus! You run to the mercy seat of Jesus Christ when you get desperate.

We all need to remind ourselves today if we stand for, if we do not, do not stand for something we will fall for anything. And that something had better be the truth of the Word of God. So many times in life people say, “Well you know the Lord is leading me to do this, or I prayed about this,” and my soul, it’s so opposite of the Book. No, what you’ve done is you have rationalized and used a bunch of God talk to justify your choice. And that’s Satan’s way. He’s made you to believe a lie clothed in the Bible. Well let me tell you something friend God will expose that. God is not honored by that, and we need to learn the power of running to God and running to the Word, and running to the mercy seat of God.

Also today,

3. Desperation leads you away from God or to God. One of the two. God is leading you, your desperation moves you to God, or away from God. The lady, what does she do? She called up the spirit of Samuel. I want to say this about this in case you have any ideas, if you want to talk to somebody from the dead, that’s the only miracle like this in all of scriptures, so don’t think it’s a Christian deal.

There was an exception made for God literally to rebuke a king, and to strip him once and for all of his power that led him to his ultimate death. You see Saul told Samuel how desperate he was. He needed guidance, and that God wasn’t talking to him anymore. What does, what did Samuel tell him? Samuel told him, he said, I told you God was not going to talk to you anymore. You have chosen disobedience again and again and again and God is ripped away your kingship. He’s given it to David, and it’s not in your hands any longer. And he told him the end was coming.

Well ladies and gentlemen, teenagers, young adults today, listen carefully, Saul chose disobedience to God over obedience to God most of the time in his life. And it cost him. It cost him everything. Do you realize today that when you do not choose obedience, there is a cost. Some of you are paying for that cost right now. You’re paying for that choice. All of us have had those consequences that come. It doesn’t matter how spirit-filled we are. I mean if we make a bad choice, there are consequences to bad choices. And if God so, so mercifully receives, uh, releases us of that then praise God! But we know that sometime the scars are there and it happens, and they are nothing more than reminders of God’s grace that is sufficient for us even when we mess up in life.

I tell you what, I’ve gotten desperate before in my life. And I can say so far while I have messed up at times, I’ve not gotten so desperate that I made a stupid choice that took me to my fall. I don’t know about you, but I can tell you when you get desperate in your life, you’re going one of two directions, towards God or away from God. You’re running to Him or you’re running away from Him.

What I’m amazed of as a pastor is when the crises come, so many times people run away from God. The very time when they need to run to God, they run from God. They mess up morally, or their family gets embarrassed by the conduct of a child, or some situation has happened in their life and all of a sudden they, here they were committed to the Lord, and committed to the church, and the next thing we know they’re not coming anymore. We don’t understand it, and they won’t be honest with us about it. And they’re clothing it and saying it’s not this or that but let me tell you what it is, it’s, it’s they made a choice that they feel guilty for, and, or they’re embarrassed by some conduct that’s going on. And we’ve got to understand ladies and gentlemen our role as a church is to be a welcome center. We’re a hospital for sinners! We are people who should be the most redemptive people in NWA, not the most judgmental people in NWA. [APPLAUSE]

And we need to understand that’s what people need in their life! Because a crises will come, the disappointment will come. I tell you what, I’ve been so disappointed many times in my life. I have been overwhelmed with discouragement as a leader at times in my life! But I want to share with you today when those matters are not brought your way the way you think need to be brought your way, God is working. God is moving. God is bringing you into the end of yourself so that you can get more of Him. Because God’s committed to one thing in your life, to you living a crucified life. I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ lives in me! And there’s nothing in me that wants me to crawl on the cross and die! I don’t want to die! I am selfish! I am deceived, just like you! And I don’t want to get on the cross and die! But God, because He loves you, He puts you in the squeezes of life. He puts you in the circumstances, and the situations, and the crises, and the transitions to such a point that He’s trying to get you to live a move crucified life because the power is in the crucified life! It’s not in us getting our own way, having our own thing, and doing our own deal.

You see a real truth is that a crisis reveals who you are and what you are made of in your life. I mean that’s what a crisis does. And that old flesh, it wants to respond. That old flesh, boy I tell you, I’ve got as good a flesh as anybody. It wants to respond. It wants to attack. It wants to get back. It wants to stand up for my rights. It wants to defend. It wants to accuse. It wants to do everything that is opposite away from what God wants. But I’ve got to live such a crucified life that I’m running to Him when those things happen. And I’m not running from Him. I’m running to the church. I’m not running from the church.

Oh friend I don’t know the challenge of your losses, or the greatness of your crises today, but what I do know is the greatness of my God in which you need to run to today in the midst of where you are in your life.

And finally,

4. Desperation leads to death or to life. One of the two. Saul’s choices led him to death. In fact he was told tomorrow Saul you will be with me. You know what that meant, don’t you? Now where, where was Samuel? Samuel was, was gone. We assume he was with the Lord. We trust he was. He was a prophet of God, highly respected. And here he was, the man of God, the priest of all, telling him tomorrow you’re going to be with me. And you know what? That exact thing happened. It cost him. And Saul was so desperate for approval that he compromised God’s Word that had been given to him. And that’s why he didn’t take care of business with some of his enemies that he needed to, and he was desperate for identity, and he did all he could to kill David. He was desperate for guidance to such a point that he sought a demonic led woman concerning God’s will. Give me a break! And we look at that and we say how can a man like Saul seek a demonic led woman to reveal the will of God to him? Ladies and gentlemen we do the same kind of jumping the shark activity everyday of our lives! We’re just not kings! And our names are not Saul! But the same kind of stuff we do! We consult this, or we consult that, we read the horoscope, or we look at our astrology report, or we go out here and we, we get with a bunch of friends and say hey what do you think, or we listen to talk radio and let them decide for us. Oh my goodness. Or we get on somebody’s blog and we let that be our guide. In the name of Jesus listen, when you get counsel from godly men like Proverbs says, it talks about godly men giving you counsel, not a bunch of secular minded people, not a bunch of carnal Christians, because they will not lead you towards God, they will lead you away from God, and they will help you to make death choices, and not life choices.

You see the tragedy is that Saul lost his kingdom and his life due to his disobedience to God. And here’s a good little thing to remember, any choice you make that leads you to disobey God is a choice towards death. Wow. And I’m not talking about physical death, even though it could, cause I do believe as a believer there are times when God just takes His children home because of too many choices that are just away from God again and again and again. God’s not going to let you or me spoil His testimony of His name on this earth.

But when I talk about death here, I’m talking about the death of a dream. How many of you have dreams that are dead today because of choices you made in your life? You jumped the shark and now your dreams died. How many of us have visions that we don’t have anymore in our life because, because we literally made choices that were not good, and now we, we have a hard time even thinking about what to do tomorrow, much less thinking about where we want to be a year from now, or two years from now. Some of you have seen relationships die, some of you have seen families die, not literally death physically, but you’ve seen your family fall apart. Who would have ever thought your family fell apart?

I’m amazed of all the people I’ve married through the years, how so many, none of them ever want to end, but it ends again and again and again. Well, choices so many times get us into trouble. Business choices get us into trouble. Financial choices get us into trouble. Choices about our future get us into trouble. And what happens is if we’re not careful, we are jumping the shark. Ladies and gentlemen do you listen to what I just said? Any choice you make that leads you to disobey God is not a choice, or is a choice towards death. It’s not a life choice; it’s a death choice.

So I want to challenge you today, choose God! Run to God! Run to His Word! When you get desperate there are is a place to go. when you get desperate there, there are companions that will walk with you through your challenge in your life. some of said when things go bad you find out who your friends are. Well that’s probably true, but listen, also we need to understand when everybody else walks out, understand God is walking in. and we need to have a heart so much for people who are in the down and out that we want to be their, their haven of rest. We want to be their restoration center. We want to be their hospital that they need desperately in their life. Oh friend listen today, the mighty do fall.

There’s not a week in your life or my life where we do not fall sometimes. We may not fall as hard as Saul fell, but I’m telling you we fall. You know the scripture says there’s none righteous, no, not one. The scripture says for all have fallen short of the glory of God. So are you catching it today? We all fall, but when you fall you, you’ve got to fall, not backward away from God, and not backward from the church, but you’ve got to fall forward to God, and you’ve got fall forward to the church. And you need to remember today that, that God wants you to reach for Him when you fall, cause you’re going to fall! You’re going to mess up. You’re going to make mistakes. You’re going to have choices that are not good, but listen, don’t let that choice lead you into another choice that is so far away from the will of God. But understand, reach out for God, and reach for His life that is available to you today.

And the one thing I want you to have in your mind before you go today is this, is that God is reaching out to you 24-7. I mean there’s never a moment when God is not reaching out to you. there’s never a moment when He is not reaching out to you!

Ah that reminds me of that great promise over in James’ book. It’s recorded as what we would know as chapter 4, verse 8. When the scripture says, “Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.” Oh friend, when the circumstances squeeze you, and the situations pressure you, and the transitions literally quench you from vision in your life, or the losses or gripping, run to God! Run to the church! Run to the Word! Run to the mercy seat of God who loves you and reaches out to you every day of your life, even when you don’t reach back! He is faithful. Faithful. Faithful.

Oh Father I pray in the name of Jesus today…

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