Woodland Friends Church

King Saul has been rejected, and who is the King that God wants? He's certainly not the king people go looking for from the get-go... but he's the exact kind of person that is close to the heart of God.

A rescue has occurred! A glorious, life-changing, world-altering rescue, and I can use those loaded terms when the hype is real! When the implications are true and accurate! - Easter 2021 Sermon

The Rome of Jesus’ day? It’s no more. But Jesus’ Kingdom still lives. Which one tried to sustain itself by power-grabbing, warring, and legislating? Rome tried. Which one sustained itself by the Gospel, by preaching, by loving and serving? Jesus’ Kingdom did, and it’s still here...

This is Saul’s chance! This is Saul’s chance right here, “Okay, I’m faking it! I wasn’t really sorry. But now I want to be. I see what sin does! You’ve slaughtered this animal and given to the flames, you’ve slaughtered this unrepentant Gentile, whose God’s judgment been over, how can I escape judgment, Samuel?”

Saul here is essentially dying for forgiveness. He needs to seek forgiveness, he needs to be forgiven. However, to use the language of NT author James, he’s been lured and enticed by his own desire. That desire is giving birth to sin, and it’s growing. Sadly the rest of 1 Samuel is going to give us a picture of that sin fully growing to eventually get to death. What can WE learn?

What kind of kingdom are you building? What kind of kingdom are you contributing to? Is your faith in an ideology? Is it faith in a political group that they see the threat we see and we trust them? Maybe it’s hope placed in a cause. maybe it’s hope placed in people who profess to be Christian, and they say they have the answers, and you haven’t noted the red flag that they’re proposing Jesus plus...

A lot of us do a lot of things in the Christian life out of guilt. “Gotta read my Bible. Gotta pray. Gotta go to church. Gotta perform, because then God will love me.” Good luck. God doesn’t save us or doesn’t love us because of who we are, He loves us because of who He is. What God wants with to do with Saul and what He wants to do with you is have it out about this sin problem. No charades. No t...

Things look grim. The King who would fight the wars for Israel is sitting, staring down defeat. The pagan enemies are numerous. The spiritual leadership of their nation is at odds with the King, and the King who once had a changed-heart and once prophesied, was corrupted. The Kingdom is corrupt. The so called holy-leaders that Saul is trying to rely on are corrupt. But from this corrupt King of a...

Saul was caught in disobedience, and it set the stage for his being denied the kingship over Israel. Instead of repenting, he chose to continue rebelling. This differs from many others who have been caught in their sin throughout the Scriptures, and in choosing repentance, they chose life abundantly.

This whole passage has upped the ante for the couple. Earlier in the book we’ve had scenes that take place in the bedroom. Now we see kind of an erotic love dance and then an invitation from her to go out into the countryside and… well you know. Within these scenes have been plot resolutions The path this couple took in dealing with changes is seeing them as opportunities - maybe even to have fun....

The CSB uses, "awe-inspiring as an army with banners." The actual word here for "awe-inspiring," in the Hebrew is more literally, “dreadful,” “terrible,” or “frightful.” I get it, the CSB and many translations want to choose a word that doesn’t have negative overtones. What’s lost though is the power of love here that the Bride has over the Groom. She is like a victorious army invading, conquering...

They’re selfish. He wants it when he wants it. She wants it when she’s finally been drawn out and thought about it. She denied him, so he’s going to deny her… Selfish. And in light of the whole story of the Book, this is just par for the course for what she’s been worried about! He’s the King. He’s getting home at some ungodly hour, “Oh nice of you to finally come home,” and this is what he wants?...

Jesus set up the perfect formula, if you want to use it that way, for us to follow on how to operate in marriage. He does it not based on performance. This is the Gospel. God is sacrificially forgiving. He forgives so much it hurts. Quite literally, to forgive us, His Son had to pay the price. That’s our standard in our marriages. Forgive so much it hurts. And truly forgive. Truly love. Truly say,...

Song of Songs presents a an ideal couple - and their eyes are only for each other. When problems come up, they don’t work through the problems by dwelling on past potential spouses, or imagining life without each other, they work it out together, because love is a chosen pursuit. She’s an aggressor, she takes offense on the relationship, the romance. She voices it, “Hey, I know you’re busy, make t...

Perhaps right up there with Revelation, Song of Solomon has been debated and disagreed upon for centuries. For much of church history, the predominant view has been that this book is NOT about sexuality and married love, but about Christ and the Church. The 19th century brought overwhelming change into finally taking the Book at its word. What does it have to say about our messed up world when IT...

Believe it or not, the proverbial Utopia has come in the power, work and grace of Jesus Christ! Even all this, though, is just a preamble! This is just a precursor! A foreshadow! A down-payment! Much remains. The fact that you and I can identify that something is profoundly wrong with our world, so much it compels us to want to get on the wagon of many causes in trying to fix it, tells us that we...

The fact that Paul is arguing for resurrection primarily and preeminently because of Christ’s resurrection should cause us to consider Christ’s resurrection. The Gospel accounts gives us a picture of a Resurrected Body in Jesus at least that is flesh, bones, tangible, that wants to eat, but has other, admittedly, super-natural, not-what-we’re-familiar-with abilities. What we see of the Resurrected...

The Second Coming, like Jesus’ first coming, provokes two predominant reactions. Consider: we have the joy of the shepherds. The wonder and awe of Mary and Joseph. The rest of Simeon. But also, we have the deeply disturbed sinners like Herod and the rest of Jerusalem. Because Jesus' coming means He’s in charge. So shall it be when He comes again!

Jesus doesn’t throw more laws, more rules, more regulations, more programs, more governmental incentives, more platforms at the problem, He goes to the problem itself, and He uproots it, and He gives sinners new hearts. He gives sinning people the very Spirit of Himself, and He lives through us! That’s what we need. But we wrestle. We sin again. We mess up. Sin gets done to us. The fall, the curse...

You and I are made, formed, created to be worshipers, is because even though you or I may not adoringly respond in heart and mind to the Spirit of God 24/7, we are nevertheless 24/7 adoringly responding in heart and mind to something. And you might say, “No, that’s not true, sometimes I’m just depressed,” and I’m just saying sometimes adoration leads people to depression when it’s not expressed, n...

You wouldn’t word it this way, but it seems like everything you pour your life into, you always come up empty! Depressed! Sad! More tragedy! More defeat! And so you think, “Do I need a new job?! Do I need a new location? Has this new hobby I’ve been enjoying lost its enjoyment? What’s the deal?” You're working for food that perishes....

The King doesn’t save Himself. He doesn’t get down off the cross. Rather He dies for the world to see. He dies for His opponents who just knew He wasn’t the Messiah, to die. He dies for His Disciples who were certain that He was the Messiah! For all those watching, Jesus died. But He was the King! He was the Messiah! He was bringing a Kingdom! He and the Disicples took a covenant together! So why...

The Church doesn’t describe a building but a people. Early Quakers called facilities Meetinghouses. Why? Because the Church meets in the meetinghouse, just like the church is welcome to meet on a hilltop, or in a town, at a park, in somebody’s backyard, in somebody’s house. The church doesn’t describe a building but a people... What does the Bible say the church is?

Baptism in the rest of the protestant church, versus baptism in the Quakers, is the symbol thing right? The rest of the protestants find rich symbolism in the immersion of water, and rising up in the new man. Quakers love symbolism. But they have higher standards than just water. They want the symbolism of the new inner life proven by the outer life. The actions. Outward affections.

In a perfect world we are created to reflect God’s image, which is a symbolic way of saying we are created to worship Him. Isaiah 43:7 says we were made for the glory of God, formed and made for Him. Verse 21 of that same chapter says we were formed for Himself to declare His praise. You need to understand this: airplanes are made to fly, toasters are made to toast bread, ovens are made to cook, c...