You might have weird neighbors, but have you ever had a neighbor just walk in your house into your backyard? Pat Stark has! Sometimes when we think about "loving our neighbors", often the last people we think of are OUR ACTUAL PHYSICAL NEIGHBORS. But God acted neighborly to us even when we didn't deserve it (not a bad paraphrase of Rom 5:8). He initiated with us. He sacrificed for us.Your faith in Christ should affect the efforts you make to know the other humans living around you. No — this isn't super comfortable for some of us, but the potential blessing for everyone involved is incalculable. Here’s a link to a handy map/diagram to remember our neighbors

The temple that is dedicated in 1 Kings 8 was understood to be the place where heaven and earth overlapped. The temple is a theme not only throughout scripture, but used by biblical writers to explain what God is doing in the church — we are now in Christ being built to be a temple of the living God…. a place where God’s name dwells. What are the implications for us today? For video of the sermon, see https://youtu.be/P_6jmzbR02s

The terrible reality is that people hurt us and take from us. When that happens, whether it was big or small, the natural reaction we have is to seek to deal with our feelings by wanting to get even. We may even think that’s the only way to deal with our feelings. But does God offer us any other options? Our reading in 2 Samuel and the beginning of 1 Kings offer some satisfying hope.

King David is widely considered the greatest leader in Israel’s history. He was known as a man who displayed great magnanimity, patience, loyalty, and humility. He was known as a man after God’s own heart. However, we know as well that he had many faults: he committed adultery with Bathsheba, betrayed one of his key soldiers (Uriah) and arranged for him to be killed. He was not immune from bravado and at the end of his life called for vengeance on people who had slighted him. The question can be raised, “What does it mean that a man like David was considered a man after God’s own heart?” In this message we will see that it is actually good news for us that a person with many faults can still be considered a “person after God’s own heart.”

Throughout history people have looked for leaders to bring them safety, prosperity, and honor. But in the story that we look at today we see that God warns his people from rejecting him and demanding a human king. Because  in doing so they will get insecurity, will have their goods taken from them, and will be subjugated to the whims of a tyrant. What will God do in the face of this? Immersed in 1 Samuel. The book of 1 Samuel marks the transition from the period of the Judges to the monarchy in the nation of Israel.

Immersed in the book of Judges. Judges describes situations of horror and hope. Yes, there are terrible and confusing things that are there (sound like your life?) but is good news for us as well in the book of Judges. Because this is a book about God delivering his people from the mess they create. God delivers us from the mess.

Overview of the book of Joshua. In Joshua 5:13-15, the eponymous leader of the book of Joshua meets a heavenly figure. Joshua asks him, “Are you for us or our enemies?” He’s asking whose side the the leader of the Lord’s armies is on. This figure replies, “Neither.” And for us — we want God to just back up our plans, but he asks each of us instead whose side WE are on. Will we choose to be on God’s side?

An introduction to the whole Immerse: Kingdoms series, where we will be reading together the books of Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1 Samuel, 2 Samuel, 1 Kings, and 2 Kings.