OGBF At-Home Service | April 26th, 2020

1)STUDY TIME IN THE WORD

1 Samuel (Week 2) | Weston Pack

A) Lesson Video: "Endless Pursuit"

​Start by following along in the message recorded by Weston for this morning.

After, there are a few questions you can go through for reflection and application. 

B) Questions
After you have watched the video above, take some time to respond to the following questions:

1) In 1 Samuel 17:31-40; 23:1-13; 24:4-7 and 26:8-11 David was given counsel by men to do or not to do things that ultimately were against what God willed, and yet David sought the counsel of God over the advice of man. See especially 26:10-11.

Try to put yourself in each of these circumstances that David was in. Do you think it would have been easy for him to take the logical counsel of man? 

2) This section of David’s “pre-king” life is framed by two “book ends.” In the beginning of the book (chapter 17) we see David: a zealous young man, fearlessly marching out against the lines of the Philistines to defend the name of His God. At the end of this section (chapter 29), we see David now marching out on the other side of the “valley” so to speak, WITH the ranks of the Philistines—the very armies who defied his God—to fight against his own people; God’s people.

I had said at one point that depression and discouragement will lead you to choose a path that the enemy could never force you to go. Has there been a time when you have been led down such a path? Discouragement? Despair? Loneliness? Feeling as though you have been abandoned by God?

3) Think about comfort, security and protection. David lived as a homeless, wandering, nomadic man continuously fleeing for his life in the wilderness for possibly almost 10 years. On the other hand, Saul had a comfortable fortified home that he was unable to enjoy for all of these years because of his relentless obsession of pursuing David. 

Which one of these would you say experienced more comfort, security, and protection during this time of pursuit?

What about David’s fortified city in Ziklag? Do you think that he experienced the same comfort, security, or protection in the year and a half that he spent there?

4) When Saul finally stopped pursuing David, would you say this was the point when David was finally free from his enemy?...or was it the point when David was finally overtaken by THE enemy?

5) I entitled this sermon “Endless Pursuit.” The story seems to be an account of Saul’s seemingly endless pursuit of David’s life. When David goes into the land of the enemy, however, he goes beyond where Saul is able to pursue. On the other hand, there was another in pursuit of David’s HEART who was not bound or constrained by the borders of the enemy. 

At the end of this story, who was really unrelenting in his pursuit of David? Saul, or God?

What comfort does it bring to think that David could not remove himself from the loving pursuit of God even in the land of the enemy?

6) I had said that Psalms chapter 4 is mostly recognized to have been written at the point when David came back to his God at the Amalekite raid. 

Read this psalm and think of what must have been pouring out of his heat in that moment. 

Think about how powerful it is for a man with the circumstances of David to be able to say, “In peace I will both lie down and sleep, for You alone, O Lord make me to dwell in safety.”

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2)SONGS OF RESPONSE

Spend some time in song and worship, responding to the Word.  

Feel free to play as much or as little as you’d like! There is a full hymnal you can download for today with all songs in the keys sung in; just follow the links in the right column to download in a printable PDF format.

Lyrics will be on the YouTube videos below. Watch inline below, or click here for the playlist to open in a new window.

SONG SET

1. All Hail the Power of Jesus’ Name
2. More Than Conquerors
3. Psalm 46 (Lord of Hosts)
4. Christ Our Hope in Life & Death
5. You Are God Alone
6. How Great is Our God
7. Is He Worthy?

​SONGBOOKS:
(I am not sure anyone has been using the print-off hymnals in the written keys, so for this week we’re simplifying. If you WERE using them, please let Derrick Pack know and we’ll include them again next week)

This week, instead of adding a full hymnal, we added a more simple “chords package” that will allow anyone who plays guitar or piano to play these simply playing the chords in an easier key (if YouTube doesn’t work for you). Note that these are not in the keys of the YouTube versions though, if you are trying to follow along.

Click below for the download link for this package.

DOWNLOAD SONGBOOKS

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3)PRAYER TIME ​

(prepared by Felipe Gonzalez)

FOCUS:

As we go to prayer this morning, focus on the following and pray the following Scriptures in your prayer times, either personally or in a small group:

1. Exult the Lord in His holiness, let’s remember His characteristics and many names: Psalm 99:5
2. Pray for one another in our church body, pray for encouragement, pray that this time would call us to be alert and not lull us to be asleep in the Spirit: Ephesians 6:18-20
3. Pray for our government and for those around the world, for wisdom in leadership: 1 Timothy 2:1-2
4. Pray for our brothers and sisters in underdeveloped countries who live day by day, or even meal by meal, for those who don't have the same resources as are available in developed countries: Psalm 140:12
5. Thank the Lord for His sovereignty and the HE is worthy of all trust and praise: Colossians 1:16-17

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SUPPLICATION:

Below are some of our  current Prayer Needs; join together in lifting them up!

• Missionaries around the world: pray for our missionaries around the world in various regions who have differing needs depending on where they are located. All are affected by COVID-19 in differing ways. We plan to have more specific prayer needs per missionary soon. If you’d  like to contact a missionary, go to our Missions page and locate their contact info there.
• Luis & Aide Salinas, a couple of our missionaries in Mexico: right now they have some financial needs, asking for prayer from our body during this season. They are currently trying to support 12 families close to where they live in Tijuana who have no money or jobs (he only told us this in response to us asking him if there were needs we could help with).
• Gary Espinosa: friend of Deana Marx, bone cancer; needs salvation. Wife is a Christian and has requested prayer
• Larry Kepple: continued recovery from injury sustained working at home.
• Brenden Pike: friend of Kaylay & Jeff Mann, serving with Samaritan’s Purse in NY right now.
• Viriginia Khine’s sister, Kathy Lucatorta: prayer for ongoing recovery with kidney issues, on dialysis but improving
• Brian Hathaway: spot of cancer on lungs once more. 
• Rita & Arlo Prinns: ongoing prayer for healing, relief of pain, comfort
• Bonne & Jim Ruggiero: ongoing prayer for healing, relief of pain, comfort
• Pray that we can fellowship together in person again soon!

As always, if you have a prayer need, please send to the prayer chain so we can all be bearing you up in prayer! Simply send an email to oakgrovebf@gmail.com and we will get it out to our members for prayer right away.

Email Prayer Team