Serve the Lord with All Your Heart
Notes
Transcript
Sermon Introduction
Sermon Introduction
Good Morning Church.
Today’s message is called “Serve the Lord with All Your Heart.”
We will be focusing on who we should trust and serve
So, please turn your Bibles to 1 Samuel chapter 12.
We will be examining verses 24 through 25.
From these passages, we will find four commands:
1) Fear Him
2) Serve Him
3) Remember Him
4) Do Not Provoke Him
Opening Prayer
Opening Prayer
Before we consider the text, please join me in prayer...
Opening Illustration
Opening Illustration
The 59th Presidential Inauguration will be held on January 20th, 2021 in Washington, D.C.
The Presidential Swearing-In ceremony will take place on the west front of the United States Capitol and will be followed by the Inaugural Address.
Now imagine a prominent and biblically faithful preacher like a John MacArthur or Alistair Begg taking the stage in front of the record breaking crowd.
And imagine in there closing statement of their speech, they say something along the lines of this:
“America, today you are all gathered here to celebrate the president that you have elected.
But, I must give both you the country and our newly elected president this warning.
You must fear the Lord.
You must serve and worship Him in all faithfulness and with your whole heart.
Look back at the birth of this country and see all the blessings God has done for you when you first walked with God.
Was He not always faithful to you when you walked in his statutes?
Was there not blessings for this country during the “Great Awakening” when preachers like Jonathan Edwards and George Whitfield boldly preached the gospel and the people of this land responded?
Was there not blessings for America during tent and revival meetings of old, when the likes of Billy Graham preached the Word of God, and lives changed?
But who are you walking with now America?
Don’t you know, if you still do wickedly, God will sweep away both you and your President?”
Well, if that sounds bold then you should consider the text we will be studying together today.
But before we get to the text, let’s look at the background.
Background
Background
Our text that we will look at part of the farewell speech by the Prophet Samuel.
This is similar to Moses’s covenant renewal and farewell speech the end of Deuteronomy and Joshua’s speech at the end of the book of his same name.
Samuel is stepping down as Judge over Isreal and is handing off leadership to Saul, Israel's first king.
(Although he still continues to serve as a prophet of God for there is no retiring in service to God)
Samuel is addressing Isreal at Saul’s coronation ceremony.
(This is equivalent to a Presidential Inauguration ceremony).
Saul was selected as king due to the Israelite people’s demanding for a king.
This request was in contrast to the Prophet Samuel’s warning of putting faith in a king over God.
Because for Isreal, God was to be there king.
In Samuel’s bold speech, which is found in it entirety in 1 Samuel 12, Samuel warned Isreal not to continue in wickedness.
In front of Isreal and King Saul, Samuel warned both that if they rebelled against God, then the Lord would strike then down.
Our text will look at the closing statements of the Prophet Samuel’s speech.
This will be found is 1 Samuel 12:24-25.
Reading of the Text
Reading of the Text
24 Only fear the Lord and serve him faithfully with all your heart. For consider what great things he has done for you.
25 But if you still do wickedly, you shall be swept away, both you and your king.”
1) Fear Him
1) Fear Him
Verse 24a: Only fear the Lord.
We are not given a spirit of fear but God alone is to be feared.
That means we are to have a reverent fear of God.
Proverbs helps us understand this truth.
7 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction.
To fear the Lord is to follow His instructions.
This is how true wisdom is calculated.
Only an utter fool would despise wisdom and instruction from the Lord.
the Book of Job sheds some more light for us.
28 And he said to man, ‘Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom, and to turn away from evil is understanding.’ ”
True understanding starts with the fear of the Lord.
This fear produces an accurate understanding that we must then turn away from what is evil.
Church, evaluate your life.
Whatever is evil needs to be purged.
Whatever is evil needs to be cut off.
Remember what Jesus said in Matthew 5:29-30.
29 If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell.
30 And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell.
Consider also the words of John Owen, “Be killing sin or it will be killing you.”
The obedience to the commands of God which leads to the fear of the Lord was instructed for the whole family:
12 Assemble the people, men, women, and little ones, and the sojourner within your towns, that they may hear and learn to fear the Lord your God, and be careful to do all the words of this law,
13 and that their children, who have not known it, may hear and learn to fear the Lord your God, as long as you live in the land that you are going over the Jordan to possess.”
The whole duty of man is to both fear the Lord and to keep His commands.
We see this in Ecclesiastes.
13 The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.
This fear of the Lord leads to both rejoicing and trembling as we see recorded in the Psalms.
11 Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling.
But what does is mean to rejoice with trembling?
It means you rejoice that your God is an almighty and powerful God.
It means your God is the God the slices the sea into two and has full command of nature.
It means your God created everything that has ever existed.
God is the ultimate alley, defender, and savior who lavishes His love on the ones He adopts.
It also means he is the most horrible of enemies to have, having a wrath that is unmatched for those who chose to rebel against a Holy God.
Consider Jesus’ words:
4 “I tell you, my friends, do not fear those who kill the body, and after that have nothing more that they can do.
5 But I will warn you whom to fear: fear him who, after he has killed, has authority to cast into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him!
Fear the one who has the authority to cast you into hell.
Fear God.
2) Serve Him
2) Serve Him
Verse 24b: And serve him faithfully with all your heart.
We are to be in full service and worship to our God.
That means we are willing to sacrifice every area of our life to God.
Paul, said to the Christians in Rome:
1 I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.
This is not just instruction for the martyr but for all those who follow Jesus.
Following God incorporates and involves your whole being.
5 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.
Our love for God should overtake our heart.
Our love for God should overtake our soul.
Our love for God should overtake our might.
We need to Serve Him.
3) Remember Him
3) Remember Him
Verse 24c: For consider what great things he has done for you.
Reverence for God results from considering his nature and all that he has done in the past.
Believers should revere God and meditate upon his deeds and past faithfulness.
Consider what Joshua says:
14 “Now therefore fear the Lord and serve him in sincerity and in faithfulness. Put away the gods that your fathers served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord.
For us, today, this warning is still relevant.
If we are being honest with ourselves, then we understand that to serve God, we must first forsake our idols.
Are there idols you worship above the Lord?
Remember, an idol is not just a carved out figure of a pagan deity.
An idol is anything you place over God.
So, you must put away your idol of sports.
You must put away your idol of alcohol.
You must put away your idol of drugs.
You must put away your idol of technology.
Yes, put way your idol of video games.
Put away your idol of politics.
Put away your idol of social media.
Put away your idol of TV and movies.
Put away your idol of lust.
Put away your idol of gluttony.
Put away your idol of pride.
Put way your idol of your job and career.
Put away your idol of school and a degree.
Put away your idol of your friends.
Put away your idol of your family.
Remember an idol by itself could be a sin like drunkeness or good like your family, but if anything is above God it is an idol and has to be dealt with.
Either by removing it completely from your life if a sin in any circumstance, or de-prioritizing from the throne of our heart if it is not a sin or is something good.
Now remember, by yourself, you will not be able to do this on your own,
You need God’s help.
So approach Him in humility, pleading your requests and remember that He is only the one who can change you from the inside.
40 I will make with them an everlasting covenant, that I will not turn away from doing good to them. And I will put the fear of me in their hearts, that they may not turn from me.
41 I will rejoice in doing them good, and I will plant them in this land in faithfulness, with all my heart and all my soul.
God is merciful by equipping us to do what He commands us to do, for if left on our own, we are unable.
Now, let us look at our final point and the last statement of Samuel’s speech.
Let us look at his warning:
4) Do Not Provoke Him
4) Do Not Provoke Him
Verse 25: But if you still do wickedly, you shall be swept away, both you and your king.
This sentence is an extremely pointed one.
Samuel’s warning here strikes at the very heart of Israel’s problem and the problem for us in our age now.
The real threat is not external.
The real threat is not one that could be faced and defeated by a king or a politician.
For example no matter the armies an Israelite king may defeat or the laws a president may sign into effect, the problem for the people still exists.
Why?
Because the problem is internal and spiritual.
We can today pass a law to outlaw abortion and that would be a great victory that we should work towards.
But that does not solve the problem of sin.
A heart that is willing to end the life of a child and who refuses to repent is a rebel and enemy of God.
If a law prevents that person for doing a wicked act, they are still in rebellion to God.
No, it will take far more that a supreme court victory, it will need to be a heart change.
The problem of sin can only fully be dealt with id it is given the medicine of the Gospel.
We need to preach and teach that God created all of existence, and it was so good.
God created mankind in His very image with the first humans, Adam and Eve.
But the serpent, our enemy, the devil, and prince of lies, deceived Eve as Adam just watched and did nothing.
Sin entered the world, when Adam and Eve wanted to be like God and disobeyed Him.
In Adam all are cursed to die.
But we have a loving God.
Our heavenly Father sent His Son to our world.
Who, unlike us, lived in perfect obedience to the Father and became the only means to salvation.
By volunteerly sacrificing His life for those who wold place there trust in Him.
For those who believe in Him, He took on the full wrath of God that we deserved.
He died on a cruel cross, but the story did not end there.
Three days passed and He rose from the dead, proving that He defeated death, was who He says He was and that the Father accepted His sacrifice.
Now, in Jesus, the second Adam, all who place there faith in Him and what He has done, will be saved.
Now all who surrender to Him will no longer live as slaves to sin, who are helpless to save themselves but be slaves to Christ.
This is good news for slavery to Christ means being adopted as sons and daughters.
Being Christ’s means we are covered in His blood and in the sight of the Father He sees His Son when he looks at us.
No longer seeing the guilty sinners we are who deserve eternal death.
It is this truth, the Gospel that the world needs to hear.
But for those who reject the Gospel and forsake the Lord, they provoke our God to destroy them.
20 If you forsake the Lord and serve foreign gods, then he will turn and do you harm and consume you, after having done you good.”
Consider the words of Isaiah:
11 Woe to the wicked! It shall be ill with him, for what his hands have dealt out shall be done to him.
Woe to those who do not respond to this warning.
Woe to those who arrogantly reject God and instead put there faith in a politician.
No political leader can save you.
The only way to heaven is by the Way, the only Savior, Jesus Christ.
6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
Speaking of truth, let us consider this:
Closing Illustration
Closing Illustration
Less than a week ago we had our first presidential debate of this election year.
It was filled with false and misleading statements from both candidates.
(and depending on who you ask, the moderator could be included in that statement too).
Can you really trust anyone of these candidates?
No matter how great your candidate may seem, we need to remember who is in control.
Either way, If Trump is president or Biden is president, we need to remember that Jesus is King!
Remember Proverbs 21:1
1 The king’s heart is a stream of water in the hand of the Lord; he turns it wherever he will.
Closing of Service
Closing of Service
We see this with King Saul too.
He did not heed the warning of Samuel.
In the following chapter after our text, Saul is rejected from being king over Israel.
14 But now your kingdom shall not continue. The Lord has sought out a man after his own heart, and the Lord has commanded him to be prince over his people, because you have not kept what the Lord commanded you.”
Anyone who would have put their faith in the king would be greatly disappointed.
Additionally, king or no king, anyone who does not keep the commands of God will be disappointed.
Let me leave you with Psalm 146
1 Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord, O my soul!
2 I will praise the Lord as long as I live; I will sing praises to my God while I have my being.
3 Put not your trust in princes, in a son of man, in whom there is no salvation.
4 When his breath departs, he returns to the earth; on that very day his plans perish.
5 Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the Lord his God,
6 who made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, who keeps faith forever;
7 who executes justice for the oppressed, who gives food to the hungry. The Lord sets the prisoners free;
8 the Lord opens the eyes of the blind. The Lord lifts up those who are bowed down; the Lord loves the righteous.
9 The Lord watches over the sojourners; he upholds the widow and the fatherless, but the way of the wicked he brings to ruin.
10 The Lord will reign forever, your God, O Zion, to all generations. Praise the Lord!
All the Glory to God.
Amen.
Now if you will all stand to your feet...