Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Evening Sermon Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/ev/ev20020113.htm

1 AND 2 SAMUEL: GOD'S SOLUTIONS TO PROBLEMS IN OVERSIGHT
Part XI: Pinpointing Leadership FAILURE Signals BEFORE People Get Into Oversight
(1 Samuel 9:1-10:1)
  1. Introduction
    1. For oversight in a marriage, home, business, church or school realms, parties may or may not be qualified.
    2. For this reason, Paul urged deacons be "first proved" before being appointed to office, 1 Tim. 3:10 KJV.
    3. Well, in that proving time, signals can arise that can reveal IF a given party is qualified for a certain oversight role. 1 Samuel 9:1-10:1 offers valuable insight on such signals as follows:
  2. Pinpointing Leadership FAILURE Signals BEFORE People Get Into Oversight, 1 Samuel 9:1-10:1.
    1. Though God warned Israel of trouble were they to be granted their wish for a king chosen according to worldly criteria, Israel insisted on having such a king; accordingly, God granted Israel this wish, 1 Sam. 8.
    2. We have before learned from 1 Samuel 8:1-9:1 that Saul was chosen to be this king by worldly criteria.
    3. However, choosing a king this way caused Israel to gain a bad king in Saul, and before he was even anointed as king he exhibited traits that warn US against placing similar parties into leadership:
      1. Leadership Failure Warning Signal One - Opposite Samuel's practice of seeking God for help (1 Sam. 7:7-10, Saul put a low priority on seeking GOD'S help for meeting his life's problems, 1 Sam. 9:3-10.
        1. Saul put in 33 miles fruitlessly searching for his father's donkeys before returning home, 1 Sam. 9:1-5 with The Macmillan Bible Atlas, p. 58, map 86! Yet, this was all so unnecessary: (a) The land Saul traveled crisscrossed the annual circuit the prophet, Samuel would traverse as he made his annual circuit-ride to Gilgal, Bethel and Mizpeh before returning to Ramah, Ibid., map 85 with 1 Sam. 7:16-17. (b) Also, Samuel's home in Ramah was only 3 MILES north of Saul's home in Gibeah, Ibid., map 86. (c) Yet, after all his searching when they had exhausted their provisions, and only at Saul's servant's suggestion did Saul consider asking Samuel to use his God-ordained prophecy gift to tell him where to find his donkeys, 1 Sam. 9:4b-6! (d) In fact, Samuel was the one who had to tell Saul before he asked that his father's donkeys had been found, 1 Sam. 9:20!
      2. Leadership Failure Warning Signal Two - Instead of being led of God in his own life, Saul needed to lean on God's leading of others around him for blessing, 1 Samuel 9:16 with 9:5-6.
        1. God told Samuel He would send a man from Benjamin to anoint as Israel's king, 1 Sam. 9:16.
        2. Yet, it was not SAUL who was directly led to come to Samuel, but his father's servant who both suggested Saul ask Samuel about the donkeys and who produced the money for his wages, 9:5-10.
        3. Thus, Saul was dependent on God's work in his father's servant who was with him for blessing!
      3. Leadership Failure Warning Signal Three - Saul failed to take responsibility in his current oversight!
        1. The reference to Saul's father being a "man of power" (KJV) translates the Hebrew word, chayil which means a man of "influence, wealth," cf. Biblia Hebraica, p. 416; T.W.O.T., v. I, p. 271-272.
        2. Yet, it was his father's servant who came up with the money to pay Samuel when Saul should have taken responsibility to budget his own wealthy father's money to pay for this, 9:7-10; 9:1.
      4. Leadership Failure Warning Signal Four - Instead of depending upon God's equipping as did David after him, Saul depended on his human prowess, 1 Sam. 9:20b-21 with 1 Sam. 17:33-37:
        1. When Samuel told Saul of his coming exaltation, Saul only noted he was humanly inadequate for such a lofty position with no reference to his being equipped by God for it, 1 Samuel 9:20b-21.
        2. Later, in 1 Samuel 17:33-37 where Saul would mention to David of David's human inexperience to take on Goliath, David would claim he trusted God to help as he had in killing a lion and a bear.
        3. In both cases, Saul showed a lack of dependence on God's gifting and a trust in human ability!
Lesson: BEFORE he was king, Saul exhibited leadership failure traits: he failed (1) to look to God for help in life's needs, (2) to follow God in HIS OWN life in needing God to use others to bless him, (3) to be responsible for tasks already assigned to him and (4) to rely on God's gifting for service success.

Application: (1) By heeding such signals, we can avoid putting unqualified parties in leadership while appointing those for oversight who SUCCEED where Saul failed. (2) Also, by testing OURSELVES by these signals, we can CORRECT our OWN shortcomings to be qualified before God for greater roles!