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UNC meets weekly at the Atlanta Bread Company in Cumming GA. Each Friday, the morning’s opening talk is posted to the blog. Don’t forget, you can easily subscribe to our RSS feed.

Also, you can subscribe to our Podcast in iTunes. Start iTunes, enter the iTunes Store, and search for “UNC Friday Morning”.

…the earth splashes song and color across the silent gray.  Spring springs life and helps men remember God.  Which is good - because sometimes we forget.  

Just ask David.

In the spring….

David fastens his gaze to the naked form of a beautiful babe.

You know the story.  David lies with Bathsheba.  Then he lies to everyone else.  

In the spring…

…at the time kings go off to war, David stays home. 

His soldiers are killing bad guys, but David is killing time.  

He’s soaking sun, lathering lotion and tuning the tan.  David is surfing the scenery when he downloads Uriah’s wife.

This is the part where you want to grab David by the shoulders and give him a good shake.

“David, what are are you doing?!  You’re the king for God’s sake!”

But David can’t hear you.  He’s too busy forgetting. He’s distracting himself to defeat.  

His army is winning the battle in the field, but David is losing the battle in his heart. 

There are places kings go and there are things kings do.  And David is forgetting both.

David…  is a lot like us.

We forget that we are born again of royal blood, set apart by God for His glory and fame.  

We forget we are co-heirs with the Risen Christ.

We forget that we are noble…  and we are distracted to defeat.  

Bathshebas don’t float across the screens of men who are busying themselves in battle.

Men who are remembering their sacred calling, who are remembering they are kings.

Click the ‘play’ button below to listen.

(If you cannot see the audio controls below, click the title of this post to refresh. Flash Player is required, click here to download.)

UNC meets weekly at the Atlanta Bread Company in Cumming GA. Each Friday, the morning’s opening talk is posted to the blog. Don’t forget, you can easily subscribe to our RSS feed.

Also, you can subscribe to our Podcast in iTunes. Start iTunes, enter the iTunes Store, and search for “UNC Friday Morning”.

“When Samuel reached him, Saul said, “The LORD bless you! I have carried out the LORD’s instructions.” But Samuel said, “What then is this bleating of sheep in my ears? What is this lowing of cattle that I hear?”
–1 Samuel 15:13-14

Saul was the man. The king of Israel. But Saul had a Saul problem, just like you and I have a me problem. Not me as in me, but me as in you. Without God at the center, we’re all our own worst enemies. Saul was at the center of Saul. He was given an instruction to obliterate the Amalekites, to completely wipe out everything on two and four legs and leave nothing breathing. But something else rang in Saul’s ears: “To the victor go the spoils.” He saw an opportunity to increase his wealth by keeping the best of the animals to add to his own, and also a chance to make a political play by keeping the Amalekite king alive–something he could later leverage if ever needed for his royal gain. So he took them: the opportunity, the agenda and God’s law into his own hands, molding to whatever suited Saul first and God second.

Big no-no there. And Samuel, one of God’s prophets, called him out on it. Big time. In front of all his soldiers, all his royal subjects. Saul tried to play it off. But Samuel wasn’t playing. Neither was God.

Ever been in Saul’s shoes? Trust me, we all have. And it’s a baaaaaad thing when our sheep start bleating our disobedience. Here’s where our table landed with these questions:

1. What stands out to you from these verses?
For all of us it was the lie, the front that Saul tried to put up. Also the fact of the prideful ownership he showed with the “I have” done God’s will—it was meant as a cover up, but even if it was genuine, it was a boastful statement. Also how there are consequences to everything we do, and no matter how hard we try to cover up the wrong things, they always come back to bite us in the rear.

2. Is there such a thing as “partial” obedience?
Only if there’s such a thing as partially killing someone, telling a partial lie, paying partial taxes, being partially drunk or partially pregnant. The answer would be a resounding “NO.” Though one guy mentioned that vacuuming the family room for his wife who asked him to clean the house while she was gone was considered partial obedience.

3. Have you ever hidden something from someone you loved? Explain.
You mean like deleting files in your computer history folder? Or hiding receipts from the country club or your past hunting/fishing trip? No, of course not. Never. Actually, what we discussed here was when we exposed light to things done in secret, how that seemed to lessen the hold whatever it was had on us. Light exposes everything, and darkness can’t overcome it.

4. What is a “partitioned life”? Do you partition some areas of your life to yourself? Why?
A partitioned life is one where we live for ourselves. We create boxes like “provision” or “hanging with the guys” or “Saturday night” or “it’s just business.” And we do this to rationalize and justify our actions, to make us feel better, and because we’re putting oursevles at the center of our universe, not God. We also do this because we’re idiots. If only we had some kind of bat signal that flashed in the sky as a warning when we’re partioning—maybe more of a baaaaa signal instead. I know that’s bad, and the second time I’ve used it in this post already. No more, I promise. There’s enough bleating sheep going on as it is.

Until next week, don’t do what Saul did, and we’ll tackle the next thing we guys do but probably shouldn’t.

The sheep will get you every time.

E-V-E-R-Y time!

Check out Saul.

He’s the one riding shotgun in the ticker tape parade.  Saul and his army have just whipped a  band of thugs called the Amalekites.

That’s him waiving to the crowds, blowing kisses and punching hisnumber one finger to the air.  

“Saul, slayer of thousands!” the revelers chant.

Saul is believing his own press releases.  So much so that he builds a monument to himself atop Mt. Carmel.  In case the people forget…
Saul is leaving this place he wants to be remembered when he is reminded his win is short lived.  A familiar figure approaches as Saul is uncorking some more bubbly.

It’s Samuel.

“Nuts.”

He’s the one guy Saul does not want to see right now.  

The men report to Saul.  

Samuel reports to God.  

This makes Saul squirm.  

“Samuel is coming.  Quick, everybody look busy….  and hide those sheep!”

Ahh….  the sheep.

Those taddling, even-toed ungulates.  The pesty proof of a partitioned life.

Such was Saul’s.  

Saul believed his secret sat outside God’s vision.

“I have carried out the Lord’s instructions…”

Sound familiar?  

Do you hold a secret you think is outside God?  

Do you think you can contain those consequences?  

If these questions scrape your center, consider Samuel’s words to Saul:

“What then, is this bleating of sheep in my ears?”

Oh yeah….  THAT!

Stake Your Hope… 

There are those we perceive the nature of men is inherently good and getting better.

And, there are those who believe men are by nature corrupt in need of a Savior.  

The latter leads to salvation, the former to devastation. 

If the nature of man is good, then evil has no meaning and men need no redeeming.  

A strong wind is enticing men to the lie that we have somehow moved past a need for the biblical Jesus. 

We are offered hope in man’s best efforts and told to change our narrow thinking.  To enter this new age of possibility, we need only to discard our rigidity.  

“You are not a sinner in need of a savior.”

I’ve seen where this road ends.

“There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death.”

As for me, I say you can keep your possibility.  I’ll stake my hope in the certainty… of an empty tomb and a Risen Savior.