10 Tweets

Here's last weekend's sermon in 10 Tweets, "Security" (The David Story), 1 Samuel 8

1/ Right words don’t trump wrong motives. The elders asked for a king like all the nations. They were quoting the Law with wrong motives.

2/ When you are afraid or feeling insecure, you may say you trust in God, but God sees and God knows what you really trust.

3/ You do not have, because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions. (James 4:2-3)

4/ When it comes to our personal sense of security, what competes with God for our trust? Here’s a clue: It says In God We Trust on it.

5/ 3 trust tests: Takes away your money. Gives you a lot. Watches how you steward for him what you've got now—whether a little or a lot.

6/ Don’t waste God’s warnings.

7/ But the people refused to obey the voice of Samuel. And they said, “No! But there shall be a king over us” D.R. Davis: “Our immunity to wisdom.”

8/ Thank God for unanswered prayers.

9/ Grace: Our dumb decisions don’t determine our destiny.

10/ Grace: God redeems even the bad consequences of our sins.

One More Thing

Hi Five Oakers, The weekend is coming and I have a few things I want to share with you.

The Weekend

Don't waste God's warnings. There are a lot of warnings from God in the Bible and most of them regard in what or in whom we will place our trust. It's an act of grace when God says, "Thou shalt not." And this weekend's passage, 1 Samuel 8, is one of those acts of grace. Israel is about to put their trust and seek their security as a nation in something other than God in spite of God's explicit warnings.

We're not all that different. We often say the right things about trusting God, but in our hearts we're trusting something else. How can we learn to put our ultimate trust in God alone? What happens when we blow it? Come and see.

F.Y.I

Sarah Eekhoff Zylstra on "Pew: Evangelicals Stay Strong as Christianity Crumbles in America--Amid changing US religious landscape, Christians ‘decline sharply’ as unaffiliated rise. But born-again believers aren't to blame.

3) Evangelicals convert many and retain their kids - Pew found a "remarkable degree of churn" in the US religious landscape. But evangelicals are the “major exception” to the national pattern of Christian decline, and the only major Christian group in the survey that has gained more members than it has lost through religious switching.

One More Thing

"Faith is taking the first step even when you don't see the whole staircase."—Martin Luther King Jr.