Judges, Samuel, Repentance

Big Idea - God calls us to repent because He is good.

Intro - Story about need for repentance in my marriage.

About the 5th year of marriage I became discouraged with my relationship with my wife.

I had bought into this cultural lie that it was my wife’s responsibility to make my heart happy. - To give me joy.

If our relationship was what it was supposed to be, my heart would be full of love and joy.

Big Problem with this lie that I believed.

God hadn’t given her the job to make me happy - to give me joy.

It is only God who gives joy. Only God who satisfies the heart.

-This was a belief I had to repent from.

-I had to turn from believing a lie and embrace the truth of God’s great satisfaction for me.

We all have something in our life that needs repentance.

Repentance is something that is beautiful.

It is something that is birthed out of the goodness of God.

Through repentance God brings us back to what is best for us.

God created us for Him.

When we get away from Him - he brings us back through the process of repentance.

We all have something in our life that we need to repentant from.

We know that in the book of Judges and in Samuel that the Israelites

We know that in the book of Judges and today in the book of 1st Samuel that the Israelites were constantly in the cycle of sin that included repentance.

Show on slide the cycle of the judges.

In todays passage we have the final Judge of Israel - Samuel.

Samuel is unique in that he was not only a judge of Israel, but one of the greatest prophets the nation ever had.

Samuel had a dual roll - both prophet and judge.

Something else unique in our passage today is that Samuel didn’t lead the people of Israel to God because the were oppressed by a foreign power. Instead it because they allowed God to work in their hearts - they came to want God.

The New American Commentary: 1, 2 Samuel (3) The Lord Routs the Philistines’ Army (7:2–17)

For the first time in the Book of 1 Samuel, Samuel is portrayed acting as a “leader” (Hb. špṭ; trad. to act as a judge). Thus at Mizpah began the ministry of Israel’s most venerable judge/prophet since Moses.

The context for our passage today in is this:

In his role as judge, Samuel’s task was to bring Israelite society into conformity with the Lord’s judgments and to mobilize the covenant people in the task of bringing God’s judgments to bear on his enemies.

Story tell the context of what brought Israel to this place.

In the Philistines capture the ark of God, “The Ark of The Covenant”

The Philistines capture the ark of God, The Ark of The Covenant

The Philistines are cursed while having the Ark.

The Philistines all started breaking out in tumors.

They send the Ark of God back to Israel..

1 Samuel 7:2 ESV

2 From the day that the ark was lodged at Kiriath-jearim, a long time passed, some twenty years, and all the house of Israel lamented after the Lord.

Lament means to Wail or to grieve.

Why is this important? You see a heart change in Israel.

This time, the heart change comes not when they are being oprressed by another nation.

The people are on their own grieving for the Lord.

They are not close to the Lord,

they know they are missing him,

they want to be close to Him, but don’t know how.

Maybe you can relate to this.

Have you ever been away from God and one day you spiritually wake up and realize that you are far from where you need to be spiritually - but you don’t know how to get back.

You don’t know what to do? Your heart aches. You feel stuck.

Here in our passage we see Samuel the Judge/Prophet leading the people spiritually out of their spiritually lost stuck state.

Did you know this - That you are called to lead people spiritually in your life?

And Samuel was to lead the people in something we call repentance.

Repentance is a church word that means turning from self and sin to God.

God frees us from our sinful poison one sin at a time. When He frees us, we find greater joy in Him.

Through repentance- God frees us one sin at a time.

If you are going to be a growing Christ follower. You will have to become a professional at repenting.

Why? Because God grows you to be more like Him, by helping you repent from sin and from lies - one at a time.

Samuel was given this great task to lead God’s people in repentance - to show them how to repent.

1 Samuel 7:3 ESV

3 And Samuel said to all the house of Israel, “If you are returning to the Lord with all your heart, then put away the foreign gods and the Ashtaroth from among you and direct your heart to the Lord and serve him only, and he will deliver you out of the hand of the Philistines.”

I Samuel 7

If you have a pen. Would you underline or highlight the phrase - Return to the Lord with all your heart.

I. Returning to the Lord requires all my heart

1 Samuel 7:3 ESV

3 And Samuel said to all the house of Israel, “If you are returning to the Lord with all your heart, then put away the foreign gods and the Ashtaroth from among you and direct your heart to the Lord and serve him only, and he will deliver you out of the hand of the Philistines.”

1 Samuel 7:3 ESV

3 And Samuel said to all the house of Israel, “If you are returning to the Lord with all your heart, then put away the foreign gods and the Ashtaroth from among you and direct your heart to the Lord and serve him only, and he will deliver you out of the hand of the Philistines.”

What does “all my heart” mean?

I Samuel 7:

What does it mean to return with all your heart?

-The greatest love of your life is God. You are in love with God.

-He is not your second love. He is not second to your job, hobby, sports or children.

-God is your first love.

How do I return?

-You admit that, you have been giving your heart to something else besides God.

-You must spend time with Him. Everyday in prayer and in his word. Singing praise to Him. Running to Him when life hurts.

-You make a choice to surrender yourself to God.

-You make a choice to surrender

Illustration - A friend of mine found himself attracted to another woman at work. This attraction became serious. It was pulling him away from his wife. He confessed his attraction, changed jobs and spent more time with his wife.

He gave her all of his heart.

God calls us to repent because God is good

Transition - Not only does repenting require all of my heart, but repenting requires (2nd point) putting to death sin.

II. Returning to the Lord requires putting to death sin

1 Samuel 7:3 ESV

3 And Samuel said to all the house of Israel, “If you are returning to the Lord with all your heart, then put away the foreign gods and the Ashtaroth from among you and direct your heart to the Lord and serve him only, and he will deliver you out of the hand of the Philistines.”

I Samuel verse

I Samuel 7:5-

1 Samuel 7:4 ESV

4 So the people of Israel put away the Baals and the Ashtaroth, and they served the Lord only.

1 Samuel 7:3–4 ESV

3 And Samuel said to all the house of Israel, “If you are returning to the Lord with all your heart, then put away the foreign gods and the Ashtaroth from among you and direct your heart to the Lord and serve him only, and he will deliver you out of the hand of the Philistines.” 4 So the people of Israel put away the Baals and the Ashtaroth, and they served the Lord only.

I samuel 7:

Unpack what the sins of Baals and Ashtaroths

In Bible times people believed that there were god’s that controlled certain regions of the land.

Unpack what the sins of Baals and Ashtaroths

They believed there were stronger gods and lesser gods.

God’s people had believed that Baal was stronger than the god of the Bible - Yahweh.

Samuel said - Stop believing the lie and get rid of the physical idols you worship.

Include sins of omission.

There are sins that God is asking you to get rid of right now.

Sins that we commit.

There are sins of omission. Sinning by not doing something.

Example - Not sharing your faith, not giving your wife your husband forgiveness or affection.

Application - There are some in here today - that when we talk about holding on to sin - that the Lord has pressed on your heart and mind what sin He is calling you to surrender to Him.

For some in this room right now, God is pressing on your heart. You know - God is convicting your heart.

Please do not ignore God one more day. Please reconcile yourself to God right now - before this sermon comes to and end.

Illustration - Wolf licking the blood popsicle.

In Alaska some of the Native Americans came up with an effective way to kill wolves.

Take a pan of blood form a killed Caribou. Take a razor sharp knife blade. Dip the knife in the blood, then place the knife in snow and freeze the blood to the knife. Over and over until a popsicle forms around the knife. Take that knife out in the woods and pack the handle into the snow and anchor it....

Repenting - Returning to the Lord means that we recognizing the sin or lie we believe - that we really enjoy - is really killing us.

So, we must put sin to death before we are killed by sin.

God calls you to repent because God is good.

Transition - Not only does God call us to: give Him all of our h

Transition - Not only does God call us to:

give Him all of our heart, and

to put sin to death, but also (3rd point) confess our sin

III. Returning to the Lord requires confession

1 Samuel 7:5–6 ESV

5 Then Samuel said, “Gather all Israel at Mizpah, and I will pray to the Lord for you.” 6 So they gathered at Mizpah and drew water and poured it out before the Lord and fasted on that day and said there, “We have sinned against the Lord.” And Samuel judged the people of Israel at Mizpah.

We see the people confessed before the Lord their wrong.

God’s people embraced humility and confessed their spiritual failure.

One of the most humbling, but most powerful things that you can do spiritually is to out loud confess your sin.

James 6:16

James 5:16 ESV

16 Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.

God loves it when we confess our sin and admit our need of Him.

Proverbs 28:13 ESV

13 Whoever conceals his transgressions will not prosper, but he who confesses and forsakes them will obtain mercy.

-God loves to give mercy to the one who will humble himself and confess His sin.

Illustration - When I confess to my wife I was wrong.

-God is not after you. He does not want to shame you. He wants you to confess your sin so He can free you.

-God does not

-Can I challenge you with this … find another Christ follower who you trust and love. Confess you sin to them and also to God. You will find mercy.

Proverbs 28:

IV. Returning to the Lord requires remaining with Him when tested.

1 Samuel 7:7–9 ESV

7 Now when the Philistines heard that the people of Israel had gathered at Mizpah, the lords of the Philistines went up against Israel. And when the people of Israel heard of it, they were afraid of the Philistines. 8 And the people of Israel said to Samuel, “Do not cease to cry out to the Lord our God for us, that he may save us from the hand of the Philistines.” 9 So Samuel took a nursing lamb and offered it as a whole burnt offering to the Lord. And Samuel cried out to the Lord for Israel, and the Lord answered him.

I sam 7:7-9

One of the ways that we know that the Israelites repentance was real is that they stayed with the God of the Bible when things got tough.

Commentary:

The Israelites were use to running to their Baals and Ashtaroth for strength when scared.

They had believed in previous generations that the gods of the Philistines were stronger than Yaweh.

If they needed the strongest God - they would go to Baal - not Yaweh.

But they had repented.

They had turned to Yaweh believing He was the most mighty and could be trusted.

Here - in the Philistine threat - we would really see who they trusted in.

The peoples of the ancient Near East believed that every military combat involved a conflict being played out on two planes, the human (on earth) and the divine (in heaven),

This was a life or death decision - which god to trust and follow - who to follow.

In this stressful situation - the Israelites trusted God.

They did not run back to Baal. This is a big deal.

This was a life or death decision - which god to trust and follow - who to follow.

When we have stress in our life, our tendency is to run back to that which we are most familiar with.

-If you have an habitual sin or if you have an addiction, you will find that when you are stressed or tired, that you will be vulnerable to automatically going back to that sin.

For some people they work out or eat chocolate.

When stressed, the alcoholic runs back to the bottle.

The pornographer or bolemic runs back to their addiction.

During a stressful time you will be tempted to run back to your habitual sin if you are a: rage- aholic, work-aholic, control-aholic, people pleaser, or gossiper.

I

Habitual sin like … anger,

When you are stressed, you tend to run back to what makes you feel comfort.

You know that you are fully repenting when you stay with God during the temptation and trial.

Returning to the Lord requires remaining with Him when I am tested.

1 Samuel 7:10–11 ESV

10 As Samuel was offering up the burnt offering, the Philistines drew near to attack Israel. But the Lord thundered with a mighty sound that day against the Philistines and threw them into confusion, and they were defeated before Israel. 11 And the men of Israel went out from Mizpah and pursued the Philistines and struck them, as far as below Beth-car.

1 Samuel 7:10–11 ESV

10 As Samuel was offering up the burnt offering, the Philistines drew near to attack Israel. But the Lord thundered with a mighty sound that day against the Philistines and threw them into confusion, and they were defeated before Israel. 11 And the men of Israel went out from Mizpah and pursued the Philistines and struck them, as far as below Beth-car.

I sam

:

When the Philistines heard that thunder against them - that was a signal to them that their god Baal had lost in they heavenly battle against the Israelite God. They began to run for their lives and were defeated.

The Lord thundered with a mighty sound agt

1 Samuel 7:12 ESV

12 Then Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Shen and called its name Ebenezer; for he said, “Till now the Lord has helped us.”

I Samuel 7:12

1 Samuel 7:12 ESV

12 Then Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Shen and called its name Ebenezer; for he said, “Till now the Lord has helped us.”

I Sam 7:12

V. Returning to the Lord requires remembering God’s success

Samuel made a physical memorial

V. Returning to the Lord requires celebrating God’s success through you (worship?)

Make a physical memorial

Ebenezer - Literally “The Stone of Help”, Permanent Stone reminding the Israelites of when God helped them overcome the enemy.

Ebenezer = a Trophy to remind you that God won the victory for you.

Ebenezer = keeps us from having a short memory.

Ebenezer = Reminds us of God’s work that through repentance He is good.

The word Ebenezer is used in the Hymn

Come Though Fount Of Every Blessing

2nd verse

Here I raise my Ebenezer by Thy great help I've come And I hope, by Thy good pleasure Safely to arrive at home Jesus sought me when a stranger Wandering from the fold of God He, to rescue me from danger Interposed His precious blood

Gospel - The Cross has become our trophy. That is where Christ won for us.

For many - A cymbal of the Cross has become a physical reminder -Ebenezer.

It was on the Cross that Jesus died and made a payment for Sin.

It was because of the Cross that God helps us to ultimately repent and turn all of our life over to Him.

Some of you today have given your life to Christ and need to repent of something specific.

Some of you today may be religious or have attended church, and need to give all of yourself to God today.

You today who have never given all of your life to Christ.

Who need your sins forgiven today.

Will you now, not waiting a minute longer, say to God.

I trust in what Jesus has done.

I turn to you and fully give myself to you.

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“Baalim and Ashtaroth” is a stock expression denoting Israel’s sin in Dtr. (, where Baal is singular, 10:6 and 10; ). Baal was the Canaanite storm god and the central deity in most of the Ugaritic myths. He was the source of fertility and also the bringer of rain. Ashtart, a goddess of love and war, was closely associated with Baal and is called “the name of Baal” in the Ugaritic texts.

any unusual meteorological phenomenon during a military operation would naturally be interpreted as evidence of a deity at work (cf. ; , ). The loud, unexpected thunder was immediately understood by the Philistines as a bad omen, and it “threw them into such a panic that they were routed before the Israelites.”

Judges, Samuel, Repentance

Judges, Samuel, Repentance (ROUGH DRAFT)