# Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff

Key Passage: 1 Samuel 9:3-10:1
Date: June 7, 2024

Turning your Bibles, if you will, over to the Old Testament, 1 Samuel chapter number nine. First Samuel chapter number nine tonight. And we’re going to try to be brief.

I can feel a wave, that wave of disbelief going across the auditorium. We’re going to work at it. We’re going to see what happens on that tonight. Because warm chili is better than cold chili. And so we’re going to do it and see what we can do on that. But 1 Samuel chapter number nine. The Bible uses older language sometimes. And I don’t like to change the Bible. If you change the Bible, you’ll mess it up. It is God’s Word. We don’t change it. So it’ll use a word we don’t use a lot for a donkey. But I want you to know before we read it what the Bible is talking about. It is not cursing, if you will; it is talking about a donkey. I want you to know what is going on as I read God’s Word tonight.

The title tonight for the Internet would be, “Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff While God’s Making You a King.” Don’t sweat the small stuff while God is making you a king. And you will understand what we mean by that in just a minute here. First Samuel chapter number nine. We are going to read just verse number three. We will start verse number three of God’s Word.

Would you please stand if you are able to, just to show the Word of God respect? He magnified His Word above all His name. So we must respect it and think an awful lot of it, so we just try to show it some reverence when we read our text. First Samuel chapter number nine and verse number three. The Bible says, “The asses”—that’s the donkeys of Kish, Saul’s father—were lost.

And Kish said to Saul, his son, “Take now one of these servants with the inner eyes and go see classes.” And he passed through Mount Ephraim, passed through the land of… Help me out. What is that word right there? What you just said right there, Shalicia. Land of Cilicia, but they found them not. Then they passed through the land of Shalom, and there they were not, and it passed through the land of the Benjaminites, but they found them not. They lost these donkeys. He is looking all over for the donkeys.

And when they were come to the land of Zuff, Saul said to his servant that was with him, “Come, and let us return, lest my father leave caring for the asses and take thought for us.”

And he said to him, “Behold now, there is in this city a man of God, and he is an honorable man, for all that he saith cometh surely to pass. Now let us go thither; peradventure he can show us on our way that we should go.”

Now jump down if you will to verse number 15. Verse number 15. They came to Samuel, the man of God, the prophet, regarding these lost donkeys. Verse number 15.

“Now the Lord had told Samuel in his ear a day before Saul came, saying, ‘Tomorrow about this time I will send thee a man out of the land of Benjamin, and thou shalt anoint him to be captain over my people Israel, that he may save my people out of the hand of the Philistines, for I have looked upon my people because of their cry which has come unto me.’”

And when Samuel saw Saul, the Lord said unto him, “Behold the man whom I spake to thee of; this same shall reign over my people.”

Then Saul drew near to Samuel in the gate and said, “Tell me, I pray thee, where is the seer’s house?”

Samuel answered Saul and said, “I am the seer. Go up before me unto the high place, for ye shall eat with me today and tomorrow. I will let thee go and will tell thee all that is in thine heart.”

Now Saul wasn’t ready for all that. Verse number 20: “And as for thine asses, the donkeys that were lost three days ago, set not thine mind on them, for they are found. And on whom is all the desire of Israel? Is it not on thee and on all thy father’s house?”

Now look down at chapter 10, verse number one. Chapter 10, verse number one. Then Samuel took a vial of oil and poured it upon his head and kissed him, and said, “Is it not because the Lord hath anointed thee to be captain over his inheritance?”

Let me just briefly rehearse what just happened. Saul’s dad had a lot of cattle, had a lot of donkeys. They lost the donkeys. And so the dad said, “Hey, you take one of the servants, go look for those donkeys.” And so Saul went out and looked for the donkeys. Couldn’t find them. He was worried to death. He said, “Dad’s going to be worried. Where in the world? All those boys sent my son out with the servant. They’ve been gone three days and can’t find them, and where they had and all this.”

And the servant said, “Well, all right, all right. But before we do it, real close by here is this preacher, this prophet, this man of God. Everything he says comes to pass. Let’s go ask him.” And we bypassed a little bit of it. So they went over to Samuel.

And Samuel said, “Yeah, yeah, I know what is going on, but you are going to meet with me today up at the sanctuary, if you will, the high place. And we are going to eat together, and I will tell you all that is going on in your heart. Don’t worry about it; don’t sweat that. Don’t set your mind on that. Something else is going on bigger than that.”

He met with him. And before he left, before he left, Samuel took a little bottle of oil. I have a little bottle I will use sometime if we are praying over someone. He took that oil and he poured it on Saul’s head, and he anointed him to be the king. He became the king of Israel.

Now, for just a little bit, let us just kind of focus on what happens here in the Bible. Would you pray that God would speak to your heart through it? Would you do that? As I pray…

Thank you so much for staying. You may be seated.

Can I just say losing cattle or animals can be trouble? I will never forget. Years ago, we were babysitting my sister and brother-in-law’s little bitty chihuahua. Now, I understand some people love chihuahuas, so I have to be careful, but man, those chihuahuas, they can just… all the time. You know what I am talking about? Does anyone here have a chihuahua? Oh, no, I cannot say too much then. I mean, the big ones usually, they do not bite, but those little ones, man, they will get your ankles real quick. You know, they are just all over.

And anyway, they had this chihuahua we were watching, and we were just taking real good care. You really believe me now when I say we are taking really good care of this chihuahua? The chihuahua got out and took off. And we looked. I do not know; it seems like maybe it was hours for this little chihuahua. Lost animals are a big deal. You do not talk about it.

I will never forget my youth director when I was a teenager. He had Live Oak, Florida, the middle of nowhere, and he had some cattle, had a Brahma bull. And some of us boys, junior high boys, went over there—dumb, dumb, dumb—and we started chasing the bull. Because sometimes you chase the bulls, they turn around and chase you. You know what I am talking about? We took off. I mean, just gone, scared to death. But that Brahma bull, we got them all worked up, and he hit the fence, and he broke eight posts, wooden posts, and he got out. And man, our youth director, he was hot. I mean, have you ever seen someone so mad they cannot talk? You know what I am talking about? We were scared to death. We did not say a word. We just stayed away from him.

I never forget. The first thing he said he wanted to do was put the posts back in there, so we were doing whatever he wanted at that moment. We did not want him killing us. He is the same guy that almost drowned me. You remember telling me that story here recently? He is the same guy. About five feet tall and five feet wide. I am not talking about here wide, strong, one of those oxen, you know.

I never forget, he was putting one of those posts in the ground, and he just got an old… post—a cross-arm post, actually. It is a… you know, on the top of a telephone pole, they have the side things there, and then they used to have the old things, and then the glass insulators. You know, they collect those glass insulators. Anybody know what I am talking about there? All the old people. If you raise your hand, you are old is what I am trying to say. But it was one of those, and the glass insulator was often there, and so I had that wooden dowel sticking out, you know, just a little wooden piece. And it had that, and it was facing him. He had put that post in there, and we were packing dirt in there, and it was old. He was just grabbing whatever to make it a fence post, and he pulled it toward him. Remember, he was real strong, and it broke, and that wooden dowel hit him right in the forehead. Then he starts bleeding from the forehead. He is so mad he cannot talk. Man, us boys, we did not—we stayed away from Mr. Steele that night. He was hot.

Come to find out that Brahma bull weeks, or I do not know, maybe a year or so before, had gotten out on somebody else’s farm. Mr. Steele had gotten it. He did not know whose it was. He tried to find out, so he just took it. He had been feeding it for a year or so. And when it got out, the owner of it found out that was his Brahma bull, so Mr. Steele lost the cattle that night. He was mad, hot at us, you know. Losing cattle can be the problems you do not talk about here. So he lost the donkey. And it was a problem; it really was a problem, but God was doing something bigger.

Saul was all worked up. He spent so much time looking for the cattle, but God had a reason for those donkeys getting lost. Can I just say, concerning all the problems in your life? Sometimes we get so focused—I can be so focused on a problem, and it is driving me crazy—but God has something bigger He is trying to do in my life. I get so worked up, so frustrated, so mad, just over this problem. I am not saying, “Paul, I am doing something here.” I have a reason for that problem allowing it in your life. God was working, and He was doing something.

God often uses physical problems to bring about spiritual growth. Can I say financial problems? That is no big deal for God. God has all the cattle in a thousand hills. He has all the money in the world. I mean, you are talking about a Swiss bank account—He has heaven, amen. But He uses money so often to grow us. You just see it. So God is trying to grow us.

And these physical problems… I think about old Naaman. He got that leprosy, remember that? And then he came to Israel because of that servant girl. And Elisha said, “Hey, go dip, go wash in the Jordan River seven times.” He did not want to do it, but eventually he did it. And remember what happened? He washed seven times, and that dirty river—if you read real closely in there, that means Percy Priest Lake. You know what I am talking about right there? And man, he was cleansed of his leprosy.

And he goes back to Elisha, and this is what he says: “He returned to the man of God, he and all his company, and came and stood before him, and he said, ‘Behold now…’” He was the lead military guy, a general from Syria over there. “‘Behold now, I know that there is no God in all the earth but in Israel.’” I think he got saved. This leprosy, this physical sickness—God had a bigger thing going on. The problems in your life, Fred, God is trying to do something. He is working somewhere.

This is the interesting verse. Let me just read it for you. He says over in James, “My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations.” That is different kinds of problems. I used to think, “How in the world can I count it all joy when problems come?” You know, he tells me how I can do that: “Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience.”

I read that and think, well, patience is not a big deal to me. It is not to me, but it is to God. But patience is not the finished product. The next verse, he says, “But let patience have her perfect work, that she may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.” The end product is your perfection, meaning you are mature, you have grown up in the spiritual life, and you are entire. Maybe you are lacking in a certain area of your Christian life, but when you go through those trials, you count it all joy because God is trying to make you where you are not lacking in a certain area. Some people lack faith, or maybe they lack just being kind to people, maybe they lack compassion when people are going through a hard time. God says, “I am taking you through this because you are lacking in certain areas, and I know what you need to grow in that area.” It is counting it all joy. He has a reason. He has a purpose in this.

I was a youth pastor in Alabama and youth director, and then we moved down to Florida. During that time in Florida, if there was gold, if I touched it, it would turn to mud. Everything went wrong: layoffs, car wrecks, hospitals, and all this crazy stuff. We were there two years and two months. I remember exactly how long because we were wondering when we were going to get out of this test. We were in the middle of that, and we thought, “What in the world is going on? Why all these financial problems everywhere we look, car wrecks, and you are in the hospital?” All these things were happening. But God had a bigger plan. My wife often said there is no way I could go with you to start a church, just out of scratch and normal faith and all that, if I had not been through that time. We get focused on our little things, but God has something bigger. He is doing something bigger. And that is the way God works.

Fannie Crosby. Years ago, she could see when she was born, but when she was six weeks old, she says in her words—I will read it in a moment—she thinks it was just a common cold that got in her eyes. The doctor they usually went to was out of town, so they got another doctor; he was basically a quack. Have you ever visited a doctor like that? Do not raise your hand.

This is what Fannie Crosby writes. I am reading some of the things she said. She says, “When I was six weeks old, a slight cold caused inflammation of the eyes. Our usual doctor was away from home, so a stranger was called in. He recommended the use of hot poultices, which practically destroyed my sight. When the sad calamity became known, the unfortunate man thought it best to leave the neighborhood, and we never heard of him again.” He said, “I am getting out of Dodge.” He made that six-week-old girl blind. But she added, “I have not for a moment in more than 85 years felt a spark of resentment against him. For I have always believed that the good Lord in His infinite mercy by this means consecrated me to the work that I am still permitted to do. When I remember how I have been blessed, I can repent.”

Now here is what she is saying: God had a reason for me being blind. That caused her to be in the music world, in the writing world. She has written, according to who you read by, some say about 8,000 hymns, some say up to 9,000 hymns. Some of the songs that are in your songbook, she wrote those songs. She wrote “Blessed Assurance.” She wrote “Pass Me Not, O Gentle Savior.” She wrote “All the Way My Savior Leads Me.” She wrote “Jesus, Keep Me Near the Cross” and many, many more. All those years, way back, she had a problem that would wipe out a lot of people. But she said, “No, God has a bigger plan here.” For years and years and years, Christians have gotten comfort from many songs that God used her to write.

So do not get caught up too much in your problems. I love the advice that Samuel gave Saul. Would you look back? We read it, but would you look back at verse number 20, 1 Samuel 9 and verse number 20?

Y’all still out there tonight? Do not lose me. Verse number 20 right there. And he said, “As for thine asses, the donkeys that were lost three days ago,” here it is—I love this advice—“set not thy mind on them.” When you get your mind so wrapped up in this problem, God said, you are getting it wrapped up in the wrong thing. I have something bigger going on here. Saul, I am making you a king. Can I say God has a kingly position for you? I do not know what that means for you, but He has plans for you. He has something He wants to make you and to use you, and it is a kingly position.

What if Saul had gotten so bent out of shape over these donkeys that were lost and he just got so focused on that? Maybe he said, “I do not have time to go see that man of God. I do not have time; I have business to take care of.” What if it had been like that? When Samuel said, “Hey, tomorrow I am going to eat with you. I am going to tell you everything going on in your heart.” “No, buddy, that is all right. Thanks a lot, preacher, but I have something else. I have things to take care of.” What if it had been like that? It is so easy just to get your mind so focused on the problems.

Can I just say this? We sing it tonight: God will take care of you. He can handle that problem. You have heard it said, has it ever occurred to you that nothing has ever occurred to God? He knows what is going on in your life. And I am not saying do not work on it and do not focus on it, but friends, if you get so caught up on it, you are liable to miss what God is really trying to do—something so much bigger. Trust God that He has a reason for that problem in your life. Sometimes God is allowing that problem because He is using that problem to chisel away the bad things in my life. But He is working.

What does the Bible say? You know the Bible verse over there in Isaiah 26:3: “That will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on the problem.” No. Whose mind is stayed on Thee. Do you trust Him for me? When I get my mind off God because of these problems and I get it off of God, I so often miss the big picture. He is doing something. If Fannie Crosby met the world bitter and mad at the world, I cannot see her being mad at that quack of a doctor; I do not think she would have written 8,000 hymns. I do not think so.

Can I say this: submit to what God has allowed in your life? That is hard to do sometimes. I am talking about what God has allowed. I am not saying God did it. He did not do it. Job lost his problems. God did not do all those. God lifted His hand, and Satan did those things.

It was a good day for me when I lost my fingers, you know that. Oh, my goodness, it has been close to 30 years now. I have to figure it up—it has been 30 years, 30 years ago. Me and my wife got in a fight, and she had a knife. Boy, I was just troubled. And I am joking, of course, but I was at work, and I was reaching to pull something out in a big machine, and a blade came down. I lost my fingers in that. Initially, I was all right. You know, you kind of expect—you hear all those preaching Bible calls right about a month before I graduated—that you are going to have some major trials and tests and trials. So I was kind of ready for that. But then about, oh, maybe a month or two or three—I think about a month into it—when you start to get back into the regular routine of life. The thing I always talk about typically, and it is true, but there are so many things: Have you ever tried to tie your shoe without your thumb or your index finger? Have you ever tried to do that? You know, it is just… I wore Velcro tennis shoes for a while. I was an old man before my time. Just the routine of life, that button right there, that button right there. If I could lose my salvation, I would lose my salvation over that button right there sometimes. Praise the Lord, I have a wonderful wife that will take care of it now.

Who in the world wants to go to a guy when you are a 20-year-old young man and say, “Would you button my button for me?” Just not cool, you know what I am talking about? And I started to get back to the right, and I realized, man, my world is never going to be the same. That is when discouragement comes and bitterness comes knocking at the door and all those things. It was such a good day for me when I, in so many words, said, “You know, God has a reason for this, and I am going to submit to His plan. He has a purpose to this.” Friend, I am telling you, that is when joy came back and peace came back—when I submitted, “God has a reason for this problem in my life.” It is so important. I just say, “Hey, God has something.” Paul, in the flesh, he went to the Lord three times, “Take it away,” and God said, “No, no, I have a plan for it.” And Paul said, “I will take pleasure in my infirmities; that is the power of Christ resting on me.” He said, “I am going to submit to it.”

Saul, you have a reason—God has a reason for these donkeys being lost. Do not get caught up with a problem. Set not your mind on it. God worded that like that for a reason. On the pathway to you being a king, what God wants for your life, there are going to be lots of problems. If you will, there are going to be a lot of lost donkeys. Do not get too shook up about it. God has a reason for it. I would rather there be problems because I am on the way to be a king than problems because of sin in my life. I would rather that than cirrhosis of the liver because of drinking too much. You understand?

By the way, great problems can be the thing that shows us how great our God is. John the Revelator, he was put on an island. He was putting a big old pot of oil; he was lowered into this. Can you imagine Crisco cooking oil? It just pops up and hits you on the ham, and that hurts, but can you imagine being lowered into that? And the scars he had probably for the rest of his life. After that, he was left out on an island and just kind of stranded, and he did not die out there actually, but probably a good chance they thought he would. Yet through that, while he was out there on that island, God had a bigger plan. That is when God gave him the book of Revelation. So we know what is going to happen. We always say, “Hey, man, I know what is going to happen because I read the last chapter of the book.” That is the book of Revelation. We got that from John through a problem in his life.

When I was out there on an island, Fannie Crosby, blinded at six weeks old—God had a bigger plan. He was taking her to the throne, if you will, to be a king. John Bunyan, a great preacher years gone by over in England, he was preaching that the Church of England does not save you; Jesus is the Savior. You do not have to be a member of that church to get saved. You have to be a born-again Christian through Jesus’ shed blood. They did not like that. And he spent twelve years in jail. Twelve years. Can you imagine that? Some say there are different things about it. Some say his blind daughter would come visit him and say, “Daddy, Daddy, if you won’t preach anymore, they’ll let you out of jail.” And he would say, “No, I am going to preach. If they let me out today, I will be on the streets preaching tomorrow.” You talk about a problem: twelve years.

Yet those twelve years in that Bedford jail, he wrote a book called Pilgrim’s Progress. Many say that is the most printed book besides the Bible. There are over 1,300 editions of Pilgrim’s Progress. It has been translated into over 200 different languages. It is really hard to get a tally of how many of them have been printed, and it was because of a problem in his life. Twelve years in jail, but God had a bigger plan. I am saying, friend, God has allowed those problems in your life. He is trying to do something. He is working. Saul, set not thy mind on that.

I mentioned this all, but I just cannot pass it up: Charles Weigel, evangelist years ago. He is in heaven now. Years and years ago, he was an evangelist for years, and eventually, they say his wife just got tired of it, being a preacher’s wife, and so she left him. Charles Weigel spent the last year of his life at Tennessee Temple—it is not there anymore, Tennessee Temple University—and Dr. Robertson had a little apartment for Weigel, and there was a building named the Weigleton, but Charles Weigel…

My old preacher about the house said I was there preaching one time. He said, “I went to visit Brother Weigel. He was older.” He went down the hallway. I was going to visit his little apartment. He said, “I went down there, and I could hear him in there talking to someone.” He said, “I do not want to go inside because I did not want to interrupt.” So I stayed out there for a while. He said, “I just kept listening. I thought the door was a little ajar.” He said, “I am going to go in there and find out what is going on.” He said, “I went inside there.” Dr. Weigel had white hair, and he said Dr. Weigel was standing on the bed with his shoes off. “Well,” I said, “what in the world are you doing?” He said, “Man, I was just in the apartment by myself. I was talking to the Lord, and it got so sweet, I decided I would just take my shoes off and stay on the bed for a minute or two.” Charles Weigel is the man that wrote the song, “No One Ever Cared for Me Like Jesus.”

Now, he had a sweet ending to his life, but there was a major problem for him. But God had a plan. God is always working. You have problems; God always has something bigger going on. If Saul had gotten all frustrated and tore up about those donkeys, good chance God said, “No, he is not the man.” But Saul, set not thy mind on that. God has that problem; He has that taken care of. God is trying to get you over here, where Samuel is. You are going to be anointed king. So while God is trying to get you on the throne or whatever God wants in your life—make you a king—do not sweat the small stuff. There are going to be problems, but God is doing something bigger. He has a bigger plan.

Would you bow your heads and close your eyes tonight? Heads and eyes are closed.

You are here tonight, and we will ask two questions. Maybe three questions? You are here tonight. You said, “Preacher, you know, I need to accept the problems in my life.” I am not saying you like them, you love them. I am not trying to say that, but you accept it. All right, God has a reason. I am going to accept it. God has a purpose. I am going to accept what He is doing. Preacher, God spoke more. I need to accept that God is doing something in the line. I accept the problems of my life. If that is you tonight, you slip your hand up. I am going to accept the problems of my life. I understand God is working. God bless you. God bless you. God bless you. Good, good, good.

Question number two. Let me ask you this: You say, “I want to grow.” Would you tell the Lord tonight, “I want to grow. I want to learn. I want to get what I am supposed to get out of this problem. I want to pass the test, if you will. I want to learn. I want to get. I want to grow what I am supposed to learn and get and grow from this problem.” I am accepting it. And now, Lord, I am asking you, would you help me to grow and get? Would you help me get to the throne, if you will? Would you make me know what I ought to be through this problem? Would you work and use my life? If that is you, slip your hand up. I am going to ask the Lord, “Help me to grow and get and learn what I am supposed to learn and grow and get from this problem in my life.” God bless you. God bless you.

I would just spend some time telling Him that in just a moment. Maybe here tonight, you do not know for sure you are on your way to heaven. God loves you so very, very much. Jesus, His only begotten Son, died on an old, regular cross, and He shed His blood to pay for your sins. We all have a sin debt, every one of us, and Jesus paid for those sins. Because He did that, God can give you heaven. He would like to; He wants to give you heaven as a gift—forgiveness of all your sins. Jesus paid for it. To come home in heaven, you become a child. It is the greatest thing ever happened in all the world; it is all through Jesus. If you are here tonight and you said, “Preacher, I need to get saved. I do not know Jesus Christ as my Savior. I need to accept Him as my payment for my sin tonight”—if that is you, I tell you, you slip your hand up. “Preacher, I need to get saved in my life. I need to get saved. I need to go to heaven.” Oh, He loves you. He would love to give that to you. If you are not sure of that, we would be glad to be a help to you tonight. If we can, just let us know that.

Would you please stand right there yet? Would you please stand? I am going to have a quick word of prayer. Would you come spend some time with the Lord? I am going to accept the problem. I am going to submit to the problems. Lord, I want to grow through the problem. Would you let them know that tonight? Father, thank you that we can rest in the truth that You are doing something. You have allowed this. Father, help us to accept the problem, Lord—not that we like it—help us to accept it and submit to Your will, and grow us through it, Lord, please. And Father, bless our people tonight. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.

Original File: Pastor Paul Chisgar - Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff While God is Making You a King - PM 09252022