Let's turn to 1 Samuel chapter 12 this evening for a short word. 1 Samuel chapter 12, and we're going to read from the verse number 19 of the chapter. We welcome you. We thank you for making the effort. We know that it's a little foggy out there tonight, and so be careful on your way home. And so we're coming now to Word and 1 Samuel chapter 12. Let's read from the verse 19 and we'll read to the end of the chapter together. And it says, And all the people said unto Samuel, Pray for thy servants unto the Lord thy God, that we die not, for we have added unto all our sins this evil, to ask us a king. And Samuel said unto the people, Fear not, ye have done all this wickedness, yet turn not aside from following the Lord, but serve the Lord with all your heart, and turn ye not aside from them, then should ye go after vain things which cannot profit nor deliver for they are vain for the lord will not forsake his people for his great name's sake because of that pleased the lord to make you his people moreover as for me god forbid that i should sin against the lord ceasing to pray for you but I will teach you the good and the right way only fear the Lord and serve him in truth with all your heart for consider how great things he has done for you but if ye shall still do wickedly ye shall be consumed both ye and your King." We conclude at the end of the verse 29, this short Bible reading this evening. Well, tonight, as I said, on the Lord's Day, we're going to be considering or looking and seeing two short videos from missionary families who, at the call of God, have left their homeland To go and serve the Lord Jesus Christ in the place of His choosing. When we think about serving the Lord, we often tend to think that that's only something that ministers and missionaries do. But that is simply not the case. All of us, all of us, wherever God has placed us in His providence, have been given the opportunity to serve the Lord. in your school, in your workplace, in your family, in your house and development, on the road on which you live, you've been afforded an opportunity to serve the Lord Christ. How thrilling it has been to my own heart to watch people serving the Lord over the last number of weeks as we've endeavored to share the gospel with others in our gospel campaign. Individuals who went and put up posters, others who delivered gospel leaflets, individuals who came and set up halls, stood in car parks, came along night after night, and serve the Lord in some particular way. Well, service is something here that Samuel comes to deal with in this passage of God's Word. And there are three very simple thoughts that I find in this passage of Scripture regarding service that I want to very quickly draw your attention to for a few brief moments. Notice in the first instance, the call to service, the call to service. Twice Samuel instructs the people of God here to serve Look there at the verse number 20, And Simon said unto the people, Fear ye not, ye have done all this wickedness yet. Turn not aside from following the Lord, but serve the Lord. And then in verse 24, he emphasizes this again, Only fear the Lord and serve Him. Now at this juncture of Israel's history, there is a new king on the throne of Israel in the form of Saul, the son of Kish. But Samuel is reminding God's people here that regardless of their duties and regardless of their responsibilities to their new king, that there was a far greater king that they were duty-bound to serve. that being the Lord and Samuel was reminding them of that very fact in this passage of God's word yes they were to serve their king but they were to serve a greater king they were to serve Jehovah himself Now, Samuel had led the way in this matter within the nation, the matter of service. For he had given, at this moment of time, he had given a lifetime of service to the Lord and to the nation. You know, this man wasn't saying, do as I say, but not as I do. But rather this man had given his life to serving the Lord. It was service that began when he was just but a child in the temple under the direction of Eli, the high priest. Remember how he was sent by his mother? His mother promised him that she would lend him to the Lord, and that promise was kept. And that young boy went and served the Lord in the house of God, in Shiloh, in the meeting place, in the place where the Ark of the Covenant was housed. And so Samuel had really given his life to service here. And so he's not saying, do what I'm telling you to do, but he was simply saying, do as I have done throughout all my life. As I've said, Samuel started to labor for the Lord in the house of God. And it's very interesting that his service for God began with the menial task around the house of God. Very interesting to notice that. We all think about Samuel as the great prophet and the great messenger of Jehovah and coming with the message from God to the people of God. But little Samuel's service, his service began in the menial task around the house of God. If you read 1 Samuel 3, it'll inform you that Samuel tended to the lamp of God, lest the lamp would go out. Now, what did that involve? that really involved the trimming of the wicks of the lamp of God. It was probably a seven-branch menorah, as it were, that little branch, and so he would have trimmed the wick Not only that, but he would most likely have made sure that the reservoir of oil was continually filled, and therefore he lay beside the lamp, and that was his task, that was his role. He made sure that the lights were burning in the house of God. It's a very menial task. It was quite a dirty task as well. If you know anything about trimming wicks, and I'm sure maybe a few older individuals, you had hurricane lamps, and you know what that was like, whenever you trimmed the wick. You got the soot all over your hands and the oil as well. It would have been smelly work, I'm sure. But here's a young man and he's involved in this menial task. And not only that, but he opened up the doors of the temple. He opened up the doors of the house of God. he was it was where the caretaker he made sure that the doors were open for the people to come and for the priests to operate and so with regard to Samuel and with regard to his service these were not glamorous tasks but they were needful tasks nevertheless to keep the house of God going. Now I'm always very dubious about a person who goes into Christian service who has never done menial tasks around the house of God. The putting out of the chairs, the sweeping of the floor after a children's meeting or after a youth fellowship, the gathering up of litter or the gathering in of the handbooks. I'm always very dubious about an individual who hasn't begun there. the menial tasks within the work of God. Oh, they want to be at the front, and they want to make sure that they're being seen by everyone, and that their name is being promoted. But I'm always very dubious about a person like that. Very dubious. Because you see, before Samuel ever became God's prophet, he rolled up his sleeves, and he did the dirty work. He did the dirty jobs. He did the unseen tasks. Like, who would have thought, or who would have asked themselves the question, I wonder who's been keeping that lamp burning? I'm sure nobody asked it, but somebody had to do it. I wonder who opened the door at the house of God this morning? I'm sure that wasn't asked by any of the, maybe, worshipers, but somebody had to do it. And it was young Samuel. This work was, I'm sure, never publicly acknowledged. And yet isn't it interesting that God puts his hand on people who are individuals who are willing to do the menial tasks before they do the great tasks in the work of God. You do the small tasks. You do the menial tasks. You do that which you can do, and that which maybe someone asks you to do within the work of God, it may be that God may put his hand on you to ask you to do something more, something greater, but don't wait for the great, nor do the little. little i can let me do and so samuel he served as a child but now he's old and gray headed it says that in the verse number two of this chapter in the verse number two and now behold the king walketh before you and i am old and gray headed and so now samuel as he comes to understand that his sphere or his term of service is most likely drawing to a close, he now comes as an old age saint to encourage others to take the same course in life that he had taken because he had found from personal experience that the greatest fulfillment a person comes to experience in life is not whenever they serve themselves, but whenever they serve the greatest of masters, the Lord. He had learned from experience. And may we learn from experience that. You know, there are older individuals within our congregation whose term of service has come to an end. Some have been promoted to glory. You think of our sister, Mrs. Lamont. But we think of others because of health and because of age that they just can't do what they would still love to do. And so the old saints, the old gray-haired individuals, I better not say too much about that, but they're encouraging, they're encouraging the younger ones, middle-aged individuals to take up the service of the master. And so this is what Samuel says, serve the Lord, serve him, serve the Lord. Well, brethren and sisters, we can all serve the Lord in some way. Some publicly, others privately. Some at the forefront of things, of course, others behind the scenes. Some within the church, others within their families. Some they do it full-time, others, well, they do it in their spare time. But can I say, child of God, the greatest investment that you'll ever make in your life is the investment that you make in serving the Lord, because the returns on such an investment are literally out of this world. The investment that you make in serving Christ, the investment and the returns on such investment, they are out of this world. The Lord Jesus Christ said in John 12, 26, if any man serve me, let him follow me and where I am, there shall also my servant be. If any man serve me, him will my father honor. And Paul wrote in Colossians 3, 24, knowing that And then I want you to notice, as Samuel counsels the people of God with regard to this matter of service, he draws our attention to a second matter, namely the cause of service. You know, often the need can be the reason why someone gives themselves to serving the Lord. And such a person's estimation, they believe that the need is the call. And at times that may be the case. Others engage in Christian service because, as I've often said, they're put on some kind of a guilt trip by the minister or some fellow Christian who coerces them into serving the Lord. But the primary reason why any of us, any believer, should serve the Lord is given to us here by Samuel at the end of the verse number 24. He says, Only fear the Lord and serve Him in truth with all your heart. And here's the reason. Four, consider how great things the Lord hath done for you. Four, this is why you should fear the Lord. This is why you should serve him in truth with all your heart. Four, consider how great things he has done for you. A recalling to our minds of the great things that the Lord has done for us is, of course, the greatest motivation we have to serve the Lord. or consider for a few moments, pause and think, review. Review the history of God in your own life. See what interventions of power and mercy and goodness and grace and love and truth that God has displayed in your own personal life. Consider the reality of how He has loaded you daily with His benefits. Think of what He has delivered you from in your past, your sin, and think of what He has delivered you from in the future, hell itself. And having done that, How can we not but fear and serve Him in light of the great things that He has done for us? Note from the passage two of the great things that He has done for us. You'll find them both in the verse number 22. First of all, He has made us His people. Is that not a great thing? That God has made us His people? For the Lord will not forsake His people for His great name's sake, because it is pleased the Lord to make you His people. Notice that God made us his people. We have no part to play in that. Observe with me the basis upon which he made us his people. Notice what Samuel says. God made us his people because it pleased him to do that. Now isn't that amazing? Isn't that thrilling? Isn't that comforting to think that out of God's own good pleasure, He made us His people? I know it is an amazing thing to know that I am a child of God, not because of anything that I have done, or not because of anything that I haven't done, but because God was pleased to make me His child. There's nothing of merit here, but it's all of grace. This is a great thing that God has done for us. He has made us His people. That's a great thing. Not only that, another great thing is that He has not forsaken us as His people. That's the initial part of the verse 22. For the Lord will not forsake His people for His great name's sake. Brethren and sisters, we may have given God multiple reasons why He should have given us up and given us over and given up on us a long time ago, but He hasn't. And brethren and sisters, He never will. He never will forsake us. He has guaranteed our preservation on the basis of His own name. Did you see why He has not forsaken His people? It's for His own namesake. His name, the honor of His name, the glory of His name is bound up in the fact that He does not forsake His people. If God would forsake His people, then His name would no longer be honorable. But because He has attached His name, His very name is attached to this thought, this truth, that He will not forsake us. For His own name's sake, God will not. God will not forsake His people. For as I've said, it would bring great dishonor to His name, and it would also annul the promises that He has made to us with regard to the fact that He would never leave us nor forsake us. And so therefore, these are great things that God has done for us. This is why we serve the Lord, because of the great things he's done for us. Not because my part that I get paid for it, not on your part because you're coerced into doing it, but simply because you do it out of a realization that the Lord has done great things for me. And as a result of that, I want to serve the one who did so much for me, so much for me." And then notice finally and very quickly the character of the service that we are to give. There's the call to service, there's the cause of the service, then the character of the service. The service that we are to render to God is a service that is to be characterized by a wholeheartedness on the part of the Christian. To serve the Lord we are to throw ourselves wholeheartedly at it, child of God. Nugent says in verse 20, serve the Lord with all your hearts. Verse 24, only fear the Lord and serve him in truth with all your hearts. Oh, we cannot be half-hearted in this, brethren and sisters. We must give ourselves wholeheartedly to serving the Lord. As Solomon put it in Ecclesiastes 9, in the verse 10, whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might. So I ask myself the question, as I prepared for this message tonight, I ask myself the question, have I served the Lord in this way in past weeks? Did I serve him with all my heart? When I came to the mission, did I serve the Lord with all my heart? Did you? Can you look back and say, I did all I could? Can you look back and say, I did all the praying I could? I did all the inviting I could. I did all the attending that I could. Oh, we're to be wholehearted in this. We're wholehearted in our daily employment at times, aren't we? We're wholehearted in giving ourselves to maybe some leisurely activity, but are we wholehearted when it comes to working for Christ, giving our entire being to it, giving ourselves to it? Ah, it's all about the heart. It all must come from the heart, not from simply our minds, but from the heart, a heart that's boiling over with love, Calvary love. as we consider all that God has done for us, all that God would enable you and I to serve him with all our heart. While health and while opportunity permits, at times health fails and you have to set aside the work, but when opportunity and health permits, all that we would all, all that our elders and our committee men and our Sunday school teachers and our youth workers, and our children's workers, and our organists, and our caretakers, and all involved in the work of God, each person in their place, each praying individual. Oh, that we would pray with all our hearts and serve Him with all our hearts, because soon life's little day will soon be over. And those who have served the Lord with all their hearts find themselves in heaven glad that they did, and those who didn't." Well, we just wonder. We just wonder. Oh, may God help you and I to serve the Lord with all our heart. Did not our Savior do that? Did He not give Himself wholeheartedly? to the task that was entrusted to Him. We follow Him. We follow the Savior. He gave everything. He served with zeal and energy. He gave Himself to the task, and He did the work that was entrusted to Him. Oh, may God help us to do that. May that be the desire of all of us here this evening, to serve the Lord and to serve Him with all of our hearts. And so may we continue to do that. Our service for God, it doesn't end at the conclusion of a mission. No, the work goes on. The lost are still lost. The unsaved are still unsaved. Those that are going to hell before the mission are still going to hell after the mission. And the children need evangelized, and so do young people. in this district, in this community, it needs a serving church, a serving people. And so serve him. Serve him at home. Serve him at school. Serve him in your workplace. Serve him in this community. Serve him within the local assembly. Serve the Lord. Why? For consider, consider how great things he hath done for you. in response to that, say, yes, I will serve the Lord. As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. May God help us to be servants and those who serve him in some way, even for his praise and glory. May the Lord bless his word. Let's bow in prayer briefly. Father, Lord, we pray that we might serve the master, we might serve the greatest of masters, our savior. Let us give ourselves to the work Let us, Lord, give ourselves to the task, Lord, given to us. And may, Lord, we continue to serve Thee gladly. O God, may our service be sweetened with the very thought of what God has done for us. And then, Lord, when we come to the end of a period of service, Lord, that we'll turn and we will reply and say that we only did what was our duty. We are but unprofitable servants. We know that, Lord. We know that our service at times isn't what it ought to be. But, Lord, take our weak efforts, we pray, and use it even to the praise of Thy name. Bless those who serve Thee far away. How we can serve Thee even as we give to these missionaries as we support them financially and prayerfully we're serving alongside them and lord we pray that we might understand that oh help us not to simply think lord that our service is confined to some ministry within the local assembly oh although we thank god for all who serve in that way oh there's a part for us all to play you all can serve the savior may we find the role to which thou has given to us and then may we serve thee wholeheartedly even in the task to which thou has given to us we pray these our prayers in and through the savior's great name amen now i'm going to go down here and i'm going to show a couple of videos the macaulay family these they're in uganda and also Hamilton family and they are in Kenya. So we're going to show a couple of videos they last about three to four minutes if even that and they'll give you a little idea with regard to how they're doing on the mission field. I will take this off so people at home can hear. Good morning Hello. So it's nine o'clock here in Uganda and we're just in the middle of homeschooling. Arthur's trying to peek around the corner. But we were asked just to give a little bit of an update as to how we're getting on in Uganda. It's been, I guess, over two weeks now since we've arrived. So we've been settling in well. The kids are enjoying Uganda, aren't we? Yeah. What's your favourite subject in school? Do maths. And there she's at one, that's Eloise at one end of the table and then Arthur's at the other. I love doing this one. I love doing this one. And there's Jude. So yeah this is our routine. Normally in the morning we do homeschool and well Rachel does the homeschooling so how do you think that's going? It's going well, it's definitely been an adjustment for everyone, but we try to do it in the morning from 8am to 10pm. I've found so far that works okay. Eloise's P2, Arthur's P1. So far so good. They do say it takes a while to adjust to homeschooling and just the different materials. So I've definitely found that, but so far so good. We're all enjoying it. Yeah, as far as I'm concerned, Really I've just been easing myself into ministry. So doing an open air prayer meeting here and there and then we've started language. So I think priority for us as we've said in the deputation is language comes first. So we're doing two lessons per week, one on Monday, one on Thursday and then as much time in between to try and catch up with all that learning. So we're doing that and then filtering in the ministries and helping out with the work of Emmanuel. So yeah, nothing else really to report. It's rainy season. So it's actually, if I show you outside, this is our view from the house. The house is brilliant by the way. It's beautiful. Yeah. Really lovely. It's finished really well. High standard. We have absolutely no complaints about the house whatsoever. It's lovely and spacious as well. The kids are enjoying their lovely bedrooms. And we've been given the time just to add our own wee features. Floating shelves. So we're settling in well. I think it's making us really feel at home. So we'll just show you outside. This is the view from the house, which is quite nice to wake up to. My study actually looks out on this view. And this is the house. So there you go. As I say, I really can't thank the people at home enough for really just everything they've done for us. Just like to take this opportunity to thank you and just keep praying for us as we settle in. As I said, we are settling in well. I think the previous visits help with trying to settle in here. So thank you to everybody. Is everybody going to say bye bye? Bye. And I'm sure we'll be in touch. So God bless you. Thank you. you Hello from the Hamiltons and welcome to Kitali in Kenya. We thought we'd give you a quick video just to update you on how things have been going, how we're settling into life here in Kenya. And so during the course of the video, you'll hear from all of us, except for Isabella, of course, although you might hear her in the background a little here and there, just to find out what we've been getting up to the last number of weeks. So what have we been up to for the last few weeks? Well after we took some time to get settled, spend a few days just trying to rest, we had the welcome service here in Catally where a lot of people from Glory Bible Church, all of the congregations came to formally welcome us and make us feel very much a part. of the Glory Bible Church family. Since that time we've been visiting different congregations Sunday by Sunday, again to show our faces in each of the congregations and also to have an opportunity in my case to practice my Swahili, not preaching but just taking part in some of the small aspects of the service to get that language practice that we really need to master Swahili. One other thing that we've been doing, last week was really busy when we had the agricultural show here in Kitali. It's much bigger than some of the same kinds of shows we have at home. It ran for four consecutive days and thousands of people from all around this part of Kenya travelled to be there to be a part and we gave out a lot of tracts and leaflets and a lot of evangelistic material as well as holding a stand where people could purchase books. and Bibles, so it was a really good chance for us to get to know the people, local people here in Catally, as well as the wider Glory Bible Church family, different people came to volunteer and help us at the show. I've been getting to grips with some of the new ingredients that I have to cook with, trying to negotiate cooking in power cuts where we have a gas hob. So we can use that, which is great, but it's just about then maybe pivoting when you have an idea what you want to do for dinner and then changing. So negotiating all those things as well as then homeschool, which we are very much now in the throes of and trying to get to grips with. just learning what Holly and George are capable of doing and fitting material for them so lots to do and we're busy which is nice and that keeps us occupied. So we'll hear from the children now and see what their experiences have been like. Hello everyone my name is Holly and my favourite thing since we've arrived in Kenya was climbing the trees in our garden. I like the trees because there's a really easy one to climb. George, what was your favourite thing since we've arrived? My favourite thing was the chapatis and the mandatis. My favourite thing about homeschool was learning about all the planets and making them all the solar system. My favourite thing about homeschool is the speeches. So thank you for listening. Hope you found that update interesting and useful as you pray for us. Thank you for praying for us. Thank you for supporting us, even during this first little part of our life here in Kenya. And so you'll hear from us again soon. We'll try and keep the updates coming as much as possible. But for now, goodbye. Goodbye. Bye.