*Be Careful What You Ask For! 1 Samuel 8:1-21 We are beginning a series of messages called Half Heart / Whole Heart. We are going to study two people and the events surrounding their lives. One is Saul and the other is David. Both were king over Israel but they were different in many other ways. One of the important ways they were different was in their heart s desires. Saul served God half-heartedly but David served God with his whole heart. David is described as a man after God s own heart because he was willing do anything and everything that God wanted him to do. (See Acts 13:22) This was a characteristic that the Apostle Paul also had. The Scriptures tell us that he served God with his whole heart as he proclaimed the Good News of Jesus Christ. (see Romans 1:9) Notice proclaiming the Good News and whole hearted surrender are inextricably woven together. God desires that every member of his church would serve Him with their whole heart as we proclaim the Good News. Whole hearted surrender to the will of God and the work of God is all that any church needs. It always brings success. It always brings fruitfulness in the kingdom of God. God is not playing hide and seek with us. He will lead us if we surrender. Here is a question to ask yourself. Does God have my whole heart or just a part of it? One of the ways you can determine the condition of your heart is to look at the desires of your heart.
Ill How many of you have made a new year resolution? Many people make resolutions related to losing weight or exercising. Some people make a resolution to make more money. Ill. There was an old superstition that my Aunt Mildred would talk about at this time of the year when I was young. It went something like this. The more black-eyed peas you eat in the beginning of the New Year the more money you will have in the coming year. Now if I see a bunch of you going out and buying black-eyed peas to eat I am going to be really disappointed. You know that if eating black-eyed peas would make you rich I would be as rich as Bill Gates. People have some crazy ideas about how to approach the New Year and what they should desire in the New Year. What do you desire in the coming year? What are you asking God for? Are you asking for pleasure, possessions, prestige or power? I hope you are asking God for something far better, like increasing your love for God, your compassion for people, and your passion for reaching the lost. I hope you are asking God to help you surrender your whole life, your whole heart to him. Many people want to serve God half-heartedly. They feel that by going to church for a couple of hours on Sunday they have done enough. Let s remember that being in a worship service is not our service to God. Worship is where we surrender our whole life to God. If we walk out of a worship service saying to ourselves, I did my part then we have failed to worship God at all. It is only when we walk out saying to God, Here am I send me or
What do you want me to do for you this week? that s true worship. What many do not realize is that God wants more than a portion of our time. He wants all of it. He wants every moment of every day dedicated to Him. What we need to do each morning is to ask the Lord, What do you want me to do for you today? Who do you want me to show kindness to, who do you want me to point to Christ, who do you want me to encourage? Some people feel that by giving an offering or even a tithe they have done all that they need to do. What many do not realize is that giving a tithe is how we demonstrate that all we have comes from God and belongs to God. God is as interested in how we spend the 90% we keep as he is in us giving a 10 th back to him. Whole heartedly serving God means that I use all that I have, time, talent and treasure in a way that pleases God. Here is what God said to a church that was filled with believers that were serving God half-heartedly. *I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm neither hot nor cold I am about to spit you out of my mouth. (Revelation 3:15-16, NIV) What are you asking God for in this new year? The passage of Scripture we are studying tells us about a terrible mistake that the people of God made when they asked for something they should never have asked for. They asked for a king because they wanted to be like all the other people living around them.
Instead of asking for what God wanted for them, they set their hearts on what others had. They did not seek God s will for them instead; they set their desires on what God did not want them to have. They rebelled against God and God let them have what they asked for. So let this page in the history of Israel be a warning to us all. Be careful what you ask for; God may give it to you. Now before reading our passage this morning, let s pray together and affirm our commitment to obey God s Word. Turn in your Bibles to 1 Samuel 8:4 *Lets read about it in 1 Samuel 8:4 So all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah. 5 They said to him, "You are old, and your sons do not walk in your ways; now appoint a king to lead us, such as all the other nations have." NIV Let me give you a little background on this passage Eli, the high priest and his wicked sons were gone. His God- Chosen successor, Samuel, the last of the judges, was near the end of his life. The people had all heard the stories of the days when Israel was a great nation and how Samuel when he was at the zenith of his career had lead the nation to subdue the Philistines and had governed the people with truth, wisdom, and justice. But many did not have any personal knowledge of any of that. What they knew now was that Samuel was old and he had appointed his sons to be judges over Israel. And what a mistake that was! His sons were corrupt and perverted justice.
The people were on a long drift from God and were disillusioned by the current conditions in the nation. Why wasn t God blessing the nation? There is always only one answer to that question. They were living disobedient lives. If you and I want to know why God is not blessing us, it is always because of disobedience. But instead of repenting of their sins and seeking God s solution, they looked around at other nations (Godless nations) and wanted what they had instead of desiring what God had for them. The elders of Israel held a summit meeting and gave Samuel three reasons why they wanted a king. First, you are old. Second, your sons are corrupt, and we want to be like all the other nations. People have always wanted to be like everybody else. Doing the popular thing is not a new idea that modern culture came up with. They were saying to God, We re tired of having an invisible king. Everybody says, Where s your king? And we have to say, Oh, he s in heaven. We want a leader here on earth. They did not say, We want to wait on God to provide a solution. This broke Samuel s heart so he went to God in prayer. That s what a godly person does in that kind of situation when the people he is leading are asking for something that is displeasing to God. *Look at 1 Samuel 8:6 But when they said, "Give us a king to lead us," this displeased Samuel; so he prayed to the Lord. 7 And the Lord told him: "Listen to all that the people are saying to you; it is not you they have rejected, but they have rejected me as their king. *8 As they have done from the day I brought them
up out of Egypt until this day, forsaking me and serving other gods, so they are doing to you. NIV God answered Samuel s prayer: God reassured Samuel and affirmed his faithfulness. 1 Samuel 8:7 it is not you they have rejected NIV God also affirmed the people s unfaithfulness. God said in 1 Samuel 8:7 they have rejected me as their king. NIV God shows His loving kindness towards the people and gives them a warning through their godly leader. *Look at 1 Samuel 8:9 Now listen to them; but warn them solemnly and let them know what the king who will reign over them will do." 10 Samuel told all the words of the Lord to the people who were asking him for a king. *11 He said, "This is what the king who will reign over you will do: He will take your sons and make them serve with his chariots and horses, and they will run in front of his chariots. 12 Some he will assign to be commanders of thousands and commanders of fifties, and others to plow his ground and reap his harvest, and still others to make weapons of war and equipment for his chariots. *13 He will take your daughters to be perfumers and cooks and bakers. *14 He will take the best of your fields and vineyards and olive groves and give them to his attendants.
15 He will take a tenth of your grain and of your vintage and give it to his officials and attendants. 16 Your menservants and maidservants and the best of your cattle and donkeys he will take for his own use. *17 He will take a tenth of your flocks, and you yourselves will become his slaves. 18 When that day comes, you will cry out for relief from the king you have chosen, and the Lord will not answer you in that day." NIV What we often do is sin and then ask God to remove the consequences. He says he will not do that. Samuel warned the people but they would not listen to him. In refusing to listen to Samuel, they actually refused to listen to God because what Samuel said was God s Word! TS What are some lessons we need to learn from this passage? *1. God is a loving God that does not force people to obey. He allows the people of God to choose to obey or disobey. That is why there is so much evil and suffering in the world today. People choose to disobey God rather than obey. God could have stopped them from rebelling against Him! Why didn t God stop them? God loved them and wanted them to choose freely to love and obey Him. God will not force you to obey Him either. If God allowed Israel to make wrong decisions and suffer the consequences, He will do the same with you and me.
Even a church can choose to do what is displeasing to God and God will allow it. So we must be very careful what we choose to do. That is why we need to study and know the Bible. *Let Joshua s words ring loud and clear in our ears, Choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord." (Joshua 24:15 NIV) *2. The people of God should never choose a course of action just because it is popular. Our choices should instead be guided by God s Word. Choosing to do what is popular among godless people as Israel did will usually get you in trouble. *Revelation 3:3 Remember, therefore, what you have received and heard (from God s Word); obey it, and repent. NIV *3. God teaches us through consequences. The consequences that came as a result of Israel choosing an earthly king over their heavenly King were terrible. But God did not cause those bad things to happen to the nation of Israel. They occurred as a direct result of their choice. *Galatians 6:7 Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. 8 The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. NIV Every decision we make is like planting a crop. It will eventually come up. It will be good or bad depending on what you planted. God never tells you and I not to do something that is good for us. God s prohibitions are always there to protect us from the consequences that come when we take the wrong course of action.
Ill. Why did your mother tell you not to play in the street? Did she hate you and want to keep you from having fun or did she do it because she loved you and wanted to protect you? God gives us His love commands to protect us. He tells us not to lie, or steal, or murder, or commit adultery, or to engage in sexual relations before marriage because he loves us and wants to protect us from the consequences. The more you understand that God loves you the more whole heartedly you will obey Him and serve Him. *4. God always has a plan in spite of our sins. The people rebelled against God but God still had a plan. He gave them Saul and then David and Solomon and in the last days he has given us King Jesus, the perfect King. So you may have rebelled against God and His plan for your life but you can turn back to him. He has a wonderful plan for your life. *Jesus said, I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. (John 10:10 NIV) So what are the desires of your heart? Ill We have all seen those Capital One commercials. They show you all of the terrible things that can happen if you have the wrong credit card in your wallet. They always end with this question. What s in your wallet? This is what I want you to think every time you hear that commercial. *What s in your heart? Are we desiring for the same things the rest of the world is desiring? Are we looking for what s popular in the world.
*Or is your heart s desire to do what is pleasing to God. Do you want Him to have your whole heart? Let s be careful what we ask for!