The Importance Of Heeding God's Counsel - [1 Samuel]

The Faithfulness of God and the Call to Worship

Our Father, we do come before your throne this morning thanking you for the week that you have taken care of us in this past week. You have been faithful to us, you have been merciful to us, Lord, you provided all of our needs, maybe not all of our wants, but all of our needs were taken care of, and you were faithful to remain constant, to remain steadfast, and to be our present help in time of need.

Lord, we thank you for that week, and this is a new week, beginning this day and this morning, and we're thankful that we have the health and we have the desire that you've given to us to be in the house of the Lord, to be able to worship, and may our hearts be lifted up today.

Help us, Lord, to worship in spirit and in truth, help us as we fellowship one with another to encourage each other, and Lord, that we may learn from your word so that we would be more perfected, more matured, more equipped to do the work of the ministry, so that when we go out and leave this place we may be great and faithful ambassadors of Christ, and that we may be able to live in our homes, be able to live on our jobs or at school, wherever we find ourselves, be able to make right choices and to think properly when it comes to making decisions.

And Lord, help us even to learn of that this morning, and help us to be a people who are of the book, a people who love God, a people who desire to obey God, and we ask this in Jesus' name, amen. I'm a little bit delayed this morning because I got in my car.

I had allowed someone to borrow my car yesterday, last night, and I got in my car and got onto the highway, and that little light was on in the dashboard that is shaped like a gas tank. So I had to get off on the first exit and get some gas, and this isn't even Sunday school, but this is something that I've just kind of heard and I share with you, that if you borrow something, if it's someone's car or truck or tool or rake or spoon or whatever it is, just return it in better shape than when you got it.

I just think that's a really good principle to hold to. I've borrowed people's vehicles that have been, well, you know, I let my car go sometimes. I've gotten in them and they haven't been in the greatest shape, and I took the old armor all to it and put a few extra dollars' worth of gas in the tank and returned it to the person, not saying anything, and I just think that's a good thing to do.

If you do that as unto the Lord, it's so much easier. As unto the Lord, you do that, return something in better shape than when you got it. It's a good thing. Okay, we're going to glean, I trust this morning, from 1 Samuel chapter 8.

Israel’s Demand for a King and the Warning of Samuel

So if you have your Bibles, we could turn to 1 Samuel chapter 8. We are not going to be able to go into depth with this chapter, but I think it's, you know, it's always good for us to use all the Scripture as given by God.

It's all God-breathed. It's all God-inspired. And it is profitable, as Paul wrote Timothy, for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped so that we can be furnished.

We can have our spiritual house furnished properly so that we can serve the Master as we should and that we can be ready when we go out into the world, when we stay at home, when we go to school, when we're on our job, when we're in our neighborhood, when we're out in the world and we're living as those who name the name of Christ, we can be a people who are distinct.

And we have, we're unique, aren't we? I mean, God has called us to be His very own. He's put His name upon us. He saved us by His wonderful grace. We're Christians. Christian, if you're an American, that means you're of America or from America.

If you're a Christian, you're of Christ. You're of God. You're born of God. And we are to live differently. And we're going to see in this chapter in the Old Testament that we can glean from, that there was a decision that the nation Israel made, the stance that they took, an attitude that they had that was detrimental to them, to them and to their children and to their children's children.

As you know, in the Old Testament, we have the book of Genesis, which is the beginnings. Then we have Exodus, where God gets His people out of Egypt. Then we have Leviticus, where God gets Egypt out of His people.

Then we have Numbers, the wilderness wanderings and some of that history there. And then, this is Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, the second giving of the law to that generation who survived the wilderness wanderings and the first generation died off.

The law was given a second time to them before they entered into the promised land, Joshua. And then after Joshua, Joshua judges. We have the time of the judges. And that's where we're ending up with here this morning, with Samuel.

He is a man who is faithfully judged. God raised him up to use him to help the nation, Joshua judges Ruth and then Samuel. That's where we are in 1 Samuel. I want to read chapter 8. It's a fairly short chapter, so that you get the flow of what it is in the context of what we're going to be talking about this morning.

Joshua, I mean 1 Samuel, chapter 8, verse 1. When Samuel became old, he made his sons judges over Israel. The name of his firstborn son was Joel and the name of his second, Abijah. They were judges in Beersheba.

Yet his sons did not walk in his ways, but turned aside after gain. They took bribes and perverted justice. Then all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah and said to him, Behold, you are old and your sons do not walk in your ways.

Now appoint for us a king to judge us like all the nations. But this thing, but the thing displeased Samuel when they said, give us a king to judge us. Samuel prayed to the Lord and the Lord said to Samuel, obey the voice of the people and all that they say to you.

For they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me from being king over them. According to all the deeds that they have done from the day I brought them up out of Egypt, even to this day forsaking me and serving other gods.

So they are also doing to you now, then obey their voice. Only you shall solemnly warn them and show them the ways of the king who shall reign over them. And Samuel does just that he warns them. So Samuel told all the words of the Lord to the people who are asking for a king from him.

He said, these will be the ways of the king who will reign over you. He will take your sons and appoint them to his chariots and to be his horsemen and to run before his chariots. And he will appoint for himself commanders of thousands and commanders of 50 and some to plow his ground and to reap his harvest and to make implements of war and the equipment of his chariots.

He will take your daughters to be perfumers and cooks and bakers. He will take the best of your fields and vineyards and all of orchards and give them to his servants. He will take the 10th of your grain and of your vineyards and give it to his officers and to his servants.

He will take your male servants and your female servants and the best of your young men and your donkeys and put them to his work. He will take the 10th of your flocks and you shall be his slaves. And in this day, you will cry out because of your king whom you have chosen for yourselves, but the Lord will not answer you in that day.

And then to finish up the chapter, the request is granted by the Lord, but the people refused to obey the voice of Samuel and they said, no, that's pretty strong. They said, no, but there shall be a king over us that we may be like all the nations and that our king may judge us and go out before us and fight our battles.

And when Samuel had heard all the words of the people, he, he repeated them in the ears of the Lord and the Lord said to Samuel, obey the voice, make them a king. Samuel then said to the men of Israel, go every man to his city.

So it, and it came to pass, Saul became their king. And I don't know if you think about it. When you think of Saul, do you go like this? No, we don't, don't we? It's a, it's disheartening and it's sad when we look, we'll look at that occasion.

This is not, this is not part of this message, but if the people only had waited just a little bit longer in God's timing, God would have put his king in place, but the people wanted it. So they refused and they rejected Saul, I mean, Samuel and Saul became king and it was, it was a very dark time in the nation and a, and a blemish.

Do Not Be Conformed to This World

But let's look, let's look at some principles here. First on your sheets, if did everybody get one, if you don't, there's one on the chair over to the right on our sheets. I just wanted to glean from this chapter, some practical insights because bottom line, it comes down, it comes down to authority over you.

It comes down to, it comes down to having counsel. And if God puts counsel in your life, if God gives and grants wisdom, if God, if God puts a roadblock up in front of you and me, should we heed it? Is it, is it important for us to, to, to be stopped and just to think for a moment and to ponder what God is saying to us, of course, through his word.

We don't have, we don't have a Samuel here speaking, uh, for God and talking to God and bring it, but we do have the word of God that comes to us and God over and over again grants us wisdom. He gives us principles, he gives us instruction and not only from his word, but people who preach or teach the word of God.

It could be a godly brother and sister who come up beside you and something is going on in your life and they're wanting to give you some counsel. They're wanting to help you. They wanting to give you some advice and let me give you some advice about taking advice.

Even if you don't agree with what the person is saying, even if you know that they're totally off base and that's not Samuel, if they're, if they're out in left field, when they're talking to you, they have noticed at least something about your life and you can glean a little bit of some type of truth or some type of insight about, about what they're trying to say to, to you.

Take it graciously unless they're totally, I mean, you know that they're not walking with the Lord, but if they're genuinely coming to you and trying to help you take what they have to say and say, what, what is it that the Lord would have me get out of this?

Because I know I'm not perfect, right? Anybody want to raise your hand if you're perfect here this morning? We're not, right? We need, we need to grow. We need to learn. We need to, we need to heed good counsel and one of the things that came against the people here, if you notice in this account, you know, they're, they're frustrated, the Israel is frustrated that they're looking at Samuel and saying he's old and he's going to die.

His sons aren't walking like, like he is. And they say in verse five, make us a king to judge like all the nations. And the first point that I have there, when I think of that, it said, who, whoever said that God's Israel, God's people, and we can equate that today to God's church or the Christian community, whoever said that we were to be like the world, that's not the way to go.

And that's why point one is do not be conformed to this world. I mean, what are the dangers in being conformed to the world? Somebody, anybody got any input here? What are the dangers of being conformed to the world?

When it comes to, let's say just the church, a godly, pure church, that's desiring to preach the gospel, to live the gospel, to make disciples, to mature believers and to, to, to multiply our ministries.

What is it, what's wrong with being conformed to the world or being like the world? Well they hate God. It takes your eyes off of Jesus. Yes, because, because we're kind of getting wrapped up in what the, I mean, if we're like them, are they following Jesus?

Are they following the Lord? No, they're not. Bruce? Yeah, put your focus on feelings diminishes the word. And I was kind of thinking along there, it really tarnishes the testimony of the church. I mean, I said earlier, we're supposed to be distinct, right?

Unique. We're the holy priesthood, 1 Peter chapter 2, a royal generation. We have the name of God upon us. We're the people of God. And as the people of God, we ought not to, to desire to be like the world, because if we're like the world or conforming to the world, then what is it when they look at us, are they going to see any difference?

No. And they're going to say, well, if you live that way, I live that way. What, why do I need this Jesus? Why do I need your gospel? Why do I need your church at all? I mean, if it's not going to be life changing, that was one of the, that was one of the things when I was a young boy and I was sinful.

I admit that I, I was not, I was rebellious. I had all my whole, my whole list of the handwriting of ordinances that was against me. Colossians 2 has been nailed to the cross. It was long, it was long enough.

But one of the things that bugged me about when I went to the Roman Catholic church was, is that it wasn't life changing. There wasn't anything different about it. I didn't see, I didn't see anything really remarkable going on in the life, in the lives of people around me.

And it was in my family. I mean, people, people still said when they got together on the weekends, they still did all their drinking. They still, they still did all the things as far as the jokes that they told.

There was divorce that was rampant in my family. And I was a young person thinking, big question mark, what is all this about? It's, it's, I mean, and if we're like that, if we as the people of God, and we name Christ and we, and we want, we desire to have an impact upon the, the world in which we live, we're going to have to come out from among them and be separate.

We're going to have to be different. We're going to have to, when they look at us and when they come into our church service, I think Paul wrote to the Corinthians, I think it's in 1 Corinthians 14. And he says, when a lost person comes in and sits down during your worship service, when they see all that's going on, they should say, God is with you of a truth.

There's something different, there's something, but if they come in and we're playing the same music and, you know, I'm just talking about a worship service and we're acting the same way that they would at some, at some entertainment place outside of the church, what's the difference?

We don't make an impact. We don't have a testimony. We don't have an effect upon them. And we are not ever so, I mean, just think about the position that we're supposed to take against the world. I've already kind of given it to you in this number one.

But Romans 12, two says, do not be what? Conformed, right? Don't be conformed. Don't be pressed into the mold of this world, but be transformed instead. Not conformed, but transformed by the renewing of your mind.

And that comes, of course, by the work of the Holy Spirit as we imbibe the word of God and God's word just totally changes us. And we see sins being dealt with and we see our attitude changing and we see that we are new creatures in Christ and we want to speak differently and act differently.

Not to be conformed to this world. In Ephesians 5, 11, if you're taking notes, it says there, don't have fellowship with the world or don't have fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness. Don't be conformed to the world.

Don't have fellowship with the world. And what does it tell us in 1 John chapter two? Do not what the world? Love the world. Don't love the world. If you love the world, what is your relationship to God?

A what? An enemy. I think James puts it that way. He says, if you're a lover of the world, you're an enemy of God. So we need to take the position that we are not going to be conformed to this world. Now, I kind of cut it short, but are there any other dangers that you can think of?

Any other, any other things that we ought to be considerate of when we think of not being conformed to the world? Yes, ma 'am. Well, you're kind of getting ahead of my notes here, but I'm just kidding you.

Yeah, that's that's going to come later. But what Pamela was saying is we're going to want to use the techniques of the world. I mean, how many Christian books are in the Christian bookstores that are basically saying run the church like a business?

But the church is not a business. The church is not secular. It's holy. The church is as unto the Lord. This is this is the these are the things of God. This is the word of God and the people of God. And it's and it's not to be according to the latest marketing techniques or or the different studies or polls or surveys.

But it's it's by the book, right? It's the Bible. That's how we ought to conduct church. That's how we ought to do the Christian life. That's how we ought to do marriage and do the church, according to what's written here in the word.

You'll notice in verse six, when the people said, we want a king like all the other nations, this thing displeased or upset Samuel when they said, give us a king. And I believe that it upset him because he knew that Israel was owned by God.

They were the people of God. God was their king. He was the one they were they were in a theocracy. It was God over them. It was that's that was their government. God God was first. Who fought their battles for them?

God did. Who went out before them? God did. Who provided for them? God did. And he knew that and he heard from God and God spoke to him and then he would say those things to the people and God led, protected, took care of the people of God and the people were rejecting that.

And when I believe that it's always sinful and dangerous when we move when it's a simple and dangerous move, when God's people desire to imitate the world, to run the church like a business, like I said, to bring worldly entertainment into into the church, also to use the marketing techniques, you know, that there are there are some church leaders that do surveys in their community and and and they'll ask the community that they live in.

What do you want? What do you want? And what don't you want in the church? Well, we want we don't want anybody saying anything to put people on making people uncomfortable in the message. We don't want the mention the mention of repentance and sin and judgment.

We want messages that are 20 minutes long. We want to really, really psych, really just gung ho band, you know, up up front and sing for an hour. And you know what they do? They turn around and they do just that.

And I believe that that is that is what the world does with finds out what you what what people want, finds out through surveys and things like that and and provides those things for people to to meet their felt needs.

But not their real need of Christ and of the gospel. And isn't it wonderful if we think of who who we are? We're nothing, of course, without the Lord. God made us who we are. We've been saved by his grace.

We're the we're the people of God. And as the Apostle Paul said in First Corinthians 15, he said he was what he was by the grace of God. And you are, too. And I am, too. And BBC is what what this church is by by the grace of God.

And we need to do what we do in our lives here, in our personal lives, in our home lives and in the church life. We need to make sure that we're people of the book and we want to do it like God says in the book, but not like the world.

Take Care When Making Life Choices

That's the first point. The second one is a point I have here is take care when making life choices. Take care when making life's choices. And I and I referenced verse 19. Some of this I threw this together on Friday afternoon.

So I apologize if it gets a little choppy. But when they said in verse 19, the people refused to obey in some versions, but it says the people said, no, I mean, who is it? Who is it that they're saying no to?

I mean, really, I mean, they're saying they're saying no to Samuel. But you'll notice when God comes and I'm just going to I think I'm going to deal with this second point. And I've already cut so much into the time I can go a little bit quicker here through some of the other points.

And we'll go back if I if I've forgotten anything. But you'll see that after the people ask for a king and Samuel is displeased, he prays to the Lord and God says to Samuel in verse seven, hearken unto the voice of the people and all that they say to you, listen to the people, for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me that I should not reign over them.

So that kind of leads to the third point. Listen to and trust those whom God gives to lead you. Samuel's talking to the people and he's instructing them and he has all along. He's been a faithful judge.

I mean, do you remember in just the previous chapter that that great account of the Philistines coming after Israel and they go to Samuel and Samuel prays and God gives them victory over the Philistines?

And you remember, we sing a song here, I raise mine Ebenezer. That's in chapter seven, just the previous previous chapter. And God gives them great victory through the leadership of Samuel, just the chapter before.

And they raise and Samuel says in the victory that God gives and God worked a wonder for them. They raise an Ebenezer or a stone of remembrance, a stone of memorial to remember hitherto has the Lord helped us.

The Lord has brought us this far. The Lord has brought us this far and Samuel is faithfully doing this all of his life. And now they come to the place where they see other nations have kings and other nations have kings who are arrayed in their gold and in their costly array and on their horses and they lead their people into battle and we want the same thing.

We don't want God to reign over us anymore. We don't want God to be our king. They're forgetting all of this and really what they're doing is they're forsaking their mercy. They're discounting who it is that had already brought them to the place where they were at this point, the people of God taken care of and protected by the Lord.

And really we need to be careful and we need to listen and trust those whom God leads you. Now God does put authority over every single person in this church who names the name of Christ authority. There are there is the authority of God himself.

If you're married, there's authority in that in that in that relationship where the the husband loves his wife and the wife submits to her husband. When it comes to a local church, as it says in Hebrews 13 verse 17, those in the church ought to obey those that have the rule over them, obey church leadership, submit to the leadership of the church.

When it comes to a working relationship, God puts bosses in your life and your employer and your to obey those whom you work for. When it comes to in the family and in the home, there are the parents and there are the children in Ephesians six verses one through four, it says, children, obey your parents in the Lord.

This is right. So there's there's authority and it's important to obey that authority because that authority is established by God. God gave it. God put it there in your life. And I want to ask a question.

Is it correct then to say. Is it correct to say that when you say no to any one of these authorities, church leader, husband, parent or boss, when you say no to that authority figure, is it correct to say that you are saying no to God?

What do you think? Yes, unless they ask you to sin. Yes. OK, that's a good that's a good principle to help us how how we deal with authority when the authority goes over the line. What do you think? Any other thoughts on that?

When we say no to authority, are we saying no to God? Yes. Joining. Right. And what's important there, too, of course, there's a whole other lesson there. Parents and fathers making sure that you deal with your children and there's something we don't know all the story there, what went on with Samuel.

But he could I mean, he was a faithful man. It doesn't lead us to believe that he didn't take the time to spend with his children. And his sons just went off the deep end. But the truth remains that Samuel is still alive.

God hadn't done away with him. He's still the judge. He's still the leader. He's still there. He's still alive. He's still breathing. And while he's alive, he's the leader that God has appointed them.

And they're rejecting him. I understand the point as far as, you know, being careful when when most of the time, though, we don't have too many authority figures for the majority of us. We don't have too many authority figures that God has put in our lives that are asking us or compelling us to sin all the time.

Steve. Right. Right. And that's really it's this is in the face of God. This is this is, you know, this is look, God has done it all along. From the beginning of their history that they've known, God has been over them.

God has been their king. God has been their protector and provider. God has been the sovereign over the nation. And they're saying enough is enough. Charlie. Yeah, there's a few things going on there, isn't it?

It's like rejecting God. It's not trusting what God could do in the lives of those young men. And it's and it's really getting ahead of themselves as far as what it's really wanting to call the shots themselves and not waiting on the Lord.

Hmm. Yeah, pretty. That's a good point. Sure. So it's so it's important to heed good counsel. Let me let me read just a few verses. If you're taking notes, we can just just listen to these verses out of the book of Proverbs.

You can hold your place in 1st Samuel in in Proverbs. I'm going to begin in chapter 11. This just has to do with counsel that God gives and puts in front of you or God puts over your authority, that God puts over you and the wisdom and words that come to you that should have an impact upon you and I when we make decisions.

Proverbs 11, 14. Whoever goes about slandering reveals. Whoops. Sorry. I was 13. Verse 14, 11, 14, where there is no guidance, a people falls. But in an abundance of counselors, there is safety. It's just important for us to to make sure that we surround ourselves and we have we make ourselves available to people who have good and godly counsel.

Now, don't go looking for counsel for somebody who is going to give you the answer that you're looking for. I mean, they're going to lower them. You know that they are bar their bars a little bit lower.

And I know that I can get what I'm looking for. Don't children do that sometimes when they don't get it from mom? They'll go to dad when they don't get it from dad. They'll go to mom until they can kind of cause the confusion and and get what they're what they're looking for in our lives as believers.

Sometimes the same thing will happen to us. We'll go to one brother or sister. We'll go to the pastor and get an answer. And we don't quite like that. So we're going to find somebody else who can justify our position.

Maybe the bar is a little bit lower and they'll excuse us and justify and we can go on. Now, go to godly, mature believer, a believer, a man or a woman when you're looking for counsel, because there's safety there.

How about chapter 12 and verse 15, 12, 15? The way of a fool is right in his own eyes. But a wise man listens to advice. Have you ever have you ever been talking to someone and trying to give them advice?

And you know that it's it's just going right over them. They're not they're not hearing you. One of the most important things when it comes to to gaining understanding is to listen, to listen to the preaching, to listen to the counsel that's been given to you.

If you're if you're seeking advice from somebody, open your ear, open your heart to it. And don't be like the fool who just rejects it and goes on his way. How about chapter 13, verse 10, 13, 10? By insolence comes nothing but strife.

But with those who take advice is wisdom. We become wise when we'll take the advice of other people and we can apply the truths of the word of God in our lives and walk in a way of wisdom. How about 15, chapter 15, verse 22?

15, 22, without counsel, plans fail, but with many advisers, they succeed. 19, 27, there's another one, there's two more. 19, 27, cease to hear instruction, my son, and you will stray from the words of knowledge.

So important for us. Don't ever come to the place where you say, I have arrived, because as soon as you come to the place where you say, I know it all, I've got it, then here it tells us you will stray from the words of knowledge.

And then lastly, in 20, chapter 20, the beginning of verse 18, plans are established by counsel. So it's important. I think I put a question down the bottom, and in case we don't get to all of these, I think I put, I have some question about counsel.

Yeah, number five, true or false? Think about this, true or false? A believer doesn't need to heed godly counsel, parents, church leadership, or a spouse, because we are all equal in God's eyes. Pastor Steve shared with me one of his quizzes from the IBS class that he was teaching.

One of his questions, man, I wish I was taking that class. I think I'm going to pass that quiz. You'll have to ask him what it was. It was kind of cute. But what do you think about this, true or false?

A believer doesn't need to heed godly counsel from anybody, because we're all equal in God's eyes. I'm hearing more falses. That's true. That second part of the statement is true. But just because we're equal in God's eyes, does that mean we don't need to heed counsel, Steve?

Hey, that's good. That's a good point. Yeah, yeah, something's wrong there, right? I can remember when Deb and I were in the late 70s, in our 20s, and just yearning for somebody older in the church to be able to talk to and just to get advice from.

We didn't have any aged folks in the church. What happened was, is there was a group of younger people, mostly younger. The ones that were older in that church, they weren't walking with the Lord. The ones with the gray, hoary heads, they weren't.

We could not go to them. We could not count on them for wisdom. So we're of this generation, we're all in our 20s and 30s, and God saved us. And we're all looking to each other and we say, how do we do this thing called the Christian life?

How do we do church? We were praying that God would give us aged men and women to be able to instruct us. And you know what happened? That didn't come to pass. And we learned the tough way. It took us years sometimes to learn a principle.

And years to learn something that, you know what happened? Like with Deb and I and others, we became older. And we were able to take younger people, counseling, maybe in marriage counseling or discipleship, or just to help through a question.

And within minutes, we could convey the things that God taught us in years. And that is a great and excellent point, Pastor Steve. We're not all at the same place. And that's okay. And don't feel bad if you don't know more than so and so.

Because God has you where he has you. As long as you're applying yourself to the Word of God, you're desiring to learn, and you're desiring to mature and to go on. God will continue to teach you. If you keep being faithful to the means of grace that God gives as far as reading and praying and hearing the Word of God, discipleship classes, the IBSs, avail yourselves to those things so that you can grow and become, as Peter wrote, that we could grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord.

Yes, Pastor Steve. We're tag team teaching here this morning. This is good. Right. Yeah. Sometimes when you're driving in the car, you can't see that pothole. But somebody in the helicopter who's going over can see all that stuff and report it on the radio and watch out for this, that, or the other.

They have a different perspective on it because they know information that you don't know and can share it with you and help you. Charlie, good principle as far as where we should be in the body, you know, thinking that way and having a role of submission.

Submission is something that definitely works in the body. Other thoughts on this? Worth and role. Yes. Or, I mean, how else is it put? It's like, you know, the subject came up earlier as far as we're being equal in Christ.