Choosing Better Leadership

First Samuel chapter 8. Some of you may be aware or you may not be aware that we have

1 Samuel 8 · chapter mention

a presidential election coming up Tuesday. If you didn't know that, then you probably

had your head in the sand for the last two or three years. But we've got a presidential

election coming up and we're going to talk about the importance of that and we're going

to talk about the Word of God and what we really need to focus on more than we need

to focus on who our president is. So let's pray and we'll get started. Father God, we

come to you and we thank you for your Word. I pray that your Holy Spirit would hide me

behind the cross, dear Lord, that I'd be able to preach and teach your Word in a way that

brings glory to you. Dear Lord, we need you more than we need anything. We need you far

more than we need a man or a woman that's going to lead us, dear Lord. We need you to

lead us. We need to be a people that would seek you. And so I pray, dear Lord, that you

would help us, even your people, to see the error of our ways sometimes. God, that we

would seek you and that we would trust you for our deliverance and no one else. I pray,

God, that you would just bless the reading of your Word this morning and I ask these

things in Jesus' name. Amen. First Samuel chapter 8 verse 1. Now before we get to this

1 Samuel 8:1

point in Israel's history, we see right before this that God had used quite a few judges

to lead his people. They didn't have a king. They weren't like the other nations. They

didn't have a king in that way. But they have judges that God would appoint. And they certainly

needed them. They needed some form of leadership. They should have been seeking God and living

by the commands of God and things would have gone well for them. But they did not do that.

They knew the Word of God. They knew the commands of God. But they did not live by the Word

of God. And so what happens in the book of Judges is God's people are disobedient. And

God sends a judge to get them out of the mess they're in. They go through hard times. The

judge comes, delivers them, and they're going to do good. They're going to live for the

Lord. And then they go back and they're disobedient. And then God sends another judge and delivers

them and then all is good. They're going to live for the Lord. And then they go back to

being disobedient. Sounds kind of familiar. Sometimes we're probably not so unlike God's

people. And so this went on for quite a while. God sent these judges time and again. And

God's people were just disobedient. Now there wasn't a problem with judges. There wasn't

a problem with God. It was a problem with God's people being disobedient and choosing

sin. So fast forward to the book of Samuel. And the Bible tells us that Samuel was a prophet

and a judge of God. And by the time Samuel comes along, he was a good guy. He was a good

godly man who served God well. But what we see here in 1 Samuel is that Samuel's sons

did not follow the ways of Samuel. And that's what we see in 1 Samuel chapter 8 verse 1.

1 Samuel 8:1

When Samuel grew old, he appointed his sons as judges over Israel. His firstborn son's

name was Joel and his second was Abijah. They were judges in Beersheba. However, his

sons did not walk in his ways. They turned toward dishonest gain, took bribes, and perverted

justice. Now, things are not going well here. Samuel has these sons and they are horrible.

They take bribes. They take dishonest gains. They pervert justice. They're not doing what

is right by God. They are not doing what is right by the commands of God. They are evil,

evil, and guileless. And so naturally, God's people want something better. Now, I don't

think that that's a bad thing. That when we look for leadership, that we desire good leadership,

that we desire godly leadership, that we desire those who are going to uphold justice, who

are going to do what is right, who are going to care about the people that they are leading.

I don't think that that in and of itself is a sinful thing to want someone who's going

to be a good leader. And God's people were not happy with Samuel's sons because they

were crooked and evil. Now, that may sound kind of familiar to us today because we look

at those who lead our country and if we are honest, a vast majority of them, it would

appear, seem to be like maybe they're crooked, maybe they're evil, maybe they don't have

the people's best interest in heart. And so in some way, it's natural for us to want better.

We want our country to be better. As brothers and sisters in Christ, we want a country that

seeks God, that lives by his commands, that values life, that values the safety of its

people, that wants our children to be taught good and godly things, not a bunch of trash

that the world wants to put out. These are good desires for us, brothers and sisters

in Christ, to want these things, to want godly things. And the people of Israel here weren't

happy with those who were leading them because they were corrupt. And so let's see what the

scripture says in verse four. So all the elders of Israel gathered together and went to Samuel

at Ramah. They said to him, look, you are old and your sons do not follow your example.

Therefore, appoint a king to judge us the same as all the other nations have. Uh oh,

we have a problem that just started right here. Now, they wanted something good and

that they wanted better leaders, but their heart was not right. They were going about

it the wrong way. We see that Israel's heart wasn't right because of their request and

because what the text tells us as we continue to read on. Now, we see here that they say,

we want a king like the other nations have. And as you continue to read in first Samuel

eight, they say it again. We want a king so that we can be like all the other nations.

You see the problem there. God's people were called to be God's people. God's people were

set apart. God was their king. God was their leader. God was their protector. God was their

provider. And they were to be different than all the other nations because what were all

the other nations that we see in the rest of scripture? They were pure evil. They were

sexually immoral. They were child sacrificing. They were idolaters. They were evil in every

way and God's people were called to be above that. They were called to follow the ways

of God. And what do God's people here say? They say, God, these men who are over us are

crooked and evil and we don't want them. Okay, well, that's, that's, that's pretty good.

I think that you don't want that. But there was a problem and that is instead of seeking

God and saying, God, these men that are over us are evil and God, I pray that you'd send

us better leaders. God, I pray that you would deliver us. I pray that you would be our king.

I pray that we would trust you and that you'd get us out of this mess that we're in. Instead

of saying that, they said, God, we want to be like all the other nations. Now that's

a problem when God's people want to be like all the other nations. They were not in a

good place right here. They go to Samuel and they say, look, you're old, things aren't

good. We want a king so that we can be like all the other nations. That was their first

mistake. But why were they even asking for a king? Why did they even want to be like

all of the other nations? Well, we see the answer to that as we continue reading verse

six, when they said, give us a king to judge us, Samuel considered their demand sinful.

So he prayed to the Lord, but the Lord told him, listen to the people and everything they

say to you. They have not rejected you. They have rejected me as their king. There is the

real problem. The real problem is not that they wanted some better leadership that they

wanted to get out from under the corruption that they were under. The real problem was

is that they were seeking deliverance from a man instead of seeking deliverance from

God. And what did God tell Samuel? It says, these people have rejected me as their king.

They had stopped seeking the power of God and they had started seeking their deliverance

from a man. And this was nothing new. Sadly, this was a pattern that had repeated itself

for years. Listen to the next verse in verse eight. They are doing the same thing to you

that they have done to me since the day I brought them out of Egypt until this day,

abandoning me and worshiping other gods. So these people were already in a bad shape.

They should have been seeking God and living for him from the get go. And that would have

never been in this mess. If they would have been obedient to God and their leaders would

have been obedient to God, God's people would have been blessed so greatly and things would

have been so good for them. But continually, they turned their back on God. They continually

went after these false gods. They continually went after the ways of the other people in

the land. They continually sinned against God and sinned against God and sinned against

God until this point where they finally just say, we want a king. And God knew their heart

and God said, Samuel, they have rejected me as their king. Now that's a bad place to be.

That's a bad place to be for the nation of Israel. That's a bad place to be for any nation

when they reject God. Now, God certainly blessed Israel and I believe that God is gracious

to any nation who would seek him, any nation who would seek to live by his words and to

live by his commands. God would bless that nation. And any nation that refuses God and

rejects God, I believe that God will bring judgment on that nation. We see in Jeremiah,

in Jeremiah chapter 18 verses 7 through 10, God is talking to his people Israel here and

Jeremiah 18:7–10

he says basically what I just said to you along those lines about him blessing our cursing

people, about him bringing destruction on the nation or about him bringing deliverance

on a nation. And Jeremiah 18 verse 7, it says, at one moment I might announce concerning

Jeremiah 18:7

a nation of a kingdom that I will uproot, tear down and destroy it. However, if that

nation I have made an announcement about turns from its evil, I will relent concerning the

disaster I had planned to do to it. At another time, I announced that I will build and plant

a nation or a kingdom. However, if it does what is evil in my sight by not listening

to my voice, I will relent concerning the good I had said I would do to it. Well, that

doesn't sound very good. What God is telling his people Israel, and I believe is still

true today, that it is God who builds nations and it is God who tears nations down. There

is no nation that has been built without God allowing it to be built. There is no nation

that has been built because of some great king or because of some great president if

God did not allow it to take place. And there is no nation that has not fallen that God

has not allowed to fall. It is God who builds up nations and it is God who tears down nations.

And those nations who reject God, whether it is Israel or whether it is the United States

or whether it is any other nation in the world, I believe that God will bring judgment on

those nations. But isn't it a beautiful thing that God says here? But if there's a nation

that I've pronounced judgment on and that nation comes to me and seeks me, then I will

relent from the disaster that I was going to bring on them. That may sound familiar

to you. We just talked about that last week in the book of Jonah. What did God say? He

said, look, Jonah, you go to Nineveh and you tell them I'm busy to destroy them. It's over.

And after a series of unfortunate events and sin, Jonah finally made his way to Nineveh

and he preached what God told him. And what did the people of Nineveh do? They received

the word of God that God was not happy with their sinfulness, that God was going to bring

judgment on their land and they repented of their sin. Praise God. And what does it say

that God did? It said that God relented from the disaster that he was going to bring on

them. What a beautiful thing that we see that God is faithful to us if we would only seek

him. But we have a problem in our country and in our world today and that is more and

more and more people are rejecting God. You take God out of everything and what hope is

there left? Any good that there is in this world, it comes from God. It don't come from

any man. It don't come from any woman. It don't come from anybody else other than God.

If there is good in the world, it is because of God. And when you remove God, you remove

the good. Isn't that a crazy thing that our world, so many people think that God is the

problem, that Christianity is the problem. And so for a long time, boy, they start working.

We're going to take God out of this. We're going to take God out of that. We're not going

to let people pray to Jesus. We're not going to let the scripture be read. We're not going

to let people pray. And they take all the God out that they can and things get horrible

and they double down. Instead of saying, we should wake up and realize that the reason

why things are getting worse is because God is not in anything. Instead of saying that,

they say, no, Christianity is still the problem. God is still the problem. We need to take

more of God out. And they continue down this path over and over and over again. And now

we are in a bad shape. We are in a bad shape as a world and we are in a bad shape as a

country because nobody, well, not nobody, many people are not seeking God and doing

everything they can to shut God up and to keep God out of everything. And our world

is suffering the consequences for that. If you continue reading in first Samuel chapter

1 Samuel 10 · chapter mention

10, listen to what he says. In first Samuel chapter 10 verse 19, this is God speaking

1 Samuel 10:19

to the people here. But today you have rejected your God who saves you from all your troubles

and afflictions. You have rejected God who saves you from all your troubles and afflictions.

Now who was it that built Israel up into a nation? It was God. Who was it that delivered

his people out of Egypt and brought them into the promised land? It was God. Who was it

that tore down the walls of Jericho? It was God. Who was it that provides all that God's

people had needed up to this point? It was God. Who was it that defeated all of Israel's

enemies up to this point? It was God. Everything that they had was because of God. And now

they have rejected God. And what does it say? He says in the verse, you have rejected the

one who saves you from all your troubles and afflictions. So if we reject the one who saves

us from all of our troubles and afflictions, then what is left for us? Troubles and afflictions.

So God's people here were in a bad shape. And God had been good to them and God had

blessed them and God had delivered them. And they say, we don't want you God. We want to

be like the other nations. What in the world is going on around here? What in the world

is going on that these people are so crazy that they would reject God and they would

seek to be like all of the rest of the evil around them? Well, I could ask that question

of our generation. What in the world is it that we are so foolish and crazy that as a

nation that has been blessed by God, that we would throw God out of everything we have

and seek to live like the rest of the world? What is our problem? Our problem is this,

that we, like the people of Israel, have rejected God. And what was their solution? What was

their solution to their problem? They have rejected God. What are we going to do to fix

our problem? We are going to establish government because government is going to fix our problem.

Well, we do that today, don't we? Oh, we got lots of troubles. Let's let the government

take care of us. Oh, we got health problems. Let's let the government take care of us.

Oh, we got money problems. Let's let the government take care of our money. Let's let the government

decide what's good for our kids. Oh, let's do that because the government has such a

great track record of making good decisions. Not. Tell me something good the government

has done. You probably can tell me something, but I guarantee you they're a lot more bad.

But what do we do? Oh, we seek the government. We need a better mayor. We need a better governor.

We need a better president. This is going to be the one that's going to deliver us.

This is going to be one that's going to turn our country around. It is not. I don't know

who you're voting for Tuesday. I don't care who you're voting for, but I can guarantee

you this, that there ain't no man or woman who's going to change our country. What's

going to change our country is when people call out to God, is when God's people start

living like God's people should live, is when God's people who are called by God's name

will humble themselves and cry out to him. Then we will have healing in our land. When

God's people stand up for the truth of God's word, then we will see healing in our land.

When God is brought back into our society and God's word is preached to a lost and dying

generation, then God is going to bring blessings to our land. But there's no man or woman that's

going to be president that's going to be our savior. Now look, we want good leadership.

I don't think there's anything with wanting good leadership. We don't want bad leadership.

We don't want evil leadership. But what we have to know is that government is not the

solution to our problem. God is the solution to our problem. We have left God out of everything

and that is what has caused our problem. So we don't want to fall into that trap of thinking,

oh, if the right person gets in there Tuesday, everything is going to be better. Well, maybe

some things will, maybe some things won't. But we get so caught up, we get so caught

up in our side, red versus blue, my team against your team, R versus D. We're going to get

you, and L if you're a libertarian, maybe some of you in here. We get so caught up in

all this. Do we get so caught up in things that don't matter and we are so focused on

this man or this woman or these other men or women or whoever else is running that we

forget about God. But what we need to be praying for is that God would put into office who

needs to be into office. Now here's the scary thing. Here's the scary thing is I believe

that God will give people what they ask for. And the problem is, is that too many times

in our country, what people are asking for is pure evil. And if people keep asking for

evil and they vote in a politician who's going to continue to promote evil, then guess what's

going to happen? We're going to see more and more evil flourishing in our country. If we

continue to seek sin and won't sin and reject God, then eventually God will hand us over

to our sin individually and as a nation, I believe. And that's a scary thing. So in some

way, I suppose our vote does matter. I won't say that it's insignificant, but we can't

trust our vote or we can't trust our leaders above all else. We must trust God above all

else. Because what we see too much in our world today is we see leadership that is just

as evil as it can be. What we see in our world today are leaders that call evil good and

good evil. We see leaders in our world today that will speak lies and silence the truth.

We see leaders today that will start wars in the name of peace. We see later leaders

today that will call sexual immorality, love. These are the things that we see in our world

today. We see leaders today that will let criminals run free and punish the innocent.

This is what we see in our world and this is not what God calls a leader to be. Now

we as Christians should desire and we should seek and we should pray for that leader in

our country. We should pray for the leader who's going to do good for God's people, who's

going to bring God back into our country, a leader who's going to seek God and follow

God's word and follow God's instruction and follow God's will. And maybe there's some

leader like that out there, maybe not. Maybe there aren't any running. Maybe there aren't

any good people running for president. Maybe we need to be like Charles Spurgeon sometimes.

He says, when I'm faced with the choice of two evils, I choose neither. Maybe some of

you feel like that this election season. Maybe some of you have got your guy or you've got

your girl and you know who you're going to vote for and you know they're going to make

everything better. Well, hold tight. Maybe they will. Maybe they won't. But I can guarantee

you what would make things better is that if we would seek God as individuals, if we

would seek God as a country, what we need in this country is we need good leadership

in all areas of our country. We need men and women of God who are going to promote what

is good, who are going to punish that that is evil, who are going to pursue peace, who

are going to provide for the poor and the needy, who are going to protect the people

of the land. These are things that are important to God. And Lord willing, maybe we get a man

or maybe we get a woman who's going to live by those qualities that are beautiful qualities.

But that's not what we see in our world today. So we are in a mess, brothers and sisters

in Christ. We are in a mess as a country and we are in a mess as a world. And it's because

we have not been living for God. Now we can look at all the evil people in the world in

our country, but maybe some days we just need to look in the mirror. Maybe there are some

things about ourselves that need to change. Maybe we're part of the problem. Maybe if

we as brothers and sisters in Christ would start living as children of God should live,

maybe we could make a change. We can start by asking God to help make a change in our

life. We can allow God to make a change in our life so we can start maybe making a change

in the life of our spouse or the life of our children and maybe making a change in the

life of those that we work with and maybe even making a change in the life of those

that we worship with. That if God would begin to work in our life, that maybe God could

use that to begin to work in the life of others, maybe we need to start with ourselves. That's

a good place to start. Maybe instead of thinking, boy, he's going to fix the problem or she's

going to fix the problem, maybe we need to say, God, I pray that you'd reveal to me the

things in my heart that shouldn't be there. God, that if there's going to be a change

in this world, that you'd let it start with me, dear Lord. And we pray for good leaders.

We do. We want to. We want to pray for those who are in authority. But maybe we need to

start asking God to look at our own hearts. Maybe we need to start asking for God's will.

Maybe our prayer doesn't need to be, God, let this man or let this woman be president.

Maybe our prayer needs to be, God, let your will be done. Let the person that you want

to be in there be in there. Maybe God puts a good leader in there for our good. Maybe

God puts a bad leader in there because that's what we deserve. But nonetheless, we pray

that God's will be done. We pray for God's grace. We pray that God will restore this

land. But what we cannot do is trust in a man more than we trust in God. Trust in a

woman more than we trust in God. Israel committed that very sin. And God said, the problem is

that they have rejected me. Spoiler alert, if you hadn't read the rest of the Bible,

the rest of their history after this was miserable. You know why? Because they didn't have but

a handful of decent kings, a handful. They had lots of kings and queens, but they was

all as rotten as they could be. They were as evil as they could possibly be. And God

told them, if you continue reading this passage, and Samuel, you can do that this week, God

said, okay, Samuel, you tell the people this. You tell the people that they can demand a

king, and I'll give them their king, but they better know what they're asking for. And I'm

summing it up, but here's what God said. He said, if you get a king, he's going to rule

over you and be able to do anything he wants to you. That's basically what he says. He'll

be able to take your children and send them to war. Well, we see that with our leaders

today, don't we? He'll be able to take your land if he wants to. He'll be able to take

almost everything you got should he choose to take it. So if you ask for a king, you

better realize that the one you're giving this power to is going to hold a lot of power,

and you better make sure that you know what you're asking for. Now, for a leader to hold

a lot of power is not a bad thing as long as they're a good leader, but how many times

have you seen somebody that's got a lot of power end up being a good person? Power corrupts,

and absolute power corrupts absolutely. And that's what happens in our world. Even some

good men and women that start off going to do the right thing, it's amazing how fast

things change. You get a little bit of power, you get a little bit of money, and all of

a sudden things go downhill real fast. And God told his people, look, you better be aware

because this person you're asking for, they're fixing to have a lot of power over you. And

there are very, very few people in this world that are wise enough to wield that kind of

power. Very few. And that's a problem because power in the hand of a fool is like a stick

of dynamite. A dynamite can be used to blow away mountains and make roadways and do great

things, but dynamite in the wrong hands can be used to destroy everybody around it. And

that's kind of like what power is. Boy, you could use power to do a lot of good, but how

many times do we see that in our world today? Not often enough. So what we need is not to

seek some man or some woman to be our savior, because I'll tell you this today. Our savior

is not seated at the Resolute Desk at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Our savior is seated

at the right hand of God, and his name is Jesus Christ. And until we seek him, and until

we call on him, and until we begin to live for him, our world is in a mess and it's going

to get in a lot worse mess. And we need to remember that. This Tuesday as we go vote,

whenever we hear who the winner is, Tuesday night or three months down the road when everybody's

arguing about it, we need to remember that we need to seek God, and we need to seek the

goodness of God, and we need to seek the will of God, and we need to seek to follow the

commands of God, and we need to trust that God is our God, and we need to trust him more

than we trust a man or more than we trust a woman. So let us be prayerful this week

as we prepare for this election. Let us pray for those who are running. Let us pray for

those who are in power. Let us pray for our country. Let us pray for peace after the election.

But most of all, let us pray for our nation that we would be a nation that would seek

God, that we would be a people that would stop rejecting God, that we would be a people

that would call on God and bring God back into our schools and into our workplaces and

into every part of our society. And then we'll see a nation that will be healed if only people

would call out and seek the Lord. That is our hope today. Our hope is in our Savior,

Jesus Christ, not in the President of the United States. Let's pray. Father God, we

come to you this morning. We thank you for being good to us. But God, I pray that you'd

forgive us as a nation, that you'd forgive us as a society, because we are rotten sometimes,

dear Lord, most of the time. And not just those evil people that we can point our fingers

at, dear Lord. The fact of the matter is sometimes it's us, it's ourselves. We're the ones that

are...we're not helping society any. We're falling into the trap. Dear Lord, sometimes

if we're honest, we want to be like the other nations. We want to live in the way of sin,

dear Lord. We see your goodness, we see your love, we see the truth of your word. And even

still sometimes we are just as rotten as these Israelites. We just reject you, God. We seek

our help and our hope in something else. Dear Lord, maybe there are some in this room today

and they're yours. And maybe they hadn't been trusting you the way they should. Maybe they

have got caught up in all this political stuff. It's easy to do, dear Lord. We see it all

the time. It's easy for us to get caught up in all this and debating and arguing with

people that we love and breaking relationships and trusting in men or women to lead us. But

God, I pray today that we put all that to the side and that today that we would start

by looking at ourself, God. That we would repent of our sins, that if we have not been

trusting you, that we kind of re-center our focus today. Not on presidents, but on Jesus.

God, I pray that you would help us to do the good things that you want. That we would pursue

good in our life and pursue righteousness, God. That we would flee from evil and repent

of it. So God, maybe there are some today and they're yours and they've just been rejecting

you, God. They just hadn't been trusting you like they should. I pray today, dear Lord,

that they would humble themselves before you and repent of their sins. God, maybe there

are some in this room and they don't know Jesus Christ. Maybe they know coming to church.

Maybe they know a little bit of your word, but maybe they've never really trusted you.

Maybe they're still trusting the things in the world. They're trusting their wealth or

they're trusting their president or they're trusting a variety of things, God, but they've

already found out and discovered that they're still just as pitiful and as hopeless as they

were when they started. So God, today I pray that you would help them to look to something

better, to someone better. That today they would look to Jesus Christ, God. That they

would repent of their sinfulness. That they wouldn't try to find hope or deliverance in

the world. That they would know that God, you are the same God who brought about good

and deliverance to your people Israel and you are the same God that brings about good

and deliverance to us today through Jesus Christ and Christ alone. So God, I pray that

if there is one that does not know Jesus today, that even now if you're working on them, that

they would call out to you, God, that they would pray. That they would repent. That they

would seek you, dear Lord. God, I pray that as we have this moment of invitation in just

a second that if anybody's made that decision to follow you today, that they would walk

up front, dear Lord, and let us rejoice with them so that they can be followed through

in baptism just as Jesus has commanded. Dear Lord, maybe there are some here this morning

that need prayer. Maybe there are some that just are going to pray where they are, dear

Lord, but I pray that if you've spoken to anybody today that they would respond. And

I pray for our nation, dear Lord. You have been so good to us. You have blessed us and

we thank you for those blessings. But dear Lord, we have sinned and sinned greatly as

a nation. Our world is just in chaos, dear Lord, but our solution comes from you, God.

And I pray, God, that we would be a people that would seek you, that you be with our

leaders both locally and nationally, that you would just convict the hearts of those

who lead, that you would help the ones that are doing good to do good and the ones that

are doing evil to repent, dear Lord, that you would pour your spirit out on this land.

God, that we would be a people that love one another and that seek to love you and to serve

you. God, I pray that you forgive us for taking you out. And dear Lord, I pray that you'd

be gracious and have mercy and through your spirit, God, you can work miracles, that your

word would be promoted in our land, in our schools, in our churches, dear Lord, that

we would not forget who you are and that we would trust you above all else. And I ask

these things in Jesus' name, Amen.