Faith

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1 Samuel: Lesson 26 — Listening For Protection

The following are discussion questions from a weekly study I am leading through the book of 1 Samuel.  We meet each Wednesday evening at the Deer Run Church of Christ.

 

Here Comes A King:
A Study of the Book of 1 Samuel

Lesson 26 (Listening For Protection)
1 Samuel 23:1-29

The Text:

  1. Where are David and his men?  What news does David hear?  Who does he go to for direction?  What response does he get?  What response do David’s men have?
     
  2. What does David do in response to the concern of his men?  What is he told?  What do he and his men do?  How successful are they?
     
  3. What is Saul’s immediate reaction when he finds out David is at Keilah?  What does he do?  When David hears that Saul may be coming toward him, who does he go to for information?  What does he find out? 
     
  4. Because of what he learns, where does David escape to?  Who meets him there?  What is  his purpose?  What information does he share?   
     
  5. Who discloses David’s location to Saul this time around?  How does Saul respond?  What does he want to know?  As Saul and his army were closing in on David, what causes them to break off the pursuit?

              

The Application:

  1. What response do you usually have when you hear of someone in trouble?  How often do you ask God what you should do?  Are there times that you are skeptical of something a friend says God wants them to do? 
     
  2. When someone questions a course of action that you believe God wants you to do, how do you feel?  Would you be willing to go back to God and make sure you heard right, or would you be tempted to dig in your heels and do it just to prove you can?     
     
  3. When faced with a situation, good or bad, where the outcome appears to be a given, do you handle it with your own wisdom and ability based on what you see or do you ask God what you ought to do?      
     
  4. Who do  you know that you need to meet where they are and help them find strength in God?  How can you do that?  
     
  5. Does it ever feel like there is always someone trying to deliver you to the enemy?  How does it feel when God provides the way of escape — especially if the source is unexpected?

              

Next week: 1 Samuel 24:1-22
May The LORD Judge

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The Art Of Re-GIFTing — Part 3: Faith

“I know that Messiah (called Christ) is coming.  When he comes, he will explain everything to us.”  John 4:25

This is part three of a four-part series of posts based on a sermon I preached at the Deer Run Church of Christ.  I began with part one, Grace, and then last wrote about part two, Inventory. 

As we continue with the story of Jesus and the Samaritan woman at the well, part 3 takes an interesting turn.  It is here, in “foreign” territory, that the seeds of faith have taken root and are expressed. 

There are many who look at John 4:19 as the beginning of a distraction — a change of subject by the Samaritan woman designed to avoid further conversation about her personal life.  I’m not convinced that is really what is happening.  I believe that the revelation of Jesus’ knowledge of her personal life ignites a sprouting of the seeds of faith that were within her.  She quickly recognizes that this is no ordinary man.  This “prophet” can see into her life, perhaps he also has a real answer to satisfy her deep longing for a relationship with the living God.  This is exactly what Jesus has already told her to ask Him for — living water so that she might never thirst again.

And so she asks the taboo question with all of the current worship arguments, who is right?  What!  Did she really ask that!  I thought that was a modern question!  But no, look, there it is — “Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.”  It doesn’t even sound like a question.  Yet the question is there.  Does it sound familiar?  What we claim as genuine worship is different from what you do — who is right? 

The answer that Jesus gives isn’t completely satisfying to her.  He doesn’t seem to pick either side.  He indicates that a new way of doing things is on its way — as a matter of fact, it has already arrived.  Place is no longer even a part of the argument, it is all about the heart of the worshipper.  Real worship isn’t focused on place, style, form, or anything else.  Real worship is worship that is focused on the Father.  Real worship identifies with God being spirit and truth by being worship that is done in spirit and in truth.

But wait.  That doesn’t sound right.  I’ve been around for a long time and no one is talking like that.  We can’t all be wrong, can we?  It’s all so confusing.  Who do I believe?  And then it comes.  This great profession of faith in the one who can give a definitive answer.  “I know that Messiah is coming.  When he comes, he will explain everything to us.”  Wow!  My translation of this dialogue?  Sir, you aren’t making any sense.  But that is okay.  God has promised to send the Christ and he will explain everything perfectly when he shows up.  What faith!  This Samaritan woman was convinced that God would keep his promise of a coming Messiah.  Not only would He keep His promise, but the Messiah would come with an explanation not only for the Jews, but for her as a Samaritan as well.

I wish I had been there just to watch.  Can you imagine her reaction when the response of Jesus to her expression of faith is, “I who speak to you am he.”!  Wow!  Wow!  Wow!  Could it be?  That sure would make the previous parts of our conversation make a lot more sense.  I can just imagine the shadows of doubt and disbelief being driven away by the rays of joy and hope that were beginning to flood her life.  Her faith was transforming her very existence as she stood toe to toe with the very one whom she believed could reveal God’s will to her.

How about you and I?  How often do we find ourselves caught up in some meaningless arguments about worship, or anything else?  Do we have the faith that God has promised to reveal Himself to us in a way that is meaningful and relevant?  Is God’s answer to our dilemmas good enough for us? 

I pray that our faith would be a growing and maturing faith that understands our need to worship God in spirit and in truth.  May you and I grow in our trust of God to provide the answers that we need — even when the answer is not the way we expect it to be.

Coming next — Part 4:  Tell!