The Bible is profoundly a book of biography filled with literally scores of the lives of people. The life of Samuel is among those biographies. And we have to ask ourselves a really important question to start. And that is, why really focus on Samuel of all the characters of the Old and the New Testament? Well, there are some really compelling reasons for this. One is that God intends for us to use the Old Testament characters as examples for us. Remember the passage in 1 Corinthians 10, verse 11, when Paul said, concerning the wilderness wanderings and by logical extension the rest of the history of Israel, that what happened unto them happened as or for our example and for our admission upon whom the ends of the world have come. He confirmed that same idea in Romans 15 in verse 4 when he says, "...for whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope." So clearly the Old Testament, and specifically Samuel as other characters, is intended to be a compelling example for us. But also there is a large narrative section. I mean 25 chapters in 1 Samuel. So I've got 25 chapters in about 25 minutes. We'll see how that goes. This is a lengthy narrative about a pivotal person in the history of the people of God. In Acts chapter 13, when Paul was preaching in the synagogue at Antioch of Pisidia, he was recounting the history of the people of God. Listen to what he said. And after that he gave them judges about the space of 450 years until Samuel the prophet. Until Samuel the prophet. The climax of the judges, a prophetic ministry. Well, earlier than this, in Acts chapter 3, when Peter had healed the lame man in the temple, and he was preaching about Christ, he said concerning Samuel, "...yea, and all the prophets from Samuel, and those that follow after, as many as have spoken, have likewise foretold of these days." Until Samuel, and from Samuel, Samuel was in a pivotal position in the time in which he lived. He was the transition person between the judges and the kingships. In fact, it was his work that would settle the regal line and kingship of David and ultimately the Lord Jesus Christ, because that transition was made. But these were not good times. These were bad times. Judges 17, verse 6, and also Judges 21, verse 25, say the same thing. The verses repeated, in those days there was no king in Israel and every man did that which was right in his own eyes. There's another reason for us to think about Samuel this morning, and that is that Samuel's spiritual stature as a man of God and man of prayer is remarkable when compared to other biblical characters. In fact, in Psalm 99, verse 6, the Bible says, Moses and Aaron among his priests, and Samuel among them that call upon his name, They called upon the Lord, and he answered them, Moses, Aaron, Samuel, all mentioned, back to back, as tremendous examples of men of God. This is underscored in Jeremiah 15.1, where God spoke to Jeremiah and said to him, Though Moses and Samuel stood before me, Yet my mind could not be toward this people, cast them out of my sight, and let them go forth." And he was speaking of the judgment of Judah because of their sins. It gets even more compelling when you think of a fourth reason to consider Samuel. And that is that he's identified as a man of great faith in the New Testament. This is found in Hebrews 11, 32, where the scriptures say, What shall I more say? For time would fail me to tell of Gideon, and of Barak, and of Samson, and Jephthah, of David also, and Samuel, and of the prophets." But just to cap these off, these compelling reasons to think about Samuel, consider the fact that when he's described in the record of scripture, it's only a positive description. There's no sin of Samuel that's discussed. By the end of his ministry, in 1 Samuel 12, 4, or nearing the end of it, the people of Israel said concerning him, thou hast not defrauded us nor oppressed us, neither hast thou taken aught of any man's hand. Now this is a person of great or significant importance for us as people in training for ministry. Now just how does the narrative of his life unfold in scripture? It starts with a really fascinating story of his birth. His mom and dad, Elkanah and Hannah, were without children. By Hannah, there was another wife, there were children, there was great tension in the family. This was a Levitical family, a priestly family. They were good and godly people. They went to Shiloh to worship every year, but Hannah couldn't have any children. She prayed and she sought God. And then one year when they went to Shiloh, she was crying out to God in a prayer in that her mouth was moving, but she was not speaking words. And Eli the priest saw her and he thought that she was intoxicated and rebuked her. And then she explained that she was praying for God to give her a son. And Eli gave her a blessing. She returned home. She conceived. She bore a son. She called him Samuel because he was asked of God, as the name Samuel means. This woman's concern for God and His glory was so great that she determined that after she weaned Samuel, she would take him to Shiloh and leave him there to be cared for by Eli, by the high priest, nurtured and brought up in priestly service there at the tabernacle in Shiloh. incredible devotion. But while he was there, growing as a young boy, something amazing occurred. In chapter 3 of Samuel, he receives a call from God. Three times at night, the third time Eli had instructed him, it's the Lord, respond to him when he calls. And Samuel did and says, here am I. And God gave him the first prophecy he would have to make, a very difficult prophecy. But as he continued to mature and grow at Shiloh, all the people of God recognized something, according to 1 Samuel 3, verse 20. And all Israel, from Dan even to Beersheba, knew that Samuel was established to be a prophet of the Lord. That began a continual ministry of 20 years that crescendoed or climaxed in chapter 7 with a great revival among the people of God. In chapter 7, verse 3, Samuel called for the people to repent. And the nation did repent. Verse 4 tells us, the very next verse. They turned to the Lord. They experienced deliverance from the Philistines who had been oppressing them. But then they rebelled. And in that rebellion, they asked for a king. They rejected God's kingship. This really grieved Samuel. But the Lord appointed him to anoint Saul and encouraged him to set up that kingship and to support the king. Tragically, three times Samuel was called upon to pronounce judgment on this king, Saul. in chapter 13 and chapter 15 and then ultimately in chapter 28. Things got so bad that God then appointed him to anoint David as the replacement for Saul after pronouncing those judgments. Finally, after years went by of David fleeing from Saul and Saul becoming more and more paranoid and desirous to destroy David, Samuel protected David at one point, but then the scriptures record for us in 1 Samuel 25 that he died and he was buried in Ramah where his home was, his home base of ministry. All Israel gathered for that funeral. Now, what does the narrative of his life tell us about that we should emulate There isn't any record of him being of great prowess as a warrior. He's not presented with the Solomonic genius. He doesn't have any great literary gifts that we can see. But what we can see, what is tremendously noteworthy, is that he was a holy, wholehearted man devoted to God profoundly. This is what was true of him. We could say it's in bold print in the record of his life. Much like John the Baptist in the New Testament. In fact, probably no one greater in scripture recorded this way than John the Baptist. They had a lot of similarities. Both of them were children of barren parents who came in answer to prayer. Both were set apart early in life for spiritual nurture and preparation for future prophetic ministry. But what was it about Samuel that made him really stand out in the story and the narrative of Scripture? I think it can be summarized this way. And that is that one holy man or holy woman really matters. That's the message of Samuel's life to us. One holy man. One holy woman. really matters in the history of the people of God. This is what was distinctive about Saul, Samuel, and it can be about you as well. Your influence can be absolutely transformational in this generation as a holy man or a holy woman. This is what his life tells us. But what was that life of holiness specifically characterized by? Exactly. We know Samuel was a man of great faith. That's in Hebrews 11. We know he sought the Lord and had answers to prayer. We saw that from Scripture, from Psalm 99, verse 6. He's fully given over from a very young age to the service of God, and he continues in that service. From the record of Scripture, he obeyed God's commands always, but more specifically, what was true of him as a holy man. He lived trusting in the good guidance of God without bitterness. And so can we, and must we, always. He didn't focus on what disadvantaged him. He was not focused on the bad of the past or the present circumstances. His focus was on God. His focus was on the God of forgiveness, of compassion, God's slow to anger, gracious, and abounding in loving kindness. This was his spirit. This is the approach he followed to life. I mean, think about it for a moment. He trusted God's good guidance without bitterness. even when the scriptures tell us that he had a rather strange early life. I mean, when he was three years old, his mother and father, three years old, took him and gave him to the high priest, left him at Shiloh. That's remarkable. Her maternal instincts, Hannah's, were overcome and her desire to be devoted to God and to please God The scriptures tell us in the record of the narrative that every year she sewed a little robe for Samuel. And when the time for sacrifice annually came, they would go to Shiloh and she would take that robe to him. Do you suppose that a woman like this, who sang a magnificent hymn of praise in 1 Samuel chapter 2 to God for his great goodness to her, do you think that she thought about Samuel every day, every hour she worked on that robe? that she prayed for her son. These were good people. These were godly people. They were following God's will. You know, sometimes the formative influences that God brings into our lives don't match up with what is traditional, what is normal. what is really needed for a servant of God. Sometimes those formative influences may be gentle, familial, kind. Other times they may be difficult and unusual. You know the scriptures tell us that they only saw Samuel, his parents, once a year when they would go for the sacrifice, the great festival. He did set up his ministry permanently in Ramah when he carried out that itinerant ministry. Maybe he cared for his parents in their old age. That's where the family home was. But largely during his upbringing years, his nurturing years, he was cared for by an elderly high priest who continued to fail miserably with his own sons who were priests and were deeply involved in sin. He failed to confront them and he failed to remove them. Samuel trusted, continually was trusting in spite of the absence of wholesome, helpful mentors. You know, the record of Scripture doesn't tell us about any major prophet that was carrying on ministry at that time that Samuel could look to as an example. We have Eli, this failing elderly high priest, his terrible sons who were stealing the sacrifices of the people of God, who were committing immorality with women at the tabernacle who were serving there. I think we have a lesson in this. We're never, as servants of the Lord, to feel as if we're just really egregiously disadvantaged because we had bad examples or because someone didn't pay special attention to us or personal attention in mentoring us in life and ministry. You know, God can and does use negative as well as positive examples to shape us. You can be influenced positively by observing people even at a distance or listening. You know, mentoring for ministry over a cup of coffee and a small table and talking is a great thing. It's a wonderful thing. But thankfully God uses many other ways to mentor and to shape us. Whether it's the general fellowship of the body of Christ or the corporate worship of it or just sitting with your Bible before the great mentor the great discipler of all disciplers. Certainly Samuel did a lot of that, it appears, as the Lord helped him. He was a self-edifier. Jude 20 says that we're to build ourselves up in our most holy faith. I've never known a really faithful or really fruitful servant of God who was not a serious self-edifier in the Word, who was not dependent on others. Now, the glorious fact is that as we look at what happened in Samuel's life is that by the time we get near the end of his ministry in 1 Samuel 19 verses 18 to 22 it says there was a whole school of prophets over which he presided. His example and his influence brought about a significant change in the circumstances in Israel. Samuel trusted in spite of a horribly sinful culture. It was not an ideal environment in which to serve. Israel was at best half-hearted in their worship of Yahweh. They were worshiping the Baals. This was the primary deity in the pantheon of Canaanite deities. a terrible, wicked deity. Ashtoreth, the goddess of fertility and love and war was also worshipped and the worship was extremely perverse. I think Samuel remembered and knew that the light shines brightest and is of greatest use in the darkest place. You know, this man was trusting God all of his life ministry in spite of an arduous, burdensome ministry of unrelenting pressure and weighty responsibilities. But you read the record of the narrative in 1 through 25 in 1 Samuel, and you see no complaining. You see no murmuring. The Bible tells us in 1 Samuel 7, verses 15 to 17, that Samuel carried out an itinerant ministry. He would go from Ramah to Bethel to Gilgal to Mizpah and then back to Ramah year after year. Most of the time, he's away from home. He's not got the comforts of his own place in carrying out this huge ministry that he had to perform. No complaining, no bitterness, just trusting the good guidance of God. And Samuel lived not only trusting in the good guidance of God without bitterness, but there's something else about him. And I want you to be thinking all along now, one holy man or one holy woman really matters in the life of the people of God. It mattered through Samuel. He was a man who was speaking the truth to power or to authorities at great personal risk. And so must we, if we want to be used of God. And he didn't do this just once, men and women, as you read the narrative. He did it multiple times, just like John the Baptist in the New Testament with religious and political figures. Multiple times he spoke truth to authority or power. He did this to all people to Eli, his surrogate father, the one who was over him in the place there in Shiloh. And yet he had to give the first prophecy of the end of Eli's priestly line and those of his family because of his failure. That was the first prophecy as a young guy that Samuel had to give. He also had to carry out at God's direction and announced the removal of his own sons as judges because they were taking bribes and perverting justice. And this ultimately resulted in a kingship in Israel. He confronted the nation's leaders in chapter 8 and chapter 12 because they were seeking, and all the people, not just the leaders, they were seeking a king, rejecting God's kingship. This was heartbreaking to Samuel. And yet God came to him and said to him in 1 Samuel 8, 7, We later learned in chapter 12, verse 20, As Samuel said to the people after he reproved them for seeking a king, God had assured him that he would take care of the people of God. And he said to the people, fear not, you have done all this wickedness, yet turn not aside from following the Lord, but serve the Lord with all your heart. He confronted the entire nation because of seeking a king. And then, after anointing Saul the king, he has to face Saul, who is the king, with the fact that he had disobeyed God at Gilgal by making a sacrifice early and not allowing him, Samuel, to make that sacrifice as was determined in the will of God. And verse 14 tells us, that Samuel said to Saul, but now thy kingdom shall not continue. The Lord hath sought a man after his own heart. That was the end of Saul's dynasty. His sons would not rule. He confronted Saul again, just two chapters later in chapter 15, because he failed to address the problem of the Amalekites and destroy that nation entirely as God had instructed. Instead, he brought back Agag the king, and he brought back the best livestock for sacrifice. And what was the response in verse 22 and 23 in 1 Samuel 15? Samuel said to Saul, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because thou hast rejected the word of the Lord, he hath also rejected thee. from being king. Now it's the end of the kingship of Saul. Not just the dynasty. This threw Samuel into mourning. In fact, the record of scripture tells us in chapter 1535 through 1601 that God had to come to Samuel, and he did come to him, and said, stop mourning. Don't mourn anymore for Saul. Get up and go anoint his replacement. And he did confront Saul by anointing David. Eventually, this became known. Initially, it wasn't known. But he sided with David. And in chapter 19, after anointing him in 16, he actually protects David in a supernatural incident. Well, believe it or not, even later, when Saul is resisting David as his replacement, God allows Samuel to speak literally from heaven in that strange incident in chapter 28 where a medium, Saul seeks a medium to call Samuel up from the dead to speak to him. Well, of course, God doesn't end that, but God did allow Samuel to speak. And Samuel said to Saul, you're going to die. Your sons are going to die. Israel is going to be defeated. and brought again into the bondage of the Philistines. And this happened in chapter 31 of 1 Samuel on Mount Geboa. Exactly what he had prophesied. You see, all this time Samuel is under tremendous threat from Saul as being treasonous. He's anointed another king. He lived under all that pressure. And yet God finally did justice with reference to Saul. Over and over, at great personal risk, speaking truth to power or authority. Now what else was true of him? He followed that good guidance without bitterness. He spoke the truth to authority and power over and over. The Bible also tells us that he boldly was calling for revival for a disobedient people. Now that's what a holy man or holy woman ought to do. Whether it's family, or peer group or friends, or your church, whatever group it may be, God wants us to be people determined to call the disobedient to repentance. He boldly faced a people of God who were doing what was right in their own eyes. He was confronting culture-wide sins. And so you think of pornography and alcohol and drugs. Or what about homosexuality, lesbianism, transgenderism, same-sex marriage? What will it be like when, if you speak to those things, you're guilty of a hate crime? You're a lawbreaker. Are you ready to confront culture-wide sins? We must be ready to boldly stand for the six-day creation against a society saturated with evolutionary theory and ideas. even face down the Bible-believing church if it drifts from a commitment to an inerrancy and adopts cultural practices that are clearly spoken against in the Word of God. Are you ready to be thought of as unkind, unloving, harsh, uncompassionate because you speak the truth? Samuel was. We must be. Are you ready to face down the ethic of tolerance that makes everything allowable and permissible if a person wants to do it or their conscience allows them to do it? A person who's a holy man or a holy woman has the courage to speak truth boldly, to speak for revival for a people that are worshipping false gods. They were worshipping Baal. They were worshipping Ashtoreth. America worships entertainment. It worships pleasure. It worships material things. Covetousness is idolatry. He boldly faced down a people in calling for revival who were rejecting God's kingship. They didn't think that the way the people of God were being governed and their life being directed was right. They wanted a change. They wanted an adaptation of the culture. The scriptures specifically say they wanted to be like the nations. That's what the scriptures taught concerning their attitude. And so, instead, there was by Samuel a great fidelity to scripture, to the way that God had set, a determination to do what God said. You see, what's fresh, what's new, what's culturally relevant is not always what is best. It isn't always what is preferred most by God. Now there's something else I want you to see about Samuel. He did follow God's good guidance without bitterness. He was a man who spoke truth to power. He was a man who called for revival among the disobedient people of God. But there was something else about him. He was living an unusually high standard of righteousness. 2 Corinthians 7, verse one tells us, having therefore received these promises, cleanse yourself from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. That's how Samuel lived. Be holy as I am holy, 1 Peter 1, 16. That's how Samuel lived. That's how we must live. There was no sin named, no sin described, no sin suggested, neither can sin even be inferred from this man's life. Now, if we say we have no sin, we lie and the truth is not in us, of course. But he was blameless. There was no obvious sin that could be pointed to to refuse his ministry. He carried out a faithful ministry, his entire life of integrity. In 1 Samuel 17, the Bible says that Samuel judged Israel all the days of his life. And look at what the conclusion of that judge work that he did was. In 1 Samuel 12, verse four, the Bible says that they held him in high regard. Thou hast not defrauded us nor oppressed us, neither hast thou taken out of any man's hand. They were only confirming exactly what Samuel had been saying about his own life himself, just the verse before. And the end of his life, the record shows that the whole nation feared this man and respected him, feared him in a good sense. They showed up at his funeral in Ramah, the Bible says. And in 1 Samuel 25.1, we have record of what occurred that day. He died. All the Israelites were gathered together and lamented him and buried him in his house at Ramah, his home becoming a kind of memorial to a holy, godly life. When you leave seminary, when you're done here, will anybody lament your leaving? What about the completion of your first ministry? Will there be a lamenting that you're going on to something else or good riddance? What about the end of your life? Will there be a lamenting among the people of God because you were a holy man, you were a holy woman? One holy man or woman really matters. A man or a woman who trusts God's good guidance without bitterness, who speaks truth to power, who boldly calls for revival among a disobedient people, and who lives an unusually high standard of personal righteousness. Samuel was this kind of man. He was a holy man. And so can you be by grace. Let's pray. Take your words, I pray, O Lord, and seal them to the hearts of these men and these women. I pray that you would make them more holy as a result of your truth as they consider and meditate on the life of Samuel and the great power of that example, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.