In today’s episode of Real Life Radio, Pastor Jack Hibbs guides us through the dramatic and poignant lessons from 1 Samuel, where we explore the consequences of King Saul’s failure to seek God’s wisdom. This compelling discussion brings to light the vital importance of not relying solely on one’s own strength, as Saul did, which led to his tragic downfall. Pastor Jack also delves into the unique and powerful friendship between David and Jonathan, shedding light on the rare and precious bonds that can be formed in life’s battles.
Let’s stop being afraid. Go for it. Lord, what do you want me to do? Don’t wait around for someone else to do it. God wants to bless you in that thing.
SPEAKER 01 :
This is Real Life. Welcome to Real Life Radio with Pastor Jack Hibbs. I’m David Jay, thanking you for joining us today as we listen, learn, and are challenged by God’s Word, the Bible. U.S. strikes, Israel on alert, Iran escalating. Does anyone else feel like today’s headlines sound straight out of Bible prophecy? Jesus told us these days would come, not so we’d panic, but so we’d be prepared. That’s why we created the Prophecy Pack, understanding God’s plan for the future, a practical guide to help you live ready. Don’t just watch the news, understand it through God’s Word. Get your Prophecy Pack now for a gift of any amount at jackhibbs.com. On today’s edition of Real Life Radio, Pastor Jack continues his series called 1 Samuel and a message titled, What Happens When We Fight Our Own Battles? Samuel of the Old Testament was the last judge of Israel and the first of her prophets. So here in chapter 31, we’ll consider how Saul fought his own battles and ends up defeated and destroyed. See, King Saul relied upon himself, so God had to let him go in his own strength and resources, and he lost everything. Saul’s repeated disobedience led to devastating results, including his life and the life of his son Jonathan. So today, Pastor Jack teaches us that King Saul could never see what God had for him. He never asked God for wisdom. He never consulted God on how to move forward and failed to see the importance of the people in his life. Now with his message called, What Happens When We Fight Our Own Battles? Here’s pastor and Bible teacher, Jack Hibbs. Pastor Jack, can we talk about this great relationship that comes up in the book of Samuel between David and Jonathan?
SPEAKER 02 :
Yeah.
SPEAKER 01 :
They seem to me to be best friends. Oh, there’s no doubt. Yeah.
SPEAKER 02 :
Isn’t that amazing? Yeah, no doubt about it. In fact, it’s a great, great read just to see… how these men came to be really bonded together, bonded over the fact that, for example, Saul was very dysfunctional many times. Jonathan was level-headed. David saw that. And then Jonathan would see David’s courage in the midst of Saul, his father’s weakness. So there’s this remarkable, almost the writing of a movie or a screenplay And the two of these legendary best friends recorded in the Bible, they were very much knit together at the heart. God did that. Yeah.
SPEAKER 01 :
Yeah.
SPEAKER 02 :
They’re very precious, very pristine, for sure.
SPEAKER 01 :
Now, how common do you think friends like that are? Do you think that— You know, I think God would love to have that to be something common in our lives.
SPEAKER 02 :
I don’t know if we as humans are often open enough or vulnerable enough to have that happen. But one thing we know for sure is that that level of friendship, you don’t need two or three of them.
SPEAKER 01 :
That’s true.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yeah. It is a relationship that’s made. Look, it was made in battle. It was made in hardship. It was made in joy. It was made with all of these things that make us people. I mean, think about all of us right now. Yeah. uh things have been poured into our lives good bad or ugly yeah uh how we process those things really makes us who we are and so you look at these two men who won battles together and you know we’re all familiar with the band of brothers the classic war movie um that’s very much the case with with jonathan and david but i i would say you only need one of those relationships Sad thing is in our day and age, you don’t see many of them at all.
SPEAKER 01 :
Yeah, true. Yeah. All right, let’s get into this.
SPEAKER 02 :
Israel has faltered because they’ve been led into disarray. They’ve been led into weakness because the administration of Saul’s government was so terrible that now the Philistines are chasing the Israelis. Unbelievable event. and fell that is the Israelis fell slain on Mount Gilboa then the Philistines followed after Saul and his sons and the Philistines killed his three boys Israel was under attack and the Philistines were fighting there’s no sign there’s no word there’s no leading from God here the silence is deafening it’s pathetic these are God’s people but they’re on the run shouldn’t be happening There’s no consultation as we saw in chapter 30. Remember when David began to seek the Lord, what did he call for? Anybody remember? He called for the ephod. He called for a priest. He consulted God. He looked at the word of God. He wanted to hear, God, what do you want me to do? In this moment of crisis, what do you want me to do? These people want to kill me. God, what would you have me to do? He consulted God. There’s none of that here. The tragic end of Saul’s life. He’s engaged in a battle. They’re losing and he doesn’t call for a priest as David did. There’s no prophet to speak to. There’s no ephod. That is, there’s no discerning of God and his prophets and his priests before the people. None of that. It’s tragic. In Hosea chapter four, verse six, Hosea four, six says, my people are destroyed for a lack of knowledge because you have rejected my knowledge. So I also will reject you. We need to mark that verse down, Hosea 4, 6. For a lack of knowledge, my people are perishing. And because you do not pursue my knowledge, God says, I will reject you. The Bible says he who is often rebuked, that means a person who’s stubborn and will not follow God and resist God and pushes God away. He who is often rebuked will harden his heart. And the Bible says he will be taken away by God and that without remedy. Rebellion and stubbornness. And that’s exactly who Saul was. We know that that’s his nature. We see here in verse 1 that it says, “…and the men of Israel fled from before the Philistines and fell slain on Mount Gilboa.” Mount Gilboa is beautiful to behold. It arises out of the Jezreel plain about 1,696 feet high. Now you say, Jack, that’s a joke. 1,600 feet? I mean, Chino Hill State Park has got some hills that are kind of near that. Well, you know what? In Israel, it’s very mountainous, but you’ve got to remember something. Israel goes very much below sea level as well, also back and forth. Keep that in mind. But Mount Gaboah is a beautiful place, as you can see. And so this is where the battle is taking place. And you can visit that place and those spots today on any one of our tours. But anyway, it’s located in the Jezreel Valley. It’s spectacularly beautiful and fruitful. It’s north and west of Jerusalem, and it’s something to behold. This is where the battle’s taking place. By the way, not far from there at all is a little intersection. It literally has a stop sign, and it’s in the middle of nowhere. And it’s a roadway going east and west and a roadway going north and south. And we always want to stop there or make comment, and we do when we go by there, that when you stop the bus or if we get out at that point and stand at that intersection, we are standing at literally, according to human history, an intersection that has seen more war than any other place on planet Earth. And it is the place where the Battle of Armageddon will be held. It’s an intersection where all the nations in world wars, in crusades and campaigns, in the Egyptian and the Assyrian and the Babylonian and the Medo-Persian and the Roman empires had to cross to conquer any of the regions of the Middle East. It’s absolutely spectacular. And it’s just an intersection in the valley of there in the Megiddo Plain. And you would never know that it’s such a historic point. And you would never know that the Bible says that in the last days, that the blood of the warriors in the Battle of Armageddon, the blood will flow at the height of a horse’s bridle and bit. It’s about five feet or so high. The most fought over piece of land on the planet. Mount Gabal is not far from there. Not far at all. The tragic thing that we see right here is that Israel is void in leadership, and leadership leads to death, all because Saul would never make time to be alone with God. People, listen. Do you remember how David consulted the Lord recently? Do you ever see that? Have you ever seen it in our study, where Saul would go and seek God? No. What do we do see him doing? Seeking what? A witch at Endor. He’s done everything wrong. Let us learn from him. He’s void of leadership. A man foolish. James says in James 1 verse 5, if any of you lack wisdom, who does not lack wisdom? Well, here’s the good news. Let him ask of God who gives to all liberally and without reproach. You know what that means? That means that God will give the same amount to every person who asks, just ask. God will give the same amount of wisdom to you that he will for Billy Graham or for that little widow who needs to make her life work to that big corporate wheeler and dealer. If they love the Lord, God says, I’ll give you the same amount of wisdom. I won’t just little drip out on little droplets. I’ll pour it out upon you. I’ll give it liberally if you just ask. And when he says, I’ll give it to you without reproach, it means… He’s not going to give wisdom and say, you know what? Here’s wisdom and, you know, wise up. Here’s wisdom and get your act together. He gives wisdom to us if we ask. Now, you know what I love about that? Wisdom has nothing to do with your education. Did you know that? Say, man, I need to hear that again. Wisdom has nothing to do with your education. Education is what you were taught. Wisdom is what God gives. And there are many people who are not, oh, smart in the eyes of the world, but they got a whole ton of wisdom. I knew a guy. I’m not going to say who. I mean, you don’t know who he is, but he might listen to this later. Real smart guy. Real smart guy. And he was really great at electronic stuff. And that guy, he was so funny because growing up, I used to watch him and see him. And he would be thinking about something. And he had race cars and things and very innovative guy. And he’ll be really smart about what’s in the book and then turn around and stick his finger. right into something and cut it all up or get electrocuted by putting his finger into a toaster and the guy yet was brilliant with all of these things and engineering and stuff and do the stupidest things. Take a fork and put it into a toaster. and wonder why the end of his finger is black, and look at it like, what happened? And yet the guy gets straight A’s in everything, in physics and all that stuff. What are you thinking? A lot of head smarts, but not too wise about doing things. Wisdom is the proper placement or use of knowledge. That’s what wisdom is. What we have in our head, God says, you know what? This is how we apply it. And God is the one who gives wisdom. God says, I will give wisdom to the man who asks. Saul never asked. He says, but let him ask in faith. with no doubts. For he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind. For let not that man suppose that he shall receive anything from the Lord. He is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways. We all know people who are unstable in all their ways, but they don’t have to be if they would consult the Lord. The tragic thing about this conclusion of this book is that Saul didn’t have to be this way. Nobody made him not consult God. This was the witness. It was the witness of Saul. It was the legacy that he was leaving behind. Wherever he went, he left it, and it was for years. A man unable to trust in God was the story of Saul’s life because he was a man unable to see clearly. Will you jot down a few things that might help you in this area? If we are, if you and I are experiencing this sometimes, oh… weakness in trusting God or unclear or uncertain, keep a few things in mind. Number one, let’s not be like Saul because you know what? He never saw his purpose. He had Samuel to talk to. He had God to talk to. He had prophets to talk to. He could consult the word of God. The tragic thing about Saul is that he never saw his purpose. Church, Christian, do you know what your purpose is? Well, it’s to get up, go to work, feed the family, go to bed, get up, go to work, feed the… I got news for you. It’s bigger than that. That’s important. But it’s bigger than that. It’s bigger than that. God’s got something so right for you, so right for me, that when we first hear of it, it is petrifying. You ever been there? It’s, what? I can’t do that. Good start. That’s right, you can’t. How’s that ever going to come to pass? Well, you won’t know until you’re standing in it. Who’s going to help me? God will bring them to you. Saul never saw his purpose in God. David had a vision. David had a heart to do God’s will. He over and over again wrote in the Psalms that he lived to do the will of God. He wanted, in fact, his greatest passion, David’s greatest passion. Does anybody know? He said that I would dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life. That was David’s greatest passion. What was Saul’s greatest passion? We don’t know. Because we cannot pin on Saul a purpose. He wasn’t living for anything. You say, well, wait a minute, he was certainly living for himself. That’s what I mean. He wasn’t living for anything. When you live for yourself, you come up empty every time. You know this is true. You know the old story, you hold onto something so tight, it’ll slip out of your hands. Why? Because you know you don’t get any air in there. You’ve got something clenched in your fist, it begins to sweat. And man, on a day like this, I don’t know, did we somehow wind up in Florida today or what? Golly. So muggy and you could be holding to a penny and it just slipped out of your hands. You hang on to something like that, you lose it. You hang on to your life like Saul and you’ll lose it. He’s a perfect example of what not to do. Jesus says, give your life up to God and he’ll give you a life. Saul said, no, no, let me manage my own life. And in the end, he loses it. Be spent for God, Christian. Don’t be afraid. Let’s stop being afraid. Go for it. Lord, what do you want me to do? Don’t wait around for someone else to do it. God wants to bless you in that thing. Pastor, you sound like you’re motivating us to do something. You know what? Just try it. If God doesn’t bless you, I’m so confident, if God doesn’t bless you, then just sit down. But watch what happens. He’s waiting for you to get lost in his purpose. It’s wonderful. While Saul never saw his purpose, he lived for himself. Number two, jot this down if you would. He never could see… What God had for him. He was never seen praying, consulting God. Remember David would say, Lord, do you want me to advance or do you want me to retreat? Do you want me to attack or do you want me to wait? Lord, do you want me to go left or do you want me to go right? Lord, do we stand up or do we sit down? That was David’s heart, not Saul. He never could see what God had for him on a day-to-day basis. Every day of your life. there’s an opportunity. Number three, he wouldn’t trust God to be in the lives of other people. He failed to see the use of others. He could not trust God to be in the lives of other people. In other words, he micromanaged everything. Instead of, there’s a big difference, people, listen. You bring somebody in and you do it or speak to them or show them or tell them the vision. That’s certainly true in ministry. This is what we are to do. But then back up and let them do it with their seasoning, with their spin, with their flavor, with their gifting. It’s a beautiful thing. Pass on the vision, but then step back and see what happens. Saul could never step back. We want to make sure that we are a people who we can pass on. What God has done in our lives, give it to others. Number four, he had to be in control rather than extending the vision or the kingdom of God. He would not delegate. These characteristics are gotten, by the way, by being with the Lord. David was a man exactly the opposite. Through thick and thin, through joy and sorrow, poverty and wealth, he learned these things. And by the way, there’s no character building in our lives today. when it’s easy days. Do you know what I mean by that? Living is easy when it’s easy living. You, listen, you and I do not run to our Bibles and consult the scripture when all is going really well. In fact, have you noticed how crummy your Bible reading and your prayer time gets on vacation? Anybody? Mine is horrible. When I get on vacation, you know what? My routine’s totally goofed up. Don’t get me wrong. I have a wonderful time with God on my vacation. But the thing is, my normal routine, it’s shattered. Why? Because I’m on vacation. The alarm doesn’t go off because I didn’t bring one. Eat whatever I want because I say, you know, hey, Lord, I’m on vacation. And we just have a great time. But I don’t have to be anywhere. There’s no problems on vacation. I mean, there’s always some problems, but not the normal problems. And we have a tendency in our vacation state to let down, to relax. The character that God wants to build in us only happens when things are tough. Think about it. I want to grow strong in the grace and knowledge of God. OK, great. there’s going to be difficulties. You say, well, I’m not going to pray that prayer then. Too bad. Difficulties are coming anyway. You either do better through the difficulties or you’re going to get bitter through the difficulties, but the difficulties are coming. So there’s a big difference. The Bible tells us in Acts 14.22 that the apostles went, or excuse me, Paul the apostle went to Lystra and Iconium and Antioch. In verse 22, Acts 14.22 says that they strengthened the souls of the disciples. They exhorted them to continue in the faith. saying we must go through many tribulations before we enter the kingdom of God. He didn’t say the tribulation, thank God. He said many tribulations, difficulties in life. Philippians 3.10 says all I want to do is to know Christ and to experience the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings. Verses 3 and 4, our actions will betray our confessions. He leaves us to our own resources, and when that happens, our actions will betray our confessions. What do we mean by that? It says in verses 3 and 4 that the battle became fierce against Saul. You hear how alone he is? The battle became fierce against Saul. The archers hit him and he was severely wounded. By the way, mortally wounded. Then Saul said to his armor bearer, draw your sword and thrust me through. In other words, kill me. Lest these uncircumcised men come and thrust me through and abuse me. But his armor-bearer would not, for he was greatly afraid. Why? Well, the armor-bearer is schooled and trained to defend the king’s life, not take it. Therefore Saul took up his own sword and fell on it. That is, he set it up in the ground in such a way and committed suicide. He threw himself on it and killed himself. When God leaves us to our own resources, our actions will betray our confessions. If we can find a verse, which we can’t, it would be nice, where Saul says, I trust God, the truth is he didn’t. We can’t even find a verse that he says that. If we could find a verse that says, where Saul declares, I love the Lord, we can’t find that verse either. But he’s the king. He’s to be the example. His actions betray the very faith that he was to be spreading through the kingdom as the king of Israel. We may say, you know, easy to say, I thank God, I love the Lord, I’m a believer. But as I thought about this and I thought about the life of Saul, listen carefully. We can say, I thank God when things go my way. Is that in my heart? Is that in your heart? Oh, thank the Lord. But are we so shallow that we can only thank him when things go our way? Are we fair weather followers of Jesus? Well, I’ll say, I love the Lord when I’m happy and content. We’ll say things like, isn’t the Lord good? When we say that, why do we say it? When do we say it? When good things are happening. But did you ever stop, do we ever stop to realize he’s just as good in the midst of the difficulty and the tribulation? No. as he is when we’re abounding in some beautiful moment or something. He’s just as good. He’s the same. Yesterday, today, and forever, says the scripture. We might say, well, I’m a believer in God when life is good. You say, well, I’m not an unbeliever when my life goes bad. I know, but you know what? Oftentimes our actions betray our confession. Lord, I love you. Just make sure everything turns out my way. Lord, I believe in you. Don’t let me down. There’s a caveat, and that ought not to be.
SPEAKER 01 :
pastor and Bible teacher, Jack Hibbs, here on Real Life Radio, and his message called, What Happens When We Fight Our Own Battles? Thanks for being here today with us. You know, this message is part of Pastor Jack’s series called First Samuel. It’s a series that highlights the prophet Samuel, who was called by God during one of Israel’s darkest times to bring the people back to a heart of true worship. And we’ll continue on the next edition of Real Life Radio. U.S. strikes, Israel on alert, Iran escalating. Does anyone else feel like today’s headlines sound straight out of Bible prophecy? Jesus told us these days would come, not so we’d panic, but so we’d be prepared. That’s why we created the Prophecy Pack, understanding God’s plan for the future, a practical guide to help you live ready. Don’t just watch the news, understand it through God’s Word. Get your Prophecy Pack now for a gift of any amount at jackhibbs.com.
SPEAKER 02 :
Hey, thank you again so much for listening. And if you’d like to hear or see more of what we do here, you can always go to jackhibbs.com for all the latest on what’s going on with this ministry. And please, if you’re ever in the Southern California area, come see us at Calvary Chapel Chino Hills. We’d love to see you there in person. It has been so good to be with you today, and I pray you find yourself in the grace and mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER 01 :
See you on the next episode. This program is made possible by the generous contributions of you, our listeners. Visit us at jackhibbs.com. That’s jackhibbs.com. Until next time, Pastor Jack Hibbs and all of us here at Real Life Radio wish for you solid and steady growth in Christ and in His Word. We’ll see you next time here on Real Life Radio.
