1 Samuel 12

Well, friends, I wonder if you've ever been in a situation or in a relationship.

Look at that.

They don't teach you these things in seminary, how to work music stands.

There we go.

Friends, I wonder if you've ever been in a relationship or in a situation where you feel like you've totally blown it.

Well, if so, then this text is for you and it's for me tonight.

We're looking at 1 Samuel chapter 12.

1 Samuel 12 · chapter mention

1 Samuel chapter 12.

1 Samuel 12 · chapter mention

You can follow along in the Pew Bible.

Well, Samuel's, the books of 1 and 2 Samuel are a little ways into the Old Testament.

You can find them there.

The page number's in the bulletin.

We're going to have it on the screens too.

1 Samuel chapter 12.

1 Samuel 12 · chapter mention

Let me read this chapter for us.

It's not a long one.

And Samuel said to all Israel,

Behold, I have obeyed your voice and all that you have said to me and have made a king over you.

And now behold, the king walks before you and I am old and gray and behold, my sons are with you.

I've walked before you from my youth until this day.

Here I am.

Testify against me before the Lord and before his anointed.

Whose ox have I taken or whose donkey have I taken or whom have I defrauded?

Whom have I oppressed or from whose hand have I taken a bribe to blind my eyes with it?

And he said, Testify against me and I will restore it to you.

They said, You have not defrauded us or oppressed us or taken anything from any man's hand.

And he said to them, The Lord is witness against you and his anointed is witness this day that you have not found anything against,

not found anything in my hand.

And they said, He is witness.

And Samuel said to the people,

The Lord is witness who appointed Moses and Aaron and brought your fathers up out of the land of Egypt.

Now, therefore, stand still that I might plead with you before the Lord concerning all the righteous deeds of the Lord that he performed for you and for your fathers.

When Jacob went into Egypt and the Egyptians oppressed them,

then your fathers cried out to the Lord and the Lord sent Moses and Aaron who brought your fathers out of Egypt and made them dwell in this place.

But they forgot the Lord their God.

And he sold them into the hand of Sisera, commander of the army of Hazor,

and into the hand of the Philistines and into the hand of the king of Moab.

And they fought against them.

And they cried out to the Lord and said, We have sinned because we have forsaken the Lord and have served the Baals and the Ashtaroth.

But now deliver us out of the hand of our enemies that we may serve you.

And the Lord sent Jeroboam and Barak and Jephthah and Samuel and delivered you out of the hand of your enemies on every side.

And you lived in safety.

And when you saw that Nahash, the king of the Ammonites, came against you, you said to me,

No, but a king shall reign over us when the Lord your God was your king.

And now behold, the king whom you have chosen, for whom you have asked.

Behold, the Lord has set a king over you.

If you will fear the Lord and serve him and obey his voice and not rebel against the commandment of the Lord,

and if both you and the king who reigns over you will follow the Lord your God, it will be well.

But if you will not obey the voice of the Lord, but rebel against the commandment of the Lord,

then the hand of the Lord will be against you and your king.

Now, therefore, stand still and see this great thing that the Lord will do before your eyes.

Is it not wheat harvest today?

I will call upon the Lord that he may send thunder and rain,

and you shall know and see that your wickedness is great,

which you have done in the sight of the Lord in asking for yourselves a king.

So Samuel called upon the Lord, and the Lord sent thunder and rain that day,

and all the people greatly feared the Lord and Samuel.

And all the people said to Samuel,

Pray for your servants to the Lord your God that we may not die,

for we have added to all our sins this evil to ask for ourselves a king.

Samuel said to the people,

Do not be afraid.

You have done all this evil, yet do not turn aside from following the Lord,

but serve the Lord with all your heart.

And do not turn aside to empty things that cannot profit or deliver, for they are empty.

For the Lord will not forsake his people, for his great name's sake,

because it has pleased the Lord to make you a people for himself.

Moreover, as for me, far be it for me that I should sin against the Lord by ceasing to pray for you,

and I will instruct you in the good and the right way.

Only fear the Lord and serve him faithfully with all your heart,

for consider what great things he has done for you.

But if you still do wickedly, you shall be swept away, both you and your king.

Well, in this chapter, the people of Israel had really blown it.

We've been following their story in 1 Samuel for the last number of weeks,

and at this point in the story, an enemy had arisen against Israel named Nahash the Ammonite.

Greg talked about him last week.

And in the face of that threat, instead of the people turning to the Lord as their king,

to be their rescuer, as they had done for generations and generations,

instead, they turned to Samuel and they asked him for a human king.

And as we saw a few chapters ago in chapter 8, they did so for all the wrong reasons.

At the core, what was their heart motivation for wanting a king?

Well, it says that they wanted to be like all the other nations around them.

In other words, Israel, instead of following God's call,

and following him and being in a relationship with him and being distinct from all their neighbors,

and so being salt and light to them as this distinct people,

the people turn to Samuel and say,

No, we don't want to be distinct from our neighbors.

We want to actually be just like our neighbors.

We want to conform to them.

And we want a king just like them.

So they asked for a king so that they could be just like the other nations.

And here, Samuel, the prophet and judge, gives his last major speech to the nation as their leader.

You see, the era of the judges in this chapter is coming to an end.

The judges were those leaders that God rose up periodically throughout history to deliver Israel from her enemies.

This era is ending, and this new era, the era of the kingship, is beginning.

Saul now is on the throne.

At the end of chapter 11, he's coronated, and they're ready to go.

And here is Samuel addressing the nation one last time as their leader.

And we see in the first half of this chapter, he does two things.

First thing that Samuel does, very interestingly, is that he reaffirms,

he sort of renews the people's covenant with God.

That's verses 1 through 15.

He sort of renews their covenant.

And then in verses 16 through 18,

he brings before them the reality and the gravity of their sin.

Now, all this might seem a little strange to us,

but do you remember how, if you've read through some of the Old Testament,

do you remember what happens at the end of the book of Deuteronomy?

And some of you are thinking, I tried reading through the Bible once,

I got through to Leviticus, and then I quit.

So no, I don't know what happens at the end of Deuteronomy.

Well, this is what happens at the end of Deuteronomy.

Moses is standing before this wilderness generation,

this second generation of people who have come out of Egypt,

and they're on the verge of entering into the promised land.

And what Moses does with that new generation,

he basically takes them and he says,

we're going to renew the covenant between the people and your God.

Now, a covenant, what's a covenant?

A covenant is a binding, deep, committed relationship between two parties.

It's a deep, binding commitment or relationship.

And at the heart of this deep, bound-together relationship

that Israel had with the Lord,

basically could be summed up in this phrase

that happens over and over and over again in the Old Testament.

I will be your God, and you will be my people.

So Moses takes this new generation and reaffirms all that.

And interestingly, as you follow the biblical storyline,

those kind of covenant reaffirmations happen again and again.

It happens at the end of Joshua,

after this generation comes in and they occupy the land,

now they're sort of at a new phase of its history.

And what does Joshua do?

He reaffirms the covenant with them.

So that's what's happening here in 1 Samuel 12.

Samuel's doing the same thing.

The people of Israel standing on the verge of a new era of their history.

And Samuel says,

it's time to come back to your charter of existence,

this covenant that you have between you and God.

In fact, what's very interesting is if you scan over

the first, like, 15 verses of this chapter,

it's actually kind of structured like old covenant treaties.

Verses 1 through 5, Samuel's bringing out all the witnesses.

He's sort of proving that he's, you know,

a worthwhile spokesman for God.

And he brings out all these witnesses.

That's how covenants usually started.

They sort of called on the witnesses.

Then he tells the history of the people.

That's how covenants usually took off.

You tell the history of the relationship between the two people,

how they came together.

And then you give the stipulations.

This is what it means for you to be in this relationship.

This is what it means for you to be in this relationship.

That's verses 14 and 15.

So this is what Samuel's doing.

But then something really interesting happens.

After that, in verses 16 through 18,

Samuel brings before the people's eyes the reality

and the gravity of their sin.

And as thunder booms across the sky,

it's as if the people's hearts are finally shaken awake

to see how foolish and how sinful they had been.

God was and had been so faithful to them.

He was even now renewing his covenant with them.

And yet, in their recent history,

they had just been throwing it back in his face,

asking and crying out for a different king,

for a replacement king.

Instead of saying, God, we trust you,

and you're a good king to us,

they said, we actually want a different king.

No thanks.

And isn't that the nature of all of our sin,

that we ask for a substitute king?

And Israel finally wakes up to this sort of giant act

of cosmic treason that they had been committing.

So at this point in the story,

the people finally see they blow it.

Look again at verse 19.

And all the people said to Samuel,

pray for your servants to the Lord your God,

that we may not die,

for we have added to all our sins this evil

to ask for ourselves a king.

So pause for a moment.

I wonder if you've ever been there,

standing in Israel's shoes,

suddenly realizing that you have royally messed it up,

spiritually speaking.

That though God has been faithful to you,

you have turned away from him.

Maybe you got into a relationship

that you know wasn't good for you,

wasn't honoring to the Lord,

and yet you got into it anyway.

Maybe it went too far.

Maybe it caused all sorts of heartbreak.

Maybe it was something that you did in secret.

Maybe it was a sin no one else saw,

and yet it still weighs heavy on your heart,

and it doesn't seem to go away.

Maybe you just stopped caring much about God

and started just pursuing success on the world's terms.

You didn't really sort of out and out reject God,

but you didn't exactly keep your relationship with him front and center in your life.

You sort of let your heart grow cold to him

and chased after achievement and wealth and reputation and success.

And then you woke up one day to realize that you were far away.

Whatever it is, maybe you, like me, have stood there in their shoes knowing that you've blown it.

And you don't need thunder and rain pounding overhead

because inside your conscience is pounding just as loud as any storm.

And you wonder, like Israel, like Israel must have been wondering here,

is God going to take me back?

Or is God just going to cast me off?

Isn't it very interesting that they say,

pray to the Lord, you are God, Samuel.

Samuel just renewed the covenant with them,

and suddenly they're thinking,

is he even our God anymore?

And we can think that.

Am I a lost cause?

Is there no way back for me?

Well, I think this issue

is right where this passage speaks to us

right now and right today.

In the rest of this chapter,

Samuel speaks right to this need

to people who've totally blown it.

Here's what the Lord says.

So I'm going to spend just the rest of our time together

just looking at verses 20 through 25

and hearing what God is saying to us

through Samuel.

Let's start with verse 20.

Samuel said to the people,

don't be afraid.

You have done all this evil,

yet do not turn aside from following the Lord,

but serve the Lord with all your heart.

Isn't it amazing that Samuel's first word is,

don't be afraid.

You're scared maybe God will never take you back.

Maybe your spiritual life is over,

but no,

Samuel says,

it's not the end of the story.

And notice that we need not fear,

not because our sin isn't really so bad after all.

Isn't that often how we try to sort of make sense of things

and deal with our spiritual failures?

Eh, it wasn't that bad.

You know,

other people have done a lot worse.

We sort of try to make excuses and justify it.

I was tired.

I was caught off guard.

But no,

Samuel doesn't minimize it at all.

He says,

don't be afraid.

You have done all this evil.

Yes,

your sin is great,

but you can admit it

and not turn away from it.

You don't have to run away from reality

by pretending it's not so bad after all,

which,

as you know,

that strategy never really works

in the long run,

just sort of denying it

and turning away from reality.

Instead,

what does Samuel say?

You have done all this evil,

yet serve the Lord with all your heart.

So you see,

right at the start,

Samuel is saying something

is possible

that in our mindset,

when we mess up,

we think it's impossible.

He's sort of opening up a horizon for us.

He's saying,

you think you've blown it,

you think there's no going back,

but you're wrong.

There's still a place for you

with the Lord.

So come,

come serve the Lord

with all your heart.

You see,

what Samuel's doing here

is he's actually fighting against

one of the most pernicious things

that can happen to us

when we stumble

and when we sin.

And that most pernicious thing

isn't actually spiritual pride.

It's actually self-pity

and shame.

When we screw up,

it's that voice that says,

I'm a loser.

I'm a goner.

No one loves me.

Not even the Lord.

But Samuel comes

and stops that voice

right in its tracks

and says,

no,

there is a place for you here.

The Lord still wants your heart.

And he's calling you now

to give it to him.

You see,

I think self-pity

is kind of like a dark room

with all the curtains closed.

And we don't think

there's a way out

or any way to change

and we just sort of sit there

in the darkness.

But here comes Samuel

marching in,

throwing open the curtains,

letting the sun come shining in,

saying,

look out the window.

Don't you see

the fields

and the mountains

and the streams

and the fresh air.

Come on.

Let's go.

Don't wallow here.

The Lord is calling you

to come join him

on the heights.

So right off the bat,

Samuel says,

don't minimize your sin,

but don't fall prey

to self-pity.

Yes,

your sin is bad,

but it's a new day.

Today is a new day.

The curtains are open

and you're being called forth.

And next he says this.

And do not turn aside

after empty things

that cannot profit

or deliver

for they're empty.

You see,

the Bible helps us

understand our hearts,

I think,

better than anything else.

And this verse

is showing us

that our hearts

will actually

never really be neutral.

The human heart

was created to worship

and worship it will.

And it will either

worship God the creator

or it will worship

something else,

some created thing.

There's no sort of Switzerland

in the geography

of the human heart.

There's no neutral territory

in your spiritual makeup.

And here in verse 21,

Samuel says,

look,

if you don't turn

to the Lord,

you're going to turn aside

to empty things.

Things,

he says,

that cannot profit

or deliver.

In other words,

things that can't

make your life good

and things that can't

stop making your life bad.

They can't profit

and they can't deliver.

I think that's such an

insightful and helpful phrase.

I think I've been meditating

on that all week

as I thought about this passage.

You know,

do you want to know

what's actually competing

for God's place

in your heart?

Do you want to shine

some light on that?

Do you want to know

what you're worshiping

instead of God?

Ask yourself this question.

What do I think I need

in order to make

my life truly good?

How would you fill

in that blank?

If I had this,

then my life

would be really good.

Or you can ask

this question.

What do I think

would stop my life

being bad?

If only this,

then my life

wouldn't be so miserable,

then I'd be free.

friends.

The reality is

if we answer

either of those questions

with anything other than

the Lord God himself,

then you can already

start to see

what competing gods

and kings

are vying

for your heart's affection.

Some of those things

might not be wrong

or bad

in and of themselves,

but your heart

is still trying

to get out of them

what Samuel calls

profit,

that is lasting happiness,

or deliverance,

lasting freedom.

You've made this good thing

ironically

into an empty thing.

Now,

why is this so important?

Why does Samuel

want us to hear this

when we've spiritually

blown it,

when we're down

in the dumps?

Because at those moments,

those moments

are when we are

so susceptible

to keep turning

away from the Lord

to those other things.

In our self-pity,

in our fear,

in our guilt,

and in our shame,

we end up

latching our hearts

onto something

that only brings us

more heartache.

And then we go

in this downward spiral.

One sin leads

to guilt and shame,

and then thinking

that God will never

take us back,

we latch onto something else

to dull the pain

and comfort us,

and that just sends us

spiraling further down.

Isn't that how

so many of us

get caught up

in the sinful

and destructive patterns

and habits

and addictions?

So in some sense,

Samuel is doing something

that's very insightful here.

He's really helping us

get our spiritual bearings

to sort of look

under the hood

of our hearts

and see what's really

going on

when we're down

in the dumps.

He's saying,

you're going to be tempted

to turn aside

to empty things.

Don't travel down

that road.

Instead,

come serve the Lord.

Come home.

And then Samuel

comes really

to the heart

of the whole paragraph.

I thought about

maybe preaching

the whole sermon

on this one verse,

but I thought

that wouldn't

really do it justice.

You know,

he's been kind of

clearing the ground

so far.

Don't be afraid.

Don't go after

empty things.

Now he kind of

comes to the central

driving knife's edge

of the whole paragraph.

Here comes the central message

for those who've blown it.

Verse 22,

for the Lord

will not forsake

his people

for his great namesake,

because it has pleased

the Lord

to make you

a people

for himself.

You see,

at the end,

Samuel points us

right back

to God himself.

The Lord,

he says,

will not

forsake you.

He won't abandon you

or renounce you

or cast you off.

And then,

he gives the reason.

And shockingly,

this reason

has nothing

to do with us.

It's for

his great namesake,

he says.

How did you think

Samuel would answer

that question?

Or answer that,

sort of finish that line?

The Lord will not

forsake his people

because

you're really good

after all.

You're so lovely.

No,

for his great namesake.

You know,

when we botch things up

spiritually,

we often end up

looking at ourselves

and then saying,

God will never

bring me back.

And then,

what we do is

we look up at God

and we think that God

is also looking at us

and sizing us up

and considering

all of our good

and bad deeds

and measuring

and scrutinying us

to see whether

he's actually

going to take us back.

So we're looking

at ourselves

and then we think

God's looking at us.

But actually,

who's God

really looking at?

He's not looking at us.

He's looking at himself.

He's not asking,

what I need to do.

He's not sitting up there

saying,

hmm,

what should I do

based on who

they are?

He's saying,

what am I going to do

based on who I am?

In other words,

God's not going to act

for our great namesake.

God's going to act

for his great namesake.

the Lord won't forsake you.

Why?

Because God is God.

And what Samuel

just told Israel

as he renewed

the covenant with them

is that the Lord

is faithful

and he's never

forsaken his people

no matter what

they've fallen into

and God continues

to be faithful to them.

And you know,

the next verse

is actually sort of

an extension

of God's faithfulness.

As Samuel says,

moreover,

as for me,

far be it from me

that I should sin

against the Lord

by ceasing to pray for you

and I'll instruct you

in the good and right way.

You see,

as an expression

of the Lord's

enduring faithfulness

to his people,

Samuel's going to keep

doing what God

tells him to do,

to pray for them

and to teach them.

He's not going to

give up on them.

And God keeps

doing that today.

He raises up

leaders in the church

and he raises up

faithful friends

in our lives

who will pray for us

and who will keep

pointing us back

to God's

gracious living word.

You know,

it's interesting,

we often tend to

shut people out

when we feel like

we've kind of

spiritually blown it.

But don't you see

what Samuel's saying here?

He's saying,

actually,

God's using those people

to extend

his own message

of faithfulness

and mercy to you.

Samuel was going

to keep on

praying for them

and teach them

and that would be

a gift

of God's

continuing love

to them.

the love

that comes

for his great

namesake.

You see,

I think there's

sort of a

Copernican

revolution

that needs

to happen

in our

spiritual life.

And when it

happens,

it does sort of

two things

that seem

very strange

and not related

to one another

at first.

On the one hand,

when this revolution

happens,

it brings the most

complete humility

and at the same

time,

it brings the most

complete security.

And that shift,

what that revolution

is,

is to realize

that God

does what

he does,

not ultimately,

not ultimately

for our sake,

but for his sake.

And what I mean

is this,

God does

what he does,

not ultimately

because he thinks

I'm so great

and he wants

to make much

of me.

God does

what he does

because God

himself is great

and he wants

to display

that greatness

for everyone

to see and enjoy.

And of course,

that brings humility,

doesn't it?

Because finally,

I realize,

lo and behold,

that I'm not the

center of the universe.

that it's not

about me.

But don't you see

that it also

brings security

at the same time?

Because if it all

depends on God

and not actually

on me,

as humbling

as that is,

if it all

depends on him,

then there's no way

that it could fail.

if the Lord says

he's not going

to forsake you

for his great

name's sake,

there's no way

you're going

to be forsaken.

I was trying

to come up

with a good

illustration of this

and instead

I came up

with a measly

illustration of it,

but I'm going

to give it to you

anyway.

So imagine

there's this

great magnet.

When I was

in middle school,

my teacher

had this sweet

magnet that we

always loved

playing with.

Imagine there's

this massive,

powerful,

strong magnet

and a little

nail and you

sort of let go

of the nail

and what does

it do?

It just wham

right into the

magnet.

It doesn't go

anywhere.

Now imagine

that that nail

could sort of

bend itself

into all sorts

of different

shapes.

Would that

have any effect

of the magnet's

hold on that

little nail?

No.

Imagine the nail

could sort of

change all colors.

Imagine it paints

itself red and

blue and purple

and green.

Does that

change the

fact that

it's gripped

tightly by

that giant

magnet?

Of course

not.

Why?

Because the

thing that is

keeping that

little speck

attached to

that great

thing surging

with energy

isn't the

shape or the

color or the

history or the

deeds of that

nail, but the

energy of that

magnet.

Friends, that's

how it is with

us in the

Lord.

It's because of

who he is

and the great

energy of his

glory and

majesty and

holiness and

love that he's

not going to

forsake us.

no matter how

bent or

twisted you

might think

you are.

Look at

verse 24.

Only fear the

Lord and serve

him faithfully with

all your heart,

for consider what

great things he's

done for you.

Again, Samuel

reissues this

call.

Come back to

God.

Fear the Lord.

That is, live in all

of him and not

all these lesser

things.

Serve him

faithfully with

all your heart.

Sink your life

into this one

who alone can

profit and

deliver.

Sink your life

into this one

who can bring

true happiness

and lasting

freedom.

And then he

adds this,

verse 25,

but if you

still do

wickedly,

you shall be

swept away,

both you and

your king.

Now what are we

to make of that?

Is Samuel

suddenly sort of

pulling the rug

out of everything

he just said?

I thought the

Lord wasn't going

to forsake us

because of his

great name.

Now it looks

like we're going

to get swept

away because of

our great wickedness

if we don't

obey.

What is going

on?

Is Samuel

contradicting

himself?

Well friends,

in order to

understand this

verse,

we have to

understand the

story.

We said earlier

that Samuel was

reaffirming the

covenant between

Israel and God

in this chapter.

And this last

verse,

verse 25,

is actually an

echo of a

more ancient

warning that was

part of the

covenant in

Deuteronomy 28.

Deuteronomy 28

lists all these

sort of ways in

which the people

of God will

disintegrate and

fall apart if

they're not

faithful to him.

And the

climax of all

those covenant

curses is

exile.

That if people

continue to

reject God and

choose other

lords and kings,

that people will

be swept out of

their land and

taken captive by

foreign nations.

God will

basically deconstruct

the nation to the

core and send it

away.

And what Samuel

is saying here at

this moment in

their history is

that the appointment

of the king

doesn't change

that warning.

Of course the

king is now

going to have a

big influence on

the direction of

the nation, but

if the people

continue to turn

away from God,

exile will still

come and it

will come both

on you and

your king.

One writer put it

this way,

Israel wanted a

king to fight

their battles,

but no king

will be able to

defend them from

God's judgment.

That is, until

one day, hundreds

of years later,

after all that

Samuel had already

said actually came

true, the people

had continued in

their idolatry and

wickedness, God had

sent them away to

exile, God had

even brought back a

group of survivors

to begin living in

the land again and

they started

rebuilding their

sort of nationhood.

After all that,

hundreds of years

later, the

king comes.

And this king was

unlike any that

Israel had seen

before.

He didn't spend

most of his time

with the people who

looked like they

had it all together

spiritually speaking.

He wasn't hanging

out with the

powerful and the

very pristine and

pure.

Shockingly, he

spent most of his

time with spiritual

failures and

misfits, the tax

collectors and the

prostitutes and the

people who had

seemingly blown it.

that's where this

king spent most of

his time and that

was the sort of

people who gathered

around him.

And that wasn't

like any king they

had seen before.

And yet, this king

was also different in

another way.

You see, all of

Israel's kings, if you

start reading the rest

of the story, you

know are deeply

flawed.

Next chapter, Saul is

going to come crashing

to the ground with a

thud.

And then David's going

to appear and we're

going to find that he's

a man after God's

own heart and yet

he too is still

deeply flawed.

But this king who

comes so many years

later is nothing

like that.

No matter how often

his enemies try to

trap him in his

words, he always

responds with the

wisdom of God and

the love of God.

He's always without

flaw, heeding God's

law, keeping the

covenant, loving those

around him.

Finally, here is

actually a king and a

true Israelite who

does what God says and

keeps the covenant.

Here he is.

But then in the end,

the greatest difference

of all, though this

king had lived under

God's law perfectly,

he's sentenced to

death and rejected by

the people, forsaken by

the very people that he

came to lead and to

love.

And yet that's not

actually the most

shocking part of his

death.

God's law perfectly

and he calls out to

the people that he

calls out to the God

on an implement of

Roman execution, a

cross.

He calls out, my God,

my God, why have you

forsaken me?

He calls out to the God

who says he'll never

forsake his people.

And in this moment, God

is silent and does not

reply.

And though he was the

perfect son, the father

forsakes him on the

cross.

And you see, friends,

when that happened,

Jesus Christ was bringing

to a climax and a

resolution the greatest

problem in all of

history.

You see, the justice of

God required that this

covenant-breaking people

be judged.

And yet the steadfast

love of God required

that these same people

never be forsaken.

How could he do both?

How could this God of

perfect justice and

holiness and perfect

love and faithfulness

ever be in relationship

with his people?

How is it that God will

not forsake those who

deserve to be forsaken?

Isn't that the tension

that you feel when you

actually blow it?

That deep down you kind

of know that you ought to

be forsaken.

And yet God comes and

says, I won't forsake

you.

How?

Well, now you see how.

Because Jesus Christ stood

in our place and was

forsaken so that we would

never have to be.

You see, verse 25 forces

us.

It just pushes us to read

the rest of the story.

And when we keep reading,

we follow it all the way

to Jesus, the true king

who was swept away for

our wickedness.

But this was the one king

who could actually save us

from God's judgment.

He was swept away for our

wickedness so that we could

be welcomed home by his

righteousness.

And that means, friends,

we need not fear.

though we have sinned,

we can turn again and serve

the Lord with all our hearts.

The Lord Jesus rose again on

the third day as a

demonstration that the entire

debt of sin had been paid.

That sin couldn't actually hold

him because sin had been

completely swallowed.

every sin that you think has

utterly blown it between you

and God.

And friends, every sin that

you're actually going to

commend that you think will

blow it between you and God,

if you've placed your trust in

him, has been dealt with

through his death and

resurrection.

So tonight,

if you've blown it,

look to the cross and the

resurrection of Jesus.

Turn and give him your heart

and know that he'll not

forsake you.

Begin again tonight.

You know, if Samuel could tell

Israel not to fear and to

serve the Lord with all their

heart, knowing what he knew of

God's love and faithfulness

then, how much more should that

be true of us today?

Knowing what we know now

through Jesus.

The full flowering of God's

faithful love has come to be

displayed through Christ.

How much more can we say

he'll not forsake us?

How much more can we consider

the great things that he's done?

How much more ought we to serve

the Lord with all our hearts?

Let's pray.

Lord Jesus, it is right for our

sin to feel weighty and

grievous.

Lord, not just because of the

consequences that it brings,

but because of what it means

about you, the way in which it

dishonors you.

And yet, Lord, we hear such good

gospel news in this passage that

you won't forsake us.

Lord, I pray for my friends here

tonight who might be weighed down

with a heavy load of sin and shame

and regret.

Jesus, I pray that they would be

looking to you and see in you the

one who lifts their burdens and

welcomes them home.

Father, help us to live in the world

as people who have found the one who

will never forsake us and who is our

true prophet and our true

deliverance.

Lord, in you that there is happiness

and there is freedom forevermore.

Help us to live that way by your

spirit, Father, we pray.

Amen.

Well, friends, we're going to close

by singing one more song.

And let's sing this song together as a

way of praying and meditating.