Samuel Delivers Israel

Amen. Okay, 1st Samuel chapter 7. If you got your Bible, 1st Samuel chapter 7. Even if you don't have your Bible, because that's where we're at tonight. 1st Samuel chapter 7. Samuel is in his mid-30s now.

Last time we saw him he was around 12 years of age, but now he's in his mid-30s. A lot has happened since we last saw Samuel. 20 years have gone by and Israel has been oppressed by the Philistines. And Samuel is a great spiritual leader. He is a general. He's not a military commander, but he is a general. He's a spiritual general and God uses him in a powerful way in the life of the nation. The nation needs to be delivered and Samuel is going to deliver them by the power of Almighty God. Samuel is going to be used in a great and powerful way.

What has Samuel been doing all these past two decades? We have no idea. We can surmise that he has gone from place to place and was teaching, instructing, and doing the things that a judge and a prophet does. We would surmise that, and yet Israel was not responding. They weren't responding because they weren't desperate enough. You ever talk to somebody about the Lord and they just never really respond very well because they they're still hanging on to their sin, things are still okay enough for them.

They're not desperate enough. Desperation is set in in Israel and because it has, now they're ready to listen to Samuel. It's taken a long, long while. First Samuel 4, 5, and 6, Samuel is not mentioned.

He's mentioned in verse 1 of chapter 4 just by the fact that the people knew that he was a prophet. But in 1st Samuel 4, 5, and 6, Israel goes to war with the Philistines and they take with them the Ark of the Covenant. The Ark of the Covenant is representative of the presence of God and so they go into battle thinking that if they carry the Ark with them they're going to win the war, but instead they lose the war. Okay, now I know that we read that we think well that's that's kind of ridiculous, but you know what we're we're kind of the same way.

We don't have an Ark with us, but we do this with God. We say you know what I'm gonna go to church and if I go to church God will will take care of everything for me, or you know I'm gonna read my Bible today. In fact, I'm gonna read it every day this week and if I read my Bible every day this week for 20 minutes or an hour, well God will help me gain the victory over whatever it is I'm trying to gain the victory over. We use God as a modern-day rabbit's foot, as if we rub in the right way things will turn out okay.

God's not that way. Hophni and Phineas, the sons of Eli, they carry the Ark into battle. They think that God is is this way that if they take the presence of God into battle they're going to win. The problem is Hophni and Phineas were immoral. Hophni and Phineas did not know the Lord, so carrying the Ark made no difference for them. So the Ark fell into enemy hands for the first time and the Philistines would take it to their temple and it caused great havoc for them because their false God fell over and bowed down to the Ark of the Covenant.

And they were afraid because people began to break out with tumors. People began to die. And so finally they give the Ark back.

There's too many problems with the Philistines with the Ark to keep it, so they give it back. And now that it's back in the hands of Israel, it's in a place that will rest until David will move the Ark to Jerusalem in 2nd Samuel chapter 6. Okay? But Israel is in a place of desperation. And of course it would be because they were led by a corrupt priest who had two corrupt boys who led the nation to sin. And Israel thought that their problem was the Philistines. The Philistines were not Israel's problem.

Israel was Israel's problem. A lot like you and me. We think that in our marriage our spouse is the problem. They're not. We think that when we go to work our boss, because he is so cantankerous, he's the problem. He's not. We go and we are on this ball team and we think the coach is a problem, but he's not. We always want somebody else to be the problem. They're not. It's usually us and how we handle what is before us. For Israel, they were steeped in sin. Immorality, idolatry ruled the day. And so because they were so steeped in their sin, they could not see anything that they were doing wrong.

But they were doing everything wrong. Israel was Israel's problem. And for years this went on. For years. Twenty years. Their cities were plundered. They were under Philistine oppression. What were they going to do? The Bible says that they lamented because they were in such great distress.

God brought them to a breaking point. God brings them to a point where they need to call upon the name of the Lord. I wonder if God's done that in your life. Maybe you're at that breaking point even right now as we speak. That you're at a place where you're desperate. That's where Israel was. They needed help. And God had the right man for the job. God had groomed this man. God had trained this man. And Samuel, according to Psalm 99 verse number 6, was a man who called on the name of the Lord and the Lord answered him.

He was a man who walked with God and talked with God. He would be used by God in a mighty way. In first Samuel 7, you will see how this mighty warrior delivers Israel.

And it all deals with Israel getting right with God. For once they get right with God, God takes care of everything. If you're not right with God, there's all kinds of problems. And even when you're right with God, it doesn't mean you live a life problem-free. But at least you know who to go to and how to handle the problems. So I'm going to give you seven words tonight out of first Samuel chapter 7.

Okay? Seven words out of first Samuel 7 that will help you gain victory in your life. Seven words that will help you understand how Samuel delivered Israel in their time of distress. So that the next time you're in distress, the next time you're caught between a rock and a hard place, you know what to do based on first Samuel chapter 7.

I'm going to read for you the chapter and then we'll go back and we'll give you those seven words. All right? First Samuel 7 verse number 1.

And the men of Kiriath Urim came and took the ark of the Lord and brought it into the house of Abinadab on the hill and consecrated Eliezer, his son, to keep the ark of the Lord. From the day that the ark remained at Kiriath Urim, the time was long, for it was 20 years, and all the house of Israel lamented after the Lord. Then Samuel spoke to all the house of Israel, saying, If you return to the Lord with all your heart, remove the foreign gods and the Ashtaroth from among you, and direct your hearts to the Lord, and serve him alone, and he will deliver you from the hand of the Philistines.

So the sons of Israel removed the Baals and the Ashtaroth and served the Lord alone. Then Samuel said, Gather all Israel to Mitzpah, and I will pray to the Lord for you. They gathered to Mitzpah, and drew water, and poured it out before the Lord, and fasted on that day, and said, We have sinned against the Lord. And Samuel judged the sons of Israel at Mitzpah. Now when the Philistines heard that the sons of Israel had gathered to Mitzpah, the lords of the Philistines went up against Israel, and when the sons of Israel heard it, they were afraid of the Philistines.

Then the sons of Israel said to Samuel, Do not cease to cry to the Lord, our God for us, that he may save us from the hand of the Philistines. Samuel took a suckling lamb and offered it for a whole burnt offering to the Lord. Samuel cried to the Lord for Israel, and the Lord answered him. Now Samuel was offering up the burnt offering, and the Philistines drew near to battle against Israel. But the Lord thundered with a great thunder on that day against the Philistines, and confused them, so that they were routed before Israel.

The men of Israel went out of Mitzpah, and pursued the Philistines, and struck them down as far as below Beth-char. Then Samuel took a stone, and set it between Mitzpah and Shem, and named it Ebenezer, saying, Thus far the Lord has helped us. So the Philistines were subdued, and they did not come anymore within the border of Israel, and the hand of the Lord was against the Philistines all the days of Samuel. The cities which the Philistines had taken from Israel were restored to Israel, from Ekron even to Gath, and Israel delivered their territory from the hand of the Philistines.

So there was peace between Israel and the Amorites. Now Samuel judged Israel all the days of his life. He used to go annually on circuit to Bethel, and Gilgal, and Mitzpah, and he judged Israel in all these places. Then his return was to Ramah, for his house was there, and there he judged Israel, and he built there an altar to the Lord. Okay, seven words that will help you understand how Samuel delivered Israel. Okay, first word, repentance.

Repentance. Israel is in distress. They don't know what to do. God's brought them to a place in their life where everything that they have tried has failed. The Philistines have plundered them, have conquered them. They're under the dominion of the Philistines, and now all that false worship has brought them nothing but heartache. So they lamented to the Lord. Now they're ready to hear what Samuel has to say. Before then, they didn't listen to what Samuel had to say. Samuel had said to Eli and his boys that God's gonna judge you, and gonna kill you, and he did.

For his boys, Hophni and Phinehas were killed in the battle with the Philistines 20 years earlier, and Eli heard about it, and he fell over backwards on a chair, and broke his neck, and died because he was overweight. There's a story there in 1 Samuel chapter 4. That's how he died, but just exactly as the Lord said, that's what took place. These men were dead and gone, and Israel continued to live a life of immorality and idolatry. So, because they lamented before the Lord, Samuel now has an open door.

He says, you want to be delivered from the hand of the Philistines? You need to return to the Lord with all your heart. That's repentance. Repentance is turning around and going back the other way. It's a complete turnabout, and that's what needed to happen. They needed to turn their lives around. They were going the wrong way. They were going away from the Lord, and had been going away from the Lord for years. And Samuel says very clearly, unless you are spiritually prepared to go to war with the Philistines, you are going to lose.

So, you must repent. You must return. This is the way God has always stated it. Way back in the book of Deuteronomy, Moses said to the nation of Israel, in chapter 30, verse number 2, or verse number 1, You need to return. Even Solomon, in 1 Kings chapter 8, in his prayer, at the dedication of the temple, said, when they sin against you, this is Solomon praying, when your people sin against you, for there is no man who does not sin, and you are angry with them, and deliver them to an enemy, so that they take them away captive to a land of the enemy far off or near.

If they take thought in the land where they have been taken captive, and repent, and make supplication to you in the land of those who have taken them captive, saying, we have sinned and have committed iniquity, we have acted wickedly, if they return to you with all their heart, and with all their soul, in the land of their enemies, who have taken them captive, and pray to you toward their land, which you have given to their fathers, the city which you have chosen, and the house which I have built for your name, then hear their prayer, and their supplication in heaven, your dwelling place, and maintain their cause, and forgive your people who have sinned against you.

That was Solomon's prayer, knowing that the nation itself would sin, and they did. You see, Israel just kept falling back into the same kind of sins. They kept falling back into idolatry, kept falling back into immorality, and he says very simply this, you need to turn around and go back. You need to return to the Lord, not partially, but wholeheartedly. You know, one of our problems when we go down to defeat is that we want to return to the Lord conditionally. We want to return to the Lord maybe partially.

We don't want to return to the Lord with all of our hearts. We want to give some semblance of credence to the Lord for who He is, but we don't really truly want to turn our life around and follow Him only, to repent of our sin, which is a complete turning around. You know, when you gave your life to Christ, 1 Thessalonians chapter 1 tells us that you turned to God from idols in order to serve the true and living God. You can't serve the true and living God unless you turn to Him from whatever idols you are serving.

Israel was serving the wrong God, and so Samuel compels them, charges them, challenges them. You need to return to the Lord with all your heart. Moses said in Deuteronomy, Solomon said in First Kings 8, God doesn't want you turning partially.

He wants all of you, but so many times we find ourselves thinking we're turning to the Lord, but in reality it's just a kind of like a half turn, a semblance of a turning, not really a true commitment, not truly a true repentance, a complete turning around. This is an about face. You go in one direction, you turn around, and you go back the other direction, and that was Samuel's charge to the people. You need to return to the Lord with all of your heart. There needs to be repentance. With that, number two, there needs to be a severance.

A severance. For the Bible says, if you return to the Lord with all your heart, remove the foreign gods and the astaroth from among you and direct your hearts to the Lord.

Okay? How do you know there's been a repentance? Whenever there's a true repentance, there is always a true severance, a breaking away from whatever it is you're holding on to. Samuel just breaks it down for Israel, very simply, for them to understand exactly what they need to do. He makes it so simple. You need to turn around and cut yourself off from every idol that you have bowed down to you. The astaroth, the Baal, Baal the male god, astaroth the female god, Baal the god of storm, astaroth the god of fertility.

You need to turn away from all that idolatry. Put the foreign gods away from you. Get rid of them. Moses warned Israel, when you go into the land of Canaan, the promised land, when you get in there, you got to be careful that you don't bow down and worship the gods of the land. You got to be very, very careful. Why does he give him that warning? Because he knows, he knows Israel. Even when Israel left Egypt, they didn't really leave it in the inside. Externally, they were outside of Egypt, but their hearts were still in Egypt.

There were too many things there they loved and adored. And so therefore, Samuel makes it very clear. You need to return to the Lord with all your heart and remove all of the foreign gods in your life. Now, where they would bow down to wooden images, metal images, silver images, gold images, stone images, we don't necessarily do that, but there are idols that we have in our lives that take place, the place of God in our lives. We don't like to talk about them, but they're there. And how do you know that something is an idol?

You know, the Lord said, you have no other gods before me. Why? Because I am the one who brought you out of Egypt. I delivered you. I delivered you. Well, when God delivers us, he buys us. We're bought with a price, right? The blood of Christ. We're his. And God wants no rival to our affection. Nothing. Nothing should rival your affection for the Lord God. For whatever does, that then becomes your idol. Something that you adore, something that you're more affectionate toward than God. Anything that steals your adoration from God, anything that steals your time from God, anything that steals your emotional energy from God, becomes that which you set your heart upon.

And God says, I want your heart to be all mine. So if someone or something has stolen your heart, it could be a thing, which is kind of ridiculous, but there are things that steal our hearts. Could be our possessions, right? Remember the rich young ruler? People always get upset about the whole story about the rich young ruler when he says, what must I do to inherit eternal life? What must I do to gain entrance into glory? Christ says, sell all that you have.

Do you actually have to sell all your possessions to be saved? No. You see, the Lord knows everything. The man had another God. The man had a supreme idol. You can't have any other gods before the one true God. If he's not willing to give up his foreign God, his possession God, why would he embrace the true God? You see, an idol is a substitute. A substitute's never as good as a real thing. You ever notice that?

You ever met a substitute teacher? They're never as good as the real thing, right? You want the real thing. The substitute comes in and kind of puts in time and kind of does okay and kind of lets you, you know, shoot paper wads while you're in class, as we did, and talk during tests and all that kind of stuff. They're a substitute, but they're not the real thing. Idols are not the real thing. They're substitutes, but we pass them off as the real thing. We think they're just so everything, but they're not.

And Israel was entrenched in idol worship. They were entrenched in immorality along with that idol worship. And it served them well, so they fought for a while, but they would lose in battle. They would get further and further away from the Lord until finally they come to a place where they're absolutely distraught.

What do we do? Well, the only answer is repentance and severance. You got to turn around, go back to the Lord with all your heart. And how do you know you've done that? There's a severance, a complete breaking away. A number of years ago, it's probably been almost 30 years ago now, there was a man who'd come to see me. And he came to see me because his wife told him to. And so we sat down, we talked, and I said, you're here because your wife told you to come? He goes, yeah, yeah. I said, well, why did she tell you to come see me?

He goes, well, I've had an affair with another woman. I said, oh, okay. I said, is it done? He goes, well, sort of. I said, well, that's not good enough, sort of. What do you mean sort of? Either it's done or it's not. Either you're still engaged or you're not. What are you? Well, I guess I'm still engaged. He said, no wonder your wife sent you here. There's got to be a breaking away. There's got to be a complete severance. I said, okay, do you have her number on you? Yes. Okay, let's call her right now.

Well, I don't want to call her right now. You don't want to call her? Well, then let me call her. Well, no, I don't want you to call her either. Why not? You see, you don't want to break away from this relationship. You're not truly turning around, going back to your wife with all of your heart because you're still hanging on to this other person over here who has become your idol. The thing that you worship, you want her more than you want the woman God gave you. He said, you can't do that. Can't do that.

So you need to break it off completely. There needs to be a 100% severance, a breaking away, a cutting away of that, what you're holding onto, but you can't do that unless there's been a true repentance and you haven't repented. Well, how do I know that? Because a repentant heart has no agenda and makes no demands. A repentant heart has no agenda. A repentant heart doesn't say, well, you know what? Yeah, I'll do this, but no repentant heart never says, but never says, but doesn't want to say, but because they're broken and contrite, right?

So there's a true repentance in their life. And the repentant heart makes no demands, has no agenda and says, whatever you want, Lord, I will do. The Lord says there needs to be a breaking away, a cutting off. We'll break away, we'll cut off, a complete and total severance. And Samuel says to Israel, this must happen. There must be repentance. There must be severance. And then thirdly, there must be obedience.

Obedience. He says, remove the foreign gods and the astroauth from among you and direct your hearts to the Lord and serve him alone. Wow. Serve him alone. This is complete and total obedience. They wanted the Lord to intervene. Well, Hophni and Phinehas wanted the Lord to intervene for them too. That's why they carried the ark into battle 20 years ago. But the Lord didn't intervene. Why? Because the problem wasn't the Philistines. The problem wasn't the Lord. The problem was Hophni and Phinehas. They lived immoral, idolatrous lives and led Israel into sin.

There was no repentance. There was no severance and there was no obedience. How did we expect God? Why would we ever anticipate that God would do anything for the unrepentant, unsevered, disobedient life? Why would God do that? That would mean that if he blessed that life, there'd be never a need to repent. Right? There would never be a need to commit wholeheartedly to the Lord. Why do that? He's going to bless me in my sin anyway. No, there needs to be obedience. Serve him alone. You can't serve two masters, right?

Matthew 6, 24. You can't serve the foreign gods and the true God. Can't serve the substitute and the real thing. Can't do that. You can only serve one. Choose you this day whom you will serve. Now, remember Israel way back in Joshua chapter 24? At the end of Joshua's life, he says in verse number 14, now therefore fear the Lord and serve him. Serve him. In sincerity and truth. That's how you serve the Lord alone. With all your heart, sincerely and truthfully. And put away the gods which your father served beyond the river and in Egypt, and serve the Lord.

You can't serve the Lord if you're serving other gods. If it is disagreeable in your sight to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves today whom you will serve. Whether the gods which your father served, which are beyond the river, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. The people answered and said, far be it from us that we should forsake the Lord to serve other gods. I mean, pray tell, why should we do that? Why should we serve other gods and not serve our God?

For the Lord our God is he who brought us and our fathers up out of the land of Egypt and the house of bondage. Who did these great signs in our sight and preserved us through all the way in which we went. And among all the people through, excuse me, through whose midst we passed. The Lord drove out, excuse me, from before us. All the peoples, even the Amorites who live in the land, we also will serve the Lord. For he is our God. Then Joshua said to the people, you will not be able to serve the Lord.

For he, excuse me, is a holy God. He is a jealous God. He will not forgive your transgressions or your sins. If you forsake the Lord and serve foreign gods, then he will turn and do you harm and consume you after he has done good to you. And the people said to Joshua, no, but we will serve the Lord. And Joshua said to the people, you are witnesses against yourselves that you have chosen for yourselves the Lord to serve him. And they said, we are witnesses. Now, therefore, put away the foreign gods, which are in your midst and incline your hearts to the Lord, the God of Israel.

And the people said to Joshua, we will serve the Lord, our God, and we will obey his voice. Now, Joshua encompassed exactly what Samuel said. If you're going to be victorious in your life, there must be a complete repentance, a complete severance, and complete obedience to the Lord God. That must happen. We lose in life because of disobedience, not obedience. We lose in life because we hang on to those foreign idols, those foreign gods. We lose in life because we don't turn around and follow the Lord.

Now, interesting that when you come to the book of Judges, the second chapter, 11th verse, after Joshua dies, it says, then the sons of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord and served the Baals.

Well, why did they do that? And they forsook the Lord, the God of their fathers, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt and followed other gods from among the gods of the peoples who were around them and bowed themselves down to them. Thus, they provoked the Lord to anger. So, they forsook the Lord and served Baal and the Ashtaroth, and the anger of the Lord burned against them. You know, I think it'd be good for us to understand that the anger of the Lord burns against those who sin against Him.

In today's modern Christianity, we don't like to talk about the wrath of God, the anger of the Lord. It's all about His grace, His love, His mercy, you know, His forgiveness. It's all true. All that's true. But we forget that the anger of the Lord burns against those who sin against Him. And when you begin to set up other idols in your heart, raise them to a level of supremacy, raise them to a level of priority, make them preeminent in your life so that you push God aside, the anger of the Lord burns against you.

That might not be a very popular message, but the God of the Bible is the God of today. He hasn't changed. He doesn't sit back and say, well, yeah, my anger burns against Israel, but not with the church. Things will be okay. That's not the way God works. Now, God is long-suffering. He is. He's very long-suffering, very patient. But that patience wears out. God's Spirit will not always thrive with man. And His patience runs out. And for Israel, in order for them to be victorious, they needed a godly spiritual man to lead them out of their distress.

Samuel's the guy. God will be repentance. God will be severance. God will be obedience. Then, number four, there needs to be an allegiance, an allegiance, a complete and total loyalty day in and day out. The Bible says, verse number five, then Samuel said, gather all Israel to mitzvah, and I will pray to the Lord for you.

They gathered to mitzvah and drew water and poured it out before the Lord and fasted on that day and said, there, we have sinned against the Lord. And Samuel judged the sons of Israel at mitzvah. That little phrase, and drew water and poured it out before the Lord, is translated in the Jewish Targum, which is the explanation and exposition of the Jewish text, says, and they poured out their hearts, they poured out their hearts in penitence as waters before the Lord. It was very symbolic. It's almost what is said by Jeremiah in Lamentations, chapter two, verse number 19, which says, pour out your heart like water before the presence of the Lord.

That's what they did. This was their allegiance, their commitment, their devotion to the Lord God. This is very symbolic. They knew they had sinned. You know, when you begin to walk with God, guess what? You recognize your sin. When you're not walking with God, you think you're pretty good. Those who walk with God know they're no good. They know they're wretched. Look at the apostle Paul.

He knew he was a wretched man, right? Oh, wretched man that I am. This great apostle Paul wrote 13 epistles. How can he be a wretched man? He's a good man. No, he's a wretched man by his own words, because he knew the things he was supposed to be doing, he wasn't doing, and the things he's not supposed to be doing, he was doing. So he, like us, realized that we still sin, but he was so aware of it. You see, the closer you get to the Lord, and he is holy, the main characteristic is you see all of your unholiness.

The further you're away from the Lord, the less you see all your unholiness. That's why when parents are always talking about how good their children are, I would say, you know, your child was born into Satan's family. How good can they possibly be? Think about that. You give birth to a child, a newborn baby, who's born into Satan's family. And you're telling me, trying to convince me he's good? How can that possibly be? Death passed upon all men for all of sin. We have a sin nature, right? And so when we hold the baby in our hands and see how cute the baby is, we forget the child was born in Satan's kingdom.

Except for the grace of God, they can't be transferred out of that kingdom, right? And so we tend to think that we are better than we are. But listen, you walk with God, all of a sudden you begin to sense, see, and smell all kinds of sin. You just do. You pick it up when you watch a commercial. Boom, it's right there. All right. You pick it up when you hear someone state something. You pick it up in the movies you go see, like Imagine, or what other one? The Shack. What other one can I say? There's so many out there, quote, Christian films.

But you begin to pick up on the error readily. The further you are from God, the less likely you are to pick up on the error. See, it's so important. That's why it says that Samuel judged Israel. That's a very important statement. How does Samuel judge Israel? He's a judge, right? He's the last of the judges. He's a prophet and a priest. He's the last of the judges. So how does he judge? What's he judging Israel on? This is very important. Listen to what Ezekiel says. Ezekiel chapter 22, verse number 26, God condemns the priests of Israel.

Her priests have done violence to my law and have profaned my holy things. They have made no distinction between the holy and the profane, and they have not taught the difference between the unclean and the clean, and they hide their eyes from my sabbaths, and I am profane among them. See that? What is the judging? The judging is an instruction on what is holy and what is unholy, what is right and what is wrong, what is true and what is false. The reason Samuel spent time in Judging Israel is to show them what is right versus what is wrong, to teach them to be discerning.

That's what the judge did. And over in Ezekiel chapter 44, verse number 23, it says, Moreover, the priest shall teach my people the difference between the holy and the profane, and cause them to discern between the unclean and the clean. That's what Samuel was doing. He was teaching them how to discern between what is right and wrong, because they had made huge blunders when it came to making decisions. Someone had to teach them. Someone had to show them. And isn't that true that one of our biggest problems in church today is that we just can't discern between what is right and wrong.

We just can't discern. We make bad choices. We compromise because we don't have a discerning spirit. And that's only because we are not sharpened at the grindstone of the Word of God. Because when you are, you become very keen to error, very keen to untruth, very keen to that which is unholy. And that's what Samuel was doing. He was judging Israel, teaching them, instructing them between what is right and what is wrong, because they did not know. They should have known, but they didn't. So that's what he did.

So he's showing them that in what is right, what is wrong, be discerning. Showing them how their allegiance can be steadfast toward the Lord God of Israel. So there needs to be a repentance, severance, and obedience, and allegiance. That's number four. Number five, dependence. Dependence says this, now when the Philistines heard the sons of Israel had gathered to mitzvah, the lords of the Philistines went up against Israel. Of course they did. They dominate the land. And now they hear about all these people gathering together at mitzvah.

There's going to be a rebellion. There's a revolt. What's going on? And when the sons of Israel heard it, they were afraid of the Philistines. Of course they were. They were scared to death because they hadn't won a battle in over 20 years. They've lost everything. There's nothing to fight with. What are they going to do? Then the sons of Israel said to Samuel, do not cease to cry the Lord our God for us, that he may save us from the hand of the Philistines. You see, that's dependence. Have you ever noticed that the people that are dependent are the ones that are completely obedient?

The ones that are dependent are the ones that have broken away from the idols of their hearts because they have nothing else to cling, hold on to. There's no lifeline. Listen, as long as somebody has a lifeline, there is no repentance. There is no repentance as long as the sinner has a lifeline. Because whatever that lifeline is, they're going to find it. They're going to hold on to it because sinful human man does not want to repent. As long as there's a lifeline, they will hang on to it. But when all the lifelines are gone and all that's left is God, they have to repent.

And so, these people, Israel, were not dependent. They had nothing else to turn to. Samuel cried the Lord for us. Pray for us. We need the Lord. We need the Lord. This is a demonstration of their allegiance to him. Okay? We need the Lord. Cry to the Lord for us. And so, Samuel took the bullet. He offered it up. And Samuel began to pray as the Philistines drew near to battle. And the Lord thundered with a great thunder. I can't even begin to explain that to you. But let me give you just a little bit of hint as to how this all came about.

Samuel's mother, way back in 1 Samuel chapter 2, prayed this. Verse 10, those who contend with the Lord will be shattered. Against them, he will thunder in the heavens. Isn't that great? Isn't that great? So, Samuel's crying out to the Lord. Okay? Knowing the prayer of his mother, knowing the prayers of his mother, she begins to cry out to the Lord. God answers his mother's prayer from 29 years ago. Isn't that amazing? Sometimes it takes a while. God lives outside the realm of time. We live in the realm of time.

But here she prayed 29 years ago that the Lord would contend for his own and thunder from the heavens. And now, this is exactly what he's doing. He's thundering from the heavens. He's coming down against the Philistines with a great thunder, not just a normal thunder. This is a great thunder. And so, they were so confused. Okay? So, now the Philistines are confused, but the Israelites are confident, confident. And the men of Israel went out of Mitzvah and pursued the Philistines and struck them down.

Interestingly, the Philistines never gave Israel a problem as long as Samuel was in charge. That's godly influence. That's godly leadership. What about David and Goliath? They came to battle, but David took care of that real quick. That was not a big deal. Okay? But the bottom line is this. God answered his mother's prayer from almost three decades earlier because this man knew how to pray. And he prayed. And God did a great and mighty work. This is dependence. Sixth, remembrance. Remembrance. So, the Bible says these words.

Then Samuel took a stone and set it between Mitzvah and Shem and named it Ebenezer, which means stone of help, saying, thus far the Lord has helped us. Isn't that true that God throughout the scriptures is referred to as a rock, right? Symbolizing protection, symbolizing security. He takes a stone, names it Ebenezer. Joshua was really big with this. Remember Joshua? When he went through on dry land across the Jordan, he put a monument of stones in the middle. Then when he got to the other side of Gilgal, again, another monument of stones.

So people wouldn't forget. Remembrance. Oh, and then in Joshua 7, when they stoned Achan and burned him, remember that? Him and his family, because they sinned against the Lord and Israel lost the battle. Again, another pile of stones to remember.

Don't sin against the Lord. It's going to cost us. Always the stones of remembrance. In Joshua 24, we read earlier, he gave them a stone of witness. That would be a witness to your testimony as to what it is you're doing. You know what? We don't do enough of remembering. We don't have our stones of remembrance, our books of remembrance. We write down the things that God has done, but you only have a stone of remembrance if there's been a repentance. If there's been a true severance, an obedience, an allegiance, and a dependence upon God, because then only will you be victorious.

And so he models to them, don't forget. Don't forget the Lord is our helper. He is the one who did this. There needs to be a remembrance. And then one more, and that's diligence. Diligence. The Bible says in verse number 15, now Samuel judged Israel, verse 16.

He judged Israel, verse 17. He judged Israel, and he built an altar to the Lord. This man remained diligent. Diligent. Proverbs chapter 12, verse number 27, diligence is man's most precious possession. He was diligent in his discipleship. He was diligent in his worship. Okay? He continued to judge them. He continued to teach them between right and wrong, that which is holy, that which is unholy, that which was evil, that which was pure and true. He went from place to place, continuing to help them understand this is how you need to be discerning so you don't fall back into the same trap you were in before.

And so for Samuel, there was this diligence that he kept on doing what he was called to do by God. Not only that, he built an altar in his home. Why? Because there was true worship on his part. He was a man of God, and he knew that his home life set the tone for his ministry life. And so he built an altar at home, and he worshiped the Lord. Samuel delivered Israel by instructing them on what they needed to do next. They obeyed, they followed, and God was victorious. God wants to be victorious in all of our lives.

The problem is not God. It never is. And the problem is not your enemy, whoever they may be. The problem always begins with us. If we are responsible to obey the Word of the Lord, watch and see God deliver a great thunder. Let me pray with you.

Father, we thank you for tonight, a chance to be in your Word. It's a joy to be able to study the truth of your Word. My prayers for everyone in the room tonight, that God should do a mighty work. Lord, there are people here tonight that are struggling. They need victory. They need deliverance. Help them to examine their lives to see where they're at, that they might return to the Lord with all their heart. Remove all the foreign idols. Break away from them all and serve you only. Follow you and demonstrate their allegiance, their devotion, their commitment alone to you by depending upon you for everything.

Help us to be those kind of people. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.