Let me start with a quote from Rick Warren. He said, "Faithful servants never retire. You can retire from your career, but you will never retire from serving God."
That is true.
If you are a faithful servant of the Lord, there is no retirement here on earth because our retirement is in heaven where we will be honored with the rewards from God.
Service to God should always be the heart and soul of every dedicated Christian.
We are called by God in order that we could serve or minister to God Himself and to other people as well.
When we minister to God, it is because we love Him with all our heart, soul and mind.
It might be possible that you are here this morning and you have NOT been involved ever since in any ministry work for God.
I encourage you to do something for God.
Serve Him with all your heart.
Discover and use your particular talents and your spiritual gifts so that you can start serving God in ways that are fitting.
I assure you that when do you this, it would be the most fulfilling and satisfying experience ever.
But then, again, it might be possible that many of you have been doing ministry to God for a long time.
If you do, I encourage you to continue your wholehearted service to God faithfully and diligently until the end.
Don't get tired of ministry work.
We can retire from our career, but we will never ever retire from serving God.
In fact, we must keep on improving our service with excellence and great competence.
2 Corinthians 3:6 (NIV) 6 He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant—not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life."
The word "competent" means we are fully capable, we are efficient and qualified whenever we do ministry work for God.
Only through constant practice are we able to be competent and fit for His service.
You see, as much as possible, we are to AVOID doing ministry work haphazardly or carelessly without putting to heart our service for God.
We are to avoid incompetence when serving God for at the end, God will either judge us or reward us in accordance to how efficient we do ministry work on earth.
And having said all of these, our message for today will be focused on the second chapter of the Book of First Samuel.
We will discuss the proper and the improper way of ministry work.
Because sometimes, we thought we are doing our service to God the right way when in fact, God is not pleased with how we do the work.
You see, God desires that all of our ministry work and service to Him should be done with a great attitude- with good demeanor and character.
And so, we must constantly evaluate and adjust ourselves if we are doing the right thing or the right way in serving God.
The ultimate standard that we have attained competency, I believe is when there is so much joy and fulfillment in the ministry.
There is so much peace in your heart knowing that you have accomplished something for God.
Let us review what we have learned so far from chapter one of first Samuel.
We remember that Hannah was one of the two wives of Elkanah who was facing a great problem at home.
She had no children and was always been provoked to rivalry and strife by Penninah, the other wife of Elkanah who had children herself.
Because of that, Hannah was always depressed, downhearted and could not even eat.
But she did not release her problem to other people and avoided becoming bitter in her heart.
She decided to express her feelings directly to God in fervent prayer.
And so, the Bible says that she was in deep anguish and wept bitterly as she prayed to God in the temple.
She even made a special vow that if God would give her a son, she would commit and fully consecrate him to the Lord.
It did not matter if she was misjudged by the priest Eli as a drunken woman.
What matters is that she was able to pour forth her heart to God.
Then, finally, the day comes when God answered her request.
God gave her a son and named him Samuel.
In due time, when the boy was of the right age, Hannah brought him to priest Eli so that he could minister all the days of his life.
It was an expression of her gratitude and thanksgiving to the Lord for answering her prayers.
It is in this context that Hannah prayed this special prayer to God that we will study later.
We will first study the proper way of ministry through the way Hannah worshiped God in this particular prayer.
Then, we will focus on when ministry is improperly done through the example of the sons of priest Eli in the temple.
You see, even the wickedness of Eli's sons had been written in the Bible so that we can avoid some lessons in ministry work.
Finally, we will have a deeper analysis of the boy Samuel and how he grows to be proficient in ministry work.
At the end of this preaching, let me again remind you that I will give you the chance to make a response to this message.
If the Lord is speaking to you regarding your ministry work, do something about it.
Take heed to what you hear and put it to heart.
I am going to ask you to come forward and stand here in front so that I can pray for you for whatever decision you make and anoint you with oil.
May the Lord bless us as we learn to minister to God and to others with great competence.
HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE SECOND CHAPTER OF 1 SAMUEL
1. THE SERVICE WITH PRAISE FROM HANNAH
I Samuel 2:1-2 (NIV) “Then Hannah prayed and said: “My heart rejoices in the Lord; in the Lord my horn is lifted high. My mouth boasts over my enemies, for I delight in your deliverance. “There is no one holy like the Lord; there is no one besides you; there is no Rock like our God. Do not keep talking so proudly or let your mouth speak such arrogance, for the Lord is a God who knows, and by him deeds are weighed."
Let us first look at the proper way of worship through the example of Hannah.
This chapter started by her prayer to God which was an extemporaneous outburst of her gratitude to God.
Remember that she was giving her praise to God after she had just given her only beloved son, Samuel as her best gift to offer God.
He was the same boy in answer to her earnest and fervent prayer to God.
It was this joy of giving her best that prompted her to serve God with all her heart.
In this song, she talked about God's goodness, she talked about God's holiness and God's power.
It was all focused on who God is.
Somebody said that "If you want to change the world, don't focus on your own limitations. But focus on God's limitless power."
Then, she cautioned those who minister with arrogance that they had to be careful because God weighs our deeds.
We must minister with humility and meekness for that pleases God.
She then informs us in that prayer that God's grace is abundant that He will feed the hungry and strengthen the weak.
That God has the power to bring death to whosoever he desires and makes people alive.
That God sends poverty and wealth to whoever he chooses.
That God humbles and exalts.
That God lifts the needy from the ash heap.
These and more are the things God can do.
And with regard to His faithful servants, God will guard their feet so that they will not be hurt.
But the wicked will be silenced and those who oppose Him will be broken and crushed.
This is the kind of God that we serve.
No wonder, after knowing all these things, we are inspired and encouraged to serve Him even more.
And ultimately at the end, the Lord will judge the ends of the earth. Glory!
You see, it is in this context that we should learn the proper way of ministry work.
We can only do ministry work that is acceptable before God after boasting about the goodness and the greatness of our God.
When we are properly focused on the character and the power of God, our attitude for ministry is being straightened out and harnessed.
Because ministry is born out of our knowledge of who God is and what He has done in our lives.
This is what Hannah discovered.
She was the happiest woman because she had given her best gift to God and she was singing her praises to God as she went home.
And we will be the happiest men and woman on the face of the earth when we do ministry work as a token of our gratitude to all that God has done in our lives.
And so, the proper way of ministry again, my brother sand sisters is focusing on God first and then, expressing our appreciation to Him through the work we do for Him.
Let me give you an example.
Many times, we have started in the ministry because of the burden we see around us of not too many workers in the field.
The children have no Sunday school teachers, there are too few musicians, there are no Bible study leaders, no ushers in the church.
True, those things are essential.
We have great need of workers in the church.
But surely, you will not be motivated to work for God just because you have a great burden in your heart.
Because I assure you that once the burden is gone and so is your enthusiasm for the ministry.
However, it would be better to start a ministry because of your gratitude to God for the things He has done in your life.
We must minister from the standpoint of joy not from the stand point of sadness.
When you do that, you will have the joy being imparted to all your students that no one can take away.
This will lead us to the first life lesson.
SERVE THE LORD WITH A CHEERFUL HEART. Proverbs 17:22 (NIV) "A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones."
Look at the difference between ministry from a cheerful heart compared to a person ministering with a crushed spirit.
It is said that when you minister with a cheerful or joyful heart, its is as if you are taking a good medicine to yourself that brings healing and health upon your whole body.
Not only that, when you minister to others with a cheerful and joyful countenance, you are bringing a good medicine to your students who are in such need of medicine for the moment.
And so, the medicine of joy is not only for yourself but for others.
And that joy comes from the Lord which will never be taken away from you.
However, the text also says that when you minister with a crushed spirit, it not only dries up your bones but the bones of your hearers.
When you minister carrying a great burden, you are bringing poison (God forbid) to yourself and to others.
And so, let us minister with a cheerful and joyful heart.
This brings us to the second life lesson for today:
SERVE THE LORD WITH THE GIFT FROM ABOVE. James 1:17 (NIV) "Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows."
The text tells us that if ever we should minister and serve God, it should be using the spiritual gifts that God has given us from above - from Him.
You see, when we learn to minister with the gifts from above, it would never change and we would never feel that we are not competent or fit for the work because our calling and equipping is coming from Him alone.
And so, regardless of the problems or the frustrations you face in ministry, you will never give up because you have been specially strengthened by God for such particular work.
And that is what happened to Hannah and no wonder, she ministered the right way to God and later on, Samuel as well.
And I pray that you too will learn to minister the proper way to God and to others.
2. THE SERVICE WITH WICKEDNESS FROM ELI'S SONS
1 Samuel 2:12-17 (NIV) 12 Eli’s sons were scoundrels; they had no regard for the Lord. 13 Now it was the practice of the priests that, whenever any of the people offered a sacrifice, the priest’s servant would come with a three-pronged fork in his hand while the meat was being boiled 14 and would plunge the fork into the pan or kettle or caldron or pot. Whatever the fork brought up the priest would take for himself. This is how they treated all the Israelites who came to Shiloh. 15 But even before the fat was burned, the priest’s servant would come and say to the person who was sacrificing, “Give the priest some meat to roast; he won’t accept boiled meat from you, but only raw.”16 If the person said to him, “Let the fat be burned first, and then take whatever you want,” the servant would answer, “No, hand it over now; if you don’t, I’ll take it by force.” 17 This sin of the young men was very great in the Lord’s sight, for they were treating the Lord’s offering with contempt."
The second thing we can learn from this chapter is the way the sons of Eli do their service to the Lord.
Remember that Eli was the high priest in the temple while his sons were assisting him as priests.
And as priests, their work is basically to offer sacrifices to the Lord in behalf of the sins of the people.
They also act as God's representatives to explain to the people the law of God so that they will obey and follow these laws.
We do not know how long they have been serving as priests but we can only presume that they are so at ease and so familiar in doing their regular duties in the temple.
The problem with so much familiarity in doing something is that you could lose sight of it's significance.
And this is indeed what happened to the two sons of priest Eli.
They lost sight of the true significance or meaning of what they were doing for God.
They could not understand the necessity of being forgiven from sins through the animal sacrifices.
They thought that these animal sacrifices are for the sole use of the priests as meat for their food.
And so, verse 12 says that Eli's sons were "scoundrels" and that they had no regard for the Lord Himself.
The word "scoundrels" means they were crooked, rascals, or cheaters.
That means they were not living holy lives and have no respect at all or no reverence for the things God desires even in the sacrificial offering.
And so, it says that it was the common practice of the priests that whenever any of the people offered an animal sacrifice, these priests would interfere in the ceremony in order to please themselves even before the sacrifice is done.
They would send their servants ahead of them to take hold of the meat being offered with a three-pronged fork in their hands.
"Give the priest some meat to roast," they would say.
These servants would then plunged the fork into the pan or kettle to take hold of the meat by force.
It was like a free unending meat supply in the temple and they wanted to take as much as they can thinking that they have the right to do so as priests.
But they did not know that they were treating the sacrifice with contempt, with mockery, with derision and disregard for the Lord.
In doing so, they were in fact treating God with great disrespect.
And so, whenever they do improper service, they were actually doing this to the Lord Himself.
Verse 17 then says: "This sin of the young men was very great in the Lord’s sight, for they were treating the Lord’s offering with contempt."
Those are hard words, my brothers and sisters.
And later on, we even read that they even slept with the women who served at the entrance to the tent of meeting.
They were doing an abomination to the Lord.
Even if their father, the priest Eli would warn them, saying, "Why do you do such things?"
But they would not listen and God is not sleeping.
There will be a corresponding judgment to all those who do such things.
Surely, they will be punished because of this and will be judged severely.
At the latter portion of the chapter (vs. 31-34), we read that it was prophesied that a time is coming when God will cut short the strength of Eli's home so that no one will reach old age.
Every one in the house of Eli will be cut off from serving God's altar and all their descendants will die in the prime of their life.
And Eli's two sons - Hophni and Phinehas will both die on the same day.
We will study that as we go to 1 Samuel chapter 4 when the ark of the covenant was captured.
A very tragic ending due to their contempt for the things of God.
And this is what we need to avoid when we do ministry work for God.
Do not treat God's work with contempt or disrespect.
Consider every service you do for God with great reverence and fear.
Let me give you just two examples.
Whenever you ignore the praise and worship in church, you decided to come in a little late each Sunday and it becomes a habit that you do so every week, watch out for you are saying worship to God is not essential at all.
And you are treating God with contempt and with disrespect because the Bible says that we have been created to worship God.
We are to magnify God through worship.
Also, whenever you withhold your tithes to the Lord and decided to use those tithes for yourself and your personal needs and it becomes a habit so that you could not even give regularly to God, watch out for the Lord sees your heart.
It is as if you are doing what the sons of Eli are doing - treating the Lord's offering with contempt and disrespect.
Brothers and sisters, we must serve the Lord properly.
Check and evaluate yourselves.
This leads us to the third life lesson.
SERVE THE LORD WILLINGLY. 2 Corinthians 9:7 (NIV) "Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver."
The word "compulsion" means obligation, coercion, obsession.
When we minister to God such as giving our tithes or offerings, we must not do so under obligation, coercion or obsession for these things God hates and abhors.
God wants something that comes from the bottom of our hearts, not because it is our obligation to give.
When we serve, we must do so cheerfully, or willingly.
When we serve or give to God, we must do so with gladness and with a pleasant attitude.
SERVE THE LORD WITH REVERENCE. Hebrews 12:28 (NIV) "Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe."
When you enter the church, do so with reverence and awe.
Set aside your cell phones for a while because that can be very distracting indeed.
Worship God acceptably.
Worship God thankfully.
Do not be cheaters, rascals and scoundrels like Eli's sons.
For God sees our worship and in the end, He will punish or reward us accordingly.
First, we learned that Hannah served God properly because she knew How good God is.
Then, we learned that Eli's sons served God improperly because they looked at God with contempt.
3. THE SERVICE WITH FAITHFULNESS FROM SAMUEL 1 Samuel 2:18-26 (NIV) 18 But Samuel was ministering before the Lord—a boy wearing a linen ephod. 19 Each year his mother made him a little robe and took it to him when she went up with her husband to offer the annual sacrifice. 20 Eli would bless Elkanah and his wife, saying, “May the Lord give you children by this woman to take the place of the one she prayed for and gave to[c] the Lord.” Then they would go home. 21 And the Lord was gracious to Hannah; she gave birth to three sons and two daughters. Meanwhile, the boy Samuel grew up in the presence of the Lord. 22 Now Eli, who was very old, heard about everything his sons were doing to all Israel and how they slept with the women who served at the entrance to the tent of meeting. 23 So he said to them, “Why do you do such things? I hear from all the people about these wicked deeds of yours. 24 No, my sons; the report I hear spreading among the Lord’s people is not good. 25 If one person sins against another, God[d] may mediate for the offender; but if anyone sins against the Lord, who will intercede for them?” His sons, however, did not listen to their father’s rebuke, for it was the Lord’s will to put them to death. 26 And the boy Samuel continued to grow in stature and in favor with the Lord and with people."
The third thing we could learn is with regards to the boy Samuel.
The text tells us that even at a young age, he was already ministering to the Lord.
He was doing so while wearing a linen ephod made by his mother, Hannah.
According to the Bible Dictionary, an ephod is something of a sacred vestment worn originally by the high priest and characteristics of his office.
It was made of fine linen and consisted of two pieces, which hung from the neck.
It covered both the back and the front, above the tunic and outer garment and usually embroidered with diverse colors.
In addition, the two pieces were joined together over the shoulders by a clasp or buckles of gold or precious stones.
Hence, when Samuel was wearing such vestment, it reminded him of the love and sacrifices of his mother and gave him dignity as he served the Lord.
In addition, as he saw how God has abundantly blessed his mother with sons and daughters for herself, his love and enthusiasm to serve God has been greatly intensified in the process.
This, in spite of the fact that he knew and was very familiar with the way that the sons of Eli ministered with wickedness to the Lord, yet it did not contaminate his pure heart of service.
Verse 26 said it plainly, "And the boy Samuel continued to grow in stature and in favor with the Lord and with people."
My prayer is that just like Samuel, we will all continue to grow in stature and in favor with the Lord and with the people as we serve Him.
How? by remembering that God has called us for the ministry, that God will equip us for the ministry and that God will qualify us for the ministry.
Don't be contaminated by the impurity of how other people serve God.
With this, we go to the next life lesson.
SERVE THE LORD WITH DISTINCTION. Malachi 3:18 (NIV) "And you will again see the distinction between the righteous and the wicked, between those who serve God and those who do not."
The word serving with "distinction" means knowing the difference between proper service and improper service to God.
It also means you could clearly see the true characters of a real servant of God from those who are not.
This is what Samuel did. He served with distinction.
He did not follow the way the sons of Eli did their priestly work.
He remained holy and separated from them even if he lives in the same roof.
We must also serve the Lord with distinction incorruptible by the world's ways.
SERVE THE LORD UNDER GOD'S SHELTER. Psalms 27:5 (NIV) "For in the day of trouble, he will keep me safe in his dwelling; he will hide me in the shelter of his sacred tent and set me high upon a rock."
We must always remember that as we serve the Lord we will be attacked by the enemy to stop us from serving God.
But God has promised that during that time of trouble, he will keep us safe in his dwelling.
That means, God will always protect us and hide us under His shelter.
He will hide us in his sacred tent.
Then, he will set us high upon the rock because God is pleased and happy when we serve Him faithfully.
And so, brothers and sisters, this should encourage us to serve God properly.
In closing, let me now challenge you to act on what you have heard.
Serving God is the most important thing we can do as Christians in this world.
Are you one of the few dedicated and involved in the ministry?
If you are not yet involved, do you want to start serving the Lord now?
Are you willing to dedicate your service to God so that you will constantly improve in the manner you serve Him?
Do you have full reverence to God as you serve Him?
Will you remain pure and holy regardless of how you see others serve God with indifference?
Are you willing to serve God under God's shelter and protection?
If you answer "YES" to all these questions and you feel that God is calling you to greater ministry, please step aside from your seats and stand here in front so that I can pray for you and anoint you with oil.
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