 But today we're in 1 Samuel chapter 8 and we're going to be looking at the 8th chapter and so what I want to do is I want to read verses 1 through 5 and give an introduction, some context and develop and then we'll move on through the chapter and look at a chapter that deals with the nation of Israel demanding a king. So beginning at verse 1, 1 Samuel chapter 8, reading to verse 5, now it came to pass when Samuel was old that he made his sons judges over Israel. The name of his firstborn was Joel, the name of his second, Abidah. They were judges in Beersheba, but his sons did not walk in his ways. They turned aside after dishonest gain, took bribes and 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 nations. And so as we begin here, Samuel has been busy serving the Lord through the majority of his life. When you read about Samuel, you discover that his mom Hannah had dedicated him to the service of God after he had completed his period as an infant as a nursing child. And so when he was weaned, he was taken to live in the Tabernacle and had lived in the Tabernacle first under Eli, the high priest, since he was probably around three years of age. And when you look at the life of Samuel, you see that he's a man, he's grown into a man who has an entire lifetime of serving God, learning to serve the Lord. We see him as he is actively serving God, and we see him being raised in the Tabernacle. We see him getting married, though it's only alluded to in that he has sons, but he got married undoubtedly at an early age. He'd been traveling throughout Israel, preaching and calling the nation to repentance. He had actually prepared the people to revolt against the Philistines who were dominating them at that time. And after they successfully had resisted the Philistines, he had been established there in the nation as a judge. And now according to verse one, Samuel is old. It is also mentioned in verse five, look, you are old. And so we know that he's been serving the Lord for some time into what they would say is old. Now what's interesting to me is that he was probably around 60 years old at this time and they're calling him old. Now I think that is just an insult, don't you? But it does cause us to understand that for about 57 years he has consistently been serving God and undoubtedly he's tired. His activities have caused him to become tired and he needs help to care for the people. And so what does he do? Well he does something that a lot of fathers would want to do. He's a priest. His sons are also priests and so what he does is he sends them to a region called Beersheba in order that they might judge the people there. Now most of us Americans aren't really adept at geography and so when I give names like Rama and Beersheba, well one, that's not here in Southern California and two, we're really not memorizing the map of the nation of Israel. And so in your mind's eye for just a moment if you might picture the city of Jerusalem which would be in southern portion of Israel above the Dead Sea, if you were to picture a region there called a city called Jerusalem in that region and you were to go north a little bit just a few miles to the west, that's where Rama is. And so from Rama which is the city mentioned here you go almost directly south 57 miles and that's the place that we're talking about today Beersheba. Now I want you to note that his sons are sent there to be judges and their sons, his sons are mentioned, verse 2, the name of his firstborn was Joel, the name of his second was Abiyah, there were judges in Beersheba. Now Joel in Hebrew means the Lord is God, that's what Joel means. The name Abiyah means Jehovah is my Father. And so Samuel's sons had very biblical names, they had names that meant something. The Lord is God, Jehovah is my Father. And oftentimes the dad would name the son in such a way as to potentially influence his development and his character and that's what he would have wanted for his sons. He would have wanted Joel to know the Lord as his God, he would have wanted Abiyah to know that Jehovah is his father and that's what he named his sons. Now it's interesting, a lot of Christians have taken biblical names, they have taken scriptures and found names in them and when they get married they named their children biblical names. And that's what I did, I have four kids and I named them biblical names, Jezebel, Lucifer, Satan, Judas, yeah I gave them biblical names you know. Actually I did name my kids names that were beautiful names. Now my daughter Corinne, obviously that's not a biblical name you know, where'd that name come from? We, when Marie was pregnant with Corinne, we had talked about names and all and we had selected a name for a boy, should I've had a son and I was one of these dads who I just thought you know well we're probably going to have a boy so his name would be David you know naturally, what else would I call him. But we really hadn't settled on a name though we had discussed the name Corinne. I had been in Holland in 1975 and I had met a girl named Corinne Fredrickson and I liked the name and I had a friend back home named Karen Fredrickson and so I just naturally remember the name and so Marie and I were talking and I had said to her you know well Corinne's a beautiful name and all and so that's how Corinne got her name. Funny thing about it is is my daughter Corinne, her name is Corinne Mariebe. Well that's not her legal name. Her legal name is Marie Elena and we didn't even know that until we applied for a passport and they we took our her birth certificate and they gave us a passport that says Marie Elena Rosales and my wife says her name's not Marie Elena her name is Corinne Marie and they said no look at your birth certificate well it turns out Marie when she had had the baby was groggy and she just signed her name where it says name of child so to this day Corinne's name is Marie Elena though we call her Corinne. I know you're not interested in that story but I just felt like talking. Obviously little David's name is a biblical name it's a Hebrew name it means Beloved Joseph's name that we gave to him once again is a Hebrew name or in origin it means God will increase and and my daughter Anna's name is really a contraction from the name Hannah and the name Hannah being a Jewish name means grace. The name Corinne means purity that's what that name means and it's from Scandinavia. So names have meanings as the point I'm making here and Samuel had given names to his sons because he had hoped that they would be reflecting the character of the names and so he has Joel the Lord is God he has Abiyah Jehovah is my father but the problem is according to verse three his sons did not walk in his ways they turned aside after dishonest gain took bribes and perverted justice. Now the nation of Israel was ruled by priests and God had given to them judges now there's the spiritual office of judge but there were also judges that would be those who took care of the variety of business in the nation as what we would today find judges in our own legal system and and his sons had responsibilities kind of like legal judges if you will though they were priests and and and the matters that they that they were to judge over really related to the spiritual life of the nation of Israel but judges in the nation of Israel were responsible to make sure that justice had would be served and so when a situation called for intervention they would bring in a judge and the judge would hear the case and make decisions and the the bottom line the most important duty the first duty of a judge was that he might execute a righteous judgment the judge was to execute righteous judgment and so that means that that he was to be impartial that meant that the judge was to not favor those who are rich and not favor those who were poor not favor those whom he knew over those who were strangers that's because the judge represented God and and to make sure that justice was served he need to make judgment without preference and so they were to care for those who needed justice to be served and therefore they would be there responsible for caring for those in the nation who had the greatest need and so they cared for the widows they cared for the orphans they cared for those who had need because they were defenseless and and in Leviticus in the Old Testament law in chapter 19 verse 15 God had said you shall do no injustice in judgment you shall not be partial to the poor nor honor the person of the mighty in righteousness you shall judge your neighbor so God had said you are to serve without preference you are not to have one person judged favorably to the neglect of somebody else Deuteronomy 16 19 says you shall not pervert justice you shall not show partiality nor take a bribe for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and twists the words of the righteous well unfortunately his sons did not walk in his ways they turned aside after dishonest gain taking bribes and perverting justice and so they were unrighteous men their desire for money had led them to pervert justice they didn't walk in the ways of their father now every godly man wants his son so walk in his ways every godly man wants his children to use him as an example of a man who's blessed by God every godly woman wants their daughters and and children to to see their example how that that you live for God and God blesses your life and you do the best that you can to to teach them encourage them to model for them and all and that's just the heart of a righteous parent proverbs 23 26 says my son give me your heart and let your eyes observe my ways love me and model yourself after me use me as your example watch me closely and see what God does in the life of a person who sold out for for the Lord hosea 14 verse 9 asks the question who is wise let him understand these things who is prudent let him know them for the ways of the Lord are right the righteous walk in them but transgressors stumble in them so his desire was to have righteous sons their desire was for money and their desire led them to take bribes and pervert justice they were unrighteous judges now by way of application this is one of the reasons why greedy people shouldn't be placed in a position of power it's because they they can use their office to line their own pockets they can't be trusted now that should be obvious shouldn't it i mean that's something that every one of us in the 21st century should know just almost instinctively if somebody's greedy are you going to give them oversight of the till if there's somebody that you know has a temptation to take what doesn't belong to him are you going to give him the key to the cash register are you going to give him the the money bag and tell him go and make a deposit and in the bank for me are you going to do that if you know that this person isn't telling you the truth if you know this is a person who has been guilty of stealing it and if you see in their life that all they ever talk about is material things how they want to have this and they're going to get that and it just is wisdom to know that they're and if they're greedy they certainly shouldn't be put in a place of power in 1st Samuel in chapter 24 verse 13 as the proverb of the ancients says wickedness proceeds from the wicked i mean there's just something that outflows from them and so these these men did not walk in the ways of their father who walked in the ways of the lord and thus it shouldn't be a surprise that they perverted justice through taking bribes and went after dishonest gain Jesus in Matthew chapter 7 verses 18 through 20 said it like this he said a good tree cannot bear bad fruit nor can a bad tree bear good fruit every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire therefore by their fruits you will know them and so we should be aware of these things it was true then it's true now i i um you know i'm old enough to know better but i still get amazed at how unwise we can be even in the 21st century you would think with all these years of learning that we would learn our lessons but it doesn't seem that we do i mean no sooner do we have decisions made for our economy than you find bills laden with 9 000 pet projects and multiple billions of dollars being spent of taxpayers money and and that is just a common thing we see that all the time i think that it's it's kind of like foolish i think we can make foolish decisions for me now maybe this seems political to you it's an observation forgive me if it sounds political but i i i see that we have a guy who who doesn't pay his taxes so what do we do with him well we give him position of the irs to make sure you pay yours that just didn't make sense to me and now maybe it made sense to some in this room and later on we can talk about that if you'd like but as for me i i just doesn't make sense to me if you don't pay your taxes why are you going to tell me to pay mine it doesn't make much sense to me but people don't seem to think with both sides of the brain simultaneously sometimes and we end up thinking oh no he may be dishonest in his personal life but he'll be honest with mine i don't think so and if you really believe that i do have a bridge for sale and we can talk about that after church you know that's one of the reasons why i normally ignore actors and i ignore musicians when they get really mad and start criticizing the salaries of ceo's i i just find that kind of like absurd i mean they make a lot of money acting like there's somebody else i mean their whole role in life is to pretend there's somebody else but they come and they tell me well you really should vote for this person or you should and i don't i don't listen to him especially when they say oh that that person's making too much money and i have to ask myself what gives you the right to make a decision as to what a ceo makes whether he makes a lot or not isn't really up to me to decide anyway it's up to his shareholders but if you think that that person makes too much money then why don't you produce some movies for free and show me where your heart really is i learned this a long time ago you know there was a guy that i used to be impressed with before i was a christian his name was john lennon some of you may have heard of him he's an ancient musician in ancient history john lennon he was in a group called the beetles have you ever heard of them the beetles um yeah john lennon but john lennon sang a song imagine all of us know that and part of the song is imagine no possessions i wonder if you can no need for greed or hunger a brotherhood of man imagine all the people sharing all the world and i say yeah imagine that that's not going to happen but imagine that but john when you died you had 500 million dollars you know that's an awful lot of money do i think that's wrong to have 500 million dollars i'm not saying that it is i'm just saying that that when you tell me about imagine sharing all the world and everything it would have been cool if you'd have shared that not everybody does is that a judgment against john no it's an observation i think that sometimes we can we can expect people to do things and they could even sing about that and make comments about that who really aren't living up to the message that they give and that's what's taking place here we have two sons who have been put in a position of authority who are perverting justice well this is taking place notice verse four as it's taking place all the elders of israel gathered together and came to samuel at rama 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 nations and so the elders are the chiefs and heads of families in the nation of israel and and they gather together they come to see samuel and and in doing so they're really letting him know we're rejecting your sons and they say to him you are old your sons don't walk in your ways make us a king your sons are are guilty of greed they're taking bribes and and we hate this and this is just wrong it's wrong for them to do you see in deuteronomy 27 19 uh moses wrote cursed is the one who perverts the justice do the stranger the fatherless and widow and all the people shall say amen and so we know this is wrong the law says it is wrong and and your sons are are greedy they're not walking in your ways as as godly as samuel was his sons chose to walk in a different manner than he now it's interesting because many a godly father or mother end up having children who do not walk in their ways in the history of israel i mean elie who was the priest before samuel had two sons hofney and finneas and we saw that these men were ungodly men undoubtedly samuel's sons would have been aware of what happened to hofney and finneas and yet they were not afraid they did they didn't take that as a warning there was nothing personal that they could have appropriated for themselves themselves and and so you can have a godly father and a godly mother and still have ungodly children i know pastors who are godly men who love the lord their wives are godly women who have had children who don't walk in their ways they're not interested in the things of god there are people in our ministry in this church here who have done their very best they they give their kids devotions they bring the church their kids to church they they they've had their kids go on ministry trips they've sent them to camps and the whole nine yards for their whole lives and then the kid turns 18 and he says to mom i don't want to go to church anymore i'm not going to serve there anymore i don't want to be there anymore and they go off into the world i've seen that happen numerous times and moms and dads will come weeping and grieving and and so sad and upset because as as much as you try and as as blessed as you have been and as good as you are it is still possible to have children like like elie had and it's still possible to have children like samuel had men who didn't want to serve the lord men who wanted money a lot more than that who are willing to take a bribe and pervert justice if it if it gave them what they wanted see for me the bottom line is is the reality that that i can do the best that i can as a father i can want to be as godly as possible and i obviously would like to be a godly man but my children have to get saved the way i did they have to come to faith in christ on their own i cannot i can't live for them jesus in john chapter six verse 37 said all whom the father gives me will come to me and the one who comes to me i will by no means cast out and so salvation is of the lord i can only help them prepare them i can give them the best that i can but it's god who draws them anyway and in the case of these two young men they did not follow the lord they did not walk in the ways of their father their solution that the elders bring to samuel make us a king to judge us like all the nations so samuel's advanced age the sinfulness of his children are given as a reason for this request now in the history of israel these elders in the nation had seen many kings who ruled over people they lived in an area that was known for kings ruling over people and they desired that now this is something anticipated it's important to point this out this call for a king is anticipated by god it's actually found in in the old testament book of deuteronomy god had given requirements for for the king over israel that would be placed as a king and it's found in deuteronomy 17 verses 14 and 15 it says when you come to the land which the lord your god is giving you and possess it and dwell in it and say i will set a king over me like all the nations that are around me you shall surely set a king over you whom the lord your god chooses one from among your brethren you shall set as king over you you may not set a foreigner over you who is not your brother so god had said listen there's going to be a day coming when you're going to want a king but you need to set the king over you that i choose and so they're coming in they're saying make us a king to judges like all the nations it's not so much that they're wanting a king but it's that they want a king like all the nations you'll see this in a minute so verse six this thing displeased samuel when they said give us a king to judges 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 according to all the works which they have done since the day that i brought them out of egypt even to this day with which they have forsaken me and served other gods so they are doing to you also now therefore heed their voice however you shall solemnly forewarn them and show them the behavior of the king who will reign over them this thing displeased samuel they said give us a king to judge us samuel goes and prays and speaks to the lord the interesting thing is and i want you to see this with me they came and made the request of samuel but nowhere do you see it indicated that they first said to god whom is the king that you would have to rule over us remember god had said that he would set a king over them the king that he chooses they didn't come to god in prayer they didn't say lord this is our situation we've got samuel growing older he's too weak to govern the nation much longer he's got ungodly sons we're concerned about that we want to follow you what king can we ask of from you your scriptures tell us that we can make this request but it says also that you will choose that king so so god we're asking you what king would you have they didn't come in prayer and because they didn't come to prayer in prayer it displeases samuel prayer is so important isn't it when it comes to things like this is so important prayer is the lifeblood of the church it's it's a it's going to god and asking god for direction very important thing there's a group a musical group called casting crowns and they have a song called what if his people prayed what if his people prayed and part of the song goes like this what if his people prayed and those who bear his name would humbly seek his face and turn from their own way and what would happen if we prayed for those who raised up for those raised up to lead the way then maybe kids in school could pray and unborn children see light of day what if the life that we pursue came from a hunger for the truth what if the family turned to jesus and stopped asking oprah what to do and i think that's a good line what if we actually fell on our faces before god and said god what would you have us to do that's something they should have done first before approaching samuel with their request they thought they were just asking for what had already been promised but to samuel this amounted to a formal renunciation of god's government over them he could see they were rejecting god by asking for a man to rule over them and so his response is to go to god in prayer and he wants to know what god's mind is in this important matter their request grieves and angers him because the people obviously hadn't learned anything and so that's what he does he comes in he speaks to him and samuel prays to the lord the lord speaks back though in verse seven says to samuel heed the voice of the people and all that they say to you they have not rejected you but they have rejected me that i should not reign over them so that instructs us concerning what to do and we're confronted with something that displeases us we take that concern to the lord in prayer we don't react in frustration samuel could have taken it personally those are my boys i did the best that i could to raise them how dare you reject them and in rejecting them you're rejecting me there are a lot of parents i know who will love a person who loves their kids you know for me it's true with me maybe i'm the only person in this room that can say this but if if you if you come and you treat my children with kindness it's been that way since they were born if you're kind to my kids then i'm going to love you you're going to be close to me because if you're kind to my kids then i'm going to have a special feeling in my heart towards you you know i was raised in a time where where people who weren't even members of your family could be called aunt or uncle you know they were we call them auntie or uncle because they're so close to us they're like family we even gave them names auntie and uncle and all of that and they weren't even our uncles or aunts and my kids have been raised in a similar way and those who love my kids i as their dad well i've always loved them i love them because they love my kids you reject my kid and i probably am not going to have much time for you you know isn't that evil i confess that it's true i'll just go well you know what if you don't like my baby i can understand why you know sometimes i don't either you know that's why i named him lucifer but i'll tell you i could take it personally so god says to samuel don't take it personally this isn't you they're rejecting they're rejecting me we need to understand it we need to understand it and in that case that's exactly what's taking place don't take it personally samuel they're not rejecting you they are rejecting me and that's what's taking place here and so he says listen this is what i want you to do i want you to share with them the behavior of kings i want you to let them know exactly what is going to take place i want you to see this you see they didn't want a king to govern them under the law of god they simply wanted a king after the fashion of the world you see in deuteronomy once again chapter 17 verses 18 and 19 when god was speaking concerning the the behavior of the king he said it shall be when when the king sits on the throne of his kingdom that he shall write for himself a copy of this law in a book from the one before the priest the levites and it shall be with him and he shall read it all the days of his life that he may learn to fear the lord his god and be careful to observe all the words of this law and these statutes the king was to have a copy of the law of god he was to memorize it study it and he was supposed to rule by the word of god that's what the king was supposed to do they don't want a king that's fashioned after the nation of israel who's obeying the law of god they want a king after the fashion of the world and so god speaks to him and says listen this is what the king is going to do so i want you to warn them and that's what he does verse 10 samuel told all the words of the lord to the people who asked him for a king and he said this will be the behavior of the king who will reign over you he will take your sons and appoint them for his own chariots and to be his horsemen and some will run before his chariots he'll appoint captains over his thousands and captains over his fifties will set some to plow his ground and reap his harvest some to make his weapons of war and equipment for his chariots he'll take your daughters to be perfumers cooks and bakers he'll take the best of your fields your vineyards and your olive groves and give them to his servants he'll take a tenth of your grain and your vintage and give it to his officers and servants he will take your male servants your female servants your finest young men and your donkeys and put them to work he will take a tenth of your sheep you will be his servants 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 you're going to cry out you're going to cry out you're going to say I need help but God is going to say that's the kind of ruler you deserve and once you get him you're going to reap the consequences of such a decision this is someone you chose this is someone you asked for and this is someone you're stuck with and this is what he's going to do he's going to rule over you take your sons for soldiers he'll make them labor in his lands he'll have them produce military equipment for him take your daughters they'll be his cooks maid servants take your land give it to his servants take your produce and animals for himself as well as your servants he'll take your animals for himself you will become his servants that's what's going to take place and you're going to cry out you're going to cry out because of the king but that's the kind of ruler you deserve he's the one that you wanted he's the one that you chose he's the one that you're going to have it's not always good to get everything you ask for some things that you ask for and eventually get aren't really that good here's an ancient history illustration there was a time when we didn't have these giant supermarkets like we have today like the costco's and other things like that there were times when we didn't even have super markets there was a time when I grew up in the 50s that we actually had mom and pop store some of you remember them in my neighborhood I grew up in norwalk I grew up on orndale road right there by imperial highway at the intersection and right on the corner of orndale road and imperial highway was a small house that had been turned into a mom and pop store and you could go into the store and you would buy milk and you would buy cereal and eggs and things like that but it was only like 600 square feet 800 square feet at the maximum that was the neighborhood store there was a time when you had everybody had this where where the milk man would come by and drop off milk they had the helms bakery truck and they would drive through the neighborhood and they'd bring donuts and you could smell the donuts down the street we'd get so excited about that and and so that those were easier days that's for sure and so mom and I would walk up the street maybe a few hundred yards and we'd go to billy's market there and buy some milk and some cereal and and and then in 1955 a store was built called I believe it was called shoppers market it was there right off of imperial highway shoppers market no actually was on firestone but anyway as it was built there was over the bridge from where I live we would go to shoppers market and it was such a new thing that we in kindergarten actually went there for a field trip I mean we got in buses and went to shoppers market I still remember that five-year-old kids walking through this supermarket that was a big deal and we walked on through it there's these cans and of these goods and there was produce and there was place where you could buy all this meat it was huge for us and we just walked through with amazement they had a little section where you could buy ice cream you know where they put it on a cone it was just an amazing thing for us and obviously we were hicks and it was just a big deal and so we did that I can remember when my dad would go to the supermarket when I was five years old for me it was a big thing to go with my dad and I would even cry if he wouldn't let me go with him to the supermarket because it was just so fascinating and I enjoyed being with him so much and so he'd actually take me when he'd go to buy some things at shoppers market I can still remember following my dad through the aisles just looking at these these different things and there was this big can it was yellow and it had purple fruit on it it was prune juice is what it was but as I looked at it I thought man that is a beautiful can I want that so I took it off of the shelf and I put it in my arms I remember doing this it followed my dad and my dad's walking anybody who's ever had a five-year-old following him in a store saying I want it I want it that's what I was doing daddy I want it I want it and my dad would say son you won't want that that's prune juice you won't like it it's prune juice and I still remember saying no I love it I love it that's the truth I love it I want it I love it you won't like it son it's no good you won't like it until you're 60 I want it well my dad got it and I carried it out of the store I remember this carrying it out of the store and sitting in that seat with my prune juice and and going home and and walking in with it and bringing it and putting it on the shelf and and looking at my mom and saying to my mom I want it and my mom says it's prune juice and dad says he wants it and so I love it so she put it in a glass for me and I tasted it and I still remember putting it down I hate it you know I knew I did I took one drink well you know what I learned something the psalmist in Psalm 106 verse 15 he gave them their request but sent leanness to their soul there are times that you've run it around I have I want it I need it I want I love it I want her I was single I got saved I found out that Jesus answers prayer if you ask anything in my name I will do it cart blanche and I would be there in Bible studies when she would walk in and I would say hmm I'd never seen her in my life but I want it Jesus in your name you have said I want it you know be careful what you ask for God always said no he always said that one's not for you but I want her that one's not for you she's prune juice or your her prune juice probably I'm telling you sometimes you get what you wanted God allows you to have it but you wither up inside be very careful because you may get what you're asking for be very careful because God was saying I will give you this king you'll get what you're asking for but you will wither up inside because the king that they get is a man named Saul a man who did not love the Lord and we'll be looking at Saul and no matter how you cry and try and get out of it he says I will not hear you in that day because you got what you asked for well the people refused to obey the voice of Samuel they said no but we will have a king over us that we also may be like all the nations that our king may judge us and go out before us and fight our battles and Samuel heard all the words of the people and he repeated them in the hearing of the Lord so the Lord said to Samuel eat their voice make them a king Samuel said to the men of Israel every man go to his city you now it's not as if God didn't hear what they had said I see this prophet I see I see Samuel going up before the Lord God I can't believe it did you hear what they said they don't even want to hear and the Lord is saying I did hear them and do what they're asking they want to be and notice this with me in verse 20 they said that we also may be like all the nations we want to be like everybody else and we will use pagan nations as a model for our government some of us forget the history of the united states no we're not at theocracy we're not the nation of israel we're not at theocracy yet there are principles that that we we learned from we we know for example that the nation of the united states was was formed we know that one of the first acts of congress was the printing of bibles one of the first official acts congress of the united states one of the very first acts was the printing of bibles so that missionaries could go to native americans and bring the gospel of jesus christ to them did you know that that's in your history one of the very first acts of congress was the printing of bibles to distribute amongst native americans so that they could come to a knowledge of christ the very first university that were so many so many people are so proud of harvard the very first university in the united states that very first university was actually a seminary training people to take the gospel of jesus christ out to the world princeton and the ale were also originally seminaries to train people up in the gospel of jesus to go out and win the world for christ did you know that that's in your history that's in your history when you read the star spangled banner our national anthem read the whole thing and you're going to see that when we fight we must our motto shall be in god is our trust because we have a righteous cause francis got key let us know and it was because we're under the rule of god listen when when it was time to elect or to put somebody into the position of authority here in the united states it was suggested that we have a king and it was rejected and the reason why the idea of a king did not fly is because we already had a king and his name was jesus christ did you know that that's in your nation how far we have traveled from that make us a king they said like the world has they're not rejecting you samuel they're rejecting me is what god said they don't want me to rule over them they want to have rulers after their own hearts and this nation no we're not a theocracy no we're not the nation of israel but yes we can learn yes we can we can learn some lessons from what has taken place in the history of israel and we can see that the same kinds of things can happen here because today the motto in god we trust has to be defined there was a time when you said in god i trust and the person you spoke to would know what god you're talking about they would have known they would have known they would have known because they read the bible in school they they would have known because teachers started the day in prayer they would have known that marriages between a man and a woman they would have known that they knew that we grew up knowing that but not this generation because in god we trust people say what god the god of muhammad which god are you speaking of the god of the muslim what god are you speaking of when you speak about god it's a hindu god which god which god are you talking about on the united states at one time didn't have to clarify that the french man came into the united states who was looking at the beginning of it and he said the united states is great because the united states is good but if the united states ever ceases to be good the united states will cease being great and he said in the goodness comes through the pulpits that thunder righteousness detokeville said that look it up he says it's good because of the pulpits of america that thunder righteousness that's why the nation was good and now the pulpits are silenced because people are afraid in these pulpits of offending people's sensitive ears and they don't want to say we need to repent and be right with god because they may not come back next week and in a time of inflation where people losing jobs we're not going to be able to make our payment so let's be nice to everybody and we fear the people instead of fearing god no no we're going to get the kind of rulership that we deserve because when you reject god you reject all that he stands for samuel yielded to the request they're about to get their first king his name is sol a man who was an ungodly man and if you wanted to write an epitaph over chapter eight something that says it all hosea 1311 i gave you a king in my anger and took him away in my wrath because in rejecting god and taking the king god with anger gave him that king but he said you're going to reap the consequences may god help us to love him keep him first serve him follow after him that he might bless our lives and may god bring revival here in this beautiful nation that we live in may he awaken us to who he is our father we asked that you would work in us today we asked that you would move in our lives and lift up this congregation your children lord beginning with me praying that we might all love and serve you lord with all that is within us and may we not compromise our walks may we may we walk with you lord with a complete heart day by day so i lift up this congregation and the churches of our nation i lift up our president and i pray that you would you would bring godly counselors around him that he might hear what you would say that he would make decisions based on what is right lord is our prayer keep him lord in your hand and work in him and awaken him to your goodness i pray in a deep way and i pray for this nation lord that we might return to you beginning with us our eyes are closed our heads are bowed perhaps there are some in this room we need prayer to get right with the lord i want to pray for you right where you're at if you need to get right with jesus right now right where you're at raise your hand let me pray for you father you see these hands and you know the reason why they're being raised i'm asking you now in jesus name that you would reach down and touch these whose hands are raised to you and father i thank you that you do because you said the one who comes to you you will and know why it's cast out and so now as they raise their hands saying yes lord they need you i pray that you're just reaching them touching them and ministering to them right where they're at father and i pray that whatever burden or concern that they're dealing with even now you are giving them comfort in lord giving them hope we give you blessings we give you thanks we give you our lives and we thank you lord for this moment that you've met us here and we praise you thank you jesus you can put your hands down and jesus i pray that you keep on moving in all of us that we might serve you completely to your glory in your name amen let's all stand we'll close with a word of prayer i was telling the ladies who are at the retreat i said listen when you come home you know the devil may meet you at the door he may look like your husband but it's not he's gonna want to uh he's gonna want to disturb what the lord did this weekend so we who are husbands when our wives come home uh let's encourage them you know because i learned the hard way i mean marie would come home from retreats and i'd be watching the kids and almost the first thing that i'd say when she walked in i'd say man these kids drove me crazy they didn't eat for three days you know and marie wouldn't be very happy uh so i learned early on you know to be and try to be an encouragement to her so i encourage you to do the same when your loved one comes home they they met the lord in a wonderful way and may god use them to continue to increase what he wants to do our father we ask that you keep working in us and through us and use us for your glory we leave this place now lord may we live in such a way that jesus christ is seen in us we give you praise and we give you thanks we enter into the mission field may we be found faithful as we serve you in jesus name amen god bless you