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All right, my Bible in 365, 
brothers and sisters, we have 

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made it to the book of First 
Samuel. 

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And folks, this one is a big 
deal. 

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I love this book. 
I think this book is amazing. 

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And that's why I'm going to walk
you through all of it because 

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there's so much to learn from 
it. 

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And you will recognize a very 
cohesive theme. 

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By the way, this book is so 
personal to me. 

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And the reason why it's so 
personal to me is, as many of 

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you know, I have 3 adopted 
children and the first two 

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children that I adopted were 
siblings. 

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One was 2 years old and the 
other was 19 days old when they 

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came to me. 
And the very first Bible study 

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that my little baby got to hear 
came out of this book, and I 

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thought it was important to tell
her that mom and I were praying 

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so desperately to the Lord to 
bring us precious children, and 

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God answered our prayers. 
By the way, it's not any kind of

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irony to fall upon us that my 
son is named after this book, 

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actually after my dad, who was 
named after this book. 

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And it is a very special and 
meaningful book to me. 

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Now, let's just talk about this 
for a second because there are 

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some big themes we have to hold 
on to with this book. 

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And by the way, they very much 
matter for a lot of reasons. 

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OK. 
First and foremost, First Samuel

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is in essence a transition from 
the judges to the kings. 

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Matter of fact, a lot of people 
call First Samuel First King, 

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Second Samuel Second Kings, and 
then First Kings, 3rd Kings, 

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Second Kings, 4th kings, First 
Chronicles 5th Kings, and Second

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Chronicles 6th Kings. 
I'm not kidding you, it's that 

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crazy. 
Anyway, all that to say, it's a 

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very important transitional book
and one that is critical to 

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being able to understand the 
history of the nation of Israel.

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Now, God is still the true king,
but the people demanded a human 

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king, and that was a terrible, 
terrible mistake. 

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Danger of rejecting God's 
authority for human solutions is

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nasty. 
It becomes terrible. 

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And one of the things that I 
think is so important is to 

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understand that when you 
contrast between man's choice, 

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which is Saul, and God's choice,
which is David, it speaks 

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volumes. 
But God's ultimate choice was 

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himself. 
David was flawed. 

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Saul was flawed. 
They made tons of mistakes and 

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did lots of horrible things. 
God wasn't, but yet they 

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rejected him. 
Now in the 1st 7 chapters of 

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this book, it sets the whole 
stage. 

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We see the spirituality of 
Israel being remarkably 

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unstable. 
OK, at the end of the Judges, 

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the era of the Judges, they were
in terrible shape. 

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OK, the Bible tells us every man
did that which was right in his 

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own eyes. 
That's what the Bible tells us. 

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In the book of First Samuel, we 
know the story of Hannah praying

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for a son. 
Samuel is born as a result of 

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her prayer. 
Samuel is dedicated to the Lord 

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and Eli's sons. 
Going back just for a second, 

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we're very corrupt priests and 
God judges the whole House of 

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Eli. 
Then of course, Samuel takes on 

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the role as the very last judge 
of Israel. 

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God of course, being the first 
human king of Israel. 

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And remember, the Ark of the 
Covenant gets captured by the 

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Philistines as a result of the 
terrible things that Eli's sons 

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did. 
And God demonstrates his power 

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without the help of anybody in 
Israel. 

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And he himself sees to it that 
the ark is returned. 

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Now Samuel rises as a prophet. 
Course, he's the last judge of 

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Israel like I said, and he 
becomes truly the spiritual 

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leader of Israel. 
Now this is interesting because 

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he becomes very effective at 
this and he doesn't remarkably 

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well. 
He calls Israel back to 

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repentance and Israel 
experiences massive victory when

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they put their faith and trust 
in the Lord and give him 

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control. 
And I think this is important to

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understand because we learned 
this just from the 1st 7 

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chapters. 
God raises spiritual leadership 

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when people cry out to him, OK, 
they cry for it. 

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God provides it, but the 
people's heart, and that's the 

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problem. 
The heart of the people is still

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messed up. 
And that creates a huge issue. 

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And there was a real turning 
point, and that turning point 

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took place, and not a good 
turning point, by the way, takes

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place in chapter 8. 
And that's when Israel demands a

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king like all the other nations.
Samuel warned them, look, if you

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get a human king, you're going 
to get taxed, OK? 

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There's going to be all kinds of
how do you say that five times 

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conscriptions, what's wrong with
me? 

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There's going to be a loss of 
freedom. 

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And God tells Samuel in his 
exact words, this is what he 

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says. 
He says they have not rejected 

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you, Samuel, but they've 
rejected me, that I should not 

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reign over them. 
The issue was not having a king.

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The issue was wanting to be like
the world instead of being led 

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by God. 
Terrible tragedy. 

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Now Saul became the choice of 
man Look, he was a tall guy. 

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He was impressive. 
He was very kingly type, right? 

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But there was no real humility 
in him. 

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Yeah, he started with humble 
means, but he went to a very, 

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very dark place. 
He did a lot of terrible things.

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He failed on a lot of levels. 
Look, he offered sacrifices 

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unlawfully. 
God told him not to do it. 

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We see that in chapter 13. 
In chapter 15, he literally dis 

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completely disregards what God 
said about Amalek and that was a

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terrible thing. 
And then remember God said 

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destroy everything he didn't do 
so he spared things. 

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And yet Samuel goes to him and 
he says, listen, I know you 

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chose to do this as some kind of
sacrificial thing, but it's way 

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better to obey than to 
sacrifice. 

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And Saul rejected God's word and
God rejected Saul. 

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So David is anointed. 
Look, Saul represents leadership

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that's based on appearance, 
certainly not any level of 

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obedience. 
And it was a terrible, terrible 

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thing. 
Yet David was anointed whilst 

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Stall was still reigning. 
And it was based on a very 

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important principle because 
David didn't have the look of a 

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king, but God said man looketh 
on the outward appearance, but 

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the Lord does what he looketh on
the heart. 

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One of my favorite chapters in 
the Bible is going to be what 

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happens in the Valley of Elah. 
This is when David defeats 

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Goliath. 
And it was a remarkable story. 

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Listen, David's confidence as 
king, it was rooted in God's 

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faithfulness, not in his 
ability. 

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And this is where we learn that 
the battle belongs to the Lord. 

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And then over the next several 
chapters, chapters 18 all the 

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way to chapters 26, it's Saul 
versus David. 

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David honors God's authority, 
guys, throughout this whole time

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by choosing not to touch Saul, 
even when Saul was corrupt. 

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I think it's so critical because
what David demonstrates is he 

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demonstrates that he is willing 
to trust God for his timing and 

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for his justice. 
And then in chapters 27, all the

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way through 31, you see Saul 
become increasingly unstable and

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eventually his life is taken. 
And that was a very, very, very 

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sad, very sad story. 
And David was not even happy 

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about it. 
He was actually heartbroken. 

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And he mourned at that loss. 
Guys, rejecting God leads to 

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spiritual blindness. 
And that's what the Bible tells 

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us. 
And we've got to pay attention 

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to that. 
Now. 

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There are some core theme. 
You guys didn't hear that, But 

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that was a Big Bang in the 
studio. 

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And you know what? 
I'm not going to edit it. 

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I'm just, I'm just going to 
leave it alone. 

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I wonder where in the world that
came from. 

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Almost like a Sonic boon or 
something. 

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Anyway, I said Sonic boon. 
Yeah, There you go. 

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That's what distraction is all 
about. 

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Anyway, there are some core 
themes that I think we need to 

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hammer home here. 
I think really important themes.

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OK. 
First and foremost, God desires 

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obedience. 
He doesn't want religious 

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performance. 
This book drives that home. 

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OK, Saul sacrificed, but he 
disobeyed. 

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Obedience has to come first. 
If you don't obey, your 

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sacrifice means nothing. 
The other thing we learned from 

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this is that outward appearance 
matters. 

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No, to God it doesn't. 
The heart matters. 

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That's what God cares about. 
By the way, I say thank you, 

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Lord, for that every single day.
God says this. 

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God says, I look upon the heart,
Saul look like a king. 

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David had the heart that God 
wanted for the king Kay. 

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By the way, the other thing that
we learned from this book, all 

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the chapters in the book, is 
that when you reject God's rule,

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you have consequences. 
There's always going to be 

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consequences, and God's plan is 
going to move forward anyway. 

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So when you experience the 
consequences of rejecting God, 

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God will move on. 
He'll use other people, and that

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is scary if you think about it. 
I want to be used by God. 

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Look, First Samuel is about a 
nation choosing between either 

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trusting God or trusting what 
looks right, what appears right.

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Look at all the other nations 
and what they're doing. 

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It shows the failure of human 
leadership when relegated to 

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itself, the necessity of a king.
God was the perfect king. 

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Look, it points forward to the 
need that we will always have 

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for a perfect king that's 
fulfilled in Christ. 

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Christ will one day rule and 
reign as our perfect king. 

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And when that time comes, we 
will rejoice. 

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And First Samuel points directly
to that. 

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Wait till we get to Second 
Samuel. 

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Second Samuel is where we see 
the introduction of what I call 

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the Davidic covenant. 
And you're going to love that 

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because the prophecy that you 
will find in there is 

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remarkable. 
Now, here's the thing. 

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Use this book as a reminder to 
put your faith and trust in 

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Christ. 
It will change everything. 

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Let him be your king, let him 
rule and reign and watch him do 

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great things. 
I love you guys, God bless you. 

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I'm proud that you are reading 
and doing these things. 

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Keep fighting a good fight.