[MUSIC PLAYING] Calvary Church is
dedicated to doctrine. And we want you to experience
the life change that comes from knowing God's word
and applying it to your life. So we explain the
Bible verse by verse, every chapter, every book. This is Expound. Good evening. What a gorgeous night
this turned out to be. I was worried a
little while ago, when they said it was going
to be 94, with particulate in the air from the
fire in Arizona, and that things are
heating up really bad. But I don't know. This feels pretty perfect to me. Yesterday, I was
in Dallas, Texas. And it was in mid-80s
with humidity. And it was, if you were to
be outside, intolerable. So I was just, boy, you
know. what a difference. We live in such a
great spot, don't we? Yes. Great weather. Well, we are in the
scriptures tonight in the book of 1 Samuel. So turn in your Bibles
to 1 Samuel, chapter 8. Even though I finished chapter
7, and I did that technically. I did it on a technicality. I'm going to dip
a little bit back into chapter 7 for context sake. And then we'll get
into chapter 8. It's a short chapter. And then we're going to
take the Lord's Supper as we end our time together. We'll have communion. And I love not only that
we're meeting outside. I love the fact that
we're having communion. I love the fact that
we just sang a song. And I hope you sang it with
great feeling and meaning. But it encapsulates right where
we are at in the scriptures. We said, Lord, send revival. Send it now. You've done it before. Do it again. And we're looking at a
particular portion of scripture where a revival in ancient
times, a spiritual revival, was taking place in
the land of Israel. Now, let me tell you a
story about a guy who was known for revivals. His name was Rodney
Smith, oh, a name you've probably not heard of. He's from England. He was born in 1860. He was born in
the Epping Forest, just north of London, England. And I mean not born in
a house in the forest. He was born in a forest. He was born in a tent. He was the son of gypsies. His father and mother
were both gypsies. They traveled around. There was a sizable and still
is a sizable gypsy population in the United Kingdom. And little Rodney was
born into that family. His mother was a staunch
believer in Christ. Dad had some problems
but eventually was converted himself. And little Rodney Smith was
converted to Christ at age 16. He eventually went by
the nickname Gypsy Smith. That's what he is
known by in most books. Gypsy Smith became a
preacher, a revivalist. In fact, he once met
William Booth, the founder of the Salvation Army. William Booth was so
impressed with young Rodney, that he asked Rodney to
be one of his preachers for the Salvation Army. So gypsy Smith saw enormous
crowds, saw lots of people make decisions for Christ. And once, somebody asked
him, what is the key? What is the secret
to seeing a revival? He said, if you want to see
a revival, go into your room, close the door, get a piece of
chalk, kneel down on the floor, and draw a circle around you. And then ask God to
revive everything on the inside of
that chalk line. When God answers your
prayer, revival is on. Let it begin with
you individually. You want to see revival? I do. I pray for it. But I realize I need to
pray that God would really revive me, make me
on fire for the Lord, not looking back to a time
when I used to be on fire, when I used to be walking
with the Lord, but praying that God
would revive everything on the inside of that circle. Well, this is happening in
this section of the Bible. And last time, we looked
at some key elements that was bringing that revival. First of all, the people
were restless for God. They were restless for God. It says that all of Israel
lamented after the Lord, that is, they longed for him. They wanted what
they once enjoyed. They yearned for revival. They were restless for the Lord. And then second, they were
receptive to the Lord. Samuel began to speak. As the people longed
for a revival, Samuel started
preaching to them, speaking to them the word. We're told in
chapter 7, verse 3, "Then Samuel spoke to
all the House of Israel." The third step in this revival
was repentance toward the Lord. We are told in the
following verses that Israel put away, or got rid of,
their worship of Baal, their worship of Ashteroth, all
the pagan gods and goddesses that they once prayed
to and sung songs to and gave sacrifices to. They got rid of them. Now we come to what might be
called a fourth key to revival. And that is they
rallied around the Lord. That is, they didn't
just pray for revival in the inside of the circle. They took what happened on
the inside of the circle and got together with other
insiders in a big group. They rallied together. They gathered together. It's important that we
gather together frequently. We're told in verse
5 of chapter 7, "And Samuel said, gather
all Israel to Mizpeh. and I will pray to
the Lord for you. So they gathered
together at Mizpeh." They drew water and poured
it out before the Lord. And they fasted
that day and said, we have sinned against the Lord. And Samuel judged the
children of Israel at Mizpeh." As they rallied together,
as they gathered together, at this place called
Mizpeh-- which, incidentally, means a watchtower. It's a place in Benjamin. It's a place not
far from Jerusalem, where people could gather. Evidently, it was a
place where soldiers stood watch to make sure
that the enemy wasn't coming, to make sure they could
defend their position. So they gathered
together at Mizpeh. And Samuel the prophet
begins to pray for them. Now, I'm going to add this
as a fifth key to revival. And that is making request,
making request of God. Remember what it
says in Philippians, chapter 4, verse 6? Be anxious for nothing,
but in everything by prayer and supplication,
with thanksgiving, let your request be
made known to God. And the peace of God, which
trespasses all understanding, will guard your hearts
and minds in Christ Jesus. So they made their request. They prayed. Samuel the prophet
prayed for them. Then I read it, though
I didn't explain it. "They gathered
together at Mizpeh, drew water, and poured
it out before the Lord." Now, what's all that about? Why put water in a jug, only
to pour it all over the ground? Well. It was symbolic. And the symbolism
is, I'm pouring out my life for the Lord. I'm pouring out my
worship to the Lord. I'm in absolute emptiness
and surrender before him. That's the idea. It was known as
a water libation. I'll tell you another story. We'll get to it in the second
book of Samuel, chapter 23. But King David is
fighting a battle with his soldiers
against the Philistines. And David utters a desire. He says to his soldiers,
Oh, that I had some water from the well at Bethlehem. And then he added,
which is by the gate. So he was sort of giving
them directions, hint, hint. Boy, it'd be great to
have a glass of cool water from my hometown of Bethlehem,
and it's by the gate. So three of his soldiers
left their position fighting the
Philistines, went over to Bethlehem,
David's hometown, got him a jug of water to
refresh his parched lips. David looked at it,
was thankful for it, and then poured
it on the ground. And you say, what a waste. But he said, this is
the blood of those who have jeopardized their lives. How can I drink this water? He saw drinking it
as a selfish act. So the idea is,
I'm pouring it out. I'm pouring out myself. I'm offering myself. That's the idea here as they
poured water before the Lord. "And they fasted that
day and said there"-- now here comes the confession-- "we have sinned
against the Lord. And Samuel judged the
children of Israel at Mizpeh." They added to all of
these steps prayer. Listen carefully. Every great work of
God starts in prayer. It is preceded by prayer. And I don't just mean
shooting up a quick one-- Lord, bless this time. Amen. I mean really seeking the
Lord, depending on him, seeking his face,
praying specifically. Every great work of God
is preceded by prayer. When we first
started this church, we were in a little apartment
complex about a mile or two down the road, in
a meeting place. And we began a Thursday
night Bible study, and it grew from about 4
people to about 40 people, then about 125
people, 135 people. And we couldn't fit any more
people in that little room. They were spilling
outside into the hallways. And somebody came to me and
said, now what do we do? And I gave them the answer. I have no idea what to do. I've never done this before. I never attended
Church Planning 101. I just went out to
see what would happen. And this happened. And you're asking me,
now what do we do? And so I announced to
the crowd that night, after a few people
said, now what do we do? I said, what we're
going to do is here, we are meeting on
Thursday nights. If any of you have
Monday nights free, we're going to meet here again. And we're going to ask God,
now what do we do, Lord? Let's pray. We'll just ask
him for direction. I don't know what
he wants us to do, but I want to find out
what he wants us to do. So we began to pray. And the Lord has done this from
meeting together and praying together. [APPLAUSE] Last week, I
mentioned to you a guy by the name of Charles
Finney, who, in the 1800s, was in Rochester, New York. And during I think it was
the year 1830, he saw 30,000, 30,000 people make brand new
commitments to Jesus Christ. That's revival. 30,000 people that year under
his ministry in Rochester, New York, came to
faith in Christ. And people said, well,
how do you explain that? He said, I can
explain it by the fact that there was one man
who faithfully prayed. He never attended a
meeting, but he always prayed that God would
pour out his Spirit. And he did. Some years later, in the later
1800s, D L Moody, from Chicago, went over to London to
conduct several campaigns, several crusades-- very successful. He credits the success
of his crusades to one humble bedridden girl. She couldn't get out of
bed, but she could pray. And she prayed for the
ministry of D L Moody, specifically in London, and
God poured out his Spirit. Now let me tell you
another quick story. I was one day walking
through the auditorium, the main auditorium,
of our church facility. Nobody was in there,
but I saw one man sort of wandering around through
the pews-- through the pews-- through the chairs toward the
back left of the sanctuary. I noticed he was sort of
ambling, meandering, just prayerfully, head down, a
middle-aged, older gentleman. And I approached him,
and I introduced myself. And he introduced himself,
and he introduced himself as a pastor, a local
pastor, in the city. And he said, I just
wanted to come here today and thank the Lord. You see, I prayed for years
that God would send revival to Albuquerque, that God
would strengthen his church and pour out his Spirit. And I was always hoping
it was going to be through me and my ministry. But I came to find out it is
through you and your ministry. But I am happy to be a
partner with you in it. And I thought it was
such a humble gesture for that pastor, that local
pastor, that man of God. I gave him a big
hug and said, I'm humbled to be a partner
with you in this ministry. Thank you for your
faithful years of praying. Because God has poured out his
Spirit through many churches to many people in this town. So they gather
together at Mizpeh. They confess their sin. Samuel prays. And you would think
it's a done deal. Everything is hunky dory. They can all go
home and rejoice. No. The Philistines
get a little antsy. They attack the
children of Israel. They attack their positions,
taking advantage of the fact that they're worshipping God. The children of
Israel are worried. They come to Samuel. Samuel says, go
fight your battle. I'll pray to God for you. And we're told that the
Lord thundered from heaven and gave his people the
victory in that battle. I don't know the details other
than it thundered from heaven, and it spooked the Philistines. They got weirded out,
and they ran away. The children of
Israel prevailed. So look at verse 11. And again, we read this
last week, technically, but I didn't get to explain it. "And the men of Israel
went out of Mizpeh and pursued the Philistines
and drove them back as far as below Bethcar. Then Samuel took a stone and set
it up between Mizpeh and Shen and called its name
Ebenezer, saying, thus far the Lord
has helped us." Don't you just love the
fact that the prophet Samuel named a rock. Do any of you remember,
back in the '70s, there was a thing
called Pet Rocks? I had one. You'd spend money. It was a dumb way to spend your
money, but you'd buy a rock. And it was packaged even
with little breeding holes in the box, as if
the rock could breathe and needed fresh air. But they packaged it that way. Some even came in a little cage. And you had a little eyes on it. And you would put it on
your desk or by your bed. It was a crazy,
dumb little stunt, but it sold, well, like crazy. Because there was enough of
us crazy people to buy them. And it was a pet rock. Has nothing to do with the text. It just reminded me of it, when
he named the rock Ebeneezer. Ebeneezer means stone of help. Now, we in the West, when
we hear the name Ebeneezer, you know what most
of us think of? Ebenezer Scrooge. We think about what
Charles Dickens left us with in that famous
story-turned-movie, Christmas Carol, where there was a
miserly, penny-pinching, parsimonious man named
Ebenezer Scrooge. So when you name something
or someone an Ebenezer, you think of somebody who's
a penny-pincher, somebody who is narrow-minded,
or something like that. That's because the name Ebenezer
comes to us from that book and then that movie. But it. doesn't. It actually comes to
us from the scripture. And I remember singing a song. I had heard about
Ebenezer Scrooge. I had not read this story yet. And yet, I remember going
to church once and hearing this very famous song. You know the song. It was written in the 1700s by
Robert Robinson, called "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing." Tune my heart to
sing thy praise. You know the song. There's a verse in
that song that says, here I raise my Ebenezer. And I would sing
that song. (SINGING) Here I raise my Ebenezer. And I turn to somebody and go. What's an Ebenezer? [LAUGHTER] I'm thinking of
Ebenezer Scrooge. But you follow the song. Here I raise my Ebenezer,
hither by thy grace I come. And I hope, by
thy good pleasure, safely to arrive at home. Jesus sought me
while a stranger, wandering from the fold of God. He to rescue me from danger-- listen-- interposed
his precious blood. Now, that's written by a
song leader, a worship guy, in the 1700s. And he's writing about
Ebenezers and interposing. I mean, who writes like that? I mean, how many worship
leaders know their Bibles that well to write such depth? And I read that
hymn, and I thought, Lord, bring that stuff back. Give us worship leaders that
write with that kind of depth. It seems like, over the years,
we as the Christian church, we get dumber and dumber,
not smarter and smarter. That was written in
the 1700s, and they're writing with such Biblical
depth and literary depth. And that's why I love the hymns. I love the hymns because
of the depth of theology, the depth of thought. And so what he, the hymn writer,
was thinking about is this. Here I raise my stone. That's-- is a testimony. That says, this is
a stone of help. The Lord has helped us. So that when you
would be on the road, and your kids would
see that large stone, they'd say, Mom, Dad, what's
that stone standing there for? And Mom and Dad would say,
that's our stone of help. It's to remember what the
Lord did in this place when he defeated
the Philistines. And son, when you
see that stone, just remember God will
help you through anything. And I think we need
our own Ebenezer. We need our journals. Some of you write a
journal, and you write down what God has done. Or you have some
token, some memorial, that when you look
at it, you recall to mind some great
thing that God has done for you
or for your family, raising that stone,
that Ebenezer stone. So that's chapter 7. Now we get into chapter 8. And chapter 8 is a
transitional chapter. And all we're
going to do is look at these verses in chapter 8. And then we're going to take
the Lord's Supper together. Chapter 8 is a transition
between the period of Judges and the period of the monarchy,
the united monarchy of Israel. The united monarchy
lasted 120 years. It includes three kings, not the
three kings from the Christmas carol, "We Three Kings,"
but these three kings-- King Saul, King David, and King
Solomon, those three kings. Those were kings that reigned
over a united kingdom-- not the United
Kingdom, England-- the united kingdom of Israel and
Judah thousands of years ago. And it lasted 120 years. Saul was the first King. And Saul was
outwardly impressive, but he was spiritually
unimpressive. He was a spiritual wimp. He was self-serving. He was not really God's choice. The second King David was
God's choice, was a man after God's own heart, was
the hymnist, the songwriter, for the nation of Israel. He was a shepherd
as an early child, but he became a great king. In fact, he becomes the standard
by which all the other kings will be evaluated thereafter. Then his son King Solomon
will sit on the throne. Solomon will bring great
peace, great prosperity, will expand the kingdom,
will bring in a navy, develop a merchant
marine, bring trade in from all over the world. And during those
120 years, Solomon was probably the most
successful at doing that. The story begins with Samuel,
not a king, but a prophet. Now, we have seen him
throughout this book. But here, we find Samuel
the prophet on a circuit. And he goes from town
to town, judging Israel, teaching the nation, always
coming to his hometown, back to Ramah. So it says in chapter 8,
verse 1, "It came to pass, when Samuel was old,
that he made his sons judges over Israel. The name of his
firstborn was Joel." What a great name-- Joel. It means, Yahweh is God. The Lord is God-- Joel. "The name of the
second was Abijah." And Abijah means,
Yahweh is Father. So God is the Lord,
or the Lord is God, and then God is our Father. "They were judges in Beersheba." But Beersheba is way down south. I think that Samuel just
sort of wanted the kids. He knew they weren't
really up to snuff. They weren't really
as godly, so he just put them in this outpost
town to keep an eye on them, see how they did. "But his sons did
not walk in his ways. They turned aside
after dishonest gain, took bribes, and
perverted justice. And all the elders of
Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at
Ramah and said to him." By the way, if any of you make
it over to Israel on a tour-- and I've had several
of you ask, when you're going to do one again? We're going to have
another tour to Israel. It'll be in 2022. It'll be May of 2022 . We're already
scheduled for that. But if you go, and if you
spend an extra day or two, and you want to,
you can see Ramah. It's right outside of Jerusalem. In fact, it's a bedroom
community of Jerusalem. I have a friend who lives
over in Ramat Eshkol, which is Ramah. And he lives at the
base of what was the town where Samuel the
prophet lived and was buried. And they have the
remains of that town. They have the ancient
city walls they've dug up. So if you want to see
where Samuel hung out, where he lived, where
he died, you can see it. You could walk there, if
you want to, from Jerusalem, or take a cab, or just
see where he lived. Now, I'll just warn you. If you do that, there's another
hill not far away that others claim is the real Ramah. And these are
denominational people who have built a
church there, and they don't want to lose their
notoriety or their finances. So they claim, this is
really the real Ramah. That's the fake Ramah. So you've got two
different places contending for Ramah, the birthplace
and the life and death place of Samuel. One tour guide solved
the problem and said, well, that's 1 Samuel
and that's 2 Samuel. [LAUGHTER] So if you go
there, you can see that. So he gathered them
together at Ramah. They came to him, and
they said, in verse 5, that this is the people of
Israel saying to him, look, you are old. Nobody likes to be
told that, by the way. Boy, you look old. Boy, I've seen you
for a long time, but boy, you look
a lot older now. You're old, man, "and your
sons do not walk in your ways. Now make for us a king to
judge us like all the nations." This is going to
break Samuel's heart. He understands their request. The people are looking
for visible leadership. They want to see
who their leader is. They want to see
who their king is. Now understand
something about Israel. Israel was unique as a nation. They were not to be
like other nations. They served an invisible king. God wanted it that way. Instead of having a king,
who would tax the people and run an army, they
wanted just the people to trust the Lord. His original plan, and by
the way, his ultimate plan, is not going to be a monarchy,
is not going to be a democracy. It's going to be a theocracy. That's what God originally
intended, a theocratic kingdom, where God would rule. He would use vice regents, like
Moses, like Joshua, et cetera. But people basically had
to pray, get direction, and trust God. Now, that's hard to do
that for a lot of people. Because people want
something visible. Now, let me tell you
how well it worked. It worked this well. When they did not have a king,
but they were trusting God, God opened the Red Sea. When they did not have a
king, but trusted the Lord, God caused the walls of
Jericho to fall down. When they didn't have a
king, but trusted the Lord, as we saw in the
previous chapter, the Philistines were defeated as
the Lord thundered against it. So it's worked out pretty well
for them not to have a king. It's worked out pretty well for
them just to trust the Lord. But the people
grew weary of that. They wanted visible leadership. So they said, "make
us a king to judge us like all the other nations. But the thing displeased
Samuel when they said, give us a king to judge us. So Samuel prayed to the Lord." Think about this. We as Christians
live by faith, right? We talk about our faith. At the same time, we're
uncomfortable living by faith. In fact, we hate faith. We would rather have something
more tangible and more visible. We want to make sure the
check is in the mail, not I'm just trusting the
Lord for the next meal. I'm just believing that
God is going to provide. We hate that. But when somebody says,
check's in the mail. Yes! That's tangible. When I was in college, things
were tight for me financially. And I remember, I would
make Hamburger Helper, that my mother would give me. She'd give me the box. She'd give me a
pound of hamburger. I lived about an
hour away, and so I'd make a pan of Hamburger Helper. And I'd put it on the stove. I'd eat a little bit. I'd cover it up with tin
foil, leave it on the stove. Next day, I'd eat a little bit
more off that pan on the stove, cover it up again. Next day, I'd eat
a little bit more. Now, it had been a few
days unrefrigerated. I had a refrigerator. I just didn't want to move it
all the way across the kitchen to the refrigerator. [LAUGHTER] It's just so much easier just
to take a slice at a time. So by the fourth day,
you kind of scrape off the mold, and stuff,
and get past that, and build up your immune
system, and eat a little more. And I remember, one week, I was
finishing my Hamburger Helper. That was all the
food I had left, except some peanut
butter and jelly and a little bit of bread. So the next day, I had peanut
butter sandwiches for dinner. The next day, the bread ran out. So I had peanut butter, a little
bit of jelly, but mostly peanut butter. Then the next day, I
went to the mailbox. I looked in the mailbox. It was a letter from the
United States government, in fact, from the IRS. It was my tax refund check. I had money in the mailbox. And I remember grabbing
that and jumping up, going, hallelujah, thank you, Lord! Bless the Lord, oh my soul! Let all of it is within
me bless his holy name! I was so excited. And it was as if the Holy
Spirit tapped my heart, nudged me a bit, and said,
you weren't that excited when you read my
promise in my word this morning, that I
would provide for you. You didn't jump up and down. You read it. You weren't all that excited,
but you're excited now. I said, but Lord, because
you answered my prayer. It's a check. It's from the government. And he goes, well, how do
you know they'll pay up? How do you know they're good? Well, it's the United
States government. Of course, they'll pay up. In other words, I had
more faith in what was written on that
check than I had in what was written in his word. And the Lord
convicted me of that. I should be as excited, when I
read the promise in scripture, that God is never going
to leave me or forsake me. He's going to take care of me. But you see, we hate
to live by faith. We love it much
more when the check is in the mail, when the money
is in the bank, when there's something tangible. So the people want
something tangible. They want a king. They want somebody they can look
to, who'll lead them in battle, who will win their victories,
who will rule over them. Well, Samuel took it personally. He prayed to the
Lord in verse 6. In verse 7, "the Lord said
to Samuel, heed the voice"-- or listen to the voice-- "of the people in all that
they say to you, for they have not rejected me"-- or "they have not
rejected you, but they have rejected me, that I
should not reign over them." Now, let me tell you what
the real problem was here. The real problem was
they wanted independence from God's control, independence
from God ruling over them. They didn't want to trust
the Lord in an invisible God. And the basic problem
is they did not want to relinquish control
to God and to God's plan. Back in 1981, in fact, it'll
be 40 years this weekend that my wife and I were
married, and we moved out here to Albuquerque. And so we're coming
up on a milestone. And I remember when I
surrendered my heart to the Lord to come here. I was living in
Huntington Beach. I was living a few
blocks from the ocean. I surfed every day. But I wanted to plant
a church somewhere. I wanted to do the Lord's will. I wanted to do what
he wanted me to do. So I was willing
and able and ready. And we got in my little
Datsun pickup truck. That was before Nissan,
the brand Datsun. And I headed out with my wife. We came to Albuquerque. And I remember telling the Lord. I've told this story before. I told the Lord, Lord, I'll
be in New Mexico one year. I'll give you one year. I'm going to fish
here for one year. You made me a fisher of men. I'm going to throw my
line out for one year. If I don't catch any fish,
if nobody comes to Christ, if there's no tangible work
of the Lord, I'm done here. I'm going back to Cali. So about six months in to that
deal that I made with God, the Lord started to move. People started coming. But I was getting antsy. The winter settled in
New Mexico, came in. I had never really experienced
something that cold in my life. My wife laughs at me. She's from Michigan. She goes, this is
not cold, trust me. But to me, I had never
experienced this kind of temperature change ever. I thought, this is insane. It's so cold outside. And I was ready to get back
to 75-degree Christmases. So I remember I was telling
her, we're moving back. I don't think I can take it. I don't know if
the Lord's in this. We're moving back to California. I've never started a church. I don't know what I'm doing. We're moving back. She said, OK, I
followed you here. I'll follow you back. You're the head
of the household. You make the decision. If you're wrong, it's on you. [LAUGHTER] So I remember talking
to the Lord about this. And as I was excited about
the possibility of going back to familiar surroundings, the
Lord again spoke to my heart. He said, you owe me six months. You made a year deal with me. You said, I'll be here a year. I'll fish for a year. You're already
starting to catch fish. You owe me six months. So I told my friends
who were with me on this little adventure
what the Lord, I believe, spoke to me. And they said, Skip, give it
your heart for the next six months and just see
what the Lord does. So I did. And of course, this
is what the Lord did. But I tell you,
what the Lord was showing me is I need
to relinquish control. If the Lord tells you to go, go. If the Lord tells you
to go and stay, stay. Whatever the Lord is
showing you to do, obey him. Relinquish control. Let him be the ruler over you. Let him be the
king of your heart. They haven't
rejected you, Samuel. They have rejected me. And that is always the question. Who is going to be
the king of your life? Remember, when Jesus
came, he didn't just come to die on a cross. He came to build a kingdom. The first words out of John
the Baptist's mouth were these. Repent, for the kingdom
of heaven is at hand. Then when Jesus
came on the scene, he came preaching the kingdom
and saying the same words John the Baptist said. Repent, for the kingdom
of heaven is at hand. Then in Matthew chapter 5, he
gave the Sermon on the Mount. Blessed are the poor in Spirit. Theirs is the kingdom of heaven. And some 70 times in
the New Testament, it mentions the kingdom of
heaven-- or the kingdom of God. Another 32 times, it mentions
the kingdom of heaven. So it's all about
building a kingdom. Now, the kingdom of God
is not visible presently. Jesus was having a conversation
with Pontius Pilate. He said, my kingdom
is not of this world. But one day, his kingdom
will be of this world. His kingdom wasn't
of this world then, but one day, the kingdom
will be of this world. He will conquer this world. He will rule over this earth. In Revelation 11, there will
be an anthem from heaven that says, the kingdoms
of this world have become the kingdoms of our
Lord and of his Christ. When Jesus comes back, he
comes back as the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. He comes to rule and to reign. So the issue is always an
issue of a kingdom issue. Who's the king over your life? Who's the king over your heart? Is he ruling? Is he reigning now? Verse 8-- "according
to all the works which they have
done since the day I brought them
out of Egypt, even to this day, with which
they have forsaken me and served other gods, so
they are doing to you also. Now therefore, heed their voice. However, you shall solemnly
forewarn them and show them the behavior of the king
who will reign over them. So Samuel told all of
the words of the Lord to the people who
asked him for a king." Now, this does bring up an
issue and does beg the question, was it in the will of God
for the children of Israel to even have a king? It sort of indicates
that no, it's not. Because Samuel was
all bummed out. And God says, look, they
haven't rejected you. They have rejected me. So it sort of indicates that
that wasn't God's highest priority. Yet I do believe
that it was always in God's plan for his
people, the people of Israel, to have a human king. Back in Genesis 49,
you may remember, when Jacob gathers his 12
sons around his deathbed, and he prophesies
over each tribe, he comes to the tribe of Judah. And he says, the scepter
shall not depart from Judah until the Messiah comes. Now, a scepter is
the right to rule. It's what a king holds
to rule the kingdom. So I believe, from
the beginning, God anticipated that his
people, the line of Judah, would have a king. And furthermore, in Deuteronomy
17, God said to Moses and told Moses to
tell the people, when you come into the land,
and the people say, set over us a king that we
may be like other nations. God said, you shall
set over them a king whom the Lord your God chooses. That seems to
indicate that it was part of God's plan
all along, even if it was just his permissive
will, to see a king. However, when it
comes to King Saul-- he becomes the first king, and
we'll get to it next week-- when it comes to
King Saul, we have some things that are wrong. First of all, it's
the wrong timing. They're about 10
years too early. They want a king,
and they want it now. And they should have
waited, because God had the best king, the number
two king, who would be David. I think it was the wrong timing. Number two, I think it was
the wrong tribe, not just the wrong timing,
the wrong tribe. Because Saul was from
the tribe of Benjamin. But the prophecy of Genesis
49 says the scepter shall not depart from Judah. And Judah would
become the tribe where the kings would come from,
including King David, including King Jesus, when he comes to
rule and reign over the Earth. So wrong timing, wrong tribe,
and number three, wrong terms-- they said, we want a
king, and because we want to be like other nations. We want to be like the world. We want to be like
everybody else. We want not to be the
unique people of God. We want to be like
the rest of the world. Those are the wrong terms-- so wrong timing, wrong
tribe, wrong terms. Now, let me give you
another scripture. You can write it down. You can look at it later. We don't have time to
actually turn to it. In the minor prophet Hosea,
chapter 13, verse 11, listen to what God says. I gave you a king in my anger. I took him away in my wrath. I gave you a king in my anger. I took him away in my wrath-- wrong timing, wrong
tribe, wrong terms. Samuel will anoint King Saul. Saul will be the first king. He will fail miserably. God will take Saul
away in His wrath. Now, before we move on
and close this chapter and take the Lord's
Supper, you've got to understand something
about the children of Israel. This is not the first time
they asked for a king. Did you know that? They had asked
for a king before. In fact, in the book of
Judges, they asked for a king. When Gideon was
one of the judges over the children of Israel,
in chapter 6, 7, and 8-- Gideon, remember him? And Gideon fought
against the Midianites and won, had great victory. After Gideon won the
victory with the Midianites, the elders of Israel came to
him and said, rule over us. That's them basically saying, we
want you to be our first king. And I love Gideon's reply. He said, I'm not going
to rule over you. Let the Lord rule over you. I wish more politicians
would say that. I'm not going to rule over you. Only the Lord can be your ruler. So Gideon refused
to be the king, even though they asked for a king. But you also remember
that one of his sons, by the name of Abimelech,
talked the people of Samaria into making him
their king, killing 70 of the sons of Gideon. He was the only guy left. And by a coup, a coup
d'etat, he took over and became the first
illegitimate king, not of the nation, but of that
area of Israel, in Samaria. So that was their history. So Samuel, verse 10, chapter 8,
we'll finish out the chapter. "Samuel told all the
words of the Lord to the people who
asked him for a king. And he said, this will be
the behavior of the king who will reign over you. He will take your
sons and appoint them for his own chariots
to be his horsemen. And some will run
before his chariots. He will appoint captains
over his thousands, captains over his fifties. He will set some
to plow his ground and reap his harvest, some
to make his weapons of war and equipment for his chariots. He will take your daughters
to be perfumers, cooks, and bakers. He will take the
best of your fields, your vineyards,
your olive groves, and give them to his servants." In other words, you really want
a king, like other nations? Do you know what happens to
other nations and their kings? If you want a king,
understand this. He's going to be a
burden to your family. He's going to take your sons. He's going to take
your daughters. He's going to draft them
into military service. He's going to make them
work for him at a low wage. He's going to, in
essence, enslave them, conscript them for
a government work. So he'll be a burden
for your family. Verse 15-- "He will take a tenth
of your grain and your vintage and give it to his
officers and servants. And he will take your men
servants, your maid servants, your finest young
men, and your donkeys, and put them to his work. He will take a
tenth of your sheep, and you will be his servants." So he's going to be a
burden to your family. He's also going to be a
burden to your finances. It's going to cost you money. It's going to cost you a tenth. Now, do you remember what
the children of Israel gave to the Lord? To serve the Lord,
to worship the Lord, the children of Israel were
required to give how much? A tenth. That's the tithe. Everybody gave a tenth for the
Tabernacle, for the priesthood. It was for the upkeep
of the worship system. Now they want the
government to come in, and the government's going
to take another tenth-- so 20% off the bat, gone. It's going to cost you to
have a government as much as it costs you to
serve the Lord, 10%. Do you know that right now
in America, there are 42-- or 47.2 million
government workers. 47.2 million work
for the government. That's an enormous voting bloc. That's a powerful voting bloc. It has been estimated
that the taxes that you pay for
having government, that if you were to just
look at it this way. from January 1st to May
16th, every penny you make, in some form or fashion, goes
to pay for the government. That's how much of your
paycheck annually you give away in taxes, from
January 1st to May 16th. Starting May 17th to
the end of the year is what you get to keep. So you want a king, to
be like other nations, governments will cost you. So it'll be a burden
to your family. It'll be a burden
to your finances. Verse 18-- "And you will
cry out in that day because of your king, whom you
have chosen for yourselves. And the Lord will not
hear you in that day." It's going to be a
burden to your freedom. You're going to
live to regret this. And I think, listen, we
need human government. It's an institution. We are called upon to
honor government officials and pay our taxes. But let's face it. If you look to the government
to solve your problems, you will live to regret it. I think Ronald Reagan
was absolutely right. I still remember his
1981 inaugural speech. He said, the government isn't
the solution to our problems. The government is the problem. And that's why he believed
in smaller government, not larger government. And that's what
Samuel is saying. He's saying, you're
thinking the government is going to solve your problems. You're going to find out the
government becomes the problem. "Nevertheless"-- verse 19--
nevertheless the people get to vote-- so nevertheless,
"the people refused to obey the voice of
Samuel, and they said, No, but we will have a
king over us so that we 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 repeated them in
the hearing of the Lord. So the Lord said to
Samuel, heed their voice and make them a king. And Samuel said to
the men of Israel, every man go to his city." Now, in a few minutes,
every one of us is going to leave
to his own city. We're going to leave here
and go to Albuquerque or Corales or Rio Rancho
or Belen or Santa Fe, wherever we live. We're going to go
to our own city. But I say, before we
leave here tonight, we declare the Lord
is our King, that we make the decision to let
the Lord reign over us, and we speak, draw a
circle around ourselves, and say, Lord, start revival
on the inside of that circle. Revive me. Revive my heart. Rule over me. Rule over my life. Be the one that I
surrender to, that. I pour out water
to, so to speak. I'm going to close this service
with a New Testament text. In Luke chapter 19-- let me just read it to you. "Therefore he said,
a certain nobleman went into a foreign country
and received for himself a kingdom and to return. And he called ten
of his servants, delivered to them ten
minas, and said to them, do business till I come." Or occupy, serve
me, till I come. "But his citizens hated
him and sent a delegation after him, saying, we
will not have this man to reign over us." Of course, we know what
Jesus was alluding to, what he was speaking about. He was speaking of the fact
that Jesus came to the Earth from his Father, and
he was going to return. He was going to come
back then to the Earth to establish a kingdom, and that
the Jewish people rejected him and basically said, we do
not want Jesus to be the King to reign over us. But tonight, here,
us, we, we declare, we do want this man
to reign over us. We do make this one
the King over us. Jesus is our King. He is our Lord. And in so doing, you are
relinquishing your rights to him. He now has the right to send you
anywhere he wants you to go-- New Mexico, Arizona,
Texas, Zimbabwe, the Philippines, Niger. I can name a lot of places. God has editing rights
over you, over your life. We want him to reign over us. So Father, we in Jesus'
name make that declaration. We say you are our King. You are our Lord. We want you to reign over us. We don't look to government. We don't look to human leaders. We look to you and invite your
Holy Spirit to preside over us, to direct us, to lead our steps. And we surrender, Father,
and we do want a revival. We want you to do it again. Send forth your Spirit. Let it break through this land. But we pray, Lord,
that you would revive our hearts, our souls,
as we commit them to you. Let it begin with us. And let us take what
we know, what we feel, what we've experienced
from this place, to all of the places
we will go, to our city as we go back to our
tents, back to our cities, back to our homes. May we declare to our
family, to our communities, to our city-state and
country, that Jesus Christ is Lord and King. And by establishing
him as King over them, over others, by relinquishing
the rights of your life to him, you'll have that peace. You'll have that joy. You'll have that purpose. Before we close this
service tonight, I'm guessing there may be
one or two or maybe more that has never relinquished,
poured out, surrendered, their life to the
Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, you've come close. You've heard the gospel. You've come to church. You've come with relatives. You've watched their surrender. You've watched their commitment. You've watched their worship. But you yourself have never
personally surrendered to him. I'm going to give you that
opportunity to do it now. Others of you maybe have
done something like that, but you've wandered away. You've walked away from him. You're not walking in
obedience to him today. You need to come back. You need to recommit. You need to say,
rule over us, Lord. Reign over us as
Lord and Savior. Our heads are bowed. Our eyes are closed. I'm going to keep my eyes
open for just a moment. And if I just described
you, whether you are going to come to
him for the first time or you're going to
rededicate your life, I want you to raise
your hand up in the air so I can acknowledge you. And I'll pray for you as
we close this service. Just raise your hand up. There, God bless you, sir, up
in the back, toward my left. Another one to my left--
yep, God bless you. I see your hand. Raise your hand up. Keep it up for just a moment. Yes sir, God bless you. And right over here, right up
in the middle, to my right. Anybody else? God bless you, right up here
in front, and to the right. Father, we do pray
for these right now. We pray you'll strengthen them,
enliven them, quicken them. Bring them peace. Bring them a taste
of your glory, for we ask in Jesus' name. Amen. OK, now we're not done yet. We're going to take
the Lord's Supper. So we're going to
sing a song, and we're going to pass out the elements. And we're going to give
them to you as we do that. But as we pass the
elements out to you-- you don't have to get up-- I'm going to ask
those of you who raised your hands, while we're
passing the elements out, while we're going
to you, you that raised your hand,
during this song, I want you to get up out of your
seat and just come stand here. We'll all take
communion together. I'll take it with you. But I'm going to lead you
in a prayer of commitment or recommitment to the Lord. So if you raised your
hand, while we're singing this song--
let's all stand, can we? Make it easy. You get up. If you raised your hand,
get up right now as we sing and stand right up here. I'm going to lead
you in a prayer. [SINGING] Come, Holy Spirit,
rain down on me. Break open the heavens,
drench the unseen. Pour out your best as
I pour out your praise. Come, Holy Spirit,
Lord, have your way. As I worship your majesty,
I worship your holy name. Jesus, my everything,
all that I am is yours. We don't do this to
embarrass anyone. We do it to encourage
everyone, but especially those of you who have made
this decision or are making it. Thank you so much for coming
down and being a part of this. And I'm going to lead you
in prayer in a minute. We'll take the Lord's
Supper after that together, with clean minds
and clean hearts. Anybody else want to join us
in this sweet little circle right down here? Anybody else, before we pray
and take the Lord's Supper? Now, those of you who
have come forward, I'm going to ask you to say
a prayer out loud after me. This is you committing your
life to Christ, making it real, making it personal. You guys ready? OK, I'm going to pray. You pray out loud after me. Say, Lord, I give you my life. I know that I'm a sinner. Please forgive me. I believe in Jesus. I believe he died on a cross. I believe he shed
his blood for me. And I believe he rose
again from the dead. I turn from my past. I turn from my sin. I turn to Jesus as Savior. And I want to
follow him as Lord. Help me. In Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. [CHEERING AND APPLAUSE] Amen. Yeah. All right, now,
all of us, everyone who's come forward, everyone who
has not, all of us together, we have the elements, yes? Are we all ready? Then Father, we thank you
in Jesus' name for what Jesus did on the cross. We thank you that his
broken body and shed blood was enough to forgive
us of all of our sins, cleanse us from all
unrighteousness, give us a place in your kingdom,
at your table, forevermore, as children, as sons and
daughters, of the living God. And we take this,
remembering what he did and so thankful that
he did it for us. In Jesus' name. And everybody said, Amen. Let's take it together. All right, now, if you don't
mind, those of you who have come forward-- is there somebody
here I can point to? Right over here,
Antonio, brother Antonio, and our team right
over here, see these wonderful,
smiling, happy people? Would you follow them
just for a minute. We want to just spend
a moment with you. We want to give you something,
actually give you a Bible and explain what it
is to follow Jesus. It's an important step. Just follow them that way. For more resources from Calvary
Church and Skip Heitzig, visit calvarynm.church. Thank you for joining us for
this teaching in our series Expound.
