Sermon given on Sabbath, July 30 at Generation For Christ, 2011 at Camp Balandra, Trinidad

Generation For Christ, Trinidad, 2011 "Be Ye Transformed"

<p>Sermon given on Sabbath, July 30 at Generation For Christ, 2011 at Camp Balandra, Trinidad</p>

<p>Free sharing permitted under the Creative Commons <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/">BY-NC-ND 3.0 (US)</a> license.</p>

AudioVerse

Eric Walsh

Losing the Kingdom: The High Price of Rebellion

If you turn with me in your Bibles to 1 Samuel chapter 15, 1 Samuel chapter 15.

We're going to start at verse 1, 1 Samuel chapter 15, starting at verse 1.

Samuel also said unto Saul, the Lord sent me to anoint thee to be king over his people, over Israel.

Now therefore hearken thou unto the voice of the words of the Lord.

I Remember that which Amalek did to Israel, how he laid wait for him in the way when he came up from Egypt.

Now go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not, but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass.

Verse 4 says, and Saul gathered the people together and numbered them in Talaim, 200, 000 footmen and 10, 000 men of Judah.

And Saul came to a city of Amalek and laid wait in the valley.

And Saul said unto the Kenites, go, depart, get you down from among the Amalekites, lest I destroy you with them.

For ye showed kindness to all the children of Israel when they came up out of Egypt.

So the Kenites departed from among the Amalekites.

And Saul smote the Amalekites from Havila until thou comest to Shur that is over against Egypt.

Verse 8 says, and he took Agag, the king of the Amalekites, alive and utterly destroyed all the people with the edge of the sword.

But Saul, verse 9 says, but Saul and the people spared Agag, and the best of the sheep and of the oxen, and of the fatlings and the lambs, and all that was good and would not utterly destroy them, but everything that was vile and refuse, that they destroyed utterly.

Verse 10 says, then came the word of the Lord unto Samuel saying, it repenteth me that I have set up Saul to be king, for he has turned back from following me, and hath not performed my commandments, And it grieved Samuel, and he cried unto the Lord all night.

Our message this Sabbath morning is entitled Losing the Kingdom.

Father God, we thank you Lord for this opportunity to go into your word.

I ask Father God that you just fill this place with your Holy Spirit.

Father God, let me not be seen or heard today, but Father God, let us hear a word from the throne room of grace.

This is our prayer in Jesus's precious and holy name.

So here we have Samuel getting a word from God that it's time for Saul who had been anointed king to go and deal with 1 of Israel's enemies.

Now it's interesting because in fact, God never really wanted there to be a king in Israel.

If things had gone the way God designed, Israel would have been set up similar to the government of the United States in a sense.

There would have been 3 branches, a legislative branch, a judicial branch, and an executive branch.

And God himself would have been the executive of the children of Israel.

The judicial branch would have been the judges, which would have been Samuel's 2 sons.

And the legislative branch would have been the elders.

So you would have had this bit of a balance of powers.

God would have been at the top, and God would have spoken through the judges, and that's how God would have led Israel.

But when Samuel's sons did not live the way God wanted them to, and the people saw it, the people used the rebellion and disobedience of Samuel's sons as an excuse to be like the rest of the tribes and nations around them.

And so they clamored unto Samuel and to God, give us a king.

If you remember how the story goes, it's actually quite interesting because what happens is, is that when they come to Samuel and they say that, Samuel's response to God is that, look, Lord, they've rejected me.

And God says, oh no, Samuel, they have not rejected you.

In wanting their own king, God saw this as a rejection of himself as the ruler of Israel.

That's important because now God has to speak through and to a king and the king must be obedient to God for Israel to exist as it's supposed to.

So now when you're dealing with the Amalekites, you have to speak to the prophet.

The prophet has to go to the king and now the king has a choice as to whether or not he wants to follow God's commands.

When there was a judge, God was the ruler and they had to follow his command.

So here God comes to Samuel, and Samuel takes this word, and God says, thus I remember, verse 2, which Amalek did to Israel, how he laid wait for him in the way when he came up from out of Egypt.

It was a nomadic, powerful nomadic tribe.

And what Amalek did was they were the descendants of Esau.

And they were ultimately related to Israel, interestingly enough.

The kings of the Amalekites were called Agag, so like Pharaoh was an Egyptian king, Agag was an Amalekite king.

In Numbers 24, if you remember, Balaam's fourth and final oracle, he says, then he looked on Amalek and took up his disclosure and said, Amalek was the first among nations.

Amalek is an ancient nation and he recognized them as such.

And so Balaam speaks to them But so does when you look at Deuteronomy 25 verse 17, it says, Remember what Amalek did unto you by the way when you came forth out of Egypt, how he met you by the way and smote the hindmost of thee, even all that were feeble behind thee when thou was faint and weary, and he feared not God." Now, so why does God have this thing against Amalek?

When Israel comes out of Egypt with power, you remember how Israel comes out of Egypt?

Do you remember that they didn't raise a sword?

You see, when God was their executor, they didn't have to fight.

When God was their king, they didn't have to fight.

And let me just stick this in the sermon right here.

If God is your king, you don't have to fight.

And I don't mean you just don't have to fight the gangsters.

They're probably no gangsters in Trinidad.

But no, like where I live, there's gangsters.

You don't have to worry about the gangs, the wars.

You don't have to worry about the fight because God fights for you.

You don't even have to fight your personal, internal sin battles.

When God is the king and the ruler of your life, he goes before you and fights.

The reason a lot of folk don't gain the victory over sin is because they're fighting their own battles.

And so what God does, you got to get this, God gets them out of Egypt without ever raising a sword.

He puts the blood, if the blood wasn't on the post, the firstborn of Egypt died and he takes them through the Red Sea.

What do you think happens when all the other nations who are subject to Egypt, including the Amalekites, who are like the second most powerful nation, a nomadic tribe, what do you think when the Amalekites hear that there's a nation that's so powerful, their God is so powerful that they could beat the mighty, it would be like the Taliban beating America without ever firing 1 rocket.

Would the whole world not fear the Taliban?

Air is the most powerful nation in the world, Egypt, the America of the day, and they're whooped, and all the other nations hear about it and tremble.

Did you know that's how the gospel in a sense was spread?

The other nations came to understand how powerful and how true the God of Israel is by the victories of Israel.

In fact, this is why when they get to Jericho, when Joshua gets to Jericho and he's ready to fight and they're going around the city again, they don't have to raise a sword really You notice what Rahab the prostitute does?

Rahab the prostitute has heard the stories.

She understands that the God of Israel is the most powerful God.

She was the smartest person in all of Jericho.

I know I'm a little bit off, but you got to get this to get the story.

It's so powerful that this prostitute, she was a what?

Some of y'all don't even want to say the word, but she was a prostitute.

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Losing the Kingdom: The High Price of Rebellion

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