Speak the truth
We pick up the story of Samuel after Hannah has made good on her commitment to take the boy she had longed for to serve God in the tabernacle. (That girl is amazing!) Young Samuel is asleep and God calls out to him. At first, Samuel (and Eli) do not understand it is God calling, but finally they do and this is how God begins His message to the young prophet:
11 The Lord said to Samuel, “I am about to do something in Israel that everyone who hears about it will shudder. (1 Samuel 3:11 CSB)
I like the CSB translation here. The ESV, NASB, and NIV all speak of the ears of everyone hears the message tingling. That is the literal translation, but I have heard this verse used in a positive sense—that the message through Samuel would amaze the people. That is not what is in mind here. God is telling him that the message he was giving Samuel would do the opposite—it would shock the people. What was to follow would not be a good, happy message, but a difficult, sobering one. God was going to judge Eli’s family because of their iniquity (v. 13). Nothing like giving young Samuel such a softball for his first prophetic message, right?
Understandably, Samuel is a tad timid to share this message with Eli (v. 15). But Eli had enough sense to know it is better to hear what God says than what you might want God to say. Even if that message is difficult.
Speak the truth with grace
We need to just say it: God’s truth, the gospel, is offensive. Don’t take my word for it: "But we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to the Jews and foolishness to the Gentiles. Yet to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God, because God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength". (1 Corinthians 1:22-25 CSB)
(Think about it. It is the offensiveness of the gospel that leads Christians to be martyred and marginalized, in Paul’s day and our’s. Indeed, it was the offensiveness of the gospel that led to Christ’s crucifixion). Why? Because how the gospel message, much like Samuel’s message, begins with words of judgment because of our iniquity.
Jesus’ death on the cross makes no sense apart from a person first making sense of his sin. Without understanding our sin and God’s righteous judgment of it, the cross is reduced to a blood-soaked instrument of a sadistic God. Only by seeing that same cross through our sin and God’s holiness, are we able to see God’s glory and grace.
But here is where I often see the church stumble and fall. Now, I am not talking about how we fail to share the gospel (although this seems often to be the case). Rather, I am talking about how sometimes we seem to take great delight in sharing the gospel with a heart of judgment instead of grace. Our motivation matters. We are not in it to win a debate, we are in it to see God bring people to Himself through Christ. Our goal is not to be right, vindicated, or brought into the mainstream from the margins, but for God to be glorified. Full stop.
The gospel is offensive, but we are not to be offensive in the way we deliver that message.
Speak the truth with love
And this takes us to our need to bolster it all with love. The two greatest command center on love: we are to love God and love people. All of what we do hinges on these two postures of the heart. And that includes sharing the gospel. We are to share because we love God and are grateful for what He has done for us in Christ. We share to make His glory known to the nations. And we are also to share because we love people. We are to have a genuine longing to see people—of every tribe, tongue, and nation—come to saving faith in Christ.
The words of the gospel are indeed offensive, but they are bound up in love—God’s love made known to us on the cross and our love made known in our faithfulness to share the gospel with all who might hear.
Preschool Tip: For preschoolers, one of the main take-aways of this session is that they see that God gave Samuel a message to tell others about God. That it was a message of judgment is an extra layer they may not need to know. Rather, you may want to focus on how God gave that message to Samuel and he was faithful to share it. From that, you can point to Jesus in the Christ Connection and talk about how we too are given a message to tell others about Christ.
Kids Tip: For kids, you may want to ensure that the nature of Samuel’s message is made clear. What God told Samuel to do was hard. Our kids need to know that, because the chances are pretty good that they feel that God is calling them to do hard things too. This could lead you to have a wonderful discussion of how Jesus was called on to do that which was hardest of all and how God equips us and empowers us to do even the hard things in life, such as living for Christ and telling others about Him.
-From Brian Dembowczyk at TGP website
#JesusJam Have fun worshiping together to some songs!
CLICK HERE for this weeks story summary
Christ Connection: Samuel told people what God is like and what He would do. Jesus, the Son of God, came to earth as a human. He told people about God’s plan showed the world what God is like.
If you have a bible at your house, 1 Samuel 1-3. If you don't have one, that's okay! CLICK HERE.
Hannah and Samuel Activity Telephone (Instructions in the video below):
Remind Kids • Here is the place in the Bible where we hear that God spoke to Hannah’s son Samuel while he was lying down in the tabernacle. Samuel listened to God’s message and told Eli what God said. Samuel told people what God is like. Jesus showed people what God is like.
Game Option: Called by name
Choose three kids to stand at the front of the room. Instruct the rest of the kids to place their heads down and close
their eyes. Silently point to one of the three kids. She will say the name of one of the kids with their eyes closed. She may attempt to disguise her voice. Then, the kid whose name was called will lift his head and attempt to guess
who called his name. If he is correct, the two should swap places. If not, he will place his head back down. Continue playing as time allows, choosing new kids to call names,
and encouraging the callers to pick kids who have not been called yet.
Remind Kids • When you know someone is calling your name, it’s natural to respond. But what happens if you don’t know who is calling your name? Today we will hear about a time a boy named Samuel heard his name, but was wrong about who called it!
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