Today on Summit Life with JD Greer. So yes, it is true that many Christian leaders fail at their post like Eli and his sons, but many others learn from Jesus and like him lay down their lives for the people they serve, willing to be unpopular if they must, faithful to the end. Welcome to Summit Life with Pastor JD Greer.
I'm your host, Molly Vitovich. You know, the stories of the Old Testament often show us what not to do, even through some of its most famous characters. But in the end, thankfully, every story eventually points us to Jesus, who faithfully delivered God's truth to us and refused to forsake us when we rejected his words. Today, we're finishing up the second message in our brand new teaching series about the life of David. Pastor JD shows us how every good leader becomes great only as they model their leadership after Jesus, the ultimate prophet, priest, and king. So grab your Bible and let's return to 1 Samuel 3. 1 Samuel 3 is about the kind of leader that Israel longs for, that we long for, and the kind of leader that we need. And so in the opening 16 chapters of 1 Samuel, what God does is he sets up a contrast for them between the king that they think they want and the king that they actually need.
Today, the focus is on the kind of shepherd that God wants to provide for his people. One positive thing that you got to say about Eli, for all of his failures as a leader, he knows that you don't do yourself any favors by putting your head in the sand and ignoring God's word. And so he says, Samuel, you tell me exactly what God has said, which leads me to the first of five takeaways that I want to glean from this passage. Number one, you need to put yourself at a place where you can hear hard truth. I'm going to tell you right now, if you read the Bible or you listen to it being taught and you have any humility or the slightest degree of openness, at some point, the word of God is going to make you mad.
If it's not, then you're not reading it right. And if those who are preaching the word of God do not step on your toes every once in a while, either you're not listening or they're not really preaching. Number two, second takeaway, God seeks surrendered vessels, not gifted ones. Samuel's response when God calls him is fundamentally different than what Eli or his sons were saying to God. Samuel's response is speak Lord because your servant hears. Speak Lord, your servant hears. Let me translate that for you.
God, I'll say yes before you even ask the question. That's the spirit that God seeks in his servants. Y'all, it astounds me how many church people, people who've been in church all their whole lives, they expect to follow Jesus with conditions.
They want God to give them suggestions about what to do or say or believe, but they reserve the right to veto or to ignore or to tweak what he says when they don't like it. Let's sometimes compare it to the brake pedal that my driver's ed instructor had in his car on his side. I don't know if they still do this, but when I took driver's ed, the car that had a brake pedal on the passenger side where he sat, so that if I did something that he didn't like, then he could slam on the brake.
I don't know. I think it was just my guy, but he was always so dramatic about it. He'd stomp his foot and he'd glare over at me and he'd sigh. What'd you do wrong?
What'd you do wrong? He let me know. You don't get final say in this car. I control most of the time, but he could veto my choice anytime he wanted.
That was probably wise on his part, looking back on it. But for a lot of people, that's what they do with Jesus. They're like, Jesus, you can drive my life and I'll go along with you until you say something like, you know what? I'm going to call you to serve overseas.
Then out comes the foot and they slam down on the brake pedal. Or maybe this is even more relevant. I'm going to call one of your kids to go serve overseas. I can't tell you how many heartbreaking conversations I have with young adults who are in their early twenties, whose parents are saying, no, no, no, you are definitely not doing that. I don't care what you think God's calling you.
You are not doing that. And they're like, yes, I want to follow Jesus, but you will not follow him here. And they slam on that brake. Or when God says to somebody, I want you to end that dating relationship. You know, that's not the right, you know, that's not my choice for you. And they're like, Jesus, I'm all into you driving, but, but, but no. And you slam on the brake right there. I'm calling you to tithe.
How about that one? We got all kinds of people in the church. You're like, yeah, I love the Jesus stuff, but, but actually 10% of what I slam on a brake.
I'm calling you. Jesus says to have this really difficult conversation. You know, what's going to be hard, but it's just easier for you not to do it. So you slam on the brake. Or when he says, I want you to forgive this person, slam on the brake. Here's what my word teaches about sex or family, slam on the brake. I'm calling you to make the sacrifice, slam on the brake. To follow Jesus means you cut out the brake pedal.
You just relinquish your veto power. And so I'll ask this morning, is this your posture toward God? God, I'm going to say what you want me to say. Like Samuel, I'll go where you want me to go.
I'll do what you want me to do. No limits, no terms, no conditions. It's amazing to me how many people feel free to edit or tweak the doctrines of the Bible they don't like. You know, this is God's word.
I don't get to vote on it. I don't get to tweak what it says to make it more palatable to me or to you. People a lot of times feel like I just grew up with the convictions that I have now, but y'all that's not true. Candidly speaking, there's a lot of things in the Bible that over the years I have found to be challenging, even offensive. There are a lot of things I didn't want to believe. And at first I resented, even hated.
I used to say, give me 10 minutes and a divine eraser. And the Bible would look much differently than it does now if I had the power to do it. But I made a decision a long time ago that if Jesus really is Lord, I wouldn't have conditions on following him. What he says is my rule. He's Lord.
He's my king of kings, not my king of suggestions. And that means if God says it and I know he says it, then by his grace, I'm going to be committed to it regardless of how offensive or unpopular it is. I don't have the freedom to edit God's word and you don't either. You've probably heard the little quip that God made man in his image.
And ever since then, we've been trying to return the favor. I don't have that freedom and neither do you. So I just ask again, what's your posture toward God's word and the leadership of his spirit? Christian, God wants to use you powerfully like he did Samuel and David, but it starts with surrender. The spirit only fills a completely surrendered vessel. Love how C.S.
Lewis says it in mere Christianity. Watch this. Give me all of you. I don't want a certain amount of your time. I don't want a certain amount of your talents or your money. I don't want a certain amount of your work. I want you.
I want all of you. I did not come to reform or correct the natural self, but to kill it. No half measures will do. I don't want to only prune a branch here and a branch there. Rather, I want the whole tree out. Hand it over to me, the whole outfit, all of your desires, all of your wants and your wishes and your dreams. Turn them all over to me. Give yourself to me and I will make you a brand new self.
This time in my image. Give me yourself and in exchange I will give you myself. My will shall become your will. My heart shall become your heart.
Isn't that what God said about Samuel? I'm going to raise up a righteous prophet who's going to do my will and know my heart and speak my words. God wants to do more, Christian, than just reform you morally. He wants to fill you with resurrection power that can save people's lives, but that only comes through total surrender, which leads me to number three.
I'm very excited about this too, so thank you. Okay. Number three, God has a call on your life. God has a call on your life. Samuel's experience is in one sense unique. Samuel had a special call on his life to be Israel's greatest prophet and that whole getting woken up in the middle of the night by a voice, that's not a normal way that God calls people. In fact, as far as I know, Samuel's the only person in the Bible God ever called that way. But having said that, I do believe Samuel demonstrates how all of us should respond to the calling of God in our lives. You see, your call may not be revealed as dramatically as Samuel's was, but God has a calling specifically for you. An assignment to be his mouth and his hands and his feet to somebody and you've got to be every bit as sensitive to God's voice and surrender to it as Samuel was. One of the most destructive myths that Christians in our day believe is that only a few of us are called and calling only happens through some weird mystical moment like Samuel's and that if that has not happened, then you're not really called. There's only a few people in the Bible that God calls in a dramatic way. Samuel, Moses, Mary, the apostle Paul, for the vast majority of us, including me, it doesn't happen that way.
It didn't happen that way for me. Scripture says that God has a special assignment for every believer and your job is to figure out what that is and get after it. The question we say is no longer if you're called, the question is where and how. Some of you know the Lord in the salvation sense, but you don't know the Lord in the sense that you walk with the Spirit and are used by Him. You say, well, how can I know what my calling is?
That's a great question. I'm going to give you the usual answers, okay? In fact, you ought to write these down. These should not be new to you if you've been around the church, but let me give you these. Here's how you hear God's voice and His Spirit today.
Number one, saturation in His Word. As you saturate yourself in His Word, His priorities become clearer and your role becomes more apparent. Number two, communion with God in prayer. This one admittedly is a little bit more mystical, but God will begin to highlight part of the mission and you'll begin to get passionate about it and you'll start to lean into it and you'll start to say, this is what I'm called to do and other people will recognize that. That's number three, practicing your gifts.
You start pedaling the bike. You start using whatever you know to use and all of a sudden God begins to affirm you in it. Number four is involvement, deep involvement, real involvement in the church.
I don't mean casual attendance on a Sunday. I don't mean always podcasting me or other preachers all the time either. I mean being in a small group, being on a volunteer team, being here basically whenever the doors are open and getting involved in mission so that others are close enough to you that they can see the gifts at work in you and call them out.
Let me do these last two together, five and six. Special experiences and circumstantial direction. When I say special experiences, I just mean that particular way that God has written your story, particular things He allowed you to experience that enable you to be a testimony to others.
Struggles you've had, maybe with infertility, with divorce, an addiction, a chronic illness, getting fired from your past job, some kind of trauma in your past, a past mistake like abortion. These are experiences that allow you a special insight into the grace of God that enable you to minister to others who are now in the same condition. Circumstantial direction just means providential doors that God opens for you. That's like a six point grid I just gave you that constitute the primary ways that God speaks to people today. And your posture toward God's guidance has to be the same as Samuel's. Speak, Lord. Speak, Lord, your servant hears.
The answer is yes, before I even know the question. Maybe that's happening to you right now. You're feeling, as I'm speaking, a stirring, a sense, an awareness that God is moving in you for something. It might be for some immediate act of obedience, like a conversation or a career change.
It might be for something long-term. He's calling you to leverage your life in a different way, to go and be a part of what he's doing overseas in one of our church plants. If you're a Christian, you're called. Your primary identity is as God's servants. By the way, let me say something to our high school and middle school students.
I'm not sure exactly why this is on my heart today, but I'll just share it with you because it is. What Samuel shows you is that it's never too early for you to pursue this. It's never too early to make this your focus and your identity.
One of the quest of teenagers that I've noticed and that I remember is to develop an identity in front of your friends. You want to be known for something. I'm good at this. I've done these things. I'm cool like this.
Sometimes you're even willing to dabble in sin so that you can be cool in front of your friends that way. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. I got experience in this. I got experience in that. Make pursuit of your calling part of your identity. I belong to God. I'm committed to his mission. I'm his servant. Samuel obviously adopted this from a young age. This is who I am. It is possible for you, middle school student, to be as clear about your identity as God's servant as Samuel was. You're listening to Summit Life with J.D.
Greer. As we take a brief pause from today's teaching, I want to share with you about a fantastic resource from Summit Life that's available to you free of charge each day. Our daily email devotional is a great way to develop a daily habit of keeping yourself grounded in the Word of God. These devotionals even follow along with the current teaching series here on Summit Life, and they include a scripture reading, a devotional thought, and a prayer prompt to help you start your day on the right foot. We know sometimes, heaven forbid, you might miss our program here on this station. But the good news is these daily devotionals cover what we are talking about here on Summit Life. So if you ever miss a day, you can stay caught up with a quick reading in your email.
It's completely free, and you can sign up today at jdegreer.com slash resources. We hope that these devotionals will be a source of encouragement and growth in your walk with Christ. And remember, our resources are made possible by the generous support of listeners like you. Now let's get back to today's teaching with Pastor J.D.
Greer here on Summit Life. Number four, Jesus is the greater Samuel. That's the primary takeaway of the Samuel story in pretty much all these stories. Samuel points us to David, yes, but even more importantly, he points us to Jesus. You see, like Samuel, Jesus was born in a very dark time when the Word of God was rare and there were no visions.
In fact, when Jesus was born, God had been silent for about 400 years. Like Samuel, Jesus was born in a time when Israel's spiritual leaders were power hungry, abusive, and apathetic. Like Samuel, Jesus would not have the right pedigree for ministry. He was born in the wrong location to the wrong parents.
He was not rich or highly educated or raised in privilege in any way. But like Samuel, Jesus would be surrendered to the Father. Like Samuel, his power came not from his talent but from his surrender to the Spirit. Like Samuel, Jesus would be a faithful prophet, delivering the Word of God even when it was incredibly unpopular. And like Samuel, Jesus stayed faithful even when the people failed to listen. This is getting a little bit ahead of ourselves, but there's a scene in 1 Samuel 15 where Israel utterly rejects Samuel's words. And when they finally realize that and they come back to Samuel and they say, Samuel, we have sinned. Will you still intercede on our behalf to God and represent us before him?
Samuel makes this great statement. He said, I could never sin against God by failing to pray for you. In other words, I'll remain faithful to you even when you're unfaithful to God.
That is a picture of your Savior, who not only faithfully delivered God's truth to us, but refused to forsake us even after we had rejected his words. In fact, Jesus willingly bore our punishment for ignoring those truths, something Samuel never did. It was like the thief on the cross who railed at Jesus and mocked him. And instead of cursing, cursing this thief on the cross, Jesus prayed for him. Father, forgive this man because he doesn't know what he's saying. And then the moment that that thief showed the slightest regret, Jesus responded with tenderness and mercy.
That's what he does with you and me. Samuel was an amazing prophet and priest who prepared the way for the king, but Jesus was the ultimate prophet, priest, and the king of all kings. Jesus was the faithful shepherd, the leader, the captain, the protector, the provider, the defender that we've always yearned for. Every other great leader in history, they become good only as they model their leadership after his. A leader who puts people's interests above his own, who refuses to give up or walk away, who is faithful to his or her calling to the end.
And y'all, while we got plenty of historical examples of people who abused their positions of leadership, it's also true that Christ's example has inspired some of the greatest, most selfless sacrificial leaders in history, like Lottie Moon. Lottie Moon graduated from the girls' college in Charlottesville, the female counterpart to UVA in the 1850s. She was one of the first women in the South to earn a Master of Arts degree.
She's incredibly bright. She was engaged to be married, but her husband didn't want to go to China. And that's where she felt like she was called, so she went single.
It was not easy. In fact, one of the most touching lines in the biography that I read of her, she says, I pray that no missionary will ever be as lonely as I have been. She gave undying devotion to the Chinese that she loved. When many were fleeing China during the Chinese-Japanese war, she stayed where she was. The work was really, really slow, but this little four-foot-three woman was ferocious, and she would not give up their stories about her putting her own body literally between the persecutors and the Chinese Christians saying, you're going to have to kill me to get to them. In fact, in 1911, a great famine swept her portion of China. Again, she refused to leave. She wrote back to American pastors pleading with them.
She's like, can't you give something to help your brothers and sisters in China? So after she died, churches began to take up an offering every year around Christmas time in her name, and we participate in that offering every year. So yes, it is true that many Christian leaders fail at their post like Eli and his sons, but many others learn from Jesus and like him, lay down their lives for the people they serve, willing to be unpopular if they must, faithful to the end. That was true of Samuel. It's going to be true of David. Most of all, most of all, it's true of Jesus, which leads me to the last thing that I want to point out from this story. Number five, spiritual abuse is a deadly, serious matter, and so is silence. Eli was not like his sons.
Did you catch that? He wasn't immoral. He wasn't abusive in his behavior. He actually seems to have good spiritual sense and listened to God. In fact, 1 Samuel 2 said that Eli's son's actions grieved him and he rebuked him.
He said something to him, but this is the key. Eli was not courageous enough to do anything about it. He seems to have been a good guy, a good high priest, but he prioritized family unity over spiritual integrity. You see, when it comes to spiritual abuse, silence is as sinful as the acts themselves. See, there's probably nothing as damaging spiritually as when somebody who has been appointed to represent God uses that position to exploit and take advantage of those people that he or she is called to serve. And it is equally grievous when other leaders like Eli, who would never, never dream of doing those things themselves, it is equally grievous to God when they won't take action to expose those wolves in sheep's clothing and get them out of the church. Abuse is a deadly serious matter and so is silence and apathy in the face of abuse.
Some of you may have seen that in recent days, the Southern Matters Convention of which our church is a part has taken rather decisive action on this. Just to say that as much as God will give us grace, we are not going to tolerate any version of Eli who seeks to protect other leaders for the sake at the expense of God's people. Not only would our silence allow people to be hurt, it also leads, like we see here in 1 Samuel 3, it leads to a complete loss of the presence of God.
God literally took the ark of the covenant away from Israel because of their silence in the face of abuse. The New Testament says that elders who lead churches ought to be men of proven character. 1 Timothy 3 says, for example, is that elders should not be lovers of money, not be greedy of money, not addicted to wine. They should be men of proven character who are faithful to their wives and whose lives are characterized by integrity and selfless leadership. I will tell you that we have tried as much as God has given us grace in this, we have tried never to highlight talent over character.
Because we know that talent can wow you from the stage for a while, but character is what's going to carry you through to the end. We want godly leadership that is accountable and we put multiple safeguards to make sure that not me or anybody else can run the system. I regularly seek out feedback on my leadership or my messages from our elders, other staff, my main counselor, whose name is Veronica, and members in our congregation. If we discover that one of our pastors has used their position to extort or to exploit, we consider that an immediately fireable offense.
We will not protect or shield in any way. And if there's anything about one of our leaders that says, I'm here for the church to serve me, that's not the kind of leader we want, no matter how talented they are. I know that I'm talking to some who have been the victims of this kind of abuse. And we want to be here for you as a church to be a resource if we can. I know we're not perfect, far from it, but we are committed to you. We are trying by God's grace to be like Samuel, to be like Jesus, and I realize that it might be difficult for you to learn to trust any church leader again.
But if you will give us a chance, we'd love to be able to walk this path of healing with you. We want you to know how much that leader's actions hurt you, how much they grieve Jesus and how much they grieve us too. And Jesus said it'd be better for somebody to have a millstone tied around their neck and cast into the sea than to cause one of his little ones, one of the vulnerable ones to stumble. I can't think of anything that would make somebody stumble more than being abused or exploited by their spiritual leader. That's how Jesus feels and we want to represent that.
Five takeaways. Hope you can see how they all come out of this passage. Put yourself in a place to hear hard truth.
Rely on surrender, not talent. God has a calling for you. Spiritual abuse is a very serious matter and Jesus is our ultimate hope. I'm reminded how important it is to be fully committed to living our lives the way that the ultimate prophet, priest and king, Jesus Christ wants us to live. As a reminder, if you've missed any of these messages on the life of David, you can always catch up at jdgrier.com. Along with our brand new teaching series comes a new premium resource for all of our gospel partners and financial supporters and it pairs perfectly with this teaching on David that we'll be in for several weeks to come. It's a Bible study on the life of David focusing on the book of 2 Samuel with key insights, reflection questions and prayer props each week as you work your way through. We'd love to send you a copy with your gift of $35 or more to this ministry or as our way of saying thank you for becoming a monthly gospel partner.
You can do that by calling us now at 866-335-5220. That's 866-335-5220 or you can give online or become a gospel partner at jdgrier.com. That's J-D-G-R-E-E-A-R.com. I'm Molly Vidovitch and tomorrow we'll continue this brand new Life of David series with a sermon that Pastor JD called God is Great But Give Us a King. Don't miss it Wednesday on Summit Life with J.D. Greer. Today's program was produced and sponsored by J.D. Greer Ministries.
