Scripture: 1 Samuel 13 I. If you don’t obey God, God cannot bless your future. A. 1 Samuel 13 opens with another battle between Israel and those pesky Philistines. King Saul’s son Jonathan wins a battle against the Philistines (vs. 3), and the Philistines retaliate big time. So, what was King Saul going to do? Saul…

Scripture: 1 Samuel 12 I. God’s verdict is that His people are unfaithful. A. The main complaint that God has to bring against His people is found in vs. 12. God had made a covenant with His people. A covenant is a chosen relationship in which two parties make binding promises to each other. Israel…

Scripture: 1 Samuel 11 I. God saves you when there is no one else who can save you. A.  Back in 1 Samuel 8:20 the people of Israel told Samuel they wanted a king who would go out before them and fight their battles. Now Saul is going to fight his first battle as king.…

Scripture: 1 Samuel 8 I. We leave God behind for substitutes. A. Instead of worshiping the one true God, we worship substitutes for God. Earlier in its history, God had anticipated Israel wanting a king. Deuteronomy 17:14-15: “When you come to the land that the LORD your God is giving you, and you possess it and dwell…

Scripture: 1 Samuel 7:3-17 I. God helps us stand before Him by leading us to repentance. A. The people were sad that their sins had separated them from their God (vs. 2). The key word in verse 3 is the word return. Israel was finally returning to the LORD. They were repenting. The word repent means…

Scripture: 1 Samuel 6:1-7:2 I. God reveals His holiness to unbelievers. A. In 1 Sam. 6:1 we see that after the ark of the Lord had been captured by the Philistines, it stayed with the Philistines in their country for seven months. During those seven months, God was doing some serious damage to the Philistines.…

Scripture: 1 Samuel 5 I. The LORD is greater than idols. A. In vs. 1-2 we see what the Philistines did after they had defeated the Israelites in battle and had captured the ark of the LORD. The Philistines were making a statement by putting the ark of the LORD beside their god Dagon. They…

May 30, 2021 Scripture: 1 Samuel 4:1b-11 I. You need to put your trust in God, not in religious good-luck charms. A. 1 Samuel 4:1 we read about how the Israelites go out to fight the Philistines. And who won according to vs. 2? “Israel was defeated before the Philistines, who killed about four thousand…

Scripture: 1 Samuel 3:1-4:1a I. Sometimes God speaks rarely. A. We see God spoke rarely in Israel when Samuel was a boy in 1 Sam. 3:1. But we move in this chapter from a nation where the word of God was rare to a place where the word of God reached all Israel in 1…

May 16, 2021 Scripture: 1 Samuel 2:11-36 I. God will bring low the proud in His house. A. When people came to the tabernacle seeking forgiveness from God, they would bring an animal to sacrifice. According to Leviticus 7:28-36, the priests were supposed to receive the breast and the right leg of the animal so…