Harbor Presbyterian Church - Uptown

09/14/2008
Harbor DT/UT
“Fixing Society, Step Two:  Church Leadership”
1Samuel 2:11-36
Introduction
BOURNE ULTIMATUM
I've spent three years running. Three years trying to find out who I was.
Why me?   Why did you pick me?  You turned me into a mindless killer.  Why?

HIRSCH
You really don't remember, do you?
You picked us, Jason.  You volunteered.

                   You volunteered right here....
                   You didn't even blink, Jason.
                  
You could have left at any time.  And you knew exactly what it meant for you if you chose to stay.

Stop running from the truth, Jason. No matter how much you want to forget it...eventually you're going to have to face how you chose, right there, to become Jason Bourne!
-----------------

In our world, in our city, we are so prone to complain about what is wrong.  We think, “Things are so evil, so broken!  Until someone fixes the city, the country, we’re all stuck.”

Doug preached on Hannah’s prayer last week, reminding us how we should respond to God’s work in our lives in the midst of difficulties.  In her prayer, Hannah pleads with God to fix what’s wrong with the world.  She has a sense that the birth of her child, dedicated to God, will fix the brokenness of her life—and of the life of the nation of Israel.

And isn’t this our hope?  We’re not here simply to be a great church, but we want a great city.  We want to be used to bring about the healing of San Diego and Tijuana for everyone.

Hannah prayed that God will oppose the arrogant (v3), the mighty (v4), the wicked (v9), and those who oppose God (v10).  If you were to sing this during Hannah’s day, you would probably look around Israel and think—yea, God, get those Philistines!  Get those Canaanites—these were the enemies of God during that time.

But in our passage today, we find out that that the real culprits—the real enemies—are the priests of Israel!

This is powerful, because it’s us:  we spend so much time blaming … especially during election years:  we blame politicians or the other side of the aisle, but when we look for a solution from God, often times, just like Matt Damon, we need to look in the mirror.

Here’s what’s great about God.  So many people hate the church, hate Christianity, hate religion because they hate the hypocrites in the church.  I’ve got good news for you:  this passage this morning teaches us that God hates hypocrites too!

Religion says, “Everyone out there is wicked.”
The secularist says, “The church is run by wicked people who want control others.”
The gospel says, “The church needs to take the log out of its own eye before it has anything to say to the world outside.”

So that’s what we’re going to see today.  For God to fix society, he always deals FIRST with me (chapter 1.  Then SECOND, he deals with his own people in judgment before he deals with anyone outside.  We’re going to see this in 3 points this morning:

 I. Evil Leadership in the People of God
 II. Evil Leadership Brings Judgment
 III. Good Leaders Serve

 I. Evil Leadership in the People of God
In Worship (v12-17)
A. Hophni and Phinehas were stealing from the people.
1. This is crazy.  The fork in the pot business was bad enough—they weren’t actually allowed to do that.  The Bible says exactly what the priests were supposed to have.  One author said, “This was the original “pot luck.””
2. This was a peace offering or a fellowship offering.  Described in Leviticus 7:31ff, God would get the fat and the major portion of the sacrifice.  The priest would get the shoulder, the thigh, and the breast.  And the worshiper would get a portion back for him or herself.  The idea here is communion—the image of the animal being divided up in this way is that God was saying, “We’re going to be able to eat together!  I want to share a meal with you!”  Worshiper, priest, and God eating together—this shows fellowship, love—the relationship that was pictured by this sacrifice.
3. And it’s all being ruined. 
4. They were called to be a blessing to the people, to serve the people, to make the people strong through worship, so they could bless their neighbors and communities.  They were robbing people of the joy of worship and of relationship with God.
5. Have you felt that way?  That church leaders have ruined your ability to connect with God?
a. Religious conservatives might say—obey your leaders, don’t question them.
b. Secularists say—abandon the church, you can’t trust the leaders.
c. The gospel, the good news of the bible says that the church needs to be confronted and repent if it’s ever going to have any ability to draw people to God. 
B. Stealing from the people, and also they were stealing from God.  They were taking what was God’s portion.  Being a priest was about them, not God.
1. Verse 17 says, “This sin of the young men was very great in the Lord’s sight, for they were treating the Lord’s offering with contempt.”
C. For Hophni and Phinehas, it was all about power and privilege.  They were in it for themselves.  We saw in chapter one Eli’s abuse of Hannah, but we didn’t know things were this bad!
D. Leaders today need to ask themselves the same questions—are you seeking power for yourself?  Are you using your power to actually help others?
1. A pastor told me this week about a time when he was doing the call to worship.  His own son was acting up to the point where he had to stop what he was doing and take his son outside.
a. The problem was—he didn’t turn off his microphone!  His communication with his son was much less than gospel-centered.  When he came back in and realized what had happened, he was ashamed.  This is the kind of hypocrisy we have to be careful about, because it leads to worse things.

In Morality (v22-25)
E. The book of Exodus, chapter 38—when the tabernacle was built, it says that there were women serving at the tabernacle.  Hophni & Phinehas not only robbed God and the people who came to worship, they also robbed the women who were at the temple serving the Lord, robbing them of their purity, and further condemning themselves. 
1. This is a ruthless use of priestly power.  They are spiritual and physical tyrants.  
2. It’s a wonder they didn’t take advantage of Hannah!  Barren, distraught Hannah, seeking the Lord’s help and begging him to hear her, only to be lecherously accosted by these evil priests, greedy for food and sex.
3. The worst part was, You couldn’t go to another church!  Because there wasn’t one!  Probably people left the worship of Yahweh because sick of the priests.  No wonder the people hated worship. 
F. This is the fall of Eli and his family.  Like Adam and Eve—they failed to protect the sanctuary of God.  This is a theme common in the Samuel narrative. 
G. Eli is culpable here, as well as his sons.
1. Maybe couldn’t’ have stopped sons from immorality, but he could’ve stopped them from doing it “as priests.”  He could have removed them, but he didn’t.

 II. Evil Leadership Brings Judgment (v27-36)
A. God hates this and so he sends a word of judgment.  He sends a prophet to confront the situation, because he will not stand for this.
1. Now here’s the rub.  To recognize here that God is coming in judgment to protect his people, to begin to fix society by starting with his own family, this may make some of you wonder, well, why didn’t he come to me when I was being abused, when I was at my lowest and most vulnerable point in my life?  Some of you have been through hell and wonder, “Where was God when I was having to go through hell?”  Maybe some of you are there right now…
2.  If you’re thinking that now, we’re in deep waters.  It’s really easy for people to give a pat answer that minimizes your suffering. 
3. I think that one of the best places to start is that God’s authority in the world is definitely a mystery.  We don’t always understand why he acts sometimes and not others.  We don’t always understand him… but I can tell you, that he understands you.  He himself came in Jesus and he too went through a hell he didn’t deserve.  He was abandoned and sacrificed to no fault of his own, by the hands of evil and ruthless people. 
4. The only way that you’ll come close to understand why God made you suffer is by connecting with the God who came specifically so he could experience your suffering.  When you believe in Jesus, you start this process of understanding.
B. So God curses Eli and his sons.  They will be destroyed—the whole family.  Eli is just as guilty!  V29—talking to Eli—“Why do you scorn my sacrifice and offering that I prescribed for my dwelling? Why do you honor your sons more than me by fattening yourselves on the choice parts of every offering made by my people Israel?”  Eli is part of this!  We don’t get a picture of just how much Eli fattened himself until chapter 4, but he is just as guilty as his sons—he’s been benefiting from the destruction of worship and their own selfish gluttony as his sons. 
1. Eli’s house loses its future.  Contrast—Barren Hannah is given a future through her son.  Here the house of Eli loses its future because of its wicked abuse of power.
C. They are beyond forgiveness.  Look at verse 25—the reason they don’t listen to their father’s rebuke is because “it was the Lord’s will to put them to death.”
1. Does this sound surprising?  Does this scare you?  God had decided by this time that they would not repent, they would not seek forgiveness.
2. In the rebuke of the prophet, v27 recalls Israel’s Exodus from Egypt.  That recalls a time when God had hardened Pharaoh’s to show his power over him.  Now he’s hardening the hearts of Eli’s sons, so that he can lead Israel in a new kind of Exodus.
D. This nullifies the promises of God
1. This may be even scarier.  V30—I promised that your house would minister before me forever.  But no, not anymore!
a. God is saying, I made a promise that your family would serve as priests forever.  But now that promise is void because you have so flagrantly violated my covenant.  This is what the text says.
b. Now this is scary, isn’t it?  Especially with us because Christians base their whole lives on the promises of God.  Does this mean that God might cancel his promise to you?   Could the promise of forgiveness and new life in Jesus be revoked?
c. Doesn’t this touch on the core of hypocrisy?  Isn’t this the chief frustration that everyone has with the church?  The notion that people can claim to be under the blessing of God when their very lives completely violate all that God stands for? 
d. We’ve got to be careful here to protect the trustworthiness of God’s promises AND ALSO oppose a hypocritical abuse of God’s promises.
2. Here’s the key to know if you are in the same danger as Eli’s sons:  v25—“They did not listen to their father’s rebuke.”  The one thing more than all else that you have to fear is getting to the point where you are unwilling to listen to the word of God in your life.
Proverbs 15:10—“whoever hates correction will die.”
a. They key to not following Hophni and Phinehas into nullifying the promises of God is to continue to confess/admit our failures and sins and to continue to believe in Jesus.  Why?
It’s because Jesus never sinned!   And when you believe in him, God gives you his perfection!  Jesus never nullified the promises of God.  When you commit to him, you are in him, so you can’t nullify the promises.  In Christ, God’s promise canot be nullified.  This solves the problem of the trustworthiness of God’s promises.
b. But what about the problem of hypocrisy?  Doesn’t that mean if you believe in Jesus, it doesn’t matter how you live?  Well, when he takes away your sins, he also puts his Holy Spirit in you—this is his own very presence.  This is what causes real growth and change.  So by God’s power, you won’t be a hypocrite.  God’s power in you saves you from living like Hophni and Phinehas.

This need is expressed in our text in verse 25:  Eli hit the nail on the head—“If a man sins against the Lord, who will intercede for him?”

We see Samuel right after in verse 26 “continued to grow in statute and in favor with God and with men.”  Samuel here points to Jesus.  In Luke 2:52—it says Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men.”

To intercede, you need one one who has favor with God and men.  That one can stand in between and bring them together.  THAT’s exactly what Jesus has done for us.  Jesus can mediate for us with God because he is God and man.  He can intercede for us because he offered his life for us on the cross and rose from the dead.

Jesus’ death was his message to God from us:  God we know we’ve sinned, and we need your forgiveness.

Jesus’ resurrection was his message to us from God:  I will forgive you and cleanse you if you commit to me.  BILL McCURINE.
 III. Good Leaders Serve
So what do we do?  What is God calling us to do from this text?
A. We see glints of hope in the text:  And then there’s Hannah
1. Did you forget about mom?  Did you think God only cared to get the son dedicated to him, and would forget her when she was done?  Chapter 1, some people question Hannah’s motives?  Did you question God’s here?  He got his child:  Samuel is serving.  Will he forget about Hannah?
2. No way!  God is also devoted to her.  This is a beautiful picture of RELATIONSHIP.  This is how God blesses his people.  Not just one, but 6! Not just what you ask for, but above and beyond all you can ask or even imagine.
3. “Hannah and her husband disappear from our story, but they and their household of noisy children—remain witnesses to us of the Giving God.” (DRD 33)
B. Then, there’s Samuel:  under the pressure of the corruption of the priests, a diamond is forming:  in contrast to the Hophni & Phinehas:
1. Samuel ministered before the Lord (11)
2. Samuel was ministering before the Lord (18)
3. Samuel continued to grow in stature and in favor with the Lord and with men (26)
C. Peterson:  Samuel is shown as being clothed year after year in succession of priestly robes.  God is caring for him, providing for him—no need to grasp power or privilege.  YOU?
D. DRD, 31—“God is working in the midst of all this—but growth seldom makes noise.  All Israel suffered under the arrogant, cynical, immoral priesthood, clergy who savored the prime cuts of meat over teaching godliness, who preferred women in bed over interceding for God’s people… In the middle of it all, the text keeps whispering, “Don’t forget Samuel—you see how Samuel is serving.”  That’s God’s manner—quietly providing for the next moment even in the middle of the darkest moments.”  WHERE DO YOU SEE SAMUEL IN YOUR LIFE?   SOMEONE WHO SHOWS YOU THAT GOD IS AT WORK?  WHAT IS GOING ON THAT CONVINCES YOU THAT GOD ISN’T FAR OFF?
E.  “During WWII, a B-17 went on a bombing run over a German city.  Nazi anti-aircraft flak hit the gas tanks of the bomber, but there was no explosion.  The morning after the raid the pilot went down to ask the crew chief for the shell that had hit the gas tank; he wanted it for a souvenir.  The crew chief gave him 11 unexploded shells from the gas tank!  They found that the shells contained no explosive charge; they were empty.  All but one—it contained a rolled up note, written in Czechoslovakian, which said, “This is all we can do for you now.”  There were Czech people who were compelled to work in a munitions plant for the Nazi war effort.  They didn’t try to blow up the plant or assassinate Hitler.  They simply didn’t put charges in some of the shells they produced.  It was quiet and unnoticed, but it worked salvation all the same.” DRD 31-32.

This is God’s call to each of us.  To figure out ways to lead by serving wherever God calls us.  Each one of us, like Samuel, are called to lead by serving—wherever we are.  In the home, in the workplace, in the church.  This is why we’re having the Faith and Work Event on Oct 11th. 

The same power that worked in Samuel also works in you.  God’s power works to bring about slow but sure change. 

This is the upside-down economy of God—where to be great is to serve, to accomplish great things is to spend your life blessing others.  Through serving others, you impact your local communities.