God is good, isn't He? God is good. Right now what we have read is we have read the passage of the final about 24 hours of Saul's life. the beginning to the last day of his life. And it doesn't look good, does it? It doesn't look good. You have to remember, we all have to remember, one day we're going to come to the final hours of our life. And none of us wanted to look this way. None of us wanted to look this way. Saul was the first king of Israel. We know that. We've kind of developed the story of Saul a little bit over the last few weeks. And there was a day when Saul was serving the Lord. There was a day when he was among the prophets. There was a day when he was little in his own sight, and he was looking to God. But those days are past, and now he is coming to the end. And the Bible says this in verse 16, then said, Samuel, wherefore didst thou ask of me, seeing the Lord is departed from thee, is become thine enemy? One thing that I know is that when you work against God, He works against you. And that's not a good thing. And the Lord hath done to him as he spake by me, for the Lord hath rent the kingdom out of thine hand and given it to thy neighbor, even to David. Now, Saul knew this. God revealed it to Saul in his life in many ways through his interactions with David and just looking at David and knowing the Spirit of God on David and how David reacted to certain situations. Saul knew that. He knew it was a matter of time, but now was the time. And then he says this, "...because thou obeyed not the voice of the Lord." nor executed his fierce wrath upon Amalek. Therefore hath the Lord done this thing unto thee this day." Why? Because you did not obey. You stopped listening to God. Okay? In this passage, Saul's chickens have come home to roost. Do you know what that means? The fruit of his doings. have come now and he's picking those fruit and he's eating them. He's reaping what he sowed 10-15 years ago throughout the years from what he did. This is where his sin finds him out. We have to understand this morning that there is a universal spiritual law and it's called the law of sowing and reaping. That's a universal law. That's a spiritual law. People try to call it things like karma, but it's not. It's a spiritual law, just like the law of gravity. The law of sowing and reaping. And there's nothing that we can do to change that law. It's just a spiritual law that is in there. And this is where we see Saul, on the wrong side of this law, reaping some of the bad things that he sowed. Nobody gets away with anything. They don't. And what happens when you disobey God can be there, the seeds of that, for years before it's evident to those that are reaping. One of the great verses in the Bible, Ecclesiastes 8.11 says this. Listen, young people, please pay attention to this verse. It says, because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, Listen, the law of sowing and reaping, there are bad consequences baked into bad actions. Okay? But the Bible says because those consequences are not executed speedily, like when you touch fire and it burns you, that's speedily. Therefore, the heart of the sons of men is fully set on them to do evil. And for young people, how this works is they will disobey God's laws and what God wants them to do. And they will get away with it. So they think. So they think. They will think, I did that. And I've heard people say that are older get up and say, you know, if you do these things, you're not going to get away with them. But look, I got away with them. No. No, you didn't. Let's wait a while because we haven't seen the end yet. And sometimes seeds that you plant take a long time to come up. Listen, seeds that I planted as a nine-year-old and as a teenager sometimes did not come up in my life until I was 30 years old. And then I reaped the consequences of those seeds I sowed 20 years ago. Listen, Saul in this passage is reaping from something that he sowed 20 years ago, or 15 years ago, or 10 years ago. There was a time when Saul was listening to God. God, what do you want me to do? Okay, I'm going to do this. And then he stopped. He stopped listening to God. And we see how this all culminates in his life. When you leave God's path, it's not good. When you stop listening to God, it's not going to be good. So, my question for myself, this morning would be this. Have I stopped listening to God? Am I still hearing God's voice and obeying the voice of God? And I think that all of us in here this morning have experienced this on some level. The lessons that I am going to give you from this passage Unfortunately, are lessons that I've learned in a very painful way. So I'm going to give you what God has given me this morning by way of experience. And it wasn't a pleasant experience, and I am still experiencing some of these things. And you know, the Bible says this in the book of Proverbs, that if you smite a scorner, the simple will beware. And maybe you haven't been smitten yet. You're young. Okay? And maybe you're older and you're still being smitten, but listen, just pay attention to these things and learn from them so you don't have to experience them like Saul did. So what happens when we stop listening to God? When we stop obeying God? Well, number one, your cover will be blown. And what do I mean by that? Look at chapter 28 and verse 5. It says, and when Saul saw, and those are two different words even though they sound the same. When Saul saw the host of the Philistines, underline this, he was afraid and his heart greatly trembled. Now, King Saul had been making his way through life for the last many years without God. He had been fighting against the Philistines and winning battles on his own strength and wisdom. Saul had been operating in the area of his gifts. without God. You know, if we're not careful as Christians, you know what we can do? God has gifted us in some areas, and we can operate in those areas without God. The spiritual gifts that God gives us is the outward thing that He gives us, but the fruit of the Spirit is the inward thing. And it's very easy to operate in the area of gifts without having the fruit of the Spirit. And that's where Saul was. He was operating with the wisdom that God had already given him, but without hearing and listening to the voice of God. And a lot of times, you know, one of the greatest problems in life is a lot of times we just know what to do, don't we? I mean, if your tire gets flat, Most of you know what to do. You know what to do. You don't need God. At least we think we don't. We don't need to pray. We don't need to get on our knees and ask God for anything. We just have enough wisdom to know what to do. And if we don't, then we can look it up on YouTube. We can go to the owner's manual in the car. We can find some instructions. And we can phone a friend. We don't have to pray. We don't have to trust God. We don't have to be spiritual. We just know what to do. We don't have to search His Word. And sometimes even more difficult conversations like relationship problems. Sometimes we can navigate those things without God. We can watch a video. We can read a book. We can say, this happened in my past, and so I'll just do this, and that'll work. And we can employ those tactics many times to great success. And that's how Saul has operated for the last 10 years of his life. But eventually, we're going to face a problem that's so big it's not going to work anymore. Eventually, we're going to face an enemy that is so powerful that that, what used to work, no longer works anymore. The way that we have been making our way through life without God and without listening to Him, without hearing Him, all of a sudden we face this problem that there is no video that you can watch to give you the answer. There's no book to read to give you the answer. And Saul, he sees the host of the Philistines, and you know what he says? This is bigger than anything I've ever faced before. This is more powerful. He said, my wisdom has come to an end. I've gone as far as I can go on my own. And he needs God. And God highlights that in Saul's life. He wants us to pay attention, and listen, if you have stopped obeying God, and seeking Him for daily guidance and wisdom, and you have stopped seeking Him in the small things, and you've made your way through life on your own power, I promise you there's coming a time when you will face a problem that is so big that you will recognize in that moment, I need God, vain is the help of man. We don't know how dependent we are on God until something like this happens. You ever face problems like that? You face problems where, Lord, I didn't listen to you. I got myself into a mess. And there's nothing that I can do now but cast myself on the mercy of God. I can't tell you how many times I've gotten on my knees with tears streaming down my face and I said, Lord, I'm in a mess now. I am in a mess. And there's nothing I can do. And God, You are my only hope. And if You don't help me, I'm sunk. And that can be a good place to be when your cover is blown. You know, right now we don't feel weak, do we? Right now we don't know how weak we are. We don't. Man, you know what happens every time I get sick? I recognize how weak I am. I recognize how dependent on God I actually am, even though I don't recognize it. You know what happens every time I go to a hospital bed and there's somebody I love that's there, and they're sick? I recognize that, man, I am so limited. I'm so weak. And you know what? We're all going to come to that place in our life. We're going to come to the place in our lives where our engineering doesn't work anymore. The world stops cooperating. People stop complying. And if you're making your way through your life right now, if you're making your way through life right now without God, and many of you are. I'm just going to say that. Many of you, you're here this morning, and there's something in you that loves the Lord, but you're not looking to Him for day-to-day wisdom, health, guidance, and bread. You're just waking up, and you're going through the motions, and you're living life without listening and depending on God. and you're making your way through life like Saul was in your own strength, and your cover is going to be blown. Ask yourself honestly, honestly, am I looking to God for daily wisdom and strength? Am I casting myself on the mercy of God for the things which I can take care of? Am I looking to Him for my protection? Or like Saul, am I standing on my own merit smartness and resourcefulness. Because if you can't obey God in that very elementary thing, your cover is going to be blown. Ask any Christian that has walked with God closely for years, and they will tell you, this is true. And maybe you have to experience it for yourself, and it will be a painful experience instead of a peaceful one. You can live without God for a time, but when things get bad, your cover will be blown. And he found out too late that it didn't work. Number two, what happens? You stop hearing from God. But look at verse 6. Man, this is a scary verse. And when Saul inquired of the Lord, that means he asked Him a question. God, this is too big for me. I can't do this like I've done everything else. What do I do? What does it say? Underline it. The Lord answered him not. Neither by dreams, nor by Urim, nor by prophets. Saul stopped obeying, listening to God, and God stopped talking. Why is the Lord going to continue to talk if you're not going to listen? And God is telling you things in your life right now unless He's already stopped talking. And God's putting His finger on things in your life that He wants to change. And He wants to work with you to change those things. And eventually, He's going to stop talking if you keep ignoring Him. And that's a scary thing. It's a horrible thing to come to the end of yourself, see your plight, see your end, know God is your only answer, and you turn to Him, but you can't hear from Him. He asked God to show him something in a dream. You know what that means? That means Saul went to bed and he was very troubled. And he said, God, this is beyond me. I don't know what to do. God, will you please show me? When I'm sleeping, will you come to me? Will you show me what to do? And there's so many believers in here today. You went to bed troubled. And you said, God, show me. And somewhere in the middle of the night, a thought came to you, a verse came to you. I cannot tell you how many times I went to bed so troubled, and I said, God, please show me And somewhere at two, three in the morning, I woke up and the verse was in my head, the wisdom was in my head with the answer, and it always aligns with the Bible, and it never works in contradiction with the Bible, and I say, God, thank you, thank you, and peace floods my heart, and I wake up in the morning and I know what to do. God works with us that way. And Saul went to bed and he was troubled, And he woke up and he was still troubled. He woke up and he got nothing, and there was still this low-grade anxiety that he woke up with, and it got worse in the middle of the night. And then by Urim, and I don't know a lot about the Urim and Thummim, but there was this thing that they used, the high priest wore it on his garment, and sometimes the leaders would use it in the presence of God to get wisdom to know what to do, and he went to that, and nothing. Nothing. That would be like us going to the Bible, you know? And saying, God, show me. And you read, and it's just words. There's no spirit of God there. You ever been there? If you are in the habit of going to God for the answers, then you've been there. I don't know how you deal with problems in life, but I say, God, this is troubling me. I don't know what to do about this, Lord. I've got to hear from You. Lord, show me. And it doesn't matter where I'm reading. He can show me. He used this passage right here to show me something. And when I go to the Bible and I'm not hearing from God, I say, God, something's wrong. God, show me. Man, it's a terrible thing when that happens, but it's a really bad thing when you live that way. And you go to the Bible day after day, and it's just words. And it's just stories. And you can't make any connection between this and your life. And God's not talking. What a terrible thing. And then, so you know what he did? He went and saw the preacher, the prophet of old. And he said, I don't know what to do. And guess what the guy said? I don't know either. The prophet, the one that walked with God and talked with... You know what's amazing? Sometimes people will go to preachers for help, and they can't get help, not because God's not talking to the preacher, but because He's not talking to them. And they won't have the answer for him because God's not giving them the answer. And they say, I don't know. I remember, man, I was in a point in my life where I was very disturbed and some things were really going on in my life. And I went to this preacher that ministers to me. We support him at our church, Pastor Semesh in Thailand. And he, man, his sermons minister to me. They changed my life. They're deep. And I was troubled and I was turmoil and I went to him at this conference and I said, I never met him before, I just heard his sermons. And I said, I need to talk to you. And he said, well, God doesn't want me to talk to you. So I'm not gonna talk to you. I said, what? He said, go talk to him. I'm not talking to you. He didn't say it that way. He said it with an Australian accent and it was more kind and, you know. But, he said this, it's not given of God of me to talk to everyone. And he said, there's something that, no. And, A year later, I go, and I said, hey, I want to talk to you. He said, okay, I'm going to talk to you. And looking back, I was like, you know, that was the right thing to do. I wasn't in the right place to hear from God. And Saul, he stopped hearing from God. The heavens were silent. You know, many people wander far from God And when they get in a place of trouble, when their clover's blown, they can't get a hold of God anymore. The lines of communication aren't open. Why is that? Proverbs 124 gives us the answer. Because I have called and you have refused. God's calling now. I have stretched out My hand and no man regarded. I put some things... I told you! And you ignored Me. But you have said it, not all my counsel. You ignored what I told you and would not take my reproof. I will also laugh at your calamity. I will mock when your fear cometh. Verse 27, when your fear cometh at desolation, your destruction cometh as a whirlwind, when distress and anguish cometh upon you. Look at verse 28. Then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer. They shall seek Me early, but they shall not find Me. Why? Verse 29 again. For they hated knowledge and did not choose the fear of the Lord, and they would none of My counsel and despise all of My reproof. Listen, there is nothing more important than you keeping the line of communication between you and God open. You keep that cell phone charged. You keep that charge because you're going to need it one day. We need God. We need Him. We have to hear from God. When these problems come, without God, we have no hope. Keep the line of communication open. Talk to Him. Seek Him for daily guidance and wisdom. He loves you. He cares about you. He wants to help you with the small thing. And that's practice for the bigger thing. Are they open? Is He leading you by His Word and by His Spirit? Is He speaking to you in a still, small voice? Are you listening? Are you turning at His reproof? Do you know how the voice of God sounds to you? Are you in touch with God enough to where He shows you something and you can recognize when He's showing you? Are you? Most Christians are not. Most Christians are not. They haven't discovered yet how the Holy Spirit speaks to them. They haven't discovered yet what God is trying to say to them. They don't know how God sounds. And then they come in a time of trouble. They don't know how to hear from God. They don't recognize His leading and His answers. You know, I'll tell you this about the answers of God. They're not what you want most of the time. His answer to prayer is just like, it's good, but it's like God, How did you get it so wrong? And he didn't get it wrong. But it blows your mind how he answers. We need him. Why? The stakes are high. Look at the next chapter, verse 31 and verse 8. And it says, And it came to pass on the morrow when the Philistines came to strip the slain, they found Saul and his three sons fallen. It wasn't just Saul here. It was his sons. It was Jonathan. It was the nation of Israel, the armies of Israel that were captured because of what Saul did, and not being able to hear from God. Listen, the stakes are high. If you're a father, it's not just you. I need to hear from God, not just for me, but for my three sons. for my daughter, for my wife, for my neighbors. Think about your life and what you have going on right now. Think about your life and how high the stakes are if you don't make the right decision. You have to hear from God. It's so important. Listen, life is not a game. It's a race. It's a battle. Nothing is more important than you hearing from God. And when you don't listen to Him, you don't obey Him, you stop hearing from Him. Jonathan, what a wonderful soul, wasn't he? Wasn't Jonathan just a... Man, what an unselfish, great friend, great man, and his life is destroyed. Why? Because Saul couldn't hear from God. You know what happens next? You will hear from another spirit. You'll hear from another spirit. When you can't hear the voice of God, you will hear a voice, but it won't be the voice of God. you'll hear another spirit. In verse 7, Saul said unto his servants, seek me a woman that hath a familiar spirit, that I can go ask her, inquire of her. And his servants said, there's a woman that hath a familiar spirit. There's a woman, and she has these devils in her, And she might be able to tell you something. You know, Saul had trouble with these influences for a long time, didn't he? Whenever Saul stopped listening to God, you know what happened in chapter 16 and verse 14? The Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul and an evil spirit come and troubled him. And now 28 and verse 13, the king said unto this woman, Be not afraid for what sawest thou. And the woman said unto Saul, I saw gods ascending out of the earth. What came up with Samuel? Well, these spirits came up. Saul couldn't hear from God. And he began to hear from these other spirits. And when we can't hear the voice of God, we're going to start getting influences and ideas that are not of God, that are of the devil. And you know what happens in verse 5? He was afraid and his heart greatly trembled. You know what happens? Fear begins to dominate your life. You know what fear is? It's the opposite of trust in God. You know what a Christian should be able to do? To see the host of the Philistine and say, God, Thy will be done. All they can do is take my body, but You have my soul. I'm not afraid of what man can do. But you know what these other influences do? They instill fear in you. And when your life is primarily operated by fear of what you can lose, fear of what's going to happen, fear of what might happen, you're not hearing from God. You're not being influenced by God. And he returns to his former sense. He had put away all those that had familiar spirits. And in a time of desperation, he turns back to what he should have never took back to. You know, when people get desperate, they start doing rash things if they're not hearing from God. They'll come up with their own solutions and they're not of God because fear dominates their life. And they get desperate, and desperate people do desperate things. I've known people that claim to be born-again Christians and get away from God. And they get in this terrible place, and they can't hear from God. So you know what I've seen them do? Go down to the Kudondaris. I don't know if you know what that is, but it's the local witchcraft place. And they go down there, and the people say, well, take this route, and take this route, and grind this up, and boil at this, and say this. Talking to this one guy, and he said, and I did it, and I threw up, My problem went away. I said, no, it didn't go away. It didn't go away. You know what happens when you're not listening to the voice of God? You start operating in a way that is not of God. Look at verse 8. Saul disguised himself. Is that how God works? Is that how God works? Do you know what happens when you're not hearing from God? Well, maybe I'll do this, and then if I do this, they'll do this, and I'll do this, and then I'll put this answer here. Do you know what I'm saying? You disguise and you're not operating in a way that's true. All things are open and honest before the eyes of Him whom we have to do. And the woman said this in verse 12, Why hast thou deceived me? Listen, God does not operate on a level of deception. And you know what the danger is? Is we get into this place where our cover's blown, we need God, and all these problems are coming up. We try to hear from God. We can't hear from God. And then we start coming up with our own solutions. And we've got to be very careful about that. Because is this of God? Or is this not? Churches do that. Ministries do that. They see a problem, they see attrition, people are leaving, people are doing this, and so what are we going to do? And instead of hearing from God, they come up with their own solutions. Very dangerous not to hear from God, because you know what happened? These solutions did not help Saul in the long run. He might have been excited, oh, the witch listened to me. She's going to tell me something. But did it help in the long run? Did it give him peace in the long run? Did it help him on the day of his death? It didn't help him. And these solutions, they're not going to help you in the long run. What happens next is you will miss the grace. And verse 19, Samuel says to him, moreover, the Lord also will deliver Israel with thee into the hand of the Philistines. And look what he says here. And tomorrow thou and thy son shall be with me. Now, Samuel was a man of God. And Jonathan was a man of God, wasn't he? And if you think about Saul's life, how troubled he was, Can anyone read Saul's life without being like, oh man, this poor man. This poor, tormented man. He was haunted. He was miserable. He was scared. He was plagued by anxiety. He was a disturbed person. He was a person that didn't know who was his friend and who was his enemy. Making his way through life on his own, a very sad thing. And his life just spiraled out of control. And what Samuel told him is, you know, your trouble's about to stop. Your trouble's about to be over. You know that? Isn't there some kind of relief that comes with getting caught? And it's just over. It's all blown. It's over. You know? And Saul, no matter all of these things, you know what was going to happen? He was going to be with Samuel. and his sons in a place called Abraham's bosom. You know what you could say about Saul at his funeral? Well, he's not suffering anymore. Well, he's finally at peace. And he's not disturbed anymore. You know what the Bible says about that place. It was a place of comfort. Now he is comforted and thou art tormented. And Saul missed that. He heard that and he fell on the ground with great fear. He completely missed it. And if you're not hearing from God and you're not close to God, you're going to miss the blessing in the problem. You're going to miss the jewel. You're going to miss it. And lastly, you know what happens? You'll find another comforter. You'll find another comforter. It says in chapter 28 and verse 20, it says this, And Saul fell straightway along the earth, and was sore afraid because of the words of Samuel. And there was no strength in him, for he had eaten no bread all the day, nor all the night. And the woman came unto Saul, and saw that he was sore troubled, and said unto him, Behold, thy handmaid hath obeyed thy voice, and I have put my life in thy hand. Now hearken unto the words that I speak, in which thou speakest unto me. Now therefore I pray thee, hearken thou also unto the voice of thy handmaid, and let me set a morsel of bread before thee, and eat that thou mayest have strength when thou goest on thy way. And Saul is disturbed about what's going to happen. He's laying on the ground, and that witch, you know, she kind of gets scared because the message is not good. And so maybe Saul is going to say, you know what? All the witches should be dead, and I'm going to kill you. So she thinks quick on her feet, and she said, you know, Saul, don't worry about this. Don't worry about this. Just sit here on my bed. And I'm going to cook for you, and just don't worry about all this, you know. I'm here to help you." And Saul spends the last night of his life on a witch's bed, eating something she concocted and cooked up. And he felt a little better, and he went up and went on his way. You know, the Lord said He won't leave us comfortless. You know that? And there's something about man that needs comfort. There's something about you that needs comfort. I was reading a book about alcoholics. And it said an alcoholic can overcome his problem for a long period of time. But the key is when something emotionally devastating happens in their life, if they don't have another comforter to turn to, every time, that will derail them. And I read about this man that was an alcoholic, and he got clean for 12 years, and then his mother died. And you know what he did that night? He went and got back on the bottle and was on it until he died. And there's a lot of comforting things in life. Food's of great comfort, isn't it? I mean, you're going to be mad at me, but then you're going to sit down to food and then you're going to be like, oh, maybe he's not that bad. Food is a great comfort. I'm telling you, food is the best drug. It is. If you've ever fasted, you've known that. You've sat down and you've been like, whew, this is so good. You know, a woman saying, don't worry about anything. Just sit here and I'll cook for you. That's very comforting, isn't it? That's very comforting. But those comforts were temporary. And they didn't help him in the day of death. And if you don't get your comfort from God and your deep emotional needs, it's not going to be good. It's not going to be good. If you're hearing from God, Do you know where you turn to in a time of trouble? A time of devastation? You turn to God. And you know what? God is the one, the only one that can tell you it'll be okay and you can believe Him. He's the only one. And I went through some things, The only comfort that met in just lasting comfort is when God said, you're my son and I love you. And no matter what happens to you, you're going to be with me and it's going to be okay. Maybe you're going to suffer for a while, but look, you are my child and I love you. I care about you. You're not in this alone. We're going to walk through this together. And when the Holy Spirit tells you that, there's nothing greater. If we can bow our heads and close our eyes, let me ask you this. Are you hearing from God? Is God speaking to you? Are you listening to God? Are you looking to Him for daily provision? For comfort? And I want to invite you, if the Lord's put it on your heart, you can come to the altar. You can come talk to the Lord. But are you hearing from God? Is the line of communication open? He'll comfort you? so so you