It's not a lies its Wisdom.

In this transcription, the speaker welcomes everyone to an evening of God's Word and discusses the importance of discretion and managing information in our lives. They talk about believers feeling pressured to reveal everything about themselves and discuss the story of Samuel being sent to anoint a new king without knowing who it is. They emphasize that just as God exercises discretion, believers should be wise about what they reveal and to whom. They also address the expectation of new believers to share personal information and how it can make them feel uncomfortable. The speaker encourages respecting privacy and communicating with honor and respect. Praise the Lord! Hallelujah! Praise God! Welcome everyone to another evening of God's Word, another evening in the presence of the Word of God, another evening in the presence of the Holy Spirit, another evening at the feet of Jesus, learning of Him, glorifying Him, and just being open to hear a fresh Word from the Lord tonight. Thank you, people of God, for your support. Thank you for joining in. Thank you for being a part of God's vision in this ministry, the wheat field. We are eternally grateful that God will bring His Word through us, and we are expectant of a visitation tonight in the mighty name of Jesus. And so before we start, we're going to pray. We always start with a prayer. We end with a prayer. So, Holy Spirit of the living God, we worship You, we honor You, we exalt You. We ask for Your help to glorify Jesus tonight. Let the words of our mouths and the thoughts of our hearts be acceptable unto God. Let us be anointed speaker to speak tonight, even as the oracles of God. Let the Word of God come alive tonight. Enable us to see Jesus that much more clearer tonight in the name of Jesus. Jesus, welcome. This is Your home, this is Your platform. Manifest Yourself in the mighty and everlasting name of Jesus. Amen. And so tonight we have an interesting topic, as we always do. We are going to speak about something that I think is very relevant in our generation, is very relevant in our time, and it has to do with discretion. It has to do with managing information. It has to do with navigating our everyday lives in wisdom. And my subject for today's conversation is, It's not a lie, it is wisdom. It's not a lie, it is wisdom. My text, my anchor text for this evening is from the book of 1 Samuel, chapter 16, verses 1 to 3. The book of Samuel, chapter 16, verses 1 to 3. The Bible says, And the Lord said unto Samuel, How long will you mourn for Saul, seeing that I have rejected him from reigning over Israel? Fill thine horn with oil, and go. I will send you to Jesse the Bethlehemite, for I have provided me a king among his sons. Verse 2. And Samuel said, How can I go? How can I go? If Saul hears it, he will kill me. And the Lord said, Take a heifer. Take a heifer with you, and say, I have come to sacrifice to the Lord. And call Jesse, verse 3, And call Jesse to the sacrifice, and I will show you what you shall do. And you shall anoint unto me him whom I name unto you. So he had no idea who he was going to anoint. He had no idea who God had chosen. The Lord kept that information to himself. Even God kept that information to himself. The secret things, the Bible says, belongs to our God, and those things which are revealed belong to us and our children forever. Amen? And so, today we are going to ponder on something that I truly believe is almost an epidemic now. Many believers in this generation, in our time, in this season, Many believers think that discretion and minimal revelation about one's life is deceptive. These are believers now. People of the world do what they like. They live, they have their own rules. We are talking now about believers, followers of Jesus Christ. Believers think that being discreet, being economical with information, being minimal with revelation about your own life is deceptive. They believe that if you have nothing to hide, you should be willing to lay out your life in HD, full color. You should be willing to reveal everything about yourself to anyone who would ask you. They believe that you should be willing to let the whole world see you. Be transparent. That's a favorite word that people use now. Be transparent. Now, in this Internet age, where everybody seems to want to put their entire lives on blast, where everyone seems to want to give access to their life to any and everyone. So, being mindful and guarding your private life and your private information from public scrutiny is now very unpopular. If you don't have your whole life on social media, if you don't have your whole life out in the church, discussing every little bit about your life, what's going on, what's failing and what's winning, if you don't broadcast your entire life, you are seen as a deceiver, as a deceptive person. It seems to me that the church, the believers feel entitled to access into our lives, into the lives of other believers. And so you go to a new church, and you are investigated. You go in, and it's a good thing. People want to befriend you. People want to know about you. But there is a sense. It's almost as if they need to know everything about you right away. And so they begin to probe you. They begin to try to decode you. Asking intrusive questions. And, you know, there is no other word. There is no other way to describe these questions. Intrusive, let's be honest. They are trying to decode you right away. They want you to reveal everything about yourself. And if you don't, you are a suspect. If you don't tell them everything about yourself, You can always tell because they ask you a barrage of questions. They ask you one. They ask you two. They ask you three. They have it all set up. They want to know everything about you right away. And if you don't give answers that are open enough, if you don't tell them everything right away, you become suspect to them. They think you are being cagey. They think you don't want to tell them your life. Tell them your business. That's your prerogative. It's your prerogative to withhold information about yourself. This is yourself. This is your life. You don't owe anyone. You don't owe anyone to tell them everything about yourself. You only reveal what you feel comfortable revealing. Now how you communicate that position is a whole other matter because as Christians, as believers, we must be respectful. We must communicate with honor and respect. However, we don't owe anyone any responsibility to reveal to others what we don't feel comfortable revealing. In our text, the prophet Samuel received a command from the Lord. The Lord said to Samuel, Fill your horn with oil and go. I will send you to Jesse, the Bethlehemite, for I have provided me a king amongst his sons. Jesse had many sons. In verse 3, the Lord is saying now to Samuel, he says, And call Jesse to this sacrifice. Jesse is not the king. The Lord has chosen one of his sons. At this point, Samuel has no idea whom God has chosen. God elected to withhold that information. And the Lord says, I will show you what you shall do. And you shall anoint unto me him whom I name unto you. So the Lord gives Samuel no idea, no clues. When you get there, I'll show you what to do. Then I will show you whom I have chosen. The Lord has elected to be economical with information. If the Lord, the God of all flesh, can choose to be discreet about information, we also are expected to be wise about what we reveal, how we reveal it, to whom we reveal it. Samuel is a prophet of Almighty God. He has no idea whom God has chosen for himself. But believers, it almost feels like we are so desperate to please. We are so desperate to be accepted. We are so afraid of being judged and we are so eager to appear, to fit in, that the moment we begin to be interrogated by people who don't even know us, who really should be patient to learn, just wait to find out who you have in your church. You can't know everything in one day. Give it time. You know, it's an organic relationship. Things will unfold organically. You have your life. This person that you are interrogating knows nothing about you. Why do you feel so entitled to every information about them? They are just meeting you just as you are meeting them. All they know about you is that you are in the church. They know your name, maybe your role. They don't know anything about your family. They don't know anything about your house. They know nothing about your private life. Why do you feel so entitled to probe into the private life of this new person who walked into your church? And if they don't tell you, they become suspect to you. You begin to feel like they can't be trusted because now they are keeping their private life private. They don't know you. You don't know them. But somehow, because they are new and stumbled into your church or someone invited them into your church, you feel entitled to have every single information about them. But here we see even God exercising discretion with his servant, with his prophet. The Lord is being strategic with information. And in verse 2, we see prophet Samuel having a deep conversation with Almighty God. God has said to him in verse 1, You go, fill your horn with oil. Go to the house of Jesse Bethlehemite. You're going to anoint for me a king there. And Samuel said to the Lord, he said, How can I go? How can I go? This is a mission. This is a journey of no return. How can I go to do this? If Saul hears of it, he will kill me. He will take me out for sure. Now, let's go back to verse 1. Verse 1, 1 Samuel chapter 16, the Bible says, And the Lord said unto Samuel, How long will you mourn for Saul, seeing that I have rejected him from reigning over Israel? So, Saul is so attached emotionally, I'm sorry, Samuel is so attached emotionally to Saul, that he is mourning for a long time because the Lord has rejected Saul. And Samuel is so affected, he is crying and he is mourning for Saul. And so you would think, you would think, that when the Lord says to Samuel, get up and go and anoint someone, Samuel would move quickly because he's been aware for a while that God had rejected Saul. You would also know that for him to have mourned for so long, for Saul, there was an emotional connection. He loved Saul. But when the Lord said, go, Samuel said, how can I go? Saul, the same Saul that I have cried for, I have mourned for, if he hears about me going to the house of Jesse to anoint for you there a king, he will kill me. Now, Samuel loved Saul. But he was also very well aware that Saul suffered from mental illness. And that his love for Saul, which Saul probably knew of, his love for Saul would not, Saul wouldn't hesitate to kill Samuel. Regardless how much he loved Saul, regardless how much he prayed for him, Saul would take Samuel out in a heartbeat, if he found out that he had gone behind his back to the house of Jesse to anoint a king there, when he was still king and still alive. And Samuel knew this. And he said to the Lord, how can I do this? How can I expose myself like this? Saul is unstable. Saul is mentally unwell. He will kill me. Now, the Lord, God, who knows everything and has all wisdom and all power, we don't see God saying, oh, never mind about Saul. I'll handle Saul. You go. You go do as I have said. I am God. I have all power. I'll check Saul for you. God doesn't say that. God agrees with Samuel. And so what does God do? God gives Samuel a strategy to disguise his mission. God agrees with Samuel that Saul will take you out. But God, who is able to intercept Saul and take Saul out before he harms Samuel, God doesn't say to Samuel, don't worry, I'll handle it. He gives Samuel a strategy to disguise his mission, so that the issue of Saul creating a situation is avoided. Rather than go in and do battle with Saul, God gives Samuel an undercover strategy to disguise his mission, so that he doesn't have to confront Saul, so that he doesn't have to fight an unnecessary battle. So he doesn't have to fight an unnecessary battle. The Lord says to Samuel, this is verse 2 now, the B part, the Lord says, take a heifer with you and say, I am come to sacrifice to the Lord. I have come to do the Lord's work. And when you get there, when you get there, call Jesse to the sacrifice, verse 3, because if you are going to do a sacrifice, the man of the house must be there, because he has authority over his house. If Jesse isn't there, then you can't be doing the Lord's work in the house of a man, when the man of the house isn't there. And the Lord is aware of this. Because if you do that, and Saul finds out, it's going to be out of place, and he's going to think why and how can Samuel go into the house of Saul, and make a sacrifice to the Lord, and Jesse isn't there. So the Lord is being strategic. The Lord is being strategic in this undercover mission for Samuel. Why? So that Saul is unaware of what's going on. The Lord is instructing Samuel to be economical with information, so that Saul is unaware. The Lord is instructing Samuel, teaching Samuel how to manage information, so that it's only what needs to go out that goes out. It's only what needs to be known that gets known. So the information that gets to Saul is a need-to-know basis. Saul isn't going to know anything, because the Lord has given Samuel a strategy to disguise his mission. This is God. This is God. He is God of all flesh, God of all power, and He's also a realist. Our God is a realist. We should be also. Not every battle needs to be fought. Some battles you need to win with subtlety and wisdom. Some battles you need to win with discretion. The result is an easy, bloodless victory. As believers, we need to get wise. We need to get wise online. We need to get wise in real life. We need to get wise even in the church, even within our families. We need to get wise. Every information isn't required to be revealed. Everything about your life doesn't have to be online. Everything about your next move doesn't have to be in the hands of everyone. Move with stealth. Know when to engage. Samuel didn't have to engage Saul. The Lord could have fought for Samuel, but it wasn't necessary to engage Saul. And so the Lord dispensed high-level wisdom for Samuel to enable him to win that battle by managing the information that was revealed. It wasn't a lie, because he did actually go ahead and anoint someone. He did go do the Lord's work, but he didn't have to reveal that up front. He didn't have to come out and say, Oh, I'm here now to anoint for the Lord. He didn't have to do that. And the Lord knew that that information wasn't necessary at that time. And so the Lord was teaching his prophet how to reveal only what is necessary, when it is necessary, to whom it is necessary. Your victory lies in stealth. Your victory lies in silence. Your victory lies in being able to manage your information, information about your life wisely. Know when to engage, and know when to use wisdom. Know when to reveal, and know when to disguise with wisdom. That's the key. It's a delicate balancing act, and we must learn to do it. It's not a lie. The Lord wasn't asking Samuel to lie. He was teaching Samuel to be discreet, to reveal on a need-to-know basis. God himself was revealing to Samuel his purposes on a need-to-know. Samuel went all the way to the house of Jesse, had no idea whom God has elected. This is why he got there, and he was trying to elect based on what he saw. He went and he tried to anoint Eliab, the firstborn, who looked to him like a king, tall, handsome, and he said, the Lord's anointed is before him. But the Lord didn't choose Eliab, because the Lord looks in the heart. The Lord doesn't choose as men do. So Samuel, a man, he went there and he wanted to give to the Lord the best looking, based on what he could see. But the Lord isn't interested in what we can see. The Lord is interested in the heart. The Lord chose whom he chose, based on his own criteria, which at that point, he had not revealed to Samuel. So Samuel really went into this mission, he went blind. He didn't have all the information. He only had what was necessary to begin. And the Lord said, I will show you what to do. Then I will show you whom I have chosen, and then you can anoint. The Lord was strategic. The Lord was strategic with his information, and how he was releasing this information to his prophet. Now we, as believers, should be like our father. We should be like our father, and be strategic with our private information, when God reveals something to you. Unless he says, go and tell someone. Be quiet. When the Lord has revealed to you, the next chapter of your life, the next move in your life, unless there is a corresponding information to reveal, be quiet. Now, if you hear from God, you will know, that as the Lord dealt with the prophet Samuel in this text, that is how he deals with us even now. When the Lord speaks, he speaks in stages. He reveals to you one. You move on one. As you move along on one, you will come in contact with two. As you move in two, you come in contact with three. And so every step of the way between one, two, and three, is obedience. Obedience. Sometimes, the Lord won't tell you what he's doing. He won't show you the end. He will show you streams of light, as you travel in obedience. And from one, point one, having obeyed, you see light to move to point two. Sometimes, as God has done here in the text, God will tell you what the end is. Go to the house of Jesse. I have chosen me a king there. You will anoint the king. When you get there, I will show you what to do. Samuel had some information. He knew the end. The end was, in the house of Jesse, the Bethlehemite, the Lord has chosen himself a king there. So he knew the end. And he knew that going to the house of Jesse, the purpose was to anoint the Lord's king, the king whom God had chosen over his people. He didn't know who, but he knew what. So sometimes, the Lord will show us what. The Lord will show us the end. But the steps from the beginning to the end, we don't know. So, we begin to move. We begin to move. The Lord has shown us the end. We don't know how we're going to get to the end. We move between the beginning and the end. We move step by step by step in obedience, following the light that we see. God is a manager of information. God doesn't lie to us. It's just wisdom. Because the Lord will tell you something, I'm going to make you great, and you're going to be president, and then you begin to talk. You begin to talk, get online, the Lord said, go on Facebook, the Lord said, and then the hosts of heaven, they're listening to you. Because they're not omniscient like our God, but they can hear you. So they're listening to you, and they mobilize against you, and they wage war against your destiny, and they frustrate the purposes of God in your life. You, by your own mouth, you have gone and you have published information that should be under wraps, until manifestation is achieved. Elizabeth, when she was pregnant, was quiet. The Lord said to her, go and hide. When she was six months pregnant, she had to hide. Jesus, the word incarnate, Jesus, as a baby, had to hide. There is wisdom in discretion. When the Lord is building you up, and the Lord is doing things in your life, be quiet. Be quiet. When you go into a new church, and they're trying to dig and dig and dig a hole in your personal life, you don't owe them an explanation about your business. Be quiet. If they don't want you in that church, find someplace else to go. Until you feel comfortable to release information about yourself, until you feel comfortable to trust and publish, share what you feel comfortable sharing, be quiet. You owe no one any explanations. You don't know their business. You don't know what's happening in their house. You don't know, you know, You don't know who's who. Just manage your own information with wisdom. You don't need to lie. But you don't also need to pour out everything. You don't need to reveal everything. There is wisdom in discretion. It's not a lie, it's wisdom. Even God is discreet. God reveals information on a need-to-know basis. We need to do the same, because we are made in the image and in the likeness of our God. We are trained by the Spirit of the Living God, by the Word of God, to live and be like our God. And so every day, we must learn more and more about the nature of our God and become like our God. We need to be discreet. All this business about so much revelation, about your entire life online, I don't know if God is entirely happy with that. Unless, of course, you're using your life as a template, as a testimony to teach, to edify the body, to teach someone, to help someone, then maybe. Online, just, you know, I don't know if that's a good idea. Because even Hezekiah, when King Hezekiah was sick, and the prophet came and said to him, you're going to die, put your house in order. And Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed, and God healed him and gave him another 15 years. And after that, Hezekiah had some guests, some august visitors. And when they came, Hezekiah took them around his house, showing them all the treasures, all the gold and the silver. He showed them everything, and the prophet came and said, what have they seen in your house? And he said, oh, I showed them this and I showed them that. And the prophet said, the day will come when everything in your house, every treasure in your house, even those that you inherited, they will leave, and you will lose everything. Why? Because Hezekiah was unwise. He didn't manage information well. He had revealed what should have been hidden. He had revealed his entire house, his entire chest of treasures, he had revealed when it should have been undercover. Because revealing showed pride. He should have been discreet. He left a legacy of penury for his children, because King Hezekiah said, oh well, you know, if God, if it pleases God, that's fine, because it's not going to happen in my time, it will happen when I'm dead and gone, so that's fine. So he left a problem for his descendants, because he wasn't discreet. And so as I close my message this evening, I want to encourage everyone. Sometimes we feel under pressure. We want to please, we want to be liked, we want to be acceptable, we want to fit in, we want to be trusted. We don't want church folk to, you know, to be suspicious and to relegate us and to talk about us, but we are there to worship our God. What you're doing online, make sure that you're not doing what King Hezekiah was doing. If God has blessed you, the whole world doesn't need to know how many fast cars you have. What we reveal online as believers should serve a purpose of glorifying our God, not for self-aggrandizement like King Hezekiah. What was the point of showing the entire jewels and treasures in the house? What was the point, if not self-aggrandizement? And so as we reveal our lives and we put our lives online, and even when we go to new churches, even when we interact with people, the information that we release should have purpose, which is to glorify God and reveal Christ. So when you're posting about your mansion, think about the reason why you're doing it. What is the motive? What is the motive? Does it glorify God? Does it reveal Christ? Does that edify the church? If not, be discreet. And when you're going on an assignment or you're building for the next level, you don't need to lie about what God is doing or you don't need to lie about your strategies or what you're doing, but be wise in the information that you release. Be wise in how you publish about your life because you might be opening yourself up to attacks, opening yourself up to the kingdom of darkness because they may be mapping your life the way that Prophet Samuel was afraid of Saul because of what Samuel was going to do for God. That's the same way we should be afraid of the enemy because the enemy has capability to map and investigate and discover our lives. We don't want to make ourselves weak. We want to always be coming from the place of stealth. The enemy shouldn't ever see us coming. For this reason, we should be discreet with the information that we give out. We should be wise. Don't lie, but you don't have to publish everything. Amen? Praise God. Okay, well, it's been another wonderful evening. We're going to wrap up tonight's discussion with a prayer as we always do. And trust that next Sunday, Holy Spirit will be with us again revealing to us the mind of Christ. And so, Father, we thank you from the very depth of our heart for your presence, for your breath tonight. We thank you for teaching us. We thank you for revealing Jesus to us. We thank you for your Word that is our very lives. We ask, oh God, that the words that we have heard tonight will take root in our hearts and grow. That we will learn by your Word. We will grow by your Word to become mature Christians and we will know what to do. Thank you, Father, for your love, for your presence, and your grace. In Jesus' name, we pray. Thank you, people of God. Till next time, take care. Stay blessed.