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| Lesson - February 5, 2005
Love is Not Resentful Pastor Brad Johnson It's good to be back with you and with your group here in session 7. You guys have all hung in together in all these sessions and I'm trusting that the sessions are going well. In this session on "Overcoming
Resentment", we're going to look at the powerfully destructive
force that resentment can play in our lives. Which
often looks like, feels like, smells like, acts like bitterness in
our life. Now, this is really just a small slice
of King Saul's life in the Old Testament. That's
where we're going to study. Although this is only
one aspect of this famous man's life, certainly not a full character
study on him at all. This aspect of resentment
actually unfolds over the course of many chapters in The Bible.
We'll just scroll through these moments in Saul's life in 1
Samuel chapters 1 to 31. Stage 1: A Divine appointment. (1Samuel 10: 1, 6, 23, 24) We see that in Chapter 10 that unfolds in several verses. This is the part of Saul's life where he's selected to be the first king of Isreal. Samuel, the great Old Testament prophet, pours oil over Saul, tells Saul that God has appointed him as King. God appointed him, that's pretty heavy stuff. Saul is promised here in these verses that The Holy Spirit will empower him to do all the tasks that he has to do as king. Stage 2: His dramatic ability. (1Samuel 10:9-10) It's just also a part of chapter 10 and other places in the Scriptures. It's just one example, but on this text, Saul began to prophesized, he began to preach in the power of the Holy Spirit. "the Spirit of God came upon him in power, and he joined in their prophesying" Many other instances are seen where he's obviously and dramatically displaying abilities that have come right from the Hand of God. Stage 3: Distinguished accomplishments. (1 Samuel 11: 1-2, 6-11; 14:47) You read this span of Scriptures and you discover that Saul was a mighty man of courage, he had military acumen, he was a fierce warrior, a defender of the nation that he ruled, "After Saul had assumed rule over Israel, he fought against their enemies on every side: Moab, the Ammonites, Edom, the kings of Zobah, and the Philistines. Wherever he turned, he inflicted punishment on them." Now, up to this point, all is well. The Divine appointment, the dramatic ability, the distinguished accomplishments. But things started going South when Saul's abilities and accomplishments begin to make him think that he knew how to lead the nation and lead his own life better than God did. It got him in big trouble. Stage 4: Disobedient actions. (1 Samuel 15: 2-3, 19-21) In one particular battle, God gave specific instruction to totally destroy a city, all the people, all the animals, complete annihilation, and not keep any of the plunder. Now we read the story, and Saul spared the king of that city and spared some of his army, and he kept much of the plunder, the animals, the money, the things of worth, the people, "Why did you not obey the Lord? Why did you pounce on the plunder and to evil in the eyes of the Lord?" He clearly did not follow God's very specific commands, ignored God's Word. That leads to stage 5. Stage 5: Devastating announcement (1 Samuel 15:22, 23) Samuel comes on the scene again, that great preacher and prophet and he said to Saul that God had desired Saul's complete obedience but he said that Saul, because you rebelled, and in the Hebrew, that was a strong, strong word. Because you rebelled, because you rejected God's Word, His command, you don't get to be king for much longer, "For rebellion is like the sin of divination, and arrogance like the evil of idolatry. Because you have rejected the Word of the Lord, He has rejected you as king." That's devastating! All that leads to stage 6. Stage 6: Dangerous attitude (1 Samuel 16:1, 17-22; 18:6-16; 19:1) This is where the resentment piece comes in. Samuel is instructed to go out and to anoint the one who would become the next king. Now, if you know this part of biblical history, there's a fascinating selection process where by David, is chosen to be the next king. During the following months, David rises in prominence as military hero and something of a superstar for the people of Isreal. That's when Saul's resentment started. Imagine the scene, Saul's chariot rumbled through the village and the people on the streets sang a folk song with the lyric, "Saul has slain his thousands" and the people are cheering. Then David's chariot comes through the village, right behind Saul, and the people sing verse 2, which Saul hears, "but David has slain his ten thousands". And the women were dancing with tambourines and all was festive and Saul was pouting. He's resentful that life isn't going the way that he wanted. He's resentful that David is getting better press. Bottom line, Saul is resentful towards God. The situation reaches its critical mass, when Saul told his son, Jonathan and all his attendants, to kill David, "Saul told his son Jonathan and all the attendants to kill David…." Let me ask you a question: How bad can resentment get? Scroll through the text here, chapters 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24 you find Saul chasing David, pursuing David, hunting David, trying to kill David. Two times in that range of chapters, David had the chance to kill Saul, but he spared his life. The rest of Saul's life can be summarized by the words, "Resentment and Bitterness". Remember, I told you that there are 7 stages in Saul's life, I've only given you 6 so far. The final is stage 7. Stage 7: Death arrived (1 Samuel 31:2-6) A battle scene is described, it's horrific. Already, Saul's 3 sons had fallen dead on the battlefield. Saul was running but overtaken by archers who wounded him critically. Saul had a little bit of military pride left. He doesn't want to be killed by the enemy and have them gloat over, who killed the king. So Saul asked his armor-bearer to kill him. But the young man refuses, he's afraid. So Saul takes his own sword and falls over the blade, "So Saul and his three sons and his armor-bearer and all his men died together that same day." The end of a dynasty. The end of the life of a man who was never able to conquer his own resentment for David. I know that we covered a lot of ground quickly. We touched on dozens and dozens of verse by way of summary. So, let's just slow the pace for a few minutes and think together, through this story, at a deeper level. Do you see the elements, or the big theme that are related to Saul's resentment and bitterness? Let me just name a couple: One thing would have to be his disobedience to God. You might add a detour in life's road, something that didn't go the way that he thought it should or God's decisions didn't stack up with Saul's expectations. Saul was disappointed and disappointment often leads to resentment. There's something else here, if we dig a bit and ponder this together. Would you agree that Saul's diminished success was a factor? All the while, David's success was growing. Yeah, I think so. When we see others prospering or advancing or succeeding and we feel stuck in a season of loss, that's fertile ground for resentment to breed. I had a man weeping in confession one time and he said, "Life had always said yes to me." But then through a series of set-backs, this man's life had begun to sour, he was resentful. There's one more to list before we go forward: Displeasure towards others. Most of the time, resentful people or bitter people, point their finger toward God or some other person as the cause of their resentment. But the honest reality remains, resentment remains within me because I choose to let it stay. Let's say that out loud as a group, "Resentment remains within me because I choose to let it stay. " Now, think about Saul's life, did anyone force Saul to react the way he did? No! Resentment was a choice. Now, don't misunderstand, there was much to this story that Saul could not control. He could not stop God from removing him as king. He couldn't change the approval rating of David from among the people. He couldn't escape from the pursuing army on the day he died. Still, Saul had 2 major choices: ~~Will I obey God fully or ~~Will I react badly when life doesn't go my way Let's step to the solution of all this. Let's imagine the scene where Saul makes all the different choices, better choices. Is there room in this story to imagine how we might live nobler lives, make healthy choices, exhibit holier attitudes and actions. Absolutely! And here's how. 1) Realize that when I resent others, I only hurt myself. Who really ended up getting hurt in this? David? No, he became king, he could have killed Saul. That kind of vengeance seeking, that kind of hard hearted living wasn’t a part of David's character. He didn't want to become like the man who is trying to kill him. I read one time a great quote, "Bitterness is drinking poison and waiting for the other person to die." Hello?!! "You are only hurting yourself with your anger." Job 18:4 (Mes). Ask yourself this question: Have you ever talked to anyone who was filled with resentment who said, "Oh, I feel so much better being a resentful person." Dr. S.I. McMillan said, "It's not so much what you eat, it's what eats you that matters." Saul's life is a sad picture of resentment. Is it any wonder that when Jesus comes into our heart, He longs to renew the right Spirit within us that forgives others. He helps us to learn to bury the hatchet, but not at each other's backs. 2) A second big life lesson from these chapters about Saul is to replace self-rule and resentment with God's-rule. Remember us talking just a moment ago about this being our choices. Think about Saul's life. He started ruling it instead of letting God be God. Instead of letting the Lord lead. It got him in all kinds of trouble. Think about his life, would you call it a life marked by peace or panic? Calm or chaos? Ease or anxiety? The self-ruled life cannot lead to peace, or calm, or ease because our way goes against God's way. We seek revenge, we seek our rights, our needs, what we want. Saul's demise was tragic. He started out so well but this one issue of resentment lead him to a downward spiral, total void of a moment's rest. No wonder, most Bible commentaries, including the one I looked at about Saul, say that he slowly went insane. Let me give you a great verse, "….let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts…." Colossians 3:15 (NIV) Folks, there can only be one ruler at a time in your life, over your emotions, ruling your actions and your reactions. Christ or self. Peace or conflict. Resentment and peace cannot live in your heart and in your mind at the same time. And as much as we want to avoid responsibility for this one, decision is clearly ours to make. Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts. What I'd like to do right now before I release you back to your group and you have a time of discussion on this important topic of resentment, I'd like to have prayer for you, so let's pray: "Heavenly Father, as we bow before you right now, we all understand what resentment and bitterness feel like because, Lord, we've been resentful and we've held bitterness in our hearts. We've seen others succeed while maybe we're suffering or others get ahead while we're falling behind. Others get something that we got, should have been rightfully ours. God, that's no way to live and our peace and joy and happiness erode if we allow resentment to remain. God, give us the strength and courage to know that it's our choice, that we can choose to allow Christ and Your peace to rule in us. And I pray that we'll make that good choice. In Jesus' Name, Amen." |
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