God Cares About Your Donkeys

God Cares About Your Donkeys
4-11-10

We are living in a time where the cares of this life and worries of tomorrow really hold us down
Those elements have the atomic potential to choke the Word out of our hearts and knock us off course
Cares and Worries are what keep you up at night, keeps you on edge with your family, can cause you to use that as an excuse to sin,
Cares and Worries of this life have the kinetic potential to drive you away from God, even causing you to blame God, for your own mess.
However cares and worries, viewed in the right perspective, and handled with the utmost prayer and integrity, can spill you into the reservoir of God’s purpose
Even though you feel like you are free falling into a bottomless pit,
God will float you right into your destiny, where you always wanted to be, His way.
Nothing like a good season of uncomfortableness and worry to lead you smack dab into the perfect will of God
Let’s see what God has to say about Cares and Worry…
Cares-serious attention; caution: protection;
1. Matthew 6:30
And if God cares so wonderfully for wildflowers that are here today and thrown into the fire tomorrow, he will certainly care for you. Why do you have so little faith?

2. Luke 8:14
The seeds that fell among the thorns represent those who hear the message, but all too quickly the message is crowded out by the cares and riches and pleasures of this life. And so they never grow into maturity.)
3. 1 Corinthians 6:13b
But you can’t say that our bodies were made for sexual immorality. They were made for the Lord, and the Lord cares about our bodies.

4. 2 -Corinthians 7:15
Now he cares for you more than ever when he remembers the way all of you obeyed him and welcomed him with such fear and deep respect.

5. Ephesians 5:29
No one hates his own body but feeds and cares for it, just as Christ cares for the church.

6. Philippians 2:20
I have no one else like Timothy, who genuinely cares about your welfare.

7. 1 Peter 5:6-7
6 So humble yourselves under the mighty power of God, and at the right time he will lift you up in honor. 7 Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about you.
Worry-to torment oneself with or suffer from disturbing thoughts; fret. to seize, esp. by the throat, with the teeth and shake or mangle, as one animal does another. to harass by repeated biting, snapping, a cause of uneasiness or anxiety; trouble
8. Matthew 6:25
“That is why I tell you not to worry about everyday life—whether you have enough food and drink, or enough clothes to wear. Isn’t life more than food, and your body more than clothing?

9. Matthew 6:28
“And why worry about your clothing? Look at the lilies of the field and how they grow. They don’t work or make their clothing,
10. Matthew 6:31
“So don’t worry about these things, saying, ‘What will we eat? What will we drink? What will we wear?’
11. Matthew 6:34
“So don’t worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries. Today’s trouble is enough for today.
12. Matthew 7:3
“And why worry about a speck in your friend’s eye when you have a log in your own?
13. Matthew 10:19
When you are arrested, don’t worry about how to respond or what to say. God will give you the right words at the right time.
14. Luke 12:22
[ Teaching about Money and Possessions ] Then, turning to his disciples, Jesus said, “That is why I tell you not to worry about everyday life—whether you have enough food to eat or enough clothes to wear
15. Luke 12:26
And if worry can’t accomplish a little thing like that, what’s the use of worrying over bigger things?
16. Luke 21:14
So don’t worry in advance about how to answer the charges against you,

17. Philippians 4:6-7 (New Living Translation)
6 Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. 7 Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.
• Now that we know that God cares about the little things in our lives, consider Saul. Soon to be King Saul
1 Sam 8:10-20 NLT
• make your men soldiers and slaves for him and your women will work as slaves too
• He will take a tenth of your cattle and the best of your flocks.
• God wanted to be their King, but because they had rejected God as the only one to lead them, they wanted a king like the other nations
• God chose Saul to be king on a day that Saul wasn’t even looking for God’s purpose, he was just looking for his father’s donkey’s
1 Sam 9 -10.
Saul was the most handsome man among the children of Israel that stood head and shoulders above all of them-taller than any of them
• One Day Kish’s (Saul’s wealthy father) donkey’s strayed away and Saul’s father asked him to go get them
• God cares about the things that concern you, even the asinine things
The Donkey’s
• Saul’s donkey’s represents our concerns, worries
• Donkeys were all purpose animals, the pick up trucks of Bible times
• Used for transportation, hauling and farming, they were necessities
• Even the poorest families owned them.
• Many donkeys were a sign of wealth, and to lose them was a disaster
• Saul’s father was very rich and evidence of his wealth
Sometimes we think stuff happens, but God uses these common events to lead us into our purpose, where He wants us to be.
• Good and bad circumstances are there for you to consider God’s purpose in them
• Maybe He is building a quality in you or leading you to seek and serve Him in a new area?
• The donkeys straying away were considered a divine appt for Saul
• The donkeys have been lost for 3 days and as far as 15 miles from Saul’s hometown
Saul ends up in Zuph- honeycomb and overflowing
• He is about to give up and his servant says I know a seer, or prophet, and everything he says comes true, let’s go to him
• They brought a sacrifice of Silver.
• Their sacrifice that day unlocked the purpose of God despite their worries and cares about their donkeys.
• Saul stops to talk to some young women, and they give him directions and Saul enters the town
• As they entered the town, Samuel the seer, the prophet was on his way to the high place
1 Sam 9:15-24
• Saul was only looking for his father’s donkey’s
• God is leading you to Zuph, in the face of your journey,
• Get up to the high place
God has a spot at the head of the table for you with the choice cut of meat,
It has been set aside for you, saved for you
1 Sam 10:5-6-7
• God want to take your worries and concerns and turn you into another person as the Spirit of God comes upon you with power.
• What if Saul wouldn’t have listened to his father that day, and said no?
Later Saul runs into his uncle and the uncle says where have you been?
• Went to look for my dad’s donkeys and we went to a prophet and He told us they had been found
• But never tells uncle that he was just anointed to be the very first King of Israel!
• By the way, Saul never actually brings the donkeys home.
• The very thing that sent him on his journey didn’t worry him anymore, He is the King of Israel.
When God brings a revelation of who He is, you are not concerned with money, issues, circumstances, he reveals His royalty, deity to you!
• Is it possible that God allowed these donkeys to stray from Saul’s house?
• Is it possible that God allows your dreams and visions to stray from you for the purpose of you getting in a lifetime journey with God?
• Saul to the Israelites was a picture of what we want but not necessarily what God wants for us
• God wanted to rule over Israel as a theocracy Himself, not a democracy with other men sharing it with Him
• Israel was very disobedient to God and very selfish, they wanted to be treated like the other nations of the world, having a King rule over them
• God wanted those other nations to be defeated in Joshua’s time, and because they weren’t, Israel faced great opposition later in life because of that
• Saul to the Israelites is a picture of selfishness, worry, and concern of the flesh
Conclusion
• Saul was just looking for his fathers donkeys, but God was looking to change his mentality
• It’s time to get to the high place because God has been saving the best for you
• Your greatest success is when you obey God, your greatest failures will come when you act on your own
• Strength and abilities make us useful, but our weaknesses make us usable
• Our skills and talents make us tools, but our failures and shortcomings remind us we need a craftsman in control of our lives
• Who’s in control of you? You or God?
Later on in 1 Sam 10 Saul’s inauguration was taking place and they looked for him because he had disappeared
• They had to ask the Lord where he was, and God said, He is hiding among the baggage.
• They brought him out and said, here he is the man that the Lord has chosen to be your King.
You might hide from God and where He wants you to be, but God knows where you are and will exalt you in due time.
• Jesus Christ died for your sins and rose from the dead to give you a brand new life
• That life is filled with different turns and winding roads.
• Don’t be afraid of Him or allow the worry and concerns of this life to get you down
• The Holy Spirit will take the pathway of worry and concern and reveal your destiny to you
• The things that worried you, the things that kept you up all night, are about to change, and God is going to release unto you the Kingdom.
17. Philippians 4:6-7 (New Living Translation)
6 Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. 7 Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.

God cares about your donkey’s.