36. Ablazing Grace: Saul and Samuel

alright so I'm gonna start with a series I'm gonna start in an unusual way I'm gonna start with a series of apologies is that okay okay I'm gonna do it anyway whether or not you think it's okay um I actually wrote them down so I wouldn't forget them okay the first thing I want to apologize for here is that this has been a unique year 2015 because this is the year of the general conference session and for those of you there's seventh-day Adventist you know that the general conference meets in session every five years and this is one of those years so I was away a little longer than I would have normally been because of the General Conference in addition to that we had a wonderfully large donation that was made to arise and delight bears a donation approaching half a million dollars that enabled us to record all of the arrives programs professionally it's something that we've wanted to do for more than a decade and we're in the midst of it right now and I've already been away for two weeks and tomorrow I leave again for four weeks now you guys make it really easy and kind of hard on me because whenever I leave and I come back things are going great so you're not really incentivizing my sticking around just what I'm saying here but anyway I'm leaving again so I want to begin by apologizing that this year I'm gone a little bit more than normal because of the General Conference session I preached there and spent some time there and also because of the nature of the recordings in the US because we have this unique opportunity to professionally record the arize program and our vision our goal is hopefully to be able to make the arize program which right now is really only available to just a very small segment of the population that could take three or four months off but we get literally thousands and thousands of inquiries people say can you make it available online can you make the curriculum available in some other way and we now have an opportunity to do that because of this wonderful donation that we received and so because of that we have to record every arrise class that we have and that's happening this year so I have to be gone just a little bit more so I don't know if this is good news or bad news for some of you it's probably really good news and others my wife she says ostensibly it's bad news that I'll be away but I'll be leaving tomorrow back to the United States and so I want to apologize for my absence I promise to return home to Australia just this morning when I was sending out a couple tweets on my Twitter account one of the things that I said was there are spiders the size of my hand that live in my house and there is a nine-foot snake that lives in my roof and it's somehow my new normal and then I just said simply Australia makes you tougher and so I'm feeling I'm feeling like Australia is increasingly home so I'll be gone for a few weeks I want to apologize for that now I want to apologize for last Sabbath's sermon not for the content of the sermon but because and we're not quite sure who done it this is an unsolved mystery but because of a technical problem we were unable to record last Sabbath sermon which is a real bummer because there were a lot of people that expressed a real positivity toward the presentation especially the fact that it was quite practical in addressing topics like pornography and alcohol and lust things that that are not often so directly addressed from the front I was really excited about the sermon just that I could have it out there but unfortunately it wasn't recorded so anyway we apologize on behalf of last Sabbath sermon the blame lies somewhere between Phil Gras Lomond and Nathan Brosnan they're still they're still debating so or maybe they've come up with a conspiracy theory that there was a sabotage of some sort and then I want to apologize for this Sabbath sermon in advance because I went to a little cafe that will remain nameless Wednesday afternoon and the only reason that I had any time to go to that cafe was that I had a doctor's appointment to go get the final word on my knee and I had forgotten about this really inconvenient time change switch thing it happens here and completely nonsensical indefensible ridiculous time change anyway that's another story so I ended up being an hour early for my doctor's appointment I thought well man I'm not just gonna go sit at the doctor's office for an hour I'll go to this lovely little cafe named and so I went to this lovely little cafe and I ordered something that was Wednesday afternoon and up until the present time I have been absolutely stricken with food poisoning and we'll just say it's been a very messy week how would that be and so I have not had even a third of the time that I would have liked to have had to prepare for today's sermon so a messy week might make for a messy sermon and if I suddenly sprint out of here you'll know why let's open our Bibles to the book of 1st Samuel with that picture in your mind let's open our Bible to the book of 1st Samuel my wife is embarrassed right now but it all started 15 years ago when she married me all right let's catch up to where we're at we've got a lot of important things to talk about today and even though I might be a little underprepared I was up this morning the Lord Jesus woke me up at 3:30 this morning my wife will tell you that's very unusual I'm a sleeper I love to sleep I set my alarm for 5:30 this morning to try to get a few hours of last-minute study Bing I was wide awake at 3:30 and the Lord gave me some really great things in the text and I can't wait to share them it might not be as polished as I wish it would otherwise be but let's sort of pick up where we were at last week I've called today's message on the spur of the moment a strong woman and another weak man another weak man is a reference to last sabbaths sermon about samson who was the strongest weakest man he was a superhero as it were in his physicality and in his physique but in his control over his own emotions in his control over his lustful thoughts he was that he was of WIMP he was a weak man and we encounter here again the text as we transition from land into Kings so look at the chapters that we've gone through beginning family Exodus land for chapters now behind us and today is our first chapter on Kings and we're gonna be talking today about the first king who is another apparently ostensibly strong man but turns out in fact like Samson though different but but similar in some regards to be a weak man but we're also going to talk about a strong woman so today a strong woman and another weak man and this is where the book of Judges leaves us as we draw to the end of the book of Judges and we spent three sermons on on the book of Judges and you know those were difficult sermons because it's a difficult passage of Scripture a difficult book and the sort of low point in Israel's history or one of the major low points in Israel's history is encapsulated in that 21 chapter book well as the author of Judges whoever it may have been is drawing the book to a close he begins to make mention of this idea of the absence of a king in Israel there was no king there was no king let's just look at a few of those judges chapter 17 verse 6 in those days there was no king in Israel and everyone did what was right in his own eyes that's very similar to the very last verse of the book of Judges everyone did what was right in his own eyes which is why we end up with a book that is so descriptively repulsive and so prescriptively vacuous judges chapter 18 verse 1 in those days there was no king in Israel the author wants us to know judges 19 verse 1 and it came to pass in those days there was no king in Israel so notice how there's sort of a momentum picking up there's 21 chapters in judges and through the first 16 chapters no mention is made of the absence of a king but as soon as we get to 17 18 19 the author of Judges feels compelled to let us know hey there was no king hey there was no king everyone what was it was doing what was right in their own eyes there was no king and then finally the last verse here of judges judges 21:25 in there in those days there was no king in Israel everyone did what was right in his own eyes so 4 times no king no King no king no King now this could for one of two reasons it's possible that the author of Judges himself had bought into the idea that Israel desperately needed the king or it's possible that he's simply letting us know that Israel believed that they desperately needed a king but we leave judges and then you have of course the Little Book of Ruth which we're gonna spend no time on now maybe a little bit later and we end up in 1st Samuel now I want to give you sort of an analogy here a picture in your mind if I can that that will help you to understand this transition now we've not been through that many books in the Bible Genesis Exodus Leviticus numbers Deuteronomy Joshua judges so we're really only through seven books and then now we come into first Samuel right which is now our eighth book in terms of study but I want to paint a picture in your mind and it's of a large mountain with a long low flat valley and then another large mountain okay so two large mountain peaks and a long low flat valley in between that long low flat valley is represented by our represents rather the book of Judges that period of almost 500 years almost half a millennium between the ministries of Joshua and Moses okay and the ministry of Samuel okay so I want you to have this sort of a geologic picture in your mind of two towering Peaks and either of them on opposite sides of a very low depression in the history of Israel and we begin over there with of course the Ministry of Moses there and Exodus as he leads the children of Israel out Moses then passes the baton to Joshua and so in a way this first peak is almost like a twin peak there's the amazing Ministry of Moses which is basically unequaled in the entire Old Testament and then there is the Ministry of Joshua which was was very synchronous and command complementary to the Ministry of Moses and so this towering twin peak of the Ministry of Moses and Joshua then that long flat valley of Judges that we've just mentioned four hundred and fifty years wastelands absolute wastelands some of the toughest and most difficult problematic passages in all of Scripture and then now we come to First Samuel and we're introduced in 1st Samuel to another towering peak a peak the towers every bit as high as the peak of Moses and Joshua it's like it's like hundreds and hundreds of years ago the the Israelites might have been able to look back with a kind of nostalgia on the great leaders and men that possessed real wisdom and a real heart and a real passion for God they would have reminisced and they would have longed for the good old days when they had people like Moses and Joshua right but then there was this long period of the judges where your best heroes were people like Gideon who were faulty and and frail men of course Moses and Joshua were faulty and frail as well in their own right but nothing like what we experienced in judges we have people like jephthah if jetha is our hero we're living a very sad story if Samson is our hero we're living a very sad story and so we go through that long depression and then we come here and like a like a breath of fresh mountain air we are exposed again to another towering peak a man of conviction a man of confidence a man who is filled with the spirit of men of humility Samuel but here's a remarkable thing we're not introduced to Samuel we are introduced to Samuels mother now with that in mind I want to sort of give you a powerful little insight and this was the thing that the Lord just deeply impressed me with in these two massive peaks that bookend this darkest period in Israel's history up to this point are not only these towering men Moses Joshua and Samuel but a godly mother in the case of Moses jock Abed a godly mother there is no Moses without the motherly wonderful godly prayerful way in the in the context with which she raised him we don't have a Moses without a jakka Beth and we don't have a Samuel without a Hanna and when we are introduced to Samuel when it comes time for God to as it were rescue his people from the abyss of the book of Judges he does it through the humble prayer of a woman named Hannah and we've had opportunity to talk about this before but I want to direct your attention to where we are at in the in the sort of scheme here that picked the picture as we prepare to transition into the first King these are the later judges chapters 13 to 21 we reviewed this slide last week Sampson judged Israel 20 years then Eli judged Israel 40 years were introduced to him and first Samuel will talk briefly about him today Samuel judged Israel all of his life we don't know exactly how long that was and then Samuels sons judged for a brief time but soon thereafter Saul was anointed as king and that's what we're gonna talk about today with that in mind I want you to look at this quotation here the day of God will reveal the day of God alone will reveal how much the world owes to who what are those next two words why don't you say them with a little bit of enthusiasm with godly mothers man that's like your enthusiasm is like dead American churches it's just like that you just have to adjust the scale it was so weird when I was just back in the u.s. and I was preaching like I was like man these people keep interrupting me don't they know they're supposed to be quiet when I'm preaching right so I'm like I'm in culture shock here when I say with enthusiasm and you muster something that like almost is like a heartbeat so good for you that's great I want to hold you to your own standard and by your standard that was at least an eighth okay so anyway here's the point the the day of God alone will reveal how much the world owes to godly mothers can at least the mother say amen to that okay and can the father's say amen to that now what I want to do is give you the context of that whole quotation and remarkably that that quotation there from the pen of Ellen White comes from an article titled the early life of Samuel the early life of Samuel written all the way back in 1881 now look at the force of this quotation and the strength with which she writes and the beauty as well I might add the day of God will reveal how much the world owes to godly mothers from men who have been unflinching advocates of truth in reform lemme just pause there okay so here's the Moses and here's the Joshua right they're the ones that are front and center they factor huge into Scripture they factor huge into the history and into the trajectory of Israel these were giant men samuel is gonna be a giant man we're gonna learn today that samuel is one of the i think the only person i better be careful i think he's the only person in all of scripture that occupied this unique threefold office samuel was a prophet samuel was a judge and samuel was a priest i mean this dude is got a heavy load on him he is I mean Moses wasn't a priest samuel is a priest Moses was a prophet but Moses wasn't a judge in a sense he was a judge he wasn't one of the judges proper so so here's this giant of a man Samuel and there are those giants of men Moses and Joshua but no but notice what the quotation says here where do these giant men come from from godly mothers look at that the day of God will reveal how much the world owes to godly mothers for what for the men who have been unflinching advocates of truth and reformed men who have been bold to do and dare who have stood unshaken amid trials and temptations men who chose the high and holy interests of truth and the glory of God before a worldly honor or life itself when the judgment shall sit in the books will be opened when the well-done of the great judge is pronounced that's Jesus and the crown of immortal glory is placed upon the brow of the victor many will raise their crowns look at this many will raise their crowns in the sight of the assembled universe and pointing to their what say it with me their mother they will say she made me all I am through the grace of God her instruction her prayers have blessed to have been blessed to my eternal salvation you don't get a Moses without a jakka bed and you don't get a Samuel without a Hannah when when when it finally comes time for the Bible story to begin to slowly come out of this massive depression notice the period of the judges he doesn't it doesn't begin right with Samuel though that could have happened the author of Samuel whoever he may have been could have just launched right in to the story of Samuel where he's where he's already the judge and where he's already the priest and where he's already a prophet no first samuel opens humbly and seemingly innocuous ly with a woman who is barren praying and pleading and praying and pleading and praying and pleading and on that point on that point right there I want to draw several things to your attention let's just pick it up in verse eight first samuel chapter 1 verse 8 join me there first samuel chapter 1 verse 8 then Elkanah her husband said to her hannah why do you weep why do you not eat and why is your heart grieved am I not better to you than 10 sons so Hannah arose after they had finished eating and drinking in Shiloh and Eli the priest was sitting by the doorpost of the tabernacle of the Lord and she was in bitterness of soul and prayed to the Lord and wept in anguish then she made a vow and she said O Lord of Hosts if you will indeed look on the affliction of your maidservant and remember me and not forget your maidservant but will give your maidservant a male child that I will give him to the Lord all the days of his life and echoes of Samson here no razor will come upon his head and it happened as she was continually praying before the Lord that Eli watched her mouth and Eli the priest actually sees the passion and the ethos with which she prays and he assumes mistakenly that she's drunk she was just so passionate and so animated in her prayer she she looked like she was a little bit off of out of her tree and so Eli rebukes her he rebukes her he says woman lay off the bottle lay off the bottle woman and she responds to this no no you've misread the situation no no it's not that I have the presence of alcohol in my system it's a I have the absence of a Sun I longed to have a child in fact I've just made a vow before the Lord Eli I have made a vow that if God would give me a son I would turn him back over full-time to the work of God and Eli must have been at least somewhat embarrassed by his misapprehension of the situation and he says be it unto you according as to the Lord's will and sends her on her way and she becomes pregnant now one of the most beautiful prayers that's recorded in all of Scripture is the prayer of Hannah after she conceives and when she wins Samuel which means gift of God all right we have a couple Samuels in this church did you know your name means gift of God when the gift of God showed up she she gives this astonishingly beautiful prayer let me just read you a little bit of it I want to remind you again this mountain of Samuel this this model of a man this this this a man who stands tall on the same sort of level as a Moses and Joshua this man doesn't just emerge from nowhere he emerges from a godly praying humble committed woman oh the world does not know what it owes to godly mothers the author of 1st Samuel was so impressed with Hannah's contribution that he felt that the story could not be introduced he can't tell the story of Saul without telling the story of Samuel and he can't tell the story of Samuel without telling the story of Hannah and Hannah prays this prayer look at chapter 2 verse 1 Hannah prayed and said my heart rejoices in the Lord my horn is exalted in the Lord I smile at my enemies because I rejoice in your salvation no one is holy like the Lord for there is no one besides you many praise songs have been inspired by the way by this prayer nor is there any rock like our God talk no more so very proudly let no arrogance come from your mouth for the Lord is the God of knowledge and by him actions are weighed the bows of the mighty men are broken and those who stumble are girded with strength those who were full have hired themselves out for bread and the hungry of cease to hunger even the Baron has borne seven and she who has many children has become feeble the Lord kills and makes alive he brings down to the grave and he brings up the Lord makes poor and makes rich he brings low and lifts up he raises the poor from the dust he lifts the beggar from the ash heap to set them among the princes and make them inherit the throne of glory two more verses let's just finish it up for The Pillars of the Earth or the Lord said he has set the world upon them he will guard the feet of his Saints with the wicked she'll be silent in darkness for my strength no man will prevail we saw that with Samson the adversaries of the Lord will be broken in pieces from heaven he will thunder against them the Lord will judge the ends of the earth he will be the true judge he will give strength to his King and exalt the Horn of his anointed verse 11 then Elkin I went to his house at Rama but the child ministered to the Lord before Eli the priest I don't know about you but my prayers do not sound like that your prayers sound like that I would be embarrassed if one of my prayers was recorded in Scripture it would be a stumbling stammering mess of the same thing that I said day before yesterday and the day before that in the day before that the day before that in the day before that have you ever found that your prayers tend to lack originality you just fall into these patterns of saying the same thing there have been numerous times where God have said God forgive me I know I prayed that for a hundred times let me start over and I literally try to search for words that I've never used before in prayer and it's not easy you get into this sort of rote habit of just father and heaven thank you for your goodness thank you for your mercy for your kindness I love you so much it's a privilege to be alive today I think it's just like right and you have your own little model but Hannah Oh Hannah in a moment here of prophetic utterance and an indescribable ecstatic joy she just opens her heart and and notice it's not God can I have more can I have more she's just praising God for who he is praising him for what he's done and praising him for what he's gonna do this is an awesome prayer and the author of 1st Samuel just feels like man there's no way I could introduce you to Samuel without introducing you to his mother maybe you've heard the old saying that behind every good man is a surprised woman perhaps that's nowhere truer than in the case of mother's godly praying mothers take a look at this how about a tour de force just for the first through the first few chapters of first samuel first amma chapter 1 verse 10 we read this and she was in bitterness of soul and prayed to the lord and wept in anguish verse 12 and it happened as she continued praying before the Lord that Eli watched her mouth chapter 1 verses 26 and 27 and she said o my lord as your soul lives my lord I am the woman who stood be by you here praying to the Lord for this child I prayed and the Lord has granted me my petition which I asked of him first samuel chapter 2 verses wanted to and Hannah prayed and said my heart rejoices in the Lord this is the beautiful prayer that we just read a moment ago so we are introduced not just to a godly woman in some nebulous sense oh she was a godly woman she was nice to her neighbors and she sent Christmas cards every year and she when you know that when her children brought you know extra friends home she cooked them a little extra food okay all of that's fine and good and that is part of being a mother and I wouldn't diminish the significance of that but what specifically are we introduced to what specific aspect of her character and of her behavior are we introduced to in Hannah's life that defined her as a godly woman what is it it's a gimme she was a praying mother now check this out when we then continue to read through the sometimes beautiful and often tragic book of Samuel guess what one of the most powerful and profound and and and significant contributions is that Samuel makes to Israel take a guess he prays for them again and again and again we are introduced to Samuel as praying for the people as and not just these little you know sort of quasi mentions of Samuels prayer these are giant mentions of giant prayers at crucial junctures in Israel's history we're gonna get there in just a second we're in 1st Samuel chapter 2 Samuel has been delivered to Eli and he remains there in the service of the Lord it's remarkable that God would trust Samuel to Eli because one of the things one of the things that we are one of the things that's revealed to us about Eli is that he was a bad death scripture just comes right out and says it he was a permissive father too of his he was the high priest and two of his sons were priests hophni and Phinehas and they were complete dirtbags absolute dirtbags and yet they were priests and and the author of first samuel wants to make it very clear that Eli did not punish them or discipline them or hold them to account as he should have and so as you read through this it's it's hard to miss the point that we are being introduced to really powerful women and really weak men that were being introduced to to two women who are strong and who are praying and who are godly and who are sacrificial and who are committed and were introduced to basically permissive men even men who were in positions of significant authority and prestige such as being the high priest as Eli was so it's fascinating that God would entrust young Samuel into Eli's care when Eli was such a delinquent father and he was a delinquent father were then introduced to chapter 3 verse 1 let's go there we're never going to understand the first King if we don't understand Samuel chapter 3 verse 1 says now the boys Samuel ministered to the Lord before Eli was young he was like an apprentice he would have been 13 14 15 and as he's growing older it says and the word of the Lord was rare in those days and there was no widespread revelation yeah no duh we just went through a period of almost half a millennium that is at this point the lowest point in all of Israel's history that is the period of judges I mean there's just not a lot of prophetic utterance taking place during this time it was an extremely low point where people were in the high places worshiping BHEL worshiping a straw departing from God and doing all sorts of willy-nilly things in departing from God and his covenant and so the author of first Samuel as he sets the stage he wants you to know that there was not widespread prophetic revelation in this state so what happens next is remarkable a young Samuel goes into the temple and he lays down on his mat and he hears a voice Samuel and he assumes it's elion so he rises up and he goes to Eli the priest says yeah you called for me any Lysa I never called for it oh I thought I heard a voice okay he goes in lays down again and here's the second time Samuel ah I think so Eli's playing a trick on me so he rises up again it goes in and said yeah Eli what is it Eli was his carer the one that he'd been entrusted to by by both God and his mother Hannah he said I didn't call for you surely you call her this is the second time no he goes back in and lays down again an Eli has said to him if you hear that again that is the voice of the Lord and this time it's not just Samuel but Samuel Samuel and Samuel says Here I am Lord and all of a sudden Samuel goes from being a nice young boy to a prophet in Israel something that Israel hasn't seen on this scale since the time of Moses now I just want to send a shout out to my young people that are in here notice that God bypasses Eli the religious guy the religious old man with all of his wisdom and with all of the stature that he would have possessed in the community God bypasses him and gives the gift of prophecy which had been through this long Valley almost completely absent from Israel's landscape and he gives the gift of prophecy to a young man can the church say Amen he would have known a fraction of what Eli knew theologically he would have had a fraction of the experience that Eli had he would have known very little of what Eli would have known in terms of intellectual and experiential and theological knowledge but God bypasses all of that for a variety of reasons that I don't have time to get into here but God goes and says just give me one godly young person and I will get my people back on track give me one godly young person and I'll get my people back on track and I'll tell you one thing that I'm really thrilled about something that's happening in our and especially sort of 15 to 20 year-olds in this church and I only say that age not because it's a hard demarcation but because I have access to them every Sabbath that Sabbath school but I do see and I hope I'm not just being optimistic here but I am seeing what I consider to be the stirrings of the spirit amongst God's young people I sense that there is an increased sobriety that there's that there's a sense of hey wait a minute maybe this isn't just about Myron's religion it's not just about going to church maybe there's something to all of this and especially as we've been studying through Scripture now we're going through Song of Solomon I think both myself and and Samuel and Karl are seeing the the sort of early rumblings that maybe God is on the verge of reviving our young people in this church wouldn't that be an awesome thing wouldn't it be something if God just bypassed all of us old 30 year olds and 40 year olds and 50 year olds and 60 year olds not that we don't have a role to play but what if God raised up leaders and elders and beautiful people in this church people that would take this church there would be at the they would be at the vanguard of the arrow they'd be at the tip of the of the points from our 13 14 15 20 21 wouldn't that be something I think God could do it and we have every biblical reason to believe that he will I love this so a prophet is raised up there's the praying mother yes there's the godly mother yes but here's the young boy doesn't know everything right but but he's open he's willing and he's he says I will be God's man here am i he says and that's all our young people need to say here am I here am I chapter four we're not gonna spend any time on in fact we're not gonna spend any time on four or five or six this is where the arc is captured and the arc is taken by the Philistines the Philistines become through the latter part of Judges and all of first Samuel really the arc enemies of Israel these are the ones that are continually on the scene we've spent time with the Amalekites we've spent time with the ammonites we spent time with the V time with the various tribes of the Canaanites but now it's the Philistines right that the great Philistine warrior Goliath is just a few chapters away it's it's Philistines Philistines Philistines Philistines again and again and again and the Philistines capture the Ark of God they take it away eventually when a rather funny thing happens to them probably not funny to them but quite funny to me to read about it they send the ark back they're like man we this thing is this thing is cursed and they send it back and then we land in chapter 7 First Samuel Chapter 7 verse 1 then the man of courage after him came and took the Ark of the Lord and brought it into the house of abinadab on the hill and consecrated Eliezer to keep the Ark of the Lord and didn't put it back in the temple they put it in a bin a damps house verse 2 so it was that the Ark remained encouraged after him for a long time it was there 20 years and all the house of Israel lamented after the Lord you know that something is fundamentally broken in Israel if the most sacred piece of furniture the very piece of furniture upon which the mercy seat sat and the to covering cherubims in between which the Shekinah glowed that that that piece of furniture is not where it belongs it's like in some guys garage right hey where's the Ark oh it's in a bin at ABS garage under a tarp you know what's going on here something is fundamentally broken in Israel verse 2 verse 3 so samuel spoke to all the house of israel and said if you return to the Lord with all your heart Samuel is a grown man now he's not only a prophet he's now coming into the role as a judge and and he turns his attention to the people and he says if you return to the Lord with all your hearts and put away these foreign gods and the astronauts from among you and prepare your hearts for the Lord and serve him only he will deliver you from the hand of the Philistines so the children of Israel put away the bales and the ashteroth sand served the Lord only asterisks where little figurines of a Canaanite goddess they put these little idols away and look at verse 5 and Samuel said gather all of Israel to Mizpah and I will pray to the Lord for you why is Samuel such a strong why is he presented to us as such a strong man of Prayer ok this is an easy answer because his mother the most important and significant influence in his life other than God was a godly praying woman this is not to say that father's don't have a role to play we live in an age today in all first world countries where absentee fathers are epidemic absolutely epidemic so so this is not to suggest that fathers are unnecessary or that they're somehow obsolete or not a central part of the family unit of course they are but there's something about the mother there's something about the mother we've mentioned before that the woman's body with a uterus and with breasts and with a with a connectivity she is built for connection in those early formative moments even we know now the prenatal moments the attitude of the mother and the way she carries herself in the way she eats and the things she smokes or doesn't smoke or drinks or doesn't drink and the way she conducts herself she is as it were literally taking her life and pressing it into the soft waxy mold of her son or her daughter so yes the the husband does have a contribution to make but I would even go so far as to say that the father's contribution though significant and though in some ways equal begins in earnest later in the development of a child you get to be five and six and older and then that transition begins to take place especially with boys where they want to do boy things and they want to wrestle and they want to play in the mud and touch spiders and snakes and gross stuff like that and the mom is increasingly but but if the mom if the mother through her warmth and through her love and through those you know neonatal uh in utero influences has has pressed her mold and the mold of Jesus in her onto her child that gives if I could say it the father's something to work with now it's like they're working as a team the mother has her role the father has his role which is why just as an aside this notion that you can just take two guys and stick them together and say yeah now they'll get married and they'll be just as good as a man and a woman no no no we'll take two em and we'll stick them together this massive interchangeability of the sexes first of all there is not an iota of social science to suggest that we are not making a colossal mistake right we all of the social science that we have clearly communicates that the best possible scenario for any child is a loving home with a mom and a dad we know this this is every bit of social science that we have says that dads are not answer that dads are not it cannot be just absented from the process of parenting and mothers obviously cannot be absent from the process of parenting and we know that the synergistic connectivity of the heterosexual union between a man and a woman when they come together there is a unique contribution that male in the springs and there is a unique contribution that femininity brings and that that magical wonderful mystical spiritual godly connectivity between masculinity and femininity produces something that cannot be produced any way else not only biologically which just is like a no duh but but emotionally psychologically spiritually if you want to read a marvelous book on this I challenge you to read the book called what is marriage by Ryan T Anderson a young man absolutely brilliant in his philosophical understanding and underpinnings of marriage flies in the face of much of the what we're hearing today but in in just a period of about three decades the world is try not all the world fortunately but much of the world including my own country is just deciding to toss millennia millennia of wisdom and social and not millennia of social science but years decades of social science and millennia of wisdom aside in the name of some newly fabricated equality I want to tell you something there is a contribution that only the woman can make in the life of a child and there's a contribution that only a father can make in the life of a child and it doesn't mean that God can't make up the difference in the absence of course he can God can work miracles he fed 5000 with a few loaves and fishes but in the ideal scenario the woman makes her impress and the man makes his impress why is samuel revealed to us as a man of prayer a man of conviction a man of power a man who could stand on the same kind of level as a Moses and a Joshua a man who could be a prophet as if that's not a high enough office a man who could be a priest as if that's not a high enough office a man who could also be judged where do these men come from they come from godly mothers can the church say Amen man I'm just fired up about this now Samuel says I will pray for you I will pray chapter 8 in chapter 8 we are introduced to the single word that taps us into the heart of first samuel a single word for certain of you who struggle to stay awake i won't mention any names Daryll you can get the whole sermon in a single word so wherever he's at Jenny just tap him and tell him this is the word and then he'll get it he go back sleep chapter 8 verse 1 chapter 8 verse 1 now it came to pass when Samson excuse me when samuel was old that he made his sons judges over Israel the name of the firstborn was Joel in the name of the second was Abijah these were judges in Bear Sheva but his sons did not walk in his ways they turned aside after dishonest gain took bribes and perverted justice this is a remarkable verse and frankly it's it's once again an indication that the author is trying to make a point that the men as fathers were largely blowing it and the women were largely succeeding I mean even this great towering peak that we're talking about here Samuel the text tells us was not a great dad it's amazing we're just were presented with these powerful women in these permissive men verse 4 all the elders gathered together and came to Samuel and Rhema and said to him look you are old and your sons do not walk in your ways now make us a what make us a king to judge us like all the other nations but the thing displeased Samuel when they said give us a king to judge us so Samuel prayed to the Lord he took it personally because he thought what a priest isn't good enough to judge you a prophets not good enough to judge you he felt personally insulted and so God responds in verse 7 and the Lord said to Samuel listen to the voice of the people and everything they say to you for they have not and here's the single word rejected that's the word they have not rejected you they have rejected me that I should not reign over them according to all the works which they have done since the day that I brought them out of Egypt up to this day with which they have forsaken me and served other gods so they are doing to you also now therefore listen to their voice however you shall solemnly forewarn them and show them that be the behavior of a king will reign over them and God basically goes on to say that tell them that this is what it will be like when the king comes it will be a nightmare he will have servants and he will want 10% and he'll take some of your grain and he'll want some of your children and he basically paints a picture and says you think you want a king but you don't know what you want it's a little bit like that impetuous child that says but I want a whatever fill in the blank and you as the parent know this is not what you want this is not going to be good for you whether it's a piece of cake I just have to have this piece of cake it's only my third one or this toy that you can just tell is an absolute piece of junk made in China is gonna be broken and worthless and I just gotta have it I gotta have it and you can try to explain to them like this is not gonna be good for you you're not gonna like it trust me on this I'm the parent I see what you don't see but they're just so like and sometimes though rarely the best thing to do is to give that child the thing that they think they want so much so that they can become disappointed all right and so God says give it to them we're then introduced in a strange sort of way to this man who's going to be their king and funnily enough he's chasing after donkeys he's looking for donkeys he's a donkey of a man himself and he's out looking for donkeys that's just how we're introduced to him chapter 9 in chapter 10 after he meets Samuel he is anointed as the king the first King in Israel something that that's that God had never wanted verse 6 of 1st Samuel 10 we're getting now down to the Saul Parton and bringing this to a close go to 1st Samuel chapter 10 then the Spirit of the Lord this is Samuel speaking to Saul will come upon you and you will prophesy with them and be turned into another man speaking of the fact that he would meet prophets on the way and that he would have the Holy Spirit come upon him now this is a key here if you're not a careful student of scripture you're gonna miss this verse 7 let it be when these signs come upon you that you do as the occasion demands for God is with you so he begins to prophesy like some of these other prophets and verse 8 verse 8 is diversity we might just easily miss if he weren't attentive to scrip verse 8 says you will go down before me - and what is that word there what does that word Gilgal I'm guessing that - 97% of us in this room that means basically nothing when samuel says go down to Gilgal and there you will I will come to you and then we will offer burnt offerings and sacrifices in other words I've anointed you here it's a private thing a few people know about it but we will make the official proclamation at Gilgal now just by a raising of hands I'll be curious to see does does anybody have any just an initial hunch as to why that might be significant you don't have to tell me just raise your hand if you have any idea okay got one maybe maybe two okay we'll see why in just a second verse 9 so it was when he had turned his back to go from Samuel that God gave him another heart and those signs came to pass that day so we're introduced to Saul frankly Saul doesn't have much going for him aside from the fact that he's tall dark and handsome that's the short version of Saul's description as to why he should be the king of Israel he's tall dark and handsome he looked like a king he looked like a kingly kind of guy and there were some tribes that were still sort of like what Saul saw the son of Kish are you kidding this guy's a Benjamite they're the smallest of the tribes and there were some people that were like now dismissive of Saul they had their own king like man they had their own own tall dark and handsome guy and then something happens in chapter 11 where this guy named Nahash shows up and he begins to encroach upon Israel and Saul becomes aware of it and he he sends out a very strong message to the children of Israel and says if you don't rally around me then we're gonna be defeated and God is with me and and like three hundred thousand men or 360 thousand men rally around Saul they win a decisive victory and he sort of now became he was winning the election not only was he the Benjamites favorite and not only had he been anointed by Samuel in private but but now he's won a decisive victory and he begins to make his way after the decisive victory down to Gilgal look at the last verse of chapter 11 last verse of chapter 11 so all the people went to Gilgal and there they made Saul King before the Lord in Gilgal there they made sacrifices of peace offerings before the Lord and there saul and all the men of israel rejoiced greatly all except one samuel samuel certainly would not have been rejoicing because samuel knew good and well that this was deeply painful to the heart of god samuel was like moses and joshua before him uniquely connected to god and so while all of israel is like yes we finally got a tall dark and handsome king like those other nations this guy man he's a Buttkicker did you see him in that last battle he went in there and he was thrashing people left right and center whoa but here's the remarkable thing there more than a half a millennium away from when they had crossed the jericho under the leadership of Joshua and had camped for years and years and years to begin their conquest of Canaan under king Jehovah at Gilgal and here they are five hundred plus years later completely beset by a foreign nation the Philistines this is their land kicked out of their own land and camped as it were not totally kicked out but having been harassed again and again in their own land and and right back where they had been five hundred years plus before at Gilgal the problem is they anticipate success oh we've got a king but guess what if you can't occupy the land with King Jehovah you will never occupy the land with King Saul God in a most wonderful redemptive patient way has brought Israel over a period of some 500 years back to the very same Shore on the east side of the Jordan where they had taken Jericho and where they had taken I and where they had begun to to commence their taking of the land and here they think oh we're starting fresh and God's like you're not only not starting fresh we have been here before you see God's plan was never that they have a king and it was never that they be continually harassed by these nations but they had abandoned God's plan a and I want to talk about that go to chapter 12 chapter 12 we'll pick it up in verse 12 when you saw that Nahash the king of the ammonites came against you you said to me no a king will reign over us now look at this verse here when the Lord your God was your king the tall dark and handsome donkey of a man gets the nod over Jehovah verse 13 now therefore here is the King whom you have chosen and whom you have desired and take note the Lord has set a king over you God used to be your king he has now abdicated the throne as it were and he has given you the king the desires of your hearts if you fear the Lord verse 14 and serve him and obey his voice and do not rebel against the commandment of the Lord then both you and the king who reigns over you will continue following the Lord your God jump down to verse 17 is today not the wheat harvest I will call to the Lord and he will send thunder and rain that you may perceive and see that your wickedness is great and that you have done this great wickedness in the side of the Lord and asking a king for yourself so Samuel called to the Lord and the Lord sent thunder and rain as a sign that day and all the people greatly feared the Lord and Samuel that's why I said it was there's only Samuel that wasn't rejoicing verse 19 and all the people said to Samuel pray for us pray for your servants to the Lord your God that we may not die for we have added to our sins this evil of asking a king for ourselves a good verse 20 then Samuel said to the people don't be afraid you have done all of this wickedness yet not turn aside from following the Lord but serve the Lord with all your heart and do not turn aside for then you would go after empty things that cannot profit or deliver for there nothing for the Lord will not forsake his people for his great namesake because it has pleased the Lord to make you his people verse 23 moreover as for me far be it from me that I would sin against the Lord in ceasing to pray for you but I will teach you the good and the right way only fear the Lord serve him in truth with all your heart and consider the great things that he has done for you but if you still do wickedly you will be swept away both you and your king man this guy he just can't stop praying because he knows that there is nothing else he can do that's how I feel in the world today you know tomorrow I'm gonna be in two big airports Sydney in San Francisco and and every time I travel I don't know if you have the same experience maybe it happens to you at different times but every time I travel I think to myself there are thousands and thousands and thousands of people in hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of airports around the world and they're all going somewhere and their life is no less meaningful or less important to them than mine is to me I just read recently that at anytime there are as many as 1 to 2 million people in the air in the air in planes and I just think to myself everybody's going somewhere and and it's really important for me to go where I'm going and I'm sure that every other person that's going somewhere feels that their trip is very important and they have to be going somewhere and when I think about all of these people and all of these airports that are going somewhere sometimes it happens to me when I'm in traffic and I just think how are all of these people gonna hear the gospel how are all of these people going to be exposed to the true God who loves and with every ounce of his being who gave up his own existence that they might be safe how are these people and I I begin to be overwhelmed because I think what can I do I need to and I need to preach more and we need to have a media ministry and we need to produce more things and I need to write more stuff and I freaked out and then I just feel Jesus say to me in those moments of anxiety and those moments of stress over a world that is wasting away just say to me you don't pray half as much as you should Dave it why all the anxiety you know the mo important thing you can do as a minister of the gospel David is to be praying it's not just to be preaching it's not just to be writing it's not just to be blogging it's not just to be visiting all of those things have their space but but but I tell you I am a terrible prayer it's the great weakness in my spiritual journey there have been moments of strength in prayer but then there'd be long periods of struggle in prayer and not that I don't pray but I just struggle in prayer maybe you're one of those guys and I tell you I need a revival in my own life of prayer here Samuel is at his wits end all of Israel has lost the plot it's like God and Samuel are standing alone and and Samuel says look all I can do is pray where did he learn that see when she was at her wits end all she could do was pray do you ever give a difficult child right now that just will not come right maybe you maybe have read books maybe you've attended seminars maybe you have pled with them maybe you've tried the hard disciplinarian route or maybe you've tried the lenient room but maybe the most important thing that you could do is pray have you lost your job we've got people in this room right here who have lost their job and not one or two or three but quite a few people who are who are needing jobs and listen I'm not suggesting that you don't put your resume out there and you don't do the hard work and the hard yards of getting out there and yes I hear that but but but don't in the midst of all of that don't neglect what might be the most important thing pray has that tests come back positive that you just thought would be negative we know that happened with our dear sister summer we're holding the beautiful Sunday some summer for Sunday for summer next day after our next week for tomorrow it's like man you're just sure it's gonna come back and then it comes back positive anything what it's everybody else that gets cancer it's not me how come that I'm not the one and listen yes to the yes to the yes to the s to the treatment and the doctors and all of the contributions that they bring but at the end of the day the 11 when you are at the end of the end of the end of your rope Samuel was just like nothing and he said be assured of this that I will not sin against God in ceasing to pray for you I want to appeal to my church pray pray pray for your children pray for yourselves pray for this church pray for your pastor pray for your community pray for your country just pray and remarkable things might happen but here's the point even if they don't remarkable things will happen in your life all right so we're basically at the end here Saul is anointed his king everybody thinks he's great the problem is that he starts winning wars and people think all this is just what we wanted this tall dark and handsome gladiator this Russell Crowe of a man slaughtering Philistines ammonites Zippo whites and you know he's just harassing them it says in 1447 all over the place and then we get to 15 and there were these people called the Amalekites that going all the way back to the book of Exodus had ambushed the children of Israel when they were fleeing Egypt when they were at their very weakest this is hundreds and hundreds of years before and the record of their sin and the record of their taking advantage of Israel comes up before God and God says okay it's time to recompense on the Amalekites what happened what they did to Israel and God says go there and we've already dealt with some of these difficult passages and slaughter them completely so Saul goes there he's been you know a Russell Crowe figure for the last you knows you know several years and so he gets in there starts slashing and doing his thing and the problem is is that he leaves the King alive and he leaves all the goats alive he leaves everything alive because things yeah yeah and saw man as you read the story the guy is such a mealy-mouthed politician he is such a wuss he is such the opposite of Samuel I don't know if Samuel was a short fat bald round guy that's how I imagine him just being like some little like Danny DeVito looking guy but powerful in the Lord and then you know you got Saul who's this like Russell Crowe figure you know tall dark handsome looks like an NRL player but he's a complete marshmallow he's just nothing he's a mealy-mouthed politician every time something happens he blames it on somebody else and here the prophet Samuel approaches him and says hey Saul what are you doing he says oh just returning from doing the work that the Lord has commanded us and Samuel says to him hey listen if you did what God told you to do then how come I hear the bleeding of sheep and how come I see King Agag there and Samuel Saul says all the people that was the people Sam it wasn't having it verse 22 of Samuel 1st Samuel 15 he says has the Lord great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as that obeying the voice of the Lord behold to obey is better than sacrifice and to heed than the fat of rams rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft and stubbornness and iniquity as and idolatry because you have here it is again rejected the word of the Lord here it is he has also rejected you from being king hello Saul goodbye Saul this is how the only the only reference to Saul in the entire New Testament this is it and notice the ease with which Paul moves to and through the story of Saul he gives them a lot more time than I have this morning or a lot less time than I have this morning acts 13 2,450 years until samuel the prophet and afterward they asked for a king so God gave them saw the son of Kish a man of the tribe of Benjamin for 40 years and when he had removed him he raised up for them David his King that's it yep then there was this guy saw the son of Kish and God removed him that's it therefore he has rejected you from being king verse 26 but Samuel said to Saul I will not return with you for you have rejected the word of the Lord and the Lord has rejected you from being king over Israel and the last verse for our study today look at the last verse of chapter 15 man this is a tragic verse and Samuel went no more to see Saul until the day of his death Samuel couldn't bear Saul couldn't bear to look samuel in the face because he knew that samuel and god were like that he never saw him again nevertheless samuel mourned for Saul that means he prayed and the Lord regretted that he had made Saul king over Israel what does that say the Lord regretted it same thing it says in verse 11 where Jesus actually says Jehovah actually says to Samuel I greatly regret that I have set up Saul as king for he has turned his back from following me and he has not performed my commandments and it grieved Samuel and Samuel cried to the Lord all night man look at this guy he's a giant always praying always ready so here we are there is the first fifteen chapters of samuel samuel in a word they rejected God as King Saul rejected God as as as the Lord of his heart and so God rejected Saul as king and he says I'm grieved I wish I never would have done that and I want to say this here's the takeaway one of the takeaways for us God can work with your plan B god can work with Plan C God can work with plan D let me give you a good example you might be a divorced person and now you're remarried okay God hates divorce and therefore remarriage is always plan B okay unless it's because of death or something so so you might be here today as a newly married person maybe you're on your second marriage maybe you're on your third marriage maybe you have a child out of wedlock okay all of those are Plan B or C or D or e or whatever okay now let's be clear God's plan wasn't for Israel to have a king but he could work with it but here's the drama those Plan B's and those plans seeds and those plan DS are always harder on us God will work God will work with your plans nth God will work with your plan X that'll work with your plan Y but all the pain that we incur from c d e f g h i Saul got off to a great start but he showed himself to be rash ridiculous and rebellious the good news is though that a good or that the bad news is is that a good start doesn't guarantee a good finish but the converse is also true neither does a bad start necessitate a poor finish can the church say Amen doesn't doesn't mean you finished bad as mean you have to start bad and I leave you with two New Testament promises Philippians 1:6 being confident of this thing of this thing that he who began a good work in you will carry it to completion carry it on to completion until the day of Jesus Christ you cease all started strong and finished weak contrasted with Samuel this towering man the prophet the priest the judge he started strong how did he start strong a godly praying mother and look at this last verse you got it you made it we survived I stayed in here didn't have to run to the restroom we did it Hebrews 12:2 fixing our eyes on Jesus the Pioneer and perfecter of faith notice that the Pioneer is the initiator the first and the Perfector is the is the close he starts it and he finishes it good start good finish with Jesus good start good finish with Jesus for the joy that was set before him Jesus endured the cross he scorned it shame and he sat down at the right hand of the throne of God beloved two takeaways the world owes an inestimable incalculable in communicable amount to godly praying mothers can Church say men and godly praying fathers and I want to challenge I want to plead I want to I don't know what to say I've already said it pray that's take away number one take away number two God will work with your Saul's he'll work with your Plan B's and it work with your plan C's and DS and E's but all the pain to Israel and all the pain to Samuels heart and oh the pain to God's heart we can do this the hard way and God will never leave us and never forsake us but we make it so much harder on ourselves better to start with Jesus to stay with Jesus and by His grace to finish with Jesus Father in heaven we don't want to reject you we don't want to be rejected by you and we don't want to reject anything that you say is for our best good father you were a far better king than Saul could have ever been but they wanted something so badly they needed that new shiny toy that flashy new 2016 model they had to have it and when they got it they found that they were soon thereafter deeply disappointed father thank you for not always giving us the desires of our heart because if we got everything we think we wanted we would be miserable creatures father the prayer of my heart is that for every one of us is that you would change our desires so that we would desire what you desire and when we get the desire of our heart we would be getting you and father I pray for a revival of young people in this church father give us some massive spiritual awakening a tectonic movement amongst the 14 15 16 17 18 early 20 year olds father give us give us revival give us godly praying mothers give us godly praying father's not these permissive wussy wimpy men that we keep encountering in Scripture with giant biceps and no moral strength at all and father at the end of the day give us a passion for the plan a so that we can be saved the pain and the embarrassment and the humiliation and the struggle of plan F G s T X Y & Z father we know that you will never leave us strengthen us so that we by your grace may never leave you and we pray in Jesus name let everyone say Amen

Channel: Kingscliff Church

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Keywords: Kingscliff SDA Church

Id: KI1C61Ze0Tk

Length: 68min 23sec (4103 seconds)

Published: Sun Oct 18 2015