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Advent Productions

Benjamin Ng

Unreasonable Expectations

Father in Heaven, we now come to ask humbly for your Holy Spirit to please be with us.

As we come gathering for a blessing, as we're seeking your Word, Lord please grace us with your presence that you might teach us, that you might lead us and guide us into all truth, and help us, O Lord, to understand more than just the words that we read and the words that we hear, but that you might give us wisdom to know how to apply these words to our lives today.

Thank you, O Lord, for we pray in Jesus' name.

Well, greetings again and thank you for joining us in our Bible study today.

We are looking at study number 6, Unreasonable expectations.

We're continuing our series on the kings and especially those early kings when the whole kingdom of Israel was united.

And the last time we studied about Saul, it was that 1 act of presumption that he committed that led him to being rejected as king of Israel.

He sacrificed a burnt offering which was only rightful for the priests to sacrifice.

He went ahead and disregarded the command of God and did something which was not in his fear even as King who had authority over the whole land was not for him to do.

He should have waited for Samuel the Prophet to arrive and then make that sacrifice.

Obviously the Philistines were at his doorstep, they were making him anxious but Samuel would say now the Lord has rejected you from being king.

The Philistines were still there, they were still waiting for an imminent attack.

Well, let's read our first text found in 1 Samuel 14, verses 1-3.

The Bible says, that is on the other side.

And Saul tarried in the uttermost part of Gibeah under a pomegranate tree which is in Migron and the people that were with him were about 600 men.

And Ahaiah, the son of Ahitub, Ichabod's brother, the son of Phineas, the son of Eli, the Lord's priest in Shiloh wearing an ephod.

And the people knew not that Jonathan was gone.

The Bible simply says that he was just sitting and resting under a tree.

Obviously discouraged from the event that had just happened to him from being rejected as king, he had lost his motivation to fight.

He saw the Philistines there and so he and his armor-bearer would go where the Philistines were encamped and see what they could do.

And Jonathan said to the young man that bare his armor, Come, and let us go over unto the garrison of these uncircumcised.

It may be that the Lord will work for us, for there is no restraint to the Lord to save by many or by few.

And his armor-bearer said unto him, Do all that is in thine heart, turn thee, behold, I am with thee according to thy heart.

Look, obviously Jonathan must have been a man of faith.

He must have known about the stories that had happened in the past, those events that had happened in the past.

It wasn't just a story but these things really did happen where God did deliver by very few.

He must have known about the story of Gideon and his 300 men who won a whole battle against this large host of millionites.

And you know friends, those stories are still there for us today as well.

They're not just simply stories, they are evidence of a great God.

And our faith must learn to take hold of these things that we read in the Word as if they really happened because they did, friends.

And they're there to inspire faith in us that no matter who is against us, No matter how big the army and the enemy seems to be, no matter how impossible it seems that things are against us, that we think it's not possible for us to move forward, God will still fight for us.

Though the way may seem dark, though the way may seem dreary, God can still make a way where there seems to be no way.

He can still give us the victory irrespective of how long we've been in sin, how many times we've tried to fight, how impossible the circumstance may be.

We see that Jonathan, his armor bearer was right there beside him.

He said, whatever you do, I'm right there with you.

And you see, friends, that's what faith does.

It inspires others with confidence, not blind faith, but with confidence that when they can see that you are walking with God, they can have the confidence to follow forward as well.

His armor-bearer could trust him because he knew that Jonathan had his faith firmly placed on God.

1 Samuel 14 verses 8-10 over unto these men and we will discover ourselves unto them.

If they say thus unto us, tarry until we come to you, then we will stand in our place and will not go up unto them.

But if they say thus, come up unto us, then we will go up for the Lord has delivered them into our hand and this shall be a sign unto us.

You know friends, it's interesting to note here that Jonathan was not literally going, God I'm unsure, I'm unsure and just asking for a sign.

He was stating how God would answer, how God would help him to decide what he should do.

You see, if God didn't want them to attack the Philistines, then the Philistines would say to them, stay there and wait for us to go to you.

However, if God wanted Jonathan and his armor bearer to attack the Philistines, then the Philistines would ask them to come up, ask them to go where they were.

And yes, in essence it was like a sign and the Bible does say a sign at the end there.

However, Jonathan was so confident that God was with them, you see, and would guide them.

Note, he wasn't confident that God wanted them to attack but he knew that God would help him make the right decision when the time came.

He knew his God, and he knew that God would answer him.

He would give a very clear and plain way forward based upon what the Philistines said, either stay there or come up.

And you know friends, how many of us can be so confident in the decisions that we make today?

Do you know if God is guiding you in your decisions in life?

Are you confident that God is right there and guiding everything?

Have you made it a point really to seek Him and to ask Him whether you should go down this path or make these certain decisions in regards to maybe choosing a job or in regards to getting into a relationship, whether you should be with this person or not.

How many of us know whether this is the right person that God wants us to marry?

You know, many times we make decisions that we don't even know if it's going to be a success or a failure or not.

We enter into many decisions in ambiguity, unsure of whether it was even the right decision in the first place.

His decision was a life-threatening decision and he was not going to go into the camp of the Philistines based on chance with the possibility of losing his life.

No, It was paramount for him that he knew the direction of God.

He didn't want to play it by chance and the reason that he could be so confident in God's guidance was because he knew his God.

He actually had a personal relationship with God to the point that he had the assurance that God would answer him and guide him based upon the situation, based upon whether Philistines would ask him to stay where he was or ask him to come up.

You see, friends, when we walk with God and we have such assurance of God's guidance, I'm telling you, people can see it.

People can have a confidence in how You walk with God and your relationship is so real with this God who is unseen, but yet you can have confidence to move forward.

Friends, how many of us really have that sort of assurance today?

How many of us take time to Make sure that God is with us before we go out the door to our work, to our studies, to our social enjoyments.

How many of us are sure that God is in the midst of all that we do?

He knew that he was in the place where God wanted him to be.

And he was going to push the boundaries and the limits.

And he knew more than anything that his God was going to answer.

You know, sometimes we need to have counselors.

Counsel this person, counsel that person.

And many times we get counsel until we find the right 1 that harmonizes with what we wanted in the first place.

But with Jonathan, He had a direct connection, a link with God, that he had the assurance that God would answer him regardless.

And, you know, he wasn't 100% sure that God wanted him to attack, but he knew his God would answer.

And so, Jonathan and the armor-bearer reveal themselves to the Philistines.

How do the Philistines react when they see Jonathan and his armor-bearer?

1 Samuel 14, 11-13, And both of them discovered themselves under the garrison of the Philistines.

And the Philistines said, Behold, the Hebrews come forth out of the holes where they have hid themselves.

And the men of the garrison answered Jonathan and his armor-bearer and said, Come up to us, we will show you a thing.

And Jonathan said unto his armor-bearer, Come up after me, for the Lord hath delivered them into the hand of Israel.

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Unreasonable Expectations

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