JUN 4 2017 | The Giant Series S1E4 | 1 Samuel 4:1-11 (Part 1)

Sea Change Church · The Giant Series S1E4 · "1 Samuel 4:1-11 (Part 1)" · Adam Stadtmiller · June 4, 2017
1 Samuel 4:1-11
Automated transcript. Not reviewed for accuracy.

1 Samuel chapter 4 verses 1 through 11 and the need of the people Israel to not just love the things of the Lord but the Lord himself. The word of Samuel came to all Israel. Now Israel went out to battle against the Philistines. They encamped at Ebenezer. The Philistines encamped at Aphek. The Philistines drew up in line against Israel and when the battle spread Israel was defeated before the Philistines who killed about 4,000 men on the field of battle.

When the people came to the camp the elders of Israel said why has the Lord defeated us today before the Philistines? Let's bring the ark of the covenant of the Lord here from Shiloh that it may come among us and it may save us from the power of our enemies. So the people sent to Shiloh and brought from there the ark of the covenant of the Lord of hosts who was enthroned on the cherubim.

The two sons of Eli, the priest, Hophni and Phinehas, were there with the ark of the covenant of God. And as soon as the ark of the covenant of God came into the camp, all Israel gave a mighty shout and the earth resounded and the Philistines heard the noise of the shouting. And they said, what does this great shouting in the camp of the Hebrews mean?

When they learned that the ark of the Lord had come into the camp, the Philistines were afraid for they said a God has come into the camp. And said, woe to us for nothing like this has happened before. Woe to us who can deliver us from the power of these mighty gods. These are the gods who struck the Egyptians with every sort of plague in the wilderness.

Take courage. Be men, O Philistines, lest you become slaves to the Hebrews as they have been to you. Be men and fight. So the Philistines fought and Israel was defeated and they fled. Every man to his home, there was a very great slaughter. 30,000 foot soldiers of Israel fell. And the ark of God was captured. And the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, died.

This is the word of the Lord. We give thanks to God and we listen well. Well, good morning, church. Good to see you all. Jim is helping me kind of clear the pulpit of its fodder. We are back now after an amazing Pentecost preparation Sunday last week with Elliot. What a great job. And it was a special, I think, time for the church where about 200 of us came forward to say, I want more of the Holy Spirit.

You know, a lot of times when you see people pressing into the spirit, they're looking for fireworks. And I've seen some Holy Spirit fireworks in my day. Trust me, I was in a Pentecostal church for a while. I can live in, I mean, I can almost live in any expression of true Christianity and the faith. I kind of can just figure it out. But I've definitely seen some Holy Spirit fireworks.

I can blow the shofar with the best of them, pour the oil, dance the jig, whatever it takes. You're just looking at me. Nonetheless, there is something powerful that happens, I think, that when a group of people together say, we want more of the Spirit. We want to come forward and we want to ask for more of the Holy Spirit in our lives. And that happened here last weekend.

And I am excited to see what God is going to do with that giant yes. God is really into unity. We see that in the scripture, that unity in your marriage, unity in your family, unity in your business, unity in your church are things that are difficult to have sometimes. And unity is something that God is a platform for the work of God in the world and in the church.

And so having that kind of unity is powerful. We're in the giant series and looking at the things that stop us from living a Spirit-filled life, a life that is excited, a life that is peaceful, a life with margin, and a life with an intimacy with God. And so we're looking again at Israel as a nation. Now, let me just take you back and tell you a few things that have happened so far.

The book of 1 Samuel is where we are and we're using it as a mirror or as a context to be able to look at our own lives. Israel faced a lot of giants. The Philistines were just some of the giants that they would face. Sin and a sinful priestly culture was another one. And an inability to have a relationship with God. Who are you looking for, Kim?

Great. So we can... Fantastic. I've got to get a number system or something. I better hit the start button here. And so as we look at, we've seen a few things that have happened with Israel. The first is some people that come on the scene. So you remember the first giant that was faced was Hannah. Hannah wasn't the giant, but she had a giant of purpose, wanting to have a son.

And she got to a place in her life where she stood up. And there was that powerful verse where she stood up and she went and she had it out with God. And she left the place of God, not having the answer that she wanted, but with a firm commitment and a firm peace of whatever God wishes is what I am okay with. I often say in our prayer times that I'm just loose change in God's pocket.

Spend me as you wish. Stole that from John Wimber. And so Hannah has a son. She ends up having a son. It becomes Samuel. Samuel is taken and dedicated to the Lord and he becomes a priest of Israel. We're going to look at him today. Because there was a massive contrast. There was a big exception between the sons of Eli, who was kind of the head priest at Shiloh at the time.

And this little, you know, ruddy boy. That's what they call David. But I think Samuel was the same way. Who was able to have an exceptional life with God. And I say it was exceptional, not because of all the amazing things that he did. Because it stood in stark contrast to what was going on in the priestly culture around him. Israel had lost the ability to experience God.

They'd lost the ability to live within his presence. And there was actually a verse early on in this first book where it says, But the lamp of the Lord had what? Not gone out. And so the lamp of the Lord basically symbolized the fire that God wants to have upon his people. Now you see that God is a consuming fire. You see as he moved Israel around before this time that there was a fire that would be burned.

But now there's just a little tiny lamp. Somebody gave me a candle recently. And we're coming to the end of our candle. You know what I like when you get a nice candle? Like I'm not into the Marshalls candles. You know, like the vanilla is a little bit too strong. You know what I'm saying? But somebody spent some money on a really fragrant candle for us.

And we have just burned the heck out of it. But now it's getting and it's just kind of sputtering. And there's just a little bit left. This is what had happened with Israel. And I guess I have to, I guess if we're going to use this to juxtapose against our life, the question is if you were to look at your life and the fire of God in your life, and I don't mean by fire of God, that you're out running around the streets and prophesying, you know, eating locusts in the wilderness.

I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about a presence of God in your life where you're experiencing the presence. Where would you say it is? Would you say, you know, it's just that little candle that's barely going out? Or would you say that there's a healthy fire burning? One thing I know about fires is they need to be tended. Do you ever go to a cabin?

Do you ever light a fire? We don't do much of it around here. But fires, like anything, need to be tended. And one of the things that we're going to see today is that Samuel tended the fire of the Lord. That was his job. He was there. He was, as a boy, was in front of the candle, in front of the fire of the Lord. And his whole job was to tend the presence of God.

Now, once again, looking at it as a contrast in your life, what are you doing to tend the presence of God, to cultivate a culture of God's spirit in your life? Now, we did that today in the service. We took some time to say, hey, you know, Spirit, you're welcome here. We're going to take a moment just to hang out and to be in your presence. One of the things that we have to be careful of is that we don't lead a life of spiritual activity that is not backed up with spiritual intimacy.

Now, here, if you look in your notes, you're going to see something as the main course. If you want to know what I said today, this is what I'm going to say in a roundabout way. Anyway, part of spiritual maturity is knowing the difference between spiritual activity and spiritual intimacy. And I added a caveat there, coupled with obedience. I believe that spiritual intimacy oftentimes is sparked by obedience to God.

That if you want to know what the starting blocks of intimacy are with God, it oftentimes is spiritual obedience. Saying yes to God. When God is laying something on your heart, hey, I need you to, I want you to do this, or I want you to stop doing that, to say, God, you know, at least get me to the place where I want to stop doing that. That's a great prayer.

You know, a lot of times we come to church and we're told, you know, you got to quit immediately. If you don't quit immediately, then, you know, you got no place here. Come back when you're ready. And there's some places where Jesus says things like that. I remember I was getting sober in the 80s, and Pastor Dave Dignall, great guy. I was 19 years old and I came to church and I was still smoking a ton back then.

I was kind of a weekend smoker, but I wasn't, you know, I'd gotten sober, but I was still smoking. And I came to church and I, you know, I'd go hide around the back, smoke a cigarette and come back. And I remember after two weeks, I'm like, hey, I just, I can't, I can't be here anymore. I just, I'll, you know, I'm just not ready. He goes, you know what?

Don't let that stop you. He goes, you know, don't smoke on campus. He said, I knew a guy, you know, it took him two years. God finally took that out of his life. And he said, you just keep coming back. Just keep showing up. Just keep showing up. You know, it was that word of grace probably of why I'm here today. Had Dave, and I don't know for sure, but had Dave said to me, you know what, bro?

Yeah, give me that red pack, you know, those Marlboros, you know, give them to me. And if you ever smoke another one, then you can't, you know, you're banished. You are anathema from the church. I don't know if I'd be here today. Dave said, you just keep coming back. Not that he was okay with me living in addiction to that thing, but that he was giving me space and margin to come to a place where I can start cultivating a presence of God and saying, God, stop that.

And I actually got to the place, it wasn't too much longer, where I just said, you know, that's not the way I want to live. And God took that from my life. So I would say to you that part of cultivating and cultivating a culture of the spirit in your life, what does that look like? Does it look like waking up in the morning and saying, spirit, I just welcome you.

I'm going to take two minutes on my knees before I get out of bed. Or is it a prayer at night? You do, you create it. It's kind of like, you know, you know, DIY, you know, do it, do it DIY, right? Whatever it is, you know, I just hire people. Okay. So I don't know. It's kind of like do it yourself. God knows you are, but find a way that you are cultivating the presence of God in your life.

And so one of the things you want to be careful of is not doing a bunch of spiritual activity and having no presence. And this is where Israel was. A lot of spiritual stuff, a lot of sacrifices, a lot of running around the altar, a lot of loud, lofty prayers, but no presence. You see, there's a big difference between spiritual activity, whooping up people into spiritual activity, and having the actual presence of God.

One of the things I really want to be careful about as I lead here is providing a place where you can come and actually meet God. There's been, I've been a part of them myself. Many church cultures where we do tons of stuff, and there's a payoff of doing a lot of stuff. You feel like you've done something. It gives you a pressure valve. Oh, I went on a trip to Mexico, and those are great things.

Or I did this, or I did that. But did you actually come in contact with the presence of God? You want to know what the hardest thing about the presence of God has been for me? The intimacy. Because I am a person, and because we were raised in a family that took us a while. My mom is definitely, that was one of her giants, and is over that now. She's incredible at hugs and all this, and our culture is so dramatically different than 1974 when I was in kindergarten, but we just didn't have intimacy.

It just wasn't on the menu of what we had. And so that has always been foreign to me. And so intimacy with God. I'll get in a moment with God, and I'll feel like he's kind of showing up. I'll be like, I've got to bounce. I don't know if anybody else feels that way. But to sit with God like, hey, can I really trust you? You know, I don't know if anybody else has it, but I definitely have trust issues with the Holy Spirit.

I will be there, and I'll be like, you know, this is just enough. And I tend to want to continue to prune back the Spirit in my life so that it will never blossom. Let me say that again. I will tend to the Spirit so much that I will never allow it to fully blossom because I have a hard time trusting that he's actually going to lead me where I actually want to go or that he has a better plan than I have.

And so one of these things for me is to develop a culture that says you're free to work in my life within the bounds of Scripture. Let's move on here quickly now as we look at Samuel. Samuel was living an exceptional life. One of the things we see is that the word in verse 1, let's just start tearing the Scripture apart. Verse 1, and the word of Samuel came to who?

All of Israel. So we know that the word, if you go back one chapter to the end of chapter 3, that the word of the Lord was coming to Samuel, and not one of his words fell to the ground. This is the difference between a New Testament prophet and an Old Testament prophet. And I can't get into all that, but in the Old Testament, every single thing you said had to stand.

It was, you were a prophet. It was capital P with prophecy. I believe there's been a bit of a shift. We can talk about that on another day. But none of his words fell to the ground. And not only did he receive a word for himself, he was so in touch with the Spirit of God, the presence of God, which ushered in the voice of God, that he had extra to go around.

He was able to nourish those around him because of the presence of God in his life. I've got to say, this is what is powerful about the overflow when Jesus talks about the abundance of the Spirit. I think Elliot talked about it last week. This everlasting waters, this abundant waters, to have enough to go around. I ask myself all the time, and I ask you, do you have any scraps from your table?

Meaning, do you have enough Spirit in your life? Do you have enough of Christ's culture in your life? Do you have enough joy to offer anything beyond yourself? Or are we just trying to survive? I say that's the hardest thing sometimes, is living in a life that when we are cultivating things, perhaps an obsession with social media, an obsession with the media, an obsession with things that are not godly, when we begin to cultivate things that resist the Spirit of God's overflow in our lives.

I want to say that Samuel was living an exceptional life because he had above and beyond what he needed for himself. He was living in a place that nourished an entire nation. That's powerful. That is exceptional. And I believe that God wants to do that in our lives. We're not just meant to have a spiritual life so we can barely make it through.

Just getting our mouth above the water to get a little sip before we go under again. Now there are seasons of that, obviously. And if you're in that season, I think the Lord says, Hey, if you can just keep walking through the valley, I'll be there with you. But we're not supposed to constantly live in that place. So he was leading an exceptional life.

He had a knowledge and an understanding. Now look what Jesus says in Matthew about having the word of the Lord. Jesus replied in Matthew 13, 11, where the Spirit now expands. It's not just guys like Samuel that have the knowledge of the kingdom that they have to share with everybody. It can be the common believer. And like Eliot said, the devil was like, Oh my gosh, we have an issue here.

Now it's not just one Jesus. It's Jesus and 5,000. It's Jesus and everyone who has the Spirit within them. Jesus says this. Because, following on a text he had been speaking on, because the knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them. He was speaking about the parables. This is what is so interesting. Jesus says, and this is a promise, that he will give you knowledge of the secrets of heaven.

How low is our bar sometimes on how much we want to know from God? I just, God, how am I going to make, how am I going to, should I go left, should I go right? I don't know, should I do this? Like, how low, I mean, how low is the bar of what you want to know? Because Jesus wants to give you, the Spirit has the ability, because it's eternal. It lives in the mind of God.

And it says in the scripture that the mind of God, the Spirit, takes the thoughts of God and translates them unto us. That what about, what if you began to ask God, show me some of the mysteries of the universe? Now I'm not talking about getting into some kind of universalism, spiritualism, where we divine our own, you know, experience. But that God has something to tell you about his creation.

That God has something to tell you about you that is outside just your normal existence of how am I going to make it through the week. That is a powerful verse. He says, I've given you parables so you can understand what the heck's happening in culture. If you understood what was happening in our culture right now, the way Jesus understands it, you would take a really big breath and be at complete peace.

Let me say that again. If you were to understand what Jesus sees happening in our culture and in the world right now, the way that he sees it and the way that he's going to orchestrate it, you would chill out a little bit. We would chill out a little bit. But we get so angst-driven to be, you know, a captive to the moment, to be a prisoner to the tyranny of the moment.

I want to say that God wants to pull you back a little bit, even if it's something that's happening in your own personal family, and say, hey, let me show you a little something more. How low is your bar? Begin to ask God and say, Jesus, show me the secrets then. Show me the secrets. I want to have a deeper knowledge. Now, obviously, once again, a caveat, because we are a conservative biblical church here, to say that anything God tells you has to line up with scripture, okay?

So let's just, you know, stick there. But where is that bar? Samuel was living an exceptional life. A life of spiritual intimacy, more than activity, has knowledge beyond what you need. Let me say that again. A life of spiritual intimacy, beyond just spiritual activity, has more knowledge than you need. More knowledge and understanding than you need for your life.

It is an abundance. It is living in the next level. God, show me what you are doing. Show me what is happening. I want to say, God wants, I believe that the Spirit wants to give you more knowledge than we are sometimes wanting to focus on on just our own lives.