This Sunday is the last Sunday of the Christian calendar year, which has historically been called "Christ the King" Sunday. On this day we celebrate that Jesus is King over all nations and all creation, and that he will one day come to reclaim his Kingdom forever. It feels especially fitting this Sunday as we have been working through our series on 1 and 2 Samuel called “Longing for the True King.” We’ll finish the series this Sunday in one of the most significant chapters of the Old Testament, 2 Samuel 7.

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This Sunday we’ll look at the climax that we have moving toward since 1 Samuel 16, when the young shepherd boy David was pulled from the fields and anointed as the future king. David takes a fragmented collection of warring tribes and pulls them together as a united Kingdom. We’ll look at what this tells us about the unique kind of unity that God creates for his people.

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This Sunday we will continue with the story of the kings of Israel. The story takes a surprising turn when just after David defeats Goliath and experiences great success in Israel, he is driven into the wilderness by Saul’s jealousy. We’ll look at what this says to us about our own Christian experience.

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This Sunday we’ll continue in the story of the monarchy as the spotlight now swings to the king-elect David. In 1 Samuel 17, he is confronted with his first challenge, and it’s a big one: a giant of a man named Goliath. We’ll see this week how this same theme of God’s upside-down Kingdom gets played out in this story- that God’s deliverance is not based on sword or spear or any other human conventions, but that God delights in using the small to bring down the great, using the seemingly weak to turn the table on the so-called strong.

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This Sunday we’ll traverse into the next great chapter of the history of the monarchy in Israel: we will meet the young man named David. This is a new chapter in what has been a sad and disappointing beginning in Israel’s monarchy, and it speaks of the hope that God always brings out of hopeless situations. God always sees beyond what we see- and this chapter invites us to see with the eyes of God.

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This week we’ll see how a well-meaning and gifted person like Saul can go from being a promising young King to becoming a king “like that of the nations.” We see his rebellion against God’s command and his self-deceit as he justifies his behavior. We are given a warning that we share the same kind of heart, and to be watchful over our own propensity to self-deceit. And we are given a pointer to the God who saves us all from our self-destruction.

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This week, we’ll continue the story as God concedes to Israel’s demand for a King and selects a young man named Saul to be the first official monarch of Israel. It’s a story of heartache as we watch God’s people dive headlong into their rebellious desires, but God’s fingerprints are also all over the story as he directs the events according to his purposes.

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This week we’ll begin a new series on 1 and 2 Samuel, and the story of how Israel transitioned from a collection of tribes to an established monarchy. The books are full of thrilling stories and tales of intrigue and adventure. But more than anything, these books tell the story that is also our story, and through it we learn more about ourselves, our hearts, and our longing for the true King.

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