Tips for Teaching This Week’s Session of The Gospel Project for Adults

Listen to this week’s leader training podcast with Y Bonesteele, team leader for The Gospel Project for Adults, for a summary and guidance in leading your group.

This week’s additional resources for study and preparation:

• Article: “1 Samuel 4:1-11: The Peril of Trying to Trap God” by Ash Clarkson
• Sermon Transcript: “Is God in the Camp?” by Charles Spurgeon
• Sermon: “Misplaced Faith” by Alistair Begg

Transcript of Leader Training Podcast:

Hi, this is Y Bonesteele, team leader of The Gospel Project for Adults. Welcome to another Leader Training podcast. Today we are in Unit 9, Session 3, God Disciplines His People, with the core passage of 1 Samuel 4:2-11and the Key Concept of: God disciplines His people when they trust anything other than Him. Let’s dive in.

Now the Philistines had been enemies of Israel for a long time. It was a constant battle for land, resources, power, and culture. But during this time, Israel was not right with God as seen from last week, how Eli’s sons who were priests were lording over the people and evil in how they used their role as priests. So, when they got defeated by the Philistines, the elders asked, “Why did the Lord defeat us today before the Philistines?” Then their immediate response was an idea of their own thinking: “Let’s bring the ark of the Lord’s covenant from Shiloh. Then it will go with us and save us from our enemies” (v. 3) It’s as if they were thinking, “God’s not with us. And we know His presence is with the ark. We’ll make Him be with us by bringing the ark to us and it will save us!” Their logic was faulty, however. God cannot be strong-armed or manipulated. God will come and go as He pleases, and no one can make Him do anything. He is the sovereign Lord.

So not knowing they couldn’t manipulate God, they followed their own plans and trusted their own thoughts, hoping that having the ark with them would make God be for them. And who was there? None other than Eli’s two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, who we already know were evil priests from our previous session. And when the ark entered the camp, they shouted in celebration. “We did it! We’ve got the ark and now God must be for us. We will have victory because of it!” they thought.

It is so easy to follow our plans, instead of God’s, when faced with a challenge or threat. We usually want immediate results, so we try to do things in our own way. To prevent this from happening, there’s a few things we can do. We can daily be in time with His Word and with Him to make sure we are attuning to His leading and speaking. Prayer should be a constant in our life already, talking to God periodically throughout the day so we make it a habit, so when we need Him, it’s not awkward to come to prayer immediately. The closer we are to God, the more easily it will be to come to Him with everything (in the challenges, and in the praise).

Now, we may not have an ark today, but we have things that make our life easier. Money, a job, a home, our phone. Sometimes we can put our trust in these things rather than trusting God. What we’re saying when we do that is that God is not enough. He is not all-powerful. He is not trustworthy. When in fact, He is. He is the only thing, or rather person, that is 100% trustworthy.

Now, in the second Scripture passage, we see that God disciplines His people when they don’t trust in Him alone. The Philistines heard the Israelites’ shout of celebration and the sound of the war cry. And they panicked! They, ironically, had more fear of God than the Israelites! “Woe to us!” they cried. “Who will rescue us from these magnificent gods?” (v. 8). They remembered God’s mighty deeds in Egypt. Because of it, they rallied the troops to fight harder. And because God allowed it, Israel was defeated, with 30,000 men dead. Even worse, the ark of God was captured. And we see that both Eli’s two sons died, as was prophesied.

Both the Philistines and the Israelites had bad theology. Like the worship of their own many gods, the Philistines thought the Israelites had many gods as well. And the Israelites thought that if they had the ark of the covenant, they would surely have God in a corner to help them be victorious in battle.

Today, people still have misconceptions about God. Some nonbelievers and those who claim to believe, think they can believe in multiple gods. They think they can worship Christ and other gods, which of course isn’t true. Jesus is the only way. Some people think Jesus is a God of pure grace and not justice and holiness. Some people think God will do whatever we ask if we just have enough faith. Others believe all will go to heaven and spend eternity with God. All these are false misconceptions.

What we learn here is that we need to view God with reverence and awe and submit to His will, waiting patiently for Him to act. We need to remember that He is always in control and though we have free will, our will should conform to God’s will. Even in our own faith, we must remember that we are justified by faith through God’s grace, not by our own works so we can’t boast, as Ephesians 2:8-9 expresses.

The Israelites thought their own works, their bringing the ark to them, would give them victory without relying on God Himself. It’s easy to think that way, to think that our own efforts in life, in work, and even in ministry can get us the things we want. But if we leave God out of the picture, not turning to Him, not trusting Him, our works will be in vain.

On to the Group Experience, don’t forget to get these items prepared beforehand for the icebreaker: a coffee carafe, a tea kettle, juice bottle, and water pitcher. You could easily substitute these things with emptied soda bottles filled with water.

Transitioning to the Context, make the connection that we sometimes have expectations of a what a vessel may hold from what we see on the outside, just like how the Israelites expected that God would be with the ark of the covenant, and thus with them in battle.  But that’s not always the case.

Give some Context in sharing that last week, we saw God calling Samuel, giving him some prophetic words about Eli’s two sons. Pass out Pack Item 11: Samuel’s Life, to fill in some information about Samuel’s life as prophet, priest, and judge. As such, he was a type of Jesus—again a type meaning someone similar, who points to, or foreshadows Christ. Now Samuel isn’t in today’s passage, but we do know that he was in Shiloh where the ark was in the tabernacle. So, he, in essence, was a seeming extra who would soon reappear again in next week’s session. His life frames today’s passage, as we saw him in the last session, and we will see him in next week’s session.

Now Recap with your group highlighting anything they saw that was significant and adding thoughts from your own study.

Onto the Group Activity. Have the chart ready on a board or large paper. Remind your group that both the Israelites and the Philistines had some right views and some wrong views about God. Have someone read 1 Samuel 4:2-5. As a group, fill in the right and wrong beliefs for the Israelites. Some right beliefs include knowing that God’s presence resides on the ark of the covenant. Also, that God could win the battle for them. Wrong beliefs would be that just because His presence is known on the ark, that that presence meant that He would win the battle for them. Another wrong belief is thinking that God could be manipulated. Another wrong belief would be that they didn’t need to consult God on anything, that God was their God and would do things ‘for their good.’ Note that this is a common wrong belief today too, that God would grant whatever we want because He is a good God. He is definitely a good God, but He is wiser and more good than we ever could be. So, He knows exactly what good looks like for us, and that can include waiting, or testing, disciplining, or not granting us what we want.

Like p. 147 of the Leader Guide says, point out that wrong actions come from wrong beliefs. Ask, what wrong actions came from the Israelites wrong beliefs. Answers would include not consulting God, not praying, following their own plans, grabbing the ark from Shiloh, thinking it would give them victory in battle. Follow through the instructions for the Activity in the Leader Guide.

Then read 1 Samuel 4:6-11 and write down the right and wrong beliefs of the Philistines. The Philistines right beliefs was that God was powerful and magnificent. He was the same God who helped the Israelites escape from Egyptian power. What they got wrong was that He possibly could be multiple gods, and they were wrong in believing that if they muster enough might, they could defeat this God. Ask, “If the Philistines had an incorrect belief system about God, why were they successful in battle?” Of course, they only were because God allowed them to be.

Onto the Debrief Questions: How might the Philistines have viewed God differently after this battle? They probably thought God wasn’t so mighty and could be defeated. The next debrief question in your Leader Guide on p. 148 is the same one in the Personal Study Guide on p. 118: What are some ways the wrong beliefs of believers contribute to the wrong beliefs of unbelievers? If we have wrong beliefs, that will spill onto unbelievers when we share or when they see our lives. If we think God can be manipulated, others may think the same. If we think God will give us whatever we want and we trust in things more than Him, we will influence nonbelievers to think that things are the true source of success and happiness.

How should the Israelites have responded to their initial defeat? They should have been humble, turning to God and asking Him what to do next. They should have waited for the Lord’s answer. Why are we prone to trust our analysis of a situation instead of seeking the Lord’s face and His wisdom? Sometimes we’re just prideful like that. We think we are just as smart and wise as God. Also, we hate waiting. We like immediacy. We want to see action and results right away. We think God’s timing can be too slow.

Summarize to end and go into the Head, Heart, Hands section focusing on the Heart if time is limited. What should be our attitude toward God when there is the potential for defeat? Our attitude should be one of humility and submission. We should remember that God is always the same—powerful, faithful, wise, present. If defeat is imminent, we still put our trust in Him and His will.

Each of the Next Steps are helpful to look at and reflect on. 1) Possible wrong beliefs, 2) things you trust in more than God, and 3) placing our hope in something seemingly godly, but not God Himself.

Head into prayer requests and praises and end praying through Psalm 62:5-8:

5 Rest in God alone, my soul,

for my hope comes from him.

6 He alone is my rock and my salvation,

my stronghold; I will not be shaken.

7 My salvation and glory depend on God, my strong rock.

My refuge is in God.

8 Trust in him at all times, you people;

pour out your hearts before him.

God is our refuge. — Psalms 62:5-8 (CSB)

Thanks again for joining me on another Leader Training Podcast. Reach out at [email protected] and hope you have a great group time!