Who's Your King? - Leaders' Talks

Hey, I'm Steve Holt, the senior pastor of the Road at Chapel Hills.

This is the Rhode Podcast.

Thanks for joining us.

My heart is to empower you to change the world.

I hope this message impacts you.

Here now is our guest speaker.

Hey, we're gonna jump into uh God's word.

We're gonna be looking at 1 Samuel chapter 8 today.

1 Samuel 8 · chapter mention

And um, you know, as we've navigated just these past two years with COVID and everything, I've been reading through the Old Testament and just seeing the similarities.

So what happened then and what happened now?

Like some scripture says that there's nothing new under the sun, right?

And so uh just as I've been reading through the Old Testament, I've seen these similarities, I've seen this symbolism, and just as people, everybody's trying to vie for power here, and who do we follow?

Who do we trust?

Who leads us?

Where do we get our wisdom?

And as I came upon 1 Samuel 8, I just felt like the Lord says, said, This is what I want my people to see.

I want my people to see what happens when they take God off the throne.

And so we're gonna walk through part of this chapter and see just why it is so critical that we keep God on the throne in our lives and keep others from trying to take that role.

So let's pray.

And if you've got your Bibles with you, go ahead and open them to 1 Samuel chapter 8.

1 Samuel 8 · chapter mention

Lord God, we want to hear your voice today.

You are the King, Lord.

You are God on the throne.

Lord, you rule the world with your feet up.

You're not stressed, you're not surprised, you're not worried.

Lord, we want to keep you on the throne.

And so we pray this morning, Lord, open our ears and our eyes and our hearts to hear your word, to hear your voice and your word, and to grow closer to you, Father.

We pray in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Amen.

So if you've got your Bibles, turn to 1 Samuel chapter 8.

1 Samuel 8 · chapter mention

Now, a little context for this scripture here.

Uh basically, Samuel has been the prophet or the judge of Israel up to this point, and he's reached an age where he's unable to do his job very well anymore.

In fact, we'll see in our verse, some of the guys they actually say, You are old.

It's like, thanks, bro.

And so he's reached a point where he's unable to do his job, and so he appoints his sons as judges, and they're not doing a great job.

And so everybody's trying to figure out who do we follow?

What direction are we going?

Where are we going?

Who is king here?

And so let's pick this up in 1 Samuel chapter 8, verse 1.

1 Samuel 8:1

It says, Now it came to pass when Samuel was old that he made his sons judges over Israel.

The name of his firstborn son was Joel, and the name of his second Abijah.

And they were judges in Beersheba, but his sons did not walk in his ways.

They turned aside after dishonest gain, they took bribes, and they perverted justice.

Then all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah and said to him, Look, you are old, and your sons do not walk in your ways.

Now make us a king to judge us like all the other nations.

So, first of all, we see the elected leaders, the judges, Samuel's sons, who are they're accepting bribes and they're perverting justice and they're pretty much blowing it, right?

And these are like the politicians.

And so nothing new there today.

Um and then the elders, the wise men of the nation, they come up with a bright idea to demote God and conjure up a king.

Like, seriously?

Brilliant.

Because the because the judges or the politicians aren't doing so great, let's demote God.

And we know that that's what they're actually doing here because later on in our verse, God says, it's me that they're that they don't want to reign over them anymore.

He says, it's me they're rejecting as their king.

See, I think that these guys were holding the the judges in far too high of regard.

They were placing too much of their hope in these judges.

I mean, think of this.

Like, the politicians failed, so let's demote God.

Seriously?

That sounds ridiculous, but I know quite a few people who have actually questioned their faith in the Lord and they've questioned God because of the failures of politicians.

You see, problem number one that we see here in our our scripture is that bad leadership produces bad leadership.

One of my favorite teachers is actually a pastor, he's a leadership expert.

His name's John Maxwell, and I'm sure my wife is sick of hearing me say this by now, but the thing I quote from him most, he says, everything rises and falls on leadership.

Everything depends on leadership.

Which makes question number one, who is leading your life?

Where are you getting your wisdom?

Everything rises and falls on leadership.

Is the media leading your life?

Is a politician leading your life?

Is the collective opinion of your friends on social media leading your life?

Or is the word of God, is God Himself leading your life?

You see, James 1, 5 says, if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally.

There's the only good use of that word, and without reproach, and it will be given to him.

Guys, this whole book, this whole Bible thing here, this is the story of God trying to make a way for us to be his people, for him to be our God, for us to be his people who look to him for leadership.

He is our king.

And so the next time that we find ourselves seeking wisdom or developing our position on something, on anything, from the news or from social media, we've got to stop right there and be reminded: hey, wait a second.

Wait a second.

I I already have a king.

In fact, can you guys lift your voice with me right now and say that out loud on three?

Say, I already have a king.

One, two, three.

Come on, declare it.

Yeah, amen.

We already have a king.

We already have a leader.

We already have all the opinion and all the wisdom that we'll ever need.

We don't need the world's leadership.

I don't want the world's leadership.

Bad leadership just produces more bad leadership.

God is my king.

What does he say about, I don't know, gender or fear of sickness or what type of mask Jesus was wearing when he walked up to the lepers.

Sorry, I had to.

Let God, not the world, lead your life.

Let God lead your life.

Where are you getting your wisdom?

See, because when God is king, wisdom abounds.

Who is leading your life?

Where are you getting your wisdom?

Everything rises and falls on leadership.

Now here's problem number two that we see a hierarchy out of order results in mutiny.

When your priorities get out of order, when stuff in your life gains too much power over your life, chaos ensues.

So question number two is how's your hierarchy?

How are your priorities?

Do the wrong things have too much power in your life today?

Let's look back at our verse here.

Verse 5, they say, Now make us, make us a king.

Let's stop right there.

Translation.

Go find a not king and make him king and then tell him to rule over us.

Brilliant.

And I imagine Samuel had to stop and be like, uh, hmm.

Give me a second.

Let me run that one back by you here, real quick.

Uh so let's look at this.

Right now, God, the God of the universe, the infallible, like that that word means he can't screw it up.

Uh he's your God.

Um, but instead, you would like me to go find some Tom Decker Harry and say, hey, Tom, you ever been a king before?

No?

Alright, great, you're in.

Get in there.

Samuel's like, seriously?

And we'll see that in our verse here.

It says, This thing displeased Samuel.

Like, really, guys?

See, these guys, they held the judges, the elders, they held the judges or the politicians at the level of king.

And so when their false kings screwed up, they said, Let's find a new king.

They weren't supposed to be their king.

The judges were not supposed to be sitting in the place of king over their lives.

God was.

Now, this sounds absurd, but I think if we're being honest here today, I wonder how many of us have things in our lives that are unworthy of being king.

Yet they have that much power over us.

How many of us have things in our lives that hold more power over us than God holds?

How many things are we still living in that are in disobedience to God's word?

Even though God says this, I still do this because I'm just not quite so sure.

Not so sure I trust it.

Money?

Maybe we're still not tithing because money has too much power over us.

Kids?

How many would admit, yeah, you know what?

My kids flat out have too much power over my life.

My kids have come before God, they've come before my marriage.

Or maybe it's your job.

Like, doesn't matter how badly my my kids and my wife need me to be present.

If my job calls, I drop everything and go.

Is there stuff in your life right now that has too much power that has been elevated to the level of king and shouldn't be there?

Now, a little honesty in church, the the job one, that can be one that I'm tend I tend to be guilty of because I love working.

In fact, I tend to derive a little bit too much of my self-worth out of working.

And a couple of weeks ago, I was um I was back there in the audio board running audio, and my daughters were there with me in the booth, and they're age five and age three, and so they have no regard for good audio or care less, nor any regard for my unhealthy perfectionism, right?

And so I'm running audio, and they're little kids, and they see all these buttons and knobs, and if I push this, it does this, and so they start to reach for the board, of course, right?

And when they start to reach for the board, it's like everything in me just clams up, like, oh gosh, they're gonna make me look bad at my job.

And I'm telling you, in that moment, the Lord said to me, Kyle, don't snap at them.

Like their childlike innocence and their identity as your beloved daughters is far more important than 10 seconds of good audio.

Like in the grand scheme of things, if they hit the power button and shut the whole building down for 30 seconds, big whoop.

Is anybody gonna leave Jesus because the power went off for 30 seconds?

No.

Now, of course, we we teach them respect, right?

We teach them to behave in different environments.

But I just felt like the Lord was saying, Kyle, don't bark at them just because you treat your job as more important than them.

In a more loving tone, of course.

That's my voice.

See, work tends to hold too much power in my life, but the Lord is working on me.

And so when when work starts to crawl onto the throne in my life, I have to remind myself, wait a second, I already have a king.

I already have someone to tell me the order of importance of the things in my life.

God, wife, kids, everything else.

Guys, we've got to be careful of giving too much power to anything in our lives.

Only the Lord is worthy of the throne.

And so when something starts to take on too much power in your life, you've got to stop and remind yourself.

Can we lift our voice again and say this out loud on three?

Come on, one, two, three.

I already have a king.

Amen.

I already have a king.

You see, when God is king, rightful order is restored.

My priorities fall into right order when the Lord is king in my life.

There's a uh a theme that you see in the Old Testament, mostly I think through the book of Kings and Judges, and it goes like this.

It always starts out with the verse In those days there was no king in Israel, right?

So they had taken the king off the throne, symbolic, of course, of taking God off the throne.

And then the next verse is always everyone did what was right in his own eyes.

Simple cause and effect.

Then the next few chapters are always absolute chaos.

Total chaos.

It's just simple cause and effect.

Step one, take God off the throne.

Step two, do whatever's right in your own eyes.

Step three, total chaos.

Guaranteed.

Every time.

Cause and effect.

See, when God is king, rightful order is restored.

Is God king in your life?

Now I know we're Christians, we're sitting in a church right now on Sunday morning.

Of course, we would say God is king, but it's the moment by moment.

The decision by decision, the thing by thing.

The enemy's always there offering.

Like, hey, put this on the throne right now.

Put the money on the throne.

Put your kids on the throne.

Put your job on the throne.

Put this, try this, try this, try this.

This will make you happy.

This will make you feel more important.

We've got to keep God on the throne.

Let's continue in our verse here.

Verse 6.

It says, But the thing displeased Samuel when they said, Give us a king to judge us.

So Samuel prayed to the Lord.

And the Lord said to Samuel, Heed the voice of the people and all that they say to you.

For they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them.

Verse 8, God says, According to all the works which they have done since the day that I brought them up out of Egypt, even to this day.

God's saying they're just doing what they've always done.

They're just being who they've always been.

They're just living up to their old habits.

I do this to try and bring them back to me.

They just reject and deny me again.

Because the point is here, you don't have to be who you've always been.

You don't have to live up to your old habits.

You don't have to do what you've always done.

Scripture says, in Christ you are a new creation.

Old things have passed away, new things have come.

Let us live and walk in the freedom that He offers to be new creations.

It takes time.

Sometimes, yeah, God does it overnight.

That habit just goes away like a miracle.

He can do that.

He can absolutely do that right here, right now.

For me, it took time and it's taking time.

And it's a daily walk.

Scripture says, as you received him, so continue to walk in him every day.

It says, be filled with the Holy Spirit.

And that the better translation of that is be being filled with the Holy Spirit every single moment.

Be seeking and walking with him every single moment.

We don't have to live up to who we've always been.

Be the new creation that he has made us to be.

Let's continue on in our verse.

Verse 9, it says, Now therefore, heed their voice.

However, you shall solemnly forewarn them and show them the behavior of the king who will reign over them.

Now, show of hands, real quick.

How many here think that that king's gonna blow it?

Keep your hands up for a second.

Lift them up high.

I want you to look around the room right now.

And the next time that you're tempted to call in the substitute king, uh remember how many people are absolutely positive that that king's gonna blow it for you.

Okay?

Now, I'm gonna take a sip of water here real fast because this is essentially Samuel's filibuster on how bad this king is gonna blow it.

So we're gonna read this whole section.

Normally I wouldn't read this much scripture in one shot, but this is important because he's beating this dead horse.

And we need to see it.

So, verse 11.

Samuel says, 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 and to be his horsemen, and some will run before his chariots.

He will appoint captains over his thousands and captains over his fifties, will set some to plough his ground and reap his harvest, and some to take his weapons of war of equip and equipment for his chariots.

He will take your daughters to be perfumers, cooks, and bakers, and he will take the best of your fields, your vineyards, and your olive groves, and give them to his servants.

He will take a tenth of your grain and your vintage and give it to his officers and servants, and he will make you take your male servants, your female 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.

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.

So let's answer the question: how will the unrightfully appointed king rule over you?

Not so great.

He'll be a slave master.

This is problem number three.

Any king other than God is a slave master.

Which makes question number three who's on the throne in your life?

See, if sin is on the throne in your life, sin is a slave master.

Scripture says, be no longer slaves of sin.

Sin is a slave master, it will eat your lunch, it will chew you up and spit you out and send you right back to the beginning.

Many here need to put to death the deeds of the flesh because it is a slave master and it is running and ruining your life.

Be no longer slaves of sin.

But that verse goes on and it says, but rather be slaves of righteousness.

Doesn't that sound like an oxymoron?

Slaves of righteousness.

Like, how does that make sense?

Only in God's kingdom does that make sense.

It's like be a slave of freedom.

I'll take it.

Sign me up for that kind of slavery, right?

Now maybe it's not some sin on the throne, but maybe it's you.

Are you the one on the throne in your life?

If so, here's the problem.

We become our own slave masters, don't we?

I'm a darn good slave driver for myself.

How many here would admit, yeah, you know what?

I'm my own worst enemy, my own worst critic.

Show of hands.

Yeah, that's a pretty popular one.

It's a trick of the enemy.

This has been me most of my life.

Like until just recently, if I screwed up in anything, I'd beat myself up for days.

My other background is in construction.

My wife is scared to do construction with me because if I made a mistake, I'm cussing myself out.

And you idiot, you're worthless.

You should just give up.

You should never do this again.

Or heck, even leading worship, I if I miss a note on the keyboard, I could be condemning myself the whole rest of the set.

Even at age four, this started in T Ball.

You can ask my parents, like, if I made an error in T-Ball, you couldn't talk to me for three days because I was so mad at myself.

It's like, where does that come from at age four?

That's not taught.

That's just given.

That's our flesh.

That's our sinful flesh.

And here's the thing: this is the biggest trick of all of it.

I thought that I was doing God's bidding by being so hard on myself.

Essentially thinking, like, well, surely God is just as disappointed in me.

So I'll just beat myself up for him.

I'll make his job a little easier.

But here's the problem, guys.

God's not like that.

God's not a slave master.

He's not beating you up because you made a mistake.

You know what he's doing instead?

He's covering that mistake with the blood of the Lamb.

Thank you, Lord.

Thank you, Jesus.

I love what Ryan said a couple of weeks ago that when it comes time when the Lord is flipping through the pages of our mistakes in life.

You know what he's gonna see?

The blood of the Lamb.

And he's gonna be flipping through these pages.

And wait, wait a second, I can't see anything.

There's blood all over this.

And flip through the next page.

There's blood all over these pages.

The Lord's not standing over us, waiting on us to screw up again so he can punish us like some slave master, angry boss.

That punishment was taken care of on the cross.

Can we leave it there?

Now, yes, of course.

Our Father lovingly disciplines us because he loves us when we make a bad choice, when we do something that we know is dumb, right?

He disciplines us.

Why?

To teach us, to lead us, to love us, to grow us out of that.

God's no snowflake dad.

Yeah, amen.

But he's also not a slave-driving, angry boss.

He's a loving father.

Guys, we gotta humble ourselves under the Lord and see how gracious, how our gracious Heavenly Father so desperately and rightfully longs to sit on the throne in our lives to guide and direct and to lead us to the freedom that only He can provide.

He's a good Father.

Amen.

We've got to trust in Him.

He wants freedom for us.

The enemy?

Our flesh?

The world.

He wants slavery for us.

The more dependent we are on them, the more power they have over us, the more money they'll get from us, right?

The more votes they'll get from us, the more dependent we are on them.

It's not like that with the Lord.

See, where the Lord is reigning, where God is king, freedom reigns.

I realized this week actually, you know that God's is the only monarchy in which you can be the subject and yet be totally free?

Like, how does that make sense?

He's on the throne, he's ruling and reigning, and he's got all the power, but yet we are totally free in his kingdom as his children.

Why?

Because where the Spirit of the Lord is, where the Spirit of the Lord is ruling and reigning, there is freedom.

We are free in his kingdom.

So when you find sin creeping back onto the throne, or you find yourself creeping back onto your throne, that self-criticism.

Let's lift up our voice and say it.

Come on.

One, two, three.

I already have a king.

Now let's look one last time at our verse here, the end of verse five.

They say, now make us a king to judge us.

How?

Like all the other nations.

We want to be like the other guys.

You look down at verse 20, they say, we want to be like the nations around us.

Are you kidding me?

Uh Israelites?

Have you forgotten who you are?

Have you forgotten whose you are?

You already have a king.

See, problem number four is identity confusion leads us astray.

Which makes question number four, do you know whose you are?

Like, do you know whose you are?

I'm gonna ask the worship team to start making their way up here, but I want to know, do you know whose you are?

Do you know that you are chosen by God?

That he loves you so stinking much that he literally sent his son to die for you.

How many of us are here sending our kids to die for people that don't even like us?

I'm not.

See, we belong to the one who spoke to dirt and it became life.

The one to whom every knee will bow and every tongue will confess.

Guys, if God is for us, who can be against us?

If you are his child, he is causing all things to work together for your good.

You literally have the God of the universe as a dad.

Don't trade that for some dumb idea the world comes up with.

You see, when we forget whose we are, we forsake our inheritance, don't we?

When we forget that we belong to the Lord, we forget and we forsake all that comes with belonging to the Lord.

And instead of our inheritance, we take up things like worry and doubt and fear and self-condemnation.

When we rest in our identity as children of God, we take hold of things like the peace of God, which transcends all understanding.

And I and no, I don't understand it, and I don't have it all figured out, but you know what?

I don't need to because God's on the throne and I'm doing my part, and it's gonna be fine.

Here's what I want you to notice, and this is no small aside, this is perhaps the most important thing I'll say today.

Do you notice that in in this verse and throughout the entire Bible, that even when you call in the substitute king, God is still reigning and ruling on your behalf.

That he is that good, that he is still calling you back to him, that he is that gracious and that loving.

Like, yeah, our immediate circumstances will likely reflect our bad choice for a temporary king, right?

But don't think for a second that the Lord is letting the enemy into his house to kidnap his children.

He is still reigning and ruling and causing things, even the bad things, to work together for your good, for your guidance, that you would come back to him and know him, and that you would follow him, and he would be your king.

And so when you forget whose you are, and you start copying the behaviors and the customs of this world, and you start following the ones that we're supposed to be leading, we've got to stop and be reminded.

And let's lift our voice one last time on three.

One, two, three.

I already have a king.

We already have a king.

We don't need another king, we don't need the world's bad leadership, and it just produces more bad leadership.

Hey, thanks for listening to the Road Podcast.

It's been my joy to be a part of your life today.

And you know, that's part of what we do here at The Road, and this is what I do, and having this Road Podcast is to empower people to change their world.

My passion and desire is that you would take God's word through the power of the Holy Spirit and make that relevant for your life.

You know, the reality is that God has placed your life here on this earth to make a difference.

And if you'd like more information about how to grow in Christ, if you need prayer, if you want more equipment in different areas of your life, go to thero.org.

God bless you.