I'd like to encourage you to take your Bibles, if you have them, turn to 1 Samuel and chapter 7. If you do not have a Bible with you, I would encourage you to look to these screens that are behind me. I love for you to know that the message that we share is from the Word of God, is not my opinion nor my idea. 1 Samuel chapter 7 finds the nation of Israel struggling just a bit. If you're familiar at all with the Old Testament, that does not come as any surprise to you. In 1 Samuel chapter 7, we're about to listen as the prophet, perhaps the last judge Samuel, leads the children of Israel back to God. Look with me if you would and I'll begin reading in verse 1. And the men of Kirjath-Jerim came and fetched up the Ark of the Lord and brought it into the house of Abinadab in the hill and sanctified Eleazar his son to keep the Ark of the Lord. And it came to pass, while the ark abode in Kirjath-Jerim, that the time was long, for it was twenty years. And all the house of Israel lamented after the Lord. And Samuel spake unto all the house of Israel, saying, If ye do return unto the Lord, with all your hearts. Then put away the strange gods and Ashtoreth from among you and prepare your hearts unto the Lord and serve Him only. And He will deliver you out of the hand of the Philistines.' Then the children of Israel did put away Balaam and Ashtoreth and served the Lord only. And Samuel said, Gather all Israel to Mizpah and I will pray for you unto the Lord. And they gathered together to 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 children of Israel in Mizpah. And when the Philistines heard that the children of Israel were gathered together to Mizpah, the lords of the Philistines went up against Israel. And when the children of Israel heard it, they were afraid of the Philistines. And the children of Israel said to Samuel, Cease not to cry unto the Lord our God for us, that he will save us out of the hand of the Philistines. And Samuel took a sucking lamb and offered it for a burnt offering wholly unto the Lord. And Samuel cried unto the Lord for Israel, and the Lord heard him. And as Samuel was offering up the burnt offering, the Philistines drew near to battle against Israel, but the Lord thundered with a great thunder on that day upon the Philistines, and discomfited them, and they were smitten before Israel. And the men of Israel went out of Mizpah and pursued the Philistines and smote them until they came under Bethkar. Then Samuel took a stone and set it between Mizpah and Shin, and called the name of it Ebenezer, saying, Hitherto hath the Lord helped us. As I was studying, I came across this quote, and I'm going to read it to you in two parts. The first part of the quote said this, it is lamentable when there is no light in the nation. And I want to pause right there for just a moment. No one would deny that it is lamentable when there is no light in the nation. By light, I don't mean merely the presence of electricity or brightness. I mean the presence of righteousness or morality even. No one would deny that we're facing an enormous moral and spiritual crisis here in our country. I imagine that we're being deluged by a flood of immorality and another word, amorality, in which everyone seems to be saying, what's right for you must be right. What's right for you must be okay based on the fact that it's right for you. We have removed absolutes. We have taken the emphasis off of the Word of God, and in doing so have bred an amoral and immoral generation. The book of Judges is kind of the backdrop for 1 Samuel chapter 7, and I believe deeply that we have to understand context if we're to fully grasp what it is that God wants for us in 1 Samuel chapter 7. The book of Judges begins with the death of Joshua. Joshua, of course, came after Moses, the great leader of the children of Israel. God used Joshua to lead the children into the promised land, and amazing and incredible things were done and accomplished, and they saw God intervene on their behalf in great ways. But Joshua died, and after the death of Joshua, they enter into this great time of immorality, a very difficult time to honor God, the book of Judges. God sums up the entire thought process. When he says this in Judges 21-25, every man did that which was right in his own eyes. A removal of absolutes because there had been a removal of God. An amoral and immoral generation springs up because every man did that which was right in his own eyes. That's how God sums up the culture of this day and time. But I want you to think and I want you to make note of one other verse. This comes from Judges 2.10 and it says this, this is after the death of Joshua now. And also all that generation that were with Joshua were gathered unto their fathers. That means they were dead and they were buried. And there arose another generation after them which knew not the Lord, nor yet the works which he had done for Israel. Think of it this way. Moses precedes Joshua. Great and incredible, mighty acts of God are done. Joshua ascends to the place of leadership. The walls of Jericho come tumbling down. The Jordan River is parted. Victory in the land of Canaan. God is present. But now Joshua's dead. And all the generation with him have passed on and have been gathered unto their fathers. And there arose another generation, and it doesn't say that rejected the God of their fathers. It does not say there arose another generation who chose to rebel against God and do evil. It says this, there arose another generation which knew not God, nor yet the works he had done for Israel. And this generation that rises up is amoral. And this generation that rises up is immoral. And the easy fix is to point a finger at this failed generation and say, oh, you naughty, wicked generation of young people who have chosen to do evil. And we totally let off the hook. The generation of Joshua. The generation that saw victory, the generation that saw God work, that never took the time to communicate or to convey to the next generation all that God had done. There arose another generation which knew not God. They were ignorant. They'd never been taught. The second part of that quote which I read a moment ago is this, it is lamentable when there is no light in the nation. But what could be more heart-rending than darkness in the very place that should be flooded with light? The house of God. Now I direct you back to this reality as we're establishing context. This is the nation of Israel. These are the people who dwelt in Goshen. These are the people who saw the Red Sea parted. That generation died out in the wilderness, but Moses had done a good job of communicating to Joshua, and Joshua had listened to God and had carried that group of people's children into the promised land victoriously. But it is here that there's a cutoff point. And right here, according to Romans 3, the people who received the oracles of God on Mount Sinai are distant from Him. The people who had been protected by Him with a pillar of fire and a pillar of cloud, the people who had seen miracles and had tasted manna, People who intimately knew God failed to communicate His presence and His work to the next generation. We have to follow this descent down, and it's like a spiral going down. I want to spend just a moment talking about this first, the ignorant generation that arose. An ignorant generation. A generation which knew not God nor yet His works. Please note this, not evil, ignorant. Ignorance leads to evil. Not evil, ignorant. Ignorant and therefore evil. Wasn't that they forgot? I jotted this down. The problem is that their story had never been incorporated into their lives. Now listen, there was no sense of involvement. There was no appreciation of the past. They knew not. They had been told to go to church. They had been told to perform sacrifices. They had been told what they were to do. They had been given their belief system, but they had never been receiving the conviction that coincided it. I think it's a great failure to pass along a system of tradition that lacks conviction. I think it's a great failure to promote within them, generation you go to the temple, generation you go to Shiloh, generation you go to Bethel, you know exactly what you're supposed to do, but they never communicated the conviction behind it. They never communicated to them why they would have to go and perform the sacrifices. They never communicated to them the greatness of God, the awesomeness of His presence, His holiness demanding justice and righteousness and therefore atonement and sacrifice. Conviction never made it to the second generation. And I will tell you, I believe the dynamic shift that we have seen in our church culture is not because generations like mine don't know to go to church. It's because we never received the conviction behind why we go to church. We know the rules and the regulations and the codes of conduct, but the conviction and the genesis as to why we serve a holy God in that way, by conviction, was failed to pass along. Perhaps you'll remember in Joshua chapter 22, the two and a half tribes who wanted to stay outside, didn't want to cross the Jordan River. They were so concerned that the generations that would come would understand that they were part of the children of Israel. They were so deeply concerned that they would understand, though we're outside of the land, we want to do things God's way. The Bible says this in Joshua 22, let us now prepare to build us an altar. Not for burnt offering, nor for sacrifice, but that it may be a witness between us and you and our generations after us." They wanted to build an altar. They didn't build an altar so that they could burn sacrifices on it. That would be sacrilege. They built an altar modeled after the altar that God intended for them to build, and they said this, it is not for offering. It is not for sacrifice. We're building this as a witness. We are very concerned. We want to communicate to the generation that is coming that this is how we worship God. Listen, as this finishes out, Therefore said we that it shall be, when they should say to us, or to our generations in time to come, that we may say again, Behold the pattern of the altar of the Lord, it is a witness between us and you." Do you know what it was? It was a teaching tool. It was a teaching tool that was set up so that the generation to come could go back and they could see this altar that was built and they would understand they were to worship God. So concerned was this generation that in Joshua 22, they established this altar as a teaching tool, but they failed. Because when Joshua goes, when Joshua passes on, this generation rises up. They know not the Lord, and therefore it breeds within them this amorality, immorality. And here's what the Bible says of them. They did evil in the sight of the Lord and served Balaam. And they forsook the Lord God of their fathers, which brought them out of the land of Egypt and followed other gods. How does God react to this? Not well. I am a jealous God, he says, not jealous in the petulant sense of human jealousy, jealous in the sense of abject holiness and righteousness. I alone can be worshiped as God. And he looks down at these descendants of those who he brought up out of bondage in Egypt, and they are bowing before Balaam. A wicked, vile God which demanded of them the sacrifice of their children. We read of them bowing and setting up groves in high places for Ashtaroth. A vile and wicked practice, the goddess of fertility. God looks down and this is what the Bible says, the anger of the Lord was hot against Israel and He sold them into the hands of their enemies round about and they were greatly distressed. So along come judges. The judges are raised up by God. The judges come along and the Bible says God is with them and they offer temporary relief But the temporary relief never fixes anything. Because we hear this, they would not hearken unto their judges, but they went a-whoring after other gods and bowed themselves unto them. They turned quickly out of the way which their fathers walked in and corrupted themselves more than their fathers in following other gods. They ceased not from their own doings nor from their stubborn way. And here's what would happen. In would come the judge. The judge would free them from bondage. Yay, we love God. ease would return, relief from the punishment, and quickly they would turn back to serving other gods. The Bible uses extremely vivid language when it says they went whoring after other gods and bowed themselves before them, and then in fear, as an enemy would come in and conquer them, they would cry out to God. God would rise up a judge. The judge would free them. They would enjoy relief, and quickly they would turn. They would never stop. doing their own thing. They would never cease from their stubborn way. And this sad cycle goes on and on and on. And this is the world that little Samuel is born into. Let's follow this descent just one step further, because the Bible says this in 1 Samuel 3, 1. And the child Samuel ministered unto the Lord before Eli, who was the priest, and this phrase, and the word of the Lord was precious in those days. There was no open vision. Ignorance is within this generation because the word of God was no longer being spoken. Eli the priest was not hearing and communicating from God, and the Word of God was esteemed very precious because it was extremely rare. There was no open vision. Please grasp this before we round the corner. This dissent is complete. There is a generation that is ignorant, and there is no way out of their ignorance because there was no open vision. Immoral. Amoral. Pursuing other gods. God having to step in and punish. It is a wicked scene. And in comes Samuel. This is where I want you to note with me a turning point. God speaks. For the first time we return to open vision. God speaks. Samuel hears. Samuel answers. I want to be very careful to make sure I give credit, proper credit, biblically speaking, to Hannah, Samuel's mother. Because if I wanted to call the turning point, the arrival of Samuel, I would actually have to backtrack a little bit and go to where his mother Hannah is praying. You will listen to her call out unto God and beg for God to intervene and help her. She was a barren woman. Begging for a child, she says to God, if you will give me a son, I will give my son back to you, and he will minister here. He will work here at the temple. I will give him to you. God hears her prayer. He hears her prayer. He blesses her with a son. That son is Samuel. She brings her son Samuel back to the temple. Now, lost in all of the Old Testament verbiage, she's praying a prophetic prayer. 1st Samuel 2 when she gets down to verse 10 she speaks prophecy she talks about God thundering out upon the enemies of Israel in 2nd Samuel 7 10 which we're gonna arrive at in a moment her prophecy comes true we read it just a moment ago for as Samuel is offering up the burnt offering and the Philistines come rolling in the Bible tells us that God thundering Thunders down on the Philistines. I say if I'm gonna call the turning point the arrival of Samuel It must be noted that it begins with this praying mother Now let's just pause for a second and make this as relevant and practical as we can You and I have an awesome responsibility to communicate our conviction and our belief in holy God to the next generation. Now we can spend our days and we can spin our wheels mandating adherence to strict codes. We can strive for uniformity. We can pursue external faith. And we can watch the next generation spin off into misery if we don't communicate conviction. You say, give me some evidence that that is our responsibility. I point you directly to Hannah, Samuel's mother, who got a hold of God and passed it on to her child and heard from God and communicated it and God blessed. God's speaking now. Samuel's answering. I want you to take particular note now. We're Bible studying together. Note this about Samuel. Back in 1 Samuel 1.28, it says, he worshiped the Lord. 2.26, he was in favor both with the Lord and with men. By the time you get to chapter three, the Lord was with him. Chapter three, verse 20, Samuel was established to be a prophet of the Lord. This is a quick ascent to leadership. And Eli, the priest, had two wicked, vile sons, Hophni and Phinehas. They were class A jerks. You won't find that in the Hebrew, but that's what they were. They were vile, wicked men. They were so vile and they were so wicked that they caused people to abhor. going to the temple, to abhor going to the altar. You see, the priest had the right to be fed from what was offered up as a sacrifice after the fact. Hophni and Phinehas would take the best part for themselves. The children of Israel there to offer up the offering, hey guys, that's not meant for you, that was meant for God. Zip your mouth, we're the priests. Beyond that, their wickedness was completely immoral. Vile activity at the house of God. Eli, do something about your sons. Eh, eh. More indication that a failed generation is not in Hophni and Phinehas, it's in Eli. It's not in the generation that goes immoral, it's the one that fails to convey conviction. Eh, let them do what they're gonna do. Hophni and Phinehas, wicked vile men. Here's little boy Samuel. You think, well, at least he got to work a job at the temple. Now, what a deal that was. Hophni and Phinehas and Eli hanging around. They're your leadership. In fact, as I read, I listen in as the Lord comes and stands and calls, Samuel, Samuel, And he says simply this, speak, for thy servant heareth. What is it? What is the one hallmark that allowed Samuel to be the leader of Israel? Here it is. He listened when the Lord spoke. He listened to God. Well, why is that so special? Because the word of God was extremely rare. And those that had heard it went off in their ignorance and rejected it and pursued evil. But there was something vastly different about Samuel. God spoke. Samuel answered. He listened. Now what does he have to say? He says, now God's speaking. We're all the way up to 1 Samuel 7 where we read. Here come the children of Israel. Scared to death of the Philistines. Think in your mind of the biggest, nastiest, ugliest bully you can imagine. It's the Philistines. All the time pestering and bothering the children of Israel. The children of Israel have a great failure because here come the Philistines and they're afraid. They say this, listen, we've heard stories about this whole Ark of the Covenant thing. Pretty good. Priests walk in, Jordan River parts. Bring the Ark of the Covenant here. You say, well, now that was a good move, wasn't it? No. Because they were not asking for the presence of God. They were only seeking a trinket. They were upholding a superstition. They were merely installing a tradition. They were not looking for the presence of God. They were just looking for this trinket. Bring it up here. We'll probably whip the Philistines. Get that thing up here. Up it comes. Philistines demolish the children of Israel. They take the Ark of the Covenant. The very presence of God is indicated by the Ark of the Covenant, and now it's with the Philistines. In they come to Eli, who was an undisciplined man all the way around. Eli, your sons are dead, Shiloh's destroyed, and oh, they took the Ark. falls back off the seat he's sitting on, breaks his neck, he dies. Now, if I asked you, morale pretty high in the nation of Israel, a priest, he's dead in a heap. Shiloh, wiped out. The presence of God is with the enemy. Oh, but we do have this guy, this long-haired guy, Samuel. We do have him. He hears from God. He hears from God. And so here's what happens. Now you'd love this. I wish I had time to tell you. The Philistines take the ark of God. God does not like living with the Philistines. He did not find it a habitable place. And so he keeps knocking their gods over. Dagon in the temple, put him back up, God knocks him back over. Put him up, God knocks him over. Better than that, all the males of the city smitten with hemorrhoids. I mean, the Bible is quite creative. God is creative and imaginative in His way to punish the enemy. So vile is this, the Philistines say, you know what? We do not want this thing. Give it back to the children of Israel. Here's what we'll do. Hook up two kind to it. We'll send them on their way. If they follow the coast and go right back to Israel, we'll know it was their God. If they go off on some other direction, we'll know this is just chance. We'll go get it and bring it back. Where do you think the two cows go? Right back to Israel. Take the ark. I love this. Here's the children of Israel's plan. Well, they gave it back. Let's put it here in this house. Do you have a son? Yeah, let's sanctify him. We'll make him the priest over this thing. They literally have no concept. And then the Bible says they're lamenting after God. You know what happened? In a sense, and I don't mean to trivialize it, they really began to miss God. They really began to miss his presence. They really began to miss his provision. They really began to miss his power. They lamented down on the inside for God. And that's where we arrived in chapter seven and verse one, where the men of Kirjath-Jerim come and grab the ark. And as they come, they say to Samuel, will you help us? Will you help us get ahold of God again? because the Philistines are rounding up and they're coming. Would you please help us get a hold of God? And Samuel says, yes, I will do what you want, though you may not want what I do. And he begins to speak. And here's the first thing he says, return with all your heart, with all your heart. We just came through Valentine's weekend. I hope that you were so sweet to your Valentine. I have a 10 and a 12-year-old, so I failed miserably at being sweet. I have a sick 10-year-old, so I didn't get to do anything. I bought her a gift, though. Let me say, if I said to Christy, sweetheart, I love you and you're my wife, But for the sake of transparency and honesty, there are a few others that I love. I just want you to know. I just want you to be aware. Let me be honest with you. She would not be okay with that. On occasion, she might be like, good, go then. I don't care. I would like to believe she would not be okay with that. I'll tell you this, if she said to me, honey, I love you. My heart is yours, except for a few others that I love as well. What? No, no, no. I'm not okay. I am the jealous type. Samuel says, okay, guys, you lament after God, here's what you must do. Return with all your heart. God, think of this, God asks for everything. We don't like to think of it like that, do we? Well, it's kind of easy to serve God. It's easy to pursue holiness. God asks for everything. Think of it this way. This is what the Bible says in Deuteronomy 4, 29. But if from thence thou shalt seek the Lord thy God, thou shalt find him. if thou seek him with all thy heart and with all thy soul. Samuel said it in 1220, serve the Lord with all your heart. Two verses later, serve him in truth with all your heart. David said this, I will praise thee O Lord my God with all my heart. Solomon, trust in the Lord with all thine heart. Jeremiah, the weeping prophet said this, when ye shall search for me with all your heart, Jesus said very plainly, thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy mind. If you were invited to dinner at the White House or you were invited to some state dinner and you were expected to dress up, I would venture to say that if you traipsed through mud on your way in, you would be careful to clean the mud off your feet before you walked into the dinner. If you wanted your spouse to understand that they were yours and you were theirs solely and strictly, you would say, all my heart, You say, I want God to work. I miss the presence of God. I miss the power of God. I am sick and tired of this up and down sequence, this sad cycle in my life. I'm tired of being powerless. I'm tired of watching immorality and amorality take over. I miss God. Well, there's only one way back. All your heart. Well, pastor, can't we do this in stages and steps? No. Samuel said, return with all your heart. Spurgeon said this, men cannot keep their sins and have their God. No man can serve two masters. Why do we think we can keep our sins, keep our ambitions, keep our priorities, our ideals, and our goals, and have a little bit of God sprinkled on top? God is not asking for some of your heart, some of your might, some of your soul, some of your mind. He's asking you to abandon all others and pursue only Him. He's asking for all of it. Now, Samuel takes it a step further because he not only says, return with all your heart, he says, and put away your sin. Put it away. He says it in verse three, put away the strange gods and Ashtoreth from among you. You say you want God. You say you miss him. How come I notice the high groves for Ashtoreth and the idols for Baal? You say, was it wicked? David wrote about this time, and he said this, and they served their idols, which were a snare unto them. Yea, they sacrificed their sons and their daughters unto devils, and shed innocent blood, even the blood of their sons and their daughters, whom they sacrificed unto the idols of Canaan, and the land was polluted with blood. Was it wicked? Oh, it was wicked. They were literally killing their children on the altar of Molech, the gods of Baal. In fact, that term, gates of hell, that you read in the New Testament, is indicative of Baal worship. There's a city, and we'll study here shortly on a Sunday night, where the king who built it laid his own eldest son as foundation for the wall And his youngest son was laid as foundation for the gallows. He was sacrificing his own children. Can you imagine abandoning God to such a degree that the end of your wickedness is the sacrifice of your own children, polluting the land with innocent blood? Think for a moment of scripture, hands that shed innocent blood. Think for a moment of the abomination this was before God. Before you think, well, all they did was live life. They were vile and they were wicked. And God says, all your heart, Put away your sin. And this is the truth of scripture. When Balaam was confronted, he said, I have sinned. When Achan was confronted, I have sinned. Saul, I have sinned. David, I have sinned. The prodigal son, I have sinned. Samuel 7, 6, when the people came to Mizpah, they looked at God and said, we've sinned. We've sinned. The only way you can ever pursue God with all your heart is when you will be transparent, open, and honest, and confess, which I believe is simply agreeing with God about what's already true about you. Look at Him and say, God, I've sinned. Don't mince words. Don't couch it. Don't point fingers. Don't lay blame. God, I have sinned before you. And then lastly this, no sacrifice, no salvation. I am a miserable, wretched, wicked, vile sinner. I pursue God with all my heart. I put away my sin, but how do I pay for it? How do I cover it? I've committed it. There's nothing I can do with it. And so Samuel gives us this imagery in the Old Testament which will carry us all the way through to the book of Revelation. He says this, bring me a lamb. Bring me a lamb. You say you want to pursue God with all your heart. You've confessed your sin. Bring me a lamb. And he offers up this little sucking lamb, innocent, little lamb as a sacrifice. But the Bible teaches us all the way back in Leviticus, the life of the flesh is in the blood. And I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls, for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul. In Mark, The Son of Man came not to be ministered to, but to minister, and to give His life a ransom for many. John 1.29, Behold the Lamb of God, John the Baptist said, which taketh away the sin of the world. Hebrews 9.22, as the writer is arguing with these Hebrews about Christ fulfilling the law, he says, without shedding of blood is no remission. The only way to cover my sins is to have a lamb take my place. Jesus Christ is the lamb, the only begotten son of God, who when he shed his perfect and precious blood, it is the only substitute for my wicked sin. And all the way back here in 1 Samuel 7, I've got that object lesson. You know how vivid this object lesson is? While he was offering up the sacrifice, in come the Philistines. Isn't that coincidence? No. Wise timing by the Philistines? No. Should have got there sooner. While he's offering up the sacrifice, in come the Philistines. And God fights the battle for the children of Israel. He thunders down in 710, which is exactly what Hannah said he would do back in chapter two. God responds when people pursue him with all their heart, put away their sins, and rest in the finished work, the shed blood of Jesus Christ. Then let me bring it full circle, because I note what Samuel did in verse 12. He took a stone. and taught the people, we'll put this stone here so that everyone knows hitherto, right here at this place, because of what we did, the Lord helped us. Pass it on, pass it on, pass it on. Samuel said, I'm gonna fix the failure in your heart and I'm gonna fix the failure in our generation. Put a stone here so that the generations to come get this if you want God. to be present in your life. If you want the power of God to reside on your ministry and your service and your family and your marriage, pursue him with all your heart. Put away your sin, rest in his finished work, and he can work for you. Pass it on. Would you please bow your heads and close your eyes? so