Grace for Leadership

It is possible to be in a position of leadership and be void of God's presence,  relationship and friendship.  The story of King Saul is a perfect illustration of a leader who lost his way and the presence of God.  In this podcast, we discuss Saul's disobedience and the severe consequences he faced after disobeying God's word. We then contrast this with Peter and his denial of Jesus Christ.  Peter's leadership story shows us that the grace of God is available for us today and something that Christian leaders could rely upon to sustain the presence of God.

Transcript

We're going to talk about Saul King Saul, the first king of Israel, anointed by God, by the Prophet Samuel to rule over Israel. Saul was a man who was handsome. He was tall, he was maybe respected. We don't know. The Bible doesn't tell us that much more about him other than about his physical appearance. And at that time, the people of Israel were demanding an earthly king. They had enough of judges, they had enough of judges who ruled and reigned over them and did things that were abhorrent judges who stole from them, robbed from them, and judges who were basically sold out and they had enough of it. And even the last set of judges were supposed to be good judges, right? They were the sons of the prophet Samuel, but they too were corrupt. And Samuel was old. He was of advanced age. And they looked around to other nations and saw that other nations had judges, not judges, they had kings. 

And they said, we want a king. Give us a king like an earthly king, like the other nations around us. We want an earthly king. And Samuel was offended by this Samuel thought, but wait a minute, here I am the man of God who has a direct line, a direct connection to God, a direct ear of God. I have God's ear, and I'm his mouthpiece, and you're demanding and earthly king. And he was offended. And God said to him, they have not rejected you. They rejected me. And let's heeded to the voice of these people. Tell them that the king that they're going to have will oppress them. The king will take from them. The king will put them in an army and oppress them, and then hear what they have to say about that, about my word. And as Samuel told the children of Israel what was going to go down with an earthly king and what life would be like under the rule of an earthly king, they said, fine. We're okay with that. Give us an earthly king. And then God chose Saul, a benjamite who was humble. And Saul took on that new role, that amazing responsibility of leading the children of Israel, knowing that they had the history that they had 

At that time with strong leaders like Moses and Joshua. And they had miraculous, miraculous moves of God over the years through the wilderness and the fall of Jericho, the pardon of the Red Sea. They had so many miraculous moves of God over the years. And here he was just a man put in this position of ruling and reigning over the children of Israel. And just to fast forward this a bit, because really what I want to speak with you about is the grace of God and how the grace of God is the most powerful, powerful, spiritual tool that we have. And here's what happened with Saul, the first king of Israel. Saul became corrupt in his thinking, corrupt in his mind, paranoid, a little bit paranoid, not really handling this position as well as he thought that he could have handled it. Saul disobeyed God, Saul disobeyed God. 

Not one time, not two times, but three times. He disobeyed God. And on that third, third disobedience, the Lord said to Samuel, I repent. I regret having made Saul King. I regret it. Look what he has done. He has disobeyed me. And Samuel told him that because Saul had rejected the word of the Lord, the Lord has rejected him as king and has placed the kingdom in someone else's hands. David was going to be that one to follow Saul and friends, when I think about that, I think, wow, that was so harsh. Lord, why did you reject him in such a way? Why did you take the kingdom away from him? I mean, he didn't really mean any harm with his level of disobedience. He thought he was doing the right thing. Although he said, well, he was fearful of men. And he basically bowed to that fear and allowed men to dictate what he would or would not do. 

And he acknowledged that. Isn't that enough? God, isn't that enough that he acknowledged his faults and his sin, and he repents of it, and he is asking for forgiveness. And as I thought about these questions, friends, it occurred to me that, well, it would've been very harsh of God to just completely cut Saul off from the first sin completely. But he didn't do that. He gave him more chances to continue along and to observe him, to observe his level of obedience going forward. And it had to end at some point. God had to remove himself and his anointing from Saul at some point because Saul was given the great responsibility of leading the people of Israel, leading the children of Israel. And it was so critical that he obeyed every word and instruction of almighty God in order to lead the children of Israel because they had a part to play in history, the history of mankind. 

They were a central, central part of God's story, central part. And God could not afford for a leader to get this wrong. Now, of course, there were leaders over the years in Israel's history who have obviously gotten it wrong and the kingdom was destroyed. People were scattered to other nations, and they were oppressed and dominated by many different nations over the years. And they were punished and they were exiled. And there's so much to their story, of course. But in the context of Saul, I have to believe that God felt like it was too important of a job to mess up to whom much is given, much is expected, much is required. But now when you think about it, fast forward to the New Testament. Fast forward to Peter, the rock, Peter, who denied Jesus Christ three times on the night that he was taken into custody by Roman soldiers. 

Peter turned away from the Lord who he swore he would never turn away from. And yet Peter remained the rock. And upon this church, upon Peter was the church of God built. And it tells me, guys, that the grace of God came through Jesus Christ. John said it that the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. And it is that grace that covered Peter in his sin, his denial of Christ and everything else that was to transpire over the course of history with Peter, his ups and downs. He was a complicated man, but he loved Christ. He loved God, and he was faithful nonetheless. And it is the grace of God, that favor that comes from God through Jesus Christ that allowed Peter to stand up tall and proclaim the gospel even after fail in Christ when Christ needed him the most. 

The grace of God came through Jesus Christ. And it is that grace that's covers us today. It is that grace that we could rely on today when we fall, when we falter, when we fall short, when we behave like Saul, when we think, when we try to do things our own way, when we try to twist and turn what God wants us to do and say, we do it differently, we do it partly correct, and then we justify or rationalize the reasons why we couldn't fully perform or couldn't fully obey him. We rationalize things. And then God still says to us, arise, get up. Pick up that mic. Speak for my glory. Tell them about me. Tell them about my grace. You are forgiven. You are healed. You are still my daughter. You are still my son. You are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people fit to be called children of God. 

That's who you are. And you are sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise. And nothing will ever, never, ever separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus, our Lord. And so the lesson from Saul King Saul today is that God rejected Saul in his position of leadership and withdrew his presence and grace from Saul. Saul remained the king, but he was void of God's presence, void of God's anointing, void of God's word. Samuel departed left him and no longer delivered that timely and crucial word of God in times of need. Saul could not get the word of God to know what to do. He had no wisdom anymore. It was gone. He was still reigning. He was still king, but he had no wisdom, no presence of God, no anointing and no relationship with God anymore. And guys, it is possible to be in a position of leadership or a position of power or influence, and no longer have the presence of God with you to carry you, to guide you, to give you wisdom, to give you instructions. 

It is possible to be in that position of leadership and be void of God's presence and relationship and friendship. Let that not be us. Let's put and prioritize the relationship with God first as leaders. Let's put God first. In our lead-in and in our business and in our ministry, God has to come first and let that priority be yours today. And the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ will be exceedingly great towards you.