Speaker 1: Hey, I'm coming to you now from the base, and
Speaker 1: this is a special bonus teaching that I recorded just
Speaker 1: for you to break it down a little more, to
Speaker 1: take it a little deeper.
Speaker 2: I hope you enjoy this overflow message. Let me know,
Speaker 2: let's go.
Speaker 1: Sometimes the thing that you call on to save you
Speaker 1: will end up enslaving you. Something that you think is
Speaker 1: going to save you will actually enslave you. Now, I'm
Speaker 1: not going to preach this right now. If I were
Speaker 1: preaching it, I would build up to it a whole
Speaker 1: lot more than I just did. But I'm just getting
Speaker 1: the idea down, because what's a powerful thought. He's telling them, Yeah,
Speaker 1: you can get a king and he'll fight your battles.
Speaker 1: And you know, if you get the right king, he'll
Speaker 1: he'll definitely drive back your enemies and get you a
Speaker 1: measure of protection.
Speaker 2: But there's going to be a cost to having a
Speaker 2: king like the other nations. Right.
Speaker 1: Moses even warned in Deuteronomy that the kind of king
Speaker 1: they would need in order to lead them in God's
Speaker 1: ways couldn't be like the surrounding nations and cultures.
Speaker 2: But they wanted to be like the other nations and
Speaker 2: cultures because.
Speaker 1: They didn't want to be vulnerable, and out of their vulnerability,
Speaker 1: they came to Samuel and said.
Speaker 2: We need a king.
Speaker 1: We need a king like the other nations. And Samuel says,
Speaker 1: you don't know what the king is going to cost you.
Speaker 1: If you let God be your king and follow his ways,
Speaker 1: he'll fight your battles, he'll give you the necessary leadership.
Speaker 2: The system that he set up will work.
Speaker 1: If you try to do this like the world does it,
Speaker 1: it's going to cost you to have that kind of king.
Speaker 1: And he actually uses the word slave. The king that
Speaker 1: you choose will make you.
Speaker 2: It's slave. Now.
Speaker 1: Bob Dylan said, you got to serve somebody. Everybody's got
Speaker 1: to serve somebody. I heard him sing that song in
Speaker 1: concert a couple months ago. When we went to see it,
Speaker 1: I thought it was awesome. He did a real rock
Speaker 1: version of it.
Speaker 2: But it's true. Right, you're.
Speaker 1: You're gonna have a king in your life. You're going
Speaker 1: to place the crown on somebody or something. For some people,
Speaker 1: it's going to be wealth financially, status socially. For some people,
Speaker 1: it's going to be acceptance by a certain group or
Speaker 1: a certain person. For some of us, it's going to
Speaker 1: be appearance based. For some of us, it's going to
Speaker 1: be achievement based a certain type of achievement, academic achievement,
Speaker 1: career achievement. Whatever the thing is that you bow to
Speaker 1: and you call, you come, rather when it calls, that's
Speaker 1: your king. We get into sometimes addictions because the feeling
Speaker 1: that we get from that thing that we're addicted to
Speaker 1: becomes greater than the freedom that God has called us to,
Speaker 1: and we choose that feeling over our freedom to serve
Speaker 1: God and what He's doing.
Speaker 2: What is the king? You have chosen at different seasons
Speaker 2: in my life.
Speaker 1: I hate to say I have chosen the King of comfort.
Speaker 1: I've chosen to worship at the altar of comfort rather
Speaker 1: than to accept a challenge God put in front of me.
Speaker 1: You know, what I knew in my spirit was the
Speaker 1: right thing to do was too difficult, so I didn't
Speaker 1: do it. I chose comfort. I chose to play it safe.
Speaker 1: I chose not to serve because I thought it would
Speaker 1: cost too much of myself, or even I could say
Speaker 1: I chose comfort and wouldn't come around to God's way
Speaker 1: of seeing something because my way of seeing it made
Speaker 1: me feel.
Speaker 2: Right, and I didn't want that to be challenged.
Speaker 1: So when we talk about kings, don't think about presidents
Speaker 1: and world leaders and you know, the monarchy, and don't
Speaker 1: think about it like that. Think about what you've crowned
Speaker 1: in your own heart as king. The Bible talks about
Speaker 1: in the New Testament, setting apart in your hearts Christ
Speaker 1: as Lord. To say that Jesus is king, that he
Speaker 1: is the true king?
Speaker 2: Do we really believe that?
Speaker 1: If he is king of our hearts and our lives?
Speaker 1: Then what does it mean for us to submit to him?
Speaker 1: What does it mean to say his word is final?
Speaker 1: What does it mean for us to say that he
Speaker 1: has authority in our lives? What does it mean to
Speaker 1: say that we bow our need to him? What does
Speaker 1: it mean for us to say that Jesus's Lord? Does
Speaker 1: it mean anything? Or does it just mean that he's
Speaker 1: our get out of jail, get out of hell free card.
Speaker 1: You know, he doesn't desire just that place in our life.
Speaker 1: He wants to protect us, guide us, lead us, reign
Speaker 1: over us, and not just so he will do whatever
Speaker 1: he says, and you know, not just so that we
Speaker 1: can have obedience to him, but so that we can
Speaker 1: have deliverance through him, he wants to liberate us. He
Speaker 1: wants to show the world that he's great through us.
Speaker 1: He wants to break chains for us. He wants to
Speaker 1: come through for us. He wants to protect us from
Speaker 1: anxiety and fear, and selfishness and greed and everything that
Speaker 1: is destructive to our souls. We end up choosing other kings,
Speaker 1: other things. The Bible says, seek first the Kingdom and
Speaker 1: his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
Speaker 1: But we choose things instead of the Kingdom, and instead
Speaker 1: of the things being provided by the King, we end
Speaker 1: up missing the Kingdom of God, the internal and eternal realities.
Speaker 2: One thinker said that the Kingdom of God is upside
Speaker 2: down and inside out, and.
Speaker 1: I want to teach a whole session on that one day,
Speaker 1: the upside down, inside out Kingdom of God.
Speaker 2: How it's completely contrary to the world's values.
Speaker 1: Bless to the poor in spirit. They'll be comfortent, blessed
Speaker 1: to the meet for the inherit their blessed. Those longer
Speaker 1: a thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. Blessed
Speaker 1: are you, and men persecute you in falsely say all
Speaker 1: kinds of evil against you because of me, Rejoice and
Speaker 1: be glad for your great is your reward in heaven,
Speaker 1: For in the same way they persecute it the prophets
Speaker 1: before you. I don't rejoice in persecution. I rejoice in popularity.
Speaker 1: Now I'm not saying that our whole goal is to
Speaker 1: be disliked. But you see how upside down the Kingdom
Speaker 1: of God is. And furthermore, it's inside out where earthly
Speaker 1: kingdoms are established, directed and estimated and esteemed by how
Speaker 1: much external.
Speaker 2: Prestige they have.
Speaker 1: How beautiful and ornate and elaborate the kingdom is is
Speaker 1: a reflection on the glory and splendor of that king. Well,
Speaker 1: the Kingdom of God is established through an internal state righteousness, peace,
Speaker 1: joy in the Holy Spirit.
Speaker 2: This is the Kingdom of God. This is the Kingdom
Speaker 2: of God.
Speaker 1: From the inside out, upside down. And many of us
Speaker 1: have shown in the wrong king because we worship something external.
Speaker 1: We worship something that's really beneath the ways of God,
Speaker 1: that's really beneath the principles of God. And the danger
Speaker 1: in that is what Samuel said to the Israelites. You
Speaker 1: call on a king to save you, and yeah, maybe
Speaker 1: that king can save you. Maybe you can't get popular,
Speaker 1: maybe you do earn a lot of money, but at
Speaker 1: the expense of your health and your relationships because you
Speaker 1: don't do it God's way. Nothing wrong with having finances,
Speaker 1: nothing wrong with having great relationships, a great reputation, nothing
Speaker 1: wrong with popularity in and of itself. But if that's
Speaker 1: your king, what you call on to save you, he
Speaker 1: will eventually enslave you. Don't laugh at my hand, right,
Speaker 1: And I know it's bad, but it gets the point
Speaker 1: down for me.
Speaker 2: See, we need a king.
Speaker 1: But when you run to something to save you that
Speaker 1: isn't God or is opposed to God, that thing will
Speaker 1: eventually enslave you. And this is just a deeper teaching
Speaker 1: on something that I've referenced from the pulpit at least
Speaker 1: a dozen times in the last couple of years. I
Speaker 1: used the analogy of God's people going to Egypt in
Speaker 1: a famine and how they were fed in Egypt, but
Speaker 1: then another pharaoh arose and eventually enslaved the people of God.
Speaker 1: What they escaped to in one season they were enslaved
Speaker 1: by in the next. They weren't doing anything wrong by
Speaker 1: going to Egypt. That's where God provided for them. But
Speaker 1: it illustrates a dynamic that does happen in our lives.
Speaker 1: In one season, something is an escape for us, and
Speaker 1: in the next season we are in slave by what
Speaker 1: we escape to. And that's the whole teaching that I've
Speaker 1: already done. This isn't even deeper level than that, because
Speaker 1: again our key phrase is the king you have chosen.
Speaker 1: You will cry out for relief from the king you
Speaker 1: have chosen. And that's a powerful picture. Wait, you chose
Speaker 1: this king, you chose this lifestyle. You chose to throw
Speaker 1: yourself into this and make it the ultimate thing in
Speaker 1: your life, with no balance, with no regard for other things.
Speaker 2: God is speaking.
Speaker 1: You chose to crown this thing in your life as
Speaker 1: supreme and make it your highest priority. And then that
Speaker 1: becomes your slave master, that becomes your chain.
Speaker 2: The thing that you crown as your king, it owns you.
Speaker 1: The word own is in the word crown, because that's
Speaker 1: how it works. So Samuel's warning is really relevant to us.
Speaker 1: Be careful what you crown, Be careful who you give.
Speaker 2: The keys to validation in your life.
Speaker 1: Be careful who you crown, because yes, there can be
Speaker 1: a thing that you can use to save you from loneliness,
Speaker 1: to save you from feeling insignificant to save you from boredom,
Speaker 1: to save you, but it can just as easily enslave you.
Speaker 2: That's what Samuel wants them to know. And they don't listen.
Speaker 1: And we need to heed this morning today, because we
Speaker 1: have a king. Somebody say it, I have a king.
Speaker 1: He is crowned at the right hand of God, and
Speaker 1: he lives inside of me. And so I don't need
Speaker 1: another king. I don't need somebody else's approval to know
Speaker 1: that my life is valuable.
Speaker 2: I don't need to reach.
Speaker 1: A certain status to know that I matter, because I
Speaker 1: have a king. The king that I want to choose
Speaker 1: is the king that has chosen me. He's chosen me
Speaker 1: to be his child. He's chosen me to be a
Speaker 1: part of his kingdom. He's chosen me to represent him.
Speaker 1: So here's the reflection tonight. What is the king you
Speaker 1: have chosen? Some of us have chosen to make sex
Speaker 1: the king of our life, preference, career, even the way
Speaker 1: others see us. The list can go on and on,
Speaker 1: but be careful because you will eventually cry for relief
Speaker 1: from any king that you choose that is not God,
Speaker 1: any king other than Jesus. You will eventually cry for
Speaker 1: relief from the very king that you called un to
Speaker 1: save you, because only He can save you, only He
Speaker 1: can give you meaning. Only God's ways work long term.
Speaker 1: Be careful the king that you crown. There's a cost
Speaker 1: to crowning the wrong king. Definitely cost Israel to crown
Speaker 1: Solace king, and it's cost me anytime I've crowned something
Speaker 1: other than God, other than my commitment to doing His
Speaker 1: will as king of my life. It's cost me. It's
Speaker 1: cost me sleep, it's cost me peace, it's cost me time,
Speaker 1: it's cost me stability. So I just want you to
Speaker 1: think carefully about the king that you've chosen today, and
Speaker 1: hopefully you and I can get better about reserving our
Speaker 1: crown for the.
Speaker 2: Only one who's worthy of it.
Speaker 1: To know that Jesus is the worthy king of our
Speaker 1: life and the Holy Spirit is the captain, and that
Speaker 1: God is calling the shots concerning us, and we don't
Speaker 1: have to crown another king. We call on Him and
Speaker 1: he will save us from every pestilence, from every He's
Speaker 1: a good God and we can trust him. And I
Speaker 1: encourage you to know that today and crown him as
Speaker 1: the king of your life. Hey, I hope you enjoyed
Speaker 1: the podcast, and if you did, make sure to share
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Speaker 1: these new messages as soon as they're available. I also
Speaker 1: want to take a moment and thank all of you
Speaker 1: who are a part of Elevation. Whether you support us financially,
Speaker 1: or serve with us, or just share these messages, it's
Speaker 1: because of you that we're able to.
Speaker 2: Reach people all around the world. And if you want
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Speaker 2: click the link in the description. Thanks again for listening.
Speaker 1: Make sure to leave a review, share the message, and subscribe.
Speaker 2: God bless you.