Who is your King Contemporary (3)

In one paragraph

Nick Stern, a staff member at First Baptist who has attended for eight and a half years, brought a message from 1 Samuel 8 on Mother's Day 2017. He traced the story of Israel's demand for a king and what it reveals about the human habit of pushing God aside in favor of something that feels more like what the world has. He closed by pointing to Christ as the king God ultimately provided. Nick...

Read together

1. 1 Timothy 2:5 quoted at the opening to establish there is one God and one mediator, the man Jesus Christ
2. Psalm 16:11 read aloud after worship to speak of God showing the way of life and the joy of His presence
3. Deuteronomy 17:14 read to show God's instructions to Israel about appointing a king when they entered the land
4. 1 Samuel 8:4-7 read to show the elders demanding a king and God telling Samuel the people had rejected Him as their king
5. 1 Samuel 8:10-18 read at length as Samuel warned the people what a human king would take and cost them
6. 1 Samuel 8:19-22 read to show the people refusing to listen and insisting on a king to fight their battles
7. Colossians 2:13-15 read near the close to show God's answer to sin: forgiveness and triumph over the powers through the cross

Talk about it

1. Nick described the Old Testament as full of grace, pointing to moments where God warns and instructs his people even when he knows they will disobey. Where do you see evidence of God's grace in a passage or story you would not normally associate with grace?
2. Nick compared God giving Israel the guidelines for a king to a school bus driver who can lay out the rules but cannot force the kids to follow them. How does that tension between God's sovereignty and our free will show up in your own experience of making choices?
3. God told Samuel that Israel had not rejected Samuel but had rejected God as their king. Nick said that has weight to it and that sometimes God lets us suffer the consequences of our choices. How do you personally sit with that reality without either dismissing it or letting it push you away from God?
4. Nick asked directly, who is your king, and named things like money, attention, selfish ambition, and private sins the church tends to skim over. Which of those hit closest to home for you, and what does it look like practically to hand that thing back to God?
5. Nick closed with Colossians 2:13 through 15 and said God gave Israel a king mightier than they expected, just not in the way they wanted. How does the cross as God's answer to Israel's long rejection of him change the way you read the Old Testament stories of failure and consequence?