The Samuel Church - Saul Leadership — Keith Malcomson

The Word of God here. I want you to turn to 1 Samuel chapter 8. I just gave you a, what's the first meal when you go to a restaurant? The starter. That's just to shock you into reality, but this is really, this is the Word of God that we're going to this morning.

The Word of God is so powerful, so essential, and I want you to go to it. I'm going to finish this morning, and next Sunday morning is our anniversary time that we spread over a few weeks now. I preached part one of this called the Samuel Church and Three Different Kinds of Leadership.

The Samuel Church and Its Three Leadership Challenges

Ten years ago, we started this church with three messages called Choose Your Church that gave birth to this church. Not realizing that everyone sitting in those meetings was going to have to make a choice about what kind of church they wanted to be a part of.

Now, ten years later, I'm preaching these three messages on three different kinds of leadership that Samuel the prophet or the Samuel church has to relate to or interact with. Reading from 1 Samuel chapter 8, and in dealing with these, we're dealing a lot with your choices, your decisions about you getting your way or you desiring God's way.

You do want to hear what I'm going to say, what I have been saying. 1 Samuel chapter 8 verse 1,. And it came to pass when Samuel was old, that he made his sons judges over Israel. Now, the name of the firstborn was Joel, and the name of the second, Abiah.

They were judges in Beersheba. And the sons walked not in his ways, but turned aside after Lucre, and took bribes and perverted judgment. Then all the elders of Israel gathered themselves together and came to Samuel on to Ramah and said unto him, Behold, thou art old.

Imagine being told that. And thy sons walk not in thy ways. Now make us a king to judge over us like all the nations. But the thing displeased Samuel when they said, Give us a king to judge us. And Samuel prayed unto the Lord.

And the Lord said unto Samuel, Hearken, and notice this so carefully. The Lord said unto Samuel, Hearken unto the voice of the people in all that they say unto thee. For they have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them.

According to all the works which they have done since the day that I brought them up out of Egypt even unto this day, wherewith they have forsaken me and served other gods, so do they also unto thee, Samuel.

Now therefore, hearken unto their voice, howbeit yet protest solemnly unto them and show them the manner of the king that shall reign over them. And Samuel told all the words of the Lord unto the people that asked of him a king.

And the next following verses are all of that instruction. But let me take you down to verse 19. Nevertheless, the people refused to obey the voice of Samuel. They said, Nay, but we will have a king over us, that we also may be like all the nations, and that our king may judge us and go out before us and fight our battles.

And Samuel heard all the words of the people, and he rehearsed them in the ears of the Lord. It's good to go to the Lord when there's a problem, isn't it? Take it to the Lord in prayer. And the Lord said to Samuel, hearken unto their voice and make them a king.

And Samuel said unto the men of Israel, go ye every man unto a city. Let's pray together. Father, we tremble even in reading these words from this chapter. Lord God, that God's people could reject your rule through a prophet of God, a righteous and a holy judge, a man that could make a thunder from heaven against the armies of God, that they would reject such rule through a man of God, a man of character, a man who prophesies from your throne.

And Lord God, to choose to desire leadership, Lord God, a king of their own thinking, of their own imagination. Lord God, it makes me to tremble to think that you would actually give people what they desire.

It makes me to tremble that you would give me what I demand of you, what I insist upon against your greater wisdom, against your word, against the provisions that you give. Lord God, we ask of you as an entire church, don't give us what we demand.

Don't give us what our natural thinking would say. But oh God, we desire to submit ourselves to your word, to your desires. We ask of you as a church, even during this 10th anniversary, my God, let your eyes be in this place.

Let your heart be in the midst of this church. Lord God, don't give us what we demand, what we think, what we desire. But oh God, I pray that you have your way in this church and that this church will be your servant, your mouthpiece, your vessel.

Lord God, that we would be found submitted to your will, to your desires, to your longings. Lord God, that your burden may be laid upon us. In Jesus' name, do not take your Holy Spirit from us. Do not remove your word from the midst of us.

My God, we ask of you that you preserve us as a Samuel church. Make us to be a Samuel church. Lord God, let none of our words fall to the ground, that you might be magnified. And Father, give us wisdom to know how to interact with the leadership, with the ministry of this hour and this generation.

In Jesus' mighty name. Amen. Amen. My message, part two, the Samuel church and three different kinds of leadership. Here this morning, we're going to deal with soul leadership. Let me remind you again what I said in part one.

Waiting for God’s Counsel

I quoted from Psalm 106, verse 13 to 15. And it says, Israel waited not for God's counsel. His advice, that's what it means. His plain, clear purpose. Israel, God's people as a nation, could not wait.

Do you know when you're so quick that you can't wait on God, you're on dangerous ground. When you're in such a rush to get something or go somewhere without God's direction, you're moving too fast. When you're determined to get your will and your desires, and yet you know you've got no release from God.

You may get something that's going to bite you, burn you, damage you, or destroy you. Maybe God hasn't given his counsel for a reason. And so when you insist on things, I know God hasn't spoken. I know what his word says, but I want this.

I want to go there. I want to do this. I want to get my way. You will get burned. But listen, they couldn't wait. Waiting takes patience. It takes time. It takes listening. You see, why would you wait on God's counsel?

It's because he has a plan. He has a purpose. He has a way in the earth. Imagine not waiting on God's plan as God's people. Can you imagine leaders, preachers, Christians, mothers and fathers in the house of God, and they don't wait upon God's counsel.

They're too impatient. Okay, well, I'll just do it. I'm just going to do this. I'm going to, I think this. You don't know how dangerous that is. You know, Churchill said, I found the enemy. Who do you think he was talking about?

Hitler? No, he said, it was me. It was us. We were the enemy. You know why Churchill won. You know why Churchill was such a great man. He knew that he was the greatest of enemies in all the Second World War.

Not Hitler. Hitler was number two. But he said, we look for the enemy. He was us because he knew within his people could be the very ingredients that could bring their downfall. Hitler won't defeat us.

We could defeat ourself. I want to tell you, it's the same in the church of Jesus Christ. It won't be the devil defeating the church. It'll be an impulsive people who don't wait on the counsel of God.

I know what I'm doing. And so what was the result? But they lusted exceedingly in the wilderness. And people who are impatient, they are marked by lust. Lusting exceedingly. That's not talking about sexual lust.

What that is, is strong desires, urges, pushings, going, I know what I want. It's strong, deep, long and saying, this is what I want. And so they lusted exceedingly in the wilderness and they tempted God in the desert.

Do you know, you can tempt God? You see, you know, you can be tempted of the devil, but God's people can tempt God. You may say, how is it possible that Christians could tempt God? Do you know how you tempt God?

We know God can't be tempted to sin. You know that. The Bible teaches that. No man can tempt God to sin. There's nothing within God could be moved to sin. Nothing at all. He is a holy and a righteous God.

You can't tempt God. The devil doesn't tempt God. But how do you God's people tempt God? You know what that means? You're actually asking him, expecting him to come down and do things for you that's against his word, against his character and against his will.

That's how you tempt God. And so when you're desiring God, I want you to do this. But the word says, oh no, I want him to do this. Don't you realize the danger? I don't care. I want God to do this for me.

You know, that's tempting God. You're actually asking him to act for you outside of his character. What do you think? He's going to act with you the way he's not acted with anyone else or with great characters in the Bible.

And so we see with Israel and they gave them their request. Tempting God. Give me, give me, give me. Okay, I'll give you your request. That makes me tremble. I don't want this church to get its request, its way or fulfill its ambitions.

I do not want that. Do you realize the Bible actually teaches in different verses that a time comes where God gives his people, his church, those called by his name, their way, their request, even though he doesn't want to do it.

A time actually comes when he knows something is bad for you, but because of your inclinations, your demands, your determinations, and it takes a long time to get there that God says, okay, I'm going to give you your request, but it's going to send leanness into your heart.

See the church when it gets its way, it's in a famine. You know, the church of the Western world, it's in a spiritual famine. You know, this church that was birthed 10 years ago, it is hard to find anything like it in this hour.

It used to be normal. It used to be basic. It used to be obvious. It used to be everywhere. Now people search cities just for a simple local body, a real church that preaches truth, that gathers around holiness, that has the order of God.

It is like hen's teeth. You can hardly find them, and in case you don't know, hens don't have teeth, okay, just to give you a prompt on that, and so it's like hen's teeth. You can't find it anywhere, but I want to tell you when I look at this generation of God's people, you know what it tells me?

We have had a generation in the church who God said, okay, I'll give you what you want. I'm going to give you your request. I'm going to answer your prayers. Not all prayers that get answered are godly, spiritual, are good for you.

God sometimes answers prayers, but he'll send famine into your soul. You want that? Okay. You want that job? Okay. You want to move? Okay, but you'll end up in a situation where you're in a spiritual famine, where you're famished, you're not being fed, you're dying of hunger, and I've watched lots of people make decisions over the years.

They made decisions that put them in a situation they wished they weren't in now. It says in Psalm 78, while their meat was in their mouths, the wrath of God came upon them and slew the fattest of them.

Numbers 11 verse 20, and it come out of their nostrils, and it was loathsome unto them. All this has a context in what I'm dealing with. Remember in part when I dealt with this Samuel church, this Samuel ministry, this prophet of God is going to interact with three different kinds of leadership that rise up amongst God's people.

He was actually living in a time where there's going to be a governmental change of leadership, and I believe we're there. See, I believe we're on the verge in the body of Christ. We are just about to see a governmental, a mega change of leadership, the like of which you and I can't even imagine.

Leadership Transitions in Samuel’s Ministry

I believe we're at the beginning, we're at the close of an era and the beginning of a brand new era where God is going to change governmentally leadership in the body of Christ. Oh yes, God has always dealt with elders and the five-fold ministry as taught in Scripture.

That never changes, but in my lifetime, I've seen leadership change time and time and time again. You know, when you study the life of Samuel, you see six different kinds of leadership that he saw come and go.

Eli was a kind of leadership, nice, benign, but never deals with anything. He watched it fall. He watched the leadership of Hophni and Phinehas, the immorality, the vagabonds in the house of God. There was his own leadership as a prophet and judge.

He walked that out. Then he watched his two sons, Joel and Phashni, rise and fall very quickly. And in fact, he was involved with them. We dealt with that last week, how that he himself appointed his sons.

There was no anointing of those men. There was no word from God. There was no command. He didn't even pray about it. He just raised up his own sons into leadership. We called that homegrown leadership.

And you know what? It was just the natural thinking of a good and a godly man. Samuel was involved in raising his sons up in the ministry. And you know what? They quickly went in a different direction.

They never had the real call of God upon them. They should never have been in ministry. He thought his influence was good enough. But here this morning, I want to go to the second kind of leadership that we're dealing with.

And it's called a Saul kind of leadership. King Saul embodies a certain kind of leadership, very different than Samuel's sons. But I believe Saul is God given to his people a leadership that he reluctantly wants to give.

He didn't want to give it. But because of their demand, he says, okay, I'm going to give you a Saul kind of leadership. And I believe it's all across the church in this hour. Look what it says in chapter 8, verse 1.

And it came to pass. In other words, at a certain time when Samuel was old that he made his sons judges over Israel. He's beginning to think, I'm old now. Be very careful when you think you're old. Oh, my best days as a Christian are over.

I've preached for years. I've walked with God for years. You need to be very careful. I watched some years ago when I was much younger, a white-haired generation begin to hand over to teenagers and those in their 20s saying, let the next generation lead.

It was disaster. 30 years ago, I watched it. Utter disaster. And I was almost screaming, pulling out my hair, not audibly, not visibly. But in my heart, I went, these older preachers, leaders, all the rest are making a grave mistake.

And they had believed the lie. We're old. Let's just hand over to teenagers. Let's change the church while they got their way. And now look at the state and condition of the church. It's utterly disastrous.

And so Samuel, when he was old, he made his sons judges. Listen again in verse 5. When the elders come to him and they said unto him, this is the elders of Israel. This is the leaders in the nation speaking to Samuel.

Behold, dart old. Imagine saying that. Imagine you are a leader, a godly man, a faithful man, a man of prayer, a man who prophesies from God, a man that's seen the nation delivered. And here comes the elders of Israel saying, you're old.

You're old-fashioned. You're old-hat. You're a has-been. We need something more. You're a faithful godly man who walks with God. But here come the mature people amongst God's people and saying, you're old.

Oh, tell me about it. Tell me. I know that every time I look in the mirror every morning. You've been around a long time. Tell me about it. You've seen a lot come and go. I know I have. I sure have. If you reject the wisdom of God, you may get something else you'll regret.

You don't want that. And so they come to Samuel and say, thou art old, and thy sons walk not in thy ways. Notice they use the excuse of his sons. Samuel, you shouldn't have given them the opportunity.

By appointing your own sons naturally, not anointed, not called, not led of the spirit of God, you've given an opportunity for these elders to say, your sons are corrupt. And they begin to share how corrupt they are.

But they're using this as an excuse. See, they want a king. They want their own leader. They've got in their minds what they want. They know the sort of leadership they want. I'm telling you, be careful what you desire.

Be very careful that you think you know what you need. And you've got it all planned out, and it's not according to the will and the plan of God. And so they said unto him, your sons aren't walking in your ways.

Now, that's a pretty strong word. Now, make us a king to judge us like all of the nations. Now, many commentators, many preachers, many Bible teachers say they were wrong. They shouldn't have asked a king.

They shouldn't have wanted a king. It wasn't in God's plan to have a king. That's not true. That's not true. You need to listen carefully what I'm going to tell you here. You see, back in the Old Testament, in Genesis 17 and 6, God's speaking Listen to what he says.

God is prophesying something good here. Abraham, you can't even have a child. You and your wife, you're barren. You can't even have one child that is birthed from your own wife. But let me just tell you, your seed is going to be like the stars of heaven and the sand on the seashore.

And let me tell you more, kings are going to come out of you. It was a promise. It was a good thing. It was a blessing. Leaders are going to be raised up out of you. Then in verse 16, he says to Sarah, kings of people shall be of her.

Then a bit further on in Genesis, in chapter 35 and verse 11, God's speaking to Jacob, prophesying to Jacob. Listen to what he says. In other words, out of Judah, I'm going to raise up a royal line. I'm going to raise up kings.

I'm going to raise up those that sit on the throne with the scepter of a king. Do you see how God's plan to Abraham, to Isaac, to Jacob, all the way down the line, there was a plan, a vision that out of this small nation, great kings are going to arise.

You see, God made provision in the law in Deuteronomy chapter 17, verse 14 to 15. Listen to what he says. In the law of Moses, Moses was given this for the people. And thou shalt say, I will set a king over them.

And I will set a king over me, like as all the nations that are about me. From all of this, you begin to see that there was always a plan. God made provision in the law. He prophesied. He promised. He had a plan to raise up kings, but he wanted to give kings of a certain kind, of a certain temperament.

The Wrong Motive and Timing for Saul’s Kingship

Now, let's go back here to Samuel. The elders come to him and demand, we want a king and we want it now. Look at your sons. Look at what you have provided for us. You see, Samuel's greatest danger was going, I'm old.

I've got to create leadership. Do you know how old he was here? About in his fifties, maybe 60 years old at the very most, and he's going, I'm old. So I better bring my sons in to be judges. Do you know how much longer he lives?

He dies at 90 years old. In other words, he's got more than 30 years in ministry. Samuel. But because he's old, he feels he needs to put his sons in ministry, because what else does he do? You need to be very careful thinking you know the will of God.

Well, I'm old. I'm in my fifties. I'm 60 years old. So I better start making provisions in case I disappear. Do you know what to do? You can make mistakes because of natural thinking. Samuel here has at least 30 years, maybe 35 years, maybe longer that he's still going to minister.

But look at the people that are saying, you are old. No, no, we need a king. Let me tell you the crux of the matter. If Samuel had waited and the elders had waited, the first king of Israel would have been a young shepherd boy called David.

Do you hear me? They would have went from judges and prophets straight into the kingship of young David. Do you know that was God's plan? That's God's perfect will. That was God's purpose. Yes, a king is going to arise.

But do you know what? It's going to be at the end of the ministry of Samuel. You see the church is impatient. We need to go with trends. This is the latest leadership structure. You know, all across the church for 30 years I've watched, suddenly people stopped talking about elders, even though it's all through the Bible.

That's a biblical teaching. You know, we have leadership teams now and they give leadership teams all sorts of different definitions in the local church. Do you know what you've immediately lost is qualifications for eldership.

When you don't call them elders anymore, you can have a mishmash of everybody's dog. Do you hear me? In the church, I traveled around enough to see it time after time after time. Oh, here's our leadership team.

Do you mean elders? No, they're not elders. It's just my leadership team. Okay, you're henchmen. Is that what you mean? You've actually built this structure, given them a pulpit, given them power and influence in the church.

They have their little ministry, counseling, deliverance, inner healing, prophecies, all of the rest, and yet it's not according to the biblical pattern. Do you realize if Samuel had waited, if the elders had waited, what a difference.

Samuel lives long enough to see the young shepherd boy, David, arise. They could have had a man like David if they hadn't have rejected Samuel. What a terrible thing. And so we see they preempted God's plan.

Maybe they went to the Bible and said, but the Bible says, the Bible says we're going to have kings. We've never had kings. He said to Abraham, said to Jacob, said to Moses in the law, surely we can create this.

After all, we've just got the scripture. Are you led of the spirit of God? See, I'm worried. There's much needed in the body of Christ in this hour. There's many ministries that are needed. Many things are needed.

And I've watched this carefully and prayed into it for 30 years. And you know, I see men saying, let's do this. There's a need. Scripture talks about it. Nothing wrong with it. Let's do it. Fine. You go do it.

I want to be a Samuel. I want to be led of God. I want to pray. I want to know the timing of God. I want to know the mind of God. And so Samuel was going to live long enough, or could have lived long enough, well enough, and prophesy clear enough with enough energy, strength, and power until the time that God would raise up a king who had his heart, that had his desires, that had his burden, that had his word.

Can you imagine Samuel's ministry would last that long? But you know what they do? They preempt it and said, give us a king right now. It wasn't wrong to ask for a king or a leader. It wasn't biblically wrong.

It wasn't even wrong according to God's will. Do you know what's wrong? Their motive, their agenda, their timing. I can't wait 30 years. I can't wait a year for a guy or a girl. I've got to do something.

God's not acting. God's not answering my prayers. I'll bring it about. You may regret the day you ever thought that. You sidestep and go, God's not speaking to me. God's not bringing. God's not doing.

So, I'll bring it about. God's not opening the door to ministry. So, I will create it. Oh, you will. You definitely will. You need to be so, so careful at this point. Make us a king to judge us like all the nations.

Do you see what their motive and desire was? Their eyes are on the nations. They don't say according to the Word of God, according to what you prophesy to Abraham and Sarah, according to what you said to Jacob.

We want kings that are after your heart. They don't say that. They said, we've been looking at the nations, all the nations around us. We don't look like them. We don't function like them. You know, in my lifetime, they brought business techniques into the church and they created church leadership following business techniques.

You should have went to SAS. Would have been far, far better, I want to tell you. Should have used a military pattern. Far, far superior. You know why? And please forgive me, you Irish folk for using the name, but Mr. Cromwell created the British Army.

He actually engineered what the army was to be. Guess where he got his pattern? The Bible. He was a lover of the Word of God. And he said, the army in Britain is going to be according to the pattern of the Word of God.

That's why you get more out of the army structure than you will any business techniques. But we brought all of this over into the church, conformity to leadership of this world, not biblical kingship, but kingship in the mold of the nations, according to the world system.

You look at the social life of the nation, of the nations of the Western world. You look at the business world. You look at our culture and you say, we want a trendy leadership. You know what you have all across the Western world and the megachurches?

You have all these preachers, maybe they've moved on to something else now. But in my lifetime, they get up there with jeans with holes in them. Now I'm telling you, someone who walks about with jeans with holes in them, I feel like giving them a handout.

I go, obviously, you know, no one would buy jeans, designer jeans like that. There's no way that you're going to buy a cut up pair of jeans with bits of material missing. There's no way that would happen, surely not.

Maybe it would happen in the world, but not in the pulpit, would it? Oh yes, it did. You know, over the past 20 years, pastors, you couldn't turn up to a leader's meeting unless you're dressed down, unless you're casual, unless you're trendy, unless you're worldly.

I don't say a man, I don't insist on ties or shirts or jackets or anything else, but I'm telling you there's something wrong with a man who in the things of God, dresses like the world, feels like he has to become like some vagabond on the streets in order to be a trendy leader.

The whole thing, that tells me that's not God's mind. That's not the principles of God. So here you have the elders and they come to Samuel and say, give us a king according to the world. This was a shocking thing to this man of God, this prophet of God, this judge in Israel.

They want judgment like the world does. They want a contemporary style. They want to be up with the times. They want to be on the latest cutting edge of everything. They want to be fashionable. They want a centralized system of government amongst God's people.

And do you know what? They want organized outward glory. You know the thing about Saul's kind of kingship, it impresses the eye. It's organized, it's dynamic, it's built on numbers. You are going to be impressed when you see it.

All of this come out of the hand of heart of men. God says, I'm going to give you a king. Says to Samuel, Samuel is utterly disgusted when he hears. He goes, no, don't do this thing. Really, you don't want to do this thing.

But you know what God says to him? Says, listen to the people. Can you imagine a prophet of God when the people are demanding something that's bad for them, preempting his plan by at least 30 years. And God actually says to Samuel, a man of God, integrity, who walks with them.

No, stop that. I want you to actually do it and be a part of it. Can you imagine that? So amongst God's people, when Saul leadership arises, Samuel has to interact with them. When Israel, God's people, is demanding something that God doesn't want to give.

But now he's going to give it. You know what he does? The real man of God in the midst, he says, I want you to be a vital part of this. I want you to interact with this that I'm going to give them. It says in verse 6, but the thing displeased Samuel.

Look at Samuel. He is grieved. When they said, give us a king to judge us. Am I not judging you? Have I not been judging you through these years? But you're demanding a king. You're old. We want a judge, a king, not a prophet to judge.

We don't want a preacher to judge us and weigh the balances. We want a king, trendy leadership. Let him. Yeah, I know what sort of judgment you're going to get as well. You want to reject a man who speaks from God, who walks with God, you will get something else.

Listen to what Samuel then done. When they're asking him, he's learned from his own sons, appointing his sons. And it says, and Samuel prayed unto the Lord. Thank God he did. You see, if you didn't pray at that point, you would just reject the whole thing out of hand.

You'd walk off to the desert and say, I'm not touching it. Wouldn't you? You would say, I'm a biblical Christian, a godly Christian. I'm not having anything to do with us. You know what God said? As soon as he began to pray, as soon as he began to pray, he comes into God's mind.

He's displaced. He rejects it. He's against it. He's screaming. No, don't do this. God says, no, this is my will. I want you to be a vital part for the next 25 or 30 years. I want you to be there ministering to this king, preaching to this king, dealing with this king, working with this king.

I want you to be the primary mover and shaker. I want you to be my vessel dealing with them. And the Lord said unto Samuel, hearken unto the voice of the people and all that they say unto you, for they have not rejected thee.

You see, he's saying they're rejecting my leadership, godly, character. Samuel's leadership was filled with character. Oh, it had the supernatural, had answered prayers, had revival, had the destruction of the enemy.

Remember when he prayed? Imagine rejecting a man like this. Remember what happened when the enemy come up before under Samuel? All the Philistines, all the soldiers, all the enemies come up. Do you know what Samuel done?

He went to prayer and God thundered from heaven and sent an earthquake and destroyed them. That's a victory. And now you're going, no, give us a king like the nations to fight our enemies and to judge us.

Are you serious? Didn't you see the supernatural work? You see, God is saying to Samuel, they're not rejecting you, but they're rejecting me. That shows to reject Samuel, his kind of leadership, what he embodied, his preaching, his praying, his lifestyle, his leadership style.

To reject that, you're rejecting God. I believe in the church of our day. Many in the church are rejecting character-filled, godly, mature, old leadership. And by it, they're rejecting God himself. But they don't think that and say, no, no, we're moving with the latest.

We want the real. We want to be with the times. And they're making a grave mistake. But God says to Samuel, they're not rejecting you. It's not personal. It's not about you. It's not anything in your ministry.

They're actually rejecting me, that I should not reign over them. See, they had a king and they couldn't see it. God was their king. God was their leader. They were under his authority, under his rules.

But they wanted something more physical that they could interact with. Oh yes, we can pray to him. We can worship him. We can hear his commands from a prophet. But we want a leader. We can look up. We can praise.

We can run after. We can manipulate. I want to tell you, you know, whatever you get, you know, when leadership is after your heart, you can control it. Remember, this is God giving the people. Saul was the answer to the people's desire.

I'm going to give you exactly what you want. You know, the word rejected means to cast away. It means refuge, waste, worthless. So they're taking Samuel's ministry of prophecy, maybe one of the greatest prophets that ever lived.

As far as character, integrity, uprightness about money, about women, about order, not abusing folk. And they literally throw them in the waste bin. They reject them. None personal, Samuel. We just want a king like the world.

We want a king according to our desire. But listen to what God says to him. Now therefore hearken unto their voice. How be it yet, protest solemnly. I want you to work with them. I want you to tell them, I'm going to give them the desires of their heart.

I'm going to give them the leader they deserve. And they're not going to like it. I'm going to give them the leadership they want. They're not going to like it. But do you know what? Here and now, Samuel, I want you to protest solemnly unto them and then to show them the manner of the king that shall reign over them.

And ye shall cry out in that day because of your king. You know what he tells him? You, when you get your way, you're going to cry out and wish you didn't have this king. Over the following verses, he begins to tell them what sort of king this is.

In seven verses, he says six times, he, that king that you're going to get, will take from you. He'll take your young men. He'll take your women. He'll take your money. He'll take your food stock. He'll take your possession.