Welcome [music] to this weekend’s InTouch podcast with Charles Stanley. Some people [music] begin life with every advantage, yet still end in tragic failure. Today, [music] we’ll meet one of those people in 1st Samuel chapter 9. If you’ll turn to 1 Samuel. And what I want to talk about this evening is the kind of tragedy that happens in the lives of people who have a very very delightful beginning in their life and end up the other way.
So what I want to talk about, the person I want to talk about is Saul. And there are two facets to his life. And I think it’s something that all of us need to examine in our own life. And then also every father needs to think about in the life of his children. So chapter 9 verse one there was a man of the of Benjamin whose name was Kish tells all about him.
Verse two says and he had a son whose name was Saul a choice young man a goodly and there was not among the children of Israel a goodly a person than he from his shoulders and upward he was higher than any of the people. Now here’s what I want you to notice. I want you to see what can happen to a young man. I want you to see the kind of man Saul is because one of the most heartbreaking things that I’ve ever had to witness as a pastor is to see this.
I have seen some young men whom God has called into the ministry. I’ve seen some young men whom God has given other vocations to and they start out so right. They’re promising. They’ve got everything going for them and it seems that everything goes along for a while and then overnight it seems a disintegration process begins to set in.
And as a few years go by, you look back and you ask, “What in the world could have happened to him? How could that ever have taken place in her life? How could a person that was so promising? How could a person who had so much going for him, so much talent, so much ability, had everything that anybody could ever ask for, how could anyone with that kind of beginning ever turn out like this? Now, I want you to listen to me carefully.
Every young person sitting here, listen to what I’m saying. It matters not how you start out. It’s how you end your life that really matters. It doesn’t make any difference what a tremendous beginning you have. And sometimes the easy beginning is the worst thing that could happen to you. When you’ve got everything going your way, everything you wants dished out to you, life is easy, uh life is sort of a a life of ease and comfort and pleasures, and you’re making your way.
And somehow there is a little niche in your character back there, and you never learn some basic things. It isn’t how we begin. It’s how we end up in life that really matters. Here is a young man who had everything going his way. But it is one of the most tragic examples, one of the most tragic pictures of life to be found anywhere in the Bible.
And so I want us to look at Saul for just a moment. And the first thing I want you to look at here is this. Saul was a choice young man. Chapter nine now, beginning in verse two, he says, “And he had a son that is Kish whose name was Saul. He was a choice young man.” That is when you looked around to see the young people around him.
