Theological Status: COMPROMISED (Worldly/Sloppy)
Biblical Parallel(Archetype): Pergamum
❓ What do these grades mean?
🔍 Biblical Discernment: The 7 Church Parallels
The Cold Orthodox Parallel
Ephesus
Teaching that upholds doctrinal precision yet parallels the loss of the "first love"—the vital, motivating power of the Gospel (Rev 2:4).
The Compromised Parallel
Pergamum
Teaching that parallels churches tolerating the "doctrine of Balaam" through cultural accommodation (Rev 2:14), characterized by weak boundaries, sloppy theology, and worldly compromise.
Why strictly "Mark & Avoid"?
We do not issue this rating to attack the speaker, but to protect the listener. This ministry's overall teaching trend consistently deviates from sound doctrine. As per Romans 16:17, we identify these patterns so believers can guard their hearts.
We do not issue this rating to attack the speaker, but to protect the listener. This ministry's overall teaching trend consistently deviates from sound doctrine. As per Romans 16:17, we identify these patterns so believers can guard their hearts.
🧐 Overview
Theological Verdict & Summary
Sermon Summary: A compelling call to reject cultural conformity and embrace the difficult path of holiness, illustrated through personal anecdotes and biblical narrative.
Pastoral Analysis: The sermon effectively challenges the congregation to take personal responsibility for their spiritual state and reject worldly systems. However, the homiletical execution leans heavily on moralistic imperatives and self-help strategies ('choose your hard') without sufficiently anchoring the believer's ability to obey in the monergistic work of the Holy Spirit. This creates a 'weak' theological posture where the burden of holiness is placed on human willpower rather than divine grace.
Biblical Parallel (Archetype): Pergamum — The sermon exhibits a compromised theological posture by tolerating a moralistic framework that accommodates cultural self-help strategies ('choose your hard') rather than maintaining the distinct, grace-anchored boundaries of the Gospel. While not heretical, the teaching lacks the necessary doctrinal precision to distinguish between human effort and Spirit-empowered obedience, resulting in a homiletical imbalance that leans toward worldly wisdom.
Big Idea: The primary problem in the Christian life is not external systems or structures, but internal rebellion against God; therefore, believers must choose the hard path of faithfulness and holiness rather than conforming to the world, trusting that God works through our mixed motives to bring about His redemptive plan. [00:22:49 ▶️ 📄]
📖 How they Handle Scripture & Jesus
- Primary Text: 1 Samuel 8
- Usage Classification: Thematic
- Text-to-Talk Ratio: High
- Pulpit Decorum: ⚠️ CAUTION - The use of coarse language ('cuss words') in a public worship setting requires careful consideration, though it was used in a humorous, self-deprecating context.
✝️ Christological Focus: Moralistic/Imitative
"Christ is presented primarily as the King to whom believers must submit, with the focus on moral imitation and obedience rather than the transformative power of His atoning work."
Scripture Saturation: Verses Read: 18 | Referenced: 5 | Alluded: 3
📖 View 1 Passages Read Aloud
-
1 Samuel 8:4-21
[00:13:54 ▶️ 📄]
"then all the elders of israel gathered together and came to samuel rama and said to him behold you are old and your sons do not walk in your ways they're not any good they're not faithful they won't be good leaders happy father's day to you um now appoint for us a king to judge us like all the nations, to rule us like all the nations. And just so you'll know, I think you've been in church enough, when you read in the Bible where the people of God want to be just like everybody else, that is not good. We are a different people. We are strange people. We are weird people. We are holy people. We are a unique and different people. But this thing verse 6 displeased Samuel when they said give us a king to rule over us and Samuel prayed to the Lord and the Lord said to Samuel obey the voice of the people do what they say God said do what they say in all that they say to you for they have not rejected you but they have rejected me from being king over them according to all the deeds that they have done from the day that I brought them out of Egypt even to this day forsaking me and serving other gods so they are now also doing to you here's what god is saying so what precipitated this is they're they're fighting the philistines and the philistines have come with a big army and their big fancy king and they say we need a king like this and god here he says look they've forgotten that in exodus when they were dealing with egypt who's a lot tougher and stronger than the philistines they didn't have a king then and they did just fine they had me they were faithful to me they trusted me stand still and watch what the lord does all those times when they're taking the promised land they didn't have a king they had me and we won all the battles we needed to win and all these judges when they rebelled from me and I disciplined them when I when they when they repented and I I sent them a ruler and they won all their battles then the problem is not that they don't have a king but they don't see that they've always had a king they've had the true king me God says verse 9 now then obey their voice? Only you shall solemnly warn them and show them the ways of the king who shall reign over them. So Samuel told all the words of the Lord to the people who were asking for a king and he said, these will be the ways of the king who will reign over you. He will take your sons. Notice how often you see the word take. The king is a taker. These will be the ways of the king who will reign over you. He will take your sons and appoint them to his chariots to be his horsemen and to run before his chariots he will appoint for himself commanders of thousands and commanders of 50 and he's some to plow his ground and to reap his harvest to make his implements of war and the equipment of his chariots he will take your daughters to be perfumers and cooks and bakers he will take the best of your fields he will tax you he will draft you and he will tax you he will take your daughters excuse me verse 14 he will take the best of your fields and the vineyards and olive orchards and give them to his servants he will give them to his people he will take a tenth of your grain and of your vineyards and give it to his officers and his servants this is in addition to the tithe you're supposed to give to me your real king verse 16 he will take your male servants and your female servants and the best of your young men and your donkeys and he will put them to his work he will take the tenth of your flocks and they shall be his and you shall be his slaves and in that day you will cry out because of your king whom you have chosen for yourselves but the lord will not answer you in that day the lord the lord gives us free will the lord there's a whole nother sermon romans one back half of romans one one here's the here's the short version of that whole other sermon which you'll get the back half of romans one is one of the ways that god punishes you is he lets you have what you want you want this king here's this king and here's what he's going to do now i'm going to work in and through this king it would have been better if you'd stuck with me being your king verse 19 but the people refused to obey the voice of Samuel and they said no there shall be a king over us that we may be like all the nations and that our king may rule us and go out before us and fight our battles we saw you in Egypt you know the people before you saw you in Egypt the people before you saw us in the promised land we've forgotten all we know is right now verse 21 and when Samuel heard all the words of the people he repeated them in the ears of the Lord and the Lord said to Samuel obey their voice and make them a king and Samuel then said to the men of Israel go every man to his city that ends the reading of God's word for the morning"
Key References: 2 Samuel 7, 1 Samuel 12, Exodus, Romans 1, Matthew 9
💧 Liturgy & Sacraments
Altar Call / Invitation Observed: Yes
- Theological Conditions: acknowledge Jesus Christ to be our lord by the way we live day in day out, commit myself to trust the way of this Jesus, take on the wisdom of while it seems harder now to be faithful that my near future and my longer future will be better, embrace the challenge of not wanting to be like the other nations but wanting to be like this Lord and Savior wants me to be, do the work and to trust his way
- Coercive Pressure: "everybody who wants a hold of that's free come get it" [00:46:50 ▶️ 📄]
🎙️ Sermon Content & Delivery
Word Count: 5,211 words
📌 View 12 Key Topics Addressed
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Rejection of God for Human Kingship
[00:12:53 ▶️ 📄]
> The pastor explains that asking for a human king was a grievous sin because it rejected God as their true King, yet God works this sin into His plan for victory. -
The Nature of Human Kingship vs. Divine Kingship
[00:17:25 ▶️ 📄]
> The pastor contrasts the 'taker' nature of human kings (who tax, draft, and enslave) with God's provision, noting that Israel had victory under God without a human king. -
Divine Judgment through Granting Desires
[00:19:19 ▶️ 📄]
> The pastor interprets God's command to 'obey their voice' as a form of punishment where God lets people have what they want, leading to the consequences of their choice. -
Christian Identity as Subjects of Christ
[00:21:23 ▶️ 📄]
> The pastor argues that Christians are 'in training' and 'built for a King,' rejecting the idea of a 'Republic of Heaven' in favor of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ. -
Blaming the System vs. Personal Responsibility
[00:23:26 ▶️ 📄]
> The pastor argues that Israel blamed their military failures on the Philistine system and lack of a human king, but God identifies their primary problem as internal unfaithfulness, not external structures. -
The Kingship of Christ
[00:21:23 ▶️ 📄]
> The pastor contrasts living under a human king or democracy with living under the true King, Jesus Christ, emphasizing that Christians are built to live under His rule. -
Holiness and Being Different
[00:33:58 ▶️ 📄]
> The pastor discusses Israel's desire to be like other nations to avoid the risk and work of being different, arguing that Christians are called to be holy and distinct, which requires trust in God. -
Primary vs. Secondary Problems
[00:31:43 ▶️ 📄]
> Using the healing of the paralyzed man, the pastor illustrates that while physical ailments are secondary problems, the primary problem is spiritual separation from God, which Jesus addresses first. -
Being Different / Holiness
[00:34:46 ▶️ 📄]
> The pastor argues that Christians are called to be holy and different from the world, which requires risk, work, and trust in God, contrasting with the desire to be like other nations. -
Faith and Trust
[00:36:10 ▶️ 📄]
> Faith is defined as trusting God even when the way of Jesus doesn't appear to work, citing the crucifixion and resurrection as the ultimate proof that God's way succeeds. -
Choosing Your Hard
[00:37:39 ▶️ 📄]
> The pastor uses the 'choose your hard' framework to explain that life is inherently difficult, and the choice is between the satisfying hard of obedience and the dissatisfying hard of sin/self-centeredness. -
Grace for Mixed Motives
[00:40:42 ▶️ 📄]
> The good news of the gospel is that God works with people who have mixed motives and make mistakes, offering forgiveness, empowerment, and completion through the Holy Spirit.
🖼️ View 5 Illustrations & Stories
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Sermon Illustration
[00:13:54 ▶️ 📄]
> The pastor shares a personal anecdote about being asked if he has all scripture memorized because he reads from a small TV screen; he humorously admits he can't even remember what he had for breakfast, so he looks down to read. -
Sermon Illustration
[00:21:49 ▶️ 📄]
> The pastor uses an analogy regarding democracy, describing it as 'medicine in this sinful world' that is useful until Christians forget they live under the true King, Jesus Christ. -
Sermon Illustration
[00:26:25 ▶️ 📄]
> The pastor shares a childhood story about signing up for soccer in 1974. He hated the game because he wasn't good at it and got fussed at for using his hands. His father told him the game wasn't stupid, but his attitude was, illustrating that the problem was internal, not external. -
Sermon Illustration
[00:38:17 ▶️ 📄]
> The pastor shares a parenting anecdote where a friend advised him to 'choose your hard' regarding discipline: it is either hard for a few minutes now or hard for a long time if he avoids dealing with the behavior. -
Sermon Illustration
[00:37:47 ▶️ 📄]
> The pastor uses worldly examples of 'choosing your hard,' such as the difficulty of being careful with money versus the eventual hardship of being foolish, or the difficulty of health/doctor visits versus the hardship of neglecting them.
🚀 View 4 Calls to Action
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Pastoral Charge
[00:30:15 ▶️ 📄]
> Take personal responsibility for one's spiritual state and reactions rather than blaming external systems. -
Pastoral Charge
[00:34:46 ▶️ 📄]
> Actively pursue holiness and distinctiveness from the world. -
Pastoral Charge
[00:41:38 ▶️ 📄]
> Take responsibility for sin and commit to the trust and work required to be God's people. -
Pastoral Charge
[00:42:50 ▶️ 📄]
> Stand up and recite the Apostles' Creed.
🧭 Biblical Alignment Dashboard
Overall Verdict: Compromised / Weak
| Category | Status | Reasoning |
|---|---|---|
| Gospel Presentation | ❌ FAIL | The Gospel Engine is compromised. The sermon fails to anchor obedience in the finished work of Christ and the regenerating power of the Holy Spirit, instead reducing the Christian life to behavioral commands and self-help strategies. |
| Soteriology | ⚠️ WEAK | The sermon emphasizes human responsibility and willpower ('choose your hard') without adequately connecting obedience to the monergistic work of the Holy Spirit, risking a synergistic or moralistic understanding of sanctification. |
| Bibliology | ✅ PASS | The sermon treats Scripture as the authoritative basis for its moral exhortations, though the application is filtered through a moralistic lens. |
| Hermeneutic | ⚠️ WEAK | The hermeneutic tends to extract moral lessons from biblical narratives without fully integrating the redemptive-historical context that empowers those lessons. |
| Theology Proper | ✅ PASS | The sermon correctly identifies God as King and the source of authority, though the practical outworking is skewed toward human effort. |
| Sacramentology | ⚪ N/A | No sacramental errors detected; no sacraments were observed or discussed in a way that required evaluation. |
| Confessional Depth | ❌ SHALLOW | The sermon relies on general moral principles and personal anecdotes rather than deep confessional or doctrinal exposition of the Gospel's power to sanctify. |
⚙️ The Core Gospel Framework
What is this? This section checks if the sermon contains the essential building blocks of the Gospel. We look for explicit, substantive mentions of God's holy standard, human inability, and Christ's finished work on the cross.
Why it matters for the final verdict: A complete Gospel framework protects a sermon from becoming man-centered. If a preacher gives commands for good behavior but leaves out the grace and atonement of the Gospel, it often results in a 🔴 Critical or 🟠 Major error for Moralism (teaching human self-improvement rather than reliance on Christ). However, if these Gospel elements are missing simply because the pastor is preaching a highly focused, practical message to mature believers (e.g., instructions on biblical marriage), our system applies a "Safe Harbor" pardon, graciously reducing the omission to a 🟡 Minor error.
Why it matters for the final verdict: A complete Gospel framework protects a sermon from becoming man-centered. If a preacher gives commands for good behavior but leaves out the grace and atonement of the Gospel, it often results in a 🔴 Critical or 🟠 Major error for Moralism (teaching human self-improvement rather than reliance on Christ). However, if these Gospel elements are missing simply because the pastor is preaching a highly focused, practical message to mature believers (e.g., instructions on biblical marriage), our system applies a "Safe Harbor" pardon, graciously reducing the omission to a 🟡 Minor error.
❌ The Law And Wrath: Not observed in the sermon.
✅ Total Depravity And Inability:
"The problem is you. Blaming is what you do when you don't want to face you." [00:25:02 ▶️ 📄]
❌ Active Obedience Of Christ: Not observed in the sermon.
✅ The Cross And Atonement:
"that's why the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ is the big deal because on Good Friday it sure looked like the way of Jesus wasn't working And on Easter Sunday, one of the big deals of Easter Sunday is, golly, it did work." [00:36:10 ▶️ 📄]
⚠️ Theological Concerns
🟠 Major Homiletical Imbalance (Moralism)
Root Cause: Moralism (Failing to anchor commands in grace)
The Belief/Behavior: The sermon asserts that believers must rely on their own willpower and attitude to overcome sin and conform to God's will, without anchoring this ability in the monergistic work of the Holy Spirit.
Why It's Dangerous: This phrasing places an unsustainable burden on the congregation, implying that failure to obey is solely a result of weak willpower rather than a lack of reliance on Christ's sanctifying power. It risks leading believers into despair or pride based on their performance.
Biblical Correction: For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. Philippians 2:13
✅ Commendations
Pastoral Application | Clear Call to Distinctiveness
The pastor effectively challenges the congregation to reject cultural assimilation and embrace their distinct identity as God's people, providing a clear and actionable vision for Christian living.
Illustrative Power | Relatable Anecdotes
The use of personal stories, such as the childhood soccer experience and parenting advice, makes the abstract concept of 'choosing your hard' tangible and relatable for the congregation.
📜 Full Sermon Transcript (Audit)
Use the 📄 icons next to quotes above to automatically jump to their location in this raw transcript.
[00:00:00] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]
[00:00:00] and love being generous to others and love working hard to do your will. So cause us to see the hungry and the thirsty and the sick and the imprisoned and the lonely and the grieving and those mentioned in Matthew 25 and a variety of other places in the scriptures where we can we can bear their burdens with them. We pray for your church's ability to get the gospel out in a way that pleases you. Pray for our congregation. We pray for our friends at Thyatira Presbyterian Church just up the road. Bless them, empower them, prosper them.
[00:00:33] give them wisdom and discernment help them be great as we pray for all your church across all the denominations and across the world everybody wants to preach Jesus Christ everyone's to live it train up women and men to be
[00:00:48] followers of Christ we pray you would bless them thanks for the brotherhood and sisterhood with them for our missionaries Dan and Justin and Kristen and Rob and Sandy we pray for their well-being the prosperity of their work
[00:01:03] their energy their discernment their wisdom the effectiveness of what they're doing thank you for their outreach with the gospel to the world among others we pray for Ben Stacy who's come home from from the hospital is in currently in
[00:01:23] hospice care look after Ben and Mike and Beth and all of Ben's family we pray for Roger Stapleton and his health and he's got some some work and some tests and things this week. So we pray for Roger and Lisa and Reese, all their family. And we continue to
[00:01:42] pray for the family of Evan Brannon, particularly Kathy and Michael in his loss. Cause us to love being generous, Lord. Cause us to love being people who help and make a difference. Take our acts of thoughtfulness and kindness and service and multiply them and use them to be salt and
[00:02:12] light in the world and to be the kind of works that draw people to you what a great privilege to have received your love to receive your life your love your salvation your empowerment what
[00:02:26] a great privilege to receive them what a great privilege to share them and show the world how real you are and great you are and draw people to you cause that lord to be something we think
[00:02:38] about something we do something we love and embrace we pray humbly through jesus christ our lord amen
[00:02:45] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_02]
[00:02:45] breathe new life into my willing soul bring the presence of the risen lord to renew my heart and make me whole cause your love alive in me faith for what i cannot see Give me passion for your purity. Holy Spirit, breathe new life in me.
[00:04:50] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_03]
[00:04:50] May your joy be seen in all I do. Enough to cover every sin. In each thought and deed and attitude.
[00:05:23] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_02]
[00:05:23] Kindness to the greatest and the least Gentleness that sows the path of peace Turn my strivings into words of grace Breath of God, show Christ in all I do From creation's birth, giving life to all that God has made.
[00:06:16] Show your power once again on earth.
[00:06:22] Cause your church to hunger for your way.
[00:06:29] Let the fragrance of our prayers arise.
[00:06:34] Lead us on the road of sacrifice Let us in unity the face of Christ We'll be clear for all the world to see
[00:06:54] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_03]
[00:06:54] Spirit living breath of God breathe new life into my welling soul well done friends thank you all uh we come now to our time
[00:08:00] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]
[00:08:00] of offering uh our ushers will come forward to collect the morning offering before they do any children who would like are welcome to join joy uh in the in the front of the church uh to go to
[00:08:10] children's church uh but now our ushers will come forward to collect the morning offering as they do let us consider all our many blessings and how we may use them all in the service of our lord
[00:08:19] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]
[00:08:19] a scripture reading for the morning will be taken from first samuel chapter eight we continue our
[00:11:52] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]
[00:11:52] work in uh study of the of the kings of israel and the kingship that that whole project we've been taught two weeks ago we talked about second samuel seven the great promise god gives to david
[00:12:04] that is one of the foundational promises perhaps the foundational promise at some level of the of the gospel which is he promises to david that one from your line will rule the kingdom forever and that's jesus christ the son of david and so the king is uh god takes the kingship and turns
[00:12:22] it into this fabulous eternal thing uh that god is our king and jesus christ will will will take that role uh and it's important to kind of notice that because last week we read from first samuel
[00:12:36] 8 and first samuel 12 uh and where first samuel 12 make it very clear that the asking for a human king is also a grievous sin that israel does that that god is always their king israel will have a
[00:12:53] king and that god is the king and when they reject god as their king as we're going to read again here in first samuel 8 they reject god as their king and ask for a human king this is at some
[00:13:05] about rejection of God and God says to Samuel, don't worry, I will work with this and I will work this out. It's part of the gospel is how God takes our sin. God takes our wrong actions and
[00:13:17] works them through and in his plan to get to victory. It's getting to victory. Your life through Jesus Christ and this world through Jesus Christ is getting to victory. So just want to talk a little bit about what caused Israel to ask for a king and how that can shape and change our
[00:13:35] Christian lives so we have first Samuel chapter 8 beginning to read at verse 4 if you could read that I'm gonna go ahead and read from here so I will say I was visiting somebody and they go
[00:13:54] because you know a lot of times I'll just read from this little TV right here giving away the secrets and so somebody goes do you have all the scripture memorized because you're just looking out and you're reading this i said ma'am i can't remember what i had for breakfast this morning
[00:14:08] all right and so so i'll give it away i'll look down and reading uh first samuel chapter 8 verse 4 then all the elders of israel gathered together and by the way so we just came out of judges this
[00:14:20] is immediately after the book of judges a couple hundred years of bad rulers and it kind of ends with there's no king in israel everyone did what was right in their own eyes which is also they
[00:14:29] didn't recognize that God was the king and so there's this cycle of Israel is faithful faithful to God and they prosper and then they rebel against God and God warns them and they rebel and they rebel and he sends other nations to to defeat them and to discipline them and they cry
[00:14:45] out oh we messed up we should stick with God we want to be faithful to God and he sends a deliverer and they have a time they have a time of prosperity while they're being obedient and there's this
[00:14:53] cycle that repeats and first Samuel kind of picks that up Samuel is really the last judge if you will the last the person who holds that role is a prophet he's a judge he's all those kinds of
[00:15:03] things and and it's clear that his sons are not going to to take up the mantle as he gets old that's the context we're in all the elders of israel verse 4 gathered together and came to
[00:15:13] samuel rama and said to him behold you are old and your sons do not walk in your ways they're not any good they're not faithful they won't be good leaders happy father's day to you um now appoint
[00:15:27] for us a king to judge us like all the nations, to rule us like all the nations. And just so you'll know, I think you've been in church enough, when you read in the Bible where the people of God
[00:15:37] want to be just like everybody else, that is not good. We are a different people. We are strange people. We are weird people. We are holy people. We are a unique and different people. But this
[00:15:57] thing verse 6 displeased Samuel when they said give us a king to rule over us and Samuel prayed to the Lord and the Lord said to Samuel obey the voice of the people do what they say God said do
[00:16:09] what they say in all that they say to you for they have not rejected you but they have rejected me from being king over them according to all the deeds that they have done from the day that I
[00:16:20] brought them out of Egypt even to this day forsaking me and serving other gods so they are now also doing to you here's what god is saying so what precipitated this is they're they're fighting the philistines and the philistines have come with a big army and their big fancy king
[00:16:35] and they say we need a king like this and god here he says look they've forgotten that in exodus when they were dealing with egypt who's a lot tougher and stronger than the philistines they didn't have
[00:16:47] a king then and they did just fine they had me they were faithful to me they trusted me stand still and watch what the lord does all those times when they're taking the promised land they didn't
[00:16:57] have a king they had me and we won all the battles we needed to win and all these judges when they rebelled from me and I disciplined them when I when they when they repented and I I sent them a
[00:17:09] ruler and they won all their battles then the problem is not that they don't have a king but they don't see that they've always had a king they've had the true king me God says verse 9 now
[00:17:25] then obey their voice? Only you shall solemnly warn them and show them the ways of the king who shall reign over them. So Samuel told all the words of the Lord to the people who were asking
[00:17:38] for a king and he said, these will be the ways of the king who will reign over you. He will take your sons. Notice how often you see the word take. The king is a taker. These will be the ways of the
[00:17:58] king who will reign over you. He will take your sons and appoint them to his chariots to be his horsemen and to run before his chariots he will appoint for himself commanders of thousands and
[00:18:08] commanders of 50 and he's some to plow his ground and to reap his harvest to make his implements of war and the equipment of his chariots he will take your daughters to be perfumers and cooks
[00:18:19] and bakers he will take the best of your fields he will tax you he will draft you and he will tax you he will take your daughters excuse me verse 14 he will take the best of your fields and the
[00:18:33] vineyards and olive orchards and give them to his servants he will give them to his people he will take a tenth of your grain and of your vineyards and give it to his officers and his
[00:18:43] servants this is in addition to the tithe you're supposed to give to me your real king verse 16 he will take your male servants and your female servants and the best of your young men
[00:18:55] and your donkeys and he will put them to his work he will take the tenth of your flocks and they shall be his and you shall be his slaves and in that day you will cry out because of your king
[00:19:07] whom you have chosen for yourselves but the lord will not answer you in that day the lord the lord gives us free will the lord there's a whole nother sermon romans one back half of romans
[00:19:19] one one here's the here's the short version of that whole other sermon which you'll get the back half of romans one is one of the ways that god punishes you is he lets you have what
[00:19:30] you want you want this king here's this king and here's what he's going to do now i'm going to work in and through this king it would have been better if you'd stuck with me being your king
[00:19:43] verse 19 but the people refused to obey the voice of Samuel and they said no there shall be a king over us that we may be like all the nations and that our king may rule us and go out before us
[00:20:01] and fight our battles we saw you in Egypt you know the people before us saw you in Egypt the people before you saw us in the promised land we've forgotten all we know is right now verse
[00:20:17] 21 and when Samuel heard all the words of the people he repeated them in the ears of the Lord and the Lord said to Samuel obey their voice and make them a king and Samuel then said to the men
[00:20:26] of Israel go every man to his city that ends the reading of God's word for the morning let us pray together almighty and everlasting God we pray humbly uh as we we we read these words as we
[00:20:41] consider them as the holy spirit has brought them to us we pray now that your holy spirit the same holy spirit that inspired the recording of these words we pray he would now be in our
[00:20:54] hearts and minds and souls to teach us what the word has to say holy spirit and holy spirit be with us day by day to enable us to live to not only to hear but to live in accordance with the
[00:21:07] teaching and the direction of this word and help us trust that the word brings promise and hope we pray humbly in Jesus name amen all Christians are in training to live under the king you and I
[00:21:23] were built for a king democracy is a fabulous thing one of the best things I've ever heard about democracy is democracy is medicine in this sinful world that democracy and and the voice of people being involved and all that is useful medicine until the christian believes we live
[00:21:49] in a land ruled by the great and true king jesus christ you and i are made for a king that's what's going on in second samuel 7 we are not made to live under king george the third we are made to
[00:22:05] live under the true king and the christians begin to live out their lives under the king of under the King Jesus Christ the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and we are on our way to the kingdom we
[00:22:19] are not on our way to the Republic of Heaven we are on our way to the kingdom of heaven and so all of our lives are kind of understanding what it means to live under the King under the Lord
[00:22:31] and Savior Jesus Christ and so this study of the kingship Israel under the kingship is useful to us I would argue that this passage that we're bringing today addresses two challenges that I think if they're they're ones that you hear from me before i think they're all through the bible
[00:22:49] two challenges to our christian life and the great one of the and one of this passage also has one of the great messages of the gospel two great challenges to living a faithful christian life and one slice of the greatness of the gospel the first is so here's one of the first of the
[00:23:07] two challenges we must watch when things when we are not happy when things are going wrong when we when we don't like it though our great proclivity to blame the system to blame them to blame
[00:23:26] something outside of ourselves here is what the people of Israel do we are struggling the Philistines are gaining advantage on us they have it appears that their system for fighting is better than ours. They have a human king to organize and run the battles. We need a king so we can
[00:23:49] compete with them. That is what is behind the request for a king, for a human king.
[00:23:57] They are blaming the system. They are blaming the structure. We'll get to the system and the structure in just a second. It's plenty flawed. God is saying, you have a king, me. You do have
[00:24:16] a problem but the problem is not out there the problem primarily is in here your primary problem God says to Israel is you're not being faithful to me when you are faithful to me at the Red Sea
[00:24:34] in the promised land in the faithful periods in the judges when your heart is not in rebellion in against me, you do fine. The problem is not the system. The problem is not the structure.
[00:24:48] The problem is not that you don't have a king. The problem is you. Blaming is what, for lack of a better way of saying it, okay? Blaming is what you do when you don't want to face
[00:25:02] you. Don't get me wrong. Let's talk about them for a minute. We like to talk about them for a minute. Let's talk about them for a minute. The system, the political system, the educational system, the health care system, the postal system, some of the sports leagues
[00:25:22] you watch, all kinds of, they're all messed up. The fact that you think the system is messed up, you are not incorrect. That is because the systems are populated by a bunch of sinners, like you and me. Now we will deal with that another day. Today's question
[00:25:47] is and i just want us to keep embracing this as one of the great parts of the gospel part of the frustration that the humans have is they're messed up it's messed up oh it's messed up over there
[00:26:00] it's messed up outside of me and i have no control over it the christian understands the biggest problem is me the biggest problem is me they've got problems i'm happy to work on that as a matter
[00:26:14] of fact what part of your christian duty is to work on them and work on the systems and try to make them better but it starts with the problem is me I have a small little story from my childhood
[00:26:25] to try to illustrate this it's a small little father's day story okay I'd like you to tell I'd like to tell you about my my organized soccer career I think it's world cup you know it's world
[00:26:35] cup everybody's got world cup fever I know we're red red with world cup fever here all right you know the first soccer boom in America as near as I can discern it happened in the early to mid 70s
[00:26:49] When all those, you know, we started a soccer league, and there was all these kind of older, famous European players who played in Europe, Pele from Brazil, and other Europeans came over and kind of boosted some North American soccer in the early 70s, and so I happened to be eight years old in 1974, and so it became a good idea that everyone in our town would play soccer, which is great.
[00:27:08] It's a great game, by the way.
[00:27:09] It's a fantastic game, by the way.
[00:27:13] So I went, and I signed up for soccer freely.
[00:27:16] I freely chose.
[00:27:17] I like baseball.
[00:27:18] I like basketball.
[00:27:19] There was a ball, and people were keeping score.
[00:27:21] I was on board.
[00:27:22] All right, there was a ball, and people were keeping score.
[00:27:27] And so I signed up, and I went to practice, and we did these little drills.
[00:27:31] It was great.
[00:27:32] It's reasonable.
[00:27:33] I don't know why that one.
[00:27:34] You should touch it with your hands.
[00:27:35] The goalie's the lucky one.
[00:27:36] All right, I don't understand that, but it was fine.
[00:27:37] So I played my first soccer game.
[00:27:42] And it was awful.
[00:27:45] The running.
[00:27:48] They just run and run and run and run and run.
[00:27:51] And I don't know what the score was.
[00:27:53] It seemed to be nobody scored.
[00:27:55] And when it scored, it was happening way over there.
[00:27:57] And the running.
[00:27:57] And every time I picked up the ball and tried to do something with it, they called a penalty on me or they did something.
[00:28:02] So I got fussed at.
[00:28:04] I got fussed at.
[00:28:05] And it's like, this is crazy.
[00:28:09] I got in the car.
[00:28:14] And I was mad.
[00:28:15] If I had known any cuss words, I would have been cussing.
[00:28:17] uh i'm just like you know eight years old i was just like this is stupid and i hate this this game is stupid and my dad who sat there and watched it the whole thing uh said son you signed
[00:28:37] up for this of your own choice and the game is not stupid the problem is not with the game The problem is with you and your attitude.
[00:28:51] Now that sounds like solid fathering.
[00:28:54] All right?
[00:28:55] The problem is not with the game.
[00:28:58] The problem is with you and your attitude.
[00:29:02] The problem is not that you don't have a king.
[00:29:07] The problem is not primarily that your health is not perfect or your money is not perfect or your relationships aren't perfect.
[00:29:15] These are real.
[00:29:16] the problem is primarily you your if we want to go back to soccer your laziness you're not your your inability to to deal with not being good at it if what you've got to do is stick with it and
[00:29:36] get good at it that became that was later in the fatherly conversation which is also true and so to be this whole christian thing in this and we're going to get into being like the other nations
[00:29:50] being holy, being different. Sometimes it's hard. You're not good at it immediately. You're not good at this Christian thing immediately. You're not good at this being faithful thing immediately.
[00:30:01] You've got to stick with it. The problem is not with it. The problem is your lack of patience, your laziness, he's saying to me. These kinds of things. The Christian takes responsibility.
[00:30:15] we've received life we've received salvation we don't the system needs work the christian says it's me god says to israel you're not losing because you don't you're losing sometimes you're not losing because you don't have a king you're losing because you've abandoned me god says
[00:30:35] that's your problem if you want to spin forward to matthew 9 where jesus does this healing there's this guy who's paralyzed and jesus goes in he's going to heal the guy but he wants to coach up
[00:30:48] the pharisees he wants to coach up everybody around him and here's what he says which is easier for me to say you're he goes excuse me in the story he says to the to the lame man
[00:31:00] rise and walk your sins are forgiven and the pharisees and people around who could what is he doing forgiving people's sins and god said you know acting like he has the right to forgive people's sins and Jesus says which is easier for me to say rise and walk or your sins are forgiven
[00:31:20] and in that story what's going on is Jesus says it's a lot easier for me to say your sins are forgiven because I can't you can't prove whether I did that or not but so that you will know that
[00:31:32] the son of man Jesus has the right to forgive sins I say to this man rise and walk which is seems miraculous to us. In fact, it is. And he says, so I'm going to cure this man's secondary
[00:31:43] problem. His secondary problem is that he can't walk. His primary problem is that he's a lost sinner. I'm going to fix his secondary problem to prove to you that I have the power to fix his
[00:32:01] primary problem. Israel, the fact that you're losing these battles or the fact that you're not organized is your secondary problem. Your primary problem is that you're away from me.
[00:32:13] The Christian recognizes that our primary problem is that we're away from him.
[00:32:19] And I want to just take a second quickly just to make sure that we don't get caught up in, this is not every single bad thing that happens to us is a direct result from some sin or I'm being punished by God.
[00:32:35] This is a larger picture thing with the nation saying, you are in rebellion from me.
[00:32:42] You are rejecting me.
[00:32:44] So I am disciplining you back.
[00:32:47] There are plenty of people in the Bible who live exemplary lives, Jesus, Job, et cetera, who have bad things happen to them.
[00:32:56] I do not want us interpreting this as the bad things that happen to me is God, you know, I'm away from God.
[00:33:02] It's a different thing.
[00:33:05] In this particular context, he's saying to the people of Israel, your primary problem is not method, it's not technique, it's not that you don't have a king, it's not the system, it's you.
[00:33:16] get you right and watch things get better while they were escaping Egypt while they were conquering the promised land while they were winning in the battles and judges they were still full they were still a bunch of sinners but they were close to and trusting and embracing God the problem is our
[00:33:39] hearts our commitment our trust the second thing I want to talk about briefly is this whole thing about we want to be like all the other nations we don't want to be different the king ends up
[00:33:58] being kind of a mirror the Samuel holds up a mirror to Israel and he says you're trusting the wrong things you're trusting that you have to have an earthly king you're not trusting God and you're ashamed to be different you're ashamed and afraid to be different that's why we want to
[00:34:20] be just like all the other nations we want to be like just we want to be just like all if we fail we're going to fail like everybody else does. What is the dagger in the heart at some level is
[00:34:34] they wanted to be just like everybody else. Christian, we are called to love and to be faithful and be great parts of society and all those kinds of things, and we are called to be
[00:34:46] different. We are called to be holy. When they say we want to be like the other nations, what they mean is we are not ready for the risk and the work of being different to sign up to be a Christian
[00:35:02] is to sign up for the risk of being different and the work of being different it takes hard work to be different it takes great trust in God to be different so we read these things from Jesus and
[00:35:16] we hear if you want to be great be a servant or we hear you know no to greed and no to envy and no to vengeance. And we here have the courage to be a moral people, have a courage to fight the
[00:35:28] fights that we're fighting, do the work of discerning to figure out what the fights are and how to fight them. To be different takes work and trust. Because what Israel saw was this is not
[00:35:42] working. Trusting God is not working. And I think when we look at the Christian life and we look at what we're called to do, we say, boy, that's nice for Sunday school or nice for church, but I don't
[00:35:54] think it'll work out there and what the Christian is always being called upon to do is to trust this God to say I don't know if it'll work or not quite frankly it doesn't look like it'll work but I'm
[00:36:10] riding with you that's what faith is and that's why the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ is the big deal because on Good Friday it sure looked like the way of Jesus wasn't working And on Easter Sunday, one of the big deals of Easter Sunday is, golly, it did work.
[00:36:34] And for the next 2,000 years, while Jesus Christ remains the central figure in human history, from the time he showed up to today, the most important figure in human history, you wouldn't have thought that on Good Friday.
[00:36:48] This is not working.
[00:36:50] The resurrection is, it worked. This is the way.
[00:36:55] And so when we cycle back into our own daily lives of, if you want to be great, be a servant, forgive 70 times 7, be generous, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.
[00:37:03] These things Jesus tells us to do, to love your neighbors yourself, to see the morality and the rules and say, this will lead me into the promised land.
[00:37:13] This will lead me into a broad and happy land.
[00:37:17] And we tend to say, this is hard, this won't work.
[00:37:23] Well, let me tell you something you already know.
[00:37:26] Life is hard. Life is hard.
[00:37:32] The choice you have is not between is life going to be hard or is life going to be easy.
[00:37:39] The choice you have is between which hard.
[00:37:43] Let me give you some worldly examples.
[00:37:47] To be careful and smart with money is hard.
[00:37:53] To be foolish with money will eventually be hard.
[00:37:58] Choose your hard.
[00:38:01] To eat well or be healthy or exercise or go to the doctor or go to the dentist, which I hate doing.
[00:38:07] I, I, it's hard. And if you don't do those things, it will eventually be hard. Choose your hard.
[00:38:17] Here's the best piece of advice I ever got on parenting. When my kid was acting up and my friend who is a great parent and great discipliner and could see me about to break and let it go
[00:38:28] because I didn't want to deal with it right then. She said, it can either be hard now for a few minutes or it could be hard for a long time if you don't. Choose your heart. She didn't say choose
[00:38:42] your heart. She didn't know we were in a sermon where we were going to say that. Choose your heart.
[00:38:47] Here is what God says to Israel. It's going to be hard to be a real follower of God. To be a real Christian is going to be hard. And not following Jesus and not trusting Jesus is going to be hard
[00:39:02] as well. God tells us, don't be so self-centered. And that's hard. It's our natural inclination to be self-centered go be self-centered for a while watch how hard your life gets the choice is not between hard and easy the choice is between which hard is real and satisfying and the way of god
[00:39:22] so when christianity gets hard and you want to be like all the other nations just understand you're not choosing between hard and easy you're choosing a different eventually harder more dissatisfying hard that's why halfway through that passage
[00:39:43] When God says, tell them what a king's going to do.
[00:39:45] They want their king.
[00:39:46] Tell them what a king's going to do to them.
[00:39:48] He's going to draft their sons and daughters.
[00:39:50] He's going to take their land and take their money.
[00:39:52] They think they're getting easy, and they're getting harder and worse.
[00:39:56] And the Christian has the faith that when we see what Jesus tells us to do, give your life over to me, admit your dependence, and be my servant.
[00:40:04] That sounds hard, because it is.
[00:40:10] But it's better than the other hard.
[00:40:12] and when he tells us to be servants and not so self-centered and to be repentant and forgiving there will be times that that is hard and it is the way to life and it's the way to satisfaction
[00:40:25] and meaning israel thought it'll be better if we just hire somebody to be our king they chose the wrong heart now the great good news of the gospel is god sees israel as a mixed
[00:40:42] people with mixed motive and he sees us as a mixed people with mixed motive and you know what he says to Samuel I will work with these people and I will bring them through and you know he says to each
[00:40:52] one of us I will work with you people and I will bring you through the great good news of the gospel is he works with mixed people he works with people who make mistakes he works with people who make
[00:41:05] wrong decisions and he says I will stick with you because I have a plan for you and I have an idea for you and I will bring you to completion if you will trust me if you will if you will look at you
[00:41:23] and work it out between me and you God says and take responsibility for your sin and then you will take on the trust and the work that is required to be my people and not just like the other nations
[00:41:38] and the great good news of the gospel is as we make that decision and as we walk that walk there is forgiveness and there is empowerment and there is the promise of completion for the people who aren't afraid of it
[00:41:53] for the people who aren't afraid to admit our sin and walk the walk.
[00:42:00] Your Savior forgives you.
[00:42:02] His Holy Spirit empowers you.
[00:42:07] That's who we are.
[00:42:09] And that's what we're called to do.
[00:42:14] Let's pray together.
[00:42:16] Almighty and everlasting God, follow then please the preaching of your word with the blessing of your Holy Spirit.
[00:42:23] And where if because of human error in the preacher, there may have been something false or misleading in the preaching, cause that error to be quickly forgotten and do no harm.
[00:42:30] But if by your grace alone, there may have been some truth in the preaching, cause that truth to be burned into our hearts and minds and souls that your truth might lead us in the everlasting way we pray humbly in jesus name amen jesus said he who acknowledges me before
[00:42:50] the world i will acknowledge before my father in heaven we acknowledge jesus christ to be our lord by the way we live day in day out at work at home wherever we are we practice that by standing up in
[00:43:03] church and saying the words of the apostles creed so let's do that now let's stand together please and before God in the world let us confess in whom we believe I believe in God the Father Almighty maker of heaven and earth
[00:43:19] who was conceived by the Holy Ghost born of the Virgin Mary suffered under Pontius Pilate was crucified dead and buried he descended into hell the third day he rose again from the dead he ascended into heaven and sitteth on
[00:43:42] the right hand of god the father almighty from thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead i believe in the holy ghost the holy catholic church the communion of saints the forgiveness of
[00:43:56] sins the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting amen our final hymn is 354
[00:44:04] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]
[00:44:04] my friends go from this place secure in the confidence that the your main problem my main
[00:46:41] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]
[00:46:41] problem which is our relationship broken by our sin our rebellion from the lord and savior jesus christ has been fixed by him on the cross and that everybody who wants a hold of that's free
[00:46:50] come get it i want my relationship with god to be right i want to be forgiven you may have it freely by grace and a significant portion of the rest of our problems and our dissatisfactions
[00:47:03] are addressed when we say i will commit myself to trust the way of this jesus the way of this king and I will take on the wisdom of while it seems harder now to be faithful that my near future
[00:47:21] and my longer future will be better when I embrace the challenge of not wanting to be like the other nations but wanting to be like this Lord and Savior wants me to be and to do the work and to
[00:47:33] trust his way the resurrection proves that his way is the way of victory he has invited us into that victory. Let us come and follow. We'll be glad we did. As you go, my friends,
[00:47:48] may the grace, mercy, and peace of God the Father, and God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, may these rest and remain with each of you this day and always.
[00:47:55] Amen.
[00:00:00] and love being generous to others and love working hard to do your will. So cause us to see the hungry and the thirsty and the sick and the imprisoned and the lonely and the grieving and those mentioned in Matthew 25 and a variety of other places in the scriptures where we can we can bear their burdens with them. We pray for your church's ability to get the gospel out in a way that pleases you. Pray for our congregation. We pray for our friends at Thyatira Presbyterian Church just up the road. Bless them, empower them, prosper them.
[00:00:33] give them wisdom and discernment help them be great as we pray for all your church across all the denominations and across the world everybody wants to preach Jesus Christ everyone's to live it train up women and men to be
[00:00:48] followers of Christ we pray you would bless them thanks for the brotherhood and sisterhood with them for our missionaries Dan and Justin and Kristen and Rob and Sandy we pray for their well-being the prosperity of their work
[00:01:03] their energy their discernment their wisdom the effectiveness of what they're doing thank you for their outreach with the gospel to the world among others we pray for Ben Stacy who's come home from from the hospital is in currently in
[00:01:23] hospice care look after Ben and Mike and Beth and all of Ben's family we pray for Roger Stapleton and his health and he's got some some work and some tests and things this week. So we pray for Roger and Lisa and Reese, all their family. And we continue to
[00:01:42] pray for the family of Evan Brannon, particularly Kathy and Michael in his loss. Cause us to love being generous, Lord. Cause us to love being people who help and make a difference. Take our acts of thoughtfulness and kindness and service and multiply them and use them to be salt and
[00:02:12] light in the world and to be the kind of works that draw people to you what a great privilege to have received your love to receive your life your love your salvation your empowerment what
[00:02:26] a great privilege to receive them what a great privilege to share them and show the world how real you are and great you are and draw people to you cause that lord to be something we think
[00:02:38] about something we do something we love and embrace we pray humbly through jesus christ our lord amen
[00:02:45] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_02]
[00:02:45] breathe new life into my willing soul bring the presence of the risen lord to renew my heart and make me whole cause your love alive in me faith for what i cannot see Give me passion for your purity. Holy Spirit, breathe new life in me.
[00:04:50] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_03]
[00:04:50] May your joy be seen in all I do. Enough to cover every sin. In each thought and deed and attitude.
[00:05:23] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_02]
[00:05:23] Kindness to the greatest and the least Gentleness that sows the path of peace Turn my strivings into words of grace Breath of God, show Christ in all I do From creation's birth, giving life to all that God has made.
[00:06:16] Show your power once again on earth.
[00:06:22] Cause your church to hunger for your way.
[00:06:29] Let the fragrance of our prayers arise.
[00:06:34] Lead us on the road of sacrifice Let us in unity the face of Christ We'll be clear for all the world to see
[00:06:54] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_03]
[00:06:54] Spirit living breath of God breathe new life into my welling soul well done friends thank you all uh we come now to our time
[00:08:00] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]
[00:08:00] of offering uh our ushers will come forward to collect the morning offering before they do any children who would like are welcome to join joy uh in the in the front of the church uh to go to
[00:08:10] children's church uh but now our ushers will come forward to collect the morning offering as they do let us consider all our many blessings and how we may use them all in the service of our lord
[00:08:19] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]
[00:08:19] a scripture reading for the morning will be taken from first samuel chapter eight we continue our
[00:11:52] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]
[00:11:52] work in uh study of the of the kings of israel and the kingship that that whole project we've been taught two weeks ago we talked about second samuel seven the great promise god gives to david
[00:12:04] that is one of the foundational promises perhaps the foundational promise at some level of the of the gospel which is he promises to david that one from your line will rule the kingdom forever and that's jesus christ the son of david and so the king is uh god takes the kingship and turns
[00:12:22] it into this fabulous eternal thing uh that god is our king and jesus christ will will will take that role uh and it's important to kind of notice that because last week we read from first samuel
[00:12:36] 8 and first samuel 12 uh and where first samuel 12 make it very clear that the asking for a human king is also a grievous sin that israel does that that god is always their king israel will have a
[00:12:53] king and that god is the king and when they reject god as their king as we're going to read again here in first samuel 8 they reject god as their king and ask for a human king this is at some
[00:13:05] about rejection of God and God says to Samuel, don't worry, I will work with this and I will work this out. It's part of the gospel is how God takes our sin. God takes our wrong actions and
[00:13:17] works them through and in his plan to get to victory. It's getting to victory. Your life through Jesus Christ and this world through Jesus Christ is getting to victory. So just want to talk a little bit about what caused Israel to ask for a king and how that can shape and change our
[00:13:35] Christian lives so we have first Samuel chapter 8 beginning to read at verse 4 if you could read that I'm gonna go ahead and read from here so I will say I was visiting somebody and they go
[00:13:54] because you know a lot of times I'll just read from this little TV right here giving away the secrets and so somebody goes do you have all the scripture memorized because you're just looking out and you're reading this i said ma'am i can't remember what i had for breakfast this morning
[00:14:08] all right and so so i'll give it away i'll look down and reading uh first samuel chapter 8 verse 4 then all the elders of israel gathered together and by the way so we just came out of judges this
[00:14:20] is immediately after the book of judges a couple hundred years of bad rulers and it kind of ends with there's no king in israel everyone did what was right in their own eyes which is also they
[00:14:29] didn't recognize that God was the king and so there's this cycle of Israel is faithful faithful to God and they prosper and then they rebel against God and God warns them and they rebel and they rebel and he sends other nations to to defeat them and to discipline them and they cry
[00:14:45] out oh we messed up we should stick with God we want to be faithful to God and he sends a deliverer and they have a time they have a time of prosperity while they're being obedient and there's this
[00:14:53] cycle that repeats and first Samuel kind of picks that up Samuel is really the last judge if you will the last the person who holds that role is a prophet he's a judge he's all those kinds of
[00:15:03] things and and it's clear that his sons are not going to to take up the mantle as he gets old that's the context we're in all the elders of israel verse 4 gathered together and came to
[00:15:13] samuel rama and said to him behold you are old and your sons do not walk in your ways they're not any good they're not faithful they won't be good leaders happy father's day to you um now appoint
[00:15:27] for us a king to judge us like all the nations, to rule us like all the nations. And just so you'll know, I think you've been in church enough, when you read in the Bible where the people of God
[00:15:37] want to be just like everybody else, that is not good. We are a different people. We are strange people. We are weird people. We are holy people. We are a unique and different people. But this
[00:15:57] thing verse 6 displeased Samuel when they said give us a king to rule over us and Samuel prayed to the Lord and the Lord said to Samuel obey the voice of the people do what they say God said do
[00:16:09] what they say in all that they say to you for they have not rejected you but they have rejected me from being king over them according to all the deeds that they have done from the day that I
[00:16:20] brought them out of Egypt even to this day forsaking me and serving other gods so they are now also doing to you here's what god is saying so what precipitated this is they're they're fighting the philistines and the philistines have come with a big army and their big fancy king
[00:16:35] and they say we need a king like this and god here he says look they've forgotten that in exodus when they were dealing with egypt who's a lot tougher and stronger than the philistines they didn't have
[00:16:47] a king then and they did just fine they had me they were faithful to me they trusted me stand still and watch what the lord does all those times when they're taking the promised land they didn't
[00:16:57] have a king they had me and we won all the battles we needed to win and all these judges when they rebelled from me and I disciplined them when I when they when they repented and I I sent them a
[00:17:09] ruler and they won all their battles then the problem is not that they don't have a king but they don't see that they've always had a king they've had the true king me God says verse 9 now
[00:17:25] then obey their voice? Only you shall solemnly warn them and show them the ways of the king who shall reign over them. So Samuel told all the words of the Lord to the people who were asking
[00:17:38] for a king and he said, these will be the ways of the king who will reign over you. He will take your sons. Notice how often you see the word take. The king is a taker. These will be the ways of the
[00:17:58] king who will reign over you. He will take your sons and appoint them to his chariots to be his horsemen and to run before his chariots he will appoint for himself commanders of thousands and
[00:18:08] commanders of 50 and he's some to plow his ground and to reap his harvest to make his implements of war and the equipment of his chariots he will take your daughters to be perfumers and cooks
[00:18:19] and bakers he will take the best of your fields he will tax you he will draft you and he will tax you he will take your daughters excuse me verse 14 he will take the best of your fields and the
[00:18:33] vineyards and olive orchards and give them to his servants he will give them to his people he will take a tenth of your grain and of your vineyards and give it to his officers and his
[00:18:43] servants this is in addition to the tithe you're supposed to give to me your real king verse 16 he will take your male servants and your female servants and the best of your young men
[00:18:55] and your donkeys and he will put them to his work he will take the tenth of your flocks and they shall be his and you shall be his slaves and in that day you will cry out because of your king
[00:19:07] whom you have chosen for yourselves but the lord will not answer you in that day the lord the lord gives us free will the lord there's a whole nother sermon romans one back half of romans
[00:19:19] one one here's the here's the short version of that whole other sermon which you'll get the back half of romans one is one of the ways that god punishes you is he lets you have what
[00:19:30] you want you want this king here's this king and here's what he's going to do now i'm going to work in and through this king it would have been better if you'd stuck with me being your king
[00:19:43] verse 19 but the people refused to obey the voice of Samuel and they said no there shall be a king over us that we may be like all the nations and that our king may rule us and go out before us
[00:20:01] and fight our battles we saw you in Egypt you know the people before us saw you in Egypt the people before you saw us in the promised land we've forgotten all we know is right now verse
[00:20:17] 21 and when Samuel heard all the words of the people he repeated them in the ears of the Lord and the Lord said to Samuel obey their voice and make them a king and Samuel then said to the men
[00:20:26] of Israel go every man to his city that ends the reading of God's word for the morning let us pray together almighty and everlasting God we pray humbly uh as we we we read these words as we
[00:20:41] consider them as the holy spirit has brought them to us we pray now that your holy spirit the same holy spirit that inspired the recording of these words we pray he would now be in our
[00:20:54] hearts and minds and souls to teach us what the word has to say holy spirit and holy spirit be with us day by day to enable us to live to not only to hear but to live in accordance with the
[00:21:07] teaching and the direction of this word and help us trust that the word brings promise and hope we pray humbly in Jesus name amen all Christians are in training to live under the king you and I
[00:21:23] were built for a king democracy is a fabulous thing one of the best things I've ever heard about democracy is democracy is medicine in this sinful world that democracy and and the voice of people being involved and all that is useful medicine until the christian believes we live
[00:21:49] in a land ruled by the great and true king jesus christ you and i are made for a king that's what's going on in second samuel 7 we are not made to live under king george the third we are made to
[00:22:05] live under the true king and the christians begin to live out their lives under the king of under the King Jesus Christ the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and we are on our way to the kingdom we
[00:22:19] are not on our way to the Republic of Heaven we are on our way to the kingdom of heaven and so all of our lives are kind of understanding what it means to live under the King under the Lord
[00:22:31] and Savior Jesus Christ and so this study of the kingship Israel under the kingship is useful to us I would argue that this passage that we're bringing today addresses two challenges that I think if they're they're ones that you hear from me before i think they're all through the bible
[00:22:49] two challenges to our christian life and the great one of the and one of this passage also has one of the great messages of the gospel two great challenges to living a faithful christian life and one slice of the greatness of the gospel the first is so here's one of the first of the
[00:23:07] two challenges we must watch when things when we are not happy when things are going wrong when we when we don't like it though our great proclivity to blame the system to blame them to blame
[00:23:26] something outside of ourselves here is what the people of Israel do we are struggling the Philistines are gaining advantage on us they have it appears that their system for fighting is better than ours. They have a human king to organize and run the battles. We need a king so we can
[00:23:49] compete with them. That is what is behind the request for a king, for a human king.
[00:23:57] They are blaming the system. They are blaming the structure. We'll get to the system and the structure in just a second. It's plenty flawed. God is saying, you have a king, me. You do have
[00:24:16] a problem but the problem is not out there the problem primarily is in here your primary problem God says to Israel is you're not being faithful to me when you are faithful to me at the Red Sea
[00:24:34] in the promised land in the faithful periods in the judges when your heart is not in rebellion in against me, you do fine. The problem is not the system. The problem is not the structure.
[00:24:48] The problem is not that you don't have a king. The problem is you. Blaming is what, for lack of a better way of saying it, okay? Blaming is what you do when you don't want to face
[00:25:02] you. Don't get me wrong. Let's talk about them for a minute. We like to talk about them for a minute. Let's talk about them for a minute. The system, the political system, the educational system, the health care system, the postal system, some of the sports leagues
[00:25:22] you watch, all kinds of, they're all messed up. The fact that you think the system is messed up, you are not incorrect. That is because the systems are populated by a bunch of sinners, like you and me. Now we will deal with that another day. Today's question
[00:25:47] is and i just want us to keep embracing this as one of the great parts of the gospel part of the frustration that the humans have is they're messed up it's messed up oh it's messed up over there
[00:26:00] it's messed up outside of me and i have no control over it the christian understands the biggest problem is me the biggest problem is me they've got problems i'm happy to work on that as a matter
[00:26:14] of fact what part of your christian duty is to work on them and work on the systems and try to make them better but it starts with the problem is me I have a small little story from my childhood
[00:26:25] to try to illustrate this it's a small little father's day story okay I'd like you to tell I'd like to tell you about my my organized soccer career I think it's world cup you know it's world
[00:26:35] cup everybody's got world cup fever I know we're red red with world cup fever here all right you know the first soccer boom in America as near as I can discern it happened in the early to mid 70s
[00:26:49] When all those, you know, we started a soccer league, and there was all these kind of older, famous European players who played in Europe, Pele from Brazil, and other Europeans came over and kind of boosted some North American soccer in the early 70s, and so I happened to be eight years old in 1974, and so it became a good idea that everyone in our town would play soccer, which is great.
[00:27:08] It's a great game, by the way.
[00:27:09] It's a fantastic game, by the way.
[00:27:13] So I went, and I signed up for soccer freely.
[00:27:16] I freely chose.
[00:27:17] I like baseball.
[00:27:18] I like basketball.
[00:27:19] There was a ball, and people were keeping score.
[00:27:21] I was on board.
[00:27:22] All right, there was a ball, and people were keeping score.
[00:27:27] And so I signed up, and I went to practice, and we did these little drills.
[00:27:31] It was great.
[00:27:32] It's reasonable.
[00:27:33] I don't know why that one.
[00:27:34] You should touch it with your hands.
[00:27:35] The goalie's the lucky one.
[00:27:36] All right, I don't understand that, but it was fine.
[00:27:37] So I played my first soccer game.
[00:27:42] And it was awful.
[00:27:45] The running.
[00:27:48] They just run and run and run and run and run.
[00:27:51] And I don't know what the score was.
[00:27:53] It seemed to be nobody scored.
[00:27:55] And when it scored, it was happening way over there.
[00:27:57] And the running.
[00:27:57] And every time I picked up the ball and tried to do something with it, they called a penalty on me or they did something.
[00:28:02] So I got fussed at.
[00:28:04] I got fussed at.
[00:28:05] And it's like, this is crazy.
[00:28:09] I got in the car.
[00:28:14] And I was mad.
[00:28:15] If I had known any cuss words, I would have been cussing.
[00:28:17] uh i'm just like you know eight years old i was just like this is stupid and i hate this this game is stupid and my dad who sat there and watched it the whole thing uh said son you signed
[00:28:37] up for this of your own choice and the game is not stupid the problem is not with the game The problem is with you and your attitude.
[00:28:51] Now that sounds like solid fathering.
[00:28:54] All right?
[00:28:55] The problem is not with the game.
[00:28:58] The problem is with you and your attitude.
[00:29:02] The problem is not that you don't have a king.
[00:29:07] The problem is not primarily that your health is not perfect or your money is not perfect or your relationships aren't perfect.
[00:29:15] These are real.
[00:29:16] the problem is primarily you your if we want to go back to soccer your laziness you're not your your inability to to deal with not being good at it if what you've got to do is stick with it and
[00:29:36] get good at it that became that was later in the fatherly conversation which is also true and so to be this whole christian thing in this and we're going to get into being like the other nations
[00:29:50] being holy, being different. Sometimes it's hard. You're not good at it immediately. You're not good at this Christian thing immediately. You're not good at this being faithful thing immediately.
[00:30:01] You've got to stick with it. The problem is not with it. The problem is your lack of patience, your laziness, he's saying to me. These kinds of things. The Christian takes responsibility.
[00:30:15] we've received life we've received salvation we don't the system needs work the christian says it's me god says to israel you're not losing because you don't you're losing sometimes you're not losing because you don't have a king you're losing because you've abandoned me god says
[00:30:35] that's your problem if you want to spin forward to matthew 9 where jesus does this healing there's this guy who's paralyzed and jesus goes in he's going to heal the guy but he wants to coach up
[00:30:48] the pharisees he wants to coach up everybody around him and here's what he says which is easier for me to say you're he goes excuse me in the story he says to the to the lame man
[00:31:00] rise and walk your sins are forgiven and the pharisees and people around who could what is he doing forgiving people's sins and god said you know acting like he has the right to forgive people's sins and Jesus says which is easier for me to say rise and walk or your sins are forgiven
[00:31:20] and in that story what's going on is Jesus says it's a lot easier for me to say your sins are forgiven because I can't you can't prove whether I did that or not but so that you will know that
[00:31:32] the son of man Jesus has the right to forgive sins I say to this man rise and walk which is seems miraculous to us. In fact, it is. And he says, so I'm going to cure this man's secondary
[00:31:43] problem. His secondary problem is that he can't walk. His primary problem is that he's a lost sinner. I'm going to fix his secondary problem to prove to you that I have the power to fix his
[00:32:01] primary problem. Israel, the fact that you're losing these battles or the fact that you're not organized is your secondary problem. Your primary problem is that you're away from me.
[00:32:13] The Christian recognizes that our primary problem is that we're away from him.
[00:32:19] And I want to just take a second quickly just to make sure that we don't get caught up in, this is not every single bad thing that happens to us is a direct result from some sin or I'm being punished by God.
[00:32:35] This is a larger picture thing with the nation saying, you are in rebellion from me.
[00:32:42] You are rejecting me.
[00:32:44] So I am disciplining you back.
[00:32:47] There are plenty of people in the Bible who live exemplary lives, Jesus, Job, et cetera, who have bad things happen to them.
[00:32:56] I do not want us interpreting this as the bad things that happen to me is God, you know, I'm away from God.
[00:33:02] It's a different thing.
[00:33:05] In this particular context, he's saying to the people of Israel, your primary problem is not method, it's not technique, it's not that you don't have a king, it's not the system, it's you.
[00:33:16] get you right and watch things get better while they were escaping Egypt while they were conquering the promised land while they were winning in the battles and judges they were still full they were still a bunch of sinners but they were close to and trusting and embracing God the problem is our
[00:33:39] hearts our commitment our trust the second thing I want to talk about briefly is this whole thing about we want to be like all the other nations we don't want to be different the king ends up
[00:33:58] being kind of a mirror the Samuel holds up a mirror to Israel and he says you're trusting the wrong things you're trusting that you have to have an earthly king you're not trusting God and you're ashamed to be different you're ashamed and afraid to be different that's why we want to
[00:34:20] be just like all the other nations we want to be like just we want to be just like all if we fail we're going to fail like everybody else does. What is the dagger in the heart at some level is
[00:34:34] they wanted to be just like everybody else. Christian, we are called to love and to be faithful and be great parts of society and all those kinds of things, and we are called to be
[00:34:46] different. We are called to be holy. When they say we want to be like the other nations, what they mean is we are not ready for the risk and the work of being different to sign up to be a Christian
[00:35:02] is to sign up for the risk of being different and the work of being different it takes hard work to be different it takes great trust in God to be different so we read these things from Jesus and
[00:35:16] we hear if you want to be great be a servant or we hear you know no to greed and no to envy and no to vengeance. And we here have the courage to be a moral people, have a courage to fight the
[00:35:28] fights that we're fighting, do the work of discerning to figure out what the fights are and how to fight them. To be different takes work and trust. Because what Israel saw was this is not
[00:35:42] working. Trusting God is not working. And I think when we look at the Christian life and we look at what we're called to do, we say, boy, that's nice for Sunday school or nice for church, but I don't
[00:35:54] think it'll work out there and what the Christian is always being called upon to do is to trust this God to say I don't know if it'll work or not quite frankly it doesn't look like it'll work but I'm
[00:36:10] riding with you that's what faith is and that's why the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ is the big deal because on Good Friday it sure looked like the way of Jesus wasn't working And on Easter Sunday, one of the big deals of Easter Sunday is, golly, it did work.
[00:36:34] And for the next 2,000 years, while Jesus Christ remains the central figure in human history, from the time he showed up to today, the most important figure in human history, you wouldn't have thought that on Good Friday.
[00:36:48] This is not working.
[00:36:50] The resurrection is, it worked. This is the way.
[00:36:55] And so when we cycle back into our own daily lives of, if you want to be great, be a servant, forgive 70 times 7, be generous, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.
[00:37:03] These things Jesus tells us to do, to love your neighbors yourself, to see the morality and the rules and say, this will lead me into the promised land.
[00:37:13] This will lead me into a broad and happy land.
[00:37:17] And we tend to say, this is hard, this won't work.
[00:37:23] Well, let me tell you something you already know.
[00:37:26] Life is hard. Life is hard.
[00:37:32] The choice you have is not between is life going to be hard or is life going to be easy.
[00:37:39] The choice you have is between which hard.
[00:37:43] Let me give you some worldly examples.
[00:37:47] To be careful and smart with money is hard.
[00:37:53] To be foolish with money will eventually be hard.
[00:37:58] Choose your hard.
[00:38:01] To eat well or be healthy or exercise or go to the doctor or go to the dentist, which I hate doing.
[00:38:07] I, I, it's hard. And if you don't do those things, it will eventually be hard. Choose your hard.
[00:38:17] Here's the best piece of advice I ever got on parenting. When my kid was acting up and my friend who is a great parent and great discipliner and could see me about to break and let it go
[00:38:28] because I didn't want to deal with it right then. She said, it can either be hard now for a few minutes or it could be hard for a long time if you don't. Choose your heart. She didn't say choose
[00:38:42] your heart. She didn't know we were in a sermon where we were going to say that. Choose your heart.
[00:38:47] Here is what God says to Israel. It's going to be hard to be a real follower of God. To be a real Christian is going to be hard. And not following Jesus and not trusting Jesus is going to be hard
[00:39:02] as well. God tells us, don't be so self-centered. And that's hard. It's our natural inclination to be self-centered go be self-centered for a while watch how hard your life gets the choice is not between hard and easy the choice is between which hard is real and satisfying and the way of god
[00:39:22] so when christianity gets hard and you want to be like all the other nations just understand you're not choosing between hard and easy you're choosing a different eventually harder more dissatisfying hard that's why halfway through that passage
[00:39:43] When God says, tell them what a king's going to do.
[00:39:45] They want their king.
[00:39:46] Tell them what a king's going to do to them.
[00:39:48] He's going to draft their sons and daughters.
[00:39:50] He's going to take their land and take their money.
[00:39:52] They think they're getting easy, and they're getting harder and worse.
[00:39:56] And the Christian has the faith that when we see what Jesus tells us to do, give your life over to me, admit your dependence, and be my servant.
[00:40:04] That sounds hard, because it is.
[00:40:10] But it's better than the other hard.
[00:40:12] and when he tells us to be servants and not so self-centered and to be repentant and forgiving there will be times that that is hard and it is the way to life and it's the way to satisfaction
[00:40:25] and meaning israel thought it'll be better if we just hire somebody to be our king they chose the wrong heart now the great good news of the gospel is god sees israel as a mixed
[00:40:42] people with mixed motive and he sees us as a mixed people with mixed motive and you know what he says to Samuel I will work with these people and I will bring them through and you know he says to each
[00:40:52] one of us I will work with you people and I will bring you through the great good news of the gospel is he works with mixed people he works with people who make mistakes he works with people who make
[00:41:05] wrong decisions and he says I will stick with you because I have a plan for you and I have an idea for you and I will bring you to completion if you will trust me if you will if you will look at you
[00:41:23] and work it out between me and you God says and take responsibility for your sin and then you will take on the trust and the work that is required to be my people and not just like the other nations
[00:41:38] and the great good news of the gospel is as we make that decision and as we walk that walk there is forgiveness and there is empowerment and there is the promise of completion for the people who aren't afraid of it
[00:41:53] for the people who aren't afraid to admit our sin and walk the walk.
[00:42:00] Your Savior forgives you.
[00:42:02] His Holy Spirit empowers you.
[00:42:07] That's who we are.
[00:42:09] And that's what we're called to do.
[00:42:14] Let's pray together.
[00:42:16] Almighty and everlasting God, follow then please the preaching of your word with the blessing of your Holy Spirit.
[00:42:23] And where if because of human error in the preacher, there may have been something false or misleading in the preaching, cause that error to be quickly forgotten and do no harm.
[00:42:30] But if by your grace alone, there may have been some truth in the preaching, cause that truth to be burned into our hearts and minds and souls that your truth might lead us in the everlasting way we pray humbly in jesus name amen jesus said he who acknowledges me before
[00:42:50] the world i will acknowledge before my father in heaven we acknowledge jesus christ to be our lord by the way we live day in day out at work at home wherever we are we practice that by standing up in
[00:43:03] church and saying the words of the apostles creed so let's do that now let's stand together please and before God in the world let us confess in whom we believe I believe in God the Father Almighty maker of heaven and earth
[00:43:19] who was conceived by the Holy Ghost born of the Virgin Mary suffered under Pontius Pilate was crucified dead and buried he descended into hell the third day he rose again from the dead he ascended into heaven and sitteth on
[00:43:42] the right hand of god the father almighty from thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead i believe in the holy ghost the holy catholic church the communion of saints the forgiveness of
[00:43:56] sins the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting amen our final hymn is 354
[00:44:04] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]
[00:44:04] my friends go from this place secure in the confidence that the your main problem my main
[00:46:41] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]
[00:46:41] problem which is our relationship broken by our sin our rebellion from the lord and savior jesus christ has been fixed by him on the cross and that everybody who wants a hold of that's free
[00:46:50] come get it i want my relationship with god to be right i want to be forgiven you may have it freely by grace and a significant portion of the rest of our problems and our dissatisfactions
[00:47:03] are addressed when we say i will commit myself to trust the way of this jesus the way of this king and I will take on the wisdom of while it seems harder now to be faithful that my near future
[00:47:21] and my longer future will be better when I embrace the challenge of not wanting to be like the other nations but wanting to be like this Lord and Savior wants me to be and to do the work and to
[00:47:33] trust his way the resurrection proves that his way is the way of victory he has invited us into that victory. Let us come and follow. We'll be glad we did. As you go, my friends,
[00:47:48] may the grace, mercy, and peace of God the Father, and God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, may these rest and remain with each of you this day and always.
[00:47:55] Amen.
