Heart Over Hype: False Confidence

Use this curriculum to help you further engage with the sermon, the scriptures, and each other. Allow the Holy Spirit to bring things up to encourage and guide you so that you are always growing in your faith. If the Spirit leads you away from these questions and into conversation and prayer that encourages and points you to Jesus, go for it.

scripture

Read the following scriptures together: 1 Samuel 4.

overview

1 Samuel 4 presents us with two realities: a physical defeat by the Philistines and a spiritual defeat as God seemingly disappeared from the battle. In the Israelites’ eyes, they should have won, given the presence of the Ark of the Covenant. But that's exactly where they went wrong – the superstition of religion, the empty acts of “faith,” and disobedience to God’s word led the Israelites to defeat and death. Instead of humbling themselves and recognizing their shortfalls, they were left dumbfounded as to how this could happen. This is something we as Christians may experience, too. We might question why hard things happen to us even when we pray, are in the word daily, tithe, serve, and more.

question 1

Where does our faith truly lie in those actions? Is it in the acts we present to the Lord to get what we want? Or in the humbling of ourselves to seek his voice and his will?

discussion

The Israelites were confident in their victory. After a small defeat by the Philistines, they decided to bring the Ark of the Covenant assuming that simply carrying the Ark into battle with them would save them from their enemies. They thought they knew the right plan of action for the battle they were facing, but they didn’t consult God. Like the Israelites, we too can find ourselves turning to the action or item that is supposed to bring blessing, instead of turning to the One who blesses it.

question 2

How is your pace with God? Do you tend to get ahead of God, feeling him nudging you backward, saying “Wait for me”? Or do you feel like you have a hard time catching up to what he is doing in your life?

The chapter ends with Eli's daughter-in-law, the wife of Phinehas, naming her child Ichabod, meaning “Where is the glory?” – signifying in 1 Samuel 4:22, “The glory has departed from Israel, for the Ark of God has been captured.” There's some truth to that: the Ark was captured, and it had functioned as a symbol of God’s presence among the people of Israel. But that’s not why he had departed. God was always there; it was their disobedience to his word that resulted in their loss in battle. Time and time again they went against what God had commanded, yet when a trial approached, they pulled out their lucky charm – the Ark of the Covenant – to save them. Andrew said at the end of his sermon, “Faith is not a tool we use to get what we want, it’s the relationship that forms us to be like Christ.” While the Israelites used the Ark of the Covenant to try and get what they wanted, that doesn’t have to be us today.

question 3

How do we keep ourselves from just going through the motions of our faith? How can you tell the difference between laying your burdens at the feet of superstition or at the feet of Jesus and his Lordship? Hardships do not mean you are disobeying God, but are you seeking his voice or fighting your battle on your own?

weekly application

In your quiet time this week, ask God to show you if you are truly seeking relationship with him or going through the motions. If you have found yourself on autopilot – ask a friend to process and pray with you, asking for a greater awareness of God’s presence and power.