The Story Part 8: Why We Keep Picking the Wrong Kings

The fatal flaw that the Israelites had is they did not want a spiritual revival or to re or to rekindle what they had lost. They sought a political restructuring. They looked at their neighbors, the pagans, and said, what works for them will work for us. And that causes a feeling of rejection, first with Samuel and then with God. And God told Samuel, they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me from being king over them. [00:08:54] (34 seconds)  #SpiritualRevivalNotPolitics

So in my lifetime, the argument that has been debated the most is which human form of leadership is better, capitalism or communism? And I'm usually prompt to answer that that neither is necessarily evil. The problem is the evil of the people that are in charge. Greed in both communism and in capitalism hurts people, and greed is a sin. Selfishness or selfish ambition is a sin that will affect both. The model in itself in its most perfect form without humans involved probably would work out somewhat okay. Unfortunately, humans are involved. [00:04:47] (44 seconds)  #GreedCorruptsSystems

And I have these two passages kind of right next to each other to say, this is how it started with Saul, that God was blessing him, and this is how it ended with Saul, where he went on his own way and rebelled against the will of the Lord. Saul's wrath looked the part. He was tall, handsome, impressive, and he was kind of like a king from central casting. They said this guy looks like a king. But the reality of sin, even with God's initial blessing, the anointing Saul's heart was prone to wander. He chose sacrifice over obedience. [00:12:11] (45 seconds)  #ObedienceOverAppearance

In the same way, we often put people into roles that they don't fit necessarily internally. They don't have the drive. They don't have the heart, but they have that exterior casting that looks the part, that sounds the part. The lesson we have to learn is that all human leadership is inherently flawed because the leader themselves are wrestling with sins in their life. And when we put our ultimate hope in that person, if it's a politician or any any level of hierarchy, we are building on sand and collapse is inevitable. [00:15:12] (46 seconds)  #StopIdolizingLeaders

The thing about all human leadership is that it's usually a reflection of us. That's what happens. We've and we as humans have tried all forms of leadership styles throughout the years. And it always kinda shows up as the same problem is that we as humans are fallible. We are people that are regularly disappointing. When there are the usual debates about which style is the problem, it usually isn't the style that's actually the problem of human leadership. It's the sin that is affecting that style of leadership. [00:04:10] (36 seconds)  #LeadershipReflectsUs

David was pointing to what was to come, the perfect leader, the king of kings. We have been given Jesus. He doesn't just lead us. He transforms us from the inside out. As much as we try to hide the things that are within us, Jesus is the one who exposes those things to the light and says, I want to grow you as an individual. And then he calls us to discipleship. A disciple is someone who has been advocated of their own throne. They have literally been told to lay down their lives, their titles, their their own kingships, and take up the cross and walk with him. [00:24:07] (49 seconds)  #TransformedByJesus

Every time that we go back to earthly leadership, there is this element of rejection of the power of God and the leadership of God. How often do we try to fix spiritual problems with worldly solutions? We try to organize our way out of a heart problem. Even within the church, this goes on. A long time ago, there was the decision to make people like me as the leaders of the church. And I will tell you, like I said last week, all of us pastors cheat when we play dominoes. [00:10:04] (40 seconds)  #DontFixSpiritualWithWorldly

But the challenge this week is not to try and manage your life like the world does, but to submit your decisions, your family, and your your career to the king of kings. To make disciples, we must first be subjects to the king ourselves. There's a lot of wanting to hold other people to this, but that's not something that we can do. But just on the flip side of how earthly leadership is regularly a reflection of us, that becomes this unhealthy cycle too regularly where if we are sinful and they are sinful, if we are only looking to them for our hope and what comes next and it becomes this downward thing where they become worse and we become worse. [00:25:38] (48 seconds)  #SubmitToTheKing