The Story - Chapter 10

I'm going to use a passage out of 1 Samuel chapter 8 if you'd like to find that in your Bibles. And then I'm going to be using, it's the same passage that's in your story. My clock has magically returned. I thought somebody stole my clock up here. I keep watching that so I don't run over time and, pardon? You were studying it, I see. I'm going to set it up in about 20 minutes. I see. Well, let's see if I can check that. Okay, I've got that in consideration. You know who to blame if something happens. One time somebody came in here and set the alarm on that thing and it went off. Then later someone came in and broke the alarm thing off of it so it doesn't work, the alarm doesn't work. I don't know who did that but somebody did. It's a battle scorn clock. I have chapter 10 in the story, page 129 is where that story starts, but I want to read chapter 8 beginning with verse 1 in the Bible. There are a lot of things amazing about God, you know, if you stop and look at all the things about Him you see in the scriptures, a lot of things are just really astonishing about who He is. One of the most amazing things about God is His power and authority. He made all the world, everything in it. Nobody tells God what to do. He doesn't answer to anybody for what He does. He does exactly what He thinks is the right thing all the time. The Bible calls this the sovereignty of God. It means that God is independent. There's not anybody in the world that doesn't have somebody that tells them what they have to do. Not anybody in the world who's not dependent on someone for help or assistance except God. He is independent. No one tells Him what to do and He can do anything He wants to do. He has both the power and the wisdom to be able to do it. This word sovereign is a big word in the Bible and if you look in the Bible you'll find it listed 297 times. 291 of those are in the Old Testament. It's a key ingredient in describing who God is in the Old Testament to say He's the sovereign Lord. He does what He wants to do. He has the power to do it and no one can stop Him and no one can change it. He is the sovereign Lord, the one who rules everything in the world. The New Testament doesn't use this word very much. There are only six times in the New Testament that it's used to describe God. So it's powerfully packed in the Old Testament to describe His action with people. I'm not quite sure why it's not as prominent in the New Testament. I think it's because maybe the life of Jesus sort of overshadows everything and we see Him not as a person who's over the whole world, ruling everything, but someone living in the world like we are under the sovereignty of God. Jesus said, I only do the things the Father tells me to do and I only say the things the Father tells me to say. He wasn't sovereign when He was in this world and it's the story of His life. It doesn't point so much to the power and authority of God, but I'm not sure why it's there. That's my own guess about it. Now this idea of the sovereignty of God is a very difficult thing to come to grips with. There's a kind of a new resurgent in our own culture in this idea, in Southern Baptist life at least. It's called Calvinism. Some of you may have heard that. Calvin lived in the 1500s. He and Luther lived together. Both of them were greatly influenced by a man who lived in the 5th century named Augustine. And Augustine was greatly influenced by a man who lived in the 5th century before Christ was born whose name was Plato. So this idea of Calvinism thinks of God's power and authority as unlimited, which the Bible says it is. But it looks at it to say God before the world was ever started planned everything in the world exactly as he wanted it to be. He even said that some people who are born in this world will be determined to go to hell and there's nothing they can do about it. This idea says that every choice that we make, the sovereign God of the universe makes us make the choices that we make. So that we are actually controlled. Every action of our life is already determined and controlled, predestined is the word that's used sometimes to describe it. That God predestines the whole world, everything that's taking place in the world. There's not any way that you can argue about this because we don't have any way to live in another world so we can see what it's like not to live in this one. So it's just kind of an argument that people have. But in this story there is something important that we learn about this idea of how God rules the world. Now it would be amazing if God before the world ever started sat down and planned out every one of our lives so every choice we ever made was made exactly as we ought to be as it ought to be. This idea has five different ways by which it's described. The word tulip is sort of a word to illustrate what Calvinism emphasizes. Tulip is all people are always all the time wicked, totally deprived of any goodness. That's the T. The U is it's undeserved election. God chooses us not because of anything we do but before we were ever born he decides if we're going to heaven. That's the T U. L is limited atonement. God just died not for everyone but only for the elect. That's the L I. And so what happens when you're born into the world and you're one of the elect? God's grace is irresistible. You can't stop it. You can't sit down and say God I'm not going to accept you. If he's chosen you you're going to be in the group anyway. You can't turn your back on it. And finally the perseverance of the saint that is once you're elected you stay elected all the rest of your life till you die. Now some people believe all of that. Some people believe one of those. Some people believe two or three of them. But the idea of God's absolute control and authority is the heart of all this. God is sovereign. He makes the choices in the world. In this story we get a picture not of some kind of a theory about how God operates but we get a picture of how God actually works in the lives of people in this world. What is it like for the God who could do anything he wanted to do everything he wanted to do? How does he work in your life and in mine? In this story the people of Israel have been through a series of events where they had judges and they would fall away from God and he would take his hand away from them not protect them as he said he would in his covenant because they turned against him. He promised to protect them but since they wouldn't listen to him and didn't pay attention to him he said okay you go ahead live on your own the way you want to and I want to show you how it's going to work out. Then they'd get in trouble. Someone would invade them. They'd be captured. They'd be ruled by other people. And then they would turn to God and say oh God deliver us and he would raise up a judge who would come out and help them fight off their enemies and then they would be back like they were before. It happened over and over and again. Twelve times in the book of Judges this took place. In this story the people of Israel are tired of that. They've decided they want something different in their life and this is the story about how God interacted with his people. When Samuel grew old he appointed his sons as judges for Israel. The name of his first born was Joel and the name of his second was Abijah and they served at Beersheba. But his sons did not walk in his ways. They turned aside after dishonest gain and accepted bribes and perverted justice. So all the elders of Israel gathered together, came to Samuel at Ramah and said to him you are old. Your sons do not walk in your ways. Now appoint a king to lead us such as all the other nations have. But when they said give us a king to lead us this displeased Samuel so he prayed to the Lord. And the Lord told him listen to all the people are saying to you. It is not you they have rejected as their king but me. As they have done from the day I brought them out of Egypt until this day forsaking me and serving other gods so they are doing to you. Now listen to them but warn them solemnly and let them know what the king who reigns over them will do. And so Samuel went to them and he said that he will tax you and he will take your kids in the army and he will use your kids for slaves and servants. He will take your crops. All the things that a king has the power and authority to do. And then you will be desperate. And when that time comes you will want God to deliver you from the power of a wicked king. Then verse 18 in chapter 8. When that day comes you will cry out for relief from the king you have chosen and the Lord will not answer you in that day. But the people refused to listen to Samuel. No they said we want a king over us. Then we will be like all the other nations with a king to lead us and to go out before us and fight our battles. It's clear from this story what God really intended to do from the beginning. He wanted to be their king. He wanted them to look at him and say you are our leader. We depend on you to guide us. We depend on you when we are attacked by our enemies to deliver us from the power of our enemies. We depend on you to give us wisdom to run our nation and our country. You are our king. That's what he intended. He didn't want someone between him and them. He wanted a direct relationship with his own people. But the people looked around them and they saw how hard it was for them to be faithful to God. They saw that when difficulties came they didn't know what to do. They didn't have a leader. God would raise up a judge but it was oftentimes people they never even imagined he would use. They wanted someone physically who would be with them. A king they could look to and say he's going to guide us. He's going to plan for our country. He's going to take care of us. The idea that the spiritual God somewhere in the world was available to them was difficult for them to follow. I imagine that you felt the same thing these people felt. I remember when I was a youngster growing up, a teenager, trying to figure out the will of God for my life. I would say, God, what do you want me to do? I'd have thoughts come through my mind. I would say, you know, why didn't God just write a letter, put it in the mail, and then I'd go out and get it and open it and say, dear Doyle, this is what you're supposed to do, sign God. It would be so much easier. If someone would concretely, a person, tell me in a way that I normally communicate. That's what they wanted. We want a person who can be there with us at all times. We want God to have somebody who will lead us into battle. And whenever there's any kind of trouble, we know where to turn. We go to the king and say, they've invaded our country. And the king has an army and he comes out with them and he leads them into battle and we follow him. We can see him. You know, God has a funny way of fighting battles. Sometimes he asks them to take no swords and play the trumpet and smash glass. He just wasn't like anybody else they'd ever seen before and they wanted somebody that they could see and who would be reliable all the time. We can sympathize with that. Excuse me, I'm going to sneeze, cough. Because having a spiritual God makes it difficult for us to operate with him like we do all the rest of our lives. But what they were saying was, God, we don't like the way you're running things. See, that was the big sin on their part. You have a plan, but God, we have a better plan. That's really the heart of all sin in the world. Adam and Eve in the garden, they said, you can do anything you want but don't eat of these. And they said, God, we've got a better plan. That's what we ought to eat. And it happens in your life. You read the Bible about what you ought to do, it should be forgive somebody that's been mean to you and nasty. And you say, well, God, I should do that, but you know, I think it'd be better just let them stew in their own juices a little while. God asked you to do something that you really don't want to do and you can figure out a better way to do this than God's plan. That is the very heart of all sin in the world. And I'm sure that sometimes in your life, you've looked around you at circumstances that go on and you say to yourself, you know, if I was God, I would lower the boom on that guy or that woman or that person. I don't understand why God allows this person to be on the face of this earth. When you read the stories about what happens in World War II and see what happens around the world where there are cruel, mean people who kill thousands of others, we say, God, I don't think you're running this the right way. See, God's way of operating in the world is so different than ours that our human nature sometimes in the wisdom that we have, the limited wisdom we have, think that we have a better plan than God. Now, if God was sovereign and every choice that we made in this world was exactly what He wanted, it would be a different world. It'd be like driving on an eight-lane interstate highway. All the cars in their lane, they couldn't turn, they just went straight down this way and that way. And you were on there and nobody would turn across from you. Nobody would do anything that would cause you trouble. But that's not the way the world is. You might have an eight-lane highway, but you drive down the road and the guy in front of beside you turns immediately right in front of you and someone's going crossways. You meet some people coming towards you. This world is chaotic. It is difficult to find a pattern where conflict and difficulty does not arise. What the Bible says is God has the power to do anything He wants to do. But He has chosen in all the world to make everything in the world obey Him completely except one earthly creature. The geese do what God wants them to do, the deer do what God wants them to do, the grass does what God wants it to do, the sun, moon, and stars does what God wants it to do. But there is one creature in this world that does not. God has given you the capacity to look God in the eye and say no. That's what happened here. They said we've got a better idea about how to operate this thing. Give us a king. That will be the answer for us. God in His wisdom said I'll tell you what's going to happen if you do that. If you do something different than what I'm telling you, you're going to end up sorry for what you've done. And you're going to come to me saying oh God please save me from this stupid thing that we did. And I'm going to tell you no. Because you made your choice and you live in it. This is a perfect example about how God deals with your life. He's given us the book that tells us what He wants us to do and how He wants us to live. And I'll just tell you that all the time you will run across things you read in the scripture and you'll say that doesn't sound reasonable to me. I don't think that would work in the world I live in. I'm not sure that's the best plan for my life. I'll guarantee you you'll find that when you read the Bible. What God asks is that you accept His authority without question. That you trust that He's wiser than you, that He's more intelligent than you, that He can make better choices than you, and that He knows the consequences of your behavior better than you do. That's what the Bible means by the sovereign Lord I think. He is the Lord over everything in the world. Does it mean that He's limited in His power because He lets you make choices about your own life? No. I know more than it does for a father. I had four boys. When they were young, you know, eight, nine years old, I'd wrestle with them on the floor and they always won. I wasn't weak. I could have won every wrestling match at eight years of age. But they won. God can win every decision with you. He can make you do anything in this world that He wants you to do. But you know what He wants from us? He wants our respect and our love. And you cannot take another person and say, I demand that you respect me. Because you see, that's a matter of the mind and the heart. You can't say to another person, I demand that you love me. I had a young man one time come to me. He had been dating a girl and she had turned him down and he said, I want you to tell me how I can get God to make her love me. I said, God, you're not going to do that. He doesn't even make you love Him. He can't make anyone love you. It is a choice that you make. He wants you to look at Him and say, I respect you and I honor you as the creator of heaven and earth and I trust your wisdom more than mine. I know that you have my best interest at heart and I yield my life under your authority. You tell me how you want me to live and I will trust your judgment above my own. He wants our love, our respect. He wants us to honor Him. And He knows that it has no meaning unless it's from our hearts. So here He is, the creator of heaven and earth, who with one small word could have destroyed the whole group of Israel. He heard them in their planning. God is not doing this right. Everyone in the world has figured out how to do this. They have a king. He leads them into battle and they defeat us. We need a king to do the same thing. They did not trust God. It wasn't just a matter of culture and pattern, but they did not trust God's plan because it didn't make sense to them. In this picture, God shows what He does with us. He says to us, this is the way I want you to live. And we start out our lives, maybe in Sunday school learning about God, trying to do those things. Then when we come along, we start getting money and we say, I don't want to give all my money away. And we start trying to choose a spouse and we start looking around and we look for someone that has the qualities that we admire instead of those God has. We try to choose a vocation and we look for the places that we want to serve and the kind of life we want to live. We begin to forget that God has a plan for us. See, that was what was here. God had a plan for them. Think about this a minute. He had a plan to raise Israel with no king. Now think about that. There was no David in His plan. David was a great king. In fact, when the time came when David became a king later on in this story, God is going to say, now when my Messiah comes, He's going to be like this man. And in God's original plan, He said, I don't want you to have a king. There's not going to be one. But here the people came and said, we want it. And God went to plan B. Okay, I'll let you have a king. But I'll warn you up front that it's not going to be as wonderful as you think it's going to be. In fact, it's going to be disastrous for you many times. But if that's what you really want to do, I'm going to let you discover on your own that what I tell you is the truth. And then what God did was He helped them choose the very best king that they could, tall man who looked like a king that people would follow. And every time He tried to give them the very best king possible to have. In His new plan, David came along and Jesus, the son of David, came into the world. God is amazing. He can take our rebellion and turn it into His greatest plans. This is so encouraging. So encouraging. You may start out trying to do what you know God wants you to do, but just like these people, you get to the place where you say, I think I want to do something different than God does. And a disaster comes into your life and everything falls apart and your life looks like a total mess and you think, I have no chance. This story tells us differently. God can take your rejection of Him and if you stop along the way and say, OK, God, I've made a mistake. I now want to follow You. He can make it greater than it would have been had you never made the mistake in that first choice. Paul said it this way in Romans chapter 8, All things work together for good. All things, the good and the bad, work together for good to those that love Him and are called according to His purpose. All you have to do in this great plan of God, no matter how messed up and tangled your life might get, is to stop one day and say, I think you had the right idea and I sure did miss it. I'll tell you, you come and take this life with all the mess that I'm in and I will follow you step by step every day the rest of my life and your life will get better and better and better and better and it will be better than it would have been had you never turned away from God. It's the miracle of what God does. You see, most of us could get in life and make it work right if every choice was right and everything that happened right, but when everything caves in on us, then we have no ability to change it, but God does. That's what's amazing about Him. He is sovereign. That means He has all power and authority to do whatever people allow Him to do. The story of Israel is a story of constant rejection. When He was talking about the people, He said, let them go ahead and do this. They've been stubborn and rejecting Me since the day I took them out of Egypt. And I'll tell you, that's the story of all of our lives. You can sit down and look back and say, man, I messed this up and this up and this up and this up and this up. What is there hope for me? But the story of God's great sovereignty is that He lets us make our choices as stupid and as foolish and as destructive as they are, but He's always there and He's always saying, I can change your life. Every time the people of Israel got into desperate conditions with their kings and they turned to God, He came and He helped them. Why? Because God has all power and authority. And even your worst choices in the world, He can reverse. He can reverse them. He can take you out of the most difficult circumstances and give you a life filled with joy and victory. That's what this story's about. Our God is a sovereign God. He has a plan for all of our lives. It's a perfect plan. But beginning about the teenage years, we start saying, well, God, I don't know about this. I think this is better. And starting there, our life then gets off into a mess, but God is always there. He's always ready to come and say, if you will give me your life, I will make it better than it would have ever been without the bad decisions that you've made. I don't know how anyone can do that, but I know He can and I know He does. The sovereign Lord rules, but He only rules those who want to be ruled. Would you bow your heads, please, for a moment? Where are you in this story? You like the people of Israel and you started your life. You've lived it the best you know how, but you realize now, as you look back on it, that you've made a bunch of really stupid decisions. Have you thought, well, I'll just have to live with this the rest of my life? That's the way humans think. What God says is, you don't have to live that way. If you will stop where you're at and say, God, I'm sorry that I've made these choices and I've acted the way I've acted. I want from this moment on in my life to let you control my mind, my will, my emotions, my choices. You start reading the Bible, being faithful and attending church, putting into practice what you've learned. You will find step by step that He'll remove you from the mess that you're in to the life that He planned for you all along. If it looks impossible, it is for you. But it's not impossible for the sovereign Lord, the ruler of the universe. He does it every day, all over the world, and He'll do it for you. But He will never force Himself on you. Right now you may be thinking, boy, I do need that change in my life. That's Him talking to you. Then you say, well, I'm not sure, it'll be embarrassing. You'll have a lot of reasons why you don't want to do this. That's Satan talking to you. You have to listen to the voice of God and do what He tells you. Now this morning I'm going to ask you, contrary to the people in Israel, to listen to the voice of God above everything else in your life. And to say to Him this morning, I believe that you are the sovereign Lord, the ruler of heaven and earth, and I believe that you have the power to change my life. So today, forgive me for ignoring and rebelling against you. Take my life, as broken as it is, and tell me what to do right now, and I will do it. Tell me what to do tomorrow, and I'll try my best to do it. That's what God is asking of you. In a moment we're going to have an invitation song, the instrument's going to play, I'll be here waiting, and God's going to say to you, you need to go down there and tell these people, today is the day I give my life to Christ. You're just in the same place these people were. Do you have a better plan? Are you ready to follow God's plan? He won't make you, but He'll let you make the choices that you choose to make. If you're a follower of Christ in this community, the church is a group of people who are devoted to live in obedience to God, and every person should be a member of a church, working to do the things God wants them to do, not just attending or listening, but helping God in His kingdom. You may feel a need to say, I want to be a part of this church family. In a moment, when the invitation hymn is played, God has put that on your mind, you come and share that with me, others will come to stand with me here in the front. God is saying, here is my plan for you. Just like these people, you're in a place of choice. I heard you. Do what you know God wants you to do. Your life depends on it. So Father, we ask in these moments of quietness, that for each of us, you'd tell us what your plan is. We know that you have the patience and kindness with us to let us make the choice, but we also know that you tell us what the right one is. We ask in these moments that we might have the faith and trust to do what you say is right. In the name of Christ, we ask this, amen. As the instrument plays, I want you to think about what God wants and you do it. Some of you, if you've sat down on our seats, may have felt them give some. We have some of our pews in here that have been broken and the church in business meeting said that they'd like to have new seating in the building. So we're going to be meeting in our business meeting this evening to talk about putting together a group of people who will help us decide what kind of seating we're going to have in our auditorium at meeting six o'clock tonight. We encourage you to be there. We hear what everybody's thoughts and feelings are. We're trying to find the will of God in this matter. We also have next week a special event for us. We have a couple of ladies who are going to be baptized. We want to mark that on your calendar to come and celebrate the profession of their trust in Christ to lead their lives. Could you stand please for a moment of prayer? Sovereign Lord, we love you. We trust your power to make the universe operate as it should. And we trust you to make our lives operate as they should. Our homes as they should. Our church as it should. For your power is unlimited. Give us the faith to trust you with every single choice that we make that we might live our lives without regret. In the name of Christ, we give thanks for you. Amen. Let it be said of us, that the Lord was our passion, that with gladness we bore every cross we were given, and we fought the good fight, that we finished the course, knowing within us the power of the risen Lord. Let the cross be our glory, and the Lord be our song. By mercy made holy, by the Spirit made strong. Let the cross be our glory, and the Lord be our song. Until the likeness of Jesus be through us made known, let the cross be our glory, and the Lord be our song.