Samuel: The Kingmaker - Week 2

Well, good morning family. How you doing this morning? All right,

Well, listen, I am so glad to be here this morning, and

I'm glad to see you this morning. I really do now know those who

love Jesus obviously, because it said like two degrees this morning and you're in

church. Amen. Even the disciples didn't have to put up with this kind

of stuff. Okay, So I'm glad that you're here this morning, not

saying that those who are watching from home or less spiritual, but come on,

man, let's be for real. So but nah, it's good to

be here this morning, just to celebrate the goodness of the Lord and to

be in this space when God is doing so much in the life of our

congregation. It is my pleasure to serve as the adjunct teaching pastor, and

every time that I get to be in the space and not online watching,

it's just so good to receive the hugs and the love and all the stuff

that just comes along with being in the congregation. So I'm glad to be

hearing those who are on line. If you haven't been in the space yet,

get here, get here. We want to love on you. So

much has been happening in life of the church over the last year. In

twelve months, we have seen growth like none other. Over two hundred people

have come into relationship with Jesus and they have become a part of this body.

Amen. Amen, that's good stuff. That is good stuff. Not

only that, our Spanish speaking ministry is launching in March, and that's good

news for us. We're gonna be able to impact a whole nother demographic in

our area, in our community. And so we're so excited about our ministry

team that's launching. They already have like seventeen people waiting to be baptized.

Is that amazing? This is all a part of what our pastors talked about

about becoming a church with grit, a church that is doing the ministry and

becoming a better church, not a bigger church. If it becomes big,

that's great, but we want to do better ministry and that means getting into

the spaces where Jesus wants us to be. And that's often meaning that we

might have to suffer some in order for others to come into relationship with Jesus.

And I love that it's happening among us. This morning, I am

going to be lifting up the second installment of this sermon series, and this

morning I want you to pray with me as we talk a little bit about

Samuel the King Maker. Let's let's pray. Father, I thank you so

much. I thank you for who you are. I thank you for what

you do. Lord. You know everybody who would begin this space this morning,

You know everybody who would be online. And so God, I pray

that you would speak not just to the ones who are listening right now,

but the one who will tune in months from now seeking a word from you.

Speak a timeless word that your people will be fed. God, I

sit down that you might stand up. I become silent, that you may

speak in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, this morning we're talking about the

life of Samuel. And last week we got one part of the installment and

it was so good to just kind of get a little bridge of who Samuel

was. But we call him the Kingmaker because he is the one who anointed

Saul, also anointed David. He is the one who launches this whole thing

that Israel wanted a king. And he was like, well, God is

your king. But the people, the Lord said, Okay, they really

I'm gonna give them what they want. That's not always a good thing,

okay. And so they get these kings and he's the one who anoints them

and they walk their life out. But saw Samuel himself is a man of

God. His backstory is amazing because he was one who was born of a

baron woman. Hannah was his mom, and his dad el Cannah. They

got together eventually after a long time of her being barren, and he prayed.

She prayed to the Lord in a bitter spirit and said, Lord,

if you would just give me a child, I'll give him back to you.

And that child was Samuel, and the Lord blessed her womb, gave

her a son, and sure enough she brought that son to the temple and

gave that son over to the priest who was Priest Eli at that time of

the temple. Now, could you imagine. First of all, let me

just talk to the ladies. You carry a child for nine months, you

deliver this child, and delivery is not a pretty thing. I've seen it

multiple times, Okay, my own wife, I've only seen it. Okay,

I've don't experienced it, although one I think got kind of help.

But anyway, so the whole idea is that you kind of you have all

of this pain, all this stuff that build up to pain, and then

after the pain, you give this child away. Hannah did that because she

made a vow to the Lord and she said that which I've committed, I'm

going to do. And so the Lord blessed his child. He growing up

in the temple. And while he's in the temple, the Lord that he

is gonna use this young man, and so he starts to speak to Samuel.

And you know the story how the Lord decided to speak to him,

and he thought it was Eli. He would run to Eli, and Eli

said, no, it's not me. But the next time you hear say

your servants listening, speak Lord. And so he did that and the Lord

spoke to him. And from that time on there was a development of this

relationship that God would speak to Samuel because Samuel was in tune with God,

and they developed a relationship that was Samuel and God. But then that relationship

impacted the people of God Israel because they needed someone who would be able to

be in between them and God because they would often fall off, they would

often make mistakes, They would often have these times of wondering where they would

wander away from the Lord, they would miss God, and they would do

all kinds of sorts of crazy things and follow other gods. And so each

time Samuel was there to draw them back into relationship with God. So that's

a little bit of the backstory. But this more and we're gonna look at

passage passage out of First Samuel chapter seven. And what we're gonna do here

is that while I'm going through the passage, I'm gonna kind of give you

a little insight behind the scenes of this passage so that you will be able

to understand what this meaning is. And there are three points I'm going to

raise today. I'm gonna talk about the intercessor, the intercessor, the helper,

and the blessing. Those three things I want to talk about, the

intercessor, the helper, and the blessing. So today I want to look

at the passage and just get some nuances there from First Samuel the seventh chapter,

starting with verse one. Now, my eyes sometimes they work. Let's

see if they're gonna work with me today. You ready, Here we go,

First Samuel seven one, the Bible says, so the men of Carris

Gearam came and took up the Ark of the Lord. They brought it to

a Benedat's house on the hill and consecrated Eliezer the Son to guard the Ark

of the Lord. I'm gonna stop right there. The reason why they brought

it to this place was because the arc had been captured by the Philistines one

time they were in battle. And while they were in battle, they thought

like, oh man, we're losing, so let's get God here. Let's

get the Ark of the Lord here, and then we'll win the war.

And so they brought the Ark of the Lord there, and the Ark of

the Lord. Not only did they lose the battle, but the arc got

taken. And so the Ark was then captured by the Philistines, and they

went and took it to all these different places. But the funny thing about

this is that everywhere that they took the presence of God the Ark of the

Lord, that place went through devastation. The people have boils, and all

kinds of things happened. Horrible things happen in those areas where the Ark of

the Lord was. Until one day they woke up and they were like,

uh, oh, this is not a good thing. The things that we

are experiencing in these spaces, so we need to figure out something. We

need to give the arc back. But before they gave the arc back,

they put the ark in one of the temples with one of their gods,

Dagon I believe it was. And when they put the arc there, they

left the temple, came back the next morning and the false God was laid

down, had fell over, and so the people who were like what and

then so they put the god back up right, Dagon put him back up

and then went out of the temple, came back the next day and not

only was the false God laid down, but the head was off and the

arms are off. Man, don't mess with God. Don't mess with God.

My God is God. He don't play. He don't play. He

like, we ain't playing no games in here. And so they were at

a point where you're like, we got to get rid of this god.

So all of these kings and all of these different groups that had come together,

they said, let's send back the Ark of the Lord. But let's

not only send back the Ark of the Lord, but also let's send gold,

let's send gifts with this god, because we want to say sorry.

So they offered up an offering to say, hey, listen, we apologize,

We're sorry. So they sent back the arc. This is why the

arc is now at elis home, and he's watching the ark of the Lord.

The Bible goes on to say, the ark remain in kreb Garum a

long time, twenty years in all. Then all the people of Israel turned

back to the Lord. That's key there. All the people turned back to

the Lord they had turned away. When your world gets crazy, when things

get chaotic, there are times where we may look the other way because sometimes

when God seems like he's not present. In that time where the ark was

not there, and that time where God's presence seemed like it was not flowing

the way that it used to flow, it made it easier for them to

turn away and to turn to false gods. It made it easier for them

to turn and look to other places. So they looked at the bells and

the asterisks of the time and all of those false gods. They looked at

them because it seemed like it was working for other people. I want to

let you know there are things that will not work for the believers of God.

The false gods won't work it's just a pseudo effect. It's not real.

It's not gonna help you through your circumstances, because you know God is

God, and only he can fix your circumstances. And so they had turned

away, and when the ark was back, they said, hold up,

what have we been doing. We've got to come back to our God,

because our God is God. Sometimes when you feel like you're losing, remember

they had lost battles, they had lost wars, they had lost some things

in the midst of loss. Be careful how you count your losses. Be

careful how you count your losses, because maybe you lost a relationship, maybe

you lost a job, maybe you lost some things along the way. But

all those things you lost, do not lose your God. Hold on to

God, no matter what comes, no matter what goes. Hold on to

God, because when He's with you, everything that leaves can be explained.

It can be explained. God will make sense out of the nonsense of life.

Sometimes, and so verse three Samuel says to all of Israel, if

you are returning to the Lord with all your hearts, then rid yourself of

your foreign gods and your asterisks, and commit yourself to the Lord and serve

him only, and he will deliver you out of the hands of the Philistines.

Listen to this. Often we're reaching for the hand of God and we're

saying, Lord, help me, help me. But at the same time,

while we're reaching, we're holding on to something else. Put away the

thing that you're holding onto as a substitute. You don't need substitutes with God.

The substitutes have God. To get out of your life. All the

things that you're holding onto to just make you feel better, to fill in

the gaps. Let them go and reach for God because he's reaching for you,

and so he says he'll deliver you out of the hands of the Philistines.

So the Israelites put away their bells and their asterisks and serve the Lord

only. They put it away, they got rid of it. They said,

no longer are we gonna follow these false things because they're not fixing us.

It's not making us better than Samuel said, assemble all Israel at Mispun,

and I will intercede with the Lord for you. In other words,

Samuel said, I'm gonna talk to God on your behalf. I'm gonna talk

to God because you have fallen away. And though you have put away the

false gods, there's still gotta be a reconnection. There's gotta be some repentance.

Oh, I'm gonna say that, we gotta repent. That means I'm

sorry, God, I'm sorry, I messed up. I made a mistake.

I'm sorry. Sometimes we try to act like it never happened. Somebody

need to say, amen, uh huh, you still got mud on your

hands. But you're like it never happened. Right, No, it's still

happened. And we have to take a moment to acknowledge that it happened.

In your relationships, in your marriage, with your kids, whatever went wrong.

Take a moment to say, yeah, that conversation didn't happen. Yes,

I was mad about it. Yes, all those things took place,

and I am sorry. And so Samuel says, I'm gonna set up this

meeting and I'm gonna put things together so that we can have this dialogue with

the Lord. It says when they assembled at Misfait, they drew water and

poured it out before the Lord. Pouring out water was almost like saying,

we are fasting where we're gonna take the water the things that would give us

a life, and we pour it out before you Lord, we give up

our water. Then it goes on to say I poured it out before the

Lord. On that day they fasted, and they confess we have sinned against

the Lord. Now Samuel was so as a leader of Israel at Mesphah.

When the Philistines heard that Israel had assembled at Mesphah, the rulers of the

Philistines came up to attack them. So check this out. They are trying

to get themselves in right relationship with God. And anytime you're getting yourself in

right relationship with God, I want to let you know that the enemy of

your soul will attack. He don't want you to be in right relationship with

God. He doesn't want you to live the life that God is calling you

to live. And so while they're getting themselves ready, while they are fasting,

while they're praying, while they're pouring out water before the Lord, the

enemy is getting ready to attack because they heard, Hey, they all together

in one place. You know, militarily speaking, you don't put all of

your people that are fighting a war in one place because that could cause utter

destruction. I can take out all the people. So many times we see

this in the Bible, Oh my God, remember Moses when they were crossing

the Red Sea, when they got ready to cross the rest, See,

all of Israel was there, but God showed up. The enemy should know

by now if I am going to attack, don't attack them when they all

together, try to catch them one by one. I want to let you

know, this is why we come together as the people of God, while

we stand in the house together, while we pray together, while we come

into community, because the enemy wants to pluck us off one by one.

But when we're all together, oh my God, when we're all in the

same place, when we're all praying, when we're all interceding with one another,

God shows up and he fights for us. And so the Bible goes

on to say that they started, they said they're going to attack. When

the Israelites heard of it, they were afraid because of the Philistine. We've

already been wooked by them. Ain't nothing like getting a fight and getting whooped.

Find some young people, you know, when you're playing a video game

and you got somebody who always beats you, Like, I don't want to

play no more. Let me find a new game. And so they're upset,

they're afraid. They're nervous. And then they said to Samuel, hold

on, way, wait, we know better than that. Don't stop crying

out to the Lord, our God for us, that he may rescue us

from the hand of the Philistines. So listen, they said, listen,

Samuel, keep praying, keep talking to God, keep going before the Father

on our behalf. And he does. And so the Bible goes on to

say, then Samuel took a suckling lamb and sacrificed it as a whole burnt

offering to the Lord. Anytime I hear about a lamb, I think of

Jesus. It was a suckling lamb, a young lamb, a lamb that

hadn't seen a whole lot of life, a whole lot of stuff. This

young lamb was sacrificed as a burnt And notice this, this burnt offering.

He sacrificed all of it. Normally, if you study the scriptures, you

understand when sacrifices are made, the priest normally takes a portion of the lamb

for himself. But Samuel did not take a portion of this lamb. He

sacrificed the whole lamb, just like Jesus. The lamb of God sacrifice his

whole life for you and for me. And so we see throughout the scriptures

this connection between God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy

Spirit all in these spaces, and how God the god Head is operating through

what's happening with Samuel. So he sacrifices this burnt offering to the Lord on

behalf of Israel, and the Lord answered him, I want to let you

know when you come before the Lord with a sacrifice, when you come before

the Lord with a lamb, let me do better than that. When you

come before the Lord in the name of Jesus, the Lord, our God

will hear you. That's why when we pray, we pray in the name

of because Jesus is the Son of God, and he is in the space

with the Lord interceding for you. Here we go. The Bible goes on

the same I'm always I'm already ahead of myself, but it's okay, it

says. While Samuel was sacrificing the burnt offering, the Philistines drew near to

engage Israel in battle. They're like, oh, we're gonna get them.

Let's get them while they're over here in this space. We're gonna, we're

gonna go to war right now, because they're not ready. They're over there

sacrificing stuff. I see smoke going up, I see all this other stuff

going up that can't be ready for war. But the Bible says, but

that day, oh my God, I want to let you know. That

gets me excited. But that day, I don't know what day you're looking

for, But that day, whatever day, that is the day that the

Lord is getting ready for you, the day that you have not seen yet,

the day that God is gonna turn it around for your good. But

that day the Lord thundered with a loud thunder against the Philistines and drew them

in such a panic that they were rooted before the Israelite. Wow. First

of all, let's talk about battles. When you battle somebody, you go

toe to toe. Right, some of you've never been in a fight before,

you've never been in a fight with you, but maybe you watched the

fight, maybe you watch boxing before. I know some of y'all are against

that stuff. But anyway you go toe to toe, it's hand to hand

combat. And the same way that a boxer boxes are the same way that

armies would fight back in the day, which didn't make a lot of sense

to me, because they would send a worship team in front of everybody.

Could you imagine our worship team going in front of the battle. You know,

he's a I'll see you move, move them mountain. And then you

got people with swords and spears and whatnot because you're not worship team. Is

everybody's quitting right now? Right the whole worship team say I resigned, I

resigned. I think somebody should be singing, all right. So the reality

is that that's how they battle, and they battle coming like this. They

would come together like this and fight, and then whatever was standing after it's

standing, and that's how they found out who won the warld We've battled like

that for a very long time. But in this particular occasion, they were

coming this way. Israel is here in this space, not really ready to

battle. But they're sitting there. They're sacrificing, they're praising God, they're

worshiping, they're doing all these things, and here comes their foe, here

comes their enemy. And as they're coming somewhere, the Lord has turned them

around and now they're facing the wrong way. Oh my god, I want

to let you know that the Lord will set it up, that your enemy

will be facing the wrong way. That while they are on the attack,

he routed them to turn around, and now they are in position to be

pursued. That now Israel is pursuing the enemy. The Bible goes on to

say. It says that the men of Israel rushed out of Mispa and pursue

the Philistines, slaughtering them along the way to the point of beth Car.

In other words, God gave them the battle. Sometimes we're prepping for stuff

and we fail. The stuff you're prepping for your failing because you didn't put

it in God's hands. You didn't turn it over to the Lord. But

guess what these guys, they were in worship of the Lord, said,

I'm gonna set it up for victory. Everything that you've been going through.

I want to let you know that God is setting you up for victory.

All you got to do is keep worshiping. All you got to do is

stay in his presence. And while you're in his presence, He's lining up

the enemy to be utterly consumed. The Bible says in verse twelve, then

Samuel took a stone, and he set it up between Mispah and Shin.

He named it at Benezer, saying, thus far the Lord has helped us.

So the Philistines were subdued. They stopped invading Israel's territory throughout Samuel's lifetime,

and the hand of the Lord was against the Philistines. Throughout Samuel's lifetime,

the hand of the Lord was against As long as Samuel was living,

God was battling against the Philistines. Wow, Samuel was a powerful man.

Verse fourteen. The towns of Ukrin and Gath that the Philistines had captured from

Israel were restored to Israel, and Israel delivered the neighboring territories from the hands

of the Philistine they were taken, or even the territories around them, the

neighboring territories, they were taking them back from the Philistines. And there was

peace between Israel and the Amorits. Now you remember the Amorits were part of

all the Heites that were against Israel. You know, you got the hit

sites Amorits, the you know, my friend Heights, and you know,

you know making up that name that's not a real name. Don't look for

them in the Bible. But anyway, all the heights right against Israel.

But guess what, they have peace with the emorights. In that season,

God will bring peace in your life. The Bible says that Samuel continued as

Israel's leader all the days of his life. From year to year, he

went on a circuit from Bethel to Gilgal to miss for judging Israel in all

those places, but he always went back to Ramah home where his home was,

and there he also held court for Israel, and he built an altar

there to the Lord Samuel, God's man, Samuel, the one God could

count one, Samuel, the intercessor. Intercession is so important in the life

of the believer. The reason why intercession is important because it is the relationship

between the individual and God. And so Samuel plays intercessor. He's the one

who says, hey, God, I need to talk to you for a

moment, and God's like, hey, Samuel, I got you. Because

they were in a relationship, and he would talk on behalf of Israel.

In order to be an intercessor, there's got to be this one thing.

Trust. God's gotta trust the intercessor, and the intercessor also must be trust

by the people. So they stand in the middle between God and the people

and they pray on behalf of the people to God, who is supreme over

everything. I'm so honored this morning to have Reverend Sharon Montgomery in this congregation

today. She is a true intercessor. I've known her for years, and

before I even knew how, I remember going into a service and she was

prayed. It was an intercessory prayer time, and she prayed for our little

babies. My wife was pregnant at the time, and I remember her and

the team laying hands on our little unborn child and praying the blessing of the

Lord over her life. Intercession connecting God with man. And so Samuel was

that person. But guess what more than that, the believer is blessed because

we don't have to wait for somebody to intercede on us. It's good that

we have pastors, It's good that we have spiritual leaders. It's good that

we have grandmothers. Because my grandmother prayed for me. Right, she's the

one who listen. She was praying. I remember as a little kid sitting

on the side of my grandmother's bed and she would pray and I'm telling you,

she would pray long, pray so long that I'm telling you I'm knocked

out. I'm knocked out. She would have to pick me up and put

me in the bed. I remember that. But she would intercede it on

behalf of her family or behalf of those that she knew. She would pray.

And that type of prayer is powerful because that person is going before the

Father on behalf of others. We should all learn to intercede. Amen.

But your life has to be right. Samuel had to have his life right.

You can't pray to God about others when you don't got it together.

Samuel lived a life where he was connected and stayed in connection with God,

consistently and constantly in connection with God, and so he moves on. We

move on through the scripture understanding that this is good. But guess what Romans

eight thirty four says. This Christ is the one who died. More than

that, he who was raised is at the right hand of God, who

is indeed interceding for us. You have not had an intercessor until you have

Jesus talking to God on your behalf. Jesus is our ultimate intercessor. Jesus

is the one who is talking to God. So when we pray, we

pray in the name of and so when we pray in the name of Jesus,

he talks to the Father on your behalf. And as he's talking to

the Father, the Father then hears because guess what, he doesn't see you,

He sees his son, and he sees his son's sacrifice. The same

sacrifice that was being made on behalf of the people of Israel, the one

that Samuel made. He now sees it in real time with Jesus the Lord

standing and laying his life down on a cross for you and I. He's

always interceding for you. He's always believing the best for you. When things

are falling apart, when your whole life is in chaos, when everything looks

like it's going left when it should be going right. What he is interceding

for you, talking to God for you. This is the good hope that

we have that no matter what's happening in our lives, that our Father is

moving for us because of Jesus. It's nothing that I can do. No,

I can't fix it. I can't fix it. You know what,

when my kids were uh younger, we had these moments where where where you

know, as a parent, you love your child right, you love your

child right, but you have these moments and we're like, right, that's

something I could describe. And So when my kids were really little, they

were you know, babies and whatnot, and they would have what we would

call a blowout. Okay, some of you already know what I'm talking about.

My wife is probably laughing right now. She knows exactly what I'm talking

about, right, And it's these times that they would eat what they normally

eat, but then after they've eaten it, they would have this blowout.

So you go to change a regular diaper, but it's not really a regular

diaper because it's not really just in the diaper. It's like all the way

up here. And so you can't just use whites for that. You gotta

do a whole bath. This is a whole bad situation. Israel was like

that. They would always have these blowouts with God. They would always have

these moments where it was really really bad. It wasn't a regular fix it

real, you know, quick meat, you know, sacrifice. No,

we gotta really get down into this thing. And I want to let you

know that God even when he sees our blowouts, he's still like parents have

so much compassion and so much love for us that he says, I see

you in your mess, but guess what, I'm still here to clean you

up. That's the grace of God, and that's how much he loves us.

Second, the helper. The helper is important because God helps us in

our situations. So it's good to have someone who is interceding, who is

talking to God. But we also need the help of the Lord. And

the help of the Lord shows up and gives them the victory. In the

time when they were afraid and they were scared, the helper comes and reroutes

the enemy. The helper comes and fixes the situation. The helper is all

ways there. And the Bible talks about the fact that when the help came,

then Samuel took a rock and he named it Ebenezer, saying, the

Lord has helped us thus far. The Lord has helped us thus far.

That means when I look at my life, I can look over all the

things that I've been through, all the things that has led me to this

moment, I know it was because of the Lord's help. If the Lord

had not helped me if the Lord had not showed up, if the Lord

had not brought me out, the Lord had not healed me, if the

Lord had not delivered me, if the Lord had not advocated for me,

If the Lord had not, I would not be standing before you today,

and some of you would not be sitting in the seats that you're in today

if the Lord had not been your help. So the helper shows up.

We all need help at some time in our lives, at some point,

and some of us, I want to let you know, we really need

help every day, every day. Sometimes we just don't acknowledge how much help

we need. Sometimes we don't reach out for the help. But I remember

when I was a lot younger, and my son Will probably could attest to

this and some others when I was younger. Well, he can't attest to

me being younger, but I could tell the story, okay, right,

Anyway, when I was younger, we would every year we would go up

to West Middlesex for camp meeting. And some of you know about Zionce Hill

and we would go to Pennsylvania to Hill for camp meeting. And when I

was about the age of between somewhere between fourteen and sixteen. I remember I

was in a spiritual funk. I was going through some really difficult stuff and

internal stuff, trying to be a believer and then struggling with friends and all

that type of stuff that happens in a young person's life. And so I

was in this place and I felt so distant for God, and I was

every night waiting for that message that drew me back, you know, because

you know Camp Meeting, you're gonna get the revival. Somebody gonna say something.

It's gonna draw you in. Now I'm at the weekend and nothing's happened.

But all week long I've been swimming and doing those type of things,

or at least learning how to swim, because I really couldn't swim right.

But I remember how when we would go up go up to Camp Meeting,

we would stay in one of two hotels. It either was and it was

usually based upon money, because one hotel was a few dollars more. Now

go back a little bit. This is before Hampton Ends and all that other

stuff fancy we fancy now all week but there were two options. You either

stayed at the Motel six or the comfort in based upon my money, I

was at the Motel six. Now, the Motel six had a smaller pool,

and you know, they left a light on for you basically, and

that's what you got. And so you could go to the pool. But

it wasn't nothing grand and whatnot. But I wanted to go to the comfort.

In the Comfort Inn had a nicer pool. They had chairs outside all

around. It was a longer pool. It was beautiful. And Brother Cherry

would tell us every year, he would say, you can only swim in

the hotel that you're staying in. You can only swim in the hotel you're

standing. Now today, I understand the liability stuff and all that stuff.

There's some legalities to that whole thing. I get it right, But as

a teenager, I'm like, listen, I want to swim in that pool.

So all week I obeyed, and all week I have been practicing on

treading water, been practicing on treading water. So I thought I had it

really down. So it was by the weekend and I still was in the

spiritual funk. And I remember getting on the bus and talking in one of

the saints, and she was one who would go She was a little bit

older than me, but she would always go to the pool, and I

was asking her, are you going to the pool today? Now know that

she was staying at the comfort In, and so I started working her.

I was like, are you going to the pool today? Nah? I

think I'm just gonna rest before service. Are you sure you don't want to

go sit in the pool? You could rest outside the pool, you know.

I'm trying to you know, teenager, and I'm doing all these things

to try to get it to go there. And she made up her mind,

no, I'm not going to the pool. Well, okay, cool,

fine, So I said, okay, So I went to the hotel,

put on my trumps, got my towel, and I walked myself right

on over to the comfort In and I got over to the comfort In and

when I got over there, I said, okay, I'm gonna swim.

And some of my other friends were staying in the hotel over there, and

one of my friends, Darryl, he was a good swimmer, but this

day was his birthday and so he was all dressed up for his birthday and

whatnot. And I saw him. I was like, hey, what's up,

Daryl. I said I could swim. He said, really, let

me see, And so I start swimming across this pool. Now, I

wanna let you know, I was really just moving water. You ever seen

somebody just moving water, They're not going nowhere, And I'm just moving water,

right, and so but I moved enough to get to about the center

of the pool. But I was exhausted, so I decided the best thing

to do is just to kind of stand for a minute. But when I

stood up, the water was over my head. And so immediately I didn't

realize that the water was gonna be over my head, so icanic, just

like the children of israel I panic. I was like, oh no.

So I swimmed up and I said, hell, blah blah blah blah blah,

back down right. There was no help. I couldn't stay up on

the world. I didn't know how to float out. The treading thing had

went out the window. I'm in panic, mold, And so I went

back up one more time, and I said, and I'm at this time,

I'm looking, you know, you kind of looking for the people who

are standing on the ground or on chairs or whatnot. And I'm like,

hell, no one's moving. And I go blah blah blah blah blah.

And I really lies that these people think that I am joking. They think

I'm joking. Not only is that happening, I'm hearing, brother, Cherry,

don't only go to the pool that you stay in. I hear my

mother, I'm gonna kill you. You know, all these different voices are

in my head at the same time. I'm gonna kill you for dying,

you know what I mean, that kind of stuff. Right, So I'm

there and I'm like, I neither convince them that I am not playing or

this is no joking. So I swim up one more time, and when

I get to the top, I say Jesus blah blah blah blah blah pooh,

And all of a sudden, I see someone swimming towards me, and

I'm so grateful. I'm so grateful because help is on the way. But

they tell you, when you're gonna rescue somebody in a pool, you should

rescue them from behind, because if you rescue them from the front, they

will try to drown you on their way out. And I did. I

did. I was so I was so excited. I was just trying to

get out. So I got flipped around and then brought to the side of

the pool and I'm coughing up water and just so grateful. The person who

brought me to the side of the pool was the same woman who says she

was not going to the pool. Later we talked about it, and over

the years the Lord worked her herd and it just said, you need to

go to the pool, and she went to the pool and she was the

one who rescued me. I want to let you know that help is on

the way. That some of you may feel like you're drowning, but if

you call on the name of Jesus, Jesus will show up. He will

send help. He will dispatch angels to meet you at your knee. That

whatever's going on in your life, he will take care of it. Help

is on the way. Not only do we know that help is on the

way, but the Word tells us in Psalms forty six and one. God

is our refuge and strength, a very present help in the time of trouble,

a very present help and the time. God will be present when you're

in trouble. He's not just on your good days. He's there on your

bad days. On your worst day, God shows up because he is a

present help in the time of trouble. You need an intercessor, you need

a helper. And we know that the helper is also the Holy Spirit because

Jesus said, I will leave the comforter who's also the helper, and he

will guide you into all truths. The helper the Holy Spirit. But then

after the intercessor the helper, there is a blessing. I want to let

you know that God is always setting you up for the blessing. God is

always setting you up to do well. He's always setting you up for the

good. No matter what's going on in your life, the Lord intends to

bless you. He is giving you a blessing before you are ready for the

blessing. Oh my God. See, sometimes in our lives, I don't

know about you, but I don't I don't just go to the store and

bicter. But I have to plan things, you know what I mean.

So if I want to bless my kids, I'm planning months in events for

whatever it is I'm trying to give them. Why Because he don't work like

that. See some of y'all money work like that. Y'all just say,

oh, let me just buy that. No, no, no, I

have to think about I got a plant you know, back in the day,

we used to call it layaway. Remember layaway, Uh huh. You

go down to the people's kmark and you get to the people's camar and you

say, I want this coat, and they said, well, why are

you buying a coat in June? Cause I'm not gonna get it into November.

You understand what I'm saying. So you would go to Layoway. Well,

I want to let you know that God has already put some blessings on

layaway for you. It's waiting for you. But the time has not come

yet. He's already set up blessings for you. You just gotta be in

position to receive the blessing. And so the blessings of the Lord are so

grand, so strong that these people, when they were in conflict, he

gave them the battle. He then get restored the territories that they had lost

and gave it back to them. Everything they had lost was restored to them.

The ark of the Lord was restored to them. Everything that was taken

away from them. He blessed them, and he gave them peace. Oh

my God, peace. Some of you in here today just want peace,

Peace for your life, peace in your marriage, peace on your job,

Peace in your mind, Peace that when you lay down at night, you're

not worried, that you can just sleep. The Bible says this in Deuterrhinoy

twenty eight and two. And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake

you. If you obey the voice of the Lord your God, they will

overtake you. In other words, while you're walking, you're being blessed.

When you're sleeping, you're being blessed. You wake up to blessings. Your

day is operating on blessings. That the blessings are coming there, literally overtaking

you. I don't know about you, but I can stand some blessings like

that in my life. God wants to bless you like that. Well,

how do we get there? Remember the people came to the Lord and they

confessed, They fixed it, what was wrong? They confess. Maybe today

we need to confess some things to the Lord. Lord. I'm not on

my a game with you. I'm not reading a word like I need to

have n't been praying like I need to have him been treating my spouse or

my children, or my job, my co workers like I need to have

him been the example that you're calling me to be God. What is it

that you desire of me? God, I repent, I'm sorry. I'm

sorry. And the Lord will restore you, and he will bring you back

into right relationship. He will send you help in the areas where you're falling

down, and then he will bless you. Will you stay with me this

morning. Samuel indeed was a great man of God who kept being the go

to for the people. But God would say to you today, you don't

need a Samuel. You've got Jesus. And Jesus is here this morning to

meet you at your point. Well, some of you would say, I'm

too low, I'm too low. I'm too low, I'm too low.

Well, you're not too low that he can't reach you. You're not too

broken that he can't fix you. I have a shirt that I wear I

probably should have worn today. I actually traveled with it, but I didn't

wear it. It says broken crayons still color. I remember when I was

a little kid, I used to hate broken crayons. Don't give me the

broken crayons, give me a brand new crayon. But some of us in

this room we've been broken by life. You got chipped off, some things

have happened, and some people would be like I was when I was a

kid and cast you aside. But Lord, no, the Lord said,

no, No, that's still useful. You're still a beautiful green, a

beautiful red, a beautiful purple. All I gotta do is sharpen you.

I want to let you know that the Lord wants to sharpen you today so

that he can use you for his glory, for his honor, for his

purpose. God has plans for you, and they are big plans, good

plans. Well, I'm at the in part of my life, Pastor,

I'm at the in part of this journey, and I can't do the things

I used to do. I can't move like I used to do, I

can't go like I used to do. He's still got big plans for you.

It's not too late. You've only just begun this next season in your

journey. This morning. I remember growing up and we would anoint every Sunday,

because anointing isn't just for healing physically, but it's healing of the mind,

the heart finances. Wherever you need healing in your life, healing is

available. Maybe you don't stand in the need of healing today, but there's

somebody in your family, someone in your life that you know they're going through

the thick of it and they need God to intercede. They need God to

step in, and you're becoming that intercestor today, becau because maybe they don't

have a relationship with the Lord, maybe they're in a place where they can't

pray, they don't even have the worst to say. This morning, we

want to offer you the opportunity to pray for them or to pray for yourself.

If you would like to be anointed for prayer today. Before I pray,

come to the Center aisle As. Our prayer team will come and the

Usher will meet you here and guide you through. This is a space of

grace, This is a space of healing. This is a space of intercession,

a space of help, and it's also a space of blessing. If

you're in need today, let us pray. God. We thank you so

much for your word. Thank you for what you do in our lives,

the reminders that you give us. Thank You for Samuel who was in relationship

and who intercedeed on behalf of those who could not. But Lord, we

can, because Jesus open the door wide open, that we would be able

to talk through him to you. So Father, come meet us here today.

See the places that we have been battered by the storm, battered by

the battle, and Lord, bring us back into relationship. Bring our friends,

our family, those we are praying and interceding for, into relationship with

you. Knowing that you are going to be our helper, you would uphold

us, and you will bless us, bless your people in this space.

Give us what we need for the days to come. Lord, where we're

at the end of our rope, give us more rope, more grace,

more presence, more of you. In Jesus name a man and a man