Please join us!
Preacher
Pastoral Intern Jennifer Stampfel
Psalm 9:1-8
1 Samuel 8:1-22
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September 26, 2019
"When [the Israelites] said, "Give us a king to lead us," this displeased Samuel; so he prayed to the Lord. 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."
Greetings in the Name of the Lord, Jesus Christ! 
We are excited to welcome our seminary intern, Jennifer Stampfel, to the pulpit this Sunday. Please be praying for her as she prepares. I am proud of her willingness to jump in with both feet, especially with a difficult topic like King Saul!
You have heard it said, "Be careful what you wish for." This Sunday, we will be exploring the Israelites' demand for a king. Samuel, the wise prophet and judge, is getting older, and the Israelites are worried about what will become of them when he is gone. They demand that Samuel anoint a king over them. Samuel turns to the Lord and basically asks, "Now what??" The Lord reminds him that they are not rejecting him (Samuel), they are rejecting the Lord Himself.
Samuel gives the people a stern warning about what it will be like for them to have a king. He tells them the king will take their sons to be in the army, take their daughters to be servants, take their livestock to fill his table, take their farms to give to his officials, and even take themselves to be his slaves. Regardless of this warning, the people still demand a king.
The Lord shows Samuel who to anoint as king - an unlikely man named Saul who was out searching for his lost donkeys. When Samuel gathers all the people together at Mizpah to announce the king, the lot falls to Saul again, but when his name is called, he is nowhere to be found. After searching, they find him hiding among the luggage.
As Saul takes the throne, he quickly falls into the habits that Samuel warned about. And although Saul relies on Samuel constantly, still he is not always submissive to the Lord. This comes to a climax when Samuel instructs him to wait for his arrival to make a sacrifice before the Lord. Saul gets impatient and sacrifices anyway. Samuel arrives while the altar fire is still burning and rebukes Saul: "You have not kept the command the Lord your God gave you; if you had, He would have established your kingdom over Israel for all time" (1 Samuel 13:13). That is the beginning of the end for Saul. He spirals downward as the Lord chooses a new person to be king - a young shepherd boy named David.
How often do we think we know what we need better than God does? In which areas of your life to find it a struggle to trust God for the best solution? When is it hard for you to say, "Not my will but Yours be done"?
As much of a struggle as it is, we can trust in this: The Lord Jesus Himself submitted to the Father, saying "Your will be done." And because of that, we can always trust that His will is not only best, it is also good.
Blessings,
Pastor Carolyn
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