Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Evening Sermon Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/ev/ev20020414.htm

1 AND 2 SAMUEL: GOD'S SOLUTIONS TO PROBLEMS IN OVERSIGHT
Part XXIII: Adjusting To God's Work With VULNERABLE Spiritual Leaders In Training
(1 Samuel 19:1-24)
  1. Introduction
    1. One of the great needs in the Church worldwide is that of effective spiritual leadership development. We can document this from many articles from a variety of Christian churches and organizations.
    2. However, developing such leaders generally involves spiritual RISKS as leaders in training are often spiritually immature and are thus naive about pitfalls into evil calamity to their potential harm, Heb. 5:13f.
    3. As insight on addressing this need, we have evidence of God's oversight of His vulnerable spiritual leaders in training in 1 Samuel 19. This equips us to know what to do as God sprouts leaders in training:
  2. Adjusting To God's Work With VULNERABLE Spiritual Leaders In Training, 1 Samuel 19:1-24.
    1. God wanted David to rule on Israel's throne, so He had Samuel anoint him as king, 1 Samuel 16:1, 13.
    2. Then, to begin exchanging king Saul for David in reference to the throne, God allowed a demonic spirit to plague Saul in contrast to the Holy Spirit Who equipped David for blessing, 1 Samuel 16:13, 14.
    3. However, this development designed to allow David to be refined under trial left the inexperienced David open to defeat. Thus, God set protective perimeters around the inexperienced, naive David so he could spiritually begin to MATURE under persecution from Saul without being destroyed, 1 Samuel 19:1-24:
      1. God protected David in his effort to get Jonathan, David's loyal friend, to help kill him:
        1. When Saul tried to use his son, Jonathan to kill David, God used Jonathan's spiritual kinship with David to soothe Saul at least temporarily so David could be encouraged to return to court, 19:1-7a.
        2. David then returned to minister with music for Saul's mental health as before, 1 Samuel 19:7b.
      2. God's equipping protected the somewhat naive David when Saul physically again tried to kill him:
        1. David then had to fight the Philistines, so under the Holy Spirit's equipping he defeated them again with a great victory, 1 Samuel 19:8 with 1 Samuel 16:13; 17:45-51.
        2. However, Saul's old jealousy of David's fame was aroused by this victory, and, along with the demon's influence, he tried to kill David with his javelin as before, 1 Samuel 19:9-10a; 18:6-11.
        3. Nevertheless, God's Holy Spirit upon David again equipped him to escape Saul's javelin throw as before, 1 Samuel 19:10b. In the process, David FINALLY LEARNED Saul's hatred of him was so DEEP he was better off staying away from Saul's court, so he fled from Saul, 19:10c.
      3. God protected David when Saul tried to ambush him in his own home:
        1. Saul sent messengers to ambush David in his home, 1 Samuel 19:11a.
        2. However, God used Michal, Saul's daughter and David's wife to warn him to flee, 19:11b-17.
      4. God protected David when he vulnerably sought refuge from Saul with Samuel:
        1. Thinking Saul might not attack Samuel, David then fled to Samuel at Ramah, 1 Samuel 19:18.
        2. However, Saul learned of this move, and sent messengers to capture David, 1 Samuel 19:19-20.
        3. As David did not suspect Saul would try to kill these prophets of God, and was thus HUMANLY susceptible to great harm by Saul, God's SPIRIT overcame all of Saul's efforts, including Saul's PERSONAL pursuit of David to find him, and FORCIBLY hindered Saul's messengers and even SAUL from harming David, 1 Samuel 19:21-24.
    4. In this way, DAVID came to be more independent of SAUL en route to becoming a leader, 1 Sam. 20:1.
    5. In the process, the mature SAMUEL ENCOURAGED David by emphasizing his need for the Lord and godly fellowship by bringing him into contact with the other prophets, 1 Samuel 19:18, 19-20.
Lesson: As David was TOO TRUSTING of SAUL and thus TOO UNITED with him to function as the LEADER God wanted DAVID to be, and was thus also left OPEN to HARM by Saul, God used friendly support, equipping by His Spirit, the Spirit's direct involvement and Samuel's godly influence to PROTECT and GUIDE David as he LEARNED to act INDEPENDENT of SAUL!

Application: (1) We should TRUST God's oversight of spiritually vulnerable, naive leaders in training (2) while also (a) humanly supporting them, (b) reminding them to use their spiritual gifting, (c) urging them to walk with the Lord [as Samuel did for David, 1 Samuel 19:18] and (d) praying for them.