3.160 They Have Rejected Me

In Matthew 5, Jesus calls us the salt of the earth and the light of the world, reminding us that our lives are meant to preserve, illuminate, and point others to Him. This season on Savory Salt, we'll walk through the Old Testament, one verse and one thought each day. Perhaps these moments will add greater savor and brighter light to our lives as we seek to truly live as Savory Salt.

Hello, my friends. It's a new day with new opportunities. Choose ye this day whom you will serve.

I've got a question for you. I don't know where you are in the world, but if you have an opportunity to vote in elections inside of the country that you live in, I've got a question for you posed by a friend of mine to me that I want to pass on to you. That question: when was the last time you voted for somebody rather than simply voting against the other candidate?

Now, before you think we've jumped out of a spiritual podcast and into the political world, don't you worry. I'm not going any further than that question alone because it's inside of our reading here that the Lord gives us such an interesting yellow flag and maybe even red flag when it comes to selecting our leaders. I'm talking about 1 Samuel chapter 8.

This is such a monumental chapter for the direction of the children of Israel. I think we could spend the entire week here, but we're only going to spend today. So if you don't like the conversation, you don't have to listen to any more of it.

We're only going to do one verse from 1 Samuel chapter 8. This is the time where the children of Israel say, "We don't want what we've had. We want what everybody else around us has." And what did everybody else around them have?

They had kings. And they said, "We want to be like everybody else. Therefore, please give us kings." Then 1 Samuel chapter 8 comes with this incredible list.

I don't believe it's necessarily for us to interpret as just anti-king. I think the list is worth us looking at the type of leaders we should be wanting in our lives. And then we get to this power, power verse. 1 Samuel chapter 8 verse 7.

The Lord has said to the children of Israel for generations: "I will be your guide, I will be your Lord, I will be your King, I will be your God." And the children of Israel say, "No, thank you. We don't want that. We want a political leader." It takes me into additional resources inside of Come Follow Me.

We have this incredible little kind of teaching here from President Ezra Taft Benson that says this: "God has to work through mortals of varying degrees of spiritual progress. Sometimes he temporarily grants to men their unwise requests in order that they might learn from their own sad experiences." Some refer to this as the "Samuel Principle." The children of Israel wanted a king like all the other nations. My friends, who do you want to lead you?

And I'm not asking politically, religiously; I'm asking in your life, "Who do you choose as your leader?" As for me and my house, we will choose the Lord. I hope that you see the connections here inside of this, regardless of the country that you're in. The Lord is our leader.

Jesus Christ is our Savior and Redeemer. May we turn to Him. May we seek to be guided and directed and counseled through the Spirit from Him and His leaders.

I hope that you have an opportunity to express who you would have lead you, and may that be guided through the Spirit, is my hope for each one of us. That's all for today, my friends. You and I have come here for such a time as this.

Step forward in faith and let's be savory salt. We will be here tomorrow and we hope you are too.