{"id":2837,"date":"2023-01-10T15:33:19","date_gmt":"2023-01-10T15:33:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/yplife.org\/?p=2837"},"modified":"2026-11-06T23:27:59","modified_gmt":"2026-11-06T23:27:59","slug":"when-god-is-not-enough","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/yplife.org\/?p=2837","title":{"rendered":"When God Is Not Enough"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

1 Samuel 8:19-20\u00a0\u201cNevertheless the people refused to obey the voice of Samuel; and they said, Nay; but we will have a king over us;\u00a0That we also may be like all the nations; and that our king may judge us, and go out before us, and fight our battles.\u201d<\/em><\/strong>

Here, we see that the nation of Israel comes before Samuel desiring a king. (vs. 4-5). The Israelites looked at the heathen nations surrounding them and wanted to have a king just like them. I can imagine the heartbreak Samuel must have felt. He was the first in over 300 years to prophesy and deliver messages from God and now the people are no longer satisfied with Him. (vs. 6-7) The people were not satisfied with God as their only leader. They wanted a king. In short, God was not enough.

One of the saddest things I experience is when I see Christian young people compare all the World has to offer and all God has to offer and come to the same conclusion as the Israelites. God is not enough. I hate to see Christian young people who have grown up in church all of their lives, who have been taught about the goodness of God, and yet they\u2019re so dissatisfied with the things of God.

They feel like being a Christian is a life of misery. Some rebel against everything they have ever been taught. Others leave church altogether and never return. Their attitude is the same as the Israelites: God is not enough.

Why was God not enough all of a sudden? What changed?\u00a0(vs. 7-8)

First of all God was not the one that changed.<\/strong>

Malachi 3:6, \u201cFor I am the Lord, I change not;\u201d Hebrews 13:8, \u201cJesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever.\u201d\u00a0James 1:17, \u201cEvery good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.\u201d

God cannot change. It is not in His nature. However, we as humans change all the time. In this situation, we see it was not that God wasn\u2019t a good leader anymore, the people of Israel became poor followers. The Word of God was not precious to them anymore. They took God\u2019s Word for granted. God was not the One Who changed; it was the people who changed.
When is God not enough? When we don\u2019t follow Him like we used to. When we take His Word for granted.

Second, the Israelites had forgotten everything God had done for them.\u00a0(vs.8)<\/strong>

Let\u2019s not forget that God brought them out of slavery in miraculous ways. He provided for them in the wilderness. Over and over again, He had shown them His love and His mercy. While God remained faithful to His people, the Israelite\u2019s turned on Him. We marvel at how the Israelites could forget something so monumental to their history, yet we are guilty of forgetting God\u2019s goodness to us.

When is God not enough? When we forget everything God has done for us. We forget what it felt like when we were first saved. We forget decisions we made at the altar. We forget God\u2019s blessings in our lives.

Thirdly, we see that the Israelites turned to other gods.\u00a0(vs. 8 b)<\/strong>

God said that his people \u201cserved\u201d other gods. They sacrificed to these false gods. They were willing to give of themselves to these false gods. They took credit from the One true God and gave it to idols. They saw the gods of their neighboring nations and served them. I see many Christians today, look to the lost and serve their gods. Money, sports, entertainment, etc\u2026; the list is unending.

It\u2019s sad to see how much we are willing to give up for worldly things, but we aren\u2019t willing to do the same for God. When is God not enough for us? When we begin to look at the gods of the lost and serve them in place of the One true God. Matthew 6:24, \u201cNo man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.\u201d It is not enough that we serve God the most. We must serve God only.\u00a0

Fourthly, we see that the Israelites did not have a proper view of God.\u00a0(vs. 20)
<\/strong>
They wanted a human king to judge them. Only God is the all-righteous judge. Human judges are biased an corrupt. They had an incorrect view of God\u2019s justice. Likewise, many Christian young people question God\u2019s fairness. They look at all the things they are missing out on in the world. They only view Christianity as a set of Do\u2019s and\u00a0Don\u2019t\u2019s.\u00a0It\u2019s like looking through the bars of a prison.

We see all the World has to offer and begin to desire it, but if we would just step back and get a proper perspective from God\u2019s Word, we would discover that it\u2019s\u00a0the\u00a0world that is trapped in the prison of wickedness, while we are the ones who remain free.

The Israelites\u00a0wanted a human king to go before them and represent them. They didn\u2019t want to be recognized as God\u2019s people.\u00a0Likewise, many Christian young people are embarrassed to bear the name \u201cChristian\u201d.\u00a0They feel as if it is a scarlet letter to be worn about their neck in which they are ashamed.

The Israelites wanted a human king to fight for them. God had never abandoned them, He continued to fight for them.\u00a0Even when they had no weapons of their own, God had caused enemy armies to retreat before them. I see today, many Christian young people feel like God is not really there for them when they need Him. They cry out to God in their time of need but they don\u2019t see His intervening hand.

When is God not enough?\u00a0When we do not have a right view of God. If we knew God for Who He really was, we would recognize that He is all we need.
Finally, Samuel warned the people of all the trouble of having a human king.\u00a0(vs.10-18)

A human king is all about \u201ctaking\u201d. This world will entice you with all it has to offer but it will chew you up and spit you out after it has taken everything from you. Chasing after sex will cost you your innocence, emotions, and even your health with venerable diseases. Chasing after popularity will cost you your dignity, and will \u00a0leave you lonely. Chasing after drugs or alcohol will cost you money, family, your health, your mind, and will leave you feeling empty inside.

Everything this world has to offer is not enough. The world is not enough. But chasing after God is another story. God does not \u201ctake\u201d like a human king. He gives. He gives hope in a world filled with hopelessness. HE gives love in a world full of hate, and He gives joy in a world full of misery. God is not just enough, He is more than enough.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Jesse Maxwell | Youth Pastor
Landmark Baptist Church | Haines City, Fl
https:\/\/bbcbartow.com<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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1 Samuel 8:19-20\u00a0\u201cNevertheless the people refused to obey the voice of Samuel; and they said, Nay; but we will have a king over us;\u00a0That we also may be like all the nations; and that our king may judge us, and go out before us, and fight our battles.\u201d Here, we see that the nation of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"subtitle":"","format":"standard","video":"","gallery":"","source_name":"","source_url":"","via_name":"","via_url":"","override_template":"0","override":[{"template":"1","single_blog_custom":"","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"0","layout":"no-sidebar-narrow","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"float","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_share_counter":"1","show_view_counter":"1","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"0","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"1","show_post_related":"0","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"override_image_size":"0","image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post":"0","trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post":"0","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","sponsored_post_name":"","sponsored_post_url":"","sponsored_post_logo_enable":"0","sponsored_post_logo":"","sponsored_post_desc":"","disable_ad":"0"},"jnews_primary_category":{"id":"","hide":""},"jnews_food_recipe":[],"enable_food_recipe":"0","food_recipe_title":"","food_recipe_description":"","food_recipe_serve":"","food_recipe_time":"","food_recipe_prep":"","food_recipe_level":"","food_recipe_keywords":"","food_recipe_category":"","food_recipe_cuisine":"","food_recipe_yield":"","food_recipe_calories":"","enable_print_recipe":"0","ingredient":[{"item":""}],"instruction":"","jnews_social_meta":{"fb_title":"","fb_description":"","fb_image":"","twitter_title":"","twitter_description":"","twitter_image":""},"jnews_override_counter":{"override_view_counter":"0","view_counter_number":"0","override_share_counter":"0","share_counter_number":"0","override_like_counter":"0","like_counter_number":"0","override_dislike_counter":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"jnews_podcast_option":{"enable_podcast":"0","podcast_duration":"","upload":""},"jnews_podcast_series":null,"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[1100,180,1042,1098,759,1099,54,317],"jnews-series":[],"class_list":["post-2837","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-youth-truth","tag-changing-leadership","tag-god","tag-jesse-maxwell","tag-lesson-from-samuel","tag-spirtual","tag-world-cannot-satisfy","tag-youthtruth","tag-yplife"],"featured_image_src":"","blog_images":{"medium":"","large":""},"ams_acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/yplife.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2837","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/yplife.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/yplife.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yplife.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yplife.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2837"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/yplife.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2837\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6214,"href":"https:\/\/yplife.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2837\/revisions\/6214"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/yplife.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2837"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yplife.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2837"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yplife.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2837"},{"taxonomy":"jnews-series","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yplife.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fjnews-series&post=2837"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}