Failed? Don’t Give Up!

FAILED? DON’T GIVE UP!

1 Sam. 12:12-22

INTRODUCTION

A. HUMOR: Be Careful with Temptation

1. A fly was sitting on a lawn mower handle one morning watching the children going down the sidewalk on their way to school.

2. One little boy tripped and fell, spilling his lunch on the sidewalk. He picked himself up, put his lunch back in the bag and went on. But he missed a piece of baloney.

3. The fly had not eaten so he buzzed down and started eating the bologna. In fact, he ate so much that he couldn’t fly, so he waddled across the sidewalk, up the wheel of the lawn mower, up the handle, and sat there resting and watching the children.

4. There was still some baloney laying there on the sidewalk. Despite his being really stuffed, that baloney sure did look good.

5. Finally temptation got the best of him and he jumped off the handle of the lawn mower to fly over to the baloney. But alas he was too full to fly and fell straight to the ground... splat!

6. The moral of this story is simple... don't fly off the handle when you are full of baloney!

B. TEXT

12 “…you said to me, ‘No, we want a king to rule over us’—even though the Lord your God was your king. 16 “Now then, stand still and see this great thing the Lord is about to do before your eyes! 17 Is it not wheat harvest now? I will call on the Lord to send thunder and rain. And you will realize what an evil thing you did in the eyes of the Lord when you asked for a king.” [Lightning flashed & it rained] 19 The people all said to Samuel, “Pray to the Lord your God for your servants so that we will not die, for we have added to all our other sins the evil of asking for a king.” 20 “Do not be afraid,” Samuel replied. “You have done all this evil; yet do not turn away from the Lord, but serve the Lord with all your heart. 22 For the sake of his great name the Lord will not reject his people, because the Lord was pleased to make you his own.

C. THESIS

1. Verse 20 has been a balm of healing to millions who’ve made mistakes, given in to a temptation, or feel like a failure. It offers hope and a revelation of God’s grace.

2. The title of this message is “Failed? Don’t give up!”

I. THE SIN OF TRUSTING IN THE FLESH

A. THEY TRUSTED TO A MAN, NOT GOD

1. It’s not uncommon for us to trust in other things instead of the Lord. The Israelites looked around at all the other nations (even though they had a supernatural God leading them) and they said, “We need to have a human King, like everyone else!” What a mistake! If we have God, we don’t need a substitute. We should trust in the Lord, not in earthly solutions.

2. PEOPLE TRUST IN THEIR OWN STRENGTH. On Sept. 6, 1941, a report was written that an attack on Hawaii by Japan was extremely unlikely; it would only have a 1 in a million chance of success, because Hawaii was our most powerful military base in the world. On Dec. 7, 1941 (3 months later), the Japanese attacked and succeeded in destroying our Pacific fleet at Hawaii!

[“At Dawn We Slept” by Gordon Prange. Written on Sept. 6, 1941 by journalist Clarke Beach.] So much for our strength!

3. PEOPLE TRUST IN THEIR RICHES. Following the 2008-09 stock market crash there was an additional 6,566 suicides “that were a direct consequence of the rapid decline of equity values….” [9/13/2018, “Stock market crashes linked to higher rates of suicide – new research”]. This means that 6,566 people’s lives rose and fell on the stock market!

4. PEOPLE TRUST IN DOCTORS & MEDICINE. The Biblical King Asa got a disease in his feet. 2 Chron. 16:12 says that he would only consult medical doctors and refused to go to God in prayer about it, so he died of the disease. He had false security.

5. TURBULENT AIRPLANE ILLUS. A man was on a flight that went over mountains and the plane began to bounce and jerk in an alarming way. The man looked across the aisle at a boy who looked serene. “Aren’t you nervous?” he asked. The boy replied, “No, my father is the pilot. He has a perfect flying record. I know everything’s going to be alright.” We ought to be just as confident; our Father is piloting our lives!

B. SAMUEL PROPHESIES A STORM TO CONFIRM HIS WORDS

1. 3 aspects of this miracle that show it’s of supernatural origin: