Closeness for Casualness | 1 Samuel 6 | Crossroads Daily

And have you tried that Jamie? And my mom being like, "I'm not one of you little friends." And then all of a sudden you have that realization of like, "Ooh, I found a line and I have crossed it." That's right. There is a level of respect regardless of how close God is to you or how close you are to God, how much you experience his love. There is a level of respect and awe and reverence that he is just due. Not because of anything he's done, but because of who he is. This is the Crossroads Daily. No experts, no perfect people. Just honest conversations about what happens when the Bible shows up in real life. Hey, I'm Chuck. I'm Jamie. I'm Peter. I'm Jordan. And we are in 1 Samuel 5 talking about the, I'm sorry, 6, talking about the return of the ark, the Israel and this epic. It's kind of been like a little mini saga with the ark, right? You know, we had a chapter where the ark, they thought the ark was a good love charm and it didn't work out that way for Israel and we learned some things there. And now the, then the Philistines have that hilarious thing happen with their God falling down in front of the ark and showing that our God reigns above it all. And then now today it's like the Philistines kind of get hip to the game. And they're like, okay, we need to get this thing back to its rightful owner, which is not us. And so I just, it's interesting to think about the approach that even the Philistines versus the Israelites have to God in this chapter. So how do you approach God? What are some ways you find yourself approaching God? I think it's beautiful. We do have freedom in the ways we can approach God today because of Jesus and his sacrifice that like the Israelites, the people in this time did not have that same level of freedom. It doesn't mean we can't still learn from their methods. So a priest consecrating themselves before going into the temple. There are times where I feel a conviction to consecrate myself, to confess, to repent, to prepare my heart to receive from God in a special way.

But there's also times where I think I mentioned earlier, you know, I'm doing the dishes and I'm talking to them. Right. I mean, so it's, we have the benefit almost of a cornucopia of options. But the other thing we have is the Holy Spirit gets presence within us that will convict us and show us the way. And so we have to listen to that conviction. And there are probably times where, you know, I don't listen to that conviction in the right way. And that's, and then, you know, that can hurt my ability to engage with God. That's good. It makes me think of a framework that we learned as a church some time ago that you know, there are two reflections of God. If you want to break it down to like, what are the simplest terms of how God reveals himself in scripture? And there's two God reveals himself as a father and God reveals himself as a king. And a father is a posture, both are postures of authority, but there's, but there's a difference there. And one of the things we learn to kind of think about is like all of us probably have a default of those that's easier to engage God around. Right wrong or indifferent can be based on your conditioning, can be based on lots of things. But I wonder if you would go, let's just go around the horn. Is it easier for you to relate to God as father or as king? What's your default? Mine is father. It's easier for me to relate to God as a loving father and the grace side of God, which is wonderful, but to diminish the authority of God. And sometimes I need to recognize God's trying to king me. He wants to king me and I need to be, I need to be receptive to, he loves me, but there's something he's calling me to come under his authority around. That'd be mine. How about you, Jordan? What's your Yeah, I think I would agree with that. I think I would agree with that father is a little bit easier for me. I mean, I became a dad in the last few years. And so the perspective on okay, now I'm not just a son who has a father, but I also am a father who has children. And that changes the perspective of the father and there's things I understand more deeply and profoundly about God because of that. But I also agree with you, there's definitely times where I think about God through this lens. King, King, the idea of king is just weird, like even our culture, I was like, I kind of get it. But I also like, we don't live in that type of society. So there's elements to order and things like that that I don't fully have grasp of, but like the Bible speaks about. And so yeah, naturally, it'd be father. Yeah, Jamie. King. Okay, that's that's the filter. For like a couple different reasons, I'll just give two. One, I've struggled like whenever it's like if like in New Testament it's like you if you an evil father would give

your child a good gift like how much better would the gift be from God rate I'm like but my dad gave me great gifts and he still does um so then that that's like that's hard but also because there's things that I've wanted for my life that I feel like I haven't received yet from God and that makes it hard to see him as a good dad and so like authority um order like I have a real like logical brain so I'm like I can I can get in line I can't be a soldier in our military here in the United States uh that wouldn't work for me but it's like for God like that just is that's clear it is not messy um and so I tend that way to see God as king and I know he's a good father and I that's the place where I have to spend more time reminding myself yeah yeah thanks for typing that though that's really helpful the way you unpacked yeah yeah I see God as a king more yeah probably yeah probably probably as a legacy of my more kind of legalistic religious performance based kind of upbringing is definitely so it's easier to see okay a king historically you know his relationship was defined in a hierarchical fashion and his he made demands of his subjects and then offered a subject protection or offer subject benefit yeah in exchange for for those tasks whatever those tasks would be and I'm like okay I can do that but that also means that's not a personal vulnerable relationship and that's and that's not a relationship where you receive in in in that kind of way so and it requires vulnerability from me and I think that's really the way God continues to push me is you know be vulnerable with me share with me let me let me father you let me let me come around you let me embrace you yeah you know I'm not just a taskmaster you know and I think that's really what you're getting at check is everyone we write a story about who God is right and it's always one facet of many facets and we tend to emphasize that one facet at the expense of all the other parts of God that's right that's right and so I think at any point when okay I only see God as a friend I only see him as a counselor I only see him as a father a king he has so many names in scripture and we can just pick one and be like that's the one I like yeah but it's not a shoes you're on a venture and I love that because I think the thing that's in this chapter that we just got to deal with is like man so the art comes back but there's a group of people who disrespect the art right who know and and and you if you if you're connected to the Old Testament like they're breaking very real malls they like they knew and and by the way the people in this village where it's coming back to are from the tribe of Levi that's the priestly tribe so if anybody would have known like the word for is in the whatnots they should have known that and they violated it and my my daddy God my dad who's a good father kills kills how do you make sense of that and it makes

me realize there are times when I am too casual with God because again everybody who's watching may not be there but when I read these things in the Old Testament it doesn't bring into question whether or not God is good I know God is good so there's something there that I'm not understanding about why it was good for him to do that so how do you how do you make sense of that how do you make sense of how God responds to the violation these people do it it makes me think of getting too casual with my parents as a child and tried that and my mom being like I'm not one of you little friends and all of a sudden you have that realization of like oh I found a line and I have crossed it that's right now how do I back it up that's right if I know what's good for without receiving a spanking because I lived in one of those homes and it just was one of those things of like no you're right okay um it just like puts things in order like you get that kind of shock back to reality it's good I'm in an understanding like there is a level of respect regardless of how close God is to you or how close you are to God how much you experience his love there is a level of respect and awe and reverence that he is just due yeah not because of anything he's done but because of who he is yeah and so like and sometimes I just need to be reminded and he knows that like all the times when God's like remember yeah mm-hmm this is another one where he's like remember yeah I think about God in the bible having just preferences or things that he says that he likes yeah he's like all different times throughout the old test but new test I want you to do this, I like it. Yeah, like it makes me happy, you know? Or I just like it. And I just think about even like my relationship that I have with friends or even like my wife. And there's, you know, you can talk about love languages or ways that she likes to be loved and through acts of service. And I can look at it and be like, I don't necessarily care about that. Or wait, it's just this little thing and you just care a lot about that thing. It's like, I don't have to understand it.

But I know it's like, she likes it. And if I want to love her and honor her, I can just do that thing and I don't have to get it. I just, I'm just like, if it makes you happy and it makes you feel loved and this is how you've told me that you want to be loved that I can love you like that. That's so good. And so I also think about like, yeah, the other side of this is just going like, man, there's things I see throughout the Bible. And I'm going, I don't really get it. But if God tells me that He likes when I raise my hands when I sing or when I approach Him and talk to Him this certain way, then I'm just like, all right, well then, I'll just do it. And it might be a little weird or uncomfortable or whatever, but if you like it, then I want to do it. - Oh, I love that, man. And what I love about that is, you're connecting this idea of authority with relationship. Like, yes, I'll do it because you're powerful. - Yeah, yeah. - Or it's your right, maybe the way you were saying it, even with your right. Like, it's her right to ask for it this way. - Sure, yeah. - And I want to be in relationship with you. So I'm gonna honor that. I'm gonna come under that authority.

I think that's so good. - Yeah, the thing I think of is like, when your grandma gets you a gift for Christmas that she really wanted you to have, but you're like, I didn't want a dictionary for Christmas. You know what I'm saying? And it's, I don't want to do that with God. Like, I don't want to love Him in a way where I'm like, don't seem like really like this thing. He's like, I don't want that. - That's right. - I want this thing over here. And I'm like, oh, okay, cool. - Oh, it's so good, man. I love that. That's a powerful example. And it makes me just think about, like, even in this story, I do think there is something about, when you know better, you're expected to do better, like, and I feel convicted around that, you know? Like, I think God has total grace, lots of grace for me and for everybody. I think about people who innocently do something that violates God's will. It innocently meaning like, they may not know the chapter in verse around it. Like, and I think that there's a different way God's dealing with them than when, when I who, you know, read and teach this, the Bible says it and New Testament says that those who teach

will be judged more severely. That's a real thing for us to think about in our relationship with God. And I think it's healthy and good for us to think about that authority side of God. And there's something in this that helps us with that. Because what we're really saying is God is holy. He's not us. He ain't one of your little friends. You're about to say, what are your little friends, right? He ain't one of your little friends. He's holy and so how do we relate to our holy God? Taking the fullness of his grace and his kindness and also his authority and his power and his, his right to say, I want this 'cause I like it this way. How do we relate to our holy God? There's, I know there's so many things to say about this, but I would say one way is to continue to pursue holiness in honor of him to look more like Jesus, who he gave to us to model, right? It's like the more we, and I also love the phrase pursue holiness is not be holy because we actually can't do that. There's, we don't have the capability of being holy 'cause we're not God, but we can pursue it. We can't, and I think that's what God asks of us, you know? And so, and so really I use it as a filter for it. Am I pursuing holiness with what I'm doing here or not? - Yeah. - You know, and that can, that can, there is room

for that to look different for different people. And that's where, when you get to the religious side, we're gonna put too many rules around what pursuit of holiness looks like and then that's where it becomes not freeing anymore. It becomes another religious system, but yeah. And I think it's that, I think it's that, and I think it's also surrendering my need for an explanation for everything. I think it's the other thing. I think that's similar to what we were talking about, Jordan, where that's, that was making me think about that too. I often will be like, well, I wanna understand this first before I, and it's like, no, whenever I start thinking like that, I'm like, okay, I'm, I'm no longer humble enough right now. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. - I'm just thinking about like a few foundational beliefs that I have that is just like, God loves me. He knows best for my life. He wants good things for me. And like when I have this like the foundational things, yes, there's always questions that I wanna know the answer to, but it helps me grow in my ability to just trust. All right, God, you're holy, there's things that are like too wonderful for me to understand, I can't comprehend them. But if I can be on those founds, Yeah, I'm gonna pursue the holiness without all of the other, you know, puzzle pieces kind of filled in

And I'm gonna trust that it's gonna be good. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah, we in a previous series. We were talking a lot about Jesus's words in Matthew 11 28. Where he says come to me all who are weary and heavy learned laden I will give you rest Take my yoke upon you and learn from me from gentle and lonely and heart and you'll find rest for your souls And I think that you know, there's a part of the the way that we respond to a holy God That reminds me a lot of the best way to ride on the back of a motorcycle So I know if you've ever done this but if you're riding on the motorcycle and you're not the driver The best thing you can do as a passenger is get to be one with the person on the motorcycle The most dangerous thing you can do is if they're leaning to the right you start leaning in a different direction You know, that's not good for the rider and it's not good for you. I think there's a picture there about The crazy wonderful counter intuitive thing is our holy God says actually, you know what? The closer you get to me The closer you get to me the more you'll be able to live in my holiness Mm-hmm, and it's counterintuitive But it is the invitation that we have is to to trust that like I love what you said God loves you And he knows it's best for you. Mm-hmm. And if we can just keep it as simple as that Life goes life goes fairly well. It won't be perfect, but life goes fairly well So today whatever it looks like for you to lean in to literally like say God I want to I want to get closer to you I want to walk with you in holiness man Do that because that is where it will go well for you and it will go well for me You (upbeat music) (upbeat music)