The Book of I Samuel Part 1

The Bible Baptist Church of Praise, the Russian language church is celebrating the

Harvest Festival or their Thanksgiving. And that's what all of this is up here.

They usually do that each year. As I understand it, their Harvest Festival is the 19th.

But this is the day that they do that. And they'd requested that they could come an hour earlier at 1 o 'clock.

And we're usually out here, and a couple of us are still talking about quarter of one.

So just keep it in mind that if we stay close to one, you'll have a lot bigger audience.

Okay? But they are going to have, they have this

Harvest Festival that they do each year. And then they plan to go to a park and eat or have some food,

I think in the park, maybe here, I'm not sure. So we wanted to pass that on to you.

And also, I wanted to mention to you that we as a church have in the past supported two hospital chaplains.

One was Ray Tomlinson, and one was Johnson. And both men passed away around 2017 in that neighborhood.

And we as a church agreed to support their wives, continue to support their wives.

And so I got a note from the daughter that says, Faith Bible Church family, thank you so much for the love and support you have given our parents, that's

Ray and Joe Tomlinson through the years. This is to let you know that Joe, and it was

Josephine, but we always called her Joe, Josephine went home to be with the Lord on 9 -29 -20.

So that was the last Sunday two weeks ago. She went peacefully in her sleep.

And they wanted to let us know that your generosity and kindness was greatly appreciated.

May God richly bless you. And it's Lori, and Sage, and family.

It's Tomlinson, that's the daughter from her. So I wanted to let you, and it has a nice card here, has a nice picture,

I'll try to have it in the back if any of you want to see the card and that, remind me, and I'll try to, it has both

Ray and Joe's picture in there. So if you would like to see that, we have that for you.

Also we got word this morning, Richard, I think he checked himself into the hospital, but his brother passed away,

I think during the night. And we had said a major heart attack, but when they were checking him out, he had blood clots in the lungs and in the legs when he went in.

And the paramedics had to revive him when they found him,

I guess he was out walking because he walked every day. So just to let you know, be in prayer for Richard and his family.

His brother Robert, we had sent out a note on email this week, but his brother

Robert is the one that passed away, and he has two adult children, and they're taking care of all the arrangements and so forth.

But remember Richard, it's really shook up Richard quite a bit. So just uphold Richard in your prayers.

And the last thing I wanted to mention too is Harold and I said we would have a special business meeting on the 18th, which would be next week.

But we were not really prepared at this point to go ahead with the meeting on the 18th.

So we want to postpone that. And we will let you know about that. Do be in prayer for us as leaders that we do what the

Lord wants. And so we need your leading and guiding in your prayers. Feel free to talk with us and let us know your thoughts and so forth.

We welcome that. With all of that said, if you will stand with me, and I'll start by opening in prayer first of all, and then we will sing,

I will sing of my Redeemer. Our Heavenly Father and our God, we come before your throne this morning, and we especially uphold

Richard in the loss of his brother. We would pray, Heavenly Father, that you would comfort both he and each of their children during this time.

Pray that you would comfort Richard and the family, and we would thank you for it, Lord. We would ask prayer also for Faith Bible Church, that you might have your will and way in all that we would be doing.

You know our future, Lord. And we would ask that you would guide and direct us, that we might know your leading in all of these things.

And we thank you, Lord, that we have you. We think of all of those that are here today.

We would pray, Heavenly Father, that you would speak to each one of our hearts through your word and through the songs that we sing.

And we'll thank you and pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. I will sing of my

Redeemer. I will sing of my

Redeemer. I will sing of my

Redeemer. Look at that chorus, go back to the chorus once.

There's the whole gospel rolled up in that chorus. Am I right? I'm going to sing of my Redeemer, and a

Redeemer is someone who's paid a price for us, right? with his blood he purchased us and he purchased us on the cross with his shed blood am

I right he paid the debt and set us free right the gospel rolled up in that whole chorus it's an older song but love the words there okay sorry to interrupt her okay verse two

Oh Judy for this morning is found in first Samuel chapter 1 verses 1 through 18 first Samuel chapter 1 this versus 1 through 18 now there was a certain man of Rama on so fine dream about Ephraim as name it was a

Kana the son of draw him the son of Eli who the son of told you the son of stuff and if if I type and he had two wives the name of that one was

Hannah and he had named the other pin Nina and pin Nina had children but but Hannah had no children and this man went up out of the city nearly to worship and to sacrifice unto the

Lord of hosts and shallow and the two sons of Eli hop off in the end

Phineas the priest of the Lord were there when the time was that Kena offered he gave to pin

Nina his his wife and to all of his sons on her daughter's portions unto

Hannah he gave a worthy portion for he loved Hannah but the Lord has shut up her womb and her adversary was also provoked to a store for to make her fret because the

Lord has shut up a room and as she did so year by year when she went up to the house of the

Lord so he provoked her therefore she wept and did not eat then said

Kena her husband to her Hannah why give us thou and why eatest thou not why is thy heart grieved am

I am not I better to thee than ten sons so Hannah rose up after they had eaten shallow and after they had drunk now

Eli priest sat upon a seat by post of the tip of the

Lord and she was the bitterest of soul and prayed to unto the Lord a wept sore and she vowed her vows and said

O Lord of hosts if thou wilt indeed look upon look on a picture of thine handmaid remember me and not forget thine handmaid but with given to thine handmaid and man child never give him unto the

Lord all all the days of his life and there shall no razor come upon his head and it came to pass as she continued praying before the

Lord that Eli marked her mouth now Hannah and she she spake unto in her heart only her lips moved but her voice was not heard therefore

Eli thought she had been drunken and Eli said unto her how long wilt thou wilt thou be drunken pray thy wine for me and Hannah answered said no my lord

I'm a woman of a soulful spirit have drunk either wine or strong drink

I have put out my son before the Lord cannot thine handmaid for daughter be vile for the burdens of my complaint and grief have

I spoken hitherto then Eli answered and said go in peace and the

God of Israel grant thee the petition that thou hast asked of thee of him and he said as she said that thine handmaid find grace in thine sight so the woman went her way and did he and her countenance was no more sad.

May the Lord have the blessing to believe his word. I'm gonna tell you if you know anything about public speaking what

Jim just did takes a lot of courage amen I mean I prayed when

I sent that scripture reading out that those are some hard names to pronounce and I prayed for whoever

Jack had scheduled to read today because man there are some names in the

Old Testament and I'll tell you who nailed every single one was Pastor Stan. I'm telling you

I have never heard a guy that could just pronounce every one of those

Old Testament because you know he was Jewish right so he knew the language and that was a real blessing hearing him so thank you so much

Jim we want to go to the Lord now and pray for our country every Sunday we're doing that if you know anything about what's going on in the

United States in the world not just with COVID but with the election we were coming down here on the way from our church on Sunrise Boulevard and there were political rallies in the parking lots of stores huge groups of people waving flags and blowing horns and everything else we need to be praying for our country and also for Richards losing his brother like that yeah let's go to the

Lord in prayer. Father we're so thankful for this day that we can come together as a church family and God we're thankful for your will that you cause all things to work together for our good we do understand

God that we rejoice in the Lord that you make no mistakes you knoweth each path every step that we take you know what's going on in this country father we pray father for your grace in the

United States of America father we follow Daniel's example and we confess the sins of this nation we confess the sins of the church

God you know the compromises that are going on in the church you know father how the gospel has been watered down to the point that all somebody has to do to be saved is to pray a prayer over the television and they think that they become a

Christian simply because they prayed a prayer God not knowing anything about your holiness not knowing anything about how our sin separates us from a holy

God not knowing anything about the fact that Christ does and did it all that his death was a final payment for all sin his resurrection father

God demonstrates the power that you have father God over sin and death so Lord we thank you that the gospel and your word is still with us in this country we pray father

God that is we get closer and closer to this election as governors exercise powers that the state constitutions have not given them as we've seen already in court cases going on around this country

God that you would pour your mercy and your grace out on this land we pray especially

God that you might give Christians a burden to share the gospel that as people are concerned about the future father that we would be able to point them to Christ and point them to the hope of the gospel you give us the peace that passes all understanding you tell us to be anxious for nothing but in everything with prayer and supplication and thanksgiving to let our requests be made known to you and the peace of God that passes all understanding will got our hearts and our minds in Christ Jesus what a promise to stand on God we're standing on the promises of God Lord we pray for Richard we know father

God with his various situations going on in his life how upset he is pray for his your peace

God that only you can give Lord for our church family for those that cannot be here we pray for them

God for Wayne God all the things that he is going through health wise and for Emma father

God is she really has a labor of love for her mother and for her father the way she takes care of them

God I just strengthen her and just others in our church father that I I don't see very often and and I and I think of Vierna father and just her transportation issues

God so good to see mrs. Hunt and her daughter from Petaluma God meeting her today and thank you for this time of worship

God for your wonderful blessings may it be a time that we exalt Christ and that God is glorified we ask in Jesus name amen stand again with us as we continue to sing and then our next song that we're going to sing is he will hold me fast aren't you glad that the

Lord keeps his promises amen he will hold me fast he loves me so he will those he says are his lie

Christ will hold me fast gracious in his home side he will hold me fast he'll not let my soul be lost his promises shall last bought by him at such a cost he will hold me fast he will hold me fast he will hold me fast for my

Savior loves me so he will hold me fast for my life he bled

Christ will hold me fast justice has been satisfied he will be fast raised with him in endless life he will hold me his turn to side when he comes at last he will hold me fast he will hold me found my

Savior loves me so he will hold me fast he will hold me fast he will hold me fast for my

Savior loves me so he will hold me fast wouldn't you'd rather have

Jesus even we think of all the things going on in the world today I said rather have him than silver or gold someone say well no we need to realize that if we have any silver and gold it came from somebody besides me and I thank the

Lord every day for life and for health he's the life giver number one but he also anything that we have the comforts of this life he allows and I thank him for it

I'd rather have Jesus last home him was written by George Beverly Shea this he's the songster for Billy Graham for many years actually

I'm gonna change I'm gonna really throw you off you ready go to the table of contents the very front of the

Bible to the table of contents and I encourage you also at this time to have your notes we have some sermon notes so it was really neat to hear at least one of you took my challenge from last

Sunday and read the book of Ruth this week two of you actually early three four five six seven amen

I see those hands that's wonderful and I hope and pray and Tim read it too yeah so I hope it made a lot more sense after hearing the message and I don't know that I'm gonna challenge you to read the 31 chapters of 1st

Samuel but guess what I'm gonna take two weeks to do 1st Samuel so you only have to read 16 chapters this week or 15 and then 15 or 16 next week and you know what what a what a way to give yourself a goal to be in the

Word of God than this sermon series okay so I encourage you two weeks in 1st Samuel you have two weeks to read 31 chapters and the the book will open up so much more richer to you if you do that so anyway

I want to encourage you I'm not gonna like check on you who's there there's

Pastor John what do you want did you do your reading that's not gonna happen well let's pray father thank you so much for your word and just the joy and the comfort that comes from being together like we are we pray for those that cannot be here that are perhaps watching the video last week 63 views

I don't know who's looking at them I didn't realize there was that many people in the church so Lord thank you for that and pray that the

Holy Spirit would be our teacher that Christ would be exalted and so thankful God for the richness of your word and the and our ability to be here together thank you for that in Jesus name amen well let me just encourage you churches all over the country are meeting again and nobody's getting kovat from those services they're singing they're together they're hugging and I've got

I mean I'm on email lists all over the place and many many many of those churches no kovats nothing we're talking months and months and months of this so continue to pray for our country and what the impact that this virus is having on people's lives it's it's it's there are definitely risk groups older overweight you know diabetes yes we understand that asthma big big issue with people with asthma other than that God is good amen now

I want to get us oriented to where we are in the history of Israel okay you remember

I taught you this little thing to the outline of the Old Testament remember that five books of the law right five books of the law twelve books of history five books of what

I like wisdom but you might your study Bible might say five poetic books five major prophets

Isaiah Jeremiah Daniel Ezekiel they're the major prophets then you have your pinky the twelve minor prophets and that's always a misnomer so if you think of the twelve minor prophets understand that they're not minor they're just as important Obadiah short little book just as important as Isaiah as big as Isaiah is 66 chapters in the book of Isaiah just as important first John third second

John third John just a wee little epistle in the New Testament is just as important as a gospel because it's

God's Word you understand that it's included in God's Word so it's important it's authoritative so five books of the law you can always remember the outline of the

Old Testament if you can do this if you can do this with your fingers you're good five books of the law twelve books of history five wisdom books or poetic books

Job Proverbs Psalms Song of Solomon five major prophets twelve minor prophets okay and remember they're not minor right they're just shorter most of them okay so we left off we left off with Ruth last week and this week we're doing first Samuel so look at your table of contents and get a sense of where we are you have the five books of the law and at Deuteronomy then we start the twelve books of history we've done

Joshua we've done judges and we've done Ruth okay now we're dealing with these twelve historical books that deal with the history of God's chosen people in the

Old Testament people just like us in the New Testament Old Testament Old Covenant people

Old Covenant was essentially the same as the New Covenant because Abraham was saved by faith just like we are right

Abraham was saved by faith just like we are and Abraham proved

Abraham proved the genuineness of his faith by his obedience even to the point of taking his son

Isaac up to that mountain and preparing to sacrifice him how about that that is one of the most powerful stories for me in the

Old Testament is the story of Abraham taking his son Isaac up to that mountain literally tying him down onto a pile of rocks lifting the knife over him and then

God providing the sacrifice just as he promised an amazing thing right so God's chosen people now if you look in your notes

I gave you a quick overview of the history of Israel okay when you think of the

Old Testament there's three main time periods first there is the period of theocracy this is where God ruled over Israel through men like Moses and Joshua who followed him right so theocracy with God ruling then we have a period of monarchy okay monarchy and this is when

Israel is ruled by kings and there's some overlap there from the book of Judges and you'll see that we're still in the time period of the book of Judges at the beginning of 1st

Samuel so we have theocracy God's rule monarchy kings and then a period of dependency where Israel was in captivity and they were ruled by foreigners by the

Assyrians by the Babylonians okay now in the books of history we've covered

Joshua Judges and Ruth and now we come to this section of six books that very often listen for those of you that are not familiar with the

Old Testament you haven't read through the Old Testament you're you struggle I've tried to read the

Old Testament John but man I get so discouraged when I get to some of these books

I just don't understand what's going on look at them in the table of contents 1st

Samuel 2nd Samuel 1st Kings 2nd Kings 1st Chronicles 2nd

Chronicles there's a lot of overlap between these six books and it can sometimes seem when you read these books as rich as they are that that there is a bit of a maze for example when you get to these six books you run into some more judges and you say to yourself wait a minute

I thought we were done with judges Samuel was a judge he was also a prophet he was also served as a priest and when you're a new

Christian or you haven't really read through your Bible enough it can get a little confusing in these books believe it or not you meet 40 different kings 40 yeah 40 different kings in these books in these six books the kingdom of Israel splits into ten tribes to the north two tribes to the south and the northern tribes are called

Israel and the southern tribes are called Judah so you see this flipping around where God sometimes is referring to his chosen people as Israel sometimes he's referring to them as Judah and sometimes he's referring to them as Jacob and you go oh man this is so much to follow

I'm not sure I can do this in these books the temple is built and when the tabernacle was built the average

Christian including this one gets confused because the tabernacle you got all these measurements all these cubits of this and cubits of that and pomegranates of this and gold lace and this and that and you start getting confused come on admit it and you're just like okay

I want to get to the New Testament you know Jesus loves me this I know for the Bible can I just grow as a

Christian with that yeah you can and then so we get to the temple and we got all these different kinds of stones and we got gold here gold there lavers things we've never even heard of and the average

Christian including me you sit there and you scratch your head so I'm just preparing you

I'm gonna do two weeks on 1st Samuel just to give us time to digest it okay and then we'll pick up speed as we get to 1st and 2nd

Kings what do you think Kings is about by the way Kings right good and then 1st and 2nd

Chronicles what's a chronicle a record right so Samuel who do you think

Samuel is mostly about both books Samuel right

God very good answer by the way the whole Bible is about God 1st and 2nd Kings you get into 40 different Kings 1st and 2nd

Chronicles same 40 Kings just did different record of those Kings okay so breathe in let's go to 1st

Samuel so two weeks two weeks one of the reasons is is just the historical significance of this book okay it is a transitional book that records this transition from the judges the period of judges to the monarchy so you have the theocracy moving into the monarchy in 1st

Samuel okay this transition from judges and and and the theocracy with Moses and Joshua remember

God spoke directly to Moses he spoke directly to Joshua told him what to do theocracy right now we go to Kings right and judges you had the same thing you had

God speaking to Gideon right you had God speaking to Samson now in 1st

Samuel you have three offices this is big so please pay attention or write it down in 1st

Samuel you have three offices and I think I put them in your notes

I don't remember all three of these offices listen point to Jesus Christ and are fulfilled in Jesus Christ you have three offices through which

God works in the life of Israel all three are pointing to the ministry of Jesus Christ all three point to and then are fulfilled in Jesus Christ one of them is the priestly office one of them is the prophetic office in 1st

Samuel were introduced more fully to the office of the Prophet through the man

Samuel and then we come into some documents recording the establishment of the first king of Israel all three of those offices point to and are fulfilled in the person of Jesus Christ God is constantly sending this message that what we have isn't enough the greater the fulfillment is coming okay the offer is really unknown most likely

Samuel wrote most of it but when you get to the last chapters he's passed away and we're still in 1st

Samuel and then we get to 2nd Samuel right the time period in the history that it covers is roughly 200 years from 1100 to 970

BC the theme of the book if you want an overarching theme is transition transition from the theocracy more fully into the monarchy the book traces the transition of the leadership of Israel from the judges to leadership of Israel by Kings now what about the message if you were going to tell somebody after church what's the message of 1st

Samuel it's right underneath the title in your notes God should be king and men should lead

God should be king and men should lead and I want to give you a moment to think about that statement let it run over your mind

God should be king see we need to understand as we move forward through this message today that the one true all -powerful loving

God that's all knowing and omniscient his will and plan for mankind and for his creation is for him to be king that's why

Jesus said I'm king of kings and what Lord of lords now we have to have that truth fixed in our minds and I'm going to tell you something if you've been a

Christian any length of time you know that God's Word can sting a little sometimes and even hurt and I want to say something to all the men here and remember as I say this it's not me saying it it's

God okay we got that one of the biblical truths that the office of King in the

Old Testament points to and teaches is that all men in the body of Christ are called to be leaders men have been designated by God to be leaders in their homes and in their churches can ladies lead yes in their role but men are the head of the home and men are to be the head of the church first Samuel communicates the message that the one true loving all -powerful and all -knowing

God his desire and his plan and his will is to rule and reign over our lives and men should lead that's the book now in this book there's four men that are key players ah

I wonder why I brought up this man thing because there's four men that are the main you may think

Hannah's big no no there's four men they are the main players God is always the player right he's the main he's the protagonist right sometimes you see him sometimes you don't you've got

Eli the priest you have Samuel the judge who was priest and also prophet you have

Saul the first king of Israel and then you have David the second king and in first Samuel you find the record of Israel crying out listen you have

Israel crying out for a king as God is telling them

I want to be your king I am to be king over my chosen people and yet they're sitting there calling out for a king that is the background it's running all the way through that that men were to be the leaders and they failed and God kept trying to say don't you understand men are always gonna fail you look to me right

Wow I'm gonna run out of time today so the lives of Eli Samuel Saul and David demonstrate the critical importance of men leading

God has called men to be leaders okay so that is the message God should be king and men should lead but sadly as the

Bible is so brutally honest there's no other book holy book of any religion in the history of the human race that is as honest as the

Bible is about our failures David a man after God's own heart has an adulterous relationship what kind of God is that a

God that is transparent amen I'm glad that that I follow this God because he's honest about my failures and his love and everything else

I could just go on and on but for because of the fall of man because of disobedience and for other reasons the human race does not follow

God's plan so the outline of the book that we're gonna follow is these three key leaders right number one if you want to follow along in your notes and there's two sides to it there should be anyway

I checked most of them the first leader is Samuel who was a judge a priest and a prophet so the three sections of first Samuel as you say

God help me to read 16 chapters this week or 15 and then I'll do 16 next week and some of them are short by the way you can get through them quick three sections divided up by these men who are leaders and the first section chapters 1 through 7 carry on the history of Israel recorded in the book of Judges so Ruth and the book of Judges kind of overlap with first Samuel in terms of the timeline of Israel's history and the stage is set in the opening verses of the book and Jim did a fantastic job thank you

Jim for reading through all those difficult names if you look at verse 1 you have

Alcana Alcana we're told in verse 1 has two wives once Hannah and one is

Penaena I call her Penaena because she's a pain that's not the correct pronunciation she was constantly picking on Hannah okay and that had to do with the stigma the stigma of Hannah not having children in those days you don't have a kid it's like being a single woman today right come on ladies you know a little bit about that I mean

I remember as a single man everybody everybody was I've got

I have the sweetest cousin I have this granddaughter but that's nothing compared to not having children in this day okay it's no big deal

I didn't get married till I was what honey old yeah thank you well what was

I 40 do you remember yeah she knows all these dates you know doesn't it shock you ladies

I have to tell you you're amazing I'll have my daughter say it's so -and -so's birthday we haven't talked about the person in 11 months and Johanna or Jackie say it's so -and -so's birthday or Janet it's so -and -so's anniversary we have to remember you're amazing ladies amazing with your how you remember those dates

I have to put my I have to send myself three emails every year to remember our anniversary you can do that with Google you schedule them and then you get these emails and then what do you do you delete them and forget to read them so Alcana has two wives no it's not an argument for polygamy one is banana one is

Hannah banana has children what a pain Hannah didn't now understand

Alcana was a devout man he went up yearly to offer sacrifices at the tabernacle in Shiloh look at verse 4 whenever the time came for Alcana to make an offering he would give portions to banana his wife and all her sons and daughters but to Hannah he would give a double portion he loved

Hannah although the Lord had closed her room and her rival also provoked her severely by the way you know what that is in the original

Hebrew she was a big pain that's what that means provoked her severely making her miserable

I could add to you mocking her putting her down because the Lord had closed her womb so it was year by year when she went up to the house of the

Lord that she banana provoked her therefore Hannah wept and did not eat now

I'm going to tell you something if that does not grip your heart at the cruelty of human beings would you do me a favor would you go see a mechanic and get your heart gripper checked out can you imagine worshipping the

Lord and having this woman mocking you ridiculing you putting you down simply because the

Lord had not given you children so we're introduced to Samuel's mother

Hannah his father Alcana and the basically the whole of the book pivots around this man

Samuel who served the Lord as a judge a priest and as a prophet and the first aspect of Samuel's life that we want to look like look at is his birth and that goes from 1 1 through 2 11

Hannah is longing for a son her sorrow at being childless and pain a mocking has brought her low she enters the tabernacle with a heavy burden she pours out her heart to God and God honors her prayer and gives her a child and in her prayer she makes a promise look at verse 11 then she made a vow and said

Oh Lord of hosts if you will indeed look on the affliction of your maidservant and remember me and not forget your maidservant but will give your maidservant a male child then

I will do this I will give him to the Lord all the days of his life and no razor shall come upon his head and that has to do with the

Nazarite vow which I don't have to dump time to cover so Hannah is faithful to that promise presents this son to Eli the priest for service at the tabernacle now you have this big event of Samuel being born right and now parallel to that going alongside this is this picture of Israel's spiritual temperature showing how lukewarm and even cold

Israel's relationship and obedience to God had become by this point in their history for example

Eli the priest mistakes Hannah's devotion for drunkenness and rebukes her verse 13

Hannah spoke in her heart only her lips moved but her voice was not heard look at this guy this is the priest therefore

Eli thought she was drunk can you imagine me showing up at your door for a pastoral visit which you know is kind of hard to do with COVID right and I knock on the door and I wake you up and I think

I'm so unspiritual and so lowlife that when you open the door and kind of go yeah so what are you doing drinking

I mean think about that what does love say think the best of people not the worst and here's the priest the guy that should love her the most that has seen her year after year after year praying out and he thinks oh you're drunk one of the possible reasons is is

Israel was in so much decline and if you remember they had not wiped out the

Canaanites so the Canaanites were still influencing them just like God warned him right and you know what was part of the

Canaanite worship the pagan worship of that day getting drunk and going to church how about that tie one on and go to church that's how the

Canaanites worship they had all kinds of horrible things that they did in their worship of the pagan gods and God said if you didn't clear the pagan practices it's gonna work its way into your religion a little leaven leavens the whole loaf you want a lesson for today look at the churches around us some of you don't experience this because I'm gonna tell you you're in a solid church

I'm here because of the testimony the Christlike testimony of Victor and Barbara Annette and Harold and Debbie Huffman and Stan Bernstein and Laura Bernstein that's why we're here you have no idea what's going on in churches today how they brought

God down to the street level where it's all about me and not about God I mean

I could go on and on and this is exactly what has happened to Israel we see more and more

Eli as lacking as a spiritual leader as you read through the book he suffers the consequences for that lack of leadership his sons die early deaths under the judgment of God then

Eli dies his descendants his offspring or are set aside by the Lord to be priests but because of of their his sin

God finds another leader and this leader is Samuel so we have the birth of Samuel next we have his boyhood or upbringing and that begins in verse 12 of chapter 2 runs all the way through chapter 3 now what's interesting is the way that the record goes the account of Samuel's upbringing is presented in such a way that there is this contrast between Hannah Samuel and the sons of Eli and when you read those chapters chapter 2 from the middle all the way through chapter 3 it flips back and forth between these two families comparing them basically you see

Eli's ungodly family and you see the godliness of Samuel and his mother and Samuel had a high regard for spiritual things see

Eli's sons had a callous disregard for spiritual things and this contrasted with Samuel who had a high regard for spiritual things chapter 2 verse 12 now the sons of Eli the pastor's kids were corrupt they did not know the

Lord now they weren't just corrupt and did not know the Lord they went a step further verse 17 therefore the sin of the young men was very great before the

Lord for the men abhorred despised the offering of the

Lord and tragically their sons

Eli's sons were immoral right at the door of the tabernacle where the most holy place was now

Eli verse 22 was very old and he heard everything his sons did to all

Israel and how they even went so far to lay with the women who assembled at the door of the tabernacle of meeting how low can you get so in addition to drunkenness this was a characteristic of Canaanite worship and it indicates how far

Israel's worship had deteriorated Eli's sons were sinful they did not fear the

Lord which stood in stark contrast with Hannah's son Samuel listen to this

Eli even went so far as to relegate his sons to a position above God verse 29 why do you kick at my sacrifice and my offering this is

God which I have commanded in my dwelling place and honor your sons more than me to make yourselves fat with the best of all offerings of Israel my people this same thing happens today all across the

United States you have pastors that are at one point godly men and the church grows and you know who takes over and who comes along and follows the father the son and right now there's a big case right now in right here in Sacramento big church where the son or the dad one of them is being accused by a stepdaughter or somebody else of sexual abuse big lawsuit the only thing we learn from history church is what we don't learn from history here

God lays it out for us what's one of the lessons church let me ask you a direct question how holy is

God to you I go to churches sometimes and I see people texting and watching videos on their phone during the worship service my kids are much more observant than I but we've been in churches and they said dad didn't you see that I said no see what all them kids were on their phones it's no different do you understand this is what we're talking about how holy is

God how do we look on him what a hard lesson for parents failure to observe biblical priorities inevitably leads to problems in the home and there's a third problem over in chapter 3 verse 13 for I have told him that I will judge his house forever for the iniquity which he knows because his sons made themselves vile and he did not restrain them any person who has a parent knows how hard it can be to restrain a child when they're rebellious so Eli just dropped the ball gave it up and it's manifested in his son's lives and remember how

I said it goes back and forth between Samuel and Eli right and Hannah and Eli look at verse 1 now the boy

Samuel minister the Lord before Eli what's worth

Samuel doing while Eli's sons are getting drunk and doing stuff at the door of the tabernacle he's ministering to the

Lord and look at the condition the Word of the Lord was rare in those days there was no widespread revelation the

Word of the Lord was rare in those days got himself God seldom communicated with Eli we see this tragic story of this man involved in spiritual things this man supposed to be a spiritual leader and yet he had lost contact with God God speaks to Samuel God calls him into ministry and then a message of judgment on Eli's home is delivered by Samuel we have

Samuel's birth we have his upbringing and then chapters 4 through 7 and and you can if you take the challenge to read through it you'll see this outline flow out if you read it especially because we're not going to get much further than this so we're going to see how

God's hand is on Samuel and how it isn't on Eli because of his disobedient right the

Philistines were still there they did not wipe out the Philistines they're still a threat right and the defeat at the hand of the

Philistines in chapter 4 causes Israel to seize I'm sorry yeah to seize the ark verse 3 and when the people had come into the camp the elders of Israel said why has the

Lord defeated us today against the Philistines let us bring the ark of the covenant of the

Lord from Shiloh to us that when it comes among us it may save us from the hand of our enemies so the people sent to Shiloh that they might bring from there the ark of the covenant the

Lord of hosts who dwells between the cherubim and the two sons of Eli Hophni and Phinehas were there with the ark of the covenant of God now remember how important the ark was to Israel it signified his presence with him his holiness his mercy right with the mercy seat now remember

God made very strict rules on how the ark was to be handled it had to be carried using certain kinds of wood poles the poles had to be put through the rings certain men had to carry those poles in a certain way right it signified his presence with them it signified his holiness his mercy and because Israel was so far out of the will of God the return of the ark caused even more problems the battle against the

Philistines is lost the ark is seized Eli's sons are slain and here's the lesson for us please listen if you look carefully at those verses and you don't see it just look at those verses why has the

Lord defeated us today before the Philistines what's their solution go get the ark why has the

United States had so many problems let's elect a new president you see the parallel what's the solution not the ark

God did you hear me it's turning to God not to the ark it's turning to God not to a man it's getting on our knees and humbling ourselves and praying for our country yes do we need to vote absolutely what do we need to do first and foremost we need to pray for this country not run to an ark and move the ark over to here man oh man am

I out of time out of respect for the Russian brethren let me think how to wrap this up it will be two weeks amen no

I have something else I just have to say oh boy hold on oh

I can't even develop it there's a whole we'll get to it next week

God is good just to understand here that it's so easy to do the same thing today that they did it's so easy to depend on ourself and our resources our strengths our talents rather than on God it's so easy to think the solution is the election when the solution is only the gospel of Jesus Christ it's so easy to think that and just to go there what are we going to do by the way when the news of Eli's sons come to him and he finds out that they have died you know what

Eli does he drops dead so we have the birth of Samuel his growing up the death of Eli and his sons

Samuel's ministry we get to see the fruit of Samuel's ministry as a leader over Israel and we'll end on this up note chapter 7 verse 3 basically there's an entire reversal of the spiritual direction of Israel under Samuel's leadership verse 3

Samuel spoke to all the house of Israel here's the message if you return to the

Lord with all your hearts and then put away the foreign gods and the asterisk from among you and prepare your hearts for the

Lord and serve him only he will deliver you from the hand of the

Philistines you know

I don't have time to develop this there's like two more rabbit trails I can go down but I would just say this that if you have any sense at all of what's going on in the

United States of America and the church in America and you have churches with 25 ,000 people in them and the gospel is not even being preached in that church what is it it's not a church and you have 25 ,000 people go into that building and saying

I'm a Christian I'm going to heaven and they don't even know the gospel the solution for what's going on in this country is for Christians remember we're dealing with Israel remember

I've said this many times in the Old Testament we're dealing with God's chosen covenant people right what are we dealing with in the

New Testament God's chosen covenant people is there any difference no in the sense that these people say

I belong to God what do these people say I'm a Christian I belong to God right I go to church and what does

God say to those people what does God say to those people in the Old Testament if you return to the

Lord with all your hearts and then put away the foreign gods and the asterisks from among you and prepare your hearts for the

Lord and serve him only he will deliver you from the hand of the

Philistines what did Israel do they put away the bales they put away the asterisks and they served the

Lord only and the God of grace delivers

Israel from the Philistines and that ends

Samuel not first Samuel Samuel because next week we're gonna go on with the first king of Israel Saul okay now

I want to give you a moment to look at those two verses and I just seriously want to ask you a couple of questions

I put them in your notes how does God want my beliefs or actions to change do you have are you serving a foreign

God you don't have a little statue in your house but there is a statue do you serve the

Lord only how do you accomplish this change what is the first step towards bringing about this change and I'll give you a moment or two to think about that if you need help with those questions

I'm gonna be here after come up and see me and use this time to pray and then Victor will come and close this with our closing song please use this time to pray search your heart if you're a man here man up ask yourself the hard question am

I leading it's not me that's saying it is God please don't don't be mad at me please don't be offended please use this time to pray father

God we know what your word says that he who is without sin let him cast the first stone

I stand shoulder -to -shoulder with Paul I'm the chiefest of sinners I least of all deserve the incredible mercy that you've poured out upon me

God you know exactly what's going on in this country you know exactly what's going on in the heart of every person here there is nothing hidden from you you know

God if there's someone here this morning that is not truly born again they're not if they died today they do not know for sure where they will spend eternity you may be speaking to that person right now maybe they're watching on YouTube they do not know for sure where they will spend eternity and you know others including myself

God that have little gods in our lives that we worship but we don't even know it we don't even see it may this call to repentance of Samuel to the people of Israel be your call of repentance to us

God we ask in Jesus name Amen Victor stand together with me and we'll sing verses one and two we are

God's people we are

God's people the chosen of the Lord his spirit established by his word our cornerstone is

Christ alone and strong in him we stand let us live transparently and God's loved ones the bride of Christ our

Lord for we once again oh let us share each joy and care and live with a zeal that pleases thank you and you are dismissed may