Allen Jackson - Leaders and Leadership - Part 2
If something that you look forward to is interrupted, the emotion connected to that… how does it compare to the emotion that’s interrupted if you might miss a service? «I mean, that’s not fair, pastor». I don’t know if it’s fair or not, but I think it’s in the neighborhood of true. You see, we model something far more than we lecture. It’s far more impactful. Eli’s been delivered a message. In 1 Samuel 3, the very next chapter, Samuel’s gonna go to listening school. «The boy Samuel ministered before the Lord under Eli, in those days the word of the Lord was rare; there weren’t many visions».
Every generation’s different. «One night Eli, whose eyes were becoming so weak that he could barely see, was lying down in his usual place. And the lamp of God had not yet gone out». Didn’t turn the lights out yet. «And Samuel was lying down in the temple of the Lord, where the ark of God was». Can you imagine growing up sleeping in the shadow of the ark? «And the Lord called Samuel. And Samuel answered, 'Here I am.' And he ran to Eli and said, 'Here I am; you called me.' But Eli said, 'I didn’t call you.'» And no, you can’t have a drink, and if you don’t get back in that bed, «'Go back and lie down.' So he went and laid down». Now, this is repeated three times. It’s not till the third time that Eli understands. And he said, «Samuel, I’m not calling you but the Lord is. If it were to happen again, say, 'I’m listening.'»
And the next morning, Eli wants to know everything the Lord had to say to Samuel. And the Lord said some difficult things to Samuel. He said some things to Samuel about what would happen to Eli and his family. That would seem very close to a heavy burden to give to a young person. But Samuel is being prepared and trained. You know, growing up, accepting responsibility, maturing, is a very important part of what’s necessary for us to fulfill our places in the earth. And we see Samuel in training. It’s a fascinating story. We learn to listen to the Lord. It’s very clear. Eli had some awareness of that. And now he’s pointing Samuel in a direction. I don’t know of a single characteristic in all of scripture that’s more essential to God’s people in every generation than listening.
If we don’t know how to recognize the voice of God, from a biblical perspective, it’s very difficult to assert that you’re God’s people. And we don’t always do it well and there’s certainly an ebb and a flow to that through the generations of scripture, both Old and New Testament. But I would submit to you that as an objective in our lives, as something we aspire to, we want to learn to hear from the Lord. Jesus said, «My sheep hear my voice». I put it in your notes. It’s John 10:27, «My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me».
If you’re not listening and following, exactly how are you connected to the shepherd? But you know, in the New Testament, all those places where Jesus said, «I tell you the truth,» it’s like a caution light. «I’m about to drop a truth bomb on you. Are you listening»? Or all the places where it says, «The Lord said,» or «the word of the Lord came,» or «thus saith the Lord». I mean, it populates the pages of scripture, the phrases change a little bit. I mean, the book of Revelation, «He who has an ear, let him hear». So, the question that Samuel’s being introduced to is the one that we’re being introduced to, are we listening? I put together just a quick list of some listening aids.
You know, life has a way of diminishing your capacity. But you can get assistance. And sometimes real life has a way of diminishing your capacity to hear God. Scars and calluses, but there are things that you and I can do to facilitate our listening skills. It’s not an inclusive list, but it’s a good beginning. It starts, I believe, with a commitment to the Word of God. If you’re not committed to time with the Word of God, you’re not displaying the discipline that would suggest you want to hear. 'Cause listening to the Lord isn’t just, «How do I know when to go to drive to Nashville so the traffic is the least»? I mean, I pray that prayer, but that’s not the only prayer I pray. A commitment to the Word of God.
Secondly, an attitude of thankfulness. This has to be cultivated. In good circumstances and not so good circumstances. On days when it’s all going your way and on days when it’s not so much, I will be thankful. It means I will verbally give expressions of gratitude to God for his engagement in my life. You have to cultivate that. You have to fight against the messaging that you will self-generate. Be careful with the people you bring around you. I try to limit my exposure to people that do nothing but complain. You can’t eliminate it, but I try not to be overly available to people who do nothing but complain.
Thirdly, be certain that you maintain a very healthy respect, reverence, fear of God. When I read my Bible, I don’t stand outside of my Bible and pass judgment on it. That’s a very common practice. It’s a very common practice from professional Christians. They’re trained that way. The further you go up the academic tree, the more they teach you to stand outside of your Bible and judge it. I would submit to you the most helpful way to read it is to allow it to judge you. How does my life, how do my thoughts, how do my behaviors line up with what’s presented to me? That’s an expression of the fear of God, a respect for God.
See, if you disrespect the scripture, you disrespect God. When you find groups of Christians that no longer adhere to the authority of scripture and the scripture is a rule of faith and practice, and they cast out fundamental biblical notions like marriage and human sexuality and sexual morality and sexual immorality. When you see those things cast out, understand for certain, in that place, there is no respect for God, no fear of God. Don’t sit there and imagine you’ll learn about God. Commitment to his Word, an attitude of thankfulness, a fear of God.
Fourth, a confidence in the Spirit of God. And that comes from experience. From learning to trust him. From responding to him and seeing how he responds to you. And it’s not unique to me but it’s helpful, truth divorced from experience must always dwell in the realm of doubt. You see, truth and experience come together and they give you a platform for making life plans. They’re like points. You begin to connect them and it gives you the courage to move to the next one. And finally you have to accept spiritual realities. You’ll never listen to God if you don’t think spiritual things are impacting your life. You know, some of us, we talk about science deniers.
I think probably the most consistent expression of science deniers are people who don’t wanna listen to a medical professional. You know you’re not well, but you don’t wanna talk to one of those professionals 'cause they’ll tell you something you don’t wanna hear as if ignorance will make you healthy. Well, we bring that same attitude over into our faith. «Well, I don’t believe in spiritual things,» as if ignorance will protect you from evil things. «Well, I don’t believe in demons». Oh, then you’re good, you’re golden.
Folks, if that was true, we’d print t-shirts: «I don’t believe in,» and we just have a big long list of stuff. But it won’t protect us. Well, not only did Samuel begin to listen, but God begins to establish Samuel as he grows. In chapter 7, says, «It was a long time, twenty years in all, that the ark remained at that place, and all the people of Israel mourned and sought after the Lord. And Samuel said to the whole house of Israel, 'If you’re returning to the Lord with all your hearts, then rid yourselves of the foreign gods, the Ashtoreths». They’re Canaanite fertility gods. They are worshiping idols to be more prosperous. And because the devil is the one who orchestrates idolatry, most of the practice of worshiping those gods for prosperity involved immorality, sexual immorality. It’s a very carnal thing. We want more, and we want more pleasure while we seek for more. «Gee, that doesn’t sound like our world».
So, the message that Samuel is delivering is, you’ve got to put these, «Commit yourselves to the Lord and serve him only». They didn’t reject God, they’re still coming to Tabernacle, they’re still offering sacrifices, but they’re worshiping, they’re doing all these other things too. «'And God will deliver you out of the hand of the Philistines.' So the Israelites put away their Baals and their Ashtoreths, and they served the Lord only». It’s an amazing sentence. Cultures can be redeemed.
See, that’s why we talk about it. I say I believe Jesus belongs in our schools. I think we’ll see it again. But we have to believe it. We have to act like it. What we’ve learned is that, we’ve been seeing it on broad levels: Christian universities, Christian training grounds. They’re not honoring scripture. It’s not just public schools, we need Jesus back in our schools, not with some subterfuge, not some facade, but a meaningful, honest, integrated presentation of our faith. Israelites put away their gods and served the Lord only. «And Samuel said, 'Assemble all of Israel and I’ll intercede with the Lord for you.' And when they had assembled, they drew water and poured it out before the Lord. And on that day they fasted and they confessed, 'We have sinned against the Lord.'»
And here’s the statement: «Samuel was the leader of the people». He’s the last of the judges. Remember the book of Judges? Samuel is the last. He’s a transitionary figure. But he also demonstrates for us an authority from God that’s evidenced in the outcomes of lives. Again, the church has lost this notion. We think the most powerful forces are economic or military or political parties. And so, we don’t even talk about culture anymore, we get very uncomfortable talking about culture. «I can’t believe you talk about that». We need the authority of God to be evidenced in all the places that affect our lives. And we’ve got to have the courage to say it.
And I would encourage all of us, we don’t want org chart authority. It’s not about a title and a position. We’ve all known people with titles that people could’ve cared less about, except them. They have it stenciled on their shirt. But if we will please God, he will bring promotion and opportunity to our lives. And just as an observation, if you’re interested, my experience is that he brings those promotions and opportunities frequently designed as problems and difficulties. They don’t arrive with a big bow: «This is a God opportunity. Blessing enclosed». Usually rolls up into my life like something that I wish had just rolled right on through. Because it requires of me faith and obedience and courage and perseverance. And I’m like, «Well, I don’t wanna do any of that. I just wanted the blessing».
Samuel’s story, he’s leading the nation, he’s brought them back to God. There’s been a tremendous reversal of behavior. But it began with the sacrifice of his parents. It began with him having to grow through an authority that he was submitted to, whose sons, who stood in a position of authority over him, were wicked, godless people. It’s not an easy journey. He doesn’t have a peer group that are sharing all of his experiences with him. See, we’ve almost completely lost our ambition with the Lord. We’re so convinced we’re going to heaven, we need not have any other ambitions for the Lord. And through Samuel’s life, God brings about these tremendous changes.
Same chapter, look at verse 13, «Throughout Samuel’s lifetime, the hand of the Lord was against the Philistines». The whole nation’s outlook, their military perspectives were changed by Samuel. «The towns from Ekron to Gath,» is the Philistine towns they’d captured, is they were restored to Israel. «Israel delivered the neighboring territory from the power of the Philistines. There was peace between Israel and their neighbors. Samuel continued as judge over Israel all the days of his life. From year to year he went on a circuit from Bethel to Gilgal to Mizpah, judging Israel and all those places». Samuel sought God, provided leadership to the nation. That’s my prayer: «God give us men and women who fear your name to bring leadership».
And we have all these voices, it’s in the literature, bubbles up all through, «Don’t talk about current events. Don’t, you can’t do that. You can’t do that». What Bible are you reading? God’s plan for ancient Israel. As you’re reading it, you can’t separate it from national figures who would seek him. And a lot of 'em were scoundrels. You wouldn’t want Samson engaged with the teenagers in your church. But God used him to change the destiny of a nation. Gideon was a coward of the first order. And God said, «I see a mighty warrior». And Gideon went, «Where»? I mean, it’s a ragtag group of people, Samuel. God serves as the ultimate authority over the nation. I gotta wrap it. The people still aren’t happy. You’ve seen this cycle, you’ve read enough now.
If you’re doing the Bible reading, you know that, if you don’t, you should, it’ll help you. The people have a hard time holding a position. So do we. That’s why our life tends to have an ebb and a flow to it. It’s typically true with your physical health, it’s true with your spiritual condition. There’s seasons. And I’m inviting you to make this a season. It’s growing season in Tennessee. Let’s decide to grow spiritually. And in spite of all that God was doing, in spite of their enemies being subdued, and the freedoms that have come, and the blessings that have come in chapter 8 and verse 6, «They said, 'Give us the king to lead us.'» «We don’t like you, Samuel. I know you conquered the Philistines. I know we have more freedom and more liberty than we’ve had in our lifetimes, but we don’t like you». «So Samuel prayed. And the Lord said, 'Listen to what the people are saying. It’s not you they’ve rejected, but they’ve rejected me.'»
The reason God had to tell Samuel that is it felt a lot like him that was being rejected. Why don’t we take our faith with us to the marketplace? Why don’t we stand up in our schools and say, «No, I’ve got a biblical worldview here. I’m not gonna yield to this garbage». Because we understand that there’s a high degree of probability we’d be rejected. And then you might be able to say to yourself, «Well, they’re not really rejecting me, they’re rejecting God,» but it’s you they’re looking at. And so, it causes us to be quiet. «Samuel, it’s not you they’ve rejected, it’s me». «Yeah, but it’s me that they wanna take the position away from». And God said, «They’ve done this from the day I brought them out of Egypt until this day, forsaking me and serving other gods, and now they’re doing it to you. Listen to them».
This is a fun place, a fun study. We could do it another time. God teaches Samuel to listen and now God says to Samuel, «You have to listen to the people. Listen to them». You know God listens to us. That’s why it’s so important to cultivate that expression of thanks. God listens to us. «Listen to them; but warn them and let them know what the king who will reign over them will do». So Samuel does, and then in verse 18, this is what God says through Samuel back to the people: «'When the day comes, you’ll cry out for relief from the king you’ve chosen, and the Lord will not answer you.' But the people refused to listen to Samuel».
This is a fun study on listening, listening to God, listening to the people, and the people who refuse to listen. They said, «We want a king over us. Then we’ll be like all the other nations, with a king to lead us and go out before us and fight our battles». There are limits to God’s grace. God’s grace is not infinite. If God’s grace was infinite, we wouldn’t have needed Jesus. He would have just shrugged his shoulders and say, «Oh, it’s not that big a deal». But there are limits to God’s grace. Even in the midst of the covenant people of God, you and I have the promises of God, but it’s not permission to be sloppy. And he says, «Tell the people I’ve heard them. I will give them what they’ve asked for, but the day will come when the oppression will be so great, they will cry out to me again and I won’t help».
Now, he will intervene eventually, but there’s generational suffering when we choose wickedness. There’s a consequence to ungodliness. The people are warned about the consequences of their choices and they still preferred their way. Most of us are not caught up in ungodliness because of a wave of emotion. We choose it. We think we can outrun it, we can outlive it, we can out-plan it. We think the benefit is great enough that we’ll just persevere anyway. And the counsel, the plain teaching of scripture, the simple presentation, is there are consequences to our choices. They have a greater desire for alignment with secular ungodly norms than they have a desire for aligning themselves with the blessings of God.
See, these lessons feel so relevant to me in contemporary Christendom. And I tell you that not as a point of condemnation, as a point of recognizing the tug of war that takes place within all of us. We can all find voices to give us permission to be less godly. Not to reject our faith, not to deny God, not to burn our Bible, just to be a little less godly. A little less engaged, a little less focused. «You don’t wanna be one of those…» Yeah, I do. I wanna be one of those crazy zealot, fanatical, overboard, over the top. I’m not looking at this point in my journey, lukewarm makes no sense. They’re unwilling to trust God and submit to his direction. They’d rather have a king, and I quote, «To fight for us». It’s pretty clear, their indifference to faithfulness. «Faithfulness is too difficult. We don’t wanna persevere in this. We just wanna king to go fight for us. Can we hire somebody to do that»?
It’s a fascinating story on the covenant people of God. The very next chapter begins with the ascent of Saul. There’s a king coming. God’s gonna pick a king, and he’s gonna use Samuel to establish him. And it’s gonna be as bumpy of a ride as we’ve been so far. Amazing victories, God brings deliverance, their enemies are subdued. And there’s a group of people going, «We don’t like this, we don’t like this a bit». It’s not a unanimous vote. It wasn’t a unanimous vote in Jerusalem when the crowd in the streets said, «Crucify him»! There were people weeping. There were people with broken hearts. But there was a loud group of people saying, «Crucify him»!
See, I think we live with this imagination that renewal or awakening will be so all-inclusive that it will sweep aside the negative or the contrarian voices, and the Bible doesn’t give us that presentation. We’ll have to have the courage to live our faith out in the face of… that’s why we’re salt and light. If there weren’t intense darkness, we wouldn’t need light. Don’t be discouraged, folks, God is moving in the earth. I’ve never seen a generation of people as hungry as the ones I see in front of us right now.
And there’s all sorts of interesting data that’s bubbling up. Younger people more interested in the Lord than they have been in several generations. I mean, it’s fascinating what’s happening, but it’s happening in the midst of this tug of war, and we’ve got to decide which place we’re gonna hold, what our attitude’s gonna be. We’ll pick up the ascent of Saul in the next session, but I brought you a prayer. Stand with me, if you will. It’s just a summary prayer of what we walked through. God’s people believing God’s promises so that God’s purposes can emerge in the earth. It’s our assignment. It’s the greatest delight of our lives.
And along the way, he will bless you, he’ll bring you the stuff you need and the things you need and the opportunities you need, but let’s determine to give the Lord our best. And then let’s tell him we’re sorry when we haven’t. He’s not surprised. He’s waiting for us to be honest enough to go, «Yeah, I didn’t really care all that much». You know we’re not shocking God, right? It would have been… imagine after the people came to Samuel and said, «You know, we don’t want you to lead us anymore,» and God had said to Samuel, «It never occurred to me they would act that way». He’s said, «No, Samuel, they’ve been his way for hundreds of years». You’re just the latest version. We don’t surprise God. I brought you a prayer. Together:
Heavenly Father, Teach me to walk in your ways, to recognize your direction and to understand your purposes. May my ears be open to listen to all your instruction. My desire is to walk uprightly and to be pleasing in your sight. Let the fear of God grow within me and the power of God be evident through all of my days. Let Jesus’s name be exalted, amen.