back to indexBerean Community Church Sunday Service 11.19.23
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We're going to go ahead and begin our worship service. 00:09:59.320 |
(SINGING) I'm forgiven because you are forsaken. 00:13:27.320 |
If you are visiting us for the very first time, 00:13:31.820 |
When the service is done, please visit us at our welcome booth. 00:13:34.820 |
You'll see the blue canopy out by the parking lot 00:13:42.820 |
Over the last several weeks, we have been hinting 00:13:46.320 |
and communicating about the need for a third service. 00:13:49.820 |
We want to officially announce to you that on January 7th, 00:13:53.820 |
the start of the new year, we're going to be implementing 00:13:58.820 |
The time for these services is going to be 8 a.m., 9.30, and 11.30 a.m. 00:14:10.320 |
our education department at 9.30 a.m. will have seeds, 00:14:16.820 |
and we'll also have our sprouts ministry, but a portion, 00:14:26.320 |
but it will begin with a smaller portion of the group. 00:14:29.320 |
The full force of the education department with the youth group, 00:14:32.320 |
sprouts elementary ministry, and the seeds nursery 00:14:36.320 |
will be at the 11.30 service, and so please note that 00:14:40.820 |
that in January, we're going to start implementing that. 00:14:44.820 |
As you'd expect, in order to have those three services, 00:14:48.820 |
we are going to need additional volunteers in various aspects of ministry, 00:14:53.320 |
everything from welcome team to parking ministry, 00:14:56.820 |
but from the parking ministry, we have a special video 00:15:02.320 |
and this video is going to go down in history as a classic, 00:16:01.820 |
I see him out here every week directing traffic. 00:16:04.320 |
You don't know? You haven't heard the stories? 00:17:18.320 |
And ever since that day, he's been out there every week, 00:18:01.320 |
Well, thank you to our media team once again. 00:18:07.320 |
Happy to say they're actually happily married. 00:18:09.320 |
You know, that's proud to them getting married. 00:18:14.320 |
we're going to have various needs to sign up, 00:18:16.320 |
so good opportunities for us to get involved there. 00:18:25.320 |
Please make sure that you are checking your app 00:18:38.320 |
there are going to be various fellowship opportunities. 00:18:40.320 |
One I would like to highlight is that on December 10th, 00:18:45.320 |
we're going to be having an all-family ministry 00:18:49.320 |
And so because that involves all of the family ministry, 00:18:53.320 |
make sure you mark that on your calendar and sign up. 00:19:01.320 |
Additionally, as the tail end of the year is approaching 00:19:09.320 |
There are several that you can take a look at, 00:19:19.320 |
This week was the final week to submit one of those. 00:19:30.320 |
Her email is, again, available on the app and web, 00:19:33.320 |
and then you can find out how you can submit that. 00:19:48.320 |
and then today we have the privilege of hearing 00:19:54.320 |
If you have a physical check for the offering, 00:19:57.320 |
please visit the offering box there by the entrance. 00:19:59.320 |
Let's take a moment to pray for our service and our offering. 00:20:10.320 |
and we appreciate from our hearts your lavishing love. 00:20:17.320 |
what a privilege it is for us to be able to express our faith, 00:20:28.320 |
So in all this, God, we praise and thank you, 00:20:30.320 |
and it is our prayer that not only just this week, 00:20:36.320 |
that the expression of our appreciation to you 00:20:39.320 |
would come forth and we'd be honoring in your sight. 00:20:41.320 |
We ask, God, that you would bless this time of service we have. 00:20:45.320 |
The Lord may it be glorifying and exalting to you. 00:21:29.320 |
- Church family, why don't we stand and say hello, 00:22:39.380 |
♪ Make a fine fight of a thousand burning suns ♪ 00:30:59.120 |
Hello, I'm Justin, and I'll be giving my testimony. 00:31:13.120 |
I've been raised going to church, so from a young age, 00:31:19.120 |
I've known Bible stories and was aware of church culture. 00:31:23.120 |
I knew that in order to fit in, I just had to respect my elders, 00:31:27.120 |
sing worship songs, and memorize Bible verses. 00:31:30.120 |
So I attended church doing those things in attempts to convince 00:31:33.120 |
myself and others that I was a faithful Christian. 00:31:37.120 |
I became caught up in being known and well thought of, 00:31:40.120 |
neglecting whether I truly believed and loved Christ. 00:31:44.120 |
This way of living for self and feeding my pride 00:31:47.120 |
continued all throughout middle school and high school. 00:31:50.120 |
I became very good at figuring out what people liked, 00:31:56.120 |
If family and friends were impressed with dance moves, 00:32:01.120 |
If the world started following a certain hairstyle, 00:32:06.120 |
If my youth pastor told me to kiss dating goodbye, 00:32:15.120 |
I did whatever it took to make much of myself, 00:32:18.120 |
all the while deceiving myself and others that I was a good Christian 00:32:24.120 |
My destructive way of living continued until a time at retreat 00:32:30.120 |
when I heard what Christ went through on the cross in detail. 00:32:33.120 |
While I've grown up hearing that Christ died because he loved me, 00:32:37.120 |
I was shocked by the extent of his suffering. 00:32:40.120 |
I remember thinking, "Why does a holy God become a man to die 00:32:43.120 |
an excruciating death that was meant for criminals? 00:32:46.120 |
What is the reason for this kind of sacrifice?" 00:32:49.120 |
It was then that God started to slowly peel back my perception of church 00:32:57.120 |
and pursued what I thought would make me happy, 00:33:00.120 |
my life was purchased and given ultimate meaning to make him known. 00:33:04.120 |
As I continued attending my local church, studying his word, 00:33:09.120 |
I couldn't escape the truth that following Christ looked like dying to self. 00:33:17.120 |
"Then Jesus said to his disciples, 'If anyone wishes to come after me, 00:33:21.120 |
he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 00:33:24.120 |
For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, 00:33:27.120 |
but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.'" 00:33:35.120 |
and thought that I'd be able to pursue my life of sin. 00:33:38.120 |
Upon entering college, I joined different social clubs 00:33:41.120 |
hoping that I'd be able to have my relationship with Christ 00:33:48.120 |
and I quickly found myself looking for drugs, relationships, 00:33:53.120 |
When I found myself in my lowest moments of intoxication 00:33:58.120 |
I began to blame God for allowing me to live this way. 00:34:06.120 |
that I accused the holy God for the sin that was within me. 00:34:10.120 |
It wasn't until I reflected on how empty my life was 00:34:15.120 |
I lived my life actively pursuing what was right in my own eyes, 00:34:23.120 |
"But God demonstrates his own love towards us 00:34:26.120 |
in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." 00:34:29.120 |
Feeling the weight of my sin, I cried out to God, and he forgave me. 00:34:33.120 |
I felt immense peace in the fact that there was nothing I could do 00:34:39.120 |
Concentrated by the gospel, I was able to cut off ties 00:34:42.120 |
with all relationships that I had built for myself. 00:34:45.120 |
I knew that my life was purchased by Christ's blood, 00:34:51.120 |
Galatians 2:20, "I have been crucified with Christ, 00:34:54.120 |
and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. 00:35:00.120 |
I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself up for me." 00:35:03.120 |
After I gave up all my friendships and pursuits, 00:35:06.120 |
I continued my ministry through local church and campus ministry. 00:35:09.120 |
I was an enemy of God, but he met me in my brokenness and disobedience. 00:35:13.120 |
The life I am now able to live is abundant and free. 00:35:17.120 |
The ultimate reason for living has been given to me-- 00:35:24.120 |
It is only by his grace that I am able to live in surrender and obedience. 00:35:53.120 |
do you understand that you symbolize your union with Christ in his death? 00:35:58.120 |
you realize that your life is united with Christ's resurrected life? 00:36:02.120 |
I baptize you now in the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. 00:36:33.120 |
We will be taking a break from the study that we've been doing 00:36:38.120 |
that Pastor Peter Kim has been preaching in the Gospel of Luke. 00:36:43.120 |
We'll take a moment to pray for him as he is in Atlanta, 00:36:48.120 |
preaching, edifying another community there for a retreat. 00:36:54.120 |
But here, let's read the passage that we will be studying this morning. 00:37:06.120 |
It says, "And it came about when Samuel was old 00:37:09.120 |
that he appointed his sons judge over Israel. 00:37:12.120 |
The name of his firstborn was Joel, and the name of his second, Abijah. 00:37:22.120 |
but turned aside after dishonest gain, and took bribes and perverted justice. 00:37:27.120 |
Then all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah. 00:37:32.120 |
And they said to him, 'Behold, you have grown old, 00:37:38.120 |
Now appoint a king for us to judge us like all the nations.' 00:37:42.120 |
But the thing was displeasing in the sight of Samuel 00:37:45.120 |
when they said, 'Give us a king to judge us.' 00:37:52.120 |
And the Lord said to Samuel, 'Listen to the voice of the people 00:37:59.120 |
but they have rejected me from being king over them.'" 00:38:05.120 |
Father, we ask for your blessing on the reading and hearing of your Word. 00:38:13.120 |
We pray, Father God, that it would bring to us deep conviction, 00:38:17.120 |
that it would constantly help us to see from your perspective and your angle. 00:38:22.120 |
We pray for Pastor Peter as he also preaches and ministers to the people through the Word. 00:38:27.120 |
We ask, God, that we would be given strength and boldness and clarity, 00:38:31.120 |
that we may communicate your Word to all the people. 00:38:37.120 |
Now, just a brief note, I hope you guys are excited about the schedule change, 00:38:42.120 |
that we're going to be having three services. 00:38:45.120 |
I want to also extend a thank you in advance, 00:38:48.120 |
because we know that that's going to be a level of adjustment for all of you, right? 00:38:52.120 |
For those of you who are here, if you try to go to the third service, 00:38:57.120 |
then that's pretty late into the afternoon and your stomachs may growl. 00:39:01.120 |
Thank you in advance for being in the service time while you're, you know, 00:39:06.120 |
typically maybe through a little bit of the lunch time. 00:39:11.120 |
and those of you guys who normally attend at 9 a.m., 00:39:14.120 |
you might have to go to the earlier one at 8, 00:39:18.120 |
It's going to be a little bit of an inconvenience. 00:39:20.120 |
Thank you in advance for all the adjustments that you will have to make. 00:39:23.120 |
As you'd imagine, to make a decision like that, 00:39:26.120 |
we went through tons of iterations and options. 00:39:29.120 |
We had a document with just a list, a laundry list, 00:39:37.120 |
We talked to friends who've had, you know, multiple service-- 00:39:42.120 |
Please know after a lot of deliberation, we're going to be going this way. 00:39:46.120 |
But just for fun, I know Pastor Peter Kim in the previous week 00:39:49.120 |
did like a quick survey, but I just wanted to see just for fun. 00:39:52.120 |
How many of you guys would actually consider a much later midday service? 00:39:57.120 |
So raise your hand if you'd be down for a 1.30 start service, 00:40:01.120 |
and then that would probably go till about 3, 00:40:03.120 |
but that would just be kind of--you do your lunch, 00:40:13.120 |
How many of you guys are voting for Joe Biden next year? 00:40:20.120 |
I wanted to kind of tease you into a quick survey. 00:40:23.120 |
The reason why I did that wasn't because I'm trying to get political, 00:40:27.120 |
but because we're dropping down into a scenario in the Bible 00:40:31.120 |
where there is in some sense a crisis of leadership. 00:40:36.120 |
We're dropping down into an interesting situation 00:40:41.120 |
So I naturally thought of, oh, we are currently in a situation 00:40:44.120 |
in our American history where the decision of who to pick for president 00:40:54.120 |
Long time ago, Democrats and Republicans, they could be friends." 00:40:57.120 |
But it seems as though the divide has become so intense 00:41:00.120 |
that it feels like they can't be, and that's very unfortunate. 00:41:08.120 |
their anger has become more increased over the years. 00:41:13.120 |
Maybe people and their conflict, their social divide, 00:41:16.120 |
people have kind of hypothesized that we live in a generation 00:41:19.120 |
that's very easy through the Internet to have a distance enough 00:41:27.120 |
But it may be also true that the actual issues at hand, 00:41:30.120 |
whether it be things like abortion, border control, safety, taxation, 00:41:42.120 |
although I do think that it's not thus says the Lord, 00:41:46.120 |
but the Scripture actually has a lot to say about good laws. 00:41:49.120 |
So I believe it's a good, wise thing for Christians 00:41:52.120 |
to know about what laws are in their country, 00:41:55.120 |
what policies are fair and just, and that's just a side note. 00:41:59.120 |
But I want to raise all this because I have a fun question for you, 00:42:03.120 |
and that question is, what if on the ballot, on the federal level, 00:42:16.120 |
having this great divide of Republicans and Democrats, 00:42:19.120 |
we think a better solution would be to have more power in the government. 00:42:30.120 |
Someone who could go in there and they could make changes today, 00:42:37.120 |
the bill goes to the House and then the Senate and all these different places 00:42:40.120 |
and then it gets vetoed and nothing's being done. 00:42:46.120 |
there were a couple of days when I started to daydream and thought, 00:42:53.120 |
Would I go in there and say, "You, you, you're fired." 00:42:56.120 |
You know, and would I go in there clean house? 00:42:59.120 |
Would I start making implementation about policy and such? 00:43:03.120 |
Now, I say that because when we read this passage, 00:43:11.120 |
And I want to say, for us as believers, yes, in wisdom, 00:43:15.120 |
we should care about what's going on in our country, 00:43:25.120 |
The country may see us as a little bit strange 00:43:29.120 |
because we operate as though we have the king of kings, 00:43:34.120 |
a monarch who has actually a say into every single facet of our lives. 00:43:39.120 |
As a matter of fact, there is no realm or dominion of my life 00:43:43.120 |
where I have so much liberty God doesn't have his hand in. 00:43:50.120 |
So in actuality, against, I guess you could even say, 00:43:53.120 |
the liberties of American culture, we would be seen as strange. 00:44:00.120 |
And that's going to be the main thrust of the sermon. 00:44:03.120 |
And then I want to just give you an advance just apology. 00:44:06.120 |
The tone of the sermon is going to feel a little bit like frustration. 00:44:15.120 |
Because we jump down into a context in which the people 00:44:24.120 |
So let's together jump down into the context. 00:44:27.120 |
First, we're going to move down through the story in movements, 00:44:30.120 |
but first we have to lay the context and the demand. 00:44:33.120 |
And what we see actually in the context of the story 00:44:37.120 |
is not just that everything was going fine, the people were obeying, 00:44:40.120 |
and then the people thought, you know, it would be really great 00:44:46.120 |
No, the history of this nation is riddled with sin, suffering, and oppression. 00:44:53.120 |
You can call it a vicious cycle, so much so the book of Judges 00:45:01.120 |
The scripture said that the people kept on doing whatever was right in their eyes, 00:45:06.120 |
and therefore God judged them by bringing a foreign pagan nation 00:45:10.120 |
to come over them and oppress them, sometimes seven years, 00:45:13.120 |
sometimes 15, sometimes even as long as 40 years of oppression. 00:45:18.120 |
The people would cry out in angst, "Lord, have mercy on us. 00:45:23.120 |
Save us and deliver us." God would raise up a judge. 00:45:30.120 |
They would be delivered, they would have victory in military battles, 00:45:33.120 |
but then they would fall over to the same sin. 00:45:36.120 |
In that context, the scripture has actually set up a crisis moment 00:45:41.120 |
and drama in the story because the book of Judges would repeat 00:45:44.120 |
over and over again, and there was no king in Israel. 00:45:48.120 |
There was no king in Israel, and people did whatever that was right 00:45:56.120 |
And then, so please read with me verses 1 through 3 of 1 Samuel 8, 00:46:02.120 |
and what we find is that there are plenty of excuses. 00:46:07.120 |
What do I mean? Verse 1, "And it came about when Samuel 00:46:10.120 |
was old that he appointed his sons judges over Israel. 00:46:15.120 |
Now the name of his son, firstborn, was Joel, and the name of his second, 00:46:22.120 |
His sons, however, did not walk in his ways, but turned aside 00:46:26.120 |
after dishonest gain and took bribes and perverted justice." 00:46:30.120 |
The first excuse that people could have for why they made this demand 00:46:34.120 |
was that Samuel, the great judge, Samuel was essentially set up 00:46:38.120 |
as the last judge of Israel before the kings. 00:46:42.120 |
He's getting old now, and in similar ways, when the leader is old, 00:46:48.120 |
we start feeling this level of diminishing confidence. 00:46:52.120 |
It's not the same having a young man with gusto and passion wanting to go 00:46:56.120 |
and conquer or having this vibrancy, but rather you have an individual 00:47:00.120 |
who is soon to pass. That was their first excuse. 00:47:04.120 |
Samuel, you're old. Excuse number two, Samuel essentially 00:47:10.120 |
took his sons--my guess is that he had his sons be with him 00:47:14.120 |
when he was giving the judgments, when he was making decisions, 00:47:18.120 |
giving counsel, all that kind of stuff, and in some sense, there's always 00:47:28.120 |
It doesn't happen where, "Oh, since you're the son of the king, 00:47:32.120 |
you're the prince next to the throne." That's not how judges work. 00:47:36.120 |
They're appointed by God. Through the previous judge, 00:47:44.120 |
The excuse was, "Man, Samuel, your plan failed. 00:47:48.120 |
You set up your sons, and they are now wicked." 00:47:52.120 |
I just want to make a side point. In some sense, each and every single one 00:47:57.120 |
of us is susceptible to this temptation. We have to be incredibly careful 00:48:01.120 |
with leadership and authority. Why? Because it corrupts. 00:48:06.120 |
Power corrupts. We're not so strong that if we had the authority 00:48:12.120 |
and the power and the backing of God behind us, that we would not use 00:48:17.120 |
our authority for our own gain. In our day today, we have that. 00:48:21.120 |
Are there politicians who use their power, position, and authority 00:48:24.120 |
for selfish gain? We even see it in leadership positions at church. 00:48:29.120 |
We see it perhaps in our workplaces. People are susceptible to this kind of sin. 00:48:35.120 |
Yes? But then when that happens, the reason why I bring it up 00:48:39.120 |
is the people suffer. The unmentioned excuse is if they are being taxed this way, 00:48:46.120 |
if the people are under bad leadership, what ends up happening is they suffer. 00:48:50.120 |
And so not only in this situation, but in many situations before, 00:48:54.120 |
the nation, the people would say, "The priests you have set up, 00:48:58.120 |
they keep demanding the best. They say it's for God, and then they take it home. 00:49:03.120 |
The priests are essentially leeching off of us." 00:49:07.120 |
And so the unspoken excuse is, "Samuel, not only are you old, 00:49:10.120 |
but your sons are untrustworthy. We have been suffering under this." 00:49:15.120 |
And so with those excuses, they demand a king. 00:49:20.120 |
Within that, what would you say? If you were Samuel and you were giving advice, 00:49:26.120 |
would you say, "Yeah, I know," because you feel guilty that it was your decision that caused this? 00:49:32.120 |
Would you say, "I know, I get it, I get it, it's hard." 00:49:36.120 |
May I give you a reminder that to us, yes, there are reasons, 00:49:40.120 |
and maybe legitimate reasons, sometimes to have a desire to have some false solution, 00:49:51.120 |
To us, there is no legitimate excuse to doubt God Almighty. 00:49:57.120 |
There is no legitimate excuse to go and doubt the king. 00:50:02.120 |
Here, the way we should read it is, "Samuel was old, and therefore they stopped trusting God. 00:50:08.120 |
The nation had two sons who were bad judges, and therefore they lost sight of the king." 00:50:17.120 |
This is bogus to think that because we had two judges who were young, and they were corrupt, 00:50:22.120 |
and they were after dishonest gain, let's go ahead and give more power to another man. 00:50:35.120 |
And so by way of conviction, we realize this is an absolutely foolish demand. 00:50:39.120 |
What in the world are you asking when you already have a king? 00:50:44.120 |
And so the people say to Samuel, "Appoint us a king who will judge us like all the nations." 00:50:54.120 |
And I'm still trying to set up the context for you, but now we look at this foolish demand, 00:50:59.120 |
and in just that short sentence that the people raise up to Samuel, we get two things. 00:51:04.120 |
Not only do we get, yes, they're looking humanistically to a man who would have power, 00:51:14.120 |
Well, first, when we think of what is it they want, they say in an interesting and strange way, 00:51:23.120 |
"Give us a president. In our next term, we have to have a president who's going to judge me. 00:51:28.120 |
I want him to evaluate me and tell me what I did wrong. 00:51:32.120 |
I want him to give critical analysis and constructive criticism so I can be better." 00:51:42.120 |
If you want somebody who's a judge, you want that person to institute laws. 00:51:55.120 |
And in a sense, what that means is we want to set up our own laws, 00:52:00.120 |
because these people already have their laws. 00:52:06.120 |
They want their own policies. They want their own way. 00:52:09.120 |
Why? Because they want to be like the other nations. 00:52:13.120 |
They say it. "We want to be like the other nations." 00:52:20.120 |
Why would you want to be like the other nations? 00:52:23.120 |
You're the people of God," for crying out loud. 00:52:29.120 |
Why in the world would you like the other nations? 00:52:36.120 |
Could it be precisely because God wanted His nation to be different? 00:52:46.120 |
comparative to the other nations, to be small. 00:52:51.120 |
God wanted His army to be small. You have a small army. 00:52:57.120 |
He gathered all these armies of God, and they were about to go into battle, 00:53:01.120 |
and God said, "You know what? I want you to dwindle that down." 00:53:06.120 |
"You know what? Since you said that, I want you to dwindle it down even more." 00:53:09.120 |
Why? Because they're a nation with a mighty king. 00:53:21.120 |
the nation of Israel completely lost sight of that and said, 00:53:24.120 |
"Dude, that nation over there, that huge army, 00:53:30.120 |
You know what else? That nation over there has a huge cattle. 00:53:33.120 |
This nation, our nation, the nation of Israel, 00:53:39.120 |
every time we sin, every year on Yom Kippur, and more. 00:53:51.120 |
They wanted to look like them. They wanted to have their own laws. 00:53:54.120 |
And all of that was an absolute rejection of God. 00:54:01.120 |
what would you say to these people who are demanding a king? 00:54:05.120 |
Turn your Bibles over to Leviticus chapter 20, 00:54:12.120 |
I'm going to read a little larger portion here. 00:54:18.120 |
God's going to talk about His law and His intent, 00:54:24.120 |
He says, "You, therefore, are to keep all My statutes 00:54:30.120 |
so that the land to which I am bringing you to live will not spew you out. 00:54:34.120 |
Moreover, you shall not follow the customs of the nations 00:54:39.120 |
for they did all these things, and therefore I have abhorred them." 00:54:44.120 |
What? You want to be like the nations that God hates? 00:54:55.120 |
you are to possess their land, and I Myself will give it to you to possess it, 00:55:05.120 |
God is the provider. He's going to deliver the land. 00:55:08.120 |
He's going to make them successful. He's their warrior. 00:55:12.120 |
So then, verse 26, "Thus you are to be holy to Me, 00:55:17.120 |
and I have set you apart from the peoples to be Mine. 00:55:22.120 |
Likewise, you and I, we are told in the New Testament, 00:55:28.120 |
This world will tell you all sorts of things that you need, you must have. 00:55:36.120 |
You know, there was a thing I did see when I was looking at news, 00:55:40.120 |
when I was looking at who people are selecting for their president and stuff. 00:55:46.120 |
I have seen in years where there's an election, 00:55:49.120 |
people cry and weep because their candidate didn't win. 00:55:58.120 |
Why? Because it felt like their warrior was dead. 00:56:09.120 |
It looks like they're riding, but they're just celebrating. 00:56:18.120 |
In some sense, that's a strange conformity to this world. 00:56:22.120 |
It would be eerie for a Christian who has a king to behave like the world. 00:56:35.120 |
We're going back to this idea that the nation was complaining, 00:56:46.120 |
And what's more, there isn't any kind of plan for the future. 00:56:51.120 |
And then their idea was, then set up this king. 00:56:55.120 |
But as you recall, this would be entirely wrong 00:56:58.120 |
because God has said, "I've always been on the throne." 00:57:06.120 |
and God is going to say with emphatic vision, 00:57:15.120 |
In Isaiah 6, this is where we get many of our songs of "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord." 00:57:20.120 |
And what actually is the scenario is that it's the year of King Uzziah's death. 00:57:28.120 |
Eventually, King Uzziah's son will become king, but he's not a very good king. 00:57:39.120 |
So then, in the year of King Uzziah's death, he says, 00:57:42.120 |
"I saw the Lord sitting on the throne, lofty and exalted, 00:57:45.120 |
with the train of His robe, filling the temple." 00:57:50.120 |
And then turn your eyes to later down in verse 5, 00:57:53.120 |
and then he said, "Then I said, 'Woe is me! I am ruined, 00:57:57.120 |
because I'm a man of unclean lips, and I live amongst a people of unclean lips, 00:58:05.120 |
And God is going to say emphatically to these people who make this request, 00:58:09.120 |
"Give us a king who's going to make good laws for us. 00:58:12.120 |
Give us a king who's going to represent us and fight for us." 00:58:14.120 |
He's going to say, "But I'm still on the throne." 00:58:19.120 |
Jot this down as it passes. Isaiah 33, verse 22. 00:58:35.120 |
You know, the people, the nation of Israel is interesting 00:58:38.120 |
because there are so many times when they forcibly try to make people king. 00:58:43.120 |
They're totally walking by sight and not by faith, 00:58:46.120 |
and they try to push mighty warriors into kingship. 00:58:54.120 |
it says that the men of Israel said to Gideon, 00:58:57.120 |
"Rule over us, both you and your son, also your sons' sons, 00:59:02.120 |
for you have delivered us from the hand of the Midians." 00:59:07.120 |
As soon as he said that, the answer is, "Wrong." 00:59:11.120 |
Gideon was a nervous wreck. Gideon did not know. 00:59:15.120 |
Gideon, yes, he's a good warrior, but remember, he's the guy who's like, 00:59:19.120 |
"God, are you really going to go with us? How are we supposed to know? 00:59:22.120 |
You know what I'm going to do? I'm going to put out this fleece, 00:59:24.120 |
and if it's wet, then I know you're going to be with us." 00:59:27.120 |
In some sense, he was filled with doubt, anxiety, and fear, 00:59:32.120 |
And so the story is not that, "Oh, Gideon, good job. You delivered us." 00:59:45.120 |
"But Gideon said to them, 'I will not rule over you, 00:59:49.120 |
nor shall my son rule over you; the Lord shall rule over you.' 00:59:53.120 |
When they said, 'You, your sons, and your sons after, rule over us,' 00:59:59.120 |
Gideon knew exactly what they were asking for, 01:00:01.120 |
and so he said, "No, it's not me. You have a king. 01:00:08.120 |
I hope I did a good job belaboring this point with you. 01:00:14.120 |
You have a fighter, you have the warrior in God." 01:00:18.120 |
Why? Because this is a unique passage in our story here in 1 Samuel 8 01:00:23.120 |
where God tells us how He feels about this demand. 01:00:28.120 |
And I wanted you to feel it, the frustration, the audacity, 01:00:36.120 |
If you take a look, going back to 1 Samuel 8, 01:00:39.120 |
now we're going to move to the next portion of the movement of the story, 01:00:46.120 |
Chapter 8, verse 7-9, this is what the Lord says, 01:00:50.120 |
"Listen to the voice of the people in regard to all that they say to you, 01:00:55.120 |
for," look at this, "they have not rejected you, 01:01:00.120 |
but they have rejected me from being king over them. 01:01:05.120 |
Like all the deeds which they have done since the day that I brought them up from Egypt, 01:01:10.120 |
even to this day, in that they have forsaken me and served other gods, 01:01:19.120 |
Brothers and sisters, that is like a sad statement. 01:01:24.120 |
To have God evaluate and summarize their journey since the days of Egypt, 01:01:29.120 |
this is hundreds of years now, since the days of Egypt to this very moment, 01:01:33.120 |
God says, "You know what? This has been the same old story. 01:01:44.120 |
And then God tells us, "This is incredible offense of repeat rejection. 01:01:50.120 |
You disregard God's laws. You want somebody to judge over you, 01:01:54.120 |
to make your laws and your policies, while I have already given you the Torah, 01:01:58.120 |
I've given you the Ten Commandments, I've given you good instructions." 01:02:02.120 |
Later on, the kings and queens of the world will look at the nation of Israel and say, 01:02:06.120 |
"Oh my gosh, you have a God who gave you this? 01:02:09.120 |
You have protections for the poor, you have provisions for the weak. 01:02:17.120 |
But instead, they're going to say, "Nope, we want our own." 01:02:22.120 |
What offense for God who provides, God who fights. 01:02:26.120 |
Scan your eyes down to verse 19, chapter 8, verse 19. 01:02:31.120 |
God gives them warning, "Do you have any idea what you're asking for? 01:02:36.120 |
And then it says, "Nevertheless, the people refused to listen to the voice of Samuel. 01:02:41.120 |
And they said, 'No, but there shall be a king over us, 01:02:45.120 |
that we also may be like all the nations, that our king may judge us.'" 01:02:49.120 |
And then he adds, "And go out before us and fight our battles." 01:03:05.120 |
I have a montage of passages for you to show you just how ridiculous this demand is. 01:03:17.120 |
"Do not fear. Stand by and see the salvation of the Lord, which we'll accomplish before you today. 01:03:23.120 |
For the Egyptians whom you have seen today, you will never see them again." 01:03:28.120 |
"The Lord will fight for you while you keep silent." 01:03:39.120 |
"But God is going to win the battle for you and deliver them all into your hands." 01:03:46.120 |
"So do not fear them, for the Lord your God is the one fighting for you." 01:03:55.120 |
In Deuteronomy chapter 1, verse 30 through 35, 01:03:58.120 |
"The Lord your God, who goes before you, will himself fight on your behalf, 01:04:03.120 |
just as he did for you in Egypt before your eyes. 01:04:07.120 |
And in the wilderness where you saw how the Lord your God carried you, 01:04:16.120 |
in all the way which you have walked until you came to this place. 01:04:20.120 |
But for all this, you didn't trust the Lord your God, 01:04:24.120 |
who goes before you on your way to seek out a place for you to camp, 01:04:27.120 |
in the fire by night and cloud by day, and to show you the way in which you should go. 01:04:32.120 |
So the Lord heard the sound of your words, and he was angry and took an oath, saying, 01:04:37.120 |
'Not one of these men, this evil generation, shall see the good which I swore to give to your fathers.'" 01:04:54.120 |
He saw himself as their warrior, as their deliverer. 01:04:59.120 |
He went before them, he covered them with cloud, with fire. 01:05:06.120 |
And then for them to be like, "Yeah, I don't know, we don't trust you." 01:05:12.120 |
I want you to imagine with me the sheer feeling of rejection, 01:05:23.120 |
He's just seven years old, he's in the elementary department. 01:05:26.120 |
And in the morning you decide, "You know what, we're going to get up together, 01:05:29.120 |
and then we're going to get ready, and we're going to take you there." 01:05:31.120 |
So early in the morning you get him up, and he's got his hair all bed hair, 01:05:34.120 |
so you have to spray his hair, you comb your hair. 01:05:37.120 |
He gets all dressed, but it's all wrinkly and ugly, so you go, "Oh, you can't wear that." 01:05:43.120 |
He tries to head out, but he didn't eat yet, so you make the eggs, you make the bacon, 01:05:50.120 |
And then he can't even tie his own shoes, so you're like, "Like fish, you make the loopy loop, 01:05:55.120 |
You bring him into the education department, and there's a new volunteer he doesn't know, 01:05:58.120 |
and he goes, "Oh, who are you? Who are your parents?" 01:06:01.120 |
And he looks up, and he goes, "I have no parents." 01:06:08.120 |
And then so the volunteer worker, our dear teacher, he's like, "Oh, come on. 01:06:14.120 |
Who are your parents, right? Stop messing with me." 01:06:16.120 |
And he goes, "Yeah, I have parents, but no one really loves me at my house." 01:06:30.120 |
What is going on right now that you would say that? 01:06:35.120 |
Like it's flabbergasting. Like I don't understand what just happened here. 01:06:38.120 |
Why would you say that? Why would you sit there, be dropped off by your parents, 01:06:45.120 |
You were delivered, you were carried, he carried you on his back, 01:06:48.120 |
and then he dropped you off into a good promise land flowing with milk and honey, 01:06:52.120 |
and then you go, "Give me a king," as though you don't have one. 01:07:10.120 |
it's flabbergasting because they would have to be so blind, so self-consumed, 01:07:16.120 |
and I want to remind us by way of application. 01:07:24.120 |
"Your God's not here for you, so that's why you need this." 01:07:28.120 |
And ever since you were young, our enemy, the world, wants to convince us, 01:07:32.120 |
"Oh, you need--you need, you know, an Ivy League degree. 01:07:42.120 |
You need this and this," and then it gets frivolous. 01:07:44.120 |
"Oh, you need to do makeup. You needed to do this. You need to wear that." 01:07:47.120 |
And then you have these car companies like, "Around here, you got to love what you drive." 01:07:54.120 |
You know, I teach my young children to not say certain words because it's too harsh. 01:07:58.120 |
They're not allowed to say, "Shut up," to each other. 01:08:02.120 |
But in rare circumstances, you should be able to do it. 01:08:05.120 |
If a young child looks his parent in the eye and says, "I have no parents," 01:08:10.120 |
you could tell that child, "You need to shut up." 01:08:18.120 |
What's more, for you and I, if the world keeps telling us, "You have to have this," 01:08:33.120 |
If somebody tells you, "You have to be here. You have to live there. 01:08:36.120 |
You have to have this person," and this world is chock full of overly romanticized, 01:08:55.120 |
He sees after you're going in and coming out, and He watches you over everything 01:08:59.120 |
to such a degree we see the Lord is my shepherd. 01:09:06.120 |
And yet the world keeps telling us, "No, no, no." 01:09:17.120 |
It's so dangerous because the incredible ridiculousness of what they're saying 01:09:23.120 |
they did not see, and they were relentless in demanding it. 01:09:27.120 |
I want to give you another thought by way of application is you don't really have to say, 01:09:34.120 |
You know what, God? You're a horrible father." 01:09:36.120 |
You do not have to say those things to offend Him deeply. 01:09:52.120 |
And you're just constantly looking for the next job, the next family, 01:09:57.120 |
Mind you, when you keep saying that, God, your provider, is on their side like, 01:10:07.120 |
This idea of God being your king and your provider, your protector, your warrior, 01:10:22.120 |
Sometimes when I counsel, you know what one of the most often heard things, 01:10:30.120 |
"Oh, I want you to go and reconcile with God." 01:10:33.120 |
"You know, I want you to go step out and try." 01:10:39.120 |
"What do I say to somebody who is so fearful like that?" 01:10:42.120 |
Do I say something all silly like, "No, you can do it." 01:10:49.120 |
What I want to say to them now is, "But you have a king. 01:11:00.120 |
And it's not going to help you to be like, 'I'm here for you. 01:11:07.120 |
You have the Lord of Lords, Christ who is going to rule with an iron scepter. 01:11:12.120 |
He's going to come with blazing eyes of fire and with a word he's going to slay. 01:11:22.120 |
And what's more, sometimes we have people who struggle deeply with like, 01:11:31.120 |
And then so they just describe like, "What's the use?" 01:11:38.120 |
They go home, they play video games and just wasting their time. 01:11:48.120 |
When you leave this place, you leave church, you leave the service, 01:11:51.120 |
you leave the fellowship, and you walk into your house, 01:12:04.120 |
And you have an incredible purpose to live for your king. 01:12:17.120 |
And so I want to remind us there is so much writing here 01:12:21.120 |
in just the fact that these people lost sight of the one who's on the throne. 01:12:27.120 |
And then as a final reminder, I want to give you this sobering reminder 01:12:32.120 |
that if we keep complaining, if we keep griping, if we keep in fear, 01:12:36.120 |
if we keep in discouragement, and if we keep in lackadaisical like, 01:12:42.120 |
At some point, God is going to say, "Okay, is that what you want to live by?" 01:12:48.120 |
Here, more specifically for this nation, they saw the other nations 01:12:51.120 |
and they're like, "Oh my goodness, look at them." 01:13:01.120 |
You do realize one of the scariest things comes to us from Scripture. 01:13:10.120 |
God says, "You want that reward? Then that's all you get." 01:13:14.120 |
If you think about it, that's one of the scariest things. 01:13:20.120 |
He prevents things from going into complete chaos. 01:13:23.120 |
He prevents things from going into this vicious cycle to arrive at the pit of the bottom. 01:13:30.120 |
For God to say, "I release you," it's a frightening thing. 01:13:41.120 |
And when you realize and you look up and you say, 01:13:43.120 |
"Oh my gosh, we didn't want this. Our king is horrible," 01:13:49.120 |
In the New Testament, in Romans 1, God says, "You knew just enough. 01:13:53.120 |
You knew just enough to look over and you knew I was paternal, you knew I was powerful, 01:14:02.120 |
He says, "So I'll give you over to your depraved mind. 01:14:05.120 |
You want to commit to your lust? Then have it. 01:14:11.120 |
You're going to set your own beliefs, your own rules, and your own laws? 01:14:17.120 |
That is such a scary place to be, brothers and sisters. 01:14:22.120 |
What God does in the next movement in the story is just that. 01:14:33.120 |
God gave Samuel orders to listen, to warn, and then to give it. 01:14:38.120 |
So in 1 Samuel 8, 9, He says, "Then listen to their voice. 01:14:43.120 |
However, you shall solemnly warn them and tell them of the procedures of the king who will reign over them." 01:14:53.120 |
And I will say, just as a side note, please don't think, "Oh yeah, this is what I should do." 01:14:58.120 |
If you're parents in here, this is not to be like, "Yeah, you know what? My kids want that candy." 01:15:03.120 |
Well, you want it? Then have it and just like shove it in their mouth, you know? 01:15:07.120 |
God in His infinite fatherly wisdom is testing them. 01:15:11.120 |
God in His infinite sovereignty and His prerogative is giving to them their just dessert. 01:15:17.120 |
But part of His heart is being revealed because He says, "Solemnly," and it's very emphatic. 01:15:23.120 |
It's like a strange wordplay where He just repeats the same thing in a beautiful way three times. 01:15:29.120 |
What He says is, "Warning, you shall warn and speak." 01:15:37.120 |
"And inform them the consequences by telling them the procedure of the king," and that reads funny too. 01:15:42.120 |
The way we should understand that is, tell them exactly how this is going to play out. 01:15:48.120 |
If God's giving you warning, He is being so real with you, He says, "Tell them what the future holds." 01:15:56.120 |
Starting from verse 10, He says, "So Samuel spoke all the words of the Lord to the people who had asked him for a king." 01:16:04.120 |
He said, "This will be the procedure of the king who will reign over you. 01:16:08.120 |
He will take your sons and place them for himself in his chariots among his horsemen, and they will run before his chariots." 01:16:16.120 |
That king, when you set him up and give him power, he's going to have your sons fight in his battles, 01:16:21.120 |
and some of your sons will be like bumper cars. 01:16:24.120 |
Some of your sons will be the bumper for his car. 01:16:27.120 |
He's going to put them in front of his chariot. 01:16:30.120 |
Verse 12, "He will appoint for himself commanders of thousands and of fifties, and some to do his plowing and reap his harvest, 01:16:36.120 |
and to make his weapons of war the equipment for his chariots." 01:16:40.120 |
He's going to make people fight his battles all for his own benefit to do his work and bidding. 01:16:47.120 |
Verse 13, "He will also take your daughters for perfumers and cooks and bakers. 01:16:53.120 |
He will take the best of your fields and your vineyards and your olive groves and give them to his servants." 01:16:59.120 |
And you're thinking, "Oh my gosh, it's like taxation right now." 01:17:02.120 |
Well, he mentions it later, "He will take a tenth of your seed and all your vineyards and give to his officers and his servants." 01:17:11.120 |
"He will also take your male servants and your female servants and your best young men and your donkeys and use them for his work. 01:17:18.120 |
He will take a tenth of your flock, and you yourselves will become his servants." 01:17:38.120 |
You're going to give that much trust, that much power to a man instead of God? 01:17:59.120 |
"Then, once you realize, then you will cry out in that day because your king whom you have chosen for yourselves, but the Lord will not answer you in that day." 01:18:18.120 |
The king, who is a greedy man, will become your oppressor. 01:18:23.120 |
And he's going to do all of these crazy things. 01:18:26.120 |
If you observe what those things are, it sounds like a person who thinks he is God. 01:18:34.120 |
It sounds like a person who thinks he is the focal point of why these creatures remain. 01:18:41.120 |
It's a man who thinks he is at the pinnacle top. 01:18:46.120 |
That's why when God says, "Do you understand what you're doing? You are rejecting me. And just as you have always done, you reject me to serve other gods." 01:18:56.120 |
Don't think, "Oh, yeah, we just have these political preferences and ideas, etc, etc." 01:19:03.120 |
There are forms of government that exist now and here that sound like we want a God. 01:19:09.120 |
I get disturbed when I hear political pundits. 01:19:13.120 |
We've got candidates saying, "You know what we need is? America needs spiritual healing. I'm going to unite all of us together." 01:19:20.120 |
I'm like, "Uh-uh. You ain't my God. You're not Jesus." 01:19:27.120 |
"We need to have a revival." I've heard people say that. "We need to have a revival. We've lost our identity. I'm going to give to us a sense of identity and purpose. We need all the..." 01:19:41.120 |
I don't see you that way. That's what I want to say to them. I talk to my TV screen sometimes. 01:20:11.120 |
It's strange to me when I hear people talk about the grand old visions they have of political ideologies. 01:20:17.120 |
Again, I don't mean to get into all that, but I don't know if some of you guys are fans of socialism. 01:20:21.120 |
But socialism essentially is kingship in multiple forms. 01:20:25.120 |
If you have a government that is king, that's socialism. 01:20:27.120 |
They're going to provide for you. They're going to collect all your goods. 01:20:29.120 |
And then they're going to distribute it so that everybody has an equal share. 01:20:34.120 |
No king has ever done that. No king body will ever do that. 01:20:42.120 |
But after all of this warning, their hearts are so set. 01:20:51.120 |
1 Samuel 8:19-22 says, "Nevertheless," this is so sad, you guys, 01:20:56.120 |
"the people refused to listen to the voice of Samuel, and they said, 'No!' 01:21:10.120 |
After he gives them the warning, like, I know the future. 01:21:13.120 |
Let me tell you exactly how it's going to be, and they say that. 01:21:16.120 |
Verse 20, "That we also may be like all the other nations, that our king may judge us, 01:21:23.120 |
Now after Samuel had heard all the words of the people, he repeated them in the Lord's hearing. 01:21:29.120 |
The Lord said to Samuel, 'Listen to their voice. Appoint them a king.' 01:21:34.120 |
So Samuel said to the men of Israel, 'Go, every man, to his city.' 01:21:41.120 |
What, question, what do you think God should say to these people, right? 01:21:48.120 |
The reason why I cried is because the impression that I got with was, 01:21:52.120 |
"Okay, the scariest thing happened. God is done with them. 01:22:01.120 |
Thank goodness I am not God, but if I were, I would say, "I'm done. 01:22:06.120 |
I've had it with you guys. This is the last time. 01:22:11.120 |
All this complaining, all this griping, every time I let you pray to me, 01:22:19.120 |
Why do I have to be the dummy here? Am I a dunce? 01:22:22.120 |
Do I have to keep reaching out like this, like, 'Hello, hello, hello?' 01:22:29.120 |
Why do I have to ever, even once, feel your rejection? 01:22:36.120 |
Because I falsely thought, when he said, "Go home," 01:22:48.120 |
Because we foolishly look to so many things for our protection, provision, and grace, 01:23:03.120 |
Turn your Bibles over to 1 Samuel chapter 12. 01:23:08.120 |
I think it's appropriate to say that it is fitting for God to be done with His people. 01:23:17.120 |
It is fitting for God to have such an annoyance and frustration to say, 01:23:24.120 |
But God reveals His heart in the midst of this great rejection. 01:23:28.120 |
And look at what it says. 1 Samuel chapter 12. 01:23:31.120 |
Samuel is speaking to the people, and he says, 01:23:33.120 |
"Well, when you saw in Nahash the king of the sons of Ammon came against you, 01:23:38.120 |
you said to me, 'No, but a king shall reign over us.'" 01:23:42.120 |
I'm sure he didn't say it like that, but I'm just saying, putting some... 01:23:45.120 |
"You shall have a king, although the Lord your God was your king. 01:23:49.120 |
Now therefore, here is the king you have chosen, whom you have asked for, 01:23:54.120 |
and behold, the Lord has set a king over you, so you got what you asked for," he says. 01:24:00.120 |
"If you will fear the Lord and serve Him, and listen to His voice, 01:24:04.120 |
and not rebel against the command of the Lord, 01:24:06.120 |
then both you and also the king who reigns over you will follow the Lord your God. 01:24:11.120 |
If you will not listen to the voice of the Lord, 01:24:13.120 |
and not rebel against the commandment of the Lord, 01:24:15.120 |
then the hand of the Lord will be against you, as it was against your fathers. 01:24:32.120 |
Take your stand and see this great thing which the Lord will do before your eyes. 01:24:44.120 |
He said, "I'll call the Lord, that He may send thunder and rain. 01:24:48.120 |
Then you will know and see that your wickedness is great, 01:24:50.120 |
which you have done in the sight of the Lord by asking yourself for a king." 01:24:54.120 |
So Samuel called to the Lord, and the Lord sent thunder and rain that day. 01:24:58.120 |
And all the people greatly feared the Lord and Samuel. 01:25:03.120 |
"Oh, please pray for your servants to the Lord your God, 01:25:07.120 |
so that we may die, for we have added to all of our sins 01:25:23.120 |
I don't want to be too harsh on the nation of Israel because we are such. 01:25:30.120 |
But when they say, "Oh, pray for your servants." 01:25:42.120 |
But just as a side note, when we repent to God, 01:25:48.120 |
If you cling to your idol and you say, "God, God, I'm so sorry. 01:25:52.120 |
I added to my sin," and then you just cuddle your idol, 01:26:02.120 |
That's for another sermon, but look at what the Lord says, okay? 01:26:05.120 |
"And Israel, speaking, said to the people, 'Do not fear. 01:26:10.120 |
You have committed all this evil, yet do not turn aside from following the Lord, 01:26:17.120 |
You must not turn aside, for then you would go after futile things, 01:26:21.120 |
which cannot profit or deliver because they're futile.'" 01:26:27.120 |
We want stuff that looks all fancy, but they never deliver. 01:26:34.120 |
It's like, "Oh, my gosh, why do you want that? 01:26:44.120 |
But verse 22, "For the Lord will not abandon His people on account of His great name, 01:26:49.120 |
because the Lord has been pleased to make you a people for Himself. 01:26:54.120 |
Moreover, as for me, far be it from me that I should sin against the Lord 01:27:01.120 |
But I will instruct you in the good and right way." 01:27:10.120 |
If the story ended with, "Yes, you have sinned," period, 01:27:17.120 |
But the heart of our king, it's so good, isn't it? 01:27:25.120 |
And what's more, on the account of His own great name, 01:27:29.120 |
by the account of His own good pleasure, our king's will is perfect. 01:27:39.120 |
Praise God that I am not the Lord, I am not God, and I'm not His counselor. 01:27:46.120 |
If I was His counselor, I would have advised Him differently. 01:27:49.120 |
I would have said, "Hey, you know this relationship you have with these people? 01:27:54.120 |
How long have you been doing the same thing, expecting different results, huh? 01:28:07.120 |
But praise the Lord that we have a king who persists with us. 01:28:25.120 |
You are the good Father who carried Your people, 01:28:29.120 |
and we know that You sustain us now and today. 01:28:33.120 |
Lord God, we confess sometimes we have no idea what we're asking for. 01:28:37.120 |
Sometimes we think some things are so good and we want it so bad, and we want it now. 01:28:42.120 |
Lord, we confess, God, that those are just foolish things we say in our ignorance. 01:28:49.120 |
But what we know for certain is, God, that with You there is assurance. 01:28:54.120 |
With You there is provision, power, strength, and more. 01:28:58.120 |
So, God, we thank You, and we praise You as our king. 01:29:01.120 |
Help us to learn what it means to walk our day as those who truly have the king of the universe in our midst, 01:29:09.120 |
inside of our hearts, inside of our minds, and by faith that we dwell with You, 01:29:13.120 |
so that, God, we will live this life with power. 01:30:04.120 |
The One who made your host reveal, Hung the stars like chandeliers, 01:30:12.120 |
Now burn every grain of sand, Knows the heart of every man. 01:34:13.120 |
Lord, it is our prayer that You would help us 01:34:26.120 |
And so I ask God that in the way that we live each day, 01:36:15.120 |
and through the darkness, Your loving kindness