Floyd & Sally McClung

Serving God’s Fallible Servants

1 Samuel 16:14 - 23

Introduction: God called David to a special task, but ironically, the first step in his life after God’s call was to serve a fallible servant of the Lord. Saul had disobeyed the Lord, and as a result, the Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul. As David’s ascent to the throne began, Saul’s descent also unfolded. When the Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul, he was effectively no longer the king of Israel. David was called upon to serve a fallible servant of the Lord. How does one respond when led by God to serve such a person?

Excerpts From God’s Word: “The Spirit of the Lord left Saul…So David was sent to Saul and David served him. Saul liked David immediately and made him his right-hand man. Then Saul sent word to Jesse asking, “Let David join my staff, for I am very pleased with him.” And whenever God tormented Saul’s conscience or he was depressed, Saul would ask David to play the harp. Then Saul would feel better, and the tormenting feeling would go away. Saul loved David greatly, and David became Saul’s personal assistant.”

Lessons For Personal Application:

A position of leadership without God’s Spirit is no position at all. It says in 1 Samuel 16:14 that the Spirit of the Lord had left Saul. No matter what our title or position, it is god who appoints us. Without his Spirit empowering us, we have nothing. In place of the Holy Spirit’s anointing, God sent a troubling spirit upon Saul. If god lifts his Spirit from you, don’t persist in your role. It would be far better to give up your title and position and please God, than to stay in your position to please people or seek personal gain. If God lifts his anointing, stop everything and find out why! Seek God until he speaks clearly. Far better to be convicted of sin or shown how we have not passed one of God’s tests in our lives, than for the Lord to take his anointing from us!

The blessing of the Lord will depart from those who continually disobey God. It may be obvious, but we must face this truth: disobedience can lead to God’s discipline in our lives. That includes the removal of his anointing for service. If this happens to you, stop what you are doing and cry out to God. Don’t try to perform better to get the blessing of God back. Rather, humble yourself before God until he shows you what he wants to do in you. The goal of such humility is learning to trust God, not trying to perform for God. It is about being restored to right relationship with God, not doing things to get God to love you. He already loves you. Nothing we do can cause God to love us any more.

God will go to great lengths to bring us to repentance. The bible says God sent a tormenting spirit to Saul that brought him depression and fear. The goal of such discipline is to heal what is broken in us, to restore us and set us free from bondages that enslave us. By the way, we should not form judgments against our selves or others who experience depression. Though depression can be the result of God’s discipline, it is more often the result of natural causes or difficult circumstances.

Serving a fallible servant of God is one of the primary ways God prepares us to serve Him. No leader is perfect. By working under other leaders, we have the opportunity not only to serve them, but also to learn to be patient, forgiving, and faithful in response to their weaknesses. Serving fallible leaders is an opportunity to learn how to work through differences, to ask appropriate questions, and to discover differences in personalities, gifts, and styles of leadership. Most importantly, our character is formed in the furnace of serving those who are imperfect. No leader is perfect. Don’t look for a perfect leader to serve, but rather learn under those God has led you to serve.

Every leader is called to serve other leaders. No leader will experience change in their lives or learn the lessons God wants to teach them without a significant relationship with other leaders. We gain spiritual authority in our lives by being under authority. We overcome fear in our lives by serving men and women of faith. We learn patience by assisting those who are demanding or impatient. We learn to value of leading with vision by serving those without vision. God uses our service to other leaders as a process of preparation in our lives.

The most important qualification for serving God is that the Lord is with us. It says of David in 1 Samuel 16:18, “…the Lord is with him.” Others could see that God was with David. Why was the Lord with David? He was with him because he loved David, because he had called David, and because his hand was upon his life. He was also with David as a response to David’s love for God. Intimacy with God always precedes our service for God. David was a worshipper. During his times alone, tending his father’s sheep, David wrote psalms and hymns. He cultivated a heart of worship. His poetry was born out of his love for God.

Favor with people is a gift from God: It says in 1 Samuel 16:21 that Saul “liked David very much.” One translation says Saul “loved him greatly.” It is God that promotes us and brings us to the attention of others. It is God that gives us favor. A caution should be voiced at this point: our motivation for serving others should be to serve them, not to be noticed by them. If we seek people’s favor we have missed the point of serving them.

Personal Illustration: A close friend of mine served for years in a staff role in a local church under an insecure pastor who little or no vision for the church. The pastor fluctuated in his responses to my friend: he released him to lead in the church, and then he change his mind and reigned him in, rejecting his leadership gifts and passions completely. This went on and on, not for one or two years, but for many years. At the same time, my friend’s influence in the church grew until those who attended the meetings he led were larger than the Sunday services led by the pastor. Many encouraged my friend to leave the church, to launch his own ministry, to plant a new church. Though he suffered under his fallible leader, my friend refused to lead a rebellion or seek to have the pastor removed. He would not push his leadership to the harm of the pastor. Submission doesn’t mean we can’t speak up or disagree. My friend was honest with the pastor and elders. He shared his frustrations and his vision for the church. He tried repeatedly to work things through in a spirit of truthfulness. Finally, the Lord intervened on behalf of my friend. God used a visiting speaker to the church to exhort the pastor to bless my friend and release him plant a new church, sent out with the blessing of the mother church. Within months, both the mother church and the new church led by my friend were flourishing. The attendance of each church quickly grew larger than the original size of the mother church! A church split was avoided. My friend set an example for those under him to follow. Today, the fruit of those years of serving and submitting are obvious in my friend, and in those he leads. He is wiser, more patient, and more fruitful because of the path he chose to walk.

Prayer of Response: Dear Father, place me under the leaders you have for me. Teach me to see them through your eyes, and to feel what you feel for them. Let me see their strengths as well as their weaknesses. And give me the grace to submit to them in healthy and helpful ways. Teach me to be faithful in the little things you give me to do through my leaders. Teach me to be a steward over spiritual riches by managing well the physical tasks and resources you give me to manage for my leaders. And teach me to lead the way you want me to lead, by serving those you want me to serve. In Jesus name, amen.