Untitled Sermon (39)
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19 And all the people said to Samuel, “Pray for your servants to the Lord your God, that we may not die, for we have added to all our sins this evil, to ask for ourselves a king.”
20 And Samuel said to the people, “Do not be afraid; you have done all this evil. Yet do not turn aside from following the Lord, but serve the Lord with all your heart.
What holds this passage together is a series of key thoughts and phrases.... be afraid, fear, you, evil, serve with all of your heart.
Samuel has given a speech to the people, his farewell address, and he is encouraging them to do good and not evil.
Samuel warns the people that it was their idea to have a king.... so they can take full credit if he is a weak king or an evil taskmaster of a king.
However, if they will do one thing… found in the 20th verse, they will retain good favor with God. Remember that it is God who is king and truly sits on the throne.
Part of Israel’s covenant responsibility was to serve the Lord… see Deut. 10.12-13
12 “And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you, but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, 13 and to keep the commandments and statutes of the Lord, which I am commanding you today for your good?
21 And do not turn aside after empty things that cannot profit or deliver, for they are empty.
empty things--- idols. They will do no good.
22 For the Lord will not forsake his people, for his great name’s sake, because it has pleased the Lord to make you a people for himself.
God’s desire for his people will not fail them. He chose Israel. see Exodus 19.5
5 Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine;
It was never a choosing of the people of Israel because of anything they did… but rather simply his love for them. See Deut. 7.6-7
6 “For you are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth. 7 It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the Lord set his love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples,
He chose them because of his covenant with them. He chose them because on oath with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob he promised he would love them and choose them.
8 but it is because the Lord loves you and is keeping the oath that he swore to your fathers, that the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. 9 Know therefore that the Lord your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations,
23 Moreover, as for me, far be it from me that I should sin against the Lord by ceasing to pray for you, and I will instruct you in the good and the right way.
Samuel takes the high road, and the holy road. He says he will not fail to pray for the people of Israel. He has and will continue to teach them God’s way…wanting the best for them.
24 Only fear the Lord and serve him faithfully with all your heart. For consider what great things he has done for you.
25 But if you still do wickedly, you shall be swept away, both you and your king.”
In these 2 verses, 1 Samuel 12.24-25, Samuel tells the people the rest is up to them. Their destiny is in their own hands.
If you are faithful, it will be an appropriate response to how good God has been to you. And you will have been faithful.
But if you are not, there are consequences there as well. Disobedience will result in calamity.
Bottom Line:
Our Finite Lives Have Eternal Consequences
Our Finite Lives Have Eternal Consequences
What is a short life? When I was in my 20’s, a short life was 20 years. In my 40’s, it was 40 years. And now that I’m 58 it seem like 70, 80, even 90 are short. You probably agree.
What influence, what difference have you made in the world? In your life? In your family and among your friends.
One of the tragic aspects of pastoral ministry for the pastor’s family- and there are several- is when the pastor becomes so involved in his ministry that he fails to maintain his family. I never wanted to be my wife or mychildren’s pastor. I wanted to be their husband and father, and I’ve worked to try to do that. I haven’t always succeeded.
But several years ago when I was facing a health crisis with a lot at stake, the church was gathering to pray for me. My oldest son said to the person he was with, “I’m not going to that meeting. He’s their pastor, but he’s my Dad.” That statement, to some, would have been disrespectful. To me, it was music in my ears. It told me that my son got it- he held a place that no church or church member would ever be able to hold- he was my son. And that made our relationship special, different, and important. To him and me. He got the message I hoped he would get!
So what legacy are you leaving? Samuel’s legacy to the nation of Israel was that he’d done his best, he’d been faithful to God and to them, and now he was preparing to leave it in their hands.
Samuel literally became a living legacy of how to lead in a godly fashion.
What is your living legacy?
Because what you do and what you sayand how you act amongst those that God has given to you determines the legacy your are both living and leaving behind. Samuel lived the right way, and as he paused to let loose of the reigns, he told his followers… I’ve done my part, God will always do his part- the rest is up to you.
In a tragic way, just three chapters from here, before Samuel could get his first social security check, signs of failure appeared in a significant way. 1 samuel 15.22
22 And Samuel said, “Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen than the fat of rams.
21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.
When Peter stood before the Sanhedrin, his words ring out...
29 But Peter and the apostles answered, “We must obey God rather than men.
Jesus gave us our best example in John 14.31
31 but I do as the Father has commanded me, so that the world may know that I love the Father. Rise, let us go from here.
So John 15.10
10 If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love.
And finally Hebrews 5.8
8 Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered.