Serve the Lord In truth

1 Samuel 12:6-25, s

Samuel reiterates the History of the people of Israel and what God did for them up to this point in time.

Now they had rejected their God in asking for a king, when He was their King who led them and delivered them from their enemies.

When Samuel call for the thunder and storm, the people realise the gravity and seriousness of their sins in asking for a King.

Out of fear the people plead with Samuel to pray in their behalf.

Sameul Tells them to not Fear and to not turn back again to the false God but to serve the Lord with all their heart.

He mention two important truths,

1. God has chosen them not because he knew they will be faithfull and perfect but because it pleased Him.

2. In spite of all that they have done and their hisory he will not forsake them because of his name sake.

IT has pleased the Lord to make you his people.

When we see ouselves in light of our weekness, in the privacy of our thoughts we have asked ourselves why has God chosen me, saved me and made me one of his people.

The answer is profoundly simple: it pleased him to save you, it pleased him to make you his people, it pleased him to make you one of his one. In the full knowledge of your frailty.

Galatians 1:14–16 NKJV

14 And I advanced in Judaism beyond many of my contemporaries in my own nation, being more exceedingly zealous for the traditions of my fathers. 15 But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother’s womb and called me through His grace, 16 to reveal His Son in me, that I might preach Him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately confer with flesh and blood,

In spite of his sins, God opened his eyes to the truth when it pleased him.

The answer to the question that we ask ourselves, that why did God choose me, why did he call me at an old age and not at younger age. The answer is it pleased God.

Psalms 135:6 “6 Whatever the Lord pleases He does, In heaven and in earth, In the seas and in all deep places.”

Let us thank the Lord for being pleased to make us one of his people.

For the LORD will not forsake his people for his great name sake

In spite of all that they have done, adding to their sins the evil of asking for a KIng, Samuel assures them that God will not forsake them because of His great name sake.

From the time God sent Moses to deliver the people of Israel out of Egypt, God hand ample of reasons to forskae his people, but he did not Why? simply because of his great name sake.

Ezekiel 20:5-22,w

God restrained himself passed over their transgression and acted in their behalf because of his great name sake. He did not wan’t his name to be defiled.

The reason why God forgave their sins and transgression it was not because they were special it was because of his great name sake.

1 John 2:12 “12 I write to you, little children, Because your sins are forgiven you for His name’s sake.”

Acts 4:12 “12 Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.””

1 Corinthians 6:8–11 NKJV

8 No, you yourselves do wrong and cheat, and you do these things to your brethren! 9 Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, 10 nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God. 11 And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God.

Zephaniah 3:12–13 (NKJV)

12 I will leave in your midst A meek and humble people, And they shall trust in the name of the Lord.

13 The remnant of Israel shall do no unrighteousness And speak no lies, Nor shall a deceitful tongue be found in their mouth; For they shall feed their flocks and lie down, And no one shall make them afraid.”

Trust in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ, by which you are sanctified and justfied.

1 Samuel 12:23–25 (NKJV)

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.

24 Only fear the Lord, and serve Him in truth 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.”

What the Lord requires, is only for you to fear him and serve him in truth with all your heart, considering what great things he had done for you.

The people of Israel, though they were unfaithful to God in Egypt, he brought them out.

Though they rebel against him time and time again in the Wilderness, he brought them to the promise land.

Though they difeled the promise land with their evil deeds by following the customs of the surrounding people, yet in their distress when they called on the Lord he delivered them.

The Least they can do is to serve him in truth with all their heart.

The alternative

To continue to do wickedly specifically, to serve the idols of the foreign land.

1 Sam 12:20-21 “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. 21 And do not turn aside; for then you would go after empty things which cannot profit or deliver, for they are nothing.”

Serving the idols was unprofible, because when they call on this idols in their distress it did not deliver them from death.

Serving sins through the desires and passion of the flesh, is unprofiable. It will not deliver us from death infact it will bring death upon our lives.

Concluding Scriptures

Romans 6:10-23.

Why would we serve that which only will lead us to death, when we can serve him who will lead us to eternal life.

Let us serve him in truth and with all our heart considering what he has done foe us through his name.

Let us not dissapoint him, having made it his pleasure to make us one of his own.

The Apostle Paul said (1 Cor 15:10) “his grace towards me was not in vain”, let not God’s grace and favor he has shown be in vain.