Today on Real Life Radio. The number one thing we see, verse 22, is that they were sinning in that Eli failed at correcting their error. Dad failed at being a dad to these two boys. And what did it lead to? It says that Eli heard everything that his sons did to Israel.
The slanderous, horrible stories were absolutely true. This is real life. Welcome to Real Life Radio with Pastor Jack Hibbs. I'm David Jay, thanking you for joining us today as we listen, learn, and are challenged by God's Word, the Bible. Did you know there's an easy way to stay informed on the latest biblical events shaping our world today?
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Understand it from a biblical perspective. On today's edition of Real Life Radio, Pastor Jack continues his series called First Samuel and a message titled, Be Careful What You Plant. Samuel of the Old Testament was a man dedicated to God as Israel's last judge. and the first of the prophets, a time when Israel was facing difficulty, adversity, and uncertainty. You see, as there are weeds growing among the flowers, we need to be careful what we sow.
It's all about choosing to do what's right.
Sowing what only our flesh desires reaps a corrupt life. But like a beautiful flower sowing to the spirit reaps everlasting life.
So today, Pastor Jack teaches us that Eli, the priest who served before Samuel, had two sons that were corrupt. Eli had failed to correct their evil ways. and his weak love for them ended in tragedy.
Now with his message called Be Careful What You Plant. Here's Pastor and Bible teacher Jack Hibbs. Be careful. What you plant. Say, what do you mean?
Well Exactly that. Be careful what you plant. Uh certainly. You and I are living at the time of the year. where everything's kind of, or at least supposed to be dormant.
We're kind of having summer here at winter. But um Listen, the theory goes anyway. That there was a fall that we should have had a little while ago, and The blooming flowers and all, they should have uh Dried up and the seeds have fallen now into the ground. And it's supposed to be at this time. where we're receiving rain.
and the soil is getting moist and the seed there lies dormant in the ground. Awaiting springtime. And as spring advances And uh the days heat up and and all the the seed uh begins to To grow. And as that seed grows, it begins reaching and... and climbing upward and it Breaks.
the soil and it produces. And some of those seeds are going to produce a great flower. And you're going to be glad for that. If any of you planted bulbs this last fall. You're going to be glad because that seed is going to produce this brilliant springtime.
Flour. And you're glad for that. But this is what I find interesting, especially bulbs. If you go and plant one, I mean, you've got to admit, the thing that you plant is about as ugly as sin. Have you noticed?
You go down to your local nursery or hardware store, and they've got these bulbs, and you plant them in the ground, and they look terrible. Like what can come out of this thing? But when you plant them Uh Even though The beautiful flower that comes forth is directly connected with the bulb. They don't look anything alike. But the fact is, if you plant a a bulb of a certain type, you're going to get a f the a plant and the flower of that type.
You're not going to plant one bulb and then get a rose out of it. That won't happen. What you plant is what you get. And that law is not only true In nature, it's true in our spiritual lives. It is a truth.
A lot of people. All of us, perhaps. Wonder what's going on in my life, or why did this happen to me at that time? Back in my life, or whatever the case might be. You can always, you and I, if we're careful, we can examine what.
has transpired based upon previous Sowing of seed. And the scripture tells us. That God in creation. Had everything working perfect, and then Adam. Send.
In fact, the scripture says, then God said, to Adam, because you have heeded the voice of your wife. Guys? No, I'm kidding. Listen. But because you have heeded the voice of your wife, because remember, Eve fell first, she sinned first.
She listened. to Satan first, but Adam listened to Eve. He says, because this has happened and you've eaten from the tree of which I commanded you, saying, you shall not eat of it, cursed is the ground for your sake. In toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life, both thorns and thistles. It shall bring forth for you, and you shall eat the herb of the field.
In other words, Adam, since this horrible thing has happened, you're gonna become a farmer now, and you're gonna have a real problem with thorns and stickers. Um From this time on, Briars. There's going to be along the beautiful flowering plant and fruit, there's going to be. The thorny briars. There's going to be the righteous which God ordained, and then there's going to be the things that come from sin.
And from that moment on, there's always been a gardening problem. Both in the earth and in the heart of man. And so as the scripture says in Galatians 6, Be not deceived, God says, for whatsoever a man sows, that shall he also reap. For he who sows of the flesh will of the flesh reap corruption. But he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life.
And so in our lives, we are either sowing to the Spirit, Or we're sewing to the flesh. Here's the tough part: it is natural for us to sow to the flesh. The flesh is screaming for attention. Our flesh demands its way. And whenever it does that, and we heed it or yield to it, we are sowing to the flesh.
And um What are some of the examples of that? The list is Forever long. But it is contrary to the things of the spirit. Example: when you are. Seeking God, you're sowing to the Spirit when you're praying.
When you're desiring to have the Bible lived out in your life, when you want to follow God. You are walking in the Spirit. And so when you pursue God, In the spirit, God blesses you. In the spiritual realm, but it will also manifest. In other ways as well.
But God says, don't be deceived. This is the law. He just says, this is a rule. Just like if it were to you go up on a roof and jump off, you will not go up. You'll go down.
It's a law. It doesn't mean God is angry at you. It doesn't mean that God is somehow displeased with you. If you jump off a roof, you're going to go down. That's the way it works.
And God says: if you sow to the flesh, you will of the flesh reap. corruption. And we're going to see this as we've continued on. In our study, about Eli and his sons, in contrast, To Hannah. And Samuel In the Spirit.
It's an awesome study. It's exciting. But we don't want to look at just the historical background of what we're seeing. We want to put ourselves into the text and also get out of it what applies to us today. Excuse me.
So, in your note-taking, Why don't you jot down our first point this evening? And we'll look at that in verse 22 to 25. And that is regarding our sowing and being careful about what we plant, we need to choose what is right. We need to choose the right thing to do. We need to choose to do the very right thing.
And so we're going to look at three things under this point. that Eli was very careful not to do. He didn't do the right thing. He did the wrong thing. And Eli, if you recall, was a priest of God, the priest.
And so we see right here that he's going to be failing, he's going to be neglecting, and he's going to be resisting. All that we see here is that he did not choose the right thing to do.
So, in verse 22, look what it says there. It says, Now Eli was very old. And he heard everything that his sons had did. And so Israel was being plagued by Eli's sons, and that's a very pathetic thing. And it says here, and it's terrible, that they lay with the women.
And they'd not only laid with the women there, but the women were specifically positioned at the temple for service. Eli's two sons. We're erring in that their flesh Is their goal. They're pursuing the things of the flesh. And Eli's boys are not only, as we saw last time together, ripping off.
From the offering of God's people. Remember that with the flesh hooks? The people would come and bring their offering, and they said, hey, you know what? Barbecue that for me.
Well, it wasn't theirs to take. It was God's. And they were taking extra portions of meat, of food for themselves. They were amassing, listen, things that people offered to God, they were amassing to themselves instead of giving it to God. They were priest, I say quote, priest.
But they were rip-offs. Gee, is that going on today anywhere? You know, you can just watch some people on so-called Christian TV. Oh, I don't want to... I'm not going to go there.
No. But listen, what is going on here is that these men Uh Erred, quite frankly, because Eli their father. failed At correcting their error.
So jot that down. The number one thing we see, verse 22, is that they were sinning in that. Eli failed at correcting their error. Dad failed at being a dad to be a dad. These two boys.
And what did it lead to? It says that Eli heard everything that his sons did to Israel. The slanderous, horrible stories were absolutely true. And Eli In his Parenting, as we'll see. He was actually the one who set this up.
Say, how could he say that? He was a priest of the Lord. He was a priest of the Lord. He was called by God to do his task. But he neglected his own boys.
This is a terrible thing. Failing to correct error. And we're going to look at these things. I don't want to look at it just historically. We need to make this book.
a very personal book to us today. Eli had not, listen, Eli had not pursued the souls of his sons. He didn't and we've seen no record of him praying for them We see no record of him lamenting and weeping. We see that he's grieved. We see that he hears about what the boys are doing, but we hear nothing of them falling on the face and praying.
And begging God for help. For God to step in. In this he did not. Evangelize his sons failing to correct error. What?
Or how? Because what Eli saw from the very start was his boys going astray. And listen, many parents make this fatal flaw. They begin to maybe look at their kids as their friends.
Now, I know I'm gonna step on some toes, but quite frankly, your toe needs to be stepped on in a very big way. You look, maybe because of the circumstances in your life, that your child is your best friend. Listen, you may be close to your child, but you are your child's parents. And your child, listen, if they, and I guarantee you they will not admit this to you, but they'll admit it to a pastor or a youth leader or somebody else. Your child is looking to you to be the authoritative.
A correction officer, if I can put it that way, in their life. If somebody else does it, that person's mean to them. But if you do it, though you may hear those words, you're the parent. God has given you a divine position. And Eli did not enforce that authority that God had passed on to him as a parent.
He didn't correct his sons. He let their error continue. You're listening to Real Life with Pastor Jack Hibbs. You know, 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. By the way, if you want to take this down as a note, it's a tremendous lesson to learn. In Job chapter 1, verses 4 through 5, I'll paraphrase for time: Job was such an awesome dad. That his children, it said, were feasting.
All of his kids were together, and they were. Eating and they were partying and having a great time. It didn't say they were sinning. But it says in the next day, Job got up and began to sacrifice to God and pray for his children. And it says, just in case.
Any of his kids had thought a bad thought. There was no evidence of sin in Job's children's life. But what did Job do? He prayed. Dad, what should you do?
Pray for your kids. Personally, I think your kids should know that. I think your kids should even catch you praying for them at times. If not, I think it should be all out blatant. Grab them by the shoulder.
It doesn't have to be anything spectacular. Grab them by the shoulder and say, God bless your day, Junior. Or, I'm watching you, and I'm praying for you, and I'm rooting on your side, buddy. It can be very casual like that. I think you should be able to tuck your kids into bed.
Except now, my kids go to bed after me, so they tuck me in, I think, or they need to. Yeah. But I can tell you that, and listen, and I say this humbly with a tremendous amount of flaws. I am not. The example on this.
But I can tell you That for most of my kids' lives. Uh If not 90% of their lives thus far, they have gone to sleep knowing that I've tucked them into bed or prayed for them. Physically, just stood over them or knelt down next to them.
Now, I'm not tooting my horn, I'm just saying. That when you begin to see how wicked our own hearts are and how wicked the world is, the last thing you want is your child to be subject to this nutty world. And I want to pray God's covering around my kids. You know why? I can't do it.
And I cannot expect the Sunday school teacher to do it. I can't expect their school teacher to do it. I can't expect the firemen or the police officers or the or the government to do it. It's gotta come from me. Eli didn't do that.
He didn't choose to do the right thing like Job. He hears about his son's Escapades There's no change. The reason why is that he's failed at correcting their error. Look at the difference in 1 Samuel 1.27 regarding Hannah. It says, for this child I prayed.
Wow. In fact, at that point, little Sammy's not even born yet. For this child I've prayed. We have no record of Eli the priest of God. praying for his kids.
Isn't that tragic? It's not sad, it's very convicting. Are you praying for your kids?
Well, my kids are 45 years old now. Pray for them. Listen, 45-year-olds need prayer too. Pray for them. Pray for your children.
It's never too late. Dad, you can start. Mom, you can start a ministry now of praying for your kids. Right now. Failing to correct error.
I think the greatest way to communicate Our love for our kids. is to see us and to know that we're praying for them. Secondly, regarding choosing to do what is right in our own lives. It is to learn from what's opposite and didn't happen in Eli's life. Verses 23 to 24 teach us that he neglected to correct the evil.
He neglected to correct the evil. It says, So he said to them, Why do you do such things? For I hear of your evil dealings from all the people. No, my sons, for it is not a good good report that I hear. You make the Lord's people to transgress.
How tragic that sentence is But look what he's saying. He's just commenting. He's just making the statement. We see no interaction as a parent and no intervention. He's neglecting.
Commentaries on this passage of some of the ancient scholars look, and the Hebrew scholars note that Eli is a perfect example. of what not to do in parenting. And let me say this, and it sounds rather harsh, okay? But bear me out on this. It has been suggested, and I have to agree.
that he has weak love for his sons. His sons' lives resulted in his father having no authority in their life. That means he had weak love for them. Say, what do you mean?
Listen, he had emotionally based love for them. I have no doubt about that. We're going to see later on that he's grieved and upset with them. But true love is going to take some action. Rather than neglecting, true love is going to get involved.
You say, Jack, I wish you were telling this to my... teenager across the way over there. You want to change your teenager. If I want to change my teenager, I need a change. I need to be the one who changes.
I need to be the one that wins them. Because all of us know Was it were any of us teenagers at one point in time? I remember. And it seems as though the more your parents harp and pound. It seems that you set your heels on the ground more.
I think if we pray for them, and then get involved with them. It's a whole different story. I think that's a very important thing. Eli neglected. He's simply commenting: what you guys are doing isn't right.
I've heard about these things. I think he has weak love. Proverbs 13, 24. He who spares his rod hates his son. But he who loves him disciplines him promptly.
Isn't that a great verse? I know that blows some of your minds who follow Dr. Spock more than the Bible. But the Bible says, and this book is the word of God, knows everything God does. God says.
If you spare the rod in your child's life, you hate them.
So I don't hate my child. You know what? You're doing them a disservice if you don't discipline them. Because they grow up and they begin to be absolute brats. In fact, they're branched before they grow up.
When they grow up I don't know what they become. Members at Calvary Chapel. No, I don't know. But The Bible says don't don't uh Don't hold that back. Eli.
probably never disciplined his kids. They had no respect for him.
Now, don't write me later and say, I think that that's fear and that's manipulation. God says, do this, and your child will succeed. If you love your child, you're going to stir them the right way. Can you imagine taking your three-year-old and going, Out, you know, alongside the The river. Isn't that a beautiful river?
Yeah, Daddy. Isn't it nice? Oh, it's beautiful. You know what, Junior? Do whatever you want to do.
And the next thing you know, he's climbing on mossy rocks, and he's about ready to slip into a river that's going to take him away. We're having fun, son. I'm having a great time. Have a great time. But if you say, listen, you can play here, here, and here, don't go past this line, and don't get on those rocks.
You have set boundaries. A child must have those, you know.
Well, if I do that, are they gonna think I'm their friend? Listen. You want to raise up a child? Or are you lonely and you need the friend? Be apparent.
And you set those boundaries and you say, look, Junior, you can go north, south, east, and west that far. But that's about it, okay? And you can't move. And don't cross that line, because if you do, you're going to get it.
Now, why are you saying that? Because you're wicked? No, because you love them. You don't want them to get hurt. James uh Dobson tells this story.
You've all read it or heard it. where he or someone had taken their daughter to an NBA game. It's a classic! She's four years old, and that guy says, Now, look, sweetheart, you can go anywhere you want, except you cannot cross the red line on that wooden floor. If you do, you get the people those guys will step on you.
So she's playing and goofing off and the next thing he knows, he looks down there and his daughter is standing on the safe side, you know, the okay side of the red line. And she throws her shoulders back and looks at dad, and then looks at the line, and then looks at dad. Looks back at the line, moves closer to it, looks back at dad, and then plops her foot on the other side of the line. Looking right back at dad, basically saying, What are you gonna do about it? Are you man enough to do anything about it?
Verse 25: We see here that in choosing to do the right thing and how Eli failed. We see that there's a resisting of correction. And we don't want to do that. We want, even in our own lives, we want to receive correction from the Lord. Or from a brother, or from anyone else, for that matter.
Look at verse 25. If anyone sins, Eli is saying to his sons, if anyone sins against another, God will judge him or God will correct him. And that's a fact, that's true. But if a man sins against the Lord, Who will intercede for him? Pastor and Bible teacher Jack Hibbs.
here on real life radio, and his message called, Be Careful What You Plan. You know this message is part of Pastor Jack's series called First Samuel. A series highlighting the prophet Samuel, who was called by God during one of Israel's darkest ages, to bring the people back to the heart of true worship. and will continue on the next edition of Real Life Radio. Hey, our featured resource for the month is a great book by Charles Spurgeon, the great preacher of yesteryear.
Words of warning. And listen to the subtitle, everyone, for those wavering between belief and unbelief. You need this book. Everyone needs this book. If you're struggling with belief and unbelief, Get it.
Maybe you have a friend who's struggling with belief and unbelief and they're wavering. This book, Words of Warning by Charles Spurgeon, is just the right fit for you. Order yours right now at jackhibbs.com/slash real radio. This program is made possible by the generous contributions of you, our listeners. Visit us at jackhibbs.com.
That's jackhibbs.com. Until next time, Pastor Jack Hibbs and all of us here at Real Life Radio wish for you solid and steady growth in Christ and in His Word. We'll see you next time here on Real Life Radio.
