How Chasing Approval And Ignoring God Led Saul From Promise To Tragedy

A crown can look like destiny and still hide a fracture. We open the pages of 1 Samuel and follow Saul from public promise to private unraveling, then map that arc onto our own lives: insecurity dressed up as humility, people-pleasing disguised as wisdom, and impatience sold as leadership. Through vivid moments—an unauthorized sacrifice, edited obedience, frantic counsel from a medium—we explore how slow compromises lead to fast collapses, and how confession, not concealment, marks the road back to freedom.

Across forty years compressed into a few chapters, we track the inner logic of Saul’s choices and the outer fallout on his kingdom. Along the way, we name the modern equivalents: workaholism that numbs, religious performance that tires, shortcuts that sparkle but drain the soul. We contrast those patterns with a different path—trust rooted in relationship with God, rhythms that honor limits and timing, and a willingness to let the Spirit expose roots so the fruit finally changes. The result is a grounded, practical framework: tell the truth, receive correction, choose patient obedience, and build appetites for what brings life.

This conversation blends biblical insight with candid self-reflection, offering clear takeaways for leaders, parents, pastors, and anyone tired of managing an image they can’t sustain. We end with a prayerful call to courage: let God remove what’s in the way, reorder your steps, and restore your desire for what’s good, true, and lasting. If this resonates, share it with someone who needs hope, subscribe for more, and leave a review to help others find the show. What root are you ready to face today?

Chapters

• 0:00 Rookie Hype And Saul’s Selection
• 3:49 Wanting A King Like Other Nations
• 7:09 Confession, Freedom, And Forgiveness
• 10:19 Forty Years Compressed Into Pages
• 13:49 Saul’s Insecurity And Disobedience
• 17:29 The Spirit Lifts And Boundaries Break
• 22:39 Mount Gilboa And A King’s Collapse
• 27:29 Coping Mechanisms Versus True Healing

Transcript

SPEAKER_01: 0:30

I'm a rather avid sports fan, and one of the things that I've noticed specifically in the sport of football, American football, that there are oftentimes in professional football, a team will draft a quarterback coming straight out of college, has never played a game of professional football, and yet a professional team will offer a contract for many of these rookies, untried, untested rookies. That's absolutely staggering the amount of money and the position of power that they are offered, even though they've never thrown one pass or done one handoff or run one yard in an NFL football game. And yet they get a lot of money thrown at them. And how is that how is that relevant to the study that we've been looking at concerning the book of First Samuel? Well, the relevancy is this that one of the characters that we find in the book of 1 Samuel in the first half of the book is a gentleman by the name of Saul. And Saul became the first king of Israel because the people of Israel didn't like the leadership that was going to be taking the place of one of their former leaders. And so instead of following suit with that type of leadership, the people wanted to have a king. Not just to have a king, but they wanted to have a king like the other nations had.

SPEAKER_00: 3:28

Because that's the way it looks, that's the way it sounds, and that's the way they make it feel.

SPEAKER_01: 3:35

It seems like it's better because they have the ability to do things that appeal to their lower base nature, and it really looks like they're having a good time doing it. And the funny thing about that type of lifestyle is for a while, it does provide satisfaction, but it provides it at a cost. It will give something temporarily, but in the end it will ultimately take away everything that a person has and leave them not only empty but oppressed by the powers of darkness. This happens and has happened over and over and over again. It happened before and it's still happening now. And Israel they fell into the temptation of looking elsewhere instead of looking to God. And you see, the funny thing is, I can relate on all levels. Now, it would be easy for me to try to cover up some of my previous ways of doing things because I don't want you to think less of me. Or I actually want you to look at me and to give me compliments. But if you knew everything about me, that might jeopardize that. So I have in my attempt to look good on the outside, I've tried to hide the things that needed to come to the surface and be acknowledged. And sometimes a person needs to ask forgiveness for the thing that they've done. But when we do, freedom comes. Just the opposite of what we fear. But when we try to hide things, you see, it's one thing for a person to confess things that are wrong. But it's another thing for someone else to confess your wrongs. If someone else does it, it complicates things significantly. But if we do it, if we acknowledge our sins and we acknowledge them to God, He is faithful to forgive us all of our sins. That's why, one of the chief reasons why Jesus died on the cross. He died on our behalf, so sin could be eradicated out of our life. Powerful. Powerful, powerful, powerful. But Saul, as we look at 1 Samuel chapters eight through 17, and then in the book of 1 Chronicles, specifically in the tenth chapter of 1 Chronicles, we find the life of Saul, King Saul, highlighted. And if a person just those chapters alone, if you were to take and read them out loud with some feeling, with some real feeling, just to read those chapters out loud, it takes roughly 30 minutes, okay? And so it seems like when reading it, like things are just happening one right after the other. But if we look at things in real time, in real time, chapters eight through seventeen of 1 Samuel, that takes about forty years. So you can see that some of the things that took place didn't take place one right after the other. Things were stretched out over a period of time. And that's the way oftentimes it is in our own lives. Things aren't happening spiritually, our experiences, one right after the other. They're spread out over a period of time. And because they're spread out over a period of time, sometimes we can feel or think that something's wrong with us. It seems like everything's happening to other people, or they happen to other people more quickly than they are in my own life, or in one's own life. But in all reality, it takes time for things to develop when we're living in the realm of time and space.

SPEAKER_00: 9:15

And for Saul, you see, ultimately, things ended up really in a tragic way.

SPEAKER_01: 9:29

But they didn't begin that way. If we remember, we saw in the beginning that Israel pressured Samuel for a king because he wanted to be like the other nations. And so God said, Go ahead, give them a king. And so Saul was chosen and anointed to be Israel's first king. And initially it looked like he might have had some humility, which was a good quality to have, is a good quality to have, but it wasn't humility that he had, it was insecurity and some inferiority with a sense of him also having some rebellion and disobedience in his life, but it wasn't something you could see on the surface. See, I can relate to that. As I said before, I have dealt with insecurities. I've dealt with the fear of rejection. I've been a people pleaser at times in my life. And so God, over the course of time, has been working on those areas, but he's been working on them because I've asked him to. And that when he reveals things, it's not because he's angry at us versus him being angry at what comes between us. You see, God is not angry with you. He loves you, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, Jesus, so that whosoever would believe in him would not perish, but have everlasting life, the very life of God in a covenant relationship, relationship. God loves relationship. He's not so much interested in religion. He's not so much interested in what we do. Yes, it's important what we do with our lives, but it's most important for us to have relationship that's healthy, that's right with God and with one another. Because this whole experience of life is primarily about relationships. Because God is very much interested in relationship. And Saul had these things in him, but he would not deal with them.

SPEAKER_00: 12:30

And so each time he would disobey God because he was reacting to something within him, his trust was not being placed in God.

SPEAKER_01: 12:47

He continued to trust in other things and in himself. And as a result, the Spirit of God would begin to lift from him. But Spirit didn't leave all at once, but it departed Saul as Saul repeatedly disobeyed God, starting with his offering sacrifices that he was not commissioned to offer. It wasn't his place to offer a sacrifice, and yet Saul in his fear of what the people were doing in their reaction, he chose to do something that wasn't allowable, and it revealed to everyone the fact that a problem was at hand, and yet nobody dealt with it or confronted Saul except Samuel the prophet. And Saul continually took Samuel's words that came from God and he rearranged them to suit his own needs versus him obeying God, and he did this on more than one occasion, so over the course of forty years, count it forty four zero, forty years, we find that the spirit began lifting off of Saul and ultimately departing from him. And it's in chapter thirty-one.

SPEAKER_00: 15:25

So first Samuel chapters eight through seventeen marks the life of Saul and his mistakes, and chapter thirty-one gives us a picture of his final situation.

SPEAKER_01: 15:52

Chapter thirty one beginning verse one. Now the Philistines fought against Israel. The Israelites fled before them, and many fell slain on Mount Gilboah. The Philistines pressed hard after Saul and his sons, and they killed his sons Jonathan, Abinadab, and Malkeshua. The fighting grew fierce around Saul, and when the archers overtook him, they wounded him critically. Saul said to his armor bearer, draw your sword and run me through, or these uncircumcised fellows will come and run me through and abuse me. But his armor bearer was terrified and would not do it. So Saul took his own sword and fell on it. When the armor bearer saw that Saul was dead, he too fell on his sword and died with him. So Saul and his three sons and his armor bearer and all men died together that same day.

SPEAKER_00: 17:00

Wow.

SPEAKER_01: 17:03

Saul, the king of Israel, ended up taking his own life. And then ultimately we find out that there was a man that came and finished Saul off, but Saul, for all practical purposes, killed himself. He fell on his own sword. In the Japanese culture, it's called Hari Keri. It's self-induced suicide. And what a sad commentary we find in his life. His early disobedience in 1 Samuel chapter 13, where Saul acts impatiently, offering a sacrifice instead of waiting for Samuel the prophet, leading to God's initial declaration of rejection. And then the gradual departure. God's spirit began to leave him, and it was replaced by an evil spirit as his disobedience continued, particularly after the battle with the Amalekites in 1 Samuel chapter 15. That's when Saul contacted a spiritual medium and wanted to contact Samuel from the dead to get counsel. And going to a spiritualist was against the law, and Saul, instead of going to God, he went to someone to get advice who is a demonized individual. You see what happens when we don't deal with things that come to the surface, when we try to suppress them or ignore them through sometimes through altering ourselves by drugs and alcohol, sometimes sex, sometimes workaholism. You just work yourself to death. Sometimes being overly religious, trying to double down real hard with our own works because of the sheer rejection or rebellion or being a people pleaser. These things that are underneath and beneath the surface need to be dealt with. And God in his mercy arranges things in our life to bring them to the surface. It's not for the purpose of shaming us, it's for the purpose of eradicating those things. Literally, getting to the roots of them and killing the root.

SPEAKER_00: 20:30

Because if you don't kill the root, you're gonna continue to have fruit. It's important to get to the heart of the matter.

SPEAKER_01: 20:44

Getting to things at the core. And God has a way of getting those things out. And once they're out, they can be removed. And once we confess them, they actually become strengths that God can use in our life to help other people who are caught in those things. Because we can say, I once was like that, but now because of the blood of Jesus and the power of his spirit, because of being a citizen of his kingdom and my relationship with God being in good order, I can overcome those things now, and I'm overcoming them by the blood of the Lamb and by the words that come out of my mouth. Hallelujah. That's powerful. We don't have to be victimized by our past. We can be freed from it. We don't have to be victimized by insecurity. We don't have to be victimized by trying to be a people pleaser. We don't have to be victimized by trying to be religious and being empty in the end. Being used up in the end, being left to just die in the end. Dried up, used up and dead versus prayed up, paid up, packed, and ready to go. God has things in store for us that exceed our ability to imagine. For those of us who are tall and chosen and find ourselves in Christ Jesus, our future is bright, and our current reality is such that God is at work within us both to do and to perform, both to want and to perform his good pleasure. He's at work giving us desires to be further in relationship with him and with one another. He gives us the ability to perform things that we couldn't perform in our own strength. He allows us to change the very vibrations that we emit from our lives so that we give out a different signal and we attract different things as well. We no longer find ourselves being drawn toward those things that are destructive. We begin to find ourselves having an appetite for those things that are constructive, creative, full of life. Think on these things, not on that negative stuff, not on how we can please people, but how we can please the Father. You know one of the ways that we can please him? By enjoying what he's given to us. And also by allowing him to eradicate those things from within us that inhibit his spirit or prohibit his spirit from advancing any further within us or leading us in a way that is new and different from the rut that we were stuck in previously. Hallelujah. But if we don't allow him to do it, if we don't allow our things to be eradicated, the opposite is what we're stuck with. Those things that bring about death and destruction. Where our lives take on a whole different course because our steps aren't being ordered by the Lord. Our steps are being ordered by our own fears and lack of trust.

SPEAKER_00: 25:18

And we find ourselves moving in a direction that is against God versus us co-operating with God.

SPEAKER_01: 25:33

And so we're going to be moving on from 1 Samuel for a while, but we want to cap things off for now with a word of encouragement, and that is this God is trustworthy. He is worthy of all of our trust. He is worthy of all of our love. And he wants all of us, even the things that have come between us, because those are the things that he went to the cross to eradicate. That the barrier is no longer there, the curtain has been torn, and we have access into the Holy of Holies so that we can come boldly before the throne of God, and let our request be made known to him. And my request of him is kingdom come, will of God be done in earth as it is in heaven. Lead us not in temptation, but deliver us from evil. Deliverance from evil, holiness unto the Lord, the glory of God being that which we not only host, but we steward in the very name of Jesus. Let's be overcomers by allowing God to eradicate those things from within us that held King Saul back and ultimately led to his unfortunate demise. Let it be known that God is for us. And if God is for us, who can be against us? Neither height nor depth nor any other creature will be able to separate us from the love of God that is found in Christ Jesus. He loves us. He is going to not only save us, he's keeping us, and he's leading us all the way to the end. Hallelujah. So let's not wrestle against him. But let's see these things that Jesus died to remove. Let's see them under our feet. And we become victorious, overcomers by his blood and by the things that come out of our mouth in his name. Hallelujah. Let's pray. Father, thank you. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Thank you for who you are. God, that you are God Almighty. And Jesus, you are very God of very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father, by whom all things are made. And who for us, men and our salvation, you came down from heaven. Hallelujah. Incarnate by the Holy Spirit, born of a Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead and buried, but on the third day you rose again from the dead, according to the scriptures, and you are now risen and seated at the right hand of the Father, soon to come again in glory, to establish your kingdom on earth. Forever until there's a new heaven and a new earth. Hallelujah. To the praise of your glory and your grace, God, we offer ourselves to you as a living sacrifice and invite you to come, Holy Spirit, come and manifest the kingdom of God to us and through us in the powerful name of Jesus. Amen. Amen. Amen. All right, folks, we love you. And if you have any thoughts, questions, concerns, please feel free to drop us a line at life around the fire at gmail.com. That's our email address. Or you can just type in LifeRun the Fire and look us up on the web. We would love to hear from you. In the meantime, God bless you. Adios, amigos.