["Pomp and Circumstance"]
We're currently going through the Book of First Samuel.
You see the soul winning teams and times.
The list of expecting mothers.
If you can continue to pray for them.
And then some of the important reminders there.
And then some of the upcoming church events.
Tomorrow night is the ladies prayer night.
And that will be approximately around 6.30.
There will be dinner here provided for you.
If you have any questions about that you can see my wife.
Birthday breakfast in Judea soul winning is on Sunday March 6th.
This Sunday.
And then the San Diego soul winning marathon is coming up.
Next Saturday.
March 12th at 8.30 AM.
And so that's the location right there.
And in fact brother Ulysses if you can print out a sign up sheet.
To have in the back there by the end of the service.
If you're going to go to that please sign up.
Just so we can get a head count on that.
And we can plan appropriately.
We're going to be teaming up with Faith Forward Baptist Church.
And so we're looking forward to that.
Please be in prayer.
We see a lot of people saved.
Music training is coming up on Saturday March 19th.
If you are involved in the music ministry at all.
At our church.
Of course it's required for you to be there.
Whether you're in the orchestra or your piano player.
If you're part of the music CD that we're putting together.
Make sure you're there on that morning.
And we're starting at 11.
Lunch will be provided as well.
So just keep that in mind.
And then the men's prayer night is coming up on Friday March 24th.
I do have some bad news.
Pastor Jonathan Shelley will not be able to preach for us.
This coming Sunday.
He had to cancel.
Due to the eviction that he.
The church is being evicted from their property.
And so.
They're not going to be able to make it.
He was supposed to fly in today.
And then be here throughout the weekend up until Monday.
But that's changed.
But he's going to come.
He is going to come to come preach for us.
Sometime in the near future.
But please be in prayer over Pastor Shelley.
And Steadfast Baptist Church.
Along with that let's go ahead and go over the prayer sheet here.
And then brother Maury is going to come up in just a bit.
Of course pray for our church corporately.
For God's favor.
For the soul winning.
And the different needs that we have there.
Of course the spiritual and numerical growth of our church.
Pray for a lot of people in our church.
The sickness is going around again.
It's coming back around again.
And so if you can pray for them to recover.
And you see there are more laborers.
New people.
Pastors in training of course.
The institute continues tomorrow.
And then we have some of the needs there for the church families.
If you can pray for them.
So please pray for them.
We as a church of course at First Works Baptist Church.
We know what this is like.
To a certain extent.
Of just kind of being kind of rushed out of our own property.
And having to find a new property.
And having to move a hundred people.
It can be a very stressful thing to do.
And so we know that all things work together for good though.
And the truth is.
Although this is hard for them.
It can be a very stressful thing to do.
And so we know that all things work together for good though.
And the truth is.
Although this is hard for them.
We know by experience that God's people always get something better.
And so God has something better for Pastor Shelley.
And Steadfast Baptist Church.
And with that just pray against the wicked people who are doing this.
I mean the landlord claims to be a Christian.
I mean this guy claims the name of Christ.
He claims to believe on the Lord.
And he is teaming up with literally devil worshipers and witches.
These are people who are open about it.
They're Satanists and they're devil worshipers.
They're witches.
And just heathen people.
And he's helping the ungodly against a righteous man.
And so obviously that's a very evil thing to do.
And this is why we preach about imprecatory prayers folks.
You understand?
And this is why it's important to not only pray for specific needs and wisdom.
But also pray against the enemies of God as well.
Because of the fact that these people exist.
And it can be frustrating sometimes seeing the wicked prosper.
And sometimes we wonder why do good things happen to bad people.
But the reality is this.
A lot of it is just short lived.
And God the judge of all the earth will do right.
And he will recompense them upon their own heads in due season.
And so pray against them.
Pray for Pastor Shelley that God will give him extra measure of grace and wisdom.
And he's an encouragement to us.
He's an encouragement to First Works Baptist Church of course.
But pray for them.
And we are going to have them come out again.
It's just delayed right now until they can get that settled and taken care of.
So please pray for him.
The soul winning there.
The protection.
If I'm not mistaken I think they have a marathon coming up on Saturday as well.
So the work of God continues there man.
And so pray that they'd see a lot of souls saved on Saturday.
Pray for their protection and success.
And of course their new building as well.
And then if you have an additional prayer request that you'd like to be mentioned on the bulletin.
Please put it at the bottom there.
Tear that off.
And put it into the offering plate.
And we'll make sure that it gets on the bulletin for the following week.
And that's pretty much it.
Brother Morgan why don't you come on up and pray over these needs.
Alright buddy here's an award of prayer.
Dear Lord, Heavenly Father, thank you for allowing us to be able to congregate and thank you for the blessing that we have for our church.
Lord, we pray that we have your favor on our church.
And one aspect we'd like for you to bless us in is our soul winning ministry as we're going out, giving people the gospel, showing people how to go to heaven Lord.
Lord I just pray for the teams and the team leaders that they're doing an effective job at training up the next saints that are out in the background.
And Lord, I just pray for the teams and the team leaders
that they're doing an effective job at training up
the next soul winners, the next team leaders, Lord.
And Lord, I also just pray for the mission strips
that potentially can be open to us
and if the door remains open, Lord,
and we just pray that we're able to go
to these different countries
to be able to give the gospel to them, Lord.
And then Lord, I also wanna pray for,
specifically for the San Diego Soul Winning Marathon.
Lord, I just pray that the time is fruitful
and that we're able to do a great service for you there,
Lord.
And then Lord, I also wanna pray
for spiritual numerical growth for our church.
Pray that we're reaching more people,
getting more people in church,
more laborers in our church so that they can go out
and reach more people and the chain goes on and on, Lord.
And Lord, I also wanna pray for the new people
as they're coming in, that they're growing closer to you,
learning what the Bible says,
learning how to be a Christian, Lord.
And Lord, I also wanna pray for our spiritual growth as well
so that we're spiritually growing closer to you,
reading our Bibles, being a consistent Christian, Lord.
Lord, I wanna pray for a sickness in a church.
I pray that you have a hand of healing
and protection over us as we're going through our lives.
And Lord, just pray that everyone get over the sicknesses
that we're going through right now.
And Lord, I also wanna pray for the expecting mothers.
And Lord, just pray that you bless them
as they are delivering or let them have a healthy delivery
and let them have a healthy delivery and bless them, Lord.
And Lord, I also wanna pray for the salvation
for family members that haven't been able
to hear the gospel.
And also, Lord, I pray for all the general requests
that we have here as well.
Lord, I wanna pray for the church of the month,
which is Steadfast Baptist Church.
I pray that you bless Pastor John Zinchelli
as he's going through this trial right now.
Lord, I pray for destruction upon the people
that are doing this to him.
And Lord, I just pray that they get rewarded
for the works that they did.
Lord, and I pray that you bless Pastor John Zinchelli,
that you continue to bless his ministry
and whatever building they get, Lord,
I pray that they can just utilize that as glory to you.
And Lord, I just pray for success for his ministry
and the new building and soul winning efforts
and pray that you bless Pastor Jonathan and his family
and his congregation.
Lord, I pray that this draws them closer to you, Lord.
And Lord, we just pray that the message
that Pastor Mina prepared for us
allows us to be able to hear your word
and I pray that we can leave closer to you
than when we came and we're able to be changed
by the word of your God, by your word, God.
Pray his name, amen.
All right, please turn your hymnals to song number 228.
I love to tell the story, song number 228.
I love to tell the story.
Song 228, I love to tell the story
of everyone nice and strong all together.
I love to tell the story of unseen things above,
of Jesus and his glory.
Of Jesus and his love.
I love to tell the story because I know it is true.
It satisfies my longings as nothing else can do.
I love to tell the story of all the things
that will be my theme in glory,
to tell the old, old story of Jesus and his love.
I love to tell the story, more wonderful it seems
than all the golden fancies of all our golden days.
I love to tell the story of dreams and dreams.
I love to tell the story.
And that is just the reason I tell it now to thee.
I love to tell the story,
to tell the old, old story of Jesus and his love.
I love to tell the story,
it is pleasant to repeat
than all the things I might tell him.
Amen.
More wonderfully sweet,
I love to tell the story,
for some have never heard
the message of salvation
from God's own holy word.
I love to tell the story,
twill be my theme in glory,
to tell the old, old story
of Jesus and his love.
I love to tell the story,
for those who know it best.
See wandering at first sight,
to hear it like the rest,
and when in scenes of glory,
I sing a new, new song.
Twill be the old, old story,
that I have loved so long.
I love to tell the story,
twill be my theme in glory,
to tell the old, old story
of Jesus and his love.
Amen.
At this time, the ushers will collect the offering.
Tonight will be in 1 Samuel 8.
piano plays softly
Good evening.
Tonight we're in 1 Samuel 8.
1 Samuel 8 and the Bible reads,
It came to pass, when Samuel was old,
that he made his sons judges over Israel.
Now the name of his firstborn was Joel,
and the name of his second, Abiah,
and they were judges in Beersheba.
And his 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 unto Ramah,
and said unto him, Behold, thou art old,
and thy sons walk not in thy ways.
Now make us a king to judge us like all the nations.
But the thing displeased Samuel,
and they said, Give us a king to judge us.
And Samuel prayed unto the Lord.
The Lord said unto Samuel,
Hearken unto the voice of the people,
and 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.
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 he said, This will be the manner of the king
that shall reign over you.
He will take your sons and appoint them for himself,
for his chariots, and to be his horsemen,
and some shall run before his chariots.
And he will appoint him captains over thousands,
and captains over fifties,
and will set them to ear his ground,
and to reap his harvest,
and to make his instruments of war,
and instruments of his chariots.
And he will take your daughters to be confectionaries,
and to be cooks, and to be bakers.
And he will take your fields, and your vineyards,
and your olive yards, even the best of them,
and give them to his servants.
And he will take the tenth of your seed,
and of your vineyards,
and give to his officers, and to his servants.
And he will take your men servants,
and your maid servants,
and your goodliest young men, and your asses,
and put them to his work.
And he will take the tenth of your sheep,
and ye shall be his servants.
And ye shall cry out in that day because of your king,
which he shall have chosen you,
and the Lord will not hear you in that day.
Nevertheless, the people refused to obey the voice of Samuel,
and 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.
And the Lord said to Samuel,
Harken unto their voice, and make them a king.
And Samuel said unto every man of Israel,
Go ye every man into his city.
Let's pray.
Dear Lord, we thank you right now for this church,
and everyone here, Lord,
and we thank you for pastor, Lord,
we pray that you bless him,
and fill him with your Holy Spirit, Lord,
as he preaches your word,
and pray that we're edified by the preaching,
and we take away these truths today, Lord,
and we just pray that you bless the service,
bless every aspect.
We pray this all in Jesus' name.
Amen.
Okay, we're in 1 Samuel chapter number 8 here.
Look down at your Bibles in verse number 1.
It says, And it came to pass when Samuel was old,
that he made his sons judges over Israel.
Now the name of his firstborn was Joel,
and the name of his second Abiah,
and they were judges in Beersheba.
And his 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 unto Rhema,
and said unto him, Behold, thou are old,
and thy sons walked not in thy ways.
Now make us a king to judge us like all the nations.
And so let me just give you a bit of review from chapter 7,
just to kind of give us an introduction to chapter number 8 here.
In chapter 7, we see that God basically delivers the children of Israel
out of the hand of the Philistines to a miraculous victory.
He thunders upon them. He destroys them.
And of course, this emboldens the children of Israel to get up and fight,
and they defeat the Philistines.
Samuel, in light of all this, takes a stone,
and he sets it up, and he calls it Ebenezer,
because it basically signifies that the Lord helped Israel,
and it's just a really great victory.
And really, one of the reasons that God was doing this,
like all the other times that he delivers them,
is just to show them that God is sufficient for the nation.
God is sufficient to save them, to rescue them out of the hands of their enemies.
They don't need to have armies like the other nations.
They don't need to have generals like the other nations.
They don't need to have what these other nations have,
because at the end of the day, they have God.
God can deliver them. God can rescue them.
God can fight their battles, and in fact,
he has said previously that I, the Lord, shall fight the battle.
The battle is of the Lord. That's what he says.
He's basically saying, just do what I tell you,
and I will deliver you miraculously. I'm with you.
And so this is a great event that took place,
and we even see that the cities which the Philistines had taken from the Israelites
were restored once again to Israel.
So aside from this victory, I mean, they get their ground back.
It's just a great, great conclusion to this battle between
the children of Israel and the Philistines.
So that's where we leave off on.
But then in Chapter 8, we see this kind of shift in Israel's history,
because up until this point, you have what's called the system of the judges in place, right?
You read throughout the book of Joshua, going into the book of Judges,
you have men who are basically operating as generals,
but they're also teachers of God's word,
and God raises them up in order to deliver the children of Israel
out of the hand of the enemies.
And one of the last judges, of course, is Samuel.
Of course, the one previous to him is Eli.
But unfortunately, Samuel's getting old.
He's getting older, he's aging,
and we see here that he basically ordains his sons to kind of take the baton
and take over for him and become judges of Israel.
Now let me just start off by saying this,
is that the system of the judges is actually a perfect system that God put forth, okay?
And the reason we know this is because in the millennial reign,
the system of the judges will once again be reinstated,
because the Bible tells us, and we see in Revelation Chapter 20,
that when God comes to set up his millennial reign,
he gives power unto those who basically keep God's commandments
and they work for the Lord, they're given judgment, they're given thrones,
and so they are given the privilege to rule and reign with Christ
for a thousand years to judge the nations, the Bible says, with a rod of iron, okay?
I heard a podcast called The Rod of Iron, pretty catchy name.
But we see that that system is set in place once again.
Now, here's the thing is that there's nothing wrong with the system, right?
What's wrong is man corrupts the system, okay?
And so, you know, the system of the judges, it works great
because of the fact that it's basically signifying that God is their king.
And so Israel at this point is operating under a theocracy
where God is the one who's ruling over them, he's their king,
they don't have an earthly king, they simply have earthly judges
to carry out the word of God, to judge the people, etc.
So it's a perfect system, but when you implement a corruptible man,
when you put sinful man, they're going to end up corrupting the system, of course.
But it has nothing to do with how bad the system is or it just doesn't work.
It's just that when man takes it over, he eventually will corrupt the system.
For example, there's nothing wrong with churches.
The system of a church and what God has set forth as being a church, a local assembly,
it's a perfect system, but sometimes, you know,
because churches are made up of believers who are also sinners,
sometimes they can become corrupt, sometimes they can fall by the wayside,
sometimes they can have their candlestick removed, you understand?
Because of the fact that when you put the element of a person or a sinner
within God's perfect system, it corrupts it.
For example, the Garden of Eden was great!
It's a perfect place, perfect condition, until Adam and Eve went into it, right?
More specifically, Eve, no I'm just kidding.
You know, Eve ate of the fruit and of course gave to her husband,
and you know, by that all mankind was damned, you understand?
And so this really shows us that, you know, we shouldn't look at God's system,
or the word of God, or a church, or anything that God sets in place
and say, well it's the fault of this system, this is a faulty system,
this doesn't work, this is not going to work.
You know, no, it's really when man begins to get involved
and try to modify things and improve upon them, that's when it becomes corrupt.
For example, you know, how many times out sowing have you gone out
and you're showing people Bible verses and they'll say,
well, you know, how can we really trust the Bible?
You know, so many people have messed with the Bible, I ran into someone like that today.
And they said, you know, hasn't the Bible been corrupted?
And I said, yeah, the Bible has been corrupted, you know.
It's been corrupted many times, except for this one though, you know.
I said, there's plenty of other versions out there that have been corrupted
and they're bad versions of the Bible, but this is one that has withstood the test of time.
And I explained to them, you know, you can basically tell which one has been corrupted
from the one that hasn't been.
The one that's been corrupted always has discrepancies and errors and contradictions
and it sounds foolish and nonsensical, whereas when you actually read the Word of God,
which we consider to be the King James Bible, there is no corruption.
You know, it's inerrant, it's infallible, there are no contradictions within it.
But when man seeks to improve upon the Bible, at that point it becomes corrupt.
We are not as many which corrupt the Word of God, you understand.
And so what I'm trying to emphasize here is the fact that the system of the judges was a great system,
but unfortunately it became corrupt through the sons of Samuel and even through the sons of Eli.
You know, we've had that in times past as well and there's other judges that did not pan out,
such as Samson, for example, and others.
So we see the corruption of this system in verses 1 through 5 here.
It says in verse number 3, it gives us the reason why Samuel's sons corrupted the system of the judges.
It says in verse 3, and his sons walked not in his ways, but turned aside after lucre.
Now that's not necessarily a word that we use today, but it means money.
You know, you think of a lucrative business, for example, right?
But more specifically, when lucre is mentioned or when money is mentioned,
defined as being, described as being lucre, it's often referring to it in a negative connotation.
You know, the Bible talks about being greedy of filthy lucre.
And so this isn't just saying that they're turning aside to make money,
you know, to pay for their bills or to pay for the things that they need.
It's referring to the fact that they are obtaining resources or money unjustly, dishonestly.
And in fact, it defines it there.
It says, but turned aside after lucre and took bribes, the Bible says.
So these are spiritual leaders who people are coming to and people are giving them money
in order to persuade them to make a faulty or corrupt judgment upon something.
You know, people are coming to them, they're like, oh, this person did this,
and I think this person's guilty of this, or this person owes me money.
They have no evidence.
And because he's a judge, he's ordained by God to basically carry out judgment.
They slip him a little 20 there, a little shekel, okay.
They slip him a little gold, a little ofer, you know, a little grain there.
And it's just like, you know, oh yeah, I definitely see that.
You know, this guy's definitely guilty, you know.
And so it's not, they're not judging righteously.
They are persuaded by filthy lucre, they're taking bribes by the people,
and it's obviously a wicked thing to do.
He says, his sons walked on in his ways, but turned aside after lucre,
took bribes, and perverted judgment.
So the result of going after unrighteous mammon, loving money,
is that you will eventually compromise your convictions to take bribes,
which will eventually cause you to pervert judgment.
Now, when you look at, when you study this concept of spiritual leaders in the Bible,
you always see that there's one element that God always wants,
or one virtue that God always wants present in the life of a spiritual leader.
And that is that they're supposed to hate covetousness, okay.
We see that in Exodus chapter 18.
We see that with the qualifications of a pastor, for example,
where he says, not greedy, a filthy lucre.
And he says over and over again, even with the 70 elders of Israel,
he wants them to be holy, but he also says men who hate covetousness.
And the reason that's so important is because of the fact that
when you're in a position of power, or when you're in a position of authority over people,
there can be a tendency or a temptation for people to come to you
and want to gain your favor or have you pervert judgment based upon the money.
And so if a person is given over to wanting money or loving money,
they're basically going to compromise their principles, their convictions.
And in fact, the Bible says to be a respecter of people is not good
for a piece of bread that man would transgress.
In other words, a person who is a respecter of people,
they're not necessarily, they don't have convictions based upon the Bible,
based upon biblical convictions.
They base their decisions based upon how big the money is.
You know, what kind of president you got going on there.
That's what they base it off of.
And so, you know, that's why it's important that spiritual leaders
live a modestly content life.
That they're ruled by contentment, you understand?
That they make sure that they live their life in moderation,
not loving money, not, you know, obviously understand that the money has its place.
Because we're not going to go the complete opposite route and say,
oh, money's not important, and no, money's important.
That's why we keep the lights on here.
And that's why we got AC going on, and we got chairs, we got hymnals,
and we got tracts, and we could do activities.
We could have prayer meetings where we have dinner there provided for people.
We could have a great Easter Sunday, you know, where we have visitors.
Why? Because we have the resources to give out in order to do so, you understand?
That's why I can be a full-time employee at the church,
because that is biblical to do.
Where it becomes wrong is when a spiritual leader takes advantage of that
for their own lust, their own desires.
They start, you know, delving into the church finances to do ungodly things.
And that is a definite thing out there.
And, you know, there's two categories of that.
There could be the pastors who become pastors for filthy lucre's sake
so they can do wicked things such as, you know, go out there with prostitutes
and do all types of drugs and be involved in all types of vices.
But then you have others who don't necessarily get involved in that,
but then they like living a luxurious life.
You know, they got to have the Bentley or something like that, you know,
or the helipad and the yacht and all this other crazy stuff, you know.
There's two avenues, but both are wrong.
Both of these are people who love covetousness, okay?
And that's obviously wicked because at that point you will pervert judgment.
You will tell the people what they want to hear.
And, you know, sometimes there's pastors who don't necessarily go that route
where they get involved in vices and wickedness
and they don't necessarily go for the helipad
because obviously that would be a little too obvious, you know.
But then sometimes pastors will not preach something from the Bible
because they don't want to lose their biggest tither from the church or something.
You know, they keep track of all the tithers and the givers in the church
and they're like, oh man, this person gives so much to the building
I got to make sure that I favor this person, you understand?
And so that particular church member or individual will wield their financial success
or their givings as a weapon to basically have the pastor do whatever they want.
And this is very common as well, you know, where, you know,
church members will try to manipulate the pastor
because they know that they give a lot at the church, okay, which is wicked.
You know, that's obviously wicked on the church member's part,
but it's wicked on the pastor's part to allow himself to be manipulated in such a way, okay.
And so, you know, they're definitely not walking in Samuel's ways.
Samuel was not known for turning aside after Lucre, taking bribes, perverting judgment.
You know, he's obviously a godly man.
Now we don't know based off of this particular passage that his sons were reprobates.
If you were to ask me personally, I would say no,
only because the Bible is not careful to call someone a reprobate when they are.
Like, for example, the previous stories that we had with Eli's sons, those sons of Belial.
Here it says that they're just sons of Samuel.
A couple chapters before it was like these sons of Eli who are sons of Belial, okay.
I think they're probably just regular safe people who are given over to filthy Lucre.
And obviously this is very possible for any Christian, any pastor.
If it wasn't, then God wouldn't have commanded to say not to be greedy of filthy Lucre.
Because obviously it's very possible for a pastor to become that way.
And by the way, that's why it's important that there's checks and balances at the church, amen.
That there is proper accountability, that, you know, there's proper procedures set in place at the church
so as to myself and my employee, we are above reproach.
No one can point the finger at us and say, hey, what are you guys doing with the church finances?
We're buying stuff for the church, you know.
Well, let me see, you know, let me see what you got.
Well, go call the IRS and maybe they'll give you a document or whatever.
But unless it's the IRS coming to us, I ain't showing anybody any bank statements or anything like that
because you don't need to know.
And if you say, well, you know, that sounds kind of suspicious, then go dial up the IRS
and have them come after me then.
Because, you know, at that point, you know, people who try to question the pastor like,
what are you doing with the church finances?
Folks, if you were to show them all, every dealings you have with the finances,
and it's all clear, they're still not going to trust you.
Most people who are like that typically are individuals who just want to catch you on something
because they just don't like you in the first place, okay.
So, but here's the thing, that's why it's important to have checks and balances, okay.
To be honest, to make sure that we have systems in place, you know, I never deal with the tithes here.
I'm never collecting the tithes, you know, I'm never like, all right, brother Albert,
why don't you go and bring that plate over here.
I'll keep it in a safe place or something, you know what I mean, let me put that in.
And look, there's churches that, you know, there's a church out in Florida,
this guy named Adam Fannin, who was literally doing stuff like that.
They would collect the offerings and then they'd just bring it to him and he'd just like take it all home.
Like cash.
And then there is no ledger book on anything, on any of the spending.
It's like, what?
Folks, anything that we spend money on, there's always a record of what we're spending money on.
Collect the receipts, it's filed away, Excel spreadsheet, everything is always noted for, accounted for, okay.
You say, why?
Well, just in case if someone comes, you know, the IRS comes, what are you spending money on this?
And it's like, well, here's your receipt, this is what it's for.
And in fact, we wrote a little note on here, it's for a music leaders meeting here.
That's what we're doing.
I see Pollo Loco here.
What's that for?
Well, that was for the PE class.
I see Skittles and Oranges.
Yeah, brother Elise was doing like a volcano science project with the kids during PE.
The note's right there.
You understand?
So everything is accounted for, okay.
But here's the thing, people who are greedy of filthy lucre, who want to pervert judgment, they don't want to be accountable for anything.
So, you know, they say, a ledger?
I don't know anything about a ledger.
It's like, what?
It's crazy.
And so, Samuel's sons obviously do not qualify to be leaders here, right.
This system has been corrupted, not because the system is corrupt in and of itself, but because you have corrupt people in the system, overseeing it.
So Samuel's sons corrupt in it.
They love filthy lucre.
Let's read on here, verse 4.
That's very nice of them to point that out.
Like, what's the point of even saying that?
And thy sons walk not in thy ways.
So, obviously the children of Israel understand that there's a problem with Samuel's sons.
Taking bribes, perverting judgment, and so they come to him and they kind of bring this up.
And it says, now make us a king to judge us like all the nations.
So, their solution to Samuel's sons being corrupt and Samuel being old is that they should just have a king, like all the nations, okay.
It says in verse 6,
Now, why is Samuel upset about this?
I'll tell you why.
Because he's thinking to himself, didn't God just deliver you guys in chapter 7?
Didn't he just show you so strong?
Look at the stone.
It's still there, but these are still there, reminding us that God is our help.
He's the one who would deliver you.
He miraculously delivered you from the hands of the Philistines and now you're asking for an earthly king after all that God has done for you.
So, he's displeased with Israel's overall disposition, how they want to be like all the nations, okay.
So, we see in the beginning of this chapter that Samuel's sons corrupting the system of the judges, but now we see Israel coveting all the nations, okay.
So, let me give you a couple of principles that we can learn from this particular passage here, okay.
Here's the thing is that, is it really Samuel and his sons that's the problem?
No.
They're using that as an excuse because they want to be like all the other nations.
So, they're looking for a problem in the leadership so that they can say, well, I know what the issue is.
I know what the solution is.
We need a king like all the other nations.
Well, first of all, Samuel's not your king.
His sons are not your kings.
God has not corrupted himself.
There's nothing wrong with God being your king.
And by the way, there's nothing wrong with Samuel either.
He's just old, right.
According to them, it's just like, he's old.
It's like, well, so what?
The only problem is Samuel's sons, but Samuel's sons are judges.
They're not the king.
Because they're not the king.
But yet they're using that as an excuse because what they really want is an earthly king.
And they really want to just be like all the other nations.
They're using that as an excuse.
They're shifting the blame to Samuel and his sons to get what they want.
You understand?
And this is why God tells them, listen, they're not rejecting you.
It's not about you, Samuel.
It's not about the kids.
It's they're rejecting me as their king.
Because Samuel's not a king.
You understand?
Now, when I think about this particular passage and this story,
you know, I think of the fact that people still do this today.
Where you'll have like church members leave church, for example, right?
And they're just, oh, it's because Pastor Mejia is just too mean.
You know?
Oh, it's just that Pastor Mejia, I don't like the way he says that one word or something.
But really what it is, it's just something completely different.
Or really what it is, is they don't want to be under God's ordinances.
Well, I just don't feel I need to be in church, even though God said that they need to be in church.
But what they'll do is they'll go after the leader, they'll go after Samuel,
and they'll nitpick Samuel because they want to be like all the other nations.
There's always another underlying issue as to why people leave church.
Okay?
People sometimes leave church just because obviously, and I'm not talking about people that
leave because they're moving out of state or something like that.
You know, they got a job somewhere else or they have to move or just, you know,
things of that nature and they're going to a different church.
Nothing wrong with that.
I'm talking about people who leave church because of the fact that,
oh, they're just bitter towards another person in our church.
Or they're bitter towards me and they're just like, I just can't be here anymore.
You know, this church is just so mean-spirited or, you know, I just don't like the way they sing here.
Or, you know, the pastor, I feel like he's preaching against me.
Or, you know, I feel like they're just too hard on this specific subject here.
Or, you know, just go down the line.
But at the end of the day, what are they doing?
They are resisting the ordinance of God is what they're doing.
That's really what it is.
It's not Samuel's fault.
And look, if you took a magnifying glass and you didn't even need a magnifying glass,
if you just look at me through just glass period, you're going to see some flaws.
Because I'm human.
I make mistakes.
Okay?
I make mistakes. I'm human. I'm a sinner just like you.
And, what do we name it?
I'm just kidding.
That's a time we're not supposed to say amen. I'm just kidding.
You know, we all make mistakes.
But here's the thing is that people, when they are looking for a reason to leave,
they pull out the microscope, they pull out the magnifying glass,
because they need a good reason to leave.
That's what it is.
Every time, that's exactly what it is.
And I already shared the story of the people who got kicked out of our church,
because they said that I was a heretic,
and their accusation just completely fell apart.
It was the stupidest thing ever.
And at the end of the conversation, I told them,
you're leaving because you're either bitter on me or you're bitter at the church,
and they're like, oh yeah.
So that had nothing to do with me being a heretic.
They couldn't point to anything specific, any concrete evidence that I was,
because they were claiming that I was teaching a works-based salvation,
when you can literally scour my YouTube channel.
You can scour all the sermons and see that I'm consistent in my teaching about salvation.
But they wanted to use that, because if they leave our church and go somewhere else,
they can tell that pastor there, yeah, we're left because they just teach heresy over there.
That sounds a lot better than saying, well yeah, we're leaving because we're bitter towards the pastor.
He's a boo-boo head or something.
Now obviously if you're leaving a church because for doctrinal reasons,
and it's a pretty blatant doctrinal reason, that's obviously permissible, right?
But if it's a matter of you're just mad at someone because they weren't nice to you or something like that,
it's just like, what?
And we obviously understand also there's this time when people just have to move on from a congregation, right?
But they leave peaceably instead of leaving accusing the pastor of being like a heretic.
You understand?
Or people will just, you know, they'll try to nitpick at something and say,
well, you know, I just don't think that you guys are doing this right or I think this or that.
But it's obviously a complete different underlying reason that they have.
They just want to make it look cool or make it look righteous.
You know, their reason is righteous to leave. You understand?
And so Israel is coveting all the nations and that's really why they want a king because they want to be like all the nations.
Which is a sad thing because of the fact that all the nations suck in comparison to Israel.
Israel is the one nation that the God of the universe is saying, this is my nation.
These are my people.
I mean, he's claiming these people as his own. He's blessing Israel.
He's the God of that nation.
We obviously understand he's the God of the whole universe and the God of the earth.
But as far as the people are concerned, he's like, these are my people.
I mean, they have the greatest king in all of history.
And yet they want to settle for something less.
They want to settle for some earthly king.
And this reminds me that, you know, this is a struggle that Christians even have today where they want to be like all the nations sometimes.
Whereas the Bible tells us, but ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation.
You know, that ye should show forth a peculiar people, that ye should show forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.
God says that safe people are his peculiar people.
We're supposed to be different than the world.
We're supposed to be different than the heathen.
We're supposed to believe different.
We're supposed to act different than the heathen.
You understand?
Act different than the unsaved and understand that we are a peculiar people.
Like God has basically set us apart from everyone else.
Holy nation means we're a separated nation.
And you know, I'm not talking about nation as in the United States either.
We're talking about the spiritual nation made up of all believers.
We don't care about race here.
You know, oh you guys got a Mexican church there or something, you know.
I mean I see some whiteys out here, you know.
There's a couple black guys right here.
We got some Asians here.
No, it looks like we got all kinds of people in this church.
At the end of the day, race doesn't matter folks.
Because if you cut any one of us, we all bleed red just like everyone else.
What's important is what spiritual nation you're a part of.
And you know what nation you don't want to be a part of is the generation of vipers.
Right?
We want to be a part of the holy nation of God through Jesus Christ.
We're separate from everyone else.
And you know Jeremiah chapter 10 tells us,
Learn not the way of the heathen.
You know, and I'm kind of piggybacking off of my sermon from Sunday night,
which is causing quite a stir in the old IFB,
as far as, you know, why we don't have a Christian school.
I'll tell you why, because we're not like all the other nations.
We have no desire to be like the other nations.
And it's funny, brother Ron, he actually reposted that sermon,
because he has a lot of ties with the old IFB still, you know, like on Facebook.
We don't have ties with old IFB.
They're just unclean.
But he still has a lot of ties.
And so he posted it and he's like, I agree with every single thing this man said in the sermon.
And he hit it right on the head.
And whoo, man, it created a stir.
And there's a particular pastor on there.
And he said, he quoted Jeremiah chapter 10.
He said, Learn not the way of the heathen,
for the customs of the people are vain.
And I'm like, dude,
your Christian school exemplifies you learning the way of the heathen,
because the Christian school is a Christian version of the public school.
Hello?
And I was like, show me the Christian school in the Bible.
It's not there.
Well, you know, we could take extrapolate principles and, no,
Deuteronomy 6 just tells us plainly that parents are to teach their kids.
Plain and simple.
But let me just say this.
The Christian school is like a golden calf of the old IFP.
I'll tell you how much it's a golden calf,
because one of the main pastors that I called out on Sunday night was Jack Treiber himself.
And guess who was commenting on that Facebook post?
His wife was.
His wife was on there, Cindy Treiber.
If it wasn't for our Christian school, I'm like, save it.
If it wasn't for, you know, the reason you have a Christian school,
or one of the things about your Christian school that you need to take into account
is why there's so many pedophiles at your church,
it's probably because of your Christian school.
Because your church produces pedophiles.
Oh, but we don't want to say anything about that.
Just shh about that. Don't say anything about that.
And Brother Ron sent the link to that person regarding a book about pedophiles.
He was just like, yeah, why don't you talk about that?
And by the way, there's pedophiles at the public schools too.
Right? There's pedophiles at the public schools.
There's all kinds of nonsense that happens there.
The Christian school is the same way, folks.
It just has a Christian label on it.
And a lot of people got mad because I said it's better for a single woman to have
her child at a public school than a Christian school,
and there's a, I can't believe he said that.
I would never do such a thing.
It's just like, dude, chill out.
First of all, public school is wicked.
We obviously understand that.
We're talking about the situation that a single person finds themselves in
with a child who has no father in the picture.
Okay? First and foremost,
but why don't we just talk about the fact that why don't you homeschool?
How about that?
Let's just talk about homeschooling for a second.
Oh, no, no, we're not going to.
Oh, Christian school.
Because now you're messing with their filthy lucre.
Right?
Now you're messing with their filthy lucre,
and a Christian school is filled with filthy lucre.
Change my mind.
Because it's perverting judgment.
Because the judgment that it's perverting is for God to say,
when God says that parents are supposed to teach their kids,
not some dude or whatever who's being paid pennies
to teach history or whatever.
Let's move on from that.
What I'm saying is that, you know,
Israel wants to be like all the other nations,
but what all the other nations have to offer
is not the quality that what God has to offer.
Okay?
You know, Jesus said in John 14,
I give you peace, my peace I leave with you,
not as the world giveth to you, give I unto you.
You know, he's basically saying,
you know, I have peace that I can give to you,
so does the world, but my peace is better.
The peace that the world gives comes through,
you know, financial peace.
And making sure that you have all the possessions that you want,
and here's some medication for you to ease your thoughts,
and make sure you buy all the possessions.
Just, you know, follow your heart,
and do what you want to do.
That's the kind of peace that the world gives.
You understand?
Whereas the peace that God gives to us
passeth all understanding.
That's what the Bible says.
Be careful for nothing but in all things
by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving.
Let your requests be made known unto God,
and the peace of God, which passeth understanding,
shall keep your hearts and minds through Jesus Christ our Lord.
You see, the peace of the world
is the peace that is sustained by the things of this world.
The peace of God is sustained by the eternal things.
Recognizing that what we truly have,
what truly matters, can't be taken away from us.
Okay?
The legitimate Christians, you know,
they exemplify that meme of that dog,
you know, that meme of that dog
who has fire burning all around him,
and he's like, I'm fine.
Or he says, this is fine.
This is fine.
That's like Christians, surrounded by the world,
the flesh, and the devil,
and they're constantly fighting us,
and we're just like, this is fine.
Why? Because we have the peace of God.
Ruling in our hearts.
And so Israel is coveting all the nations
whereas the Bible tells us,
love not the world, not the things that are in the world.
If any man love the world,
the love of the Father is not in him.
The world cannot do it better than God himself.
You understand?
God has all the solutions, all the answers.
The Bible tells us that
and explains to us over and over again
that his divine ways are far superior
than the earth's ways,
than the world's ways of doing things.
You know, the wisdom of this world
is foolishness with God.
That's what the Bible says.
Where is the wise? Where is the scribe?
Where is the disputer of this world?
And so Israel is making a huge mistake here
and rejecting God's divine kingship
in order to have this physical king.
Now, we'll get into this in the coming chapters,
but when you look at the story of them getting a king
and who the first king is,
of course, it's Saul.
And then the one that comes after him is David.
You know, this is basically a picture.
Saul is a picture of the Antichrist, unfortunately,
because of the fact that he's like the king,
but he's not really like the real king, though,
because the real king comes after Saul.
And that's who God chooses
to bring the lineage of Jesus Christ.
Well, that's basically how the Antichrist
comes into this world.
He comes as a king, but he's not really the real king.
He's not really the savior of this world.
He comes before the real savior,
which is Jesus Christ, you understand?
But this also proves that the world
is not leery of the Antichrist, folks.
They're like, oh, man, you know,
the Antichrist is gonna come.
We gotta make sure that we watch out for him.
And, well, if you're not saved,
it's not gonna work.
And, in fact, you're gonna be like the children of Israel
who say, give us a king.
This is where people get mixed up on
when it comes to end times prophecy.
I know we're in 1 Samuel,
but this is where people get mixed up.
They think like, oh, this is, you know,
the Antichrist is gonna be such a dictator
and, you know, we're just gonna be slaves
to that system. Wrong.
People are gonna want the Antichrist
to rule over him.
Over them, excuse me.
So how do you know?
Because in order to get the mark of the beast,
you have to worship the image of the beast.
Willingly, not in a fake manner.
You know, it's just like,
what do we gotta do to make sure this looks legitimate
so I can get my bread,
so I can get my food and feed my family.
No, it's like they want to worship the beast.
Okay, they want to worship the Antichrist.
They want their king,
just like the children of Israel wanted a king.
They want to be like the other nations, et cetera.
But we'll get into that later.
And so, their excuse is, you know,
oh, it's because of Samuel,
it's because of his sons,
therefore we're leaving the church,
therefore I'm getting out of God's will.
Whatever, Y or X, Y or Z, wrong.
Okay.
At the end of the day,
you're just rejecting the ordinance of God.
It's something about God that you don't like.
It's something about God's ordinance
that you're not pleased with,
that you're not happy with.
Okay.
He says in verse number eight,
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.
and God is just reminding them they're really upset with me you know they're
not upset at you they're upset at me and this is what a spiritual leader always
has to experience will always experience is that people will often be upset with
you or they'll get bitter at you they'll leave church because of you but as
spiritual leaders we have to be reminded at the end of the day their beef is with
God their beef was with some biblical principle they don't like something that
I preach from because I preached it from the Bible they're upset at the
message is what they're upset at he says in verse 10 and Samuel told all the
words of the Lord unto the people that asked that asked of him of King asked of
him of King verse 11 and he said this will be the manner of the king that
shall reign over you he will take your sons and appoint them for himself for
his chariots and to be his horsemen and some shall run before his chariots so
what do we see here now we see the cost of having an earthly king so God is
saying you want a king okay you can have a king but here's the price you're gonna
have to pay because here's the thing prior to having an earthly King God was
fighting their battles in other words he was the one who was bringing the
victory but they obviously had to do their part and fight right but they had
the privilege of having God just give them the victory you understand because
you know if God wanted to he could just come and just strike them all dead and
they're just kind of sitting back and just watching the show but then that
doesn't really require a whole lot of faith doesn't require a whole lot of
growth and risk so what God wanted them to do is like go fight go fight you know
and I'll give you the battle but you have to do your part understand not for
spiritual salvation but for a physical salvation it's like do your part and
I'll come through and show myself strong on your behalf right and this is where
he wanted his people to be to be proactive in their Christian life or in
their their life as a believer understand life as a nation it's like be
proactive draw nigh unto God he'll draw nigh unto you get involved in a fight and
I'll provide the victory it's a great way to live right but they're just like
oh man you know let's get a king because then he'll fight our battles for us
let's get someone else to do our job and you know but here's the problem with
that way of thinking they think well if we just get an earthly King we just get
to sit back and relax and then this King will just fight our battles for us but
they're not taking into account that there's always a price to pay when you
don't do it God's way you understand when you don't follow God's original
plan there's always a price to pay so even though they're not gonna go out in
the battle guess who is their children because now he's saying well this is the
kind of King you're gonna have he's gonna take your sons and appoint them
for himself for his chariots to be his horsemen some shall run before his
chariots he will appoint him captains over thousands captains over 50s and
will set them to ear his ground and to reap his harvest and to make his
instruments of war and instruments of chariots he's busy zone some of your
kids you're never gonna see again because if you really want a king he has
to rule over an army and this is how much it takes to make an army takes a
lot of resources and people manpower verse 13 and he will take your daughters
oh man to be confectionaries and to be cooks and to be bakers so it's like oh
you don't want to go fight okay well I'm gonna take your daughters and they're
gonna be cooks for the kingdom and he will take your fields and your vineyards
and your olive yards even the best of them and give them to his servants he's
got to pay his soldiers somehow so he's paying them with with land with real
estate with grain and he will take the tenth of your seed and of your vineyards
and give to his officers and to his servants he will take your men servants
and your maid servants and your goodiest young men and your asses and put them to
his work he will take the tenth of your sheep and ye shall be his servants you
shall cry out in that day because of your king which he shall have chosen you
and the Lord will not hear you in that day so here's the risk reward is that
you want a king okay well this is what it's gonna cost you because people
sometimes think well if we just take the easy route then it's just gonna be easy
right nothing bad is gonna happen but easy routes don't really exist because
you're gonna pay somehow you're gonna pay somehow and here's a good way to put
this in our modern day as an application for us in 2022 if you don't want to
fight the Lord's battles that's fine okay your children will though if you
don't want to get involved in the wars that God has set you in to fight these
wars in these battles against the enemies of God to fight these wars in
these battles to stand for God's Word okay no worries your children will though
so if you refuse to fight don't worry someone's gonna fight there's always
gonna be a generation that's gonna rise up to fight off and and and fulfill
God's Word and do what he tells them to do it's gonna happen so it's not like
well you know I'm not gonna fight my children are gonna fight we're just not
fighters it doesn't work that way someone has to do the job and here's a
perfect example you know I think the generation spiritually that I'm growing
up in is a generation of fighters and I think it's because the previous
generation were like these people like we want to be like all the other liberal
nations we want to be like the liberal churches preach all these lame sermons
20 minutes long get all the live music in get all the purple lights and the
smoke we want to be like all the nations Lord we want to be like the Rick
Warren's and like the Joel Steens and we want to be like them and so what happens
they stop preaching hard against the sodomites they stop preaching hard
against fornication and adultery and these major sins that the Bible
highlights that our generation is involved in or that our world is
involved in because they don't want to offend people they want to have
buildings like all the nations you want to have fountains and pianos like all
the nations they want to have Christian schools like all the nations and
colleges like all the nations they want to have all the admiration of all the
unsaved people like all the other you know nations they want to be just like
the most liberal pastor there is like all the nations they've been doing it
for years and you know what now the next generation that rises up we have to
fight the battles so it's like mom and dad didn't want to fight the battle and
you know to preserve you know the Word of God which is the King James Bible
and preach about the King James Bible and defend the King James Bible and then
wear a shirt that says KJV only amen and be open about keeping King James
because folks even today independent about about this they're almost like
ashamed to say they're King James only there's like well you know I don't want
to say it like that you know just I think that's a little too much you know
what do you means God's Word I mean I would get it tattooed if it was allowed
but I'm not because it's not it's sinful to do that but if but if it wasn't
proclaim it proudly that you're King James only it's not a shameful thing
well you know it's just associated with ruckmanites then explain the differences
between the ruckmanites and the KJV only is known as us but it shouldn't be that
all because this little subculture of independent fundamental Baptist these
inbred fools out there in Florida they're teaching all this weird stuff
about the King James Bible that that should keep us from why are you giving
that to them we need to take it back and say no it's biblical it's godly to be
King James only and independent fundamental Baptist are not filled with
a bunch of fools who don't know what they're talking about when it comes to
the King James but you know what pastors say well we don't we want to be like the
other nations the new King James we want to be like the other nations the NIV
crowds and the NASB and the ESV and the HIV and the STDs we want to be like
those nations okay that's what you want it's fine but the generation that comes
after you is gonna fight the battles though they shall be horsemen they shall
be they shall run before the chariots though they will fight the battles that
you refuse to fight that's how it works and I personally believe that this is
our nation this is our generation excuse me where now we're fighting the
battles that a lot of the previous generation refused to fight and now the
previous generation is looking at us like oh I can't believe them why they
say all these things I was like well we have to fight twice as hard because you
backed off on these particular subjects and look folks don't think that just
because someone is elderly or older that that automatically means that they're
like you know godly or they love the Lord I was at Chick-fil-a the other day
yes you heard right and you know I have a I have this KJV only sweater that's
like my favorite sweater if you look at all my YouTube shorts I'm like wearing
it 24-7 it's like my favorite sweater to wear I love it gotta get a new one and I
was it I was in the restroom and there's a guy there and I was waiting for him
because he was kind of washing his hands he was he was older like in his I don't
know maybe he was like 75 80 maybe and so I'm just waiting for him and then you
know then I start washing my hands and then he just stands there and just like
looks at me and he's just kind of look at me like head to toe you know and I'm
just kind of like man I'm so hungry you're just like can't wait to eat man
you know and then he's like King James only huh and I'm like yep and he's like
yeah you should really try to read the 1611 though because you you'll see the
vast differences between the 1611 what you got going on now you're not gonna be
able to understand any words from the 1611 and I was just like I read it it's
exactly the same no you haven't read it because you won't be able to understand
it I've read it and I understand it I was like I have a 1611 I've read it I
understand it no no differences at all no you need why don't you use like an
NASB or something like that's better I said well because of the and I'm trying
to be respectable you know me because he's an elderly person and I said well
because of the fact that I don't appreciate modern versions of the Bible
putting footnotes at the bottom questioning casting doubt on God's Word
I'm like are you and I told him I was like are you cool with that are you fine
with like Bibles that put you know footnotes at the bottom questioning the
the authenticity of the content that's presented and he's like I just don't
like the King James Bible it's just not you're not gonna be able to understand
it I'm like I've read it for 14 years and I understand everything about it
well these are a lot easier to read I said well the King James Bible is not
supposed to be easy to read though it's written by God it's an intellectual
Bible it's an intellectual book because it's written by the God of the universe
I didn't yell at him like that but I want inwardly I wanted to I'm not trying
to make a scene because by this time we're already outside you know and I'm
just kind of like shaking you know he's just he just wanted to come out and he's
just kind of looking at me with beady eyes and he's just like no you just you
gotta you gotta read the other ones and it's way better and I said I said those
Bibles are trash they remove whole verses from the Word of God they put
footnotes you know casting down on God's Word I want nothing to do with those
Bibles I said it's all about the King James he's like well we could agree to
disagree you know and he's just like walked around like whatever but you
would you expect someone who's been who's that age who's a Christian to know
what is the right Bible and the right view and all these things but they don't
why because they're the ones who didn't want to fight the battle they're the
previous generations are good let us be like the other Kings let give me a gay
Bible like the other ones that's what they want they want to be like the other
nations have a Bible like the other nations you know a Bible that sells a
lot but the ESV and the NIV give us something that is popular that people
just loved it all kinds of people we got to make it we got to dumb it down so
that the unsaved people could really like it we could win them over or
something no no you know what if I was in this previous generation I would have
been with Sam and be like hey we don't need a king let's keep it the way it is
there's nothing wrong with this this manner of the way we're doing it but if
we ever transition then I'd be like all right I'm a foot soldier now because I
want to be where the battle is and this is how Christians need to operate today
don't run away from the battle run to the battle don't seek to be like the
other nations because if you do you know there's gonna be a cost to pay there's
gonna be a price to pay it's gonna cost you something so he tells them all this
and you would think like after hearing as like well you know maybe that's not a
good idea you know maybe we shouldn't be like oh I didn't really think that take
that into account maybe we shouldn't be like all those nations verse verse 19
nevertheless the people refused to obey the voice of Samuel and they said nay
but we will have a king over us that we also may be like all the nations that
our King may judge us and go out before us and fight our battles oh you mean
like the Philistines you mean like the Lords of the Philistines like fight like
that you know the Lords who have the hemorrhoids and the infestation of mice
you know the ones who lost like that well apparently yeah like that because
it just looks cooler to have like an earthly King with you you know nonsense
obviously the greatest earthly King that we will have is a heavenly King who
comes to this earth which is Jesus Christ okay verse 21 says and Samuel
heard all the words of the people and he rehearsed them in the ears of the Lord
I like verse 21 because it's kind of interesting it's like he tells the Lord
this as if the Lord didn't hear it obviously God knows what they're saying
he can hear our the inner recesses of our heart and the thoughts that we have
but Sammy just rehearses it before the Lord he just kind of tells them like hey
this is what they said which kind of shows us that you know God doesn't want
us to be robots when we talk to him or he doesn't want us to behave as robots
in the Christian life it's like well why even pray if God knows everything well
because God wants to like have a relationship with you I know that term
is thrown around by the Liberals in a really bad way but there is truth to
that where you know the Bible actually describes it as fellowship okay but it's
true you know God wants us to talk to him even though what we're saying he
already knows he already knows beforehand but he wants us to rehearse
our problems before him he wants us to rehearse our needs before him he wants
us to pray unto him even though he knows these things verse 22 and the Lord said
to Samuel harken unto their voice and make them a king and Samuel said unto
the men of Israel go ye every man unto his city so the warning is not heated
God permits them having a king and obviously you know this really shows
Romans 8 28 that all things work together for good because ultimately
through this permission of having an earthly king David would come and David
is a vital character in the Old Testament and it's by which Jesus Christ
the lineage of Jesus he's in the lineage of Jesus Christ you
understand and then throughout the Bible you just always hear David's name keep
coming up you know Jesus Christ is referred to as the son of David okay and
so obviously good a lot of good came out of that and in fact you know David
through his life and through his ministry through his kingship would
exemplify a lot of the qualities of Jesus Christ himself to help us as New
Testament believers have a greater and deeper understanding of Jesus you know
we have David who earthly exemplified a lot of the qualities and virtues that
Jesus Christ had so he ended up becoming a great picture of it even though this
wasn't God's original plan understand so it just shows us that God can work all
things together for good but great chapter here let us just be reminded
that we should be content with just being this peculiar nation and not try
to be like all the lame nations around us let's pray father we thank you so
much for your word Lord we're so thankful for the precepts and the
statutes thereof Lord and the principles that we can learn help us to be grateful
for being the holy nation forget all these other nations the nation of Islam
or whatever nations are out there that claim to be the best we know that we
have the greatest nation and I'm not referring to the United States I'm
referring to the nation of spiritual believers those who have trusted Christ
as their Savior the reason we're great is not because of us but because of the
God who reigns over us I pray God that you'd help us to continuously be
reminded of that and bless this as we go on our way in Jesus name Amen
song number 45 for a last song when I can read my title clear song number 45
when I can read my title clear everyone nice and strong all together on that
first verse when I can read my title clear two mansions in the sky I'll bid
farewell to every fear and wipe my weeping eyes and wipe my weeping eyes
and wipe my weeping eyes I'll bid farewell to every fear and wipe my
weeping eyes shut earth against my soul engage and fiery darts be hurled then I
can smile at Satan's rage and face a frowning world and face a frowning
world and face a frowning world then I can smile at Satan's rage and face a
frowning world let cares like a wild deluge come in storms of sorrow fall may
I but safely reach my home my god my heaven my oh my god my my oh my god my
heaven my oh may I but safely reach my home my god my heaven my oh there shall
I bathe my weary soul in seas of heavenly rest and not a wave of trouble
roll across my peaceful breast across my peaceful breast across my peaceful
breast and not a wave of trouble roll across my peaceful breast
men wonderful singing the art of Smith