North Bible Recap
Walk through the Bible, each week, with clear explanations and practical takeaways.
North Bible Recap
Episode 35: Matthew and 1 Samuel
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Pastor Rodney and Pastor Samson walk through Matthew 4–8, showing how Jesus fulfills the law and invites us into an upside-down Kingdom marked by blessing, purity, and wholehearted devotion to God. In 1 Samuel, they unpack Israel’s demand for a king, the rise of Samuel and Saul, and why David’s heart set him apart as God’s chosen leader. They also contrast the victory and praise of Psalm 68 with the deep lament of Psalm 69, reminding us that worship includes both celebration and honest cries to God.
Well a good day, everybody, and welcome back again for North Bible recap. And thank you again, Pastor Sampson, um, for joining me. Absolutely excited. We decided to wear the same clothes again. Again.
SPEAKER_01You know?
SPEAKER_00What are you talking about? You didn't watch last week then. Yeah. We're doing a baseball to doubleheader. That's right. And uh we we are putting them back to back.
SPEAKER_01There you go.
SPEAKER_00If it if it ain't broken, don't fix it. Absolutely. So we're gonna dive into continuing on uh with the book of Matthew. And today, last week you gave us a good foundation. Uh took us through the first three chapters. Now we're gonna look at four through eight. That's right. And then we're gonna open up a new um book of the Bible. You're gonna lay a foundation for us in first Samuel. That's right. We'll covers chapters one through verse chapter number fourteen. And then Psalms. Yeah. Psalms chapters sixty-eight and sixty-nine. So jump into it. Let's go. Lead lead away. All right.
SPEAKER_01So if you remember from last week, uh we were talking about Jesus. Matthew is presenting Jesus as the new and greater Moses. Uh, and so we are seeing the continuation of that in chapter four. So chapter four starts off uh with uh verse one says, Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. For 40 days and forty nights he fasted and became very hungry. And so this is the temptation of Jesus right after his water baptism. And so you see the parallel between Moses and the children of Israel and then Jesus, right? After the children of Israel cross uh the Red Sea and they're in the wilderness, they spend 40 years in the wilderness, uh, and they pretty much fail every test along the way. Um, and God is testing the people, and yet they're failing, and even Moses fails the test at the end. Uh Moses does not get to go into the promised land as a result. But you see, Jesus, uh he's in the wilderness, and he's by himself for 40 days and 40 nights, and Jesus passes the test. In fact, Jesus passes with flying colors, and so right off the bat, Matthew is helping us see that Jesus does what the Michael Jordan of Israel couldn't, what Moses couldn't. Uh, he is the greater Moses, he is the new version. Um, and then it brings us into the teachings of Jesus, right? And so it says uh that Jesus at the very end of chapter four, Jesus grew in popularity in the region of Galilee. The good news, the gospel about the kingdom spread, and all these people were coming, and Jesus would heal them, he would do all these miraculous signs. So large crowds are following him. And verse one of chapter five says, one day as he saw the crowds gathering, Jesus went up to the mountainside and sat down, and the disciples gathered around him. And this is the setting for what we call the Sermon on the Mount. And this is the longest and probably greatest teaching in terms of length that we have from Jesus. And Jesus is teaching us his covenant people, how we live in this world. And I like to think of it as uh Jesus' covenant teaching because there's a lot of ways people interpret the sermon on the mount. Uh, but one way I think you can look at it is kind of like um, you know, like whenever you download an app on your phone, or like when you update your iPhone, okay? There's always that little terms and conditions page. You kind of scroll past, you never really read, and you hit the accept button, okay? Um, the covenant in the Old Testament is kind of the terms and conditions of following God, of what it means to be people's people who are living in covenant with with Yahweh. Jesus is essentially re-instituting the covenant, but in his own way. Uh, and so Jesus' covenant, though, is very different than the new covenant, is very different than the old covenant, Moses covenant, right? Jesus' covenant starts with blessings. If you remember the Mosaic covenant, Moses covenant starts with blessings and curses. Uh, but Jesus covenant, if you read the very first few parts uh of Jesus' covenant, how does it start off? He says, What? Blessed are the poor and spirit, or in my version, NLT, it says, God blesses those who are poor, God blesses those who are mourn, God blesses those who are humble. It starts with the blessing, but then you're like, Where's where's the curses? Well, in Jesus' covenant, Jesus takes on the curses. And so preach that. This is a new way of being in covenant with God. Preach that. And so that is what we see right off the bat. Come on. And then the second thing we notice, right, is that in the new covenant, new covenant people are different than in this new upside down kingdom uh that Jesus is instituting. Uh so Pastor Rodney, you preached about this not too long ago. We did a whole collection of talks called Upside Down Kingdom. Um, and in it, he talks about, and he's saying in Matthew, the very very next set of verses, he says, You are the salt of the earth, you are the light of the world. So Jesus' people are different. It it is it's a completely different way of living in this world. And he says, in the same way, uh, let your good deeds shine out for all to see, so everyone will praise your heavenly father. And so our way of living is meant to reflect God's glory in this world. So covenant, Jesus covenant people are different in the way that they live in this world. So it doesn't matter if you're poor, it doesn't matter if you're you know less than or whatever in the world's eyes, God is going to use you and you're gonna reflect God's kingdom. And you see that played out kind of at the end of this section in chapter eight, where you see lepers who are who have faith enough for Jesus to heal them, or a Roman centurion who comes to Jesus, uh, and you know, Jesus says, I haven't seen faith like this in all of Israel, right? And so these are the kind of people that are now covenant people with Jesus, that are now part of Jesus' community of faith.
SPEAKER_00And then that's important to note because you know you're talking about the lepers' faith, but it's understanding that at one time he healed several of these lep lepers and they they leave, yeah, but one comes back because the one comes back, it's not a Jew. No, and Jesus is recognizing that that's right, that faith, in the same way that Roman centurion, who are the oppressors over them, who are the the people lording over them, and yet he's like, Wow, I've not seen such faith in all of Israel. Yeah, but then also in Matthew later on, another part he talks about um the Canaanite woman uh who comes to Jesus, he says, What great faith! As he she says, he's wanting her daughter, uh child to be healed. And Jesus' like, Well, I don't, you know, give the food to the dogs. Yeah. I said, Oh, but master, even the dogs get the crumbs that fall from the master's table. And not a non-Jew. And so it's just beautiful, beautiful. The Bible's so brilliant. It is powerful.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, absolutely. And then Jesus says, and later on in chapter 8, that it's not easy following Jesus. In fact, Jesus talks about all the reasons you can't follow Jesus. He says, Foxes have holes, birds are there, have nests. Uh, nowhere for the Son of Man to lay his head, right? And so following Jesus is not gonna be easy. So to be in covenant with Jesus is not easy uh because the world is gonna hate you for it. He even says it uh throughout uh his Sermon on the Mount. Um, but this is what he's calling to. And then kind of the third point out of the Sermon on the Mount we see is that Jesus is not abolishing the law, he's taking us to the intent of the law. And so constantly, uh Jesus is saying, you know, you've heard it said, and he's quoting Moses, and he says, you know, uh, you know, don't uh, you know, don't commit adultery. I say don't, you know, look after a woman with less than your like he is redefining the law, but he's not really redefining as much as he's showing the actual intent of the law, the way that God meant for us to practice the law. In fact, Jesus says this in verse 17, he says, Don't misunderstand what I've come, why I have come. I did not come to abolish the law of Moses or the writings of the prophets. No, I came to accomplish their purpose. I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not even the smallest detail of God's law will disappear until its purpose is achieved. Um, and so Jesus is saying that's his whole point. In fact, I I've heard it put this way, Pastor Umy Um Christian teacher remember sharing this story. Uh, he talked about, I don't know if it's a real story or not, but he was talking about this old man that worked for um, you know, way back in the day for uh his job was to be the the the light person, the signal caller for the railroad. And so he would stand next to the trains, and when the train would come and there's another train on the track going the other direction, he would have to put a signal up and so that the train would switch over to the next track. And so he was supposed to hold up the signal. Well, one night there was a huge crash, and all the town people come and two trains have crashed into each other, and everyone's looking at this guy. His job is to you know hold up the signal, and they're like, Did you hold up the signal? And he's saying adamantly, I've held up the signal, it goes to court, all this kind of stuff. And finally, one day after the man is cleared of all charges, there's no one, not enough evidence to convict him, but everyone in town is suspecting that he did something wrong. And so he is one day at a bar sitting there at the bar, and he's just you know living in guilt. And finally, one person says to hey, you just tell me the truth. I won't tell anyone, just tell me, did you hold up that signal? And he said, Yes, I held up that I absolutely never lie, but I held up the signal, and then he said one thing that he never shared, he said, but I never lit it. I forgot to light it. And so, did you hold up the signal? Yes, but I never lit it. And this is the way that Jesus is redefining the law. He's saying it's not enough that you keep the letter of the law, that you keep the rules. No, no, no, you have to keep the spirit of the law, what God really intended for us to practice. It's not merely enough that you say, you know, I've never committed adultery, right? But Jesus is saying, but that's not the purpose. The purpose is not that you never cheat on your wife. No, no, the purpose is that you learn how to live a life that's pure, yeah, right, that honors God in your marriage. That's the purpose. And so Jesus is not just redefining the law, he is showing us the way that God intends for us to really live out this life. And that this is it's a new standard. And you could say that Jesus raises the standard, but he is really showing us the heart of how God meant to live for how God meant to live for us to live out of this. Now, there's a huge problem because how how on earth do we live out the heart of this law? If that really is the case, we're not even supposed to lust. Like a what how do we do that? And this is where Jesus is the ultimate answer because there's certain things you and I just cannot do on our own. That's why Jesus pays the penalty, he takes on the curses of the law, and he ultimately gives us the spirit, and that's the answer we know. Matthew hasn't just revealed that just quite yet in his gospel.
SPEAKER_00I got a feeling that more's to come.
SPEAKER_01More's to come. Absolutely.
SPEAKER_00So good, so good. I I yeah. Wow, I love how you have uh unpacked that. So let's let's go into uh first Samuel. First Samuel, we're gonna cover um first 14 chapters.
SPEAKER_01Absolutely. All right, Pastor Rodney. Um I feel like I know the answer. Would you say that David is one of your favorite characters in the Bible?
SPEAKER_00Oh, yeah, yeah, for sure. Yeah, um, I would say uh he is Joseph, maybe right there uh with David, but yeah, David is one of my favorite.
SPEAKER_01And so, you know, first Samuel really is uh really it wasn't first Samuel, it was actually all of first and second Samuel. We do have the division in our Bible, but it's really just meant to be one book. Uh really Samuel is a lot of it is the story of David, and David really is pointing us ultimately towards Jesus. Uh, and that's why David is so significant, because he's very different. You did a whole several now um series on uh a man after God's own heart. And so uh you see this playing out um in in in 1 Samuel. So just to give you context, uh, up to this point, there is moral and spiritual decay uh amongst the children of Israel. Uh and so this is during the time of the judges, and if you remember, uh it says, uh it's actually says in 1 Samuel chapter 3, verse 1, it says, now in those days the messages were very rare and visions were quite uncommon. And so the children of Israel really didn't hear from God very much up to this point because they had really kind of lived their own way. Uh second, uh, you're seeing 1 Samuel that there's a need for a king. There's a need for a leader. Um, and you know, Moses kind of promised this, not necessarily a king, but he said that God would raise up a prophet like himself uh and for the Israelites to follow, and they have to listen to him. That's Deuteronomy chapter 18, verse 15. And so there's a promise of a leader that would come. And first Samuel is showing us the need for a king, all of Samuel is showing us that. And then three, it's also showing us God's sovereignty in establishing the Davidic line. So if you look at David's story, and this is why I think David is so impressive, David really doesn't do anything to you know go and get his kingship. In fact, at every turn, David turns down the opportunity to take over. He could have killed Saul a number of times, right? He could have politically masterminded uh something, like a revolution, up like he could have done something, but he doesn't. He he actually runs from Saul, and he's still God's chosen person to be the king. And so when we look at it, now to kind of we're looking at the first 14 chapters uh of 1 Samuel, and the first seven chapters really is focusing on Samuel, who is the prophet, who is the one who gives us uh the very beginnings of this story. Now, remember Moses promised a prophet like him would come, and so Samuel in a lot of ways, Samuel fulfills that role. And you have starts off with this really cool story of Hannah uh and Eli. Um, and Hannah is you know, is barren, doesn't have any kids. Uh, she's you know, her husband uh, you know, has two wives, you know, a whole different situation there, okay. Uh but uh you know, the the one wife, uh the other wife has a lot of kids, and then Hannah has none. So Hannah's really deeply sad. Um, and you know, you always make that that joke. I've made this joke now to my wife, where I always look at her and spoke like El Cunnah, and I'm like, you know, am I not better to you than seven sons? You know?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, that was not a good statement. That was not wise.
SPEAKER_01Not a wise statement. And so uh Hannah is deeply troubled, and she prays for a son, and not only does she receive the son, but this son is actually the prophet that Israel has been waiting for uh for a long time. And at the same time, you see why it's so desperate. Because while Samuel is still a kid, you see that the glory has departed Israel. So 1 Samuel chapter 4, uh, you actually see the children of Israel kind of treat God kind of like a good luck charm. So God's presence uh moves with the children of Israel through the Ark of the Covenant. They're about to go into a battle with the Philistines, and they're like, they're not listening to God, they're not obeying God, and they're like, Well, maybe if we take the Ark of Covenant into battle, God will be with us, and then we'll win. Well, they go into battle and they lose the battle still and they lose the ark. Now, this is and a lot of times I think people do this in our regular everyday life. You treat God like a good luck charm, and you're like, you know, if I pray a little bit, or if I go to church this Sunday, you know, maybe I'll bring some good luck in my life, and you know, good things will happen. God's not about that, right? And God kind of blows up their plan. And so Eli the high priest dies um whenever he hears uh about the the ark being captured, and Eli's daughter-in-law uh ends up having a baby, and she names the baby, and it's very significant. She names the baby Ichabod, verse 21, chapter 4 says, She names the child Ichabod, which means where is the glory? Uh and she said, Israel's glory is gone. She named him this because the ark of God, the ark of God, had been captured, and because their his her father-in-law, her uh and husband were dead. And she said, The glory has departed from Israel, for the ark of God has been captured. So this is where we find the very beginning of the story. This is the setting for Samuel, right? The glory has departed, Israel has done their own thing, they are broken, and God raises up Samuel. Um, and this is why, if you remember, David's first act as king is so significant. What does David do when he finally unites the kingdom and he's making Jerusalem the capital? He goes and he brings the Ark of the Covenant into the capital city, and it says that he takes off his royal kingly robes and he's wearing an ephod, like just like a lowly priest, and he's dancing, um, and all this stuff is happening, right? When David is finally given the throne, who does David put on the throne? God. He welcomes God's presence, and so this is why David is so significant, and why God calls him a man after my own heart, because David is looking at God as really the king of Israel, and David is just his agent in the world. So good. Now to kind of speed us through 1 Samuel, okay? Uh chapter 5, you see uh God is more powerful uh than the Philistine God. There's actually kind of a funny story where they take the Ark of the Covenant, the Philistines do after they capture and they put in their their god Dagon's temple, and then you know Dagon is you know his head is chopped off, his arms are removed, uh, and this idol is completely destroyed from the ark. They're like, we gotta get rid of this thing. And so they send it back to Israel. Um, and then you see in chapter seven, uh, the Samuel actually he he now is raising up and he calls the children of Israel to repentance. And so you see Samuel is acting to call the people back to God. But then by chapter eight, you see the problem that is gonna be a central theme of Samuel, and that is that there is a need for a king. Um, and you see it right there, 1 Samuel chapter 8, verse 4 through 8. Finally, all the elders of Israel met at Ramah to discuss a matter with Samuel. Look, they have told him, You are now old, and your sons are not like you. Give us a king to judge us like all the other nations have. I don't know, but you know, Samuel's definitely hurt by this because it felt like a rejection of him. But I don't know. I I think there's also this. Um I kind of look at this passage and I see it as you know, this we want to be just like all the other nations.
SPEAKER_00Yes.
SPEAKER_01I don't know if it like my kids have done this every once why can't we do this? Have you ever experienced that, Pastor Rodney, where kids just want to be like everybody else, absolutely, and they forget just how special they actually have it. Yes. Um, and that is what you see in the children of Israel in this moment. They're kind of they kind of lost the script a little bit. Uh and so that's what you see in chapter 8. Uh chapter nine, you see the starting, the beginning of a king being chosen. But that king is not God's king, it's Israel's king. It's Israel who chooses that. And ultimately, we end up in chapter 13 and 14. Uh, and chapter 13 is a significant moment where you know, uh, right after Saul is anointed king, he leads some Israel into some battle, they win a little bit. Samuel says goodbye to the nation of Israel. He kind of gives his farewell speeches, stamp approval to Saul. And right after chapter 13, um, there is a battle, there's victory, and then Saul disobeys God and he offers a sacrifice where he's not supposed to. Samuel's supposed to offer the sacrifice. He takes Samuel's place without rightfully doing so. And right off the bat, Samuel prophesies to Saul, and he says this chapter 13, verse 14, he says, But now your kingdom must end. For the Lord has sought out a man after his own heart. The Lord has already appointed him to be a leader of his people, because you have not kept the Lord's command. And so you see again the people's choice, that's not who God is going for. Yeah, God is looking for someone else.
SPEAKER_00Love it. The people's choice is Saul, which he represented. Taller than any other man in the kingdom, had all the charisma and the giftings that came from a well-to-do family. David, not so the runt of the family. I mean, say runt, the smallest, the youngest, relegated to the backside of the pasture. God goes and finds him. But let me just also state that so we understand that um the idea of the king was not God's idea, it was man's idea. And Moses prophesied that hundreds of years before. And he said it's a like, you will want the king, because you will want to be like the nations around you. And then he gave some stipulations for the king that when you do have a king, that these the king can't do these three things. Take many wives, develop a a war chest, like horses, to be able to go off to battle and then accumulate um a lot of money. Yeah. And then they broke these. They do all of them. They break all of them. And so um, and then of course, you know, just I'm gonna add a little bit of commentary to what you you talked about with with uh Eli. Eli was the Bible says he described him as fat. Yeah. Uh, which I'm not this is not meant to be something physically, it's a spiritual thing. Yeah, he may be he may have been most likely physically fat, but it was speaking to the the the spiritual um issue that was at hand. Um they had become lazy, they'd become uh just reliant upon the natural things. His sons, you know, Hofna and Phineas were were just scoundrels.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And he knew what was going on and didn't discipline them. Yeah. And people were doing what was right in their own eyes. Yeah. And it's just we have to may we as a people stay with the heart after God's own with the heart after God. Because David, obviously, David made his mistakes too. Yeah, David sinned greatly, did some things that were just out, but he was also quick to repent.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_00He also acknowledged that. He also was wanting to make right what he had made wrong. And so that speaks to having a heart after God. This this is just great. And of course, we're gonna be diving into deep uh over the next uh few weeks, the life of David.
SPEAKER_01Absolutely, and that's when it gets really good, is when you get into David because everything right now is just clueing you that David is needed.
SPEAKER_00Oh, yeah, oh yeah, yeah, absolutely, absolutely. Wow, love this, love it, love it, love it. Okay, let's look at um Psalms. Come on, chapters 68 and 69. Both of these are written by take a guess, David. David, and so both of these are written by David. Um, he is named in them, and so let's look at these two psalms sit side by side, but carry very different tones. Yeah, they're opposites. Um chapter 68 is a triumphant praise. David is celebrating, praising God. Chapter 69 is deep lament. Okay. We just came out of um lamentations last week. Yeah, lamenting. Many of the psalms are psalms of lament. So let's look at 68. God, the victorious king, is kind of the theme. Um here basically the thought is God rises in power to defeat his enemies and care for his people. And then there's a flow here, but I'm gonna just start reading verse number one. Yep.
SPEAKER_01Verse one rise up, O God, and scatter your enemies. Let those who hate God run for their lives.
SPEAKER_00Okay, he's declaring that God is our defender, he is on our side, and so we're just allowing him to be able to do what he is. And so these are echoes of Israel's uh wilderness journey, uh, basically. Um God is both there a warrior against the wicked, he's also the father to the vulnerable. Uh look at verse number five. Read that.
SPEAKER_01It says, Father to the fatherless, defender of widows, this is God whose dwelling is holy.
SPEAKER_00So here's the teaching inside God's power is not distant, it's personal and protective. He can he's concerned about the least among us, and then we should be also. Um verses seven through ten of this chapter is really about God's presence in the wilderness. It's a reminder that God is leading his people through the desert. When the earth shakes and the rains come, and creation responds, that God is still there. God sustains his people in the barren seasons, and he will get us through. Um, verses eleven through eighteen are really about a celebration in battle. Uh, read verse number eighteen.
SPEAKER_01It says, When you ascend to the heights, you let a crowd of captives, you receive gifts from the people, even from those who rebelled against you. Now the Lord will live among us there.
SPEAKER_00Now, even that one right there, it's amazing all of the um all the connections, Old Testament, New Testament. There's there's Ephesians chapter number four. Paul kind of leans into this thought here about how that Jesus went in and led captives free. Yep. Make sense? That's right. It's just awesome. I love it. Because the Bible is just brilliant. You see, God's victories, Jesus' victory on the cross, went down into the regions of the innermost part of the earth to set the captive free, speaks to the blessing for his people, not just a display of power. Um, he's he's freeing his people. Um, verses 19 through 23 speak to a daily care from a mighty God. Um, he takes care of our daily bread. Come on. Reverse number 19.
SPEAKER_02It says, Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, praise God our Savior, for each day he carries us in his arms.
SPEAKER_00That's why Jesus said, Pray my daily bread.
SPEAKER_02Come on.
SPEAKER_00Pray for your daily bread, not your weekly, not your monthly, not he just daily takes care. Each day he carries us in his arms. All right, and then verses 24 through 35 is a celebration of global worship. This is the emphasis throughout the Old Testament. Yeah, is that all people are going to praise me. Amen. That's right. New Testament would say that every tongue will confess and every knee will bow. Yeah. And so that's very important. Read verse number 32.
SPEAKER_01Verse 32 Sing to God, you kingdoms of the earth, sing praises to the Lord.
SPEAKER_00Ultimately, 68 is about God fights for his people, God walks with his people, God provides for his people, and God expects the praises of his people. Come on. Okay, now at 69, is lament. It's a cry from the depths. And here's the big idea: in overwhelming suffering, we cry honestly to God while holding on to hope. There you go. Uh, read verse number one.
SPEAKER_01Save me, O God, for the flood waters are up to my neck.
SPEAKER_00The imagery here is of drowning, of exhaustion, under attack. And um, you know, the laments are not they're not trying to make things all look rosy and fine. I I deal with this often. I was talking to somebody recently uh about somebody that when we interview them, I don't like to try to paint a beautiful picture, like oh, it's easy to work here, just like we're gonna make everything wonderful. No, I actually like to paint a hard picture. If they'll take that, then hey, we're up from there. Yeah, that's my view. But um, but God doesn't say that he's everything's gonna always be incredibly wonderful, nice. Um, but he is he does say that I'll never leave you nor forsake you, I will be with you to the end. Um, faithfulness doesn't always lead to comfort, it will sometimes lead to opposition. But what we do is we keep calling out on God. Yeah, we're desperate for Him. Read verse number 13.
SPEAKER_01Verse 13. But I keep praying to you, Lord, hoping this time you will show me favor and your unfailing love, O God. Answer my prayer with your sure salvation.
SPEAKER_00Lament keeps talking to God, does not give up. It says, Where else can I turn? As the disciple said to Jesus. Where else can we go? Um we keep going to Him even when things don't seem to change, knowing that He is working on our behalf. Uh look at verse number 21. Read it.
SPEAKER_01Verse 21. But instead they give me poison for food, they offer me sour wine for my thirst.
SPEAKER_00Does that sound familiar? Jesus. On the cross, yeah, yeah. It's prophetically speaking forward, mirroring the suffering of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and his lamenting on the cross. Oh, the Bible is so wonderful. Um also 22 through 28 is a cry of justice, just a yearning. Um, and this is just humans, you said it earlier, is that we all want justice for us. Yeah, uh, we don't I mean on, you know, we want justice to be done, but not we don't want to reap. Yeah, yes. We don't want to have to reap the yes, that's exactly right. And then also verses 29 through verse 36 is uh turning toward praise uh in the middle of all the lamenting. There's still praise on his tongue. Read verse 30.
SPEAKER_01It says, Then I will praise God's name with singing, and I will honor him with thanksgiving.
SPEAKER_00God welcomes raw emotional prayer. Yeah, and he's okay with that. He can handle it. He can handle it. So chapter 68 is God is reigning. Chapter 69 is God I'm hurting.
SPEAKER_02Come on.
SPEAKER_00Both are true and both belong in worship.
SPEAKER_02Amen.
SPEAKER_00And that's the beauty. A life full of God includes both praise and lament. And let me just say something for me right now. As of today, right now, at just a few hours before, I got a text from my dad, and it said that my grandmother had died. She's went on to her eternal home. We rejoice, we're excited, we're happy for grandmother. Uh, where grandma suffered a lot, and she's 97 years of age. Um, and we knew that it was coming any moment. We've kind of, but there's something about it when I got that text, and I just read that, that I literally began to well and cry. And for probably about 15 minutes, I just could not stop just welling and crying. Yeah, and it's just a release of um I won't be able to hold her again. Yeah, I will not be able to talk to her again. I won't be able to because even up until just the past week, I could go down, I could have a conversation with her. Sometimes she might not be completely there, but I could have a conversation with her. I won't have that in this world.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And so there's a part of me that just yearns and angry at death and sin and all this stuff. But then there's the other side of me that can stop, and those tears are also tears of rejoicing, that I rejoice knowing that she is with Jesus, because the Bible says to be absent from this body is to be present with the Lord.
SPEAKER_02Amen.
SPEAKER_00I can rejoice because I know what I get to look forward to. That heaven is sweeter. We're pilgrims passing through this world, that this is not our home. Grandma has finally made it home, and I will too someday. Amen. Amen.
SPEAKER_01Amen. Come on.
SPEAKER_00Okay, there we go. There it is. That's a lot of information. That's right. Yeah. Hey, keep reading God's word. Um, we preach you from it every week, and I hope that you will read with us, study with us, go along the journey with us, subscribe to this, love it and share it with others and talk about it with others. Sams, anything you want to say to people?
SPEAKER_01No, I I would just partner on that, just read it. And there's a sweetness uh to God's word where the more you the more you consume it, the more you develop the taste for it. And it it becomes richer and richer. Um, like just like Pastor Rodney, you can go back to verses from 2020 that you written something about. Um, that it just becomes sweeter and sweeter as you reflect on it year after year.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Well, thank you, Samson, very much. Have a great time. I'm so glad that you joined us for another North Papel recap. Until next time.