1st Samuel CH 12

Recap Ch 11

In ch 11 we saw Saul’s first battle happen as King of Israel and He was successful

they wiped them out it says to the point of being scattered and that there wasn’t even two of them together

vs 13-15 of chapter 11 Saul HAs proven Himself as the King and as someone the Lord anointed to be the King

His victory was not His victory , it was Gods victory

in vs 10 Some of Saul’s men had lied to the Ammonites telling them that they would come out and surrender and set them up for a surprise attack

And thats when we see Saul and his army smoke the ammonites

vs 12 and 13 are pretty interesting because we see that God granted the victory to Saul and we see Saul being humble

as we move further along in 1st Samuel we are going to see that Saul loses His humility and gets sucked into His own pride

So now everyone is happy at this point , everyone is Cheering and celebrating that God gave them victory and Saul is now really recognized as the King

This is where we Jump into ch 12

Now I Titled this Study the 3 C’s for a Christian Believer

We have

Character

Confession

Commitment

each one of these three C’s we will see in this chapter, play a Big role in having a Successful Walk as a Christian

Not to mention as you get closer to the Lord , these 3 c lettered words will become more and More Refined in your Life

Ill Repeat it Again so you guys can write it down if you take Notes

Character , Confession, Commitment

Now Lets begin

1 Samuel 12:1 “1 Now Samuel said to all Israel: “Indeed I have heeded your voice in all that you said to me, and have made a king over you.”

1 Samuel 12:2 “2 And now here is the king, walking before you; and I am old and grayheaded, and look, my sons are with you. I have walked before you from my childhood to this day.”

1 Samuel 12:3 “3 Here I am. Witness against me before the Lord and before His anointed: Whose ox have I taken, or whose donkey have I taken, or whom have I cheated? Whom have I oppressed, or from whose hand have I received any bribe with which to blind my eyes? I will restore it to you.””

1 Samuel 12:4 “4 And they said, “You have not cheated us or oppressed us, nor have you taken anything from any man’s hand.””

1 Samuel 12:5 “5 Then he said to them, “The Lord is witness against you, and His anointed is witness this day, that you have not found anything in my hand.” And they answered, “He is witness.””

This is where we see the first C ,

Character

Samuel Here in these first 5 verses was a man of Good character

He wasn’t perfect by any means but he was a man that had a great reputation because of His character

if we remember back in chapter 8 at the beginning, Samuel was already at the point of getting old

and he made a Mistake by placing Himself in a position of authority that was not His and he Made His two sons Judges over Israel

Israel hadn’t been under a Monarchy Just yet and Samuel making His sons Judges was wrong

that was Gods role to appoint Judges under a theocracy not His

Now regardless of Samuels Mistake people still had the ability to see that he was a man of Good character

Share the story of (Francel don’t use his name ) and how he always gives biblical counsel :

when you know someone of good character you know wether things about them are true or not because of their character

Lets read vs 3-5 again

Samuel was putting himself on the Line , if anyone questioned his character, then that was the time for them to speak up

Samuel in these opening verses was showing great humility , which is another great character trait he had

(Share How in fire at the end of a call we would all stand around and talk about the areas we needed work on and that was a time to reflect , it built character in Us ) This is what Samuel was doing , he put Himself on trial

He was in a sense passing the torch to Saul to be the King that the people of Israel wanted

Even in His passing of the torch he’s saying hey look if i’ve wronged you or anyone please tell me

Samuel was a man of great integrity and he didn’t care if he was to be humiliated publicly

Again He is a Man of character

So what does it take for us as believers to follow a Godly example Like Samuel ;

Character itself is defined as strength of Moral fiber :

A.W. Tozer described character as “the excellence of moral beings “

A person of character is someone noted for their Honesty, ethics , and charity

Now the funny thing is when breaking down what character truly is from this biblical perspective, we have a couple verses in Galatians that support this

Galatians 5:22–23 “22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.”

Proverbs 11:3 “3 The integrity of the upright will guide them, But the perversity of the unfaithful will destroy them.”

A person of good character is going to be

(a person who is loving) (expound)

(a person who has Joy in their life) (expound)

(a person who is at peace) (expound ) - share the story of one of the ladies who left on the retreat complaining about not having her phone and then being fearful of her sun getting in an accident or her father/ grandpa dying , thats not peace thats fear

(a person who is long suffering) ( Patient ) Man patient people always win a patient person is someone you want to be like .

(a kind person) (expound )

(a good person)

(a faithful person) ( a loyal follower of Jesus , someone older a more mature believer is going to be typically faithful to who God has called them to be. They are a good example of the walk we should have, I encourage everybody here to get those people in your life if they are not already there

(a gentle person) - Proverbs 15:1 “1 A soft answer turns away wrath, But a harsh word stirs up anger.” a gentle person isn’t someone who is going to have outbursts of wrath ., They aren’t going to be the people that you need to watch out for

it sucks when you hang out with people who are like a light switch , one moment they are cool and the next they aren’t

(a person who has self control) someone who has the ability to tame their emotions and their behavior

“ character is gauged by general tendencies, not on the basis of a few isolated actions

character is something that influences our choices as believers

(Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software, 2002–2013).

again the great example God has given us here is the Life of Samuel

He wasn’t perfect but he was a man of Good character who embodied all of the fruits of the Spirit

We will Learn more in 1st Samuel of King David, He is another man of good character

a man that not only had good character but wasn’t perfect and still made plenty of Mistakes

1 Samuel 13:14 “14 But now your kingdom shall not continue. The Lord has sought for Himself a man after His own heart, and the Lord has commanded him to be commander over His people, because you have not kept what the Lord commanded you.””

Share the example of David and Bathsheba

Okay so now we have a pretty good idea of what a Person of Good Character is Like , Lets look at what its Like to be a person of poor character

Galatians 5:19–21 “19 Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, 20 idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, 21 envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.”

So lets brake these down real quick

Now these things are the things that people with poor character do

Its a pattern of selfish behavior, of ego, and arrogance and making excuses for wrong doing

(adultery) an adulterer or an adulteress someone who cheats on their spouse physically/ sexually with another person. Cheaters lack biblical character

(fornication) sexual inner course between two people that are not married ( lack of biblical character . Why because if the people are biblically sound they aren’t going to commit an act such as fornication (expound)

(uncleanness ) from this perspective is spiritually or morally dirty/ infected with something that is not good . For example God calls us to be Holy . Anything not holy is unclean, the flesh is unclean and dirty. when we are in the flesh we are unclean

(Lewdness) indecency The NLT says this is lustful pleasures

(idolatry) worshiping false idols, today if you look at a lot of the symbols and statues of these movements like the LGBTQ, or the transgender movement or the sisters of perpetual indulgence , its all demonic and its all idolatry

(sorcery) the use of evil magic, why would someone of good character even be involved in sorcery? because they have a false sense of Good biblical character. Something like magic shouldn’t take the place of the power of God

(hatred) intense dislike typically aimed at people, Now Just like anger , we have two forms. we have a righteous hate and then theres the hate that is out of anger and evil. The hate its talking about is the hate that you would have toward an enemy

(contentions) disagreements , people who are always willing to argue with you , we all know those people. Every time you talk or say something they are the first to want to debate with you.

(Jealousies) being jealous

(outbursts of wrath) someone who cant control their anger , It takes them over and they become someone completely different

(selfish ambitions) people who are always looking out for their own well being , not caring for others

(dissensions) disagreement that leads to discord ; discord being strife and conflict between two people

(heresies) doctrinal mis information that is misleading

(envy ) almost the same as jealousy / feeling discontent

(murders) killing , never good

(drunkenness) drinking too much , to the point of obviously altering the mind

(revelries) parties / someone who parties hard , nothing wrong with having a good time but here its not talking about good fun innocent parties , its talking about people going HAMS

The people who practice these works of the flesh are not people of good Biblical character

they are people of poor character

Good character influences good choices and Bad character influences bad choices

Im sure out of all those listed out of the flesh of the spirit we know people who fit those descriptions

and lets not forget that we all as believers lack character in certain areas and thats where Gods grace picks us up

Men/ women of good character don’t happen over night , its an on going process , and is part of the sanctification process

Proverbs 17:3 “3 The refining pot is for silver and the furnace for gold, But the Lord tests the hearts.”

God is the potter and he’s the one who purifies us , like gold and silver they need to be purified before they are in there purest form

same for us as we lack character, our character is built as time goes on when we pursue a relationship with God he builds the character in us

When it comes to good character in our hearts, its important that we always look at the fruits of the Spirit that Galatians 5 laid out for us

Lets talk about Building Godly Character since we talked about what it is and what it isn’t

- In order to build Godly character you gotta first be Honest with yourself in the areas that you are lacking

- remember at times we don’t have the ability to see the sin in our life

- at times we might not see the character we lack in ourselves as well

7 Steps For Godly Character

1: observe where you are weak; use your daily life and literally observe areas you are weak. are you quick to get angry? are you kind? do you lack humility?

2: Listen to those around you; if you have Godly friendships, you will have people who speak wisdom into your life and they will be open and honest with you about your bad character ( expound on this )

3: Pray Daily : pray that God will give you the ability to develop character traits that you are lacking from observing we take those observations and we pray about them. God will give us the strength to build the character we should have

4: Set your eyes on the things that are eternal not temporary; by doing so we are renewing our minds with the word of God. Read your bible and develop a relationship with the Lord. It’ll strengthen your walk with the Lord

5: Confess ; confess to the Lord that you were wrong; what ever that may be , again admitting you were wrong in any circumstance is a sign of Humility and a proof that Gods character is moving in you . Again Godly character has integrity and is humble

6: Talk to someone : Get accountability and ask for prayers in the areas you are struggling. What ever that is or who ever it is with , we all need someone who is older and more wise that we can go to and ask for accountability

7: Make the right decisions: again Godly character influences good decisions; poor character influences bad decisions. The decisions we make determine the outcome of our life. Also remember the decisions you make become easier to make. wether thats for good or bad

Alright that was the first C , Now were going to move on to the Second C which is CONFESSION

We kinda talked about it already but now were gonna brake it down a little more

1 Samuel 12:6 “6 Then Samuel said to the people, “It is the Lord who raised up Moses and Aaron, and who brought your fathers up from the land of Egypt.”

1 Samuel 12:7 “7 Now therefore, stand still, that I may reason with you before the Lord concerning all the righteous acts of the Lord which He did to you and your fathers:”

1 Samuel 12:8 “8 When Jacob had gone into Egypt, and your fathers cried out to the Lord, then the Lord sent Moses and Aaron, who brought your fathers out of Egypt and made them dwell in this place.”

1 Samuel 12:9 “9 And when they forgot the Lord their God, He sold them into the hand of Sisera, commander of the army of Hazor, into the hand of the Philistines, and into the hand of the king of Moab; and they fought against them.”

1 Samuel 12:10 “10 Then they cried out to the Lord, and said, ‘We have sinned, because we have forsaken the Lord and served the Baals and Ashtoreths; but now deliver us from the hand of our enemies, and we will serve You.’”

1 Samuel 12:11 “11 And the Lord sent Jerubbaal, Bedan, Jephthah, and Samuel, and delivered you out of the hand of your enemies on every side; and you dwelt in safety.”

1 Samuel 12:12 “12 And when you saw that Nahash 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 your king.”

1 Samuel 12:13 “13 “Now therefore, here is the king whom you have chosen and whom you have desired. And take note, the Lord has set a king over you.”

1 Samuel 12:14 “14 If you fear the Lord and serve Him and obey His voice, and do not rebel against the commandment of the Lord, then both you and the king who reigns over you will continue following the Lord your God.”

1 Samuel 12:15 “15 However, if you do 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, as it was against your fathers.”

1 Samuel 12:16 “16 “Now therefore, stand and see this great thing which the Lord will do before your eyes:”

1 Samuel 12:17 “17 Is today not the wheat harvest? I will call to the Lord, and He will send thunder and rain, that you may perceive and see that your wickedness is great, which you have done in the sight of the Lord, in asking a king for yourselves.””

1 Samuel 12:18 “18 So Samuel called to the Lord, and the Lord sent thunder and rain that day; and all the people greatly feared the Lord and Samuel.”

1 Samuel 12:19 “19 And all the people said to Samuel, “Pray for your servants to the Lord your God, that we may not die; for we have added to all our sins the evil of asking a king for ourselves.””

Confession

We see it in vs 10 and again in vs 19

so Samuel is still addressing the people of Israel

and in these verses from vs 6-19 he’s reasoning with the people

He’s painting a picture for them of what not to do and what they have already done !

he doesn’t want them to get caught up in worshipping idols and doing things without the Lord

so again he’s painting this picture that is really applicable to us

and in vs 10 we see that the people of Israel confessed to the Lord that they were wrong and when they got it together they ran to the one true God and he Delivered them from the enemy

vs 11 and 12 we see the victory God gave them after they had confessed and ran to the Lord

Samuel uses that to prove to them that they are nothing without the strength of God

in vs 13 He gives them over to their desire

remember back in chapter 8 of 1st Samuel Israel demanded their earthly king

they wanted to be like all the other nations and have a Monarchy

they wanted someone to be the Head of their nation not God

and if you remember back in chapter 8 Samuel warned them of what the coming King was going to do

remember this was not Gods choice for His people, it was their choice because it was their desire

From ch8:vs 10- 17 Samuel warned them and said the words HE WILL TAKE 8 times

The king is going to take people horses , make them his own and have his own little entourage

He’s going to make a draft and forcefully have a military

women were going to assume roles that would help the king live a lavish lifestyle

Like in any real war, everyone will come together to serve the military in any way they can

even if it means giving up your own hard earned things

Under a theocracy the only taxes they had were their tithes

now under a new monarchy they were going to actually have to pay taxes on top of tithing

these taxes were going to fund the higher ups

The king again is taking more here , he’s going to take the smartest and brightest , and hardest working for himself

the people are going to need to give up their flocks of sheep for the needs of the king and his monarchy

Samuel Warned them of what was coming back in ch 8

they still didn’t care

vs 15 of Ch 12 again Samuel is driving this point home that even though they have this new king

he and the people are nothing without God

vs 16-19 God uses Samuel to drive Home his point even further

During this time period known as the wheat Harvest it was uncommon for it to rain

but God being who He is uses Samuel to prove to them just how wrong they were and just How powerful he was

They had sinned against the Lord for asking for this King .

Samuel did an awesome Job of showing the people of Israel that they were nothing without Him

He showed them again in vs 10-11 and in vs 19 Just How good God was when they were sold out to Him

In vs 10 and 19 again we see a confession and from the confession we see deliverance

So Confession lets Brake it down the Second C

Definition: the formal statement admitting that one is guilty of a crime

We serve a just God, A loving God

A God that wants relationship with us

when we talked about character one of the things i mentioned was observing the areas you are weak

its the same for Sin and confession

when we go throughout our day in our imperfect life’s

God has given us a standard and when we go against his standard and are disobedient, we are sinning against Him

so it is our Job as believers to Humble ourselves and run to the Lord in Prayer and admit we are wrong and confess

confession is a beautiful tool God has given us to get closer to him

sometimes confession is awkward and uncomfortable but through confession we build character

we Grow as one of Gods Kids

again the sanctification process takes time and one aspect to that is literally praying to God and asking for forgiveness

Isaiah 43:25 “25 “I, even I, am He who blots out your transgressions for My own sake; And I will not remember your sins.”

Psalm 103:2–3 “2 Bless the Lord, O my soul, And forget not all His benefits: 3 Who forgives all your iniquities, Who heals all your diseases,”

God loves us and he has given us all the ability to have a relationship with Him through Jesus

Jesus Died for our sins and gave us life

so if our creator has the ability to create us, He has the ability to forgive us and forget our Sin

God does not remember our sins when we take it to Him through confession

think of our mom or dad as a kid you guys are all still kids but they always tell you , tell the truth and the punishment wont be as bad

well with God you tell him the truth and he’s done with it right then and there

its gone , its in the past

what ever it is you hold onto that you know is not from God , Just give it up , give it to Him

The enemy wants us to Hold those things in you know why ?

because it creates distance between us and God

How many of you have done something bad not said anything and then you realize your just in turmoil inside ?

I have

why not just lay it all out there and confess it ?

Our pride gets in the way, the feeling of maybe being wrong and having to admit that is what is difficult for us

but honestly thats Not from the Lord thats the enemy

James 5:16 “16 Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.”

there is power in confession and prayer

Romans 10:9–10 “9 that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.”

Im a sinner in need of a savior i have sinned and need forgiveness

We are saved through confession

Again Samuel Painted this picture for the people of Israel because God wanted them to be successful

and each time they had a glimpse of success at the root of it was confession and the realization that they needed God to save them

Okay so we Just went through the 2 Cs

Character / Confession

Now Lets dig into the Last one

Commitment

1 Samuel 12:20 “20 Then Samuel said to the people, “Do not fear. You have done all this wickedness; yet do not turn aside from following the Lord, but serve the Lord with all your heart.”

1 Samuel 12:21 “21 And do not turn aside; for then you would go after empty things which cannot profit or deliver, for they are nothing.”

1 Samuel 12:22 “22 For the Lord will not forsake His people, for His great name’s sake, because it has pleased the Lord to make you His people.”

1 Samuel 12:23 “23 Moreover, as for me, far be it from me that I should sin against the Lord in ceasing to pray for you; but I will teach you the good and the right way.”

1 Samuel 12:24 “24 Only fear the Lord, and serve Him in truth with all your heart; for consider what great things He has done for you.”

1 Samuel 12:25 “25 But if you still do wickedly, you shall be swept away, both you and your king.””

we ended vs 19 with a confession from the people of Israel that they were wrong

Now these last 6 verses are Samuels response to their confession

He’s telling them not to fear

they have nothing to fear as long as they seek the Lord and serve the Lord with all their Heart

He says not to turn away and chase the world

He’s promising that God will not turn away from them

Samuel says that he will not stop praying for these people

and then again in vs 24 he says to fear the lord ; serve him in truth with all your Heart consider what great things he has done for you

then in vs 25 he warns them one last time to not turn away and do wicked

So Samuel is encouraging them to Keep their hearts Committed to the Lord

why ? because he knows that if they turn away from Him that they will Destroy themselves

we will see that actually happen in the later chapters but that applies to us today

Our walk God doesn’t want our walk to be shallow

he wants it to be Committed

our church the name of our groups at least a few of the start with the word Committed

Committed : means dedicated or loyal ; whole heartedly committed

giving our whole heart to something; in this case the Lord

How many of us believe you are truly committed to God ?

now when you make a commitment to a friend or a family member, we or at least i know i’m wired this way but we usually try to do everything in our power to follow through with that commitment

Why would it be any different with our commitment to the lord ?

Maybe you guys can go back in your notes and answer that

But Like Samuel is saying here when we are committed we almost have nothing to worry about

Gods Got us

You stay committed to Him He will Stay committed to you

again vs 25 if you aren’t committed to Him you will find yourself being distant in your relationship with God

How can we be more committed to the Lord ?

1) Read your word , spending time in Gods word in a disciplined way will allow you to be committed to Him ,

when we read Gods word we develop a heart for God

Gods word has an answer for everything

2) Pray ; God gave us the death of His son Jesus so that we can have communion with Him , Talk to Him

Lets read some statistics on Prayer really quick :

Christian Men/ Women :

68% pray daily

17% pray weekly

5% pray monthly

9% seldom pray or never pray

Now lets brake this down into Kids closer to your age

15% pray daily

22% pray weekly

22% pray monthly

24% seldom/ never pray

Those statistics among christians are crazy

Gods given us a platform to pray to Him, use it !

there is power in prayer ( Share the Story of Kelci being pregnant with twins )

3) Make friends that have a relationship with God : how does that make us more committed to Him ?

friends who are like minded are going to want to be involved at church

instead of pulling you away to go do dumb stuff ; they will help you be involved

our relationship with God is strengthened when we are around Godly people

4) Get involved at church: commit to doing something God has called you to do

be faithful in it , be reliable in it

you will see Gods hand in your life more than you did before

Many of you are already developing good habits and thats awesome to see and be a part of

Keep doing what you are doing

Hebrews 6:11–12 “11 And we desire that each one of you show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope until the end, 12 that you do not become sluggish, but imitate those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.”

Samuel was a man of Commitment

if he wasn’t he wouldn’t have been the man of Good character that we saw in the first 5 verses of this chapter

close with This

We keep our eyes on the Lord he will build our Character

He will Give us the ability to humbly come before Him and confess

And he will give us a drive to be committed to Him

The three Cs dont forget them

Character , Confession , Commitment