掃羅
This morning we are kicking off a new series between our two churches over three campuses. Were many of you part of the Mosaic series we did last year? We thought that was such a positive expression of unity across our churches that we wanted to do another combined series this year. So this series is called Royals and we are going to be looking at some of Israel’s kings in the Old Testament. We’ll be drawing from the books of 1 and 2 Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings and 2 Chronicles, which is quite wide-ranging but it all holds together around this idea: all of these kinds are flawed in various ways—some more than others—but they all point us toward the great king who was to come—Christ Jesus. Jesus is at the centre of this series and our hope is that through this series you gain a greater vision of Jesus, the king of kings.
今天早上，我们将在两个教会三个会堂启动一个新的讲道系列。你们中有人是我们去年的“马赛克”讲道系列的听众吗？我们认为这是对教会合一的积极表达，因此我们希望今年再做一个联合讲道系列。这个讲道系列称为“皇室”，我们将看看旧约中以色列的一些国王。我们将从撒母耳上下，列王记上下和历代志下中汲取信息，这些书内容相当广泛，但都围绕着这样一个核心：所有这些国王都存在不同程度的缺陷，一些国王比其他人更有缺陷，但他们都把我们引向那位即将到来的伟大君王 - 基督耶稣。耶稣是这个系列的中心，我们希望通过这个讲道系列， 你能对耶稣这位万王之王有更深的认识。
As with last year’s series, we will rotating the preaching between myself, Jonathan Dove and Brad Carr as we did last year, so I’ll be here three times throughout the series. And this year we have also collaborated around this series in other areas of our churches, which has been great. There has been collaboration between the children’s ministry leaders across the churches, between intermediates and youth leaders, and between the worship and creative teams. This is such a good journey as we work together for the kingdom of God across Tamaki Makaurau.
与去年的讲道系列一样，我自己、乔纳森牧师和布拉德牧师将轮流讲道，在整个讲道系列中， 我将出现三次。今年，我们还围绕这个系列在教会的其他领域进行了合作，这非常棒。各教会的儿童事工领袖之间、中学和青年领袖之间、敬拜和创意团队之间都有合作。这是一段美好的旅程，因为我们在整个奥克兰为上帝的国度而一起同工。
So this morning we are starting with the first of Israel’s kings, King Saul. You’ve seen a newsfeed this morning about Saul throwing his spear at David, and we’ll circle back to that story later on, but I want to ground our time today in an earlier passage that tells the story of Saul becoming king over Israel. This sets the scene for what happens with Saul and David later on. Let me read this passage for you
所以今天早上我们从以色列的第一位国王扫罗王开始。今天早上你已经看到了关于扫罗向大卫投掷长矛的经文，我们稍后会回到那个故事，但我想把今天的时间放在更早的一段讲述扫罗成为以色列王的故事中。这为后来发生在扫罗和大卫身上的事情做了铺垫。让我为你读这段经文
I can relate to this story a little bit because we have a child who loves to hide. Our Ezra is 8 years old and whenever it’s time to do something important you can be sure that he’ll go and hide. Often when it’s time to go to bed, he’ll go and hide instead. He’ll hide under his bed. He’ll hide in someone else’s bed. He’ll hide in a cupboard somewhere. The other day Ezra was in the car and I left him there and told him to stay there while I walked a very short distance down the road to meet our other son from school and walk him back to the car. When I got back Ezra wasn’t there. I look around and it turned out that he had hidden himself in the bucket compartment of the car boot. He had managednot only to crawl into the book space but to lift up the bucket compartment, get into it and put the lid back down over his head. That child will hide anywhere!
我对这个故事有些感同身受，因为我有一个喜欢藏猫猫的孩子。我们的孩子以斯拉已经 8 岁了，每当需要做一些重要的事情时，他肯定会躲起来。通常到了上床睡觉的时候，他会躲起来， 他会藏在自己的床底下，他会躲在别人的床上，他会躲在某个柜子里。有一天，以斯拉在车里，我把他留在车里，让他待在那里，而我去到很近的地方，去接我们另一个儿子放学，然后送他回车上。当我回来时，以斯拉不见了。我环顾四周，原来他把自己藏在汽车后备箱的水桶隔间里。他不仅成功地爬进了后备箱而且还抬起了水桶隔间的盖子，钻了进去，把盖子放回了头上。那孩子会躲在任何地方！
So I know a bit about hiding children, but what we have in this story is not a child who is hiding but a king! That makes this quite a strange and almost comical story. This is the first king Israel has ever had—the very first time Israel has ever had a king. They asked God for a king and God wasn’t too pleased about that, because he was their king. But he granted their request and God directed the prophet Samuel to anoint Saul as the king over all Israel. The Bible says there was not a man in Israel more handsome than Saul, and he stood head and shoulders above everyone else in Israel. So basically he was tall, dark and handsome. He was the kind of guy you would expect to become king, but as we will see, there were problems under the surface for Saul. Samuel anointed Saul privately, but after that, the time comes for a public ceremony in which the king would be officially appointed by God and presented to the people.
所以我对孩子藏匿有所了解，但我们在这个故事中所看到的不是一个藏匿的孩子，而是一个国王！这使得整个故事相当奇怪，且近乎可笑。这是以色列有史以来的第一个国王，以色列有史以来第一次有国王。他们向上帝祈求有个国王，上帝对此并不高兴，因为祂才是他们的君王。但祂答应了他们的请求，上帝指示先知撒母耳膏立扫罗成为全以色列的王。圣经说，在以色列没有一个人比扫罗更英俊，他年轻英俊，在以色列人中无人能比，高出其他人一个头。所以基本上他又高又黑又英俊。他是你眼中那种期望成为国王的人，但正如我们将看到的，扫罗的表面之下存在问题。撒母耳私下膏立了扫罗，但在那之后，举行公开仪式的时候到了，在这个仪式上，国王将被上帝正式任命，并呈现给人民。
So Samuel gathers the people of Israel in Mizpah, which is just north of Jerusalem. This couldn’t have been every individual Israelite because that would have been millions of people. More likely, this was the heads and elders and representatives of tribes and clans and families within Israel—still a vast number of people. Samuel brings out the lot—this was a way of making decisions in the ancient world. The lot may been a collection of marked stones that could spell particular words. God guided the lot as it was used in order to arrive at the outcome he wanted. Even though God had already decided on Saul as king, he now wanted to make that decision clear and public to the people of Israel. So Samuel rolled the lot and the tribe of Benjamin. This tribal level would be the equivalent of iwi in Maori culture. So representatives of the tribe of Benjamin step forward—we know the king is going to be from Benjamin. Then Samuel rolls the lot again and the family of Matrites was chosen. That is the equivalent of hapu—a clan of families. So the representatives of the Matrites step forward. Then the lot is rolled a third time and of all the people in the Matrite clan, Saul is chosen by the lot.
于是撒母耳将以色列人聚集在耶路撒冷以北的米斯巴。这不可能是每个以色列人都能参与的， 因为以色列人有数百万。更有可能的是，这是以色列境内各部落、宗族和家庭的首领、长老和代表，他们仍人数众多。撒母耳拿出签，这是古代世界做决定的一种方式。这次抽签可能是一组带标记的石头，可以拼写成特定的字。上帝引导了抽签，以达到祂想要的结果。尽管上帝已经决定让扫罗作王，但祂现在想把这个决定清楚地告诉以色列人。于是撒母耳抽出便雅悯支派。这个部落级别相当于毛利文化中的 iwi部落。于是便雅悯支派的代表上前，我们知道国王将来自便雅悯支派。然后撒母耳再次抽签，选择了玛特利家族，这相当于hapu，一个家族的宗族。于是玛特利家族的代表上前一步。然后第三次抽签，在玛特利家族的所有人中，扫罗被抽中。
So Samuel looks around and says, ‘where is Saul?’ He looked around and Saul was nowhere to be seen. The officials search for Saul but they can’t find him. This is bizarre, given that Saul already knew he was going to be king, so he would obviously have shown up at his own coronation ceremony.
Eventually Samuel decides to roll the lot again so God will tell them where Saul is. So he rolls the stones and this time the stones spell, ‘luggage,’ or something like that. God says he has hidden himself among the supplies. This is the area where people had put all of their bags and luggage that they had been travelling with. So they go and search in this supply area and sure enough, there was Saul. I like to imagine that because Saul was so tall, his head was sticking up over the top of the bags anyway. He would have been pretty easy to spot. But just picture this in your mind—here is the future king of Israel cowering behind the luggage. This is an ominous start to Israel’s monarchy.
于是撒母耳环顾四周，问：“扫罗在哪里？”他环顾四周，没有看到扫罗。官员们寻找扫罗，但他们找不到他。这很奇怪，因为扫罗已经知道他将成为国王，所以他显然会出现在自己的加冕仪式上。最后，撒母耳决定再次抽签，这样上帝就会告诉他们扫罗在哪里。所以他掷出石头， 这一次石头拼出“行李”或类似的东西。上帝说他把自己藏在行李堆中。这是人们放置旅行时所有背包和行李的地方。他们于是去这个行李区搜索，果然，扫罗就在那里。我想，因为扫罗太高了，他的头无论如何都高出袋子的顶部。他很容易被发现。但只要你脑补一下，这就是未来的以色列国王，他蜷缩在行李后面。这是以色列君主制不祥的开端。
The officials pull him out from behind the luggage and quickly bring him out in front of the people, where the ceremony is already in full swing. And Samuel presents Saul to the people. But there is a note of irony in his words when he says, “there is no one like him among all the people!” That’s right, there was nobody else hiding among the luggage – just the king! But the people don’t know he was hiding; they are none the wiser. So they shout back, “long live the king!” And Saul is officially established as the first king of Israel. But I imagine, as Samuel looked over at Saul that day he must have a sense of foreboding in his Spirit—this was not a great start to the kingship, a king so afraid of being crowned that he hid himself away in the luggage room.
官长们将他从行李后面拉出来，迅速把他带到人们面前，仪式已经在如火如荼地进行。撒母耳将扫罗介绍给百姓。但是，他的话中有一种讽刺的意味，他说：“所有人中没有一个像他这样的人！”没错，没有其他人躲在行李中，只有国王！但人们不知道他藏起来了，他们一点也不知道。于是他们回喊：“国王万岁！”扫罗被正式确立为以色列的第一位国王。但我想，当撒母耳那天看着扫罗时，他心里一定有一种不祥的预感 ，这不是一个好的开始，一个国王如此害怕被加冕，以至于把自己藏在行李堆里。
This episode in Saul’s story is indicative of the major struggle Saul had throughout his adult life-- with for much of his life—insecurity. You see it in this text—while we are not specifically told why Saul was hiding among the supplies that day, it’s not hard to deduce the fact that Saul was afraid. This tall, handsome man, on the inside was like a frightened little child. He was afraid of stepping into this role that God had called him to and wasn’t confident in his ability to be Israel’s king. This is Saul was a deeply insecure man who didn’t seem to have a strong sense of his own worth. Maybe it came from the fact that his father was a strong and mighty man of valour – maybe Saul wilted under the strength of his father, which often happens to those with strong fathers. I don’t want to psycho-analyse Saul too much, but wherever it came from, his insecurity meant that his confidence was easily shaken, he easily felt threatened and he was afraid of other people. This manifested itself in various ways in Saul’s life. Here it leads to him literally running away from a situation he’s afraid of.
扫罗故事中的这段插曲表明了扫罗在整个成年生活中的挣扎，在他生命的大部分时间里，与不安相伴。在这段经文中你可以看到，虽然我们没有被具体告知，扫罗那天为什么躲在行李中， 但不难推断出扫罗害怕的事实。这个高大英俊的男人，在内心深处就像一个受惊的小孩。他害怕踏上上帝呼召他的这个角色，对自己成为以色列国王的能力没有信心。这就说明，扫罗是一个极度缺乏安全感的人，他似乎对自己的价值没有强烈的意识。可能是因为他的父亲是一个强壮有力的勇士，也许扫罗在父亲的力量下萎靡不振，这种情况经常发生在那些有强大父亲的人身上。我不想过多地对扫罗进行心理分析，但无论不安来自何处，他的不安全感意味着他的信心很容易被动摇，他很容易感到受到威胁，他害怕其他人。这在扫罗的生活中以各种方式表现出来。在这里，这导致了他从他所害怕的情况下逃跑。
At other times his insecurity leads him to be a people pleaser and do things in order to keep people happy rather than to please God. Other times his insecurity leads him to try and control people, to try and prove himself by being overly assertive in order to compensate for his lack of self-confidence.
在其他时候，他的不安全感导致他成为一个取悦于人的人，做事情是为了让人高兴，而不是为了取悦上帝。其他时候，他的不安全感导致他试图控制别人，试图通过过于自信来证明自己， 以弥补他缺乏自信的缺陷。
In the story of Saul throwing his spear at David we see the same underlying pattern. It is Saul’s personal insecurity that leads him to be threatened by David’s success and David’s popularity, and that leads Saul to be intimidated by David. That eventually leads him to turn against David and try to kill him because he sees him as a threat to his power and his kingdom. All of that stems from a deeply person who doesn’t have confidence in who he is before God, doesn’t have a strong centre of self, and does not have a healthy sense of self-worth. That insecurity ultimately becomes Saul’s downfall as God rips the kingdom out of his hands and gives it to someone who isn’t even one of Saul’s descendants—David (we’ll look at him next week).
在扫罗向大卫投掷长矛的故事中，我们看到了同样的模式。扫罗个人的不安全感导致他被大卫的成功和大卫的受欢迎程度所威胁，导致扫罗被大卫吓倒。这最终导致他转而反对大卫，并试图杀死他，因为他认为大卫是对他的权力和他的王国的威胁。所有这一切都源于一个对自己在上帝面前的身份没有信心的人，他没有一个强大的自我认知，也没有一个健康的自我价值感。这种不安全感最终导致扫罗的垮台，因为上帝将王国从他手中夺走了，并将其交给了一个甚至不是扫罗后裔之一的人 - 大卫（我们下周会讲到他）。
Let’s start drawing some connections to our own lives because I think you can already see clearly how this struggle that Saul had with insecurity is a struggle that so many of us continue to have today. Thousands of years have come and gone and yet this is such a deeply human issue that so many of us are plagued by—feelings of insecurity—we feel inadequate, we feel unworthy, we feel unqualified, we imposter syndrome—believing we are not as competent as others perceive us to be. To some degree or other we all struggle with this, don’t we? But I think almost all of us, underneath our nice Sunday clothes and our church smiles, are deeply insecure people.
让我们联想一下我们自己的生活，我想你已经可以清楚地看到，扫罗与不安全感的斗争是我们许多人今天仍存在的斗争。 几千年过去了，这仍是一个如此深刻的人类问题，我们中的许多人都被不安全感所困扰，我们觉得自己不够格，我们觉得自己不配，我们觉得自己不合格，我们有强迫症，认为我们不如别人眼中的那种有能力。在某种程度上，我们都在为这个问题挣扎，不是吗？我认为，几乎所有人，在教会里，我们光鲜亮丽的衣服和满面笑容之下，我们都是极度缺乏安全感的人。
And when we have feelings of insecurity, our response is just the same as Saul’s response—we try to hide. Sometimes that means literally we run away from situations that are hard. You might find certain types of social situations difficult and so you avoid them because they trigger your insecurities. Hiding, for you, might mean hiding behind your phone, so you don’t have to deal with real people. But there are other forms of hiding, just as there were with Saul. Hiding can also mean people-pleasing. Just like Saul was desperate to be liked, we can do things to be like by other people—speaking and acting in ways that are going to impress or woo people. That’s just another form of hiding—we are hiding who we really are in order to become what other people want us to be. Hiding can also take the form of being overly assertive, just like Saul. Some of the most controlling and domineering people you know are also the most insecure people. They try to manipulate people around them or prove themselves to other people, but all they are doing is masking a deep insecurity that lurks in their hearts. That might be you—your tough exterior is just a way of protecting that frightened child inside you.
当我们有不安全感时，我们的反应和扫罗的反应一样，我们试图躲避。有时，这意味着我们逃避困难的处境。你可能会发现某些类型的社交场合很困难，所以你会避开它们，因为它们会引发你的不安全感。对你来说，躲避可能意味用手机做掩护，这样你就不必与真实的人打交道。但是还有其他形式的隐藏，就像扫罗一样。隐藏也可能意味着取悦于人。就像扫罗迫切希望被人喜欢一样，我们可以做取悦别人的事情，以能够打动或吸引人们的方式说话和行事。这只是另一种形式的隐藏，我们隐藏真实的自己，以便成为其他人希望我们成为的样子。隐藏也可以采取过度自信的形式，就像扫罗一样。你认识的一些控制欲最强、最霸道的人也是最没有安全感的人。他们试图操纵周围的人或向别人证明自己，但他们所做的只是掩盖潜伏在他们心中的深深的不安全感。这可能就是你，你坚强的外表只是保护你内心深处那个受惊的孩子的一种方式。
I know I do. You might look at me and think I must be a secure person because I’m a preacher. Let me tell you, I struggle with insecurity just like you do, if not more. This is all of us. For some people the feelings come and go, for some they are always there.
我知道我有。 你可能看着我，认为我一定是一个有安全感的人，因为我是一个牧师。让我告诉你，我也和你一样与不安全感作斗争，一点不比你少。这是我们所有人的问题。 对一些人来说，这种感受来得快去的也快，对一些人来说，它一直存在。
In one way or another, we are all a bit like Saul, hiding among the luggage, hoping people don’t see through us and find out who we really are, hoping people like us and accept us, hoping the situations we fear will just go away. Saul is not so hard to relate to after all, is he?
不管怎样，我们都有点像扫罗，躲在行李堆里，希望别人不会看穿我们，发现我们真正的身份，希望别人喜欢我们，接受我们，希望我们所担心的情况会消失。 扫罗并不难让我们联想到自己，对吗？
So where do we go with all this? What do we do with these insecure feelings and is there any hope for us hopelessly insecure people? Within this story in 1 Samuel 8 there is a clue that points us in the right direction. Have a closer look in v22. God says about Saul, “he has hidden himself among the supplies.” The word ‘hidden’ here is the same word that is used all the way back in Genesis chapter 3, in the story of Adam and Eve eating the forbidden fruit. There is an interesting connection between this story about Saul and the story of Adam and Eve. There it says that after disobeying God by eating the fruit, God called to Adam, “where are you?” Adam replied, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.” That word ‘hid’ is the same Hebrew word that is used in 1 Samuel 8:22.
那么，我们该何去何从呢？我们该如何处理这些不安全的感觉，我们这些绝望不安的人还有希望吗？在撒母耳记上第 8 章的这个故事中，有一条线索指引我们走向正确的方向。仔细看一下第22节，上帝对扫罗说：“他把自己藏在行李堆中”。这里的“隐藏”一词与创世记第 3 章中亚当和夏娃吃禁果的故事中使用的是同一个词。 关于扫罗的故事与亚当和夏娃的故事之间有一个有趣的联系。那里说，在吃了果子不服从上帝之后，上帝呼唤亚当，“你在哪里？” 亚当回答说：“我在园中听见你的声音，就害怕，因为我赤身露体，就藏了起来。” “隐藏”这个词与撒母耳记上 8:22 中使用的希伯来词相同。
In some ways, this story about Saul is an echo of the earlier story about Adam and Eve. Samuel enquires as to Saul’s whereabouts, just as God enquired as to Adam’s whereabouts. Saul’s hiding himself among the supplies is reminiscent of Adam and Even hiding themselves among the trees in the garden. Saul hid because he felt insecure before people. Adam and Eve hid because they felt insecure before God. What this points to is that fact that our insecurities are connected to our relationship with God. We cannot simply deal with insecurity on a natural, human level. These are not just issues of self-confidence and self-esteem; this is not about assertiveness and self-help psychology. Insecurity is a spiritual issue and it is tied to who we are before God. The root of all insecurity is back there in the garden when human beings hid from God, and we’ve been hiding from God ever since, haven’t we? Our hearts always seem to want to run away from God and flee from him rather than running toward him. The path back from insecurity to real security is the path of allowing God to draw our hearts back to him, back into his love, back into his mercy, back into his grace, back into his acceptance, back into his presence. Only when our identity is deeply grounded in God can we find real and lasting security.
在某些方面，扫罗的故事是对先前关于亚当和夏娃的故事的呼应。撒母耳询问了扫罗的下落， 就像上帝询问亚当的下落一样。扫罗躲在行李堆中，让人联想到亚当和夏娃把自己藏在花园的树中。扫罗躲起来是因为他在人们面前感到不安全。亚当和夏娃躲藏起来是因为他们在上帝面前感到不安全。这表明我们的不安全感，与我们与上帝的关系有关。我们不能简单地在自然 的、人性的层面上处理不安全感。这些不仅仅是自信和自尊的问题；这与自信和自助心理无 关。不安全感是一个属灵的问题，它与我们在上帝面前的身份有关。所有不安全感的根源就在花园里，当时人类躲避上帝，从那以后我们就一直躲避上帝，不是吗？我们的心似乎总是想逃离上帝，逃离祂，而不是奔向祂。从不安全回到真正安全的道路是让上帝把我们的心拉回，引向祂的爱，回到祂的怜悯、祂的恩典、祂的接纳，回到祂的面前。只有当我们的身份深深地扎根于上帝，我们才能找到真正持久的安全感。
What this means is that we bring all of our feelings of insecurity before God and we name them honestly before him. We don’t have to hide our feelings from God—he knows them all and sees them all anyway. We can bring our feelings to God and then we ask him this question: ‘God, who do you say I am?’ Not, ‘who do people say that I am?’ or even ‘who do I think that I am?’ but ‘God, who do you say that I am?’ And then sit in his presence long enough to listen to the answer.
这意味着我们把所有的不安全感带到上帝面前，并在祂面前诚实地说出所有的不安。我们不必向上帝隐瞒我们的感受，祂知道所有这些，而且看到了这些。我们可以把我们的感受带到上帝面前，然后问祂这个问题：“上帝，你说我是谁？”不是，“人们说我是谁？”“我认为我是谁？” 而是“上帝，你说我是谁？”然后坐在祂面前，听上帝的回答。
You can hear that answer through God’s Word, through taking a passage like Ephesians 1 and just listening to all of the words that God speaks over your life about who you are in him. He says, ‘you are loved, you are chosen, you are predestined, you are adopted, you are redeemed, you are forgiven, you are graced.’ God places his hand upon your life and he says, ‘you are mine.’ You are accepted—absolutely and unconditionally. It is by spending time in the presence of God that we find our true identity as sons and daughters of God, where we hear God telling us who we are and we find a deep security being held in the everlasting arms of God. It is in God’s presence that we shift our focus from how we see ourselves to how God sees us, from how we feel about ourselves to how God feels about us, from how we perceive ourselves to how God perceives us. And through this journey, the Holy Spirit strengthens us at the innermost level of our being to give us a deep sense of our security in Christ.
你可以通过上帝的话语听到这个答案，通过阅读像以弗所书 第 1 章这样的经文，聆听上帝在你的生命中所说的关于你在祂里面的身份的话语。上帝说，“你是被爱的，你是被拣选的，你是被预定的，你是被收养的，你是被救赎的，你是被宽恕的，你是被施予恩典的。”上帝把祂的手放在你的生命上，祂说，“你是属我的。”你被上帝接受，是绝对的、无条件的。通过花时间来到上帝面前，我们找到了我们作为上帝儿女的真实身份，在那里我们听到上帝告诉我们我们是谁，我们找到一种深深的安全感，被抱在上帝永恒的怀抱中。正是在上帝的同在中，我们将注意力从我们如何看待自己转移到上帝如何看待我们，从我们对自己的感受转移到上帝对我们的感受，从我们如何看待自己转移到上帝如何看待我们。通过这个旅程，圣灵在我们的内心深处赐予我们力量，使我们对自己在基督里的安全感有了深刻的认识。
Lauren Daigle – You Say—
You say I am loved when I can't feel a thing
You say I am strong when I think I am weak
You say I am held when I am falling short
When I don't belong, oh You say I am Yours
And I believe
Oh, I believe
What You say of me
I believe
劳伦 戴格尔 – 你说 –
当我没有感觉的时候，你说我被爱了
当我认为自己很弱时，你说我很坚强
你说当我落空的时候，我被拥抱着
当我不属于你时，你说我是你的。
而我相信
哦，我相信
你對我對我說的話
我相信
Henri Nouwen – You are My Beloved; my favour rests on you. 亨利 卢云 – 你是我的挚爱； 我的恩惠在于你。
This doesn’t mean the feelings of insecurity will immediately disappear. I still struggle with those feelings. But we know those feelings don’t define us and don’t name us at the deepest level. Even when we feel insecure we can rest in who we are in Christ.
这并不意味着不安全感会立即消失。我们仍然在与这些感觉作斗争。但我们知道，这些感觉并不能定义我们，也不能在最深层次上命定我们。即使我们感到不安全，我们也可以安息于我们在基督里的身份。
Story of Mandy Smith…picture of being bold and confident. 曼迪 史密斯的故事…大而自信的照片
Sometimes God speaks to our souls in ways that are much deeper than our feelings. We may feel insecure sometimes but those emotions don’t define us at the deepest level. We know that in our innermost being we are held securely in the arms of our loving God. It reminds me of the story of Gideon when God shows up to him and says, “The Lord is with you, mighty warrior.” Gideon is looking around to see if God was talking to someone else. He wasn’t a mighty warrior, he was a lowly farmhand. But that’s not how God saw him. In God’s eyes, he was a mighty warrior. I wonder how different Saul’s story would have been if he could have seen himself as God saw him—as a mighty warrior, and as a beloved son. He would have had no need to hide, to prove himself, to become domineering. He could have rested in his security in God’s eyes. And I wonder how different our lives would be if we could see ourselves as God sees us—mighty warriors, beloved sons and daughters. If we could get that into our hearts, our feelings of insecurity might not have the power they so often seem to have over our lives. We wouldn’t feel so threatened by others because we would know we are deeply loved by God. We wouldn’t crave the approval of others because we would know we have God’s approval. We wouldn’t have to try and prove ourselves to others because we would know that God has already proved his love for us on the cross.
有时，上帝对我们的灵说话的方式比我们的感受更深刻。有时我们可能会感到不安全，但这些情绪并没有在最深层次上定义我们。我们知道，在我们的内心深处，我们被慈爱的上帝牢牢地抱在怀里。它让我想起了基甸的故事，当时上帝向他显现并说：“ 耶和华与你同在，大能的勇士。”基甸四处张望，想看看上帝是否在和其他人说话。他不是一个强大的战士，他是一个卑微的农夫。但上帝不是这样看他的。在上帝的眼中，他是一个强大的战士。我在想，如果扫罗能像上帝看他那样看待自己，作为一个强大的战士，作为一个受爱戴的儿子，他的故事会有多大的不同。他就不需要隐藏，不需要证明自己，不需要变得专横跋扈。他本可以在上帝的眼中安然无恙。我在想，如果我们能像上帝看待我们那样看待自己，作为一个强大的战士，一个受爱戴的儿女，我们的生活会有多大不同。如果我们能把这一点铭记在心，我们的不安全感可能不会像我们的生活中经常出现的那样具有影响力。我们不会感到受到他人的威胁，因为我们会知道我们被上帝深深地爱着。我们不会渴望得到别人的认可，因为我们知道我们得到了上帝的认可。我们不必尝试向他人证明自己，因为我们知道上帝已经在十字架上证明了祂对我们的 爱。
When we begin to get a revelation of how God sees us, and we lead our hearts back to him, then we live a different story to the one that Saul lived. We can come out of hiding. We don’t have to hide from other people any more because we’re not hiding from God. We are totally known and totally loved by him and that gives us the confidence to be open and vulnerable with others. Think of the ways this morning in which you might be hiding from others and think about what God might be saying to you about coming out of hiding. Some of you are avoiding situations because you are uncomfortable or you are afraid. Maybe you’ve been asked to do something but you are afraid of saying yes—you feel insecure, you feel like you’d be exposed, you would feel to vulnerable. You are like Saul hiding among the luggage and today God is saying to you, ‘come out and stand before the people’ Yes, you might step forward with a bit of fear and trembling, but that’s ok. You can’t always expect the feelings of insecurity to disappear. They may linger, maybe for a long time. That’s normal But you don’t need to wait for those feelings to subside before stepping forward and coming out of hiding. You take that step, knowing that God is holding you securely in his arms and he will not let you go.
当我们开始明白上帝是如何看待我们的，并把我们的心引向祂，我们的生活在就会与扫罗的故事不同。我们可以从隐藏中走出来。我们不必再躲避其他人，因为我们没有向上帝隐藏。祂完全了解我们、并完全爱我们，这给了我们信心，使我们能够对他人开放。想想今天早上你可能会以何种方式躲避别人，想想上帝可能会对你说什么关于从隐藏中走出来。你们中的一些人因为不舒服或害怕而回避一些情况。也许你被要求做某事，但你害怕答应，你觉得没有安全感， 你觉得你会被暴露，你会觉得自己很脆弱。你就像躲在行李里的扫罗，今天上帝对你说，“出来，站在众人面前。”是的，你可能会带着一点恐惧和颤抖向前走，但没关系。你不能总是期望不安全感会消失。他们可能会徘徊，可能会持续很长时间。这很正常，但你无需等待这些感觉消退，然后再走上前，从隐藏中走出来。你迈出这一步，知道上帝正牢牢地把你抱在怀里， 祂不会让你离开的。
Some of you are hiding in other ways today. You may be hiding behind your sense of humour—you’re always the one cracking jokes but it’s really a way of hiding who you truly are. You may be hiding behind a need to act confidently and assertively in every situation. You may be hiding behind a need to control other people and control your circumstances. God is calling you out of hiding today. That means taking off the mask and letting other people see who you really are. It means dropping the act, putting aside the pretence, stopping pretending or trying to be someone you’re not, and simply embracing who you are in God’s eyes. Sometimes it takes a while to find who we are because we have spent so much time trying to be someone else. But ask God to help you embrace your identity in him and allow that to be the identity that you show to others. Yes, sometimes that will mean letting others see your weaknesses. That’s ok. Yes, sometimes it means that you will feel vulnerable. That’s ok too. Sometimes it will mean accepting that you can’t control people or things, and that’s good. Those are the times to lean fully and completely on God.
你们中的一些人今天以其他方式躲藏起来。你可能隐藏在你的幽默感背后，你总是开着玩笑， 但这其实是一种隐藏你真实身份的方式。你可能躲在需要在任何情况下都表现得自信和坚定的背后。你可能隐藏在控制他人和控制环境的需要背后。上帝今天呼召你走出隐藏。这意味着摘下面具，让其他人看到真正的你。这意味着放弃表演，抛开伪装，停止假装或试图成为你不是的人，拥抱在上帝眼中的你。有时我们需要花点时间，才能找到我们是谁，因为我们花了很多时间来尝试成为别人。但是请上帝帮助你接受你在祂里的身份，并让这身份成为你向他人展示的身份。是的，有时这意味着让别人看到你的弱点，这没关系。有时这意味着你会感到脆弱， 那也没关系。有时这意味着接受你无法控制人或事，这很好。这些时候，你要充分和完全地倚靠上帝。
What is the step that God is calling you to take today to come out of hiding? You can stay where you are, like Saul, frightened and afraid. Or you can step out from behind the luggage, trusting that God has called you and chosen you and you can step into the abundant life that he is leading you into.
今天，上帝呼召你迈出哪一步，走出藏身之处呢？你可以留在原地，像扫罗一样，惊恐和害 怕。或者你可以从行李箱后面走出来，相信上帝已经呼召了你，选择了你，你可以步入祂正引领你的丰盛生命。
