I'm reading tonight from two different passages. I invite you to turn in your Bible to the book of 1 Samuel, your pew Bibles, to 1 Samuel 8. And this is found, if you're searching for a page number, on page 294. And then we'll flip over to Matthew's Gospel, first book of the New Testament, and read the first 11 verses. So I'm going to read tonight 1 Samuel chapter 8. Let's give our attention tonight to the word of the Lord. When Samuel became old, he made his sons judges over Israel. The name of his firstborn son was Joel, and the name of his second, Abijah. They were judges in Beersheba. Yet his sons did not walk in his ways, but turned aside after gain. they took bribes and perverted justice then all the elders of israel gathered together and came to samuel at ramah and said to him behold you are old and your sons do not walk in your ways now appoint for us a king to judge us like all the nations but the thing displeased samuel when they said give us a king to judge us and samuel prayed to the lord and the lord said to samuel obey the voice of the people and all that they say to you for they've not rejected you but they've rejected me from being king over them according to all the deeds that they have done from the day i brought them up out of egypt even to this day forsaking me and serving other gods so they are also doing to you now then obey their voice only you shall solemnly warn them and show them the ways of the king who shall reign over them so samuel told all the words of the lord to the people who are asking for a king from him. He said, these will be the ways of a king who will reign over you. He will take your sons and appoint them to his chariots and to be his horsemen and to run before his chariots. And he will appoint for himself commanders of thousands and commanders of fifties and some to plow his ground and to reap his harvest and to make his implements of war and the equipment of his chariots. He will take your daughters to be perfumers and cooks and bakers he will take the best of your fields and vineyards and olive orchards and give them to his servants he will take the tenth of your grain and of your vineyards and give it to his officers and to his servants he will take your male servants and female servants and the best of your young men and your donkeys and put them to his work he will take the tenth of your flocks and you shall be his slaves and in that day you will cry out because of your king whom you have chosen for yourselves but the Lord will not answer you in that day but the people refused to obey the voice of Samuel and they said no but there shall be a king over us that we may also be like all the nations and that our king may judge us and go out before us and fight our battles and when Samuel had heard all the words of the people he repeated them in the ears of the Lord and the Lord said to Samuel obey their voice and make them a king and Samuel then said to the men of Israel go every man to his city now let's turn over to Matthew chapter 2 and I'll read the first 11 verses Matthew chapter 2 now there was now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, the wise men from the east came to Jerusalem saying, where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him. When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled and all Jerusalem with him. And assembling all the chief priests and the scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Christ was to be born. They told him in Bethlehem of Judea, for so it was written by the prophet and you, O Bethlehem in the land of Judah are by no means least among rulers of Judah for from you shall come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel then Herod summoned the wise men secretly and ascertained from them what time the star had appeared and he sent them to Bethlehem saying go and search diligently for the child and when you have found to bring me word that I too may come and worship him after listening to the king they went on their way and behold the star that they had seen when it rose went before them until it came to rest over the place where the child was. When they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceeding great joy. And going into the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they fell down and worshipped him. Then opening their treasures, they offered him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh. May the Lord bless the hearing of his word. Well, boys and girls, I want you to think about the greatest gift you could give to somebody. I want you to think of something that you're excited to give. Every year, my children will wrap up a toy and wrap it up and bring it to me. And they're so excited to do that. They're so excited to bring me a toy. I want you to think about a gift that you want to give to somebody, the gift that you're planning to give, and you're really excited about that gift. Imagine it's the most valuable thing that you have, and you're going to give it to somebody very special. And you're so excited for this day. You're excited for this day. You're going to wrap up this gift. It's going to be a great day. You've told all your friends about the gift that you're going to get. Well, that day comes, and you hand the gift to them. And they say, no thanks. How would you feel? It would be a terrible thing to do to somebody, wouldn't it? They might even go and re-gift it, which would be even worse. I want everyone tonight to look at Matthew 2. And I want you to look down at verse 1. Now, Jesus was born in Bethlehem. These wise men come from the east asking where is he who has been born king? We've come to worship. What do you see in verse 3? When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled and all of Jerusalem with him. What? God just wrapped up and sent his king. And all of Jerusalem doesn't want him. That is the story of your friend rejecting your gift. Do you realize this is the very thing that the world has done with God's gift? They said, no thanks. No thanks. How could Israel do that? I mean, how could that happen in Jerusalem of all places where his throne was, the true king? They don't even want him. Well, that's what I want to consider. momentarily tonight i want to consider that great question i want to consider it a little differently maybe than you're used to celebrating the birth of christ i want to challenge you with a question in a contrast that i'm going to draw and the question is how can you be thankful in contrast to that for what god has done for you how can you please him tonight how can you please him? And how can you rightly celebrate this wonderful gift that God has given to you? Israel didn't. Israel didn't. And I want to ask the question tonight, how in the world did they get into that mess? Why was it like that? Why was it so sad? Well, the answer goes way back in history to the days of first samuel and i want to take you there for a little bit to draw a contrast that i hope we'll see then how meaningful matthew chapter 2 really is when these wise men come and worship him here's the scene in samuel samuel has been calling god's people to turn to him in challenging times to trust the lord in challenging times and as we come to chapter eight of first samuel we have one of these challenging times that it is a real crisis in leadership there's a real uh something very scary happening in the leadership we read in verse one now it came to pass when samuel was old he made his son's judges over israel samuel was at the end of his road in a long stretch of being a very good faithful judge in Israel. But this was a really discouraging moment in Israel. Samuel's strength as a leader was failing. And you know this, when you get older, you just don't have the energy to do what you could when you're younger. And here is Samuel. They're looking at him. He's old. He's checked out in terms of their view of what a powerful leader should be. But keep in mind, from the time of Judges to 1 Samuel 7, what leadership was like in Israel. Judges 17 says this, what leadership, but actually what was going on in the hearts of Israel. Here's what it says. In those days, there was no king in Israel everyone did what was right in his own eyes that is the severe indictment of the book of judges now at one point they had tried to make Gideon king and however you receive that Gideon remember what he said I will not rule over you my son will not rule over you the lord will rule over you this whole period they had rejected the lord's leadership but under the leadership of samuel you really did see chapter 7 is an entire picture of the nation repenting i mean it's a it's a wonderful chapter in chapter 7 of first samuel and now what we have this kingship principles being established in a sense that was already shown through samuel he was a preparatory figure for a kingly figure but what a leader he was he returned them to the lord well chapter 8 is years ahead now samuel's aged he's gotten old and what's presented in chapter 8 is the issue about well who is now going to lead israel who's going to lead israel we read in verse 4 that all the elders came together because the sons of samuel were not godly all the elders of israel come together they gather together to samuel rom and they said to him listen you're old your sons don't walk in your ways here it is make us a king to judge us like all the other nations they're looking at samuel he's tired his sons are worthless this is what we need we need we need a king just like all the other nations we need a leader here's here's what's tragic about it as i look at this and i think about it you might come to the first think about the first major thought that comes to your mind and the question that you have is well was that wrong and the answer in general is no well it wasn't wrong deuteronomy 17 had said when you enter the land the Lord your God is giving you and have taken possession of it and settled it and you say let us set a king over us like all the nations around us be sure to appoint over you the king the Lord your God chooses. Fascinating. Here's where it was wrong. They wanted to give their devotion to another than the Lord. and it's tragic because the lord had been with them the whole time the lord had been so good to them the whole time the lord had led them he had cared for them he had he had fed them in the wilderness i mean they saw food drop from heaven he was sitting on his throne he was their king he provided for them he protected them talk about an amazing king but as soon as things didn't go the way that they should have. Now they're looking at an old leader. They're seeing no more power in the kingdom. They're seeing no more glory in the kingdom. And what do they say? Here's where it all went wrong. Samuel, this is not what we return to the Lord for. We're looking at all the nations of the land. and they have these real political centers of power and and if you look at their centers of power it's a proven method that works it's a it's a real method that works all of these nations have a central figure they have a central figure that's actually sitting on a throne and we can see him we can come to him we can talk to him face to face do you hear the cry the lord had said the whole time you're my special treasure you there is nobody holy like you you're my holy nation you're my kingdom of priests a people for myself for me i'm gonna be with you i'm intimately gonna gonna be your god and you will be my people i will walk with you i will come down i will tabernacle among you i mean there was a whole tabernacle structure where the lord got down off his throne and came down to be with them. Give us a king like all the other nations. What did they want? Well, they wanted security. They wanted the kind of security that a king could visibly, tangibly supply for them. Maybe you caught the overtones here, but did you notice how they asked it of Samuel? What does this sound like? Your sons don't walk in your ways. Make us a king to judge us like all the other nations. Let me paraphrase that. How about this? Come, make for us a king, for as for you and your sons, we don't know what's happened to them. the structure of that you could say closely resembles this come make us God gods that shall go before us for as for this Moses the man that brought us up we don't know what's become of him the Lord specifically indicts this request as an idolatry we want a king but we don't want the Lord ruling us he's not taking us anywhere you ever feel this he's not taking us anywhere we're not going anywhere we don't like the situation we're in here we sit at sinai and here we're just stuck we feel stuck as christians we don't feel like we're going anywhere here we sit with you and your old samuel and your sons are bad well i look at this and i think the most painful thing about it tonight is how wonderful the Lord had been to them, and they don't want Him. They don't want Him. Do you feel that? How often do you feel like you're going nowhere? You don't know how this is going to turn out, or maybe you feel dissatisfied. You realize all that is a testing aspect of your Christianity, don't we face this temptation as a church? It's a spirit of discontentment. You might look at church tonight and say, you know, I don't feel anything. I don't feel like I'm going anywhere. Here's what we need. This is how we can get this kick-started. I mean, that's been Corinthians. You can borrow all the worldly wisdom in the world. Don't we say this? This is what we need. We need this. We need this. We need that. That will fix this problem in our lives. That will really fix this problem in our lives. We need to build security for us, don't we? We need a secure world, a secure city, a secure environment, a secure home. I mean, think of how much we're all about security. I pay a lot for it every month, by the way. It's called insurance. And it's okay to have insurance. We have insurance salesmen here. Buy insurance. We have schools. There are schools for security. We can click online and open up our accounts. And if the numbers are good, how do you feel? You feel good. We love security of a good health. I really do, you know. We focus our lives on everything about how to feel and what to do and how to feel good in life. None of securities are wrong in and of themselves. But it becomes wrong when the Lord's not our security. If everything's well, if our children are doing well and we feel good, you'll just say it. I'm so blessed. I'm so blessed. I'm so blessed. But if not, well now the church is the problem. Everything else is the problem under the sun. I think one of the saddest moments in Israel's history is right here. This thing greatly displeased Samuel. In fact, it reads, It was evil in his eyes. Samuel goes to the Lord. Lord, can you imagine having this conversation? Lord, I've got to tell you something. I've got to tell you what they're asking for. I've got really bad news. They want a king. They don't want you. The Lord says, give it to them. Heed their voice. They've not rejected you, Samuel. they've turned from me. That I should not reign over them. They don't want me to reign over them. How does that make you feel? And they have not. This has been going on all the way back to Egypt since the day that I brought them out of Egypt. You know, they have forsaken me. They keep worshiping other gods. They're doing this to you too. So you know what? Go ahead and give it to them. Go ahead. Give it to them. They don't want me. There are times God will give you what you want and then you suffer the painful consequences. Give us a substitute, Lord. Give us somebody who will move us and somebody who's something and then all the painful consequences will come with it. And that's exactly where this goes. The Lord tells Samuel the consequences. He goes, you know what? You warned them. Here's what's going to happen. You tell them. Did you notice in verses 11 through 17 how many times the word take is used? He is going to take. He's going to take, number one, your sons. He's going to take your daughters. He's going to take your fields. He's going to take all your stuff. He's going to take your grain and your vineyards. He's going to take your male and female servants. He's going to take a tenth of your flocks. Do you know, do you really want this? He's going to take everything from you. You're going to be slaves. You will be relying on his help without the Lord. Do you want that? You want to see that play out in society? In our last election, and we hear this all the time incessantly in our own culture, we need a man for the times, don't we? Do you know you can become the president of the United States today on sheer charisma? That's the first time in history that's ever been. You could become the governor of California if you're a Terminator. Here's what God was saying. The stronger the central government, centered around a figure, the more he's going to take. That's always been true in history. History has proved that. You want to put your trust in a man? You want to do that? Here's what's going to happen. You're going to make a mere man your king. Look at verse 19. This is all. He's going to take everything from you. Nevertheless, the people refused to obey the voice of Samuel. That should have been a deterrent. No, we will have a king over us so that we can be like all the other nations and our king may judge us and he's going to go out and guess what? He's going to be riding and he's going to fight the battles for us. Wow. Open up chapter nine. Just read the first few verses. Do you know who, what happens here? There was a man of Benjamin whose name was Kish, the son of Beel, the son of Zeror, the son of Bekorath, the son of Ephiath. Benjamite, man of wealth. He had a son whose name was Saul. Here it is. A handsome young man. This was not a man among the people. There was not a man among the people of Israel more handsome than he. For his shoulders upward, he was taller than any of the people. Oh, man, was this a good-looking guy. Let me tell you, the women said we want him. God gave Israel their dream. Everything you would outwardly select in a king, Saul. How did it go throughout history? How did the Old Testament go throughout history with the kings? It was a disaster. It was an absolute disaster. Saul was such a tragedy. Samuel's last great act was to go and anoint one more king. A small, ruddy youth named David. Now you're ready for Matthew 2. Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, Days of Herod the king. You should stop. The most remarkable thing was Herod thought of himself as the king of the Jews. History tells us that he prided himself with that title, even claiming that descent. And so he proudly clang and honored himself with the title king of the Jews. He thought he had earned it. Rome had given it to him. Rome had given it to him. Do you know what he did for them? Herod built a kingdom that you could never imagine. Herod built the most glorious outward kingdom for the Jews back to the days of Solomon. Herod had built it. He practiced the Jewish religion. He built them a theater. He built them a luxurious palace with famous towers. But the major thing he did was restore that temple. That hadn't been done since it fell. After, remember, the second major temple restoration in the days of Haggai. Here's what Josephus records. I think, and this is Herod's great dedication to the temple speech. I think I not need to speak to you, my countrymen, about such works as I have done since I came into the kingdom. Although I may say that I have performed in such a manner as to bring more security to you than glory to myself, pompous. For I have neither been negligent in the most difficult times about what tended to ease your necessities, nor have the buildings. I have been made to so prosper and preserve, he goes on to say. I can imagine that with God's assistance, I have advanced the nation of the Jews to a degree of happiness which they never had before. Jerusalem hears about the news of God's gift. And they're all troubled. They don't want him. What was the first thing God said a king would do? He would take their sons. What does Herod do in this chapter? He starts murdering their sons. This was not a good man. This was an evil man. Now in the midst of this, here's where I close tonight and I hope to see how wonderful the gift is, you see. The Lord made a promise and nothing could annul it. Nothing could stop it. The Lord, out of His loving kindness and sheer good pleasure of His will, after we all treated Him like that, gave us a king. He sent from heaven His eternal, only begotten Son, the true King of kings and Lord of lords, and out of the treasure trove of His own riches, He gives us His best. Here's the thing. You'd never choose Him. According to the world, He's not great. He didn't even look great. He had no form or comeliness that we should even desire Him. When He arrived on the scene of history, only a few people were worshiping Him He called wise men, wise men. What a king he was. He comes out and he looks at the multitudes and he has compassion on them. Do you know the first presentation of Saul, he went and lost sheep? Donkeys? Jesus looks at them, breaks bread, feeds them, loves them, has compassion on the multitudes. He spoke only kind words to people so that they would be saved from the wrath to come. He spoke of peace and gospel and ways to escape and helped people in their infirmities and their sicknesses and came to lead people out of the darkness and bring them into light. Arise, your light has come. The Lord has come down upon you. This was Him. And we took Him and we pinned Him to a cross. Thank you, God. So bad was it, behind him, they put up a sign. King of the Jews. I'm asking you a question tonight. What place does he have in your life? Seriously. What does your life show? Are you immensely dissatisfied with God's king? Which translates to dissatisfaction of every other facet of your life. If you're going to celebrate Christmas in a way that pleases your God, if you're going to look anything like what the angels and the wise men look like, do you know what He wants you to do? Receive Him. You say, that's too good. It's too good to be true. You mean just receive Him and receive His kingdom. Receive it. That's God's answer to you. Confess that we have this great problem of idolatry, of being dissatisfied and not wanting the Lord to rule over us. That we're often grumblers and complainers about everything under the sun. And this season, receive Him. Receive Him right into your hearts. Believe Him. Praise God for His gift, His unspeakable gift. Thank God this week as you go out into a week that He considered you and that He gave you salvation. Seek first His kingdom. which translates to not seeking all the kingdoms of this world. Ask that your life would be satisfied with his king. Receive him tonight as you're about to see a child does who's going to stand up here and sing with joy and unction, believing that God loves them. This is your king. This is your king. Love Him. That's how you can thank God for His unspeakable gift. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we confess the problem of idolatry. We confess that we're a lot like Israel. We're so dissatisfied and we really have not bowed to Your gracious rule. And You, in the fullness of time, did something wonderful after all that. You sent Your Son from heaven. to save us. And You've loved us. And I pray tonight that everyone here would receive the King, the great unspeakable gift that You've given and announced to the ends of the earth. The world would wake up and see how lost it is without a true King. Oh Lord, we praise You tonight. Let the earth and let all of us receive your King. In Jesus' name, Amen.