Have you ever gone to a restaurant, hung up your coat or umbrella, and noticed a sign warning that the management is not responsible if it gets lost or stolen? Have you ever read the small print on your airplane ticket? The airline takes no responsibility for any delays or missed connections, and if your baggage is lost, they only have to pay an amount agreed upon at a convention that was held in Warsaw in 1955. Or, parked your car in some high-priced garage or lot, and a sign will tell you that management is not responsible for any items lost or stolen from your vehicle. As pastor continues this week in the series, “Squandered”, we will take a look at King Saul who did not want the responsibility for leading his nation. As anticipation built to the official coronation, Saul was nowhere to be found—the would-be king “is hiding among the stuff”. If we’ve walked earth’s sod for any number of years, we’ve picked up our own stuff along the way. Things that have happened to us in the past. Where we’ve come from. What was done to us. Things we’ve done ourselves. Experiences. Circumstances. Offenses. Conversations. Rejections. Abuses. Cuts. Bruises. Gaping wounds, sometimes scabbed, picked, and oozing poison once again. We hide because of them. We hide behind them. We hide amidst and among them…..and we shirk our responsibilities and go nowhere. We go nowhere in our marriages…we go nowhere in our families…we go nowhere in our church---because we don’t want the responsibility.

This week in the series, "Squandered" , we will look at the dramatic and tragic account of the results of disobeying God. The Lord’s instructions to Saul had been very specific. He was to totally destroy the Amalekites. Nothing, including their livestock, was to be spared. Saul slaughtered their army, but he spared the life of Agag, their king. He also kept the finest livestock, rationalizing his disobedience by devoting them to sacrifices to the Lord. But, there is no justification for disobeying God. God wants to bless us and God desires to see us succeed, but the minute we think we can ignore God's commands, the minute we believe we can disregard God's directives sends us into a downward spiral into depths we never thought we'd go. One little lie, one excuse, one little flirt, one drink, one look, and and little by little the enemy wraps a web of sin around us, just like Saul, until we feel as though we are powerless to break free. Things we never imagined we'd do now don't seem so bad.

Very few things in life are more difficult to bear than feeling that our life doesn't matter. And few things in life are more important than finding a way to make a difference in this world. And, just how can one spend a lifetime and squander opportunities to make that difference? Robert Clinton has studied and written a great deal about leadership. Clinton's research shows that over 70% of leaders don't finish well. For Christians he offers six factors that contribute to leadership failure:

Leaders quit learning and growing.Character weakness.They settle for the short-term.They forget their influence and purpose.Leaders who end poorly lose their vibrant relationship with God. Such is the leader we will consider in the new series that begins this week, "Squandered". Bill Crowder, in his work "Poor Choices and Missed Opportunities", puts it this way, "Saul was blessed with potential and opportunity. But through a series of bad choices, he became a tragic example of a wasted life." Saul was more like us than we care to admit. Join us as we take a look at some defining moments of his life and learn how we can avoid falling into the same consequences that robbed him of so much potential for good.

shopping and returned to her car? She found four men inside. She dropped her shopping bags and drew a handgun. She pointed the gun toward the men and screamed for them to get out of her car. They flew out of there like crazy. Somewhat shaken, she put her gun away, picked up her bags, and got into the front seat. But for some reason the key would not fit the ignition. Then it dawned on her; this was not her car. Her car was in the next row. So she found her car and drove down to the police station to turn herself in. As she told her story the officer behind the desk who was about ready to fall out of his chair laughing pointed her to another desk where four men were reporting a carjacking by a little old woman with a handgun! She thought it was her car, but it really belonged to someone else. We think what we have is ours-we earned it, we worked for it, it's ours. Except that it isn't. It's God's. All of it! Since we have been entrusted with God's property, we need to learn how to put it to use for God's purpose in the world. This week we learn from the "parable of the talents" that EVERYTHING IS BORROWED.

Have the ways of God ever baffled you? Can you identify times when you simply could not understand what God was doing, why He was allowing this or that to take place in your life? This week Pastor Aaron will take us to the most amazing passage in Scripture, the raising of Lazarus from the dead. This is just one of many times Jesus totally confounds His disciples. They simply can’t understand His actions. The irony is that when the ways of God seem baffling, it is because He is about to do something amazing. What Christ can do in our lives is not bound by human limitations. Truly, if Jesus had been at the side of Lazarus as he lay dying, He would doubtless have intervened and healed him, but it could not compare to the miracle that God in infinite wisdom wanted to do, the miracle that came about because Jesus had a different plan. So this Sunday, right now in your life, whatever your circumstances, whatever your unanswered prayer, whatever you are having to patiently endure right now, this message is for you. Through it all, God is going to amaze you!

Imagine yourself suspended, a thousand feet up, on the face of Mt. Everest, a single-strand rope your only lifeline, and the rope you’ve chosen is rubbing against the sharp edge of the rock and is beginning to fray…That story will not end well! No one in their right mind would embark on such a climb with a single-strand rope. To do so would be utter foolishness. Wise experienced climbers would use abrasion-resistant, multi-strand climbing ropes, and they carefully inspect their ropes before each climb. It’s a matter of life or death! Now, think of the analogy of the strength of a multi-strand rope in the context of the church. The faithful strengthening that comes from woven companionship can always be trusted. This week Pastor Drew will take us to Ecclesiastes and the wise King Solomon who saw the wisdom and the value of groups over individual efforts.

Traditional thinking in American Protestant culture values individual time with God. We promote that as the center of spiritual growth:

Master the art of “quiet time”—just you and God.

Read the Bible for yourself.

Listen to a podcast by yourself.

Go into the closet, shut the door, and pray.

All of this is good, you do need time alone with God. But somehow, this bleeds into our worship services, too. We sit in a worship center in a classroom setting, with rows of chairs. One person, the teacher or preacher, proclaims the Truth we need to digest. With our rows of people, quiet services, quiet times with God, and personal spiritually growth plans we often inadvertently push people towards an individualistic faith. It’s kind of like a pretty tea pot that sits on the shelf but is never used to pour tea. Seating people in rows does not build community, fellowship or interaction. Something special takes place when you move out of rows and into circles. A spiritual formation happens that moves those involved from monologue to dialogue, from consumers to participants, from renters to owners, and from performance to empowerment. Be in your seat this week as Pastor Drew shares “Circles Are Better Than Rows” and we hear from some who share their story of how life change happened for them in Small Groups.

In recent years, sociologists and educators across the political spectrum have encouraged families to do one simple thing to maintain connection with one another: EAT. The issue isn’t just eating, of course. That’s a non-negotiable for all biological organisms. The issue is eat together. The family dinner might seem cute and outdated in a mobile, crazy-busy current age, but there’s something of importance here. Parents often wolf down, in a car seat, a bagged meal they’ve ordered through a clown’s mouth, in order to get to another soccer practice. Children often eat dinner from a desk, alone, in their rooms, texting friends and playing video-games. A family dinner, though, creates a connection. As Christians, we ought to know this, from the church. In fact, Jesus, Himself, instituted this family supper when He instructed His disciples. “Do this in remembrance of me” (Luke 22:19), and Paul twice applies the phrase “in remembrance of me” in his instructions to the church (1 Corinthians 11:24-25). The Lord’s Supper is our common bond to remind us salvation was only possible through the sacrifice of Christ on our behalf. This week, Pastor will call us to the table, where we’ll receive afresh the Gospel of Christ, respond in faith, and knit our hearts together in the bread and cup we share. And in doing so, we will look not only to the past and remember what He has done, and not only to present and growing union with Him, but also to the future and the full family feast that is to come.