Well, good morning. My name is Rob. I mean, I'm just. I'm. I'm really blessed to be here.

I just. I love Pastor Nick. He's just. He's a special kind of pastor. He's.

He's well studied. He's a good leader. But you guys are blessed. He's. He's not just a religious guy, you know, on my way up here, I was telling my wife about Pastor Nick, and she might feel different about our relationship after today, but, you know, she's picturing probably Ned Flanders, you know, when she's picturing this pastor in Zephyr Hills that I talk to and I get advice from.

I hope she still feels that way at the end of the day. But just being able to laugh, being able to be yourself and not being tied up in religion and doing God's work, and Pastor Nick is just an excellent model of that. And it's just nice having people in the faith and mentors that you can call and say, hey, am I allowed to say this? You know, and I know Pastor Nichols, shoot me straight. And, man, I know he loves his church and he's dedicated, and it's just an honor to be in his church this morning.

But the sermon topic today, what we're going to be talking about is, I guess we're in a series where we're talking about how everything points to Christ. You know, Jesus said, hey, the scriptures testify of me. If you knew Moses, you'd know me. And what we're going to get into today is, I guess I've been privileged with the story of King Saul and how King Saul's ministry and his kingdom points to Christ ultimately. And you guys have to sit through about five minutes of a little bit of backdrop.

I can't preach without backdrop. Like he said, I'm a Bible nerd. I just. I can't. I got to get it out.

And Pastor Nick's going to let me know if I'm going too long on the. On the Bible nerd stuff. But the nation of Israel at this time, we're coming out of the time of the Judges. And the Judges is like the wild, wild west of the Bible. Okay?

There's a common theme in Judges, and a lot of the chapters end with and the people did what was right in their own eyes. And I think that's something we're dealing with in today's culture and today's society a lot, especially with the age of the Internet and everybody is so opinionated, and anybody with a smartphone now has an audience. You had to, like, either sell your soul or do something extravagant to be able to have that kind of audience. And now anybody with a smartphone and a following basically has a newscast. So there's just mixed messages out there.

There's a certain kind of Jesus that's being preached and a certain kind of Jesus that's being represented that's not biblical. And it has the hints of the biblical Jesus, and it has a little bit of flavor, and it talks about love, but it's not the real love. And that's what I want to get into today. Because in this time, coming out of the time of the Judges, this country actually looked a lot like ours, a little worse.

They didn't have a king, and they're coming out of the time of judges about 300 years, where they would just appoint a leader. But it wasn't a monarchy. It was kind of a.

It was kind of a council of elders. So we pick up, and you have Samuel. Samuel was priest, prophet, and king. And the Bible says that none of Samuel's words fell to the floor. As a little child, he was dedicated to the temple, and he was Israel's last judge.

And he came to the time where he wanted to appoint his sons. He was getting old. He was ready to retire, and he was going to have his sons take his spot. But his sons weren't walking in his ways. His sons were not living above reproach, and they were doing crooked things, just like we see in today's society.

The Bible says there's nothing new under the sun. So the elders of Israel, they come to Samuel and say, hey, listen, we are surrounded by giant clans. And that's one thing that I want to point on is the enemy's biggest trick when we read our Bible, is to take some of the context out of it. I mean, the Bible is a spiritual book. We're in spiritual warfare.

Sometimes we read the Bible and we ignore the things that sound kind of like a fairy tale, but the fairy tales we heard as kids, that's to desensitize us. There's some serious things going on in the nation of Israel. When God told Joshua to go over there and conquer this land and obliterate these people, it's because those people were not people. There was some spiritual things happening. The Bible says in Genesis 6 that the sons of God, the angels, came down and mixed with the humans, and they created a race.

And the Bible says in Genesis that in this time and afterwards, after the flood. So when Joshua comes over, he's got this land to conquer. And we're dealing, when we pick up with the story of Samuel, we're still dealing with those people, that they weren't obedient, they didn't get rid of the people in that land. So they were. Everybody knows the story of Goliath.

There's giants in the land and all the clans in that area surrounding Israel. I hate to say it because it sounds so unpulpity, but there was giants, it was a clan of giants in those days. And the people didn't want Samuel to rule them. Samuel was, Bible says that he lived above reproach. None of his words fell to the floor.

And Samuel actually single handedly saved the priesthood from a little boy. He actually was a God. He is a symbol of Jesus. We're supposed to see Jesus when we see Samuel, prophet, priest, king. And he loved the Lord.

And there's a, there's a big misconception. If you've been in the Bible anytime or you've been in church, you always hear that Israel wasn't supposed to have a king. Has anybody ever heard that, that God was supposed to be their king? They weren't supposed to actually appoint a man.

When Israel comes to Samuel and they say, appoint us a king, it's their motive on why they want a king. Because back in Genesis, when, when Jacob's praying over his sons, he's prophesied over all his sons. He told Judah, hey, the scepter, you're the king. The scepter is not going to pass from the tribe of Judah. And even in Leviticus, he gives criteria.

When you get to that land and you appoint a king, he's going to be this kind of king, not this kind of king. So you know, that's been taught in churches that they're not supposed to have a king. But the sin here, when the elders come, they don't want Samuel, they don't want a biblical man, and they don't want his ways. And actually Samuel feels rejected. The Bible says that the Lord told Samuel, hey, they're not rejecting you as king, they're rejecting me.

But they wanted that. They wanted a tall, strong, they wanted a military leader. They wanted somebody and they chose Saul. Actually, God chose Saul. God gave the people what they wanted.

They didn't want Samuel, they didn't want the godly ways. They wanted to go to war and they wanted their economy to be better. Because in those days, the Bible says that there's not even a blacksmith in Israel. The Philistines had such a grip on Israel that they controlled their crops they controlled their finances. There wasn't even a blacksmith.

They weren't even allowed to have weapons. The attack on the Second Amendment 5,000 years ago. How about that? Nothing new. So it actually says that if they wanted to sharpen one of their pitchforks, if they wanted to sharpen their garden tools, they had to go to the Philistines and they had to pay a hefty price just to be able to have a fork.

I mean, the government and society had a heavy thumb on Israel. So the people are sick of this and they say, hey, appoint us a king. And there's a man named Saul, son of Kish, and the Bible says that he's a, he's a shoulder and head taller than everybody. He was the best looking guy and he was the, the tallest man in Israel at the time. And that's what they wanted.

They wanted the appearance that just like our society, we are a very vain society in the United States. We don't see people for what they are. They see what, what they can do for us. And they, we see the, the semi amount of attractiveness that they bring to the table. And it's nothing new.

So the elders, their main sin was not that they wanted a king, but it's their motives and what kind of king they wanted. And how many know that God will give you what you ask for. Sometimes when you're asking for the right things, God will bless you. And then sometimes when you're asking for the wrong things, God will give it to you ultimately to turn you back into God's, God's arms. So in those times, we're about 80 years after the time of the Judges.

And one of the last things that happens in the book of Judges is the tribe of Benjamin, which, this is where Saul's from. Saul is he son of Kish, from the tribe of Benjamin. And the tribe of Benjamin was almost obliterated in the previous book. The I hate saying words like this, but there was a woman, a Levite woman, who was sexually assaulted at the end of Judges and Israel and they killed her. And Israel came together and they said, you know what, we're done with Benjamin.

We're not going to let any of our daughters marry Benjamin. We're going to just let them shrink away for what they did, this grave sin. So there was a time where the tribe of Benjamin shrunk down because nobody would assimilate with them. No other Israelite would have a daughter. They wouldn't allow their sons to marry the Israeli women or to the Benjamite women.

So you pick up in the time of Samuel and they're asking for a king. And where does God choose the king? He chooses from the least likely tribe, actually, I guess you could say they were the worst tribe. They had the worst track record. But what Benjamin had going for them was military strength.

They were strong during that time of the judges when nobody would marry them. Well, guess what? They did. They assimilated with the other nations around them. So here we are 80 years later, and some of the Benjamin tribe have mixed with the other clans and the Canaanites in that area.

And that's who God chose as the king. And God chose Saul because that was actually the people's choice. God kind of gave them what they're asking for. It was kind of a punishment. They didn't realize it.

So in that backdrop, they choose Saul. They choose him because he's handsome, they choose him because he's tall. And they choose him because he's the closest thing to a giant to fight the other giant clans. And they're looking strictly on outward appearance. And Samuel actually corrects him and says, hey, I'm telling you, this is what's going to happen.

He's going to take all your property, he's going to tax you, he's going to take you as slaves and maid servants. And I'm telling you, if you put a man. It's the same thing today with politics. The same thing we deal with when man has too much power and man has too much self importance, he always abuses it. So that leads me to my first point.

My first point, it was Saul was chosen by the people, but it's supposed to point us to Christ. Christ was chosen by God, okay? And it's the same thing in the days of Jesus where they have the king, they should be wanting, they should be looking for. They have a Samuel type priest, prophet, a man going around and healing. And they had the same situation with the Romans.

They had the same problem. Nothing new under the sun. And history repeats itself. So here we are, we pick up in Jesus time and the Romans are basically doing the same thing that the Philistines were doing. And they're looking for the same thing.

They're looking for a military leader. Now here's the problem with Saul. King Saul starts off strong. He starts off militarily victorious. He does.

He did save the people from the Philistines. And when, when Saul first gets the call, the spirit of God comes upon him. And the Bible says that it gave him a new heart and it regenerated his heart. But Saul's disobedience down the line, Saul became very disobedient. There was a.

There was a point where the Amalekites. Saul was supposed to eradicate the Amalekites. And the people, when they go in, God said, don't leave anybody alive. Don't take their cattle. Don't take anything.

Do not take anything from. When you. When you eradicate these Amalekites. Well, the prophet Samuel shows up, and he's seeing all these farm animals, and they. And they captured the king of the Amalekites.

They didn't kill him. Saul was going to take him, set him up in the temple, set him up in the palace as a trophy. Saul was disobedient to God. And when the people. When Samuel confronts him, he.

He says, well, hey, all these people, they wanted to keep these sheep because we're going to sacrifice them to God, right? Because if we sacrifice all these sheep and we sacrifice all this cattle, we get to keep our cattle, our unblemished stuff, okay? But Saul blamed the people. He shifted the blame, okay? So when we go into the time of Jesus, Jesus lays down his life.

Jesus is the one that sets things aside. Jesus doesn't point blame. Jesus kept his mouth shut when people were trying to accuse him. Jesus used scripture. And I wrote here, Saul looked like the answer.

He was tall, strong, and impressive. And the people thought that they were choosing power, but they were actually choosing pride. They wanted a king to defend them against fear and not one to lead them in faith. And that's what happens today.

Do we. We have an idea of a king and Jesus is our savior, right? He's our savior. You just heard people get baptized proclaiming that Jesus is their savior. But is he really our king?

I mean, really, does Jesus have lordship over your life? Because if he did, you'd obey him. And what we choose to obey, what we choose to set up and we choose to serve, we ultimately obey that. And where Saul set himself up as king and he obeyed his flesh, it ultimately led to Israel's downfall.

And so point two is Saul failed through disobedience. The people once again are at the crossroads at the time of Jesus, and they're looking for a savior. We always want a savior. We always want somebody to come clean up our mess. But they didn't want to give Jesus lordship.

It's the same thing that we do. It's the same thing that when we vote, it's the same thing in our culture, we're fighting the same thing. Today we have a nation we call ourselves a Christian nation and we're a nation full of Christians and we love God, but we choose which part of us, of our lives that we give him lordship over. He's everybody's savior. Jesus loves everybody, right?

He wants you to come as you are and it's okay. Jesus loves you. But they don't get into the part where with the obedience, they don't get into the part where you have to, you're actually giving him lordship over your life. But what I find is people nowadays, they give lordship over to things that aren't even saving them. I mean they make.

If you, if you spent any time online and you've seen anything out there right now, you can just see it's, it's, it's crazy. Am I the only one that thinks that the society is crazy right now? Now, I mean, it's nuts and there's a little bit of Jesus sprinkled in there.

But what we choose to set up as king, what we choose to serve is ultimately what we're going to obey.

You know, disobedience drives the spirit away from us. Saul disobeys with the Amalekites, he has a grave sin. And God says, hey listen, I'm going to take, I'm going to take the king kingship from you. I'm going to take the authority away from me. I'm going to give it to somebody else.

And the Bible says that when, when Saul first was anointed king, that the Spirit of God came on him and empowered him. But through his disobedience, the spirit of God left him. Spirit of God just it completely. And the Bible says that it actually there was another. The Bible says that God spirit sent by God.

But actually in context, in the Hebrew it says a spirit permitted by God. Because sometimes when we disobey and we walk out of lordship, when we just think he's our Savior and not our Lord, what that does is that leaves the door open to spiritual attacks. And that's what was happening with Saul. He was spiritually attacked. And the people still was it 40 years.

Saul ruled. Saul was king for 40 years. The people put up with this for 40 years. And they put up with it because it's what their idea of what their flesh. That's what they wanted.

They wanted a strong, tall, good looking king. It's nothing different than what we deal with today. They didn't say to Samuel, hey, can you set up, can you make Billy Graham the king? That's not what they wanted. They didn't say Put Kendall as king.

Okay. They said, we want somebody to reflect like our enemies. I'm breaking down here a little bit, Pastor.

Okay. I'll get through it. Right. I think it's because you're here.

So in a time, in Samuel's time, I think that it'd be safe to say in our nation, in our government, basically, in the world, that we need to decide who our king is. We need to set the right biblical principles. We have to make a decision. And we're so distracted, and we're so after the world, and we're after fleshly things. But just like in that day, just like in that day, we're at the crossroads ourselves.

You know, just every time I go online, every time I get into a page, I see. I see these people in the streets arguing with people, unsaved people. I see, like, evangelists and speaking the truth, actually saying biblical, real biblical principles, actually speaking what most churches should say. It's the kind of stuff that Pastor Nick says a lot, you know, so. But I see that online.

And what happens is, is there's always a spiritual veil. These people that. I don't want to call it arguing, because really, evangelizing is an argument. Evangelizing is trying to show somebody the love of God, being direct with them and telling them the truth. And it's up to the spirit of God.

It's up to God to convict them and prick their hearts and pull them in. But I see these people arguing with the people on the streets at these rallies and these pride parades and all these things that we've made so acceptable this country. And what I always see happening is the guy standing on scripture and he's standing on the truth, and the people just aren't hearing it. The people have another version of the gospel. I mean, it just.

You can. You literally can open up the Bible, show them the verse, show them what Jesus said about what they're talking about, and the people will argue with you. But, you know, what happens in the church and with us, especially evangelicals, is we fall into that trap. We try to. We're about numbers.

We're about bringing people in. We're about to advertising Jesus and social clubs. And we don't get into the conviction of sin, and we don't get into actually what God wants to do for you. And it's not just he wants to bless you and he wants to love you. God wants to change your heart.

God wants to cleanse you.

In Jesus time. They were looking, once again, they were looking for a military messiah. And The Son of God is standing in front of them and he's speaking biblical truth, and they killed him. They literally, God came in human flesh and they killed him. He was the answer.

Everything in the Old Testament was pointing to Christ as the true king, as the true prophet, as the true priest, as the true leader, and the people killed him. And I really feel. I feel scared that if Christ was standing here today, how many of us would recognize him as the Messiah? Do we have a mental view of what a king is supposed to be? Do we set ourselves up as kings?

A lot of times I set myself up as kingdom. There's a book we read in loving hands. It was called Kingdom of Self. And in Kingdom of Self, it talks about how everybody's your subject, whether they know it or not. We set ourselves up as kings and we set ourselves up as rulers.

And when the Book of Judges says that the people did what was right in their own eyes and it had nothing to do with God. And that's what I want to say today is who's the king that we're looking for? Who is the king who rules your life? We all have a savior. We have different versions of the Savior.

But who is the king who has lordship over your life? When people come to you, what is the Lord that you're pronouncing to people? What's the Jesus that you're pointing to people? Because when we put it in beauty and vanity and economics and department of War, when we put it, all these things that we're going through today is the same thing that they were going through back then. And who's the king that we're setting up?

What kind of leader do we want to be? What kind of leader do we want to appoint? What do we want to obey? The Spirit of God left Saul. The spirit of God departed from Saul.

And when Saul died, his kingdom ended. But when Jesus gave himself up in the flesh and Jesus died and Jesus laid down his life and he fulfilled his role, he was obedient to God all the way. When Christ died, when Christ ascended, he poured the spirit out. And that's the difference. Christ chose.

You know, he could have been born. He's the king of the universe. He created the universe and everything in it. If Christ came in human form, he could have came as the richest man. He could have came as Jeff Bezos.

He could have done anything he wanted to do. But if he would have done that, it still would have been a huge downgrade. It still would have been a lowly position. But Christ didn't decide to come as a rich man or a human king. He came as a poor Jewish person from the worst part of Israel in the worst time.

It was time to be born a Jew and he died and he became lowly. And that's the, that's the contrast between Saul, where Saul was lowly in the beginning and he was empowered by the spirit. When he started to obey his flesh, it ultimately led to the spirit leaving. When Jesus was obedient to the father even unto death, it resulted in the spirit getting poured out for us. Because Jesus isn't so much worried about our personal feelings, he's worried about our souls and he's worried about salvation.

Saul was worried about the people's feelings. Saul was worried about the people's praise. He was set up for vanity reasons in the first place.

Obedience to God blesses others. Obedience to God follows the gospel. Jesus was obedient even unto death. Saul couldn't be obedient to anything. But the people still loved it.

The people still loved the status. They loved the look. They were even fined losing everything they had and paying heavy taxes and you know, a couple kings later we got King Solomon. He's doing everything that Leviticus said not to do as a king. He's 700 wives and chariots and horses from Egypt.

I mean everything that's laid out that a king shouldn't do. And the people loved it. In fact, a matter of fact, in Jesus time, when they look back on King Solomon and they look back on the times of Saul, those were the good old days. That's what they want. They actually, when Christ is in front of them, telling them the truth, fulfilling the scriptures, they're wishing that he was more like the tyrant good looking king that was disobedient to God.

And that's what we do today is our version that we want a different version of Jesus that fits our narrative, that fits our feelings, that fits our comforts and ultimately leads to destruction. The Bible says that when the spirit of God left Saul, he ultimately sought a medium. And that's a whole nother awesome Bible story. The Old Testament. Like when you read, when you read Judges and Samuel, it's like the, it's like the COVID of every Molly Hatchet album.

It's like a Viking holding, you know, holding an axe, like riding a horse. You know, I encourage you get into the Old Testament because it's, it's pretty cool. You guys will stop watching Games of Thrones and cancel your HBO subscription, I'm for sure. But, but that's what what's that? Oh, yeah, yeah, that's what I'm saying.

The Bible's metal. The Bible is like this medieval. It's the best medieval fair you've ever been to. But it's about.

But in a time where they can't defend themselves, they can't feed themselves, it's a bleak future. They turn to man, they turn to the fleshly version, the ideal human version of. They wanted a movie star, they wanted a celebrity. They picked a guy who's from a tribe who literally was almost kicked out of the country, was almost like they shrunk down. The people of Israel said, don't marry Benjamin.

Do not procreate with Benjamin. They're bad. I won't tell you the second part of that story. Maybe you'll cover it next week. But.

But from a tribe that was obliterated, a tribe that was counted out, and he's from the, the weakest, lowest family of the tribe, he's the least likely candidate. And Jesus was the most likely candidate. I mean, really, if you look at the scriptures, Jesus was the answer. But when they choose Saul, they choose him because they see the way the average people see. They see the LGBT inclusive Jesus and they see the God loves me, he doesn't want me to repent.

He loves me the way I am Jesus. And that ultimately led to the spirit of God departing. But when Jesus came and he was obedient to death, he poured the spirit out on us. And that same spirit is what empowers us to go out and really proclaim, who is the king? What is the king you're looking for?

Who is your master? Because whoever your master is is who you're going to obey. Somebody say amen or something, right? That's biblical.

And I guess, I guess my closing, I want to say closing argument because I'm like a Jewish lawyer, but really what I want to leave with everybody today.

Christ doesn't make us comfortable. Christ doesn't give us political stance. Christ doesn't put our political party in power. Christ empowers us to spread the word about Christ. Christ empowers us to make the kingdom attractive.

When we lean to our flesh and we follow our own ways, it leads to self destruction. If it's left up to us, we're always going to crash it. We're always going to ruin it. The greatest of men. The Bible's full of the greatest, most stand up likely candidates, bombing it.

When we leave it up to ourselves, we're going to crash. And when we set up an image and we Set up a political leader, even a pastor, even some of our fathers in our lives, when we set them up as Lord and King, we're going to obey what they do. And that ultimately leads to self destruction. When we obey the Father, it's not about us. When we obey God and we do it his will ultimately, actually, you usually get the last thing you want, but I'll tell you, it sits with you better and it gives you peace.

And Saul had a great kingdom, Saul had a great reign, but he died on his own sword alone, watching his descendants and his children die with him. And that's just what I challenge you. I challenge you to really view the Jesus, the biblical Jesus. The biblical Jesus isn't about the things that the flesh is about. The biblical Jesus wants the last thing that your flesh wants.

But the greatest thing is when you start following him and you start in relationship with him. Those things that your flesh wanted aren't there anymore. He says he'll give you the desires of your heart. We got it backwards. We think that God just wants to give us everything.

What it really means is when we follow Christ and we put our lives down, that our hearts change. Bible says they gave Saul a new heart. As soon as he chose Saul, he regenerated his heart. That's a picture of what Christ did for us. Pouring his spirit out, gave us regeneration, gave us resurrection, gave us life.

When we choose the man's way, it's self destruction. When we choose God's way, it's regeneration. That's long. Right? Okay, sure.

All right. Because you moved up. I'm a loving hands guy. I'm a loving hands guy. When you guys move up it, I cut off.

Yeah, Amen. Yeah, yeah. But no, I just. It was a blessing to be here. I kind of bombed this morning, so I don't know if I'll be back next year.

But in all seriousness, there's a Jesus that's being preached out there. There's an all inclusive loving Jesus. I see videos all the time. There was one of the day the guy stood up in the church and it was one of those everybody was wearing a rainbow robe and Jesus loves everybody. And it was basically the pastor was changing scriptures like, like rewording the Bible to fit their narrative.

And this man stood up and he was speaking truth and he was speaking it gently, in love. He was doing what first Peter said that always be ready, but with gentleness and being humble. And they shut him down. They evacuated him out of the church. And the comments, you look at the comments that guy was a hate monger and that guy was a racist and that guy, you know, and it's there.

It's there. And I mean, literally the way the church is, the way the world is, is. That's, that's what we want. We want, we want a Jesus that fits our narrative. And I just really encourage you to just really examine who your Lord is.

He's everybody's Savior, but he's very few people's lords. Because he says, what's he say? He says, why do you call me Lord? Many people will come to me in that day and say Lord, Lord. When he says Lord twice, that's an extra emphasis.

That's saying, I personally know you. When you say somebody's name twice in that language, it means that I know you personally. Nick. Nick, I know you. Why do you call me Lord?

Lord? Why do you say Lord twice to me? Depart from me, you worker of iniquity, for I never knew you. And that's where we're headed. That's where we're going.

And in the last days, we're going to call good evil and evil good. So, Kingship Lordship, if you're joining us online but you have never attended in person, let us know that you're watching by leaving a comment. And please give us a thumbs up on the video. If there's any way we can pray for you, or if you would like to know a little bit more about this church or relationship with Jesus, text us at 833-339-7926 and be sure to check out our website at cfnfamily.org thanks for watching and we pray that God blesses you this week.