Leadership Lessons From Saul - part 1

Over the next three days I want to share some leadership lessons that flow from the anointing of King Saul. Often Saul gets a bad rap because of his poor finish but none the less, he was chosen in the beginning and anointed by God to lead Israel. I saw several things in the word this morning that I want to share over the next couple of days.

The first thing I saw was God often chooses leaders from the least likely places. It's known that corporate America mines the great universities in hopes to find the next great CEO. Major League baseball scouts hovers over the finest high school programs and the most prestigious summer teams looking for the next big league pitcher. There seems to be an unspoken rule that if you're looking a for a successful leader, look here and here but don't waste your time here. But this is not always the case with God. Many times throughout history he anointed men and women to lead and it caught them off guard because in their eyes, they came from the least likely of places. When the prophet of God broke the news to young Saul that he had been chosen by God as Israel's first king his answer was, "BUT am I not a Benjamite from the smallest tribe of Israel, and is not my clan the least of all the clans of the tribe of Benjamin?" In other words, "Whatch you talkin' bout Willis?!" (Diff'rent Strokes humor for all you young people) Gideon said much the same thing when in hiding from the Midianites was told God was planning to use him to take out the enemy. And I mean seriously think about it - of all the places God could have chosen to have the Messiah born and raised, he chose Bethlehem and Nazareth! Are you kidding?!

I guess I'm seeing that God has always taken the foolish things of the world to shame the wise and the weak things of the world to shame the strong (1 Corinthians 1:27). Don't think for a moment that just because you from Moncks Corner, South Carolina that God won't use you to lead a revolution!