98. Summer Sermons - Honor to God - James Safrit

Welcome to the For Freedom Podcast. This podcast exists to bring the freedom of the gospel for everyday Christians with everyday issues. Now here are your hosts, John Hollifield and James Saifert. Thank you, Lucas. Thank you, church, for allowing me to be here this morning. If you have your Bibles, we're going to be in 1 Samuel chapter 2. And I've got your notes provided for you in the bulletin this morning. As you're turning there, I'll give you just sort of a background of who I am. I am James Saifert. I've been at Sulphur Springs a little over five years. And I've got a wife and three kids. I've got a 10-year-old, almost 10-year-old, almost 8-year-old, and a little 2-year-old that keeps me young. And so it is a blessing to be a parent and it is a blessing to be here this morning and to be able to open God's Word to you. Church, I know where you're at. I know the pain that you're in. And our church was in a similar situation. And through all that, we know that God's been good. And we're able to trust in His Word. We're able to trust in who He is and what He is. And this morning, I'm going to title the message, I Will Honor God. And the question we're looking at this morning is, who are you honoring? Are you honoring God or are you honoring self? And so we're going to look at one verse, but we're going to look at the first three chapters of Samuel, 1 Samuel. And we're going to do a sort of a case study this morning, hopefully to help you out in your walk and your journey with Jesus. And so if you have your Bibles and you're willing and able to stand with me, if you're able, we're going to read this one verse out of honor and reverence of God's Word. And then we'll jump around a little bit this morning and hope to be a blessing. And the Bible says, Father, we thank You for this day. We thank You for Your blessings. I got Your blessings upon this Word. I pray Your blessings upon me as I preach this morning, Your words and Your scripture, as I be a blessing to Rocky Hill this morning. We love You. In Your name we pray. Amen. You may be seated. To help us gain a deeper understanding this morning, we're going to take a look at some real life events, some real life people that lived and breathed on this world. And we're going to look at one family who honored God and one family who dishonored God and the results of that and sort of examine our life as we go through this. I am a biblical counselor. I'm getting my degree in biblical counseling right now. And I try to look at scripture in a way to be practically applying to our life. I want to bring whatever scripture I'm looking at on the bottom shelf for everyone to understand of how you can walk away and practically take the Word of God and apply it to your life. And so today we're going to look at this story, this real event that happened in history. And we're going to look at sort of the background. And if you're able to and you're willing, you want to turn back just a couple of pages to the very last verse in Judges. You don't have to turn there. I'm going to read it anyways. But it tells us the state of where Samuel was at when this was written. And so we're going to look at this. And this specific time in history was an extremely dark time in Israel's history. And we know this because the very last verse of Judges says this. In those days, there was no king in Israel. There was no one there. And every man did that which was right in his own eyes. There was no governing scripture. There was no governing person. There was no one there to help them. Even though God was there, they chose to trust in themselves. This period was a time where, as a woman, the only way you would have honor is if you had children. And we come to the first part of Samuel where we are introduced to this young lady named Hannah who was childless. Someone who was childless in this day and age would have been considered someone who had zero honor from God. Someone who was despised among their people. Someone who no one wanted to do business with, wanted to talk to them with. If they were to go get water from the well, they wouldn't want to go with them because they wouldn't want their cursing of God on their life. This is Hannah's life. And we get this awesome picture of Hannah coming before God and pouring out her life to God and saying, God, I am earnestly praying in the tabernacle in Shiloh. She made a special visit here to pray that God would honor her and grant her a son. And if she did, she would return that child back to God for his service. This week I was listening. I'm a podcast listener. How many of you listen to podcasts in here? A couple people. How many of you have ever heard of a podcast? Podcasts. I've learned that in my days and age of preaching, the more you ask questions, the more awake you become. And so when I ask a question, you sort of wake up a little bit. And so I'm going to ask you a couple questions, keep you on your toes a little bit. And so how many of you have ever listened to the radio before? The radio is very similar to a podcast. You're listening to people talk to you. That's all it is. It's just in our millennial age, we've changed a little bit. And so I was listening to this. I heard about a mom back in 1920 who had gotten pregnant. And she, every day, every day of that pregnancy for nine months, she walked on their property and there was a tree that was about a half a mile away from her house. And she walked to that tree every day, three times a day. And she prayed at that tree and she said, God, I'm pregnant. You know that. God, I hope it's a son. And she said, if it's a son, I pray that he uses his life to honor you with every moment of his being. That son was Charles Stanley. Charles Stanley just passed away. And when I say Charles Stanley, that was a mile or one hour and a half away from this church in Danville, Virginia, is where that was at. You can go to that tree today. Okay? This mom had a desire to see God work in her child's life. And I'm a firm believer that God answers prayers. And this morning, as we look at this mom, as she prayed earnestly for her child to be used of God, we see that God answers prayers this morning. So there's some differences here as we're going to look between two different stories. The story of Eli, I'm sorry, Samuel, and the story of Eli and his two sons, Hophni and Phinehas. And we're going to look at their lives and the contrast between these two. So the first point, as you follow along in your notes, and they'll be on the screen for you, honoring God involves presenting our best to the Lord. Honoring God involves presenting our best to the Lord. 1 Samuel chapter 1, verse 24 and 28, it says, And when she had weaned him, talking about Samuel, she took him up with her, with three bullocks and an ephod of flour and a bottle of wine, and brought him to the house of the Lord in Shiloh. The child was young. And she slew the bullock and brought the child to Eli the priest and said, O Lord, as my soul liveth my Lord, I am a woman that stood thee here praying unto you, unto the Lord. For this child I prayed, and the Lord giveth me the petition which I asked of him. Therefore also I have lent him to the Lord. As long as he liveth, he shall be lent to the Lord. And this is an awesome part. And he, talking about the child, worshipped the Lord there. Hannah knew that God gave her this child, and the only thing that she could do was give him back to the Lord. The word here, lent, is used, and this is simply to mean to offer upon request. She requested something of God, and she said, I'm going to offer it back to you, God. It's not mine. It's not mine to hold on to. And so she said, remember me, God. Remember what I prayed. I'm honoring my request. How many of you have made a promise to God before in a prayer? I have. I've said, God, I want you to do this, God. And if you do this, I'm going to serve. I'm going to do whatever it may be. And how many times have we failed those promises? How many times have we been in our altar, in our closet of prayer, and saying, God, I need you today. I need you to help me. And God blesses that prayer, and he answers, but yet we don't follow through. This is a story here of Hannah, who followed through on those promises. I wrote this down. Whatever we have is available to the Lord. Whatever we have. I'm going to say it like this. Whatever we have should be available to the Lord. I define it three ways. We all are given time. We all are given talents. And we all are given treasures. We all have been given these three things, time, talents, and treasures. We have to ask ourselves, am I willing to give those things to the Lord? Lord. Jayden came up this morning and talked about volunteering for Vacation Bible School. A time where you're going to bless a child that you may not ever see the reward of that child, but by investing that time into that fifth grade little boy or girl, they may come to know Jesus. They may be the next Charles Stanley, but we have to be willing to give of our time in order for that to happen. The Lord may say, I need you to invest in the treasure or your talents and offer your voice as a song to the choir or to offer your service to me in whatever it may be, but are we willing to sacrifice that time or that talent or that treasure to the Lord? Think of me for a minute. Now imagine for a moment God looking down at heaven and saying, you know, the most valuable thing that I have is my son, Jesus. Humanity, you're just not worth it. I'm going to withhold that gift from you. Imagine where we'd be at. We'd be back at this state where we are today where everyone's doing right in their own eyes. And in this moment, God looked down and said, my most valuable gift and you're worth it. You're worth my son and I'm going to give him up so that he can come and redeem the world. But so often we hold our time and our talents and our treasure. What we hold valuable, we hold to ourselves and we don't give back to the Lord. If we want to be a people that honor the Lord, we must examine our life and ask him, what am I giving to the Lord? What am I sacrificing in order for the gospel to move forward? What am I giving up in order for the Lord to be lifted high? So that's honoring God involves presenting our best to the Lord. Honoring self involves keeping back the best for our pleasures. We begin to see here now as we look at the life of Samuel, now we look at the sons of Eli. And it says here in 1 Samuel chapter 2, now the sons of Eli were called the sons of Belial because they knew not the Lord. They were the priests. And the priest's customs was that when the people offered a sacrifice, the priest's servants came and while the flesh was seething or cooking, they would take a flesh hook of three teeth in their hand and they would strike the pan or the kettle or the cauldron or the pot and all that brought forth from that flesh hook they took for themselves. So they did that in Shalom. So unto all the Israelites that came thither, also before the burnt fat, the priest's servants came and said unto the men that were sacrificing, give flesh of the roast for the priest, for he will not have sodden flesh or burnt flesh of thee, but he wants the raw flesh. And if any man said unto him, let them not fail to burn the fat presently, then take as much as thy soul desired, then they would answer him, nay, but thou shalt give it to me now. And if not, I will take it by force. Wherefore, the sin of the young men was very great before the Lord, for men abhorred the offering of the Lord. So there's a lot of words there. We're going to break this down a little bit. Basically, what it's saying is the priest had to get paid, right? They had to honor the man of God. And so the payment for the priest was when someone came to offer a sacrifice, the priest, as the sacrifice was being completely burned, they would reach in and grab out their well-done steak. Okay? It was completely burned. There was no fat. There was no juice. There was nothing left. And they would pull this well-done steak out, about a pound of meat most likely. And that was the payment for the priests. Well, as the sons of Belial, which simply means worthless, began to grow up into their priesthood, they began to say, well, I'm tired of this well-done meat. I want to cook the meat myself. I know it's a pound of meat. And so they sent their servants, and they went to the house, and they said, instead of getting the burnt offering, go ahead and cut it off raw. Taint the sacrifice for my pleasure. And they began to taint these sacrifices, and they began to abhor what was great before the Lord, because they were worried about themselves, and honoring themselves. Hannah approached the offering to the Lord, as I'm going to give you everything, yet these men somehow believed that God owed them something. And they began to come before the Lord and saying, my service is great. My provisions are great. God had clearly laid out what they were supposed to do, yet Hophni and Venice decided to say that this is insufficient, and I'm going to rob God of what he desires. You know, in our life, as we begin to go through this, we all somehow seem to justify what we think is right, to soothe our conscience, to soothe our mind, and we get in this place where we honor self rather than honor God. And so as we continue this thought, the second point is honoring God means that I must keep him as the one I please. Verse 28. The Bible says that, and he, talking about Samuel, worshiped the Lord there. Honoring God means I must keep God as sinner in everything that I do. First Samuel 2.11 says this, and the child did minister unto the Lord before Eli the priest. As I read that verse, and as I began studying through this, my mind immediately thought that everything this child Samuel did was consumed with pleasing God. It said as a child, he ministered unto the priest. Every day he woke up and he said, my duty is to serve God. And whatever I do today, I'm going to do it for the honor and the glory of God. Charles Spurgeon said, whatever you do, do for the glory of God. Whatever you do, whether it's playing baseball, whether it's going to the golf course, whether it's going to church, whether it's going to the school, whether it's going to college, everything you do, do to the glory of God. Church, are we doing that this morning? Are we everything we're doing, are we completely consumed with pleasing God? God, Samuel's focus was continually and entirely on God. He woke up in the morning. The first thing he did, I'm sure, was thank God for another day of breath. Thank God for another day to serve him. As he went around serving the priest and doing the duties of the priest, this is not a glorious job. This is a job that was involved a lot of going out and getting things and bringing things in. I just came back from Israel. I got to stand in the place, in the tabernacle, where this would have been in Shiloh. It's how it's pronounced, how they pronounce it. The archaeologists had recently discovered this place about 40 years ago and they pulled a jar that had been buried and at the bottom of the jars were grapes. And the person, our guide, his name was Amir, said, I am very, very certain that Samuel would have been the ones that went out into the vineyard and harvested these grapes for the offering and for the sacrifices in the temple. That was his job. They dated back, you can date back fruit. So we know the dates and he said it dated back to this time. So everything he was doing is he would go out with that large jar and he went out to the vineyard and began picking those grapes. Some of us would have been, I'm better than this. I don't deserve to go out and pick these grapes. I've given my whole life to God. But Samuel said, God, thank you for allowing me to do this. Thank you for allowing me to pick these grapes and hopefully these grapes will be an honor to you. Hopefully these grapes will turn into a sacrifice where someone's able to worship you. Is that our prayer this morning or is honoring self, honoring to keep yourself as the one that I'm gonna please? Eli's sons were focused on themselves. Everything they did was about them. As we take a closer look into the reality of Eli and to Eli's sons, we begin to see that Eli's focus was on his children and in essence, he was focused on himself. I think one of the saddest scriptures in all of the Old Testament when it comes to talking about this is this next verse in 1 Samuel 2, 29. One verse before where we just read about Samuel and it said, wherefore, kick you at my sacrifice. Eli is talking to his sons at my sacrifice and mine offering which I have commanded in my habitation and honorist, this is God talking to Samuel, you've honored your sons above me and by doing that you have made yourself fat with the chiefest of all the offerings of Israel, my people. You see, Eli was complicit in what they were doing. He was okay with them doing this because it pleased him. Man, I'm not eating well done steaks anymore. I'm getting the best of the best now and he was okay with robbing God in this situation. We know that Eli was a very large man because at the very end of his life it says that he was a large man and fell off of the wall when he heard that his sons had died. We understand that this is what belongs to God is honor, dignity, and respect. Sometimes we justify our sins by reasoning. I like to do this or I really love him or this is my favorite show. The devil deceives us by thinking that one little something is okay. It happened to the very first people that lived on this earth. The devil came to them and he deceived them. Do you not want to be as God? Do you not want to be like God? Who wouldn't want that? He's withholding something from you. He twisted scripture and in this moment they sinned and they fell and in the same moment Eli was justifying what he was doing. A couple years ago it was before COVID we had our vacation Bible school and I have the honor of teaching and doing a couple things but we had a lady and she made some brownies. Lucas may remember this because he would have been a teenager this time. She came in well he would have been in high school so it would have been our middle school class. She came in and she had made a fresh pan of chocolate brownies. As you can tell I like to eat. I got excited. I get to eat some special brownies today. She actually made me a loaf of bread last week. Fresh loaf of bread. Oh it was delicious I had this week. I'm just getting excited talking about food right now. And so she came in she had the brownies she cut all the brownies up and she had them on the plates and she was ready to serve them and right before she handed them out she said hey guys I want to let you know right before I realized that as I was bringing these brownies today as I was scooping out the cocoa my husband had used that same scoop to scoop up the dog poop. Guys it's just a little bit of poop. It's not going to be a big deal. Some of you probably aren't going to even get any and you're not going to notice but just so you know there's just a little bit of dog poop in it. So of course all the girls the guys are like give it to me bring on the brownies you know this is their attitude but really when we bring this down realistically if you knew there was something bad in those brownies you wouldn't eat it. You would abstain from it and Eli in this situation knew that there was something wrong and yet did nothing about it. I read a book years ago I use it often in my marriage counseling it's called From This Day Forward by Craig Groeschel if you're looking to get married if you're an engaged person here it's a great book fantastic read easy read but he gives an illustration at the very beginning of this book that I think is so fitting because he says that imagine sitting there in the morning and whatever your routine is coffee cereal he said imagine you're sitting down and you're eating your favorite cereal Lucky Charms Fruit Loops whatever it may be and he said imagine scrolling through Facebook because a lot of us catch up our news in the morning and we're scrolling through things and he said imagine sitting there and eating Lucky Charms and as you're looking through Facebook an ad pops up and it says 50% of all people that eat Lucky Charms die of cancer whoa like that's shocking and you know as me I'm an analytical guy I'm not gonna just take that at face value I'm gonna begin researching it and so I begin researching and I begin seeing article after article by the New York Times and the Huffington Post and all these other places that say 50% of all people that eat Lucky Charms get cancer and they die from eating Lucky Charms he said no one in their right mind would continue to eat Lucky Charms knowing that he said but often times in our marriage and it was specifically about our marriage we continue the patterns that the devil tells us to do and we know the consequences Samuel here honored himself Eli saw the patterns of his son and continued to endorse it and yet it was honoring himself the third point is honoring God involves an acceptance of life's problems honoring God involves an acceptance of life's problems this is a very hard part of the scripture in chapter 3 as we continue to fast forward a little bit through Samuel's life because God came to Samuel in a vision oh how I wish that God would still come to us in a vision right it would make life a whole lot easier God what do you want me to do I go to bed and in the middle of the night God comes and says hey this is what I want you to do Pastor James I'm going to lay out X, Y, and Z oh this is awesome let's go and do it right and so God comes to Samuel in a vision and in this vision in this moment you know the story God wakes him up he thinks it's Eli he goes to Eli Eli you woke me up what do you need it wasn't me this happens the second time third time he says when God comes to you ask what would you will God and so God comes to him in a vision at night and begins to lay out the death of Eli the high priest and his sons a hard task for this young child most likely a teenager at this time to hear and in verse Samuel chapter 3 verse 18 after this vision happens Eli the high priest calls Samuel to him and says Samuel tell me what the vision was about and Samuel said in verse 18 and Samuel told him every wit and he had nothing from him this is Eli's response this is how we know that Eli was so callous to what the God wanted him to do because this is what he said and Eli said to him and he said it is the Lord let him do what he seemeth good or what seemeth him good that is the response that Eli has Eli says problems are going to happen so be it but Samuel looks at this and says with great distress I've got to honor God and I've got to accept the problems that are there and that's what honoring God means but in Eli's case honoring self may give self may give lip service to obeying God but that is all plainly put Eli gave lip service to God's instruction but he never gave real service now Eli was very old in chapter 2 verse 22 and 24 now Eli was very old and heard all that his sons did and unto all of Israel and how they had laid with the women at the assembly of the door of the tabernacle of the congregation and he said unto them why do you do these things for I hear of your evil doings by all the people nay my sons for it is no good report that I hear you make the Lord's people to transgress or to sin in verse 13 for chapter 3 verse 13 for I have told them that I will judge his house forever for the iniquity which he knoweth because his sons made themselves vile and he restrained them not Eli spoke to his sons about their sin but he honored his sons above God he honored his sons above the work that God was doing we can see there's a difference in these two lives Samuel was completely and utterly sold out to what God wanted him to do and God blessed him and God honored him because he decided to honor God with his life and we see that Eli and his sons decided to honor themselves and we see the destruction that happened and the harm that was brought to the men and women of God because of their disobedience as I began looking through and I'm going to wind up our message here soon before we go into communion the word honor here is a verb wherefore the Lord God of Israel said I say indeed that thy house and the house of thy father should walk before me and forever for now the Lord said be it far from me for those that honor me for those who show honor in their life I will honor them in return and he says but to Eli and his sons and those that are going to act like that and they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed or shall be cut off another version says what are we doing with today with this word honor it simply means to be heavy or to give weight to a heavy thought a weighty word you could say as it begins to say what am I giving weight to what did God say that is important in my life that I am trying to honor you know we try to explain our reasoning of why we do things with you know that's really not important to me children's ministry I'm not good at children so that's not important to me doing things in the in the choir or whatever area of service the Lord may be leading you to you may say well I'm not really sure I'm built for that trust me God gives us grace when we need grace God gives us mercy when we need mercy we just had a man a couple of weeks ago who passed away tragically committed suicide in our church I'm sure that wife said I'm not built out to be a widow at this age but God gives mercy and God gives grace when grace and mercy is needed we may not think we're built out for it but God empowers us in those moments we must believe and we must accept that God is giving us and preparing us for a time the word honor means to give weight to it communicates that whatever God says is weighty I've got a short 30 second clip as I begin to to close down but I came across this a man by the name of I'm going to say this name E.F. Hutton has anybody in here ever heard of E.F. Hutton raise your hand hey a couple people I'm noticing that none of our young people are raising their hand because this was back in the 70s and the 80s okay E.F. Hutton was a financial advisor and there was a line that is used in his commercials and I'm going to have them show it's a 30 second commercial and then we're going to discuss it a little bit applicationally we hope it works my broker says in the long run that kind of investment could be a good idea what's your broker say well my broker is E.F. Hutton and E.F. Hutton says when E.F. Hutton talks people listen that was E.F. Hutton's statement when E.F. Hutton talks people listen I want to take that phrase and I want to turn it on its head and think of this when God speaks how much do we listen when God's word says we should do something do we take it as just a simple advice from a bank teller or a broker or a secretary or do we take it as the living breathing word of God instructing our life and how we should live our life are we listening to the words of God are we giving God's word weight in our life when God speaks about my family am I listening when God speaks about my mouth and when it pertains to gossip or slander or foolishness or filthiness am I listening when God speaks about my family and how I should raise my children because God gives instructions in his word am I listening when God speaks about the gathering of the believers in his church are we listening when God speaks about my possessions and what I'm to do with them am I listening and then this is the biggest part as I listen am I responding it's one thing to listen it's one thing as I tell my 10 year old son hey Brody we're gonna go out because we did this yesterday and we're gonna we just built a deck on the back of our house and we're gonna clean up some of the wood and take it to the burn pile and I gave him instruction it would be one thing for him to say alright dad sounds good and then we go out there and he never picked up one piece of wood he listened but did he respond he didn't respond the proper way so how are we responding when God speaks truth into our life Samuel valued the wisdom he valued the ways and he valued the very word of God and because he did that God honored his life because this is what we see in 1 Samuel chapter 3 verse 19 says this and Samuel grew and the Lord was with him and I think if we could walk out today with any one piece of advice it would be this advice right here in looking at Samuel's life and looking at how God honored him and God grew with him he said in this and he did not let none of God's words fall to the ground he caught God's words he said God when you speak I'm gonna gather them and I'm gonna listen to them and I'm gonna heed the advice of the Lord and I'm gonna follow his advice even when I don't know what my next step is gonna be I'm gonna follow the very words of God is that us this morning are we so in tune with God that we're catching his words you see we have something that Samuel didn't have we have a complete inerrant perfect word of God that leads and directs and guides our paths every single moment of every single day of our life it would be awesome to have a vision from God but we have so much more because we have God's word clearly written for us this morning as our musicians come and begin to play gonna give us just some closing response time as we head into communion here in just a minute we save some time for communion at the very end my thought is this maybe you haven't listened to the words of the Lord in the moment of salvation maybe you're here this morning and you were raised in church and maybe you were raised in this church this morning your family was here and your grandparents were here maybe you were here during the days of Henry Cook one of my dear friends love Henry and you've heard him preach and you've heard other men come through here and preach but you've never responded to the Lord in salvation there's just that earning inside of your life where you've never responded maybe that's you this morning maybe you're here and you're honoring self over what God wants you to do maybe God's been burdened in your life to just step out by faith in one small area maybe just be an assistant somewhere and help out serving the Lord maybe you are here and you need to say God I just need your wisdom and your direction in my life maybe as we go into communion there's something at fault between you and someone else and you just need to make that right I don't know the need that you have this morning because each and every person in here the Lord deals with differently but what I do know is that God's grace is sufficient in all of our needs and he will meet us right where we are we don't have to run a mile to find God he's right there we just have to take the first step let's pray Father we thank you for this day Lord we thank you for your blessings God you're so good to us we're so unworthy of your faithfulness we fail you day after day minute by minute but God I'm so thankful for your blessings I'm so thankful for your grace I pray this morning as you gave us an illustration here of Samuel and Eli and his sons that we would take this and we would apply it to our lives in a way that would transform our lives for the better maybe it's trusting in you as your savior maybe it's some other area Lord you know the need I pray that you'll work today and in your name we pray amen let's all stand as our musicians play and our song leader sings if you want to respond to the Lord I'll be down front found my new name found that good grace found that healing and the tears fell down my face when I found my beginning that has no ending found that second chance found my best friend found my forgiveness found my happiness I've been singing ever since I found my freedom in you thanks for listening to the For Freedom podcast if you enjoyed the content of the podcast please do us a favor by liking subscribing or sharing the podcast on whatever podcast platform you listen to willrewrew Thank you.

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