From His Heart

Guest (Male): Now, a lion's roar, it is a fear-producing sound. They say that it's one of the loudest sounds in the animal kingdom, about 114 decibels. When the lion roars on the Serengeti, it can be heard up to five miles. It is the voice and the sound of power.

In the life of Samuel, things weren't good in the nation, and the people desperately needed the lion to roar, and the lion did.

Larry Nobles: This is From His Heart with Pastor Jeff Schreve. We're so glad that you've joined us today as Pastor Jeff continues his new eight-message series, Leaving a Legacy: Lessons from the Life of Samuel. During Samuel's day, Israel faced an enemy too powerful to overcome until the people repented and cried out to the Lord. In that decisive moment, God thundered like a roaring lion, scattered their enemies, and gave them a great victory.

The same God still moves in power today for those who humble themselves and call on His name. Today's message, When the Lion Roars, reminds us that when we humble ourselves before God and remove anything that hinders our devotion to Him, He rises in power on our behalf. For information about today's message or the current series, Leaving a Legacy, visit us at fromhisheart.org. Are you ready to hear His roar in your life? Open your Bible to 1 Samuel chapter 7 as Pastor Jeff reveals what happens when the lion roars.

Dr. Jeff Schreve: In the life of Samuel, things weren't good in the nation, and the people desperately needed revival to come. They needed the lion to roar, and the lion did. It's very interesting. Samuel's mother, Hannah, we talked about her. She was the one that prayed to the Lord from the depths of her heart, poured out her bitterness to the Lord, and asked Him for a son. The Lord answered and gave her Samuel.

She said in her praise to the Lord in 1 Samuel 2:10, "Those who contend with the Lord will be shattered; against them He will thunder in the heavens." That word thunder can also be translated roar. Now, when you think about it, thunder does sound like a roar.

In 1 Samuel 7:10, when the Philistines are coming upon the Israelites to kill them, Samuel is offering up the burnt offering, and the Philistines drew near to battle against Israel. But the Lord thundered; He roared with a great thunder, a great noise on that day against the Philistines and confused them, so they were routed before Israel.

A lion's roar is a fear-producing sound. They say that it's one of the loudest sounds in the animal kingdom, about 114 decibels. When the lion roars on the Serengeti, it can be heard up to five miles. Now, that produces tremendous fear. It is the voice and the sound of power.

So here's our question: How can we see the Lord roar on behalf of His people today? I think that's the cry of many hearts. God, we want You to rise up and show Yourself as the God who is mighty and strong. Roar from heaven, as it says in Ezekiel over and over and over again, "Then they will know that I am the Lord." We want people to know that our God is God and He is the Lord and there is no one else but Him. He did sit as King at the flood, and He sits as King forever.

So how can we see that happen? Well, three critical steps. Step number one: We can recognize the seriousness of our situation. Jim Collins, in the business book *Good to Great*, says if you're a company and you want to go from good to great, here's what you need to do: You need to look in the mirror and you need to face the brutal facts.

Until you look honestly, soberly at the situation, at your company or at your life or at your marriage or at your family or at the nation, you have to face the brutal facts, honestly assess the situation. David said in Psalm 139:23-24, "Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me and know my anxious thoughts and see if there be any evil, hurtful way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting."

We want God to search us. We have to be at that place if we're going to see the lion roar, where God gets to search us and we allow Him to do that. We don't want to be like the Bedouin. Remember when I told you about the Bedouin who one evening, as he was getting ready to go to sleep, he had the light burning and he had a bowl of dates there as he was on his bedroll?

He grabbed a date to take a bite and he saw a worm in it, so he put it over to the side. He grabbed another date to take a bite, there was a worm in it, he put it over to the other side. Then he grabbed a third date, there was another worm in that third date, so he put it to the side and then he blew out the candle and started eating his dates.

We don't want to be like that guy. We want to respond to the light. So for Israel, what was the situation? They're losing. The Israelites have lost 4,000 foot soldiers. So what are they going to do? They said, "Well, let's get the Ark of God, the Ark of the Covenant, and let's bring it into the camp. That'll be like our good luck charm, and we'll take it into the camp and we'll defeat the Philistines."

Hophni and Phinehas, the sons of the high priest Eli, they go and get the Ark of the Covenant, that box that Indiana Jones was looking for, that special box that represented the presence of God. They brought that into the camp. Then they shouted and everybody shouted. The Philistines said, "What is this shout?"

Then they found out they brought God into the camp into this battle. We heard about this God that defeated the Egyptians with the plagues and with the Red Sea. That was big-time news. Here we are hundreds of years past that, and they know about that. They say, "What are we going to do? How can we survive against this God?" So they bolstered their courage and they said, "Come on, fight, oh Philistines."

God wasn't going to bless the Israelites. They were living in sin and they were trying to use Him as a lucky rabbit's foot, so He did not give Israel victory over the Philistines. He gave the Philistines victory over the Israelites, and 30,000 Israelite foot soldiers were killed. The Philistines took the Ark of the Covenant and they brought it back to their territory.

Remember when Eli, the high priest who was 99 years old, and he was waiting on the edge of his seat for news, what is going to happen, because they took the Ark of the Covenant from Shiloh where he was and they took it to the battle, what is going to happen? Word got back to Eli, "Hey, we didn't do well in the battle. We lost all these people. Your two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, are dead, and the Ark of the Covenant has been taken by the Philistines."

When Eli heard that, he fell back in his chair and broke his neck and he died. Then his daughter-in-law, Phinehas's wife, she was giving birth right at that time, and it was a very painful delivery. She was having problems, and the nursemaid said to her, "Hey, don't be upset, don't be afraid, you've given birth to a son."

She said, "What should I name him?" She said, "Name him Ichabod because the glory of the Lord has departed from Israel." Then she died. Bad situation. The Philistines take the Ark of the Covenant, they think they have a great victory until they find out you don't want to have the Ark of the Covenant if you are the pagans because the Ark of the Covenant gave them lots and lots and lots of problems.

They got tumors and they had bleeding sores and they had difficulties where the sun don't shine. The Bible says they got hemorrhoids, but they were serious hemorrhoids, hemorrhoids where people were dying. So they said, "We've got to get this out of here." Then there was a disease, some kind of plague that was taken by rats or mice and it was going through the city.

One Philistine city, there were five cities of the Philistines, one said, "Get this Ark out of here, send it to another Philistine city." The other Philistine city took the Ark of the Covenant and they had all those problems. They said, "Get it out of here, send it to another Philistine city." The other Philistine city said, "No way, we don't want that thing, get it out of here."

It was in the camp of the Philistines and the territory of the Philistines for seven months, and finally they sent it back to Israel. They put it on two milk cows and they said, "Listen, these milk cows are nursing, so if we lock up their babies and put the Ark of the Covenant on these cows and they naturally would go back to their babies, but if they don't, if they make a beeline for the land of Israel, we'll know that this was the Lord who did this to us."

"This was the God of the Hebrews that did that to us." Sure as the world, those two milk cows, they made a beeline for Beth Shemesh, to the land of Israel. When they get to Beth Shemesh, the people of Beth Shemesh see that the Ark of the Covenant is on those two milk cows. Some of the people of Beth Shemesh looked into the Ark.

They weren't supposed to do that. That is the presence of God, that represents the Holy of Holies of God, the Shekinah glory of God. They looked into it just to make sure that the Philistines didn't take anything and they were irreverent in their handling of the Ark, and God killed them.

It says in 1 Samuel chapter 6 verse 19, "He struck down some of the men of Beth Shemesh because they had looked into the Ark of the Lord. He struck down of all the people 50,070 men, and the people mourned because the Lord had struck the people with a great slaughter." That 50,070 probably covers everything during this time period: the 30,000 who died in battle plus those that died in the Philistines plus these 70. Lots of people died because of the Ark of the Covenant.

The men of Beth Shemesh said, "Who is able to stand before the Lord, this holy God, and to whom shall He go up from us?" So they sent messengers to the inhabitants of Kiriath Jearim saying, "The Philistines have brought back the Ark of the Lord; come now and take it up to you."

The men of Kiriath Jearim came and took the Ark of the Lord and brought it into the house of Abinadab on the hill and consecrated Eleazar his son to keep the Ark of the Lord. From the day that the Ark remained at Kiriath Jearim, the time was long for it was 20 years, and all the house of Israel lamented after the Lord.

They didn't want it in Beth Shemesh. This thing kills you. So they got the people of Kiriath Jearim to say, "Yeah, we'll take it," and they put it in the home of this guy and had Eleazar be the priest over the Ark of the Covenant. Can you imagine having the Ark of the Covenant in your house? Man, that'd be something, except you'd be a little nervous. You'd probably clean up your act a lot what you did at your house because God's in the next room, I've got to be really careful here.

The situation was dire for Israel. Shiloh was where God met with His people, but He didn't meet with His people in Shiloh anymore. The Ark of the Covenant, they should have sent it back to Shiloh, but Shiloh had been destroyed because of the wickedness of the people. Jeremiah 7:12, "But go now to My place which was in Shiloh, where I made My name dwell at the first, and see what I did to it because of the wickedness of My people Israel."

Listen, God is holy, holy, holy. If we treat God like He's an old shoe, if we don't give God the respect that is due His name, we are going to pay a price for that. Israel paid a price for that. Now the one word that best describes God of any word that you could come up with is the word holy. That's the word that is uttered in heaven day and night.

Isaiah chapter 6, one angel called out to another angel at the throne of God, "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts, the whole earth is full of His glory." When John was caught up into heaven in Revelation chapter 4, he saw the Lord seated on His throne and the living creatures, the angels there, are crying out, "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was and who is and who is to come," and day and night they do not cease to say, "Holy, holy, holy."

God is a holy God. Now the people, when the 70 from Beth Shemesh looked into the Ark and were killed just like that, they made the connection: "Who is able to stand before the Lord, this holy God?" God is a holy God, and God will not overlook sin. God doesn't wink at sin. God hates sin.

If there was ever a time that God wanted to be lenient on sin, that He wanted to look the other way concerning sin, it's when that sin was on His own Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. As Jesus is dying on the cross, what does He say? He quotes from Psalm 22 verse 1, "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?"

Well, He forsook Jesus because Jesus was bearing the guilt of all the sin of the whole world, and God cannot, will not have fellowship with sin. He will judge sin because He is holy, holy, holy.

So what do we need to do first step if we're going to see the lion roar on our behalf, if we're going to see the lion roar against the enemies of God? We have to look in the mirror and we have to be honest enough. We have to say, "Search me, O God, and try my heart. Lord, see if there be any wicked way in me." David said in Psalm 66:18, "If I regard iniquity in my heart, wickedness in my heart, the Lord will not hear me." I have to deal with sin.

Number two: We can get our heart right with Him. So the first step, look in the mirror, be honest, let the Lord show you, and then second step, you get your heart right with Him. So it says in verse 3, "Then Samuel spoke to all the house of Israel saying, 'If you will return to the Lord with all your heart, remove the foreign gods and the Ashtoreth from among you, and direct your hearts to the Lord and serve Him alone, and He will deliver you from the hand of the Philistines.'"

Now the people, it said they were lamenting, verse 2, lamenting for the Lord. They sensed that distance that they had between themselves and God, the God who had delivered them in the past, the God who had mightily delivered them from Egypt. Now this God, there was such distance and they moaned as Shiloh was destroyed. "Where do we go now to make our sacrifices and to come before the Lord? Where is that now?"

And they lamented. Samuel seized upon that moment to say, "Listen, you want to get right with God? Here's how you do it. You need to return with all your heart. Remove the foreign gods and the Ashtoreth, and direct your hearts to the Lord and serve Him alone, and He will deliver you from the hand of the Philistines." It says in the book of Judges that they were under the thumb of the Philistines for 40 years. God would deliver them if they would get themselves right before Him.

The Lord says the same to you and to me today. If your life is going in the wrong direction, if you find yourself at the pigsty of sin like the prodigal son, how did you get there? It's because you left God out and you said, "I'm going to do my own thing, I'm going to go my own way, I'm going to have my own fun, I'm going to call my own shots, I'm going to be my own boss."

You can do that if you want, and where does it lead? It leads always to the pigsty. That's true for you, that's true for me, that's true for all of us and any of us. That's where it will take you, and then you'll groan as it says in Proverbs at your latter end when your flesh and your body are consumed and you say, "How I have hated instruction and my heart spurned reproof. I was almost in utter ruin in the midst of the assembly and congregation. My life is now a disaster. What do I do?"

Well, what you do is you come to your senses as the prodigal did, and you get up and go back to your father. You direct your heart back to the Lord. Now it says in verse 3 that they were to serve Him alone. Alone. It's not that they didn't acknowledge God anymore, it's they synchronized the Canaanite fertility cult worship in with Yahweh.

They compromised. They were big-time compromisers. Samuel is saying, "Hey, you can't do that. You've got to be all in with the Lord." So you have to make a complete break with sin and idolatry. That's what he told them to do. That's what He's telling us to do. If you're going to see God roar on your behalf, then you have to make a complete break with the things that He hates, and He hates sin and He hates idolatry.

So what did they do? Verse 4, "So the sons of Israel removed the Baals and the Ashtoreth and served the Lord alone." We're not going to have these idols plus Jehovah over here and kind of work them both, cover all my bases. I had a friend of mine that was facing cancer and he had some Hindu says, "Well, I want to pray with you," and he said, "Well, that would be great."

He told me about it. He said, "Yeah, I just take them prayers wherever I can." I said, "That person doesn't know how to connect with God." There is only one God, there is only one way to connect with God and that's through the Lord Jesus Christ. So that person can pray till they're blue in the face.

Read about how the prophets of Baal called on Baal in 1 Kings chapter 18 where Elijah was going up against them, the 450 prophets of Baal in 1 Kings 18. They called on their god from morning until the evening sacrifice, and there was no answer. Why? Because their god is not God. Their god does not exist. There's only one God and His name is Yahweh God, and Jesus is Yahweh God in the flesh.

So we have to make a complete break with sin and idolatry. And they did that. They confessed their sins and got things right. We have to do the same, confess our sins to the Lord and yield to His lordship. I remember when I was in college and I had a girlfriend and that wasn't so great. She was back in Houston, and it wasn't a good relationship although she was the girl that led me to the Lord.

I remember my discipleship leader said, "Jeff, you need to make a clean break with her. You're making this kind of half-hearted break where it's like, well, I'm leaving the door kind of open that we can get back together." He said, "That's not good. You just need to make a clean break and start over fresh with the Lord and in with a relationship that's honoring and pleasing to Him." You've got to get rid of any idols that might be in your life.

Larry Nobles: Well, tomorrow on the broadcast we'll continue right there after a short review, so make plans to be with us again then for the conclusion to the lesson called When the Lion Roars.

People have been asking life's biggest questions since the beginning of time. Chances are you've asked them too. Here are four of the most common: Can I be sure I'm going to heaven when I die? If God loves me, why doesn't He answer my prayers? If I'm saved and going to heaven, can I mess up enough to lose it? And number four: I know myself, so how can God still love me?

Pastor Jeff has written four booklets to address these topics, and they're free. All you have to do is go to fromhisheart.org and click the "Free Stuff" link. And you can download the free booklets right there on our Free Stuff link. Go to fromhisheart.org, click "Free Stuff". Again request the series Leaving a Legacy. Thank you for helping deepen lives in God's word and extend His truth to the nations. Now let's return to part one of this timely and powerful message, When the Lion Roars.

Dr. Jeff Schreve: You have an enemy out there. Your adversary, Peter says, the devil prowls around also like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour. But resist him firm in your faith. He doesn't ever stop. He comes to steal and kill and destroy. And when you are gathered having a prayer meeting, confessing your sins, getting your heart right with God, he is planning his attack on you.

Larry Nobles: Join Pastor Jeff Schreve on Thursday as he continues to share real truth, love, and hope here on From His Heart.