A Man After His Own Heart

1 Samuel 13:1-22

I don’t usually start out with a story, but I read a testimony this week that seemed so raw and real that I thought I should share it with you. It was written by a young woman from the country of Bhutan. She said that it is hard for her to tell her story because the wounds still feel so fresh. She feels “abused by life itself.” Born into a Buddhist-Hindu family, she had no desire for anything religious. When she was seven, her mother committed suicide, causing great conflict in her family and ruining her childhood. No one knew what drove her mother to take her own life, but people told stories and joked that her desire to embrace a new religion had driven her mad. Her father abandoned her and her sister and started a new family. “Hatred and bitterness consumed my youth,” she says.

Fear the Lord and Serve Him

1 Samuel 12:1-25

As we begin today, let’s consider, what this chapter is all about. Essentially, it is Samuel's farewell speech. One question that arises is: “Why did Samuel’s first part of his farewell speech sound like it came from a defense lawyer?”  Let’s look at some previous passages describing Samuel’s job.

The Creeds

Welcome! Today we take a one-week break from our series on Samuel and Saul to look at the creeds of the early church. One reason we are doing this today is because this afternoon we will have a family meeting to discuss, among other things, a proposed change to our Statement of Faith. We are proposing this change because Great Commission Churches, of which we are a part, has recently revised their Statement of Faith, and we would like our Statement to mirror theirs.

You may wonder why Great Commission Churches has revised their statement of faith. Well, the short answer is that there is a standing “Doctrinal Team” of elders, and although they did not find any significant errors in the previous version, they felt it was not “wordsmithed” as carefully as it could have been, and so they set on a three-year task to go through it very carefully, revisit everything freshly, and make it as excellent as possible. (The previous version was written about 25 years ago, by the way.)

Rescue in the Power of the Lord

I Samuel 11:1-15

Good Morning!  We continue today in our series Prophet and King with the unusual story of the unveiling of the first king of Israel.  Two weeks ago, we saw how Samuel pulls Saul from an obscure activity (looking for lost donkeys) and gives him VIP treatment.  Last week, the story continued in that same meeting, and Samuel anoints Saul with oil in private, saying to him, “Has not the Lord anointed you leader over his inheritance?”  After an amazing sequence of events which Samuel prophesied to Saul in advance, Saul arrives home.  When his uncle asks what Samuel said, Saul does not tell his uncle about the kingship.

Then, Samuel summons the people to Mizpah and begins the process of publically revealing the chosen king for Israel.  Keep in mind that Samuel has already anointed Saul at God’s command.  Samuel knows exactly who’s supposed to be king.  Then, they begin to choose which tribe the king will come from by lot, by “chance.”  The tribe of Benjamin is chosen.  Then, the clans  within Benjamin come forward, and Matri’s clan was chosen and so on all the way down to Saul.  It seems like the craziest activity. 

The Hidden King

1 Samuel 9:22-10:27

Welcome! Today we continue in our series on Samuel and Saul, and last week we were finally introduced to Saul. That account was given from the point of view of Saul. I want to give you a recap, but I am going to do so from the perspective of Samuel. To do this I need to go back to I Samuel 8. Samuel is now an old man, and so his sons are also full-grown. Samuel had appointed them as leaders, but unfortunately, they did not take God seriously or follow in the ways of their father. It says they turned aside after dishonest gain and accepted bribes and perverted justice.