Real people- Real problems
A study of 1 Samuel
Part 5
“Needful things”
Today as we continue with our study of 1 Samuel called Real People – Real problems
We are going to address a common problem in the world today
Needs vs. wants
But more specifically
Wants that we get ----That are not good for us
I am going to us two illustrations this morning
Neither of them are religious in nature
And to quite honest
Most pastors would run from them like nest full of yelowjackets
First is a song from the Rolling Stones
----Called------ you can’t always get what you want-----
In this song
The band sings
You can’t always get what you want
But you get what you need
In a spiritual way
This song hits the nail on the head
God promises to give us what we need
Remember from our study of Philippians
Philippians 4:19 parphase
“God will provide for you needs according to his glorious riches”
We have learned that God will provide for our needs
What do we need?
Redemption- God provided that through his son Jesus
Love
Mercy
Peace
I could go on and on
God promises us these things when we accept Jesus as savior
And when we pour ourselves out before him as we saw last week from Samuel
And when we give our bodies as a living sacrifice as Paul taught in Romans
But never promises to give us what we want
But
Sometimes we do get what we want
Even when it is not good for us
I want to use an illustration here that is extremely out of the park on church illustrations
But
I do believe that God can and will use everything at his disposal to get his message out
And I as your Pastor have vowed to preach his message using whatever it takes to get the message out in a way that is understandable
So
Hang on tight
If you are going to write a note about my use of worldly things in my sermons
Please sign it, I don’t and won’t address anonymous notes
Novel writer Stephen King- I know I never thought that name would come up in a sermon
Wrote a book titled “Needful things”
In his book
A shop is opened in a small town
It is a kind of antique shop
The proprietor we learn later is Old Slick himself
And in his shop
He offers people things that they want
Or feel they need
But he skews their vision
In order to make those things attractive to only them
And they must give up something in order to get them
Everyone else can see that what they are setting their hearts on
Are not only nasty and ratty
They can see that they not good for them
But in some cases lead to destruction
We face similar wants in our lives as well
Listen
God promises to give us our needs
And sometimes he gives us our wants to bless us
But
Sometimes he gives us our wants even when they are not good for us
We will look at some of the reasons later in the sermon
But for now
Please open your bibles to 1 Samuel Chapter 8
While you are turning their let me once again recap a bit
Last week we saw how Samuel gave the people instructions on knowing God better
He told them to get rid of their little “g” gods
Gather together and pray
Pour theriselves out before the Lord
This means give their all to him
Fast- give up something for a period to get closer to God
And to confess their sins
The advice of Samuel to the people was sound advice
And they experienced a time of restored relationship with God
As a result
Chapter 7 ends saying
That Samuel was made Judge over Israel for the rest of his days
Eventually Samuel got old as we all will if we live long enough
And he allowed his sons
Joel and Abi-jah to pick up some of his slack
And they were a lot like Hophni and Phinneous
Eli’s wicked sons from our earlier study
And so now the people once again started looking over the fence at what they thought were greener pastures
1 Samuel 8:1-22
“As Samuel grew old, he appointed his sons to be judges over Israel. Joel and Abi-jah, his oldest sons, held court in Beersheba. But they were not like their father, for they were greedy for money. They accepted bribes and perverted justice.
Finally all the elders of Israel met at Ramah to discuss the matter with Samuel.
“Look” they told him, “you are now old, and your sons are not like you. Give us a king to judge us like all the other nations have
Samuel was displeased with their request and went to the Lord for guidance. “Do everything they say to you,” the Lord replied” For they are rejecting me, not you. They don’t want me to be their king any longer. Ever since I brought them out from Egypt they have continually abandoned me and followed other gods. And now they are giving you the same treatment. Do as they ask, but solemnly warn them about the way a king will reign over them”
“So Samuel passed on the lord’s warning to the people who were asking for a king. This is how a king will reign over you, Samuel said.” The king will draft your sons and assign them to his chariots and his charioteers, making them run before his chariots. Some will be generals and captains in his army, some will be forced to plow in his fields and harvest his crops, and some will make his weapons and chariot equipment. The king will take your daughters from you and force them to cook and bake and make perfumes for him. He will take away the best of your fields and vineyards and olive groves and give them to his officials. He will take a tenth of your grain and your grape harvest and distribute it among his officers and attendants. He will take your male and female slaves and demand the finest of your cattle and donkeys for his own use. He will demand a tenth of your flocks, and you will be his slaves. When the day comes, you will beg for relief from this king you are demanding, but the Lord will not help you.
But the people refused to listen to Samuels warning. “Even so, we still want a king. “They said. We want to be like the nations around us. Our king will judge us and lead us into battle.
So Samuel repeated to the Lord what the people had said, and the Lord replied,” Do as they say, and give them a king.” Then Samuel agreed and sent the people home
Israel was repeating their prior mistakes
They were turning away from the God who created them
The God who loved them
The God who delivered them from captivity
The God who fed them, protected them and provided water in the dessert
They looked out and saw the rest of the world
And they thought the grass was greener on the other side of the fence
So God said ok- alright
You ain’t going like it
But if you insist
Here you go
You can have what you want
Reminds me of the movie Hondo where John Wayne tells the kid in the movie that he should not pet his dog
Latter the kid tries and the dog does what the dog does and tried to bite him
Momma said why you didn’t stop him
And Old Duke says people do what they want and this is how they learn
This goes back to the needful things story
We can see that this was a bad plan
History and scripture showed this to be a bad plan
But the people had a skewed vision of what they wanted
And they would not be deterred
So they got what they wanted even though it was not good for them
I said we would look at some of the reasons that God allows us to have the needful things in our lives
Listen
He will not force us to love him
He will not force us to obey him
He wants us to give him obedience as a sacrifice
He wants us to put him first in our lives and in our thoughts
But the key is – He wants us to—
When we choose things other than God
He will allow those things
--- Sometimes to get our attention—
Pop a knot in our tails as we like to say at cowboy church
He will Let us know the grass is not greener over there
But is lush in his pasture
I want to say he will allow us to get the bad things to punish us
But in reality we are punishing ourselves
By choosing the lesser things over the better things
He is simply allowing us to do so
Some say God is tempting them or testing them
Temptations come from our own evil hearts
James 1:12-15
“God blesses those who patiently endure testing and temptation. Afterward they will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him. And remember when you are being tempted do not say, “God is tempting me.” God is never tempted to do wrong, and he never tempts anyone else. Temptation comes from our own desires which entice us and drag us away. These desires give birth to sinful actions. And when sin is allowed to grow, it gives birth to death.
And Satan simply uses the bait we give him to tempt us
As far as testing
Yes I do believe our faith is tested on a regular basis
And I do believe God wants us to be sold out for him
And I do believe He tests us in order to grow us
And this is a positive thing
I told you about testing welds some time back in another sermon
Things are tested to assured that they will stand up to the pressure
So
We see that God will allow us to have things that are not good for us
Just as he allowed Israel to have a king
For several reasons
So let’s look at some of the things we allow to become king over our lives and take the place of God Let’s start out with some obvious ones and work backwards down the list
Addictions
I know the image comes to mind of someone passed out drunk or having a needle sticking in their arm when we mention addictions
But there are many- Many ---Types of addictions
And be they drugs- booze- sex-porn or whatever
They all follow the same model
Addictions put God 1-2-3-4-5-6- rungs lower on the ladder that he should be
He should be on top
But
We let our addictions lower him
We allow our addictions to become king- ruler of our lives
And they make a horrible king
Listen the obvious are drugs - booze and sex and porn
But bitterness, anger – old hurts and hang-ups can be an addiction
You can hold on so tightly to old hurts, anger and wrongs that they become king
Greed can be an addiction
Envy can be an addiction
Lust can be an addiction
Laziness can be an addiction
Even our jobs – hobbies and relationships can be addictions
Whatever we put before God
Whatever we choose as king in our life can be an addiction
Listen
The mechanics are the same whether you are addicted to dope or anger
To lust or laziness
We obsess over the things we are addicted to
And they become our king
Our ruler
They rule our thoughts and actions
They can and often do take our families
Take our money
Our welfare
Our health
Our sanity
Our very lives if we let them’
Remember God wants to provide our needs according to his riches
But we choose our wants according to our own desires instead
Let’s talk about desires
-----Selfish desires----
Many people want to be recognized as Christians
Even identify themselves as Christians
But they have something other than God as their king
Jobs can easily become king of your life
I know we are called to make a living
God knows we are called to make a living’ in fact he says in his word repeatedly not to be lazy and those who don’t work should not expect to eat
But I am talking about
Placing work as the lord of your life
Do your thoughts continually go to your job or your business?
Can you turn off the work mode and rest – relax- sit on the porch and kick a pig every now and again?
Do you or can you spend time with God
Can you or do you come to church- spend time with family and friends?
If the answer to any or all of these is no
Work may be your king
And God will allow it
But he won’t like it
And you won’t find what you are looking for
Once again hobbies
Can become king- at one time in my life fishing was the lord of my life
And no matter how many fish I caught
No matter how many trips I went on
And no matter how much money I spent on tackle and rods and boats and the like
Nothing could fill the hole in my heart that was shaped and could only be filled by Jesus
I could go on and in about the things that can become king in our lives
But I really what to get to another point this morning
--- God will allow us to have a king other than him----
We have already seen that
And those kings can cost us more than we really want to pay
What can they cost us you may ask?
Our relationship with God- not salvation
If you have it – you have it
But our intimacy – our closeness with God
They can cost us our freedom
We can become so into whatever we make king in our lives that we give up the very freedom that God gave Jesus to buy for us
We allow ourselves to be made slaves
----We give up our families------
How you may ask
By letting them see something other than God almighty as the king of our lives
Our Children and grandchildren learn by example
When they see you and I worshipping – and yes I mean worshipping
Something other than God
That is their normal
And unless someone cares enough for them to help them change direction
Unless the Holy Spirit intervenes
They are prone to follow in your foot steps
So if this has not already been personal enough
Let’s make this real personal this morning
For all of us
What are some of the things that God will allow?
Even things that go against his word
How about sexual immorality
God’s word is very clear on this subject
The world is less clear
So let’s look at the clarity of God’s word
Any sex outside of marriage is sexual immorality
Hetero or homosexual sex
Lust of the flesh we call this
Lust of the eyes is also sexual immorality
Porn- TV --movies- magazines—etc
Lust of the mind is also sexual immorality
Illicit thoughts
Fantasies
Erotic literature
Listen
God will allow you to do as you please
We have already seen this
But he will not bless those actions
He wants to be your King
And he will not play second fiddle
You may be asking
What exactly do you mean preacher
Well I am glad you asked
Living together as a married couple while remaining unmarried is called fornication
So is premarital sex--So is making out in the back seat of the car
Listen
Sex outside of marriage
By this I mean
If one or both of the people is married to someone else- even if you are not living together
Is called adultery
Same sex relationship is unnatural and is actually an abomination according to God’s word
And marriage is one man and one woman
No matter what the world or the Supreme Court claim
God will allow you to be involved in any of these if that is what you want to do
But there will be consequences
Some of the consequences are a distancing from God
We can’t live in blatant disobedience and expect his blessings
And we can’t look someone in the face when we have guilt and shame
Our relationship with God is no different
More consequences are
Unplanned pregnancy
Diseases
Depression
Shame
Guilt
A degrading of your image and self worth
And worse a hardening of heart against the God who loves you and created you
And wants to be your king
Listen I don’t want to camp out on sexual immorality
God will allow you to gossip and slander each other
He will allow back biting
He will allow us to use malicious words, hurtful words
And these can become your king
I will say this
When you gossip and tear others down
What you are showing is that you are not a person of integrity
What you are showing is that you can’t be trusted as a friend or confidant
I will go ahead and say what you are showing is your stupidity
And I will mash a bit harder by saying
That if the love of Jesus is in you
You are doing a great job of suppressing it
God’s word says build each other up
Love your neighbor
Not tear them down and talk about them behind their backs
God will allow it
But he won’t ever bless it
God will allow you to steal
The Holy Spirit will convict you if you have him in your heart
But you can go ahead if you want
Lying-we all know people who would rather tell a lie than the truth
His word teaches differently and when he is truly your king you will have no desire to do it
But go ahead – he will allow it
Placing anything before God
God will allow it
You can have a king if you want one
God wants it to be him
But you can choose another
And that king
Whoever or whatever it is
Will cause a loss of intimacy with the Living King
Listen
We will never find what we are looking for apart from the true king
The people of Israel cried out for a king
They bowed down to peer pressure wanting to be like their neighbors
The rest of the world
God wanted them to be different
They wanted to be united with the rest of the world in deed and appearance
What they needed was unified faith in God
Not a uniformed rule by the world
Having a king other than God let the people quickly forget about the true King of Kings and his rules
Bad choice
As we will see in the studies to come
Their decision had disastrous consequences for the people
Had the Israelites submitted to God’s leadership
They would have flourished
So will we if we surrender to his Lordship
We need faith in God alone
We need his guidance in our lives
Daily
Hourly
Minuet by minuet
We can choose the worldly kings
All the kings we have discussed and many more that we did not
We can do that ---Just like Israel did
God will allow it
But we will suffer very similar consequences
If we want to thrive in this world
If we want to have the good things he has planned for us
If we want a close- personal relationship with God through our Lord Jesus
He and he alone must be our King
He and he alone must be our ruler
He and he alone must be our God
Because he and he alone can provide what we need
The world will only take from you
As will any other King’
But God gave what he loved most for you
In spite of you
I think that qualifies him as King
I think that qualifies him As Lord
I think that qualifies him as master
Who are you serving-?
Who or what is your king?
Let me close once again with our Camp verse
Philippians 1:21
“For me to live is to live for Christ and dying is even better”
Close from the heart
Pray
