Real People - Real Problems - Wrap Up Series

Real people – Real problems

Wrap up

1 Samuel chapters 1-15

For the last several months

We have been studying the great book of 1 Samuel and looking at Real People of the bible

Who like us- had real problems

We will continue our study of these writings next year when we began a study on the life of King David

But for now, we are going to close out this series

A lot has gone on in this book

In this church

In this world and in our personal lives since we began this study

We started and completed our new construction

Our youth ministry has flourished

We have had new members

New believers

And many baptisms

Babies have been born

And some of us have retired

In the world

2 times since we started this series we have had to take a break and address the evil in the world

I have no doubt we could have addressed much more of it

But that too is biblical

Read the book of Revelation and you will see

That things are going just as God’s word said they would

So

In the midst of evil

We

As believers are to be a light in the darkness

We are to overcome

To survive

But to thrive

And spread the love and mercy of Christ wherever we may go

Today is going to be a recap

We started this series on Mothers day

Our first sermon covered Hannah

We studied 1 Samuel chapter 1

And in this sermon, we saw that Real People of Faith

Deal with real problems in 5 ways

They place God first in their lives

They pray intensely

Experience God’ s provision

They Keep their promises

And they

They praise and worship God

Hannah is a great example of how to overcome the hardships in our lives

And a great example of How God blesses those who give him everything

In the next sermon

Titled---- Kid Problems

We saw haw we should not overcome or react to problems

We looked at Eli and his wicked sons Hophni and Phinehas

Eli was the priest

But he failed to discipline his sons

He looked the other way

And even embraced their wrong doing

And even profited from their wrong doing

James 4:17 came up several times in this sermon

James 4:17

“Remember ,it is a sin to know what you ought to do and then not do it”

As a result

Eli and his family lost the blessing that God had planned for them

Next we moved into a 3 week mini series within a series titled

“ Hearing God”

We saw that Samuel

Who had been dedicated to God by His mother Hannah

Listened when God called

He responded with the words

“Speak your servant is listening”

And he began the process of becoming and serving as God’s man

God’s prophet

Because of his obedience

I used the illustration of the pack challenge in at the bishop mule days in Bishop California

As an example of just how had it can be to listen to God

In the confusion and Chaos in this word

And how we must

Intently listen for the sound of God’s voice

We also took our first look at how God speaks to us--his sheep

He speaks through the Holy Spirit- speaking directly our hearts

He speaks to us through his word

He speaks to us through his church

And he speaks to us though his creation

And he speaks to us though his Son Jesus Christ

The next week took another look at “Hearing God”

But we looked at some barriers to hearing God

Why we don’t listen and why we don’t hear

Inexperience was the first

And we learned that in order to gain the needed experience we must seek it

Psalm 86:11

“Teach me your ways O Lord

So I may live according to your truth”

Lack of expectations was the next

Unwillingness was next

And Sin in our lives was the last

The next week we covered the benefits of hearing God with one more of the hearing God sermons

It was also Father’s Day

So the sermon pulled double duty

Salvation

Finding your purpose

Leading others in the right path

Were all benefits of really hearing God

And we applied pressure to the men in the home to step up and become the old dog in a young dogs life

And teach them the ways of God

Next, we moved into another series within series

Titled “knowing God”

In part 4a

“The Israelite view”

We looked at the nation of Israel’s view of God

I used a scene from Young Guns

Where a dude claimed he knew Billy the kid

But only knew him in theory

Because he did not recognize him in person