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february 6, 2021 saturday sabbath night winter blind camp meeting
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this is for february 6, 2021 saturday sabbath night winter blind camp meeting
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Transcript
Welcome & Introduction
00:00:13
Speaker
Greetings folks, and now I present... Winter Blind Camp's Sabbath Night Meeting recorded February 6, 2021.
00:01:07
Speaker
Audio starts now.
Howard Myers' Vietnam Story
00:01:09
Speaker
We'd like to welcome you to the 2021 Winter Camp Meeting for the Blind and Physically Challenged. We are very blessed tonight. We're going to have Howard Myers give his testimony on how the Lord has blessed him in his life. He was a Vietnam vet and was blinded in Vietnam.
00:01:34
Speaker
Right now we're going to show a little bit of video of part of his life.
00:02:57
Speaker
In 1966, a young man only 21 years old and newly married was sent off to fight in Vietnam. Like many others fighting, he was fit, vibrant, and filled with hopes and dreams of a bright future. But on April 26, 1967, the explosion of a landmine made his visions go very long.
Achievements Despite Blindness
00:03:18
Speaker
My name is Howard Myers. I am a blinded Vietnam veteran. This is my story.
00:03:26
Speaker
blind vision.
00:03:48
Speaker
Upon returning home, Howard faced depression and the fear of the unknown. After his rehabilitation, he found himself searching for a job and a way to fit back into society. Through a newspaper article written about his loss of sight and search for employment, he was hired by Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company.
00:04:05
Speaker
In July of 1969, his first contract year, he became the number two sales agent in the United States. The following year, he was awarded the Oscar salesmanship at Detroit's Ford Auditorium in front of 5,000 people. Within two years, Howard had succeeded in his new career as a blind man in a sighted industry, but he did not stop there. I always believed after I lost my eyesight that I wanted to continue living
00:04:33
Speaker
in a sighted world as much as I possibly could. Water skiing was always one of my interests and playing golf and running and lifting weights. And I've tried to live in a sighted world as much as I possibly can with the limitations I have of having to live in darkness.
00:04:57
Speaker
Unbeknownst to Howard, his love of running would become much more influential and inspiration to thousands. As director of the Krim Ten Mile Road Race, I received a call in 1983 from a man named Howard Meyer telling me that he was a Vietnam vet who had been blinded in the war and that he firmly believed he could run the Krim Ten Mile or
Inspiration Through Sports & Family
00:05:24
Speaker
if he were tethered to another runner. It was fascinating, you know, the courage of this man and the fact that he believed that he could do this for the Special Olympians was very impressive. He wanted to be tethered to Bobby D. Krim, who was the speaker of the Michigan House of Representatives, which really meant that Bobby would not be able to train with him practically until the day of the race.
00:05:50
Speaker
On days when we couldn't get anybody over there to train, I found out that Howard was hanging onto the doorknob of his family car while his wife drove him up and down country roads.
00:06:02
Speaker
When I saw him coming down the chutes, they were both totally exhausted. And it almost looked like they were dragging each other. But they collapsed in each other's arms after they crossed the finish line. You just got the impact of what kind of courage and what kind of problems they had had out there on that course. It was inspiring. Howard has influenced the crimp in so many different ways.
00:06:27
Speaker
Besides the thousands and thousands and thousands of dollars that he has raised in pledge dollars, we have actually, in Special Olympics, been able to introduce year-round training and year-round competition because of people like Howard. But the spirit that he has given this race, and he is the crim, it's very, very difficult to think of the crim and not think of Howard.
00:06:51
Speaker
I'll tell you, it's the most fantastic thing that ever happened to me. As Bobby said, I felt great at first five and got through the hills, great. And then about the six and seven mile mark as heat started to hit me, and Bobby just kept saying, you got it, Howard. And I kept believing it. And we finished. And I just thank God for it. I'll tell you, he's the guy that inspires me and a lot of other people. And I'm so happy about what's happened to this race. It's going to be the biggest one we've had, both in money and people. And it's a big one for me to run with a guy like Howard Myers, I'll tell you.
00:07:22
Speaker
Howard had another blind vision to run on his own. He prayed for an answer. I met Howard in 1987 when we bought our house and we moved in there. The inspiration for the track probably come from early childhood experiences. My father had a friend that was virtually the same situation. He was a blinded veteran from a land mine in World War II.
00:07:43
Speaker
And I observed him in the different things he did with the wires and how he would move around his property and work his farm. I've watched Howard run along many times when I was out walking around in my property as it's right next door. And for me, it's an inspiration for me to see what he can do. And it makes me feel good that I can help him get something back that was taken away from him.
00:08:09
Speaker
While Howard has inspired people from far and wide, it was in his own home that the impact was greatest. His family and friends. Howard and I have been married for 36 years. I have always viewed him as an ordinary man who chooses to do extraordinary things. Over the years I found there's not much he can't do except drive. And he's been known to do that on occasion.
00:08:37
Speaker
He is the love of my life, my life's partner and my best friend. He's taught me that if you think you can do something and if you put your mind to it, you can definitely achieve it. I looked over and I said, tell me something kid, what's in it for you? Running with an old guy and she looked back at me and smiled and she said, you're my best friend.
00:09:01
Speaker
My dad Howard is a really big inspiration. He means a lot to me in my life. I'm glad that he's always been there for me and my kids. Truly is a really great person. Very honored to know him. I love him and he's my hero. You know, hopefully one day I can grow up and be the half the man he is. You know, he's just very inspirational and I guess he's never really let me down.
00:09:26
Speaker
So I guess this is a little thing I can do on my behalf to, you know, show my appreciation and love for him. Dad's influenced my life in many ways. The one thing that I've really learned from Dad is that circumstances don't define you, but the way that you choose to look at him does. And while you can't choose your circumstances, you can always choose your attitude towards them. And he's been an amazing example of
Philosophy of 'Blind Vision'
00:09:56
Speaker
perseverance, determination, and courage.
00:10:33
Speaker
He's always taught me to be a blessing to others, to live life on purpose, to take inventory of your blessings, to live above your circumstances. He truly is my hero. People use that word lightly, but he truly is my hero. The world is a better place because he's in it.
00:10:55
Speaker
My father's influenced my life in so many ways. One day I just made a decision that I was going to live like my father. And I started a business. And I'm a life success consultant. My vision for my company and for my life is to help people find their purpose and their vision and their goals.
00:11:18
Speaker
Watching my father live in this physical world through spiritual eyes has just greatly influenced me and given me a tremendous belief system. And I believe together my father and I are going to do some amazing things and we're going to inspire a lot of people. I just thank him so much for being an inspiration to not only me but to everybody he comes in contact with.
00:11:46
Speaker
Very inspirational to everybody. Yes, he's my hero. Although Howard's accomplishments are more than anyone could have imagined, there is more for Howard to do in order to fulfill his blind vision. Blind vision means to me having a bigger picture of life. I live in my mind now and I live in my mind in the way of
00:12:14
Speaker
knowing and believing and visualizing and having affirmations every day of what I want to bring into my world. And by focusing on that, it allows me to see the results. I hope that I've influenced my family and all other people that I come in contact with to believe that they can have anything that they want.
00:12:38
Speaker
if you're just willing to believe that enough and stay focused on it. I see the future as really a bright future in the sense that my son Chad and I have this vision of giving seminars to people in all walks of life.
00:12:59
Speaker
and inspiring them to go after what they want to go after and to have anything that they want in life if they're willing to develop some principles to help them get there. And I'll see you at the top because I believe that life has no limits.
Career Highlights & Empowerment
00:13:38
Speaker
Praise the Lord. I'm calling Jennifer and Howard right now. Hello there. Can you hear me? Good. How's this coming through the system? Can you hear Howard? Can you turn Howard up a little bit?
00:14:15
Speaker
Talk a little bit, Howard. Hi. Good evening for being cold. OK, good. It's good and cold today, isn't it? Yes, it is. What'd you say? Yes, it is, I said. OK. The PA guy was saying, you can use the hand mic. I was putting it up to the other mic. But now it's working pretty good, I think, now.
00:14:44
Speaker
Can you hear me okay? Very well. Very well. Okay. Okay. I'm going to turn to that bio now and I'll read that and then I'll turn the whole thing over to you, Howard. Okay. After I read this.
00:15:09
Speaker
Well, you don't have to if you don't want to, but. I do. OK, good. Howard Myers is a motivational speaker inspired in audiences from small churches, congregations, to large conferences with thousands of attendants. He is the founder of the Blind Vision, a company that provides coaching, workshops, and training in personal empowerment, nonprofit organizations,
00:15:38
Speaker
veterans, groups, schools, churches, and companies in multiple industries have asked Howard to bring his message of hope and encouragement to audiences in every walk of life. Howard had a career as a multi-million dollar insurance producer
00:16:04
Speaker
Or who? Just so happened to be blind how are finished number two in the nation's among rookie agents as a career life insurance agent for mass mutual how are is a a former
00:16:23
Speaker
a national lives leader and winner of the Oscar of Salesmanship, where he spoke to a crowd of 3,000 at Ford Theater with the late Paul Harvey. Howard is a publisher, author, and semi-retired independent insurance agent. Howard may have lost his sight, but never lost his vision.
00:16:50
Speaker
He enjoyed a very active lifestyle, resided in Michigan with his wife of 45 years, Debbie. He is a member of the Bobby Krim Hall of Fame, an avid runner, a family man, a father, a fore, and grandfather of seven. Oh, he's a father of four, I'm sorry, and a grandfather of seven.
00:17:20
Speaker
Now it's your turn, Howard.
Reflections on Vietnam & Resilience
00:17:24
Speaker
Thank you, Larry, for that kind introduction and for those warm remarks. When I was listening to you read my bio, it reminded me so much of the Vietnam era in my life. And I was sent over to Vietnam to fight in a war that I had no idea
00:17:47
Speaker
what I was fighting for or who the enemy was. I remember crawling up on a TWA flight with 200 other soldiers and being sent off to Vietnam. We flew from Fort Dix, New Jersey to San Francisco to Hawaii to Okinawa and then into Vietnam. Having a window to see
00:18:15
Speaker
I glanced out of the window as we were approaching the runway and I said to myself, self, is there really a war going on down there in that beautiful country that I am viewing? And as I was exiting the plane after we landed, reality started to set in.
00:18:39
Speaker
when they handed me an M16 rifle, magazines of ammunition, and loaded me up onto an army vehicle to drop me off at a holding camp until I was assigned to the company I was going to be with. The day that I got sent over to a place called Kuchi, my company was going out on a 70-day search and destroy mission.
00:19:08
Speaker
and I was part of that. I was assigned to the 50 caliber machine gun and was sent out to look for the enemy to destroy them or them destroy us. It was quite interesting as a young man, 20 years old, fighting for his life, thinking about people shooting at him and I
00:19:38
Speaker
I think back on that morning that we came out of the jungles of Vietnam and how being new in the country, I remembered in ambush school, they taught us not to pull in shaded areas because that's typically where the enemy plants, the land mines. I remember these words coming out of my mouth as I'm undoing my chin strap on my steel pot.
00:20:08
Speaker
Lonnie Cranford from Asheville, North Carolina, the driver. And I said, Lonnie, don't. I never finished my sentence. The explosion took place. My baby blues was gone forever. My life was changed forever. I remember being lifted off of the armored personal carrier and put onto a stretcher.
00:20:36
Speaker
And I heard a helicopter fly in, assuming to take the injured, to fetal hospitals, which I was obviously one of them. Last thing I remember going to a fetal hospital was a needle going in the back of my hand to be put out to be treated for my injuries. When I awoke, and I don't know if it was three hours or three days,
00:21:04
Speaker
I reached up to feel of my face, double patches on both eyes, my nose blown loose on both sides and stitched up, a hole in my leg and arm. And I started screaming and crying and yelling, what's happened to me? And finally, after a period of time,
00:21:28
Speaker
Some people came around and got me calmed down so they could explain to me as much as they could what had happened to me. I remember when I left the hospital being sent to a place called Hines Blind Rehabilitation. And once I got there, reality started to set in again.
00:21:58
Speaker
And what happened is that they pulled the patches off of my eyes. My heart was pounding just to know whether or not I was going to be able to see anymore because no one had told me after being home for almost six weeks that I was going to be a totally blind person and have to live in a dark world, learn how to live in a dark world. They pulled the patches off and my heart was pounding.
00:22:28
Speaker
And they said, Howard, we're going to have to make you prosthesis for your eyes. I said, what are you talking about? They said, we have to make you artificial eyes because you don't have any eyes anymore. Private first class Howard. They had to cut them out because of the damage that was done to them over in Vietnam.
00:22:54
Speaker
After I, and oh by the way, they said, you had to go through 18 weeks of blind rehabilitation, learning all over again how to live in a dark world. After leaving the blind center after 18 weeks, I found myself sitting home and I joined the local health spa. In doing so,
00:23:23
Speaker
They encouraged me to have an article written about me about my loss of sight in search for a job. And then a Nike article appeared. The phone rang, and on the other end was a gentleman by the name of Denny Floatin. Denny was the assistant general agent of the Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company at that time. And I have to be very honest with you, admit. And I told Denny this when he called me that night.
00:23:54
Speaker
My attitude was quite negative. So I told him I'd never heard of his company. And I thought he's coming out and talking to me would be a waste of his time. He kind of chuckled on the other end of the phone and says, that's quite all right, Howard. My company's never heard of you either. And if you admit all the things that you had said in his newspaper article that talking to me would not be a waste of his time,
00:24:25
Speaker
To make a long story short, I was the first life insurance blind person to go to work for the eighth largest company in the United States. And I was fortunate enough to be quite successful because I had someone that believed in me until I was able to believe in myself. This didn't float. They give out what they call a Freshman's Vibe Award.
00:24:54
Speaker
with your first contract in the business. And the contract is based on the number of lives that you wrote, the commissions that you earned, and the volume that you wrote in your contribution to the community. And I was extremely fortunate to have people believe in me and give me an opportunity. I ended up number two in the United States in my first contract year with this company.
00:25:26
Speaker
I don't know who gave me this prayer, but this prayer was handed to me 50-some years ago. And I'd like to share it with you and give a testimony at this time. The prayer is the prayer of St. Francis. It's a Catholic prayer. But it starts out by saying, Lord, allow me to be an instrument of your peace. For there's hatred, so shall we love.
00:25:56
Speaker
Isn't it fantastic that we still live in a world that people can worship as they choose, regardless of their race, their color, or their nationality? The second verse of the prayer that I live by on a daily basis is, where there's darkness light. I go to bed in darkness every night. I wake up in darkness every morning.
00:26:24
Speaker
But I choose to live in the light. And living in the light means this to me. Choosing an attitude of gratitude. One of asking how and who may I serve and show an act of kindness to to look for the good in all things and all people starting with myself. Doubt in faith. Doubt is an emotion.
00:26:52
Speaker
Faith is a decision. And where there is injury, pardon. I learned early on in life, it's not what people do to you or against you. It's how you choose to respond to them at the end of the day. And it truly is between you and your Baker. Where there's joy, peace.
00:27:19
Speaker
We as God's children have available to us at any time of our calling and asking all of God's love, all of Jesus Christ's love, his son, and all of the courage and unconditional love that he offers all of us. In closing, I'd simply like to say this, that the day I came out of the jungle of Vietnam,
00:27:48
Speaker
on that machine gun and the lights went out. I might have lost my eyesight that day, but I do not believe for a moment that I lost my vision. My vision to be, do, and have anything I want in life with the right attitude and the right belief system. And so can each and every one of you out there listening to my story.
00:28:17
Speaker
Thank you and God bless you for allowing me to share my story with you. And God bless you America that we still live in.
Spiritual Reflections & Music
00:28:25
Speaker
Thank you. Thank you so much, Carol Howard. Thank you for sharing that with us. We appreciate it so much.
00:28:46
Speaker
Well, it's enjoyable to have this opportunity to share my story with people that I know love and care for me. Thank you. If you want to continue to look at the rest of our program, you have our site there that you can tune into if you want to. And we appreciate it so much. And I'll be talking to you soon.
00:29:13
Speaker
Okay. Thanks Larry. Thank you very much Howard. I know. Okay. I think maybe we can have our, our theme song right now and then we'll have their message for the evening. Um, okay.
00:29:55
Speaker
Look upon Jesus, sinless is he. Father impute his life unto me. My life of scarlet, my sin and war.
00:30:18
Speaker
Covered with his life, wider than snow Covered with his life, wider than snow Fullness of his life, then shall I know My life of scarlet, my sin and woe
00:31:07
Speaker
Well, I've had a good day and I really appreciate what Howard had to say.
00:31:16
Speaker
The blind campers that I've met at blind camps through the years, many of them lost their sight but didn't lose their vision. Hallelujah. I love that. That is so right. Well, I had a good time up in Midland this morning talking about Enoch again. But today, this evening, we're going to look at Samuel. We're down to the wire. This is that verse that says, time would fail me to tell of.
00:31:46
Speaker
And Samuel is one of the ones in that list. Samuel is a very significant character in the Old Testament. Samuel comes as kind of the climax, the after the rest of the judges, then we get Samuel. He functions in many ways as a judge. He also functions as a priest and he's a prophet. In fact, in the Hebrew scriptures,
00:32:15
Speaker
The former prophets are what you find, that's where Samuel's listed. The later prophets are the ones that we find we call the major and the minor prophets. So he's, before the monarchy, essentially, Samuel's story has to begin with his mama. As most stories do, most of us begin with a mama, and some mamas are really, really powerful.
00:32:44
Speaker
Ah, Hannah, grace of God, Hannah, was a barren woman, and she felt so bad. Now, in today's society, it can be embarrassing, problematic, difficult for a person to not have any children, but it's only a shadow of how serious it was in Hannah's day. One of the reasons, I believe, that Al Cana
00:33:14
Speaker
picked up a second wife was because Hannah couldn't have any children. And children were essential, both for men and for women in that society. After all, that's the only social security program you had in that society. If you get old and don't have somebody to take care of you, then you just die.
Biblical Narratives & Lessons
00:33:33
Speaker
But if you get old and have children, they can help take care of you. I know somewhat that still happens today, but we've got government that says they'll step in. And they do some. Hannah was very sad not having children. And you read the story and you say, hubby, you just don't get it. Now, Cana, her husband,
00:34:01
Speaker
He tries to tell her when she's being teased by this second wife about not having children. And he says, well, aren't I as precious to you as 10 sons? No. You're merely a husband. I don't want a child. And so he didn't get it. So we have the story there in first chapter of first Samuel.
00:34:24
Speaker
Hannah goes to the temple. They would go to Jerusalem at least annually for Passover or some of the other feasts and she leaves the feast without eating anything and she goes to the temple and she's pouring her soul out to God. Her lips are moving and the agony on her face is very clearly expressed, but she's not saying any words out loud. Well, it's okay to pray silently and
00:34:54
Speaker
Some prayers just aren't appropriate to utter out loud. And of course, Eli, the high priest at the time,
00:35:02
Speaker
saw this woman moving her lips and agonizing in prayer. And he thought she was a drunk. She was that exercised as she was praying. And so he rebuked her as if she was a drunk woman. And she turned with fearful eyes to Eli and she says, Oh, sir, I'm not drunk. I'm praying to God for something that's very near and dear to me.
00:35:29
Speaker
And Eli, without even asking what she was praying for, he said, may the Lord bless you with an answer to your prayer. And she took that as a promise. And sure enough, she got pregnant. Part of her prayer was a promise to God that if you give me a son, I will give him back to you. I will bring him to the temple and dedicated him to you. That's a bold commitment.
00:36:01
Speaker
They did have a son, Samuel, and she did give him to the temple when he was weaned. Now, that's an ambiguous phrase. How old is a child weaned? Well, you keep your ears open and you'll find that some children get weaned at one month. My mother tended to wean us at about nine months, but some babies get nursed until they're two or three years old.
00:36:31
Speaker
Now, let me tell you a story that I learned in Kentucky when I was pastoring in Western Kentucky. This little lady, a member of my church, she was probably 30 or 40 years my senior, but she told me that when she was going to kindergarten, she would go home at noon for lunch at her mother's breast.
00:36:55
Speaker
So how old is somebody weaned? Well, if you do some global research, you'll find that the age is quite broad. And in some countries, the next child that comes, if it's too soon, the mother will say, I'm not even feeding the new baby. I'm going to keep feeding the old one because I want them to survive. And I can't expect to be able to keep them both alive.
00:37:22
Speaker
I suspect he was probably between three and seven when he was weaned. And he may have been a bit older than that when he was taken to the temple, but I'm picturing that one of those single digit elementary years, first grade, second grade age, is probably when he went to the temple. Moses was 12. Remember, we looked at that earlier. Moses was 12 when he was taken from his family home, but he was put into a pagan society. My, he had to be tough.
00:37:53
Speaker
Samuel was put to the temple where he would be reared by Eli, but well, Eli hadn't proven very good at raising kids. His boys were wicked, so wicked that later deeper in the story we find Eli's sons, Eli was told his boys would both die the same day as a sign that God was upset with them and with the idolatry that was happening in Israel.
00:38:21
Speaker
They entrusted their precious son to his care and keeping. Samuel was still a child when God started communicating with him as a prophet. That would be for Samuel 3 verse 9. Precious story. It starts a little earlier in the chapter. He's a boy here and they're sleeping at the temple.
00:38:48
Speaker
He and Eli, Eli has his own bedroom and Samuel, it sounds like he's staying in, perhaps even in the holy place of the tabernacle. They're very close to where God is supposed to be dwelling among his people.
00:39:06
Speaker
Verse four, the Lord called Samuel and Samuel answered, here I am. And he ran to Eli. We find that three times God calls to him. He runs to Eli and Eli says, go back to bed. I didn't call you. And then finally, Eli recognizes, son, next time you get the call, say, speak, Lord, for thy servant hereth.
00:39:29
Speaker
That's verse 10. Well, verse 9 is where Eli tells him to listen, and verse 10 is when God comes and speaks, and Samuel answers, speak, your servant is listening, and he listened, and he got his ears full. God said that things were going to get so bad that when people heard the story, both ears would burn. Well, that's quite a story. And when both ears are burning, you know you're hearing things that you didn't want to hear.
00:40:01
Speaker
Eli, of course, insisted that Samuel tell him everything that God had told him. And Samuel says, I really don't want to tell you this. God tells prophets to speak his mind, God's mind to people who don't want to hear these things. And he says to the prophet, you must tell the story accurately.
00:40:27
Speaker
And Samuel did, a little boy saying, grandpa, uncle, priest, Eli, he had a lot of respect for Eli. Eli was the high priest and Samuel was the little boy and he was helping in the temple and he was
00:40:46
Speaker
looking up with great awe to this priest. And he said, God told me that your boys are going to die. It's going to be really sad. And Eli said, well, they deserve it. God is just. I can trust him. He's very sad. The story moves on. Samuel is
00:41:07
Speaker
We believe that Samuel probably wrote much of the book of Samuel, that he may have been the author of that. And he's very modest. He doesn't tell his story to make himself look good, which is appropriate.
00:41:22
Speaker
But Samuel had to feel the demand for a king. Israel said, we want a king. We want to be just like the rest of the nations around us. And they have kings. We need a king. And Samuel was feeling very rejected, personally rejected because he knew that God was communicating through him to the people. And he thought, why?
00:41:48
Speaker
they're rejecting me. God said to him, Samuel, it's not you that they're rejecting. It's me that they're rejecting. They were turning their back on God who was their king and asking for a physical local king who would be selfish and mean and act in inappropriate ways.
00:42:14
Speaker
God told Samuel to explain to them exactly what they were asking for and Samuel did. He even read to them from Deuteronomy about the king and some people hadn't realized that God had made previous plans about this but God knew what was going to happen. Deuteronomy 17
00:42:40
Speaker
God said, when you decide you want a king, here's what he's going to do. Deuteronomy 17, we'll start with verse 14, but really the whole, the whole is important part of this. When you come to the land which the Lord your God is giving you and possess it and dwell in it and say, I will set a king over me like all the nations that are around me. You shall surely set a king over you when the Lord your God whom the Lord your God chooses.
00:43:10
Speaker
One from among your brethren, you shall set a king over you. You may not set a foreigner over you who is not your brother." And then God gave a number of things that the king was not supposed to do. When you read these things, you recognize, well, that's exactly what the, yeah, that's exactly what the kings did. You shall not multiply horses for himself, get a big army, get a lot of chariots. The stories are replete with the horses.
00:43:40
Speaker
Solomon was the first one to get a lot of horses, but yeah. Nor caused the people to return to Egypt to multiply horses. Verse 17, neither shall you multiply wives. Oh my. It was God's plan that husband and wife, a partnership, last for their whole life. And kings thought that since they had more money, they could afford more wives. And in many cultures, it's
00:44:09
Speaker
will have as many wives as you can afford. Well, I can only afford one, thank you very much. When we read the stories even in scripture about more than one wife, there's pain and suffering. And God knew that that arrangement would not be good. And God even said that when you get a king,
00:44:37
Speaker
He should write, and I believe it was either completely the book of Deuteronomy or perhaps all the first five books of the Bible, that the king was to hand copy his own set of scripture so that he would have his own copy, that he knew where the verses were so he could look them up and keep his mind fixed on God. That would have been a good thing. Not very many kings did it.
00:45:07
Speaker
Saul was the king that was chosen and God was involved in that choice. And Saul was, he was the kind of man that looked just exactly like what they wanted for a king. He was tall and there's some real science on this tallness. The scholars have done some statistical things and they see that for every inch of height,
00:45:37
Speaker
you make thousands more dollars in your lifetime. So somebody like you short, no wonder you're not making a lot of bucks. I'm looking at Randy. But there's some science on this, and Saul was tall. And so they said, oh, yeah, he looks like a king. And he acted like a king pretty well at first. But...
00:46:04
Speaker
Saul proved not very good at taking counsel. The king should always recognize that the priest has close connection with heaven and the priest, when he tells you what you should do, he's getting it from the Lord and you should follow his counsel. Saul didn't do that very well. Jabesh Gilead, he did okay. He heard about the attack against Jabesh Gilead.
00:46:34
Speaker
And he rallied the men and they came and they delivered Jabesh Gilead. That worked out okay. And after that, Samuel led in a recommitment of the people to Saul as a leader. But then time went by. He had a pretty small standing army, a couple thousand men. But when we get to the place called Mishmash,
00:47:01
Speaker
He's on one side of the ravine and the Philistines are on the other side of the ravine. And Saul just can't get his courage up to go and attack them. And finally, his son, Jonathan. Now, Jonathan was a leader. I believe Jonathan could have been an awesome king. Tall, handsome, leadership ability, intelligence. So many pluses with Jonathan.
00:47:29
Speaker
But when Saul got rejected, Jonathan got rejected, too. The story at Mishmas, 1 Samuel 14, there is a rule that you've got to remember. Leaders lead. That sounds so obvious. But somebody who is in a position of leadership may or may not choose to actually lead. Saul was the king, but he was not the leader.
00:48:00
Speaker
Jonathan recognized God's hand is not short to save by many or by few. We need to go and stir things up a bit. So he took his bodyguard, his armor bearer, his close buddy, they were friends, just the two of them, and they decide to sneak over to the Philistine camp and see what they can do.
00:48:23
Speaker
They go down the ravine from the Israeli side and they start talking and they say, you know, maybe we should ask God for a sign. We'll show ourselves so that the guards over there on the Philistine side, when they see us, if they say to us, come on up here, we'll take that as an indication from God that we should go up there and things will get stirred up in the right way. And so sure enough, the guards see him and they say, oh, look,
00:48:52
Speaker
Israelites are crawling out of their holes. Come on up here and we'll show you a thing." What they meant was, we'll kill you. And so Jonathan said to his armor bearer, that's the sign from heaven, let's go. And so they climbed up the rocky face and they were not seen. They snuck into camp. And once they got to camp, they pulled out their storage and started hacking and they're killing people left and right.
00:49:17
Speaker
And pretty soon there's a riot going on. The Philistines think that there's an army that has invaded them and they even start fighting each other. And pretty soon Saul says, oh, something happened over there. Let's go get involved. And it was a tremendous victory for Israel. Leaders lead. Jonathan was the leader at this time.
00:49:39
Speaker
The real crisis for Saul comes when God gives him some specific instructions. There were nations that had been attacking Israel that needed to be put in their place and God now having a kingdom
00:49:58
Speaker
and a king and an army, he says to Saul, this is what you need to do. You would think, when Saul gets a direct instruction from God, that he would obey it. He doesn't. I've turned to 1 Samuel 15. He was told to
00:50:23
Speaker
kill the Amalekites and particularly to kill King Agag. Well, he started killing this tribe of people and it was supposed to be genocide, but he was also supposed to kill all of their livestock. Well, some of these guys were farmers and they looked at some of these sheep and goats and cows and who knows what all else?
00:50:52
Speaker
And they say, well, these are really prime animals. Yeah, we shouldn't kill these. They're too good for us to kill. When God says do, you must do. You don't need to try and second guess. Well, surely, God, you don't. No, when God says do, you just do what he says. But they didn't. They did not. So Samuel confronts Saul.
00:51:21
Speaker
We're in 1st Samuel 15, verse 19, why did you not obey the voice of the Lord? Why did you swoop down on the spoil and do evil in the sight of the Lord? And Saul replied,
00:51:36
Speaker
hear this whiner, complainer, justifier, rather than admitting his sin and repenting, he starts making excuses. Well, but I have obeyed the voice of the Lord. I went on the mission on which the Lord sent me, and I brought back Agag king of Amlech. I have utterly destroyed the Amlechites. But the people, the people took of the plunder, the sheep, the oxen, the best of the things, which should have been utterly destroyed. They did it so they could sacrifice them to the God.
00:52:08
Speaker
I don't think they had in mind sacrifice. But even if they had, we want to use these for sacrifice so we can save our own so we don't have to sacrifice our own stuff to give a sacrifice. You see the selfishness here? It's pure selfishness. And he's justifying himself. Oh, he's in trouble. And my Bible prints this as poetry, as Samuel replies to him.
00:52:35
Speaker
and gives the judgment of heaven on Saul's sin. Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices? Is it an obeying, the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice and to heed than the fat of rams. Rebellion, verse 23, is as the sin of witchcraft. Stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the Lord,
00:53:05
Speaker
He also has rejected you from being king. Now, that's really strong words. Rebellion is witchcraft. Stubbornness is idolatry. When you look at it, you start saying, oh, it's self worship. I think I know more than God. I want to do it my way rather than what God said to do. Bad trouble. Bad trouble.
00:53:33
Speaker
Samuel confronted Saul with this. And Saul, of course, tries to repent. Oh my, I'm sorry, I've done the wrong thing. Please pardon my sin. Samuel says, no, I cannot go with you. Samuel said to Saul, verse 26, I will not return with you. You have rejected the word of the Lord and the Lord has rejected you from being king. Samuel turned around to go away and Saul
00:54:03
Speaker
grabbed him by the clothes. Now think about this. There are times when you do grab somebody by the clothes to stop them, to turn them around. You see children hanging onto their mother's skirts and she handles that graciously. But this is the king grabbing a hold of God's priest and stopping him from where he's going.
00:54:30
Speaker
And the providence of God as he grabbed the clothes of Samuel, Samuel's robe tore. Now, I don't know if the cloth was old. I don't know if God sent angels to do the tearing. I don't know if it was that Saul was so rough in grabbing the clothes, but the record is that the clothes tore. And Samuel, he didn't miss a beat. I mean, you think about these quick thinking people.
00:54:57
Speaker
In the inspiration of heaven, Samuel's answer is so strong. The Lord has torn the kingdom of Israel from you today and has given it to a neighbor of yours who is better than you. So Saul tore his clothes and Samuel says,
00:55:14
Speaker
You have torn and that's a sign God has torn the kingdom from your hand. Now it took years, decades before Saul actually lost the kingdom, but it was lost now. It was lost. I think that he could have repented. I think there may have been somewhat of a salvage, but
00:55:34
Speaker
He did not. He did not. He was, well, it said, his rebellion is a sin of witchcraft. You have gone so far that it's a long ways back for you. Of course, Samuel was devastated. He had been the one who had anointed Saul. He had been the one who had been trying to help Saul and God has said, you're not even talking to him anymore.
00:56:05
Speaker
And now Samuel's saying, what am I going to do? And finally God comes to him. This is chapter 16. Samuel, stop your crying. God can be so blunt sometimes. How long are you going to mourn for Saul? I've rejected him from reigning over Israel. Fill your horn with the anointing oil and go, I'm sending you to Jesse of Bethlehem. I have provided myself a king among his sons.
00:56:31
Speaker
Ah, well this introduces another part of the story, which we'll get into more tomorrow with David. But let me give you this part here because this is so much involved with Samuel. Samuel says, but God, this is a little scary. Saul will think I'm acting in a treasonous manner. Yeah, he would think it's treason to go and anoint another king while the stuck king on the throne. Of course that's treason.
00:56:58
Speaker
God's over this whole thing. And so, and so, Sammy says, I'm, I'm a little hesitant to do this. And God said, Oh, don't make a big deal of it. Just take a heifer with you and go to Bethlehem and tell everybody that you're there to do a sacrifice. And of course, while you're there doing the sacrifice, you'll find a quiet time when you can anoint the King I have in mind. Oh, okay. Okay. So he goes, he goes quietly, although wherever the high priest goes, people are paying attention.
00:57:27
Speaker
He arrives in Bethlehem. I can see the people of Bethlehem. Priest Samuel, what brings you here? Is this good? Ah, don't worry about it. I'm just here to offer sacrifice, get everybody ready, gather everybody. And I particularly want to see Jesse. Oh, Jesse's one of the leaders of the town. Yeah, Jesse, later on this afternoon, I need to be introduced to your boys. Oh, OK.
00:57:52
Speaker
So they do the sacrifice. I don't know exactly how it went, but it was a solemn and special worship experience for everybody. And I can picture them. Now they've retired to Jesse's house. And Samuel says, Jesse.
00:58:09
Speaker
I need to meet your boys because God has chosen one of them. I don't think he told Jesse what God has chosen one of them for, but if God has chosen one of your children, that's something to pop your buttons over, I tell you. This is special stuff. And so Jesse starts trotting out his boys. Well, the first one is named Eliab.
00:58:29
Speaker
And he's a big, tall, strong, healthy looking guy. He's been part of the military. And he's got this bearing. He looks good. And I can just see Saul reaching for this anointing oil. This looks like the one. And the firstborn, isn't God favoring the firstborn? Of course he does. And so, yeah, that's the one. He reaches in. Don't miss this. Memorize this verse. The Lord does not see as man sees. He's got vision.
00:58:59
Speaker
God's got vision. The Lord does not see his man sees. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart. So I can just see Samuel greeting, greeting in line and saying, you're a mighty fine boy. I'm sure your daddy's proud of you. And he nods and moves on. He's very,
00:59:20
Speaker
very affirmed to have the handshake, the blessing, the touch with the priest. And then comes Eminidab. Eminidab is also a part of the war effort. He's been in Saul's army and comes by Eminidab. And God doesn't give him any nudge. This isn't the one.
00:59:40
Speaker
So I've, I've got, I've got initials here. Okay. Um, Shama is the third one. God says no. And then Nathanael and then Radai and Ozam and then Eli who seven boys, Jesse parades in front of Samuel and Jesse's really feeling good. I've got seven sons, seven sons was considered enough of a complete family.
01:00:08
Speaker
And of course, there would be daughters too, but those aren't hardly even mentioned in the story. But these seven sons, beautiful, wonderful. And Samuel is saying, thank you. And then he realizes God has said none of these. I can see him turning to Jesse and saying, Jesse, have any other boys? Now we'll get into this in a bit more detail tomorrow, but I don't believe that David had been recognized as Jesse's son yet.
01:00:39
Speaker
I think Jesse knew that it was his son. Remember Psalm 51 verse five says in sin my mother conceived me. We'll talk about that tomorrow with David. I think Jesse had really not really admitted the sin that he had with David's mother.
01:00:55
Speaker
He was just kind of taking care of David and gave him a little job as a shepherd. I'll take care of the boy, but I really don't want to confuse my inheritance with putting this boy up. Sam says, do you have any other children? And I can see Jesse looking down at his feet, scratching his toes, and well, there's the kid. There's this one that I really wasn't wanting to talk about.
01:01:19
Speaker
There's this embarrassment from my sins of my past. I think the boy was probably getting supposed to be a teenager by now, maybe a full teenager, but still probably not even 16. Doesn't have his growth yet. There's the kid. He's out taking care of the sheep. My sister-in-law, when she wrote her book about David, she has Samuel saying, well, we're not going to eat until he's here.
01:01:48
Speaker
When David comes, when David comes, Samuel nods and says, OK, this is the one. And I believe that you read it here, and it's cryptic phrases. And some people swing on one side and some on the other. But knowing that to anoint David publicly would have been declared treasonous act, it would have implicated the whole family, the whole town. I really think that he
01:02:18
Speaker
took David into a private room and anointed him, and David was the only one who really knew what
Conclusion & Farewell
01:02:24
Speaker
had happened. The others could make some guesses, and we'll get into that more tomorrow. Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him from among his brothers, and the Spirit of the Lord came upon David from that day forward. Samuel rose and went back home. Now, the good news about this, and that's probably where we're going to leave it tonight,
01:02:48
Speaker
David heeded the voice of Samuel. David was quick to listen to Samuel and asked Samuel for advice and counsel and guidance. Samuel, I believe, lived to be more than a hundred years old and David treasured him throughout the rest of his life. I believe God is still looking today for men and women, boys and girls who are willing to
01:03:17
Speaker
heed the voice of the Lord, people who want to honor God in all aspects of their lives. And so my invitation to you today is be found faithful.
01:03:29
Speaker
to the invitation of heaven, accept the grace that God wants to put into your life and live and love for Jesus. Oh, Lord, we love you. We thank you. We thank you for these stories of men and women of faith. Hannah's faith is an inspiration to us and the faithfulness of Samuel. We want to know you better, Lord, day by day and grow closer to you. We give you our lives and thank you in Jesus name. Amen.
01:04:30
Speaker
You have something for us Pam? I suppose I can sing.
01:04:39
Speaker
I always sing with my angels. So when you hear my voice, you have to hear my angels singing.
01:05:03
Speaker
And this is for all of us because I think this week has really been quaint and heart wrenching. And the name of the song that I'm going to sing is I Surrender All. All to Jesus, I surrender.
01:05:30
Speaker
All to Him I freely give I will ever love and trust Him In His presence daily live I surrender all I surrender all
01:05:57
Speaker
All to thee, my blessed Savior, I surrender all. All to Jesus, I surrender. Now I feel the sacred flame.
01:06:21
Speaker
Oh, the joyful salvation, glory, glory to his name. I surrender all. I surrender all. All to thee, my blessed Savior.
01:06:52
Speaker
I surrender all. Amen. Well, we'll see you at 7 o'clock in the morning, and you have a good night.
01:07:41
Speaker
Mike on. That's all for now. Goodbye.