Give Them What They Want | 1 Samuel 8 | Nathan Hughes

What if the most terrifying thing God could say is, “Okay. Have it your way”? In 1 Samuel 8, Israel demands a king so they can be “like all the other nations.” Their request seems reasonable, but underneath it is a deeper problem: they are rejecting God as their King and looking somewhere else for the security, peace, and control that only He can provide. In this first message of A Tale of Two Kings, we trace Israel’s story from Genesis through the Judges and discover a pattern that still exists in us today. When trusting God becomes difficult, we are tempted to replace Him with something visible. We take good things and turn them into god things. We begin measuring our lives by what everyone else has, and eventually we stop asking what God wants and start asking why He won’t give us what we want. Sometimes God’s “no” is an act of love—and sometimes His judgment is allowing us to experience the consequences of the very thing we demanded. As we begin the story of Saul and David,...