The Book of I Samuel Part 2

Well, good morning everyone. I think you can hear me. Okay. Welcome to Faith Bible Church Looking around I see mostly familiar faces today but I'm sure there's some that are watching us that haven't listened to us before and I just would share that we are

Waiting on the Lord. We are his servants and we may not be polished all the time, but We have hearts this big for our great

God and I trust that you will sense that this morning We wanted to announce that next week

Time is changing Victor reminded me this morning and it's fall back So you act you have an extra hour to sleep in or to get up early and read your

Bible, huh, John? So Just remember that I think we should should have everybody will be here on time and It's a this is just a great time to gather together to worship our

Lord You are the choir. I need to remind you that because we're doing a new song today and Some that aren't as familiar with the musician

So we're gonna work through this together and some of them are a little bit out of my range. So I go low so anyway

So let's continue to keep The Cain family in our prayers they're gonna be down south on Friday for burial memorial service for Janet's dad and And just FYI, we're gonna be burying my mom on Friday as well and then having a graveside service just with family on Saturday and So And John I just want to Publicly, thank you for all that you're doing for a faith

Bible Church and for the Cain family John has has a real love for all of you

If he wasn't so spread so thin you'd probably be there knocking on your door wanting to have some fellowship But they're spread about this thin as a pancake

But just doing an amazing job in the in the midst of it, but Very much.

We're grateful for you John and and all that you're doing with us As I wanted to as we prepare our hearts last time last week

I made mention of Good morning, Lasana that we had a read from Revelation and for me it's

I like to have work pictures and to see things and to visualize things just as we have one here with the verse and in the background of God's majesty and his greatness and we get we can get complacent

We in our we in our doubts and our fears and our trials. I think we we diminish the majesty of God We don't hold him up and lift him up for for how great he is and how powerful he is we just get caught up in our in our little world and This is a good time as we gather on Sunday Psalm 29 is and remember that picture given to the

Lord Oh you mighty ones given to the Lord glory and strength given to the Lord the glory do his name

Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness The voice of the Lord is over the waters the glory the

God of glory thunders The Lord is over many waters. The voice of the Lord is powerful.

The voice of the Lord is full of majesty The voice of the Lord breaks the cedars. Yes, the Lord splinters the cedars of Lebanon He makes them also skip like a calf

Lebanon and Syrian like a young wild ox The voice of the

Lord divides the flames of fire the voice of the Lord shakes the wilderness The Lord shakes the wilderness of Kadesh The voice of the

Lord makes the deer give birth and strips the forest bear and in his temple. Everyone says glory

The Lord sat enthroned at the at the flood and the Lord sits as king forever

The Lord will give strength to his people. The Lord will bless his people with peace

Now that's hope that we all have so let's go to the Lord in prayer

Our dear Heavenly Father. We thank you father for bringing us together this morning that we can gather to celebrate

Our faith our trust in you Lord that we can be reminded of what a majestic glorious awesome incredible God that you are that we can

Learn more from your word that Lord as pastor John brings the message to us that we would allow that to to Impact our lives that we'd set aside the things that distract the things of this world that can get us caught up and fearful

Lord, but we don't need to be fearful in your presence Lord because you have overcome all of them

You have victory over all of them. So we thank you for that Lord and may we just worship you in spirit and truth that we would know the depth of your love and peace and grace and All that there is

Lord that you offer us father this morning So may our service be an expression of our love for you father, and we commit it to your care in Christ's name.

Amen So our first song again is somewhat new some of you may have heard it outside of the church.

It's new to me But we're gonna do this together And it expresses a promise that we have in Christ Which does give us hope?

Matthew 16 18 and I also say to you that you are Peter and on this rock

I will build my church and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven

Wow, let's stand up and sing together. Oh church arise

Oh church arise

Hear the call of Christ our captain Oh and say that they are strong in the strength that God has

Will stand against the devils And our is love reaching out to those in darkness

Our call to this all but to rage against And with That makes the

Every side we know Secure and Christ will have with she died and inheritance of nations

Come see the cross Where love and mercy me as the

Son of God is stricken Then see his fall like his feet for the

Castle it is rolled away and Christ emerges from his victory

Is still the day we'll see him

So spirit come Good strength in every stride

Give grace for every hurdle That we may rise

Of a servant good and they as saints of all

Still I'm the way Retailing triumph We hear their calls and hunger for the day when with Christ we stand in Great singing arise my soul arise

Eyes my soul Arise shake off your guilty fears the bleeding sacrifice in my

Beers before the throne my sure he stands be

My name is written

On his He ever lives above for me to intercede his all redeeming love

His precious blood to bleed His blood atone for every race

His blood atone for every race Sprinkles now the throne of grace

Five bleeding wounds he bears Received on calvary

They pour effectual prayers They strongly plead for me

Forgive him. Oh ransom sinner

There's him pray presence of his son the spirit answers to the blood the spirit and to the reconcile his pardoning voice

I hear He owns me for he is Now drawn and father.

Thank you. And please be seated Good morning We turn to 1st

Samuel 9 Verses 15 through 21 Now the

Lord had told Samuel in his ear a day before Saul came saying

Tomorrow about this time. I will send thee a man out of the land of Benjamin and Now shall anoint him to be captain over my people

Israel That he may save my people out of the hand of the Philistines for I have looked upon my people

Because their cry has come unto me and when Samuel Saul saw

The Lord said unto him behold the man whom I speak to to thee of this same shall reign over my people

Then Saul drew near to Samuel in the gate and said tell me

I pray thee Where the seers house is and Samuel answered Saul and said

I am the seer Go up before me unto the high place

For ye shall eat with me today and tomorrow I will let thee go and will tell thee all that is in thine heart and As for thine asses that were lost three days ago set not thy mind on them for they are found

And on whom is all the desire of Israel? Is it not on thee?

And and on all thy father's house and Saul answered and said

Am I not a Benjamite of the smallest of the tribes of Israel? And my family the least of all the families of the tribe of Benjamin Wherefore then speakest thou so to me?

May the Lord add his blessing to the reading and hearing of his holy word Thank You Dave Well, praise

God. It's good to see everybody and those joining us by video as well We're up to 35 views most weeks

So I don't know who's watching but a few people that aren't here are watching. So Dave we miss you

And your dad and others let's go to the Lord in prayer Father God, you are such a wonderful God so worthy of our praise

And that's what we do right now. We join our hearts together as a church family God Praising you thanking you for all of your goodness your faithfulness

God for our salvation We hallow your name God from the depths of our heart.

We we worship you. We praise you We thank you for your goodness

God We thank you that you're a God that that cares so much about each and every single one of us

God Every hair on our head is numbered Your grace is sufficient father

God The life we live we net live by faith in the Son of God who loved us and gave himself for us

God We do want to join our hearts together as a church family God as a local church body and pray for our country

Father God, you know You know father what is going on in the

United States of America You know father that that that we should not be surprised

That as this nation has turned away from you more and more Stronger and stronger as This nation continues to blaspheme

Your holy name In that respect father. We are getting what we deserve

But God we turn to you we pray as a church as Christians around This nation that you might be pleased

God to turn back your hand from what you're allowing in our country That you might father

God put in every level of office those who you would put that Whatever might happen father in the election that we would accept it as from you, which is very clear.

It is from you You put Kings in power and you take them out of power

We pray father for the salvation of our country's leaders. We pray father specifically for the salvation of Presidents and and vice presidents and members of Congress and members of Senate.

We think especially father of our own state The many trials

God. There is a very very important trial that occurred this past Wednesday and the judge said

That he would rule this week God and he didn't and we're waiting father Perhaps on Monday a very contentious ruling

God about what's going on in our state We pray for your will in that ruling God that you might father be pleased

We think of just so many things that are going on We lift them up to you God and and pray for your mercy

God pray for your will pray especially father for Christians For us here today that God that you might be using the situations and circumstances of this country to Kindle the the love that we should have for you

We're to love you with all of our heart all of our soul all of our mind all of our strength God You know that we fall so short of these things

God we have to be honest We confess to you that that the cares of this world father the things of this world distract us from from the kind of devotion to taking up our cross daily and following you

God of Spending time with you each day Starting the day with you father God going away to our quiet place and and and praying faithfully and fervently for this nation

God James chapter 5 the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.

We're men like Elijah and Yet he prayed and it did not rain and he prayed again and it did

So God that's how we do. We we kneel with Elijah Who is a man with passions just like us?

That you might be pleased father God to move on behalf of our nation protect us father

God You know what's going on With rules and orders even about how we can celebrate

Thanksgiving So father your will be done and may we have the grace and the faith to accept it

We pray in Jesus name. Amen, you know if I could also add let's remember Brother our brother

Richard roar his brother passed away. And So that may be why he's not with us today and our hearts are with Memorial is the seventh

Okay, let's stand together. We're gonna sing a familiar him fairest Lord Jesus I Show us

Christ and that is what we should desire this morning and all the time Prepare our hearts.

Oh God Help us to receive

Break the heart and stony ground Help our unbelief

Plant your word down deep in us cause it to bear fruit

Is to hear lead us in your truth

Show us Christ Show us

Christ is Lord His living love through temptations makes the simple wise food for famished minds freedom for the slain riches for the needy soul come speak to us today today show us

Christ show us Christ reveal your preaching of your message

Christ is Lord where else can we go

Lord where else can we go you have the words of eternal life where else can we go

Lord where else can we go you have the words of eternal love show us

Christ show us Christ Jesus Christ is

Lord Thank you. You may be seated. I'll never forget the first time

I sang that song in this church and I was so moved what a wonderful way to prepare for the preaching of the word of God show us

Christ I mean that's what we all need isn't it more and more of Christ well open your

Bibles to 1st Samuel I'm so thankful to hear at least one of you took up my challenge to read through 1st

Samuel you had three weeks to do it and guess what you have two weeks to read through 2nd

Samuel you can even get ahead of the curve because I'm not going to be here next Sunday a dear brother named

Tim Ingram he's an assistant pastor at a local church in the area is going to come and preach

I think he's going to preach something from the book of Mark and we are leaving early Friday morning my kids are groaning because they're going to have the service for my wife's dad is going to be in Southern California on Friday and we need to be there in time for that and we'll be down there and be heading back and like Harold said

Barb knows I had no idea that teaching school for the first time would be as involved as it has been learning and grading papers and I mean

I'm really enjoying myself and learning and but it's been a challenge but praise

God well back by popular demand 1st Samuel now

I know many of you grew up in church you probably have taught Sunday school gone to Sunday school and I couldn't help but chuckle when

I read a couple of weeks ago by the way I have to apologize in advance now that I've had two weeks to prepare for this message all of a sudden

I had a three part message so it started with one part it went to two parts and then this week it went to three parts and I said

I can't do that to you guys because I told you we're going to do a book a week right didn't I what I told you so I cut

I mean I wish you knew as a pastor when you teach when you prepare to preach or teach and you wind up with what it does to you to cut to cut from a sermon after you've gleaned so much it's like you're cutting off your hand okay so it's killed me to do that but I'm going to finish 1st

Samuel today but I was laughing because I read about this Sunday school teacher that was teaching the story of creation and was explaining how

God created everything including human beings and in her class there was a little boy named

David and he was especially interested when the teacher explained to the class how

Eve was created out of one of Adam's ribs right later in the week

David's mother noticed him laying down in the living room as if he was ill and she said

David what's the matter he responded I have a pain in my side

I think I'm going to have a wife well let's pray

God we're so thankful for your word you know Lord that it's not me that is a teacher ultimately it's the

Holy Spirit that's his ministry to comfort to teach so we commit this final section of 1st

Samuel to you God asking that you might indeed through this message show us

Christ Father to learn from you to get to know you better to behold you to see you high and lifted up God you're a wonderful God may we see you and show us

Christ we pray in Jesus name amen so remember a couple of weeks ago

I gave us kind of an overview of the history of Israel and I put it again in the notes today when you think of the history of Israel right

Old Testament Old Covenant people a really helpful way is to think of those three stages of their history first there is this period of theocracy where God is ruling right

God speaking directly to Moses directly to Joshua directly to the judges remember

Gideon interacted with God personally one on one and then you move into the area or the section of their history called the monarchy and now we're dealing with kings right

King Saul King David King Solomon then we have the divided kingdom we're talking about 40 kings and finally there is this period of dependency where they are overthrown first by the

Babylonians the Medo Persians and they're ruled by foreigners so theocracy monarchy and then dependency and 1st

Samuel deals with the timeline in Israel's history where they move from this theocracy where God is ruling directly through men like Moses and Joshua some of the judges to the beginning of Israel's monarchy so when you come to 1st

Samuel you're in this transition from the theocracy in Israel Israel ruled primarily by God through men like Moses and Joshua to this period in their history when they're ruled by kings and in 1st

Samuel you have these three offices through which God works in the life of Israel and very important for us to keep in mind all three of these offices are pointing to and are fulfilled in the person of Jesus Christ if you're a newer

Christian you may not know that in the Old Testament there are literally hundreds of messianic prophecies hundreds they all were fulfilled in the person of Jesus Christ that He would be born of a conversion where He would be born how

He would be born how He would die what He would do when He was here I mean you can just go on and on and on over 300 prophecies that the

Jewish people look to as they're longing for the Messiah King to come hundreds of these prophecies all fulfilled the day

He was when He was to be born how He would enter into Jerusalem on the back of a young donkey hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of prophecies all fulfilled in the person of Jesus Christ and these three offices are all pointing to Jesus Christ and fulfilled in Jesus Christ so if there is one biblical truth to take home today to pack in your suitcase and take out to the car or the bus one truth the law can't save sacrifices can't save you going to church cannot save you or get you to heaven salvation is only by grace through faith in the

Lord Jesus Christ in 1st Samuel you have these three offices all pointing to the ministry of Jesus Christ you have the priestly office you have 1st

Samuel introducing us to the prophetic office and then you also have it introducing us to the office of the king to the monarch ok and in 1st

Samuel you have this transition from the office of judges to the leadership of Israel by kings and again the message of the book a very helpful way and also a convicting way to remember and summarize the message of the 31 chapters of this book is this way

God should be king and men should lead and again

I want to give you a moment to let that message of this book resonate in your minds for a moment

God should be king the one true all loving all knowing all powerful

His desire and plan and will for man is to rule and reign over our lives and right parallel to that rail of truth right next to it all the way out the line is that men should lead one of the biblical truths that the office of king in the

Old Testament points to and teaches is that all men in the body of Christ are called to be leaders in their home and in their churches and this truth is played out in the lives of four men

Eli the priest Samuel who was a judge a prophet and a priest and then you have the first king of Israel Saul and you have the second king of Israel David anybody that has been in church any length of time knows and has experienced the attendance at ladies

Bible studies 99 % of the time is more than the attendance at men's

Bible studies men should lead the lives of Eli Samuel, Saul and David all demonstrate the critical role of men leading all four show us the dangers and the result of men not leading as God has called men to lead so the message of 1st

Samuel God is king and what? Men should what?

I even heard a couple of men say it that's leadership so in this book what

I'm going to do is use the outline of three of those men Samuel Saul and David to lay out this book for us and a couple of weeks ago we looked at 1st

Samuel I mean the man Samuel he was a judge he was also a priest he was also a prophet he held all three offices remember this is a transitional book when you go to the

New Testament the book of Acts is a transitional book the Gospels tell about Jesus Christ right?

then you have the book of Acts that transitions to the rest of the New Testament which tells us about the

Church how Christians are to live so you have the four Gospels you have this bridge between the life of Christ and the

Church the book of Acts 1st Samuel is like a bridge between this theocracy where God is ruling through men and then into the monarchy right?

and this man Samuel is part of that bridge because he is both a judge he is both a prophet and he is also a priest right?

remember Hannah is longing for a son she goes to the tabernacle there is no temple yet she goes to the tabernacle she is praying to God God give me a son remember the pain right?

by the way don't try to read 1st Samuel this week get started on 2nd Samuel that's a little freebie we're done move on get 2nd

Samuel two weeks man you think I'm fired up now wait until we get to 2nd

Samuel and you say how can somebody get excited about 1st and 2nd Chronicles I can

I can get excited about In and Out I can get excited about Chipotle Burrito Bowl my wife she made it and I smelled it and I was like I told her yesterday

I said I've been looking forward all day to this what does that have to do with 1st

Samuel yeah you're right nothing and I'm going to hear about it on the way home trust me remember

Hannah she's looking forward to a son she can't she's praying to God in the tabernacle she pours out her heart

God answers his prayer we looked at some things about Samuel's upbringing we looked at some highlights of his ministry did

I tell you to go to chapter 7 well that's where you need to be so you have the birth of Samuel we have his growing up we have the death of Eli remember

Eli's sons Eli's a bad dad he's not leading right his sons all get killed as soon as he finds out about them

God kills them as soon as he finds out they're dead what happens to Eli boop he dies Samuel is a judge he's a priest he's a prophet and you have all this bad news and you come to chapter 7 and there's a reversal verse 3

Samuel spoke to all of the house of Israel saying okay all these things

Eli's dead God has killed his sons the sacrifice I mean you people are just idolatrous you're doing all these things but if you return to the

Lord and see this is the kind of stuff that we overlook so easily it says with all your hearts dearly beloved friends it's not with part of our hearts it's not with one toe in the water that we serve

God and then we're holding back it's all of our hearts this is a big problem in the church this is a big problem in Israel's it was never with everything that they had do you understand that please mark that down love

God with all your heart all your soul all your mind all your strength if you return to the

Lord with all your hearts and then put away the foreign gods and the asterisks from among you and prepare your hearts for the

Lord and if you serve Him only He will deliver you from the hand of the

Philistines and we saw this is a complete reversal of direction Samuel is telling them to purge themselves of the

Canaanite gods and return to God with repentance and this leads to a national day of confession something that probably the church should do what did the children do what did they do in verse 4 they put away the bales the asterisks and served the

Lord only so in a nutshell that's what we covered a couple of weeks ago if you missed it it's online we can now go to chapter 8 and we can now go to a man named

Saul now maybe you've heard of this before David the third king of Israel God called him a man after my own heart how about that wouldn't you love to have that on your tombstone man humbling so David was a man after God's own heart

Saul first king of Israel is basically the opposite he was a king not after God's own heart and if you look in your

Bible 8 -15 in 1 Samuel that's basically where Saul you find the main part of his story

Eli failed to lead and here's what's so sobering when you begin to understand the bigger picture because Samuel who started out so well so well so faithful in his relationship with God it's clear that he drifted in his relationship with God he's deficient in his role as a leader in his home so men

I want to encourage you okay I'm one of you okay look at me I'm a man biologically physically

I'm a man I can't identify as a woman sorry never can the decline and failure to lead happens to Eli it happens to Saul it happens to David who is a man after God's own heart and it even happens to his son

Solomon the sad and tragic news is at the end of Samuel's life his sons don't follow the

Lord and this failure listen how our sin impacts people this failure of Samuel to lead in his home sets up and causes the people of Israel to demand a king

Samuel is getting old he appoints his sons as judges and look at chapter 8 verse 3 but verse 1 he made his sons judges over Israel but his sons did not walk in his ways they turned aside after dishonest gain they took bribes they perverted justice then all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah and said to him look you're old and your sons do not walk in your ways now make us a king to judge us like all the nations but this thing displeased

Samuel when they said give us a king to judge us so Samuel prayed to the

Lord and the Lord said to Samuel heed the voice of the people in all that they say to you for they have not rejected you they have rejected me that I should not reign over them what did

I say all along God should be king right according to all the works which they have done since the day that I brought them out of Egypt even to this very day with which they have forsaken me and served other gods so they are doing to you also beloved

God wants to be our king and men need to lead the declension in Israel's relationship with God God ties directly to the men's failure to lead and this helps us to understand the incredibly sobering truth that we don't have to look any further than the men in our churches today to begin to understanding what's going on in the church so beginning in chapter 8 you have this first king of Israel Saul and we just read the reason given why their request why

God is saying fine let them have their way and there's another reason

I don't have time to read all the verses but perhaps the underlying reason that they wanted a king is there are some verses that suggest the reason they want a king is they're afraid of the enemies around them and the other pagan nations around them have kings that lead them into battle they didn't have a king

Samuel is old the sons are bad so give us a king like them so we have this declining spiritual condition we have

Samuel warning God's people I don't again you can read it for yourself maybe you did a king is going to tax you you don't want to do it

Samuel says don't take a king because he's going to tax you he's going to take more of your money he's going to put you into battle he's going to give you other responsibilities but even though he warns them about the consequences of having a king a human king not

God they say still give us a king go over to chapter 12 in chapter 11

Saul's leadership is affirmed he leads them to defeat the Ammonites and the people gather at Gilgal and in chapter 12 verse 14

Samuel gives a final sort of eulogy for his own life he says if you fear the

Lord and serve him and obey his voice and do not rebel against the commandment of the

Lord then both you and the king who reigns over you will continue following the

Lord however verse 15 chapter 12 if you do not obey the voice of the

Lord but rebel against the commandment of the Lord then the hand of the

Lord will be against you as it was against your fathers so what do we have it's just fantastic over and over God's grace

God's mercy right if you turn now and obey things are going to go well but if you don't the hand of the

Lord is going to be against you and I can go down so many rabbit trails but can you guess what happens

I mean this is a sober warning do you want the hand of the Lord against you come on everybody raise your hand that want the hand of the

Lord against you I mean go to you want to get a wake up call sometime go to James 4

God resists the proud the word resist in the Greek in James 4 is aggressively against the proud but he gives grace to the humble so anyway that's a whole rabbit trail right they do the opposite they don't fear the

Lord they stop serving him they don't obey his voice they even rebel against him and all of this rejection of God's ways and they're going back on the promises leads to Saul's rejection he's selected as king and then he's rejected as king okay and it's a good question and I don't have time to go to all the verses but in chapter 13 it tells us that God that Saul is rejected as king because of his impatience okay

Saul was directed to wait for Samuel to come and give a sacrifice so Saul is sitting there he doesn't have a smart phone he can't check his text messages he doesn't have internet he doesn't have a book so he's sitting there twiddling his thumbs and Samuel doesn't come when he expects him to come so you know what

Saul decides to do well I can't wait for Samuel who's supposed to do sacrifices under the law anybody no

Samuel the priest right that's their job well Samuel Saul does it anyway and just as he's finishing offering the sacrifice that he shouldn't offer

Samuel shows up and there's a lesson to learn here and that is this beloved

God very often places his people in situations where we have to wait on him and often it's difficult to wait you know often it's easier to take the path of least resistance and act but this will often lead to disaster so after making this presumptuous decision to do what only priests were allowed to do and then getting caught doing it you know what

Samuel confronts Saul and what does Saul do he defends he deflects he finger points it's your fault it's anybody's fault but his own he will not take responsibility for his action so the first reason

Saul is rejected as king was impatience that was rooted in pride that was also rooted in not trusting the

Lord and the second reason for Saul's rejection as king was his impulsiveness which you find in chapter 14 and again

I had to cut a lot of this out so we could finish but Saul is worried about this battle and he makes this rash decision and maybe you can relate to this

I've done this too many times to count he makes this vow no one in the army is to take food until nightfall well his dear son

Jonathan who's pursuing the enemy unknowingly he gets hungry breaks this vow and because of the way that the vows worked and because of the way that the king's orders work

Saul says I'm going to kill you I have to because I set this decree well the people say you're not going to kill

Jonathan in fact the reason you're not going to kill Jonathan is because he is primarily the reason we had victory so Saul arrogantly definitely impulsively makes this quick decision he doesn't evaluate the implications the results are almost disastrous and we come to chapter 15

Saul is rejected as king first because of his impatience second because of his impulsiveness and third because of his rebellion his rebellion and this is manifested in his disobedience his hypocrisy and that's what we find in chapter 15 real quick so Samuel in his role as prophet and priest sends

Saul to southern Israel to go after the Amalekites and liquidate them and get their property destroy it

Saul's disobedience to this command is incomplete because he goes down to the

Amalekites but he spares the life of Agag the king of the

Amalekites and you know what else he does? because God says go down and destroy all the Amalekites destroy all their property, all their cattle, all their gold, all their silver so what does

Saul do? he goes down he kills most of them but he saves Agag and then he looks at all the beautiful sheep and cattle you know what he does?

he keeps the best ones we're going to take these home that's not what

God told him to do and then he lies to Samuel about his actions remember

Adam and Eve? laughter I didn't do it the serpent did it what about you

Adam? I didn't do it the woman you gave me did it look at chapter 15 verse 22 as a result of this so Samuel said

I don't think you get this has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the

Lord? behold to obey is better than sacrifice and to heed than the fat of rams for rebellion which is the root of disobedience right?

is as the sin of witchcraft and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry because you have rejected the word of the

Lord he has also rejected you from being king would you take a moment and look at those verses please look at the lesson here think back to this past week stubbornness disobedience one of the lessons that we will learn in first Samuel is that there is no substitute for obedience when living in the kingdom of God as a child of God there is no substitute for obedience people can go to church every day of their lives but if God points out an area of disobedience they need to repent they need to run to Christ for forgiveness

I mean Saul says in verse 24 I've sinned I've transgressed the commandment of the

Lord in your words because I feared the people and obeyed their voice please pardon my sin but he turns right around and he keeps sinning it's lip service so we have

Samuel we have Saul and now we come to number three

David who was a king after God's own heart and I don't want us to miss this again

I'll bring us back to this Eli godly man a priest a failure right partial obedience

Samuel same thing Saul same thing all of these men even with their failures right all of them raised up by God pointing us to a king listen please a king and a man that will never fail us never fall short and that is the

Lord Jesus Christ you see the whole point of this the whole point of the

Old Testament is to bring us to this point where we understand that nothing we do nothing anybody can do is good enough right that's why our faith has to be in Christ and what

He did faith alone Reformation Sunday is coming up well some churches are celebrating it today where Martin Luther you know the 95 theses on the door you know

Martin Luther right he wants to reform the

Catholic Church which has become a works based religion he puts the 95 thesis up here faith alone in Christ alone hallelujah you want to sing now

John I heard enough of you let's sing in Christ alone you can play that right whoops faith is a victory

I'll take it okay I have time all kinds of things about David go to chapter 16 well you're there so a lot of things about David so in chapter 16 we're introduced to David as he's in the process of being selected by God to succeed

Saul as king over Israel okay and as we go through the rest of the book the narrative changes from Saul being the central figure to David being the central figure

Samuel is dealt with in chapters 1 -7 Saul is covered in chapters 8 -15 and now we come to David and this the last part of 1

Samuel supplies a vital chapter in the history of God's establishment of the kingdom that involves some 40 kings that will rule

Israel for roughly 500 years and chapters 16 -31 kind of pave the way into 2

Samuel where David legitimately becomes king over Israel he comes to the throne now

David is anointed as king here but he isn't officially made king over Israel until some 10 years later after Saul dies chapter 16 verse 1 now the word the

Lord said to Samuel how long will you mourn for Saul seeing that I have rejected him from reigning over Israel fill your horn with oil and go

I am sending you to Jesse the Bethlehemite for I have provided myself a king among his sons now

David is anointed king later but it isn't until the end of 1

Samuel that Saul is finally removed from his throne by virtue of his death and then David assumes that role so once the narrative deals with David's selection as the future of king we come to chapter 17 which records one of the most well known stories of David ok everybody has heard this story in Sunday school it's been preached for hundreds perhaps thousands of years chapter 17 verse 1 now the

Philistines gathered their armies together to battle which were gathered at Soco which belongs to Judah they encamped between Soco and Ezekah in Ephes Dammon and Saul and the men of Israel were gathered together and they encamped in the valley of Elah and drew up in battle array against the

Philistines the Philistines stood on a mountain on one side and Israel stood on a mountain on the other side with a valley between them and a champion went out from the camp of the

Philistines named Goliath from Gath whose height was six cubits and a span how big is that?

Big now the Philistines battle plan is simple they dare any

Israelite to come fight Goliath man to man and one to one and whoever wins that fight wins the battle but not one soldier from all of the army of Israel had the courage and more importantly listen more importantly the faith to go down into that valley and face that giant one on one but David one of my favorite verses

David is a young man he hears about this and he says nobody's going to do this

I'll do it look at verse 26 David spoke to the men can you picture this here's all the soldiers please picture this they all got armor, swords they're ready to go they got their nine mil they got their knife in their pocket they're ready to go and here comes this punk kid he spoke to them saying what shall be done for the man who kills this

Philistine and takes away the reproach from Israel for who is this uncircumcised

Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living

God man I'll tell you if I'm a soldier in that army I'm about two inches right now after this little punk kid comes up and lays that on me did you notice look carefully what is

David's focus it is on God's honor it is

God's glory because Goliath and I didn't have time to read it all you read it for yourself or should have they're mocking

Goliath is mocking God so David defeats Goliath with a slingshot he hits him on the head knocks him down he takes his

Goliath's sword and he cuts off his head and there's so much here that I would want to share about what happens as a result of this fight what we can learn just two quick things number one when facing giants it's not unusual to experience discouragement when we face giants trials a relationship difficulty

I'll tell you something sometimes we all know this right in a relationship man you can experience discouragement and see the lesson here is that David refuses to be discouraged even when his brother his own brother says come on you're nobody even

Saul mocks his thought that he could go down and fight

Goliath when facing giants it's not unusual to experience discouragement but follow

David's example walk in his footsteps trust the Lord and remember the glory of God and another thing that is so important and it's even in the life of our church here at Faith Bible Church you know how long has this church been here 54 years thereabouts

Victor Audrey how long 54 56 57 something like that come on help me close am

I warm am I warm probably longer 75 oh boy will you forgive me

I think it was your grandfather that gave the land of the church right father will you forgive me

Audrey I'm so sorry you don't look a day over 50

Audrey I just made it up to her can

I help you with something remember the important of life lessons remember that God's loving care he controls he directs circumstances in our life that are designed to teach us to trust him

God allows controls and sometimes directs the circumstances in people's lives and they are custom designed by God to teach them to rely and trust on God you understand we don't have the time but David had experience with killing lions he had experience with God helping him with his enemies

David had this history of God's faithfulness in his life he had life lessons that God will vindicate his own name

God is not gonna let this uncircumcised Philistine mock him and that life lesson was what

David stood in and trusted in and that is what gave him the courage to walk down into that valley and face

Goliath alone so David is selected he's anointed as king he goes up against Goliath trusting the

Lord and defeats him two big events then you have a third event and that is his defending

Saul's son Jonathan and if you look at chapter 18 chapter 19 and chapter 20 that's where you read about this incredible friendship that David gets with Saul's son

Jonathan in chapter 18 there is this conflict between David and Saul and David finds this noble friend in Saul's son

Jonathan and Jonathan helps protect him against the attacks of his father and Saul's actions are motivated primarily by jealousy because David gets this rising popularity and in verse 11 we see

Saul cast the spear for he said I will pin David to the wall but David escaped his presence twice so Saul tries to kill

David twice Saul was afraid of David because the

Lord was with him but had departed from Saul so Saul knew later

Saul realizes God's hand is on David this creates fear in his heart he turns from trying to kill

David himself to plan B which is to have David killed by sending him into battle expecting him to die at the hands of the

Philistines David is victorious you ready for this? Saul's not done because plan

C is to give him Michael as a wife hoping that this Gentile will be a snare to him and again there is so much here that I was going to take another

Sunday on but I'm going to end it today okay? You've got the basic idea if you read the book but again we're going to do 2

Samuel start God willing in a couple of weeks David goes to exile

Saul dies and that's covered beginning in verse 21 all the way to 31 so we have

Eli right? and we have Samuel and we have Saul and we have

David right? first king of Israel Saul second king of Israel David third king of Israel David's son

Solomon and this brings us back to 2 weeks ago and the very end of your bulletin if you look on the back side because I asked you to consider and reflect on an important question and it's this who is your king?

in the quietness of our hearts you know God God knows every heart here it's a tough question

God calls us to be honest with ourselves who really rules over your life?

how do you know? how do you know?

is it king self or king

Jesus? in our church this morning I preached from John chapter 8 where the

Jewish scribes and Pharisees were saying to Jesus you know hey everything is good with us we're cool with God because we're descendants of Abraham we're sons of Abraham and Jesus rebuked them very strongly and he said

Abraham is not your father Satan is your father you're trying to kill me

Abraham never did that how do you know?

is our priorities Christ or other things? friends there is an eternal difference between lip service and genuine service there is a difference between heaven and hell saying

Jesus is king listen and living as if he's king there is an eternal difference between an obedient life and a disobedient life there is an eternal difference between hungering and thirsting for righteousness and hungering and thirsting for the next movie release

I mean all over our school a Christian school they're talking and I got to admit

I'm sort of there with them they're all excited about the next Mandalorian episode if you don't know what that is you're all looking at me what in the world is that it's a

Star Wars thing there's nothing wrong with that but are we more excited about the

Mandalorian release or Jesus Christ right? come on no it's not a sin to look forward to things like that but where our treasure is there our heart will be

God wants to be our king we should humbly consider the question of whether or not he is truly lord and king of our lives with God all things are impossible it is never too late to make a decision to begin to purpose to put

God first in your life so I gave you some questions I'll close with a moment of silence to give you time to pray before Harold comes how does

God want my beliefs or actions to change how can

I accomplish this change you can't you have to run to Christ what is the first step towards bringing about this change use this time to pray and then

I'll ask Harold to come and close us please pray who is your king

God you know our weaknesses you know our needs God we know

God that we cannot do this any more than we can save ourselves

God we can't save ourselves but by your grace and by faith in Christ if we humbly acknowledge that the reality is you're not king of our life

God that you can be by faith in Christ Jesus name amen thank you

Pastor John what a challenge so we have a faith that overcomes the world we need to remember that and now we're going to sing faith is the victory let's stand together music music music music music music music music music music music music music music music music music music music music music music music music music music music music music music music

Amen and as you leave I want to share also that let you know that the elders are meeting tomorrow night we're continuing to seek the

Lord and what he would have with our church and so we had may have left you an impression where we were having a another congregational meeting soon we are soon but just be patient with us and we're we're meeting and waiting on the