Latest / 4-Freedom Podcast / 98. Summer Sermons - Honor to God - James Safrit

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98. Summer Sermons - Honor to God - James Safrit · 4-Freedom Podcast

0:04
Welcome to the For Freedom podcast.
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I found my freedom. You.
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I found a joy I can't lose. And thank God it's true.
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You wrapped your arms around me and heaven broke through.
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From the moment she found me, I found my freedom in you.
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This podcast exists to bring the freedom of the gospel for
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everyday Christians with everyday issues.
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Now here are your hosts, John Hollyfield and James Seifert.
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Thank you, Lucas. Thank you Church, for allowing
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me to be here this morning to have your Bibles are going to be
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in First Samuel Chapter 2, and I've got your notes provided for
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you in the bulletin this morning.
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As you're turning that, I'll give you just a sort of a
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background of who I am. I am James Safert.
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I've been at Sulphur Springs little over five years and I've
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got a wife and three kids. I've got a 10 year old, almost
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10 year old, almost 8 year old and a little 2 year old.
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That keeps me young. And so it is a blessing to be a
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parent and is a blessing to be here this morning and to be able
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to open God's word to you. Church, I know where you're at.
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I know the the pain that you're in and our church and it was in
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a similar situation. And through all that, we know
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that God's been good and that we're able to trust in His word.
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We were trust in who he is and what He is.
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And this morning I'm going to title the message, I will honor
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God. And the question we're looking
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at this morning is, who are you honoring?
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Are you honoring God or your honoring self?
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And so we're going to look at one verse, but we're going to
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look at the 1st 3 chapters of Samuel, First Samuel.
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And we're going to do a sort of a case study this morning,
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hopefully to help you out in your walk and your journey with
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Jesus. And so if you have your Bibles,
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you're willing and able to stand with me if you're able.
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We're going to read this one verse out of honor and reverence
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of God's word. And then we'll jump around a
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little bit this morning and hope to be a blessing.
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The Bible says, Wherefore the Lord God of Israel said, I said
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indeed, that thy house and the House of thy fathers should walk
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before me forever. But now the Lord sayeth be it
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far from me. They had strained from what they
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had said. For them that honor me I will
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honor, And they that despise me shall be lightly.
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Esteemed Father, we thank you for this day.
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We thank you for your blessings. Forgot your blessings upon this
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word or your blessings upon me as I preach this morning, your
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words and your scripture as I be a blessing to Rocky Hill this
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morning. We love you and your name.
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We pray. Amen.
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You may be seated to help us gain a a deeper understand.
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This morning we're going to take a look at some real life events,
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some real life people that lived and breathed on this world.
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And we're going to look at one family who honored God and one
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family who dishonored God and the results of that and sort of
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examine our life as we go through this.
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I have a biblical counselor and I'm getting my degree in
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biblical counseling right now. And I look at the I try to look
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at Scripture in a way to be practically applying to our
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life. I want to bring whatever
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scripture I'm looking at on the bottom shelf for everyone to
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understand of how you can walk away and practically take the
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word of God and apply it to your life.
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And so today we're going to look at this story, this real event
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that happened in history and we're going to look at sort of
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the background. And if, if you have, if you're
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able to and you you're willing, you want to turn back just a
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couple of pages to the very last verse in Judges, you don't have
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to turn down. I'm going to read it anyways.
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But but it tells us the state of where Samuel was at when this
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was written. And so we're going to look at
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this and and this specific time in history was an extremely dark
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time in Israel's history. And we know this because the
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very last verse of judges says this.
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In those days, there was no king in Israel.
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There's no one there. And every man did that which was
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right in his own eyes. There was no governing
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scripture. There was no governing person
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that was no one there to help them, even though God was there.
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They chose to trust in themselves.
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This period was a time where, as a woman, the only way you would
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have honor is if you had children.
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And we come to the first part of Samuel, where we are introduced
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to this young lady named Hannah who was childless.
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Someone who was childless in this day and age would have been
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considered someone who had zero honor from God.
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Someone who was despised among their people.
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Someone who no one wanted to do business with wanted to talk to
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them with. If they were to go get water
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from the well, they wouldn't want to go with them because
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they wouldn't want their cursing of God on their life.
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This is Hannah's life and we get this awesome picture of Hannah
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coming before God and pouring out her life to God and saying
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God, I am earnestly praying in the Tabernacle in Shiloh.
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She made a special visit here to pray that God would honor her
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and grant her a son, and if she did, she will return that child
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back to God for his service. This week I was listening on a
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podcast listener. How many of you listen to
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podcast in here? Couple people.
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How many of you have ever heard of a podcast?
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OK. I've learned that in my, in my
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days and age of preaching, the more you ask questions, the more
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awake you become. OK.
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And so when I ask a question, you sort of wake up a little
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bit. And so that's that's I'm, I'm
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going to ask you a couple questions, keep you on your toes
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a little bit. And so how many of you have ever
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listened to the radio before? OK.
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The radio is very similar to a podcast.
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OK, You're listening to people talk to you.
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That's all it is. It's just in our millennial age,
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we, we've changed a little bit. And so I was listening to this.
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I heard about a mom back in 1920 who had gotten pregnant.
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And she every day, every day of that pregnancy for nine months,
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she walked on their property. And there was a tree that was
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about a half a mile away from her house.
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And she walked to that tree every day, three times a day.
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And she prayed at that tree. And she said, God, I'm pregnant.
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You know that. God, I hope it's a son.
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And she said, if it's a son, I pray that he uses his life to
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honor you with every moment of his being.
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That son was Charles Stanley. Charles Stanley just passed
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away. And when I say Charles Stanley,
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that was a mile or a one hour and a half away from this church
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in Danville, VA, is where that was at.
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You can go to that tree today, OK?
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This mom had a desire to see God work in her child's life.
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And I'm a firm believer that God answers prayers.
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And this morning, as we look at this mom, as she prayed
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earnestly for her child to be used of God, we see that God
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answers prayers this morning. So there's some differences here
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as we're going to look between two different stories, the story
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of Elia, I'm sorry, Samuel, and the story of Eli and his two
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sons, Hoffna and Phineas. And we're going to look at their
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lives and the contrast between these two.
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So the first point as you follow along in your notes and they'll
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be on the screen for you. Honoring God involves presenting
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our best to the Lord. Honoring God involves presenting
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our best to the Lord. First Samuel chapter one, verse
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24 and 28 it says. And when she had weaned him
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talking about Samuel she took him up with her with three
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bullocks and an E fight of flower and a bottle of wine and
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brought him to the House of the Lord.
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In Shiloh the child was young, and she slew the Bullock, and
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brought the child to Eli the priest, and and said, Oh Lord,
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as my soul liveth, my Lord, I am a woman that stood thee here,
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praying unto you unto the Lord. For this child I prayed, and the
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Lord giveth me the petition which I asked of him.
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Therefore also I have lent him to the Lord.
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As long as he liveth, he shall be lent to the Lord.
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And and this this is an awesome part.
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And he talking about the child worshipped the Lord there.
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Hannah knew that God gave her this child, and the only thing
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that she could do was give him back to the Lord.
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The word here Lent is used. And this is simply to mean to
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offer. Upon request, she requested
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something of God and she said, I'm going to offer it back to
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you, God, it's not mine. It's not mine to hold on to.
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And so she said, Remember Me, God.
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Remember when I prayed? I'm honoring my request.
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How many of you have made a promise to God before in a
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prayer? I have.
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I've said God, I I want you to do this, God.
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And if you do this, I'm going to serve.
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I'm going to do whatever it may be.
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And how many times have we failed those promises?
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How many times have we been in our altar and our in our our
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cause of prayers and saying, God, I need you today, I need
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you to help me. And God blesses that prayer and
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he answers, but yet we don't follow through.
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This is a story here of Hannah who followed through on those
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promises. I wrote this down.
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Whatever we have is available to the Lord.
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Whatever we have. I'm almost.
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I'm going to say it like this. Whatever we have should be
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available to the Lord. I define it three ways.
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We all are given time, we all are given talents, and we all
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are given treasures. We all have been given these
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three things times, talents and treasures.
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We have to ask ourselves, am I willing to give those things to
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the Lord Jaden camp this morning talked about volunteering for
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Vacation Bible School? A time where you're going to
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bless a child that you may not ever see the reward of that
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child, but by investing that time into that fifth grade
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little boy or girl, they may come to know Jesus.
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They may be the next Charles Stanley, but we have to be
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willing to give him our time in order for that to happen.
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The Lord may say, I need you to invest in the treasure or your
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talents and and and offer your voice as a song to the choir or
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to offer your your service to me and whatever may may be.
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But are we willing to sacrifice that time or that talent or that
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treasure to the Lord? I thought think of me for a
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minute. Imagine for a moment God looking
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down at heaven and saying, you know, the most valuable thing
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that I have is my son Jesus. Humanity.
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You're just not worth it. I'm going to withhold that gift
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from you. Imagine where we'd be at, we'd
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be back at this state where we are today, where everyone's
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doing right in their own eyes. And in this moment, God looked
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down and said my most valuable gift and you're worth it.
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You're worth my son, and I'm going to give him up so that he
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can come and redeem the world. But so often we hold our time
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and our talents and our treasure.
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What we hold valuable, we hold on to ourselves and we don't
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give back to the Lord. If we want to be a people that
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honor the Lord, we must examine our life and ask him, What am I
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giving to the Lord? What am I sacrificing in order
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for the gospel to move forward? What am I giving up in order for
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the Lord to be lifted high? So that's Honoring God involves
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presenting our best Lord. Honoring self involves keeping
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back the best for our pleasures. We begin to see here now as we
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look at the life of Samuel. Now we look at the sons of Eli
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and it says here in Second First Samuel, chapter 2.
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Now the sons of Eli were called the sons of Belial because they
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knew not the Lord. They were the priest.
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And the priest customs was that when the people offered a
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sacrifice, the priest servants came, and while the flesh was
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seething or cooking, they would take a flesh hook of three teeth
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in their hand, and they would strike the pan or the kettle or
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the cod on the pot. And all that brought forth from
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that flesh that they took for themselves.
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So they did that in shallow until all these lights that came
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thither. Also before the burnt fat, the
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priest servants came and said into the men that were
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sacrificing give flesh of the roast for the priest, for he
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will not have sodden flesh or burnt flesh of thee, but he
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wants the raw flesh. And if any man said to him, let
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them not fail to burn the fat presently, then take as much as
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thy soul desired, then they would answer him, Nay, but thou
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shalt give it to me now, and if not, I will take it by force.
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Wherefore the sin of the young men was very great before the
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Lord, for men abhorred the offering of the Lord.
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So it's a lot of words there. We're going to break this down a
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little bit. Basically what it's saying is
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the priest had to get paid, right?
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They had to honor the man of God.
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And so the the payment for the priest was when someone came to
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offer a sacrifice, The priest as the sacrifice was being
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completely burned, they would reach in and grab out their well
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done steak. OK, it was completely burned.
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There was no fat, there was no juice, there was nothing left.
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And they would pull this well done steak out, about a pound of
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meat most likely. And that was the payment for the
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priests. Well, as the Sons of Belial,
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which is simply means worthless, began to grow up into their
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priesthood, they began to say, well, I'm tired of this well
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done meat. I want to cook the meat myself.
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I know it's a pound of meat. And so they sent their servants
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and they went to the house And they said instead of getting the
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burnt offering, go ahead and cut it off raw.
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Taint the sacrifice for my pleasure.
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And they begin to taint these sacrifices and they begin to
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abhor what was great before the Lord because they were worried
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about themselves and honoring themselves.
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Hannah approached the offering to the Lord as I'm going to give
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you everything. Yet these men somehow believe
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that God owed them something. And they began to come before
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the Lord and saying, my service is great, my provisions are
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great. God had clearly laid out what
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they were supposed to do. Yet half nine finish decided to
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say that this is insufficient and I'm going to rob God of what
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he desires. You know, in our life as we
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begin to go through this, we all somehow seem to justify what we
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think is right to soothe our conscience, to soothe our our
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mind and and we begin this place where we honor self rather than
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honor God. And so as we continue this
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thought, the second point is honoring God means that I must
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keep him as the one I please. Verse 28 Bible says that and he
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talking about Samuel worshipped the Lord.
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There honoring godly means I must keep God as Sinner in
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everything that I do. First Samuel 211 says this.
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And the child did minister unto the Lord before Eli the priest.
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As I read that verse, and as I begin studying through this, my
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mind immediately thought that everything this child Samuel did
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was consumed with pleasing God, and said as a child, he
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ministered unto the priest every day he woke up and he said, my
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duty is to serve God, and whatever I do today, I'm going
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to do it for the honor and the glory of God, Charles Spurgeon
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said. Whatever you do, do for the
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glory of God. Whatever you do, whether it's
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playing baseball, whether it's going to the golf course,
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whether it's going to church, whether it's going to the
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school, whether it's going to college.
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Everything you do, do to the glory of God.
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Church, Are we doing that this morning?
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Are we everything we're doing? Are we completely consumed with
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pleasing God? Samuel's focus was continually
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and entirely on God. He woke up in the morning.
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The first thing he did, I'm sure, was thank God for another
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day of breath. Thank God for another day to
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serve him as he went around serving the priest and doing the
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duties of the priest. This is not a glorious job.
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This is the job that was involved a lot of going out and
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getting things and bringing things in.
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I just came back from Israel. I got to stand in the place in
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the Tabernacle where this would have been in Shiloh.
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It's how it's pronounced, how they pronounce it.
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They the, the archaeologist had recently discovered this place
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about 40 years ago and they pulled a jar that had been
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buried and at the bottom of the jars were grapes and the person
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I got, his name was Amir said. I am very, very certain that
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Samuel would have been the ones that went out into the vineyard
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and harvested these grapes for the offering and for the
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sacrifices in the temple. That was his job.
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They dated back. You can date back fruit.
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So we know the dates. And he said it dated back to
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this time. So everything he was doing is he
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would go out with that large jar and he went out to the vineyard
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and begin picking those grapes. Some of us would have been, I'm
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better than this. I don't deserve to go out and
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pick these grapes out. I've given my whole life to God.
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But Samuel said God thank you for allowing me to do this.
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Thank you for allowing me to pick these grapes and hopefully
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these grapes will be an honor to you.
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Hopefully these grapes will turn into a sacrifice where someone's
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able to worship you. Is that our prayer this morning
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or is honoring self honoring to keep yourself as the one that
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I'm going to please? Eli's sons were focused on
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themselves. Everything they did was about
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them. As we take a closer look into
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the reality of Eli and to Eli's sons, we begin to see the Eli's
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focus was on his children and in essence he was focused on
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himself. I think one of the saddest
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scriptures in in all of the Old Testament when it comes to talk
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about this is this next verse in First Samuel 229, one verse
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before where we just read about Samuel and it said wherefore
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kick you at my sacrifice? Eli is talking to his sons at my
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sacrifice and mine offering which I have commanded in my
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habitation and honors. This is God talking to Samuel.
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You've honored your sons above me, and by doing that you have
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made yourself fat with the chiefest of all the offerings of
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Israel. My people.
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You see, Eli was complicit in what they were doing.
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He was okay with them doing this because it pleased him.
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Man, I'm not eating well done steaks anymore.
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I'm getting the best of the best now.
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And he was okay with robbing God in this situation.
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We know that Eli was a very large man because at the very
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end of his life it says that he he was a large man and fell off
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of the wall when he heard that his sons had died.
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We understand that this is what belongs to God, is what belongs
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to God, is honor, dignity and respect.
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Sometimes we justify our sins by reasoning.
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I like to do this. Or I really love him.
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Or this is my favorite show. The devil deceives us by
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thinking that one little something is okay.
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It happened to the very first people that lived on this earth.
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The devil came to him and he deceived them.
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Do you not want to be as God? Do you not want to be like God?
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Who wouldn't want that? He's withholding something from
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you. He twisted scripture.
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And in this moment, they sinned and they fell.
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And in the same moment, Eli was justifying what he's doing.
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Couple years ago, it was before COVID, we had our vacation Bible
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school. And and I have the honor of
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teaching and doing a couple of things, but we had a lady and
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she made some brownies. Lucas may remember this because
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he would have been a teenager. This time she came in, well, he
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would have been in high school. So it's been in middle school
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class. He, she came in and she had made
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a fresh pan of chocolate brownies.
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As you can tell, I like to eat. I got excited.
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I get to eat some special brownies today.
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She's, she actually made me a a loaf of bread last week, fresh
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loaf of bread. Oh, it was delicious.
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I had this week. I'm just getting excited talking
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about food right now. And so she came in, she had the
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brownies, she cut all the brownies up and she had them on
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the plates and she was ready to serve them.
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And right before she had them out, she said, hey guys, I want
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to let you know, right before I realized that as I was bringing
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these brownies today, as I was scooping out the cocoa, my
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husband had used that same scoop to to scoop up the dog poop.
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Guys, it's just a little bit of poop.
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It's not going to be a big deal. Some of you probably aren't
21:27
going to even get any and you're not going to notice because but
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just so you know, there's just a little bit of dog poop in it.
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So of course all the girls like, I don't wanna the guys like give
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it to me, bring on the bronies. You know, this is, this is their
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attitude. But but really, when we bring
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this down, realistically, if you knew that was something bad in
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those brownies, you wouldn't need it.
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You would abstain from it. And Eli in this situation, knew
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that there was something wrong and yet did nothing about it.
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I read a book years ago. It was.
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I used it often in my marriage counseling.
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It's called From This Day Forward by Craig Rochelle.
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If you're looking to get married, if you're an engaged
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person here, it's a great book. Fantastic read, easy read.
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But he gives an illustration at the very beginning of this book
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that I think it's so fitting because he says that imagine
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sitting there in the morning and whatever your routine is,
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coffee, cereal, he said. Imagine you're sitting down and
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you're eating your favorite cereal, Lucky Charms, Fruit,
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loose, whatever it may be. And he said imagine scrolling
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through Facebook because a lot of us catch up our news in the
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morning and we're scrolling through things.
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And he said imagine sitting there and eating Lucky Charms.
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And as you're looking through Facebook, an ad pops up and it
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says 50% of all people that eat Lucky Charms die of cancer.
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Whoa, like, that's that's shocking.
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And you know, as me, I'm an analytical guy.
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I'm not going to just take that at face value.
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I'm going to begin researching it.
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And so I begin researching and I begin seeing article after
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article by the New York Times and the Huffington Post and all
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these other places that say 50% of all people that eat Lucky
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Charms get cancer and they die from from eating Lucky Charms,
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he said. No one in their right mind would
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continue to eat Lucky Charms. Knowing that, he said.
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But often times in our marriage, and it was specific about our
23:16
marriage, we continue the patterns that the devil tells us
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to do and we know the consequences.
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Samuel here honored himself. Eli saw the patterns of his son
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and continued to endorse it. And yet it was honoring himself.
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The Third Point is honoring God involves an acceptance of life's
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problems. Honoring God involves an
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acceptance of life's problems. This is a very hard part of the
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scripture in chapter 3 as we continue to Fast forward a
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little bit through Samuel's life because God came to Samuel in a
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vision. Oh, how I wish that God would
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still come to us in the vision, right?
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It would make life a whole lot easier.
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God, what do you want me to do? I go to bed and in the middle of
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the night, God comes and says, hey, this is what I want you to
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do. Pastor James going to lay out
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XY&Z Oh, this is awesome. Let's go and do it right.
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And so God comes to Samuel on a vision.
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And in this vision, in this moment, you know the story.
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God wakes him up. He thinks it's Eli.
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He goes to Eli. Eli, you woke me up.
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What do you need? Wasn't me.
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This happens the second time. Third time, he says, when God
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comes to you, ask what would you will God.
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And so God comes to him and the vision at night, and begins to
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lay out the death of Eli the high priest and his sons.
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A hard task for this young child, most likely a teenager at
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this time, to hear and then verse Samuel, chapter 3, verse
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18. After this vision happens, Eli
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the high priest call Samuel to him and says, Samuel tell me
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what the vision was about. And Samuel said in verse 18.
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And Samuel told him every wit, and he had nothing from him.
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This is Eli's response. This is how we know that Eli was
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so callous to what the God wanted him to do, because this
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is what he said. And Eli said to him.
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And he said it is the Lord let him do what he seemeth good, or
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what seemeth him good. That is the response that Eli
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has. Eli says problems are going to
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happen. So be it.
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But Samuel looks at this and says with a great distress.
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I've got to honor God, and I've got to accept the problems that
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are there, and that's what honoring God means.
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But in Eli's case, honoring self may get Self may give lip
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service to obeying God, but that is all.
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Plainly put, Eli gave lip service to God's instruction,
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but he never gave real service. Now Eli was very old in chapter
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2, verse 22 and 24. Now Eli was very old, and her
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all that his sons did, and unto all of Israel, and how they had
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laid with the women at the assembly of the door of the
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Tabernacle, the congregation. And he said to them, Why do you
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do these things? For I hear of your evil doings
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by all the people. Name my sons, for it is no good
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report that I hear you make the Lord's people to to to
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transgress or to sin. And verse 13 for chapter 3,
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verse 13. For I have told them that I will
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judge his house forever for the iniquity which he knoweth
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because his sons made themselves vile and he restrained them.
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Not. Eli spoke to his sons about
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their sin, but he honored his sons above God.
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He honored his sons above the work that God was doing.
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We can see there's a difference in in these two lives.
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Samuel was completely and utterly sold out to what God
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wanted him to do. And God blessed him, and God
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honored him because he decided to honor God with his life.
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And we see that Eli and his sons decided to honor themselves, and
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we see the destruction that happened and the harm that was
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brought to the men and women of God because of their
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disobedience. As I began looking through, and
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I'm going to wind up our message here soon before we go into
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communion, the word honor here is a verb.
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Wherefore the Lord God of Israel said, I say indeed that thy
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house and the House of thy father should walk before me,
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and forever. For now, the Lord said, be it
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far from me for those that honor me, for those who show honor in
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their life, I will honor them in return.
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And he says, but to Eli and his sons and those that are going to
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act like that, and they that despise me shall be lightly
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esteemed or shall be cut off. Another version says, What are
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we doing with today with this word honor?
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It simply means to be heavy or to give weight to a heavy
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thought. A weighty word you could say as
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it begins to say, what am I giving way to what did God say
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that is important in my life, that I am trying to honor?
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You know we try to explain our reasoning of why we do things
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with you know, that's really not important to me.
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Children's ministry. I'm not good at children so
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that's not important to me. Doing things in the in the choir
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or whatever area of service the Lord may be leading you to.
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You may say, well, I'm not really sure I'm.
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I'm built for that. Trust me.
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God gives us grace when we need grace.
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God gives us mercy when we need mercy.
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We just had a a man a couple of weeks ago who passed away
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tragically committed suicide in our church.
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I'm sure that wife said I'm not built out to be a widow at this
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age. But God gives mercy and God
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gives grace. When grace and mercy is needed.
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We may not think we're built out for it, but God empowers us in
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those moments. We must believe and we must
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accept that God is giving us and preparing us for a time.
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The word honor means to give way to a communicates that whatever
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God says is waiting. We've got a short 32nd clip as I
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begin to to close down. But, but I came across this a
29:17
man by the name of and I'm going to say this name, EF Hutton.
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How many has anybody in here ever heard of EF Hutton raise
29:22
your hand. Hey couple people.
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I'm noticing that none of our young people are raising their
29:26
hand because this was back in the 70s and the 80s.
29:29
KEF Hutton was a was a financial advisor and there was a line
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that is used in his commercials and I'm going to have them show
29:36
it's a 30 second commercial and then we're going to discuss it a
29:39
little bit applicationally. We hope it works.
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My broker says in the long run that kind of investment could be
29:50
a good idea. What's your broker say?
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Well, my broker is EF Hutton and EF Hutton says.
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When EF Hutton talks, people listen.
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That was EF Hutton's statement. When EF Hutton talks, people
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listen. I want to take that phrase and I
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want to turn on its head and think of this.
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When God speaks, how much do we listen?
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When God's word says we should do something, do we take it as
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just a simple advice from a a break, a bank teller or a broker
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or a secretary? Or do we take it as the living,
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breathing word of God, instructing our life and how we
30:38
should live our life? Are we listening to the words of
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God? Are we giving God's Word weight
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in our life? When God speaks about my family,
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am I listening? When God speaks about my mouth
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and when it pertains to gossip or slander or foolishness or
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filthiness, Am I listening when God speaks about my family and
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how I should raise my children? Because God gives instructions
31:05
in His word? Am I listening?
31:07
When God speaks about the gathering of the believers in
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His church, are we listening? When God speaks about my
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possessions and what I'm to do with them, am I listening?
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And then this is the biggest part.
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As I listen, am I responding? It's one thing to listen.
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It's one thing as I I tell my 10 year old son, hey Brody, we're
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going to go out because we did this yesterday and we're going
31:32
to we we just built a a deck on the back of our house and we're
31:35
going to clean up some of the wood and take it to the burn
31:37
pile. And I gave him instruction.
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It would be one thing for him to say.
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All right, Dad, sounds good. And then we go out there, and he
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never picked up one piece of wood.
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He listened. But did he respond?
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He didn't respond the proper way.
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So how are we responding when God speaks truth into our life?
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Samuel valued the wisdom, He valued the ways, and he valued
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the very word of God. And because he did that, God
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honored his life. Because this is what we see in
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first end of chapter 3. Verse 19 says this.
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And Samuel grew and the Lord was with him.
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And I think if we could walk out today with any one piece of
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advice, it would be this advice right here in looking at
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Samuel's life and looking at how God honored him and God grew
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with him. He said in this and he did not
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let none of God's words fall to the ground.
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He caught God's words. He said, God, when you speak,
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I'm going to gather him, I'm going to listen to him, and I'm
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going to heed the advice of the Lord, and I'm going to follow
32:46
his advice even when I don't know what my next step is going
32:49
to be. I'm going to follow the very
32:51
words of God. Is that us this morning?
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Are we so in tune with God that we're catching his words?
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You see, we have something that Samuel didn't have.
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We have a complete, inerrant, perfect word of God that leads
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and directs and guides our past every single moment of every
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single day of our life. It would be awesome to have a
33:13
vision from God, but we have so much more because we have God's
33:17
word clearly written for us this morning as our musicians come
33:23
and begin to play, going to give us just some closing response
33:26
time as we head into communion here in just a minute.
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We save some time for communion at the very end.
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My thought is this. Maybe you've haven't listened to
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the words of the Lord in the moment of salvation.
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Maybe you're here this morning and you were raised in church,
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and maybe you were raised in this church this morning.
33:45
Your family was here and your your grandparents were here.
33:47
Maybe you were here during the days of Henry Cook, one of my
33:51
dear friends. Love Henry, and you've heard him
33:55
preach, and you've heard other men come through here and
33:56
preach, but you've never responded to the Lord and
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salvation. There's just that earning inside
34:03
of your life where you've never responded.
34:04
Maybe that's you this morning. Maybe you're here and you're
34:07
honoring self over what God wants you to do.
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Maybe God's been burdened in your life to to just step out by
34:13
faith in one small area. Maybe just be an assistant
34:17
somewhere and help out serving the Lord.
34:19
Maybe you are here and you need to say God.
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I just need your wisdom and your direction of my life.
34:25
Maybe as we go into communion, there's something at fault
34:29
between you and someone else and you just need to make that
34:31
right. I don't know the need that you
34:33
have this morning because each and every person here, the Lord,
34:37
deals with differently. But what I do know is that God's
34:41
grace is sufficient in all of our needs, and He will meet us
34:44
right where we are. We don't have to run a mile to
34:47
find God. He's right there.
34:49
We just have to take the first step.
34:52
Let's pray. Father, we thank you for this
34:53
day. Lord, we thank you for your
34:54
blessings. God, you're so good to us.
34:57
We're so unworthy of your faithfulness.
35:00
We fail you day after day, minute by minute.
35:05
But God, I'm so thankful for your blessings.
35:07
I'm so thankful for your grace. I pray this morning, as you gave
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us an illustration here of Samuel and Eli and his sons,
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that we would take this and we would apply it to our lives in a
35:18
way that would transform our lives for the better.
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Maybe it's trusting in you as your savior.
35:25
Maybe it's some other area. Or do you know the need?
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I pray that you work today, and in your name we pray.
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Amen. Let's all stand as our musicians
35:32
play in our song. Winner sings.
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If you want to respond to the Lord, I'll be down front.
35:36
Found my new name. Found that good grace.
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Found that healing. And the tears fell down my face.
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When I found my beginning. That has no ending.
35:48
Found that second chance. Found my best friend.
35:50
Found my forgiveness. Found my happiness.
35:52
I've been singing ever since I've been.
36:08
Thanks for listening to the Four Freedom Podcast.
36:10
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36:12
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36:16
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