So in chapter 7 here, we just finished up in chapter 6 where the children of Israel got the ark back.
Remember, they lost that big battle. The Philistines stole the ark of the Covenant.
Day gone, their false god fell over and broke and shattered.
They all got smitten with that horrible disease and pestilence.
And then they went to their phony preacher and he gave them this weird idolatrous offering
where they made the golden mice and the golden imrads.
And if you remember, they returned the ark to the children of Israel.
And when the children of Israel saw the ark coming, they were excited.
But then, if you remember, a bunch of them, they looked into the ark and then they got it
because they weren't supposed to do that.
So now, in chapter 7, verse 1, just to pick up the story, they just got back and said,
The men of Kirjizirim came and fetched up the ark of the Lord
and brought it into the house of Abinadab in the hill
and sanctified Eliezer's son to keep the ark of the Lord.
And it came to pass while the ark abode in Kirjizirim
that the time was long for it was 20 years.
And all the house of Israel, the men of Abinadab, the Lord.
So these guys, they come and get the ark.
Now, why did they come and get it?
Well, if you remember, at the very end of chapter 6,
the men of Bezhemesh, they said, Get the ark out of here.
We don't want it.
Because remember, they looked into it and much of them had died.
Well, these men of Kirjizirim, on the other hand, they're saying,
Okay, yeah, let's pick it up.
They wanted the ark.
So they went and they brought it back.
They had it with them for 20 years and didn't have any problems.
Do you notice that?
They had no problem for 20 years.
They were blessed.
Why?
Because look at the difference.
It says in verse number 1 there, it says they brought it halfway through.
It says, and brought it into the house of Abinadab in the hill
and sanctified Eliezer his son to keep the ark of the Lord.
See, the difference here is somebody taking care of the ark
who actually has sanctified themselves.
And what does it mean to be sanctified?
Well, the word sanctify, and if you would flip over to 1 Thessalonians 4.
Keep your finger in 1 Samuel 7.
Of course, we'll be back there.
But go to 1 Thessalonians 4.
The word sanctify, you can think of the word saint.
Basically, it means to make something holy or to set something apart.
And if you go to, you don't have to turn there, but in Exodus 13,
just for some further study,
God interchangeably uses the words set apart and sanctify.
He also used the word sanctify to be made holy.
Look what God tells us in 1 Thessalonians 4
right at the end of the New Testament.
And let me get there myself.
In verse number 7, I believe it is.
I'm sorry, go back to verse number 2.
It says, for you know what commandments we gave you by the Lord Jesus.
For this is the will of God, even your sanctification.
Same word.
That ye should abstain from fornication,
that every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in,
look at it again, sanctification and honor.
Not in the lust of concupiscence, even as the Gentiles which know not God.
That no man go beyond and defraud his brother in any matter,
because that the Lord is the avenger of all such,
as we also have forewarned you and testified.
For God hath not called us unto uncleanness, but unto holiness.
So he's saying, we need to be sanctified
because God wants us to be holy.
And that's what sanctified means, made holy.
He said, he did not call us to uncleanness,
or fornication, or lust, or lasciviousness, but unto holiness.
And so God demands holiness of his people.
He says, be ye holy, for I am holy.
Now, the Ark of the Covenant, if you remember,
it represented the presence of God.
God would dwell between the charity banks.
It also represented the Word of God,
because inside the Ark of the Covenant
were the tablets of stone that had the Word of God
written with the finger of God that Moses
took down from the mouth.
And it's amazing how when people have sin in their life,
they try to get away from God.
They try to escape from God.
Obviously, you can't escape from God.
But remember Jonah?
When Jonah disobeyed God,
God wanted Jonah to go preach to Nineveh.
And he went running in the other direction.
He's trying to get away.
And it says he fleed from the presence of the Lord.
He was trying to escape from God's presence.
Obviously, that's impossible.
But in his foolishness, he thought,
well, I'm just going to get away from him.
I'm going to get away from God.
But you'll notice that people today will do the same thing,
even at our church or other churches.
When they start getting into sin,
it's like they start to flee church,
like that's getting away from God or something.
Or they'll flee the Bible, like someone said this.
This book will keep you from sin,
or sin will keep you from this book.
A lot of times when people are having sin in their life,
they don't want to read the Bible.
They just want to push the guy to their mind,
because it bugs them or something.
And the Bible will keep you from sin,
or sin will keep you from the Bible.
Now, have you ever played hide and seek with a little child?
And sometimes the little child will cover their own eyes,
like this.
And they think that you can't see them.
Because if I can't see you, you can't see me.
So they'll be hiding in the corner or something like that.
And it's stupid, right?
Because everybody can see you.
Or like the ostrich.
The ostrich sticks his head in the sand
and thinks that he's safe.
Or whatever beast is going to come and just savage it.
It doesn't matter that his head is in the sand.
But this is how Christians are, because what they'll do is,
if they think that if they're not seeing God,
well, then God doesn't see me or something.
As long as I'm not going to church and reading my Bible,
then somehow I'm just kind of doing my own thing.
Look, God is still with you, no matter where you go.
If you make your bed in hell, my friend, God is there.
The Bible says in Psalm 139.
There's no way to escape from God's presence.
But you'll notice that when people
start living a sinful life, they start dropping out of church.
And they start missing a lot of church.
And they start skipping a lot of Bible reading.
And so you've got to be careful of this in your life.
When you start sinning in your life,
you need more church, not less church.
I mean, if you start falling into sin,
if you start giving into temptation,
if you start doing some wrong things, then you know it's wrong.
I mean, most people, when they're doing stuff wrong,
they know it's wrong.
The last thing that you ought to do is get out of church.
Because even if you're doing wrong,
you need to get in church because church
is going to help you to do better
when you hear the preaching of God's word.
God's word is going to strengthen you.
And it's going to give you the ability
to withstand those temptations.
And so the last thing you want to do
is start skipping church and skipping your Bible reading.
When you're going into sin,
that's when you need the most Bible and the most church.
And it seems like people just do the opposite.
But we see here people just want to get away from God's presence.
Well, this guy said, no, bring God's presence to my house.
But first, let's get sanctified.
Let's make sure that we don't mess this up.
Let's just live a holy and clean and decent life.
Let's follow the Bible and follow God's rules.
And then for 20 years, everything was great.
Because they actually cared about being sanctified
and being set apart.
What does it mean to be set apart?
Different than the world around you.
That's what set apart means.
Set apart not as living the lifestyle of the unbelievers
but actually living a different lifestyle
that's clean and holy and righteous and godly.
And if that's how you're living, guess what?
You're different than the world around you.
Because this world lives a life of uncleanness,
fornication, lust, and all the things that are listed there.
So we see the sanctification there.
But look at verse 3.
We're in 1 Samuel 7.
So verse 2, at the end it says,
And all the house of Israel lamented after the Lord.
So 20 years go by.
And the two of Israel are sad
because they've been in bondage to the Philistines
this whole 20 years.
They're sad. They're upset.
And they're just kind of thinking about the good old days
and how they need to go back to the Lord
and get back to God.
And so they're lamenting after the Lord.
So verse 3,
Samuel spayed unto all the house of Israel saying,
If ye do return unto the Lord with all your hearts,
then put away the strange gods and Ashtoreth from among you,
and prepare your hearts unto the Lord and serve him only,
and he will deliver you out of the hand of the Philistines.
Then the children of Israel did put away Balaam and Ashtoreth
and serve the Lord with.
See, God will not compete with these other gods.
He said, look,
if you're going to really seek after the Lord with all your heart,
you're going to have to put away all these other gods.
Now, this reminded me a little bit of salvation
because if you remember in Acts chapter 8,
when Philip preached the gospel of the Ethiopian eunuch,
and then the Ethiopian eunuch wanted to get baptized,
Philip said,
If thou believeth with all thine heart, thou mayest.
And he answered and said,
I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.
Now, this helps us right here.
1 Samuel 7 helps us to define what Philip meant by that.
When he's telling the eunuch,
you've got to believe with all your heart,
he's not saying you have to just really believe really hard.
You know, I think I can, I think I can.
You know, it's just some kind of a, you know,
I'm just getting every bit of belief that I can.
It's not like how hard you believe or how much faith you have.
When Philip said believe with all your heart,
what he's saying is you don't believe in anything else.
This is the only thing you believe in.
So when God says,
Hey, if you're returning to the Lord with all your heart,
that means you're not following Balaam.
That means you're not following Ashtoreth.
It means that you're only worshipping the Lord,
and that's what Philip's telling that Ethiopian eunuch.
In order to be saved, you have to believe on the Lord,
Jesus Christ as your Savior, and him alone.
You know, you can't still be trusting in
some kind of a religion to save you,
or you can't say, well, I'm Buddhist and Christian.
You know, or I'm Muslim and Christian.
I'm, you know, I'm a Christian,
but I'm also worshipping this other God.
No, you're not saved, because to be saved,
you have to believe on him with all your heart.
And here he's just explaining not to an individual,
but he's talking to a whole nation.
And he's saying, look, as a nation,
if you're going to return to the Lord with all your heart,
that means you have to get rid of all the other false gods.
And so that's what they do.
They put away Balaam.
Balaam there, that word, is just the plural of Baal.
Just so you know.
B-A-A-L is the name of their false god.
It's actually, Jesus basically spells out that he was his Satan.
And they call him Baal.
And what God is telling us there is, with Balaam,
the I-A-M on the end is a plural ending.
So it just means multiple Baals.
Just various false gods.
And the Bible used that word a lot.
It says in verse 5,
And Samuel said, Gather all Israel to Mispy,
and I will pray for you unto the Lord.
And they gathered together to Mispy,
and drew water, and poured it out before the Lord,
and fasted on that day,
and said there, We have sinned against the Lord.
And Samuel judged and took a mission on Mispy.
So why did they pour out water as a drink offering?
Well, because they were fasting,
and the reason for their fasting,
notice it says they fasted on that day,
and said there, We have sinned against the Lord.
What is the point of fasting?
First of all, what is fasting?
Well, fasting in the Bible,
Biblically speaking, is either one of two things.
It's either abstaining from all food,
but you're still drinking water.
Or sometimes in the Bible,
fasting is abstaining from both food and water.
Okay.
Now, there are all different lengths of fasts in the Bible,
and all different types of fasts.
Like, there's the one-day.
The most common fast in the Bible is just people fast for one day.
They just go for one day with no food.
And sometimes they go one day, no food, no water.
There's also several times that a three-day fast is mentioned.
There's a seven-day fast, a 14-day fast, a 21-day fast.
And the longest fasting in the Bible is 40 days.
And that was, of course, Jesus Christ fasting for 40 days in Matthew 4.
I believe that he drank water.
And I believe that he was...
You know, I don't think that it was necessarily a miracle there.
Because there are people, even that are living today,
who have fasted for 40 days and 40 nights,
where they only drank water.
And it is possible, believe it or not, to survive.
Now, you can't go without water for that long.
After about a week with no water, you're going to be dead.
And probably in Arizona, a lot less than that.
But there are people, even living today,
who fasted for 40 days and 40 nights,
as in they only drank water.
They didn't eat any food.
Now, I'm not necessarily recommending that,
because, you know, that's probably not for everybody.
But Jesus Christ, when he fasted for 40...
And I'm not going to try it, just so you know.
So, ever.
So when Jesus Christ did that,
the reason that I say that I believe he drank water
is because it says that when he fasted 40 days and 40 nights,
he was afterward in hunger.
Now, if he hadn't, you know, if he hadn't drank,
then he would be thirsty,
because going without fluids is a lot harder
than going without food.
So it mentions the fact that he was hungry,
and that's when Satan came and tempted him
in his weakened condition.
But he fasted for 40 days and 40 nights,
and then Elijah also fasted for 40 days and 40 nights.
Again, I believe he drank water.
But the third 40-day, 40-night fast in the Bible is Moses.
But Moses did not drink any water,
so that was obviously a miraculous thing,
because he was up in Mount Sinai,
and God was, you know, burning those tablets
and writing on them with the finger of God
and smoking them out and everything.
So that was a supernatural occurrence,
because no human being, just under normal circumstances,
can go for 40 days without having anything to drink.
So that with Moses was a miracle.
Elijah, it may have been a miracle also,
because he was given a special meal,
and then he didn't eat for 40 days.
And then Jesus, I believe,
just probably just did it naturally.
And so that's a really extreme fast in the Bible.
Now, the longest that anyone ever fasted in the Bible,
besides Moses, where it was a miraculous event,
was three days, which is Esther did a fast
of three days and three nights with no food or water.
And so that would probably be the most extreme
that anybody would ever want to go and have,
would be three days and three nights.
Now, I'm not even saying
that I would necessarily recommend that.
But anyway, it's up to you to be the judge of those things.
But the Bible does teach fasting.
I mean, it is a biblical doctrine.
Jesus Christ talked about it.
He said in Matthew chapter 6,
Moreover, when ye fast...
So he's kind of assuming
that you're going to be doing some kind of fasting
in your life, because he said,
Moreover, when ye fast,
be not as the hypocrites of a sad countenance,
for they disfigure their faces,
that they may appear unto men to fast.
Verily I say unto you, they add their reward.
But thou, when thou fastest,
anoint thine head and wash thy face,
that thou appear not unto men to fast,
but unto thy Father which is in secret,
and thy Father which seeth in secret,
shall reward thee openly.
So God says, don't make a big show out of fasting.
Oh, man.
You know, how to disfigure your face.
It's like, oh, I'm eating the days, you know.
He said it should just be between you and God.
He said, you know, anoint your head,
wash your face,
go about your business,
and do not appear unto men to fast,
but unto thy Father which is in secret,
and thy Father which seeth in secret,
shall reward thee openly.
Now, sometimes there's a public fasting.
Like here where a whole group,
the whole nation,
fasted just for one day.
For one day they did no food and no water.
And they actually drew out the water out of the well
and then just dumped it out.
And you say, why would they do that?
What is the point of fasting, Pastor Anderson?
You know, why would we do that?
Well, there are a few different reasons.
Go to Matthew, chapter number 9.
I'll show you a few different reasons
for fasting in the Bible.
Now, the reason that we are seeing
in 1 Samuel, chapter 7,
they're fasting basically to show God
that they're sorry for what they've done.
Because it says that they fasted
and they said there,
we have sinned against the Lord.
So the fasting in 1 Samuel, chapter 7
is to show God how sorry they are
about their sin.
Because so often,
people commit a sin and then they say,
oh, I'm sorry, but they're not really sorry.
You know what I'm talking about?
And they're really casual about it
and they're really flippant about it
and they really don't feel that bad about it.
They're just kind of like,
oh, I sinned, but so what?
So this is a way where they can show God,
hey, I'm acknowledging my sin here.
I'm acknowledging what I've done wrong.
And in fact, I'm going to go a whole day
with no food or no water.
Basically in mourning.
Just to show how sad and sorrowful
I am about my sin.
Now look, let me say this.
If you've committed sin in your life,
you shouldn't beat yourself up about it
for the rest of your life.
Okay?
The Bible says, forgetting those things
which are behind and reaching forth
under those things which are before.
We should understand that God has forgiven us.
Once we believe on Jesus Christ,
all our sins are forgiven.
And then we have that relationship
with our Father in heaven.
And if we confess our sins,
He's faithful and just to forgive us our sins
and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
But often today,
preachers preach so much about God's forgiveness
and they preach so much about the second chance
and, you know, a righteous man
falls seven times and rises up again.
And those are all good things.
And I'm all for that.
And they preach about moving on,
forgetting the past.
And I agree with all of that.
But before you move on,
you should grieve over your sins.
You should be sorry
and show some real contrition
and some real sadness and mourning.
So if I go out and commit a bad sin,
I should say,
well, I'm forgiven.
You know, let's just move on.
All right, let's go.
And just no big deal.
Today's a new day.
No, first I should go to God
and confess that to God
and say to God that I'm sorry
that I committed that sin.
Now, look, it has nothing to do with salvation.
It's just the right thing to do
after I'm saved.
It's kind of like this.
My children will always be my children
no matter what they do.
But if my children do something that's really bad,
wouldn't I expect them to come to me and say,
hey, I'm sorry that I did that.
I'm going to change.
It doesn't mean that if they don't do it,
I'm going to kick them out of the family.
And, yeah, God's not going to kick us out of His family.
God's not going to take away our salvation.
We're still going to be His children.
But we ought to go to God when we've done wrong
and tell God that we're sorry
and say, God, this is what I've done.
I'm sorry.
Now, if you've done something that's really bad,
then you're going to want to really show God
that you're sorry.
And one of the ways is through fasting.
It's basically and also weeping.
You know, weeping, crying, or abstaining from food.
This is just a way to show God that you're serious
and not that you're just flippantly like these politicians,
you know, where they commit some horrible sin
and then they give these public apologies.
You know, like this guy, I heard this guy.
He's this wicked congressman
that I talked about a few weeks ago.
He committed all this horrible sin,
all this horrible, filthy, you know, fornicating type sin.
And I listened to his apology
because, you know, he gets up
and he gives his formal apology and resigns.
And in it, he literally begins to praise himself.
I mean, he gets up and says, I'm sorry.
And he's just reading off a script.
I take full responsibility for my actions.
This is my fault.
I've made a big mistake here.
I'm really sorry.
I'm not blaming anybody else.
And then he just starts to give this big story
about how his life has been about helping people.
And he starts to say how,
I want to thank my parents today for instilling in me,
this is literally what he said,
for instilling in me the values
that have brought me this far in my life.
After this guy's been sending out
obscene pornographic Twitters to teenagers,
he's thanking his parents for the values that they've taught him?
But that's not a real apology, is it?
And waiting for weeks to apologize, you know,
waiting for weeks, lying and saying you didn't do it.
And then when the media just hounds you
24 hours a day for two weeks,
then you get up and give this fake apology
and then start praising yourself
and praising your parents for doing such a good job of raising me.
They raised me to be such a great guy.
That's not a real apology.
That guy isn't sorry.
And God looks at that and it's a joke to him.
And so the opposite of that would be what we see here.
Real sorrow, real contrition,
real fasting and so forth to show that you're sorry.
Where did I turn?
Somebody help me out.
Was it Matthew 9?
It says in verse number...
It's the part where the disciples of John...
Here we go, verse 14, Matthew 9 and 14.
It says,
Then came to him the disciples of John, saying,
Why do we and the Pharisees fast off,
but thy disciples fast not?
So the disciples of John are saying,
Well, you know, we fast all the time.
The Pharisees fast a lot.
Why do your disciples not fast?
And he's talking about the 12 disciples.
And Jesus said unto them,
Can the children of the bride chamber what?
Mourn.
What is mourning?
Weeping, sadness, sorrow like when somebody dies.
It says,
Can the children of the bride chamber mourn
as long as the bridegroom is with them?
Of course, Jesus Christ is the bridegroom.
But the days will come
when the bridegroom shall be taken from them
and then shall they fast.
So Jesus is explaining...
He's not against fasting.
But there's a time to fast
and not to fast.
This was not a time
when his disciples ought to be fasting
because they were doing a lot of work for God.
They were out preaching and serving God.
He said there could be a time of mourning.
That's a time of fasting.
So we see people throughout the Bible,
they fast in order to show God sorrow for their sin.
Like when King David fasted
after he committed adultery with Bathsheba.
He fasted.
He showed God he was sorry.
We see people fast sometimes when a loved one dies.
For example, when King Saul died,
they fasted all throughout the Bible.
And I'm not going to spend the whole sermon on fasting.
Go back to 1 Samuel 7.
I was just showing you it is a biblical doctrine.
God doesn't expect us to just constantly be fasting
because he even told his disciples,
hey, don't fast right now.
But down the road, you will fast.
When the bridegroom is taken from you,
then you will fast.
And so there is a time to fast in your life.
It's a time of mourning and a time of sorrow.
Back to 1 Samuel 7.
It says that they drew water
and poured it out before the Lord
and fasted on that day
and said there, we have sinned against the Lord.
And Samuel judged and said of Israel, I miss you.
So what we need to learn from that
is not to be flippant or lackadaisical about our sin.
Well, I sinned, but so what?
Everybody said wrong.
Wrong attitude.
The Bible says God resisted the proud
but giveth grace unto the humble.
He said, be afflicted and mourn and weep.
Let your laughter be turned to mourning
and your joy to heaviness.
Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord
and he shall lift you up.
We ought to be humble.
We ought to get on our knees literally,
physically on our knees before God
and apologize for our sins
and not just say, so what?
No big deal.
Let's move on.
Forgiveness.
And look, I believe in the forgiveness.
But let's first be sorry.
First, you know, do some mourning.
And then I really think you should move on.
I mean, if it's something that you did a year ago
and you already said you're sorry to God,
you know what I mean?
It's time to move on.
Once you've mourned and apologized,
you shouldn't be bringing stuff up
from a year ago or a month ago or a week ago.
Stuff that's already done.
I mean, take it to God,
apologize, and then move on.
It'd be like if I had a problem with you or something.
Let's say there was a problem
between two people at church
and I had a problem with you
and you came to me and said,
hey, I'm really sorry.
You know, I was wrong here.
I mean, it's time for me to let that go
and it's time for you to let it go, right?
And we can get along and be friends.
But you should say you're sorry
and be sad about it at the time
and then move on from it.
And so forgiveness is there.
We need to move on from stuff
and not beat ourselves up about the past.
But I've noticed this.
The people who usually are beating themselves up
about the past the most
are usually people who won't admit
that what they did was wrong.
They make excuses.
Well, the only reason I did that is because of this
and it wasn't really my fault.
It was kind of so-and-so's fault.
Those are usually the kind of people
who can't really handle guilt
and they have a lot of baggage and stuff like that
because usually you just come to the point
where you just realize that you're wrong.
Tell God you're sorry.
Don't be like that politician
and sing your own praises,
but actually tell God that you're really sorry,
maybe fast or whatever,
depending on the severity of what we're talking about.
Then move on.
And you notice that's what David did.
When David had finished praying
and making supplication to God and fasting,
his child died.
He basically got up,
ate his food, went to church,
praised God and moved on with his life.
He can't change the past.
He couldn't undo what he had done.
And so he didn't kick himself about it
for the rest of his life,
but he did weep and mourn for seven days
over that sin and fast.
So let's get back to the chapter.
It says in verse number seven,
When the Philistines heard
that the children of Israel
were gathered together to miss peace,
the lords of the Philistines went up against Israel.
And when the children of Israel heard it,
they were afraid of the Philistines.
And the children of Israel said to Samuel,
Cease not to cry unto the Lord our God for us,
that He will save us out of the hand of the Philistines.
Now, let me point this out about this chapter.
All throughout this chapter,
we see the children of Israel
showing a lot of weakness,
spiritually and otherwise.
The children of Israel, first of all,
at the beginning of the chapter,
they said that they wanted to get right with God.
But remember, it was Samuel who had to come and tell them,
What are you doing with Baal?
Then what are you doing still worshipping Asherah?
So finally, he preached to them
and then they got rid of that stuff.
He has to break it down to them
and give them all the instructions.
He tells them what to do, gather here fast,
say you're sorry, all this stuff.
Then, when the Philistines are coming,
they're scared to death
and they're going to Samuel saying,
Pray for us.
Pray for us that we don't get defeated by the Philistines.
And look, it says in verse nine,
And Samuel took a sucking lamb
and offered it for a burnt offering holy unto the Lord.
And Samuel cried unto the Lord for Israel,
and the Lord heard him.
But where does it show God hearing the children of Israel?
Where does it show them praying
and God hearing their prayer?
Go down a little bit
and it says at the end of verse 13,
And the hand of the Lord was against the Philistines.
When? All the days of Samuel.
And we see that throughout this whole chapter,
really, God is only blessing the children of Israel
and really only saves them because of one man, Samuel.
Samuel tells them what they need to do.
He preaches the truth to them.
He offers the sacrifice.
He gets on his knees and prays.
God hears him and God is with them
only as long as he's alive.
And then when he's not alive,
that's the end of it.
That's what it's indicating here.
This shows you how much difference
one person's life can make right here.
I mean, one man can make this much of a difference
where he can turn a whole nation around.
He can preach to people
and get the whole nation to turn around
and he can pray and God will spare a nation
because he's praying
and the children of Israel would defeat the Philistines
as long as he is around.
This chapter is not about great people.
It's about people who are scared to death.
They're scared of the Philistines.
They don't know what to do.
They can't even pray for themselves.
They need somebody else to do the praying
because God's not even listening.
It's about one great man
and this should show us
how much one person can do it right
and not even just a man but a woman
because really,
Samuel wouldn't even exist
if it weren't for Hannah
who prayed and sacrificed
and even prayed to have that child
because Samuel was a miraculous child.
Remember, Hannah was barren.
She couldn't have children
but because she prayed and wept and sacrificed,
then that's where God blessed her with that child
and so one man or one woman
can make a huge difference in this world
and there's really no bound to it
and oftentimes, we sell ourselves short
and we don't realize how much God could really do
with one person that could be a Samuel.
You know, even if you're not a preacher,
even if you're not, you know, a pastor
or if you're not somebody who has a public ministry,
I mean, somebody who's going out
and knocking doors and winning stories,
you can accomplish a lot for God.
One person just going out and throwing,
even just every week, just for a few hours.
I mean, after years and years and years,
that's not going to really add up
or one parent, one mother or one father
that raises a child
and that child could grow up and be a Samuel
and grow up and be a great man
that could lead great throngs of people
to get right with God and to serve God
and so we need to realize how important our lives are.
We have our life on this earth
and we don't know how long it's going to be
but the average is going to be 70, 80 years.
You know, what are you going to do with that life?
Are you going to just waste it on your own pleasure
or waste it serving God and mammon
and trying to just make money
and just trying to succeed and impress people
with finance or whatever
or are you going to be like a Samuel
and devote your life to serving God
because there is no limit to what God can do with your life.
I mean, remember just a little boy brought to Jesus
five loaves and two fishes and he multiplied it
and he fed 5,000 with what a little boy had brought
in his sack lunch.
So we might not be talented
or we may not have a lot of skills or aptitude
but it will bring to God what we do have
and say, okay God, here am I, send me.
Here are my talents.
Here is my ability.
Here is my life and I'm giving it to you.
God can multiply it and feed the 5,000 with it.
God could use you to influence the lives of 5,000 people
easily, easily.
I mean, by the time you go out and win people to Christ
and then many of them will win people to Christ
and a chain reaction there,
by the time you raise children that will grow up
and serve God and do great things for God,
you can influence 5,000 people, 10,000 people,
100,000 people.
One person's life can make a huge difference
and here we see Samuel that he was a man
who continually prayed for the children of Israel
and that's why he blessed them because Samuel was praying.
He talks about it later.
He talks about it when he's finishing up his life,
he says he's going to continue to pray for them
and when they anoint a king, he says he's going to pray for them.
This man's prayer, this man's preaching
and this man's godly life influenced the whole nation
and dramatically altered the course of events in this chapter.
I mean, this whole chapter is about,
it's not about the rest of these people.
They're scared, they're doing a lot of the wrong things.
You know, and I thank God for the ones who were doing what was right
but honestly it was Samuel's leadership
who brought about the whole thing
and so you ought to decide
that you're going to allow God to use you in a great way
and the less talented that you are,
the more likely God will use you in a greater way
because God likes to use people that are without power
because he even said, you see your calling, brethren.
He said there are not many wise that are called,
not many mighty
but God has chosen the foolish things of this world
to confound the wise
and the things which are not to confound the things that aren't.
I mixed that up a little bit
but he's explaining that he gets more glory
when he uses someone who's not talented.
I mean, if someone's great looking
and a great public speaker
and they have all this talent
and this magnetic personality
and they have this little twinkle in their eye
and everybody likes them everywhere they go
and then let's say that person goes somewhere
and starts a church
and wins a lot of people to Christ
and preaches to thousands of people, okay?
People would look at that and just say,
oh yeah, look, it's just his charm.
You know, it's just the magnetic personality.
That's all it is.
You know, or maybe you could go on and on,
people who have lots of money
and then they could say, oh, that's why.
But you know, when you take somebody who's not dead in the air,
not good looking,
or not a talented speaker
or not a good people person
or maybe they're even a little bit shy, a little backward
and then God could use them to see great multitudes saved
and see that person start a church
or that person preach a message
and many people, their lives are changed
or many people get sick,
he gets all the glory
because people will look at that and say,
what in the world?
How does that guy succeeding for God here,
they're going to say that's the power of God
because he's not doing it in the flesh
because by all fleshly standards,
this guy would be a failure
or she would be a failure, okay?
But it's God's power
and God wants to get the glory
so he doesn't always pick the most likely candidate
to be the one that does great things for him.
He picks the weak.
I mean, look at David versus Goliath.
God liked that matchup
because of the fact that Goliath was so much bigger than David,
had so much better equipment than David
and had so much better skill as a warrior than David
because he wanted to show them that the battle is the Lord's.
He didn't want man to get the glory.
He'd rather take a teenager
with a sling with a stone in it
versus a warrior
who has another guy holding his shield
because his shield is so big.
He's got a giant sword.
He's got a helmet of brass.
He's got a coat of chainmail
and he's been a warrior since he was a little kid.
No one can defeat him.
No one has the guts to stand up to him.
God used a young boy, a teenage boy,
with a sling shot to bring him down.
Why?
Because anyone would look at that and say,
that's God.
That's the power of God.
That was a miracle.
And that's what God wants to do.
And so if you are looking at yourself tonight and saying,
well, I just don't think I have the people skills
to get someone to gospel.
You know, I think I'm just a shy person.
I've seen many very shy people do an excellent job
of preaching the gospel and getting people saved.
And I can think of many times
when I was stammering and stuttering
and making a lot of mistakes
when I was giving someone the gospel.
And you know, people still got saved
because it's the power of the word of God
that gets people saved.
It's the spirit of God.
It's not you.
It's not your presentation is so suave
and your illustrations are so cool
and you're so interesting
that everybody just wants to listen to you
and talk to you
because of the way you look and the way you act.
No.
God can use anyone who will just offer themself
and he can use you to be a samuir.
And the less talent you have,
the better off,
I mean, God will choose to use you even more so.
Remember when they fed the 5,000
with the five loaves and two fishes?
Later on, he had seven loaves and two fishes
he fed 4,000.
Now that doesn't make any sense, right?
Because he fed 5,000 with five loaves and two fishes.
When he had seven loaves, he fed 4,000.
Because it doesn't matter.
I mean, God can do any,
I mean, is it really any more or less of a miracle?
Well, but you had seven loaves.
I mean, that's not as big of a deal
as when you had five.
I mean, five or seven,
you're feeding 5,000, 4,000 people.
It doesn't matter.
Would it really be a different story?
Well, he only fed 4,000.
Oh, well, I'm not going to follow that.
Because either way, it's a miracle.
If he could feed 4,000, he could feed 5,000.
He could feed 6,000.
But I think God's showing us there,
when he has more to start with, he did less.
When he had seven loaves, he fed 4,000.
When he had five loaves, he fed 5,000.
Because God can do more with less sometimes.
He can take you and you say,
well, I'm less.
He wants to use you.
Because he'll just get even more glory.
And it has often been where I've seen people,
and I looked at somebody and said,
this person is a successful soul winner?
And they are.
And it's because God wants to use people
where he will get the glory.
And they won't take all the glory for themselves.
And everybody looks at them and say,
oh, yeah, what a talented guy.
No.
Rather than they look and say, wow, praise God.
I mean, I've looked at some people and said,
man, the Spirit of the Lord came upon that guy.
Because that is not the flesh right there.
That's the Spirit of the Lord upon them.
Because you can tell.
Because it's just they are not a talented person.
And yet, God uses them in a great way.
All kinds of examples I can give you all day long
with people that I've known and seen that and observed that.
And so be a Samuel.
But let's finish up the chapter here quickly.
It says, the Lord heard him.
And then Samuel, verse 10, was offering up the burnt offering
that the Philistines drew near to battle against Israel.
But the Lord thundered with a great thunder
on that day upon the Philistines and discomfited them.
So he sent all this thunder.
Basically, he sent a storm.
And discomfited means that basically they
were all in their ranks and they're all lined up about it.
He basically discomfited them, meaning he confused their ranks.
It basically threw off all their plans.
It got them off kilter and out of battle array.
And so this great storm that God sent
put the Philistines in a vulnerable position.
And it says, then the men of Israel went out of Miski
and pursued the Philistines.
So now they're on the run.
They're being defeated.
And smote them until they came unto Bethkar.
Then Samuel took a stone.
And set it between Miski and Shen,
and called the name of the Ebenezer,
saying, hitherto, that the Lord help us.
So at the end, he sets up this monument.
Not only did he pray for God to help him.
Sometimes people pray for God to help them.
And then God sets in help them.
And then they just forget all about the fact
that God did that.
He sets up the monument to not only pray and ask
for God's help, but then after he got the help,
he's basically saying, thank you.
And he's acknowledging to basically all of mankind
that God is the one who won this battle.
Instead of saying, man, I knew that that training
would pay off of all the military training
that I gave these guys.
No, he said no.
Hitherto hath the Lord help us.
The only reason we won this battle
is because God won the battle for us.
And that's what he set up that stone
to signify and called Ebenezer.
Verse 13, so the Philistines were subdued.
And they came no more into the coast of Israel.
And the hand of the Lord was against the Philistines
all the days of Samuel.
And the cities which the Philistines had taken from
Israel were restored unto Israel.
And he lists the different places there.
And there was peace between Israel and the Amorites.
And Samuel judged Israel all the days of his life.
And he went from year to year in circuit in Bethel
and Gilgal and Mispy and judged Israel and all those places.
Now, somebody needs to tell Samuel
that judging is a sin.
You know, because they keep talking about Samuel judged
and Samuel's judging.
Doesn't he know that it's wrong to judge?
But that's what people say.
Who's ever heard that before?
Like, hey, it's wrong to judge.
Don't judge.
Judging's a sin.
Well, Samuel was really doing a lot of wrong then
because he judged Israel all the days of his life.
So this guy, not a day went by this guy wasn't judging.
I mean, this guy's just always judging everybody.
Every day of his whole life.
Except this is actually a good thing according to the Bible.
And then even when he goes to his house,
you know, first he travels around all Israel
in circuit judging everybody.
You know what I mean?
And then in verse 17,
his return was to Ramah, for there was his house.
And there he judged Israel.
I mean, this guy is just always so judgmental.
And there he built an altar.
You see, it's not a sin to judge.
There's a whole book in the Bible called Judges.
And quickly, let's finish with this.
1 Corinthians 6, and I'll close.
1 Corinthians 6.
There's a lot of people who will repeat this.
It's like they just say this,
Judge not.
Judge not. Judge not. Judge not.
But really, if you look up that verse,
there's a lot more to it than that
because he says in Matthew 7, 1,
Judge not that ye be not judged.
For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged.
And with what measure ye meet,
it shall be measured to you again.
And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye,
but consider'st not the beam that is in thine own eye?
Or how wilt thou say to thy brother,
Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye,
and behold, the beam is in thine own eye, thou hypocrite.
First cast out the beam out of thine own eye,
and then shalt thou see clearly
to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye.
God's not telling us not to judge.
He's not telling us not to remove the mote from our brother's eye.
He's just telling us not to be a hypocrite
and not to judge people for things that we ourselves are guilty of.
Just like it says in Romans 2, 1,
Therefore thou art inexcusable, O man,
whosoever thou art that judgest.
For wherein thou judgest, none of thou condemnest thyself,
for thou that judgest doest the same things.
So that's warning us.
Don't judge people when you do the same things.
Don't be a hypocrite and judge everybody.
And sometimes the people who are going around judging everybody,
they have a lot of things wrong with themselves.
And they go around telling everybody else to straighten out their life.
That's not what God's telling us.
Look at 1 Corinthians 6.
It says this.
Verse 1,
There any of you having a matter against another
go to law before the unjust and not before the saints?
Now watch verse 2.
Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world?
And if the world shall be judged by you,
are ye unworthy to judge the smallest matters?
Now who is the you?
The you is the saints.
Because anybody who is saved is a saint.
At the beginning of 1 Corinthians, he calls them saints.
He says the whole world is going to be judged by you.
We are going to judge the world when Jesus Christ returns.
Know ye not, verse 3, that we shall judge,
that ye shall judge angels?
How much more things that pertain to this life.
So let me ask you something.
Are we as Christians qualified to judge things that pertain to this life?
Yes, sir.
He said we're going to judge angels.
How much more things that pertain to this life.
If then ye have judgments of things pertaining to this life,
set them to judge who are least esteemed in the church.
I speak to your shames, and so that there is not a wise man among you,
no, not one, who shall be able to judge between his brother.
He's saying we ought to judge righteous judgment.
Jesus said judge not after the appearance, but judge righteous judgment.
Everyone judges.
That's what's so silly.
When someone says to you your judgment,
by saying that to you, they're judging you right now,
because they've decided that you're judgmental.
So that's them judging you right now.
Well, how do you know I'm judgmental?
Are you judging me?
Do you judge me to be judgmental?
So it's stupid to say don't judge, because everybody judges.
Do you think anybody just goes through life with no opinion about anything?
Because that's all judging me, just deciding what's right and what's wrong.
You know, if I look at some guy walking down the street,
and his pants are hanging down to where I can see his underwear,
and I say, you know what, pull up your pants.
Oh, you're so judging, you're judging him.
Because I don't want to look at someone's underwear, I'm judging him.
You know, or if my son comes home with an earring in his ear,
and I say, son, get that stupid earring out of your ear,
and then you look like a man.
Oh, you're judging.
You know, or somebody's wearing a Marilyn Manson t-shirt,
and I say, that shirt's wicked as hell.
Or somebody's watching some filthy TV show,
and I say, hey, this show is blaspheming Jesus Christ.
Or hey, this show has people hopping in the sack after they go on a date.
Why are you watching this wicked show?
Oh, you're just judging me.
You're judging me right now, aren't you?
Yes, I am.
I mean, it's ridiculous.
People will use this to basically just,
they want to just do all kinds of wicked things and sin,
and they just want everybody to ignore it and think it's fine.
And then if anybody tries to tell them, hey, what you're doing is wrong,
then they're judging.
Now, look, I don't go around telling everybody they're wrong.
I don't go around telling people what to do.
But if I ever do come to you and tell you that you're wrong about something,
it's only because I love you.
Because people I don't care about, I don't tell them any, I just, whatever.
They'll screw up your life.
They'll be an idiot.
It doesn't matter.
If I did come to someone and try to help them,
it would be out of love for that person.
And if a parent says to their child, hey, don't dress like that.
Hey, don't watch that.
Hey, don't hang around with those people.
It's not because they're just trying to be a jerk or they're a tyrant or on a power trip.
It's because they love you and they're just trying to guide you and help you
because they have more experience than you do.
And they're just giving you advice to help you.
And they need to judge you sometimes.
And they need to look at you and make a judgment and say, hey,
the way that you're dressed is wrong or the way you're living your life is wrong
or the friends that you have are wrong.
They need to judge.
And parents ought to be judges of their children.
And I did a whole sermon on judging a few months ago
where I explained what is right judging in the Bible and what is wrong judging.
And one thing is if I'm in a position of authority,
then I'm a judge in that position.
And parents ought to judge their children.
Now, do children need to judge their parents?
No.
Does the employee need to judge the boss?
No, but the boss can judge the employee.
Judging is a part of life.
And so we see Samuel was a great man of God and he was a great judge.
And he preached the truth.
And a lot of people didn't like him.
But a lot of people got right with God.
Let's borrow anything out of the Word of prayer.
Father, we thank you so much for your Word and for this story.
Please just help us to be like Samuel.
Help every person here to decide to make a huge impact with their life
and to do something big for God in the decades that you've given us in our life.
Help us not to just waste them day after day doing nothing.
But help us to be like Samuel.
To study your Word.
To sanctify ourselves.
To live a holy life, a righteous life.
To do the right thing and really be used greatly by you.
No matter whether our talents be large or small.
Just help us to give you what we have.
In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.