Latest / Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive / March 15th, 2015 | Route 66 - 1 Samuel

Transcript

March 15th, 2015 | Route 66 - 1 Samuel · Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive

0:00
SPEAKER_00: Morning.
0:02
SPEAKER_00: You're wondering why we would play that bumper video.
0:05
SPEAKER_00: We're on a route, Route 66, Road Trip through the Bible.
0:10
SPEAKER_00: I'm just getting over a cold.
0:11
SPEAKER_00: I hope it doesn't bother you too much.
0:12
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't bother me.
0:14
SPEAKER_00: At least right now.
0:16
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
0:17
SPEAKER_00: And uh so we are in stop.
0:20
SPEAKER_00: We're at stop number nine on our road trip through the Bible.
0:23
SPEAKER_00: It's the book of 1 Samuel.
0:24
SPEAKER_00: One of my favorite books, full of cool stories, David and Goliath.
0:28
SPEAKER_00: Cool story, right?
0:29
SPEAKER_00: Stories of David and Jonathan.
0:32
SPEAKER_00: Great friendship, best friendship in the Bible.
0:34
SPEAKER_00: Story of David and Saul, Saul chasing after David.
0:36
SPEAKER_00: David and Abigail, beautiful woman.
0:39
SPEAKER_00: You know, story of Hannah having a baby, you know, after praying and not having one for a long time, it's chapter one.
0:44
SPEAKER_00: Samuel, little boy, you know, he hears God calling.
0:48
SPEAKER_00: Here am I, your servant.
0:49
SPEAKER_00: Wonderful stories.
0:51
SPEAKER_00: And so I'm excited about uh sharing this book that I've been studying a lot of my life.
0:55
SPEAKER_00: And I confess to you that after uh studying, studying, studying this book for decades, that I have concluded, at least at this point in my career, that the best way, the best way to express the theme of this book is with a basketball metaphor.
1:12
SPEAKER_00: Now, that's not, I didn't plan on doing this, although I will confess I am a true jazz basketball junkie.
1:19
SPEAKER_00: I've been a basketball fanatic since I was a little boy, you know, shooting hoops against a fake, you know, hoop uh on the side of the garage.
1:26
SPEAKER_00: I had five younger brothers each a year younger.
1:28
SPEAKER_00: So six of us we'd play three on three when I was growing up there in Oregon in the driveway, and the ball would take funny bounces on the gravel, but that was, you know, just like referees' calls.
1:37
SPEAKER_00: You know, you can never count on that factor.
1:39
SPEAKER_00: And so uh I've always loved it.
1:42
SPEAKER_00: In fact, uh when I'm 90 years old, if I get that far, I'll probably still be hobbling down to the gymnasium like I do now.
1:47
SPEAKER_00: I play at the community center for over 50 year olds.
1:51
SPEAKER_00: And uh although things have changed, you know.
1:55
SPEAKER_00: Haven't they?
1:55
SPEAKER_00: I mean, for those of you who still try to play like I do, I mean I used to be able, even when I was a short shrimp, I used to be able to jump pretty high, but now there's just like always glue there or something.
2:06
SPEAKER_00: There's more air under Plymouth Rock than under my than under my feet.
2:11
SPEAKER_00: I used to, my best move in basketball was always the you know, sort of fake rider dribble right, the crossover dribble, drive hard to the left, right Stan?
2:19
SPEAKER_00: Drive hard to the left.
2:20
SPEAKER_00: Stan knew that movie, it'd always nail me.
2:23
SPEAKER_00: And uh and drive hard to the left, delay the ball in, Shazam.
2:27
SPEAKER_00: And now, I mean, I'll be honest, there's more hard drives to the left in Rush Limbaugh than there are in me.
2:34
SPEAKER_00: I mean, it's uh it's just not not working anymore.
2:37
SPEAKER_00: Sort of fake right, think I'm going left and run right over somebody.
2:41
SPEAKER_00: It's uh it doesn't work, but it's uh it it's it started long ago, and and and so it seems to me the theme of this book is God may pick you, uh thinking of God as a coach.
2:54
SPEAKER_00: God may pick you for his team, but he'll bench you if you run your own place.
3:01
SPEAKER_00: Now I know a lot about the bench.
3:04
SPEAKER_00: I was a bench jockey when I when I played.
3:08
SPEAKER_00: Uh I I I know what it's like sit at the end of the bench, have the coach look down, you know, looking for a player that can help him on the floor and have him look right through you.
3:16
SPEAKER_00: I I know that feeling.
3:18
SPEAKER_00: One time uh the coach said, um, okay, everybody get a basketball and go to the spot, spot or spots on the floor where you expect to be shooting during a game and practice from there.
3:29
SPEAKER_00: So, grabbed a ball, went right down.
3:31
SPEAKER_00: I sat down at the very end of the bench and started heaving it.
3:35
SPEAKER_00: I didn't really, I didn't want him to get mad at me.
3:38
SPEAKER_00: I still had hopes, you know, that I could I could get in the game.
3:41
SPEAKER_00: I heard it was even worse.
3:42
SPEAKER_00: I heard about a guy named uh Bill, high schooler, never got in a game.
3:46
SPEAKER_00: And his buddies started yelling.
3:48
SPEAKER_00: Last game of the season, two minutes ago, started yelling, we want Bill, we want Bill, we want Bill.
3:54
SPEAKER_00: Finally, the coach, you know, gave in.
3:56
SPEAKER_00: He calls Bill down to him.
3:57
SPEAKER_00: He says, Bill, would you mind running over to the stands, finding out why those fans want you?
4:02
SPEAKER_00: I can't even think.
4:04
SPEAKER_00: You get it?
4:06
SPEAKER_00: You don't get it.
4:08
SPEAKER_00: Well, anyway, uh, I know what it's like to be on the bench, and and and and so I I know what it's like to went to the little bit of the tournament in Kansas City this weekend.
4:17
SPEAKER_00: And and the metaphor that we have here is a metaphor that God picks his team.
4:24
SPEAKER_00: He is sovereign, he chooses a team, but if you decide that you're gonna be independent from him and you're gonna run your own plays, he's gonna do what we saw, you know, the coaches this weekend do.
4:39
SPEAKER_00: Uh, you know, that is you pull your starters, you pull the guys around the floor, and you put them on the bench until they realize that they can't do their own thing.
4:47
SPEAKER_00: They have to run the plays.
4:48
SPEAKER_00: Now, on the back of your uh summary sheet, study sheet, you will see the way I feel that this unfolds or unravels in the book of 1 Samuel.
4:57
SPEAKER_00: In three points, sort of three stair steps.
5:00
SPEAKER_00: And the first step is there is no one like the Lord.
5:04
SPEAKER_00: He is king and he chooses whom he will.
5:07
SPEAKER_00: He selects for his team whom he will.
5:10
SPEAKER_00: Now you find that in sort of the seed plot of the book of 1 Samuel, which is the famous song of Hannah in chapter 2.
5:16
SPEAKER_00: This is not the song of Hannah, it's not the prayer of Hannah when she was praying in the tabernacle, Lord, give me a baby.
5:23
SPEAKER_00: This is after the Lord gave her a baby named Samuel, and then she prays one of the most beautiful poetic prayers in the Bible, a prayer that uh the young Mary knew, uh, the mother of Jesus knew.
5:35
SPEAKER_00: We know she knew it because she quotes from it so thoroughly in Luke chapter 1.
5:40
SPEAKER_00: And she sort of begins this prayer, Hannah does by saying, There is no one, say this with me.
5:46
SPEAKER_00: These are such sublime words.
5:47
SPEAKER_00: Say these words with me.
5:48
SPEAKER_00: There is no one holy like the Lord.
5:51
SPEAKER_00: There is no one besides you, and there is no rock like our God.
5:57
SPEAKER_00: Those are great words.
5:58
SPEAKER_00: There is no one like the Lord.
5:59
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
6:00
SPEAKER_00: No one like the Lord.
6:01
SPEAKER_00: He is king, he is sovereign, he is ruler, he chooses whomever he will.
6:06
SPEAKER_00: And as you go through the book of 1 Samuel, you find this word choice all over the place.
6:12
SPEAKER_00: For instance, later in that chapter, a man of God comes to Eli.
6:15
SPEAKER_00: Who is Eli?
6:16
SPEAKER_00: Eli is the chief priest.
6:17
SPEAKER_00: He is, in a sense, the ruler of Israel.
6:19
SPEAKER_00: There are no kings yet.
6:21
SPEAKER_00: So the chief priest there in Shiloh, he and his sons Hophne and Phinehas, they're the head dudes, okay?
6:26
SPEAKER_00: They're the main leaders.
6:28
SPEAKER_00: And a man of God comes to Eli and says, This is what the Lord says, out of all the tribes of Israel, I chose your house to be priests, to offer sacrifices on my altar, to burn incense, to wear Nephah to my presence.
6:42
SPEAKER_00: Now, what he's going to say next, we'll find out is so why are you blowing it so bad?
6:48
SPEAKER_00: Why are you being the acting the way you are?
6:51
SPEAKER_00: But right now we're just looking at the fact that the Lord says, you know what?
6:56
SPEAKER_00: I have chosen whom I want to choose.
6:59
SPEAKER_00: A few chapters later, God says, okay, it's time for us to have kings in Israel.
7:05
SPEAKER_00: Uh, I predicted that there would be kings back in Deuteronomy.
7:08
SPEAKER_00: I wish that the people of Israel weren't demanding a king because they've gotten tired of me, but we're gonna go with a king.
7:14
SPEAKER_00: Okay, so I want you to go anoint the first king of Israel.
7:18
SPEAKER_00: And when Samuel, we read in 9.17, caught sight of Saul, the Lord said to Samuel, This is the man I spoke to you about.
7:26
SPEAKER_00: Who chose Saul?
7:27
SPEAKER_00: It wasn't Samuel.
7:28
SPEAKER_00: Wasn't an election, wasn't a vote, wasn't democratic.
7:32
SPEAKER_00: It's that the Lord chose him, and he said, He will govern my people.
7:37
SPEAKER_00: And as a result, uh Samuel, who was the prophet, the prophets were the king makers, and so that's how you knew the Lord had chosen, that the prophet anointed the king.
7:55
SPEAKER_00: Samuel anointed Saul, he anointed the second king David, a prophet named Nathan anointed the third and last king of the United Kingdom, Solomon.
8:05
SPEAKER_00: Later on, you have John the Baptist, you know, and basically baptizing Jesus, the eternal king.
8:11
SPEAKER_00: Samuel took the flask of oil, poured it out on Saul's head, kissed him, and said, Hasn't the Lord anointed you ruler over his inheritance?
8:21
SPEAKER_00: Samuel said to all the people, Do you see the one the Lord has chosen?
8:26
SPEAKER_00: And all the people shouted, all the people shouted, Long live the king.
8:32
SPEAKER_00: They were absolutely thrilled because they knew that the Lord had chosen this king, therefore they knew the king would be good.
8:38
SPEAKER_00: God's the one who chooses, he chooses whom he wishes.
8:45
SPEAKER_00: Saul backslides.
8:47
SPEAKER_00: God says, I'm gonna I need a new king, a second king.
8:50
SPEAKER_00: And we find again the choice is God's.
8:52
SPEAKER_00: The Lord said to Samuel, this is chapter 16, open your Bible if you would.
8:56
SPEAKER_00: This will be our text from the morning, 1 Samuel 16.
8:59
SPEAKER_00: It has the word choice in it a half a dozen times.
9:02
SPEAKER_00: 1 Samuel chapter 16.
9:05
SPEAKER_00: Great chapter.
9:06
SPEAKER_00: 16 and 17, the two uh center central uh chapters in this book.
9:12
SPEAKER_00: Chapter 17 is David and Goliath.
9:15
SPEAKER_00: Chapter 16, the Lord said to Samuel, How long will you continue to feel sorry for Saul?
9:23
SPEAKER_00: The backstory here is that Samuel the prophet had sort of a man crush, if you could say it, on Saul.
9:31
SPEAKER_00: He really liked him, and so when God said to Samuel, you know, I'm rejecting Saul, Samuel cried all night.
9:36
SPEAKER_00: And he tried to argue God out of it.
9:38
SPEAKER_00: And the Lord got tired of it and he said, Listen, how long are you going to continue to feel sorry for Saul?
9:43
SPEAKER_00: I've rejected him.
9:45
SPEAKER_00: Fill your container with olive oil and go.
9:47
SPEAKER_00: I've uh go find sending you to I'm sending you to Jesse the Bethlehemite, I've chosen one of his sons to be king.
9:54
SPEAKER_00: So he heads that way, and then we find he's in front of Jesse and his sons in verse 5.
10:01
SPEAKER_00: And in verse 6, when they arrive, Samuel sees the oldest son of Jesse.
10:05
SPEAKER_00: His name is Eliab or Eliav.
10:07
SPEAKER_00: And Samuel thought, surely the Lord's appointed this guy standing here before him.
10:13
SPEAKER_00: Because he's the oldest, and he's handsome, and he's strong, and he's cool.
10:17
SPEAKER_00: But the Lord said to Samuel, Don't look at how handsome he is, don't look at how tall he is.
10:21
SPEAKER_00: I have not what?
10:23
SPEAKER_00: I've not chosen him.
10:24
SPEAKER_00: God doesn't, here's famous verse, you should know this verse by heart.
10:27
SPEAKER_00: God does not see as man seeth, for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart.
10:34
SPEAKER_00: Exactly right.
10:35
SPEAKER_00: So the Lord says in verse 8.
10:38
SPEAKER_00: So Jesse calls son number two, Abinadh, and told him to pass by Samuel.
10:43
SPEAKER_00: Samuel says he hasn't chosen him either.
10:44
SPEAKER_00: And we work through the top seven.
10:46
SPEAKER_00: There's a starting seven for Jesse.
10:49
SPEAKER_00: David's not part of it.
10:50
SPEAKER_00: He's at the end of the bench.
10:51
SPEAKER_00: And so you have the starting seven, and it's no, no, no, no.
10:54
SPEAKER_00: The Lord's not chosen.
10:56
SPEAKER_00: So Samuel says, Samuel says, Are these all the sons you got?
11:00
SPEAKER_00: Jesse says, Well, still have the youngest son.
11:02
SPEAKER_00: He's out taking care of the sheep.
11:04
SPEAKER_00: You talk about end of the bench.
11:06
SPEAKER_00: I feel sorry for myself.
11:08
SPEAKER_00: End of the bench, taking care of the sheep.
11:10
SPEAKER_00: Samuel said, Send for him.
11:11
SPEAKER_00: We're not going to sit down until he gets here.
11:13
SPEAKER_00: So Jesse sent and had his youngest son brought in.
11:15
SPEAKER_00: He was a fine boy, tannin handsome.
11:16
SPEAKER_00: And the Lord said to Samuel, Go appoint him, anoint him, for he is the one.
11:22
SPEAKER_00: All right?
11:23
SPEAKER_00: So there's no one like the Lord.
11:25
SPEAKER_00: He is king and he chooses whom he will.
11:28
SPEAKER_00: And we're happy when he does, because though it's not by election, not by my choice, it is God's choice.
11:34
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
11:34
SPEAKER_00: Now the second uh uh part of this is that, but God, though he chooses them for his, though he picks for his team, he benches his starters if they run their own place.
11:43
SPEAKER_00: That is, if they move away from him and do whatever they want.
11:47
SPEAKER_00: John Wooden, and they call me coach.
11:49
SPEAKER_00: If a player's not doing the things he should, put him on the bench, he'll come around.
11:54
SPEAKER_00: Well, in a way, that's what the Lord does.
11:56
SPEAKER_00: I mean, that's what Bill Self does.
11:58
SPEAKER_00: And so, uh, who some people consider the Lord.
12:01
SPEAKER_00: And so that's what happens.
12:04
SPEAKER_00: If your starters aren't doing the job, you pull them.
12:06
SPEAKER_00: It may not work, but but that's what happens.
12:09
SPEAKER_00: And and he he looks down the bench and he picks people who will do what he wants.
12:14
SPEAKER_00: Because uh one of the main points of this book is that God benches his starters, Eli and his son Saul, if they run their own place.
12:22
SPEAKER_00: Man of God came to Eli and said to him, This is what the Lord says out of all the tribes of Israel, I chose your house.
12:27
SPEAKER_00: You remember that verse.
12:28
SPEAKER_00: We used that verse in a previous point.
12:31
SPEAKER_00: Why then do all of you despise my sacrifices and offerings that I require?
12:38
SPEAKER_00: You've honored your sons more than me.
12:41
SPEAKER_00: Notice the use here.
12:43
SPEAKER_00: By making yourselves fat, we're the best part of all the offerings of my people Israel.
12:48
SPEAKER_00: What's going on here?
12:51
SPEAKER_00: Have you ever found that uh, you know, you put somebody in a starting lineup, if you've ever been a coach, and you feel like you're doing them a favor, making their mom happy, all that stuff, and then they act after a while, even though you've done them a favor, they act as though somehow they deserve it.
13:09
SPEAKER_00: They're doing you a favor.
13:12
SPEAKER_00: There's something about even being chosen by God.
13:15
SPEAKER_00: Have you noticed that?
13:16
SPEAKER_00: If you've trusted Jesus, listen carefully, if you've trusted Jesus as your Savior, that is, you've looked at the Christmas story, he came to earth, Good Friday story, he died on the cross for your sins, Easter story, rose from the dead, and you've said that there, that's me.
13:29
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for dying for my sins, rising from the dead to give me eternal life, then you are, God says, one of his children, and you have been chosen since the foundation of the earth.
13:40
SPEAKER_00: So that's how you've been chosen to be a believer, but you're not just chosen to be a believer, you're chosen to advance his cause on the earth, you're part of his team.
13:49
SPEAKER_00: And the problem is this that after having been chosen, you know, initially I'm going, wow, how blessed am I?
13:56
SPEAKER_00: This is just incredible.
13:59
SPEAKER_00: And you're so happy about it.
14:02
SPEAKER_00: I mean, so isn't it great to be chosen?
14:05
SPEAKER_00: When I when I was young, uh when I was uh just a kid, uh I went to a Christian school, fortunately, uh in grades one through five, because they had a rule that everybody, any kids, no kids could wait on the sidelines in a ball game on the recess.
14:21
SPEAKER_00: Since we're Christians, everybody gets to play.
14:23
SPEAKER_00: That was really fortunate for me.
14:24
SPEAKER_00: So I'd go out uh to this old, you know, this old covered thing where our basketball was.
14:30
SPEAKER_00: And so I'd get there, and I was sure, two years younger than everybody.
14:32
SPEAKER_00: I'm really sure, and I'm a real shrew, real shrimp.
14:34
SPEAKER_00: And so you stand there, and the two two best players, I can still remember them vividly.
14:38
SPEAKER_00: One was named John.
14:39
SPEAKER_00: I used to, I became a good friend of his in Dallas Seminary years later, and Richard was the other, and Richard was big and strong, and John was the fastest guy in school, and so they were always the captains they would always pick.
14:49
SPEAKER_00: And then there was this lump of us, just hoping against hope that we would get picked.
14:56
SPEAKER_00: And they would go and they were picking the team, and you know, then there's less guys, you're looking around, and finally, you know, you're the last guy.
15:03
SPEAKER_00: That's me, my name is Roland back then.
15:05
SPEAKER_00: It's my middle name.
15:06
SPEAKER_00: But anyway, so I'm waiting for them to say, somebody say Roland.
15:10
SPEAKER_00: Please, Roll.
15:11
SPEAKER_00: But nobody's saying that.
15:12
SPEAKER_00: And finally, then they get in an argument.
15:13
SPEAKER_00: And John would go, Richie, you can have them.
15:16
SPEAKER_00: Richard goes, No, you take them.
15:19
SPEAKER_00: And John would go, come on, Roland.
15:23
SPEAKER_00: And so I'd go in, and of course, I'd spend you know the game desperately trying to prove that I was worth taking next time.
15:29
SPEAKER_00: Maybe, maybe not last.
15:32
SPEAKER_00: It's like a Sunday school teacher who asked someone to help her out in a Sunday school class and said, uh, by the way, you're not my first choice.
15:39
SPEAKER_00: After the other person got in the class, he said, Who was your first choice?
15:43
SPEAKER_00: Anybody else?
15:43
SPEAKER_00: You know, that's sort of how you know you you can sort of feel.
15:48
SPEAKER_00: And that's the thing about God's choice.
15:50
SPEAKER_00: Listen, it's not, it's never a because choice because you're cool, because you're good looking, because you're smart, you know, because he's gonna be blessed to have you.
16:00
SPEAKER_00: But neither is it an ah shucks choice.
16:02
SPEAKER_00: Ah, shucks, I've got to take him.
16:04
SPEAKER_00: Gotta, he's gotta, he's a replacement for someone else that's sort of tubed, you know.
16:09
SPEAKER_00: I'm really reluctant, God says.
16:11
SPEAKER_00: No, no, no, no, no.
16:12
SPEAKER_00: When God, uh I used to say at weddings, I used to uh point to the husband and go, well, you know, some prizes, some husbands are prizes, some are surprises, and some are consolation prizes.
16:23
SPEAKER_00: And you know, you can that here here's the cool thing about God's choice.
16:26
SPEAKER_00: None of us is a consolation prize.
16:28
SPEAKER_00: All of us are in his eyes prizes, not because of anything we've done, but he sets his love on us.
16:34
SPEAKER_00: He eagerly, he joyfully, he's thrilled to have you on his team.
16:39
SPEAKER_00: Despite the fact, you know, that just between you and me, you are a consolation prize.
16:44
SPEAKER_00: I mean, you know, we don't bring anything to the table.
16:47
SPEAKER_00: There's not a chance that we would make a layup, even if the whole rest of everybody else is on the other end of the floor.
16:53
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
16:53
SPEAKER_00: Just no hope.
16:55
SPEAKER_00: And yet he chooses you and he chooses you delightedly and happily.
16:59
SPEAKER_00: But what happens after a few weeks or months is we go, wow, God, good choice.
17:04
SPEAKER_00: And then you start thinking, I think maybe I really chose him, because I'm pretty intelligent.
17:11
SPEAKER_00: So you start walking around in church and you have a whole different attitude rather than, wow, I'm so blessed to be on the team.
17:18
SPEAKER_00: God chose me.
17:22
SPEAKER_00: You've forgotten all of that agony.
17:24
SPEAKER_00: You've forgotten the agony of uh, you know, if you read Michael Jordan's autobiography, when he was a sophomore in high school, he got cut from the team and he says, I just I went home and I closed the door in my room and I sobbed.
17:34
SPEAKER_00: I cried and I cried.
17:35
SPEAKER_00: He cried for hours and he kept the door shut so that nobody would hear him.
17:38
SPEAKER_00: I mean, that's the pain of not being chosen.
17:41
SPEAKER_00: I like to be chosen, right?
17:44
SPEAKER_00: You likes to be chosen.
17:46
SPEAKER_00: And God chose us, but after a while we can tend to forget the honor of being chosen, and so we start running our own place.
17:53
SPEAKER_00: We start thinking, well, I'm smart, I can do my own thing.
17:56
SPEAKER_00: And God says, Why are you that way?
17:58
SPEAKER_00: Why has it suddenly become not about me, but it's all about you?
18:02
SPEAKER_00: Therefore, therefore, this is the declaration of the Lord.
18:06
SPEAKER_00: He says to Eli, the God of Israel, though I said your family would walk before me forever, the Lord says, no longer, because I'm going to honor those who honor me, but those who despise me will be disgraced.
18:18
SPEAKER_00: And that's exactly what happens in the next chapter.
18:21
SPEAKER_00: Israel gets defeated, and its leaders, Hafni and Phinehas, are part of the ones who die of the 30,000 of the Israelites.
18:29
SPEAKER_00: And then the news comes to old Eli, and he fell backward off the chair by the city gate, and since he was old and heavy, his neck broke and he died.
18:38
SPEAKER_00: So get your exercise.
18:40
SPEAKER_00: Don't be heavy and old.
18:42
SPEAKER_00: No, that's not the lesson.
18:44
SPEAKER_00: The lesson is we have a picture here.
18:45
SPEAKER_00: He's nearly blind and he's old and he's heavy.
18:48
SPEAKER_00: It's a picture of what his spiritual life has done.
18:50
SPEAKER_00: He has become heavy in his mind and in his heart.
18:53
SPEAKER_00: He's become blind toward God.
18:55
SPEAKER_00: He has drifted away.
18:56
SPEAKER_00: It's become about me and my two sons.
19:00
SPEAKER_00: And as a result, the Lord says, I'm benching you.
19:03
SPEAKER_00: In fact, you're gone.
19:04
SPEAKER_00: And the same thing happens to Saul in 1 Samuel 13.
19:07
SPEAKER_00: Samuel says, What have you done, King Saul?
19:10
SPEAKER_00: And Saul says, When I saw that the troops were deserting me, I forced myself to offer the burnt offering.
19:15
SPEAKER_00: What is this about?
19:16
SPEAKER_00: Saul was like the starting sinner, you know, on a team.
19:20
SPEAKER_00: He was the tallest guy in Israel, and he decided he could play point guard, so he started dribbling around out high.
19:25
SPEAKER_00: He decided he could play prophet, basically, and offer burnt offerings as well.
19:29
SPEAKER_00: You can't do that.
19:30
SPEAKER_00: And so God pulled him and he benched him.
19:33
SPEAKER_00: And Samuel said to Saul, You've been foolish.
19:35
SPEAKER_00: You haven't kept the Lord's command.
19:37
SPEAKER_00: The Lord would have established your reign, but now your reign won't endure.
19:41
SPEAKER_00: And in chapter 15, Saul blows it again.
19:44
SPEAKER_00: He disobeys God.
19:45
SPEAKER_00: And so the Lord says to Samuel, I regret I've made Saul king.
19:50
SPEAKER_00: He's turned away from following me.
19:51
SPEAKER_00: He's and carried out my instructions.
19:53
SPEAKER_00: Samuel says to Saul, why is it all about you?
19:55
SPEAKER_00: Why didn't you obey the Lord?
19:56
SPEAKER_00: Why did you rush on the plunder and do what's evil?
19:59
SPEAKER_00: Because you rejected the word of the Lord, the Lord's rejected you, and so forth.
20:02
SPEAKER_00: And it's just, and it's hard for Samuel to say that to his close friend, but he says it.
20:08
SPEAKER_00: He says it.
20:09
SPEAKER_00: It's become about you.
20:11
SPEAKER_00: It's not about God anymore.
20:13
SPEAKER_00: And God won't have that.
20:15
SPEAKER_00: He may have picked you for his team.
20:16
SPEAKER_00: He may have put you in the starting five, but he's going to bench you because you're running your own place.
20:21
SPEAKER_00: There's a lot of reasons, I suppose, that some of us don't care that much for Coach Bobby Knight, who used to coach at Indiana.
20:28
SPEAKER_00: One thing I respect about him is he said that when his players would go to him and they'd say, everybody, all the other teams have their names on the back of their jersey, personal names.
20:38
SPEAKER_00: And his reply, he says, was always, you're playing for the name on the front of the jersey.
20:42
SPEAKER_00: So he wouldn't let them put their name on the back of the jersey.
20:45
SPEAKER_00: And Christians need to remember that.
20:47
SPEAKER_00: The fact of the matter is that he chose us, and you're not playing for yourself.
20:51
SPEAKER_00: You're playing for him.
20:52
SPEAKER_00: Roger Staubach used to have a tough time with the fact that he never got to call his own place.
20:56
SPEAKER_00: Coach Landry always called his own place.
20:59
SPEAKER_00: He shared as he was being interviewed after they won the Super Bowl.
21:02
SPEAKER_00: He said, you know, that just bugged me.
21:04
SPEAKER_00: And then I realized this year that it was a matter of obedience.
21:08
SPEAKER_00: It was a matter of obedience.
21:09
SPEAKER_00: I didn't, you know, if we were going to run, you know, I may have wanted to run, but if Coach Landry had called a pass, I had to pass.
21:16
SPEAKER_00: I may have wanted to pass, but if he called a run, we had to run.
21:19
SPEAKER_00: And I realized it just came down to the fact that he was going to call the plays, and I simply needed to respond to what he said.
21:27
SPEAKER_00: And that's that's why, of course, Saul got rejected, because he was running his own plays.
21:33
SPEAKER_00: And in an amazing, you know, nearly down at the bottom of the darkness in chapter 28, he goes and visits a witch.
21:42
SPEAKER_00: Saul visits a necromancer and asks him to call up Samuel from the grave.
21:46
SPEAKER_00: Samuel's dead now.
21:47
SPEAKER_00: And of all things, Samuel seems to come up and says, Why have you disturbed me?
21:52
SPEAKER_00: Saul goes, I'm in serious trouble.
21:55
SPEAKER_00: Philistines are fighting against me, and God's not talking to me, doesn't answer me anymore.
22:00
SPEAKER_00: So I've called on you.
22:01
SPEAKER_00: Tell me what I should do.
22:04
SPEAKER_00: Samuel says, Since the Lord's turned away from you, it's become your enemy.
22:08
SPEAKER_00: Why are you asking me?
22:10
SPEAKER_00: The Lord has done exactly what he said through me.
22:13
SPEAKER_00: He's torn the kingship out of your hand, given it to your neighbor David.
22:16
SPEAKER_00: You didn't obey the Lord.
22:17
SPEAKER_00: And this doesn't make it any better, going to witches.
22:19
SPEAKER_00: That's not the right thing to do.
22:21
SPEAKER_00: Therefore, the Lord's done this to you today.
22:23
SPEAKER_00: The Lord will also hand Israel over to the Philistines along with you.
22:25
SPEAKER_00: Tomorrow you and your sons will be with me.
22:27
SPEAKER_00: And so you have this parallel where Eli and his sons die on the same day, Saul and his sons die on the same day at the end of the book, as if to say, listen, do you realize that even though the Lord may have blessed you by choosing you and picking you for his team, if you decide that it's all about you and you're going to disobey and run your own place and walk in independence from him, that he's going to bench you and maybe worse.
22:53
SPEAKER_00: But the great news for you, I hope, and for me, is that he will then replace on the floor those players with the humble who share his heart.
23:03
SPEAKER_00: Back to Hannah's prayer in chapter two.
23:05
SPEAKER_00: The Lord brings poverty and gives wealth.
23:09
SPEAKER_00: He humbles and he exalts.
23:11
SPEAKER_00: He raises the poor from the dust.
23:13
SPEAKER_00: He lifts the needy from the garbage pile.
23:15
SPEAKER_00: He seats them in the noblemen and gives them a throne of honor.
23:17
SPEAKER_00: In other words, he takes the people at the end of the bench or even farther, and he puts them out there on the floor.
23:24
SPEAKER_00: Now, theologians call this, uh, Old Testament theologists call this a reversal of fortune.
23:30
SPEAKER_00: You know, I have arrows here on the screen.
23:32
SPEAKER_00: And you can see that the whole book, this is maybe the major sub-sub-theme of the book, is that God loves to move down the proud people on top and bring the people off the bench who are humble and patient and waiting to play.
23:47
SPEAKER_00: Paninna, chapters one and two, uh the the the first wife's got about ten children, but she's arrogant.
23:53
SPEAKER_00: She makes Hannah's life miserable.
23:55
SPEAKER_00: Hannah is barren.
23:56
SPEAKER_00: God switches them around, puts Hannah on top, gives her a child.
24:00
SPEAKER_00: Chapters two and three, Eli and sons, they head down, Samuel heads up.
24:04
SPEAKER_00: The Philistines, who've captured the ark and are winning, they're on top.
24:09
SPEAKER_00: No, that all changes in chapters four through seven.
24:12
SPEAKER_00: Saul, chapters eight through thirty-one, takes a dive and David replaces him.
24:17
SPEAKER_00: So you have a sort of a reversing places thing going on here.
24:21
SPEAKER_00: The starting lineup all goes to the bench, and the bench all gets into the starting lineup.
24:27
SPEAKER_00: Isn't that great?
24:29
SPEAKER_00: So the question is, are you one of the humble who's on the bench?
24:33
SPEAKER_00: Lord said to Eli, I'm going to raise up a faithful priest for myself who will do whatever's in my heart and mind.
24:40
SPEAKER_00: Chapter 2, verse 35.
24:43
SPEAKER_00: And Samuel is that person.
24:46
SPEAKER_00: Because when the Lord comes to Samuel, the boy says, Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.
24:53
SPEAKER_00: Not arrogant, he's a servant.
24:55
SPEAKER_00: And in chapter uh chapter 13, in this key verse of the book, in my view, the prophet says to King Saul, Your kingdom's done for.
25:05
SPEAKER_00: The Lord has sought out a man after his own heart, and the Lord has commanded him to be prince over his people.
25:12
SPEAKER_00: Who's he talking about?
25:14
SPEAKER_00: He's talking about King David.
25:16
SPEAKER_00: You realize that there's more in the Bible on David than any other person, including Jesus?
25:21
SPEAKER_00: Four books of the Bible that tell about him.
25:23
SPEAKER_00: He wrote 73 at least of the 150 hymns in Israel's hymnal, known as the book of Psalms.
25:32
SPEAKER_00: It was said once of Caesar Augustus that he found Rome in brick and he turned it into marble.
25:38
SPEAKER_00: David did even better.
25:39
SPEAKER_00: He found Israel a garbage heap and he turned it into something glorious.
25:44
SPEAKER_00: He was this remarkable, incredible character.
25:47
SPEAKER_00: He was, in effect, the ideal king.
25:50
SPEAKER_00: The ideal king, it's backing off just a little bit to give you two and a half minutes of something you'd learn in seminary, perhaps.
25:57
SPEAKER_00: The ideal king had there were three things about every an ideal king in those days.
26:01
SPEAKER_00: He was chosen, he was gifted, and he was godly.
26:04
SPEAKER_00: The first two come from God, the third comes from us.
26:07
SPEAKER_00: He was chosen.
26:09
SPEAKER_00: That is, God, we've talked about this already.
26:11
SPEAKER_00: God selected him.
26:13
SPEAKER_00: Just as God selected you, God selected each of the kings.
26:18
SPEAKER_00: The prophet was the evidence.
26:21
SPEAKER_00: The prophet anointed him, evidence that God chose him.
26:25
SPEAKER_00: Okay, that was basic.
26:27
SPEAKER_00: And that doesn't mean that he was something incredible.
26:30
SPEAKER_00: I love what Francis of Assisi said.
26:32
SPEAKER_00: Why do you think God chose you?
26:34
SPEAKER_00: I think God said, according to St.
26:36
SPEAKER_00: Francis, I think God said, I must find me the weakest, most puny, and helpless of humans.
26:42
SPEAKER_00: Ah, there he is, Francis.
26:44
SPEAKER_00: I'll use him because he'll not think it was him, but all me.
26:50
SPEAKER_00: So the first element of the three of an ideal king or an ideal leader or an ideal Christian today is that he's chosen.
26:59
SPEAKER_00: Secondly, he's gifted.
27:00
SPEAKER_00: And you find this, uh, it's not one of the major themes in these books, but he had a what we call charisma.
27:06
SPEAKER_00: That is, either you call a spiritual gift, you call it natural gifts.
27:10
SPEAKER_00: It's uh, and God always gave gifts when he chose.
27:16
SPEAKER_00: There were some people like King Omri of the northern kingdom who were extremely gifted, but he was not chosen by God.
27:22
SPEAKER_00: God chose the first three kings, Saul, David, Solomon, and then when the kingdom split, he chose all of the kings of Judah in the south, but few of the kings of the north, he says later in Amos or Hosea, he says they chose their own kings.
27:36
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
27:37
SPEAKER_00: But in the south, he chose all those kings and he chose David, and David was one of the most gifted guys you can imagine.
27:44
SPEAKER_00: He st he he started uh uh he regulated commerce in Israel.
27:49
SPEAKER_00: He uh he he he he made uh uh he he appointed uh uh uh uh a cabinet member of Archite uh of agriculture to make sure that the uh that that everything was governed.
28:03
SPEAKER_00: He was this incredible statesman who uh who had an army of 285,000 soldiers and by the end of his time he controlled more of Western Asia than anyone else.
28:13
SPEAKER_00: He was uh he he fostered the arts and culture.
28:17
SPEAKER_00: Uh he we're even told that he invented musical instruments, started a choir and so forth.
28:22
SPEAKER_00: Amazingly gifted.
28:23
SPEAKER_00: In fact, a guy who hardly knew him, and first this is in 1 Samuel 16, recommends him to Saul, saying these words.
28:30
SPEAKER_00: Saul said, I'm uh freaking out here.
28:33
SPEAKER_00: Would you choose me a man skilled in playing the harp and bring him to me?
28:37
SPEAKER_00: One of the young men said, I've seen a son of Jesse the Bethlehemite.
28:40
SPEAKER_00: He's skilled in music, he's a valiant fellow and a warrior, prudent in speech, a handsome man, and the Lord's with him.
28:46
SPEAKER_00: David was amazingly gifted, and this was the evidence that God had chosen him.
28:52
SPEAKER_00: But third, third, and this is our responsibility.
28:56
SPEAKER_00: He was godly.
28:56
SPEAKER_00: And what I mean by that today, I could say obedience, I could say submission, but in 1 Samuel, it seems to have to do with the heart.
29:04
SPEAKER_00: His heart, my heart.
29:08
SPEAKER_00: God's heart, my heart.
29:11
SPEAKER_00: And God's looking for people, he's looking in their hearts.
29:16
SPEAKER_00: So you have this great verse Lord doesn't see as man sees.
29:19
SPEAKER_00: For man looks on the outward appearance.
29:21
SPEAKER_00: Where does the Lord look?
29:22
SPEAKER_00: He looks on the heart.
29:23
SPEAKER_00: And what is he seeking for?
29:25
SPEAKER_00: Is he looks in the heart?
29:27
SPEAKER_00: He's looking for people after his heart.
29:30
SPEAKER_00: The Lord has sought out a man after his own heart.
29:33
SPEAKER_00: Chapter 13, 40.
29:34
SPEAKER_00: He's looking in your heart, he's looking in my heart right now.
29:37
SPEAKER_00: That's what he cares about.
29:39
SPEAKER_00: And when he found David, we're told this in the New Testament, Acts 13.
29:45
SPEAKER_00: God raised up David to be their king.
29:48
SPEAKER_00: Because he said, I found David, the son of Jesse, a man after my own heart.
29:56
SPEAKER_00: And that's what David is known by, right?
29:58
SPEAKER_00: He's known as a man after God's own heart.
30:02
SPEAKER_00: And you can see it as David stands there before Goliath, you can see it oozing out of this young man.
30:07
SPEAKER_00: He says, You've come against me with a dagger, spear, and sword.
30:10
SPEAKER_00: I come against you in the name of Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel's armies.
30:14
SPEAKER_00: You've defied him.
30:17
SPEAKER_00: Then today the Lord will hand you over to me, and all the world will know that Israel has a God, and this whole assembly will know it's not by sword or spear, the Lord says, for the battle is the Lord's.
30:27
SPEAKER_00: You can tell that this young man has a heart that loves God, that cares for God, that thinks about God.
30:35
SPEAKER_00: Later on in his life, he's greatly distressed.
30:38
SPEAKER_00: Chapter 30.
30:40
SPEAKER_00: People are talking about stoning him.
30:42
SPEAKER_00: What did he do?
30:43
SPEAKER_00: He strengthened himself in the Lord as God, because he has a heart after God.
30:47
SPEAKER_00: And even later, by the way, as he's dying, almost dying, some of his last words to his son Solomon, 1 Chronicles 28, 9.
30:55
SPEAKER_00: Listen to what he says.
30:56
SPEAKER_00: He says, You, my son Solomon, know the God of your father and serve him with a whole heart and a willing mind, for the Lord searches every heart and understands the intention of every thought.
31:11
SPEAKER_00: God chooses the ideal king and today the ideal leader and the ideal Christian on the basis of three things.
31:18
SPEAKER_00: He chooses us, he gives us.
31:20
SPEAKER_00: If you trusted Christ, those two things are givens.
31:25
SPEAKER_00: But the third is not a given, it's your response to him.
31:28
SPEAKER_00: The question is, are you godly?
31:29
SPEAKER_00: And in terms of 1 Samuel, is his heart your heart?
31:34
SPEAKER_00: I, the Lord, search the heart, he says, and test the mind to give to each man according to his way.
31:42
SPEAKER_00: You're chosen, you're gifted.
31:45
SPEAKER_00: The question is, where's your heart?
31:47
SPEAKER_00: Notice that it's not something about a performance standard.
31:49
SPEAKER_00: He's not saying, okay, you've got to stay inside the fences here.
31:52
SPEAKER_00: You've got to, you know, stay away from the nasty nine or the filthy five or the dirty dozen.
31:58
SPEAKER_00: I mean, you gotta you gotta do these things and not do those other things.
32:01
SPEAKER_00: It's not that at all.
32:02
SPEAKER_00: The question is, where is your heart?
32:06
SPEAKER_00: Do you really care about the thing we're gonna discover next week, of course, in 2 Samuel?
32:12
SPEAKER_00: David, I mean, he does something kind of naughty.
32:15
SPEAKER_00: A couple things.
32:16
SPEAKER_00: But he's still called a man after God's own heart.
32:20
SPEAKER_00: And you can see it right in some of the hymns, some of the songs he wrote.
32:24
SPEAKER_00: As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, my God.
32:30
SPEAKER_00: Wow.
32:32
SPEAKER_00: Psalm 63.
32:33
SPEAKER_00: Oh God, you're my God.
32:35
SPEAKER_00: Early will I seek thee.
32:36
SPEAKER_00: My soul thirsts for thee, my flesh longs for thee in a dry and thirsty land where no water is.
32:41
SPEAKER_00: When things are really hard, when things are really dry, when I'm depressed, when I'm tired, and everything else.
32:46
SPEAKER_00: It's you that I go to.
32:48
SPEAKER_00: I pant for you, I long for you.
32:50
SPEAKER_00: Clearly, God doesn't always throw water down on him, does he?
32:55
SPEAKER_00: Because he's still in the dry and thirsty land.
32:57
SPEAKER_00: But he doesn't stop searching after God because his heart is God's heart.
33:02
SPEAKER_00: He says elsewhere, I couldn't even go to sleep at night because the ark of God was far from Jerusalem.
33:08
SPEAKER_00: This is a guy who couldn't go to sleep at night without what we're talking about.
33:12
SPEAKER_00: We're talking about praying and having a quiet time.
33:14
SPEAKER_00: He couldn't do it.
33:16
SPEAKER_00: Why?
33:16
SPEAKER_00: Not because there was some rule, like a devotion a day keeps the devil away.
33:20
SPEAKER_00: He does it because this is where his heart is.
33:24
SPEAKER_00: Because he can't stand not to.
33:27
SPEAKER_00: And so the question is if you and I will say what David himself says.
33:31
SPEAKER_00: Search me, O God, know my heart.
33:35
SPEAKER_00: Try me, know my thoughts, see if there is any wicked way in me and lead me in the way everlasting.
33:42
SPEAKER_00: Will you do that?
33:44
SPEAKER_00: Bow your head with me right now.
33:46
SPEAKER_00: Let's do that right now.
33:48
SPEAKER_00: Heavenly Father, we realize that you are the Almighty and the awesome and the sovereign King, and the choice is yours.
33:55
SPEAKER_00: Choice is definitely yours.
33:58
SPEAKER_00: We thank you also for gifting us and giving us uh spiritual gifts, but we know that uh we are not guaranteed anything.
34:06
SPEAKER_00: There's a tendency we have to get proud and full of ourselves and think it's all about us and not about you.
34:11
SPEAKER_00: And thank you for the warning in this book that you will bench us, you will move us to the side, you will not play us if we do not follow you and if we think it's all about us, and if we go our own way.
34:26
SPEAKER_00: But on the other hand, you will raise us off the bench and you'll give us a real role in your kingdom and advancing your cause.
34:35
SPEAKER_00: If only we'll have a heart for you.
34:37
SPEAKER_00: Would you search us this morning, oh God?
34:39
SPEAKER_00: Would you know our hearts?
34:42
SPEAKER_00: Test us.
34:44
SPEAKER_00: Let us know, Lord, if we have wandered from you.
34:50
SPEAKER_00: And we have, Lord.
34:52
SPEAKER_00: We realize we have.
34:53
SPEAKER_00: This last week.
34:54
SPEAKER_00: We we have not done as we ought and we have left undone things that we ought to have done.
35:03
SPEAKER_00: We let you know, Heavenly Father, we do have a heart for you.
35:08
SPEAKER_00: We long for you, we hunger for you, we love you, we love being here, we love singing songs of praise to you like David did.
35:16
SPEAKER_00: Please, please cover over our sins.
35:19
SPEAKER_00: Forgive us of our guilt, search us, and lead us in the way everlasting.
35:26
SPEAKER_00: In Jesus' name, God's people said.
35:30
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
35:32
SPEAKER_00: Thanks for coming.