1 Samuel 12
Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.
Transcript
Good morning. My name is Spencer. I'm one of the pastors here. So, we are going to continue to walk through the book of 1 Samuel.
Uh we we typically just keep working through books of the Bible. We don't typically have a lot of Mother's Day or Father's Day sermons, but uh we will keep working through 1 Samuel. And we are in chapter 12 as we continue to walk through this uh this book. So when I was around five, six, somewhere in that range, I got to have this magical Christmas morning where I'm excited getting ready to tear down the stairs. Just go down and see what awaits.
So my brother and I at the top of the stairs just waiting. Can't go down till my mom and my stepdad uh come and then they go downstairs. They kind of make sure everything's ready and then we're we're ready. And they say, "Come on down." So, we descend down the stairs.
My brother's uh 18 months older than me, so this point a little bit faster. And he gets there and before he hits the bottom step, he says, "Spencer got more than me." He evaluated the situation. He looked without touching anything and said he got more than me, which I didn't have a problem at all. And what was happening is he was seeing what he did not have and was coveting, desiring was not this. And my stepdad, which I think this might have been one of his first uh few Christmases with us, was containing wrath.
Just was like seeing this child coveting, entitled bratty, just was holding it together to not ruin Christmas morning. It's an amazing memory, you guys. What uh my brother was was coveting. He was just he just saw something he didn't have. It's so visceral.
It's it's not it's natural to a lot of children and to humanity. Seeing things you don't have and desiring it. And that's what we've seen from the Israelites these last few chapters that they desired to have a king like the nations. They wanted an earthly king to rule them and to reign over them and fight their battles for them. And much like my stepdad, uh Samuel the prophet is angry.
He is upset with this. And we're going to see that in this address today. Now, if you have a blue Bible and you're reading through this in our Bibles, sometimes you'll see these these headings that kind of describe the text below it. And a lot of times they're really helpful. They can help us understand, you know, main idea what's about to happen in this text.
And a lot of them will say Samuel's farewell address. Uh but this is not the end of Samuel. This is one of those times I'm like h you know probably wouldn't call it a farewell address. This is he's not going away. In fact the very next chapter he's got some very important work to do.
This is a transitionary point between the era of the judges and the era of the kings. So in that sense there's some transition here. This work's not done. And he's not George Washington doing his final speech riding off into the sunset at Mount Vernon to retire and never be seen again. But in this address of what he has to say to the whole nation of Israel, we're going to see why it was wicked for them to desire to have a king like the nations.
And I want us to sit in that and understand it uh both from their perspective but also from this side of Christ as well. So let me pray for us then we'll walk through this together. Heavenly Father, I pray that you might help us understand your word. That you'd give us ears to hear. That we would be not just hearers of the word, but we'd be doers of the word.
And we would respond how you desire and in faith and repentance and in delighting in you above all things. We ask this in Jesus name. Amen. All right.
So just refresher the last few weeks what we've seen is that the people uh desired this king. They go to Samuel. So we want a king. And then Samuel listens to the people. He gives them a king.
He sees Saul. God chooses Saul. He anoints him, coordinates. We saw last week the coronation, the installation. He's the king.
And then we saw how the Ammonites led by Nahesh rose up against the people of uh Jabeshgilead. And then Saul gathers the people together. All the tribes come. They fight. They defeat the Ammonites.
And we pick up here in chapter 12. Now, we don't know if this is directly after that victory or if this is sometime later, but he's got all the tribes together to address him here. And I want to give some structure to what we're going to see in this speech because sometimes in the Scriptures you'll see these these passages are structured in a certain way. And the speech is structured in this way. It's called a kayazm or some will call it kayastic.
But here's the structure of the speech. It starts with it's going to be Samuel's faithfulness followed by God's response. And here's where the kayazm comes. The kaism comes from the Greek letter kai which is an X. So you're going to see part of an X here.
This is why it's called this. So the center point is going to be covenant faithfulness which in a kayazm that's the main idea. That's the big part of this speech. And then it mirrors backwards. It's going to followed by God's response ending in Samuel's faithfulness.
So it's a very creative structure. You see this sometimes in the Scriptures, but that's a helpful interpretive key because that's going to help us understand what is the big problem with choosing an earthly king. So that is how this is going to go. And we're going to start with Samuel's faithfulness in verse one. And Samuel said to all Israel, "Behold, I have obeyed your voice and all that you have said to me and have made a king over you.
And now, behold, the king walks before you, and I am old and gray, and behold, my sons are with you. I have walked before you from my youth until this day. So, Samuel has been leading the people of God for for many decades at this. He's been leading the people of God faithfully since he was young. I mean, remember how First Samuel began.
Remember Hannah who desiring a child when she did not have one, prayed earnestly, a godly woman, praying before the Lord for a child and making a vow to the Lord and say, "Lord, if you if you would bless me with this child, if you would do this, I'll I'll dedicate him in service to you all of his life," which it is Mother's Day. And just to appreciate that idea right there of praying for your children earnestly that God might work in them in mighty ways and then God answers that prayer and then Samuel comes and he spends the rest of his life serving the Lord and now he's old and he's gray. just to see how that story comes together that he's at the end of his days and he's got a few more things ahead of him. But it is this big transition. He's heading off leadership to the era of the kings and that he is in here solidifying that I was faithful in my leadership.
Verse three, here I am. Testify against me before the Lord and before his anointed. That's the king soul. Whose ox have I taken?
Or whose donkey have I taken? Or whom have I defrauded? Whom have I oppressed? Or from whose hand have I taken a bribe to blind my eyes with it?
Testify against me and I will restore it to you. So he puts forth this resume of faithful leadership. One of the things that I appreciate about this resume, it it's not a list of accomplishments of all the things that Samuel has done. It's a list of faithfulness and character. You see that he says, "I haven't taken your oxen.
I haven't taken your donkeys. Who have I defrauded? Who have I oppressed? I've not taken bribes and as a judge in this land and enriched myself." He points to his integrity and his character, which I appreciate is just a picture of leadership in general. that godly leadership is one that is centralized on character.
I mean you get that in the New Testament too in 1 Timothy chapter 3 and in Titus 1 when it gets qualifications of an elder and overseer pastor that you see these qualifications are character mostly characterbased and that's what he's pointing to see how I've walked in integrity faithful leadership testify against me oh everyone here the nations King Saul have I not walked in integrity and the people respond they said you have not defrauded us or oppressed us or taken anything from any man's hand. And he said to them, "The Lord is witness against you and is anointed is witness this day. You have f not found anything in my hand." And they said, "He is witness." So the nation affirms this. Yes, Samuel. All these many decades you've been a faithful leader, a godly man in service in your leadership.
Now that's part one of this. Now we're going to shift to God here and the focus is going to be on God. Now to understand the next part and to really appreciate what we're about to read, you need to understand the backdrop of the two covenants that the people live under. There are two covenants that the people of God at this point in the history of Israel that they live under. The Abrahamic covenant and the Mosaic covenant.
So the Abrahamic covenant is goes back to their father Abraham had many sons. Many sons had father Abraham that Abraham back in Genesis. It goes back to Abraham when God makes a covenant with Abraham establishing that I'm going to make a great nation and a mighty people through you Abraham. And in that covenant it's called a unilateral covenant which just means it's all on one party and the party is God. that God says it's on me that I will bless you Abraham and make a great nation through you and your line and all the 12 tribes of Israel are under that covenant.
They come from Abraham. So that is a covenant that they live under as the people of God. The second covenant that they live under is the Mosaic covenant. This is the covenant of Moses. This is the law.
And this covenant is different. over here is an unconditional covenant through Abraham that's all on God. The second one is called a bilateral covenant means it's two parties involved in this agreement and it's a conditional co where on one side God says I will bless you if you obey the law. If you'll follow the law, it will go well for you. That's that's Deuteronomy chapter 30 as Moses is is reading the law before they're getting ready to enter the promised land and says, "If you follow the Lord, you'll be blessed.
If you don't, you will be cursed. Bring curses upon yourself." And that's the Mosaic covenant. Now, it's important because both of those covenants, if you do a careful reading here, you're going to see the language show up all throughout the rest of this. So, it's helpful to have that in mind.
The people understood as they're about to hear the next part of this as Samuel shifts the focus from his faithful leadership to the Lord. Starting in verse six, and Samuel said to the people, "The Lord is witness who appointed Moses and Aaron and brought your fathers up out of the land of Egypt. Now therefore, stand still that I may plead with you before the Lord concerning all the righteous deeds of the Lord that he performed for you and your fathers. So he says, "Stand still and listen." You need to hear everything that God has done for you. Sometimes I got to get my children's attention and say, "Do you realize all the things that we do for you as parents?
I need you to listen to me here. I need you to trust me here. I need you to follow what I'm saying here. You are five and I am older. Just listen.
Listen to all the things that God has done for you. When Jacob went into Egypt and the Egyptians oppressed them, then your fathers cried out to the Lord. The Lord sent Moses and Aaron who brought your fathers out of Egypt and made them dwell in this place. But they've forgot the Lord their God. What we're getting here is history of God's faithfulness to children of Abraham.
Remember how you were in Egypt as slaves and I rescued you and brought you out of Egypt. Remember how I gave you the promised land, a land flown with milk and honey. I gave it to you. I defeated your enemies. I brought you into this land.
And then it continues. And he sold them, but they forgot their lord. They forgot the Lord their God. Verse 9. And he sold them into the hand of Cicora, commander of the army of Hazard, into the hand of the Philistines, into the hand of the king of Moab, and they fought against them.
And that is I gave you the promised land. So we're going Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua, you settle the promised land. Book of Judges. What happens in the book of Judges when you read the book of Judges is that the people of God reject God. They go after lesser gods.
And then the Mosaic covenant, if you do not follow the law, you bring curses upon yourself. And that's what happens. All these enemies here, so Cicero, the Philistines, the king of Moab, they come and they rule over the people. This is over centuries of time. And it says, ' And they cried out to the Lord and said, 'We have sinned because we have forsaken the Lord and have served the bales and the Ashth, but now deliver us out of the hand of our enemies that we may serve you.
That's a again that's from the book of Judges where at times the people of God realize they've they've messed up. They've gone after foreign gods and they're pleading with God, save us. And God responds to that cry. And the Lord sent Jerob Gerobal which that's Gideon and Barack and Japth and Samuel to love. Samuel's the final judge and love.
He just puts himself and sent me the final judge and delivered you out of the hand of your enemies on every side and you lived in Satan. So God helps him remember in these covenants you are a special people because you belong to Abraham. But when you are weward and you reject me and you chase after other gods and you don't live in covenant with me, remember what happens. He's helping them remember this is what I have done for you as my people. The evil in your wayward.
I still respond in grace and ascend faithful leaders to come. And then we get to verse 12, which all of that is helpful for setting up the indictment that Samuel's about to levy against the people. And when you saw that Nahash, the king of the Ammonites came against you, you said to me, "No, but a king shall reign over us." When the Lord your God was king. Now, that's a very helpful verse.
I want you to remember what we've read this far the last few weeks. People come to Samuel. They ask for a king. Samuel listens to the Lord, gives them Saul. Saul is anointed.
He's established. Then we see the story of Nahash and the Ammonites. They come, they surround Jabesh Gilead. Saul unites the tribes. They come and fight.
They defeat the Ammonites. Nowhere in those few chapters did it mention this important piece of information that the Ammonites were already a looming threat. It was already in their mind that the Ammonites next door were getting bigger and getting strong getting stronger and they had this mighty king Nash and they see that and in their fear they desire what they should not want. They covet and they say, "We want a king like that. We want a king like the enemy has and not you, oh Lord." And that is a big deal because here's how this was supposed to work.
What was supposed to happen is that when they settle the promised land, they live in covenant relationship with their God. They see the laws and what we we sang Psalm 19 this morning. all the language of how wonderful the law is, how wonderful the word of God is. They're supposed to love the law and and and the way that was set up was you had these 12 tribal regions and really in the center is what the tabernacle was. And every few months they'd go to the tabernacle and they'd worship the Lord and they'd offer sacrifices.
They do festivals like the Passover, which is a festival that helps them remember the God who saves you, the God who rescued you from Egypt. They would worship God and delight in him. And they didn't need an earthly king because they just have the Lord and they have worship and he's he's ruling and reigning from the tabernacle. And if ever there was going to be an enemy that knocked on the door of Israel and made threats against them, they could just plead before the Lord for help and he would respond. This is the God you see sometimes in the Old Testament.
They don't even go out to battle against their enemies. He just causes confusion in the camp and they kill each other and they're done. That's how powerful and mighty God is. He can Thanos snap and done. They're just done.
That's how God can work. They just would trust him if they would trust their covenant God. That's how it's supposed to be. They don't want that. They don't believe that God is good.
They don't believe that God can protect them. They don't believe God provide for them. They don't trust God. Their hearts are chasing after lesser gods, lesser things. We want a king who will rule us like they want a king who will go out and fight our battles like they.
They were supposed to be different, y'all. They were supposed to be a holy nation. They were supposed to be a light among the nations. They were supposed to The other nations were supposed to look at Israel and see there's something different about this people. They just they love their God.
They have one just just the one and they love their God and they worship him and he'd be mess with them because we we know the stories of those who mess with this God and his people and they supposed to look so good and so wonderful living in covenant relationship with their God that the people would even wonder who maybe we should just worship this God alone supposed to be but they reject that and the rejection is not small and is a massive projection of covenant God, symptomatic of a bigger problem of covenant unfaithfulness than the people of God. Verse 14, if you will fear Lord and serve him and obey his voice and not rebel against the commandment of the Lord, that both you and the king who reigns over you will follow the Lord your God, it will be well. But if you will not obey the voice of the Lord but rebel against the commandment of the Lord, then the hand of the Lord will be against you and your king. So I think I might have skipped verse 13, but the verse 13 going back says, "And now behold the king whom you have chosen for whom you have asked. Behold the Lord has set a king over you." Which is just this.
You have asked for it and you've gotten him. And that's where you are now as you've rejected God in favor of an earthly king. And you're here now. So as you're here, if you will fear the Lord and you'll serve him and know you will obey his voice and not rebel against the commandment of the Lord and that both you and the king who reigns over you will follow the Lord, it will be well. That is the language of the Mosaic covenant, you guys.
That's what's happening here. So I'm not I'm not not abandoning you. You still are my people, the children of Abraham. So now respond in faithfulness. But if you don't, if you will not obey the voice of the Lord, if you rebel against him, the hand of the Lord will be against you and your king.
And there's this picture of curses will come upon you. And again, that's the language of the law. That's the language of Deuteronomy 30 when Moses is telling the people before they enter the promised land after years of watching them rebel be a stiff necked people says that you you need to follow the Lord serve him with your whole heart love him above all things or it's going to go poorly for you that's also the speech that Joshua gives the end of the book of Joshua in Joshua chapter 24 says you need to follow the Lord with your whole heart. If you don't, it's going to go poorly for you. And this rejection and and and desiring this earthly king is symptomatic of this covenant unfaithfulness.
They don't love God. They don't trust God. They don't serve him with their whole heart. They're divided amongst lesser gods and lesser things. So, at the very centerpiece of this speech, Samuel is saying, "Here's the here's why what you did was so wicked.
You you want an earthly king and you live in covenant unfaithfulness." And here's God's continued response starting in verse 16. Now, therefore, stand still. Same language as above. Stand still and see this great thing the Lord will do before your eyes. He's about to confirm this.
Is it not wheat harvest today? I will call upon the Lord that he may send thunder and rain, and you shall know and see that your wickedness is great, which you have done in the sight of the Lord, and asking for yourselves a king." So Samuel called upon the Lord and the Lord sent thunder and rain that day and all the people greatly feared the Lord and Samuel. So he's like here here's some confirmation of your wickedness, of your rejection of God as your king. What's going to happen is thunder and rain. It's going to come in the middle of the wheat harvest.
Now, it's hard for us to put our minds in in their minds and see how big of a deal this is because we are so used to we see we think so scientifically about the weather. Just pull out your app and see well we know how weather we don't see the providential work of God at work and the weather. And for them like that that our God is in the heavens. They understand that. So God is in control of all of this.
So they just they're just more clued into the providential nature of how God works even in the weather. But it's wheat harvest which in their climate is a time that is dry. The rainy season was before. We're in the air at dry season now. It's the middle of wheat harvest.
So the I the fact that a storm is just going to appear out of nowhere is confirmation of their wickedness. And the moment that the sky turns black and the lightning strikes, the thunder roars, the rains fall, they get it. And it's terrifying. They understand they have really really sinned against God. They understand this starting in verse 19.
And all the people said to Samuel, "Pray for your servants to the L 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. We we we've added to our sins. We've rejected you, God. We've asked for a king, and we don't want to die for our wickedness.
Verse 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." Again, that's the Mosaic covenant at work. It's God's grace. You're not going to be just You're not going to be destroyed in judgment right now, but now is the time to turn aside from hearts that chase after lesser things.
Return to the Lord. Serve him with all of your heart, not divided. All of your heart. Verse 21. Do not turn aside after empty things they cannot profit or deliver, for they are empty.
The Lord will not forsake his people for his great name's sake because it flees the Lord to make you a people for himself. And that's that's the language of the Abrahamic covenant that this is God's people that he claimed for himself, for his glory, for his name's sake. See, both of those at play here when the people say, "We we've messed up. We don't want to die. Don't bring judgment.
And Samuel says, "Not going to, but return. Now's the time for repentance. Now is the time to return back to the Lord. Now is the time to uphold the law as good. For he's chosen you for his name's sake, for his glory." And then he adds of this in verse 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 a good and right way. So as we're moving back in this kayazm, it's now this is his faithfulness on display. Now, I heard somebody comment on this the other day and they were talking about this passage and they said, I mean, I bet this is more Samuel saying, "I'm going to pray for you because y'all y'all have messed up." And it's the same line as Joshua because Joshua kind of says that I'm going to pray for you is going to the promised land, but probably not going to work out for you based on everything I've seen. And Moses kind of has a little bit of the same posture in Jeremiah 30. I'm going pray for you.
And I think, sure, there might be some elements of that where it's like, I'm I'm going to pray for you. But I think even more to what's happening here is it just displays Samuel's faithfulness and saying, "No, go. Y'all have messed up. I'm devoted to trying to to help you still. And I will I my faithful leadership is I will not stop praying." And it's such a a a godly example of of of good leadership.
I'm not going to stand against the Lord. I know my calling. I will continue to pray ceaseless prayer for you and I will continue to teach you the good and right way. I think this is more just know this is this is Samuel being a faithful leader even still. And this is how this chapter ends.
Verse 24. Only fear the Lord and serve him faithfully with all your heart. For consider what great things he has done for you. But if you still do wicked, you shall be swept away, both you and your king. So he says, "Fear the Lord.
Serve him faithfully because of the great things that he has done. And if you don't, surely judge me." That address period of the judges. It's over. The era of the kings has begun. It's a new era of leadership.
They will serve the Lord both. Notice the king and his people. If the king and his people will both serve the Lord wholeheartedly and faithful, it's going to go well. You'll be blessed. And if you read the rest of 1st Samuel, 2 Samuel, 1st Kings, 2 Kings, 1st Chronicles, 2 Chronicles, you know it is not going to go well because both the king and the people are continuously going to reject God, worship other gods instead, and ultimately curses are going to come upon them.
But I want to help us see how they are marked out of this whole passage has the backdrop of these two covenant. The back end chapter back in verse 22 when it says for the people will not forsake 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. That's God saying you you belong to me that my people belong to me for my glory. And then also verse 20 that they are people of the law of Moses and the Mosaic covenant. 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. Do not turn aside after empty things that cannot profit or deliver for they are empty. They belong to the Lord as his people. They still you follow the Lord.
They'll turn aside and they do over and over again. I mean it's it's it is a tragic story over and over where you see glimpses of God's faithfulness to his people. They're the people of God as children of Abraham. And then you also see they just keep folding on their face. They keep worshiping the Bales and Ash and all these other lesser gods.
They keep doing horrible practices all the way to sacrificing the king sacrificing his own child to a foreign God. You'll see this over and over and over again. When I read how the people were called to live and this faithfulness to the Lord through his law, it's it's it's it's kind of overwhelming to think this nation living under the under the conditional covenant of the law of Moses that just hung over to them, how they fall short over and over again. But on this side today as we read this now from our vantage point I can understand from their perspective that's overwhelming and also from our perspective thanks thankfulness that we no longer live under the Mosaic covenant. We don't live under the law.
We're not people of the law. Because when Jesus comes and he begins his ministry and in Matthew chapter 5 when he's teaching the sermon on the mount, he says this. He says, "Do not think that I've come to abolish the law of the prophets. I do not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them." There's so many Israelites that failed to uphold the law. They could not fulfill the law.
They could not obey the law. When Samuel says, "Don't turn aside. Don't turn aside and chase after lesser things." There's only one who does. Jesus doesn't turn aside once. Every letter of the law, every mark perfectly.
And Jesus fulfills the law perfectly. And then he goes to the cross. And that in Christ and faith in what he has done, we get this unbelievable offer of his perfect record and his perfect righteousness. School growing up, I was not a great student. I had to work hard for every grade I got because I'm just doesn't come naturally to me.
So, you know, sometimes C's get degrees, you guys. So, that and I just I had to work and struggle just to make decent grades. And there were always people in the class. There's always someone one or two or three people that just were so good at it. They just made it just came easy to them and they just made straight A's.
They just killed it. And so many times I just want to sit behind them and look at that test and just get every one of those answers down so I could just at one point finally just be ex at school. Uh and the offer that we get in Christ is he hands us the test. Perfection and says it's yours. Bad students, bad followers of the law, can't check all the boxes.
Not even close. Here it is. You can have this if you just trust in me. That's the offer that is given to us this side of the law. Christ in Galatians 3 captures this in even more detail in chapter 310.
It says, "For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse. For it is written, cursed be everyone who does not abide by all the things written in the book of the law and do them." There's this picture of the Mosaic covenant that same that language right there that were people were called to live out the law and all of its teachings and they couldn't and because of that they were cursed. Verse 11, now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law for the righteous shall live by faith. It's the language of being a child of Abraham. But verse 12, the law is not of faith.
Rather, the one who does them shall live by them, Christ redeemed us from the cursed law by becoming a curse for us. For it is written, cursed is everyone who is hanged on the tree. And that's the good news of the Gospel that Jesus has the perfect life. And then we who cannot fulfill the requirements of the law and should receive the judgment that comes with that, Jesus takes that judgment, that curse upon himself on the tree. When he rises from the grave and defeats the power of death and its grip on us, that offer is made to all of us in faith so that in Christ Jesus, verse 14, the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles.
That's us. So that we might receive the promised spirit through faith. So when I read stories like this in the Old Testament and I see the high calling that they were called to live and the bar that was set, I'm just thankful. I'm just thankful to live in the covenant Christ and what he has done for us. So that when I go back and I read verse 24 when it says, "Only fear the Lord and serve him faithfully with all your heart.
Four. Consider what great things he has done for you. For them, they had the history up until that point. And we have so much more. We should be a people who consider, who consider, who stare deeply at, who ponder upon, who meditate on the great things that God has done for us.
And that is the redemption that we have in Christ to his life, death, and resurrection that we just walked through. But there's so much more that we get to consider as Christians that we should consider in Christ and the great things he has done for us. I just want to list a few of these. We should consider that Christ is our king. It's one of the great things he has done for us is that he established a kingdom that will never end and a kingdom that's better than this world.
That as 1 Timothy 6 says that he is the king of kings. that when he ascended to the right hand of God the Father when he rules and reigns, he offers a better kingdom. And so much of our effort and our toil is building kingdoms in this world that won't last. Building kingdoms that we think are good that never satisfy. And we have a king that loves us so much to so that he gave up his life for us and he invites us into a better kingdom.
We should consider our king. We should consider that Jesus is our high priest as Hebrews 4 teaches that he stands in the heavens as our great high priest. Meaning that even when we are struggling and even when we are falling on our face and sin that we can come before the Lord and come before the father in prayer boldly and confidently not because of us because Jesus our high priest stands offering prayers on behalf of his people. It's a wonderful gift that we've been given to have access to God even though we still fall short of the glory that he has called us into. We should consider that he is our mediator.
1 Timothy chapter 2, he is the man in the middle that stands between us and God the father. That every time that we feel the shame of our sin, we can look to our savior and say, "Thank you, Jesus, that you're our mediator. You stand in the middle. That you take my place." We should consider that Jesus Christ is our friend. John 15 teaches that he's a friend to us.
That he's mighty and he's powerful and he's worthy of worship and he also has this intimate nearness that is given to us to be friends God. We should consider that he's a victor over evil. that Colossians 2 teaches that he put the enemy, that's Satan and the demonic, to open shame and triumphing over them. That when we're attacked by the enemy, we can look to Christ as our victor over evil. That we can pray the Lord's prayer.
We can receive what God has given us. We should see Jesus as our wonderful author and finisher of our faith as Hebrews chapter 12 teaches that he is the God who began our faith and will finish it. Philippians 1 that he carries us through to complete him. And that's on him. Every time that I'm tired, every time that I'm struggling, and in seasons where I just feel how hard it is to follow God, I remember he's the one who began it.
Now, he's the one that will carry me home. I can remember Ephesians chapter 2 that Jesus is our cornerstone. Meaning, he's the foundation that my faith is built upon, which means that I don't have to be the strength in this faith. I can rest upon the rock that is Christ. And all the times I get that twisted and I think that it's on me.
God enliven and awakens my eyes to see, it isn't. It's on Christ. that we get to consider. I'll just give you one more. That he's our good shepherd.
That as John chapter 10 teaches that Jesus Christ is our good shepherd. He's the best pastor, y'all. The chief shepherd. And at times we're weward. And at times where we're struggling, at times we're like a sheep that's wounded and limping.
That he lifts us up and he sustains us and he heals us and he carries us and we can't even walk. There's so many things that we get to consider in Christ that makes this God has done great things for us. And sometimes I just I'm so prone to being like an Israelite that forgets that. It just forgets it. And so easily I'll chase after lesser things.
And so easily I'll trust in human power like they did, looking for an earthly king to come. trusting myself, trusting in anyone else but God. Each of us fail to consider in so many ways the great things that God has done for us. But the good news is that Jesus Christ bled and died for men and women that fail, etc. So may we heed the call of Samuel to consider what God has done and to put our hope in him and him alone.
The band's going to come up. We just get a moment to end and worship. And as we worship, I just want us to take the time to do that, to actually consider to consider Christ. For some of you, I want you to be honest your own heart before the Lord. I want you to be honest and ask him questions because it's possible you've actually never considered the Lord.
You never considered him as your hope. as your only hope. You may have considered the things of this world, the empty philosophies of this world. You may have considered you and your strength and your power and your righteousness and your good record. You may have considered a whole bunch of other things, but you actually haven't considered Christ and Christ alone.
And my hope right now is that you would actually for the first time consider him in faith and trust in him alone. For those of us that belong to God, that we are children of Abraham through faith, may we consider the great things that he has done for us. And may that lead us to worship and delighting in him, anything this world has to offer. Let's pray.
Heavenly Father, I pray that you would help us be a people that consider that as we heed Samuel's address and consider the ways in which what we have is so much better that it would lead us to faith. That it would lead us to worship that would lead us to trusting you above all things. But that comes through your work and the spirit at work in us. And we ask that you go to work in Jesus name. Amen.