Relentless Rescue Series

Okay, so last week Israel had no king. It makes sense that we start here but before we do have to mention something that we completely skipped over in the story, the book of Ruth. During the time of the Judges Ruth loses her husband, famine strikes the land, she moves away with mother in law. They have nothing. God rescues her and provides. Ruth gets married and gives birth to King David’s grandfather putting her in the bloodline of Jesus. When we get to 1st Samuel where we pick it up today we meet a man named Samuel who is a prophet. His two sons are evil and obviously not prepared to be in charge which leads to the elders of Israel coming to him and having the conversation that we just read. We want a king. Samuel prays and God says they are rejecting me as their king, so go ahead and give them a king. Before we talk more about that I want to pause for a moment and consider how this moment in the story may intersect with our stories as we sit here today. So, as we think about what’s happening here, here’s the question...

WHO OR WHAT IS REALLY KING IN/OF MY LIFE? Think about all that we have walked through since God started this great nation he is building called Israel. He rescued them from slavery in Egypt, tolerated their whining and forgave their sin, gave them food, water, and victory in the desert. Ultimately won the battles for them and gave them a land of their own. Every time that their sin led them to destruction he heard their cry raised up a deliverer or judge to deliver them and give them rest. That sounds like a pretty awesome king so what gives here? Here’s a thought. God alone is not enough. Before we come down too hard on them here it would probably be good for us to go ahead and admit this. He seldom is for us either.

ILLUST> There was a book that came out about 7 years ago that had a title that I thought was brilliant. It really caught my attention. The title was “Jesus + Nothing = Everything”. We could translate that Jesus = everything...or Jesus is all that I need. God is all that I need. A few years later the author who was a pastor of a big church had an affair, blew his life up, and crashed and burned in life and ministry. Obviously, I’m not judging him or condemning, that’s a part of my story 14 years ago too. I have nothing but grace, love, and compassion for him and all that he’s been through. I’m not pointing to his sin. I’m pointing to this. The formula that became the title to his book was one that ultimately didn’t work for him. That’s not judgment. It didn’t work for me either. Here’s what I am getting to. We say God is king of our lives but when push comes to shove the true formula tends to be more like this God + __________ = everything. I need God but things like power, money, fitness, prestige, sex, security, appearance is really right up there too. Yeah, we’ve got God in our lives and we would never really want to say this outloud but what we are feeling in the moment often screams that it is not enough.

When I really dig deep and take a hard and honest look behind the curtain who or what is really king in my life? Who or what is my confidence really in? God has shown up in the past, but where is he now and what has he done for me lately? What is he doing in my current circumstances? Can I trust Him to be king? Yes, I want God in my life but my real confidence, comfort, and security actually comes more from this. For Israel it’s God + a king. For most of us, even those of us who have been doing this church thing for a long time when we are honest it’s God + something else too. I’m telling you, years have passed but the story is the same. This story is our story. Alright, let’s keep moving.