From His Heart

Dr. Jeff Schreve: We have the gospel, the good news that we share with people that says no matter what you've done, no matter how badly you've sinned, you can come to Jesus and receive forgiveness. We believe that.

When it comes to a Christian, somebody that has come to Jesus and then we fall away from Him, we wander from Him, we allow our hearts to cool, and we fall as believers into terrible, horrible sin, we begin to wonder, is there any hope? Is there hope after failure as a Christian?

Guest (Male): When it comes to someone who has genuinely asked Christ to come into their hearts, but then they wander far away from Him and fall into terrible sin, they themselves will likely wonder, "Is there any hope for me after failure as a Christian?" Is that a question maybe you're asking yourself today?

Rest assured, there truly is hope after failures, and that's the title of today's lesson from Pastor Jeff Schreve on From His Heart. He's in his new eight-message series, Leaving a Legacy: Lessons from the Life of Samuel. This series is our thank-you gift for your support to From His Heart this month of any amount. You can find out more at fromhisheart.org. Now, though, open your Bible to 1 Samuel chapter 12. Here again is Pastor Jeff with part two of the message, Is There Hope After Failure?

Dr. Jeff Schreve: We have the gospel, the good news that we share with people that says no matter what you've done, no matter how badly you've sinned, you can come to Jesus and receive forgiveness. You can leave the pigsty of sin as the prodigal did and come and be forgiven and find the Father's arms open wide. We believe that.

When it comes to a Christian, somebody that has come to Jesus and then we fall away from Him, we wander from Him, we allow our hearts to cool, and we fall as believers into terrible, horrible sin, we begin to wonder, is there any hope? Is there hope after failure as a Christian? Do I have a life after my failure, or am I just done? It's easy to feel done as a Christian when you fall and fail big time. The devil will tell you you are done. God is not going to forgive you. He is done with you.

Jeremiah the prophet wrote in the book of Lamentations. Lamentations is the lament from A to Z, so to speak. It's the Hebrew alphabet that he does every chapter. He's talking about the destruction of Jerusalem when Nebuchadnezzar and Babylon destroyed the city in 586 BC, and his heart is broken. He says in chapter three, verse 18, "I no longer have any hope that the Lord will help me."

Have you ever been there? Jeremiah was there. Have you ever been there where you feel like you have sinned so greatly against God that you don't have any hope that He's going to help you? It's wonderful that we don't live by our feelings, that we live by faith in the word of God. What does the Bible say about God? Romans 15:13 calls Him the God of hope. "Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit."

We're in a series on Samuel. Samuel was the last judge in Israel. Samuel was a prophet, Samuel was a priest, and Samuel was a judge. 1 Samuel chapter eight, the people demanded a king. Samuel was just heartbroken over that. God says, "Samuel, they haven't rejected you. They've rejected Me from being king over them. Give them what they want. Give them a king."

He does, and Saul is selected as king. Saul, who was tall, dark, and handsome, just looked like a king. Saul has a great beginning. In chapter 11, he leads the Israelites to a great victory over a king named Nahash, whose name means serpent, who was king over the sons of Ammon. The people are celebrating, and Saul is quick to say give the Lord all the credit. The people want to give Saul the credit, but he says, "No, the Lord gave us the victory."

Samuel uses this as an opportunity to remind the people of what they've done and what they need to do moving forward. 1 Samuel chapter 11, they have this great victory in Jabesh-gilead. It says in verse 14, "Then Samuel said to the people, 'Come and let us go to Gilgal and renew the kingdom there.' So all the people went to Gilgal and there they made Saul king before the Lord in Gilgal. There they also offered sacrifices of peace offerings before the Lord; and there Saul and all the men of Israel rejoiced greatly."

Everything seems to be great. Everybody is gathered at Gilgal. Gilgal is an important place because when they had crossed the Jordan under Joshua, their first place to set up camp was Gilgal. At Gilgal, they celebrated the Passover. They hadn't done that in 40 years. The manna ceased at Gilgal because they began to eat from the Promised Land.

At Gilgal, the men—all those kids that grew up when they wouldn't go into the Promised Land, when the parents said, "We can't go in there, there are giants in the land," and so God made them wander around for 40 years until all those people died—all these people at Gilgal had to be circumcised because they hadn't been circumcised in the wilderness. That's an important place, and Samuel takes the people back to Gilgal. That's where he passes the baton to Saul. The judgeship is over. Now it's a kingship. Saul is your king.

Then he tells them and addresses them in almost his farewell address. Chapter 12: "Then Samuel said to all Israel, 'Behold, I have listened to your voice in all that you said to me and I have appointed a king over you. Now here is the king walking before you, but I am old and gray and behold, my sons are with you.' Remember, they didn't want his sons. They said, 'Your sons don't follow in your ways.' 'My sons are with me,' he said. 'And I have walked before you from my youth even to this day. Here I am; bear witness against me before the Lord and His anointed, before Saul. Whose ox have I taken, or whose donkey have I taken, or whom have I defrauded?'"

"'Whom have I oppressed, or from whose hand have I taken a bribe to blind my eyes with it? I will restore it to you.' They said, 'You haven't done that. You haven't defrauded us or oppressed us or taken anything from any man's hand.' He said to them, 'The Lord is witness against you and His anointed is witness this day that you have found nothing in my hand.' And they said, 'He is witness.'"

Samuel set the table to say, "I have proven to you to be a man of integrity and a man of faithfulness, so listen to what I say." Then Samuel said to the people in verse six, "It is the Lord, Yahweh, who appointed Moses and Aaron and who brought your fathers up from the land of Egypt. So now take your stand that I may plead with you before the Lord concerning all the righteous acts of the Lord which He did for you and your fathers."

"When Jacob went into Egypt and your fathers cried out to the Lord, then the Lord sent Moses and Aaron who brought your fathers out of Egypt and settled them in this place, in the land of Canaan, which became Israel. But they forgot the Lord their God, so He sold them into the hand of Sisera, captain of the army of Hazor, and into the hand of the Philistines and into the hand of the king of Moab, and they fought against them."

"They cried out to the Lord and said, 'We have sinned because we have forsaken the Lord and have served the Baals and the Ashtaroth; but now deliver us from the hands of our enemies and we will serve You.' Then the Lord sent Jerubbaal, that's Gideon, and Bedan, that's probably Barak, and Jephthah, and Samuel—he names himself—and delivered you from the hands of your enemies all around so that you lived in security."

Verse 12: "When you saw that Nahash the king of the sons of Ammon came against you, you said to me, 'No, but a king shall reign over us,' although the Lord your God was your king. Now therefore, here is the king whom you have chosen, whom you have asked for, and behold, the Lord has set a king over you. If you will fear the Lord and serve Him and listen to His voice and not rebel against the command of the Lord, then both you and also the king who reigns over you will follow the Lord your God."

"If you will not listen to the voice of the Lord but rebel against the command of the Lord, then the hand of the Lord will be against you as it was against your fathers. Even now, take your stand and see this great thing which the Lord will do before your eyes. Is it not the wheat harvest today? That's May and June on the calendar. I will call to the Lord that He may send thunder and rain. It didn't thunder and rain in May and June."

"Then you will know and see that your wickedness is great which you have done in the sight of the Lord by asking for yourselves a king. So Samuel called to the Lord and the Lord sent thunder and rain that day; and all the people greatly feared the Lord and Samuel."

What do you do when you fail so greatly? How do you get up after a massive failure? Remember that commercial where those people would say, "I've fallen and I can't get up"? Then you'd wear this Life Alert button. It's interesting, John Wooden, the famous coach of the UCLA Bruins, when he got on up in years, his wife Nell had died and he was in his 90s.

His daughter said, "Daddy, I want you to get one of these Life Alerts." He said, "I don't want that." She said, "No, for me. I want you to get it for me in case you fall." He said, "Okay, for you I'll do it." He wore one of those Life Alerts, and one day he fell. Two days later they came and they found him. He broke his hip and he was just there for 24 to 48 hours.

His daughter was so upset and said, "Daddy, why didn't you press the button? You promised me." He said, "No, I promised to wear it. I didn't say I'd press the button." When you've fallen and you feel like you can't get up and there's no hope because you have sinned against God so greatly, what do you do? Three insights from this great passage. Insight number one: you must face the reality of your failure.

Guest (Male): That is something we all need to hear and be reminded of each and every day. We all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Praise Him, His memory is short when you're His child. A surrendered repentant heart will make you a child of God, free from condemnation by Him.

Romans 8:1 and 2 promises, "There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death."

Pastor Jeff Schreve wants you to have a timely booklet that he wrote called Not Guilty. It's absolutely free and easily accessible as a PDF download. Just download it when you go to fromhisheart.org and click the free stuff link. We know it will encourage you and bring you peace even when you fail. You're listening to part two of the message called Is There Hope After Failure?

It's an important lesson to know and live out in order to live and leave your legacy on this earth. It's one of eight in Pastor Jeff's new series, Leaving a Legacy: Lessons from the Life of Samuel. That series is our gift of thanks to you for your support this month of any amount to From His Heart. Just go to fromhisheart.org and click the listen link, or call 866-40-BIBLE. God bless you, and thank you for helping From His Heart this month. Now let's conclude this valuable lesson from the Leaving a Legacy series.

Dr. Jeff Schreve: Face the reality of your failure. We don't like to do that. We like to dress up our failure. We like to minimize our failure. We like to make it sound like this terrible evil that we've done is not so terrible, not so evil. We like to hide our sins in the shadows in a closet somewhere and lock them up so nobody can see them, not even the Lord.

We get very uncomfortable when those things start to become exposed, but you have to face the reality of your failure. That is what Samuel is doing with them. He is showing them the reality of their failure. Remember this, no sin is a minor issue. When we talk about sin, sin is treason against God. Sin is saying, "Well, God, I'm not going to do what You say. I'm going to do what I want to do." That's serious business when you sin.

The Bible says in Hebrews 3:13, "But encourage one another day after day as long as it is still called today, lest any of you should be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin." Sin deceives us. Sin hardens our heart. There's no sin that's a minor sin. The Jews looked at the Ten Commandments and all the different commandments. You have vertical commandments—the first four vertical are our relationship with God—and then horizontal commandments.

Starting with honor your father and mother, which is the first commandment with a promise, that it may go well with you and you live long on the earth. Then what? You shall not steal, you shall not commit adultery, and on down the list. The Jews would look at that and they would say, "I don't do that. I've never killed anybody. I've never committed adultery against my wife. I've never stolen anything." They would look at the outward.

When Jesus, in Matthew chapter five, the Sermon on the Mount, He said, "You have heard it said, 'You shall not commit adultery,' but I say to you, anyone who looks on a woman to lust for her has committed adultery with her already in his heart." He raises the bar on the Ten Commandments. He lets them know, "You might not have done these things in actuality, but you've done them inside and you've sinned against God."

We would all agree that sinning in your heart, lusting in your heart, is not the same thing as actually committing fornication or adultery. It's a sin before God. It's not a minor thing, it's a big thing because it leads to the acting out of those things, but it's not quite the same.

Jesus, on the night He was betrayed, told His disciples, "All of you are going to fall away because of Me." They didn't like to hear that. Peter was the one who says, "No, all those guys may fall away. I won't fall away. With You, I'm ready to go to prison and to death." He said, "Peter, you're going to go to prison and death with Me? Before a cock crows twice, you're going to deny Me three times."

When they came into the Garden of Gethsemane and they arrested Jesus, what did all those disciples do? They fled just like Jesus said they would. That was a terrible sin, but it wasn't nearly as terrible as Peter's sin. Those guys fleeing, that's a bad sin. They did exactly what Jesus said they would. For Peter to deny three times that he even knew Jesus, that was a serious, serious offense. No sin is a minor issue, but some sins are as serious as it gets.

The people didn't really realize how serious their sin was in asking for a king. He says in verse 12, "When you saw Nahash, the king of the sons of Ammon, came against you, you said to me, 'No, but a king shall reign over us,' although the Lord your God was your king." You rejected Jehovah God, Yahweh God, in favor of Saul.

Saul is going to end up being a psycho. He's King Psycho Saul. He's Paranoid Floyd. He's an awful king. He wasn't awful right at first, but he's going to end up being awful. They traded God as their king for Saul. That's like trading a bag of priceless diamonds for a bag of fertilizer. Why would you do that? That is a terrible, horrible sin. Some sins are as serious as it gets.

He says in verse 17, giving them an object lesson, a lesson that they won't forget, "Is it not the wheat harvest today? I will call to the Lord that He may send thunder and rain. Then you will know and see that your wickedness is great which you have done in the sight of the Lord by asking for yourselves a king."

Samuel prays. "We know it's not rainy season, Lord, but I ask You to send thunder and rain." Thunder and rain came, and it scared the people to death. "So Samuel called to the Lord and the Lord sent thunder and rain that day; and all the people greatly feared the Lord and Samuel." He was helping them see how severe their sin was. You have to face the reality of your failure.

Proverbs chapter 30, verse 20 in the Good News Bible says this: "This is how an unfaithful wife acts. She commits adultery, takes a bath and says, 'But I haven't done anything wrong.'" She wipes her mouth and says, "I have done no wrong." That's the world we live in today, where people can commit all kinds of sin and act like they have done no wrong. You have to face the reality of your failure.

Insight number two: you must cling to the truth of God's goodness and grace. When you face the reality of your failure as those people had to face the reality of this sin, asking for a king, that was serious stuff. We rejected God our Savior, our Redeemer, the King of the universe. We rejected Him for Saul. Talk about an insult. Talk about a slap in the face and spitting in God's face.

It was a terrible sin. If I had been God, we would have wiped them out and just said, "Fine, you don't want Me as king? Guess what, I don't want you as a people. You're done. I'm starting over." Serious, serious business. When you come to grips with what you've done, you say, "I'm in such serious, serious trouble."

The devil moves in when the fog lifts and you see the sin that you've committed and how you've distanced yourself from God and how you've trashed your witness as a Christian. You just think, "It's over for me. There's no hope for me." As the poem says, "I have to live with myself, and so I want to be fit for myself to know. I want to be able as the days go by to look myself straight in the eye. I don't want to stand with the setting sun and hate myself for the things that I've done."

When you come to your senses, you begin to hate yourself for what you've done as a believer. Then you start to even doubt that you're truly a Christian because you say, "How if I were really saved, how could I have done this?" So often it's with sexual sin. There's something different about sexual sin because the Bible says that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you're not your own.

You've been bought with a price. The immoral man sins against his own body. It's a different kind of sin. There's something about sexual sin that makes you feel so filthy and so degraded and so awful. You just think there's no way that God could take me back. "I hate me and God must hate me too." All these thoughts and feelings come flooding in.

The rain came, and the thunder, and the people were scared to death. The people said to Samuel in verse 19, "Pray for your servants to the Lord your God, not the Lord our God, the Lord your God, Samuel, so that we may not die, for we have added to all our sins this evil by asking for ourselves a king. We had enough sins to begin with, and then we added this one, this whopper sin."

Samuel said to the people, "Do not fear. You have committed all this evil, yet do not turn aside from following the Lord, but serve the Lord with all your heart. You must not turn aside, for then you would go after futile things which cannot profit or deliver because they are futile." I like that. He tells the people who were scared to death, thinking God is going to strike me dead for what I did. He says, "Do not fear."

Guest (Male): So how about you today? Perhaps you know that you're a believer, that Jesus is indeed the Lord and Savior of your life, but your sin has caused you to feel distant from God. Come back to Him today. Confess your sin and resurrender your life to walking by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Maybe you know right now at this very moment that you've never done that. You've never surrendered your heart to Christ. You're not a child of God. You can be. If you don't know Jesus in a personal way, come to Him now and surrender. Cry out to Him from your heart and repent of your sin. Turn from your sin and put your faith in Christ alone for the forgiveness of your sin. He promises to forgive you now and for forever.

What a great blessing and a comfort that is. To find out more about how to do that and what it means to your life, go to fromhisheart.org and click the "Why Jesus?" link. Also click the "Free Stuff" link on our website where you can download the booklet for free, Not Guilty. God bless you. Thank you for joining us today. I'm Larry Nobles. Time has slipped away, but we trust you'll return tomorrow for the sixth lesson in Pastor Jeff's Leaving a Legacy series. Join Pastor Jeff Schreve next time for the lesson Rebels and Witches, as we open up God's word and share real truth, real love, and real hope from His heart.