When you begin a relationship with the Lord, He invites you on a grand adventure. You see, God has plans to do amazing things and He wants you to be a part of them. The cool thing is that it’s not something that you have to muster up or figure out. Like Pastor Mike explains today, you should let God shoulder the responsibility of making things work out. As you look to Him for direction and strength, you’ll see how He shows up in ways that blow your mind. You’ll never go wrong when you leave it in His hands.

Have you been straddling the line between your will and God’s? Just like driving down the highway, if you don’t decide what lane you’re in, it’s going to result in a crash. You might tell yourself that you can compromise – give that area of your life to God, but keep control in this area, but you’re guaranteed to fail. In today’s message, as Pastor Mike will illustrate with the conflict between David and Ahinoam, only one of them was chosen by God to lead Israel, and there was no room for compromise.

Following God’s will is going to make people mad. It will create some enemies. That shouldn’t be your goal, but it’s a natural byproduct of doing the right thing – the thing that God calls you to. There are many out there who have put their own agendas or the agendas they believe in over God’s will and design for humanity. As Pastor Mike will warn in today’s message when you come along and demonstrate a life that puts God first, it’s going to create conflict, and you’ll find yourself under attack.

15 years is a long time to wait for God to follow through on His promise. Sometimes God opens door after door for you, but as David experienced, sometimes God calls you and it seems like you hit wall after wall in following Him. We tend to assume that we must have misheard God when this happens. That isn’t always the case. As we’ll be reminded in today’s message from Pastor Mike, those challenges can be a good sign that you are on the right path, because the enemy will fight you every step of the way.

We admire David for his humble heart before God, but there are those who would use his behavior as an excuse. They would say, “well, David sinned greatly, and look how God used him…” That’s true, and God absolutely will use people, despite their sin, when they humble themselves and submit to Him. But, as Pastor Mike will challenge us to ask in today’s message, what greater things did David miss out on because he chose to serve self rather than God? How much more could God have used him?

The consequences of sin are harsh. At the extreme, it can result in eternal separation from God, but for those who are saved, they still can experience destruction in this life when they allow it to remain in their hearts. As Pastor Mike continues our study of the first chapter of 2nd Samuel, he’ll draw our attention to the destruction we witness in the life of King Saul. This man went from being God’s first anointed king of Israel to a dishonorable death in the midst of rebellion against God’s will.

We have a hard time with God wiping out groups of people in Scripture. That’s a result of the compassionate nature He’s given us. We feel sympathy for those who chose the wrong way, partly because we know that we ourselves may have been a few bad choices away from the same fate. As Pastor Mike will point out in today’s message, throughout Scripture, we find groups of people who collectively rejected God and His order, and the only way to protect His Children was to eliminate those groups.

All of us have a choice to make. Reject Jesus or accept Him. He won’t force you into a relationship with Him. Many look at God and question His goodness based on the existence of judgment and Hell, but without those things, His grace would be unnecessary. If we weren’t wicked we wouldn’t need it. And at our core, all of us are wicked. Watch the news or scan through social media and you’ll quickly be assured of that. Today, Pastor Mike will remind us of what’s to come for those who reject Jesus’ gracious invitation.

Salvation in Jesus requires humility on our part. You can’t receive it or attain it any other way. In our pride, we often have a hard time with that. We look to our own behavior: how well do we keep the rules? How many good deeds can we do? And we use that to gauge our worth. But, as Pastor Mike will illustrate in today’s message, coming to Jesus requires nothing more than bowing down in humility and accepting the life-giving water that He freely offers. Jesus has done everything necessary to save you.

Do you ever find yourself wondering why God hasn’t blessed your life in greater ways? You may question if He’s withholding because of sin in your life. Or maybe you’ll go so far as to question whether He really is a good, loving Creator. The questions you should be asking are “what is a true blessing?” and “am I missing God’s blessings in my life?” As Pastor Mike will explain today, when you open your heart to Christ and allow Him to shape your worldview, your idea of what a blessing is will change.