North Boulevard Church of Christ Fuel Audio

here’s an article i wrote a long time ago about seeing the David in person:

the David

Goliath came armed with sword and spear.


David came armed with faith.

where does faith come from?

where does trust come from?

where does confidence come from?

if Goliath suffered from gigantism

and if David was a sharp-shooting shepherd,

then who really had the advantage?

“Genius is eternal practice.” – Michelangelo

God uses your ordinary life to prepare you for the extraordinary moments.

Psalm 23

“…Your rod and Your staff protect and comfort me…”

final questions

1) where’s an area in your life where you need discipline?

2) where’s an area in your life where you need motivation?

3) who’s helping you do that?

Translator Robert Alter prefers this translation:
…”the Lord sees with the heart.”

you can see the probable intended parallelism:
man sees with the eye
God sees with the heart

what does it mean to see with the heart

romantic relationships
our families
our friends
our jobs
our decisions with money
our school
our politics
how we treat strangers
how we treat our servers at restaurants

for Christians

this means beginning with imago Dei — that each of us are made in God’s image.

in Matthew 7:21-27

so we see two people described as Jesus concludes his Sermon.
– not one with a house and one without
– but two having built seemingly identical houses.
– but one built on sand… things that move things that have no depth
– one built on solid rock, something that is the essence of the whole created world, something that will never shift and move

Jesus is calling out the religious here.
which should cause us to perk up our ears.

are we being religious?
or are we in relationship with the Lord? with our neighbor?

what’s the difference?

this week

picture one person in your life that you’ve been seeing with your eyes and not with your heart.

what are you going to do about that this week?

Sunday we had the privilege of hearing from David Hunzicker and his wife, Kristen.

1 Samuel 15 is about obedience. King Saul was given the task of completely destroying the Amalekites, including men, women, children, animals, goods, and property. But Saul was unwilling (he didn’t want to). He kept some of the animals for a sacrifice to God and allowed King Agag to live. His disobedience made God regret he had made him King; and it made Samuel angry and he cried!

Our disobedience directly affects those around us, but mainly God! Here are the challenge questions:

1. What keeps college students from obeying God?

2. What commands do we often follow only “to the extent we think necessary?”

3. How would your life be different if you took God at this word?

impatience with God
leads to rash decisions in our own lives
which causes us to sin against others.

consider these Scriptures:

◦ psalm 62:1-8

◦ James 1:2-8

◦ 1 Corinthians 13:4

◦ Galatians 5:22-23

◦ 2 Corinthians 6:3-6

◦ Colossians 3:12

◦ 2 Thessalonians 3:5

◦ 1 Timothy 1:16

◦ Hebrews 10:34-39

◦ 2 Peter 1:3-8

◦ Romans 8:18-25

remember that You should not be

waiting to graduate
waiting on that job
waiting on a raise
waiting on a spouse
waiting on that dream
waiting for a sign…

A person pursuing God’s heart waits on The Lord.

so reflect on this section of Samuel and on these Scriptures, and ask:

what has the Holy Spirit revealed to you?

how are you going to obey it in your life?

being after God’s own heart means having a boldness from humility.

1 Samuel 8-11

Samuel means “asked of God”. Saul means simply “asked”.

by asking for a King, the people are not only ignoring God, but also His law.
– Exodus 19:5-6
– Leviticus 20:22-24, 26
 Israel is not to be like other nations.
– in other nations, the king was god.
– in Israel, their God was King.

just like ejecting the Ark from the Tabernacle, Israel is effectively renouncing their covenant with the Lord.

they were throwing away what it means to be holy.

Saul became the king after the people’s own heart.

much of what Samuel does (or predicts) for Saul proves him not only to be King, but also a priest, an anointed one (“Christ”). Saul was meant to represent the people not only nationally, politically, and militarily, but also morally and spiritually.

and yet, Saul doesn’t seem to take any confidence in what the Lord has done for him.

Saul’s first response is to hide.
contrast this to Samuel’s first response, which is to pray to The Lord (8:6).

boldness from humility

God will fight for His people.
He will raise up leaders to lead them.
He’ll put His Spirit in them.
if you’ve been baptized, that’s you!

take confidence in what the Lord has done for you.

people set their highest hopes on the best they can see.
our job as an ambassador of Christ is to show them or remind them of the higher hope.

when things are rough
when you are lonely
when you’re hurt
depressed
broke
disrespected
forgotten
when the best you can see is only what’s right in front of you,
believing is bold.
waiting on the Lord is bold.
taking matters into your own hands is arrogant.
and foolish.
and dangerous.

some are in survival mode, and you’re reaching for whatever (or whoever) is nearby to pacify.

some aren’t slaves to sin, but aren’t helping anyone else either.

God wants to save your lost friends.
He saved You.
He put His Spirit in you.
 He put you near them to get it done.
The Lord has made you into a new person.
are you going to accept your fearful responsibility?

2 Corinthians 5-6:2

two questions i’ll leave with you:
1) today is the day. let go of the old life. what are you clinging to out of fear or discouragement, and how are you going to let it go TODAY?
2) the time is now. you have a fearful responsibility. you have many lost friends. God has raised you up, put His Spirit in you, and made you a new person. why do you wait to bring others to what you’ve found? who will you tell the Good News of Jesus Christ to this week?

when the Israelites send the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord into battle, they are defeated, and the Ark is captured by the Philistines. while Israel is in chaos and shambles under poor leadership, the Philistines encounter the Holy God Almighty and send the Ark back into Israel out of fear. God, whose place is sitting in the mercy seat atop the Ark, sees that it is returned back to Israel, landing in the hands of a people who were charged with being caretakers of the temple.

map from bibleistrue.com

God effectively “turns back”. when we “turn back” in this way, we call it “repentance”.

the Ark had a purpose, and Israel forget its purpose and lost it to the Enemy. today, your heart has that same purpose. don’t forget your purpose.

repentance

it isn’t us fixing stuff.

‭‭Isaiah‬ ‭30:15‬

it is turning back to The Lord.

and The Lord doesn’t fix stuff.
He makes things new.
He doesn’t make bad things good; He makes dead things live.

Ephesians‬ ‭3:16-19‬

it isn’t only a one-time event; it is a lifestyle, a pursuit

‭‭2 Timothy‬ ‭2:22‬

its goal is Jesus

‭‭John‬ ‭8:25-29‬

it isn’t done alone.

‭‭James‬ ‭5:13-20‬

it is good news.

‭‭Proverbs‬ ‭3:11-12‬; ‭‭Matthew‬ ‭4:17‬; ‭‭Romans‬ ‭8:1-2‬

this week read

psalm 32

below are the notes i sent out on the FUEL GroupMe:

thanks to everyone who came this morning! thank you for being patient with me while we talk about a difficult subject. as i’ve said before, i speak first to myself, as i still need a lot of work to be the man God wants me to be. so i hope what i’m learning is encouraging to your journey as well.

sorry for the barrage of posts i’m about to do, but i wanted to include my notes from this morning since i had to go through them so quickly, plus offer up a couple of links.

first, i want to say that my goal is not to ask you to be a cessationist or a continuationist. rather, my desire is to encourage you to be obedient to Father, Son, and Spirit. and i can’t stress enough, the first way we do that is by obeying the unchanging Word of God, the Bible. if God wants to do something beyond that, that’s his business. please read 2 Peter 1:3-11 on your own.

If you’d like to think more about cessationism or continualism, here’s a couple of articles i came across for starters:

https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/why-i-a...

https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/why-i-a...

i’ve never heard of either of these guys, but they both point to Scripture as a primer for their views. as always, i encourage you to do your own prayerful study of Scripture. teaching and leadership are good, but God should have the first and last word. and always tread carefully when trying to put into words something the Bible does not put into words.

After reading 1 Samuel 2:27-4:1, we examined what happened with Samuel’s hearing The Lord.
1) Samuel was faithful in his service to The Lord.
– it began with his mother’s prayers
– it continued with his life of being obedient to the existing revelation of The Lord – The Law
2) The Lord chose to speak to Samuel.
– this is no small point.
– and why? for His own story, for all the people.
– Samuel did not make God speak to him; it was The Lord’s idea.
3) Samuel was mentored to listen to The Lord.
4) Samuel listened to The Lord.
5) Samuel did not let the prophecy inflate or deflate him; rather he went about his business of serving The Lord.
6) Samuel honored The Lord (and obeyed his mentor) by telling the truth and delivering the word of The Lord.
7) The word of The Lord was confirmed when it happened.
8) The Lord confirmed this gift over and over again to many people.

what might this mean for us?
1) be faithful in your service to The Lord. – 2 Timothy 3:16
– most of us need to just hang out here for a while.
– if we can’t fully obey the Sermon on the Mount, which we know, then why would God give us anything else?
2) The Lord chooses when He will speak. – 1 Corinthians 12:11
– if we are trying to make God talk to us rather than listening, we have it backwards and our motives are all wrong.
3) Get a mentor, preferably one who knows the Lord’s voice. – 1 Timothy 1:18
– God wants you to be discipled.
– if you can’t obey that, which is tangible and simple to discern and understand, why would He give you special prophecy?
4) Listen with your heart, mind, soul, & strength. – Ephesians 5:10
5) What we would call “prophecy” isn’t from you, and it isn’t for you. it’s not about you. – 1 Corinthians 14:29-33
6) Honor The Lord with obedience and boldness. – James 4:1-8
7) Give the Lord time to do His thing. – 1 Thessalonians 5:19-21
8) If prophecy is a gift from The Lord, then it belongs to Him. so do the praise, the glory, the honor, the respect, the fame, etc. – Zechariah 4:6

please read Scripture every day that you can. don’t just read it, but listen to it. eat it. digest it. internalize it. pray through it. let it change you. and if God’s Spirit wants to move through you in a very special way, let Him find you serving him and ready to listen and obey.