Episode Transcript
[00:00:02] Speaker A: We are continuing our time today in first and Second Samuel. And I've explained this a couple times, but we've kind of taken these two books and we've divided them up into
[00:00:11] Speaker B: some kind of micro series within the
[00:00:13] Speaker A: books based on themes. And today we're starting a new series within First Samuel that I'm calling New Days.
And the reason I'm calling it that is that over these coming chapters in Samuel, we're going to see if Israel make this historic move. They're going to move from being what really amounts to a tribal confederation, right? 12 different tribes living in the same area. Sometimes they're allies. More often than not they're allies. But there's a lot of things going on, right, to. To really them uniting under their first King Saul into a real monarchy and becoming a real united nation, which is a huge deal for their safety, for
[00:00:52] Speaker B: their strength, for their advancement as a people.
[00:00:55] Speaker A: They really are, in a very practical sense, entering into a new day as a people. But what we're going to see as we dig through these texts over and over and over is that we worship a God of new beginnings.
You see this first series, we did these first seven chapters of First Samuel, we called it faithful. We talked about this idea that the kind of people who show up to a sermon, right, like in general church people, are the kind of people who want to live with faith at the core of our person, want to be driven by faith, want to be faithful people. But we're really bad at it. And we saw how at the end
[00:01:31] Speaker B: of the day, ultimately it is the faithfulness of God himself that when he shows up and is faithful in our faithlessness, that is what empowers us to live lives of faith.
And as we move into this new
[00:01:45] Speaker A: section in First Samuel, I think what we're going to see is that all of us, at the end of the day, we need the blank slate grace
[00:01:56] Speaker B: of our God because we are such faithless people, because we're so bad at this. We need God to be a God of new days.
And praise be to him that he is. That he delights to forgive his sinful and wayward people and give them a fresh slate in his grace.
[00:02:16] Speaker A: Like, I really think the problem for
[00:02:18] Speaker B: many of us is that we are
[00:02:20] Speaker A: such creatures of habit that we convince
[00:02:24] Speaker B: ourselves our sin patterns, our brokenness are here to say.
[00:02:30] Speaker A: We say things like, I don't know,
[00:02:32] Speaker B: it's just who I am.
I'm just a grouchy person. I'm just an impulsive person. I don't know I just talk without thinking.
[00:02:38] Speaker A: And what we're really saying underneath that is I've contented myself to this area of sin in my life, and I have no need to deal with it.
[00:02:49] Speaker B: But the Gospel of Jesus turned this idea on its head. I want to pre warn you guys.
I'm not going to apologize for this, but I am going to warn you.
[00:02:58] Speaker A: Today is the kind of text that in the words of one of my
[00:03:01] Speaker B: mentors in ministry, it gets in your kitchen.
[00:03:05] Speaker A: And I think we need that today.
I think we need to allow this
[00:03:10] Speaker B: to just kind of get in our face a little bit.
[00:03:13] Speaker A: Things gonna be good for our hearts.
[00:03:14] Speaker B: I think it's gonna be challenging for us today. We're gonna be reminded of the truth,
[00:03:19] Speaker A: that no matter how ingrained you feel in your brokenness, no matter how bogged down you feel in your particular sin patterns or your idolatry, your. You are not stuck, period.
[00:03:38] Speaker B: You're not.
[00:03:39] Speaker A: Your story, what's happened to you, where you've been, what you've experienced in this life, it does not get to define
[00:03:48] Speaker B: you in your life.
[00:03:51] Speaker A: This is gonna be my main point today. Your past, your story, it describes where you've been, but the grace of Jesus
[00:03:58] Speaker B: defines where you're going.
Amen.
[00:04:01] Speaker A: When we consider our stories, when we consider our past, when we consider our struggles, we're not laying out what defines our life.
We're describing where we've been.
It is the grace of Jesus that
[00:04:14] Speaker B: gets to lay out where we're going.
The unfortunate reality is most of us
[00:04:19] Speaker A: don't live like this.
[00:04:20] Speaker B: Most of the time, we just don't.
[00:04:22] Speaker A: We content ourselves with to live our lives stuck in the same habits, the same struggles, the same sorrows. We assume the idols of our childhood will be the idols of our adulthood.
So much so that most of us
[00:04:40] Speaker B: stop even thinking of them as idols.
[00:04:43] Speaker A: I bet right now, if all of
[00:04:46] Speaker B: us just had Jesus vision and we
[00:04:48] Speaker A: could see into each other's hearts and we can see the weaknesses and the patterns and the idolatry and the things that we have just given ourselves to, the things that we feel stuck in, and if we reminded one another of the areas of life that Jesus actually
[00:05:03] Speaker B: wants to free us from. You know, Jesus wants you to be free from this.
[00:05:06] Speaker A: I'm willing to bet that many of
[00:05:08] Speaker B: us wouldn't even have a category for our life without that sin pattern, without that idol, because we stopped thinking about it that way.
We just contented ourselves to it being a constant burden, a thorn in our flesh.
But, beloved, what if God actually wants you to live free.
What if God doesn't want your life to be dominated by your anxiety?
[00:05:36] Speaker A: What if God actually has joy for
[00:05:39] Speaker B: you that he wants to see overcome your depression?
[00:05:42] Speaker A: What if the Lord wants you to walk in integrity and he envisions a
[00:05:46] Speaker B: future for you where you don't lie or gossip?
[00:05:49] Speaker A: What if the Lord wants you to
[00:05:51] Speaker B: actually live with sexual purity and freedom from pornography?
[00:05:55] Speaker A: What if God actually has sobriety in mind for you?
[00:05:58] Speaker B: I could keep going down the list of common idols and sin patterns and things we get stuck in, but the reality is, I think by this point we can all stop and just go,
[00:06:08] Speaker A: yeah, I've got one or two or five.
[00:06:13] Speaker B: Right?
And many of us have simply given up on walking in real freedom.
But, beloved, Jesus has better for you.
He has better for you. He has a better future in mind for you than you can imagine for yourself.
I promise you. You are not creative enough to think and imagine of a future as good as Jesus has in mind for you.
You're not smart enough to get there. That's not an insult to you. That's speaking to the creativity of our God and the overwhelming love he has for you.
He longs for joy and freedom for you.
[00:06:52] Speaker A: Today we're going to be in 1st Samuel 7. If you want to go ahead and turn there.
[00:06:56] Speaker B: If you don't have a Bible with you today. We really believe in the importance of access to God's Word here at Emmanuel. And so we'd encourage you to snag one of the Pew Bibles there around you underneath the chairs. If you don't own one, you can take one of those or you can talk to one of our pastors. We'll get you one that is nicer and has larger print.
Because the Pew Bibles are a punishment for you not bringing a Bible. That's why we have them in such a small print. This is a way of saying, should have brought your Bible.
[00:07:20] Speaker A: I'm just kidding.
I'm just kidding.
[00:07:23] Speaker B: I'm just kidding. No, I bought them when I was young and I could read them and now I can't. And so it's punishment on knees, the real thing there.
[00:07:31] Speaker A: By the way, we also have given away Bible journals for first and Second
[00:07:35] Speaker B: Samuel because we're going to be in this book for a long time. If you didn't get one of those and you'd like one just to. To be able to read along and take notes as we're going through these sermons, as you're studying it, talk to Kurt. We have several of those Left. He'll make sure you get one.
[00:07:47] Speaker A: But we're going to be in First Samuel, chapter seven today. And as you're going to see in this text, Jesus calls us to new days, pure and simple.
He has a new day in mind for us. He has a blank slate of grace in mind for us. And here's the thing, guys, this is not a passive experience.
It involves our active pursuit of the Lord. It involves our active engagement of our faith when we do the hard work and hear that, the hard work of facing and smashing our idols, when we learn to see and experience our total dependence on Jesus and when we put rhythms in life to help us remember the cross, we will see Jesus change our hearts.
We will see real sanctification. We will step into the new day
[00:08:43] Speaker B: God has for us. Pray with me and let's jump into this text. Jesus, I just want to thank you so much for this morning.
I thank you for how you love us and how you care for us.
Jesus, I thank you that you are the one who actually envisions a good and right and wonderful future for us.
That you care about us enough to see us in our neediness and to call us to freedom, to redemption, to life.
Jesus, I want to pray this morning that you would push past the discomfort many of us are going to feel as our idols are picked at.
That you would not allow us to just zone out and start thinking about the rest of our day to avoid the discomfort of being convicted again. I pray that you would push through those things, Lord, and in your grace you would prick us afraid fresh that we might come to a place of genuine repentance, that we might come to a place of genuine freedom. Lord, I pray that you would break through in the hearts of Emmanuel Fellowship today.
You would draw us to life.
You would draw us to you.
We need you for this God Spirit, you are the only one who can do this work in our hearts. So we pray this in your name, Jesus.
Amen.
[00:10:08] Speaker A: First Samuel, chapter seven. Starting in the first verse we read this.
So the people of Kiriath Jearim, that's
[00:10:16] Speaker B: why you go to seminary, came for
[00:10:19] Speaker A: the Ark of the Lord and took
[00:10:21] Speaker B: it to Abinadab's house on the hill.
They have good Italian food there.
[00:10:26] Speaker A: They consecrated his son Eleazar to take care of it. I will stop at the commentary, I promise. Time went by. 20 years had passed since the Ark had been taken to Kiriath Jearim. Then the whole house of Israel longed for the Lord.
[00:10:41] Speaker B: Samuel told them, if you return to
[00:10:43] Speaker A: the Lord, with all your heart, get rid of your foreign gods and the
[00:10:46] Speaker B: Ashtoreths that are among you.
[00:10:48] Speaker A: Set your hearts on the Lord and worship only Him. Then he will rescue you from the Philistines.
So the Israelites removed the Baals and
[00:10:57] Speaker B: the Ashtoreths and only worshiped the Lord.
[00:11:01] Speaker A: Okay, so just as a reminder, we're stepping into an ongoing narrative here. This is during the era of the Judges, right? When Israel is not unified into a whole people, yet they really still see themselves and identify themselves by each tribe and each tribe's identity. And they have been languishing under poor spiritual leadership for years. At this point, if you remember where we've been working through this book, we saw how Eli the priest and his son sons led Israel to be far from the Lord.
They were really bad priests.
So much so that when the Philistines threatened them, they had broken their covenant so severely that God not only refused to give Israel victory in battle, but he allowed them to suffer a major loss.
And he allowed his ark to be taken by the Philistines as a war trophy.
This wasn't the end of the story.
Like God used even this terrible happening
[00:12:00] Speaker B: to make his glory known.
[00:12:01] Speaker A: He brought down judgment on the sins of the Philistines. And after seven months, even though they thought they like they were the victors, they actually ended up sending the ark back to Israel with a guilt offering for their own sin. Like they were walking in repentance while Israel was in rebellion. And you would think the ark miraculously showing back up on its own with
[00:12:20] Speaker B: a guilt offering from their enemies would
[00:12:22] Speaker A: like be a turning point for Israel, but it actually isn't. They'd strayed so far from him in their own sin that even when the ark returned, they didn't know what to do with it. Even the Levites didn't know what to do with it. And they ended up bringing down more of God's judgment upon them.
And this is where our text picks up.
The Levites send the ark away to a place called Kiriath Jearim, because there they find a family of priests who are actually willing to take care of the Ark.
Remember the the entire Levite tribe is set aside for caretaking the ark and administrating the worship.
And they had to send it to a different city to find Levites who were willing to do the job they were born for.
[00:13:09] Speaker B: It's sorrowful, it's interesting.
And here's the thing, guys, it stays here a long time.
[00:13:16] Speaker A: It says that this house, the single
[00:13:18] Speaker B: house for more than 20 years, the
[00:13:21] Speaker A: tabernacle has been destroyed, Shiloh has been
[00:13:23] Speaker B: ransacked, and they just don't have it in them as a people to rebuild and reestablish proper temple worship. So they just don't.
They just don't.
[00:13:34] Speaker A: Our text picks up 20 years later.
[00:13:38] Speaker B: The ark has been sitting in this home, being cared for by this family of priests.
[00:13:43] Speaker A: And I think what's interesting here is that the author, I think, wants us to focus. Here's the thing.
[00:13:48] Speaker B: It's going to stay there longer than 20 years.
[00:13:49] Speaker A: It actually is going to stay at this house until David is king and
[00:13:53] Speaker B: he brings it to Jerusalem, which will happen way later in the book.
[00:13:57] Speaker A: But I think what the author wants
[00:13:58] Speaker B: us to catch here in these first
[00:14:00] Speaker A: 20 years, even though God himself has
[00:14:03] Speaker B: returned to Israel, Israel isn't interested in returning to God.
But after 20 years, something shifts.
[00:14:12] Speaker A: The text says all the house of
[00:14:15] Speaker B: Israel lamented after the Lord.
There's some discussion on this in the commentaries, but the implication, it seems to be that during these 20 years, Samuel was faithfully engaging his prophetic ministry that was described earlier in the book, calling on Israel to repent and turn to the Lord. And it just took 20 years for that ministry to bear enough fruit to see a real corporate shift in the people. Can we stop just right there for a second?
That it took 20 years of ministry for there to be enough shift to move the needle?
Sometimes gospel ministry takes time.
Sometimes real repentance takes time.
This is not our main point today,
[00:15:05] Speaker A: but I think it's worth sitting for
[00:15:06] Speaker B: a moment and thinking in your own heart for the people you love, the people you long to see them turn to Christ and to just consider.
You might need to think about that relationship in terms of decades, not weeks or months or years.
Because sometimes it takes a while.
Those friends, those co workers, those kids, those grandkids.
If you made that shift, what would change, right?
If you gave yourself the freedom to think of that missional relationship in terms of decades, what might shift in the grace you brought to that person?
One commenter called this season in Israel's history a spiritual slow cooker.
I like that.
Because often real repentance takes time.
And here's the thing, guys, it's good to stop and consider those that we're praying over and how we need to consider those relationships and how long term those investments might be. But here's the reality. All of us have some repenting to do. Amen.
All of us.
We've all got something to do.
[00:16:19] Speaker A: And if we think about our own story I think we can relate to the truth that a lot of times it takes some time, Right.
I think that raises a really good question. Why?
Why is it so hard to actually look upon our own sin and failures with sobriety and just respond, why is that so difficult?
[00:16:41] Speaker B: It's appropriate, by the way, to consider this question in the season of Lent if you've been working through our church diva with us, which, by the way, we have a few more back there if you didn't grab one.
I was struck by that question that first week. Tripp, who writes it, he locked into this theme a good amount. Taking time to consider our own sin, to look it square in the face with sobriety and see just how much we need the cross, right? How that's actually a gift to us. It's actually why we do that as a church, not just because we're locked into some tradition, because it's an important thing. Tripp calls this kind of self reflection. He calls it sitting in the shadow of the cross.
And he encourages us to engage with seasons like that, to engage what they have to offer.
[00:17:24] Speaker A: He says, among other things, that sitting
[00:17:26] Speaker B: in the shadow of the cross, it teaches us who we are, reminds us what we need, and more importantly, it teaches us who God is, the kind of God we worship.
[00:17:37] Speaker A: And listen, if you're reading the book,
[00:17:39] Speaker B: you know this, right? Like, he says it in a really pretty way because he's an author and he does the thing authors do.
[00:17:45] Speaker A: But ultimately, this is digging at what
[00:17:47] Speaker B: the Bible calls godly sorrow.
[00:17:51] Speaker A: In his second letter to the Corinthians,
[00:17:53] Speaker B: Paul has this moment where he's talking about how he's had to call this church out on their sin and how he was actually really worried about it. He was anxious about calling them out because he was burdened that it would break their relationship and he didn't know how they would respond to him. He's burdened over the conflict that it caused. And he says this.
This is in chapter seven, verse eight.
[00:18:14] Speaker A: But even if I grieved you with
[00:18:15] Speaker B: my letter, I don't regret it.
[00:18:18] Speaker A: And if I regretted it, since I
[00:18:19] Speaker B: saw the letter grieved you yet only for a little while, I now rejoice
[00:18:25] Speaker A: not because you were grieved, but because your grief led to repentance.
For you were grieved as God willed. You had a godly grief, so you didn't experience any loss from us. For godly grief produces repentance that leads to salvation without regret.
[00:18:46] Speaker B: But worldly grief produces death.
There's more than one kind of sorrow. Amen.
And if you're a parent, you know that's true, right?
[00:18:59] Speaker A: There's a difference between being sorry that you're in trouble and being sorry that you did wrong.
It's two different things.
For Israel in our text, there's a difference between them missing the blessings of God's covenant and them mourning the loss of God's presence.
Paul reminds us of the difference between godly and worldly.
[00:19:23] Speaker B: Sorrow is shown in the fruit of the sorrow.
When we think about our own lives, especially in this time of Lent, the question to ask ourselves is, when you consider your own sin, what kind of sorrow do you experience?
Paul says that godly sorrow leads us to repentance, leads us to salvation, leaves us with no regrets.
That's a bold statement.
So what's the difference between, in our lives, between this kind of freeing God
[00:19:56] Speaker A: honoring sorrow and the kind of worldly
[00:19:59] Speaker B: grief that Paul says leads to death?
Well, the answer is very clear in our text.
It has to do with your relationship with your idols.
Your relationship with your idols.
Samuel's ministry in this season of Israel's history. It's summarized in our text as a
[00:20:17] Speaker A: command to put away your foreign gods,
[00:20:21] Speaker B: reject your idols and turn to God alone.
And then you'll find protection. You'll find the new days you seek.
And it mentions two specific gods that Israel is turning to. BAAL and Asher. And we know about these. They. They exist pretty extensively in the archaeological record. BAAL is a storm God. Ashrath is his spouse. One of his spouses.
And they. They're pretty brutal.
The cult around them is incredibly violent. Sexualized. It involves ritualized prostitution.
It involves child sacrifice.
Ashrath was considered a fertility goddess. And one of the ways you could secure her favor for rich fertility was to sacrifice your firstborn to her.
A lie. It's pretty brutal.
[00:21:08] Speaker A: God says, reject these idols.
[00:21:10] Speaker B: Cast them away.
Get rid of the Asherah poles and the altars to balance.
And here's the thing, guys.
[00:21:17] Speaker A: I'm just going to be real when I say this.
[00:21:18] Speaker B: I don't know about you, but it is easy for me to stand in judgment of these ancient Israelites, right?
[00:21:27] Speaker A: How could you possibly turn to BAAL
[00:21:31] Speaker B: and Asherah when you have Yahweh, you.
[00:21:34] Speaker A: You have God supernaturally intervening in your history.
He freed your ancestors from slavery. He. He split the Red Sea.
[00:21:42] Speaker B: He.
[00:21:43] Speaker A: He fed you guys in the wilderness.
[00:21:44] Speaker B: He.
[00:21:45] Speaker A: He gives you military victory. He cares for you.
[00:21:47] Speaker B: He.
[00:21:48] Speaker A: He does all these things.
And you're going to turn to these two random statues that require you to Kill your kids that require you to sell your children into sexual slavery and prostitution.
[00:22:06] Speaker B: How the heck does that make sense?
Easy to stand in judgment of them, right to go, what?
[00:22:11] Speaker A: What idiots.
That you would turn to statues of wood and stone when God himself lives among you.
Easy to look down our noses at the idolatry of the ancient Israelites.
[00:22:24] Speaker B: But here's the problem, guys. The reality is that it is love.
[00:22:29] Speaker A: Hear this church love of idols that
[00:22:34] Speaker B: keeps all of us from godly sorrow and real repentance.
And it is the same for us as it is for them.
[00:22:43] Speaker A: Easy to look down our noses at them.
But Samuel's command is for us.
[00:22:48] Speaker B: Beloved, cast away your foreign gods and listen. If you think for a minute that just because you don't have a shrine in your house with some little statues that you don't have idols, you need to pause for a minute because you do.
You do.
[00:23:07] Speaker A: You have things that have your love,
[00:23:10] Speaker B: that have your affection, that you have convinced yourself will give you the stability and joy and freedom in life that you long for.
Idols come in two basic categories.
Sins that we love grab ahold of some sin pattern that makes you feel good in the moment, that makes you feel what you want to feel, that feels like it's meeting the need that God says he'll mean.
And then non sinful things, good things that God has put in our life with a context. But we take them and put them in the place of God.
That's the two main categories that idols sit.
One kind is inherently sinful. Has to be rejected purely out of hat right.
If you make an idol out of sexual immorality, then you just need to repent of it.
[00:23:55] Speaker A: One kind of idol is a good thing.
[00:23:58] Speaker B: We've tried to make an ultimate thing.
Sex is a good example of that. Also has a good design from God. But you can make it into something idolatrous and destructive. The problem is both are the same problem.
It's the same problem because an idol is. Anytime we look to anything other than God to give our hearts, the protection, the satisfaction, the fulfillment that only God can give us.
So when we depend on lesser things for our ultimate needs, and here's the
[00:24:32] Speaker A: plain truth that we don't like to
[00:24:35] Speaker B: hear that is painful, but is so necessary.
[00:24:40] Speaker A: Beloved, I guarantee if we had the
[00:24:43] Speaker B: ability to take your heart and put it up on the screen, we would see your idols.
Because you have them and I have them.
We all have them.
One reformer said that our hearts are factories for idols.
Think of the I Love Lucy scene with the chocolate.
Except it's blasphemy.
It's how our hearts are, all of us.
And you need to hear this, beloved.
You can't have it both ways.
[00:25:15] Speaker A: You don't get both.
You cannot. You cannot have God and your idols.
[00:25:25] Speaker B: He won't share you.
He loves you too much to share you.
He won't take it that way.
You belong to him.
[00:25:34] Speaker A: He loves you. He made you. He wants the best for you. And he will not content himself to your seconds and your leftovers.
God desires all of you.
He's not okay with you languishing in brokenness and sin.
He wants to see you flourish.
You cannot hear this, beloved. You cannot walk into God's new day for you while simultaneously clutching on to the idols of your old way of life.
[00:26:11] Speaker B: Paul calls this wearing filthy rags while God is holding out a perfect new, brand new set of tailored clothes for you.
Faithfulness doesn't mean adding Jesus to your life. It means subtracting the things that compete with him.
Beloved, there's only one thing to do with an idol.
Only one thing idols are good for
[00:26:36] Speaker A: is to go Hulk mode. Idols are for smashing.
That's what they're for.
[00:26:40] Speaker B: Hulk smash. Find your idols and Hulk smash.
[00:26:43] Speaker A: That's what they are for. You break it. You tear it down from its shelf and you smash it on the ground.
The sins you idolize, learn to hate them.
[00:26:54] Speaker B: To hate them.
[00:26:56] Speaker A: The good things that you've elevated and,
[00:26:58] Speaker B: I think good things. Your marriage, your kids, your sex life, your success, your finances.
[00:27:05] Speaker A: Tear them down, smash them to bits so they might live in their proper place in your life.
They are not worth building your life
[00:27:14] Speaker B: around because you, beloved, cannot have the gospel of Jesus and your idols.
You must ask yourself, which do you actually want?
Do you want Christ? Do you want life? Do you want freedom? Do you want fulfillment? Do you want the abundance that Jesus promises for you?
Then you must smash your idols because
[00:27:35] Speaker A: he won't have you split.
He doesn't want that.
[00:27:40] Speaker B: Beloved, we must sit in this truth.
[00:27:44] Speaker A: Godly repentance will always look like something.
It involves real life change. It involves smashing idols. It means actually changing your life to put off the old way of life, to put on the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Take that idol, whatever it is. Beloved, I beg you, take that idol and expose it to the light.
Confess it.
Let your spouse, your community, your pastors know my heart loves this idol, and I need to smash it. And I don't want to because I love it.
[00:28:22] Speaker B: You need to know it will almost certainly take help.
[00:28:26] Speaker A: It is very rare Very rare that
[00:28:29] Speaker B: we smash our idols on our own, in isolation.
[00:28:32] Speaker A: You need help.
You need to bring it into the light.
[00:28:38] Speaker B: You'll likely fight repentance in your own heart.
You know why?
Because the only reason you have that idol here, this church, is because you love it.
You love it.
That's embarrassing to admit. That's why we don't like the idea of our heart being exposed on the screens for everyone to see.
But that idol is your idol because you love it.
And being told that you should hate it and you should smash it and you should not submit to it, that's painful.
And your heart will fight it.
So you need to bring it to the light.
You need to ask brothers and sisters to come alongside you.
You need to know that you're going to take three steps forward and two steps back.
You need to know that you're going to have seasons where you are the prodigal and you run from God and you. You reject him and run back to your idols and love them.
You need to know that.
You need to know that your community and your pastors, that we will walk with you as you slowly fight the good fight to walk in holiness.
But that's what it is.
It's a slow slog of a fight for most of us.
But you need to know this, beloved. Idols need smashing.
That's what they need.
They don't. They don't deserve to have that reverence in your life because hear this, beloved. They're nothing.
They're nothing.
It was almost easier for the believers in the Old Testament because they were able to point out and go, that's a. That's a. That's a wood statue. Some dude carved that.
That's not God. He's not going to help you.
But we've done ourselves the disservice of abstracting our gods, and we go, well, really, you know, I worship pleasure and contentment, unity in my family, joy and peace, freedom from anxiety. That's what I worship.
It's a lot easier to bend our lives around those things because we're not taking a little statue and putting it on a shelf in our room.
But it is just as empty of an idol.
And if you don't Believe me, take 10 minutes on the Internet to look at the most wealthy, successful people on earth.
The ones who have access to every resource, the ones who can have any relationship they want, buy anything they want, have any house they want, take any vacation they want, hire any doctor they want, go to any therapy than they
[00:31:11] Speaker A: want, who have every single resource available to them. And look, just percentage wise, how many
[00:31:16] Speaker B: of them are well adjusted and full of life and fulfillment and joy, right?
Idols are for smashing.
They will not deliver you.
You may think they will. You do think they will, or you wouldn't idolize them.
But they won't.
It's an empty promise.
Beloved, if you want Jesus, if you're here today and you miss Jesus, if
[00:31:45] Speaker A: you think about your own testimony and your story and times when you were just walking in, tons of freedom and joy and you go, man, I just miss those days.
[00:31:54] Speaker B: Beloved, you must smash your idols. They have to go.
They have to go.
I promise you they're not going to go into heaven with you.
They're not going to cross that threshold.
So let go of them. Here.
Our text tells us the Israelites have been so long for the presence of the Lord. Their hearts longed for Him. They missed him. They wanted his love and his presence.
Their sorrow in their isolation has led them to see their sin for what it is.
[00:32:23] Speaker A: And it's allowed them to see their idols for what they were.
[00:32:25] Speaker B: And they smashed them.
[00:32:27] Speaker A: Hear this church.
[00:32:28] Speaker B: It took 20 years, but they smashed them.
This is what happens when we sit in the shadow of the cross.
We see ourselves, we, we see our idols if we see our God.
Read on with me. Verse 5.
[00:32:44] Speaker A: Samuel said, Gather all Israel of Mizpah and I will pray to the Lord on your behalf. When they gathered at Mizpah, they drew water and poured it out in the Lord's presence. They fasted that day and there they confessed, we have sinned against the Lord. And Samuel judged the Israelites at Mizpah. When the Pharisees heard that the Israelites had gathered at Mizpah, their rulers marched up toward Israel. When the Israelites heard about it, they were afraid because of the Philistines. And the Israelites said to Samuel, don't stop crying out to the Lord our God for us so that he will save us from the Philistines. And Samuel took a young lamb and offered it as a whole burnt offering to the Lord. And he cried out to the Lord on behalf of Israel.
[00:33:20] Speaker B: And the Lord answered him.
[00:33:22] Speaker A: Samuel was offering the burnt offering as the Philistines approached to fight against Israel. And the Lord thundered loudly against the Philistines that day and threw them into such confusion that they were defeated by Israel. Then the men of Israel charged out of Mizpah and pursued the Philistines, striking them down all the way to the
[00:33:40] Speaker B: place below Beth Car.
As the sorrow of the Israelites was A godly sorrow. They longed for the Lord, they were
[00:33:48] Speaker A: doing the work of smashing their idols. They were seeking the Lord. And as the Bible repeats over and over and over and over, when you seek the Lord, he meets you, period.
Samuel calls the leadership of Israel to a specific place for a specific moment
[00:34:06] Speaker B: of corporate and national repentance and restoration of covenant. And they gather and they confess and they fast and Samuel ministered to them.
[00:34:15] Speaker A: It's a. It's a powerful picture of what the
[00:34:17] Speaker B: Spirit of God can do in people.
[00:34:19] Speaker A: But notice, notice how this, this text points out that the people, the leaders,
[00:34:23] Speaker B: were pouring out water in the Lord's presence.
That's something that doesn't translate super easy into English, but culturally, this is a contextual way of expressing dependence.
[00:34:34] Speaker A: This is their way of saying that their work was not enough, that even though they had smashed their idols, even though they had shown up, even though they had seek, they were seeking the Lord, even though they were fasting, even though they were repenting that it was not enough on their own to create their own righteousness and restore their covenant. They needed God to intervene for them. They were needy on of him, a dependence on Him.
And look what happens in verse 7.
Word makes it back to the Philistines
[00:35:04] Speaker B: of the Israelites are having a national gathering in Mizpah.
[00:35:08] Speaker A: And they assume that this is the mustering of an army, so they send their own army. Now, here's the thing. We know as the reader that Israel specifically isn't here mustering an army, right?
This is families and leaders and kids fasting and worshiping. They are not prepared for battle.
[00:35:28] Speaker B: But when they realize what's happening, you know, they muster what force they can. But they have clear eyes on how hopeless this situation is. And here's the beautiful thing about this.
This is a physical picture in the
[00:35:41] Speaker A: story of what they've just been experiencing spiritually.
They poured out the water, they were living into the truth that they were spiritually helpless, that they needed God to intercede for their lives, to forgive them, to restore their coven. And that kind of humility results from real repentance, right? But now that spiritual reality has been placed in a physical form, in the. In the form of the Philistine army and its forefront in their experience.
They're facing down the barrel of an enemy's army and they are unprepared. They are helpless.
Long gone is the arrogant army of Israel thinking they can take the Ark as a token of power and defeat their enemies.
They are totally dependent on God's intervention.
Now here's the thing, as the reader you and I like, we know this
[00:36:26] Speaker B: has always been the case.
Israel rises and falls on God's intervention.
But in this moment, Israel knows that's true, that without a shadow of a doubt they are dependent on God. And look how they speak to Samuel. There's desperation, there's faith. Don't stop crying out to the Lord our God for us so that he will save us from the Philistines.
And Samuel prays in their behalf. And God listens. And look what God does.
He thunders his victory.
[00:36:59] Speaker A: He shows up supernaturally. He goes amongst the Philistines with the thunder of his glory and throws them into such fear and confusion that Israel, without any time to prepare routes their old enemy.
What I love about the scene is that Israel didn't win because they finally
[00:37:14] Speaker B: got their military act together.
They won because God rescued them.
[00:37:19] Speaker A: In their repentance, they sought out God with their whole heart.
[00:37:22] Speaker B: And they finally they have a mediator who prayed for them. Beloved, seeing your sin, facing your idols, doing the work of tearing them down, it will always show you your helplessness, show you how helpless you are.
And I've got terrible news for you, beloved. Many of you will not like hearing this, but you are needy.
You are.
You are insufficient to the task of your own righteousness.
[00:37:52] Speaker A: I don't care how holy you are.
I don't care how much church you do. I don't care how spiritually disciplined you are. You don't have it within you to free yourself from your idols and the curse of this world.
You can fight.
You should fight.
You can repent and turn from sin. You can call out your idols. You can smash them down. You should. But to find the freedom your heart longs for, you need rescue.
You need someone else to show up for you. You need someone to intercede. You need a mediator. And praise be to God that we have a better intercessor than the prophet Samuel. Because Jesus himself steps in between us and death, that he entered into a sinful and broken world. He lived a perfect life. He died an unjust death. He rose from the dead. And Hebrews 4 calls him the great high priest who has so interceded for us that in Christ we can approach God with confidence and boldness in our time of need, that he will be our rescue.
[00:38:54] Speaker B: Come on, church.
You have an amazing intercessor in Christ.
It is only Jesus that will deliver you into the new day your heart longs for. It is only Jesus to move forward in freedom. You need to recognize, even as you do the hard work of smashing your idols that you have an absolute dependence on the grace of God.
Praise be to God that Jesus is generous with his grace. Amen.
Let's end out this text.
[00:39:21] Speaker A: Verse 12.
[00:39:23] Speaker B: Afterwards, Samuel took a stone and set it upright between Mizpah and Shin, and
[00:39:28] Speaker A: he called it Ebenezer.
Explaining the Lord helped us to this point. So the Philistines were subdued and did not invade Israel's territory again. And the Lord's hand was against the Philistines all of Samuel's life. In the cities from Ekron to Gath, which had been taken from Israel, were restored. Israel even rescued their surrounding territories from Philistine control. There was also peace between Israel and the Amorites. And Samuel judged Israel throughout his life. Every year he would go on a circuit between Bethel and Gilgal and Mizpah and would judge Israel at all these locations. Then he would return to Ramah because his home was there. He judged Israel there, and he built
[00:40:04] Speaker B: an altar to the Lord there.
And this is the word of the Lord.
I love the way this text ends because it ends with a little bow tying it all together, right?
[00:40:14] Speaker A: And I know you guys don't have,
[00:40:15] Speaker B: like, your Bible atlas memorized, and most of those names were just like, okay names.
[00:40:20] Speaker A: But what he's saying is God in
[00:40:23] Speaker B: this moment, pushed the Philistines back and restored the territory that Israel had been living in before.
And then for the rest of Samuel's ministry, Israel lived at peace with the Philistines. And that Samuel traveled throughout the land offering ministry and sacrifice to the people.
It describes the rest of Samuel's lifetime of ministry.
And it all comes together really well.
[00:40:49] Speaker A: But if you look at verse 12, it says that Samuel set up a
[00:40:52] Speaker B: stone and called it Ebenezer.
This is a transliteration of the word Ebenezer means stone of remembrance.
It's a monument.
[00:41:02] Speaker A: And if that word sounds familiar, it's not just because you're thinking of Scrooge.
It's because a few chapters ago, the infamous battle where Eli's family line was cut down and the Ark was captured happened at a place called Ebenezer.
Evidently, someone had something really interesting happen in that place.
It set up a stone, and we have no idea what it was there for. But we know for the last 20 years, the word Ebenezer in Israelite history meant failure.
It was a monument to their broken covenant. It was a monument to God's glory departing Israel.
It was a monument how far they were from him.
[00:41:43] Speaker B: And so in this day, after this battle, Samuel Sets up a new Ebenezer, a new remembrance, a new monument. This time the remembrance is of God's faithful rescue.
[00:41:57] Speaker A: It's a memory of God's heart and
[00:41:59] Speaker B: how he forgives and how he draws Israel into new and better days. And here's the thing, beloved, there's a reason for this.
At the end of the day, we are forgetful people.
We do the work of smashing our idols. We approach God in repentance and dependence. We experience his loving, gracious salvation. But we still live in a sinful and broken world.
[00:42:23] Speaker A: And every single one of us knows that.
[00:42:24] Speaker B: If you think about your own testimony,
[00:42:26] Speaker A: you think about your own life of faith, you have those moments of explosive connection with the Lord of spiritual breakthrough. And then you step back into the rhythms of life, right?
And you go back to work.
[00:42:38] Speaker B: And those same co workers are just as annoying.
[00:42:41] Speaker A: And you still have all the same emotional things you're working through. And your marriage is still what it is and your kids are still what they are and everything else is still the same. And you get to a point where
[00:42:51] Speaker B: you just forget how good God is.
[00:42:57] Speaker A: And you wake up one morning and
[00:42:58] Speaker B: you go, man, my faith feels stale, man, I am dragging myself. I'm really just going because I signed up to serving kids.
You should sign up to serving kids.
[00:43:11] Speaker A: But you get what I'm saying.
We all forget.
[00:43:16] Speaker B: Life is busy, life beats us up, life causes us to forget. We forget how good God is.
[00:43:23] Speaker A: We forget how empty our idols are.
[00:43:25] Speaker B: And eventually we find ourselves slowly putting them back up on their shelves.
Solomon said, that's like when a dog comes back and re eats his vomit.
We return to our old familiar practices.
We back ourselves up into old days and old problems.
We need help, beloved. We need to be reminded, we continually
[00:43:51] Speaker A: need to be drawn back to the
[00:43:52] Speaker B: truth, that sin is not worth it.
[00:43:54] Speaker A: Idols are empty, we're needy, and God is amazing.
[00:43:58] Speaker B: Amen.
We need Ebenezers in our faith and know this, beloved, your testimony is an Ebenezer, you should think back on your story. Think back on your life before Christ and the way Christ faithfully drew you
[00:44:12] Speaker A: to and whether your testimony is dramatic and you were the person who's like, oh, selling drugs to five year olds and like, then the Lord saved you and if that's you, like rock and
[00:44:21] Speaker B: roll
[00:44:23] Speaker A: or whether your testimony is boring, I don't know.
[00:44:26] Speaker B: I grew up in church, parents loved me, told me about Jesus.
[00:44:30] Speaker A: I went to vbs, said this sounds great. I sang a song, there was ABCs involved.
[00:44:35] Speaker B: And now I'm a Christian, you need to know something.
No matter what your story is, it's in Ebenezer, the God of the universe supernaturally intervened in your life and drew you from death to life. Beloved, you were the beloved of Christ.
The creator and sustainer of the universe sought you out.
Whether he sought you out as a 7 year old of VBS or a college kid blowing up his life, whatever the heck your story looks like, God sought you out and saved you.
That's an Ebenezer worth remembering.
[00:45:06] Speaker A: Your baptism is an Ebenezer. It's why we make a big deal out of it.
[00:45:10] Speaker B: You need to remember all those people
[00:45:12] Speaker A: standing around you saying, you are one of us.
You are in the family.
You were laid down with Christ in his death and raised up to walk in newness of life.
[00:45:23] Speaker B: You can look back on that rest
[00:45:25] Speaker A: in that truth that Christians, mature Christians looked at you and heard your story and said, yep, one of ours.
Communion is an Ebenezer.
We take communion often and it grounds us in the truth. The work of the cross is sufficient.
His death, his body, his blood. It's enough.
[00:45:45] Speaker B: Beloved, we need Ebenezers in our lives.
[00:45:49] Speaker A: Showing up to worship is an Ebenezer.
The rhythms you put in your life
[00:45:53] Speaker B: to connect with community, to connect in discipleship, these are Ebenezers.
[00:45:57] Speaker A: They're monuments. They're these moments in your life that force you to stop and remember the truth.
Sin is not worth it.
[00:46:05] Speaker B: The idols are powerless that you are needy.
But God is amazing.
It draws back to those truths over and over and over because we forget them and you can come back up.
[00:46:20] Speaker A: The truth is, beloved, we all need a new day.
[00:46:24] Speaker B: All of us. Every single one of us.
[00:46:25] Speaker A: You need a new day. Some of you need one, like right now.
Like some of you came in this
[00:46:31] Speaker B: room this morning going, I'm the one who's just showing up because it would be awkward if I didn't need a second chance or maybe like a 734th chance.
You've set those same idols back up over and over again.
You have failed in your own power
[00:46:50] Speaker A: over and over again.
[00:46:51] Speaker B: You're facing down the barrel of the consequences of your own decisions. Again, a lot of us convince ourselves we don't need a new day, or at least that we won't get one until heaven maybe.
And listen, heaven will be the ultimate new day for those of us who are in Christ.
Because Christ will return and he'll restore all things and your idols will be smashed and they won't go with you into heaven and you'll never need to remember that again because you will remember it.
That's beautiful.
[00:47:21] Speaker A: It's truth.
[00:47:24] Speaker B: But Jesus has a new day for you today, beloved.
[00:47:28] Speaker A: Too many of us, too many of us are taking stock of our own lives, our own patterns, our own failures. And we have just accepted, this is my life.
[00:47:41] Speaker B: I've struggled with this for decades.
[00:47:43] Speaker A: I just have this wound. This is my burden to bear. This broken relationship, this addictive idol, this escape I run to over and over. I'm going to keep having to deal with this until I die and Jesus takes me to heaven. You must know, beloved, that is not
[00:47:57] Speaker B: true unless you want it to be.
[00:48:02] Speaker A: That is not true.
We need to remember you today. Need to remember.
Not just any memory.
You need to remember the truth of the gospel.
The God's amazing heart of grace is for you, beloved.
Remember the cross.
Remember the price Christ paid for you. Remember the empty tomb because Jesus rose from the dead. Your past may describe you, but it doesn't get to define you.
The grace of Jesus has decided your future, beloved.
[00:48:42] Speaker B: You can live in them.
[00:48:44] Speaker A: This is why we do these three things.
This is why we engage our faith, why we do the hard work of smashing our idols and bringing them into the light and letting people know and walk alongside us. Like that's not fun.
But we do that because we believe the gospel, because we remember the truth, that Christ has life and freedom for us.
Because complacently accepting spiritual apathy and unhealth is not the abundant life that Christ wants for you on the cross, beloved.
He has more for you than that.
We do the hard work of facing our stories with sobriety, knowing that we're a sinner, knowing that we run to idols over and over, knowing that we're
[00:49:27] Speaker B: dependent on Christ because the gospel of
[00:49:30] Speaker A: Jesus is true and the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ is sufficient for
[00:49:36] Speaker B: the needs of your heart today, Belinda. It is.
And it may be a long battle and it may take a long stinking time, but, beloved, Jesus is bringing you into a new day.
He's calling you to that today.
[00:49:54] Speaker A: Solomon asks us, as we land out in the spirit of the season of
[00:49:58] Speaker B: Lent, right, to take a moment and reflect on your own heart.
[00:50:05] Speaker A: What idols in your life need to be smashed today?
[00:50:09] Speaker B: These may be the ones that you subtly put back on that shelf this morning, right?
What idols need to be smashed today?
Where do you need to be reminded of your utter dependence on Jesus? What ebenezers do you need to set
[00:50:24] Speaker A: up and dust off in your life so that you can remember the goodness of the gospel?
[00:50:28] Speaker B: Because, beloved, I promise you that Jesus has a new day for you.
Let's take a few moments in prayer.
[00:50:37] Speaker A: And when you've connected with the Lord
[00:50:38] Speaker B: in the way your heart needs, I would encourage those of you who are in Christ to step into one of those Ebenezers today to take communion, to celebrate the truth, the power of the cross to draw you from death to life.
I would encourage you and remind you, beloved, that when you take of the elements, his body broken, his blood poured out, the scripture says you are proclaiming his death until his return. And it's a Bible way of saying, the cross is sufficient for me and it's sufficient for you.
So when you're ready, those of you who are in Christ, you can come up and take the elements or you can raise your hand and Jim will bring him to you.
Let's meet with the Lord.
Let's celebrate the Gospel.
Let's sit in the shadow of the cross today, beloved, meet with the Lord in the way your heart needs.
