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On Jul 26, 2017: 1 Samuel 12 Gods Heart On Being Sinful People · Teachings On This Day On FerventWord

• You are listening to FerventWord, an online Bible study ministry with teachings and tools to help you grow deeper in your relationship with God. The following message was taught by Jerry Simmons in 2017. Well, this evening as we look at 1 Samuel chapter 5, let's begin by reading through verses 1 through 5 and then we'll see what the Lord has for us. 1 Samuel chapter 12 verse 1 says, Now Samuel said to all Israel, Indeed, I have heeded your voice in all that you said to me and have made a king over you. And now here is the king walking before you. And I am old and gray-headed, and look, my sons are with you. I have walked before you from my childhood to this day. Here I am. Witness against me before the Lord and before his anointed. Whose ox have I taken? Or whose donkey have I taken? Or whom have I cheated? And they said, Here as we continue to look at this subject of pursuing God's heart, we looked at chapter 12 last week and we got to see God's heart for leaders? That is, what is God's heart for people who are in positions of authority and the people that are entrusted to them are sinful people? The title of the message was God's Heart on Leading Sinful People. And as we began to look at that last week, I reminded us, and I'm not ashamed to do it again this evening, we are all leaders. We are all called to make disciples and And so to one degree or another, every single one of us is an under-shepherd. That is, we have the great shepherd, Christ, but we are his under-shepherds entrusted with others that he's called us to make an influence in their lives and teach them how to walk with the Lord and obey him and to know him. And so there was great truths in there for us in that responsibility to lead people that are not fully submitted to God and not necessarily, you know, pursuing the heart of God, but they're kind of, you know, going back and forth and dragging their feet and how we relate to the people that God has entrusted to us is really important. But as we look at chapter 12 again this evening, I would like to come at it from a different perspective. Last week, talking about how every single one of us is a leader to some degree or another, this week, I want us to consider that every one of us is also a sheep. We are all leaders, but we're also all sheep. And so last week, the message was God's heart on leading sinful people. Tonight, the message title is God's heart on being sinful people. Because the reality is, well, that's what we are. Even as Christians, even as those who have known the Lord for a long time, we are sinful people. And there's some insights here for us, I think, that Set the stage for us to understand what God would have for us. What is God's heart? As we seek to pursue God's heart, how is it that God wants us to respond to our failures and to our, well, those occasions where we have rebelled, we have disregarded God's word, and now we have our eyes opened and need to respond to that. And what does God want us to do? How does God want us to respond to that situation when we're Well, there are our leaders and there are people who are in authority in our lives and they're calling us to repentance and calling us out of the decisions that we've made. How does God want us to handle our sinfulness? And so we have some insight this evening here from 1 Samuel chapter 12 and there's five points that we'll be looking at as far as God's heart on being sinful people. And so the first point we'll find is in verses one through five, the verses we just read. And point number one is trust yourself to leaders you can trust. I want to read verse one and two again. It says, now Samuel said to all Israel, indeed, I have heeded your voice and all that you said to me and have made a king over you. And now here is the king walking before you and I am old and gray headed. And look, my sons are with you. I have walked before you from my childhood to this day. Samuel is handing over the authority of the nation. He'll still be around as a spiritual leader, as a prophet, as a priest, but authority of leading the nation. He is handing the baton off to Saul here in 1 Samuel chapter 12. But as he does, he gives this farewell address and he begins by saying, look, I've given you a king just like you asked and And you guys know me. I've walked with you ever since I was a little kid all the way to now. I'm an old gray-headed man. And you know me. And here I am. And my sons are with you. And so you guys know who I am. You know the kind of life that I've lived. And as he hands off the kingdom, he's explaining to them, you guys have made a bad choice. You've gone the wrong direction. Asking for a king was the wrong move because while the people in doing so were attempting to replace God with a king, they had God as the real authority over the nation of Israel. Samuel acted as God's representative, but he wasn't the king. He was the prophet. He was the priest. He was the one who brought forth God's message, but their king was God. And now Israel has decided we don't want God as our king. We want a physical human person in that place, in that role that we can look to and, you know, feel and have right there in our midst. And so it was a replacement of God. And that's why this was such a big mistake. But as they were going down this path, Samuel warned them about this direction. And if they would have listened to Samuel, they would have been spared from this mistake. And this is really important because here's Samuel saying, look, you know me from a very young child and all the way to a gray-headed man. I've walked with you. You know my character, and he'll get into that in a second. You know my, you know, my character, my integrity. You know me. I've been a messenger from God ever since I was a young boy. And so here is Israel who has a good godly leader who pursued God's heart, but Israel would not listen to him. And this is really important because as we talk about trusting yourself to leaders you can trust, Israel had a leader that they could trust, but they didn't trust themselves to that leader. They didn't listen to the direction, the counsel, the encouragement, the exhortation, the correction, whatever form Samuel was bringing that. They were not listening to and receiving that and letting that be a real significant part of their lives. Now, Samuel will go on to talk about his character and integrity in verse 3. He says, here I am. Here Samuel reminds them, look, I have walked with you from a young boy to an old man, and let me ask you, How do you guys find me in regards to character and integrity and honesty and uprightness? And is there anything that I've done? Is there exploitation that has taken place? Have I taken advantage of you, of my authority, of this role? Have I taken advantage in any way? Or has there been oppression? Have I oppressed you and come against you? You know, he says, whom have I oppressed and used my authority or overused or abused my authority to push down people in oppression? Or have you found any corruption? Have I received bribes where I kind of turned a blind eye to injustice and to things that were wrong? Has there been corruption that you've witnessed in my life? And Here Samuel highlights these three aspects of his life. There's been no exploiting of the people, no oppressing of the people, no corruption of the system or the righteous judgment or the claims that were made. There was no corruption. or anything like that that was going on. Now, Samuel's not claiming perfection because at the end of verse three, he says, I will restore it to you. So he's saying, look, here's an opportunity. If there's anything I missed, if there's anything that I did unintentionally, I'll give it to you. I'll pay it back. I'll make it right. And that is an important aspect of the leader as well. He's not under the impression that he is flawless or perfect, but he's saying, In great boldness, declaring, hey, I've been a man who's above reproach, and I've been walking with you for a long time. I've proven myself to be trustworthy. And again, although they had a trustworthy leader, they did not trust themselves to him. In verse 4, the people respond and say, you've not cheated us or oppressed us. You haven't taken anything from any man's hand. And so then he calls him to bear witness again in verse 5 and says, well, the Lord is witness against you. And his anointed, the king now, he's your witness. You've not found anything in my hand. And they answered, he is witness. And so the people agreed. Samuel was a trustworthy leader. Samuel was a man they could count on. They knew that he walked with God. They knew that he lived a life in obedience to God. They knew that he was a man of character, that his justice wasn't perverted, that he wasn't abusing his authority. They knew, they agreed. Everybody's on the same page here. There are other instances, you know, where there are leaders who are convinced, oh, I'm fine, everything's fine. You know, I'm a man of it. And then the people would be like, you know, no, I don't think you understand what really is happening in your life, right? And that's possible, but this isn't the case here. Here you have a great leader. You have a great man of God, a man who pursued God's heart, but they would not trust him enough to listen to him. Back a few chapters when Israel was asking for a king, Samuel told them in 1 Samuel 8, verse 19, well, just prior to that, he said, this isn't a good idea. Don't ask for a king. And the people responded in 1 Samuel 8, 19 and says, nevertheless, the people refused to obey the voice of Samuel. And they said, no, but we will have a king over us. So a few chapters earlier, Samuel is warning them, this is not a good idea. This is not the right way. You have a good godly leader here. declaring this is not what God wants. And the people said, no, but we will have a king. They refused to obey, it says. Why is that? Why would they refuse to obey Samuel, the great prophet, the man of God, the man who I mean, from the very beginning, we saw back in the early parts of Samuel how God had orchestrated even his birth and set it all up so he would be a man set apart and devoted to the work of God and the ministry of God from the very beginning of his life. Why would they not listen to this man that God had given to them? I think we could... ask that question, but if we're really honest, it's not that great of a mystery when, well, we could easily recognize how we don't listen when the Lord speaks to us through men and women that He's placed in our lives. And this is something that I think we need to consider this evening. We tend to think too highly of ourselves. This is natural for us. My opinion is the best opinion. Of course it is. If I didn't think my opinion was the best opinion, then I would change my mind and have a different opinion, right? I'm pretty much generally convinced that I know what's good and I know what's right. And I have my ideas and I think too highly of myself. In that, well, I have my opinion. And it causes us many times to listen to ourselves instead of the authorities that God has given to us. We value our opinion more than, well, the opinion of people that God has placed in positions of authority in our lives. And the real issue with that is that our judgment is skewed. Although we, you know, have this high esteem for ourselves, our discernment is actually limited and our hearts are easily deceived. And that's something we know very well. And so we need to be careful about trusting ourselves and discounting the declarations of what, you know, those that God has placed over us because we value our thoughts and our ideas. And we say, no, I'm going to have a king. I hear what you say, but I don't trust you enough to live by that. I think my idea is better. I think my way is better. And this evening, I want to encourage you to consider those things and to And to learn to trust yourself to leaders that you can trust. Now, having a leader that you can trust is an important aspect of that. But that being given... We talked last week about leadership and how God highly, you know, rates the quality, the character of a leader. That's far more important than the capability or the giftings or the personality, that it's the character of the person that is most important. And when God has established a leader who is of character, not flawless, not perfect by any means, but it's someone that you can trust, that we need to learn to trust ourselves to our leaders and to really allow them to lead, right? And that means that, well, they're going to overrule some of our own opinions, overrule some of our own decisions, not forcibly, but that we would willingly respond to and put into practice those things that were instructed. I would ask you to think about Rehoboam. Do you guys remember Rehoboam? We'll get there eventually, perhaps, in 1 Kings chapter 12. It's the son of Solomon. Now, Solomon was a great king and he, had a glorious kingdom and he had all kinds of wisdom and he expanded the kingdom. I mean, the height of the glory of Israel, you know, really came to be under the reign of Solomon. And then upon his death, he handed off the throne to Rehoboam, his son. And the first thing that happens is the people cry out and say, look, your dad taxed us really like a lot. And it's been really hard for us. And so we want some relief. And so they come and ask Rehoboam for relief. And Rehoboam says, okay, let me think about this and come back in a couple days. So he goes and he talks to Solomon's council, the elders. And they told him, you know, they're right. Your dad was pretty hard on them. You should win them over right now. You should lighten their load and give them a tax break and help them. And they'll come alongside and you're going to have a great harmonious kingdom if you do that. But then it tells us in 1 Kings 12, verse 8, he rejected the advice which the elders had given him and consulted the young men who had grown up with him who stood before him. So he heard what the old guy said, but he thought, you know, I don't really like that idea so much. I don't think that's a good idea. So you know what I'm going to do? I'm going to ask my friends. And the friend said, oh, here's what you got to do. They're asking for a lighter burden. Give them a heavier burden. Really show them who's boss. Show them that you're in charge. You're the king. And so you're going to make it harder for them. And Rehoboam listened to that. And as a result, the kingdom of Israel was split in two as the northern kingdom kind of separated from the southern kingdom and became their own nation. And that's why you have Israel and Judah. And Rehoboam, I think we could look at that and think, wow, what a foolish guy. But at the same time, I would say we probably have some experiences in our life where we could look back, where we listened to our friends who told us the things that we wanted to hear, or perhaps that we already thought anyways, and we listened to them instead of listening to elders that God has placed in our lives. And we prefer to listen to things that we want to hear, right? This is kind of the hard part of trusting leaders or trusting yourself to leaders that you can trust is that In order to do that, there's going to be some conflict. I'd like you to check out this quote I'm about to put on the screen. It's a really important quote by Jerry Simmons on a Wednesday Night Message, July 26, 2017. If you only trust your leaders when you agree with them, you're doing it wrong. I would ask you to think about that. If you only trust your leaders when you agree with them, you're doing it wrong. And that's the issue that Rehoboam had. If the elders would have told him what he wanted to hear, he would have listened to it. This is the problem that the nation of Israel had in 1 Samuel chapter 12. If Samuel had told the people what they wanted to hear, they would have listened to it. But the problem is that, well, what they're saying, what that leader is saying is different than what I want, what I think, what my opinion. And so, well, I esteem my opinion, my thoughts more than those leaders that God has placed over me. And there's going to be conflict between your opinion and, well, the instruction that God gives to you through men and women who he's placed an authority over your life. And this is a real challenge for us. It's a place where we need to come to in humility that, you know, I think differently, but God's placed this person of authority in my life. And so I'm going to trust myself to them. And even though I think differently, I'm going to let their word override my opinion. Now, being careful, of course, that never means their word overrides God's word, right? I'm assuming that, right? It's like, yeah, we follow God first. But at the same time, when God places someone in authority, they really do have authority. It's not just fake. It's not just for show. If God has given someone authority in your life, They really do have authority in your life and that's a reality. And so there needs to be the appropriate response to that authority in your life. Consider what the author of Hebrews said in Hebrews chapter 13 verse 7. The author of Hebrews says, look, Those who have spoken the word of God to you, those who bring forth to you the message of God and the word of God and teach you what God says and how to understand God's word. He says, follow their faith, but then he also qualifies it considering the outcome of their conduct. And that ties into leaders that you can trust, right? So if their conduct is, if their life is a mess because they don't obey the word of God and, you know, they teach the word of God, but they don't obey it. Well, That's a different, you know, situation. But he says, follow their faith as you consider the outcome of their conduct. As he teach the word of God and live out the word of God. You follow that example. Pay attention. He says, remember those who rule over you, who have spoken God's word to you. And then a few verses down in Hebrews 13, 17, he takes it a step further and he says, obey those who rule over you. So don't just remember them, but obey them and be submissive. It's one of our favorite words, right? Be submissive. That's trusting yourself to leaders that you can trust. Obey those who rule over you and be submissive for they watch out for your souls as those who must give account. Let them do so with joy and not with grief for that would be unprofitable to you. Here's the thing. As we look at this, that God has placed authorities in our life and he's holding those authorities accountable to for their role and their responsibility that God has entrusted to them. And so from our perspective, as those who are under authority, Hebrews says, obey and be submissive because those who have been placed in authority over us, they fulfill that role as those who must give account. That is, God's going to deal with them if they are off, if they're going the wrong direction, God's going to deal with them. But also if they're If a trustworthy person is an authority in your life, they already recognize and know they're going to have to give account. And so they're not going to be willy-nilly about, you know, the counsel that they give or the encouragement or the exhortation or specifically the commands and instruction that That there's going to be some caution. There's going to be some preparation, some seeking the Lord and making sure because, hey, I'm going to have to give account for the things that I say and the influence that I exhort, that I bring, that there's an accounting for that. And so there's a watching over the souls. It's for your good that authorities and leaders are giving the instruction of the council that they're giving. But also notice this. Everything is voluntary in God's plan. Obey those who rule over you and be submissive. It's a command. It's an instruction. But this is never forced, right? There's no forcing that you have to do what authorities and leaders say. There will come a time where God will enforce his word. But for us, there's a lot of freedom. And if you want to go to heaven, that's your choice. You get to choose whether or not you go to heaven. If you want to serve, you get to choose. You want to fulfill your role in the body? That's your choice. You get to choose. Nobody's forced. You're supposed to. It's to your benefit. It's to everybody else's benefit. There's lots of things to consider in that, but nobody is forced. And obedience is not forced. You want to disobey? You want to disregard those that God has placed in authority over you? Well, just like we look at the nation of Israel here in 1 Samuel 12, God will say, okay, it's not the right move, but I'll give you a king just like you want. It's not forced. We're called to voluntarily trust ourselves to leaders that we can trust. And this evening, I would ask you to consider that. Trust yourself. Let those authorities lead. It's not going to be forced upon you. You have to make a willful decision. You have to make a purposeful decision to stop listening to yourself and instead of listening to those authorities that God has given to you. Again, if you only trust your leaders when you agree with them, then you're doing it wrong. When you find a leader that you can trust, trust them and really let them have an influence in your life. And if Israel had done that, they would have been spared from this whole situation and the aftermath and all the things that are gonna be happening as we go forward in Samuel. And so this is a really important point. Trust yourself to leaders you can trust. Moving on to point number two, we'll move into verses six through 15 and not cover all the verses, but the point is fear the Lord and obey him. So here we are, sinful people. We're twisted, we're messed up. And so God's given us leaders that we can trust and Because we have a perverted sense of right and wrong. We have a, you know, confused sense of direction. And we need that instruction. We need that help. And so God's heart is for sinful people to have leaders who can direct them and help them come out of those things and navigate those difficult situations. But now as we move on into these verses, here we see God's heart for us is to fear the Lord and obey him. Now, fear the Lord, of course, is not, you know, meant that we should run from God, but that we should recognize he is God. He is the creator of the heavens and the earth. And so it's our highest duty to be obedient to God. It's essentially the purpose for which we've been created to obey God. Verse six, then Samuel said to the people, it is the Lord who raised up Moses and Aaron, who brought up your fathers from the land of Egypt and Now, therefore, stand still that I may reason with you before the Lord concerning all the righteous acts of the Lord, which he did to you and your fathers. And going on in the next couple of verses, Samuel's going to recount some of their history, how God brought them out of Egypt and brought them into the promised land and then how they rebelled against God and then, you know, cried out to God and God sent to deliver and then they rebelled against God and walking through the cycle that we see in the book of Judges of that disobedience and rebellion and then the oppression that comes from enemies as a result and then crying out for deliverance. Verse 11 says, And the Lord sent Jerubabbel, that's Gideon, Bidan, Jephthah, and Samuel, and delivered you out of the hand of your enemies on every side, and you dwelt in safety. And so here, Samuel reminds them of their history and gives them some highlights. Now, the summary, you could summarize their history this way. Israel, you have a long history of not listening to God, getting in trouble as a result, and then needing to be delivered. But when you called out to God, God delivered you. And Samuel is telling the people, look, you're starting this cycle again. You're starting this cycle again, just like we saw over and over throughout all the 400 years of the judges where there was a revival and a returning to God, but then a drifting away from God and a rebellion and then oppression and then crying out. And there was this cycle of taking the wrong direction and going the wrong way and He reminds them of all of this history to say, this is what you're doing now. Verse 12. And when you saw that Nahash, king of the Ammonites, came against you, you said to me, no, but a king shall reign over us when the Lord your God was your king. Again, here Samuel reveals the real issue. You see, the real issue is not that they just didn't trust Samuel enough to listen to him. Going back to point number one, trust yourself to leaders you can trust. They didn't do that. But the real issue is not that they didn't listen to Samuel. The real issue was they didn't listen to Samuel because they weren't listening to the Lord. Let that one sink in a little bit. When we don't listen to the authorities that God has given to us, it's not because we're just not listening to that authority. It's because we're not listening to the Lord. The people did not trust God. God was their king and they said, no, we don't want God as our king. We want a different king. And so he reveals the issue. He reveals the situation. Look, Israel, you're in this place again where you've had a good godly leader, Samuel, and now you're going the wrong direction in replacing God with a king. However, verse 14, if you fear the Lord 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. So you've gone the wrong direction. You've made a mistake. However, It's not over. Here's God's heart for you. Even though you've messed up, even though you've ended up in a spot that God didn't want you to be, if you fear the Lord and serve him, then you're going to continue. And God's going to continue to work. Even though you've gotten here by bad choices, even though you've arrived at this place against God's counsel, against Samuel's counsel, God is still extending the opportunity. Here's God's heart for every one of us. Fear the Lord and obey him. And God says, look, I can work with that. No matter what happened before, and we'll see that even further. I can work with that. This is what God desires of you, that you would fear the Lord and obey him. And notice he gives the people some responsibility for their leaders. We usually look at a leader and how they're responsible for the people, but it's also interesting to note that the people are responsible for the kind of leaders that they have here in verse 14. He connects this idea. If you fear the Lord and serve him, then both you and the king who reigns over you will continue following the Lord your God. Israel is going to continue to rebel against God, king after king after king after this. But they in no way can blame their kings for their rebellion against God. Because God told them from the get-go, if you will fear me and serve me, then your kings will fear me and serve me also. You're going to continue. And you're going to continue to be blessed. And I'm going to continue to work. If you, the people, will fear me and serve me. And so if you don't like the authorities that you have in your life, you can blame them. And that's typically what we do. We blame those authorities. I don't know. It's a rotten leader. But we also should consider, we have a big impact on the kind of leaders that we get. Now, this isn't a law. I mean, you can look at the example of Israel. They had Saul or Samuel, and he was a great leader, but they didn't listen to him. And then they got Saul who didn't listen to God. And you could easily recognize, well, Israel deserved disobedient Saul because Israel was disobedient. But then you look at David in particular who had Saul persecuting him. And well, he didn't deserve that kind of leader. He was a good man, right? David honored Saul. And so it wasn't, it's not a law. It's not saying, you know, if you have a bad leader, that for sure means you're bad people. But it is a factor for us to consider. A leader is responsible and accountable for the people, but also we the people have a big impact on what kind of leaders we get by how we fear the Lord and serve him and obey him, by how we respond to what God is speaking to us. And so we need to fear the Lord and obey him. The best thing for you is to fear God and obey him. God wants what's best for you. He wants to bless us. He wants to give us the best eternity possible. And so he calls us to fear him and obey him. The best thing for your leaders is for you to fear God and to obey him. The best thing for your family is for you to fear God and obey him. The best thing for everyone around you is for you to fear God and obey him. That's God's heart. That's what God desires. And that's what we need to be doing. Well, moving on to verses 16 through 19, we have point number three, and that is, ask your leaders to pray for you. Here in verse 16, let's read verse 16 through 19. It says, So Samuel called to the Lord and the Lord sent thunder and rain that day. And all the people greatly feared the Lord and Samuel. And all the people said to Samuel, pray for your servants to the Lord, your God, that we may not die. For we have added to all of our sins, the evil of asking a king for ourselves. Here, I would suggest that Israel models for us good behavior. That is as Samuel said, asked God to show them by sending rain in a season that rain was unusual. God sent an awesome thunderstorm, so not just even like a little sprinkle, but they recognized this was a work of God. God is testifying. We did the wrong thing in asking for a king. And as the people see that, they hear from God in that way, they acknowledge their sin. And they tell Samuel, We have added to all of our sins the evil of asking a king for ourselves. They confess. This is what confession is all about. It's accepting and acknowledging and testifying what I did, the action that I took, the decision that I made, that was wrong. That's confession. And the people here, as they see this unfold, it's brought to their attention. And we all have occasions like this where there's decisions that we make. There's situations that we're involved in or activities that we're engaged in and we're thinking they're fine. And then all of a sudden, the Lord shows us somehow. And maybe it's through a thunderstorm. Maybe it's through time in his word. Maybe it's through, you know, some other means where God reveals to us, this thing in your life, I'm highlighting that. I want to deal with that because that is wrong. And all of a sudden, it dawns on us and we recognize, man, I've blown it. I've been out of line. I've been out of line. And at that point, it's time to confess. At that point, the temptation is to try to justify ourselves, try to explain it away, try to not deal with it. You know, there's all kinds of things that we would try to squirm away out of that. But confession is the stop the running and just accept and testify, I have done what is wrong. It's sinful what I've been doing. The decision that I made, it's acknowledging that truth. When it comes to acknowledging sin and confession, I kind of hesitate to use the word confession because I don't want you to picture like a little booth with curtain and you got to go and, you know, tell every sin. No, no. But that acknowledgement, that the acceptance of I have wronged God. I have disobeyed God. I have done what he did not want me to do and he commanded me not to do. I have fallen short. And the acceptance of that is so important for us. But also I would ask you to pay attention that they're bringing this to Samuel and saying, pray for us because we have sinned. We've added to our sins this evil of asking a king for ourselves. Now, listen, we're all people and we, I know how it is and you know how it is that we like to present the best version of ourselves to people around us. And many times, especially Christians, to those who are in authority in our lives. We're real hesitant many times to bring forth the truth, the reality, the genuine acknowledgement of, I've sinned, I've added to my sins, and here's what I've done, and it was wrong. But listen, this is an important part of God's work in our lives many times. We need to learn to confess and ask our leaders to pray for us, which is not just a generic pray for me, But there's a depth of honesty and openness about this is how I failed. This is the situation that I'm in. This is where I've gotten myself into and this is what I've done. And again, not at all suggesting that every thing has to be declared or exposed or anything like that, but the genuine openness about this is my condition. Think about it like this. You go to the doctor because you're not feeling well The doctor gives you a prescription. You go home. You don't take the prescription. And two weeks later, you go back to the doctor, still sick, but you don't want the doctor to know that you haven't been taking the prescription. You don't want him to know that. And so you pretend like you took the prescription because you don't want to admit how messed up you are. And so now you're pretending and the doctor is trying to diagnose and help and, you know, and it just, it makes things worse, right? In a similar way, in order for the Lord to do the healing and the cleansing that He wants to do in our lives, I would suggest that there needs to be a genuineness about our confession and acknowledgement. And again, I'm not saying that every detail of all things have to be exposed, but that the genuine acknowledgement of our condition needs to be for real. And there is times where it is appropriate for there to be a full exposure of this is what I've been involved in and this is what I'm doing. And that's hard because, again, we prefer to present ourselves as those who have it all together, the best version of ourselves, especially to our leaders. We don't want them to know that about us. We don't want them to think that we feel that bad. Sometimes that's the thing that we need the most is to be able to come clean, to acknowledge that the situation that we've brought upon ourselves by our sin. Consider what James says in James 5, 16, confess your trespasses to one another and pray for one another that you may be healed. The effective fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much. What did Israel do? They confessed their sin and they asked Samuel to pray for them. And James says, that's a good idea. confess your sins, confess your trespasses to one another. Now, again, I'm not saying every sin you have to tell, you know, your leaders. I'm not saying that, but I am saying it is important for us to be open and honest with those that God has placed an authority over us about our condition, about our situation. And sometimes that requires full exposure. Sometimes that requires, you know, a full detail of this is what I've been involved in. This is the decision I made. Not always, but sometimes. But always it requires that genuine acknowledgement of our condition and our disobedience to God. A genuine expression of where I am and what I've done. And that is important. Again, I would remind you, the author of Hebrews says, your leaders watch out for you as those who must give account. They watch out for your soul. And Samuel responds to this request in verse 23. I'll jump ahead for a minute. He says, As for me, far be it from me that I should sin against the Lord in ceasing to pray for you, but I will teach you the good and right way. And so as they acknowledge their sin and say, oh my goodness, we have been horrible and we've disobeyed God and disregarded God, you know, please pray for us. And Samuel says, yes, I will. I will pray for you. In fact, it'd be a sin for me not to pray for you. And I'm going to teach you and help you to go forward from here, the good and the right way. That's, well, that's what a trustworthy leader is called to do. And so Samuel here responds and says, yes, I will pray for you. It's appropriate for us to ask our leaders to pray for us, to involve them in our lives. Again, none of this is forced. And we're not going to, you know, walk you into the office one by one and make you tell Harvey all of your sins. We're not going to do that today. Maybe tomorrow, no. None of this is forced. You've got to volunteer. You really want to see some change in your life. You want to see some deliverance. You want to see... Confess your trespasses to one another and pray for one another that you may be healed. There's an effectiveness that comes from this openness as we are honest about our condition and our situation. And God is able to use that to bring deliverance and healing and cleansing. Well, moving on to verses 20 through 22, here we have point number four. Follow the Lord from where you are. Here's God's heart for sinful people. Wherever you're at, however messed up you've been, however far off the track you've gone, from right there in that spot, start following the Lord. Verse 20, then Samuel said to the people, do not fear. You have done all this wickedness, yet do not turn aside from following the Lord, but serve the Lord with all your heart. Samuel responds to the people because the people are freaked out. Notice when they asked for prayer, they said, pray that we don't die. They recognized we deserve to be judged by God immediately. That, I mean, God could just wipe us out and be justified because we have rebelled against God so greatly and our sin is so horrible. But Samuel in his response says, don't fear. Yes, what you did was wrong. Yes, it's wickedness. But don't turn aside from following the Lord. This is very important stuff that God wants you to know. Again, a couple Sundays ago, we talked about condemnation. Condemnation pushes you away from God, and that's never God's heart. No matter what you've done, no matter how often you did it, no matter how long you did it, it's never God's heart to push you away, for you to be distant, for you to be going a different direction or not following him. God's heart is always for you to start following him from this moment on, no matter what happened before. And that includes every sin that you can imagine, every crime that you can imagine, the most heinous things that have ever happened throughout the history of the world. God's heart for each individual is that they would start following him from this moment on, no matter what happened before. And there's a lot of times where we get stuck in because of the history and the past, even if it's recent past. And we get stuck there because we can't get over what we did. But God's heart is for us to, from this moment on, follow after the Lord. Don't fear. You've done wickedness, yes. But now what are you going to do? You've done wickedness, so run from the Lord. You've done wickedness, so stay away from the Lord. You've done wickedness, so punish yourself. No, no, no. That's not God's heart. God's heart is for you to draw near to God right now, even if it's 30 seconds after whatever sin you've been involved in or whatever, you know, horrible thing that you realize, oh my goodness, I've been involved in wickedness. 30 seconds later, you know what God's heart is for you? To follow the Lord from right there. Begin to obey from right there. Begin to obey from right where you are, wherever you are, no matter what the circumstances are, no matter what the situation is. Pastor David Guzik puts it this way, one wrong turn had not put them out of God's plan forever. Yes, Israel should never have sought a king or a human king, but now they had one and Samuel simply calls them to serve the Lord where they are at now. God didn't say, okay, what we need to do is undo the whole monarchy, and then, you know, we'll dismantle that, take that apart. Okay, never mind. Forget about Saul. I'll be your king again, you know, and let's put things back to where they were, and then, you know, we could start moving forward. You can't. There are some, I would say, a lot of situations where, you know, restitution needs to be made, and God will ask you to take some steps to make things right to some degree, but that never involves, let's rewind and pretend like nothing ever happened and just go back to the way that it was. That's not the way that God works. You did what you did and it was wickedness, but it hasn't ruined God's plan for you forever. No matter what the wickedness was, it doesn't mean God's done with you. No matter how long you've been involved in that wickedness or how many times you've done that wickedness, You've ended up in the situation that you're in and it was never what God intended. But now that you're here, God says, okay, so from here, start to follow me. You were never supposed to go to that location. But now that you're at that location, now start to follow me. You were never supposed to go that direction. You weren't supposed to end up in this spot. I didn't mean for you to have this kind of a mess in your life. But now from here, from where you're at, here's my heart for you. Start following me now. And what's the alternative? Verse 21, Samuel says, God does not want you to pursue empty things. He always wants you to pursue him. Always. All the time. Without exception. No exceptions. Verse 22, for the Lord will not forsake his people for his great namesake, because it has pleased the Lord to make you his people. Notice what Samuel says here. I mean, this is great encouraging stuff. The Lord will not forsake you, even though you've done all this wickedness. The Lord will not forsake you. He's not left you. He's not given up on you. That's great comforting words. The Lord will not forsake you. But then he also says, the Lord chose you. The Lord made you his people. He chose you. He deliberately made a choice. I want you. And he was pleased to make this choice. Just let that kind of marinate in your head a little bit. The Lord was pleased to choose you. There's not one of us. The Lord was kind of bummed out that we got in. Oh yeah, I know I was, you know, offering grace and mercy to people and stuff, but I was kind of hoping that they wouldn't really, not that guy, you know, not that girl. I mean, every, okay, oh, I guess I could live with it. You know, it won't ruin heaven too much if they're there. It pleased the Lord to choose you. The Lord is so happy that you're a part of his kingdom, that you're his child, that you responded to his offer. I mean, this is incredible stuff. The Lord was pleased to choose you. Paul tells us in Ephesians chapter four that we were chosen in him before the foundation of the world. that we should be holy and without blame before him in love, that he predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the notice, good pleasure of his will. Every single person who responds to Jesus Christ by faith, God is so pleased to make them his child. He is so pleased that you're a part of his work. He is so pleased that even if you've been involved in great wickedness, Even if you come from, well, I made this huge mess because of my disobedience. Still, he's not gonna forsake you because he is so pleased that you've responded to the Lord by faith. He is so pleased with you that he gives you the opportunity. Follow the Lord from where you are now. I'm not giving up on you because I'm so pleased with you. I'm so pleased to make you my child. God's heart is for you to start following him from this moment on, no matter what happened before. Well, finishing up in verses 23 through 25, here we have point number five, and that is serve the Lord with all your heart. Verse 23, we already looked at. So verse 24, it says, only fear the Lord and serve him in truth with all your heart, for consider what great things he has done for you. But if you still do wickedly, you shall be swept away, both you and your king. And so Samuel finishes up his message to the nation saying, with one last call to serve the Lord. Fear the Lord, he says, and serve him, notice, in truth with all your heart. That is, don't try to pretend. Don't try to fake it. Don't try to, you know, just serve the Lord enough to get by. But really let your life be turned over to God completely. Really give yourself to God. He gives you reason to do that. He says, consider what great things he's done for you. And I would encourage you this evening to do that, to consider the great things that God has done for you. If you ever need a reason, you know, if you ever need to consider why you should trust God and serve God and obey God completely with all your heart, He is worth it because of the great things He has done for you. And you don't really have to go very far. You can go right back to the cross and there is enough. If God never did anything else for you except for offer his son upon the cross for forgiveness of sin, well, that would be enough for full obedience for the rest of eternity. That's enough. But God, grace upon grace and mercy upon mercy, he's done great things for you. And it's easy for those things to slip our mind. But he says, consider and let the goodness of God and the grace of God inspire you and encourage you to serve the Lord with all your heart. God's been so good to you. He's proven already you can trust him. So turn your whole life over to him completely. But he also lays out the other side. If you still do wickedly, again, none of this is forced on you. You get to choose. If you still want to just be wishy-washy and half-hearted and somewhat, you know, pursuing sin, somewhat pursuing God, and you still do wickedly, you'll be swept away. You and your king, you're going to be swept away. That's not God's heart for you, though. God's heart for you is that you would serve the Lord with all your heart. And so this evening, I would encourage you, being a sinful person, being a sinful person myself, this is what we need to do. This is God's will for us, God's heart for us. This is what's best for us. Number one, that we trust ourselves to leaders that we can trust. And every one of us has authorities in our lives. Every one of us has men and women that God has placed there in authority that that are accountable for us. It's our best interest to trust them, to let them lead and to allow them to have influence and to let their word override ours. If we only trust them when we agree with them, we're doing it wrong. It's not the right way to follow those that God has placed in authority over us. Secondly, fear the Lord and obey him. Recognize God's role in his position and live out obedience. Put into practice what he says. Then ask your leaders to pray for you. As you acknowledge your condition, as you acknowledge your sin, this is God's heart for you, that you wouldn't just try to deal with it on your own and just try to get over it, but that you would involve those that God's placed in your life for that purpose, that we would confess our trespasses to one another, and that there would be that opportunity for that healing and deliverance and cleansing to take place. And then from there, wherever you're at, begin right then to follow the Lord. Begin right then to go forward, to walk with him and to begin to fear him and obey him and to serve him with all your heart. That's God's heart for you. And so I pray this evening that you would do that, that you would be at this point, wherever you're at, and whether you came in here in a good spot or you came in here from a bad spot, from right now, you can begin to draw near to God. You can begin to allow God to do these things in your life. You can begin to move forward with no matter what's happened before. And so this evening, I want to encourage you to do that, to draw near to God. That's God's heart for you. And Kim's going to come up and lead us in a couple closing songs. And as she does, I would encourage you to do some business with the Lord. Allow him to minister to your heart. And if he's already been speaking some things, then you can be responding to those things. And let's take this time to just start right now to worship him. You don't have to earn the right. Jesus died upon the cross to give you the right. You can right now enter into the presence of God. Also during this time, as usual, we would encourage you, if the Lord prompts your heart and moves, feel free to minister to one another. And maybe you do need to confess your trespasses to one another, that you might be healed, that you might pray for one another. And so if the Lord wants to stir that up or encourage you to go and minister to someone in another capacity, then feel free to do that as well. But let's worship the Lord together and begin right now to draw near to God, no matter where we've come from. We pray you have been blessed by this Bible teaching. The power of God to change a life is found in the daily reading of His Word. Visit ferventword.com to find more teachings and Bible study resources.