Mens Fall Bible Study | Week Eight

Show Notes

Josiah Gwyn leads a Bible study focused on 1 Samuel 12, exploring God's faithfulness, discipline, and sovereignty amid Israel's request for a king. He encourages men to remember God's past faithfulness, acknowledge human helplessness without God, and respond humbly to God's discipline.

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Well, if you have your copy of God's Word, you can go ahead and open it right up to 1 Samuel chapter 12. As you turn there, I wanna ask you guys a question. How many of you, when you were like growing up, will like get together with your buddies and like try to like rat tail each other? Anybody ever do that? Maybe like you spend a day at the pool, it's like where you get the towel and you kind of do like this and you like pop each other with it. Raise your hand if you've ever done that with your buddies before. So I grew up doing this, me and my buddies used to see who could make the biggest mark on each other's back. It got bloody a few times. It was really embarrassing. But there was one day I remember very distinctly when I learned that jeans make a really good rat tail. Let me tell you how I figured this out. So I was probably 15, 16. This is around the time that I really started to really take care of myself. I really started to look at how I was really bathing. One thing, how I ate, I started lifting weights. My dad was a bodybuilder, so I started getting out there and I felt like I was really hot stuff. And so in my house, I grew up with five siblings. There was eight of us. When we did laundry, there was like this huge mound that we would just bring into the living room and then we'd sit around, we'd sort all the clothes into everybody's pile and we'd fold it. And so one day, 15, 16 year old Josiah is walking through the living room and there's this huge mound of laundry. And right there beside that mound, my mom is folding clothes. My mom says, hey Josiah, remember that thing I told you to do? And I was like, yeah, yeah. She said, well, you didn't do a good job. Well, I was hot stuff and I thought I was Mr. Macho and I was a little bit sassy and snarky. And I said, yeah. And she said, hey, you didn't do it the right way. And I looked at my mom very briefly and I said, well, if you want something done right, there was no answer, just a blur of blue jeans flying through the air, popped me right in the mouth. And that was the day that I learned that blue jeans make a really good rat tail. I tell you that, one, because I have learned to never talk back to my mom ever again. Ask me if I've ever talked back to her again, no. I remember that moment very distinctly. It was, I was 15, that's crazy, either way. So I tell you that because in that moment, and very hastily, my mom chose to discipline me in the most convenient way possible for her. I learned a very valuable lesson. I learned that I, one, respect blue jeans. I respect blue jeans. But two, I learned that my mom was trying to help me learn to act the right way around adults, to act the right way and respect her as a child. And the Bible tells us that discipline is training someone toward right behavior or correcting apparent or bad conduct to restore proper alignment. When I was 15 years old, when my mom disciplined, she was restoring proper alignment to me. She restored proper alignment to the parent-child relationship, and she was correcting the way that I speak to others. But she did that, one, because she doesn't play, but two, because she loves me, right? And she cares for me, and she wants me to learn and develop the character that should resemble a godly man. And the Bible says in Hebrews 12, verse six, the Lord also disciplines us, right? The Lord disciplines the ones he loves, and he chastises every son who he receives. And if you've been walking with the Lord for some time now, then you've experienced the Lord's discipline. You've felt the hand of the Lord against you. And while it may not be very comfortable, it's very seldom very comfortable, and while it might be really hard and difficult, it's always so good. And so today, we're gonna talk a little bit about how we should respond when the Lord disciplines us, how we should respond when the Lord disciplines us. And so as we jump, get started, I'm gonna jump right back in and just do a quick review. I always seem to be sharing with you guys right after we have a fun event, and I don't want you guys to forget the questions that we're using to guide our study through 1 Samuel. So just somebody shout it out, what's the first question that we will seek to answer when we're reading through 1 Samuel this semester? What do we learn about God? What do we learn about God? You get a gold star, awesome. What's the second question? What do we learn about people, right? The Bible has a lot to say about God, it has a ton to say about people. And what's the last one? That's right, what do we need to obey, right? Is there a command? Is there something from the scripture where the Bible is teaching us how we need to align our lives with God's word? And so again, we're gonna be in 1 Samuel chapter 12, and if you remember two weeks ago, Nathan shared with us out of 1 Samuel chapter eight, or sorry, nine, he was talking about Saul's installment as king, and because it's been a few weeks and because we're jumping ahead a few chapters, I'm just gonna give you guys some brief review in context. In chapter eight, this is when the people, if you remember this, they come to Samuel, and they say, Samuel, your sons are wicked. They're no good, and you're gray and you're old. We need you to install for us a king over us who will lead and rule us. Do y'all remember what Samuel's first response is to the people's request for a king? Is he cool with it or is he not cool with it? He's not cool with it, right? Because he realizes that he knows he's a man of God that these people are not just rejecting him as a leader, they're rejecting God as their leader, and so he tries for a brief moment to try to correct them, and God says, no, no, no, do just as the people have told you, and so then we get to chapter nine, and we see that God reveals to Samuel that Saul is going to be Israel's first king, and we hear the story about how Saul was hiding, and he was going, sent to be the goat, sent to find some goats or donkeys, and then the Lord reveals to Samuel, this is gonna be the king, and in chapter 10, we see that he is privately anointed, and by the end, he is publicly announced as the king. That brings us to chapter 11, and we see this brief story between one of the Philistine kings named Nahaf and the people of Israel, and so this king sets himself against the people of Israel, and he says, hey, guys, I'm gonna take over your land, I'm gonna make you guys our slaves. They say, no, no, no, no, no, please don't kill us. We'll do whatever you want, just make a treaty with us, and this is what the king says. He says, okay, I'm not gonna kill you guys. What I'll do, though, is I'm gonna have all of you gouge out your right eye, and I'm gonna humiliate the entire nation of Israel, and so they say, whoa, whoa, we'll agree to your terms, but give us seven days, maybe a savior will arise to deliver us from this situation, so they begin to spread word that there's this king who has laid siege against Israel, and the king, or Saul, hears word of this, and it says the spirit of the Lord comes upon Saul. Saul is enraged, and he then leads the people to now have victory over their enemies, and we see here in chapter 11 that Saul now proves himself to be a capable military leader, and so this is the appointment, and Saul rising to power and becoming the king, and so in chapter 12, what we're gonna see is Samuel's final address. Samuel's not going to die, he's not gonna pass on, but this is going to be the last time that we hear from Samuel as the leader of Israel, and he's gonna give them a really harsh word. He's actually gonna deliver them a really harsh word, wouldn't get into that, and so to start us off, I want you guys to turn it right back to your groups and kick off discussion this evening, and I want you to answer this question, what do we learn about God, specifically in 1 Samuel 12, verses six through 18? What do we learn about God in 1 Samuel 12, verses six through 18? It's a lot, so maybe somebody read it, or you guys all read it together and then discuss. All righty, I wanna hear what you guys saw, what you learned about God from this passage, so I wanna go, if you speak this time, I wanna go ahead and do somebody different next time, but somebody just raise your hand and share with us what your table discussed about what you learned about God from this passage. What you got, Ryan? How perfectly patient God is. Yes, absolutely, yeah, he's long-suffering. Yes, that's right. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, that's right, and this is a really brief, like very condensed version of Israel's history. I mean, Samuel's the last of the judges. If you've read and studied judges, you know. It was this cycle of return, reject, return, reject that went on for decades, centuries even. What else, what did we learn about God? He doesn't like rebels. He doesn't like rebels. Yeah, yeah, that's good. Short and to the point. What else, what did we learn about God? What you got, Noble? When we cry out, God responds. He's waiting to save us, to redeem us. I love that. You might.

I might change, but God will never change. That's so good too. Absolutely. Absolutely. What you got, Nick? He performs miracles. Yeah, no, it wasn't. I mean, he prayed and then he brought the storm. Absolutely. That's amazing. So here's a few things. I know there's so much more. Here's a few things that I wrote down and this is not everything. When I asked myself, what do I learn about God from this passage? One, God is righteous, right? God is righteous. He is just, he is holy. And this gives him the right to judge unholy creatures. God is faithful. Who said that he's patient, right? Right, God is faithful. He remained faithful to his covenant with Israel, no matter how often they fell away from him. God saved Israel when they called on him. Exactly what you shared, Noble. Right, God saved Israel. God disciplined Israel when they forgot him. Right, God doesn't like rebels and his hand was heavy against them. How about this one? God answered Israel's request for a king. Even though it was against his desire for them, right, he still answered their prayer. Very scary, right? Yeah, yeah, be careful what you ask for. You might just get it. God is sovereign over his people. I thought this was something that really stuck out to me because Samuel was going and he's rehearsing this brief rendition of Israel's history. And he's sharing that with them how every time they've fallen, God's been right there. And even though they've asked for a king, guess who's always been in control over Israel? Who's always reigned over Israel? God has. So you might have a king, but God's still your God. And then God is to be feared, right? We should not play with God. He does not allow rebels in his presence. And to summarize all of this, I kind of put all of this into kind of what I want to call a core principle that we can take away from what we learn about God here in 1 Samuel 12. When in all the changes, transitions, peaks, valleys, and moments in between, God is there and is in control and he is ready to respond to our cry for help. No matter what season you walk through, no matter what you're going through, whether you're on the top of a mountain or in the depth of a valley, somewhere in between, if a job transition, a family change, no matter what's going on in your life right now, God is still in control. And if you need his help, he is there ready to answer you. He is there ready to answer you. Let me tell you about a time when I experienced God being in control of my life. I was, so I got saved. I was 16 years old when I became a Christian. I was raised in church, but didn't get saved till later in life. Was maybe just a little hard-hearted in that way. And a couple of months after I got saved, I felt like the Lord was just leading me maybe toward the direction of full-time ministry. And so I talked with my student pastor. I said, hey, I would love just to have the opportunity to teach a little bit. And he said, hey, like, where do you want to teach? I said, we've got middle school ministry. I would love maybe to volunteer teaching middle school boys if you'll allow it. And he said, sure, I've got this class. There's two teachers in there already. I think I would love to have you in there as a third. And so he puts me in this class and I have no idea what I'm doing. I had no training. I had no really like intentional discipleship up to that point. And I just start sharing with those guys, those young boys, like, amen, this is what I'm learning through scripture. The very first lesson I ever taught was Proverbs 3, 5, and 6. I taught and it was over in about 10 minutes. But the Lord used it, right? The Lord really blessed that. And those boys' lives began to change and they began to absorb and soak in God's word, not because I was anything special, because the Lord just had favor and grace on me in that season. So there was one student, his name was Jonathan, and he had said to his dad, he said, hey dad, I've really loved having Mr. Josiah in my class, and come to find out his dad was a professor at the seminary right there in Wake Forest where I grew up. And so one day, on a Wednesday night, much like tonight, his dad pulls me aside and says, hey Josiah, have you ever thought about getting into full-time ministry? I said, you know, I feel like the Lord's calling me in that direction. And he says, well, I'm a professor over here at the college, the seminary at Southeastern. We have this unique opportunity for you. If you would apply, complete the application process, and apply for this scholarship, I think that we can get you in and get you a full ride. And so I had this conversation, but guess what? I was scared. I was afraid of the SAT. I didn't think I would be smart enough to pass. I was scared of the responsibility of getting into school again, and I didn't do it. I passed up the opportunity for a full ride to go to college completely free. But the Lord wasn't done with me yet. And this is what's super cool. Several years later, I was, I believe I was about 19 at this time, completed high school, was a year out of college. And I was working at the church doing just janitor things. I did everything from cleaning the toilets to vacuuming and cleaning the floors to changing light bulbs, the whole shebang. I painted a little bit sometimes. And fun fact, because I was also a volunteer in the student ministry, the student ministry staff were like, man, if we ever need help, we're just gonna get Josiah to come with us and help us do things. So the high school pastor there at the time reached out to me and said, hey, Josiah. He just came and found me. He said, hey, Josiah, I need some help moving this lady. Will you come help move her? He said, she'll probably pay. I said, yeah, absolutely. Cleared it with my boss. Drove with him 30, 45 minutes out, and helped this lady load some furniture into the back of his pickup in a trailer. It was not a lot of furniture. She paid us like 200 bucks, and I was like, cha-ching, let's go. This is awesome. Little did I know, the Lord was doing something in her life and in my life through her. So this lady starts asking my friend, she says, hey, what's Josiah doing with his life? And my friend knew that I'd passed up an opportunity for a full ride, work a part time. I wanted to do ministry, but didn't really have the means to go to college. He says, well, he wants to go and do ministry. He's not in college right now. He didn't have a car. She says, well, I want you to tell Josiah that I would love to meet with him and his mom at the church. And so we come in and we meet with her. She says, Josiah, I have really just felt like the Lord has pressed upon my heart just to bless you, and I would love for you to get a car, and I want you to get in school. And so she proceeds to write me two checks to the amount of $15,000. She had never met me before. I helped her move one time. She gave me $15,000. And she said, Josiah, I want you to buy a car, I want you to get in school. You better believe, I got a car and I started school. And this is how it all connects, and what's super cool, what's super amazing about this, is that when that happened, I got into school, I paid for my first year and a half of school, and then the money ran out. I was still working part time, I didn't have the means to pay through school, but I was still working part time as I went, and I reached out to the school for scholarships, and they said, hey, you've got a scholarship, you're gonna get a full ride for the rest of your time here at Southeastern. It wasn't until my last semester that I found out that that professor that I had talked to back when I was 17, 18, had waived all my student fees for me when he found out I was at the school. I say all of that to tell you that there are moments in your life when you know God is in complete control. Right, there are what we like to call them stones of remembrance, stories where you look back and you say, I can't help but know that God had his hand on me in this season. God was doing something there. And I would love for us to have the opportunity to go around and share all of our stories. We don't have time tonight. But I want you to think, just right there at your seat, what's a story that you have of a moment that you know God was there with you? Something that you can remember and you cannot doubt God's presence in your life. And I want to encourage you, remember those moments. It's not just one, it should be many for all of us. It's not just one moment where God showed up in our lives. And the reality is, those moments serve as stones of remembrance so that when we find ourselves in situations that are hard and difficult going forward, we can look back and say, no, but God was there. I know God is in control. I know God is with me. And that's what protects our heart from drifting, from turning away to idols, from rebelling against the Lord is when we remember his goodness to us. Israel fell into this pattern because they forgot the Lord. They neglected the Lord. They didn't remember what the Lord had done for them. And so my first encouragement and challenge for you guys tonight is remember those moments. Don't forget them, write them down. Share them with your other brothers in Christ so that they will be encouraged as well. Remember how you've experienced God's presence in the past so you won't forget that he'll be present with you in the future. As we continue to move through our passage now, I want us to look at our next question. And that is now, what do we learn about people? We learn that God is faithful, he's patient, he's with us.

in every season, but what about people? What are they up to while God's keeping everything in control? Go ahead, same passage, look through it again and answer this question, what do we learn about people? All righty, I hear you guys talking, sharing a lot of things, so I'd love to hear what some of you said at your tables. If you spoke last time, I wanna hear from someone different this time. Give it just a second. There we go, what you got? Very short term memory. Humans have a very short term memory, yes. Yes, we do, uh-huh, uh-huh, that's right. We don't remember very well, what is it, the saying, those who forget history are destined to repeat it, absolutely. We see that time and time again. What else, what do we learn about people? Well, the Lord said, I can't remember the verse, but you look in the mirror and see what you look like, and you can get what it's about. This is James, yeah, that's right. Be doers of the word and not hearers only, absolutely. Yeah, we could be forgetful of our own character, yes. What else? Disobedient, people are disobedient, yeah, absolutely, what else? Self-centered, what you got, David? That's right, we all sin in the same ways that we did way back when. All right, one or two more. What do we learn about people? They're unfaithful, yes, yes, people are unfaithful. They're quick to turn to different things. So here's a few things that I wrote down as I looked at this passage here. So what do we learn, oops, here we go. What do we learn about people? One, and this is at the beginning part, so I understand if you're like, what do you mean? At the very beginning of 1 Samuel chapter 12, we see Samuel say to the people, if there's anything against me, if I've taken any bribes, if I've defrauded any of you, then please bring your charge against me. And we learned there that people can have integrity. We learned that Samuel was a man who had integrity. And I think it's good for us to remember that people can have good character, right? They're not all bad. With the assistance of the Holy Spirit living in us, we could be completely new creations. And Samuel's an example of that. But here's some of the other ones. These are ones that are all negative. People need a savior, right? They need somebody to save them. Every time that they got into trouble, God was there to rescue them, and they need that. People are prone to forget. Who said we had short-term memory? Was that you in the back? Yes, right? I am prone to forget. People tend to turn to idols. We're unfaithful, right? It looks different now. I don't know anyone who has an idol in their closet that they bow down to, but we quickly give our allegiance to other things that are not God. People need to be disciplined, right? We need correction. I'm reminded of David's psalm when he says, your rod and your staff, they comfort me, right? We need to be corrected because we are prone to wander off the path. We need God's discipline. People are blind to their own sinfulness. They have no idea how wicked, immoral, and sinful they are. You know, the Bible often compares people to sheep. This right here, this is a Merino wool sheep. I don't know if anybody is very familiar with sheep, but there's this fun fact about sheep, and that is that they are utterly helpless without a shepherd. They're utterly helpless. So let me give you a few facts about this sheep in particular. Merino wool is like a really nice wool. Like if you like are a fashion person, like if you like are a fashion guru, you're like, oh, I've got like some socks and suits and things made out of this wool. This is really cool. So here's some fun facts. These sheep have wool that grows so fast and long that without annual shearing, it'll become matted and so heavy that the sheep can't move. If they don't have someone to come in and cut their coat, they will literally die right there. I've put lion chow. Free picking right there. Here's another one. They're not strong. They're not fast. And if you look at this coat, it's not very good camouflage either. On a dark backdrop, this sheep will stand out among anything. And so it's tough for them to defend themselves or avoid predators. They are just sitting ducks out there. Here's another one. They're very vulnerable. These sheep are very susceptible to parasites. Some sheep will get maggots in their coat and it will literally eat away at them and they can do nothing to stop it. There's this disease called foot rot that sheep can get, which will completely lock down their legs and then they can't move. They are very, very, very vulnerable creatures. And then they're not very smart either. These sheep are so dumb, they can wander aimlessly and find no safety, food, or water. They can be just a mile or two away from their pasture and never make it back home. Sheep are not very smart creatures. And guess what? Yes, no, we're not. The Bible often says that we're sheep. It compares us to sheep. It says in the Gospels that Jesus looked at the people of Israel like they were sheep without a shepherd. They were helpless and they were vulnerable. Right, and you might say, well, like, I can feed myself. I hope you can. I can find my way home. I hope you can. We've got Google Maps, a little assistance there, right? I just avoid lions, so I'm not gonna be predatorized by a lion. But the Bible's not talking about physically, but spiritually. You see, we can be a lot like sheep spiritually. Think about this. When it comes to spiritual instincts, we're a lot like sheep. We can become so burdened down with life that we suffer and suffocate under the weight of all that we're supposed to do. When temptation comes, we can fall repeatedly into the exact same trap the enemy sets for us. It's easy for us to drift spiritually and then to struggle to find our way back to God without guidance. When we're far from the shepherd, each and every one of us will fall prey to sin. The Bible says that sin is like a crouching lion seeking to devour us. And so we need a shepherd. We need spiritual guidance and instruction and correction to keep us on track because we are helpless when left to ourselves. And so what's the core principle for what do we learn about people here in 1 Samuel chapter 12? Left to themselves, people are completely helpless. Without God, there is no hope for us. Without a shepherd, we are sitting ducks. We are sheep. So vulnerable that we will die under the weight of our own selves if not for a shepherd to pick us up and to care for us. And a part of that is that we need wisdom and instruction to keep us on the right path, to lead us in, to guide us. And that's exactly what Samuel now is gonna lead these people with. So you've read twice now his whole recounting briefly of Israel's history. And in those last couple of verses, Samuel's now going to give the people some instruction. What are they to do? What is their next step? He's called them out, he's revealed to them that, hey, the Lord has a charge against you, and asking for a king, what is Samuel's words next? And so I want you guys to turn it right back to your tables, read those last couple of verses, verses 19 through 25, and answer this question. What now do we need to obey? What are Samuel's final words to the people? Take some time to discuss that, please. All righty. Let's go ahead, hear from the tables. What do we need to obey? Y'all got something noble? Serve the Lord with all our hearts, absolutely. If we would get that right, everything else falls into place, absolutely. That is the first and greatest commandment, all right there. Love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. What else? What do we need to obey? Yes, sir. We need to obey our God. We are sinners. Yes. We sin constantly. Yeah. We gotta obey our God, not Samuel's God. Hmm. Right, God should be your God. That's right. That's right. You can't base your faith on someone else's. Yes, that's good, that's good. What else? What do we need to obey? Yes, sir, here in the green.

A new life is not built overnight. A new life is not built overnight. I like that, that's good. That's good, right? Change takes time. We are transformed from the inside out. What else? What do we need to obey? Fear the Lord. Fear the Lord, yes, absolutely. Fear the Lord, serve the Lord. Both of those are right there, plain and simple in the passage. Here are a few of the notes that I took. One, don't be afraid of the Lord's discipline. I mean, Mrs. Keene, I'm gonna come back to this here in just a second. But don't be afraid of the Lord's discipline. Right, when God is coming in to correct you, don't pull back. Don't try to run away in the other direction and avoid God's correction. Right, receive the Lord's discipline and turn back. Fear the Lord, serve him, love him. Number two, acknowledge and confess your sins. Right, Samuel says, you've committed all this evil. You know the evil you've committed. Now don't turn away and stop following the Lord. Don't just, you know, give up and say, you know, well, we've fallen so far, we've fallen again. I've fallen to the same sin again, this is it. And just give in and give up. Right, no. Confess and repent of your sins and turn back to God. Commit to following the Lord even if it hurts a little. For he will not forsake you because he's called you according to his name. That's the promise right there in the middle of those verses. Right, God would not forsake Israel. Why, because he has called them according to his name sake. God's grace and mercy toward you was never because of you, but was all because of him. We can go to him even when we've failed, even when we've fallen, and God will receive us back. Will we receive discipline? Yes. Will it hurt? A little, but we know he loves us. Then the last one, fear God and serve him only, remembering his faithfulness towards you. Don't forget God's faithfulness. Fear him and serve him alone. I wanna share about a time in between a little bit of those stories I shared with you this morning in between when my mom disciplined me and when the Lord brought me to Southeastern, and this was a period in which I, myself, was under the Lord's discipline. So I was, a little after I'd gotten saved, I had begun to return to some of the same things and sinful habits that characterized my life before the Lord saved me. I began to go back to those, and I began to conceal and hide some sinful habits that I was ashamed of, and the Lord was trying to get my attention. And so for several months, I felt like I was under the Lord's conviction. He was telling me, Josiah, you know this isn't right. You need to turn away from this sin. You need to return to me. And this is what happened. I played a lot of basketball. I love basketball. I play basketball all the time. And I started getting injured. Started getting injured all the time. Almost every other time I would go out, I would get hurt in some way. It started off small injuries, like nothing that was super major, but something I was like, man, what's going on? This used to not always happen. First, it started with a rolled ankle, like a really bad ankle sprain. And then I started getting hit in the face with people's elbows, and it would split open. It got so bad, my mom was like, Josiah, you're not going to play basketball anymore. But I loved it so much. And the Lord was trying to get my attention, and get this, I knew what was going on, but I refused to come clean to God. And it was inching closer and closer and closer to the source of my sin. You see, my sin had to do with my eyes. I struggled with lust, and all the things that came with that. And I kept it a secret, I kept it hidden. And the Lord was trying to say, Josiah, you need to give this up. And it came to the point where I was playing basketball one time, and I jumped up for a rebound, and a guy reached up to get the rebound, and I came down on his hand and cut my eyeball open. And I remember all of this happening, and my student pastor at the time kind of knowing this series of unfortunate events that's happened in my life. Said, Josiah, like, what's going on, man? Is there another sin in your life? I heard him, but I didn't answer him in that moment. I knew that there was something I needed to deal with in my life. That was drawing me further and further away from the Lord. And even then, that wasn't enough to get my attention. It wasn't until one of my student leaders at the time came to me and said, hey, Josiah, we've noticed that you've just not been handling your responsibilities the way that you used to. We've noticed that you've not been stepping up and leading in the group that we've placed you in charge of the way that you used to. We've noticed that you've not been preparing. We've noticed that you've not been following up. We've noticed that you've just been slacking. And the truth is, if you keep up this, we're gonna have to ask you to step down. And in that moment, I realized that everything that I had felt so passionate about was all about to be stripped away. And I called up my student pastor and I said, hey, I would love to meet, I think it was late. I remember we walked around the church and it was completely dark outside. And I said, hey, this is what's going on. He said, man, I'm glad you've told me. I know something's been going on for a while. And I even tried to ask you about it, but you never said anything. And he said, man, let me read a verse to you. And this is the verse he read to me. He said, he read to me 1 Samuel 12, verse 20. This is one of the first times I heard this. He says, do not be afraid that you've done all 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 you, for they are empty. In that moment, he reminded me, you've blown it. You've really messed it up. And I'm not gonna neglect that. There are consequences to that, but I wanna remind you that the Lord will not forsake you. The Lord will deliver you. Turn back and serve him. And he said, Josiah, what we're gonna do is we'll let you stay in the group, but you're not gonna teach for six months. And he said, I wanna keep accountability with you. And so him and I met for those months and he helped me to grow and get victory in this area of my life. And I say this to you because the reality is, statistics say that 70% of men struggle in the same way that I did. That means that there are men here in this room right now who are struggling much the same way that I did. And you may not know it yet or you may not be responding to it yet, but the Lord is calling you to repent, calling you to confess, calling you to come clean. And you may be experiencing the Lord's discipline for months, but you're running away from it. You may know, man, I've gotta get this right, but you're running away from it. You're scared. You're ashamed. You're embarrassed. You wonder, what will people think? I thought all those same things. And the truth is, if you don't respond to the Lord's discipline now, it's only going to get worse. He's gonna try harder to get your attention. And there might come a time when he says, you know what? I'm gonna let you go. But that's not where the Lord's calling any of us. And so I just wanna offer you guys, I don't know where you are. I don't know where you've been, but I would love for all the men, go ahead, grab your phone real quick. I want you guys, just everybody in the room. And this is why I wanna do it this way. Everybody in the room, go ahead and just take a picture of this slide here. Because I don't know if there's somebody here that really needs to reach out to one of the men leading this group for help, but you're too scared to say it. So I need everybody to take a picture. If you need this, you reach out to one of us. And we'd be happy to help you and get you set up with somebody that can help you in this journey. So if everybody can do that, you can stand and you can make sure that a brother who might be beside you wrestling with accountability can get the help and the encouragement and the accountability that he needs. So all of that said, so to wrap all of that up, the core principle that I saw from these last couple of verses is this. When the Lord disciplines you, receive it. And return to him with your whole heart. Your whole heart. I think that's possibly two words. When the Lord disciplines you, receive it. And return to him with your whole heart. Now you might be in a different situation, right? You may not struggle in the same way that I did, and that's okay, right? But as we drift, the Lord calls us back. He convicts. He tries to get our attention. And he calls us and he says, return to me. I'm here. I'm ready to receive you. If you cry out to me for help, I will save you. And my encouragement to you is wherever you are, cry out to the Lord. Find someone who could be a Samuel for you and pray for you, to encourage you, to walk beside you, to fight with you, whatever it might be. We are here in this room with other men and it's that we.

can encourage one another, so that we can strengthen one another. And if we pass up this opportunity, who knows when it will come again. So I wanna encourage you, lean in, lock arms with the guys beside you and walk together. Walk together so that you might be encouraged and strengthened, and so that you might have a story that might look a little bit different. Not the cyclical cycle of faithfulness and unfaithfulness, of worship and rejection. You might look a little different than Israel and have a life and be a man maybe like Samuel, who walks in integrity. Who could be a man who can say like Paul says in the New Testament, imitate me as I imitate Christ. If we come here and we're never encouraged, we're never strengthened, and we're never open and honest with each other enough to grow, then like, what's it for? We learn a little, but if we don't change, then what good is it? So I wanna encourage you guys with that. And I wanna wrap up with just these last couple of things, just some key takeaways for you. Everyone in this room can apply one of these things. One, consistently remember the Lord's past faithfulness in your life. If you've been walking with the Lord, you have stories of God's faithfulness in your life. He has ministered to you, He has saved you, He has delivered you, He has revealed to you that He is sovereignly in control of your life. Don't forget that, because there might be times when you struggle to sense God's presence, when where God has led you is harder than it was before. And you need to remember that, so that you will stay faithful to Him in the moment, in that season. Remember that without the Lord, you're helpless. We can be really prone to being self-confident, like, you know what? I'm good, I'm gonna keep going. And guess what? A sheep by itself is a dead sheep. If you're isolated, if you're by yourself, you're vulnerable. So remember, without God, without other Christians around you, you're vulnerable, you're helpless. You can't do it on your own. You weren't made to do it on your own. And then lastly, return to the Lord when He disciplines you. Right, when you feel God's hand heavy on you, return. Go back to Him. Don't resist. Don't run away from the Lord's hand. I'm actually just now reminded of the story of when David is, he commits a sin, God comes to him, or the prophet comes to him and says, what do you want? To be handed into the hands of your enemies, for famine for seven years, or be delivered into the hands of the Lord. You guys remember what David said? He chose to be delivered into the hands of the Lord, because he's merciful. That's exactly right, Nick. So just remember, God loves us. That's why He disciplines us. It's not to berate us, to make us feel small or little, but to get us back on track, so that we might experience all of the ways that He wants to bless us, all the ways that He wants to transform us to be more like Him. Now, if Bellevue Man isn't encouraging you and pointing you to do that, then we're failing at our jobs. So I just wanna remind you of that, remind you of these three things. Everybody can learn something there. Don't forget God's faithfulness. Remember you're helpless, and return to God when He disciplines you. Let's pray. Lord, we love you. I thank you for the men here tonight. God, I thank you for your word, and just how it's a reminder, God, of just how this specific word spoke to me so many years ago and still speaks to me today. God, I thank you for just the opportunity to be open and honest with this group of men. And God, I pray that you would send your word forth to encourage them in here in this room, God, to challenge them, to strengthen them, to transform them to be more like your son. God, we pray this all in Jesus' name, amen.