Saul looked the part of being the first king of Israel. He was “an impressive young man without equal among the Israelites — a head taller than any of the others.”
Scoop on Saul’s background: He may have looked the part of being a king, but his family was from the smallest of the clans in Israel and among the humblest of Israel. Saul was basically from a dysfunctional family. On the outside, Saul looked kingly. On the inside, he was Charlie Brown.
RECIPE TO FEED YOUR FEAR OF REJECTION: Listening to your naysayers/haters
1 Samuel 10:11-13 NIV
When all those who had formerly known him saw him prophesying with the prophets, they asked each other, “What is this that has happened to the son of Kish? Is Saul also among the prophets?” A man who lived there answered, “And who is their father?” So it became a saying: “Is Saul also among the prophets?” After Saul stopped prophesying, he went to the high place.
RECIPE TO FEED YOUR FEAR OF REJECTION:Being your own worst critic, always about your own abilities/skills/potential.
1 Samuel 10:15-16 NIV
Saul’s uncle said, “Tell me what Samuel said to you.” Saul replied, “He assured us that the donkeys had been found.” But he did not tell his uncle what Samuel had said about the kingship.
RECIPE TO FEED YOUR FEAR OF REJECTION: Turning your baggage into a hiding place.
1 Samuel 10:20-24 NIV
When Samuel had all Israel come forward by tribes, the tribe of Benjamin was taken by lot. Then he brought forward the tribe of Benjamin, clan by clan, and Matri’s clan was taken. Finally Saul son of Kish was taken. But when they looked for him, he was not to be found. So they inquired further of the lord, “Has the man come here yet?” And the lord said, “Yes, he has hidden himself among the supplies.” They ran and brought him out, and as he stood among the people he was a head taller than any of the others. Samuel said to all the people, “Do you see the man the lord has chosen? There is no one like him among all the people.” Then the people shouted, “Long live the king!”
RECIPE TO FEED YOUR FEAR OF REJECTION: Tooting your own horn
1 Samuel 13:2-4 NIV
Saul chose three thousand men from Israel; two thousand were with him at Mikmash and in the hill country of Bethel, and a thousand were with Jonathan at Gibeah in Benjamin. The rest of the men he sent back to their homes. Jonathan attacked the Philistine outpost at Geba, and the Philistines heard about it. Then Saul had the trumpet blown throughout the land and said, “Let the Hebrews hear!” So all Israel heard the news: “Saul has attacked the Philistine outpost, and now Israel has become obnoxious to the Philistines.” And the people were summoned to join Saul at Gilgal.
Rejection of God’s ‘Perfect Love’ leads to rejection of the Lord’s plans for our life.
1 Samuel 15:26 NIV
But Samuel said to him, “I will not go back with you. You have rejected the word of the lord, and the lord has rejected you as king over Israel!”
OVERCOMING FEAR OF REJECTION
1. Talking to God … Daily Prayer – Your voice
2. Surround yourself with pro-you people
3. Encourage and complement others
4. Choose commitment over feelings
5. Develop an acceptance resume with God
DAVID OVERCOMES REJECTION OF HIS BROTHERS TO DEFEAT GOLIATH
1 Samuel 17:20-37 NIV
Early in the morning David left the flock in the care of a shepherd, loaded up and set out, as Jesse had directed. He reached the camp as the army was going out to its battle positions, shouting the war cry. Israel and the Philistines were drawing up their lines facing each other. David left his things with the keeper of supplies, ran to the battle lines and asked his brothers how they were. As he was talking with them, Goliath, the Philistine champion from Gath, stepped out from his lines and shouted his usual defiance, and David heard it. Whenever the Israelites saw the man, they all fled from him in great fear. Now the Israelites had been saying, “Do you see how this man keeps coming out? He comes out to defy Israel. The king will give great wealth to the man who kills him. He will also give him his daughter in marriage and will exempt his family from taxes in Israel.” David asked the men standing near him, “What will be done for the man who kills this Philistine and removes this disgrace from Israel? Who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God?” They repeated to him what they had been saying and told him, “This is what will be done for the man who kills him.” When Eliab, David’s oldest brother, heard him speaking with the men, he burned with anger at him and asked, “Why have you come down here? And with whom did you leave those few sheep in the wilderness? I know how conceited you are and how wicked your heart is; you came down only to watch the battle.” “Now what have I done?” said David. “Can’t I even speak?” He then turned away to someone else and brought up the same matter, and the men answered him as before. What David said was overheard and reported to Saul, and Saul sent for him. David said to Saul, “Let no one lose heart on account of this Philistine; your servant will go and fight him.” Saul replied, “You are not able to go out against this Philistine and fight him; you are only a young man, and he has been a warrior from his youth.” But David said to Saul, “Your servant has been keeping his father’s sheep. When a lion or a bear came and carried off a sheep from the flock, I went after it, struck it and rescued the sheep from its mouth. When it turned on me, I seized it by its hair, struck it and killed it. Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear; this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, because he has defied the armies of the living God. The lord who rescued me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will rescue me from the hand of this Philistine.” Saul said to David, “Go, and the lord be with you.”