In this sermon, the speaker emphasizes the importance of maintaining a servant's heart and a humble attitude in our relationship with God. He shares personal experiences of serving others and highlights the danger of pride and self-centeredness. The speaker also discusses the significance of honoring spiritual authority and seeking guidance from Godly individuals. He concludes by encouraging listeners to reflect on their own hearts and make necessary changes to ensure they do not miss out on the blessings God has for them.

1 Samuel chapter 9, we're going to be looking at the story of King Saul and see what we can learn from it. So we'll start off. There was a Benjaminite, a man of standing, whose name was Kish, son of Abiel, son of Zeror, the son of Bekarath, the son of Aphia, of Benjamin. He had a son named Saul, an impressive young man, without equal among the Israelites, a head taller than any of the others. Now the donkeys belonging to Saul's father Kish were lost, and Kish said to his son, take one of the servants with you and go and look for the donkeys. So he passed through the hill country of Ephraim and through the area around Shalisha, but he did not find them. They went on into the district of Shalim, but the donkeys were not there. He passed through the territory of Benjamin, but he did not find them. When they reached the district of Suph, Saul said to the servant who was with him, come, let's go back, or my father will stop thinking about the donkeys and start worrying about us. But the servant replied, look, in this town there is a man of God, he is highly respected, and everything he says comes true. Let's go there now, perhaps he will tell us what way to take. Saul said to the servant, if we go, what can we give the man? The food in our sack is gone, we have no gift to take to the man of God. What do we have? The servant answered him again, look, he said, I have a quarter of a shekel of silver, I will give it to the man of God, so that he will tell us what way to take. Formerly in Israel, if a man went to a choir of God, he would say, come, let's go to the seer, because the prophet of today used to be called the seer. Good, Saul said to the servant, come, let's go. So they went out for the town where the man of God was. As they were going up the hills to the town, they met some girls coming out to draw water, and they asked the man, is the seer here? He answered, he is ahead of you, hurry now, he has just come to our town today, for the people have a sacrifice at the high place. As soon as you enter the town, you will find him before he goes up to the high place to eat. The people will not begin to eat until he comes, because he must bless the sacrifice. Afterwards, those who are invited will eat. Go up, you should find him about this time. They went up to the town, and as they were entering it, there was Samuel coming towards them on his way up to the high place. Now the day before Saul came, the Lord had revealed this to Samuel, about this time tomorrow, I will send you a man from the land of Benjamin, anointed leader over my people Israel. He will deliver my people from the hand of the Philistine. I have looked upon my people, for the cry has reached me. When Samuel caught sight of Saul, the Lord said to him, this is the man I spoke to you about, he will govern my people. Saul approached Samuel in the gateway and asked, would you please tell me where the seer's house is? I am the seer, Samuel replied, go up ahead of me to the high place, for today you are to eat with me, and in the morning I will let you go, and will tell you all that is in your heart. As for the donkeys you lost three days ago, do not worry about them, they have been found, and to whom is all the desire of Israel turned, if not to you and your father's family? Saul answered, but am I not a Benjamite from the smallest tribe of Israel, and is not my clan the least of all the clans of the tribe of Benjamin? Why do you say such a thing to me? Then Samuel brought Saul and his servants into the hall, and seated them at the head of those who were invited, thirty in numbers. Samuel said to the cook, bring the piece of meat I gave you, the one I told you to lay aside. So the cook took the leg and what was on it and set it in front of Saul. Samuel said, here is what has been kept for you, eat, because it was set aside for you for this occasion. From the time I said, I have invited guests. And Saul dined with Samuel that day. After they came down from the high place to the town, Samuel talked with Saul on the roof of his house. They rose about daybreak and Samuel called to Saul on the roof, get ready and I will send you on your way. When Saul got ready, he and Samuel went outside together. As they were going down to the edge of the town, Samuel said to Saul, tell the servant to go on ahead of us. And the servant did. But you stay here a while, so that I may give you a message from God. Then Samuel took a flask of oil and poured it on Saul's head and kissed him and sang, Has not the Lord anointed you leader over his inheritance? When you leave me today, you will meet two men near Rachel's tomb at Zalzah on the border of Benjamin. They will say to you, the donkeys you set out to look for have been found. And now your father has stopped thinking about them and is worried about you. He is asking, what shall I do about my son? Then you will go on from there until you reach the great tree of Tabor. Three men going up to God at Bethel will meet you there. One will be carrying three young goats, another three loaves of bread and another skin of wine. They will greet you and offer you two loaves of bread, which you will accept from them. After that, you will go to Gibeal of God, where there is a Philistine outpost. As you approach the town, you will meet a procession of prophets coming down from the high place with lyres, tambourines, flutes and harps being played before them. And they will be prophesying. The Spirit of the Lord will come upon you in power and you will prophesy with them. And you will be changed into a different person. Once these signs are fulfilled, do whatever your hand finds to do, for God is with you. Go down ahead of me in Gilgal. I will surely come down to you to sacrifice burnt offering and fellowship offering. But you must wait seven days until I come to you and tell you what you are to do. I want to talk about... This is the story of Saul. It's one of the saddest stories I know of in the Bible. And it is filled with lots and lots of truths. And it's worth looking into it. Today I want to look at how he started, because he started well. And his life is an example of how everyone starts off well with God. The Bible says that there was a Benjamite, a man of standing, whose name was Kish, son of Abel. The son of Zeror, the son of Bekareth, the son of Aphia of Benjamin. He had a son named Saul, an impressive young man without equal among the Israelites. A head taller than any of the others. There was something special about Saul. And people could notice it. There was something about him that was just different. Because God had been preparing him for something. He had abilities. He had some great characteristics about him. He wasn't someone who was good for nothing. You will usually find that there is something about the people that... People say, who does God choose? And some people say, just anybody. But if you look in the Bible, there is something about the people that God chooses, even before he chooses them. That is, before he lets them know that he has chosen them. The apostles, Peter, John, and the others were illiterate people. But there was something about them. They were hard workers. They knew how to catch fishes. And the fishing business was one that required them to be awake a lot. Because they had to fish at night and sell during the day. And Jesus told them, you will not make you fishers of men. Jesus knew that fishing people takes a lot of work. They were not lazy people. They were people who could be up all night and during the day they hit the ground running. That is, they could be up all night, but then in the morning they are awake enough and sober enough to talk to their customers that they are selling fishes to. They could be exhausted from a night of fishing, yet in the morning they were there on the shore selling their fishes, washing their boats and their nets. In fact, that is what they were doing when Jesus met them. And there was something about Saul also. But here is the thing. What was Saul doing at this time when God begins to call him? What was he doing? He was serving his father. He did not say, okay, because I am an impressive young man. And the Bible says, he was an impressive young man without equal among the Israelites. He had taller than any of the others. Gifted by God. But what was he doing with all this potential? He was serving his father. Every person that God calls begins as a servant of men. The Bible said that the donkeys who belonged to Kish's father were lost. And Kish said to his son, Saul, take one of your servants with you and go and look for the donkeys. So he passed through the hill countries of Ephraim and went through the area around Stalitia, but they did not find them. There was this man with great potentials running after donkeys. You say, why didn't his father seem like he was a wealthy man? Why didn't he just send one of the less impressive people to go look after the donkeys and give Saul maybe some more noble task to do? He was the one who was chosen to go and look for donkeys. And it's very interesting because when you look at David, who was also an impressive young man, when the Lord begins to call him, what was he doing? He was serving his father by caring for his father's sheep. And he served his father so well, he risked his life killing bears and lions for those sheep. Neither he was a lazy man. He didn't run away from the lion and say, whatever, it's my father's thing. Everybody that got called began by serving someone. There are some people who want to serve the Lord without serving a person. They say, I just serve the Lord. In other words, what they're saying is, I'm a rebel. I'm an independent person and I'm proud. I am serving myself. Find me a man who says to you that he's serving God, just God, and has not served anyone. And I'll show you a man who is proud or a woman who is proud. And is doing their own thing. Now, I want you to grasp the importance of this. He didn't just go and look for a few hours. The easiest thing for him was to go and make a little tour, ask the neighbor, and come back and tell his father that we didn't find him. He took pain. And the Bible says that he went and looked for them until the food in their sack was gone. It was hard work that they did to find these donkeys. He wanted to finish the mission that he was given by men. There was no word from God, go look for the donkeys. There was no vision. There was no angel. It was just a father telling his son, go look for my donkeys. And he took that so seriously. He went out and took pain to find those donkeys. Look at the travel. They passed through the hill country of Biphraim, through the area around Shalisha, but they did not find them. They went into the districts of Shalim, but the donkeys were not there. They passed through the territory of Benjamin, but they did not find them. They took a whole journey. I don't know, maybe that week Saul had his plan to go and hang out with his buddies. But the day his father said, go look for my sheep, he cancelled all that. And went out to look for the donkeys. He took seriously his task of serving his father. Now it's interesting. It doesn't happen for everyone, but for Saul, for David, they began their service at home in their family. It began with an obedient son. And later David became a servant. He went from serving his father to serving King Saul. There also he was a servant of men. But you see, he started by being a servant. He started in his family. Moses started by taking care of his father-in-law's sheep also. Which was very terrible because he was raised in the Egyptian philosophy. An Egyptian would not get close to a sheep. It was an abomination to them. But there he was smelling the sheep every day. Out in the desert. He also began in the family with his father-in-law. One of the reasons that God puts you in a family and gives you a mother and a father, is so you learn to serve them. I can tell you to this day, to this day, even when my mothers know that I serve the Lord and there's a calling of God on my life, and I've become a young adult. If I am at home and my mother says, Go do this. There is no argument. I just get up and go. Next time she's here, ask her. If it is not the only time that I will not go, if it is conflicts with what God wants me to do. If it is church time, for example. And I know the Lord wants me to go to church. Then that's no. I got to go. And I go. And she will generally not do that anyways. But if she sent me to the store, and she does this very often. Go buy this thing. So I drive there and go. And I buy. And then she goes, Oh, by the way, I forgot this thing that you were supposed to buy too. Can you go back? Sure. I go back, drive, go buy the thing and come back. I come back the third time and she says, Oh, I forgot this other thing too. And she's very notorious on that end. Just to let you know. I will not argue and go back. My sisters, for example, I should not divulge the family secrets here. But I learned very early on that one of the reasons that I have a parent, one of the reasons that I have parents is so that I learn to submit and to obey. And you cannot tell me that you obey God if you don't obey your mother and your father. If you see a person who rebels against spiritual authority, it's not something that just started. It probably means they rebelled against their parents also. It probably means also they rebelled against their boss. Because the human being is consistent. Human beings are very consistent. Given a certain situation, a person will act the same. And I've tested myself on this several times. In the small things, in the big things. And I can tell you that the Lord has blessed me greatly. Because of that. Now, I'm not saying that I've obeyed my mother and my father when he was around every single time my whole life. No. There were times when I did rebel. And the Lord made me not forget those times. But there came a time when I realized that even those occasional rebellions had to stop. And where my eyes were open to these things. The importance of this is this. See, Saul went and on his way to this place, on his way to looking for the donkeys, he met Samuel. And Samuel told him he was going to become king of Israel. That all the desires of Israel would turn to him. You understand, this was the dramatic encounter. It was his dramatic encounter with God that set his life on a totally different course from that day. And that brought him into what the Lord wanted him to do. But see, God did not come to Saul and say, in the middle of the night, Saul, behold, I have chosen you, you will be king. And you are going to lead my people Israel. But let me show you something. Look at verse 16. Well, look at verse 15. Now the day before Saul came, the Lord had revealed this to Samuel. About this time tomorrow, I will send you a man from the land of Benjamin. Who sent Saul to Samuel? According to this verse, the Lord sent him to Samuel. Who commanded Saul to go and leave his house? His father. Tomorrow, God will send a man to Samuel. But God did not go and talk to Saul. His father sent him to Samuel. No, sent him to look for donkeys. Some of you, if your father told you, go and, I don't know, go there, there is, I don't know, God spoke to me, he said that great things are going to happen to you, and go here, and there you will probably go. But if you say, go out and go around this heron for me, you protest. So this could not have happened. It could not have happened. What happened to Saul could not have happened to someone who was rebellious against his father. His father would have told him, go look for the donkeys. And either he would have not gone, or he would have gone and just done this, and gone here, and gone left, and right, and then come back and say, I didn't find them, never mind. And he would have missed his encounter with Samuel. God leads people. God calls people. But he will often do it in the context of putting someone as a servant of another person. And somehow, as they are serving the person, God will call them out. Where did Moses encounter God? On a mountain. As he was taking care of the sheep, right? Now, he had been serving his father, and taking care of his sheep for 40 years at that point. Imagine if a week before he had told himself, I'm tired of taking care of this sheep now. I've been serving this man for 40 years. It's probably time for me to do something else. He would never have been around that burning bush that day. I don't know if you're getting what I'm saying, but it makes me tremble. If Saul had not been willing to serve his father by going after those sheep, I mean, after those donkeys, if he had not been willing to go after those donkeys and search for them as diligently as he did, he would never have encountered Saul. God was looking for a man who had the right heart. And he knew that Saul would be a person who would obey if his father commends him. Therefore, God caused the donkeys to be lost, and God caused his father to send him to go look for them. And God knew that Saul was the kind of person who would obey his father at this time. Some people, God has not bothered to go after them because he knows that there's nobody who will talk to them and who will set them on that path to go find Samuel. Or he has, and they refuse to obey, and they were doing their own thing. I was not long ago, last weekend at home, and while I was there, of course, I go to a church there. When I was there, it was God. Once again, I was just a regular member of the church, not leading anything. It was great to just be a congregant. I went to all the meetings that were available there. There was a meeting every day that I was there. I went to all of them. I went to one on Thursday. I went to one on Friday. I went to one on Saturday. I went to one on Sunday. Well, when I was there, I was just looking for opportunities to serve. On Sunday, my friend Sarah and I got there early, and we were running around before the service, helping out, finding the song sheets done. Is someone playing the piano? Is this happening? Running around, making sure that certain things were getting done. At some point, there's somebody who stands at the door to welcome people and hand them the flyers, the program for the day. At some point, that person was distracted, called to do something. I gladly grabbed the couple of those flyers and stood there by the door, and when people came, I gladly welcomed them and gave them a card, gave them a flyer, and gave them a hug. I was looking for opportunities to serve. When we sat at the service, Pastor Ray was doing this, illustrating his sermon, and they needed to hang things up there, and his wife was struggling to do it. I quickly got up to go help. At the end of the service, he came to me before I was leaving. He said, you know, next time you come, you should tell me in advance, because I want you to preach. I told him, and I'm glad I didn't tell him I was coming. And I'll tell you the truth. It is not my trying to play false modesty. It is true. I was glad I didn't tell him. I was glad I was just there as a regular person looking to serve. I miss those times when I was just a regular person going, and now I've become a special person. It seems like opportunities to do that decrease with passing time. But just to make you the point that God looks for that kind of hard attitude. Some people have too much of a bossy, unimportant attitude. And they have this attitude, oh, God called me for greater things than this. God always tells people in the small things. Let's move on. There is one thing that a person that God is calling always has. They begin by serving a human being. They have a servant attitude, a servant heart. They serve in their home. They serve at their job. They serve at church. They seek for opportunities to serve. The next thing, he was a man who knew how to honor spiritual authority. Look at this. Verse 5, When they reached the district of Silph, Saul said to the surrender, Come, let's go back, or my father will stop thinking about the donkeys and start worrying about us. But his servant replied, Look, in this town there is a man of God. He is highly respected, and everything he says comes true. Let's go there now. Perhaps he will tell us what way to take. Saul said to his servant, If we go, what can we give the men? The food in Isaac is gone. We have no gift to take to the man of God. What do we have? He knew that you do not go to a man of God empty handed. Now, it's not that Samuel was looking for gifts. God had already told Samuel that I'm sending Saul, so he would still have met Samuel, and everything that was planned would still have happened. But there was something in Saul's heart that said, well, he's a prophet. We've got to give honor to whom honor is due. What do we do to him? What do we give him? He was looking for, in fact, I think this is just an overflow from the previous point. He was just looking for a way to serve Samuel. How can we honor the man of God? There was in this attitude, Well, I am the most impressive young man in Israel. A head taller than any other. It wasn't saying, well, I'm also a servant of God. I must be a head, whoever this man is, I must be a head taller than him too. There must be, must not be. Because he was without equal among the Israelites. That includes Samuel. He was a head taller than any of the others. That includes Samuel. But it somehow went to him with this attitude of Let's treat the man of God as a man of God. Oh, I have seen how God deals with people who despise God's servants. Look, there are two things. There is one thing that you should never mess with. One, don't mistreat a believer. But especially, don't mistreat a servant of God. God, it seems that God doesn't He shows little pity to those who do that. There was somebody who said, Who is this Zakphamon? He is younger than my youngest son. The man died a horrible death. Another time, Barzak was doing a research project at the university. He and another professor. They were working together on a special project and they were to pay them for that special project. And when they were done, the other guy went and told the administration that Professor Phamon didn't do anything. I did all the work myself. They asked him to sign that that was the case and he signed and they gave him all the money. And Barzak went to get his part of the money. They told him, Well, we were told you didn't do anything. And they showed him the man signing. Barzak said, Well, if a man can steal money in this kind of way, I will neither hold it against him and I will not ask him either. And he blessed the man. He didn't ask him. He didn't hold it against him. Four days later, the man died. There is... I don't know what reason is closing to people's mind when they start talking and running and lies and false things about a person who is serving God. It is highly dangerous. Like those people who are... Like Pastor Wilkerson was showing how they were... Few some years after they started the church out, a few of the leaders turned against him and they started calling him all sorts of names. See, you walk and people ask him, Oh, are you the hypocrite that they're talking about? I don't know if they realize how dangerous that is. If a man is there, is serving God and he is crying out to Him and left his house and everything and his nice home by a lake in Texas and moved to New York just to... for no other reason but to win the lost and a person allows himself to mistreat them, God will now be silent. And I've seen the Lord do it to people left and right. David's own wife saw him dancing and said, Ah, what a great sight it was to see the King of Israel dancing in front of His servants. The Bible said that she was barren to the end of her life for despising the man of God as he was dancing. In this respect at this time, Saul was a person who had the right heart in this respect. He knew how to respect and honor the people that God had appointed, not because there was something special about them, but because God had appointed them and He was the prophet. Now, we know the rest of the story. He meets Saul, I mean, Samuel meets Saul and to his greatest surprise, there's a place prepared for him at a table. Somehow this man realizes that in the plans of God, in the workings of God, there was a seat for him, and a seat of honor, that there was a share of meat especially prepared for him. I want to tell you there is in the plans of God a place for you, a place that has been reserved just for you and that nobody else will take and will be given to no one. But you have to get there by being faithful in the little things, by starting with that servant attitude. The Bible says in verse 21, Saul answered, But am I not a Benjamite from the smallest tribe of Israel, and is not my clan the least of all the clans of the tribe of Benjamin? Why do you say such a thing to me? You see, another thing about Saul was that he started off a humble man. Now, he wasn't ignorant. He knew that he was an impressive young man and he had no equal among the Israelites. He was a head taller than any of them. But when Samuel told him this thing, he didn't say, You know, I knew from a long time ago that, yeah, this was what was going to happen to me. And I'm sure it did. Everyone that God calls somehow has a sense in their heart long before, sometime even before they get converted. They have a sense that God, they have a sense that there was something there for them to do. There's a calling of God. They have a sense of destiny. And this Saul here, this young man probably knew this, but somehow he was also humble. He didn't say, Hey, I knew if there was somebody God was going to pick the most impressive young man in Israel, then who is that but me? And now, interestingly, look, he went back, he went home. Let me look. Look at verse, look at verse 15, chapter 10. Saul's uncle said, Tell me what Samuel told you. Saul replied, He assured us that the donkeys had been found. But he did not tell his uncle what Samuel had said about the kingship. He didn't go around bragging, I've been told I'll be the king, I've been told I'll be the king, I've been told I'm the king. About the kingship, he said nothing. He started off with the right attitude. See, if his heart was wrong, he would have gone home now and started behaving like the king. He would have gone home and started saying, Don't mess with me, you guys, I'm the king. And if people laughed at him, he would say, Yeah, you may laugh, but I've been told I'm the king, and you're going to be surprised. God's word is going to come true for me. Samuel told me, and I know what he said is going to be true. And if they sent him, I don't know, to go wash the dishes, he would have said, No, I don't do those things anymore. God has told me that my ministry is being the king, so from now on, just treat me like the king. And I'm just going to do the things that the king's supposed to do. The king's not supposed to go wash dishes and whatever. He did not have that attitude. He went home and told people nothing so that people still treated him as they treated the old soul. He didn't want people to change their view of him based on what Samuel had just told him. Now, I can tell you there are things that the Lord has told me that I haven't told anybody except some of my spiritual leaders. And I will not tell them. Maybe I'll tell them in 10 years from now or 14 years from now. But there are things that the Lord told me 9 years ago. It wasn't a person. The Lord spoke to me. I haven't told anybody except some of my spiritual mentors. There are things my spiritual mentors have told me that I haven't told anybody. It's all about not wanting... It's this constant desire not to have a treat-me-like-my-calling-deserves kind of attitude. Treat me like my calling deserves. I believe this is what caused Lucifer to rebel in heaven. Somehow he was there and he told himself I am a wonderfully created arcane cherub. I cannot just be here playing a little music every now and then. I'm supposed to have some better office or something. And that thought started getting into his mind. And he started feeling people here need to treat me like my potentials deserve. And in that long lap, he became proud. And he turned into a devil. And you can see people go from being good men of God to turning into devils because of this. You can see people who once had a humble and tender heart. But they're like God spoke to me, sent a prophet to me, said I'm going to do this, this, this, this and that. And the pride builds up in their hearts. And they start to look for people to treat them in a certain way that they think they ought to be. And they lose that servant spirit. And they turn into devils. They become confused. They can't hear from God anymore. But that will be another sermon as we get to it in Saul's claim now. I think I've spoken enough today. And I'm going to end here. But these are three marks of people who start well with God. And Saul had that heart. I don't know which word of what I said applies to you. And what practical changes you need to make. Either just in your heart or outwardly. To be sure that you do not miss that place that has been reserved for you. In God's plans. Praise the Lord.