Standing Tall, Falling Hard

The Story

Nov 10

Written By Westside Family Church

Teaching Notes

We have only one true King.

What a great opportunity to live from the Upper Story!

Will your Jesusfeed be greater than your newsfeed?

Confessional:

We are an Upper Story People and we have but one King.

We are civic-minded but Christ-convicted.

We have strong affiliations but only one true allegiance

We obey all authority but are beholden to only One.

In this lower story, we seek to be humble, faithful, and patient.

In these times of uncertainty, we speak peace and live from peace-

knowing that we stand upon rock and not sifting sand.

We welcome our neighbors and love our enemies.

We pray for those who persecute us and the yard signs that provoke us

Our faith is not in pundits but in the promises of God–

which are Christ incarnate, Christ crucified, Christ buried, Christ risen,

Christ ascended, Christ seated today on the throne,

and Christ’s coming soon to make all things new.

So fling wide you heavenly gates.

We make way for the Coming King, Jesus the Christ, our Lord.

He is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning

and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything

he might have the supremacy. And in Him all things hold together.

Amen.

But Saul said, “No one will be put to death today, for this day the Lord has rescued Israel.”

1 Samuel 11:13

Early in the morning Samuel got up and went to meet Saul, but he was told, “Saul has gone to Carmel.There he has set up a monument in his own honor and has turned and gone on down to Gilgal.” When Samuel reached him, Saul said, “The Lord bless you! I have carried out the Lord’s instructions.” But Samuel said, “What then is this bleating of sheep in my ears? What is this lowing of cattle that I hear?” Saul answered, “The soldiers brought them from the Amalekites; they spared the best of the sheep and cattle to sacrifice to the Lord your God, but we totally destroyed the rest.” “Enough!” Samuel said to Saul. “Let me tell you what the Lord said to me last night.” “Tell me,” Saul replied. Samuel said, “Although you were once small in your own eyes, did you not become the head of the tribes of Israel? The Lord anointed you king over Israel.And he sent you on a mission, saying, ‘Go and completely destroy those wicked people, the Amalekites; wage war against them until you have wiped them out.’ Why did you not obey the Lord? Why did you pounce on the plunder and do evil in the eyes of the Lord?” “But I did obey the Lord,” Saul said. “I went on the mission the Lord assigned me. I completely destroyed the Amalekites and brought back Agag their king. The soldiers took sheep and cattle from the plunder, the best of what was devoted to God, in order to sacrifice them to the Lord your God at Gilgal.” But Samuel replied: “Does the Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the Lord? To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of rams. For rebellion is like the sin of divination, and arrogance like the evil of idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, he has rejected you as king.” Then Saul said to Samuel, “I have sinned. I violated the Lord’s command and your instructions. I was afraid of the men and so I gave in to them. Now I beg you, forgive my sin and come back with me, so that I may worship the Lord.” But Samuel said to him, “I will not go back with you. You have rejected the word of the Lord, and the Lord has rejected you as king over Israel!” As Samuel turned to leave, Saul caught hold of the hem of his robe, and it tore. Samuel said to him, “The Lord has torn the kingdom of Israel from you today and has given it to one of your neighbors—to one better than you. He who is the Glory of Israel does not lie or change his mind; for he is not a human being, that he should change his mind.” Saul replied, “I have sinned. But please honor me before the elders of my people and before Israel; come back with me, so that I may worship the Lord your God.” So Samuel went back with Saul, and Saul worshiped the Lord. Then Samuel said, “Bring me Agag king of the Amalekites.” Agag came to him in chains. And he thought, “Surely the bitterness of death is past.” But Samuel said, “As your sword has made women childless, so will your mother be childless among women.” And Samuel put Agag to death before the Lord at Gilgal. Then Samuel left for Ramah, but Saul went up to his home in Gibeah of Saul. Until the day Samuel died, he did not go to see Saul again, though Samuel mourned for him. And the Lord regretted that he had made Saul king over Israel.

1 Samuel 15:12-35

In wanting a King, the people demanded their lower story become their only story.

But when they said, “Give us a king to lead us,” this displeased Samuel; so he prayed to the Lord. And the Lord told him: “Listen to all that the people are saying to you; it is not you they have rejected, but they have rejected me as their king. As they have done from the day I brought them up out of Egypt until this day, forsaking me and serving other gods, so they are doing to you. Now listen to them; but warn them solemnly and let them know what the king who will reign over them will claim as his rights.”

1 Samuel 8:6-9

“What is an idol? It is anything more important to you than God, anything that absorbs your heart and imagination more than God, anything you seek to give you what only God can give…If anything becomes more fundamental than God to your happiness, meaning in life, and identity, then it is an idol.”

Timothy Keller, Counterfeit Gods (Introduction, xix)

Q: Where are you in danger of losing the Upper Story?

In freedom and love, God ultimately ‘gives us over’ to our desires.

Therefore, God gave them over…to sexual impurity

Romans 1:24

Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts.

Romans 1:26

Furthermore…he gave them over to a depraved mind.

Romans 1:28

God’s wrath, in its worst and fullest form, is God turning us over. It’s God letting us have our own way. It’s God leaving us alone. And hell is God’s way of letting us have our own way in His absence for eternity. The lost, C.S. Lewis said, “enjoy forever the horrible freedom they have demanded.”

Mark Buchanan, The Holy Wild, pg. 103

Q: Is there any way that God is giving you over– right now?

Saul confused the mirror with the window, and missed the skylight altogether.

“What have you done?” asked Samuel. Saul replied, “When I saw that the men were scattering, and that you did not come at the set time, and that the Philistines were assembling at Mikmash, I thought, ‘Now the Philistines will come down against me at Gilgal, and I have not sought the Lord’s favor.’ So I felt compelled to offer the burnt offering.”

1 Samuel 13:11-12

Q: Do you look in the mirror at your faults, out the window to praise others, and up to the skylight to God?

God’s Upper Story will always move towards relationship.

“You have done a foolish thing,” Samuel said. “You have not kept the command the Lord your God gave you; if you had, he would have established your kingdom over Israel for all time. But now your kingdom will not endure; the Lord has sought out a man after his own heart and appointed him ruler of his people, because you have not kept the Lord’s command.”

1 Samuel 13:13-14

Q: What does it look like for you to live after God’s own heart?