Consider the Great things He has done 1 Samuel 12:14-25

Introduction

Have you ever stood at a crossroads and known that whichever path you chose would have lasting consequences? Life is full of decisions—some small, some monumental—but few decisions are more important than how we respond to God. Will we follow Him faithfully, or will we rebel and go our own way?

That’s exactly where the people of Israel find themselves in 1 Samuel 12. They had just demanded a king—something that displeased the Lord because it signified a rejection of Him as their true King. Yet even in their failure, God—in His goodness—offered them a choice: You can still follow Me. But they needed to understand the weight of their decision.

In this passage, the prophet Samuel stands before the people one final time, not just to confront their sin, but to call them to something better. He reminds them that God's goodness demands our faithful following. Their history was filled with rebellion and consequences, but also with mercy and restoration.

And that same choice stands before us today.

We all have a choice to make; Follow or Rebel vs. 14-15

In verse 14 Samuel tells us the way to follow

Samuel gives almost the same speech that Joshua gave the Israelites at the end of Joshua

Joshua 24:14–15 “14 Now therefore fear the Lord, and serve him in sincerity and in truth: and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the flood, and in Egypt; and serve ye the Lord. 15 And if it seem evil unto you to serve the Lord, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”

Fear the Lord

Proverbs 8:13 “13 The fear of the Lord is to hate evil: Pride, and arrogancy, and the evil way, And the froward mouth, do I hate.”

The word fear means to reverence or respect, so here Solomon is telling us we fear the Lord by hating evil.

When we fear the Lord it strengthens our relationship with Him, and in turn causes us to follow him closer

Serve the Lord

Psalm 100:2 “2 Serve the Lord with gladness: Come before his presence with singing.”

As Christians we should find joy in serving the Lord

Serving the Lord is a great way to follow the Lord, because when we serve the Lord, we are following His way.

Deuteronomy 10:12 “12 And now, Israel, what doth the Lord thy God require of thee, but to fear the Lord thy God, to walk in all his ways, and to love him, and to serve the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul,”

Obey the Lord

Deuteronomy 13:4 “4 Ye shall walk after the Lord your God, and fear him, and keep his commandments, and obey his voice, and ye shall serve him, and cleave unto him.”

Obedience deepens our relationship with the Lord and helps us follow Him

Samuel tells them to continue to do this and their king and the people will continue to follow the Lord

In Deut 11:26-28, we see the reward for following God, but we also see the consequence of not following the Lord

Deuteronomy 11:26–28 “26 Behold, I set before you this day a blessing and a curse; 27 A blessing, if ye obey the commandments of the Lord your God, which I command you this day: 28 And a curse, if ye will not obey the commandments of the Lord your God, but turn aside out of the way which I command you this day, to go after other gods, which ye have not known.”

In verse 15 Samuel shows the act of rebelling and the consequence

We rebel against the Lord by disobeying His voice and by disobeying his commandments

When the Lord through the prompting of the Holy Spirit tells us to do something, by yielding to the Spirits leading we are rebelling against Him

The consequence of rebelling against God, is having the hand of the Lord against them like it was against their fathers when they rebelled

Remember in the book of Judges how their fathers would rebel against the Lord and He would sell them to their enemy as a way of Judgement.

Illustration: I read a story of a hiker who was hiking through the mountains, and along the trail there were signs that said “Danger ahead stay on trail” and this hiker saw the sign, but chose to ignore it. The hiker decided to take his own path and got cut up by the briar, fell down and hurt himself, and was lost, eventually they found and rescued him, and the person who rescued him told him the signs were clear and the path you chose led exactly where it said it would.

Application: Today we have the same choice given here, we can choose to follow or we can choose to rebel, both have consequences, when we follow we are blessed and when we rebel we have the hand of the Lord against us.

Remember the Lord doesn’t do this out of hate, but out of love.

Hebrews 12:6 “6 For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.”

An attention grabbing storm vs. 16-19

Samuel was going to show the power of God by calling down a storm during harvest time

Over and over, Samuel had tried to tell them, that by asking for a human king, they were rebelling against their heavenly king, and they continued to ask for the human king, so here Samuel showed them the consequence of rebelling through a storm

The Bible is an amazing book with amazing detail, here we find a storm during the wheat harvest, which you might think isn’t that big of a deal, but it really was.

During the wheat harvest, it was highly unlikely for a rain storm to happen, one commentary compared it to “six inches of snow in Miami on memorial day”

Samuel tells them the purpose of the storm, which so they can perceive or understand that their wickedness is great before the sight of the Lord in asking for a king.

Again by asking for a king they rejected the true King, so they did great evil in the sight of the Lord.

Samuel called down the storm and the thunder and rain came that day, and all the people feared the Lord

They saw the ability of the Lord to put his hand on them as he did their fathers and it caused them to fear Him.

They cry out to Samuel to pray that they wouldn’t die and then they repented of their sin and finally understood that by asking for a king they truly had rebelled against the Lord

Illustration: When I was in high school around prom time they would have a program called “Shattered Dreams” that would come to our school for the purpose of discouraging drinking and driving.

They would stage a car wreck, bring in police, firemen, ambulances, care flights. They would make it seem as though there was a terrible accident and some where injured, some had died, and the driver of the car that was in the wreck was driving while intoxicated and would get arrested. It was meant to show us the consequences of drinking and driving.

Here Samuel is showing them the consequence of rebelling against God. God is gracious, but he is also holy and just and there are consequences for rebelling against a Holy God

Application: Sometimes God puts storms in our life, not just physical, but emotional, relation, or spiritual to wake us up to our own disobedience

God’s goodness demands our faithful following vs. 20-25

Samuel tells them to fear not

They had done the wickedness, but it was done, and now they needed to get back on track and stay on track following the Lord.

Aren’t you thankful that God forgives and forgets our sin?

Isaiah 43:25 “25 I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake, And will not remember thy sins.”

When we sin, we have to repent and get back on track, like Samuel challenges the people here.

He then gives them clear direction, don’t turn from God, that path leads to vain things that cannot profit or deliver

Any path that leads from the direction God has set for us leads to empty promises and destruction

Samuel gives an important reminder that God doesn’t forsake his people, but they forsake Him

The Bible tells us that God will never leave us nor forsake us, so if it feels like God has left us, we have left him.

God chose the children of Israel to be His people and over and over they left him, but he was there the whole time, because he loves them and welcomed them back when they turned from the gods of the world

Deuteronomy 7:7–8 “7 The Lord did not set his love upon you, nor choose you, because ye were more in number than any people; for ye were the fewest of all people: 8 But because the Lord loved you, and because he would keep the oath which he had sworn unto your fathers, hath the Lord brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you out of the house of bondmen, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.”

While we are obviously not the Israelites, God chose us when He saved us and we are His, He loves us and is ready when we return to Him

Samuel shares with them his spiritual leadership

He would continue to pray for them

It would be a sin against God for him to stop

He will teach them the good and right way

God puts faithful Christians in our lives to teach us the good and right way!

He brings them to a time of reflection

Consider how great things God has done for you

They were a blessed people, and they needed to remember what God had done for them and would continue to do for them

Think about the Hymn “How great thou art” and think about how great the God we serve is.

Oh Lord, my God When I, in awesome wonder Consider all the worlds Thy hands have made I see the stars, I hear the rolling thunder Thy power throughout the universe displayed

Then sings my soul, my Savior God to Thee How great Thou art, how great Thou art Then sings my soul, my Savior God to Thee How great Thou art, how great Thou art

He leaves them with a final warning

If they do wickedly they would be consumed along side their king

Application: One of the best ways to stay on track for God is by thinking about the great things He has done for us, but the greatest thing He did was send His only begotten Son to die on a cross for all mankind. When we consider the great things God has done for us it should consume us

Conclusion

As Samuel stood before Israel, he laid it all out plainly: You have a choice—follow God or rebel. And that choice has real consequences. Then, in a dramatic display of God's power, the storm during harvest shook the people awake to the seriousness of their sin. But even after their rebellion, God, in His mercy, invited them back.

That’s the goodness of our God—He is holy and just, yes, but also merciful and patient. He doesn’t cast us aside when we fail; instead, He calls us to repent, return, and follow Him faithfully.

So today, we stand at the same kind of crossroads. We can rebel, chasing vain things that cannot profit or deliver. Or we can choose to follow the Lord in fear, service, and obedience. We can let His goodness stir us to faithfulness. And when we consider all that He has done—most of all, giving His Son to die in our place—how could we do anything less?

Let us fear the Lord. Let us serve Him with gladness. Let us obey His voice. Not out of obligation, but in response to His great love and goodness.

Because God's goodness doesn’t just deserve our faithfulness— It demands it.

As we come to this time of invitation, I want to ask you the same question Samuel placed before the people of Israel:

Will you follow the Lord, or will you rebel?

The truth is, every one of us has sinned. We’ve all had moments when we’ve chosen our own way instead of God’s. Maybe today you realize, like Israel did, that you’ve been asking for things God never intended for you, chasing things that cannot satisfy or save.

But here’s the good news: God’s mercy is still available.

Just as Samuel told the people, “Fear not… turn not aside from following the Lord,” that same call comes to you today.

If you're away from God, you can return.

If you're holding onto sin, you can repent.

If you’ve never truly surrendered your life to Jesus, you can do that right now.

God has done great things for you—most of all, He sent His only Son, Jesus, to die for your sins. He rose again so that you could be forgiven, saved, and restored. But you have to choose: Will you follow Him?

So the altar is open:

If you need to be saved, come.

If you need to repent and get back on track, come.

If you want to recommit your life and say, “Lord, I choose to follow You,” come.

Don’t leave this place without doing business with God.

Today is the day to choose.

Follow Him—because His goodness demands it.