Follow God

We have been spending these last few weeks with a focus on what it means to “Be Holy”. How can we become closer to God. We have focused on “Rejoicing in the Lord” and Listening to God.

This week our focus is on following God. Our scripture comes from 1 Samuel 8:4-20. The words will be on the screen.

4 Then all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah 5 and said to him, “Behold, you are old and your sons do not walk in your ways. Now appoint for us a king to judge us like all the nations.” 6 But the thing displeased Samuel when they said, “Give us a king to judge us.” And Samuel prayed to the Lord. 7 And the Lord said to Samuel, “Obey the voice of the people in all that they say to you, for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me from being king over them. 8 According to all the deeds that they have done, from the day I brought them up out of Egypt even to this day, forsaking me and serving other gods, so they are also doing to you. 9 Now then, obey their voice; only you shall solemnly warn them and show them the ways of the king who shall reign over them.”

10 So Samuel told all the words of the Lordto the people who were asking for a king from him. 11 He said, “These will be the ways of the king who will reign over you: he will take your sons and appoint them to his chariots and to be his horsemen and to run before his chariots. 12 And he will appoint for himself commanders of thousands and commanders of fifties, and some to plow his ground and to reap his harvest, and to make his implements of war and the equipment of his chariots. 13 He will take your daughters to be perfumers and cooks and bakers. 14 He will take the best of your fields and vineyards and olive orchards and give them to his servants. 15 He will take the tenth of your grain and of your vineyards and give it to his officers and to his servants. 16 He will take your male servants and female servants and the best of your young men and your donkeys, and put them to his work. 17 He will take the tenth of your flocks, and you shall be his slaves. 18 And in that day you will cry out because of your king, whom you have chosen for yourselves, but the Lord will not answer you in that day.”

19 But the people refused to obey the voice of Samuel. And they said, “No! But there shall be a king over us, 20 that we also may be like all the nations, and that our king may judge us and go out before us and fight our battles.”

Please pray with me…

The question we should ask ourselves this week is are we following God or are we following the world? We have a choice to make every moment of every day. We get to decide if we are going to allow God to lead us or are we going to have the world be our guide.

Our story for this week has the “elders of Israel” making a decision that they would like to change the way in which they are governed. They go to Samuel and ask him to “appoint for them a king.”

This was distressing to Samuel because this is the Jewish people making the decision to no longer have God be their king. They no longer want God to be the one who would lead them. The high priest, the judges, and the prophets were the leaders of Judaism.

They would pass on to the people what God desired, and it would be expected that what God wanted would be followed. The Jewish people no longer want this as the way their country was run. They wanted a king.

Wanting to be like other countries is one reason but there also is another reason mentioned in our scripture. We find out that Samuel’s sons do not walk in the way of the Lord even though Samuel had appointed them judges. This seems similar to Eli from last week. The chief priest whose sons were blaspheming against the Lord.

The big difference between these two circumstances is that God is still speaking to Samuel. Samuel has a relationship with God. They are on speaking terms which was the opposite of God’s relationship with Eli.

There must have been some belief among the Jewish leadership that the sons of Samuel would rise to power after his death or if he could no longer serve. They were assuming what was going to take place.

Assumptions can often lead us into making decisions that are not what is best for us or for those around us. An unwillingness to seek other alternatives can lead us in our humanness to decide that we believe what is best without seeking God’s opinion for what is the best alternative.

It is very possible that God would have come forward with a different plan. After all, Eli’s time as high priest led to Samuel becoming an important figure in the Jewish community. Despite the failure of Eli, God already had a plan.

The scripture points out why the leaders were making the assumption and were not seeking out God for an answer. They have never fully trusted God to be the one who would be able to lead them.

The Jewish people doubted in the wilderness. They would worship other gods. They never had the faith to follow the only true God. They weren’t willing to do what I sometimes say, “let go and let God.” They felt that they had a better plan. A plan that included a human king.

The Jewish people were used to having a God that would rescue them. What they struggled with was a God that they could live with and trust daily. God is telling Samuel that they are “forsaking” me, not you.

We may also find ourselves at times in circumstances in which we may also end up asking ourselves what next steps we should take. We may even believe we can see the outcome. The problem is we don’t know all the parameters.

God is all knowing. There is nothing taking place within our world or even our universe that he is not aware of. He will always know the best course of action if we are willing to have the faith to ask and believe.

We can remember who we should rely on when we are living a life that includes time with God. Our first reading reminds us that we are to “not be conformed by the world.” We are to be “transformed” by God.

Those that believe in Jesus as their Lord and Savior have been transformed. Changed on the inside to make a difference on the outside. The problem becomes when what is taking place in the world leads to us not spending time with God and therefore not being able to follow the will of God.

Back to the main scripture, what if instead of assuming, they would have asked Samuel a question. “What are your plans when you are no longer able to lead.” They could have even voiced their concerns about his sons and that they wouldn’t want them to be in charge.

We get into trouble when we assume instead of being willing to ask the tough questions this is true in our spiritual journey but more often it impacts our relationships with those around us.

We are often afraid of conflict which will lead us to “guess” what is going to happen instead of possibly getting some insights into the plan.

Conversations with each other can sometimes lead to better ideas. It could cause us to ask for God to help guide our decisions. That is why Christian community is so important. It is through community that we can become more clear of the direction God wants us to go.

(Transition)

Our first reading points out the importance of being humble. We need to remember who we are and who God is. He is all knowing while we are often guessing. That is where the problem with assuming enters into the situation.

Assuming is us in some ways “playing God.” It is us believing that we have all the answers and therefore we don’t need to ask any questions. We believe that we know what God would want without asking him.

We are no better than any other person walking the earth. We are all sinners. Some of us our blessed because by the grace of God we have been accepted into the family of God. But without asking God we are lacking the knowledge of what God would want for us to do.

(Transition)

Paul also points out to us in the first reading the importance of the church and how the church is one body with many members. We have gifts given to us by God that we can use to serve those around us.

We should choose to view God as our king. This means that we should make the decision that we are going to choose to serve him in all that we do and all that we say. We are to seek understanding from God and then make the decision to follow the will of God as we use the gifts given to us by God.

(Transition)

The second part of our main scripture has God offer a warning to the people through Samuel of what their decision would mean. He wanted to make sure that the people knew what they would receive by deciding that they wanted a human king instead of God as their king.

We forget that we have a benevolent God. A loving, caring God that allows us to make our own choices and to live our lives as we desire. Our story from last week and various other stories within scripture points out that this is how he chose to lead the people.

He didn’t force them to follow him, but he did allow them to face the consequences of choosing not to follow him. This would eventually lead to them finally deciding to cry out to God and their God coming to the rescue.

God wants to make sure they understand that a human king will not treat them the same. He will “reign” over them. He will take what he desires including their children, their livestock and their land. They will have no choice if they choose to follow a human king.

What this discussion should remind us of is that even as we live within a republic that has a human leader, it is God who we should follow. God is who truly knows all and is also able to overcome any obstacles that we may offer to him in our humanness.

We are in the election season, if the previous election season ever really ended. We should remember first and foremost that we are followers of God. He should be our priority and we should use scripture to help guide us on the way we live our lives with those around us.

A focus on a human presidential candidate instead of following the example of Jesus and choosing to focus on our relationship with God leads to three D’s: divisiveness, disagreement and division.

Those three attributes only serve the purpose of hurting the relationships we have with those around us. We will tend to find ourselves in conflict instead of in community. We should make a better choice.

We should instead focus on the three C’s: conviction, compassion, and civility. Conviction means voting for who you believe is the best candidate. Compassion is making the decision to love the person you may disagree with. And civility is us interacting with those around you in a way that shows the love of Christ.

The three C’s may not lead to agreement but will allow for those in our communities and our churches to be able to become closer to each other instead of leading to division and separation.

Following God means that we are listening to God. It means that we are choosing the ways of God over the ways of the world. We are making choices that will not only benefit us but will also benefit God and those around us.

Let us choose to go to God and ask for God to help us become the people that he desires for us to be. Followers of Jesus who desire to follow God instead of focusing on the ways of the world.

Please pray with me…