Bent Oak Church

David's defeat of Goliath produced a friendship with Jonathan, but will only serve to further enrage Saul. As the end of chapter 18 puts it, Saul would now continually be David's enemy. Saul and David's lives teach us a lot about enemies, even ones we might not have fully acknowledged.

David and Jonathan are one of the great pictures of friendship in the Bible. We need their story. We live in a world that's that's hard on friendship. Jonathan and David give us another way.

David and Goliath might be the most well-known story in the Bible. It has become a part of our cultural imagination. "The bigger they are, the harder they fall."But there is more to this story than just a giant. The chapter is shocked full of characters with advice and opinions. David finds himself at the center of it all. An unlikely place for a shepherd running errands for his dad.

John places Mary Magdolene at the center of the reserection story. It's not coincedence. Mary's story sets in place a reserection experience that we discover in our own lives

David had already been anointed king, but the story doesn't follow the plot we have come to expect. Where are the battles, the intrigue, the assassination, revolution? Instead, David becomes a musician performing for the crazed and rejected King Saul. But a story is developing beneath the surface—one David couldn't even realize.

David enters the story halfway through the book of 1 Samuel. David's story will pick up, just as Saul's is coming undone. But David's story can be hard to read. We have heard it so many times, we tend to read what we want and move too quickly past the parts that make us uncomfortable. There is plenty to make us uncomfortable. David's story is complicated. But we learn from his...

Chapter 15 is Saul's final chapter. He will continue to be king for years to come, but it won't be under God's authority. It will be an empty title. An empty title for an empty man. Saul's life has been hollowed out. The image is still there. He still has is reputation and his self-delusions, but there is little that remains interested in God and faithfulness.

Saul's world is unraveling. He is becoming desperate, even paranoid. Convinced he needs to be at the center of the victory he is watching, Saul again rushes to action. This time a forced fast he forces on his army. It will come with difficult consequences, but it teaches us about our own desperate need to stay in control.

The story of Jonathan and his armor bearer's assault on the Philistine garrison is one of the greatest in scripture. You can't help but be amazed at their courage. But this is still Saul's story; Jonathan's faith only highlights Saul's unraveling power. The two teach us about true courage and our own willingness to take risks.

As well as things seemed to be going for Saul, chapter 13 brings it all to an abrupt halt. Things are unraveling. Saul's army is deserting. The Israelites fleeing out of the promise land. And Saul is desperate. He waits as long as he can for Samuel, but finally, is overcome by the pressure of the moment and offers the sacrifice himself. It seems like a small sin to us—impatience. But for it S...

Saul is shaping up to be a great king. He looks the part. Is spiritual life seems to be flourishing and he is about to lead Israel in one of its greatest victories over the Ammonites. But more is going on than we first see. Israel sees all the good times as proof of a king's benefit. They draw the wrong conclusions and end up drifting away from God.

Finally, we get introduced to Saul. He will be crowned the first king of Israel. He looks every bit a king: tall, dark, from an aristocratic family. By all appearances, Saul is exactly what everyone had been hoping for. Saul was exactly what Israel had asked for—a king like all the other nations. He would become an object lesson in the consequences of self-rule and pragmatism.

Chapter 8 is one of the most important events in Israel's history. Their demand for a king would set off a roller coaster ride of achievements and brutalizing oppression that would stretch across a significant part of the Old Testament. Ultimately it would cost Isreal so much of the peace and rest God had restored. Worse than the outcome, God recognized their request was really a rejection of...

Samuel is finally back in the story, and none too soon. Israel is lamenting, devastated by the last three chapter's events. It looks like repentance, but Samuel digs deeper. True repentance is more than sorrow or guilt. Samuel leads Israel into. He teaches us what it looks like to repent with our whole hearts.

The ark returns to Israel. We can only imagine how excited the Israelites working in their fields must have been to seen it. It was a miracle. The Israelites immediately begin to worship. They are quick to make sacrifices but has everyone missed the point? Why had the ark been lost to begin with? Had anything in Israel actually changed because of it? Chapter 6 forces Israel to take a hard look at...

The glory of God continues to move the story. Israel had tried to use God as an object and robbed his glory for themselves. Now they had lost the ark, the central symbol of God's personal relationship and history with them as his people. It's now the Philistines' turn. They too learn the painful less, God's glory can not be defined, used, or stolen. God will be glorified. We le...

The ark is lost. It is one of the lowest most devastating moments in Israel's history. Who could it have happened? The author of the books of Samuel is making a startling point. Israel thought they had gone; they thought they could carry the ark into battle and be assured of victory. But their crushing defeat was a remidner—God is not an object. We too slide into the temptation of objectifyin...

Israel is a barren place. Worship has disintegrated. Eli, the High Preist, seems distracted and his sons rob the worshipers of their sacrifices and women. 1 Samuel tells us that, "The word of the Lord was rare in those days."We too know what it feels like to be distant from God. To remember his voice and find little evidence of it around us. But God calls Samuel. It is a bit of hope. God...

1 Samuel introduces us to a new character, Hannah. She is barren. Israel is barren. With no son and no king, disappointment and discouragement rule the land. Hannah finds little help from those around her. Culture, family, religion—all offer advice. Some of it sounds good, others leave her feeling crushed. But they are all distractions from what God is actually doing. Hannah finds a way through. A...

Simeon didn't know what he was looking for, but he kept watching. The Holy Spirit compelled him. God was up to something—he wasn't sure what. But he was watching for it. Simeon teaches us to look for more this Christmas. He teaches us to watch for salvation.

Jesus ends his prayer with a view toward the future. He realizes that what lies ahead will be full of temptations—most that we will struggle to recognize. He teaches us to open our eyes and pay attention.

Jesus' insistence that we routinely pray for forgiveness is a reminder of how deep our sins are. Jesus doesn't just teach us to pray for forgiveness; he teaches us to practice it in our own forgiving.

Asking for things we need is probably the most common request of prayer. Jesus teaches us to practice is, but he also forces to ask deeper questions about what it is we really need.

Not a single politician anywhere in the country is running with a campaign slogan that promises meekness. We aren't even sure we like being described by the term. But Jesus says that it is, in fact, the meek who will inherit the earth.

We pray a lot about the will of God—mostly hoping God will let us know what's around the corner. In this sermon we discover what it means to pray for Gods will to be done, not just to be known.