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That's ConnectWithSkip.com. Before today's teaching, something you won't want to miss, an invitation to walk where Jesus walked next spring.

Skip Heitzig: Have you ever dreamed of visiting Israel? Lenny and I want to invite you to join us for a life-changing journey through the land of the Bible in April of 2027. You can walk where Jesus walked, you can worship on the Sea of Galilee, you can celebrate baptisms at the Jordan River, and we're going to share communion at the empty tomb. You'll also have the option to attend the Epicenter Summit in Jerusalem, where I'll be speaking alongside of Joel Rosenberg, Greg Laurie, Anne Graham Lotz, Jack Graham, and more. So join us April 5th through April 16th. You can learn more today at connectwithskip.com/Israel.

Now let's dive into today's teaching from Pastor Skip Heitzig. The Amalekites were like an aggressive cancer, and if you are wondering why would God want them wiped out, understand this, they weren't wiped out. Saul disobeyed, and now follow the story forward to the book of Esther. And it says that there was a guy in the land of Persia called Haman, who was an Agagite. You know what an Agagite is? A descendant of Agag. Agag was the king of the Amalekites, and he was one of the people that Saul spared. So now almost the entire nation of the Jews would be wiped out by an Agagite because Saul didn't want to obey God's command and kill Agag the Amalekite.

Chapter 15, verse 13, Samuel went to Saul, and Saul said to him, so now it's like a showdown. So you just picture, here's King Saul and the army, over here on that horizon is Samuel the prophet, and they're sort of walking toward each other, walking toward each other. Now they meet. And Samuel went to Saul, and Saul said to him, blessed are you of the Lord.

Guest (Male): Ooh, that sounds good.

Skip Heitzig: Say, hire this guy on my staff, he's so spiritual. I have performed the commandment of the Lord. He had the right talk. Samuel said to him, what then is this bleating of the sheep in my ears and the lowing of the oxen which I hear? Yeah, don't I remember saying that God said, kill even all the animals? Don't take any spoils. And you are saying, oh, praise God, brother, I've done everything God our Father wanted us to do. Really? Why do I hear sheep and cows if you've obeyed God's voice? And Saul said, they, he's pointing now to them, his army, they have brought them from the Amalekites, for the people spared the best of the sheep and the oxen to sacrifice to the Lord your God, and the rest we have utterly destroyed.

Guest (Male): Oh, wait till God smells that sheep burning.

Skip Heitzig: It's the best mutton he's ever smelled. Then Samuel said to Saul, be quiet. I love Samuel. He's a man's man. Not, well, that's how you feel. That's not how I see it. Be quiet. Zip it. Stop talking. And I will tell you what the Lord said to me last night. And he said to him, gulp, speak on. Go down to verse 22. So Samuel said, has the Lord great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, he, the Lord, has rejected you from being king.

Would you let this serve as a warning? We are so quick, as soon as anybody mentions God, to say, oh, they love the Lord. They follow God. They're believers. We especially like to do this with famous people, our heroes, our sports heroes, musical figures. You know, they mention God, you know, spirit in the sky or something generic as that, must be believers. We just want them to believe, and so we let them join the family of God by almost any kind of admission that God exists. We have to be careful because this man, Saul, has all the right talk. He has no walk whatsoever. Verse 35, Samuel went no more to see Saul until the day of his death.

Nevertheless, Samuel mourned for Saul, and the Lord regretted that he made him king over Israel. Now enter David, and we get to the fourth section of this book, the rise of a poet. If I were to sum it up thus far, including this point, I would do this. Samuel is dejected. Saul is rejected. God has selected the next in line. Samuel the prophet's all dejected. He's bummed out. Oh man. The first king, Saul, is rejected, but God has selected David, a man after his own heart. God is never without a plan. Chapter 16, verse 1. Now the Lord said to Samuel, How long will you mourn for Saul? Seeing that I have rejected him from reigning over Israel?

Fill your horn with oil and go. I am sending you to Jesse the Bethlehemite, for I have provided myself a king among his sons. I love this. God is never without a plan. God is never out of control. God never sweats. He never panics. God rules the universe with his feet up. That's how confident he is. Samuel, not so much. He's going, what are we going to do? God says, what are you doing crying for this guy so long for? I've got somebody picked out. Don't sweat it. You remember the story in Isaiah chapter 6? King Uzziah had been on the throne for 52 years. He was a good king, brought many reforms to the land.

He died. And when he died, people were wondering, now what? Who's going to rule? Who's going to be in charge? The king is not on the throne. Uzziah is not on the throne. We need the right guy on the throne. You know, it's what we do every four years with elections. We panic if the person we voted for didn't get voted in. So it says, chapter 6 of Isaiah, in the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on the throne. Uzziah may be off the throne, God is not. He's on his throne in heaven. And the train of his robe, Isaiah said, filled the temple. He saw a vision of the glory of God. I think sometimes we see a vacancy in office or a leader falling or a church folding or a movement fading, and we begin to panic.

God's not panicked. God's got it all perfectly under control. Now, here's what's cool. God selects a shepherd boy in the house of Jesse named David. He's out watching sheep. He's not even included in the lineup when Samuel goes to pick out a king. How is God going to take a shepherd with absolutely no experience at all except for hunting down wolves with stones and caring for a few sheep and looking up and writing cool poems and songs and stuff? How is he going to get him ready to rule a nation? Fun plan God has in mind. God has to somehow get him into the palace so he can be an intern, which is effectively what God does.

God uses Saul and his paranoia to get David, who's a skilled musician and songwriter, into the palace. Verse 22, then Saul sent to Jesse, saying, please let David stand before me, for he has found favor in my sight. Saul is temperamental, mostly temper, very little mental, and he's volatile in his moods. He has incredible mood swings, and he has discovered that, if he can tune into the right station or have the right podcast on, the right music will soothe him. He hears that David is the skilled musician, so he thought, I'll bring David into the palace, bing, let him hang around me, bing, and eventually David will become Saul's armor bearer.

So he's going to get lots of, he'll be able to king it pretty soon. Verse 23, so it was whenever the spirit of God, the spirit from God was upon Saul, that's the spirit that God sent him to torment him, that David would take a harp and play it with his hand. Then Saul would become refreshed and well, and the distressing spirit would depart from him. Now, keep in mind, by this time David's in the palace. He has already heard the words of Jesse the seer tell him, you're anointed as the next king. Knowing he's the next king, David is in the presence of the king and never tries to upstage him, never tries to self-promote, never says, oh, by the way, did you know that Samuel was checking me out and that I'm like the next king because you're like a failure?

Never ever brought it up. In fact, he wouldn't even touch God's anointed throughout the rest of the story. He's a skilled musician who comes to play for Saul. He becomes a palace intern. He becomes the armor bearer of the king and eventually the king. Now you're going to discover something else about Saul again, or you're going to see something you've already noticed, but again, insecure people cannot stand efficient people around them or under them. They try to punish them. They don't want to promote them. So what happens in chapter 17 is the whole incident with Goliath. Goliath is mammoth dude, fighting the children of Israel, the Philistines against the Israelites.

David comes on the scene. I don't have to tell you the story. You could say it tonight in your sleep. You know it so well.

Announcer: This is Connect with Skip Heitzig. Your generosity helps share clear Bible teaching with people who need the truth and hope of God's word. And as Christmas approaches, we'd love to thank you with two meaningful resources designed to encourage faith in you and the people you love. The Daily God Journal by Pastor Skip will guide you through scripture and prayer every day for an entire year. And Nate Heitzig's Christmas Under the Tree tells the story of Jesus from the cradle to the cross in a way your whole family can experience together. Keep these resources or give them as meaningful Christmas gifts while your generosity helps connect more people to God's word.

Receive both when you give 50 dollars or more to share biblical truth with more people around the world. Request your copies at connectwithskip.com/offer or call 800-922-1888. Now, here's more from Pastor Skip.

Skip Heitzig: So, David defeats Goliath, the people write a song, and the people sing it out in the streets. Chapter 18, verse 6. So it happened as they were coming home, that is the king and his entourage from the battle, and when David was returning from the slaughter of the Philistine, that the women had come out of all the cities of Israel, singing and dancing to meet King Saul with his tambourines, with joy and with musical instruments. So the women sang as they danced and said, here's the lyrics of the song, Saul has slain his thousands and David his ten thousands. I don't know how the song went. David has slain, Saul has slain his thousands, David his tens of thousands.

I don't know, I'm just kind of trying to make up a tune here. But it was a tune, probably a catchy tune, but Saul heard the lyrics and his heart dropped and he becomes very, very jealous. So you've heard about pin the tail on the donkey. This is pin the spear on the musician. He's trying to kill the worship leader now. So later on, David is playing, verse 11, and Saul cast the spear, threw it at David, for he said, I will pin David to the wall. But David escaped his presence twice. Now, chapter 18 through the end of the book is Saul's hatred, attack after attack after attack on young David. And you see the contrast between King Saul as a leader and the next King David as a leader.

You know, this is the time of the year, Christmas time, when we bring out the Dr. Seuss book, A Grinch Stole Christmas. And you know, you remember that one of the attributes of the Grinch, the personality attributes, is he hated to see other people having fun. He hated people enjoying themselves. He hated it so much that when he saw people enjoying themselves, he'd bite himself. That's Saul. He's the Grinch. And he just, he's destroying himself seeing things happen around him that he hasn't caused. So for the next 14 years, David flees. He's a fugitive. He is going from place to place. Here's what I want you to know about that, those years.

14 years being chased from place to place, no place to call his home. During the next 14 years, David writes some of the best stuff ever. The stuff that you and I love to read, the stuff that comforts our soul. So many of the Psalms were written during the next 14 years. Here's a running list. Psalm 18, Psalm 34, Psalm 52, Psalm 54, Psalm 56, Psalm 57, Psalm 63, Psalm 124, Psalm 138, Psalm 142. All those psalms have background in this era. Did you know that some of the world's best music came from some of the world's worst times and people's worst times? Charles Haddon Spurgeon said, the music of the sanctuary is in no small degree indebted to the trials of the saints.

Affliction is the tuner of the harps of sanctified songsters." So thank you, Lord, that David went through 14 years of trials, right? Because he, by those trials, wrote those psalms and have comforted countless of God's people throughout history. Chapter 21, David flees to a town called Nob, N-O-B, and to a town called Gath, one of the Philistine strongholds in disguise there, incognito. Chapter 22, he flees to a cave called the cave of Adullam. Chapter 23, a little town called Keilah, and chapter 24, En Gedi, down by the Dead Sea. Many of these places we show you when we go to Israel. Chapter 26, verse 21.

Then Saul said, then Saul said, then Saul said, I'm just emphasizing this because I want you to see what Saul said. Then Saul said, I have sinned. Finally, the guy can admit it. He says to David, 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 erred exceedingly. Sounds good, great confession, no follow through on this though. Perfect words to say, yes, he's right, he has sinned, but he never backs it up. What does 2 Corinthians 7 tell us? Godly sorrow produces repentance. Godly sorrow. I know a lot of people, when they get busted, they go to jail, they get found out about a certain sin, oh, they weep, they cry, man, I sinned.

There's no life change. Godly sorrow produces repentance. G. Campbell Morgan said this, "I have played the fool and erred exceedingly. These words form the whole story of man." That's the history of humanity. I have played the fool and erred exceedingly. Nine words that form the autobiography of King Saul. A tragic admission, a warning statement to all of us. You don't want to end up at the end of your life saying, I could have been a powerful instrument in God's hands. I could have been used by God. You don't want to end with that kind of regret. Chapter 28 to 31 is the final showdown. Let's breeze through it quickly.

The Philistines again attack Israel. Saul is desperate by this time. God isn't speaking to him. He has nothing more to say to him because Saul's not receiving it. So Saul's final step downward, final step of rebellion was demonic. Since he hadn't heard from God, he goes to inquire of a medium. Verse 6. And when Saul inquired of the Lord, the Lord did not answer him either by dreams, like he had with Joseph, or by Urim, like he had to the high priest before him, or by the prophets. Then Saul said to his servants, "Find me a woman who is a medium." Ah, a medium. Mediums weren't allowed in Israel.

God said, "Make sure there are no mediums in the land." Evidently, Saul didn't really care about that fine print. Knowing there was a medium, he said, "Find 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, a spiritist, at Endor." Now, I don't want to keep plugging Israel, but next time you're there with us and we're standing on Mount Precipice outside of Nazareth, and we look over the Valley of Armageddon, Valley of Jezreel. You can look at the very edge of a hill right to your left, and you can see the village of Endor to this day occupied.

That's where he ended up. Chapter 31 is the end. They go a little distance from there to Mount Gilboa, and it's the final battle between the Philistines and Israel. Verse 2. Then the Philistines followed hard after Saul and his sons, and the Philistines killed Jonathan, Abinadab, and Malchishua, Saul's sons. The battle became fierce against Saul. The archers hit him. He was secretly wounded by the archers. And then Saul said to his armor bearer, "Draw your sword and thrust me through with it, lest these uncircumcised men come and thrust me through and abuse me." But his armor bearer would not, for he was greatly afraid.

Therefore, Saul took a sword and fell on him. He committed suicide. Verse 6, "So Saul, his three sons, his armor bearer, and all his men died together that same day. When the Philistines find him the next day, they take Saul and his sons, decapitate them, take his armor, string the bodies up on the walls of the Old Testament town called Beth Shean, so that it would be a tribute not only to their ingenuity, but also to their own God. But the story goes on to say that the men from across the Jordan River at Jabesh Gilead found the bodies, gave them a decent burial. Let's end there. We've come to the end of the book.

As we close, I want you to consider what Saul could have changed to not end up like this. What could he have done? Number one, he could have taken sin more seriously, don't you think? He made a lot of excuses for his sin. He kept blaming others for it. He never dwelt with it. Twice when he is rebuked, we only saw once where he admitted it, but twice in the book he admits, I've sinned. It's a good admission. Now what? What are you going to do with that? So he could have taken sin more seriously. Number two, he could have placed character over reputation. Two different issues. Reputation is what people think you are.

Character is who you really are. Or put it this way, reputation is what people see. Character is who you are when nobody sees. Is there integrity or not? He placed reputation over character. Even when he's dying, he doesn't want to look bad. Come on, kill me now. Just let me lie just like this. Go ahead. He's so concerned about image, even at the point of death. Number three, he could have taken advantage of friendships. Think of the people around his life. There was Samuel, who heard from God from a young age, who had like a direct line to heaven. God called his name. Get to know that guy. Be friends with that person.

Let what he's got rub off on you. He could have taken advantage of David, a man after God's own heart. I mean, if you're the king, shouldn't you think, well, why did God choose, what did God see in you? Who are you? Let me get to know you better. Especially since David was so loyal to him. Every time he was chased. He could have taken advantage of his son's friendship, Jonathan. He loved his father, but Saul would have none of it. Proverbs 18 says, a man who isolates himself seeks his own desire. He rages against all wise judgment. If you have a tendency to alienate and isolate and not really show who you are to people, I worry about you.

I'm afraid for you. A man who isolates himself, seeks his own desire. You're only doing that because you don't want to be accountable and have to change your behavior, and you will rage against all wise judgment. One of the best things for you is to get to be friends with people who will be honest with you so that you can grow.

Announcer: Thanks for joining us today on Connect with Skip Heitzig. Before we go, remember that your generosity helps more people discover the truth of God's word and grow in their relationship with Jesus. And this month, when you give 50 dollars or more, we'll thank you with two meaningful resources you can enjoy yourself or give this Christmas. The Daily God Journal will help you grow in scripture and prayer throughout the coming year. Plus, Christmas Under the Tree is a beautifully illustrated story that points hearts toward Jesus from the cradle to the cross. Give a gift with eternal value while helping others encounter God's word at connectwithskip.com/offer or by calling 800-922-1888.

We'll see you next time on Connect with Skip Heitzig. Connect with Skip Heitzig is a presentation of Connection Communications, connecting you to God's never-changing truth in ever-changing times.