Mens Fall Bible Study | Week Seven

September 30, 2026 | Ben Taylor teaches on 1 Samuel chapters 9 and 10, focusing on Saul's anointing as the first king of Israel. The message explores themes of seeking God first instead of self-reliance, recognizing that God's people have direct access to God through Jesus Christ, and the importance of living empowered by the Holy Spirit. The teaching also highlights how God's people are prone to reject Him, yet God remains ready to receive and empower them.

Show Notes

Ben Taylor teaches on 1 Samuel chapters 9 and 10, focusing on Saul's anointing as the first king of Israel. The message explores themes of seeking God first instead of self-reliance, recognizing that God's people have direct access to God through Jesus Christ, and the importance of living empowered by the Holy Spirit. The teaching also highlights how God's people are prone to reject Him, yet God remains ready to receive and empower them.

What is Bellevue Men?

Join the men of Bellevue as we seek to learn how to be men of God in the world today.

Good evening, everyone. Good evening. All right. So excited to be back with you. If you have your Bibles, let's jump in to 1 Samuel. And we're gonna be in 1 Samuel chapter nine to start off with. And if we make it through everything tonight, we will have walked through in some form or fashion, 1 Samuel chapter nine and 10. 1 Samuel chapter nine and 10. And this is a unique part of scripture. And what I love about this scripture is, anytime that we start diving into the Word of God, there's practices that we need to get used to engaging in the Word. Because it's something that is different than just reading God's Word and then studying and meditating and applying God's Word to our lives. And as you begin to learn how to study, and that's what these three questions are, there's other questions that you can ask of a scripture, but these are three primary questions. And these are tools that we want you to step into your own personal time with God and start really experiencing the Word of God. One pastor, Brian Loretz, who used to pastor here in town, I heard a message that he preached one time. He says, I do not want a quiet time with God. He says, I want an encounter with God. He says, I want it to be loud. And I love that kind of idea, this idea that when we step into scripture on our own, we are encountering the living God because we are encountering His Word. And you have to begin to understand and recognize that if there was no Bellevue Baptist Church, and you're on a desert island, you would be responsible for your own personal spiritual growth. It's you, now the church is here to help you and to spur you on, but in reality, if it was just your family on a desert island and there was no church, it would be your responsibility to lead your family to grow in the Lord. Now, man, that's a big responsibility and a weight to carry. And I will tell you, I don't always do that well. But as we are walking through this semester, we are giving you these tools to where every week we're walking through these questions and we're starting to understand and figure out, okay, I can engage in God's Word this way. So what are we doing when we're stepping into 1 Samuel? 1 Samuel is really an historical narrative of the kingdom of Israel, right? And we're getting ready to see the first king be anointed tonight. So when we are in a narrative, an historical account, what we have to recognize is there's gonna be principles that we can draw from that that we can then apply to our own lives. And so we want to dive into God's Word tonight, understand that, hey, what we're reading actually happened in time. It's a real account. We sometimes call them Bible stories, but the word story, when it's talking to the scriptures, should never make you think what we're reading is make-believe. Now, there's parables that are not necessarily something that happened in real time, and the Bible is clear about that. But this right here, tonight, what we're reading actually happened. And we're gonna pull out those principles from that text and begin to use that to apply it to our lives. We see that Samuel, in these two chapters, we see that Samuel is used to anoint King Saul. And what we see in this is we see that the Lord is starting to give the children of Israel what they want. The last verse in chapter eight says, the Lord said to Samuel, listen to their voice, appoint them a king. And so Samuel said to the man of Israel, go every man to his city. If you remember, chapter eight is all about Samuel and the Lord telling them a king is a bad idea. But at the end of that chapter, it is almost as if the Lord is just done toiling with this nation and says just give them what they want. And in these chapters, we are starting to see what is happening and how that begins to take place. Now, chapter nine begins by introducing Saul and his family lineage. Saul was the son of Kish of Benjamite. And we see Saul described in verse two of chapter eight. It says, chapter nine, it says, he had a son whose name was Saul, talking about Kish, a choice and handsome man. And there was not a more handsome person than he among the sons of Israel from his shoulders and up, he was taller than any of the people. This is my life verse right here. That handsome man beyond everybody else, that's me. That's what I wanna be, I'm just joking. So I just love this, you know, and it's so important like for us to see that this physical stature is something that stood out and it made a difference in that people looked at him because they thought that he was kingly. But we're gonna begin to recognize as we walk through this, and this is a reality that I live in, looks aren't everything, it's more about the heart. But we begin to see that Saul looks the part. So we're introduced to Saul in chapter nine. And then Saul is summoned by his father for a mighty quest. And this mighty quest is so important. He says, son, go get the donkeys. Isn't that a good, mighty quest? So it's just amazing to think. Now, when we think about go get the donkeys, we think, okay, that's odd, these animals. But recognize how many of you have a work truck that you could not do without? Anybody got that? Like all your junk's in there and like if you were to lose that truck, you'd be in trouble. Well, recognize that these donkeys were beast of burden. They were what they used to get the work done. If you're a farmer, imagine losing your tractor and it's time to get plow the field, right? This was important to their livelihood. And so it had to go search, and it was so important that he just didn't send a servant. Kish sent his son, and he went on this. Now, as you read in chapter nine, the saw and the servant, they are walking through and they are looking everywhere, going all over the land trying to find these donkeys. And they are unsuccessful, and they are unsuccessful. And in this, we see a truth that I believe applies to every man, woman, and child that has ever walked the face of the earth. So what does this passage that we're getting ready to read teach us about people? People seek to solve their own problems before they turn to the Lord. People seek to solve their own problems before they turn to the Lord. And we see this, look with me, in chapter nine, and we're going to look, we're gonna look at verse six, I believe. Yep, verse six. He says, he said to him, behold, now there is a man of God in this city, and the man is held in honor, and all that he says surely comes true. Now, let us go there. Perhaps he can tell us about our journey and which we have set out. Now, look at this. It says in a previous verse that, hey, we need to go back home because by now my father is no longer worried about the donkeys, he's worried about us. And so they have run out of options, and now that they have come to the end of themselves, now they turn to God. And what we see is that we have a tendency to turn, to go to God as a last resort. Now, men, this is so key because, men, you, most of us are fixers. How many of, in your life, you would say, man, I'm a fixer. If I see a problem, I wanna fix it. Even if you don't have a clue as to how to fix it, right? You're like, I wanna fix this, I don't know how, but I'm gonna try. Well, many times when we come up against a struggle, a trial, a storm in our life, we will exhaust ourselves trying to fix it ourselves and we do not turn to God. And what I want us to begin to see is that this is the reality for all of us in many ways. We have to get to the place where God becomes our first resort. That as soon as we encounter difficulty in our life, we don't attempt to try to fix it ourselves, but we fall on our knees and ask God to show us what to do. We have a tendency.

to rely on ourself, and when we can't do it, then we go to God. Men, I have a question for you that I want you to discuss at your table. Because it's one thing to recognize that we have a tendency to try to do it ourselves before we ever turn to God, but I want you at your tables to answer this question. How can you begin to seek God's help first? So at your tables, I want you to, maybe you have overcome this tendency, and now your first thought is to go to God. How did you get there? And maybe you're not there yet, but you've seen some success. How have you gotten there? And maybe you're like me and you're an absolute failure, but you know what you're supposed to do, and you can talk about it right there at your tables. Answer this question at your tables, and we'll come back in a minute for a little bit more conversation. All right, let's bring it back in. All right, guys, good conversation. All right, what I wanna do is I want, I wanna hear from three tables, and I want you to give me one practice that you heard at your table that needs to be shared with the rest of the group. How can we begin to seek God's help first? So what's one practice? Yes, sir? Proverbs 16.3. All right, what is it? That's the hard question. Okay. Okay, so commit. Yeah, that's okay. Say it one more time for me. Yeah. Commit to the Lord whatever you do and you will establish a plan. Yeah, so I love that idea. It's like before I even start, I'm committing everything to God. I love that idea. It's like, hey, before I wake up in the morning, I'm committing, like this day, and this is a prayer that I pray often. Lord, thank you for this day that you've given me. Lord, use it for your kingdom and your glory, and I try to give the day before my feet even hit the ground. Yes, sir, Noble? Yes, man, I wanna tell my table that I've got a 21 by 40 garage that I built 30 years ago, and you see a garage, I'm asking storage to see it. Uh-huh. I'm trying to work on my house right now, and I've got all kinds of tools on the tool job. Uh-huh. And I keep working on certain tools, and I lay it down, and then I lay it in bed, get where it is, and so I got this 21 by 40 garage, and I'm walking all over it. I've actually been 30 minutes hunting for it. Uh-huh. And still don't find it. I lay it down, and I get all the hinges, weight guns, all those things that I've been finding. Uh-huh, yeah. As soon as I'm ready, I lay it down and be right there. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Praise God. Yeah, why do we wait until we get to the end of ourselves before we ever call upon the name of God? I've got this simple, this simple, silly story, but it was such a teachable moment for my kids. This past summer, we had the opportunity to go to the beach and just hang out at the beach. And everything, it was a great beach week, and we had good weather, but in the Gulf, the waves are not always that great for doing the things that I like to do. They were just kind of calm. And it was the day before we left, and I just muttered this prayer in my heart, and I said, Lord, let tomorrow be a good day for boogie boarding. I know that sounds so silly. And the next day, it was a red flag, good waves. It was the best day on the waves that we ever had, and I'm sitting under the beach umbrella, and I just say to remind myself, I prayed for this. God answered that silly, selfish prayer. I just wanted a good wave, and I just told my kids right then, I said, guys, I want y'all to know that I prayed, and the Lord answered my prayers. Why? God is a good father, isn't he? And a good father wants to give what kind of gifts to his children? Good gifts. So why don't we start by going to the Father? So that is a great word. So if we wanna begin to seek God's help first, we wanna start to pray first. Now think about this. Commit everything to God first, before you even start it, pray as soon as you encounter a problem, and then what's the third lesson that we need to walk away with? Who's got one? Yes, sir. As soon as you worry, you have relegated God to the back of the line. If you're worried about something, God is no longer in charge. Yeah, you have allowed whatever that circumstance, whatever that situation is, to take priority and control of your life. So if we are going to fight against worry, what's a way that we can fight against anxiousness and worry in our lives? Yes, sir. Learn to put God first and yourself second. Yeah. The things that you do in seeking, especially when it comes to solving problems, because you know, a lot of what he said, and all those sentences, you know, when you give it to God first, you're relying on him. If you put it to yourself first, no, I can't do this, or no, I can't do this. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. I love it. I love it. Put God in his proper place and let him do his work. I love that. I love that. One of the things that I do, and guys, if you really think about it, when we start talking about living the Christian life, the answers that you have heard your whole life actually work. Why? Because they work. So prayer is a priority for us. What is the second weapon that we have to fight against anxiousness? God's word. Prayer and God's word. Philippians 4, 6, and 7, when you're starting to walk through anxiety and anxiousness, be anxious for nothing, but in all things by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. And when you do that, he will give you the peace of God that surpasses all comprehension and give you everything that you need. According. I mean, it's so good. So we start with prayer. We start with God's word and we commit our way to him. And guys, what you just got was three simple battle plans. The next time that you encounter a storm in your life and you're tempted to rely on yourself, do those three things. Did y'all write those down? Because y'all came up with them. So you did it. Commit everything to God first. Pray before you act, before you call your closest friend, before you tell your wife, pray. And then go to God's word for a promise or go to God's word for an encouragement. And then use those tools to help you as you begin to go to him when you step into a problem. That's not what Saul and his servant did. They waited until they did everything they could possibly do. And then the servant says, well, there's a man of God. Maybe we should go talk to him because he talks to God. And that's what they did. So now they go into God and then we learn. Look with me in chapter nine, starting in verse nine. It says this, formally in Israel, when a man went to inquire of God, he used to say, come, let us go to the seer for he is called a prophet now was formally called a seer. And I love that verse. I know that seems like such a simple verse. But what that is God's word is doing is actually giving you commentary to make sure that the original audience knew what was going on. The original audience, they were used to hearing God's man talked about as a prophet. And he says, but what actually happened, he said, go see the seer, but the seer and a prophet are the same thing. I love that little verse that just says, hey, God wants his people to understand his word. Now what happens? In verse 10, it says, then Saul said to his servant, well, come, let us go. So they went to the city where the man of God was. They knew of Samuel. They knew of the reputation and they knew the God that he served. And they went to him because they knew that he heard from God. So what do we learn from this? We learn that all of God's people have access to him. All of God's people have access to him. The people of Israel knew that the Lord was with Samuel. And if they needed a word from God, they would go to Samuel and he would show them and teach them the way because he had a relationship with God and they wanted to hear from him. Now, fast forward some 2000 years. And guys, this is amazing. We do not have to go through a prophet or to a priest because we have the great high.

a priest in Jesus Christ. Look at Hebrews chapter four. Look what it says. It says, therefore, since we have a great high priest, remember the high priest role. He was the mediator between God and Israel. He would go before the Holy of Holies and take that sacrifice, put the blood on the Ark of the Covenant so that the children of Israel's sins would be forgiven for a year. He did all of that. He was the one that would go to God on behalf of the people. He says, for we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens. Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession, for we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin. Therefore, let us draw near with what? What's that next word? Confidence to the throne of grace. I love the King James Version. It says, may we boldly approach the throne of grace. We do not have to approach it in fear. We do not have to approach it that God is gonna strike us down, but we can approach it through the blood of Jesus Christ with a boldness, knowing that in Christ, we are righteous before God. Boldly approach Him with confidence to the throne of grace so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help Him in the time of need. Men, you need to begin to live in the reality that you have access to God Almighty. He lives in you. He is the one that works through you. And so when you encounter a time, you don't have to go find the prophet. You don't have to go find the pastor. You can sit down and converse with the living God because you know Jesus Christ. And guess what? Romans says that Jesus prays to God on our behalf. The whole, I mean, it's just amazing how He is the mediator between God and man. He is there. You have access to God. Do you believe it? No, I know you say you believe it, but do you live your life like you believe it? Like when you encounter problems, you believe so much in your heart that you have full access to God that you take Him, you take everything to Him. See, we have to really begin to understand how can we connect our mouth to our heart? Because we say one thing, but we many times act like and believe another. So if I believe that I have access to God, I have no problem, no problem approaching His throne with humility and boldness saying, God, I need you. The children of Israel had to figure out where Samuel was in order to hear from God. But God lives in us. That's the blessing of living on this side of the cross. He lives in us. You have access. I don't know about y'all. That's exciting to me. I don't care if y'all are not excited, I am. That just is overwhelming to me. And I hope that you begin to see and live in that reality that you, as a follower of Jesus Christ, have access to God. And if you're in this room and you would say, I am not a follower of Christ. I am not, well, you have access through the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. If you repent of your sins and place your faith and trust in Him alone, trusting in Jesus Christ alone, then you would have the full access that Jesus has to the Father. Because that's the only way that we have access, is through a relationship with Christ. And men, what you do with Jesus is the most important thing about you. If you're here tonight and you would say, Ben, I come to church, but I don't have a relationship with Jesus, then you don't have the access that you could have to the Almighty God who loves you, who gave Himself up for you, and wants to be a part of your every day. All right, so let's keep on going. All right, let's go to 1 Samuel 9, 15 through 16. All right, so they go and they find Samuel, and Samuel has a word for them. But listen to this, it says, "'Cause now, a day before Saul's coming, the Lord had revealed this to Samuel, saying, about this time tomorrow, I will send you a man from the land of Benjamin, and you shall anoint him to be prince over my people Israel, and he will deliver my people from the hand of the Philistines.'" So in this, we learn something about the Lord. We learn that God reveals Himself to His people. And this is a lesson that we have learned many times so far in our study of 1 Samuel, that God reveals Himself to His people. And I think we just need to be, you know why it comes up over and over and over again? Because we need to be reminded over and over and over again. Amen? Listen, God is not playing some cosmic game of hide and seek, where He is trying to get you to figure Him out. Guess what, you can't figure Him out. But He reveals Himself to you in ways that you can understand, so that you can have a relationship with you. He reveals Himself. And listen, He tells Samuel, hey Samuel, there's a guy coming. He's a Benjamite, and you are going to anoint him king. Samuel, who was walking with God, the man of God, God revealed His plan, His purpose to Samuel. And today for us, as followers of Jesus Christ, God has revealed Himself through His Son, through His Word, and through the power of Holy Spirit that lives within us. God reveals Himself to His people. God wants to reveal Himself to you. And in that revelation, we begin to learn and see and grow in Him. Now, verse 15 and 16 says this, now a day before, oh, I've already read that, sorry, let's go back. God reveals Himself to His people, and then God hears and responds to His people. Again, a lesson that we have learned over and over and over again. He says, listen with that last phrase in that verse, for I have regarded my people because their cry has come to me. Chapter eight, the people rise up and say, we want a king. God knows it is not what is best for them. He wants to be their king. But they still say, I want a king. And what do they say? I want a king like the other nations that are around us. They wanted to be like pagan nations. And yet, He says, I have regarded my people because their cry has come to me. We have to understand that God hears and responds to His people. And this is one of those cases where we see that. Next, we see that God empowers His people. Now, we're fast-forwarding to chapter 10. We see that God chooses Saul to be king, and then Samuel and Saul get together, and they have a conversation about what is going to happen. And then in verse six and seven of chapter 10, it says this, then the Spirit of the Lord will come upon you, this is Samuel talking to Saul, will come upon you mightily, and you shall prophesy with them and be changed into another man. It shall be when these signs come to you, do for yourself what the occasion requires. We see that Saul, the Holy Spirit, come upon Saul. And in this moment, when the Holy Spirit was upon him, He empowered him to prophesy with the prophets of God that were coming down, and to do what God had called him and equipped him to do. Now, we're gonna read the rest of the story of Saul, and you're gonna see it. He does not get it right all of the time. And in fact, we see a stark difference when he says yes to God and the power of the Holy Spirit is upon him, and then when he rejects God, and he has evil spirits that come upon him. I mean, it's such this war within Saul that sometimes I can relate to. But we begin to see that God empowers His people to do what He has called them to do. Now, fast forward to us today. God doesn't, the Holy Spirit doesn't come upon His.

Children, where does the Holy Spirit come? Come into, there's a difference. There is a difference. Remember the story from Judges of Samson. The Holy Spirit comes upon him, and he's able to do these great feats of strength. The Holy Spirit comes upon these men, and they're able to do these great things. But today, on this side of the cross, the burial and the resurrection, we have the Holy Spirit living within us to do that which he has called us. You have the power of God in you to empower you, and I love this. I'm the missions pastor, so you know I'm gonna go to the Great Commission. Right? I love this. And Jesus came up, and who is he speaking to? He's speaking to the disciples. All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I've commanded you, and what? Lo, I am what? With you, always, even into the end of the age. Before the Holy Spirit had come at Pentecost, he was promising the coming Spirit, and he is saying, I want you to go. Make disciples of all the nations. I will be with you every step of the way. Men, you come into contact with things that are bigger than you all of the time. When I open God's word, and do y'all ever do this? You open God's word, and you start to read and recognize all that it demands of us. It can be so overwhelming, because I am not strong enough to do this. God, you want me to love my wife as Christ loved the church, but I am a selfish, arrogant man, and I wanna do what I wanna do, and I wanna be right all the time. I don't, anybody else suffer with that? I know y'all do. I remember Brother Steve used to say, don't look so holy. You know, this idea. Ah, and so I know that I'm supposed to love my Christ. I am not to provoke my children to anger. I know that I am supposed to live above reproach. I am supposed to be slow to speak, slow to anger, and quick to hear. All of these things, I look at all that God's word demands. I feel overwhelmed and say, I can't do it. And then right here, this verse says, lo, I am with you always. Romans says, I will never leave you nor forsake you. You have the power of God in you to do all that God has called you and commanded you to do. We just said, God is a good father, right? And a good father wants to give what kind of gifts to his children? So is he, as a good father, gonna give you commands and callings to accomplish on his behalf and not give you everything that you need in order to accomplish it? He's not. He's not. And I've used this illustration before, but it just fits. It would be like me telling Grayson, my 16-year-old son, to go mow the grass and not give him any gas for the lawnmower. Just go mow the grass, son. Oh, you'll figure it out. But dad, there's no gas. I don't care, go do it. Go figure it out. That's not a good father, is it? No, I wanna give him everything that he needs in order to accomplish that which I've told him to do. And so, men, God is with you and you have got to understand he reveals himself to us. He empowers us. He wants you to live this life that he has called you to live in his word. And in Christ, we have what we need. We see that God reveals himself to his people, God hears and responds to his people, and God empowers his people. What I want you to do now is I want you to come to your tables. Now, this is our last table discussion for the night. But I want you to look at these two things. I want you to testify. What does testify mean? Give a what? Give a witness, give a testimony of a time when you knew the Lord empowered you to do what he asked you to do. This is not a prideful thing. This is I am giving all honor and glory to God because I know that in myself I could not do what he called me to do and he empowered me to do it. I want to see some praising God in this room tonight as we answer this question. And then on the second half, I want you to talk about this. This is gonna be a little bit more difficult. Is there something in your life right now where you need the Lord's power? Where you, I want you to open up to the guys at your table and say, guys, if the Lord doesn't move in this area of my life, I'm not gonna be able to do it. I need God's power. Pray for me. Hey, guys, and it's okay if you just stop at the middle of your table and pray for somebody right there. Nobody's going to get onto you for praying for a brother at your table. Guys, that's what this is about. Coming together, learning from God's word and applying it to our lives. Let's give testimony and let's ask God and let's be honest with somebody about where we need to see God move his power in our life. Let's take about five minutes at our tables and go from there. Good conversation? All right, let's bring it back. Guys, I love these opportunities as we grow around the table to where we're able to open up, talk about spiritual things, allow people into our own personal struggles and triumphs, where we're able to begin to see, hey, God is moving among his people. God is moving in the people that we walk with God is moving in the people that we walk around all the time. And guys, what my prayer is is that you will get so confident and so used to talking about the things of God around these tables that you will take it to your workplace and start talking about it there, in your circles of influence, in your friend circles, where many times the conversation goes to the weather, it goes to college football, it goes to whatever else that you will start to say, man, I wanna talk about God. I wanna talk about what he's doing in my life. And so I would encourage you to keep these conversations moving so that we can see God and show and tell, proclaim all that God is doing in and through his people. Now, I wanna finish up with two last things. We've learned that people seek to solve their own problems before they run to the Lord, that all God's people have access to him. The last thing that I want you to see is that God's people are prone to leave him. God's people are prone to leave him. And in the passes that we're gonna read, we're also gonna learn something about God. So God's people are prone to leave him. Now, what else can we learn about God? God reveals himself to his people, God hears and responds to his people, God empowers his people. Listen to this. At times, God gives his people over to their own desires. And this is a difficult piece of scripture. God gives his people a king and he knows that that's not what's best for them. That is not what he wants. We learned clearly from chapter eight. That's not what he intended. He intended a theocracy. That is a nation that is ruled by God. And they longed for a monarchy, a nation ruled by a man. Now look in chapter 10 and listen at verse 19. It says, but you today rejected your God who delivers you from all your calamities, your distresses, yet you have said no, but said a king over us. Now therefore present yourselves before the Lord by your tribes and by your class. And then Samuel brought all of the tribes near Israel and the tribe of Benjamin was taken by Lot. And the tribe of Benjamin was taken by Lot. And then what we see is that he makes his way to Saul. And in the story, they can't even find Saul. He's hiding behind baggage. And then when he stands up, head and shoulders over everybody else, it's almost as if there's your king hiding behind the bags. And here you have rejected God. We are prone to wonder and sometimes God gives us over to our own desires, to get us to a place where all we have to do is ask God to forgive us. And we have to ask God to forgive us. And we have to ask God to forgive us. And we have to ask God to forgive us.

do is look up and see his open hand ready to receive us back again. Men, you know what the scripture teaches about what God has for you. I'm reminded of the prodigal son who says, give me my inheritance. Give me my inheritance. I want it for myself and I want it now. And what does the father do in that story? He gives it to him. He gives it to him. He says, if this is what you want, I know that it's not best. I can imagine him saying that. I know that that's not best, but he gives it to him. And he takes that money, and understand what this is communicating to that father. Dad, I wish you were dead so I could have what is rightfully mine. That's what it's communicating to that father. He goes and he lives his life. He squanders all of his money on worldly living, and he ends up in the pigsty, feeding the pigs, eating the very food that he's feeding the pigs. And he comes to his senses, and he says, do the servants of my father's house not live better than this? May I just go back and my father receive me as a servant? So he picks himself up, and he walks that long road. And when he crosses the hill, he sees the father, and what does the father start to do? Run. He was looking and waiting and ready to receive his son back. And his son says, I just wanna be a servant. He says, no. Bring the clothes, bring the ring, kill the fatted calf. A son was dead, but now he is alive. We are prone to wonder. We are prone to wonder. And when he gives us over to ourselves, when he gives us what we want, and we get to the bottom of ourselves, he is there waiting for us to come back to ourselves. And men, the children of Israel rejected God, and the rest of their history is preparing the way for Christ to come so that they may have hope in him. See, we are prone to wonder, and when God gives us over to ourselves, he wants us to come back. And may we get to the place where we turn quickly from our sin and turn to him. So this passage of scripture is heartbreaking in so many ways. God's people have rejected God, rejected the one that brought them out of slavery, that showed himself mighty at the Red Sea, that helped him conquer all of those different nations around them, and they said, we don't want God as our king, give us a man. And men, may you never settle for sitting on the throne of your own heart, may you seek God to have that place. All right, let's pray. And then after we pray, I'm gonna have Josiah come up and he's gonna close us out. Father, Lord, I just thank you so much. Lord, I thank you for the people of Israel who have suffered so much. Lord, I thank you for who you are. Lord, I thank you about all that we've learned about ourselves tonight. Lord, may we just be willing to go to you first when we're faced with storms and trials and tribulation. May we be looking and understanding that we have access to you, and may we live in the power that you give us as your children to live the life that you want us to live. And Lord, as you empower us, as you reveal yourself to us, as you respond and hear us and respond to us, Lord, may we be ready to follow you. Lord, may you be our king, and may we worship no other, and may we serve no other but you alone. In your son's most precious name we pray, amen.