The King Who Sought the LORD

We Are a People (Part 1)

A 6 Week Series On Worship & Identity in 1 Chronicles

2. The King Who Sought the LORD

Verse :: 1 Chronicles 10:13-14 (cf. Psalm 27:8) Big Idea :: What you seek declares whose you are. Saul would not seek the LORD and lost everything. David sought the LORD's face, and a whole people gathered around God's king with joy. Worship, in part, is how a people seeks and declares, together, we are the LORD's.

Introduction

ICEQ | What is your go-to when you’re looking for an answer? Where would you *never* go?

Series Summary

1 Chronicles was written to remind a discouraged people who they were, a people who worship Yahweh. Over six weeks we will watch the Chronicler reconnect worship and identity through the genealogies and the life of David, pairing each week with a Psalm to see how worship recalls and reminds a people who they are.

Where We’ve Been

Last week we opened with one claim :: we are a people.

Chronicles was written to Israelites who came home from exile small and discouraged, wondering if they still counted, and God's answer was not a to-do list, it was a reminder of who they are. We saw it in the genealogies, we heard it in Hosea's children going from No Mercy and Not My People back to my people and mercy received, and we heard the New Testament say it straight to us in 1 Peter :: once you were not a people, but now you are God's people.

the group you belong to changes how other people see you, but it also changes how you see yourself.

This week we go from a people to a king, or really to two of them. One question separates them, and it is a worship question :: will you seek the LORD? Watch how the answer to that one question declares who each man is, and what it does to the people around him.

Where we’re going

Hold onto that, because here is the turn we make this week. Before Israel can go back to normal, they have to remember whose they are. And remembering is not a one-time thing. It is something a people does on purpose, together, over and over. That is what worship is for. So this week we watch what happens when a king forgets, and what happens when a king remembers.

Introductory Questions

Q | Is it possible to be religious, to look the part, and still be seeking in all the wrong places?

Getting Into The Text(s)

The Chronicler Remembers Saul

Read 1 Chronicles 10:1–7 “Now the Philistines fought against Israel, and the men of Israel fled before the Philistines and fell slain on Mount Gilboa. And the Philistines overtook Saul and his sons, and the Philistines struck down Jonathan and Abinadab and Malchi-shua, the sons of Saul. The battle pressed hard against Saul, and the archers found him, and he was wounded by the archers. Then Saul said to his armor-bearer, “Draw your sword and thrust me through with it, lest these uncircumcised come and mistreat me.” But his armor-bearer would not, for he feared greatly. Therefore Saul took his own sword and fell upon it. And when his armor-bearer saw that Saul was dead, he also fell upon his sword and died. Thus Saul died; he and his three sons and all his house died together. And when all the men of Israel who were in the valley saw that the army had fled and that Saul and his sons were dead, they abandoned their cities and fled, and the Philistines came and lived in them.”

Q | What more do you remember about the life of King Saul?

Chronicles gives Saul one chapter, and only his death. First Samuel just tells you he died in battle. Chronicles stops and tells you why :: let’s keep reading.

Read 1 Chronicles 10:13–14 “So Saul died for his breach of faith. He broke faith with the Lord in that he did not keep the command of the Lord, and also consulted a medium, seeking guidance. He did not seek guidance from the Lord. Therefore the Lord put him to death and turned the kingdom over to David the son of Jesse.”

Chronicles stops and tells you why :: he broke faith, he did not keep the LORD's command, and he sought guidance from a medium instead of from the LORD. Here is the irony :: Saul did seek. He went looking for an answer. He just went to the wrong place. What he sought declared whose he was, and it was not the LORD's.

Q | Saul was the king, he was religious, he asked for guidance. So what was actually wrong with how he sought?

Those were the days ofS Saul, according to the Chronicler. Now, let’s look at another king.

Read 1 Chronicles 11:1–3 “Then all Israel gathered together to David at Hebron and said, “Behold, we are your bone and flesh. In times past, even when Saul was king, it was you who led out and brought in Israel. And the Lord your God said to you, ‘You shall be shepherd of my people Israel, and you shall be prince over my people Israel.’ ” So all the elders of Israel came to the king at Hebron, and David made a covenant with them at Hebron before the Lord. And they anointed David king over Israel, according to the word of the Lord by Samuel.”

Do you remember how 1 Samuel tells the story?

Watch what the Chronicler does. In Samuel there are years of civil war before David rules everyone. Chronicles cuts all of it and jumps straight to "all Israel" gathering to David at Hebron and anointing him king, "according to the word of the LORD." He does not want a splintered nation limping toward the throne. He wants a whole people gathering around God's anointed.

Q | Why leave out the messy years and jump straight to the whole nation united? What is he trying to get his readers to see?

The rest of the chapter is list after list of the warriors who came to David we might come back and see that later, but watch how it ends.

Read 1 Chronicles 12:16–18 “And some of the men of Benjamin and Judah came to the stronghold to David. David went out to meet them and said to them, “If you have come to me in friendship to help me, my heart will be joined to you; but if to betray me to my adversaries, although there is no wrong in my hands, then may the God of our fathers see and rebuke you.” Then the Spirit clothed Amasai, chief of the thirty, and he said, “We are yours, O David, and with you, O son of Jesse! Peace, peace to you, and peace to your helpers! For your God helps you.” Then David received them and made them officers of his troops.”

& 1 Chronicles 12:38–40 “All these, men of war, arrayed in battle order, came to Hebron with a whole heart to make David king over all Israel. Likewise, all the rest of Israel were of a single mind to make David king. And they were there with David for three days, eating and drinking, for their brothers had made preparation for them. And also their relatives, from as far as Issachar and Zebulun and Naphtali, came bringing food on donkeys and on camels and on mules and on oxen, abundant provisions of flour, cakes of figs, clusters of raisins, and wine and oil, oxen and sheep, for there was joy in Israel.”

They came "with a whole heart to make David king," and there was eating and drinking, "for there was joy in Israel." A whole people, whole-hearted, gathered around God's king, celebrating together.

Q | That gathering was the people saying out loud, together, who they were. Where do we do that? What is the thing we gather to do that declares who we are?

Read Psalm 27

Here is David himself, in his own words, in a song. "One thing have I asked of the LORD... to dwell in the house of the LORD," and then, "You have said, 'Seek my face.' My heart says to you, 'Your face, LORD, do I seek.'" Set that next to Saul. Saul sought a medium and found death. David sought the LORD's face and wanted nothing more than to be in his house.

Q | Two kings, one difference :: what they went looking for. If someone watched where you spend your seeking, your searching, your wanting, what would they say you are after?

Discussion / Breakouts

Our big idea for the whole series :: worship is fueled by our identity and it refuels our identity, and our identity shapes how we live.

Saul's seeking and David's seeking each pointed them somewhere, and then slowly made them into something.

Conclusion

Closing Point

What you seek declares whose you are. Saul would not seek the LORD, and he lost the throne, the kingdom, his life. David sought the LORD's face, and a whole people gathered around him with joy. Worship is not just something we do once we already know who we are. Worship is how we seek, and how a people declares together, week after week, we are the LORD's.

So the question this week is simple :: what are you seeking? Because you are becoming it. Next week the worship gets loud. The ark comes home, and David puts worship at the very center of the nation.

This week, notice where you turn first. When something goes wrong, when you want an answer, when you are bored or alone, watch where you go. Then try turning to God there first, on purpose, and see what it does.

FILL IN THE BLANKS We Are a People (Part 1) Week 2 :: The King Who Sought the LORD Fill-in-the-blank answer key

Where We've Been

The group you belong to changes how others see you. It also changes how you see yourself. Before Israel can go back to normal, they have to remember whose they are.

The King Who Forgot :: Saul :: 1 Chron 10

Chronicles gives Saul one chapter, and only his death. Saul broke faith. He did not keep the LORD's command. Saul did seek. He just went to the wrong place.

The King Who Sought :: David :: 1 Chron 11-12

In Samuel there are years of civil war before David rules. Chronicles skips all of it. They came with a whole heart to make David king.

So What About Us

David sought the LORD's face. Worship is not just something we do. It is also how we seek the Lord, week after week.