 And so, let's see what God wants to do. But today, we're gonna be looking at chapter 31 here in First Samuel. We'll conclude this study that we've been having in First Samuel by looking at the 31st chapter. Let's read verse one, First Samuel chapter 31, verse one. I'll introduce our study and we'll get into a study that relates to the death of Saul. Now the Philistines fought against Israel. And the men of Israel fled from before the Philistines and fell slain on Mount Gilboa. Now we know that in chapter 28 as well as chapter 29 that the author had pointed out that the armies of the Philistines were amassing to have a war to make war with the nation of Israel. So what we have in chapter 31 is a continuation and a completion of that. But in order to get to that, I need to remind you of a few things and kind of rehearse a few things here in chapter, well actually in the book of First Samuel that will help us to understand what is about to take place. We know that in the life of the first king of Israel, a man by the name of Saul, we know that in his life there was one earmark that you find showing itself and that was disobedience. Saul was a disobedient man. He disobeyed the things of the Lord and his disobedience actually led to his rejection, his rejection as king and ultimately it led to his death. This was something that had become a pattern in his life. We know that Saul had been commanded to wait for Samuel, the prophet, in order that Samuel could come and make an offering. When we were in chapter 10 we saw that. But when Samuel didn't show up, when Saul thought that he should, Saul made that offering himself and as a result of that, and no sooner had he completed making the offering, then Samuel showed up. And when Samuel shows up and sees what he did and the disobedience of him not listening to and obeying the command, well when we looked at chapter 13 verse 14, Samuel said this to him, Samuel said, now your kingdom shall not continue. The Lord has sought for himself a man after his own heart and the Lord has commanded him to be commander over his people because you have not kept what the Lord commanded you. And so right from almost the beginning we see that Saul was partial in his obedience. He didn't obey the Lord completely and as a matter of fact because of that he's disqualified. Later on God had given him a command. God had said to him I want you to destroy the amelokites. We saw that in chapter 15. Now why did God want the amelokite nation to be annihilated? Well the amelokites had ambushed the nation of Israel when Israel had been delivered from Egypt. They were the first to attack the Jews and as a result of that God had not forgotten. As a matter of fact he made it very clear to the nation of Israel that they were not to forget either and Deuteronomy 25 verses 17 through 19, God said, I don't want you to forget this. I don't want you to forget them. I haven't forgotten them and we will deal with them and so God had given Saul the command to destroy the amelokites. But instead of destroying the amelokites as we saw what he did is he kept their king and the best that they had and only slaughtered those things that were worthless. And once again when Samuel comes he confronts him and he clearly tells him you have disobeyed God's command. Now some people would probably think it's no big deal. It's a minor thing. He didn't do everything. What's the big deal about not doing all that God said? For them disobedience to God in his word is simply a minor thing. I like to refer to that kind of mentality and those who profess to be Christians. I say well that makes them a cafeteria Christian. Now I don't even know if we have cafeterias anymore or the word cafeteria buffet, a buffet Christian. We all know what buffets are and cafeterias are basically the same thing. You walk in and they have vegetables here, they have salads over there, they have meat here, they have poultry, they have fish, they have potatoes, vegetables, whatever. They have it all strewn out in front of you and what you do is you walk in and you think to yourself I'd like some chicken today, some mashed potatoes, I'd like to get this kind of salad here, I'm gonna have this drink here and we pick and choose what we want. And a lot of people do that in the Bible. They read the Bible or they have a Bible study that is given to them and they pick and choose and they say well I like that because that fits into the way that I think or I don't like that because that doesn't fit into the way that I think and so they're cafeteria Christians, they take what they want and they discard the other things that they don't want at this moment or think that are just things that they don't need to know, cafeteria mentality. We have that here in the United States and people will say well what's the big deal? When you have this mentality that the word of God really isn't the word of God unless you agree with it, you've got a real problem because God is declaring to us what he wants us to know. He's not having a conversation, he's allowing us to have some insight into what he wants for us. There've been times when my kids were small we would be having a little bit of problem we'll say with one of them and I would be talking to them and then they would begin to try to explain to me something and I'd say you don't seem to understand we're not having a conversation. What we're having is a monologue. I'm gonna say something and you're gonna listen because we're not debating the issue. See the problem is I have to deal with something that you did and you can't explain that away because you know that it was wrong and until you see that it was wrong we're gonna be here. Now my daughter Anna, I've never spanked Anna in her life, she's 26 years old. I've never spanked her in her life but she has told me more than once she wishes that I would have because of the lectures. She said dad, you would talk too long. Now what? Just because I would speak for an hour, take an offering and go into a second service you think that's too much. Come on, what's wrong with you? But the bottom line is, I'm the kind of person who says no, wait a minute, if it was wrong and you need to see that it was. You cannot out-argue this because the bottom line is you did wrong. Well, a lot of people don't have that mentality. They say what's the big deal? Saul was that way. But we need to remember that great privilege brings great responsibility. When God has given to you great privilege, it also carries with it responsibility. Jesus in Luke chapter 12 verse 48 said everyone to whom much is given from him much will be required. Saul had great privilege, he was the king of Israel, therefore he had a great responsibility and when he was confronted he was told clearly that he had disobeyed God's command. In chapter 15 verse 28, Samuel said to him, the Lord has torn the kingdom of Israel from you today and has given it to a neighbor of yours who's better than you. Well, that neighbor was a man after God's own heart. That neighbor was a young man by the name of David. Now, as we've gone through Samuel, we have seen David. We've seen that David was a young man who fought and defeated the giant Goliath. We saw that he became the commander in the army of Israel and he became very popular. He was a man that people actually composed songs about and sang about. Saul has slain his thousands, David his 10 thousands. So he is extremely popular and greatly loved but that provokes Saul to a great anger. His own son Jonathan actually became the dearest friend to David. They loved each other like brothers. They became very, very close but in his jealousy Saul eventually began to campaign against David desiring to kill him and even wanted to kill his own son because of his relationship with David. Now, David was aware. He was aware of the hatred Saul had for him but as we have seen, he didn't respond with violence. On two occasions, David had opportunity to kill him but both times he refused to lift his hand up against him. He knew that God could kill Saul. He knew that Saul could die a natural death or he knew that God could allow him to die in battle. So through all of this, David refused to take vengeance on Saul but that didn't placate Saul at all. Now, the armies of the Philistines are beginning to draw for battle and Saul is greatly concerned. Samuel's dead but he wants to get direction from Samuel the prophet. So what does he do? He goes to a woman who's referred to as the witch from Endor and what he does is he goes to her in order to see if she can somehow bring up the spirit of Samuel so he could get advice. It would seem that God allowed this to take place. It would be the only time in scripture that this kind of communication was allowed but it would have been allowed to declare that Saul's disobedience was going to lead to his rejection in his death and that's exactly what was told to him. So Saul was told, he was told you're gonna die and your sons are gonna die and they're gonna die the next day in battle and what we have here in chapter 31 is how this came about. So in the life of Saul, disobedience to the commands of God led to his rejection and his death. Not only did it cost him the throne and his life, it also cost the lives of his sons, his armor bearer and his bodyguard. It costs tragedy. What we have here is the tragedy of a wasted life. We're gonna be looking at Saul and an incomplete life today. Now in verse one, the Philistines fought against Israel and the men of Israel fled from before the Philistines and fell slain on Mount Gilboa. So this battle occurs the day after Saul visited that which they're in Endor. It occurs in Mount Gilboa, which is south of the Sea of Galilee. The armies of the Philistines are prevailing. The army of Israel flees from the Philistines. Verse two, the Philistines followed hard after Saul and his sons. And the Philistines killed Jonathan, Abinadab and Melchishua, Saul's sons. The battle became fierce against Saul. The archers hit him. He was severely wounded by the archers. 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 it. And when his armor bearer saw that Saul was dead, he also fell on his sword and died with him. So Saul, his three sons, his armor bearer and all his men died together that same day. All his men is in reference to his personal bodyguard. All of those who were close to him died that same day. Now, let me give you a couple of things and then we're gonna move into some application here. One, I wanna point out something here. Notice that three sons are mentioned here. I'm just gonna touch this briefly. Jonathan, Abinadab and Melchishua. He actually had four sons. There's a fourth son that's not mentioned. His name is Ishbosheth. You don't see him until second Samuel chapter two. He becomes king for two years over the nation of Israel in place of his father, Saul. Now, the name Ishbosheth means son of shame. And there are commentators who believe that. The reason his name was changed to Ishbosheth is because he wasn't there at the battle. Therefore, he didn't die alongside of his father. But what you have here is you have Saul and his three sons. And what we're looking at here is that three of his sons are dying with him in battle. Now, these three sons, Jonathan, Abinadab and Melchishua, are not dying because of their father's sin in the sense that God is not punishing them because their father's sinned. Each man is responsible for their own life before God. What this gives to us is insight into what takes place. It gives us insight into the fact that my sins or Saul's sins actually are not just things that he has effects from. But not only is the person sitting, having the effect of the sin, whatever the residual effect of it, but it also affects other people. These are people in other words who are dying because a father did what he did. These are people who are affected by the life of a father, a father who lived a life of disobedience. And I as a father have to understand that because I have children therefore my children can be affected by my lifestyle. That's what took place here in the case of Jonathan and Abinadab and Melchishua. They died along with their father because of their father's sin. Not that they were paying the price of the father's sin, but they were people who were affected by it and paid a price alongside of him. One of the things we need to understand then is that we as individuals may have personal accountability to God as an individual. And yet at the same time, I don't live an isolated life. My life affects others. And what happens is in the life of Saul, his disobedience and his rejection of the things of the Lord ended up in not only him being dealt with, but his sons dying alongside of them. I'm gonna bring something up to you in a little while to develop that a little bit further. But I want you to see that they died alongside of him. Now in verse three, it says the battle became fierce against Saul. The archers hid him. He was severely wounded by the archers. And so the archers are having a long range attack. And as he's there, these arrows are coming in, they're piercing him and he's severely, he's mortally wounded. So Saul says to his armor bearer, verse four, 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 it. So he's wounded there and as he's wounded, he turns to his armor bearer and says, kill me. I don't want my enemies to kill me. I would rather die at the hands of a friend than to die at the hands of my enemy. And not only that, they're gonna come and abuse me. In other words, when they find me in a condition where I'm incapable of defending myself, they're gonna humiliate me and they're gonna torture me and I don't wanna go through that. And so I'm telling you, thrust me through so I can die. But the armor bearer, his job is to protect the king, not to kill the king. And for him, that was something he couldn't get himself to do. So he refuses to do that. His job was to protect him. He was the most loyal soldier that Saul would have. He was his bodyguard, his personal bodyguard, his armor bearer. So he cannot bring himself to killing the king whom he had sworn to protect. So he refuses to do that. Now, when Saul sees his armor bearer saying, I can't do that, he lays on his own sword and allows the sword to pierce his body. And when he does that, the armor bearer watching him, while in verse five he saw that Saul was dead, he fell on his sword and died with him. So Saul, his three sons, his armor bearer and all his men died together on the same day. Now, I wanted to bring some word of application through this passage here. As a husband, as a father, as a grandfather, as a leader in the church, I take stories like this to heart. Because I know that my life affects my wife. My life affects my children. My life affects my grandchildren. My life affects other people. And I want to live a life that is complete. I want to live a life that is lived to the fullest. And I want one that is blessed by God and becomes a blessing to other people. Not everybody understands that. Not everybody has that desire, but that's a desire that every believer ought to have. To have a life that is, that's gonna count for something. To have a life that affects other people positively. To live a life that, when they speak concerning influence and the influence that you had on them, they can speak in charitable ways. They can say that this person helped me to understand the love of God. This person taught me how to live a life and how to pray. This person taught me the importance of the word of God. This person was a model of character and integrity. This was a person who had purity in their life. We ought to have a desire to have a life like that. Because every one of us has a reputation. Every one of us is known for something. Everybody knows us in one way or another. And our reputations will follow us for years. Just this last Thursday, I had an opportunity to grab lunch with a friend of mine, his name is Bill. Bill and I have been friends since we were about five years old. So we've been friends over 50 years, 54 years. And he brought with him Bobby, a friend of mine that we've had together as friends since we were 14, freshman in high school. So Bill and Bobby showed up over here and they've been coming so that we can get together and spend time together. And all in, we went to a local restaurant and as we were there at the restaurant, the bill came. And as the bill was about to come, Bill, my friend, said to me, are you still cheap? Are you still cheap? Because he and I share a memory of when we were kids. I bought him a hamburger and it was called an A burger and I think it was maybe three ounces, it was, but I only had a dollar. So I bought him a burger, I bought him a Coke and I bought him French fries. And to this day, he still teases me about what a cheap meal I bought him. And I was like maybe 12 years old at that time. And your reputation will follow you for 47 years. And you can be known by something. You can be known by certain things. Every one of us in this room is known for something. You know, if you graduate from high school and you go to your 10-year reunion, they remember you as an 18-year-old, a 17-year-old. They don't know you as a 28-year-old. You go to the 20, they know you as a 17 or an 18-year-old. They don't know what's gone on your life for 20 years. So what do they do? They go all the way back to what you were like in high school, that's what they do. And that reputation that you had from then remains with you until they discover that some changes have taken place in you. That's why it's always a blessing for me to encounter people who knew me in high school. Because they can't believe the changes that took place over the years and what God has done. But your reputation precedes you. You are known for something. People know you in a certain way. And so for me, I wanna have a reputation of being someone who loved the Lord. I wanna lay down the foundation of a life that is worth living a complete life, something that God will look at and smile and reward. And that's how it ought to be. Saul wasn't that way. Saul had an incomplete life. But I as a father, I as a husband, I as a grandfather, I as a pastor, I as a friend, I as a son, I wanna have a life that is complete and live full for the Lord. Now, sometimes when I'm teaching, I can give the impression to those who attend this fellowship that either you're perfect or you really ought not to come to church. I know there's only one perfect person and that's me, the rest of you, well. No, I realize that there's only one perfect person. That's our Lord Jesus Christ. Let me tell you something that the Lord laid on my heart to share with you today. And I do believe it's the Lord who laid this on my heart. When my children were small, being kids, sometimes they'd go through things during the day and didn't end the day on a good note. And they'd be in bed and they're about to go to sleep and it's been a bad day. And I would sit next to them, I'd sit on the bed next to them and I would talk to them and I would pray with them and this is what I would say to them. I would say, had a pretty bad day today, huh? Yes, daddy. I said, yeah, I said it was pretty bad. But you wanna know something? Tomorrow's gonna be a better day. Because God always gives to us another day, another chance. God is giving to us another chance, another day. And tomorrow when you wake up, the mercy of the Lord is gonna be upon you. And you need to wake up tomorrow saying today is gonna be a better day than this day was. And I used to teach my kids that. I said, because I believe in the grace of God. I believe that as much as I might wanna serve the Lord and not fail, I know that I'm a human being and I do. Now I don't make excuses for it, but I realize it. And because I do fail, I rely on the mercy and compassion of God on a daily basis. I encourage you to the same. Because sometimes you can get so frustrated because you're not doing the things that you know you ought to do. It's not that you don't want to, but sometimes it seems that you can't find the power to do those things. Paul had the same experience when he said, who will save me from this body of death? He said, I'm a wretched man. He said with a mind, I desire to do the things of God, but with my activities, I seem to be doing those things that I'm not pleasing to him. And so from my perspective, as I understand the grace of God, I realize that I can be a positive influence in somebody's life or I can bring them down. And so I ask the Lord to help me to be one who's a positive influence. But that comes through a daily walk with God. It doesn't come through going to church once a week. It doesn't come through going to church even twice a week. It comes through being in the Word daily. It comes through prayer daily, fellowship daily as often as possible. It's called disciplining yourself in the ways of God. I was watching a program on TV just this week. This military retired Marine drill sergeant was at a place where they shoot weapons and fire weapons and he was talking to an Olympic gold medalist, a young woman who won the gold medal for skeet shooting. And so he had his shotgun and she had hers and they say pull and then they let that little clay target fly and he hit probably about half of the targets. And then the young woman just starts knocking them all out of the air, one after another, one after another. And he was a bit embarrassed. I mean, this is a Marine retired drill sergeant and there's this young lady just blowing these targets out of the sky and he's a little bit embarrassed and he looks in the camera and says, well, you need to remember this is an Olympic gold medalist. She's the best that the United States has to offer. Nah, you just can't shoot you old man, you know, you're blind. But anyway, as that was going on, she speaks to him and she says this and it registered with me. She said, don't feel something like this. Don't feel discouraged. She says, I fire at 1000 targets a day. 1000 times a day, I shoot my weapon. I fire my weapon 1000 times a day, every day. You don't become an Olympic gold medalist by just putting a shotgun over your shoulder and joining, you know, and saying, do you mind if I represent the United States? You become an Olympic gold medalist by firing a weapon 1000 times a day, every day. Until you become so good at that, it becomes second nature to you. The apostle Paul was speaking concerning the Olympics when he said in 1 Corinthians chapter nine that he was one who disciplined his body. He said so that after preaching to others, he says, I do not find myself disqualified. He said, these people actually go out and they involve themselves in athletic contests so that they might win a perishable wreath. He said, but we an imperishable. He says, what I want is an incorruptible crown, not just a wreath that I'm gonna put up somewhere on one of my trophy stands and 30 years from now point to it and say, yeah, when I was young, I won that. He says, I wanna go and stand before the Lord one day and receive my reward and I want it to be an imperishable crown. And therefore he says, I discipline myself. And that's what God has called us to do. You see, you're not gonna become a real warrior for Christ if you're not in the word daily, if you're not in prayer daily, if you're not in fellowship, if you're not seeking the things of God. And it all comes from living a life that's centered on the Lord Jesus Christ. In Philippians when Paul was writing to the church there, he said in chapter three verses 12 through 14, not that I have already attained or am already perfected, but I press on that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended, but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Forgetting those things which are behind, I press forward and that's what God has called us to do, to pursue him. That's why Paul said to Timothy, flee youthful lust, pursue righteousness, faith, love, peace with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart. You see, one of these days we'll stand before the Lord and we're gonna hear him speak to us. I wanna hear him say, well done, my good and my faithful servant. I wanna hear him say, enter into the joy of your Lord. That's what I wanna hear him say. The apostle Paul had that same heart. He said, I fought the good fight. I finished the race, I kept the faith. Finally there's laid up for me the crown of righteousness which the Lord, the righteous judge will give me on that day. And not to me only, but also to all who have loved his appearing. There are some people who say I want the Lord Jesus to try to return, but not today. I want the Lord to return today. I wanna see him, I love his appearing, I wanna be with him. And that's what Paul was like. And Paul said that's what you do. So pursue righteousness, flee youthful lust, discipline your life. And if you do so, you receive that crown of righteousness. Saul wasn't like that. But we need to learn from him because he had an incomplete life. Now notice verse seven. It says, when the men of Israel who were on the other side of the valley and those who were on the other side of the Jordan saw that the men of Israel had fled and that Saul and his sons were dead, they forsook the cities and fled. And the Philistines came and dwelt in them. These were the non combatants. They saw the army in retreat. They abandoned their cities. And as they abandoned the cities that they lived in, the enemy, the Philistines ended up occupying their property. Let me give you another application. When leaders fail, the enemy enters in to occupy the vacuum. You can go to England, as I've done on many occasions, and you will see some very interesting things. Mosques have more attendees than churches do on Sundays in England. I remember a friend of mine who invited Marie and me to some coffee and as we went for coffee, we were walking up these steps and I'm looking at the coffee house and it looks like a church building, like an old style church building. I don't say anything, I just walk in. And as I walk in, we got our coffee sat down and I begin to talk to him and I said, this looks like a church. He says it used to be. I said, this used to be a church. It's a coffee house now. He said, yeah, it used to be a church. He said, look, and he reaches down and he lifts up some plywood. And as he lifts the plywood, you could look down and you could see the pews. The pews of the church were right there. We were seated right on top of the pews. And as I was there, I began to think about that. To this day, I think about that. I think about how that church building had been consecrated to the glory of God. That one day, they had a church service there where they said this building has been built to give glory to Jesus Christ. And the people who are attending here are gonna hear the word of God and we're gonna learn to worship God. And those pews used to be filled with people in that city who had come there for church services to hear somebody talk about God, but now it's a coffee house. And I thought about that. What happened? What happened to that church? Why is it a coffee house? We left there, walked down the street and he pointed out another church that is now a disco. He said, they're gonna dance there at night. Then we went by another church, it was turned into a mosque. All through England. England was the missionary-sending nation of the world. The greatest missionaries who ever lived came out of England. And what did we end up with? Mosques, coffee houses, and dance halls. And as I thought about that, I thought, what happened? Listen, when you abandon what God gave to you, the enemy will occupy. Right here in this room, as I'm standing here speaking, on this platform here, we have our carpet, but all of you, or most of you know this, before we placed this carpet down on this concrete, we had a Saturday and I invited the church, whoever wanted to come and write scriptures, whatever scriptures are the scriptures on your heart, write them all over. And if I were to rip up this carpet, every square inch basically of this platform has scripture. Every, down the steps to the back, everywhere. We had people in here writing their scriptures. I came in, I wrote, right here, there's no other foundation. Right here, I stand on that. Every time I preach out of 1 Corinthians chapter three, Jesus Christ is our chief cornerstone. He's the sure foundation. Every time I preach the word of God, I'm standing on a promise of God. Jesus is the chief cornerstone. Jesus is the sure foundation. Every time. But what happens if I fall? What happens if this church disappears? What happens if the city purchases this property and begins to come in and have concerts here and plays here? Then what was consecrated to God is gonna be occupied by the enemy. All you have to do is drive down Euclid in the city of Ontario. And you're on D Street, you're going north towards upland. And as you're driving towards Chaffee High School, off to the left, there's a little bank there. That used to be a chapel. My sister-in-law, Birdie and I, when she would come and babysit the kids when we lived in Ontario, I drove her past that bank. And it used to be a church. It was a chapel. And I can still remember telling my sister-in-law, when she was a young girl, I remember pointing to that little chapel there, saying to her, that would be a great place for a Calvary Chapel ministry. Man, that would be a great place for a church. You know, I wish that I could have that. It's a bank. You can go now, it's right off of Holt and Euclid. There's a playhouse in the city of Ontario. Used to be a church. And now it's a playhouse. You can see that all over the place. All over the place. Places that at one time have been dedicated to the glory of God that the enemy is now occupying. And that's what happened in the case here. When the armies fled and the leadership was bad, they went in a direction of abandoning what was given to them by God. And it ended up being occupied by the enemy. Be careful that you don't give away the things that God gave to you. Be careful that you don't yield those things up to the enemy, because I tell you that he will inhabit that vacuum. That's why I've said to him, you can't have my children. That's why I've said to him, you can't have my grandchildren. That's why I've said to him, you can't have my wife and you can't have me. You can't have my family. I'm not gonna abandon my responsibilities to these people. I'm gonna remain firm and I'm gonna remain solid to them. You can't have this church. You can't have it. It belongs to Jesus. That's how it works. And you have to have a passion like that. Or if you don't, it will be occupied by the enemy. I guarantee you, it will be taken over. He's waiting to take over, even right now. If you give him an inch, he will take a mile. He will. Be careful. And what they see is the army running. They abandoned what was theirs and the enemy took it. In verse eight, continuing, it happened the next day when the Philistines came to strip the slain that they found Saul, his three sons fallen on Mount Gilboa. They cut off his head, stripped off his armor, sent word throughout the land of the Philistines to proclaim it in the temple of their idols and among the people. Then they put his armor in the temple of the Astorates and they fastened his body to the wall of Bet-Shan. Now, when the inhabitants of Yavish Gilead heard what the Philistines had done to Saul, all the valiant men arose, traveled all night, took the body of Saul and the bodies of his sons from the wall of Bet-Shan, and they came to Yavish and burned them there. And then they took their bones and buried them under the Tamarisk tree at Yavish and fasted seven days. They came to strip any valuables, armor, weapons, whatever, and they come upon the body of Saul and his boys. And even as David had done to Gilead, so they do to Saul, they behead him. And they take him and they begin to parade. They parade their victory. As a matter of fact, and it's interesting to me what they do here, it says in verse nine, they began to proclaim it in the temple of their idols and among the people. They began to give the glory to their pagan god, whom they believe gave them victory. They put his armor in the temple of the astretes. They fastened his body to the wall. Astarte, Ishtar, astretes was their queen of heaven. And normally what they would do is present the armor of fallen enemies to their gods or goddesses. The Bible in 1 Chronicles 10 verse 10 says, they put his armor in the house of their gods and fastened his head in the house of Dagon. And then they fastened his body with the sons to the wall there in Beth Shen. And so they leave it open so that the people can see the victory they had and bring great humiliation to the memory of Saul. But notice verse 11, that there are inhabitants of a place called Yavash Gilead. These are the individuals that we saw earlier in chapter 11, the ones who had been threatened by an Ammonite by the name of Nahash. He had said that he would take out their right eyes if they wanted to remain alive. And Saul had heard about that and came and delivered them. And they hadn't forgotten that great deliverance through Saul. And so out of respect for his memory, they come and they take his body and it took great courage for them to do that. They removed his body. They cremated it so that the Philistines wouldn't be able to locate it and do greater humiliation to it. And they buried the bones under a tamarisk tree. And then they observed a public mourning of seven days. And there they were, fasting for seven days, mourning for Saul. But they mourned for Saul, not for what he had become. They mourned for Saul, for what he had been, for what he had been. This was a man who lived an incomplete life. They mourned for somebody who didn't have a heart to obey God. In his past he had done something good and for that they mourned. But they couldn't mourn the passing of a man who rejected God. One of these days, guys, when we pass on should the Lord tarry and we go the way of all the earth. One of these days, those who know us and love us will have an opportunity to mourn. When you're young, you don't realize that. As you grow older, you become more aware of it. Please make it the aim of your life to live in such a way that when people remember you, they remember you as somebody who loved the Lord. They remember you as a dad who prayed with them, who loved Jesus, who ministered to mom. They remember you as a mother who loved God's word, loved prayer, was fair, good. They remember you as a brother or a sister that was kind and loving and caring, who was devoted to Christ, pure. Not somebody who was always trying to stretch the boundaries of grace to see what you can get away with and still get to heaven, but somebody who was actually in love with Jesus Christ. Because one of these days, my children are gonna have an opportunity. Should I go home to be with the Lord prior to them? To stand up in this pulpit and to speak concerning the man that you know as pastor, but they know as dad. And I wanna live a life in such a way that when they stand up here and they speak, they don't have to make up stories to make me look good, but they can speak from their heart and say, this man loved the Lord. This man loved my mom. This man loved me. This man loved his grandchildren. This is a man of God because you can live a life that is complete or incomplete. It's up to you. If you wanna live complete, follow the Lord with all of your heart. And that way, when they mourn you, they'll mourn what a great person you were and how they're gonna miss you. They're not gonna mourn over the lost opportunities you had and what you ended up being. And there's a difference between the way you mourn. When you mourn the loss of somebody that had so much potential or you mourn the loss of somebody that had touched you so deeply. Make it your aim to be somebody who touches people deeply. Father, I ask that you would work in us. I ask that you would work in such a way that you would touch our lives and that you would be glorified. We look at Saul in incomplete life, a man who just didn't pursue you. We learn from him and we pray that you might make us into people, Lord, who love you completely. Our eyes are closed, our heads are bowed. Perhaps I have some in this room right now who need to get right with the Lord. I wanna give you an opportunity to do that this morning. The Holy Spirit is speaking to you and you know that you need to get right with the Lord. I'm gonna have you stand in a moment. Our worship team will come out. We're gonna worship the Lord in song but I'm gonna have us all stand and I'm gonna give an open invitation, an opportunity for you to step out from where you're standing and to come and stand in front of this platform and to openly give your heart to the Lord Jesus Christ. It may be that you at one time were following after him but you've back-slidden and you need to rededicate your life to Christ. It may be that you've never really given yourself to him. One time in your whole life, this is your opportunity now to say to Jesus, be merciful to me, I am a sinner. I do believe that you are the savior. I do believe you were resurrected. I believe that you can change my life, that you can live within me and transform me. I need your help and if you have a sincerity of heart and a faith in him, I encourage you to open up today, give yourself to him so that you might be filled by him, forgiven by him, transformed by him. So we're gonna stand in a moment. We're gonna worship and as the Spirit is speaking, I ask you to slip out from where you're standing. Come and stand in front of this platform. Wait silently until the song concludes. We'll pray together and one of my ministers here will speak to you for a few moments after the service and you can go home knowing that you got your life right with God today. Father, I ask that you would bind the enemy. Father, I ask that you would set captives free and Jesus, you get all the glory for doing this and we give you praise now in your name, amen. Let's all stand as our worship team leads us in song at the whole.