Well, good morning.
I even shocked myself a little bit this morning. I came in, made a few negative comments, and John Blanchard quickly corrected me. He said, “It’s a time to give thanksgiving.” Thank you, John. I needed that.
Really, the Lord, as we saw during our worship time today, is the most precious Lord. He loves us so much that He will not give up on us. We need to be thankful for that, and for many, many other things that the Lord does. If there is any distance between us and the Lord, it is certainly not on His side.
So this morning we want to come and really concentrate on our Lord as we share His Word together.
Lord, we come to Thee this morning. As we open Your Word, Lord, we ask that You bless it. We pray, Lord, that Your Word will be a seed, that it will fall into good ground, multiply, and become fruitful, Lord, for all of us.
Lord Jesus, Your Word, You promise, will not return unto Thee void. So this morning, Lord, we take up Your promise, and we stand on it for this time this morning—not only here, as we speak with mostly the adults, but for all those who are teaching our children. We ask Your blessing, Lord. We ask that Your Word have its way in all of our hearts.
And Lord, we want to begin even sharing Your Word by saying that we love You, Lord. With all of our weaknesses, we do love You, and we are thankful. Lord, we ask for Your anointing upon this time by the Holy Spirit. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
Well, I am sharing on the subject of sonship. It has been a good long time since I shared the first message on this matter of sonship. Let us begin by reading some Scriptures.
Turn to 1 Samuel, chapter 1, verse 9. I am going to read quite a few verses because we need to get the sense of Samuel’s life.
So Hannah rose up after they had eaten in Shiloh, and after they had drunk.
Now Eli the priest sat upon a seat by a post of the temple of the Lord.
And she was in bitterness of soul, and prayed unto the Lord, and wept sore.
And she vowed a vow, and said, “O Lord of hosts, if Thou wilt indeed look on the affliction of Thine handmaid, and remember me, and not forget Thine handmaid, but wilt give unto Thine handmaid a man child, then I will give him unto the Lord all the days of his life, and there shall no razor come upon his head.”
And when she had weaned him, she took him up with her, with three bullocks, and one ephah of flour, and a bottle of wine, and brought him unto the house of the Lord in Shiloh: and the child was young.
Therefore also I have lent him to the Lord; as long as he liveth he shall be lent to the Lord. And he worshipped the Lord there.
And Elkanah went to Ramah to his house. And the child ministered unto the Lord before Eli the priest.
But Samuel ministered before the Lord, being a child, girded with a linen ephod.
And the child Samuel grew on, and was in favour both with the Lord, and also with men.
And I will raise Me up a faithful priest, that shall do according to that which is in Mine heart and in My mind: and I will build him a sure house; and he shall walk before Mine anointed for ever.
And the child Samuel ministered unto the Lord before Eli. And the word of the Lord was precious in those days; there was no open vision.
And Eli perceived that the Lord had called the child.
Then Samuel answered, “Speak; for Thy servant heareth.”
And Samuel lay until the morning, and opened the doors of the house of the Lord. And Samuel feared to show Eli the vision.
And Samuel grew, and the Lord was with him, and did let none of his words fall to the ground.
In other words, all that Samuel spoke came about. All Israel from Dan even to Beersheba knew that Samuel was established to be a prophet of the Lord.
Now turn to 1 Samuel 16:13.
Then Samuel took the horn of oil, and anointed him in the midst of his brethren: and the Spirit of the Lord came upon David from that day forward. So Samuel rose up, and went to Ramah.
That is when Samuel anointed David king.
Then turn to 1 Chronicles 21:18 and 26, and chapter 22, verse 1.
Then the angel of the Lord commanded Gad to say to David, that David should go up, and set up an altar unto the Lord in the threshingfloor of Ornan the Jebusite.
And David built there an altar unto the Lord, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings, and called upon the Lord; and He answered him from heaven by fire upon the altar of burnt offering.
Then David said, “This is the house of the Lord God, and this is the altar of the burnt offering for Israel.”
As we consider this matter of sonship, I really do have the young people on my heart primarily. But we, as older ones, still have a tremendous responsibility in their growth. So really, this message is for all of us.
I chose Samuel because Samuel was such a young boy when he began ministering to the Lord. You remember that our Lord Jesus Himself, when He was around twelve years old, came to Jerusalem to worship the Lord and to go to the temple.
At twelve, in the Jewish law, they were to become sons of the law. Christ went to the temple, and when they left, there was a big group of people, and they did not know that Jesus had stayed behind. After a few days, His father and mother realized it, so they went back and found Jesus in the temple.
When they asked Him what He was doing, He said, “Do You not understand? I have to be about My Father’s business.”
Jesus, at the age of twelve, had come into sonship. He had come to that place in His life where He was placed into the Lord’s work, where He had a place as a man. He was no longer considered a child, even though He was still very young and was a child in our eyes.
As far as the Jewish law was concerned, He was now to be a man. He had come to the point in His life where He was responsible for His spiritual life before the Lord, and He was responsible to know the things of God.
It is similar with Samuel, as we will see. At a very young age, the spirit of sonship came upon him. In other words, the age at which he began to become responsible was very young.
That is why I wanted to emphasize the life of Samuel in the beginning: not only because he was young, but because we see principles in Samuel’s life that are absolutely essential in our transition from being babies and children to being placed in sonship and taking up our responsibility before the Lord and in His house.
It is okay to be a babe in Christ. We all have been babes in Christ at one time or another. That is okay as long as you are a baby.
But as you get older, there should be a transition, when you no longer are satisfied with others just taking care of you. You come to that place in your life, particularly spiritually, where you realize you have a responsibility before the Lord and need to take your place in sonship before Him.
You are no longer satisfied with just receiving. You have finally come to the realization that you have to be about the Father’s business.
The Lord touched my heart Wednesday night as we were praying. I will not name names, but as we gathered in the room to pray, there were two children in the room with us—I call them young men. As we got around the table, all the adults gathered around it, but the two children chose to sit against the wall.
I stopped for a moment and said, “Young men, when it comes to prayer, there is no second string with the Lord. When it comes to prayer, we are all first string. Please come up to the table.”
And they did. I did not encourage them to pray or anything; I just asked them to come to the table. But I found it very encouraging and interesting in the Lord that during the meeting they both prayed. I said, “Well, Lord, I have this issue of sonship on my heart. Thank You for this example.”
I think one of the reasons we, as adults—those who mentor in the house of God and in our families as parents—must encourage our children in the things of the Lord and in the ways of the Lord is particularly in this area of prayer and reading the Word of God.
Last time, I began with Joshua. Joshua was around thirty-eight years old when the Lord called Israel out of Egypt and they crossed the Red Sea. Joshua and Caleb were around thirty-eight years old, so they were a little older, but they were both very responsible men.
You remember that when Moses went up on the mountain for forty days, the people were in the camp, beginning to get stirred up about being out in the desert and missing what they thought were the pleasures of Egypt. Where was Joshua? Joshua was midway on that mountain. He had gone about halfway up, and he was there for forty days.
Moses was on the top of the mountain in the presence of the Lord. In the camp, they had actually turned to building a golden calf. But Joshua was a faithful young man. He was not in the presence of the Lord like Moses, but for forty days he remained faithful there in prayer on that mountain, that God would have what He was after—what He had called them out of Egypt for.
A very faithful young man. Obviously, the spirit of sonship was on our brother Joshua.
Then, after about two years in the desert, the Lord brought them up to the borders of the promised land. He sent in twelve spies, two of whom were Joshua and Caleb, responsible men from each tribe.
Joshua and Caleb gave a good report. It kind of reminded me of John Blanchard this morning. They said, “Yes, there are giants out there, but we are well able to take them in the name of the Lord.”
The other spies said, “Wait a minute. There are giants out there, and we are helpless before them. We will be crushed. We will be killed. What is God thinking, bringing us out here?” They turned on Moses too and were ready to stone him.
Joshua and Caleb calmed them down and said, “No, wait a minute. We need to trust the Lord. He has brought us to this point. Certainly He can take us in and take care of our enemies that lie before us.”
But the negative report was so strong that the people would not go in. They had to spend another thirty-eight years wandering in the wilderness until God could strip them down, until He could get them to the place where He could finally bring them into the promised land.
I say that because when we come into sonship and grow in the Lord Jesus Christ, we have a responsibility to remain faithful. Ten of those men were not faithful. They lacked faith.
Yes, they were in responsible places, but they did not carry out their responsibility as sons in Israel. They faltered at a very, very critical moment.
We might say, “Well, they were not ready to go in.” But why did God bring them there at that point in their history? No, they really were not ready, but God was. God was ready to take them in, even with all their weakness and failures.
God was ready. They were not. So God said, “Okay, we will work on you for another thirty-eight years.” All those from age twenty and up perished in the desert, and only that young generation, which had never known Egypt or knew very little of it, was able to go into the promised land—with two exceptions: Joshua and Caleb.
Joshua and Caleb were right at eighty years old when they went into the promised land. They had to spend those same forty years wandering in the desert. They did not come to the Lord and say, “Lord, all the rest of the camp can wander in the desert, and You can deal with them, but we are going on into the promised land.” No. You have to remember that God’s heart is for a people.
It is a corporate thing. Joshua and Caleb were needed for those thirty-eight years to be a voice for the Lord among the camp, as well as Moses, of course.
Eventually they were brought in, and at the age of eighty, Caleb was still ready to go in. He still had that fighting spirit at eighty years old. He was still ready, in the Lord’s grace and the Lord’s power, to go in and face all those giants. And he did. He went in and took some strongholds.
This matter of sonship is a time in your life, an event in your life, at which you come to the point—hopefully at a young age—where you say, “I am the Lord’s. I am responsible for my spiritual life now, and I need to serve the Lord in my place in the house of God.”
To serve the Lord and the Lord’s people, I have to be about my Father’s business. Yes, I am young. I have college ahead of me. I may have marriage ahead of me. A lot of life still lies ahead. But for me, my main concern is the Father’s business. That is the spirit of sonship.
May it come upon our children. We need to pray faithfully for our children, as we have been doing in recent months.
Joshua, when he battled the Amalekites, was the one who led the battle. Moses was on top of the hill, and they held up Moses’ hands, but Joshua was down in the battle. Joshua was with the troops. Moses was on the mountain, and that is the way God works.
Joshua was carrying out what heaven desired. Christ has won the victory, but it is important that you experience that victory in your life personally.
The battle with the Amalekites represents our flesh. It is something we have to battle with all our lives. The flesh always wants to go its own way. It wants to preserve itself, like those other ten leaders who said, “What we need to be interested in here is preserving our lives, not trying to go into the promised land.”
Selfishness is not the Lord’s way. But Joshua knew what it was to battle the Amalekites.
My heart from that last ministry is that us older ones always remember that we have been called to the place of sonship. At eighty years old, we should still be fighting the fight. There is no place for retirement in God’s plan.
It is not a one-time event. The spirit of sonship should be maintained in our hearts and lives before God all of our lives. God wants to bring many sons to glory.
As much as the Lord loves babes, His heart is to have sons and to bring many sons to glory.
In Ephesians, it says that in the body of Christ every joint supplies to the building up of itself in love. As we take our place in sonship, we need to be aware that we are in the body of Jesus Christ and that, as such, we need to become joints of supply.
We all supply differently. Many misunderstand that and think only those who minister the Word are joints of supply, and that is absolutely incorrect. There are so many ways in which we supply in the household of God:
The Lord expects us all to come into sonship and be joints of supply. It is important that the body builds itself up in love.
If we have the true spirit of sonship, we will not only love the Lord, but we will love one another. Joshua and Caleb realized that they would have to go back into that desert. They realized that was not God’s heart or purpose, but going back into the desert was necessary in God’s plan, and they followed the Lord in those days and remained faithful.
It is not so much a matter of age. Young people often think, “Well, I need to be twenty. I do not know what the mark is—twenty-one, eighteen. I need to wait until I am married.” There are a lot of misconceptions.
But the Lord has never intended that. It is obvious that the spirit of sonship can come upon children at a very young age, and we need to encourage them to be responsible, as parents and as those in the church who have a responsibility for our young people.
In 1 Corinthians, Paul said, “I can only give you milk. I cannot give you any meat.” Paul was telling them, “You Corinthians have all the gifts. You are very intelligent. But I cannot give you anything but milk because you are being childish. You are acting like babies.”
The Corinthians were grown people. They should have matured in Christ at that point. Paul was really admonishing them, saying, “You should be sons, but you are still acting like children.”
In Ephesians, however, from the book of Acts, we know that Paul told the Ephesians, “I have given you the whole counsel of God.” It does not say anything in Ephesians about how gifted they were or anything else.
But I will tell you the secret to the Ephesians. If you read the Scriptures, you find how much they loved the Lord. They were not interested in personal gain or anything. In those early days in Ephesus, they just loved the Lord.
The Lord was able to share His entire counsel with them, not because they were intelligent or gifted, but simply because they loved Him and shared their hearts with Him and with one another.
When we come to Samuel, Samuel’s life is so interesting. After he was weaned, his mother brought him up to the house of God. There are different thoughts as to what age that was, but I tend to think it was probably around three or four years of age, because in those days that was when a child was actually weaned.
Think about Hannah bringing her young child. She had prepared him. She brings him to Eli the priest around four years old, and it says that he ministered to the Lord, worshipped the Lord, and grew in favour with the Lord and with men.
You know what Samuel did? If you read later in Samuel, it says that his responsibility was to open the doors of the temple. That was not at nine or ten o’clock in the morning. The temple doors were opened right before daybreak, right at daybreak. Of course, they had to be up before that.
So you had this young child. He was given a responsibility that he carried out. It was a simple responsibility, but think about it: I am sixty years old, and I still have trouble getting up in the morning.
But Samuel was being trained to be responsible. That is why I am always encouraged when we come on Saturdays and our children and young people come and help us. It is important that they see they have something to do to help—as we set up chairs, clean things, and prepare. It is important that they see they need to be responsible in the house of God.
Interestingly enough, the Lord eventually called Samuel and spoke to him. Samuel was not sure what he was hearing, so he went to Eli the priest and said, “Did you call me?” Eli said, “No,” so Samuel went back.
This happened a couple of times, and Eli the priest said, “Wait a minute. Maybe God is speaking to you. Go back, and if you hear the voice again, tell Him, ‘Speak, Lord; Thy servant heareth.’”
Samuel did, and it was the Lord speaking to him. It says that Eli perceived the Lord had called the child. He was still called a child.
I point that out to say that most likely Samuel was probably around twelve years old. He had not reached that place of what they called sonship officially in Jewish tradition, and he was still called a child. So it was probably around the time he was twelve years old that the Lord spoke to him.
What the Lord shared with Samuel was very difficult, because He shared with Samuel the things that were going to happen to Eli and his sons because they had not been faithful. In fact, Eli’s two sons were evil, and you can read that story for yourself.
Samuel got up in the morning and opened the doors of the temple. He was afraid to go and tell Eli what he had seen, but finally Eli told him, “You have to tell me.” So he did. That word later became true. Eli and his two sons did perish.
Think about receiving such a word and how difficult it must have been for a young man to share that, particularly with an older person whom he really respected.
What were the key features or characteristics of Samuel’s life that are so important in this matter of sonship?
First of all, Samuel had godly parents. He came from a priestly family, a Levite family. Brothers and sisters, today we are all priests, are we not? We all come from that priestly family.
So we, as parents, have a responsibility to be godly, to live before our children a godly life. That had a tremendous influence on the young child Samuel.
When Hannah prayed, it said she was in bitterness of soul and prayed to the Lord and wept sorely before the Lord. Now, Hannah means grace.
One thing we glean from this is that, brothers and sisters, as parents, the only success is going to be through the grace of God. It is by grace that we are empowered even to be parents, to raise up our children in the admonition and nurture of the Lord.
We have that responsibility, but we need to remember that responsibility must be taken up in grace. Otherwise, it is us trying to do it.
By the grace of God, even with all the differences among our children—my two are totally different from one another—and even with failures in family life, sometimes serious failures, we always have the opportunity to go back to God and say, “God, I need Your grace. This can only be resolved in the grace of God.”
No technique we might learn can replace that. There are good things we need to know about child-rearing, and principles in child-rearing that are helpful. But the bottom line is that we have to be leaning on the grace of God to raise our children.
Secondly, there was travailing prayer. It says that Hannah was in bitterness of soul and prayed and wept sorely. This is travailing prayer.
If you read through the Bible about travail, like when Paul says to the Galatians, “I travail in birth until Christ be formed in you,” is that not what we want for our children? That Christ be formed in them?
Travail is always linked to childbearing, to the birth of a child. Why is that? Because no one is going to volunteer to go through that just to say, “I made it through the pain.”
Today we have epidurals and other things that really help, and I know my wife was most grateful for hers. But in those days it was natural, and as you ladies know, it was obviously very, very painful.
There are only two things apparently on your mind—and if there are more, you can tell me later. One is, “Lord, bring forth this child,” and number two, “I have got to get out of this pain because I cannot take it much longer.”
It takes all of your effort to bring forth a child. Travailing prayer is what we are talking about. If we want our children to come into sonship, it requires travailing prayer to birth that in them.
It requires more than an occasional prayer for our children. It requires real travail of the soul before the Lord. And it does not stop at that point, because some of us still have children who do not know the Lord yet.
Brothers and sisters, we as parents and as the older ones in the house of God are called to travailing prayer for our children. I happen to know that I am sixty years old, but as far as my mother is concerned, I am still a child, and she prays for me. That is the way it should be.
Travailing prayer should continue all our lives, because our children are always going through something. But Hannah’s whole purpose was that this child might be for the Lord.
Hannah’s prayer is interesting. She said, “If You will give unto Thine handmaid a man child, I will give him unto the Lord all the days of his life.”
Sometimes we think of our children as only ours. But in reality, our children have been given to us by the Lord. He is far more concerned about our children than even we are as parents.
They are His. He has put them into our care to raise them in the admonition of the Lord until they come to this place of sonship and can take up responsibility for their spiritual lives. Of course, we are still responsible to continue praying.
Then Hannah said, “There shall no razor come upon his head.” That sounds strange. Here is a lady who just likes long hair—I do not know.
But most of us realize that this relates to the matter of being a Nazarite. Samuel’s mother dedicated Samuel to the Lord in the womb. She said no razor would ever come upon his head. This is the vow of the Nazarite in the Old Testament.
It did not matter whether you were in the priestly family or not. If you wanted to give yourself fully to the Lord, man or woman, you could take the vow of a Nazarite and give yourself fully to the Lord.
Sometimes in the Old Testament it was only for a certain period of time, because of whatever was happening in a person’s life at that point. But Samuel was to be a Nazarite for life.
That is what the Lord is looking for in all of us, regardless of our age. We are called to be Nazarites for life, to take the vow of the Nazarite in the New Testament way, so to speak. In the New Testament, it is called consecration.
Romans 12:1 says:
Present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.
Consecration is the vow of the Nazarite: devoted to the Lord. The vow of the Nazarite is found in Numbers 6:6-8, if you want to read it later.
The first thing the vow of the Nazarite talks about is separation. The Nazarite intended to separate himself unto the Lord. It was all about separation: to give his life, his will, his emotions, his interests, and his desires to the Lord.
Everything was to be given to the Lord—to be fully committed. Not fifty-one percent committed. Not ninety percent committed. Not ninety-nine point nine percent committed, but one hundred percent commitment. That is what consecration is.
In Luke 14:28-32, the Lord speaks about counting the cost. If someone is going to build a tower, of course they are going to count the cost to see whether they have enough funds to finish it. Otherwise, they will get it half built and never be able to complete it.
Then He says that if a king is going to war, the first thing he is going to do is look at the forces of his enemy and determine whether he has enough forces in his army to overcome the enemy. Otherwise, he is better off trying to seek a treaty.
It ends with Luke 14:33:
Whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be My disciple.
Brothers and sisters, that speaks to all of us, and it hits hard, does it not? We have to forsake all. In other words, the Lord has to be first in everything in your life.
If you read all of that, you realize He is talking about relationships to family, to brothers and sisters, emotional ties, and everything that is dear to our hearts. It all has to be given back to the Lord. The Lord has to be first in everything in your life.
He said, “If you are not willing to forsake everything for Me, you cannot be My disciple.” I wonder how many disciples the Lord really has.
I think we all have to come back to the Lord, ask for forgiveness, and tell Him that we do desire to be His disciples. There may be some issue in your life that you are struggling with. Are you willing to be willing? The Lord is very gracious.
Are you willing to count the cost of being a disciple of the Lord Jesus? That is sonship. When we come into sonship, we are declaring that we are disciples. It is a costly matter, and the cost is everything—even ourselves. We have to forsake our self-reliance.
Then the Lord gives another interesting verse. He says, in Luke 14:34, that salt is good, but if it loses its savour, it is fit only to be thrown out.
We are the salt of the earth because we have the life of Christ. Salt is a preserving agent. If you come from the country and know anything about salt-cured ham, you know that it is the salt that preserves the ham.
We are the salt of the earth. The only reason the Lord has not destroyed this earth right now is because there is still some salt here. It is the life of the Lord Jesus in you and me that is the salt.
But He goes on to say that salt can lose its savour, or its effectiveness. What is the savour? It is our consecration. Brothers and sisters, when we lose our consecration before the Lord, then we have lost our savour, because the life of Christ will not come forth.
Secondly, a Nazarite could not eat or drink anything from the fruit of the vine. In this case, the fruit of the vine represents worldly pleasure—the pleasures of this world.
We all tend to be caught in the pleasures of the world, not just young people but we adults too. There are excesses in eating—I hold my stomach as I say that. We laugh, and I have to laugh because I struggle with it, but it is a serious matter.
There are a lot of things that are natural and right that we should do. We need to eat to live. But the issue is gluttony: eating just for pleasure and overeating, going way beyond what is needed.
It is the same thing with relationships between husband and wife. The Lord says that the two shall become one flesh. But today this matter of union between husband and wife has become so perverted. We call it sex, and young people fall into this trap all the time, and sometimes adults do too.
Let me say very clearly: that kind of relationship outside of marriage is wrong. Period. There are no ifs and buts about it. It is wrong, and to be engaged in it is sinful. It will destroy your life.
It is because it has been taken beyond what the Lord intended it to be. The world does that because there is pleasure in it, and the enemy uses it.
Money is the same way. It is the love of money that is the problem. Money itself is not the problem. Making it the center of your mind, gaining possessions, and making that the purpose of your life—that is the issue.
Yes, it is okay to own a house and a car and these kinds of things. But is that what is consuming your life? Is that what your life is all about? Then you are taking of the fruit of the vine, and you are supposed to be a Nazarite.
Anything that is going to turn your heart from the Lord—anything of this world that turns your heart from the Lord—is the pleasure of the world. It is something that you should not be partaking of.
The enemy is so good at this one—the pleasure of this world. He is so deceitful. I have told this joke before, but I think it illustrates the enemy’s tactic. This is not scriptural, by the way.
A man passes away and comes to two elevators. One has a sign that says, “To Heaven,” and one has a sign that says, “To Hell.” The devil tells him, “Do you really know what hell is like? You have not seen it yet. I will give you a preview. You do not have to stay.”
So the man goes down and everybody is partying. Everybody is having a great time. Music is playing, people are drinking, there are golf courses, and it is just a country-club atmosphere. The man says, “I always thought hell was fire and brimstone, death and misery. But this is good.”
The devil says, “You have been fooled all your life. Hell is nothing like that. You will be able to enjoy this for eternity, and it will be great.”
The man goes back up and decides he wants to go to hell. He gets back on the elevator with Satan, they go down, and the doors open to fire and brimstone everywhere. People are walking around in chains, grunting and groaning, sweating, and in agony.
The man says, “What is going on? You told me it was not like this, that it was just fun and pleasure.” The enemy says, “Well, I lied to you.”
You get the point. That is a long story, but it makes the point. We are being lied to all the time, and the enemy uses the pleasures of the world. It sucks us in and keeps us from our sonship.
The next matter is the hair. Hannah said, “No razor will come upon his head.” This speaks of head covering.
Paul said that Christ is the head of every man, and God is the head of Christ. What did our Lord Jesus say? “I can do nothing of Myself. I have to go back to My Father, and whatever He says, that is what I do.”
That is keeping your head covered. Are we better than our Lord, that we can, so to speak, use our own heads? That is what this razor upon the head is about. The hair was the covering. We need to be covered.
The Nazarite is saying, “My Head is Christ. My Head is Christ. He is the One who will direct my life.” If I let Him be Head of my life, then I will be in God’s purpose and plan. Otherwise, I just have to see what the world brings to me and deal with it as I can.
Christ is the Head of every man. The problem, brothers and sisters, is that we have two heads. Christ is supposed to be our Head, but when Christ looks at us, does He see Himself as Head over us, or does He most likely see two heads?
What do I mean by that? If you only allow Christ to be Head of fifty percent of your life, and you take care of the other fifty percent, then when the Lord looks at you, He sees a two-headed person.
What is a two-headed person? It is a monster, spiritually. Often, when the Lord looks, there are two heads there.
What if it is ninety-five percent the Lord and five percent us? Well, if you look closely, there will still be a little head sticking up over there. It might not be big, but it will be there. That is not acceptable. We are still not what the Lord would have: more than one head.
The Lord is looking to be Head of the Nazarite’s life—not a two-headed monster, but only Christ.
Fourth, they could touch no dead body. What does that mean to us today?
In Romans, it says our old man has been crucified with Christ. The old man has been crucified; he is dead. It also says that the flesh, with its passions and lusts, has been crucified. It is dead.
Therefore, brothers and sisters, that is the dead body in your life. The Lord says that if you are going to start living in the flesh, living by the power of the old man in your life, you are touching a dead body, and you are defiled.
It is defilement to live in the power of the old man and in the power of the flesh. It is touching a dead body, and no Nazarite is to touch a dead body.
Self-centeredness, self-desire, self-consciousness—me, me, me, my, my—this whole self-centered thing is a dead body, and it is defiling before God.
Even the sins of others can defile us. Think about that. A very simple thing is to listen to dirty jokes. It is defiling. To be involved in actions that you know the Lord is not pleased with—even though you are not actually doing it yourself, but all those around you are doing it and you are showing agreement with it—is defiling.
It is hard to be a Nazarite, is it not?
Young Samuel was called to be a Nazarite, and he fulfilled that function all his life. He was diligent. He got up every morning and opened those doors. We need to get up every morning and open our Bibles. I will just leave that one there. Diligence is extremely important.
It said he worshipped the Lord. Young people, you can worship the Lord. Samuel did. From four to twelve, we know he was worshipping the Lord morning after morning. He worshipped the Lord. He ministered to the Lord.
He was obedient and submissive. He did not simply fit in with the crowd. Eli’s two older sons were evil, and you can read the story. Most young children tend to follow their older brothers and sisters, or those who are a little older. There is a tendency to want to be like them.
But praise God, our brother, young Samuel, at such a young age, did not go the way of the crowd or the way of those two older young people. His mother was praying for him too. She knew the situation and was praying diligently, in travailing prayer.
Young Samuel knew it was wrong, and he kept himself from that. He found his identity in God. He found his identity because of his relationship to God.
Young people, we all, particularly as young people, want to have our own identity. But the trap we fall into is that instead of finding our own identity, we look at others around us—particularly those a little older—and we want to identify with them and take on their identity.
We take on their way, their dress, and the way they do things. You lose your identity because you are conforming instead of finding your own identity in Christ.
Christ has a specific identity for you. It is God-given. It says in the Word of God that if you have accepted Christ, you are a new creation in Him. You have your own identity in Christ, and that is what you need to be trying to find and live in.
Do not look to others for identity. Of course, it does not mean you are nerds. It means that you finally come into the reality of what God has called you to be. Samuel was okay with that.
This thing of trying to be cool is a major trap, particularly in junior high. It really is. I went through it, and I understand. That does not make it right just because you are young. Please find your identity in Christ.
Even in the body of Christ, the Lord does not speak of conformity; He speaks of variety. It is not that He wants us all to dress the same or look the same. You look at His creation and realize that we all have a specific identity.
Samuel had a hearing ear. God had a purpose for Samuel. He lived in the days of the judges. The two things it says about the period of the judges are that every man did what was right in his own eyes, and the Word of the Lord was rare.
That is the result. Everybody said, “I will do what I think is right.” There was no king in Israel. The Lord allowed the enemies to oppress them, then they would come back to the Lord, and He would raise up a judge as a temporary measure. Then they would come back to the Lord for a while and go back and forth.
That is the age in which Samuel grew up. God wanted a vessel. He needed a prophet, and this is important: He needed a prophet to bring in the king.
The priest represented the people before God, but a prophet represents God to the people. He needed a prophet to bring in the king.
There had been no kings to that point. God wanted a king, but they first chose Saul. That was not the king God was after. Praise God, Samuel, before he died, anointed David king—the man after God’s heart.
That was God’s purpose for this prophet: to bring in the king. David went to the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite, put sacrifices there, and said, “This is the house of God. This is the altar of God.” That was on Mount Moriah, where the temple was later built by his son Solomon.
All I am trying to say is that Samuel was directly responsible in God’s economy to bring in the king, and the king built the house that God was after.
Samuel was called to serve God’s purpose. I do not know the specific calling God has for any particular young person, but He has one.
If you will consecrate your life to Him and become a Nazarite—I know that is Old Testament, but you know what I am saying—for the Lord, you will fulfill God’s purpose. You will be responsible for bringing in the King and building the house of God.
I say that because the King is coming back. We have a responsibility. We are all before the Lord; we are all friends. We have a responsibility to see that the King can come back.
In Revelation, as our brother shared last week, we see the New Jerusalem. That is the city with foundations God is building. That is the house He is after.
Your life is so important to God. But we can miss it. We can miss it because we are unwilling to consecrate our lives to Him. May the Lord work with us.
I want to share one thing. I have got to share this, brothers and sisters. Please bear with me, because the Lord began with this this morning. What Jim had to share was on my heart.
Young people, you are responsible to enter into your place, to allow the spirit of sonship to come upon you and to take up your responsibility. We, as adults, have a responsibility to pray for our children and to be in travailing prayer about their lives.
But we have to be like Joshua and Caleb. We have to be in the fight even at eighty years old. Our tendency, through the weariness of the battle, is to draw back and set ourselves aside.
But listen to this from Isaiah 41:8-14:
But thou, Israel, art My servant, Jacob whom I have chosen, the seed of Abraham My friend;
Thou whom I have taken from the ends of the earth, and called thee from the chief men thereof, and said unto thee, “Thou art My servant; I have chosen thee, and not cast thee away.”
Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God:
I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of My righteousness.
For I the Lord thy God will hold thy right hand, saying unto thee, “Fear not; I will help thee.”
Fear not, thou worm Jacob, and ye men of Israel; I will help thee, saith the Lord, and thy redeemer, the Holy One of Israel.
The reason I love that passage so much is that He refers to Jacob as a worm. The Lord knows what we are in ourselves. But what does He say? “I am with you. I am for you. I will uphold you. I will not let you go. I am going to see you through.”
So for those of us who are older, and maybe sometimes have gotten weary of the battle and have the battle scars and wounds of this spiritual life, our tendency sometimes is to say, “It is just enough. It is more than I can handle.”
Brothers and sisters, the Lord says, “I am with you. I know your weakness. I know all of that, but I am with you.”
Lord, we are thankful today for Your love. I pray, Lord, that we will take up the grace of God as Hannah did and have travailing prayer for our young ones.
I pray that You encourage us in these days in prayer. I pray, Lord, that You will raise up many sons out of our midst who will be Nazarites, consecrating their lives unto Thee.
Lord, I pray that we will be, in some way, in some small way, responsible for bringing in the King and for building Your house. Lord Jesus, only You can do it.
I pray, Lord, that these will be words of encouragement for us all. In Jesus’ name. Amen.