Christian-ish: Week 2

Now we are excited about the second week of this series.

Now, this second.

Week a lot like last week. It's very in your face,

very blunt. And this passage that I'm gonna walk us

through today, Okay, this passage that I'm gonna walk us

through is not for the light hearted.

And so we're gonna put on.

Our big boy, big girl pants and if it gets

hard for you, just lean forward, lean in a little bit.

But we're gonna walk through this passage and we're gonna

talk about what God is speaking to us as a

congregation through this.

So let's pray. God, We give you pray today.

We thank you for the opportunity to worship you, the

opportunity to seek your face, the opportunity to know you. Now,

Holy Spirit, speak to us. Let us be humble as

we hear your word today in Jesus name.

Amen, who in here we consider yourself?

Rag your hand, and if you are a rule follower,

raise your hand, all right? A lot of rule Oh wow,

A lot of rule followers. Okay, all right, how many

of you kind of see rules as maybe more how

would you put it, dares in disguise?

Raise your hand? Yeah, A lot of us, A lot

of us. I wouldn't say.

That I love rules, but I would say that I

hate consequences, okay, And I know this, I know this

that consequences will eventually come.

You think you get away with something.

For a long time, but eventually you will be found out.

And this has proven right throughout the years. My brother

and I were in our forties. Guess what, we're still

ratting each other out for stuff we did when we're little.

You never get away with them.

Whatever you've done, it's gonna come out.

There's gonna be consequences.

Now, I had a father who taught me in wonderful

ways that consequences are real.

Now. My father, okay, I knew he loved me.

He went into that dark Ak still factory for thirty

years straight provide it for our family.

He was always there.

But my father also could be pretty strict, and when

he said there will be consequences, there was consequences. Let

me give you two stories that just give a little

insight here. I love baseball growing up, and so I

needed a new baseball.

Bat for the season.

So my dad and I went out we bought a

baseball bat.

My dad was working midnights.

During the time at ak still, and my dad said

to me, now, if you play with that ball bat

before your chores are done, you will never see that

ball bat ever again. Now I knew my dad slept

till three in the afternoon when he worked midnights. And

so the next morning, I get up, thinking I got

some time. I grabbed the baseball bat and I get

in between my house in the garage and I just

do my thing, alright, just swing, and I'm daydreaming and daydreaming.

Have you ever felt someone staring at your back? I

could feel his stare and I turn around. There was

my dad.

He says, hey, me to the bat. And guess what.

I never saw that bat again.

Another time in my life.

Do you remember back in the days when they used

to allow little kids to buy guns that look like

real guns. You know what I'm talking about, the thirties, forties, fifties, sixties, seventies,

and eighties and nineties.

I had this.

It was like a forty five caliber gun, looks like

a real gun.

And I loved it. And I would sit there in

my living room.

And my dad was watching TV one night, and I

would sit there and I couldn't help it, and I

would just.

Click, click, click, click, And.

My dad looked at me and says, if you click

that gun one more time, you will never see that

gun ever again.

All right, So I sit there, start shaking. I got

some very undiagnosable things going on. But anyways, I said

her shaking and I.

Couldn't handle it, and I'm like, ah.

My dad said, hand me that gun.

I never saw that gun again. Recently, in the last

couple years, my mom and dad moved. Do you know

what I say to my mom every once in a while, Mom,

if you ever see a toy gun that looks like

a forty five caliber, if you run across it.

I would love to have that back.

But the consequences, they are real.

We don't like them.

And to be honest, you know, repeatedly in my life,

my dad warned me. But sometimes I wanted to do

what I wanted to do instead. And I think a

lot of us want to do what's right. We want

to honor God, we want to obey God's instructions and

his commands. But we're, to be honest, there's a lot

of us in his congregation that the pool to do

our own thing.

Follow our own rules. Outweighs the desire to follow God's

ways and his instructions.

In other words, when it comes down to it, at

the end of the day, we're gonna do what we

want to do.

And maybe some of us, it's maybe some of us.

Who fall into this category, we might be what's known

as christian Ish christian Ish.

Now that's the word we studied last week.

What is christian Ish. Christian Ish describes someone who they wear.

The label of a Christian. They look like a.

Christian, and a lot of times, in many circles, they

act like a Christian, but they have not truly surrendered

her life to Jesus. In other words, you're sort of

Christian name only it's almost Christian. And here's the greatest,

most common quality of someone who's christian Ish, and that

is selective obedience. Obedience. Here's what selective obedience is. It

means that you follow God's word. So you're you're open

to following God's word unless it's a little bit too hard,

or maybe it costs you too much, or maybe it

interferes with your own plans. So yeah, you'll follow the Lord.

You'll obey his word unless it interferes or interrupts your

life in any way. You're a good person as long

as it doesn't cost you too much. Now here's a

problem with selective obedience. Okay, selective obedience.

It's a dangerous illusion. It can make us delusional. It's

a dangerous illusion that we believe that by doing.

Some of God's commands that's enough, when in reality it's

just disobedience. In disguise selective obedience, we think, hey, as

long as I'm doing most of what God wants me

to do, I'm okay, and not realizing that whenever God

convicts us and God commands us to do something, if

we don't have full disobedience, guess what, it's disobedience. If

we don't have full obedience, it's simply disobedience. Now, in

order to hear this message today it's really here, you're

gonna need some humility, all of us. It's one of

those messages where I go, I wonder if anybody's gonna

come back to church next week or will I'll be

preaching to myself. So we're gonna jump in and we're

gonna be looking at the life of Saul. Okay, now

let me give you a little background. In first, Samuel

chapter eight. Israel says, God, we know that.

You are our invisible king. You are the king of kings,

You're the Lord of lords.

But all the other nations they got like, you know,

a crown, they have a throne, they have someone that

leads them out into battle.

They well, God, we.

Want to look like our neighbors, so can you give

us a real king?

And God's like, let me tell you something that's gonna go.

Well, it's not gonna go well for you, but you

know what, I'm gonna give you what you want. And

so they rejected God as they're invisible king, and God

decides to give them they're king. It starts out pretty good.

So they pick a guy God speaks to Samuel. Sama

picks a guy named Saul. Now remember Saul at the

very beginning, he's like mister Israel. He's a foot taller

and everybody else.

He's athletic, good looking, seems like a.

Great guy, wonderful military guy, great strategist. On top of that,

seems like he was a pretty good dad. So he's

a great guy. He's like mister Israel. And to give

you a little bit further insight into his personality, when

we get the First Samuel ten.

We see that when he's a miss pad and.

He's about ready to be anointed king, they go around.

And they can't find him.

They can't find the guy who's supposed to be king.

And then God was like, won't you look over there

by that luggage. He was hiding behind luggage. He didn't

want the glory, he didn't want the recognition, he didn't

want all the attention on him. So finally they had

to go get him, saying we're gonna make you king.

So we see at the beginning of Saul's story, Saul seemed.

Like the right guy. But I don't know if you've ever.

Been around anybody who has power or recently got power.

Power changes people big time. Power and money and promotions

change people pretty quickly. You see somebody who maybe all

of a sudden inherited a whole lot of money.

Many act a little different.

Sometimes, So big changes in our life can change our

personality and our priorities and how we want other people

to look. As we see that Paul, excuse me, Saul,

experience is the same thing. And so we show here

in First Samuel fifteen things have been going well, but

then Samuel.

He says, Thus says the Lord of Host, I have.

Noted what a malik did to Israel in opposing them

on the way when they came up out of Egypt.

Now go and strike a malik and devote to destruction all.

And I pay attention to this word right here, all

that they have.

Now, let me give you a little background here.

Why is God saying, go to the malakies, absolutely utterly

destroy them.

Let me give you a little background here.

The Amalekites, they were like the perpetual enemy of the Israelites.

They would have.

Squirmishes and then they would, you know, Israel would beat

them back, win the battle.

They would go hide. This went on and on and

on and on.

But God is remembering Deuteronomy twenty five and Duhonomy twenty five.

We have a couple million Israelites coming out of the

exodus on a long journey. And guess who is always

in the back. The widows, maybe the babies, the children,

young mothers. They kind of fall behind those who have disabilities,

those who have injuries, those who struggle. But what you

gotta understand about the malachis they're semi nomadic people.

They don't fight fair.

Today, we would categorize them as a terrorist group, kind

of like our modern version of isis homis okay or

al Qaeda.

And here's what they would do. As the back group.

Would get separated from the rest of the group. They

were weak, they were vulnerable.

And here's what the Malachies would do. They would spring

up out of nowhere.

They would come and attack them, strike them down, take

their belongings, and disappear.

God did not like that. That was not fair. God

was not happy about that at all.

And so the Israelites that would go pursue them, knock

them down. Things would be good for a while. And

they guess what they would do. They would go and

they would watch, and they would watch, and they would watch.

Whatever they saw that there was a vulnerable group of

people who could not defend themselves, they would go and

attack the vulnerable. They would kill them and take everything

from them. So finally God says enough, enough's enough. I

am done with the Amalekites, and Saw you are gonna.

Be my instrument to get rid of them.

I'm done with her sin, I'm done with her evil ways.

They are an evil people who don't fight fairly. So

he says to Saul, and I pay attention to this.

He says, do not spare them, kill both men, woman, child.

All Right, we're gonna get to that here in a

little bit, because I know a lot of us. We

got some problems.

Like I told the first group earlier that had our

teenagers in it, I said, all right, I gotta pay

attention because I almost playing some stuff to you that

people are going to try to clauber you with in college.

But I'm gonna help you understand.

So he says, don't spare them, kill the man, the woman,

the child, the infant, the ox, the sheep, the camel,

and don't get.

In other words, wipe everything out.

Now, why would he tell them to do this? Here's

what you gotta understand. There's two types of wars back then.

There's the war of conquest, and then there's.

A thing called a war of justice.

A war of justice means you're not gonna get rich.

A war of conquest you get rich. A war of

justice you don't take prisoners, you don't touch the wealth.

God is using you to execute justice on these people. Now,

during that time in history, there was a name for that.

It was called a holy war. Now people throw that

around today, but they really don't know what they're talking about.

A holy war let me explain to you has basically

eight characteristics of what a holy war is. Okay, real quickly,

I want to give us to you. One, A holy

war is a war that God initiates. Number two, God

promises and delivers victory. Why because of number three, During.

That battle, God is the warrior. God is fighting for you.

So that means that God's presence is on the battleground.

And since God's presence is on the battlefield, then.

This war is an act of worship.

And so they have sacrifices and religious rituals all around it.

And then the arc of the covenant would be present.

And here's something very interesting. The troops were never to

be counted. Why could you weren't depending on the men

you were depending on the lord. And the enemies were

to be completely wiped out, no spoils taken. It's a

war of divine justice. And so God declares holy war

on the Amalakites. Now, before we go on, you might

be hung up right now, why would God do something

like that of James?

I get it.

Self defensive war totally there, world War II completely justified.

But war where you cool everything? Those women kids.

The short answer is this, let me help you understand

a couple of things going on. Number one, we are

West Sinners. Okay, we're from the West. We think differently.

We see justice doled out individually. So in other words,

if I commit a crime, they don't go and grab

my mommy and my daddy, my daughter, my wife. They

might grab my wife is more likely she's behind it.

But anyways, sorry, honey, but.

We understand justice as individuals.

Your kid does something and they're twenty three years old,

they don't come and put you in prison for what

your kid did.

Justice as an individual. Okay.

Now East Sinners, nothing in their culture is stand alone.

They see everything.

As it involves their trial. Ye their community. Again, no

one stands alone.

So so so you're always part of a group.

The tribe lives, then the tribe dies together.

And so here's what you have to understand.

The community will be wiped out as a whole community,

and these wars of justice, And here's why I want

you to understand. Why would they wipe the whole community out?

Why wasn't it just this person or this person?

Why did they wipe the whole community out.

It's a thing called vendettas. You have to understand vendettas.

Everybody on account of three say vendetta one, two three.

All right, I'm not gonna make your raise your hand

and say if you watch it, But if you have

watched Godfather Too, you know all about fandettas.

That's the big plot line. Okay.

So when Itto clely owns father is over in Sicily,

he gets in trouble with the mob, the mafia.

They kill him.

So his son rises up and he's gonna avenge his

father's death.

So then they kill the brother.

Too, who Well, then the mother says, oh, no, don't

touch my little Vito, and so she goes to the

head mob boss and the head mob bas says, no, no, no, no,

we have to kill your little son. And she goes,

why would you kill him? He's innocent because he will

grow up someday and he'll come kill me. So they

kill the mom. They chase after Veto. That's how Vito

gets to America. That's the plotline of Godfather Too. Now,

by the way, that's over in the Eastern culture. This

has been going on for thousands and thousands of years.

That's the way it worked.

If you go into a battle and you wipe out

my parents, when I grow up, guess what I'm gonna do.

I'm gonna wipe your kids out. It will go on

and on and on and on and on for generations.

And so when they would wipe out a whole culture or.

A whole community, what they were really doing was they

were saving their own children from someday being attacked and

murdered by this terrorist group. All right, So now you

can understand why, maybe in a war situation, why they

would do this. But there's a bigger question. Why would

God be involved with this? Why would God allow little

kids to be killed in this type of war.

Now here's what don't want to think about.

What would happen if these Amalekit kids had grown up.

I'm gonna tell you what.

They would have become exactly like their parents, and they

would have joined their wicked ways.

And and one says God is delivering them from evil.

Now, now that doesn't mean that any of us, because

ever sit there and justify, well, this group should be

wiped out because of this, or this group should be

wiped out. We don't that would be insane for any

of us to think that. Why Because you're not God

and I'm not God. You see you and I we

can't give somebody heaven.

Only God can. So that means that when.

These kids were killed, they got to stand before God

one on one and they were not judged by their

parents wickedness. Instead, they were brought into God's grace and

they got to go to heaven.

Great chance, probably a ninety nine point ninety nine nine.

Percent chance if those children would have grown up, they'd

have been wicked like their parents. It's spent eternity in hell.

It was a form of grace, and only God can

offer that. Why did you have to understand?

Only God can give someone something infinitely better than life,

And what God gave those little kids was something infinitely

better than their own life.

He gave them eternity in heaven and grace.

That's the two main reasons why when we see this

passage we go ooh, I don't like it, but you

have to understand it a little bit more.

Now, we can't get balled down here because remember, as

relates his story again, this is not a war conquest.

Saul is not supposed to take anything for himself. And

by the way, if they'd have took stuff for themselves, then.

They would have been doing the very same thing that.

The Malachites were doing. So why would God allow this?

So let's jump back in. Remember, Saul, it's.

Not about you. This is a holy war.

And so here we go, ready, it says, and Saul

the feet of the Amalekites from Alva as far as sure,

which is east of Egypt.

Uh. And what did he do? He took a god,

the king of the Malachites, alive.

And devoted to destruction all the people with the edge

of the sword. Was God not crystal clear? All the people?

He killed all the people, but he kept one person alive.

So partial obedience, selective obedience. But Saul and the people

spared of God, and the whole not just that, but

the best of the sheep, and the oxen, and the

fat and calves, the lambs and all that was good.

It will not utterly destroy them. So well, so this happens.

He doesn't do what God want to do. And then

the word of the Lord comes to Samuel.

Who's Samuel.

Samuel get anointed by God as a young child, and

he raises up and he becomes the priest, the prophet

of Israel, and he's.

God's voice to the people.

God speaks to the people through Samuel, and.

So God says to Samuel, I regret.

That I have made Saul king, for he has turned

his back from following me and has not performed my commandments.

Later on in that.

Passage just says it, Samuel, that night wept, his heart

was broken, and then he heads on down to confront Saul. Unfortunately,

it's bad timing for Saul. Saulstowe a victory party, and

it says, and behold, he set up a monument for himself. So,

by the way, we've gotta be kidding me. This is

a holy ward. This is not a war conquest. And

what has he done? He set up a bunch of rocks,

one of them card Saul is awesome. He set up

a monument for himself. And all of a sudden, Saul says, yeah, I.

Know that this was a holy war.

God was a warrior, and it was all about what

God was doing. But now it's all about me again.

When you get power, you get money, you gotta be careful.

Throughout history, many rulers have set up monuments for themselves.

Let's look back in history. Nebuconezzer, he was drunk with power.

What did he do?

He constructed the hanging Gardens of Babylon. One of the

seven owners of the world. Ramsey's a second considered one

of the greatest kings and pharaohs of Egypt.

What did he do?

He created this whole complex in a city where he

has these colossal statues of himself.

It was a testament to.

His reign and a display of his divine status. And

then he would get a little bit further on in history.

Justinian the emperor from the Byzantine Empire. He commissioned the

construction of Hegez Sophia. Who and here has been there.

I know some of you in our church has been

there for this was the largest cathedral in the world

for over a thousand years. It was a symbol of

his reign and his real just in political power. See,

when you set up monuments for yourself, there's multiple purposes.

It shows that you have power and you want to

immortalize your legacy.

And here's what Saul is doing. He's setting up a

monument for himself. And I want you to understand something.

Why didn't he kill the king, because once a year

they would have a big parade in their hometown, and

whatever king you conquered, they were.

In that parade.

They were there emaciated, they weren't looking good, but they

would have to walk through the city. And basically what

it said was I.

Am the real king of kings.

So Saul was setting himself up, monuments, pride, all these things.

But then Samuel comes to him, the trusted voice of God.

And then Saul says, oh, Samuel, blessed be you to

the Lord, and then listen this delusional I have performed

the commandment of the Lord and I love this. Samuel says, Okay,

then what is this bleeding of sheep in my ears

and the lowing of the oxen out of here? You

can just imagine Saul's like, well, Samuel, I did it.

I follow the Lord's comand and then I'll sit here,

mat mat mat, And same was like, really what am

I hearing over here?

And it's like this well scripted drama piece acts like

everything's okay when clearly things are not okay.

I'm gonna say it again, Saul acted like everything's.

Okay when it's not really okay, And So let me

ask you, people the Church of the Crossing, how often

do you come into worship, lift your hands up and

worship the Lord and act like everything's okay when you

know it's not okay.

There's deep sin in your life.

Some of you have hatred towards your brother or sister,

are a coworker, then you worship like nothing's going on.

Some in our congregation have secret effec for someone other

than their spouse, but worship like nothing's going on. Secret addictions,

secret porn watching. Some withhold your tithe even though God

has already spoken to you about that. Some are mean

to spouse or kids, but you just go on like

nothing's wrong. Some gossip and got to the point where

you've gossip so much we don't even feel any conviction

about it anymore. And you come in here and you

worship like there's nothing between you and God, everything's okay

when it's not okay. And let me tell you some

unrepentant sin quoting near your life, acting like it's all normal.

You're deceiving yourself because you got are saying God is

not okay with that. And let me tell you we

all sin, I sin, you sin, We all even hypocrists

of time. What I'm talking about is a person who

is following the Lord. You get convicted of a sin,

God is working with you.

God has shown you this is wrong or it's clear.

The scripture, but you rationalize it.

Or you learned to live with it, and you just.

Walk through life like it's okay.

You have not declared war on that sin. You have

learned how to live with that sin. And yet you

come in and you worship and you.

Hang out because you've become okay with that sin.

Here's what you don't understand. God is not okay.

With that sin in your life. And let me tell

you again, We all sin. But what you do when

the Holy Spirit confronts you is of life and death importance.

What a soul do here.

Saul still has a chance, but he chose a path

he can hardly come back from. Let's look at this.

Saul said, all right, he's been confronted now, and he

says they he's talking about the people they have brought them,

talking about the spoils from the amalachis for the people spared,

the best of the sheep and oxen to sacrifice the Lord,

your God, and the rest have been devoted to destruction.

And he's like, here, let me.

Tell you why I disobeyed the Lord. Let me tell

you why these people disobey the Lord.

They disobeyed the Lord because they.

Love the Lord so much that they want to have

an awesome worship service to honor the Lord. So therefore

they had to disobey the Lord in order to honor

the Lord. Does that sound crazy to you, Yeah, Samuel's

not falling for it. He blames the people, but he

reminds me, you're the one giving the orders. He's blamed shifting,

He's plaining the victim. And then here's what Samuel says

to him. I love it with an exclamation mark.

Stop.

I'm gonna tell you what the Lord said to me

this night.

And he says, though you.

Were little in your own eyes, are you now not

the head of the tribes of Israel? The Lord anointed

you king over Israel. He says, you know what you

were nothing? And God gave you everything. Have you forgotten

all that God has given you? Have you forgotten that

God is the one who had anointed you. God is

the one who had exalted you. God is the one

who loved a God is the one who put you

in this place? Have you forgotten that you were a

nobody and God made you as somebody?

And I believe wholeheartedly that.

Some of those, especially those of us who've been in

a church for decades, and we learned to live with

our sin. I believe it's because we've forgotten the grace

and the mercy poured out on our life. So therefore

we learned to live with it. Saul forgot that God

gave him everything, and so he decided he wanted a

little bit more. And here's what Samuel says that he says,

the Lord said you want a mission, and said, go

devote to the destruction the sinners, the Amalakites, and fight

against them.

Until they are consumed. Why did you not obey the

voice of the Lord, And he says us.

Why did you pounce on the spoil and do what

was evil in this sight.

Of the Lord.

In other words, this pouth you were greedy for it.

It's because you wanted this recognition, you wanted this power.

You wanted to be known as a king of kings.

You wanted a monument.

And Saul said sam he goes, listen, I have paid

the voice of the Lord I've gone on the mission

on which the Lord sent me, and I've brought the

king back, and I've devoted to Malachis to destruction.

And look at his response.

He's saying that, you know, I did this, and I

did this because what we're gonna do is we're gonna

have a big worship service.

I did all this for God. I want to honor God.

I want to have a big celebration for God.

This is for God. And then Samuel said this.

As a Lord has a great delight in burnt offerings

and sacrifices, as in.

Obeyan the voice of the Lord. I'm gonna tell you

something right now.

Think there's a false belief that God is just excited

to get anything from you.

Do you think that.

God is so desperate that he can't hardly handle himself

on Saturday night wondering if you're going to come to

church on Sunday.

Do you think that God is, you know, bored and poor.

So therefore he needs you to come hang out and

he needs you to give a little bit of money.

Do you think that God is so desperate? Let me

tell you something, God, God isn't.

Looking for their things, stuff that you could give him

stuff that.

You could do for him.

God wants a surrendered heart. God isn't looking for you

to do this or that or this or that.

God wants you.

He wants you, not the things that we think we

could give to He doesn't need your money.

He doesn't. God could do anything. He wants you. And

so also here's what we do. We turn our faith

into a thing of rituals.

We make sure I went to church Sunday, I did this,

I gave this, I.

Give check check check check. Good God, are you happy?

And all the time? God says, man, that is great.

I love that.

But why are you watching porn? Why are you cheating

on your taxes? Why are you daydreaming about that other

person that's not your spouse. I want your heart, give

me your heart. And see, here's where Saul is delusional.

He thinks, as long as I do some things that

look religious, God's going to be good.

And here's what you have to understand.

Obedience or disobedience gives insight into the heart of a person.

Every act of obedience is a demonstration of our love

to the one who loved us first. And then we

come to this first that, by the way, the first

time I studied it, I read it over and over

and over and over again because.

It just seemed messed up to me. And by the

way I think it, I've really struggled with this first

a lot.

Okay, but I'm gonna read it to you, and I'm

gonna tell you what the commentators and what I believe

it it means. Okay, as Saul is given his excuses,

I do this, I do this, I do this, I

do that, here's what Samuel says. He says, for rebellion

is as the sin of divination and presumption is as

iniquity and idolatry. In other words, he says, if you're

going to do whatever you want to do, then as

a lord really your lord? In other words, if you're

going to do whatever you want to do, who are

you really worshiping? And so in a way, here he's

saying that the true lord of your life is not

the kingdom of heaven, but the kingdom of hell. And

he's saying, if you're going to do whatever you want

to do, is God really your lord? If you're going

to do what you really want to do, how can

you say that Jesus is your lord?

No?

No, you're following another lord. Man, I did not expect that.

Will you study these creatures? Like, Oh, so, what you're

saying here is when we rebel and we do whatever

we want, it's a confession that we're really not falling

the lord of lords. Let me tell you something. I

know how this works. When I was in seventh or

eighth grade, I would watch pornography and then I would

be disgusted with myself after I watch it. Those of

you who watched pornography, you know how it starts. You

watch it, then you feel horrible. Then you watch it again,

then you feel horrible. A week or two later, you

watch it, and then you feel horrible. And that's what

happens when you get into this routine. And then my

wife and I started going out in eighth grade, and

then we start fooling around, and by the time we

were in ninth grade, we're in a full blown sexual relationship.

And we would do stuff, and then I would go

to church and I would feel horrible and I would

go to the altar and I'd repent and I would say, God,

I want to follow you. God, I'm so sorry. And

then we would do more stuff, and I'd watch more porn.

And it got to the point where I got, you know,

I start feeling like less and less.

Guilty.

I start accepting as part of my life, it's what

I do.

And the next thing I know.

I wasn't asking God for forgiveness anymore. I was living

my life of rebellion. Yeah, at first I was convicted

and convicted and convicted. But then I just kept shrugging

it off, shrugging it all, struggling off until I finally decided,

I'm gonna do what I want to do now. When

I was here, who is my Lord? Who was the

lord of my life?

Me in the kingdom Satan? And that's the reality.

And he says to Saul, he says, Soul, if you're

going to do what you want to do, then you

really can't say you're following the Lord. And if you're

going to not do what God commanded you, you really can't

say that you belong to him. And he said, who

is your Lord? And I love that Samuel uses the

word rebellion here and he says this, and here's why

he uses the word rebellion. It is because sin is

not wicked only because what you do, but because of

whose authority you reject. And then here's what he says.

Because you've rejected the word of the Lord, he has

also rejected you from being king. And then all of

a sudden, so Ill says, oh, I've sin for.

I've trained aggress the.

Commandment of the Lord in your words because I fear

the people and I obeyed their voice. He says, I repent,

I repent, I repent. I should have been led away

by these evil people.

That's not true repentance. And then he says this stuff.

Therefore, please pardon my sin and return with me so

that I might worship. And he said, hey, I need

you to parton my sin so that we could go

to this big worship service.

Here's what's really going on. This is false confession, this

is false represnance.

Because here's what was really happening. He would say, all right,

I've messed up.

I've done wrong things. I should have done that.

But same, Noel, I really really need you to go

to this worship service with me, because if you don't

go to this worship service with me, everybody's going to

know that me and God are on the outs.

I'm gonna lose faith and people are gonna see that

God is not with me. It was false repentance.

Saul cared more about what people thought of him than what.

God thought about him.

Do you guys remember the nineties a guy named Bill

Clinton I had a big impact in my life. I

was a teenager in the nineties and Bill Clinton had

an affair of a woman named Monica Lewinsky.

And we all know that famous line those of us.

He goes, I did not have sexual relations with that woman,

Miss Lewinsky.

This went on for like two years. Lied lied, lied, lied, lied, lied.

Come to find out he was lying. He cared more

about his reputation, his status, and his job than being

right with God.

Often the reason we do not confess and repent from

our sins is we're more worried about what the person

next to us thinks than what God thinks about us.

And here's what Samuel says to Saul. He goes, I

will return for you, for you have rejected the word

of the Lord, and the Lord has rejected you for

being king of for Israel.

And then check this out.

It's like, you can't write this stuff, you can't make

this stuff up. As Samuel turned to go away, Saul

sees the skirt of his robe, and it tore.

And then Samuel said to him, the.

Lord has torn the kingdom of Israel from you this day,

and has a given it to the neighbor of yours,

who is better than you.

Another word's talking about King David, and here it is

rips it.

And God says, just as you ripped that, now the

kingdom is ripped from you.

All right, but we're not done here.

And then Samuel says, bring the king over here, the

king of the Malachites.

And that's crazy.

He comes to him in chains, and it says this,

and he thought, surely the bitterness of death is passed,

and so kick A guy comes out like.

All right, all right, alright, alright, you've killed some people.

I've killed some people. We've all done some wrong things.

We've all hey, you guys took some spoils. I've taken

some spoils. Let's just call the day. What is sam

you'll do.

As your sword has made women childless, so shall your

mother be childless among women? And Samuel hacked into pieces

before the lord.

All right, that's an answer, sermon. That's the end.

We're done with that passage. Are you guys ready to worship.

I just want to simply take you through three things,

real quick. Three truths about sin. One, disobedience is anything

less than full immediate obedience. Question where you're not obeying fully.

Number Too, disobedience grows out of a greedy desire. In

other words, there's some deep soul dissatisfaction. You've got to

figure out what's going on. Number Three, disobedience can only

be overcome by the Gospel. In other words, when you

are convicted of your sin, you go and you lay

it before Jesus, and the Holy Spirit empowers you to

declare war on that sin.

And when you mess up.

Because by the way, today I'm not preaching, hey, confess

your sin.

And you will never sin again. That would be insane.

I don't believe that at all.

No, I believe that if we struggle with sin, we're

always going to struggle with that sin. But here's a difference.

When you're convicted, do you declare war on it again? Also,

when you're convicted, do you do everything? Do you erase

the apps, maybe even change your friend group? Do you

do whatever it takes to overcome that? And here's where

the gospel comes in. The Gospel is full of.

Grace and mercy and love.

But also the Gospel talks about how it gives us

the Holy Spirit to help us. So we need the

Holy Spirit to help us overcome these sins. But first

we must cement and stop lying to ourselves and declare

war on our sin. In the early nineteen hundreds, the

Titanic took off.

On its voyage.

They didn't even put enough lifeboats on it because you know,

it was unsinkable. What's crazy is that night they kept

getting mornings Iceberg, Iceberg, Iceberg, Iceberg, Iceberg.

They ignored it. They were unsinkable, and then guess what happened?

They hit an iceberg. Fifteen hundred people died in the sink,

sunk to the bottom of the ocean. All of the

death in the destruction was simply because of this. They

did not heed the warnings and they were delusional and

thought they were okay.

Today I've come to you.

And I call on you to look at the sin

in your life, and I am calling on you to

not be delusional and think it's okay, And I want.

You to heed the warnings. And here's why.

When you become freed up from this sin your life,

you will experience the Kingdom of God unlike you ever

experienced the Kingdom of God, and you will have true joy,

true happiness.

In your life.

Here's what we're gonna do as we close out today.

We're gonna take some time to pray. And here's what

I want you to do. Let's just take a moment now,

and I want you to ask the Lord Lord, is

there any sin in my life that you want to

rid out of my life? So let's take some time

and pray, ask the Holy Spirit to speak to you.

I don't think it takes long for the Holy Spirit

to point out of their sin in our life.

So here's what I want you to do now.

I want you to surrender that sin over to the Lord,

ask for forgiveness, and also today make a commitment to

do whatever it takes to get that sin out of

your life. Will you take time to speak to the

Lord about that