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.

But Am I Not Small?

I Samuel 9:1-21

Good morning!  Today we are finally going to read and study some about the man who will be king in our series Prophet and King.  The first King of Israel will be Saul son of Kish from the tribe of Benjamin.  Last week, we heard how the people of Israel had come to Samuel and rejected the leadership of the judges, and asked for a king so that they would be like the other nations around them, and they would have a leader to go before them and fight their battles.

Samuel tried to explain why this wasn’t a good idea.  God told Samuel to warn the people solemnly.  But, the people did not accept Samuel’s reasoning, even though it was the truth.  A king would take their sons and daughters as soldiers, workers, and servants.  He would take the best of their produce and crops and flocks.  At a minimum, the king would take 10%.  “But the people refused to listen to Samuel.” (8:19)

In his discussion with the people, Samuel did skip over the thing which had prompted the people to ask for a king.  That was the failure of his own sons to rule justly.  Their perversion of justice and taking of bribes in part pushed the people to think they would be better off with a king.  It is funny though how we have a hard time reasoning and making decisions.  There is no more likelihood that a judge would be corrupt than a king.  We have all fallen short, there is no one righteous, all have sinned.  It is only by God’s grace that we can live and act rightly.

Rejecting the True King

1 Samuel 8

What you and I believe about God affects everything we do.  It affects our outlook on life.  It affects our parenting.  It affects our financial decisions.  Knowing God is not about accumulating facts that you can intellectually digest.  One of my weaknesses is that I put my nose to the grind to work hard ...to the detriment of relationship with God.  Working hard is a very good and godly thing.  But sometimes I’ll forget to remember Jesus.  I’m busy getting the job done, whatever it is, and my mind is focused on how to do the next thing, and there are some things that I’ve forgotten about God.  Reading 1 Samuel 8 was a good reminder for me. 

If God is sovereign, does that mean that He always gets what He wants?  If He is the Creator, does that mean that there are some things that do not belong to Him?  Let’s read through 1 Samuel 8 and through some other passages to see if you come to the same conclusion I did.

Confession & Deliverance

1 Samuel 7:1-17

Good morning!  Today, we’re on to chapter 7 of the book of I Samuel in our series titled Prophet and King.  Everyone take a deep breath.  Now let it out.  Ahh!  Doesn’t that feel good?

That’s what this chapter feels like to me.  It’s like a breath of fresh air.  Up until now, we’ve seen some pretty difficult circumstances throughout the first six chapters of I Samuel.  Even the items of good news that we’ve seen have been coupled with difficulty and sacrifice.

Who Can Stand?

1 Samuel 6:1-21

Today we continue our series on Prophet and King, a series examining the life and death of the Prophet Samuel, and Saul, Son of Kish, Israel’s first anointed king. Before we start, I want to take a couple of minutes to give a recap of what has transpired since we began this series.

Many of you will recall that we started in I Samuel chapter 1, where we are introduced to Elkanah and his two wives: Hannah and Peninnah.  They lived in Ramah and they would go up annually to worship and sacrifice to the Lord at Shiloh.  Shiloh was where the Ark of the Covenant of God resided for more than 300 years, since Joshua and the Israelites conquered most of the promise land.  Now Hannah was barren and Peninnah had children with Elkanah.  Peninnah would provoke Hannah to tears because of Hannah’s inability to bear children.

Plagues Again

1 Samuel 5:1-12

Welcome! Today we continue our series on I Samuel, going into Chapter 5. Last week, we read of the terrible battle with the Philistines that led to the total defeat of the Israelites and to the Ark being captured and hauled off by the Philistines. Past chapters have made it clear that the Israelites at this time were mostly far from God; there was severe corruption even at the priestly level with Eli’s sons doing whatever they wanted. Then in Chapter 4, after suffering an initial defeat to the Philistines, the Israelites decided to move the Ark from Shiloh, where it had probably rested unmoved for hundreds of years, to the scene of the battle.

Now from a secular point of view, this probably looked like a brilliant plan. Morale is always critical on the battlefield. After suffering a loss, how do you get the troops back into a positive can-do mood? How do you motivate them to fight again, despite knowing that the outcome is uncertain? Throughout the history of war, leaders have known that you need to get the troops fired up, excited, and confident. Most often this was done by the commander himself going to just behind the battlefront. He would give a rousing speech, and the troops would all shout, and the enemies would hear their intensity, and their confidence would begin to fail, leading to a complete change of momentum in the conflict.