Check. There we go. Good morning, friends. It is, it is so good to be in the Lord's house together. If you've not met me or I've not gotten a chance to meet you, I would love to do that.
My name is Ricky. I'm one of the pastors here at the church, and I just realized recently that I have been serving in some pastoral capacity here since 2010, which is insane. And it's 15 years, I think, this year that I've been privileged to serve here. And I just want to say thank you on behalf of my family. It is a joy to be here.
We live We live in an age where the average pastoral tenure is 5 to 7 years in many places, and we've been privileged to be here for 15 years and hope many, many more to come. And one of the reasons that has been such a joy has been you guys. You as a church are just a means of grace, a help to my family, and I can't believe I get to raise my kids alongside of y'all. So thank you so much. It's a privilege to be here.
Now let's open God's Word to 1 Samuel chapter 12. 1 Samuel chapter 12, if you would.
And we join the text as Samuel, the prophet and judge, is addressing Israel at a critical moment, at a fork in the road, essentially, for the people of God. And we're going to read all of chapter 12 throughout the sermon, but I want to give you just the headline hanging over the text. And the headline is verses 24 and 25. So 1 Samuel chapter 12, verses 24 and 25. Let's read this and remember, this is God's Word.
Only fear the Lord and serve Him faithfully with all your heart. For consider what great things he has done for you. But if you still do wickedly, you will be swept away, both you and your king. This is God's word. Lord, we pray for your blessing over the preaching and hearing of your word in your house today.
Amen.
Well, friends, have you ever had to unlearn something? I don't know about you, but I've found it way harder at times to unlearn something than to learn something. I don't know if anybody else has that experience. I remember this vividly when I was a late, kind of late preteen. I think it was like 11, 12, 13, something like that.
And God bless my parents, man. They tried They tried me at every sport, vainly hoping I was going to find the one I was good at, and it turns out it was none of them. It was reading. That's what I was good at. So I remember one time where they were thinking, well, maybe Ricky loves swimming, so he'd be great on the swim team.
And I thought, well, I love swimming, so let's give it a shot. So wisely, they're like, well, let's have you work with a friend of ours who's a coach, a swim coach, and help you get up to speed so you can try out for the team. So I thought, awesome. I get to swim 2, 3 times a week. Great, let's do it.
Now, here was the problem. The coach immediately, now looking back I can see, immediately saw that I had problems. And he would try to help me with like, well, maybe try to not do that, maybe try to, you know. And I think the reality was I just kept swimming the way I was going to swim. So he'd tell me swim over there, swim back, and I would just do it the way I did it, right?
So finally, I think he hit upon an exercise that changed the way that I related to him. And here's what he did. He said, OK. "Just forget about any of the stuff, the mechanical stuff I've told you to do. Just swim as fast as you can from here to the other side and back, and I'm gonna time you. We're gonna see where you're at." And I was like, "Alright, here it is.
Here we go, baby. And I'm gonna show this coach and everybody else in this swimming pool a thing or two." And so I— he says, "Go." I jump in the water, and I'm sure from the outside of the pool, it looked like just a little sputtering Sonic the Hedgehog racing over the top. It was split-second.
Splash, splash, splash. You know, my arms are flailing, my legs are and my lungs are burning. And I am just going full bore all the way down, flip around all the way back. There's water everywhere. I get to the end, you know, hit the side.
He goes, oh, okay, here's your time. You see that? And I had no idea if that was a good time, but I felt good. I was like, alright, see, that's a good time. And he goes, okay, now I want you to try it one more time.
And I thought, man, okay, I'm not going to try it again. You just told me to give everything. I just did. I'm out of energy. He goes, okay.
If you're a swimmer, you know exactly what he's gonna say. This time, try not to splash. And I was like, what do you mean? He's like, just smooth, you know, strokes in the water. Just shouldn't sound like anything.
Should sound like click, click, click, click, click. Like that. And I thought, that's gonna be way slower. So, you know, I'm like, okay, I'll try it again. Do the best I could.
And I was exhausted, right? I was like 50% energy. So I do it.
Quiet as I could all the way there, all the way back. And then he showed me the time, and it was, as you could guess, faster. And what he illustrated to me that moment is my way of doing it at 100% strength was actually slower than his way with less energy. And so from then on, changed my relationship to the coach, and I decided, okay, I'm gonna listen to this guy, right? His way is actually better than my way.
And I had to unlearn my my way in order to grow.
That is what our text is about today. That's exactly what this text is about.
See, in, in 1 Samuel chapter 12, Samuel is going to stand up and he's going to address this big gathering of the people of God at a fork in the road for the whole nation. They've just won a victory. They're about to install a king, and he knows he has this moment to essentially help them unlearn some things that they have done in the previous generations and show them a new way to do it. And that way is God's way.
Now, Todd Peterson, one of our elders, often he oversees our counseling group right now, and he will often ask people a question in the first or second meeting. And I think it's a brilliant question because there's so much packed into it. And he will ask people— people come in and think, okay, I have a problem, I need help, so help me with this problem. And he will say this: Are you ready to start doing things God's way? Because that's the key, right? If you are ready to start doing things God's way, man, there's all the hope in the world that you can change. But if in that moment you're like, no, not really, I just want to do things my way with a little bit extra help, right? That's, that's not going to work.
And that is what Israel has been doing up to this point. So our main question today to Israel and to us today is this: are you ready to start doing things God's way? In all the areas of your life, from beginning to end, from marriage to money to parenting to sexuality to media, all of it. Are you ready to do things God's way?
6 · Ricky walks through 1 Samuel 12:6-13, exposing the cyclical pattern of Israel's history: God's deliverance, Israel's forgetfulness and idolatry, judgment, repentance, rescue—and now another turn away from God in demanding a king out of fear rather than trust
Now we're going to walk through 4 questions as we go through the text today. And each of these points back to that big main question. But the first question the text is going to ask us is this: Do you see your need for change? Do you see your need for change? And Samuel recounts the history of God's people. Look at verse 6.
Samuel said to the people, the Lord is a witness who appointed Moses and Aaron and brought your fathers up out of the land of Egypt. Now therefore stand still that I may plead with you before the Lord. All right. He's like, I have something on my heart. I need you to hear this before the Lord concerning 2 things. One, all the righteous deeds of the Lord that He performed for you and your fathers. So he's going to illustrate. When Jacob went into Egypt and the Egyptians oppressed them, then your fathers cried out to the Lord, and the Lord sent Moses and Aaron who brought your fathers out of Egypt and made them dwell in this place. And up until this point, everyone in Israel is going like, "Amen! That was awesome! He did bring us out of Egypt." So he's painting, "Okay, this is the Lord's way. This is how the Lord has dealt with you." Then verse 9, "But they forgot the Lord their God." Oof, like, oh, that's not— so now we're going to go our way. "And He sold them into the hand of Sisera, commander 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. But they cried out to the Lord and said, 'We have sinned because we have forsaken the Lord and have served the Baals and the Ashtoreth. But now deliver us out of the hand of our enemies, that we that we may serve you. And then the Lord sent Jeroboam and Barak and Jephthah and Samuel and delivered you out of the hand of your enemies on every side, and you lived in safety. So again, you see, it's like the Lord's way, their way, back to the Lord's way. And when you saw that Nahash, the king of the Ammonites, came against you, you said to me, no, but a king shall reign over us. When the Lord your God 'God was your king.' Notice what he's saying. He's not saying it's wrong necessarily to ask for a king. He's saying out of their heart, they get threatened from the outside and they go, 'How do we deal with this?' And they can either go back to the Lord and say, 'Lord, help us,' or they can say, 'We're going to go our way. We know what to do. It's our plan. It's our choice. This is what we want.' So they go back to their way. Verse 13, 'And now behold the king whom you have chosen, for whom you asked.' Behold, the Lord has set a king over you.
7 · Ricky makes explicit the theological purpose of Samuel's historical review: to confront Israel with the pattern of their rebellion and help them see their desperate need for change before they repeat the cycle yet again
Why is he going through this history? He wants them to see the Lord— this is the Lord's way, blessing and safety and life, and their way, disaster. And then the Lord's way again, blessing, safety, and life and rescue, their way, disaster. And what he is helping them see is, guys, you're right there again. You're gonna do it yet again. You're gonna go your own way. And for Samuel to give this plea to this people, they have to see that they need to change. He reviews their history, right? He reviews their history and says, "Do you see yet that you need to change?"
8 · Ricky unpacks the meaning of 'forgetting the Lord' in verse 9—not passive forgetfulness but active, willful suppression of the reality of who God is and what He has done, which is the essence of all sin
And what is it they need to change? Well, it's summed up in verse 9. "But they forgot the Lord their God." They forgot the Lord their God. It doesn't mean, well, it just slipped their mind. Like you go to, you know, Walmart for a grocery run and you forget the carrots. Oh, that's not what this is. This is they have chosen to ignore the reality of who God is and what He's done for them. They're intentionally putting it out of their minds. And in many ways, guys, all sin is this. All sin is summed up here. It's us forgetting the Lord and turning to our own way. We forget the Lord, we turn our own way.
9 · The Fall in Genesis 3 is offered as the archetypal instance of forgetting God and choosing one's own way, resulting in disaster—the same pattern Israel is repeating
Think about our first parents, Adam and Eve. Think about that moment in the garden which we go back to so often because that's kind of the core of the human condition, the core of the human problem is there's God's way of dealing with the garden, living in the garden, one rule, lots of blessing, but Adam and Eve choose their way. We're going to be like God. We're going to make the rules. We're going to go our own way. And what happens? Disaster.
10 · Ricky directly applies Samuel's question to the congregation, exposing the common fantasy that we can avoid change and still receive God's blessing, which is impossible
Samuel is showing this people and all of us, guys, do you see what happens when you go your own way? Do you see the need for change? Now look, if you want to make progress as a Christian, I think too many of us, me included, are like, cool, I'd like to just keep not change and get blessed. Is that an option? Like, just keep going my way and then just boop, some blessing drops on me. I'm ready for that. I don't want to change.
11 · Ricky distinguishes between superficial behavioral adjustments (surface-level changes) and fundamental heart transformation (deep-level change), arguing that only the latter breaks the cycle of disaster Samuel is addressing
And one of the things that Todd pointed out as I was talking to him about this message is that often people are willing to— listen to this— we're willing to make surface-level changes in their life when things aren't going well, right? So you have a couple squabbling in marriage. If you'll give them a Band-Aid of like, you know what, you guys need to do a date night every week. And, you know, what you need to do is take a trip together and, you know, reconnect. And you know what you need to do? Just ask for that raise so you stop arguing about money because you keep disagreeing. Right? And people are like, sure, I'll do that. But here's the problem. They're not willing to change on the most fundamental level. I'm willing to offer all kinds of like surface-level changes. Sometimes I think about it as I'm willing to rearrange the furniture in the house of my life. Right? But I'm not willing to knock any walls down. Right? I'm not willing to do extensive renovations. And that is what Samuel's calling for. He's saying, listen, until you are willing to change on the deepest level, this pattern won't change. And you'll continue to live in disaster.
12 · Pivots from the first major movement (seeing the need for change) to the second (recognizing there are only two ways to live), maintaining the sermon's logical structure
That's the first question. Are you really ready to change? Do you see your need for change? Second question. Have you seen there are only two ways to live?
13 · Ricky reads 1 Samuel 12:14-15, which lays out the two paths before Israel in stark either/or terms: obedience leading to blessing or rebellion leading to judgment, with no middle ground offered
So having set the stage, Samuel goes on. There are only two ways to live. Look at verse 14. If you will fear the Lord and serve him and obey his voice and not rebel against the commandment of the Lord, and if both you and the king who reigns over you will follow the Lord your God, it will be well. Do things God's way, it will be well. Verse 15. But if you will not obey the voice of the Lord, but rebel against the commandment of the Lord, then the hand of the Lord will be against you and your king.
14 · Ricky exposes the heart issue behind Israel's request for a king: they want a third way that combines God's way with their own preferences, but Samuel insists no such hybrid path exists—only total obedience or total rebellion
Now, this is a stark path. Now, he only— notice this— he only paints two paths here. Two paths. You might think, well, but there's a million paths in life. Everybody out there, there's a million ways to live. And Samuel is saying, no, no, no, there's actually only two ways to live. There's the Lord's way and your way. There's the Lord's way and your way. And the reason Samuel is emphasizing this is I think he sees in God's people that they are trying to find a third way, which goes something like this: I'm willing to go the Lord's way, mostly. Right? Like, I am willing to get up into the 80 percentile, 80th percentile of going God's way, as long as he can leave me with the 15% over here. And he— they want to try to find some weird middle where it's God's way attached to their way, or their way attached to God's way.
15 · Ricky provides two historical examples of Israel trying to serve both God and their own way: mixing worship of Yahweh with idol worship, and requesting a king like the nations while claiming to still follow the Lord
And you see this in a couple places. One, you see this as the text references that they're dealing with idolatry in Israel. Now we know from earlier in Samuel, they're still doing a bunch of the rituals that God told them to do, but what we see behind the scenes is they're also making offerings and worshiping other gods. So think about this, okay? The crops are about to come in. They're praying for some good crops, and they go make their sacrifice to the Lord as they should. And then also, just to cover their bases, they'll make a little bit of an offering to the, you know, the god that other people around them are worshiping for crops. Just to cover the bases, you know. It's not like I didn't sacrifice to the Lord. I did do that. 'But I also, you know, just a little sacrifice over here. Couldn't hurt, right?' And the Lord is saying, 'No, no, no.' You also see it in this request for the king, okay? The request for the king, again, it's not evil that they asked for a king to help them. What's evil is that they don't trust God and they want a flesh and blood king so that they can be like the other nations. They want— here's what they're doing— they want to follow the Lord with their form of government, their leader, and what they want. Do you see that?
16 · Ricky steps out of exposition to personally confess his own temptation to find a hybrid path, modeling vulnerability and honesty about the struggle the text exposes
Friends, as I was reading this this week, I was so convicted. That's exactly what I do so often. I'm like, can I do it God's way and my way too? Is there— can we work out something?
17 · A personal story about trying to navigate Los Angeles to visit both the beach and a museum illustrates the impossibility of going in two opposite directions simultaneously—a spatial metaphor for the spiritual reality that you cannot serve both God and self
Let me illustrate it this way. Recently, a couple weeks ago, our family was driving in the Los Angeles area, which is not for the faint of heart. If you don't know where you are with the Lord, I wouldn't get on the freeways in Los Angeles. I would get that settled. And so we have one day in Los Angeles where we want to do a couple things. We got to see the beach because my wife, she lives in the desert because we're called here, but if she doesn't go to the beach once a year, she doesn't see water, a big body of water, she just— she'll like keel over. She doesn't make it. She's not going to make another year. And so she— we knew we were going to be near the ocean, so we had to get her to see the ocean. And I love I love old classic movies, so I wanted to go to the movie museum. And so we start talking about, okay, how are we going to do this? We only have one day. And she'd heard about this great beach that she wanted to go to from several friends in the California area. And so she said, hey, can we stop by the beach on the way to the movie museum or stop by the beach on the way back from the movie museum? And immediately I was like, I don't know if we're going to be able to do that. And she's like, well, I mean, how hard could it be? And so then we Google mapped it, and this is— I can't do it perfectly, but like, here's where we started. Here's the movie museum, and here's the beach, right? So it's not like we can stop by. None of that is stopping by anything. It is, it is like we're committing the next 24 hours of our lives to the freeways of LA if we try to do that. Sometimes you got to recognize you can't go this way and that way. You go this way or that way.
18 · Ricky applies the two-ways framework specifically to Christian dating, showing how believers start with good intentions but gradually add 'commas'—small compromises that dilute total obedience into hybrid obedience, which the text says cannot work
That's the choice in front of God's people. That's the choice in front of us as we live our lives. It's not I can do it my way and a little bit God's way. It's our way or the Lord's way. And until we settle that in our minds, we'll never be able to make progress. Look, think about it. A common one, as I've talked to young adults, is dating, okay? Just hear my heart for you as a pastor with this, guys, because you'll find Christians who are like, okay, this time I'm going to do it God's way, right? And you're like, awesome, friend, I'm excited for you. The Lord's gonna bless you. We're gonna walk through this together. But over time, here's what happens. Doing it God's way starts having a comma attached to it, and you start going, I'm gonna do it God's way, comma, but I really need to see if we're physically compatible though, right? I'm gonna do it God's way, comma, I'm gonna start letting them become so important to me that the thought of losing them is going to make me do all kinds of things I never thought I would do, right? I'm going to do it God's way, comma, whatever. Meaning, hear what I'm saying. You start making these small compromises going, but I still mostly want to do it God's way. And this is what the text is saying. It doesn't work that way. You either follow the Lord and trust Him completely, or you have to follow yourself and trust yourself completely. And as Samuel has illustrated, that ends in disaster over and over and over.
19 · Ricky presses the application into specific life domains—job, marriage, sexuality, money—exposing the 'comma' pattern in each area and calling the congregation to eliminate the commas and choose total obedience
So here's the question for us today. Where are the areas in our lives where we think, "I can serve God, comma, as long as I get this. I can serve God, comma, as long as this is the job I have. As long as He gives me a spouse. As long as I feel physically fulfilled. As long as I get to use my money the ways I like to use my money, I'll follow the Lord." And Samuel is saying, friends, Brothers, sisters, people of God, it's the Lord's way or not.
20 · Shifts from the two-ways framework to the accountability framework, raising the stakes by reminding the congregation that every choice is made before the face of God and will be answered for
Third question, and this has added soberness here to that question. Do you know that you will also answer to God for the choice?
21 · Ricky reads 1 Samuel 12:16-18, where Samuel calls down unseasonable thunder and rain to jolt Israel into recognizing the holy reality of God and their accountability before Him, shattering the illusion that choices go unnoticed
Sometimes we can start to think, okay, I'll make a choice, and I've heard people say this, yeah, I did it, and it's not like I got struck by lightning or something, you know. And you're like, I don't know if that's the rule you want to use. Not getting struck by lightning. That's actually what happens right here. So Samuel is going, "Hey, you've forgotten the Lord. You've forgotten the reality of who He is. You've forgotten that He's holy. You've forgotten that there's only two ways to live, and I think you need a visual demonstration of the reality of the Lord." So look at verse 16. "Now therefore," he says, "stand still and see this great thing that the Lord will do before your eyes. Is not the wheat harvest today?" Meaning it's the very dry season. Okay, very dry, no moisture. I will call upon the Lord that He may send thunder and rain, and you shall know and see that your wickedness is great, which you have done in the sight of the Lord in asking for yourselves a king. So Samuel called upon the Lord, and the Lord sent thunder and rain that day, and all the people greatly feared the Lord and Samuel.
22 · Ricky unpacks the theological significance of the thunder and rain as a theophanic sign of God's holy power and judgment, designed to produce holy fear—reverent awe that reorients all of life around the reality of God's sovereignty and righteousness
Now what in the world is going on here? Well, this moment would be like— I'm trying to think of an El Paso equivalent. It would be like in the summer it snows or something like that, okay? It's that extreme. Or early September we get a permafrost layer because the temperature drops to 20 degrees. That's how radical this is. And notice this: in the history of God's people, this thunder and rain, the thunderous lightning kind of thing, it always represents God's power and offense. His holy presence to judge, right? The power of God, the force of the reality of God. And it's almost like these people are like, hey, I think we're fine, we're going to live God's way mostly. And then God, boom, gives them a thunderous reminder that all they do, they do before the very face of God. And notice the effect is that the people greatly feared the Lord. Now, fear biblically in the Bible is not like, oh, I'm so scared, like a scary movie. It's holy, reverent, trembling awe before the Lord, meaning that they— that you acknowledge the reality that God is there, he is in charge, he is sovereign, and there is not an atom in the universe outside of his control, and that he is completely righteous and completely just. And when that imposes— that reality imposes itself on you, all of a sudden you start thinking about life a little differently. Don't you?
23 · A parenting story illustrates how our evaluation of our own obedience changes radically when we remember we are being evaluated by someone with higher standards—the way Israel's self-assessment shifts when they remember God is watching
You start going, oh my goodness, right? Now in my household with 3 boys, we have a regular conversation and it goes something like this. I need you to go clean the front room or the playroom or whatever, and they'll go and then come back and say, I did it. And then I, knowing from past experience something about this, will say, if I mom goes to the playroom, will we think it's clean? And usually they go, I'll be right back. Like, that's because all of a sudden you realize, okay, my view, yeah, I mean, it's fine, it's better than it was a minute ago. And then you realize, okay, mom's gonna look at it, ooh, oh man, yeah, probably, probably not great.
24 · Ricky applies the thunder-and-rain moment to the congregation, asking what might change if we lived with constant awareness of God's holy presence evaluating our choices, which would expose the inadequacy of our self-assessment
That's what's happening in this moment. The Israelites are looking at their lives and going, yeah, we're holy enough. We're following God enough, we're doing God's way enough. And then reality of God and who He is kind of is pushed to the forefront of their minds and they go, "Oh, you know what, actually, I'm seeing some need for change. I'm seeing some bad decisions that we have made." What might change in your life if you had the reality of who God is before you more clearly and more often? The reality is this: the Lord's ways are the ways we should live. And sometimes we begin to think, "Well, my way is kind of, sort of okay," until we come face to face with the living God. Sobering.
25 · Ricky signals a major rhetorical pivot: after three questions that increase urgency and conviction, the fourth question shifts to hope and encouragement, revealing that God's way is not opposed to our good but is our good
Fourth question now. And this may be a surprise because you may be thinking, "Okay, Samuel is ratcheting up the intensity. He's saying you got to change. He's saying there's only two ways to live. He's saying God, the reality of God is right there." And you might be thinking he's going to finish them off now with a judgment message. Nope. Number 4, the last question, and I think the most important question, the most life-giving and encouraging question is this: Do you see that God's way is for your good as well?
26 · Ricky reads 1 Samuel 12:19-20, highlighting the shocking grace of God's response to Israel's terror: instead of judgment, Samuel says 'do not be afraid,' revealing that God's heart is not condemnation but mercy for those who see their need
Because it is so easy to be like, well, God just wants me to do it his way, and it's not going to be for my good. And Samuel says, no, you're totally misunderstanding. Look at what he says in verse 19. And all the people said to Samuel, pray for your servants to the Lord your God that we may not die, for we have added to all our sins this evil to ask for ourselves a king. And you might think, Samuel, okay, Samuel's winding up. He's getting the knockout punch ready. He's going to say, yeah, you're a despicable evil people. The Lord wants nothing to do with you. No, look at verse 20. And Samuel said to the people, do not be afraid. Oh, do you see the glorious mercy of God? That they see their need for change. They see that we've not lived God's ways. And the first thing the Lord says to them is, don't be afraid.
27 · Ricky reads 1 Samuel 12:20-22, unpacking the theological ground for obedience: not fear of punishment but confidence in God's covenant faithfulness—He will not forsake His people because He has chosen to unite His glory with their good
You have done this evil, yet do not turn aside from following the Lord, but serve the Lord with all your heart and do not turn aside after empty things that cannot profit or deliver, for they are empty. For, and this is because, here's why to do it, for the Lord will not forsake His people. Oh man, why should you do things God's way? You should do them for all the reasons we've gone over, but the reason at the top of the pile is this. Do things God's way because the Lord will not forsake His people. His people. And look at this. Look at the language. Will not forsake His people for His great name's sake, because it has pleased the Lord to make you a people for Himself.
28 · Ricky makes explicit the theological logic of 1 Samuel 12: God's glory and our good are not opposed but united by His sovereign choice, so that God's way is inherently for our good—a truth we forget when we resist obedience
What is Samuel saying? He's saying the Lord is telling the people, listen, the glory of God and the purposes of God, He has united with His people such that God's way is the way of good for the people of God, because God in His endless mercy and grace has chosen to tie His glory and triumph to our good and salvation. That is extraordinary. So when we go, "Man, well, I don't know if I want to do it the Lord's way," here's what you're forgetting. You're forgetting that His way He has chosen to eternally tie to your good. That is the mercy and grace of God.
29 · Ricky returns to the sermon's anchor text (1 Samuel 12:24), showing how the command to fear and serve the Lord is grounded in remembering 'what great things He has done for you'—the motivation is gratitude, not bare duty
And then verse 24, he just says, only fear the Lord and serve Him faithfully with all your heart. And then he reminds them again, for consider what great things He has done for you. You see how those are tied? Follow the Lord, serve Him with your whole heart, and know that in His heart is good for you.
30 · Ricky presses the application: what would change if we remembered in the midst of difficult circumstances that God's way is for our good, even when we cannot see how?
Man, what would change in our lives if you realized the things that God did in your life and is doing in your life that you think, okay, I don't know if this is for my good. It doesn't look like it's for my good, and I'm tempted to go my way. What would it look like in that moment for you to remember it is for your good?
31 · A personal story of emergency appendectomy illustrates how painful, invasive interventions can be acts of salvation when we remember the intention behind them—the way God's painful providence is for our good even when we resist it
A number of years ago, I had a terrifying experience, and this is for real. I was essentially grabbed by a group of people who held me, wouldn't let me leave. They knocked me out. They strapped me to a table, and I just thought, man, I was terrified. I never wanted to be in that place again. And you're thinking, man, I don't remember that. Did I miss a prayer alert for Ricky that he was kidnapped? Well, no, because you received a prayer request from the church on my behalf that says, "Ricky is in surgery to have his appendix out." But my experience was that, right? I show up at the hospital, they're like, "You can't leave." "I can't leave?" "No, you can't leave. We're strapping you to a table now." "Why are you strapping me to a table?" "Because you're going into surgery." "What surgery?" "We're gonna knock you out. A bunch of masked men are gonna cut into you." And I'm thinking, I— nope, nope, nope, nope, nope, nope. Don't like that. I don't like that. I'd rather do it my way. And they're like, nope, you're doing it our way, and we're gonna save your life. And the reality is they actually did probably save my life because my appendix was rupturing with all kinds of crazy stuff, and I couldn't even walk. And that, I think, illustrates this text. Think about all the things that happened. I really was drugged. I really was held down. I really was not allowed to leave. And if you think of it that way, you're like, "Man, what a terrible group of people." But then when you remember it's a hospital trying to save your life, you're like, "Man, that's great. Love it. Knock me out again," right? But that's what's going on with this text. God's people are going, "Well, I don't like the way that God has done some of these things. I don't like some of the hardships. I don't like some of the difficulties." And the Lord is saying, "Do you not see that all I have done since your rescue from Egypt until now has been for your good?" 'For your good.' And you might be thinking, 'Oh man, well sometimes it was painful, it was uncomfortable.' Yes, I'm saving you. 'I don't know if I like that part.' It was my salvation for you. It was helping me, helping you see your need for me and my salvation.
32 · Ricky performs a biblical-theological move from the Exodus and the thunder in 1 Samuel 12 to the cross of Christ, which is the supreme demonstration that God's purposes and our good are inseparably united—the ultimate reason to trust God's way
And look friends, here's the good news. You have this moment in this text where you have two things going on. You have the reminder that God brought his people out of Egypt and this visible thunderous rain right behind the people as Samuel is speaking. And they all of a sudden remember two things. I remember that God was a rescuer and God is someone to be feared and held in reverence and holiness. But friends, we have a better reminder, an even stronger reminder of those two things in the cross of Jesus Christ. Because on the cross of Jesus Christ, as thunder rumbled, as darkness overwhelmed the land, we see the purposes of God and the good of His people come together like the beams on that old rugged cross. And we know now and forever that if God would do that as part of His purposes for us, how can we not trust Him with the rest?
33 · Ricky unpacks Romans 8:32 as the logic of gospel-motivated obedience: if God gave His Son for us, He will withhold nothing good—therefore we can trust Him completely with every area of life, unlike our idols which never love us back
Romans 8:32 says this: He who did not spare His own Son but gave Him up for us all, how will He not also with Him graciously give us all things. He's saying, listen, he's holding out his hands. The Lord's holding out his hands saying, my people, my children, come my way. I'm the rescuer. I'm the redeemer. I'm the one who went to the cross for you. Will you not trust me now with the ways of your life? Look, here's the reality. The foolishness of idolatry is that our idols never love us back. Our way of doing things never goes well, but we have a God who does love us first, and we have a God who says, "Go walk in my ways and you will find life and blessing." Right? This is where we go, "Okay, if he wouldn't hold back in his purposes from even sending his Son to the cross, how can we not trust him with all things?" things.
34 · Ricky issues an evangelistic appeal, offering the gospel to unbelievers: this could be the defining day where you admit your need and receive Christ, beginning a new life lived God's way under His love and grace
Look, friend, today may be a defining day for you if you're sitting here. I don't think it's an accident that you may be sitting here today. You might think it's an accident, but the Lord doesn't. Because here is the offer of 1 Samuel 12 for you. You today can admit you need help and turn your life over to live God's way. And it is not some, "Okay, well, you're going to go on probation and then we're going to see if you really make the team later." It is a God who loves first, a God who goes after you, who brought you here today to hear about His love for you. And if you're willing to accept Christ, to receive Christ, to grab Christ as your Savior and Lord, you can live a new life today God's way, a way of eternal life and blessing.
35 · Ricky presses the urgency of the gospel appeal: receiving Christ requires renouncing the illusion that our way just needs tweaking and embracing the truth that only the Lord's way can save us—do it today
Now, it is going to mean you're going to have to open your hand up and say, man, this way I've been living, it's not working. And it's never gonna work. See, here's the problem we always do. We go, "Well, my way just needs some tweaks. My way just needs a little adjustment. I didn't have it calibrated right." No, man, we've been trying for thousands of years as humanity. Nobody's done it. No little tweak or adjustment's gonna get us there. You know what's gonna save us? The Lord's way. The Lord's way. So friend, today you can receive Him as your Savior and Lord. Do it today. Receive Him today. Grab hold of Him today.
36 · Ricky shifts from evangelistic appeal to Christian sanctification, confessing his own struggle with the text and asking believers to identify whether they doubt God's way is best or doubt that God's purposes and their good are united
And for us as Christians, let me just encourage you. Is there one particular area where the Lord is saying, "Are you willing to do things my way?" Look, the reality is this. I mean, this message has been, just so you know, this message has been working on me this week. I mean, you're hearing it just from the last few minutes. I've had to sit with this all week, and it's just like the Lord's like, you know, like The text has taken me to task here because I think, okay, I too easily do one of two things. I either in my heart of hearts really do think my way is better than God's, or in my heart of hearts don't really believe He loves me enough that His purposes and my good are tied together. Which one of those is it for you today?
37 · Using a vivid metaphor of a closed fist, Ricky identifies the specific domains where Christians commonly resist God's way (marriage, money, career, dating, sexuality, media) and calls them to open their hands and trust that God's way is for their good
Maybe, look, the image John had in, as we ended the first service, I just want to grab because he says we all have areas in our life where we're grabbing hold of something and we're like, "Yeah, Lord, see my life over here? I'm willing to give you any of my life, any of those things." And the Lord goes, "What about that thing?" And you're like, "Nothing." No, I don't have— I'm not sure what you're talking about. Or maybe the Lord has even recently been trying to open your hand and you're like, nope, I'm going to grab it. And there's that little bit of, but I want to do this part of life my way. Maybe it's marriage, maybe it's money, maybe it's your career, maybe it's dating, maybe it's sexuality, maybe it's your media consumption, whatever it is, there's something And we could go poll everybody and everybody's going to have something different, right? But whatever it is for you today, here's the call of the text: to open your hand and be willing to grab hold of God's ways knowing they are for your good.
38 · Ricky synthesizes the entire sermon: Israel faced a defining choice to unlearn their way and embrace God's way, motivated not by judgment but by God's merciful invitation—and that same offer stands before us today
Like, the reality is this: God's people in 1 Samuel 12 faced a defining choice, and their choice required them to to unlearn the way that they'd been living for generations. But the Lord was loving enough that He came to them and invited them yet again to live life His way out of His mercy and grace. That's the offer for each of us today. Let's do it together.
39 · Ricky closes by leading the congregation in a traditional hymn of surrender, positioning it as a corporate prayer of commitment to let God choose the path in all areas of life—tying the entire sermon into a worshipful act of relinquishment
I would love to have you stand, and I'm going to close— normally I just close with me praying. But I'm going to close with a hymn that we're going to pray together. And this hymn, I just want you to know, this is a really special hymn to me because there have been times in my life I've had to get this hymn out and literally pray it, especially in those closed-fist areas of my life. And this is an old trustworthy hymn of the faith being sung by Christians for hundreds of years. And if you're like, "Man, I can't believe I'm there today," well, you're in good company. The saints of God have been been opening their hands to the Lord for generations. And so this is the prayer. Would you pray this with me? Oh, Heavenly Father, thy way, not mine, oh Lord. Thy way, not mine, oh Lord. However dark it be, lead me by thine own hand. Choose out the path for me. Smooth let it be, or rough, it will still be the best. Winding or straight, it leads right onward to thy rest. I dare not choose my lot. I would not if I might. Choose thou for me, my God, so I shall walk aright. And finally, not mine, not mine the choice in things both great and small. Be thou my guide, my strength, my wisdom, and my all. Lord, that is our prayer today. May not ours be the choice, and may it be yours in big and small areas of our lives. Would you be our guide, Father? Would you be our strength, Father? Would you be our wisdom, Father? Would you be our all, Father? Lord, I pray right now just that as we sing this closing song, we would be willing to open our hands and choose your way. Amen.