Real Life Radio

Jack Hibbs: And it says in that the judgment of God fell upon them, and he sent leanness upon their souls, and many, many were stricken down because they demanded rather than rest in the goodness of God.

David J: Welcome to Real Life Radio with Pastor Jack Hibbs. I'm David J, thanking you for joining us today as we listen, learn, and are challenged by God's Word, the Bible.

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On today's edition of Real Life Radio, Pastor Jack continues now in his series called First Samuel, and a message titled "God is Always Good." Samuel of the Old Testament was the last judge of Israel and he was the first of its prophets. So here in chapter 10, we'll discover how we need to trust God even in difficult times, some would say especially in difficult times.

You see, God's consistent goodness can always be relied upon, regardless of our changing circumstances. When we trust God and the belief that he is always good, we'll have a new perspective on life and the surety of a bigger picture that we can't see. So today, Pastor Jack teaches that when we demand things instead of resting in the things of God, we may find God in his goodness answering our demands. But if we demand wrongly, we'll also reap the consequences. Now with his message called "God is Always Good," here's pastor and Bible teacher Jack Hibbs.

Jack Hibbs: He's so good all the time, but Saul's lack of enthusiasm puzzles me and I'm wondering. And I thought about myself, why would I be like this? If I put my name in here, why would I miss this? And I can only say that if I am not giving honor and speaking of his greatness, it's often because the fear of man has snared my heart. I'm afraid of what someone might think about me when I talk about God.

And then as I think about that, I think about how deceived I am. Because for me to think I'm not going to speak about God and his greatness because they might think I'm weird, that is a self-assumption that I've imposed upon them that they think I'm great. Did you get that? I've been deluded to think that they think I'm something, so I'm not going to speak about God because they might think I'm less.

That's called the fear of man. And we're tempted with that every day, and it's a sin for us to do. And yet, as we've talked about before, if we do take a stand and give honor to God's greatness and speak of him with enthusiasm, people will often, rather than not, they will often want to know this God you're speaking of. Isn't it funny how that works? It is true.

Why are we hiding? Why are we timid? To be timid is to be bound by the fear of men. To be timid is to never, ever launch out and make a step for fear that something could happen and you might be embarrassed or whatever the case might be or somehow think or have somebody think less of you.

The funny thing about all that and that terrible trap is what do people really think about us, honestly? Come on, what do they really think? I mean, how many of you are older than 19 in here? Because if you've racked up some years, you've also racked up among the community some opinions, or I should say people who have opinions about you.

And listen, have you ever been misunderstood? Raise your hand if you've ever been misunderstood. Does it hurt to be misunderstood? Yeah. I want to say that I've given up on being hurt about being misunderstood, but it's not true. But just when I think I've heard the most monumental thing of how somebody could have misunderstood me, something bigger happens.

And I wake up almost every other week to find out what I believe and some new thing about my life that's never happened. It's amazing. People have all these things. The snare of man, the fear of man, it's horrible, it's stupid, it's crazy. Why waste your time? Because if you can get this guy on this side of the sanctuary to think so well of you, everybody else on this side will be thinking bad of you because you've spent too much time with just that guy.

And they think now that you've got a little clique going over here, a little club. But that's not what I'm doing. But that's what they think you're doing. You're not going to make anybody happy like that. Follow the Lord, be in awe of God because you're not going to please everybody. And if you think and if you're going to live your life like that, you're going to have a wounded and disappointed life and you better get used to rejection because that's what's going to happen.

Rather than be trailing behind and as it were in a bumper table kind of a setting, take the lead with the Lord, follow him. And if someone follows you because they see Jesus in you, then hallelujah, praise the Lord. Didn't Paul say imitate me as I imitate Christ? That's what we're called to do.

He's so good to us all the time, even when we fail to honor his name and speak of his greatness, and we have so much to thank him for. Verses 17 to 24, we see here that he's so good to us even when we're disobedient to him. He reminds us of his goodness.

Look at verse 17 through 19. "Then Samuel called the people together to the Lord at Mizpah, and they said to the children of Israel there, thus says the Lord God of Israel." Now listen, this is the Lord speaking. "I brought you up out of the land of Egypt. I delivered you from the hand of the Egyptians and from the hand of the kingdoms and from those who oppressed you."

Verse 19. "But you have today rejected your God, who himself saved you from all of your adversities and your tribulations, and you have said to him, 'No, set a king over us.' Now therefore, present yourselves before the Lord by your tribes and by your clans, or by your thousands." In other words, get ready, you're going to get what you've asked for.

But here, before he does that, God says, "Okay, just want to set the record straight. You're going to be rejecting me. You've done that. But I want to remind you what I've done for you." This is very sad. Just to set the record straight before the gavel falls in court here, "I've done all these things for you, but you're rejecting me and you want a king to rule over you, an earthly king." That being the case, that's the issue before the court today, then bring all of the nation and parade them in front of the bench today. Isn't that sad?

When God was rejected from the nation of Israel in the book of Ezekiel, the spirit and the glory of God departed from the temple in the vision and hovered over the threshold and lingered for a while, and then vanished away. Typologically speaking of God wanted to stay among his people. He wants to stay among us. He wants to stay with you, he wants to stay with me.

But there's this thing that if we're going to pursue our own path and shut him down, there's a hesitation even to God's quietness and his retracting from our lives. There's a waiting, there's a patience that he has. It's amazing.

David J: You're listening to Real Life with Pastor Jack Hibbs. To hear more episodes and maybe catch up in the series, just go to jackhibbs.com. That's jackhibbs.com. And for now, let's get back to our teaching. Once again, here's Pastor Jack.

Jack Hibbs: He's so good even in our disobedience. He reminds us of his goodness. Nehemiah did that in Nehemiah chapter 9. You can jot it down or put it next to your margins. Nehemiah 9:15. It says there and in their hunger, the children of Israel, he gave them bread from heaven, remember that in the Exodus, and when they were thirsty he brought forth water from the rock, Nehemiah 9 records.

"You told them to go out and to take possession of the land that you had sworn to them, to uplift them by your great hand. But they, our forefathers, became arrogant. They became stiff-necked against God and disobeyed his commands. They refused to listen to him and they failed to remember all of his miracles that he had performed among them. They became stiff-necked and in their rebellion appointed a leader in order to return to their slavery in Egypt.

But you are a forgiving God, gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love. Therefore you did not desert them even when they cast for themselves an image, a calf, and said, 'This is our god who brought us up out of the land of Egypt,' or when they committed awful blasphemies. Because of your great compassion you did not abandon them in the wilderness."

Isn't God good all the time? Even in that setting, in the Exodus. And Nehemiah says, "Hey, remember this." In Psalm 26 verse 7, Psalm 26:7 says, "That I may proclaim with the voice of thanksgiving and tell of all of your wondrous works." That's what we're to be doing.

And God reminds us of his goodness. And I'm wondering if we were to make a list, if you were to go home tonight and make a list of his goodness, what has God been good to you about? I know this, that in my first draft of that note of goodness, it's going to be kind of worthless. You want to know why? The best stuff and the most I wouldn't even be able to write down in the first draft.

It would just be some things that just spike into my head rather quickly. But if I sat and meditated and thought about how good God has been to me over the course of my 43 years, it blew my mind. And that list, don't you think that list would grow so long, more and more as time went on? And you might be thinking, "Boy, I wish I could get my teenager or my child to think like that."

Well, what do you think God feels like? He's done so much for us and we need to be praising him and thanking him and so grateful. But you know what? It's so hard. If you're a parent, you know this. It is so, so painful, and there's nothing you can do about it. And that is when you have an ungrateful child.

If you have a child who stays out late, you can fix that. If you have a child that needs their mouth washed out with soap because of language, you can do that. But here's the deal, here's the thing. You can't do anything about an ungrateful child. There's nothing you can do. Yeah, you pray, and don't stop praying. But what do you do when someone's ungrateful?

Nothing you can do. You can take the stuff away that they have, they don't care. You can give them more stuff, they don't care. You can make them sit in the corner, they don't care. They're ungrateful. And Israel had become ungrateful.

Very tragic thing. Verses 20 to 22, we see here that God often grants us our request, and you guys be careful about this. God is so good all the time, yes, but listen, he will often grant us our request and that request, by the way, may not be good.

When Samuel had caused all the tribes of Israel to come near, the tribe of Benjamin was chosen. So they called Benjamin out, all the thousands of them. "Benjamin, step forward," Samuel says. And when he had caused the tribe of Benjamin to come near to their families, the family of Matri was chosen. And so that family was called forward, and Saul the son of Kish was chosen.

But when they sought for him, he couldn't be found. Therefore they inquired of the Lord. Now remember, they don't want the Lord. "We don't want you. We want a man. Hey, where is that guy anyway? Can't find him. Well, let's ask God." They don't want God, but now they're talking to God. Is this funny if it wasn't so sad? "Hey, we can't find our man that's going to lead us. God, can you help us?"

Therefore they inquired of the Lord, "Has the man come yet, Lord?" And the Lord answered and said, "There he is, hiding among the equipment." Isn't that what it says? Oh, lead us on, mighty warrior. He's hiding among the equipment.

When I say that God often gives us what we're requesting, I mean this in the negative sense. Are you kidding? I am not kidding. In Psalm 106 verse 15, you're going to want to jot this down because you're going to think I'm kidding. In Psalm 106:7-15 it says, "Our fathers in Egypt didn't understand your wonders. They did not remember the multitude of your mercy, but they rebelled by the sea, by the Red Sea.

Nevertheless you saved them for your name's sake, that he might make his mighty power known. The Lord rebuked the Red Sea also and it dried up, so he led them through the depths as through the wilderness. And he saved them from the hand of him who hated them and redeemed them from the hand of their enemies. The waters covered their enemies, there was not one of them left.

Then they believed his words and they sang his praise. But they soon forgot his works. They did not wait for his counsel, but lusted exceedingly in the wilderness and tested God in the desert. And he gave them their request, but sent leanness into their souls." What was their request? "We want meat. We want this, we want that." Remember when they're crying for meat? "We're sick of this manna." Remember that?

Manna. The word manna means, "What is it?" "We're sick of this 'What is it?' food." It was angels' food as far as we can tell. Came down from heaven. Wake up in the morning, there's your food, right there. Scoop it up. They did everything with it, I'm sure, that they could cook and make.

But they said, "Listen, we want meat. Moses, you better get us some meat." And God says, "All right, Moses, scoot over." And God says, it says in the Bible that God caused a strong wind to blow all night long. And the wind blew all night until in the morning, quail from the ground to about three feet high covered the land to such a degree that in any direction that a Hebrew walked for one day was nothing but quail.

And it said that they picked up sticks and they began to beat these quail out of the sky. And they had so much meat that it says while they were eating it, it started to come out of their nostrils. And it says in that the judgment of God fell upon them and he sent leanness upon their soul, in their souls, and many, many were stricken dead because they demanded rather than rest in the goodness of God. Be careful.

Very, very important. And then we'll end going down to verse 27 here. Verse 24, we'll go down to verse 27. "And Samuel said to all the people, 'Do you see him whom the Lord has chosen? That there is no one like him among all the people.'" Listen to Samuel. "So all the people shouted and said, 'Long live the king.' Then Samuel explained to the people the behavior of royalty and wrote it in a book and laid it up before the Lord.

And Samuel sent all the people away, every man to his house. And Saul also went home to Gibeah, and valiant men went with him whose hearts God had touched." Isn't God good? "But some rebels said, 'How can this man save us?' So they despised him and brought him no present. But he," that is Saul, "held his peace."

You can close your Bible, we'll be done with this, couple of considerations, but we're done. Think about this. God is good all the time. That being the case, there's some things that I need to apply to my own life. Number one thing is I need to always be willing to take an honest look at myself.

Why? Because if God's good all the time and I being a man am not good hardly at all, then I think I need to yield to God's leading and God's perspective of things. I need to take an honest look at myself. Secondly, I need to take a healthy look at God. Was he not able to deliver them through the Red Sea and bring them out to the other side? Is that the same God that lives in the Old Testament who lives in the New?

If God can part the Red Sea, then can't he meet that dilemma in our lives? You see, I used to make fun of the children of Israel. What's wrong with them? I mean, he's there with the pillar of fire, there's a cloud that covers them by day, and they don't even believe in him.

Well, wait a minute, they had to go through a Red Sea. It's big. And I've never had to run from Pharaoh's army. And yet, boy, I'll make fun of them and I'll criticize them at the drop of a hat. But I wonder after they got across if they could have looked ahead and say, "What's wrong with you, Jack? He just got us through the Red Sea and look, there's a bunch of horses and stuff floating in the sea out there and bits and pieces of Pharaoh's troop, and you're panicking about your little five-and-dime deal? What's wrong with you?"

You see, he's the same God, yesterday, today, and forever. I need to have a healthier look of him, healthier view of him. I need to make a more accurate assessment of life, what's going on. Is God in my life? Is he leading? Is he guiding? I need to realize God's called us, God's called me, he's called you. And then I need to remember that I can follow him, you and I can follow him at all costs because we join in with Peter and say, "Lord, where do we go? You alone have the words of eternal life." God's good all the time. And that's what I need to remember. Let's pray.