🎙️🔊 Tune in to Kent’s sermon today to learn about Samuel and Saul and the cataclysmic collision that led to Christ. Let’s dive in together and discover more! 🙏✨ EASY TO GIVE at Harmony, text any amount to (859) 459-0316 to get started (or give online @ my.harmonychurch.cc/give ). Get the fill-in-the-blank bulletins my.harmonychurch.cc/bulletins.

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OPENING ILLUSTRATION:

When I was a kid my brother had been doing something to make me mad.  I was sitting at the top of the driveway with my skateboard, and my brother had been making fun of me or something. As I sat there I can remember as clear as day when I let go of my skateboard, my brother was riding his bike down the sidewalk and I can remember watching it in slow motion as it went down and all of a sudden it hit me that my timing was perfect and he was going to hit the skateboard.  When his front tire hit the skateboard his bike flipped and he went flying. 

We’ve all been there when two worlds collided

-You’re wife meets your ex wife

-When the department leads of two divisions – sales and production explode because one wants to keep selling and the other wants to slow down

-Your kids over shotgun in the car…  lol

Some collisions can be cataclysmic and have repercussions that last for generations. 

ILLUSTRATION:

Did you know that how the Atomic bomb that Oppenheimer and his team developed and used during WWII, at a very basic level, is by having atomic reactions where nuclei splits, which creates a violent release of energy?  Neutrons are released which bombard other nuclei and cause a chain reaction of unfathomable damage and destruction. 

Today we are going to zoom in on a collision that will unfold in slow motion over the next few weeks and have massive consequences.

Today we are going to look at two people.  I want to tell you both of their stories leading up to the collision.

Samuel & Saul – the start of the undoing.

b

Samuel:

Samuel is the last of the judges.  He operates almost as a priest and a prophet.  He was born to a woman who was unable to have children.  She prayed and asked God to give her a child and if he would she would give the child to the Lord’s service.  So, when she had Samuel, she brought him to Shiloh and gave him to the old Priest Eli to be raised.  Samuel is probably one of my favorite characters in scripture.  He hears God’s voice as a young man and he tries hard to follow God – he’s not perfect, but he is a man who brokered the collision we’re talking about.

Saul:

Here’s how the scripture describes Saul

1 Samuel 9:2

Kish had a son named Saul, as handsome a young man as could be found anywhere in Israel, and he was a head taller than anyone else.

ILLUSTRATION:

I’ve got a brother-in-law who is 6’ 8”.  Jenni’s sister is 6’ 1”.  When we are around them we look like their mini me’s.  But one of the things I’ve noticed being around him, Joe, who is naturally a strong leader gets pegged as a leader before he opens his mouth.  I think a huge part of it is his height.  That people see him and expect him to be a leader due to his height.  You may not believe it, but did you know there is a thing called the “height premium” where sociologists have discovered that tall people on average are paid more than short people?  It’s time for us short people to unite!  Heightest beware 😉

Saul is going to be chosen as the King of Israel, primarily because he looked like he should be a king…

b

As a matter of fact, when it’s announced he is king, they can’t find him because he’s hiding among the luggage…

Saul is of the tribe of Benjamin

At the end of the book of Judges, one of the things we learn about the tribe of Benjamin is that they were almost completely wiped out.  It’s this story of things going out of control – the Israelites have a civil war, they fight against Ben, and when they do they go through the countryside destroying their villages.  By the last chapter, we learn they’ve killed off all of Ben’s women.  I’m not going to go into it, but there is going to be stealing of women, etc. One of the things you get though is that the tribe of Judah – David’s tribe (foreshadowing – is the judge) of Saul’s tribe (benjamin)

Saul will be chosen as King of Israel by Samuel…

Saul will not follow God’s commands and so…

Saul will be removed as King and replaced by another

b

But it is in this moment, before Saul becomes King, that I think is important for us to see…

1 Samuel 8:1-9

When Samuel grew old, he appointed his sons as Israel’s leaders.

Samuel is trying to move to create a succession plan…

3 But his sons did not follow his ways. They turned aside after dishonest gain and accepted bribes and perverted justice.

We don’t know why his boys were like this.  There are several factors – the guy Samuel was raised by had the same kind of kids.  Maybe Sam didn’t know how to love them well or maybe they just were turds – kids have their own personalities and make their own decisions.  whatever the case, they were not the kind of men you wanted leading…

4 So all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah. 5 They said to him, “You are old, and your sons do not follow your ways; now appoint a king to lead[b] us, such as all the other nations have.”

6 But when they said, “Give us a king to lead us,” this displeased Samuel; so he prayed to the Lord.

Samuel believes they are rejecting him and the decisions he has made.  We get this little look into his ego…

Who hasn’t done this made the issue about yourself instead of the bigger thing that’s going on.  I want you to 

Listen to what God’s reply to Samuel…

b

 7 And the Lord told him: “Listen to all that the people are saying to you; it is not you they have rejected, but they have rejected me as their king. 8 As they have done from the day I brought them up out of Egypt until this day, forsaking me and serving other gods, so they are doing to you.

This is the collision that will bring cataclysmic repercussions.

b

Have you noticed the pattern yet?

b

God extends the hand of relationship to humanity.  

Humanity rejects it in exchange for their own devices.

-It’s Adam & Eve eating from the tree

-It’s the golden calf instead of the covenant (the god we can control over the God who is in control)

b

Now it’s no longer the rule of God in our lives. Instead, we choose to rule ourselves

Over and over again the story of God is Him reaching out to humanity and humanity rejecting Him.

And this moment here will start a chain reaction that we will watch in slow motion.  

There will be moments of beauty and utter destruction. This is the moment it can all be pinned to.

b

The moment the people rejected God as King…

b

Again, the people have rejected God and His effort to have a relationship with them and they will slowly return to exile again.  In the same way Adam and Eve rejected God and the people ended up slaves in Egypt.

Each of them living out the story, the human story, our story…

this is why Jesus came into the world don’t you know..

Listen to what He said about what He was doing – the good news He was bringing… 

Mark 1:14-15

14 After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God. 15 “The time has come,” he said. “The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!”

A Kingdom is the place the King rules…

Did you hear Jesus’ good news?  

b

The King has returned!

The good news is God has come back to be friends with you

he came in the form of a person, He was unlike any king that has ever lived.  He promoted the good of His people over His own good.  All the way to the point of dying for you, to forgive your sins- which kept you in slavery.  He came to give you life, and hope, and to start your life over new with Him apart from the need for you to be in charge

When there is a King in the room, there is authority…

CLOSING ILLUSTRATION:

When I let that skateboard go, you thought I was using it as an illustration of the collision that happened when Israel abandoned God as King.  While it’s important – it doesn’t really matter to you and me.  See, my hope and prayer is that this morning this sermon was a skateboard aimed right at your life.  My hope is you will hit it and flip over, but instead of falling into the pain you’re used to you will fall into the loving arms of a God who died for you.  That you will choose Him more than anything else in this world…

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