Who is your King Traditional (3)

In one paragraph

Nick Stern brought the message this Mother's Day, working from 1 Samuel 8, where Israel asks God for a king. He traced a thread that runs from the Garden of Eden through the Old Testament and into our own lives: the pull to push God aside and choose a different kind of king. Nick opened by noting how much of human history the Old Testament covers compared to the New Testament. That long stretch of...

Read together

1. Deuteronomy 17:14 God's instructions to Israel about appointing a king when they enter the land
2. 1 Samuel 8:4-5 The elders of Israel come to Samuel asking for a king like all the other nations
3. 1 Samuel 8:7 God tells Samuel the people have rejected Him as their king
4. 1 Samuel 8:10-18 Samuel warns the people what a human king will take from them and do to them
5. 1 Samuel 8:19-22 The people refuse to listen and insist on having a king to lead and fight their battles
6. Colossians 2:13-15 Closing benediction about God forgiving sins and triumphing over powers through the cross

Talk about it

1. Nick described the Old Testament as giving us 'a huge portion of history to know how God reacts to people.' What is something about God's character that you have learned more clearly from the Old Testament than you might have from the New Testament alone?
2. Nick used the image of a school bus driver watching kids stand up even after being told to stay seated. When have you found yourself looking God in the eye and doing something anyway, even knowing it was the wrong direction?
3. God warned the Israelites about what a human king would cost them, yet they refused to listen. Nick asked why we do not want the consistency of knowing God's ways when we are falling into a pit. What makes it hard to receive that kind of warning, even from people who love us?
4. Nick shared a personal story about dating someone after his brother, his friends, and what he believed was God all told him not to. He said we often tell ourselves something is culturally acceptable now even when we know it is not right. Where do you see that kind of reasoning showing up in your own life or in the culture around you?
5. Nick closed by asking who or what is actually our king, and he named things like money, gossip and selfish ambition as sins we tend to overlook or excuse. Which of those, or something else he mentioned, do you think is the hardest for this community specifically to name as a real king competing with God?