I asked Tim to read our passage for us because one, it was very long and you don't want to listen to me that long. But two, my voice has been weak this entire past week, so it was a chance to give it a little bit of break this morning. And I'm glad the power is back on so that we can move forward still and actually look at God's Word this morning. What does it mean for us to be involved? That comes up a lot of times. We hear that we need to be more involved. Parents, we need to be involved with our children. And then we have to figure out what that means. Sometimes that means going to every single one of their soccer games. Or it means helping them with their homework. Or it means having dinner with them so we can talk around the table. We're involved in their lives. We're told we need to be more involved in the politics of our country. Well, what does that mean? Does that mean we run for office? Does that mean we spend our day reading political blogs? What does it mean to be involved? were to be involved in our church. Again, what does that mean? Does that mean that we get involved in 18 different ministries so that we burn out? Does that mean that we come to every service? Does that mean that we like our church's Facebook page and that shows we're involved? What does it mean to be involved? That's not always an easy answer, even though we know we are to be involved in a lot of things. This morning we're going to consider the question from God's perspective. What does it mean for God to be involved? We're going to see what it means, at least in part, for God to be involved in our lives. Last week we began looking at the second main section of the book of 1 Samuel. I'm sure that you noticed if Tim was reading the two chapters that this morning we're going to look at a very large portion of scripture. important that we remember what was happening prior to these chapters. Chapter 8 really was a transitional chapter. Samuel was being moved to the sidelines. He was no longer going to be the center of the focus of the book. Even though Samuel, as we saw, as Tim read, was involved in a lot of things happening and he will continue to be for quite some time, Samuel is not the focus. This focus is shifting, and it's shifting to this man that we meet this week, Saul. He is the one who will be anointed king. Still, the very reason that we are meeting Saul today is intimately tied up to what we looked at last week. Last week, the people of Israel filed a demand with Samuel. They had a demand for a king. Samuel was getting old. He was not going to be around very much longer. They did not trust Samuel's sons. And ultimately, when the people demanded a king, God understood that they were not wanting to wait on him any longer. They wanted a king like the nations around them and they were rejecting God and God told them last week that they would get a king like the nations around them. Our chapters this morning record God's actions as he gives the nation of Israel this first king. The chapter, well, the two chapters actually, naturally break into two sections as we see Saul, first of all, anointed privately, and then he's selected publicly. We have these two iterations of him being chosen as king. Again, because of the length of time and my weak voice, we're not going to look at these chapters deeply. But we are going to examine one main idea that seems to cry out from these two chapters. That is the idea that God is constantly involved in our lives. He's constantly involved in our lives. We see this truth as the Lord anoints Saul privately, and we see this truth as God anoints Saul publicly. I believe there's at least three things we can see in God's involvement from the activities in both of those sections. God is constantly involved in our lives. This is true, first of all, in our private lives. We can summarize the section that begins at verse 1 of chapter 9 and then runs all the way through verse 16 of chapter 10. If you want to keep a break here, you can summarize this section as the Lord anoints Saul privately. This is the private selection of Saul. In a lot of ways, verse 1 starts out as if we're moving into a new book. It begins essentially with the same words as chapter 1 began. Now, there was a man. And suddenly we meet this man. We meet this man Saul, even though now there was a man points to Saul's father, we very quickly meet this man who comes with a very lengthy pedigree, coming from a wealthy family. And from our very first glimpse of this man Saul, we're drawn to him. We're immediately drawn to him. We're awed by his physical appearance. He's a handsome man. He is literally head and shoulders above all the regular people. We're unsure how this guy fits in, but we do like him immediately. What I want to do this morning, though, is not focus on Saul, as much as to look at what God is doing through the history that's recorded here about Saul. In biblical narrative, like we have in these passages, we have to remember, in biblical narrative, God is always the main actor. He's always the main actor. In reality, that's true in our life, too. God may not be right there out front. He may be a little bit behind the scenes, but He is always the main mover and shaker. He is the one making things happen. God is always involved. He's always involved in our lives, and we can see that He is constantly involved in lives of Saul, Samuel, and the people of Israel as we take a look here at these verses. Now, the first way that we can see that God is constantly involved in our lives is that God guides. God guides. We have a lot of details that are recorded here in the first part of chapter 9 that seem as if they're almost at random. There are some donkeys that go and get lost. Saul and his servant are sent to go look for those donkeys. They can't find them, but they travel around looking for the donkeys and they end up near Samuel's town. Of course, Saul doesn't know Samuel. When we're introduced, Saul just doesn't even know anything about Samuel. But Saul's servant does. But we're not actually told that Samuel to start with. That's kept in secret. There's just a seer nearby. We happen to be by this town that has the seer. The servant happens to have a coin so that they can pay Samuel for the advice. They can give a gift. They come to the town at exactly the right moment to meet these young ladies coming out for water. These women happen to know that Samuel just came back today. Not yesterday, not tomorrow. He happened to come today, and coincidentally, there happens to be a feast that's going to be going on this time. As I said, there's a lot of seemingly random things, at least from perspective of the people in that day and age. I mean, not too many of us go out looking for donkeys, but in that day and age, that would just be a normal part of the day. A lot of random, unrelated, normal, run-of-the-mill, for a farmer in Israel, circumstances. And yet what we're expected to see, as we read these circumstances through the first part of this chapter, we're expected to see that God has orchestrated every one of these events. Every one of these events so that Saul would arrive and come into Samuel's presence at the precise moment to be anointed king of Israel. Saul was just looking for donkeys. God was guiding him for a different purpose. Folks, that's one of those simple concepts that if we really get a hold of it is so profound, it transforms our lives. God guides. God guides. That means even the low pressure light that comes on in your car that says you need to stop and get air in your tire, is there as part of God's guidance in our life. The person that is sitting next to us in a restaurant talking awfully loudly is there because God guides. The timing of the phone call that offers us a job. The timing of the phone call that tells us we have cancer. Every circumstance that comes into our life is under the guidance of our God. All of these activities that has been part of your life, that has reigned for you to be in this room this morning, as the lights suddenly blink back on, happened because God orchestrated it. What is God doing in your life? What is He preparing you for? What questions is God answering, and what challenges is He placing before you today? Are you considering the truth that God is constantly involved in our lives? That means God guides. God guides. That's the first way that we see God involved in these verses, as he anoints Saul privately. Secondly, I said in each section here we have three ways at least we can see God guiding. Secondly, we can see that God rescues. He rescues. This large section that begins, as I said, in verse 1 of chapter 9 all the way through verse 16 of chapter 10, this large section is structured in such a way that the point of emphasis, from a literary standpoint, the point of emphasis lands in verse 16. Of course, that shouldn't surprise us, because when you look at verse 16, that's when God speaks. And whenever God speaks, it's always important what He says. In fact, in the original Hebrew, this is one of the places our English doesn't translate it real well because we rearrange things to make it flow. In the original Hebrews, even punched harder in verse 15 because it starts out, Now the Lord revealed. It focuses in on what God says. But what if the message that God gives to Samuel in these verses? It's not simply that God would send along a man who is named king. In fact, the word that we have translated prince probably means king-designate. It's used many times in the Old Testament. It seems to be the idea that this is the man who's designated to be king, not the king yet. But there's more here than that. If you look carefully at verses 16 and 17, four times God uses the phrase, my people. My people. Saul is about to be placed in a position of authority over the nation. Saul is being moved into this place of king. But in no way is God relinquishing His claim on the people. They remain My people. The nations rejected God, but God hasn't rejected them. He's not disavowing them in any sense. In fact, we're told He's heard their cry. And he's bringing Saul on the scene to deliver them from the Philistine oppression. We didn't even know the Philippines were oppressing them again. Last we knew in chapter seven, Israel had thrown off the Philistines, but apparently enough years has passed, Philistines have come back around, and God says, I've heard your cry. I love how one commentator worded it. He says, Israel's stupidity cannot wither Yahweh's compassions. Israel's stupidity cannot wither Yahweh's compassions. God rescues. God will rescue his people from their enemy. He will remain involved in their lives even in spite of what they've done. And folks, that truth should be a great comfort to us. We do a lot of stupid things, don't we? Israel does not have an exclusive corner on stupidity. We do a lot of stupid things. We do things that we know are sinful. We know we are rejecting God when we do some of the things we do. We do them because we have rebellious hearts. As much as we're working on it, we still find ourselves again and again shaking our fist at God saying, no, I don't want what you're saying for my life. We pursue the pleasures and the empty joys and the goals of this world rather than pursuing God. Oftentimes, we end up making a pretty big mess in our life as we go about it. But one thing we can be sure of, if we're truly a child of God, if we have accepted Jesus as our Savior so that we are His adopted children, God will never abandon us. He will never abandon us. He will never reject us. Rather, He will rescue us. Now that doesn't mean that the messes that we make automatically disappear. Some of the messes in our lives that we generate through our sinful actions, they leave lifelong consequences. In fact, as we go on, we'll see that Israel's rejection of God brings significant consequences. So the messes don't automatically go away, but God will always rescue. Our salvation is untouchable. We will be rescued from the ultimate consequence of sin. eternal damnation, God will rescue us. It also means, as God has promised in New Testament, that God will always provide us choices that allow us in the future, even as we deal with the messes we've made, God gives us choices that will allow us to serve him in the future. He rescues us. He gives us that privilege again and again. God rescues. God's constantly involved in our lives. Thirdly, as we see the Lord anointing Saul privately, we can see that God enables. He enables. Meeting Samuel had to be a bit like stepping into Whirlwind for Saul. Remember, Saul was just going out looking for some donkeys. He's a young guy trying to find these donkeys that wandered away somewhere. doesn't even know Samuel. And yet he finds himself, the moment he meets Samuel, immediately invited to a feast. There he finds himself seated and treated as if he's the guest of honor. Samuel tells him to sleep on his roof that night, and in the morning he's going to give a brief word to him. And then when morning comes, Samuel says, here's the word, you're going to be anointed king of this nation. You're going to rule over Israel. And Samuel says, and here's three signs. Three signs that will happen today that tells you this is true. As you head for home, God is going to arrange these things to demonstrate that this is the case. First, you're going to meet two men at a very specific place. You're going to run into these two guys, and they're going to tell you, by the way, the donkeys, they've been found. Now your dad's worried about you. Those pesky donkeys, they're right back where they should be. He says, then you'll go a little further and you'll go meet three men that have all the stuff for a sacrificial meal. They're going up to offer a sacrifice. They're going up to worship God. And when you meet these men, one of these men is going to give you two loaves of bread that are specifically designated for holy use. If you study the sacrificial system, these loaves of bread would be that which is given to the priest as part of the holy sacrifice. Strangely, they'll give them to you instead, because they're for holy use. Thirdly, a little bit further, you're going to run into a band of prophets. And guess what, Saul? When you run into these men, you're going to prophesy. You're going to join them. I've got to believe, as Saul finally stepped away from Samuel, that his head had just been spinning. Wouldn't yours? God just turned everything upside down and yet as he walks home it doesn't stop spinning because every one of these things happens. And yet what I want you to see is what's recorded in verse 9 of chapter 10. Verse 9 says, God changed his heart. God changed his heart. In those four words, We have a record of God enabling Saul for the ministry that God just called him to take on. Samuel tells him back in verse six there, just a couple verses earlier, that the Spirit of Lord will come upon you mightily. And that's exactly what happens then in verse 10. God's Spirit came on his anointed so that he is able to fulfill this responsibility that God is placing on him. Now this is a special anointing of the Spirit that we see here in the Old Testament. It's frequently called the theocratic anointing. That means it's anointing of the Holy Spirit, a special enabling power that was given to the king of the nation. The theocracy that overruled God or that was in God's service. over the nation, God's theocracy there. This is a special anointing, the enabling of the Holy Spirit so that the king could rule as God's representative. This is the special anointing that came upon Jesus. When Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist in the river and he comes up out of the river, the spirit descends upon him. It's this theocratic anointing because Jesus is the final king, the ultimate king of Israel. So what I'm saying is we'll never experience this particular anointing. Fortunately, none of us have the responsibility to be king over Israel. So we don't have this particular anointing. But we can still be assured that we will experience God's enabling for the responsibilities he has given us. God enables. If we're adopted as God's children by faith in Jesus Christ, God will be involved in our lives through his spirit. And that in spirit will enable us. It will enable us to do the things that God calls us to do. The responsibilities given to us. You don't think as a parent that you can be patient with your child. Yes, you can. God enables. He calls you to speak love and patience, and He'll enable you to do that as long as you lean on Him when you're weak. You think that you are unable to tell your neighbor about Jesus. Yes, you can. God enables. When you start talking about what you've experienced in Jesus yourself, God enables you to share your joy and grace that you've received. You don't think you can endure your chronic pain with joy. Yes, you can. God will enable you. He'll enable you to do that as you focus on the great salvation, the rescuing that comes from Jesus. You'll be able to have joy even in the midst of chronic pain. God enables. He does enable us with this theocratic anointing, but he does enable us for every responsibility he's given us. God is constantly involved in our lives. He enables. That's the third thing we see here if we look at the Lord anointing Saul privately. God guides, God rescues, God enables. He's constantly involved in our lives. Then in the second half of chapter 10, as we move into the section where we have the Lord selecting Saul publicly. If you want to label this section, you can just say, the Lord selects Paul publicly. When we see this again, we see three more things that the Lord does as he's involved in our lives. The section begins here, Saul goes home, but he doesn't tell anyone what happened. Not even his uncle who asks. Yet Saul has been privately anointed and now Samuel is ready to call a public assembly, a national assembly. Samuel is ready to publicly identify Saul because now Samuel knows who the Lord has chosen as king. So Samuel calls all the people to Mizpah. That happens to be the same place that we encountered in chapter 7. The place where the nation repented of their rebellion against God and God then raised them up and gave them deliverance over the Philistines several years earlier. Now, this is a shorter section here, but there are, as I said, at least three ways that we can see God at work in the lives of the people of Israel. Ways that God works in our lives as well. First of all, God rebukes. God rebukes. You know, there's a certain decorum that comes whenever you gather in a large assembly. There's a certain decorum that's expected. People are polite. They generally state general platitudes. They refrain from stating things that might be offensive to the group that's assembled and so forth. There's a decorum that's expected. It looks as if Samuel didn't get the memo. Samuel didn't understand how you're supposed to behave. If the assembly gathers here at Mizpah, Samuel steps into his role as prophet, the prophet that speaks for God, and he is anything but proper. He reminds them that God has a divine right over them because God has claimed them by delivering them from Egypt. And then he castigates them for responding to God by Rejecting God through their demands for a king in fact, we won't spend the time look at but Samuel follows a Pattern of speech here that there's a standard Old Testament prophetic speech pattern for announcing a judgment Whenever the prophets are gonna announce judgment, they follow the same basic pattern and Samuel invokes that pattern here so I've got to believe that that Samuel begins speaking and it's coming out clear that this is a word of judgment and There had to be a sharp intake of breath. You don't do that, do you? Samuel follows this form that announces judgment, but at the very point in which judgment would normally be announced, Samuel inserts the provision of selecting a king. There's no mistaking that God was rebuking the people. In fact, century later, God says through the prophet Hosea to the nation, in Hosea 13, 11, God says, I gave you a king in my anger. Selecting Saul as king was done as a stinging rebuke to the nation. This is an act of divine judgment to select this king. Folks, God has a claim upon our lives too, doesn't he? He is a claim upon our lives. He is the Creator God. He is the Creator, and when we place our faith in Jesus, He also is our Redeemer, our Rescuer, our Deliverer. Sometimes, the way that God is involved in our lives is by rebuking us. He rebukes us. He may use other people as the means to deliver the rebuke, just as He used Samuel to deliver the message. God may use some of those guiding circumstances to bring us to a certain passage of scripture that the spirit then stings us with a particular rebuke. God may use a severe disappointment in our lives through those guiding circumstances. He may use a lot of things, but God rebukes us when we rebel against him. We need to be ready to hear that rebuke. God rebukes. That's the second way we see God at work in this latter half. And then thirdly, or that was the first way rather, the second way is that God governs. God governs. Samuel knew that if he simply announced this unknown young man to Saul that came from this tribe of Benjamin that was the smallest tribe. If you go back in history, not real far before this, the tribe of Benjamin was almost wiped out. because of actions they had taken, and a civil war then ensued. This was a small tribe, and so I have got to believe Samuel understood that if he simply announced, I've selected this man, there would be problems. After all, the tribes were already rebelling against God. The different tribes would fight. They'd maneuver, try to put their man into place. You know, think how nasty it gets in our country with two political parties. Multiply that by 12. Everyone wants their man. They'd reject Saul and the whole nation would conceivably spin apart. So Samuel uses this method of casting lots. And God governed the outcome of the lots so that Saul was selected. By random chance? Not at all. You know, even this method of selecting Saul by lots, though, provides a bit of premonition that this is not a good thing. The only other occasion prior to this in the Old Testament where lots were used was to identify Achan. If you remember Achan, he was the man that sinned that caused the nation to lose the battle of Ai when they were first coming to conquer the land. That's the only time we see someone being selected by lots prior to this. A little premonition in the method here that this is a divine act of judgment. Anyway, from our standpoint, what we need to recognize is there is no random chance. There is no random chance. Every single thing that happens in this universe is governed by God. Every molecule that vibrates, every snowflake that falls, in every circumstance of every minute of our lives, God governs all of it. God governs. God is constantly involved in our lives. And then thirdly, God instructs. God instructs. It's a bit humorous that after Saul has been chosen by Lot, he can't be found. He's not found because he's off hiding with the baggage somewhere on the edge of the camp. Probably doesn't bode real well that the new king is not confident that God can actually enable him to fulfill his new role. But we have to wait for the coming chapters to see all of Saul's deficiencies. At this point, all we know is that he can't be found. But again, this is the point that we see God speaking. God has to instruct the people even as to where Saul is hiding. You want this king and you can't even find him. I have to tell you where he is. And then after Saul is brought forward, all the people ooh and ah over his impressive stature. He's just what they were hoping for. This man stands up and he towers above them, head and shoulders above, handsome looking guy. This is what we were looking for. In fact, the very first time that Saul is called a king here in the text is when it comes from the lips of the people, when they say, long live the king. Then after the people are finished, Samuel goes on and he instructs the people as to the ordinances of the kingdom. It's significant here that he gives these ordinances for the kingdom. Because last week, back in chapter eight, verse nine, he used the same word, the word that we have translated ordinances, he used that in chapter eight when he warned them about the provisions, it was translated provisions that time, provisions of the king. Now he's informing them, he's instructing them as to how the kingship is to function in Israel. The message there is that the king of Israel is not allowed to function in any way he likes simply because he is king. God still holds ultimate authority. God subjects the king to himself. God defines what he can do in the kingship. In fact, as God's spokesman, Samuel still has the ultimate authority over the assemblers. Samuel at the end tells everybody, we're done, go home. He dismisses the people, not Saul. Friends, we need to remember. while there are various authorities in our lives, and many of us also hold positions of authority in various places, God is still the ultimate authority. God is the one who defines what authority is to be given to various people. God is one who defines how it is to function. God instructs how we are to respond to authority and how we are to execute authority. He instructs us how we are to conduct ourselves when we're in a position of authority. He instructs us how we submit ourselves to various authorities that we're under. Children, parents, God instructs. Workers, bosses, God instructs. Husbands, wives, God instructs. Church members, church leaders, God instructs. The list goes on and on and in every area of responsibility God instructs. He uses this book that we opened this morning to instruct us in all these various roles of life. Are we listening to His instructions? Are we following His instructions? God is constantly involved in our lives. He instructs. What does it mean to be involved? That's the question to ask. What does it mean? Well, when it comes to God, to be involved means that he is constantly involved. He's God. He is constantly involved in our lives. Observing his involvement as he anointed Saul here privately, we saw that God guides, God rescues, God enables. Observing God's involvement as he selects Saul publicly, We see that God rebukes, God governs, God instructs. God is constantly involved in our lives. The challenge is never His involvement. It's always our awareness of, our response to His involvement. Are we responding to His involvement as He desires? Are we responding in rebellion? We need to recognize God is constantly involved in our lives. Let's pray.