Heart of Kings - Samuel 05: Israel Demands a King

Good morning.

Hear now the word of the true and living God, 1 Samuel 8, 4 through 9.

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

Now appoint for us a king to judge us like all the nations.

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

And Samuel prayed to the Lord.

And the Lord said to Samuel, Obey the voice of the people and all that they say to you, for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me from being king over them.

According to all the deeds that they have done from the day I brought them up out of Egypt, even to this day, forsaking me and serving other gods, so they are also doing to you.

Now then, obey their voice, only you shall solemnly warn them and show them the ways of the king who shall reign over them.

This is the word of the Lord.

Please be seated.

Good morning.

Welcome to Redemption Church Denver.

My name is James Rathman.

I'm the pastor here at Redemption Church.

A couple of announcements before we get started with our sermon.

A redemption group started a couple of weeks ago.

There are two ways that you can connect at Redemption Church.

We gather large and we gather small.

We gather large in our Sunday meetings this morning, and we gather small in each other's homes throughout the week.

Redemption groups are only closed groups when they're full and like the home can't support any more people for fire code reasons.

And uh so that means that if there's a group that's not full, it's open.

So if you haven't joined a redemption group or you didn't join right at the beginning, it's not too late.

You can just download our app tap groups and click join a group, scan for one that's open, and you can join uh and email Krista, who will help you get connected to a group.

You guys all know Krista, even if you're brand new, trust me.

Uh our elder application period ends today.

So today at midnight, look, we won't know if it's 2 a.m.

Uh our elder application will be closed.

Uh so uh if you intend uh to apply to be an elder of our church, um then uh you can do so.

So the application is on our website as well uh you can also connect through the app uh in the calendar that says that it closes today.

Lastly, we have a baby dedication coming up on February 24th.

So that's just two weeks from today.

Uh if you have a baby that you would like to dig to dedicate, that's your own.

I'm gonna make that joke every time.

Uh then you can sign up also in the app, uh just uh go to connect and tap date baby dedication, baby dedication, and uh you can sign up for that.

Um okay, I said lastly, but there's one more thing that we just wanna make known to you.

Uh did you know that you can park in the parking garage right across the street?

Yes, possibly.

Okay.

Then same page.

If you guys know, then I'm good, then we're good.

Uh but yeah, we we actually it's free parking because we pay for it.

So uh you can go and park in the parking garage across the street.

So if you've had trouble parking before, you can just park there.

Congratulations.

We're just giving away free stuff today.

Free parking, like monopoly.

All right, let's pray and get into our text.

Holy Father, I pray that you would attend your word this morning.

That by your spirit you would remove the veil that covers our eyes, that we might see things as they are, including ourselves.

That by the comfort of your present we may be able to reflect on our lives honestly.

And that that might draw us close to you with a sense of need that can only be met in you.

God, would you show us to yourself this morning in your word?

Lift us up in Jesus' name.

Amen.

So this sermon series covers a portion of Israel's history in which they move from a sort of loose collection of tribes into an established monarchy under a king.

And this sermon today actually covers the moment when Israel requests that they would have a king like all the other nations.

So they would no longer be this loose collection of tribes.

What we're mapping is sort of a political drama.

That's what 1st and 2 Samuel, the books that we're in, cover is this political drama that unfolds in the nation of Israel.

But as we'll move through it, we'll see that the turning points of each moment of this political drama concerns what happens in the hearts of the people.

It's not the strategy, it's not the political acumen or the policy policy acumen of the leaders.

It is the hearts of the people that shape the story.

And so when we look through this, it allows us to examine our own hearts and to get a picture of what it means to have a heart that is properly oriented towards God.

I uh this is of utmost importance, that we would be concerned with the condition of our hearts before the Lord.

The term heart in Scripture does not just mean emotions or affections.

The term heart is sort of a catch-all for the whole of our internal lives.

That the whole of our internal lives might be oriented towards the Lord.

That means our intellect, our emotions, our volition or will might be oriented towards the Lord.

I was talking with a friend back in August who reached out to me and he was like, How are things going?

And uh I answered how I've become prone to answer that question, or how are things going with me?

And then I say things about the church.

How are things, how are things?

And it's like, oh good, community groups are starting.

And uh sermon series that I'm enjoying moving through, first and second Samuel, a little bit worried about the building stuff and where we're gonna be and where we're gonna end up.

And he was like, that's not what I asked.

I I asked, How are you doing?

He said, You're worried about all the wrong things.

You're you're worried uh about all of these things that are just sort of like details and technicalities, and you aren't concerned at all about the condition of your heart before the Lord.

It was a wake-up call.

And that's not just a nice Christian thing to say.

You know, he put his finger on something really real.

Proverbs 423 says, Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.

And that means that everything we do flows from our hearts.

If you want to diagnose the condition of your heart, look at what you're doing, the things you place priorities on, the fears that you carry around.

It's a diagnostic for the condition of your heart.

That means we aren't just circumstantial, but we have these real internal lives that ought to be shaped towards the Lord.

And if those are disoriented, then everything in our lives is disoriented.

Today's text is a diagnostic of our hearts.

And it's not a good one.

Today's text provides, in the form of a story, that we're looking at in the nation of Israel, this diagnostic of the condition of our hearts before the Lord.

And it uh just so you don't spend too much time on self-assessment, this is your diagnosis.

So today we're going to see that our hearts, the normal condition of our hearts is total depravity.

And that causes our reasoning to be utterly insane, and because of that, we sit under the wrath of God.

Our hearts are totally depraved, our reasoning is totally insane, and because of that, we sit under the wrath of God.

I think if we get this, those might be the most uplifting truths that you could hold dearly.

So that's our goal.

Which means this is gonna be like an M.

Night Shyaman sermon.

You're gonna have to wait for the twist.

So let's enter our story and see how our total depravity is exposed.

So, as we concluded last week, there was a great victory under Samuel.

The Philistines had been pushed back, and the Israelites' borders had been secured, they'd reoriented themselves by repentance towards the Lord in a joyful way.

We saw that there was this ability for a re-communion with the Lord in repentance, someone who they'd become so estranged from.

Now they're together with.

And at this, so our text today starts with this sort of flash forward, where Samuel is now an old man.

He had placed his sons in charge of some of the things that he would be leaving to them, and his sons, like the sons of Eli, have gone astray.

So the elders of the nation of Israel gather together and they make this request.

And it sounds like this.

Then all the elders of the Israel of Israel gathered together, told you, and came to Samuel at Ramah and said to him, Behold, you are old.

That's one way to start.

Behold, you are old, and your sons do not walk in your ways.

Now appoint for us a king to judge us like all the nations.

You see, the elders see a crisis coming, one that looked just like the crisis under the previous high priest, who was Eli, whose sons had gone astray.

Samuel, we've seen, is this great man who serves the Lord so diligently, and yet those qualities are not reflected in his sons.

And so the elders of Israel see this problem coming, that we're soon going to lose Samuel and we're going to be under his terrible sons.

That's a real problem, but it's one that they have the opportunity to address.

Deuteronomy, Moses' speeches in Deuteronomy, he gives clear advice, clear counsel saying, choose from among you honorable men to be judges over these particular areas and particular regions so that you can be under good leadership.

It wasn't necessary that it flows genetically from Samuel to his sons.

But with this problem coming, the elders offer a solution that demonstrates their real motivations.

Couched in this proposition of we're going to address this problem of unfaithful leadership, they actually slide in a solution that demonstrates that their motivations are at best mixed, but likely entirely evil.

See, Israel had never had a king before.

Israel had existed in this strange way as sort of a collection of tribes who, although they had no figurehead, they were unified.

And although they had no standing military, they have secure borders, and they're protected, and they're cared for, and there were systems of justice, and that allowed for a society that lived with a type of freedom that was unprecedented for this time.

They're have almost complete autonomy in the household.

They live with this amazing freedom, something that made them utterly distinct amongst their ancient Near Eastern counterparts.

And that's because they didn't have a king.

They were a true theocracy.

That means that it's not just the religious leaders of the day that were in charge, but they directly were under the governance of God.

God secured their borders, God cared for them, God gave them the food and provision that they needed.

God gave them the justice throughout the land that they needed.

It was their faithfulness to God that allowed this whole system to work.

And we've seen that it really was working.

This is completely distinct in world history.

A true theocracy, a nation, a people under the direct governance of God.

And so when the elders ask for a king, they're doing a complete reimagining of who they are as a people.

They're saying, we need an earthly king to be like all the nations.

It's the exact language that they use.

This amazing distinction that they had as being God's chosen people directly under God, under his care and provision, that afforded them this incredible freedom.

They're saying, no, we need to be like all the nations.

We need to throw off this distinction so that we can feel protected by the king.

This glorious distinction they would abandon.

So in 1 Samuel 8, 6 through 7, as this continues, we see Samuel's response is he's incredibly displeased.

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

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

For they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me from being king over them.

God offers this sort of comfort to Samuel.

He says, You've been their leader, and I know that it feels like you're being rejected by them, but make no mistake.

They're rejecting me.

When they're asking for a king to rule over them, what they're saying is God's rule is insufficient.

God's protection is not protection enough.

God's provision is not provision enough.

We demand an earthly king to throw off this distinction that we might just be like all the other nations who put their faith in a man instead of God.

And so it's important to see the context that this request takes place in.

The context is the people are thriving.

The nation is secure.

God's leadership had been perfectly displayed.

This means that what we're seeing demonstrated is not a right critique of a bad leader, but it's just the very condition of their hearts.

It wouldn't matter how good things were going, we always reject God.

That's our very nature.

It's built into us.

See, when we consider the first rejection of God that we see in Scripture, it's Adam and Eve, and that's not because something was going wrong.

They were in a place that was far better than Israel.

They're in the Garden of Eden, everything provided for them, in perfect communion with the Lord, and they reject the Lord.

And ever since then, that has been the normal condition of the human heart.

That no matter how good things are, no matter how great his kindness and provision is demonstrated to us, we still reject him.

And we still say, I would prefer another king.

I would prefer to be ruled by this other object.

Be it a literal king that will finally make me feel safe because I can look and see him.

Or be it other objects of fulfillment that we craft our lives around.

Those things that we worry about so much that if we just had this problem answered, then I would finally feel safe.

I'd finally feel secure.

If I had this much money saved in my bank account, then I know I'll feel secure, then we'll be okay.

We'll have our safety net.

It's impenetrable.

And so we craft these things that aren't God and we replace God with them.

So from the outside looking in, we see this rejection of God.

And I know, I know, we think to ourselves, I never would have done that.

I wouldn't have been a part of that team.

I would have been able to see how great God's provision has been.

But that just shows how deceived we are by our own sin.

This is a hard truth to drive home.

Because that is the essence of what it means to be totally depraved, to be born in sin.

It means that no matter how good things are, no matter the goodness of God that we see demonstrated, it is critical to see.

I'm getting a phone call and all my friends are here, so mute that.

I should leave my phone.

All right, that was distracting.

Total depravity means that even when you're preaching, you get distracted.

No matter how good things are, we always abandon the Lord.

We see their insanity continue.

Because this real condition of our hearts gets demonstrated in this utter insanity.

God says to warn the people.

Oh, excuse me, I'm skipping apart.

Remember that the context is good, and this shows their hearts, that it's their hearts that are guiding demands of the people.

We'll look at 1 Samuel 8, 8.

It says, according, this is God's response to Samuel continued.

He says, according to all the deeds that they have done, from the day I brought them up out of Egypt, even to this day, forsaking me and serving other gods, so they are also doing to you.

God says this to Samuel.

He says, Look, what they're doing now in rejecting me, this isn't weird.

This isn't abnormal, this isn't a fluke, this isn't some constraint of their particular circumstances.

They've always done this.

Since I first rescued them from the most oppressive force in world history at that point, the Egyptian Empire, since I first brought them out of that into complete freedom and liberty, they've rejected me.

So, Samuel, you've aligned yourself with me.

And this is what it feels like: a constant rejection.

That condition of our hearts drives us utterly insane.

So God instructs Samuel give the Israelites a warning.

Just tell them what here's what your earthly king is gonna be like.

Just so you know exactly what you're asking for.

And here's the warning.

I'm just gonna read it in full.

Samuel says this to the Israelites.

He said, These will be the ways of the king who will reign over you.

He will take your sons and appoint them to his chariots, and to be his horsemen, and to run before his chariots.

And he will appoint for himself commanders of thousands and commanders of fifties, and some to plow his ground and to reap his harvest, and to make his implements of war and the equipment of his chariots.

He will take your daughters to be perfumers and cooks and bakers.

He will take the best of your fields and vineyards and olive orchards and give them to his servants.

Servants.

He will take the tenth of your grain and of your vineyards, and give it to his officers and to his servants.

He will take your male servants and female servants and the best of your young men and your donkeys and put them to his work.

He will take the tenth of your flocks, and you shall be his slaves.

And in that day you will cry out because of your king, whom you have chosen for yourselves, but the Lord will not answer you in that day.

Six times it says he will take.

He will take your sons, he will take your daughters, he will take your lands.

Six times.

And what does it culminate in?

It culminates in the Israelites freed by God from their slavery, becoming slaves again.

God, rejected as king, becomes this unwinding of this great history of liberation back into slavery.

Samuel says, This is what's coming.

And they refuse.

And they said, No, but there shall be a king over us, that we also may be like all the nations, and that our king may judge us and go out before us and fight our battles.

The answer from the people is no, because they want a king who would fight for them.

Do you remember a couple of Sundays ago, as we've gone through the story, when the ark was captured by the Philistines, and it was just God operating with the Philistines?

And the ark is paraded around from city to city, conquering every city that it's taken to.

And the Israelites don't even lift a sword.

And their enemies are conquered just by God, fighting for them.

When they had rejected God and treated him like he wasn't God and treated him like an object to be possessed, God was still fighting for them, securing them.

What a leader of his people.

But no, we'd like a king.

One I can look at, one who will fight for me.

It's an insane rejection.

But look, we do this all the time.

We make that same insane rejection.

Because God isn't who we're turning to for our protection, he's not who we're turning to for our fulfillment, he's not who we're we're turning to to understand ourselves and to know our identities.

Instead, we turn to almost everything else, anything else other than God.

To turn to God, we even convince ourselves feels naive or like a giving up.

And so we don't turn to God, we say, God, not you, and we remove him from the throne of our lives, and we put something else there.

We make what the Bible refers to as the great exchange, or we exchange the glory of God for images revealing uh resembling just men or beasts or creatures.

And we live in worship to those things.

And so we say, God won't be my protection, my money will be my protection, God won't be my fulfillment, my sex life will be my fulfillment, God won't be my validation, my career will be my validation, God won't be the object of my worship, because look at my life and my time, and you will see what it is I really worship.

It's utterly insane.

It's a total depravity.

And so, in that rejection, in that rejection of God as God, as the creature who looks at his creator and says, You will not be king over me.

We incur the wrath of God.

And that's what we see displayed next is the wrath of God.

I'll read it for you.

It says, And when Samuel had heard all the words of the people, he repeated them in the ears of the Lord.

And the Lord said to Samuel, Obey their voice and make them a king.

Samuel then said to the men of Israel, go every man to his city.

There it was.

The wrath of God.

Did you see it?

If you blink, you could miss it.

The Lord said to Samuel, Obey their voice, make them a king.

That's what the wrath of God looks like.

If you wanted fire and brimstone, I'm not that good of a preacher for that.

Poetry's hard.

It looks like God, us demanding a king, and God saying, worship it.

Go worship that.

And so we tumble and fall back into these terrible slaveries.

Where we worship these gods that take and take and take and give nothing in return.

Your career that demands so much from you.

And it promises you validation, and it promises you you will ultimately feel fulfilled.

And it takes from you and it takes from you, and then it never gives that fulfillment.

The same could be said of the spouse that you're so desperately craving the affirmation from.

And so that God takes and takes and takes from you until you've morphed yourself into something that looks nothing like who God created you to be.

And then that affirmation can't be provided.

And so we become slaves again of cruel masters that take and don't give back.

That is the condition that the Israelites fall into.

You see, that's what the wrath of God looks like.

You may be under it now.

The very wrath of God.

I was talking with my wife at Shake Shack last night, so we were in really good moods.

And was talking about how the hard thing about Christianity is we're talking about these incredibly deep truths, these fundamental aspects of reality, things that are so transcendent and impossible to wrap our minds around, things like the very wrath of God, and we miss it because you know what the wrath of God feels like?

Feels a lot of times just feels like this.

It feels like God's saying, have what you want.

Fine, continue to worship that.

Continue to hope in that for your fulfillment and your satisfaction.

Move to Denver.

I bet the life of adventure there will fulfill you.

Have it.

Chase it.

Give up for it.

Sacrifice for it.

It will demand sacrifices.

And they take and they take and they take.

They don't give what they can offer.

You see our condition.

We're dead in our sin.

We're insane because of it.

Every opportunity that we would get to choose to be rescued by God, we would say no.

We would deny him as our king.

So what happens?

What happens when we follow the story?

God acquiesces.

And what happens?

So does that mean the people just the people win?

You ultimately get what you want, you wear God down, and He He his wrath, as it turns out, it's not that bad.

It's just you getting what you want.

What's God doing?

In our very rejection of God, a kingdom is established.

And through the line of one of those kings, God makes a promise that this kingdom that you established to reject me, I'm going to establish forever.

And it's going to be a type of kingdom that leads to your life and flourishing, and I will be your king again, because your rejection of me will not stop my love for you.

And so the story continues, and from that line comes Jesus, who by his very rejection, by our very rejection of him, our salvation is created.

Here's why it matters that we are totally depraved.

When we're totally depraved, when we would never choose for God, not one of us, no, not even one, that means that our only hope in the world is that Jesus would save us.

And why would he save us?

It's because he loves us.

There could be nothing else.

There could be no other motivating factor.

It would just be his love for us because we're constantly rejecting him.

So right now, you may think that the problem in your spiritual life, you may think that the problem in the distance between you and God is this one sin.

That if you could just get that under control, then you would get yourself in a position where you could stand before the Lord.

That's not true.

That's not your problem.

It's not that one thing that if you could just get it under control, you'd be fine before God now.

Stop chasing that.

When you stand totally depraved, means your only hope in the world is his salvation, that he would rescue on his terms.

And that's what we see happen in Christ.

This is the glory of the gospel.

Why does God save us?

Why does God rescue us?

He's that gracious.

He's completely glorious in his love.

That through our very rejection of him, he rescues us.

Can that sink in?

Have you seen that in the power of the gospel?

Look, this is a one-way pursuit.

Here's how we stand before the Lord in our salvation.

We bring nothing.

And when we stand before God and we say, What makes us righteous?

the only thing we can point to is Jesus took the death and the slavery and the punishment that I deserved.

And in his great love for us, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

Even when we were rejecting God, we weren't overcoming God's ability to save us.

In fact, we weren't even moving an inch out of that plan.

God uses our very rejection of him to save us.

So what is our, how do we respond to that before him in just praise, just gratitude, just thanksgiving.

That is the position of a Christian's heart before the Lord.

And when we think that we're moderately depraved, when we think that we're moderately sick, then we stand before the Lord and we think, wow, thanks for the help.

I just needed a little hand to stand before you.

But now that I got that, we can pretty much talk as peers, God.

That's not the way this works.

That's not the holiness of God that we're describing.

When you stand before Him, you bring nothing because you are totally depraved.

And his sacrifice is our only hope in the world for being cleansed.

If you don't get that, you're going to be living as a slave to something forever.

And you're going to miss the freedom of the glory of the children of God.

Because that means when I stand before God, I know I'm rescued.

And it's not because of anything that I point to in myself.

It's because I trust that what he did worked.

And when he said it worked, it worked.

He who didn't spare his own son, he didn't spare his own son, but delivered him for us all.

How will he not also with him freely give us all things?

I know I couldn't have earned this.

I'm not standing here on any merits of my own.

I'm just standing on Christ before the Lord because I know my condition.

He's shown it to me.

Every time I would be given an opportunity to choose not God, I will choose not God.

And my only hope in the world to be saved is choosing God.

So what do I do?

Jesus has to save me.

I have to be saved.

When we say Jesus saved, we mean it.

We don't mean Jesus gave you an option to choose salvation.

That's not your condition.

If you could choose, you would choose no.

If you could lose your salvation, you'd lose it.

But now we stand in the freedom of the glory of the children of God because we look to Christ alone.

Who can bring a charge against God's elect?

When Satan stands next to God, as it stands as our accuser, and he talks to God and he says, Really?

Her?

Do you see the sin that's rampant in her life still?

Do you see the brokenness that's still taking place in that person?

And God says, I justified her.

My just wrath that would have been poured on her, I poured on my son.

I did it.

And I'm God.

So if I say she's justified, she's justified.

We stand in a freedom like that.

That when Satan comes to accuse, we say, God is the one who justifies.

God is the one who justifies.

Who is the one who could condemn?

Let me see them.

Is it your own conscience?

Then you're still depending on something in you.

You still think you're not totally depraved.

You think there's some spark in you that could make you choose God.

No.

That is not the type of rescue we need.

We need to be saved.

And so we stand before the Lord in this unthinkable gratitude.

What is our hope?

It's that God loved us.

When you see your total depravity, then you start to glimmer the freedom of the gospel.

It's better than you thought.

I know so many of you think you get the gospel because.

God's sole desire in the universe is his glory.

He might be glorified.

Now that's good news.

It would be bad news if we did it.

Because we shouldn't be the center of existence like that.

But it's good news when God does it.

Because that means God's sole pursuit is goodness and love and justice and mercy and grace and these qualities that exist in the Lord, God is so obsessed with that He will make sure that they get demonstrated and experienced and celebrated in the world.

The good news is that God has tied up the pursuit of his own glory with the salvation of sinners.

So that we might worship him and say, You're utterly gracious.

So I really wanted to watch that last night.

Instead, my wife chose.

And we watched this movie with Steve Corell called A Beautiful Boy.

Have any of you seen it?

Okay, it's I don't think I've cried so much.

I don't, I'm not emotionally mature enough to watch a movie like that.

It's about this father and son, and the son is uh an addict, he's he's addicted to methanephetamine, and uh the son comes to the father and says, I need a hundred bucks.

And the father's like, no, it's not gonna be good for you, so he just rejects him.

And and the cycle happens over and over again, where the father is just pursuing his son, trying to find this hope of the life that his son could have, and he's pursues him over and over again, and he's rejected over and over again, over and over again, rejected by the son.

I just thought this is the picture of total depravity, of the hope of the gospel.

That our Father, though we rejected him constantly, would never stop pursuing us.

Even to the point of his humiliation, his death on a cross, that he Bore himself the pain of our sins.

When you realize that it's nothing that you bring to the table, it's just his love for you.

I think you'll have a confidence in prayer.

I remember this hitting me for the first time, and I know I'm going long, but we're riffin on the gospel, so I'm into it.

And this hit me for the first time.

I was like, did you realize how much Jesus suffered on the cross?

And that was for our sin.

If he were to suffer so much for us, and then that must mean he loves us so much.

And I remember going around and talking to people and like just telling everyone who would listen of like, do you realize how much he suffered?

He was rejected by God on the cross.

And that must mean he loves us so much.

And people we'd be talking and stuff, and I'd hear someone has an issue, and I'd say, you should pray about it, because he'll probably just do it.

Because if you heard how much he loves us, it's unthinkable.

I want that freedom for you.

So the diagnosis is total depravity.

That means our hope is that Jesus paid it all.

So that makes our condition one of praise.

You were built to worship, celebrate the rescue of Jesus.

All right, let's take one question.

Steve Corell does a great job in that movie.

And uh his his ex-wife is is Holly from The Office in that movie.

Didn't see that one coming.

Uh, which was pretty cool.

It looks like there's no questions.

Um are there any out there, any brave people who want to say a question?

Yeah.

Um what do you think the significance was in the statement that they want someone to judge them rather than rule them?

I think that they had a misplaced expectation of what they would really receive.

What we see the elders doing is shirking a responsibility that was really theirs.

And they didn't want to be responsible any longer for bringing justice into the areas that they were accountable for.

And so they figured, well, we'll just have a perfect judge who does this.

You know, there's a lot in that desire that that's actually appropriate.

And it's a desire that we should have to.

I need a perfect judge who could bring justice and righteousness into this area because I realize that I can't.

But what God is saying is you're not gonna find that in a human.

A human king is gonna be just like you.

And they're gonna take and they're gonna steal.

And so you're going to be living under this terrible corruption.

And what that does is throughout the whole history of Israel, we see all these kings disappoint and disappoint and disappoint until finally we see the one true king in Jesus, who is bringing his justice throughout the whole world.

So I think that's kind of the nuance of that statement.

Thanks for asking.

I was brave.

All right, let's pray.

Father, I know we're about to sing Jesus Paid It All.

And I remember first getting my depravity and then and then getting my salvation in you, and thinking, oh, I get it.

Jesus paid it all.

All to him I owe.

My sin left this terrible stain in Jesus because of what he did, just what he did, washed it white as snow.

And so I'm free because he said it.

And my life is one of praise because our God loves us and he shows it to us.

When he rescued us while we were spitting in his face, even our own hatred of him couldn't stop, his love toward us.

Father, I pray that you would open the eyes of the hearts of those in here who have not seen before the rescue in Christ.

I pray that you might bring them into it.

That when we see the depth of our sin, we see the glory of your rescue.

Father, we lift this up in Jesus' name.

Amen.