1 Samuel: Finding a leader to follow (Page 2)

The topic of “worship” is bound to cause some debate in many Christian circles. And it’s true that over the past 50 years many different “styles” of worship have emerged. So which is the right way to worship God? King Saul’s view was typical of many people today, but God was not impressed. In God’s words: “To obey is better than sacrifice”. In today’s message Pastor Murray explains how easily we can mistake our own selfish (and sinful) ideas of how to please God with the true worship that God desires. And it has less to do with church services and music than we often think!

King Saul was physically impressive but what does God think of him? That’s the question facing us in today’s passage. The Philistines amassed a huge army and Saul was confronted with a massive problem. His military resources were minuscule by comparison. What would he do? How would he respond? And most importantly, where would God figure in this response? In actual fact, this was a critical test for Saul, and sadly, he failed miserably. He took matters into his own hands rather than wait for God and obey Him. God is still looking for people today who will trust and obey Him. When our test comes will He find us faithful?

The question of who you can trust to lead you is just as important today as it was 1000 years BC. Somehow, the Israelites thought that a human king would do a better job as their king than God. History would show how disastrous that idea was, but that’s another story! God did allow them to have a king, but in the process of establishing this new kingdom we learn a lot about God’s idea of leadership. True leaders never have absolute authority. They serve under God and assist Him in leading people and nations. That goes for the President of America and any other human leader. Sadly, all human leaders have their weaknesses and fail at certain points. Only one leader can be trusted to lead us perfectly and that is Jesus Christ, who is the King of kings and Lord of lords. Is He your king? If not, why not give your life to Him today and let Him rule over you. His kingdom lasts forever.

Who doesn’t know the feeling of wishing they could undo some aspect of the past and start all over again! We all know the shame (and perhaps embarrassment) of these passages of life. In today’s message we see how the Israelites made a fresh start with God. For more than 20 years they had treated God with disrespect. They had given in to the temptations and worshipped the idols of the Canaanites, but this way of life only led to misery …. and they knew why. Under their godly leader Samuel, the people repented and turned back to the Lord, and what a difference that made! Is it time for you to do the same?

How do you view God? It is virtually impossible to describe Him in a short, simple sentence. And most definitions are hopelessly inadequate. However, in 1 Samuel 5-6 we see the way God dealt with the Philistine and israelite people through their involvement with the ark of the covenant, and through these interactions we see things about God that are very sobering …… His absolute authority, His terrifying power, and His awe-some holiness. Yes, God does want us to have a deeply personal relationship with Him, but we must never become casual or overly familiar with Him. He is GOD in the fullest sense and always deserves our worship, awe and fear.

It’s common to find people who view God as a kind of last resort ….. “when all else fails, try God”. Since the beginning of time people have tried to manipulate God and harness His power, especially in those times when He’s our only hope. The Israelites were in big trouble in their battle against the Philistines and they tried to “use” God in this way but it failed miserably. I wonder how many of us have been guilty of doing the same thing?

It is a fact of life today that people are cynical about leaders. We know that we need good leaders, but we don’t want to trust them (too much!). This is specially obvious in the world of politics, but is also evident in the church. In today’s message we see how badly the spiritual leaders of Israel failed their people around 1050 BC. The nation was crying out for some godly leadership, but sadly they got opposite. For many it seemed that God had given up on them. But though He had rejected Eli and his family as priests, God was preparing a future leader in Samuel, and an even greater leader in Jesus Christ. Our human leaders will let us down, but Jesus will never fail us. You can always trust Him.

For many people belief in God is an abstract, intellectual idea. They are happy to tick a box on a census form and identify themselves as ‘Christian’, but there is no genuine relationship. There is ‘heart experience’ and no life change. In today’s message we meet a woman whose experience of God in her life was deep and real, and it overflowed into the way she viewed every detail of life. It is wrong for us to domesticate God and expect Him conform to our limited human worldview. But when we come to appreciate how great and wonderful he really is, then our relationship with Him will be fresh and living, and Hannah’s joy will be ours, too.