David or Saul?
About this sermon
In “David or Saul,” Pastor Dean Odle presents a Scripture-centered message about spiritual leadership, the condition of the church, David’s example. Drawing especially from Proverbs 24, Jeremiah 23, Hebrews 13, Exodus 23, the teaching emphasizes that leaders are accountable to teach faithfully, serve the flock, and model the character they proclaim. Odle connects that foundation with the conviction that the church is called to recover biblical faithfulness instead of accommodating compromise.
Chronological teaching outline
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Odle focuses on revival while working through Proverbs 24. The message argues that revival begins with repentance, renewed hunger for God, and practical obedience among His people. It connects this with the conviction that the church is called to recover biblical faithfulness instead of accommodating compromise. The practical emphasis is to seek God in prayer and act on what Scripture requires.
Odle focuses on spiritual leadership. The message argues that leaders are accountable to teach faithfully, serve the flock, and model the character they proclaim. It connects this with the conviction that spiritual anointing is given for service and must remain joined to character and obedience. The practical emphasis is to respond with honest repentance and concrete obedience.
Odle focuses on David’s example while working through Jeremiah 23. The message argues that David’s choices are used to examine leadership, testing, repentance, and renewed dependence on God. It connects this with the conviction that prophecy should produce discernment, readiness, and faithfulness rather than speculation alone. The practical emphasis is to remain watchful, grounded in Scripture, and ready to obey Christ.
Odle focuses on David’s example. The message argues that David’s choices are used to examine leadership, testing, repentance, and renewed dependence on God. It connects this with the conviction that Scripture is presented as the standard for doctrine, discernment, and daily obedience. The practical emphasis is to seek God in prayer and act on what Scripture requires.
Odle focuses on the authority of Scripture. The message argues that Scripture is presented as the standard for doctrine, discernment, and daily obedience. It connects this with the conviction that David’s choices are used to examine leadership, testing, repentance, and renewed dependence on God. The practical emphasis is to trust God’s promises and refuse decisions governed by fear.
Odle focuses on gifts of the Holy Spirit while working through Hebrews 13, Exodus 23. The message argues that spiritual gifts are given by the Holy Spirit to build up the church and serve God’s purposes. It connects this with the conviction that the church is called to recover biblical faithfulness instead of accommodating compromise. The practical emphasis is to remain watchful, grounded in Scripture, and ready to obey Christ.
Odle focuses on spiritual leadership while working through Ephesians 5, Matthew 10. The message argues that leaders are accountable to teach faithfully, serve the flock, and model the character they proclaim. It connects this with the conviction that the church is called to recover biblical faithfulness instead of accommodating compromise. The practical emphasis is to trust God’s promises and refuse decisions governed by fear.
Odle focuses on the condition of the church. The message argues that the church is called to recover biblical faithfulness instead of accommodating compromise. It connects this with the conviction that biblical faith trusts God’s character and acts upon His promises. The practical emphasis is to seek God in prayer and act on what Scripture requires.
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- 0:00:00
god we just thank you lord for your presence and we just ask you lord god that you would just speak uh this morning speak to our hearts and change our lives in jesus name amen and amen hallelujah you may be seated praise god amen it's good to worship the lord amen you know all morning long the lord's kind of been i wouldn't say uh changing my message but adjusting it kind of been a work in progress um i want you to go ahead and turn to second samuel uh chapter six this morning um you know i couldn't help but uh when we sing that song set a fire and we start singing uh some of those uh you know of course that last song there was done by lydia stanley and lindell cooley from the brownsville revival and as many of you know i got to spend a lot of time at the brownsville revival up close and personal friend of mine was on staff at the church there and uh i went uh every week for a while i lived in montgomery and i'd travel down and stay for a few days and come back when i was pastoring the church there because for many years i just been hungry and thirsty for revival and studying revival history and and just praying and seeking god and there was a bunch of us that would get together at five o'clock every morning and pray for revival and and just believing god and of course when i heard about the brownsville revival breaking out and of course i knew about i knew who steve hill was before he ever went to brownsville and and did led that revival there i knew when i walked in the doors the presence of god hit me so strongly and the lord spoke to me the moment i walked in the front doors and he said i'm here in a different way and that's something i think we need to get a hold of is that you know we can have the presence of god but there are different levels and degrees that he will give and it's up to us if we're hungry and thirsty amen he promises that he'll feel the hungry and the thirsty right and so the problem's not with him right the problem is with us and you know and in this church we've talked about revival we've talked about praying for revival and what revival looks like and um you know revival is really i like what charles finney said it's nothing else than a new beginning of obedience to god that's the way he put it duncan campbell put it this way the leader of the hebrides revival he said it's when god steps down i've preached a message a couple of
- 0:03:00
times in washington dc when i was pastoring there and hear about you know there's a difference between the glory of god and the presence of god actually there's two different words even for that pauline and cabald in the hebrew and one the the glory of god is actually when god himself steps down the pawneem or the anointing or what we call a lot of times the the presence is is the atmosphere around him how many of you know there's a difference between him and just the atmosphere around him right we know in the in the gospel of john chapter 20 after jesus rose from the dead and he appeared to the disciples it said he breathed on them and said receive the holy spirit right but then he told them a little while after that go to jerusalem and wait for the promise of the father and then it wasn't just jesus breath it was a rushing mighty wind that filled all the house where they were sitting and and the gifts of the holy spirit were released and people were saved so a revival is is to me when god himself doesn't just give you a breeze doesn't just give you a little bit of the atmosphere around him it's literally when he steps down and does something beyond the norm beyond our normal services beyond our normal you know gentle wind sometime of his presence it blows into a service when you worship and this is something it's hard to get the church world to grasp a hold of that revival is not scheduling you know three meetings uh you know next month and we're gonna we're gonna have a revival right uh revival is is really spontaneous it's god just stepping down and doing something powerful now having said all that i don't know what it is but in my spirit this morning i feel that we've been going through as a church and me personally as a minister and a lot of you i know have been going through some difficult times some trials some struggles some of it has just been internal it's been emotional it's been um you you've had them with with church you've had them with people around you you you're just going through different things and but i do feel and i don't know this may be for all of us it may just be for some of us but i do feel in my spirit this morning that we've turned a corner and that we've walked through and this church has walked through a tough time and nancy and i the last few months have been walking through a really tough time and but i feel like you know you put your you put your head down you keep praying you keep believing god you know there's a scripture in proverbs 24 10 it says this that if you faint in the day of adversity your strength is small so all we're going to have days of adversity we have seasons of adversity and difficulty and trial and testing
- 0:06:00
but when you make it through those if you'll persevere if you'll press through with you'll fight the devil fight your own flesh fight even if you have to fight and deal with the the people who come against you and deal with them properly and not get offended and not get bitter then what god's gonna do is you're going to break through into a different realm what happened with jesus when he was being tempted in the wilderness remember when he conquered that temptation when he conquered that attack of the devil that went on for 40 days it says when he came out of the wilderness he came out what in the spirit and in the power of god and so the good part about trials and testing is when you persevere and get through them on the other side is a new anointing of the holy spirit a new empowerment of the holy spirit a new infilling of the holy spirit and you're stronger you're stronger see some of the times i want to i want to tell you i believe that god doesn't answer our prayers for revival and for power and for signs and wonders and things because he knows that if he gave them to us at that time that we wanted them that they would literally destroy us because we're not strong enough to handle the demonic attacks and the attacks that are going to come from people if he does give us those things listen god blessing you and god working miracles through you or god god using you to to speak to many people and get many people's attention or get people saved is going to draw also the attention of the enemy and you have to be strong enough to withstand satan's attacks and so if you don't go through some trials and some tests you're not going to be strong enough to handle it but again when you pass through that trial that test that tights and listen some sometimes those things those seasons can last for years well we don't like to hear that do we no we don't like to hear about a trial that can last for years do we sometimes they're months sometimes they're weeks and they're different i mean we're going through one right now see last night i had an opportunity to put my enemies in jail [Music] but even though they're lying about me slandering me and basically suing me and i could have put them in jail last night i showed mercy freaked them out freaked them out but because i responded and i'm going to tell you what personally because i responded correctly i feel something broke off it's even confused them i don't even think they know how to handle it in their head i mean the sheriff even pointed at him and said and he's got a year to change his mind about this i was like oh wow but you know what if we respond correctly and here's the
- 0:09:01
good news let me just say this too and i just i've said it twice if we respond correctly but hey guess what even if we don't sometimes did peter respond correctly when he was tempted and tested when jesus went to the cross and he denied jesus three times and he didn't respond correctly but he repented and god still used him on the day of pentecost didn't he didn't lead 3 000 people to jesus so even if you blow it if you repent amen that's the good news now i want to show you this right here this is just something is while we're in worship because last week i talked about i was talking about leadership in the sense of touch not mine anointed and do my profits no harm so we went through that and this this is partly i almost like i didn't plan it but it's kind of a second part to that because you know we got a lot of leaders in the church world right now that aren't really real leaders okay they hold positions they have pieces of paper that say they are pastors or whatever and all that's fine and dandy but there's a there's a difference between god called and god ordained leadership and god anointed leadership and either self-appointed or even leaders who may be called by god but they're confused they they know god called them maybe to be a leader in the church but all of a sudden they thought they were a pastor and god never called them to be a pastor there's a lot of people not even where they're supposed to be in the kingdom of god let me say this if you may have the call of god on your life you better be you better know specifically because if you're called to be a pastor and you're trying to be an evangelist that's going to be a disaster right if you're called to be an elder and you're trying to be a pastor that's a disaster if you think you're a prophet just because you've prophesied or god's revealed something to you and automatically you think you're a prophet in a fivefold calling then you're going to be in a disaster okay so it's important that we seek god to know our place in the kingdom and it's also important how we respond to those god puts us under a leadership how we deal with that how we recognize it and it's really not up to the leaders how you respond to elite you get what i'm saying it's really not there they have no control over that it's all of our we we need to know all of us need to know where we where we are in the kingdom of god and be content you know this last week i've been reading in kings and chronicles and i was reading about usia you know and it says about king of zion he was a godly king he was a good man and it said when he became strong though his heart got lifted up in pride a little bit and he decided that he was going to go in the temple and and and
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