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Sorrow Without Repentence - 1 Samuel 26-28

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8/28/2002
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Sorrow Without Repentence
1 Samuel 26-28
Skip Heitzig
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09 1 Samuel - 2002

As detailed by Pastor Skip Heitzig, First Samuel tells the stories of a prophet, a politician, and a poet--Samuel, Saul, and David--and how God used them to form the nation of Israel.

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Well, good evening. What a joy to worship God and spirit like this. Thank you, Marsh, and School of Ministry students, yes.

[APPLAUSE]

The School of Ministry students are blessed because Marsh has the privilege to teach them about how to better worship, and it's a joy to share with you music men.

Well, here I am in this chair. I never thought, but I am.

[LAUGHTER]

[APPLAUSE]

I do it because I have to, so-- well, we decided to share something with you tonight that came to us just a few minutes after last week's end of message. This man obviously went home on fire and excited, wrote this, and this is a note to Skip.

Dear Skip, I attended the live online service, tonight. You were certainly on a roll, extraordinarily funny. But that's not why I'm writing this note. Good. I sincerely want you to know that I thank the Lord, every day, for you. The Lord, through you, you're a living example, and your teachings have influenced the growth of my relationship with Jesus Christ more than any other influence in my life. I appreciate tremendously the talented ways you are able to relate the holy scriptures to our meek and earthly lives. I come from a religious family, but for the last several years I have been experiencing a gradual and steady tug toward the Lord, and the yearning to make things more personal Tonight when you invited us to come forward, I felt the call stronger than ever before in my life. My heart was pounding like I couldn't believe. I raised my hand, came forward, and rededicated my life to the Lord Jesus Christ. With sincere and genuine gratitude, I thank you. Signed, Timothy from Albuquerque.

[APPLAUSE]

Well, I think for many of us, I know for myself, for the last 10 years this tall fella has influenced me more than anybody else in my life. And I think that the way this person describes Skip as the talented person who is able to relate the holy scriptures to our meek and earthly lives, how accurate a description for Pastor Skip, who it's my privilege and my honor to welcome, tonight. Skip, why don't you come and save me here?

[APPLAUSE]

Good evening, Skip. It's on.

It's on? I'm a guest tonight, aren't I?

I know.

And you're the host, and you know what? You're doing a great job, isn't he?

[APPLAUSE]

You got the job.

Well, Skip. 1971, do you remember anything in those days?

1971.

If you only saw what was the screen.

Very good.

Yes. 1971-- [LAUGHTER] You haven't changed a bit. I'm just kidding.

How would you know? [LAUGHTER] You didn't know me, then.

Just the look. But 1971--

Oh my goodness.

[LAUGHTER]

I know. Good job. What's funny is he won't tell you that--

Well, we're speaking about demon possession, tonight, so.

That's better that's a little more yourself. But listen, Skip. 1971, I think, Skip, you and Geno, your good old friend that most of us know well and appreciate, you were in a special time in your life. You were in a hotel room somewhere in Mexico, I believe.

Right, Mazatlán, Mexico.

Yes.

With a high school group.

And this book, Harvest, about the lives of so many of these mens that have touched us tremendously-- these men, sorry-- said this. Skip was in a trance. His hand held a pen, poised over a piece of paper. He was sending out messages, asking the spirits to take control of his arm and write messages about his past lives. Was he a former Atlantic high priest or Indian mystic? Mazatlán's damp, night ocean started howling through the windows, the air, that is. The curtain flapped. An electric presence seemed to fill the air. Skip's arm started moving out of his control. The pen scribbled meaninglessly for a while, then words started to form. You were in a Franco-Prussian war before you were killed. Skip and Geno were alarmed, then frightened. No kidding. What had they summoned? Then the spirit gave him a message, Skip you are going to die on your way home from Mexico. Now, they were scared to death.

After a few hours, well past midnight, they lay in their beds trying to go to sleep, occasionally discussing what it meant. Oh my gosh, probably. Would they really be killed on the train journey back to California? Ha, ha, ha. Skip.

Sebastian, while you were reading that-- you didn't know this-- but they were flashing pictures, as they are now, behind the screen. So it's kind of it's fun, it's kind of fun to listen to and watch two different things at the same time.

Yes. That's the whole idea, it's the--

I don't think anybody heard a word you were saying.

That's fine. [LAUGHTER] That's secondary, the look of Skip is outstanding. Skip, let me ask you about this, because we're here to talk about this tonight. About the reality of the Witch of Endor, now, Samuel went there later on. But is this stuff real? Do you remember you actually-- your hand moving? Were you feeling it, or you just imagining the whole Thing

Well, you know, at that point in my life, it was very, very real to me. I wanted to experience something real.

Ha, ha. Skip, you're being interrupted, too.

It's a distraction.

I know.

I would turn them off, actually.

Yeah, let's just--

It was real. It was--

Aw. They listen to Skip. Go ahead.

The home movies will be back. Yeah it was.

It was real for you. Talk to me about how involved you were in that, prior to your conversion, and did it participate in bringing you to the Lord?

Well it did, and I'll tell you how. I wanted to-- I was raised in a religious home, and I wanted to experience something that was more real than just coming to church and being religious. My parents drug me to church, I think that's probably the lot of many young people. Their parents sort of, that's the understood tacit agreement. If you're going to live under our roof, you're going to church.

So I did it not because I wanted to, not because I knew God, because I had to. And frankly, it just didn't move me. It was boring to me, and I wanted something that was real, something that was powerful, something that was experiential. And so that side, those experiences, were very tempting to me, and I definitely experienced reality and power.

I remember myself doing Ouija board experience, and seeing whatever was happening, and I remember it was intense. But in the last year, a lot of the biggest movies were dealing about magic and about the supernatural. We know that the world, but as well as us as Christians, we have a fascination for that stuff. I think you may have explained that. But why are we so interested and passionate about the things of the Spirit and the supernatural?

Because we all are born with the same set of questions, aren't we? Why am I here? Where am I going? What's the purpose and meaning of life? And if there's something that will give us that, if there's some experience that we can enter into that will answer those questions and make us rooted in the cosmos, somehow, that I'm a part of it all, I'm a part of a grand scheme, it's just better than going through life nine-to-five for no reason. And so especially when people are young, they look at their adult counterparts and they think, I don't really want to be like that. I want to do something that's different and something that is real, authentic. And I think that drives us into a search.

Do you think there's any mystical, spiritual experience that are valid, as Christians something that we may experience that are still within the realm of God?

Certainly. That's the thing that pushed me over. The Lord was dealing with me. I started thinking, as I was going through auto-hypnosis, astral projection, and my buddies and I were traveling the universe, basically, and meeting in these places and then telling our experiences. And I remember even evangelizing this stuff. I went up to skeptics and told them about how to do this, and I'll prove it to you, I said. This one gal in California, my college class, I said, I will astral project into your bedroom this week, and I'll give you a full description of your room next week, having never been there. And I did.

It worked?

And she was spooked. She basically said, I don't ever want to talk to you, again.

And now she knows he's a pastor, so it's a shock.

Well, I hope she does, but.

Yes.

So I started thinking, if there's that much power on the wrong side, man, there must be a lot more power on the right side. If Satan is the enemy of God, and God created Satan, if all that's true, there must be a tremendous amount of spiritual power. And there is. The Holy Spirit empowering the believer for service, to overcome sin, to be active in the body of Christ, to boldly proclaim truth to change the world, you don't get much better than that.

Amen, Skip. Well, we have a question from the audience from a good friend.

That was slang, by the way. It really doesn't, but.

It doesn't? OK, good. Let's see what Steve has to ask us, here. Steve is a good friend. Steve.

Yes, in Luke, Chapter 11, verse 24 through 26, Jesus makes reference to an unclean spirit going out of a man roaming in the wilderness, coming back, finding the house swept, clean, and decorated.

Yes.

Bringing seven other spirits worse than himself, and the final state of that man being worse than its beginning. Who is Jesus making reference to here, believers or unbelievers? And is it possible for a Christian to be demon possessed?

That's a great question. He is definitely not referring to believers, and here's how we know. The context of that is he's speaking to religious leaders. He's entering into a discussion with them. And they're discussing their beliefs and their background, their lack of receiving Christ, because he says right before that, the men of Nineveh will rise up in judgment against this generation, because they heard the preaching of Jonah and repented and a greater one than Jonah is here. And right after that he talked about the spirits entering the man, leaving, and bringing seven others with him.

So he's speaking about any attempt of a moral person to change on his own true, personal or moral reform, without the regeneration of the Holy Spirit, which Jesus came to bring. So he was clearly demarcating between an authentic change, which we're going to talk about tonight, versus something that is not authentic and just is moral, spiritual reform. And thus the answer to your next question is a resounding no. A Christian can never, under any circumstances, be demon possessed. Tempted, yes. Oppressed, yes. Hassled, certainly, everybody here has. But controlled by a demon? Absolutely not. I would say that's even tantamount to blasphemy, because if the Holy Spirit occupies a believer, to suggest that God's going to allow Satan to share the apartment, so to speak, share the rent, it just doesn't square with what the Bible teaches about God. Greater is he that is into you than he that is in the world, and first John, Chapter 2, around verse 14, he speaks to the young man, because you have overcome the wicked one, and any believer, which is somebody who has Christ living with him, has, by that fact, overcome the wicked one.

Well, thank you, Steve. Well while we agree that Skip makes a great guest, but we prefer him as a host.

Thank you, Skip.

You did a great job, Sebastian.

God bless you.

God bless you.

[APPLAUSE]

In our study of first Samuel, we've learned that Saul acknowledged his sins, but in fact never truly repented. The New Testament tells us that godly sorrow will cause a change, a turning from sin. It is good to see those who respond to the gospel, either in a crusade setting, or through personal evangelism, but it is important to remember that a purely emotional response is not complete unless it is matched by a firm conviction of sin, and a dedication to wholeheartedly repent. This is what Saul lacked and this is what let God to forsake him, as he insisted upon a path that led to this tragic end. And now, let's open our bibles to first Samuel, Chapter 26.

There's three groups that we want to welcome, tonight. There's a group watching on the internet, a live feed on the internet. There's a group hearing this by radio feed around our area, and a group on national television that will see this. Would you just say hi to everybody who might be tuning in?

[APPLAUSE]

After last week's study, I've just been really watching my driving. And so this is a way of me being accountable to you. I drive down the street, now, and I think, am I really that bad? And is it really that bad of an attitude? And Lord help me, and I was on my way here today, praying that, and I discovered I really do have a problem with it, so. You can pray for me, continually.

When I grew up, as I was growing up, I would often impersonate people. And it's just that when people speak, I'd watch the way they'd say things and it would interest me being from the west coast how different people had different accents, and I just loved different accents. Whether they were British accents or people from New York or whenever Elvis would talk, I just kind of watched his lip move and thought, that's a weird accent. And so I'd start speaking like that. Whenever I travel to foreign countries I try to mask my Americanisms, my English obvious American accent, with whatever accent. And it sometimes went over well, and sometimes it was a flop.

But one time, when I was in India, and I was speaking, and they did understand English-- though they weren't quite understanding me-- I said in English, but I said it with their accent. So I said, well, what I am trying to tell you right now is this and that. And they would go, oh, now we are understanding you. You are talking like we are. And I thought, either they're going to hit me because they're making fun of them, or they're going to get what I'm saying, because I'm saying it like they would, and it worked.

All of that to say that we're not called to imitate Mahatma Gandhi or the people from Britain or other places, but we are called, in the Bible, to imitate Christ. He is our role model. Paul said, be imitators of God as dear children. Now that doesn't mean when we say imitate Christ that we have to have a staff and long hair and say, verily, verily, I say unto thee, go hither and thither.

We don't know what Jesus looked like, do we? And we don't know exactly how he sounded, and I think it's a good thing, because if we did, you'd have people like me trying to pull off an imitation. And we would try to think, oh, that's the godly way to dress or to talk or something. So we don't know what he looked like, we don't know how he sounded, but we do know how he lived. There is a lifestyle that we can emulate. We're called to imitate him. And when we imitate Christ, when that is our goal-- see that's the great thing. Instead of a bunch of do's and don'ts, though the Bible has plenty of them, they all center around the character of Christ. So that, if you just say, I want to live like Jesus wants me to live. I'm going to imitate him. You're going to be fine. You study his life, you follow his example, and you'll fulfill the will of God.

Now although we're dealing with the Old Testament, that still holds true. There is a pattern of belief that we can follow, we can look at, even in the Old Testament. I found something written by Galen Anderson, and I've always liked this. He said, a man's life is either like a tumbleweed or an oak tree. Some people just grow like a weed. They are of no value in their youth, and as the years of life come, they break loose and they become a blotch on society. They have no useful purpose in life, they're just drifters. Their loved ones will mourn their loss, but society will not miss them. Then there are those whose lives are like the oak. They have turned from the frivolity of this life and have invested in things that have genuine worth. Their influence for good will live on in the lives of others after they are gone. Their death is noticed, because their lives were spent bettering the nation and the community. They will be missed.

Let's just cut to the quick, here. From an earthly perspective, all of you-- unless the Lord comes pretty quick-- are going to end up, oh, six foot under the ground in a little piece of wood somewhere. That's your destiny. We're all going to end up dead and buried somewhere, leaving behind to relatives and friends, community, the world, some sort of legacy. They're going to write something on our tombstone. We're going to be remembered for something. What will that be? Are you going to be seen as a weed, or are you going to be seen as influential, an oak tree? Saul, though he was the King, really ended up like a weed. Man, he just sort of sucked the life out of everything he was around and was a drifter, a blotch on the society he could have led, and should have led.

David, on the other hand, many shortcomings, many failures, became an influence to the nation of Israel, and still today we talk about the City of David, the house of David, the son of David, Jesus Christ.

In chapter 26, I'm going to sum it up quickly for this reason. It's a rerun, basically. It's a rerun of a few chapters back. It's sort of the same setting. Same idea, different geography. David is running from Saul, Saul is chasing David. David spares Saul's life. The only differences is in the couple of chapters back, chapter 24, David was in a cave in Ein Gedi, Saul came into him to use the restroom, so to speak, not knowing that several hundred men were in the restroom waiting for him. And David cut off a piece of Saul's robe this time. David sneaks into the camp of Saul. Saul is sleeping with his men around in a circle, protecting him. David sneaks in with his nephew, Abishai. There, Saul is sleeping on the ground. The spear is right there, poked in the ground. A jug of water next to his head. And instead of taking his life, they take the spear and the jug of water.

Verse seven, so David and Abishai came to the people by night, and there was Saul lay sleeping within the camp with his spear stuck in the ground by his head and Abner, and all the people lay around him. And Abishai said to David, God has delivered your enemy into your hand this day. Now therefore, please, let me strike him at once with the spear right to the Earth, and I will not have to strike him a second time. But David said to Abishai, do not destroy him, for who can stretch out his hand against the Lord's anointed and be guiltless?

Have you ever had a second chance? Have you ever done something in life that you came so close to maybe ending your life? And after it's all over and the adrenaline is just starting to come down, you think, thank you, Lord. You must have a purpose for me. Have you ever had an experience like that? I have.

One time I was in Reno, Nevada. Where's that cell phone? Kill it. Anyway, I don't mean literally kill it, but disable it. How's that? Torture it a little while, and then kill it.

No, I was in-- we were on a family vacation going toward Reno, Nevada one time, and a guy had fallen asleep on the opposite side of the road, and we were in a head-on collision. And the impact was about 120-mile an hour impact. He was going about 80, my father was going the speed limit. But this guy was drunk and had fallen asleep and came into our lane across a mountain pass, it was a head-on collision.

My mother was put in the hospital along with my father. They thought she was dead, and he came out of it with just a broken leg and a broken arm. My mom had massive abdominal and hip surgery. Again they thought she was dead. I had a broken-- a bloody nose-- not even a broken nose, just a bloody nose out of this thing. The man in the other car was decapitated. He died instantly. And I saw this being 13 years of age.

And I was alone in a hotel room in Reno, Nevada that night. And I talked to God a lot that night. But I felt like I had a second chance. I said, God has kept me alive for some reason. I need to find out what that reason is. Now we all do, but for some reason, we wait till a dramatic occurrence before we figure that out and get a clue. It took that for me to kind of go on a little search after spiritual things.

I had a guy come up to me several months ago. After being released from the hospital, his mom spoke to me a couple of weeks before, and she said, my son was shot in the head, tonight. I said, well let's pray for him. He came two weeks later. Somebody shot him in the head. The bullet went around the dura mater. It didn't penetrate the brain itself, but it skirted the edge of the skull all the way around and came out, and lodged itself on the other side. So they could do surgery and get at the bullet. But imagine being shot in the head and then getting up two weeks later, and he had some questions. Who is God? Why am I here?

And I told him, very candidly, you better discover what God's plan and purpose is for your life and not mess around with spiritual things, because if you came that close this time, you can come a lot closer next time.

Now unfortunately, Saul, though he has a second chance, David spared his life once, spared his life again. Some people don't cop a clue, some people don't learn. You look at them, you go, I just can't figure him out. He's like a dork, spiritually. I look at that with Saul. You know there's some people, oh, God, spare my life! I promise! And then the promises fade a week later, I'm fine now. There's a guy who was falling down a steep roof, he was a roofer. And as he was falling he said, God, save my life. I'll serve you the rest of my life. I'll do anything. I'll even go into the ministry. And a nail caught him as he was coming down, and he said, never mind, Lord. A nail got me. That was the Lord, dork.

So every day you have, use it as an opportunity. Saul didn't learn his lesson. He gets very sorrowful, last time, goes back to his behavior and we see that again, here. Verse 10, David said, furthermore, as the Lord lives-- he's saying this now to his nephew-- as the Lord lives, the Lord shall strike him, or his day shall come to die, or he shall go out to battle and perish.

Interesting view on the sovereign nature of God that David has. He has a firm grip on the sovereignty of God. Abishai looks at this as God's Providence. Look, God has delivered him into your hands. Here he is sleeping, here's the spear. I'd like to make a point with Saul, may I, David? I want to live on the edge, so to speak, and kill him right now. One blow.

But not David. David believed that in God's own time, this man would be dealt with, and he wasn't going to be the one to kill him. Why? Because he was the King, he was God's anointed. Now there's a lesson, here. How about, when you're slandered, when they talk about you at work or make things up about you that aren't true, how about letting God defend you? Well you can defend yourself, but I got to tell you, God is a better lawyer than you are. God can handle your case much better than you can if you decide, don't want an attorney, I'll handle this myself.

You know, David wrote so many psalms about, the Lord is my refuge and strength, a very present help in times of trouble. How about letting God actually take care of that for you instead of jumping in? So David could have-- and perhaps they thought should have-- retaliated, but he wouldn't.

I had a brother named Bob. 6' foot 8". Harley rider, rode with the Hell's Angels. Didn't like the term reconciliation, loved the word retaliation. From early on, he wanted to settle all of his own matters, and I'd watch him. In high school, the vise principal, Mr. MacPherson, just didn't like my brother. A lot of people didn't like my brother, but this guy particularly just sort of had his eye on him. That guy's trouble and I'm going to make his life miserable. And so my brother retaliated. I remember one day at high school-- he was a couple of years older than me-- Mr. MacPherson was walking to his office in the main part of the high school in California, and my brother, Bob, big guy-- had a good arm and a good aim-- took an orange and threw it across the hallway and plastered Mr. MacPherson right in the face, and then ducked.

So he couldn't tell who threw it. Now, I think he kind of knew who did it. And other people knew who did it, but they couldn't prove it. Or there was a guy on his golf team that used to give him problems. He was a little guy that Bob, being 6' 8", nicknamed rabbit. Rabbit McNeil used to chide my brother like Eddie Haskell used to chide people in Leave it to Beaver, again, I'm dating myself. So what did my brother do? He went to the library, took out several books, because his locker was next to Rabbit's locker, he just sort of oversaw the combination. And when he was in class, took 20-30 books and put him into his locker up against the door, then later on, went to the library and said, you know, Rabbit McPherson stole a bunch of books out of the library. Oh, he wouldn't do that. Oh, yeah he would. And so she said, well, I want to see so he waited-- they waited till he opened his locker. He opened them and they all fell out, and Rabbit got in trouble.

But again they thought, something's not right about that, it must be that Heitzig kid. And I know you're thinking, what does this run in the family or something? Are all you guys that bad?

[LAUGHTER]

He just couldn't drop it. And he didn't know the Lord to just say, I'm going to let the Lord handle my high school problems. I'm gonna let the Lord handle these other people who are trying to get at me, but he didn't do it.

There's another lesson, and I wish more American evangelical Christians would learn it. Here is Saul. He's the King. David calls him God's anointed even though he's disobedient, wicked, and troubling the land. And he's just going to let God take care of this issue. Here's the truth. Sometimes God allows the worst people to rule.

I know, we think, oh, if we could just have a Christian president, and I thank God that we have a godly president. Believe me, I do. We've been praying for one, and I believe our president is one in the short conversation I had with him when he was here, and others have had with him, and those who know him. At the same time, it says in the book of Daniel, God sets over people whomever he will and often chooses the very worst. Daniel, chapter 4.

You look at pharaoh, look at Nebuchadnezzar, look at Herod, look at Caesar Nero. These were the worst characters, and the gospel work, God's work, can go forth even in the midst of that. And I think David just had a grip on that. I'm going to let the Lord deal with this character in his own time. Verse 12, so David took the spear and the jug of water and Saul's hand, and they got away, and no man saw or knew it or awoke, for they were all asleep because a deep sleep from the Lord had fallen on them.

So that sort of answers the question, how did these guys get in the camp and nobody wake up, especially taking jugs of water and spears? Somebody is going to wake up. Well, the Lord caused a deep sleep. By the way, it's the same word in Hebrew as God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he took a rib and fashioned a woman. So this was a divine thing.

Verse 21, Saul said, I have sinned-- I'm kind of cutting this chapter short so we can get through it, because it is sort of like a rerun, but listen to his admission-- then Saul said, after David reveals himself, I have sinned. Return, my son, David, for I will harm you no more, because my life was precious in your eyes this day, indeed I have played the fool and I have erred exceedingly. A nine word autobiography, indeed I have played the fool and I have erred exceedingly.

Perhaps in an unguarded moment, filled with emotion he cries out, I'm a fool! I could have been something, but I'm a fool, I've erred exceedingly. Saul is the man who could have been, who should have been, but who never was.

I could tell you stories-- and I won't-- but I have known so many people that I have watched their lives, and I look and I think, that guy, that gal, they have such spiritual potential. What they could do, what they could become, whom they could influence, what God could do with them from this point on, only to watch them waste away, lose their fire, lose their desire for spiritual things, and just go with the status quo. You know, it is possible to have a saved soul and a wasted life. Well, I'm going to heaven. I got my ticket, believe in Christ, leave me alone now. And they never really grow from that, and there's so much potential. Life could become so exciting for them.

Indeed I have played the fool, I have erred exceedingly. Now I listen to that and I think, that sounds pretty good. It sounds like he's having a real conversion experience. Like in the video we saw before the study, people coming forward at evangelistic crusades and weeping and great emotion. I love that, don't get me wrong. I love to see somebody contritely sorry for their sin, in genuine repentance, turning to God, leaving the past behind, leaving the world behind, but just because somebody emotes, just because somebody sheds tears, doesn't necessarily mean that they've changed or that there's true genuine repentance.

I've met many people in prison who weep. They're sorry that they're there. They're sad that they got caught. But not everyone has a genuine sorrow for their sin for what they've done, and I think Saul is in that category. Now Paul wrote to the Corinthians and he said, you know, I wrote you guys a letter and you probably thought I was hard on you, and I know I made you feel really bad, feel really sorrowful, and then he said, and I'm glad. Well, thanks a lot, dude. What do you mean you're glad? He says, I'm glad I rejoice, not that you were made sorry, but that your sorrow led to repentance.

You know repentance isn't preached much these days unfortunately. And that's required. You can't get to heaven without repentance. It means to turn from the past, turn from sin, and turn your life to God. The Greek word "metanoia," a change of mind, a change of heart, a change of a way of life. You see, emotional grief without godly conviction will not be a lasting result. It won't produce lasting change.

I think of Judas. Judas went out and he what, wept? Bitterly, and then he hung himself. Oh he was very, very emotional. But it wasn't repentance. Peter, on the other hand, went out and wept bitterly, but it was true repentance. He came back to the Lord, and he served the Lord the rest of his life. And Jesus said, blessed are the poor in spirit, theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, they shall be comforted. He didn't say, blessed are those who moan. He did not say, blessed are those who emote and shed many tears. It was a mourning over the impoverishness of spirit, the poverty of spirit. I am poor before God, I see my sin, I am utterly abhorrent of it, I mourn over it. That's where the change takes place.

Think of it. David himself experienced many kinds of sorrow. He had loneliness, he had emotional grief, he lost a child at birth, he had his son Absalom murdered, but nothing broke his heart like seeing his own sins, Psalm 51. Against thee and thee only, have I sinned, and done this wickedness and thy sight. Cleanse me, purge me with hyssop, you desire truth in the inward parts. It was a depth that produced a change in David's life.

My wife has a great testimony. When she came to Christ, she read the four spiritual laws and showed a little picture of man sitting on the throne of life and God, and everything else revolving around man in the chair. And then it showed what salvation is, where you let Jesus sit on the throne of your life, and everything about you revolves around him. You don't add Christ to the spoke of your wheels and have that revolve around you as the hub. So she saw that, and she goes, OK. And so she didn't quite understand repentance, so she said, just looking at the picture, I got to let Jesus sit on the throne of my life, because the picture and the rest of the track says I'll get this, this, and that, and all these other things will fall into place. So Jesus, sit on the throne of my life. She said this little prayer, and she cried, and she went about her business, her life. No real change, no real repentance. She hadn't even heard the word, before.

So one day, at church in California, afterwards was an altar call, come and receive Christ like we often do here. She came forward, went into the room, and she said, you know, I'm confused, I've done this before, I think. I've come forward, I've wept, I prayed this prayer. I got real happy afterwards, but something is missing. The counselor was named Malcolm Wilde, who's a guy from England, who pastors a church down in Merritt Island, Florida. And he listened intently to Lenya. And as she told him of asking Jesus into the heart, saying the prayer, sharing the tear, he said, have you repented of your sin?

And she said, what? Not because he had an accent, because she didn't understand what repentance meant. Have you repented of your sin? She goes, what does that mean? And he explained what repentance was. Godly sorrow that works change. She says, I've never done that. He said, are you willing to forsake the sin, forsake the past, put it behind you and unconditionally surrender to Christ right now? And she thought awhile-- I'm glad she did-- because a lot of people would go, oh, yeah, And they don't really mean it.

That's why Jesus said, the sower sowed some seed on different kinds of soil and some of it fell away, was choked up. That marked the day of change in her life. True, genuine repentance. Saul didn't have that. He was very emotional, he cried, David, David, he did that a couple of times, and David was smart enough to know this guy is not going to last.

Because in Chapter 27, notice, David said in his heart, now I shall perish someday by the hand of Saul. That's right after what Saul just said. There's nothing better for me than I should speedily escape to the land of the Philistines and Saul will despair of me to seek my life, seek me anymore in any part of Israel, so I shall escape out of his hand. David arose and went over with the 600 men who were with him to Achish, the son of Maoch, the King of Gath.

OK, OK, David, you're going to Gath. Didn't you just do that? Don't I remember, a couple of chapters back, was it chapter 21 that you went over to Gath and you acted like a drooling madman? Until the King, Achish said, who's this drooling idiot? Don't I have enough of these guys around? Get him out of here. So David fled. Why did he go back? Why did he go back to the camp of the enemy? I don't know.

But let me ask another question. Why do we go back? So often to the same lame things we were delivered from. What is it about us that causes us to go right back to a pattern or a habit or a relationship? It's like, haven't we learned the lesson, yet?

People will ask me that. I like to mountain bike, and I've had my fair share of accidents, believe me, where I've fallen and I've-- my knees are, I can't wear shorts, it's just-- you'd want to commit me to a hospital. It just looks bad. Because I've got scars up and down my shins from mountain bike, falling down, stitches put in, months of healing, then I go right back out and I do it again. And I was doing it not too long ago, and I finally go, why am I doing this? I'm much older now, I should be tapering down a little bit. It could get much worse.

David goes right back here to the place where he was before. Now at this point, Achish recognizes him like he did before, but at this point, Achish knows that there is hostility between Saul and David. It's mounting. So he looks at David as a feather in his cap, man. David hates Saul, he's going to join me, he's going to help me, and it seemed like he did that. He became a personal bodyguard to him. He served him for 16 months, and he gave David his own city. David said, I want my own place, so he gave him a city called Ziklag. Said, David, you can have Ziklag. You can hang out there, that'll be your headquarters.

So from Ziklag, David attacked the tribes down south in the desert, the age old enemies, the Amalekites, and started cleaning house. He spent 16 months doing that. These were the enemies of Israel. And there's a point to be made. David wasn't the King yet, David would be the King one day, but he's not just sitting around. He's actually doing the job of the King of Israel-- getting rid of the little guy enemies, the Amalekites, the desert tribes who would raid later on and cause problems.

So while he's waiting for something bigger in his life, he's being faithful to where he is right now. Have you ever heard the old saying, bloom where you're planted? There's truth to that. Oh no, oh wait, and some day, one day I'll do something great for God. I doubt it, unless you're going to do something for God now, anything. Just get busy. Just get active. Use this time in waiting to serve the Lord. Bloom where you're planted.

Saul should've done that. Saul didn't. Saul was so bent on killing David that he neglected fighting the Philistines, he neglected fighting the Amalekites, he neglected fighting the little desert tribes down south, and they're going to come back to haunt him as we're going to see in chapter 28.

There's a scripture in the Song of Solomon I want to bring to your attention. It's these two lovers are talking to each other about their relationship. It's precious, it's sublime, really. But there's a greater truth, as they're talking about their relationship. They say, catch us the foxes, the little foxes that spoil the vines, for our vines have tender grapes. The truth is, sometimes it's the little enemies, the little foxes, that can come in and destroy the vineyard. We think, it's the big enemy that's going to destroy the vineyard. It's the armies that are going to come in and trample us. It's the big animals and their stampede-- no, it can just be the little foxes, the little insignificant things.

And here's the truth, and listen carefully. Too many of us let little sins go by. After all, no big deal. Just a little infraction. Just a little transgression. But later on those little things can mature and come to get us and overwhelm us if we don't catch it and nip it in the bud, immediately. That's part of repentance. I hope, I pray, that all of us, as we grow in Christ, that the Lord reveals to us attitudes.

Maybe things that we saw in the past weren't a big deal, but now they get big to us. I think that's a mark of maturity. We first get saved and we think, I've got to repent. No more drugs, no more murders, no more bank robberies. OK, that's very good. It is, I'm encouraging that. But it goes way beyond that. I hear people give their testimonies, I used to murder people. I was in the Hell's Angels and I did-- OK. I hope you're growing more than that. I hope that later on you can say, the Lord showed me I have a bad attitude toward somebody. I have pride that wells up in my heart that I have to deal with. Those little foxes that can spoil the grapes.

What are you doing to eradicate these little enemies, these little sins? Remember, Jesus talked about the seed that is sown upon soil where there are weeds. And Jesus said, that's the person who hears the word-- like you and I are doing, tonight-- they hear the word, but the cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches, and the desire for other things choke the seed, and it becomes unfruitful.

Are you protecting the gates of your life? The eye-gate. What do you let yourself watch and be entertained by? The ear-gate. What do you allow yourself to listen to and be entertained by? What things do you allow your mind to mull over and meditate on? Are you protecting those things? Because they can come and get you. It is sad to me when I see a Christian who is not growing. And I think of the words of John who said, I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in the truth. I love seeing evangelism. I love seeing salvation. I do, I love it. But I love seeing people grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ, rather than stagnate out.

I see some Christians, they've been a Christian over five years, and they want to show the other, younger stock how to do it. Oh, they're a little emotional right now, oh, don't worry. I'll disciple them, I'll stagnate them really soon. We'll tame them a little bit, they're a little wild, right now. They want to change the world. Good, encourage them to change the world. Oh, they're just so idealistic. Great. Fuel the idealism, if that's what you call it. Better to have on-fire idealists than dead religionists. So grow, don't stagnate.

Chapter 28, this is the final showdown, folks. Really is. Philistines are encamped against Israel. It's bigger than ever imagined could happen. And here's the clincher, David's on the wrong side. David's in the camp of the Philistines, boy is he in trouble. Because in verse 1, it happened in those days, the Philistines gathered their armies together for war to fight with Israel, and Achish said to David, you assuredly know that you will go out with me to battle-- you and your men-- uh oh, they're attacking Israel. David will be the next King of Israel. He knows that. Now he's called to fight against his own. David said to Achish, listen to this, surely you know what your servant can do. And Achish said to David, therefore I will make you one of my chief guardians forever.

See, if David refuses to help this guy, he's going to betray his loyalty to Israel. If, on the other hand, he fights for Israel, he's going to fight for the very people God places him as King over. So he's in a real jam. Maybe he shouldn't have gone to Gath. Now God is going to cover him and take care of him, but he steps up to the plate and says, OK, I'll fight. Now Samuel had died, and all of Israel had lamented for him and buried him in Rama in his own city, and Saul had put the mediums and the spiritists out of the land. Then the Philistines gathered together and came and encamped at Shunem. So Saul gathered all of Israel together and they encamped at Gilboa.

Now I know that might not mean much to you, but let me just tell you what's going on. The Philistines, up to this point, were way down south and if you're a Bible guy or a Bible gal and you know your geography, or if you've ever been with us to Israel, you know that Mount Gilboa is way up north. It's just south of the Sea of Galilee. So the Philistines have really penetrated into Israel, into the center core, up into the north. They have become a formidable foe, dividing the land in half. It's something Saul had never witnessed in his life.

It says that Saul had put out the mediums and the spiritists out of the land. Deuteronomy 18, you're probably familiar with it and several other passages, God condemns conjuring up spirits, condemns mediums. You shall not consult the dead. You shall not allow spiritists in your land. And so Saul puts them out of Israel. It's all a facade. Because he's going to call on one. Verse 5, when Saul saw the army of the Philistines he was he was afraid, and his heart trembled greatly. And when Saul inquired of the Lord, The Lord did not answer him, either by dream-- like he had done with Joseph-- or by Urim, like God had, to the high priests, or by the prophets. And so Saul said to his servants, find me a woman who is a medium, that I may go to her and inquire of her, and his servant said to him, in fact, there is a woman who is a medium at Endor.

Do you wonder about this guy? Here is Saul. The Bible says, at the beginning of this book the spirit of God was with him. He prophesied with one of the prophets, the spirit of God empowered him, and now God is silent. God isn't speaking at all. Dreams, Urim, prophets, Samuel's dead. He wants to hear from God. God has nothing to say to him.

Some people wonder, when they pray, why God is silent. And I'm not going to answer why God is always silent for every believer, but in this case, I will answer. David said later, if I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me. If I'm entertaining sin or living a sinful lifestyle, God isn't going to hear me. I mean, think about it. If you're not going to do what God has already said that you should do, or if you are going to do what God has said you shouldn't do, why should God have anything more to say to you? If God says, do this, and you go, no. OK, well do this. No. Oh, God, I want to hear from you. Really? You heard from me and you disobeyed.

You know, sometimes somebody will come up and say, I need your advice. OK, I'll give you my advice. I'd love to. You need to still pray, but I'll give you my advice. Here it is. I think that the Bible says you should do this or that. Go do that. OK. I'll see him a while later. Hey, did you ever do that? No, I decided against it. Oh, OK. If you're free moral agent, do whatever you want. But I would like your advice. Oh, really? Well, what is it? Well, now I'm in this mess, so could you tell me what to do? And I'll give him advice, and I'll see him sometime later, hey did you ever do-- No. I decided not to, but I would like your advice. Now, there comes a point where I go, I'm not going to give you my advice. I'm done, because it falls on hard crown. Forget it.

Here's a guy who was repeatedly disobedient to God. God has nothing more to say till he goes back and obeys him. Heaven was silent. So Saul disguised himself, put on other clothes, and he went. And the two men went with him and they came to the woman by night and he said, please conduct a seance for me. Nothing has changed much. Bring up for me, the one that I shall name to you. Then, the woman said to him, look, you know what Saul has done, how he has cut off the mediums and the spiritists is from the land. Why do you lay a snare for my life to cause me to die? Saul swore to her by the Lord. Oh, man. What a hypocrite. I swear to you by God, the very God I am disobeying with all my heart.

[LAUGHTER]

As the Lord lives, no punishment shall come upon you for this thing. And the woman said, whom shall I bring up for you? And he said, bring up Samuel for me. The King had removed witchcraft from the land, but the King had not removed witchcraft from his heart. You can take that. You can take the boy out of the witchcraft, but sometimes you can't take the witchcraft out of the boy. Here's the case of it. It's sort of like a pig.

Some people have pigs as pets. I've been to a friend's house in North Carolina who had a pig as a pet. You think, well that's North Carolina. This is one of these Vietnamese probably, and they dressed it up. And I walked in the house and I was just taken aback. I go, you got a pig in the house! Oh, but this is a pet pig. But it's still a pig. And you can dress it up, and you can put a tuxedo on it, and Ralph Lauren, and nice cologne, it's still a stinking pig. It was Franklin Graham, by the way, that had the pig, and I think-- [LAUGHTER] I think he shot it since then, I don't know. It didn't belong there.

You know it's possible to remove sin from your vocabulary so nobody thinks you're really a bad person. You say hallelujah, praise the Lord, all the little right Christian little things to say. You can remove sinful things from your house, the magazines, the literature, and replace it with a big hunkin' 40-pound Bible, but you can still keep it in your heart. And there it can blossom and it can come to fruition. You've heard the old saying, sow a thought, reap an action. Sow an action, reap a habit. Sow a habit, reap a lifestyle. And if you sow a lifestyle, you will reap a destiny. It's possible to do that.

So Saul, consulting the medium in the-- when the woman saw Samuel, she cried out with a loud voice and the woman spoke to Saul, saying, why have you deceived me? For you are Saul! And the King said, don't be afraid. What did you see? The woman said to him, I saw a spirit ascending out of the earth. So he said to her, what is his form? She said, an old man is coming up and he is covered with a mantle-- not like a fireplace mantle, but a cloth-- I just want to get the vision in your head, not a big square piece of wood, but a cloth around him. This is how my mind thinks.

[LAUGHTER]

So an old man coming up with a mantle, and Saul perceived that it was Samuel and he stooped with his face to the ground, and he bowed down. And Samuel said to Saul, why have you disturbed me by bringing me up? Now some people try to figure out what is happening here and they say, this is just psychological, this is in Saul's mind. I don't think so. The woman saw it too. Hallucinations, last time I checked, are never corporate. Can happen to one person, but she saw it, too. Then others will explain it by saying, well, this is spiritual. It's a demon impersonating Samuel. Really, I didn't know demons did impersonations. I do them, but I didn't know demons did them.

I don't think so, and I'll tell you why. The message that is given is right on. It glorifies God, it judges sin, and it's predictive based on what God had previously said. That's not Satan. He's the Father of all lies. The prophets spoke truth. A third view is that this is professional. The woman tricked Saul into believing it was Samuel by one of her little magical tricks. No, because she is alarmed like, I didn't do this. And the fourth explanation is that this is real, that the spirit of Samuel was brought up for God's own purposes to indict Saul, and that's what the rabbis have always believed and taught, and that's what I believe. That for God's own purposes, God brought up him and he spoke-- and by the way, the biblical text itself says that it was Samuel, God permitted it to happen.

So Samuel asked a good question, why'd you disturb me? If I die-- when I die, if the Lord didn't come back-- if I die, please, if you hear about it, don't pray that I come back. What a miserable thing. Imagine a believer immediately dying, going into the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ. They're in heaven. Oh, this is awesome! And then God saying, I've got good news and bad news. You're going to come here, but you've got to go back. Got to go, you got to go back to Earth. They prayed you back. [LAUGHTER] No! Yeah, you got to do it, I gotta answer their prayer. Please! No, you've got to do it. I'll haunt you if you do that. I'll make your life miserable.

I think this is a good question, why are you disturbing me here? Saul answered, I'm deeply distressed, for the Philistines made war against me and God has departed from me and doesn't answer me anymore, neither by prophets nor by dreams. Therefore, I've called you, that you may reveal what I should do. Samuel said, so why do you ask me, seeing the Lord has departed from you and has become your enemy? And the Lord has done for himself as he spoke by me, for the Lord has torn the kingdom out of your hand and given it to your neighbor, David. Because you did not obey the voice of the Lord, nor execute his fierce wrath upon Amalek, therefore the Lord has done this thing to you today. Moreover, the Lord will also deliver Israel with you into the hand of the Philistines, and tomorrow you and your sons will be with me.

Ooh, how spooky sounding is that? The Lord will also deliver the army of Israel into the hand of the Philistines. Immediately, Saul fell full-length on the ground, was dreadfully afraid because of the words of Samuel, and there was no strength in him, for he had eaten no food all day or night.

So the rest of the story is the woman sees is distress and says, let's eat. That's what she says, I'm going to cook-- No, I can't eat. No, you've gotta eat, man. So she cooks him a meal, and he eats and he goes off, but look at the end of verse 25. Then they rose and went away that night. Now I bring that up, because if you remember, the day Saul was anointed it says, the dawn of the day was breaking. That's how Saul began, in the bright light of a new promising day. And now we see him going off-- after consulting at night, under the cover of darkness-- goes out that night. It was night, it was dark in his life.

I see him going away in the distance, I see a shadow evaporating into the darkness. And I look at that man and I say, you know what, a good start doesn't guarantee a good finish. Look at him. Look what he has become. Now Samuel never really answered Saul's question. The question is, what should I do? What's the answer? He's saying, in essence, nothing can be done, Saul. Nothing can be done. You have sealed your fate. You have disobeyed God. Your life is going to end, it's over. There is judgment. Your fate is sealed. That's desperate, man.

Here's the good news, your fate is not sealed. You are still alive and you are a free moral agent, and the grace of God through the Lord Jesus Christ is still open to all of us, and many of us who have not turned our lives to him. He's going, here, I have something to give you. It's called forgiveness, everlasting life. And that's a choice. Jesus said all manner of sin will be forgiven someone, except the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit. It will never be forgiven in this life or in the life to come. And that's the sin of rejecting Christ and dying rejecting the witness of the Holy Spirit that you need a savior. So your fate is not sealed until you do die.

Somebody gave me a funny little quip that was a recipe for making rabbit stew. And the first instruction given is, first, get a rabbit. That's pretty good. That makes sense. First thing to do if you want to make rabbit stew, get a rabbit. The first thing to do if you want to go to heaven, if you want eternal life, is to have a spiritual focus. Deem it important. Give God some space in your life, some room in your life. Why does it take 9/11, or the Gulf War, before some people get serious about spiritual things? Oh, I got to come to church, I got to pray. You know, you're a step away from death. That's what David said, step between me and death. What are you living for tonight?

Here's a man we saw promising here's the end of his life. Next time we get together, we'll see him die with his son Jonathan. Your fate is open to you. You can write your own history. You can write the last chapter tonight. The last chapter can be, saved and in heaven.

So think again. You and I are all heading for some piece of real estate somewhere on the earth, six feet under this ground. All of us. What will you go to? What will be your legacy? What will your footprints reveal? Now, Heavenly Father as we close tonight, and again, we are grateful that you have given us the record of contrast between a man after your own heart and a man after his own heart. A man who was selfish and thought only of his reputation versus a man who really made himself of no reputation. A man whose fate was sealed, a man for whom it was too late.

For us tonight, it is not too late. For us tonight, it can be just the beginning. Lord, we have seen so many people come to know Christ in genuine repentance, a real turning from the past, a real exchange of life in the place of death. We've seen it. Many who have made that choice are with us here, tonight. Some of us have forsaken you, Lord. We haven't heard from you. We want to hear from heaven. We want the real power. So Lord, tonight, it's our prayer that some who have come would make a decision to repent of sin and to turn to Christ. For you are here with arms outstretched to give as a free gift, everlasting life.

Some, like the letter we read at the beginning, need to make a re-commitment, and perhaps it will be the real commitment, authentic.

As Jesus is exalted, draw men and women to yourself. We pray right now. In Jesus' name, Amen.

Additional Messages in this Series

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Date Title   Watch Listen Notes Share Save Buy
3/13/2002
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Why Me, Lord?
1 Samuel 1
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3/20/2002
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Generation Next?
1 Samuel 2
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3/27/2002
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God, Is That You?
1 Samuel 3
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4/3/2002
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Spiritual Superstitions
1 Samuel 4
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4/10/2002
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The Battle Of The gods!
1 Samuel 5-6
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4/24/2002
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Revival: Repentance Versus Conviction
1 Samuel 7
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5/1/2002
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A Tale Of Two Kingdoms
1 Samuel 8
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5/8/2002
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Civic Duties Of A Christian
1 Samuel 9-10
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5/15/2002
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The Just War
1 Samuel 11-12
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5/22/2002
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The Downward Spiral Of A Leader
1 Samuel 13-15
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6/28/2002
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Telling A Book By Its Cover
1 Samuel 16
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7/3/2002
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Overcoming Giant Problems
1 Samuel 17
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7/17/2002
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The Green Eyed Monster Of Envy
1 Samuel 18-19
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7/24/2002
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The Four Faces Of Friendship
1 Samuel 20
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7/31/2002
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The Fugitive
1 Samuel 21-22
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8/7/2002
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Who Is My Enemy?
1 Samuel 23-24
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8/21/2002
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Suffering With And Submitting To A Crazy King
1 Samuel 25
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9/4/2002
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Saul's Ending, David's Beginning
1 Samuel 29-31
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There are 18 additional messages in this series.
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