I believe it's a great judgment from God
when he removes spiritual leaders from the land
without replacing them.
I was standing with Adrian Rogers at the
funeral of Stephen Oldford, and Dr. Rogers stood
facing me with his arms crossed and a
serious look on his face, and he asked
me a question.
He asked, Do you know what concerns me?
And I replied, No, Dr. Rogers, what concerns
you?
And he said, What concerns me is I
see God calling up men like Sidlo Baxter
and Stephen Oldford, and I look around and
I don't see any comeuppers.
I looked at him and said that bothered
me as well, and in one year's time
I was standing over his casket.
There's a difference, friends, between true spiritual leaders
and just popular preachers.
We live in a day of a dearth
of spiritual leaders in the land, and it's
like being lost out in the Sahara Desert
with the sun bearing down on you, and
you don't know which way to turn to
get to an oasis.
All you know is that you are thirsty
and there is no water.
The title of my message today, friends, is
When Spiritual Leaders Lead, and my text can
be found in the book of 1 Samuel.
You can turn in your Bibles there now,
friends.
We will be camped out in chapter 7.
This chapter from 1 Samuel is an oasis
in a desert because it demonstrates the flowing
resources available from God to the people of
God when they have a true spiritual leader
who leads them back to him.
The backdrop of this remarkable passage is the
ark of the Lord has fallen into the
hands of Israel's enemies, and it ended up
at the house of Adindab for a prolonged
period of 20 years, but was never brought
to its rightful place to the holy of
holies.
And this evidenced a spiritual decay in the
people of God who had been slowly drifting
away from God in proper worship of him.
In chapter 7 we find the people of
God are downcast in their spirits as they
have been worshipping God half-heartedly.
The Philistines were poised to overtake the Jews
at Mizpah, and they were overcome with fear.
Against this black backdrop we see the prophet
Samuel emerge and shine like a diamond against
black velvet as he leads the people of
God back to God.
I want to show you today, friends, what
can happen to a church when leaders lead.
We'll pick up the story in verse 3.
And Samuel spake unto the house of Israel,
saying, If ye do return unto the Lord
with all your hearts, then put away the
strange gods and Ashtoreth from among you, and
prepare your hearts unto the Lord, and serve
him only, and he will deliver you out
of the hands of the Philistines.
Then the children of Israel did put away
Balaam and Ashtoreth, and served the Lord only.
Let me pause here, friends.
The people of God desperately needed proper spiritual
leadership to intervene on their behalf as they
were serving God ritualistically, but half-heartedly.
Very much like our situation today in our
churches where we have a form of religion,
but without any power or authority from on
high.
We go about our business during the week,
and our hearts are divided between the world
and God, and we merely show up on
Sunday to play church as usual and maintain
the status quo.
But the problem is, few are getting saved
today because we lack proper spiritual leaders who
will call the church back to God, lead
us back to the God of the Bible
in repentance and humility.
So we see in our passage that the
people of God respond properly to Samuel's leadership,
and they get rid of their idols and
begin to serve God with an undivided heart.
Now they are in a place where God
can move in their behalf in a remarkable
way to bring deliverance to them.
We see this by their repentance and their
religious reform of themselves as they seek God
in a fresh way.
Look at verses 5 through 6.
And Samuel said, Gather all Israel to Mishpah,
and I will pray for you unto the
Lord.
Let me pause here, friends, to say that
this example of spiritual leadership will always pay
big dividends.
I am reminded of the time years ago
when a pastor invited me to take the
Sunday morning service at his church, but he
missed my sermon because he was on his
face in study, crying out loud to God
in prayer and intercession the whole time I
was in his pulpit.
Like Samuel, he was interceding for his people
before God.
And by the time I had finished my
sermon, his church had tasted a touch revival,
for God showed up in our midst.
I remember a young man came running down
the aisle yelling, I just got saved.
And the music minister told me afterward that
he saw Jesus sitting on his throne.
Why?
Because that church had a godly pastor who
was a true spiritual leader and not just
a religious face man.
Now look at verse 6 to see how
the congregation of Israel responds to godly spiritual
leadership headed by Samuel.
And they gathered together to Mishpah and drew
water and poured it out before the Lord
and fasted on that day and said there,
we have sinned against the Lord.
And Samuel judged the children of Israel in
Mishpah.
When the people of God get serious with
God, then God gets serious with us.
Oh, friends, if we had the time, I
would relate to you all the times in
my own life where I got serious with
God and saw heaven open.
Your church can live beneath an open heaven
if you will only get serious with him.
Get rid of your idols and serve God
with your whole heart and God will work
wonders through you for your good and his
glory.
If we would only turn our sanctuaries into
Bethel and get on our faces before God
and seek his face and nights of desperation
and prayer and fasting and repentance and confess
our sins to him, then God can come
and heal our land.
In verses 8 and 9 we find Samuel
on his face crying out to God in
intercessory prayer and we see the results.
And Samuel cried unto the Lord for Israel
and the Lord heard him.
Look at verse 10, friends, to witness what
God can do when his people realign themselves
back to him under the right leadership.
And as Samuel was offering up the burnt
offering, the Philistines drew near to battle against
Israel.
Look at the next three words, friends, but
the Lord thundered with a great thunder on
that day upon the Philistines and discomforted them
and they were smitten before Israel.
I will stop there.
When spiritual leaders lead, God can go to
work in wonderful ways.
Black Adrian Rogers lamented, where are the comeuppers?
Let us pray.