The Church of Eleven22 - Wk 8: Me First

Episode Date: June 16, 2019

We don’t come to Jesus on our own terms and conditions. We either surrender to the Lordship of Christ or reject Him. Negotiating is not an option. God will not be second. Click the 1 Samuel Resources tab for the full study journal, summary recap videos and more.

Amen, amen. Morning church, how are we doing? Good? Good. Man, if you have your Bibles, grab them. We're going to be in 1st Samuel chapter 15. As you well know, we are in a verse by verse, chapter by chapter Bible study through the book of the Old Testament book of 1st Samuel.

And we're going to continue in that today in week 8, 1st Samuel 15. As you grab your journals or your scriptures wherever you have them, you're going to open them up and you're going to go, oh, wow, that's a lot of Bible verses. And you were correct, my friends. 35 of them to be exact. And so today we're going to do 35 verses in about 40 minutes. And so we're going to do just some straight up Bible study today, word by word, verse by verse.

I currently, just so that we're all on the same page here, I currently hold the record for the longest sermon ever preached from this stage, and I hold the record for the shortest sermon ever preached from this stage. I will be breaking neither of those records today. And so some of you are like, thank you, Lord. All right, here we go. Let's dive in. 1, 1st Samuel, chapter 15, verse 1.

This is straight Bible study going at it today. Verse 1, here it says, and Samuel, the prophet, said to Saul, the king. The Lord sent me to anoint you king over his people Israel. That word anoint you're going to want to underline or circle or whatever it is you do. That word anoint is an incredibly important opportunity for us as we look down a really meaty script. today, a meaty passage. Whenever you're doing Bible study, one of the things you want to do to the best of your ability is to start with the end in mind. God allows for us to do that with

this word anoint. You see in the Old Testament, there were certain offices as assigned by God or special assignments that God would give people that he would anoint them for and appoint them to. And this would be some of the prophets, the priests were anointed, and the kings were anointed, and so they were assigned especially by God for a thing, and then they were given favor in order to accomplish that thing. This word anoint, the root word of it in Hebrew, is the same root word as the New Testament in Greek word for Messiah. And so right out of the gate, we see that, yes, the events that we're about to read through of Saul and Samuel and chronicled in the life and the history of the nation of Israel are incredibly important, and

God will speak through them, but they're pointing to a greater truth to a greater reality, which is that one day a Messiah would come, and he would be the greater prophet, the greater priest, and the greater king. And so that is where we're headed. Samuel says to Saul, the Lord sent me to anoint you king over Israel. Now, therefore, listen to the words of the Lord. This word, listen. It means something to us as a church.

It means something to us, because we've been wrestling with this for months via the means of Deuteronomy chapter 6. verse four, it's known as the Shama, where Moses says to Israel, he says, hear, oh, Israel, Shama, oh, Israel, listen, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. That's right. And we have been asking the question, God, are you the one thing that drives everything in our lives? This question, the firstness of God, God being the one thing that drives everything, that is not new to us. That is something that God has been doing in his people for a long time. And Samuel is reminding Saul that there is a condition to his anointing.

And the condition of his anointing is that he listened. Ultimately, Samuel is saying, Saul, you have one job. One job, and that job is to listen and obey the words of the Lord. Verse 2, thus says the Lord of Host. I have noted what Amalek did to Israel in opposing them, on the way when they came up out of Egypt. And so one has to ask, well, if God has noted what they did, then what did they do? So turn with me to Exodus Chapter 17, verses 8 through 16.

I'm going to summarize it, and then we're going to read a couple of verses from Exodus 17. They're going to kind of help us make our way through the rest of the passage. In summary, here's the things you want to note. One, the Melichites, Amalek, and his people, they were predators. These were awful, awful people. And they attacked Israel in this really vulnerable state. You know this, but the story of Israel is that they were for hundreds of years. They lived under the oppressive regime of a tyrant named Pharaoh in Egypt.

And they were abused, they were mistreated, they were murdered, they were taken advantage of. And after hundreds of years of this mistreatment, God decisively acts on the nation of Israel's behalf. And he does this through warnings to Pharaoh. and then plagues, and then he does it through the Passover. And finally, after the Passover, Pharaoh's will breaks, and he lets the nation of Israel go free. And so they take off, and it's just a minute, and then Pharaoh is chasing them with his armies,

and eventually Pharaoh leads himself and his men to terrible demise, where they drown in the Red Sea, and the nation of Israel crosses over safely to the other side. Now, when they cross over safely to the other side, they had been there for like a hot minute. And then the Amalekites, they see an opportunity to extort Israel in their weakness. And so in this homeless state, this wandering state, this helpless state, they're hungry. They are brand new in this land.

The Amalekites attack Israel, exploiting them in their weakness. Any time the strong exploit the weak, this is something God takes incredibly seriously. and so a battle breaks out. Joshua and the armies of Israel, they begin to fight back against the armies of the Amalekites. And then you see this really epic scene in the Bible where Moses is standing on this hillside and he's holding a rod above his head.

And when he would hold the rod up, then God would supercharge the nation of Israel and they would fight back the Amalekites. But when Moses' arms would get tired, then the Amalekites would begin to win against the Israelites. And this back and forth went on for, for a while until Moses' brother Aaron and her, another guy, comes and helps Moses keep his arms raised up high. And eventually, through God's provision and supercharging, Israel defeats the Amalekites and the Amalekites retreat.

All right. I felt like the soundtrack to Rudy should have been playing just now. You know what I mean? Like, that's some Bible history in like three minutes. So battle breaks out, battle ends. And this is what God says to Moses in Exodus 1714. Then the Lord said to Moses, write this as a memorial in a book and recite it in the years of Joshua, that I will utterly blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven.

And Moses built an altar and called the name of it. The Lord is my banner saying, A hand upon the throne of the Lord. The Lord will have war with Amalek from generation to generation. And so God says to Moses, Israel and the Amalekites are going to be. at war until I decide that it's over for the Amalekites. What God is saying is that ultimately I will decisively act in order to protect my children from those who seek to hurt them.

So fast forward hundreds of years and the Amalekites time has come. Verse three, now go and strike Amalek and devote to destruction all that they have. Do not spare them but both kill man and woman, child and infant, ox and sheep, camel, and donkey. that's a tough verse. It's just a tough verse. There's no way around it. And if you were a student of Bible study, you know that there are times specifically in the Old Testament

or in the book of Revelation where you run into these verses that are just hard to get your head around in modern times based on what's happening in ancient civilizations. And it's just hard for us to really wrap our head around. And so I've been doing this church thing for a minute. And I've seen many pastors and many Bible teachers try to handle things a different way.

And there's kind of been three different approaches that I've seen in my life to how people handle verses when they come upon them that they just don't necessarily have a category to understand. And the first thing you'll see people do is they'll just try to explain it away. They'll just say things like, well, God didn't mean what he said or God's not like that anymore. He's different now. And when you hear this kind of thing, as a listener, you've got to dig into that a little

bit because there is a chance that what they mean is that to, Today we have the luxury of living in the fullness of time. It's 2019, where 2,000 some odd years removed from Jesus Christ dying on the cross. And when Jesus died on the cross, it ushered in a new covenant era, meaning that we see the full justice of God displayed in and through the cross of Jesus Christ for sin. And we see the full measure of God's love on display, meaning that God will decisively act to protect his children from all kinds of things. And so we see that in and through Jesus Christ. And because of Jesus Christ's death on the cross and the final atonement, the full sacrifice, things are different now. And so if that's what you mean, then praise God.

Let's sit down. Let's have a coffee. Let's celebrate all the victories of Jesus Christ on the cross. That'd be awesome. But that's not what I'm talking about. I just thought I'd bring it up. That's not what I'm talking about. What I am talking about is that sometimes people will try to unsay what God has said.

They'll try to unsay what God has said. and this is a dangerous and slippery slope into cultural idolatry and ultimately into heresy, which ends in a place that nobody wants to go. So they try to explain it away. And this is really pretty predominant in the North American church right now, is they just ignore it. They just ignore it. A rampant approach to church these days is to just cherry-pick the Bible verses that you like,

and then the ones that look good on a bumper sticker, and then tell them to everybody and then go about your way. the reason that this breaks my heart, and it really does break my heart, the reason it breaks my heart is because I think the reason people do this, and this is my opinion, so bear with me. I think the reason that people do this is because at the core of it, they're making a false assumption about why people come to church. And I think that sometimes people think that the primary reason people come to church

is because they want to be placated with niceties, or they want to be pandered to, or they're just trying to get some kind of quick religious, pick me up and go on about their way. But my experience tells me something altogether different. Now, look, I'm normally not up here 45 weekends a year, and you're like, praise God. But, hey, normally I'm not. Normally, I'm out there with you, with my notes open, and I'm listening to Pastor Jobi, teach, and preach.

And here's what my experience tells me. My experience tells me that the fundamental reason people come to church is because they want to know God. They want to know God. They want to know what he's like. They want to know what is true. They know that this world is broken. They know that things are not the way that they should be. And that there has to be a greater purpose and there has to be a greater meaning to it all.

And that that meaning can only be found in God. Well, the only way to understand who God is and what God wants is through His Word. And so sometimes you got to put your gloves on and you've got to dig into what's God saying in his word in order to understand the full counsel of God. Which leads me to what we're going to do today, the third approach. When we come to things in Scripture that are just hard to write. wrap our head around is to contextualize it in order to understand it. This is the way to go. You're going to write that down in your notes. Contextualize it in order to understand it. It requires some thinking. It requires some understanding of the bigger story of God as revealed in

Scripture specifically in the Old Testament. Now, I know when you're doing Bible study on your own, you may come across some of these. And so for the next like three minutes, I want to give you some tools to better understand the Old Testament so that when you come across these decisive actions, or you come across these things that just don't make a whole lot of sense, you have a little more context in order to understand them. The Old Testament is the testimony of God's redemptive work, sequential work in history, as majority played out through his relationship with the Hebrew people. So God is in a relationship with the Hebrew people.

This is the nation of Israel. This relationship plays out through what is known as a series of covenants. These are promises made between God and Israel. There is a foundational covenant, a foundational agreement or promise that God makes to the Hebrew people. And it's found when God looks at them and he says, I will be your God and you will be my people. This is known as an identity covenant. God changes the nation of Israel's identity.

He says you are no longer just a people on the earth. You are my people. You are now my children. And I take and accept full responsibility for you, regardless of your behavior. You are mine. And I am going to show my glory to you, namely through the law of Moses.

And I am going to show my glory through you, which is through your adherence to the law. This identity covenant was unconditional. Forever the Hebrew people's identity. has been changed. They are no longer just people on the earth. They are God's children. Now, in a New Testament era, we

celebrate this. This is really good news because we know via the means of texts like Galatians chapter 5 and Romans 9, 10, and 11 that God has extended this new identity to all people who would place their faith in Jesus Christ as the king of the universe

and their personal Lord and Savior. So anyone who by faith comes to Jesus Christ, and surrenders to him as Lord, they receive this unconditional identity, that they are no longer just a people, they are now a child of God, sons and daughters of the most high king. This is really good news, amen. This is good news. This is New Testament, though, and you're like, we're talking about the Old Testament.

I know, I know, it's just such good news. I had to get there for like a second. All right. So foundational covenant identity. On top of that identity covenant, there are these other covenants that are more conditional. They're more blessing-based and they're more activity-based, for example. When the Israelites cross into the land of Canaan, which is known as the promised land, God says, I will give you this land, and I will bless you in it.

You will flourish in this land if you do the things that I say. So if you obey the law, you will be blessed. If you don't, if you blend faith with outsiders, if you worship idols, then you will be choosing for yourself to step out from underneath, My blessing, and that comes with great consequence. So covenant, identity covenant, unconditional. Blessing and activity, blessing covenants, more conditional. All right?

So why does this matter? Why does understanding the covenants matter when studying the old Bible? Here's why. Number one, the covenants teach us that God always has the good of his children in mind. God always has the good of his children in mind. He sees what we do not. Isaiah 55, verse 8 and 9 says that God's ways are higher than our ways, that his thoughts are higher than our thoughts.

Any time that God decisively acts on behalf of his kids in the Old Testament, whether that be through floods, through plagues, through the Passover, or through holy war like we see here in 1 Samuel, Chapter 15, anytime that God decisively acts on behalf of his kids, he does so with the immediate and the generational good of his children in mind. God always has the good of his children in mind. That's the first reason understanding the covenants matters. And a second reason is that God speaks in order to be understood, that God wants to be

understood. The theologians have called this truth about God for many, many. years, it's known as divine accommodation. Did you know that the Bible is ultimately an ultimate form of divine accommodation, meaning that God wants us to understand him. Therefore, he gave us his word. Did you know that God's first language is not English? Shaka. Right? His first language is not English, but through history and through the work of His Holy Spirit, he has inspired for us a word and made it available to us so that we can know who he is and what he wants. The best way to understand divine accommodation is it's like a parenting tactic.

You do this with your kids all the time. And so I do it with my daughters. I have two little girls, eight and five. And I have this regular routine that I do with them. And ultimately the goal of this routine is to give my kids some handles in order to understand the Bible. And so that as they mature, they have a decent foundation upon which to to understand the story of God. And so regularly, I wouldn't say nightly, but regularly, I'll sit with them and I'll ask a series of questions.

And so the other night I was sitting with my five-year-old Abigail, and I begin this routine. And I'm like, Abigail, how many parts are in the Bible? And she's like, oh, dad. Because she's five years old, right? So everything's super dramatic. And she's like, I'm like, no, how many parts? And she's like, two, dad. And I'm like, what are they called?

She's like, the Old Testament and the New Testament. That's right, Abigail. What are they about? Well, the Old Testament tells us that Jesus is coming, and the New Testament tells us that Jesus is here. Who is Jesus, Abigail? Jesus is God's son. I'm like, don't sound so excited.

And she's like, and I'm like, well, what did Jesus do for us? He died on the cross for our sins. What is sin? Abigail, sin is the stuff that people do that breaks God's heart. You see what I'm doing? I'm taking these cosmically universal unearthing truths. These things are

this is the most important information in the history of the world. It is both incredibly available and incredibly mysterious. And I'm trying to take these cosmic revelations of God and I'm trying to put them in sentences that my 5-year-old

can begin to wrap her head around. When I do it, is known as parental accommodation. When God does it, it's called divine. And so God wants to be understood. He speaks in a language in which we can understand him. My five-year-old, she speaks hugs and kisses and rocking chairs at night. Agag and the king of the Amalekites? Not so much.

They speak violence and war. They, like Pharaoh, have chosen for themselves their preferred language, which is displayed time and time again in their outright rebellion against God and their persistent attacks on God's people. So in order to protect God's children, Israel, God decisively speaks on their behalf to Agag and the Amalekites in a way in which they would understand. Verse four. So Saul summoned the people and numbered them and Tel Aim.

200,000 men on foot and 10,000 men of Judah. And Saul came to the city of Amalek and lay in weight in the valley. It's on right here. William Wallace, front lines, battle, long spears, it's going down, right here. And then Saul said to the Kenites, go depart, go down from among the Amalekites, lest I destroy you with them, for you showed kindness to all the people of Israel when they came up out of Egypt. So the Kenites departed from among the Amalekites. The keynites are more or less Moses' in-laws.

And a few different times throughout Israel's history, specifically when they were in this really weak and vulnerable state, the Keenites showed kindness to them. And so ultimately what's happening here is that the righteous acts of this generation of Keynites, grandparents, grandparents, grandparents, that their righteous acts were now their current blessing. And so they were getting set free by Saul because of the righteous deeds of their grandparents. And then verse 7, and Saul defeated the Amalekites from Havela as far as Shure, which is east of Egypt. And this is where you hear Freddie Prince in the background.

and we are the champions breaking out, and the nation of Israel are rolling around on their camels and 22s, and they're throwing wine all over everybody, and it is a huge, huge party. Some of y'all are trying to figure out camels and 22s. Don't even worry about it. You just do you. Verse 8.

So everything's going good for like a verse. Verse 8. And Saul took Agag, the king of the Amalekites alive. And this is why you put your hands on your face and you go, why, Saul? And then he devoted to destruction all the people with the edge of the sword. But Saul and the people spared Agag and the best of the sheep and of the oxen and of the fat and calves and the lambs and all that was good, it would not utterly destroy them. All that was despised and worthless, they devoted to destruction.

So Saul had one job which was to Shama to listen, and Saul did not listen. He only kind of listened. at first glance you would read this text and you'd think man what's the big deal he pretty much did most of it but it is partial obedience and partial obedience is disobedience there is god's will god's way and then there is everything else this is why jesus had to be perfect have you ever asked yourself why did jesus have to live perfectly i mean why did he have to be sinless well this is this is why in order for a perfect and holy God, to have an abiding and eternal relationship with sinners. People who were less than perfect and less than holy than someone had to come along and live life in the way that God originally

intended it to be lived, which is without sin. And so Jesus had to be perfectly obedient so that God's children by faith could be perfected. This is good news. So Jesus did God's will, God's way, perfectly. Saul? Not so much. The word of the Lord came to Samuel. I regret that I've made Saul King for he has turned back from following me and has not performed my commandments. And Samuel was angry and he cried to the Lord all night. It's important to note this is not Saul's first round on the old disobedience train. This is not the first time that he had blatantly acted in disobedience to God's word. It's not like he just, just slipped up. This was a habitual

repeated pattern. Up into this point, in 1 Samuel 15, there are at least five major acts of blatant disobedience on Saul's behalf. And regardless of the warnings or regardless of the consequences, Saul continued his habitual and repeated

behavior. And as a result of Saul's rebellion, we see some serious emotion going on in this text. We see it on behalf of God. God who is never surprised. God who knew this day was coming, even with his divine foreknowledge, we see the father heart of God beating with sorrow over the actions of Saul. And God, he feels like any good dad would feel when they're watching their

kid throw blessings away. And then Saul's brother in arms, Samuel, they were supernaturally knit. They had been through some ties that bind. He is feeling these incredibly pointed emotions of anger and sadness and sorrow. I mean, have you ever been there? Have you ever been in a place where someone you love? And someone you have deep, close relationship with seemingly cannot get out of their own way. They just somehow keep making these decisions, prioritizing their own ego or whatever it is over and over and over and over again, no matter how destructive these patterns of behavior are.

They just can't get out of their own way. this is what Samuel is feeling toward his brother in arms Saul and so Samuel cries to the Lord all night and Samuel verse 12 rose early to meet Saul in the morning and it was told Samuel

Samuel came to Carmel it was told Samuel Saul came to Carmel and behold he set up a monument for himself and turned and passed and went on down to Gilgau Saul set a monument up for himself

Now listen, this is not a good idea for anybody. But it's specifically not a good idea for the king of Israel. Like you do not build monuments to yourself. Saul was living a me first life. Not a God first life. He was living a me first life and it began to come out in his actions. Why does this matter? What's the big deal?

Well, we know as a church through both the before all things, things journey and as we're wrestling in the one initiative, we know these things to be true. We know this truth to be revealed to us, which is that God is first. It is where God has placed himself. He is first. He doesn't do second. He won't do second. If he ever did do

second, then he would no longer be God. God is first. And wherever God is first, God's people flourish. Wherever anything else comes first, God's people fall. God's people struggle. this is the condition of Saul's heart. God is not first.

Verse 13, and Samuel came to Saul, and Saul said to him, blessed be you to the Lord, I have performed the commandment of the Lord. And Saul is saying, I did it. I did it. He didn't think Samuel knew the truth. And Samuel said, what then is this bleating of the sheep in my ears? What is the lowing of the oxen that I hear? This is what's going on here. You remember that time when you were 13, and you came home, and your dad was like, have you been smoking? And you were like, what?

No. What? And he's like, no, I mean, you smell like you took the pine tree car freshener and rubbed it all over you to cover up the smell of smoke. But it smells like, that's what you smell like. And you're like, oh, I don't know. That's what's going on here. That didn't happen to you? Oh, me either, so.

Don't worry about it. verse 15 Saul said they have brought them from the Amalekites for the people spared the best of the sheep and of the oxen to sacrifice to the Lord your God and the rest we have devoted to

destruction Saul's lying this is not the truth this is half the truth and the only people who think half truths aren't lies are the people telling them and so there's two things that stand out in this and Saul's

testimony here one what does he say. He says, they have brought them from the Amalekites for the people. He's blame-shifting. He's abdicating his responsibility. He is completely shifting the blame to the people.

Blame-shifting has been around since the Garden of Eden. The second thing to point out is how does Saul identify God? He says what? He says they spared the best of the sheep and of the oxen to sacrifice to the Lord who? The Lord your God.

He doesn't say the Lord my God. He doesn't say the Lord our God. He says the Lord your God. God was not the one thing that drove everything in Saul's life, and it was beginning to come out of his mouth. And then Samuel said to Saul, stop, Saul. Just stop it. I will tell you what the Lord has said to me this night.

And Saul said, speak. And Samuel said, though you were little in your own eyes, Are you not the head of the tribes of Israel? The Lord anointed you king over Israel. What Samuel is saying is Saul, you're not a heathen. You're not a pagan. You're the king of Israel. God has given you a mantle of leadership.

He has trusted you with the leadership of his children. He has trusted you with his words and his law and his presence. And he has trusted you to lead the armies of Israel and to advance his kingdom all over the earth and to declare his glory to the world God has given you, Saul, a great opportunity, and it comes with great blessing, but it also comes with great responsibility. And if I'm honest, this speaks a word to me this Father's Day weekend.

Just like Saul was assigned a spiritual office by God, which is the king of Israel, I've been assigned a spiritual office by God, which is to be my kid's dad. We all have as fathers. But of all the people in the world that God could have picked to be the father of my children, he picked me. Why? I don't know. But it comes with great blessing, but also with great responsibility. You see, the role of dad is first and foremost a spiritual office as assigned by God. And so, therefore, living a life of integrity, it matters.

Living a life where we as dads put God first in our homes and put God first in our lives, it matters. It matters generationally. Now maybe more than ever, we need dads who are willing to be selfless on behalf of their families and who are willing to take responsibility for the discipleship and the care of their children. You know that we are committed as a church to raising up one more generation, to love God with all of their heart, with all of their soul, with all of their mind. and with all of their strength. And one of my prayers for us as a church is that God would do such a work in us

as we are committed to raising up one more generation that somehow God would see and bless our efforts to do this and that he would multiply it. And that we would no longer have fatherless generations, but we would have kids who know who God is and know that God loves them and God has a purpose for them and God wants to use them. And this is reinforced in the home by the fathers. I believe that being dad is an incredible responsibility, but it is also an incredible blessing.

God can do all of those things, whether a dad's in the home or not, but I believe dad plays a special part in the plan of God generationally. Generational. So, dads, I would encourage you with this. Every hug, every prayer, every word of encouragement, every point of biblical correction that you bring into your child's life, every time. every time you choose integrity over compromise, every time you choose health over momentary happiness, every time you choose selflessness over selfishness, it matters, Dad. It matters.

And you matter. You matter to God. God has a plan for your life and he has a plan for your fatherhood, no matter what has happened to this point. Through repentance and confession and being authentic with the Lord, God can and will use you in the life of your children. You matter, Dad. I pray that you are walking in the blessings of God.

I pray that you are walking out what it means faithfully to be a father. I pray that all of those things are true for you. And I pray that because of that, that your wife will give you a big, fat, wet, inappropriate kiss in the most public place for God's glory. And you're good. Amen. You're welcome. Verse 18. And the Lord sent you on a mission and said, go to vote to destruction, the sinners, the Amalekites, and fight against them.

until they are consumed. Why then, Saul, did you not obey the voice of the Lord? Why did you pounce on the spoil and do what was evil in the side of the Lord? You had one job, Saul. All you had to do is Shama. And Saul said to Samuel, I have obeyed the voice of the Lord. I have gone on the mission on which the Lord sent me. And I have brought Agag, the king of Amalek, and I have devoted the Amalekites to destruction. But the people took of the spoil sheep and oxen, the best of thinking.

devoted to destruction, to sacrifice to the Lord your God in Gilgall. You ever try to talk yourself out of a mess? That's what Saul's doing. And Samuel said, Has the Lord as great delight in burn offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice and to listen than the fat of Rams.

For rebellion is as the sin of divination and presumption is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, He has also rejected you from being king. Saul ultimately forfeited God's favor in his life because he loved the wrong things. He loved the feeling of power. He loved the approval of the people. He loved his own accomplishments. He loved all of these things more than he loved God.

He prioritized the voice of his own ego and the people around him higher than he prioritized the desires of God. It's sad. This is a tragedy. This testimony of Israel's history, no matter the warnings, Saul chose to continue to disobey God and it cost him. It always does. Verse 24, Saul said to Samuel, I have sinned, for I have transgressed the commandment of the Lord and your words,

because I feared the people and obeyed their voice. Now therefore, please pardon my sin and return with me that I may bow before the Lord. And Samuel said to Saul, I will not return with you, for you have rejected the word of the Lord. And the Lord has rejected you from being king over Israel. And as Samuel turned to go away, Saul seized the skirt of his robe and it tore Saul's being like super dramatic now. And Samuel said to him, the Lord has torn the kingdom of Israel from you this day and has given it to a neighbor of yours who is better than you. and also the glory of Israel will not lie or have regret for he is not a man that he should have regret. Remember earlier when I said that God always has the good of his children in mind.

This is an example of that. God could not leave Saul as the king over Israel because Saul would only lead God's people away from God's heart. And so God removed his mantle of leadership and he gave it to another. a small shepherd boy from a little town called Bethlehem. In verse 30 it says this. And then he said, I have sinned. Saul's trying to save face here. I have sinned, yet honor me now before the elders of my people and before Israel

and return with me that I may bow before the Lord your God. He's still trapped in it. Verse 31. So Samuel turned back after Saul. and Saul bowed before the Lord. Now I know what you're sitting there thinking. You're thinking, where's Agag? Was that not what you were thinking?

Where is that dirty old Agag? I know he's not going to get away. That's what you're thinking. Well, he doesn't. Verse 32. And then Samuel said, Bring here to me Agag, the king of the Amalekites. And Agag came to him cheerfully.

And Agag says, surely the bitterness of death has passed. He's feeling good. He's seen a whole lot of stuff go down, and Agag's feeling like he skated on by, but no. In verse 33, and Samuel said, As your sword has made women childless, so shall your mother be childless among women.

And Samuel hacked Agag to pieces before the Lord in Gilgau. He talks about his mother, and then he cuts him into pieces. That's just what he does. You can't make this stuff up. He does. It's awful. Verse 34. And then Samuel went to Ramah, and Saul went up to his house in Ghibia of Saul.

And Samuel did not see Saul again until the day of his death. But Samuel grieved over Saul, and the Lord regretted that he had made Saul king over Israel. So we're there, my friends. That is 35 verses of Bible study in about 39 minutes. I don't know how it went for you, but for me, hard work. I'm just going to throw it out there. That is 35 verses of work, my friends. I feel like I'm about to catch a cramp right here in my hamstring, you know.

I say all that, and I really know what you're really thinking. What you're really thinking is Pastor Jobi must secretly hate Pastor Britt. In order to assign him these texts on a week where he's away leading a mission trip, these 35 verses, he must not like him. But don't think that. He loves me and I love him. Look, as meaty as this text is, and I've spent 50 plus hours working in it, no joke. As meaty as it is, I'm grateful for it.

Because God has been speaking a word to me as one of his kids for weeks and weeks now, which is simply this. Obedience matters. Obedience matters. Are we unconditionally accepted and grafted into the promise of the new covenant? Yes, absolutely. through Jesus Christ. When we place our faith in Him, we have a new identity, and that is unconditional.

But from this place of unconditional adoption, there is only one way to enjoy the promises of God, and that is through obedience. And so obedience matters, absolutely. And God has spoken to that to me in different areas of my life for weeks now. But on a deeper, more soul level, God has reminded me that there is a greater obedience. than mine that matters more than mine. That there is an obedience of a son to a father that is the ultimate obedience, that without the entire world is lost and hell has won.

But because Jesus Christ was obedient perfectly to the father's will, then we have overcome. You see that Jesus Christ is the greater prophet, He is the greater priest and he is the greater king. Listen, church, as awful as Agag is, there is an enemy far worse. He is the ultimate enemy of God and God's people. His primary weapon is lies and his goal is to suppress the truth of the word of God and to lead people to build monuments to themselves,

knowing that if he can get them trapped in the vicious cycle of selfishness, then ultimately that path will only lead. to destruction and he wants to trap them in this cycle with his lies and Jesus tells us in John chapter 10 verse 10 he tells us about this enemy he says that the enemy comes to steal to kill and to destroy but Jesus says I have come to give life and to give it to the full God knew that in order for his people his kids to experience his promises he was going to have to decisively act on their behalf. And he did. And he did. Jesus is the greater prophet. In 1 John chapter 3 verse 8, it says that the reason Jesus came into the world is to destroy

the works of the devil. Jesus prophetically declared the kingdom of God in his life and in his ministry. He, through preaching and miracles, showed us that God's kingdom is ultimately what we long for, that we spend so much time chasing the things of this world trying to fill voids in our soul when the truth is there is a greater purpose, there is a deeper purpose rooted in the love of God revealed to us through Jesus Christ. Jesus showed us that wherever God rules and God reigns,

then God's people flourish. He fulfilled all the conditions of all the covenants so that all of God's promises could be yes and amen for God's people in Jesus Christ. So now, by faith in Jesus, we stand as an unconditionally accepted child of God grafted into his promises forever and ever. Amen. This is why Jesus came into the world. He is the greater prophet. Jesus is also the greater priest. A priest's role in the Old Testament was to make sacrifices for the people and on the people's behalf in order that their sins could be forgiven. Jesus made the greatest sacrifice. He gave up his life.

He died as the ultimate sacrifice, and he chose to die in my place, in our place, so that our sins could forever be forgiven. He is our high priest from a perfect line of priest, and he has perfectly crossed every tea of every law and every eye of every covenant so that God's people can shine brightly for God's glory to all the nations forever and ever. He is our high priest. and he is also the greater king. Where every king has failed, where Saul failed, and every king has failed, Jesus has succeeded. When he died on the cross, he had a crown of thorns on his head, mocking his claim to be the king of kings, his claim to be the greatest king of the Jews. And he wore this crown of thorns humbly, knowing that a greater crown awaited.

He claimed Jesus gave up his life willfully, but he did. not stay dead. Amen, church. He rose from the grave. And when he did, he claimed victory over death, over hell, over sin, and over God, all of God's enemies forever and ever. Amen. Jesus has the total victory forever and ever. And King Jesus has established his kingdom on this earth, and he is pushing back the enemy. And one day we will see him again. He is on the move. and when we see him again he will finally destroy our enemy the enemy of God's people the ultimate

enemy of God and he will cast him into an eternal prison where he can no longer tempt or pray upon God's children. Jesus Christ is our greater prophet. He is the greater priest and he is the greatest king. Amen, church.

Amen. So I'll leave you with this. Our king has come. Amen church? and our king, he is coming again. Let's pray. Father, we love you. And we thank you for Jesus.

We thank you for what he has done on our behalf. We thank you that because of his and your decisive action on our behalf, that we are forever forgiven when we place our faith in you. Father, we thank you that all of your promises are yes and amen in Jesus. we thank you for your word for every letter for every verse for every whisper that is in the text of our great prophet and our great priest and our great king we thank you that you love us and that you do have a plan for our lives and father i pray that you would do such a work in us as a church that we would love you more than anything else and that that would not just be something

that we say but it would be actually something you have made true true of us and truth through us. Father, we pray that you would glorify yourself in us as a church and that we would exist for one thing, for one name, and His name is Jesus. We love you. And it's in Jesus's name, we pray. Amen. Amen.