Saul won the battle. He just didn't finish the job. In this message, Jon Shaw walks through one of the most uncomfortable chapters in Saul's story, the moment his partial obedience became permanent, and shows how it's not nearly as ancient a problem as it looks.

Saul didn't disobey by accident. He ran God's command through a cost filter, keeping everything valuable and calling the rest worthless. And when Samuel showed up, Saul didn't confess. He built a monument to a version of himself that never actually obeyed. This episode looks at how easily we do the same thing, dressing up what we've kept in the language of stewardship, boundaries, and wisdom.

In this episode:

• Why Saul's disobedience was precise, not accidental
• The difference between decluttering and actually surrendering something to God
• How self-justification quietly works on all of us, not just Saul
• What it means to hear God instead of just bringing Him something

Scripture referenced: 1 Samuel 15:1-35, Deuteronomy 25, Philippians 2

Who is speaking into your life right now?

Not who you wish was there. Not who used to be there. Who actually has access to your real life right now. Your doubts, your decisions, your direction, your identity. Because those voices are shaping you every single day whether you are paying attention or not.

Proverbs 13:20 says walk with the wise and become wise, for a companion of fools suffers harm. That is a warning and a promise sitting in the same sentence. And most of us have never stopped long enough to actually audit who we are walking with and what it is costing us or building in us.

In the season finale of The Lakeside Church Podcast we are having one of the most honest and personal conversations of the entire season. Who made you who you are. Who you are choosing to let close now. How to discern the voices that need to go. And what it looks like to show up as that person for someone else.

In this episode you will discover:

• Why proximity is not the same as access and not everyone has earned the right to speak into your life
• How to identify the subtle voices that have been quietly pulling you in the wrong direction
• What it looks like to lovingly but firmly create distance from a voice that is costing you something
• Why being a consistent trustworthy voice for someone else is one of the most powerful things you can do
• The first practical step for anyone who genuinely does not have a person in their corner right now

You were never meant to do this alone. Not faith. Not life. Not the hard seasons or the good ones. God has always worked through people. He still does. And the right voice at the right moment can change everything.

Thank you for being part of Season 1 of The Lakeside Church Podcast. We are just getting started.

Saul wasn't campaigning for a crown. He was just looking for his father's lost donkeys, doing an ordinary job on an ordinary day. But God was already leading him toward something Saul never saw coming.

In this first message of A Heart In Decline, we begin the story of Saul, a man who had everything Israel thought they wanted, the height, the strength, the appearance of a king, but who still had a heart that needed forming. We look at how God meets us in ordinary responsibilities, provides what we lack, and calls us out of the places we hide our insecurities.

In this episode:

• How an ordinary errand became the doorway to Saul's calling
• Why giftedness can open a door your character isn't ready to keep open
• The moment Saul hid from the very calling he had already been given
• What it means to let God keep forming you, even after you've been chosen

Scripture referenced: 1 Samuel 9:1-8, 9:19-20, 10:9-10, 10:21-25, Colossians 3:1-2

Israel had a real problem. Samuel's sons, the men appointed to lead after him, were dishonest and corrupt. But instead of taking that problem to God, the people ran straight past Him and asked for a king instead, one just like all the other nations had.

In this final message of A Heart That Hears, we look at what happens when we let fear write our solutions instead of trusting God with our problems, and why the human answer to a God-sized problem will always fall short.

In this episode:

• Why having a real problem doesn't mean every solution is a good solution
• The difference between Samuel's response and Israel's response to hard news
• How God's warnings can actually be a form of His mercy
• What it looks like to stay willing to listen, even when you don't like the answer

Scripture referenced: 1 Samuel 7:10-11, 8:1-20

Samuel grew up in one of the hardest environments the Bible describes. Corruption. Chaos. Everyone doing what was right in their own eyes. And in the middle of it, God found a boy with a heart that listened.

This week we continue A Heart That Hears by looking at what it actually means to hear God's call and respond to it. From the tabernacle at Shiloh to the ancient prayer of the Shema, we unpack what biblical listening really looks like, and why it always ends in action, not just understanding.

In this episode:

• Why the environment you grow up in doesn't have to determine your future
• What it means when God calls someone's name twice in Scripture
• The stages of biblical listening, and where most of us get stuck
• How one boy's "here I am" became the spark for a national revival

Scripture referenced: 1 Samuel 3:1-3, 3:19-20, Exodus 25:8, Judges 21:25

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At Lakeside Church, we believe that because people matter to God, they matter to us.
We exist to be a bridge, helping people move from where they are to where God wants them to be. Through biblical teaching, authentic community, and Spirit-led worship, we desire to see lives transformed by Jesus Christ.

Join us on campus in person at 9:00a + 10:45a!5800 Lake Oconee Parkway, Greensboro, GA

Last week we met Hannah. This week, her son Samuel is growing up in the tabernacle under the priest Eli, right alongside Eli's two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, who are also priests but have quietly stopped living with any reverence for God. In this message, we look at what happens when reverence is lost, self-service always moves in to take its place, and we watch that play out in real time as Eli's sons abuse their position while Samuel is simply, faithfully formed in God's presence. We also see what happens when a father sees the problem and doesn't act on it. If you've ever been busy doing the work of the Lord while slowly losing sight of the Lord of the work, this episode is for you. Subscribe for the rest of this series, and if you're local, join us in person Sunday mornings at Lakeside Church.

Before there was a prophet named Samuel, there was a mother named Hannah. Heartbroken, mocked by her rival, and carrying a pain no one else could fully understand, Hannah brought her honest, unedited grief straight to God. She didn't get her answer right away. But she did get something just as important: a place to carry it.

This week, we open our new series, A Heart That Hears, by looking at what it means to bring our pain honestly to the Lord and trust Him with what matters most to us.

In this episode:

• Why Hannah's pain was real, but it never defined her worth
• What it means to bring a broken, honest heart before God
• The moment Hannah surrendered the very answer she prayed for
• How God took an empty place and used it to shape a nation

You have a story. And there is a good chance you have been sitting on it.

Maybe it feels too messy. Too personal. Too unfinished to hand to someone else. Or maybe you shared it once and it didn't land the way you hoped. So you tucked it back in and decided to keep it close.

But here is what Revelation 12:11 makes impossible to ignore. They triumphed over him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony. Not just the blood of the Lamb. The word of their testimony. There is something that happens when a redeemed person opens their mouth and says this is what God did in my life. It is not just vulnerable. It is not just therapeutic. It is powerful in a way that goes beyond what we can fully explain.

Your story was never just for you. It was always meant for someone else. The person sitting across from you. The one scrolling at 11pm wondering if God is real. The one in your family who has been watching your life from a distance and is closer to a conversation than you think.

In Episode 7 of The Lakeside Church Podcast we are getting honest about what keeps us from sharing our story, who it is actually for, and what it looks like to carry it in a way that points to God and not just to yourself.

In this episode you will discover:

• Why your testimony is not a trophy but a tool and tools are meant to be used
• What actually happens spiritually when a redeemed person tells their story out loud
• How to share something deeply personal without making it about yourself
• Why staying silent about what God has done is not humility, it is withholding
• How to create space in your everyday relationships for these conversations to happen naturally

You don't need a platform. You don't need a perfect story with a clean ending. You just need to be willing to go first. Because your story was always meant for them.

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Lakeside Church at Lake Oconee

5800 Lake Oconee Pkwy | Greensboro, GA

Sundays at 9:00a + 10:45a

For six weeks, Lakeside has listened to real people tell real stories of what God has done in their lives. Different struggles, different seasons, different victories, but every single one pointed to the same truth: the Lord is good.

In this final message of the Lakeside Stories series, we look at Psalm 107 and James 1 together and find the same pattern showing up again and again: people find themselves in trouble, they cry out to the Lord, God meets them in their distress, and they give thanks for His faithful love. James takes it further and tells us why: God uses every season to shape us into who He created us to be. Pain is never wasted. Perseverance isn't the absence of struggle, it's choosing to keep trusting God in the middle of it.

Whether you're walking through a diagnosis, a hard season at home, or just feeling tired and unseen, this message is for you. Subscribe for more from this series, and if you're in the Lake Oconee area, come be part of it in person on Sunday mornings at Lakeside Church at 9:00a + 10:45a.

Everyone around Bartimaeus had already made up their mind about him. Blind. Beggar. Sitting on the side of the road outside Jericho while thousands of Passover pilgrims passed by. He was known by his condition, overlooked by the crowd, and dismissed before he ever opened his mouth.

Then Jesus walked by. And everything changed.

In this episode of The Redeemed: Lakeside Stories, we open Mark 10:46-52 and follow Bartimaeus through one of the most powerful seven-verse testimonies in all of Scripture. A man who refused to let shame keep him silent. A crowd that tried to shut him down. And a Jesus on His final journey to Jerusalem who stopped for the one person nobody else would stop for.

In this episode you'll discover:

• Why Bartimaeus calling Jesus "Son of David" was a bold declaration of faith, not just a request
• How shame tries to keep us silent and what it looks like to cry out in faith anyway
• Why the crowd is always fickle and why Jesus is never moved by what moves the crowd
• What it meant for Bartimaeus to throw aside his cloak before the miracle ever came
• How Jesus didn't just restore his sight but gave him a completely new identity

The crowd doesn't get the final word. It never did. And the same Jesus who stopped for Bartimaeus is still stopping today.