getting into the discussion of why is there evil. Now in your notes, part of where this is playing in, and again, we're still on question number four, and we're looking through this idea of why is there evil. And so if you're following along in your notes, we've been kind of off on a few side studies, because I really wanna lay the groundwork before we dig in deep here. But if you look at page 36 and 37, 36 and 37 are, 36 is simply that idea of the incomplete circle and the short line. And we're kind of digging into that idea of if, it's one of those vain questions, but I think the problem of evil comes up and it is kind of a vain question at the root of it. Because what we are doing is we're putting ourselves in the place of God and saying, God, why did you do it this way? I think that's really what it comes down to. And so that's why when we ask, God, why did you do it this way? In a cynical attitude, we are questioning God's authority, God's sovereignty, God's wisdom. But we're human, and so in a way, I think there's a lot of times where God puts up with those type of questions and says, I'm gonna let you ask. But like, for instance, Job, he spent a lot of time simply saying, I want to appeal to God, I want to appeal to God, I want God to answer me, and God finally shows up and Job goes. I take it back. So I want us to kind of think that way, where we look at something like the line that you see there on page 36, and we ask this question, like, if you were God, how much of that line, being suffering, would be acceptable? Because that's the question where, when we deal with evil, We're willing to put up with a lot of random stuff that happens to other people, but when it starts happening to us, then it's suddenly like, well, how dare you? Every death is gonna be evil to the person who dies. Every person dying is gonna be evil to the parents and family of that person. But there are times where, I mean, there's the intellectual exercise, would you travel back in time and kill baby Hitler? Okay, that's very evil to Hitler and his family. But those questions arise because, again, it's a matter of perspective that we sometimes have to look at and say, okay, God is looking at all the pieces, God is looking at everything all together and saying. this is how I'm gonna work this. So what we're gonna do tonight is I wanna look at the Lord's Prayer, specifically why God tells us to pray a certain way, but I also, if we have time, I wanna look at one section in Samuel, and I wanna show, because there's all sorts of really, really bad things all happening at the exact same time, from a bunch of different perspectives. It's an absolute mess of a story. But I want you to see it because what it is is it's showing God's sovereignty in that God has never lost control of any of those situations. And you've got this really judgmental priest over here and his really wicked kids that seem like they're not being dealt with. And then you've got a Philistine army that's moved in. And then you've got this lady who can't have kids. And then you've got her son when she finally has a kid and she gives him up to this really bad priest. And you're looking at all these factors going, What is going on? And then suddenly, every single problem is all resolved in one fell swoop. Basically, it's like God was saying, wait for it, wait, wait. One day, he just takes care of everything at once. And so again, I think we have to, when we ask a question like why is there evil, we have to at times sit back and say, God is doing something that we can't see. And it sure feels evil to us. It sure feels chaotic to us. But there was never a point where God said, eh, I lost control of that one. And so I want to see that. And I want you to see it because I think that story really encapsulates a lot of the evil that we run into in the world. And we see it all at once. And then I want to see how it's all resolved at once in like really one battle just takes care of everything. And you're just kind of going. Okay. And so that's why I use these illustrations because again, there's a whole lot of stuff that we come at and we go, I don't get why God's doing it this way. Well, the question is, okay, how would you do it better? And that's kind of where we have to come back and look at. Page 37 is just some statistics and some various narratives that if you really want to hurt yourself, you can go read. They give a summary of evil. This is evil that was perpetrated by people who we would consider allies, people we consider enemies, people who we're neutral to. The fact is, all of these men were just normal men capable of great evil. And so as we get into this study, one of the aspects of the Lord's Prayer is, lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. And I think that's a powerful aspect of the Lord's Prayer, because what God is doing is he's saying, keep me from falling into these sins. Keep me from going in this direction and becoming corrupted by it. And it's a heart attitude that says, Lord, keep me holy, because it's the little things that build up. And if we keep a tender conscience toward the Lord, those little things are not allowed to build up, and it would keep us from This type of thing. This also leads into why we're doing prayer after this. And Tanya brought this up after the service last week, and I thought it was a very excellent point. This is why we pray for our leaders. Because again, as we saw in a few of the illustrations last week, these are leaders whose decisions have consequences on the lives of the people underneath them. And the Lord says that he will set up bad men as leaders as a judgment to a nation. We've got to understand that. And so we seek to be godly people. We seek to live in the midst of a godly people in a godly nation. And we seek for godly leaders and we pray for our leaders that they would make godly choices and that God would restrain evil because there could come a time where God has to pour his judgment out on a nation. And one of the ways he does that is by giving the nation bad leaders who make bad choices. Like it's the hardening of the heart. Like he wanted an occasion against Egypt and Pharaoh and all that. And so God said, Hey, I've given you the most arrogant guy you could imagine. And he's going to completely mess up your country because that's the way I'm going to judge you. And so that's why we, we're going to take a moment tonight. We're going to pray for our leaders and we're going to pray for the world. And, and that we, like the Bible says, pray that you could live quiet and peaceable lives. because part of God's judgment is giving bad leaders who make bad decisions, who then lay judgment on us. So again, those are all aspects of this. But what we were talking about last week is we dug into this. And we said this, that evil can sometimes just be there as a warning to keep people from going in that direction. We used a few of these verses. We said, here's one from Proverbs 19. And in Proverbs 19, we said, here's the thing, smite a scorner and the simple will beware. And so the idea is, there are times where there is evil that comes into the world, and it really is a smack upside the face, and it is a correction to keep other people from going that direction. And so that was a verse we looked at last week. Again, reprove one that hath understanding. So for someone who's wise, they should be able to learn by just a word. For someone who's foolish, they might need a smack. Okay, and that's the idea of that. We then look at this guy, a prudent foresees the evil, and he hideth himself. And so I use the illustration. You're walking along. You see a guy walking up a dark alley with a knife. You don't know who he is. But wisdom would then dictate, you know, I'm going a different direction. And sometimes that evil or that warning is there to say, go another direction. Now, that guy could be completely innocuous. He could be completely innocent. He could be the local watermelon farmer. You don't know. But there's a warning that says, this hurts. Don't do it. And that's why, again, there are times where God is gonna allow evil to warn other people from going that direction. But we have to understand, with all of this, there are times where God is gonna withhold judgment, and we're gonna see it tonight. He's gonna withhold judgment because the whole point is, I'm waiting for a tipping point, and I'm gonna take care of all this at once. And we have to understand, there are times God does that, where he says, I'm not judging this situation. Like, it's judged in the future, but I'm not dealing with it in what you think is the right timetable. So I'm just gonna let this happen, and then I'm gonna take care of all of it once. And I want you to see that story in 1 Samuel. We've looked at a whole bunch of different occasions, and these little case studies, so I want you to see how God works, so that we have the patience that says, even if God's not judging immediately, I'm not gonna become arrogant and start acting that way too, because I know judgment's coming. Okay, we also looked at this, we said sometimes there's a warning shot across the bow, that's why God allows evil. And so we looked there with Pharaoh, where God did a lot of stuff to Pharaoh, and this is the Pharaoh in Genesis, not the one in Exodus. The Pharaoh in Genesis, God fired a warning shot, said, I'm gonna, you know, do a few things in your household that you do not like. And the whole idea I'm trying to aim at is do not follow this, do not do this again. And what did Pharaoh do? He repented, he got it right. And Abraham prayed for him, and he was healed. But he had that warning shot of a bunch of evil that happened in his household, and God said, it's a warning, don't go any farther. And the Bible says, he that being often reproved, if he hardens his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed in that without remedy. So there is a nature here where God is trying to tell us, I will fire a warning shot, you have the ability to turn around. If you don't turn around, then I will come upon you suddenly and I will wipe you out. And that's what we're gonna see here in 1 Samuel when we look at that case study. And so there are times where God is allowing this evil or God is quite literally bringing this evil in. The whole point he's doing it with is he's saying, I want to warn you not to keep going in the direction you're going. And so that's the idea here even of this. So I was traveling in the desert yesterday because of course I was. And out there in the desert, we were out by where Area 51 is. And so it's a 12-mile dirt road that leads to this back gate. And it's a secret government facility. And of course, people still found it and still go out and visit it, because of course they do. But it's a 12-mile road. And I got some paperwork from the nearby store. And they had a warning. And they said, for one, it's open range. Like, there's cattle. And they have been known to charge vehicles. So there's your warning. OK, well, I didn't see any cows, so I kept going. But then they said, there is going to be a post that says, do not cross this line. You will be arrested, and it'll be a $600 fine for the first offense. Do not test them. They will get you. They're watching you the whole time that you come up to this secret facility. Don't mess with them. And that was the warning. And that was all it took to say, $600 fine for first offense. You get arrested. You're 12 miles out in the middle of the desert. Nah, I'm good. I'm good. I'm not doing that. So I'm telling you, I didn't come anywhere near that fence. And when I let my kids out of the car, I kept them a few hundred feet farther away from the fence than I was, because I'm like, I know you guys. I just, I'm worried you might get a little excited and stumble across a secret military fence, and I'm leaving you in that military thing. You go find out whether they're really aliens in there or something. But what I did is I said, there is just no way I'm crossing, I'm not even coming close to that line. because the penalty is too great. And there are times where I think God does that with us. So we saw Abimelech where Abimelech did something wrong, and God punished him and said, you're a dead man if you continue down that path. And Abimelech was like, oh, oh, oh, I give. And so I think there are times where God, he will give a smack and say, do you wanna keep going that way? And Abimelech goes, no. But I want you to notice this one thing, and we brought this up last week, Abimelech was a leader, Pharaoh was a leader. Abraham was a leader. All of these guys were leaders. David was a leader. All of these leaders, because of the way they lived, they brought punishment down on the people underneath them. That is why we pray for our leaders. That's why we stand up against the sin in our leaders. And those are the types of things that we do, because again, we are praying that we can live quiet and peaceable lives. Because again, the decisions that Abimelech made, even in ignorance, had dire consequences on his whole family and his kingdom. The decisions Pharaoh made had dire consequences on all of his people. All those people in the Red Sea that died were under Pharaoh's orders, and they died because of Pharaoh's arrogance. So there are consequences to following some of these people. And so I want us to understand that. And so what we need to do as we look through this, we need to remember the warnings. What God is going to do is he's going to say this, if you do this, then this is going to happen. And so he sent that warning. And God, as a man who keeps his word, he is, the Bible says, he's not a man that he should lie. He's going to keep his word. All right? And so he's going to say, if you do this, then this consequence will happen. If you do that, then that thing will happen. And so we need to understand that. And what God is doing is he's tapping into our normal human condition, which is we recognize patterns. We are built to recognize patterns. This is, you might have never seen it before, but back in New Hampshire, there was this silhouette of a man called the old man of the mountain. Really all it was was just some weird chunks of rock, but it looked like the profile of a man. People got all excited because they drove by and they looked up and they're like, there's a man. in the mountain. And it was basically a bunch of rocks. But we got all excited in New Hampshire. We put it on our coins. We made it like our state logo. We were just all excited because, look, it's a profile of a man. And then one day it just fell off because it was made of rock. And it just, gravity took over and it fell off. So he's not there anymore. But people got all excited. And we would go up and see the old man of the mountain. And people would write poetry about the old man of the mountain. What was he? He was a bunch of rocks. but he looked remarkably like an old man on the side of a mountain. We recognize patterns. And so what God is trying to do with evil is he is trying to show us through punishments and through discipline, if you do this, this is the consequence. Now, does it happen every single time? No. In fact, there are exceptions that we look at and we go, but he got away with it. And the Bible says, yes. And that's why, because punishment is delayed, it is determined in every man's heart to do evil. Because we see that delay in the pattern, because we see exceptions, we think we're gonna get away with it. And God is trying to remind us, you're not. So I want us to understand that when God sends out these warnings, he's trying to get our attention. And that's why, like I said, we're gonna pray for our leaders, we're gonna take some time. The Bible's gonna, here's just a few examples, and we've looked at some of these. Jeremiah, Jeremiah and Lamentations. He was a man who bore a lot of discipline in his own life because of the sins of the people around him. He got caught up in the idolatry because these people would not repent and God said, here's the judgment for idolatry. Jeremiah got caught up in that crossfire. If we look at the story of Samuel with Saul, that's one of the ones we'll look at eventually probably, but Samuel with Saul. Samuel was grieved at the declaration he had to make against Saul. Samuel was not happy that God had withdrawn his blessing from Saul. But Saul made a lot of sinful choices, and Samuel said, This is what I've gotta tell you. And the nation of Israel suffered because of that. Samuel suffered because of that. Samuel was not happy. Samuel had anointed Saul. Samuel had been there from Saul's beginning all the way up through. He had been his counselor, his advisor. But now, because of Saul's actions, Samuel had to bear some consequences himself in grief. We also see Micaiah with Ahab. This is a little more vague of a story if you're not familiar with it. But what happened here? Ahab was going up to battle and Micaiah comes out and says, you and Israel are gonna die if you go up and fight this battle. The Lord is not with you. And Ahab goes, yeah, whatever. And he throws him in jail and says, I'll come back in peace and I'll deal with you. Micaiah, he didn't do anything wrong. He actually literally told the king, this is what God has for you. And Micaiah had to suffer. because of the king's evil behavior. And so there's countless examples you could pull from, but I want you to understand that we need to pray for our leaders, we need to hold our leaders accountable, that might not always go well for us. So, like I said, when we're done, we're gonna take a moment, we're gonna pray for our leadership in our state, in our country, around, because again, we do pray that we can live those quiet and peaceable lives, because if we don't, there are consequences to the bad decisions of our leaders, and that is that. But tonight, what I wanna do is I wanna spend some time and I wanna go through the model prayer. Now, we've already preached a bunch of sermons on prayer, the model prayer specifically, but tonight I wanna unpack this simple thing, okay? Don't wanna take too much time on it, but I wanna unpack this, and it's this. We start off, the Lord says in Matthew 6, after this manner, I want you to pray. He's not saying you're to quote this verbatim and you're to all stand up and just dictate that. No, this is a pattern. This is what you're supposed to model your prayers after. And I want you to look at this because I think there's a few really important aspects to this. First of all, we are praying that God is glorified in what goes on. Okay, so take a step back. What does that mean on the ground? It is a focus on God's glory and you start looking at things in your own life and saying, does this glorify God? Does this action I'm about to take glorify God? Does this thought process glorify God? Do those words that come out of my mouth glorify God? What it's doing is it's basically a little revival in your own heart because you're unseating yourself as God of your own life. You're basically looking at God and saying, God, are you actually in charge? Am I actually doing all this for your glory or not? And so he says, our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. And so we're praying that God will be glorified, and there are times where God was then, he's then gonna turn around and ask us to do something to glorify him, and we have to be willing to do it. And so that's where I want us to understand that, again, you'll notice that even in the way I modeled this study, I started off question three was dealing with the glory of God and the power of God and the reverence that we should give to God and the wisdom that God has. What is that doing? That is lifting up God as hallowed, as glorified. So even the way I've modeled this series, we started off Hallowed be thy name. Because I think a lot of the questions about the problem of evil resolve themselves if you have a proper view of God. If God is really God, if he's really in charge, if he's really wise, if he's really knowledgeable, if he's a genius, if he's, all that. It takes care of a lot of those things, because then you go, I don't fully understand it, but I trust he does. I realize that doesn't solve every single problem. I realize that doesn't answer every single question. But again, what this is doing is it's changing our heart Our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Then what we do next is we focus in and we say, God, not only do I want your name to be hallowed, but I want your will to be done. I was listening to a guy and he was talking about things that he'd seen at the border. And he was just talking about the deaths and the brutality and stuff that he had seen. He'd worked as border patrol for 40 years. And he was just going on about the things that he'd seen. And he says, you would understand my passion for this if you had seen the things that I've seen. If you'd seen the people who suffered in this way, if you'd seen, like he's like, you would, I just want you to know, I've seen things that are horrible and I'm trying to stop them. And so we have to understand that there are things we don't fully understand, because we're not God. We're not in God's shoes. We don't understand fully why God does what he does, because we don't have God's experience. We don't fully understand all of what God has been through, so to speak. And so what we're doing is we sit back and we say, that little evil that I'm allowing, put Christ on the cross. That little evil that I'm entertaining hurts the reputation of Christ. That little thing that I'm, like all these little things that are happening, they're not little. They're actually extremely severe. I just don't think of them like God thinks of them. And so we have to kind of take a step back and we need to look at the whole thing from God's perspective. And we glorify his name and we lift him up high. And then what we do is we then say, Lord, I know you have a different perspective than I do. Let me follow through and keep your perspective on this. And so that's why it says thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. And so this brings up an important point that there are aspects of what goes on on earth that God is not happy with. He is not pleased with. God is going to allow things to happen. Sometimes he's going to cause things to happen as part of judgment. It doesn't please him. And so we, again, why does God allow evil? Well, if he stopped every little bit of evil, you would be erased from existence. Like that's what would happen. Like if God's perfect holiness was poured out on this earth, none of us could stand up, none of us could survive. And so we hate evil, we wish it didn't exist, but for us to exist, there's at least gotta be a little evil that God tolerated for a while. But as you look in the story, for instance, 1 Samuel, God will judge it, but he just doesn't do it on our timetable. So what the Lord's Prayer is doing is the first thing it's doing is it's saying, I'm gonna pray for God's glory. I'm gonna pray that God is glorified in what happens, and I'm gonna pray that God's will is done on this earth. I know he's in charge in heaven. I know he's in charge here on earth. I'm just praying that basically he pours out his will. But again, that's gotta start with us. That's gotta start with us examining our lives piece by piece and saying, I'm tolerating this sin here, and I'm tolerating that sin there, and there's a little piece of my life that God's will doesn't have authority over. I'm doing that too. And so what's it doing? We're praying that the Lord starts working in our own lives because it's hard to pray this sincerely without looking at your own life and saying, right there. I've got that little piece I haven't surrendered. It's kind of the question. It's like, does Satan own one nail in your house? Does he have that one nail that he can put whatever he wants? And so if you think, you decorate your house, you have that one nail on the wall waiting to be decorated. You're going to hang something on that nail. And you've got all these other things around your house. You've got that one nail that someone can just walk in and put whatever they want on that nail. Okay, what's gonna happen if you turned over one single nail in your house to someone who hates you? And they can walk in and they can put whatever they want on that nail, because they own that one nail. What type of things is the devil gonna come and start hanging on that one nail in your house? I think that's what some of us have done with little sins or little things that we've left in our life where we go, I'm not going to deal with that one thing. And it's like, OK, well, congratulations. Satan is going to bring in his decorating crew, and he's going to exploit that single nail as best as he possibly can. He's got right of way, right there, into that little corner of your life. Don't let him have it. Let God's will have it all. And so that's where, again, as you pray through the Lord's Prayer, it's not saying pray this verbatim, but this is the mindset, this is what we should be praying toward. So we pray, first of all, that God is glorified. We look at God's character, his attributes, all that, we glorify him for that. Then we pray for God's will. And then we move further and we say, Lord, because again, let's look at this in light of what evil is. What we're doing with this is we're saying, part of evil is I don't have fully what I thought I should have. So what God is doing here is he's reminding us God has the ability to give us what we need. God has the ability to provide. I mean, you think about the number of people who give up on Christianity or give up on certain things that are good because they are tempted with more. And that could be a job that pays more that takes them farther away from church. That could be this better situation here that takes them away from this thing. And again, it's these little things that build up that we have to stop and go, you are about to, little by little, You know, inch by inch leads up. These little things can build up to the point that they become a big evil down the road. So you've got to catch them small. You've got to look and you say, all right, it could be something as simple as I don't think I'm getting enough. I don't trust God's going to provide enough. And that's why the prayer is, Lord, give us this day our daily bread. Give me what I need. Give me what you think that I need at this moment. And I'm going to trust that you're giving me exactly what I need. But you'll notice it started off with praying for God's glory and praying God's will is done. Then you pray that he provides what you need. But you've already started out with a very, very God-centric view of your prayer. You've started off with a very God-focused motivation to your prayer, then you now get to you and say, Lord, I need some things, can you please give them to me? And so, again, you'll notice that if we get any of these pieces wrong, suddenly that problem of evil balloons to way worse than it is. But again, it all starts with a proper mindset of God. As you keep going, we then get to this, and forgive us our debts as we forgive those who are indebted to us. And the wording changes slightly depending on which time Jesus is telling this, but it's the idea of we owe to God, and we're asking him to help us to forgive others the way he forgave us. That's hard to do. That's not easy. That's not something that we go, I'm just going to be flippant about this. Because there are times where we are sincerely wronged. We're sincerely abused. We are sincerely taken advantage of. And that's where we basically say, Lord, I want a relationship with you. And I want you to help me treat others the way you've treated me. And again, that's why we start off with a focus on God's glory and will. We then go further to say the Lord's providing all of this. So if anybody's wronged me, really they've wronged God. And so I'm gonna pray that he takes care of those things. And so that's again, and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. And then this is where it gets to the end and lead us not into temptation. but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever, amen. And so that ending phrase is basically a repeat of the start. But I want you to notice that is this specific prayer is him saying, Lord, don't let me fall into sin. Don't let me stumble my way into this stuff. Keep me protected. And again, that's a powerful thing. I told you the story one time of I was in Vegas, and back in the day, Vegas used to be a lot worse than it is now, believe it or not. And they would hand out pornographic trading cards on the street. Like they would just hand them to you and you didn't know what they were handing and you thought it was just an advertisement and you'd pick it up and flip it over and be like, yeah. And I remember telling my brother, I walked into the city and I said, do not pick up any of the trading cards that you find on the street. They are not trading cards. And I still remember, we were walking through, we were trying to find somewhere to eat, and again, it was a lot seedier back then, it was a lot worse, and we were walking through, and he sees the trading card on the street, and it was one of those things where it was like, I had warned him, do not pick them up, and he forgot the warning, and he's like, he picks that thing up, and he's like, ah, he drops it immediately. And that was, now, was he going out of his way to find this evil and to get, no, no, that was a stumbled upon it. And I think there are times where we stumble upon it. But again, you should have listened to the warning. You should have been careful. Maybe shouldn't have even been there. But the fact is, is you were there and you were doing, you're just wandering the street, walking to a place to get something to eat. You forgot about the warning. And that's where I think there are times where we have to approach the Lord and say, Lord, don't let me accidentally fall into sin. Again, like Abimelech, like Pharaoh, these guys, they accidentally fell into sin. They accidentally took Abram's wife, okay, because they didn't know she was his wife. And that's where, again, deliver us from evil. We are focused on God's glory to the point where we say, Lord, stop me before I go too far. Stop me before I get involved in this thing that will irreparably damage me. Stop me. Like, I know there's gotta be judgment, and I know there's gotta be a punishment, and I know you've gotta smack me upside the hand. Don't let me go any farther. If you see me about to walk down that alley, and that guy's up with a knife, just smack me upside the head, get me to turn around, don't let me go up that way. And that's where the Lord's Prayer comes in, because we are praying, Lord, I'm doing this for your glory, I'm doing this to honor your will, I'm doing this because you've provided everything that I have, but Lord, don't let me fall into this sin. And I think there is a good prayer to be prayed, just simply, Lord, don't let me become comfortable in my sin. We talked about that idea of calluses. We even talked Sunday morning about the idea of circumcise your heart and not your flesh. And one of the aspects of circumcision, as you see it throughout scripture, is it leaves people sore. A guy for obvious reasons. But the idea of if you were literally to circumcise your heart, it should leave you feeling tender. It should leave you feeling painful, like that thing that I just did hurt. That sin that I just committed hurt. And if you keep committing the same sin over and over, and you don't feel any grief over it, it might be a sign that you've got some calluses there that need to be cut off. Calluses build up because you've kept doing the same thing over and over, and you've built up an immunity to the pain. And that's why the Bible will say things about the Holy Spirit. Do not sear your conscience as with a hot iron. Because what is that all about? It is us becoming comfortable with our sin and God's going, I can't even get through to you right now. I can't get your attention. So I'm gonna have to ramp this up. I'm gonna have to do something a little harder now. I'm gonna have to do something a little more serious now to get your attention. And so that's why I put this all under the capsule of, there are times where evil happens, as a warning to keep us from going further. And we need to pray this type of prayer, and we need to pray, God, protect me from the evil, which sometimes might involve some pretty harsh consequences, but it's better than going further. As we wrap up, I do wanna introduce you, and I would suggest this for your own study. We've looked at the cycle in judges, we dealt with that last week, but I wanna really quickly just lay this out for you. I'm going to challenge you on your own time to read these passages. read the first five chapters of 1 Samuel. Just take the time, study it out, do some work, but I want you to notice a few things that happen in this, and I want you to see how God has basically held off his judgment for a later date, and these people did not get the picture. They didn't pay attention, because God had not judged them right away. God let them linger, God let them keep doing their thing. But I want you to notice some of these attributes that are here, okay? First thing we have, and we find out about this partway through, is this priest by the name of Eli had these really, really bad kids. Now we're not talking about they were just running around and crazy. We're talking they were stealing the offerings, they were sleeping with the women who showed up at the tabernacle, and they were just doing all sorts of wickedness to the point that they were called out for it, and they wouldn't change. And so here you've got the priest's kids who are involved in all sorts of wickedness, And they're just left to keep doing it. Now I find that really funny because as you read this on your own, I want you to pay attention to how Eli deals with other people. Because Hannah walks into the temple and she's praying. And she's so in grief over her prayers that her mouth is moving, but no words are coming out. And Eli comes up and he goes, what are you, drunk in the tabernacle? Get out of here. So here's a priest who's getting on the case of a woman who's praying because her mouth is moving and she's just so much in grief. And she's like, I'm not drunk. I'm just in so much grief that I just can't even form the words right now. And he goes, oh, oh, sorry. And then the story then reveals later, let's show you what his kids are like and what he's not doing with his own kids. And so here's this extremely judgmental priest who's just allowing all sorts of wickedness when he should be dealing with it. And yet he's also selectively judgmental of this random woman who he doesn't know, because he judges the situation wrong. And it's just really funny to me that you've got these evil kids. You've also got idolatry where these These people are about to go to war, and they treat the Ark of the Covenant like it's a lucky charm. They go, ah, God will be with us if we carry this thing with us. And they go, no, that's not how that works. And so you've got them treating sacred objects like they're just humdrum, everyday thing. Like, quite literally, they come with the sacrifice, and the priest, who's not supposed to take it yet, the priest's kids, they go in there, and they're like, we're gonna take the best stuff for us, because we want it. And they're like, you can't do that. And they're like, yeah, shut up. We're gonna do what we wanna do. Like, quite literally, that's how these kids, these priest's kids are. They treat the things that are sacred just completely irreverently. And the Ark of the Covenant is treated like a lucky charm. Like, hey, we'll win in battle if we have this thing with us, right? And so, think about this in terms of evil. You've got evil children. You've got evil being done to God's name. You've got no audible speaking of God. God, it says that he was not speaking to them at this time. So there had been a quiet time where God had not been revealing things supernaturally. In fact, to the point that Samuel finally does hear from the Lord, and he doesn't know what it is. He's like, I think Eli is calling me, and he runs in, and Eli's like, go back to bed. And then he does it again, go back to bed. Oh, maybe that's the Lord talking. But it says that this was not a regular thing. So God seems quiet. Sacred objects are treated like lucky charms. evil kids, they're surrounded by the Philistines. So you've got this enemy army coming in, and you've just got battles back and forth. And so from a geopolitical standpoint, this is chaos. This is absolute chaos, and they're trying to find any way to get an advantage over these enemies. And it's set during the time of the judges, where every man is just doing what's right in his own eyes. So put that all in perspective. And then, of course, you've got that judgmental priest who can't take care of his own kid's sins beyond wagging his finger at him and saying, you shouldn't be doing that. That doesn't work, all right? He's just like, oh, you shouldn't be sleeping with the women who show up here at the tabernacle. And you shouldn't be taking the things of the Lord like that. And they're like, yeah, well, we're still going to keep doing it. And that's pretty much all he does. You're like, dude, get rid of them, punish them, discipline, do whatever, like defrock them if you, whatever you have to do. What are you doing letting them keep doing that? But he basically just goes, no. And then just leaves it. And I want you to notice this on your own time, go study it out. Because in one battle, God takes care of every single bit of this all at the same time. His priests go out, they're holding the Ark of the Covenant, the Philistines, they're like, oh, oh, the Ark of the Covenant's here, we better run. And they're like, no, no, no, no, no, we got this. And they overwhelm the position. They kill the two priests who are evil, who deserve to die for all that they had been doing. The Philistines take care of that. Eli sitting on a wall, he hears the story and he falls over and breaks his neck. So he's out of the picture. So God dealt with him, dealt with his two kids, dealt with the irreverence toward the things of God. And then also the Philistines, they capture the Ark of the Covenant. And now they've got this extremely holy item that it's like, do not touch this, don't mess with this. And God goes, what are you guys doing with that? Now I'm gonna punish you for having that in the first place. And he starts unleashing all these plagues on the Philistines to the point that the Philistines are like, we don't want this anymore. And so they just like strap it to a cow and just go, go, go, go, just go, get this out of here. And so God gets glory on the Philistines because they realize his power. God disciplines his priest and his priest's kids. He takes care of the Philistines and the judgment that they needed. And he does all of that. In one fell swoop, he removes all the bad from the table, removes all the evil, cleans everything up. It's like washing the dishes. He just does it all at once. And he's like, I don't need to deal with this, then this, then this. He's like, nope. One battle is going to take care of every lick of this. So I want us to see that because we might be living in this period. Like we might be living in this spot right here where we're going, there just doesn't, like God doesn't seem to care. God doesn't seem to care about his own reputation. God doesn't seem to care about the evil that's continuing. God doesn't seem like, like what is going on? And we just have to wait and be patient. That's why we glorify the Lord. But that's also why we pray for our leaders. Because a lot of this could have been taken care of had Eli done his job and been the leader and judge that he was supposed to be. But he didn't want to do it. And so that's where, again, you've got that. And like I said, God takes care of all of it in one fell swoop. So summarize it all. God will sometimes bring evil simply as a warning to say, do not continue doing what you're doing. That evil could be conviction. That evil could be a smack on the wrist. That evil could be something far more serious. But again, we We see no shortage of evil right here in about all the different forms, not all the different forms we can imagine, but a lot of the different forms we can imagine. And then God uses other evil to clean that evil up. And so we just have to understand that God in his wisdom is going to do things that we don't fully understand. So we come to the Lord, we say, hey, your glory, your will be done, provide where I need provision. and let me take stock of where I am and take care of the little things so that I'm not contributing to the evil around me. And Samuel came out. I mean, Samuel was one of those who came out through this, and this is how he became the new judge. But I just, like, I want you to notice, like, Samuel honored the Lord. Samuel did the right thing, and he came through all this chaos, and then he ended up ruling Israel until they wanted a king. But I just want you to see this, that there are times where I think we're trapped in this cycle going, what are you doing, Lord? and we just need to be patient, need to make sure we're taking care of our own business, so to speak. All right, before we go to prayer time, I do want to open it up for questions or comments.